Thinking Right

By Aquagirl

November 14, 2007 8:54 AM | Link to this

Conservatives should demand affirmative action policies. There should be a set quota of conservative faculty and students in degree programs since diversity is more important than individual merit. The free marketplace of ideas must be regulated to include everyone, no matter if they’re a stupid wingnut conservative.

I’m sure the far right is on board with these kinds of policies. They’ve been so supportive in the past.

By SRD

November 14, 2007 8:55 AM | Link to this

Educated and intelligent people tilt left because facts and reason tilt left.

By Tara

November 14, 2007 9:00 AM | Link to this

Wooten and his allies in the Republican Party would have our schools dismiss evolution all together and teach “intelligent” design. In other words, they want to turn our public institutions into madrasah-inspired fundamentalist Christian indoctrination camps.

No thank you.

By TW

November 14, 2007 9:03 AM | Link to this

Yes, Jim, those with higher degrees do tend to lilt left. Check the exit polls.

Here’s another neat little tidbit - the ten states with the lowest SAT scores in 2004 ALL voted for Republican George Bush.

The worst thing for the Republican Party would be the education of the electorate.

Got Brains?

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 9:09 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. Answers before analysis: (1) the studies are fully consistent with my own observations and biases; and (2) I do not necessarily believe it is desirable to expunge leftists from, nor even to minimize their numbers in, the classroom. Thus I focus on item 2.

If we think back to undergraduate college a few decades ago, almost none of the professors remain influentially fixed in memory. As an economics major, I enjoyed a far-more conservative faculty than most of my classmates of other disciplines. Within my discipline, the professor who most affected my skills – really, the fellow who taught me how to analyze as an economist, and how to present my findings – was almost certainly the most conservative professor at the school. Outside my discipline, the libertarian psychology professor and the libertarian physics professor were almost certainly the two who taught me most that has stayed with me.

I relate the excessive detail purposely: those who impressed me also left me with a lingering, and subsequently elevating, contempt for those who seemed to me to be preaching false dogma. My lifelong contempt for Leviathan was born in sociology and history and English classes, where the power was held by people who came in to harangue the conservative national political leadership instead of doing their jobs. I realized then, for the first time, that leftism is an ideology of “show,” with no intellectual content at all. With the conspicuous exception of John Rawls, whose foundations I reject but whose analysis is irrefutable, I find no leftists who impress me intellectually. The Ensign – linguistics major - advises me that Noam Chomsky is truly a gifted thinker in the field despite contemptible Leviathan-worship (although the reason Chomsky is “gifted” is that he revolutionized the field three decades ago, then later refuted his own theories incontrovertibly – arguably typical leftist wishy-washy-ism.) Thus the “substance” during my lifetime has all emanated from the conservatives, home of bedrock substance.

Thus, in the big scheme of life, should we not allow all the same life-changing experience I enjoyed - the early rejection of leftism due to its obvious vacuousness? I think a “liberal” education has no substitute.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 9:09 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. Happy AquaDay, Aquagirl. (Yesterday, prayer; today, rain; tomorrow, another day without a water plan.)

Aquagirl’s already onto a good satire, and SRD’s point is worthy of serious consideration, y’axe me.

Problem, Jim, is: academic dogma. Dogma is anathema in the university. Indeed, that’s why universities were invented, as dogma-driver-outers. (Or that’s half the reason, the other being consumer protection by students.) In the eyes of the world the U.S. is fabulously rich in colleges and universities, many of which—many!—are among the best in the world. Even the salafists send their dupes here to train. If great broad swaths of freethinking are verboten in the academy, then the academy is doomed. No Cassandra here, but even the mainstream chaired faculties within within the elite schools are noticing a pronounced evanescence. The symbols at the moment are Harvard under Faust and Columbia under Bollinger. And the twin stunts at Emory last week didn’t further that school’s ambition to become the next Duke.

The bellweather is academic freedom, which is simply the rubric for all that is good about universities since the 12th Century. When the shenanigans you describe, Jim, go so far as to threaten academic freedom—and they have done & are doing so—then doctrine tips into dogma. Equals doomsday for Ivy & Ivory.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 9:12 AM | Link to this

And yes, I know Rawls is dead. The present tense in my sentence conveys the life of the teaching, not the life of the physical being.

By MELO

November 14, 2007 9:14 AM | Link to this

Well, why dont u all conservatives build ur own universities so u can have a faculty u desire and churn out a student body u are desirous of? Its hard to bend facts, they are what they are.

By Aquagirl

November 14, 2007 9:14 AM | Link to this

Maybe the liberals watched the godless PBS last night. “Judgment Day” was a great display of conservatives lying. All in an attempt to manipulate academics and suppress science for crap that didn’t rock their tiny little boat.

Maybe they should screen that at AEI before whining.

By Redneck Convert

November 14, 2007 9:17 AM | Link to this

Well, I guess the conservatives I see on this blog ain’t exackly the brightest stars in the sky, so its no suprize not many of them go on to get big colledge degrees. But you don’t have to be smart to Think Right, is what I always say. Most of the godly conservatives on this blog think just like me, and I ain’t never set foot in a colledge and never made it out of 5th grade. Just look at some of them. They wasted their life going to colledge when they could of been good GA rednecks just by walking out of a grade school door. I’m awful glad colledge never changed their thinking none. Its good they had football and women and drinking to keep them from thinking too deep and loosing their way.

I think if we are going to have colledge we need scholarships for conservative students. To give them a chance to catch up with everybody else. If we can give scholarships to Those People and others we say are disadvantaged, why not to conservatives?

Anyway, I was thinking this a.m. about how not being too brainy helps us all. Take old Sonny’s GA Water Plan, for example. A pointy-headed guvner would of come up with a big plan to lay all kind of water lines and study how the water flows and such. But thank God for old Sonny. He come up with Prayer as the answer and it don’t cost the state nothing. That’s what being a not too brainy conservative will do for you. Keep your taxes low and come up with real quick fixes to problems.

Anyway, if brains was food some of us godly conservatives would be mighty hungry. But leastwise we got Fox News to give us our talking points so we can come up with answers to these pointy-headed libruls.

Have a good day everybody.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 9:21 AM | Link to this

And besides, if we get rid of all of those leftist professors, how will they make a living? They have no life skills, and no marketable talents otherwise. No, unless we wish to unleash a new wave of suicide bombers, we best leave them where they are

By Mid-South Philosopher

November 14, 2007 9:21 AM | Link to this

Good morning, Jim,

If you think there are a shortage of Conservatives and Libertarians among the professors at the college level, try finding Constitutionalists and Anarchists!

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 9:26 AM | Link to this

Dear MELO @ 9:14, actually conservatives originally fund and build all universities. The schools are thereafter hijacked by pretenders.

By Mid-South Philosopher

November 14, 2007 9:27 AM | Link to this

Good Heavens…I am getting as bad as Bill Clinton (of course, I don’t have as much fun!)…I don’t know “are” from “is”! I stand corrected.

By Dennis

November 14, 2007 9:31 AM | Link to this

After reading Mr. Wooten’s column of today, I’m wondering if we should have a “pity party” for the downtrodden conservatives?

The American Enterprise Institute includes such superlatives as Newt Gingrich, John Bolton, Richard Perle, Irving Kristol and Michael Barone. This is not to say everyone associated with the Institute is a complete idiot, far from it.

But the question is for any “scholar”, can he or she see through an objective lense? In the cases of the named above, the response to the question is, “What is an objective lense?”

I can still remember how “objective” my 6th grade history was; “The “wild indians” refused to share their land.” No less today are some of our public school text books; we have a wonderful government full of “public servants”.

Mr. Wooten asks two questions; “Are these studies consistent with your views about colleges and universities? And how is it possible to move them from Kodak diversity to full inclusion for conservatives in the curriculum, instruction and leadership ranks.

My answer for those questions reminds me of a young preacher friend I knew in college who was preaching his first sermon. He was defending the “gospel” as he (and I) had been raised to believe, and he stated, “I’d rather be narrow minded and be right than to be broad minded and be wrong.”

Education is for the purpose of opening the mind, not keeping it in the staid condition of a captive belief whether that belief be about religion or politics or one’s culture.

Conservtives just cannot accept that “the mind once stretched, cannot assume its original position.”

SRD November 14, 2007 @8:55 AM, has it right, ” Educated and intelligent people tilt left because facts and reason tilt left.”

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By ron

November 14, 2007 9:33 AM | Link to this

By James

November 14, 2007 9:35 AM | Link to this

FAMILY VALUES
-Larry Craig
-Jim Galley
-David Vitter
Ethics Questions -Lisa Murkowski
-Jerry Lewis
-Ken Calvert
-Pete Domenici
-Heather Wilson

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 9:41 AM | Link to this

Dear Dennis @ 9:31, thanks for cataloging every leftist intellectual in the world. Amazing that you could accomplish same with such a short post (or perhaps not.)

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 9:41 AM | Link to this

Jim sez the winger tank sez that the Tower’s left one is five times as big as its right one, in the Poli. Sci. Dept. SRD sez, albeit facetiously, that that’s s’posed to be. Maybe so.

When I went to study political philosophy—in the elite schools (excepting Chicago), a derelict subject for 30-40 years—I had to take it as a directed reading, a tutorial with the professor, because year after year the political philosophy courses were offered in the catalog and nobody ever signed up, so the professor had nothing to do but drink, which is what he did when he wasn’t teaching me, and sometimes what he did when he was. In our first “reading”, Prof. Charley (he went by Charley) asks, whatya wanna study political philosophy for?

I gotta figure out what liberalism is, in its essence, sez I, so what should I read?

Well, sez Prof. Charley with his zip-up boots on his desk, the whole history of political philosophy is the history of the development of notions of liberalism, so you’d have to start at the beginning and work forward. How much time have you got?

I gotta do this within a year, sez I.

Well you can’t do it, sez Charley. What you can do instead is to learn what conservatism is, and thereby learn liberalism deductively, by its reverse.

What? I ask. How do I do that?

It’s simple, sez Charley. Just read Duby, and Panofsky, on medieval cathedrals. Come back and see me when you’ve done that.

End of story.

So that’s one very good reason why liberals should outnumber conservatives even in Fordham’s Poli. Sci. Dept. The catch, however, is that Political Science is quite different from Political Philosophy, and the former largely has displaced the latter, in part for Charley’s reason.

So, SRD, put that in your pipe and smoke it. (“And come back and see me when you’ve done that.”)

jbm, morning. Glad to see the Ensign’s squared away on the linguistic Noam.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 9:43 AM | Link to this

Dear Dennis @ 9:31, maybe your real point is that a leftist education is best compared to childbirth stretch marks? Scarred, misshapen, ugly forever barring a radical surgical procedure?

By Curious Observer

November 14, 2007 9:52 AM | Link to this

Perhaps one reason that conservatives number so few in advanced degrees obtained is that they lack the capacity to stretch the brain, a real virtue in pursuing advanced studies. If it were not for Fox News, three-quarters of the conservative bloggers here would be fighting a war without ammunition.

By Peter

November 14, 2007 9:53 AM | Link to this

Yes we need to look at the Red states and the Blue states……. we can see which states have the best education systems, how they are ranked, and then we see how they vote.

Bottom line would be start with the local High School education, and then perhaps some of the folks you are talking about might have a decent chance at a college education.

We also see those with HIGHER intellect actually think for themselves, and made sound reasonable choices in life. These are NOT the LEMMINGS, that follow one party or another blindly.

Conservatism is just a silly way of stating I can’t think for myself, and following the crowd.

We have a president who has waffled on the environment, changed the data to show his point of view, and has been proven WRONG by this.

As Georgia citizens we have been paying the price for this with the change in the weather patterns.

What is taught in college is to open up to new ideas, so I can see how folks like JIM WHOOTEN is frustrated by that.

The conservative Right wing, is a dying breed. The next election will show that being even more so the case, as the younger folks who are paying attention vote.

Conservative policy is bankrupting the US and preventing the next generation of their opportunity, they will be the ones looking to spark new thoughts, and save us from our own generation.

By Van

November 14, 2007 9:54 AM | Link to this

I am reminded of an old saying, something like

Those that can, do.

Those that can’t, teach.

I guess the conservatives are out there making money and getting rich, while the liberal wimps are whining to their students.

By Shark Sammich

November 14, 2007 9:59 AM | Link to this

Dennis opined:

This is not to say everyone associated with the Institute is a complete idiot

…but that’s the way to bet.

By jm

November 14, 2007 10:01 AM | Link to this

Gee, who would have thought that liberals would outnumber conservatives in the liberal arts?

By Shar

November 14, 2007 10:06 AM | Link to this

jbmlaw@9:43 - How excessively unkind. You, who bear no stretch marks yet who rightfully celebrate your Ensign, calling the by product of getting him here “scarred, misshapen, ugly forever”? I, like Mrs. jbmlaw (unless she has noticed your aversion and undergone “radical surgical procedure” to remove from your gaze the marks that so offend you), have marks that connote the arrival of my children and I regard them as souvenirs of an enormous life passage.

As such, they are not a bad metaphor for education. Not always comfortable, can be trying and difficult, but a lasting reminder of an experience that challenged and expanded you in ways you expected and ways you did not.

And I question AEI’s basis for defining “liberal” and “conservative”. The Institute’s strong association with the right wing disqualifies it as an independent source of information. Sort of like asking PETA to distinguish those who are “animal friendly” and “inhumane”. A presumption of objectivity cannot be made.

By JohnD

November 14, 2007 10:09 AM | Link to this

In addition to my prayer for rain, I would like to thank you God for Peter and his self-professed liberalism - he would be such an embarrassment to Conservatives.

By getalife

November 14, 2007 10:10 AM | Link to this

Stop whining Jim.

The right are nothing but kooks. They should teach nothing.

Take Sonny’s plan for your water crisis for example.

Praying.

Geez.

By Dusty

November 14, 2007 10:10 AM | Link to this

For heaven’s sake, leave our universities alone. If these professors are brainy enough to get a PhD in a given subject, perhaps they will be smart enough to see there’s a problem with extremist liberalism. The “pendulum effect” will commence. It may take a little time.

The only role I would suggest for university boards is to tactfully point out to professors that they should teach their subject of expertise and not the politics of the day.

Maybe professors should read blogs like Luckovich’s to see how far left leaning looks. It is not a pretty picture. Even a few lefties here who sound like they’d rather live in ‘Cuba or Venezuela seem a bit “out of step”. (I’m being kind today in my choice of words.)

But I’m for the American way. Let them all speak and run it through their minds. The value of conservatism will shine like a diamond in contrast to fundamental liberalism. Have a little faith in our system.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 10:12 AM | Link to this

Dennis,

Your post is full of…ideas. You’re almost all over the map this morning, but that’s a good thing.

What your pastoral friend said is, I think, highly intelligent. At the outset of his ministry Billy Graham said the same thing; he made the right choice, for Billy Graham. The contemporary philosopher Isaiah Berlin wrote, as you probably know, a celebrated essay to that effect, “The Fox and the Hedgehog”.

Your post opens lots of room for comment. Jbm just made a point I’d have made worse. I think the heaviest line is your fourth-to-last: “Education is for the purpose of opening the mind, not keeping it in the staid condition of a captive belief, whether that belief be about religion or politics or one’s culture.” That could’ve been Jim’s lead. And it’s a good one.

I’m just going to throw out two quick observations about that: your first word is “education”, your last, “culture”. To the Greeks these were the same. In the American system, the model for the world, we have schooling and postsecondary education. (Pedagogy and andragogy, if you want to stay Greek.) The word “education”, etymologically, applies more aptly to pedagogy, the education of the young. “Education” is a derivative of a Latin word meaning to nurse, to breast feed. Thus it has been said that mass compulsory public school systems are “uterine envy, institutionalized.” The nanny state. In any case, education literally refers to child rearing, and we can leave it to Solomon to determine again who is the ontological mother.

So the term higher education is really a misnomer, or at least it names something truly perverse. (And the academy as a phenomenon long preceded the popular b******* of the word educatio.) A better word for what happens, or what should happen, in colleges and universities is paideia (Gr.), culture. To the ancient Greeks and to the medieval patrons of the first universities, what we call “educated” they called “cultured”. If you re-read your killer line, you may notice that your placement of the word “culture” is telling in this regard.

By John

November 14, 2007 10:13 AM | Link to this

Conservatives need to open their minds. They don’t look at facts enough, they sit and listen to what somebody tells them without investigation. Then they follow that belief like blind sheep to the slaugther. Most colleges teach facts not Myths. This makes it hard for conservatives to line up with. One example of this is their beleif that the world is only a few thousand years old. Conservatives have a hard time believing in science. Conservatives also like to takes facts and twist them for their own self serving benefit. Conservatives need to become more liberal and read more books other then the bible.

By JohnD

November 14, 2007 10:14 AM | Link to this

Curious @ 9:52,

Perhaps there are more liberals with advanced degrees due to the lack of spine and core values amongst those seeking liberal enlightenment. See Clinton,B. and Clinton, H. for examples.

By Dennis

November 14, 2007 10:30 AM | Link to this

Glenn, @10:12 I’d like to B.S. my way through all that you’ve said, but then I might expose my conservative nature. :)

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By getalife

November 14, 2007 10:36 AM | Link to this

Lets face it, cons are kooks who have to be told how to think by entertainers like rush and ann.

They should not be allowed to teach anything.

They should be forever the silent minority.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 10:41 AM | Link to this

Dear Shar @ 10:06, we of the inferior sex sometimes realize that we have made a serious mistake the moment we finish saying something. Next week I will have been blessed for 30 years with the presence of a tolerant wife, one with the wisdom to mock my ignorance. Now that I have escaped my meeting, I apologize to all for engaging the “send” button before allowing my better inclinations to kick in. And the rest of your post reflects wisdom also, my compliments.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 10:41 AM | Link to this

Ron @ 9:33, of course Nova had the kookier critics of Darwinism, old sport, who else would they invite? I didn’t see the show because I gave up on Nova years ago, for reasons other than their habit of putting the -ism back into Darwinian theory. The thing about Nova, which is underwritten with my money and presumably yours, is that it is invariably, if often artfully, tendentious. For years I’d start viewing an episode expecting science, only to get spun science. Eventually I asked myself why I was falling for it time and again. Like Godbloggah, and John Muir, they can wring politics out of a rock.

John @ 10:13, “Most colleges teach facts not Myths.” It may interest you to know that in anthropology there are three definitions of myth, and you’re straddling two of them. The first is the popular conception of a falsehood widely believed and disseminated. (Your usage here.) The second, the one popularized by the somewhat ridiculous folklorist and mythologist Joseph Campbell, is that of a legend conveying a universal truth. (Also your usage, as vide your capitalization of “Myth”.) The third is that myths are lies, just as the person on the street thinks that a myth is a lie, except that they are time-honored concealments of unspeakable truths.

I belabor this, pedantically, so as to get to the third definition, which pegs today’s American university very accurately. Contrary to what you say, the colleges don’t teach truths; they are no longer capable of knowing truth, and they say so. What they teach is myth, the deliberate concealment of truths, and even of the idea that there is such a thing as truth.

Interestingly, several thinkers anticipated this development. They include Soren Kierkegaard, in mid-19th Century Copenhagen, Sigmund Freud, in turn-of-the-century Vienna, and Martin Heidegger, in wartime Feiburg.

Sharky, there’s chum in the water…

By GayGreyGeek

November 14, 2007 10:42 AM | Link to this

Van @ 9:54

Both of my parents graduated from a small state teachers college in West Virginia, many many years ago. They both maintained that the saying was

Those who can, do.

Those who can’t, teach.

Those who can’t teach, teach teachers.

By catlady

November 14, 2007 10:45 AM | Link to this

* conservative students are substantially less likely to pursue doctorate studies. That’s due in part to “unexplained differences in career motivations,” AEI reports, but “evidence also suggests that conservative students lack academic role models and have more distant relationships with faculty.”*

Or, perhaps, many of them are dumber than dirt and only able to parrot what they have been told, instead of having original, innovative thoughts of their own.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 10:46 AM | Link to this

GGG, dem what’s schooled up the most get to school up dem what’s schooled. Same ting mon. Smart folks. No wonder you turned out so wonderfully schooled up.

By Dennis

November 14, 2007 10:47 AM | Link to this

In response to Dusty@ 10:10. What is the “American way”, as practiced by the Bush administration? And why are so many open minded people opposed to his practices?

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 10:48 AM | Link to this

Dear John @ 10:13, “Conservatives have a hard time believing in science.” Really? I thought the problem was that we could not distinguish our beliefs from science. I think you accurately reflect the moonbat sensibility, however, that if a scientist, any scientist, says “it,” “it” cannot be challenged, but must be revered with a blind faith, one worthy of the most extreme religious cults.

By John

November 14, 2007 10:49 AM | Link to this

Bush yesterday vetoed a health and education bill claiming that this is nothing but tax and spend by the Democrats. How can Bush even shape his mouth to call the Democrats tax and spend after he has almost single handedly bankrupt this country. And I would bet that most conservatives would believe what Bush said yesterday to be facts. “Bush never lies” to conservatives. To them Bush can do no wrong. This is another example of consevatives taking facts and twisting them for self serving interest.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 10:50 AM | Link to this

Dennis @ 10:30, dangit I was hoping you’d take the bait.

P.S. In re your remarks of the past several patriotic days, I for one don’t care how you served, I simply appreciate your service and that you served at a very eventful time. I’m sure you’ve noticed that a lot of people presume that the troops in Iraq couldn’t muster any real political reflection nor personal introspection. Given your experience that must frost you bigtime.

By Truthifier

November 14, 2007 10:51 AM | Link to this

And the American Enterprise Institute leans right. Perhaps that has some bearing on the findings of their studies.

By FDR's Child

November 14, 2007 10:58 AM | Link to this

The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) is an extremely influential, pro-business right-wing think tank founded in 1943 by Lewis H. Brown. It promotes the advancement of free enterprise capitalism[1], and succeeds in placing its people in influential governmental positions. It is the center base for many neo-conservatives.

More recently, it has emerged as one of the leading architects of the Bush administration’s foreign policy. AEI rents office space to the Project for the New American Century, one of the leading voices that pushed the Bush administration’s plan for “regime change” through war in Iraq. AEI reps have also aggressively denied that the war has anything to do with oil.

My question then is….can a think tank as admittedly far right as AEI be trusted to judge what “left” is?

Are Universities really far left or does any institution left of the radical right AEI qualify?

To Pat Robertson, isn’t the Pope left leaning?

Perspective my children, is everything.

By MELO

November 14, 2007 10:59 AM | Link to this

jbmlaw,so why the whinning.Get over it if the smart liberlas have hijacked what yu’all started.Or build some more and do a good job of sherpherding ur flock of students there. But then again,those students will follow the facts.Lyfe aint hard to figure unless u are a conservative and see conspiracies all over.

By Dusty

November 14, 2007 11:01 AM | Link to this

Dennis @10:47

Obviously, if you have to ask about the “American way” in the reference I made, then you don’t know much about it. Psst..it is also called “freedomn of speech”. Ever hear of that?

It is not a political tool for fundamentalist libs to throw around. I imagine you will tell me next that President Bush listened to your phone calls. He did not.

If you insist on that premise, then you must have terrorist friends overseas calling you. So let’s get that one out of the way.

Did you have any other “bash Bush” questions?

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 11:01 AM | Link to this

Truthifier @ 10:51, you’re exactly one hour and twenty minutes behind the string.

By Truthifier

November 14, 2007 11:04 AM | Link to this

Sorry Glenn, but I was working! I didn’t have time to stay glued to the postings today. I’ll try to do a better job of keeping up with the commentary.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 11:14 AM | Link to this

Shar @ 10:06, lovely. Lovely!

Marshal @ all times, I’d take a bullet for you, but you can’t get cultural relativism back into the tube. It cannot sort itself out. It may sound strange, but the university was founded as a haven from, and an arsenal against, Paganism. Now that Paganism is inside the powder house, Alfred Nobel et al, the battle is simply lost.

catlady @ 10:45, neither wing is dumb. Aside from the fact that the rightists are hunted animals in today’s lecture halls, they also tend more often toward careerism (vs. intellectual inquiry), and therefore are disproportionately over-represented in the professional schools and under-represented among doctoral candidates.

By Dennis

November 14, 2007 11:14 AM | Link to this

Glenn @ 10:50. Thank you for your kind words.

What has really galled me are those who rant(ed) “You can’t support the troops if you don’t support Bush.”

And there are those politicians who are far away from the frontlines going to State dinners.

The situation the troops find themselves in is similiar to the situation we all find ourselves in; doing our best in spite of the incompentence that leads us.

Regarding the hedgehog and the fox, I had to go re-read that idea. True, it takes all kinds of “critters” to make the world go ‘round. Fascinating, too, just who’s in each group.

“Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight”…until it comes to money.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By Van

November 14, 2007 11:16 AM | Link to this

GayGreyGeek,

Thanks for the input, sounds right to me.

I heard it from some civil engineers.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 11:19 AM | Link to this

Truthi-Fy!, was pulling your beard. Normally I’d take that tank’s stuff with salt, but I think they’ve got this one right. (Not that it’s a particularly challenging study to undertake.) So Jim’s right about its being worthy of attn. And you & Dennis are right about it being Right.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 11:22 AM | Link to this

MELO @ 10:59, your rebuttal to jbm is made of straw. He’s not talking about conspiracies; he’s talking about ideology. Different ting mon. Works differently too.

By Truthifier

November 14, 2007 11:24 AM | Link to this

No worries. I get it Glenn. I don’t think that just because they are “Right” they can’t be right. And by the way, how did you know I have a beard?!

By DemDems4Ever

November 14, 2007 11:28 AM | Link to this

Glenn @ 11:14

Who is Marshal? When has Marshal posted?

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 11:30 AM | Link to this

Tara @ 9:00, you take the prize. It seems not to have occurred to you that schools and universities already have a worldview of their own, secular materialism. It is a highly particularistic worldview, exclusive of all others. It is a jealous god. And it begets a dogma which students are required to avow. Dogma is the antithesis, and the nemesis, of doctrine. Academic doctrine goes by the name “academic freedom”, which has been replaced—it’s a fait accompli—by the dogma of scientific materialism.

Imagine yourself in the shoes of an observant Tibetan or a trained ethnologist viewing the phenomenon of American education today, and perhaps you’ll see what I mean.

It’s there, and everywhere really. Right under our noses.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 11:34 AM | Link to this

DD4E, that would be Field Marshal Viscountess Dusty of Wootenham. “Marshal” is an hypocoristic violation of polite blogging. My apologies.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 11:36 AM | Link to this

Cool, Dennis @ 11:14. Cool.

By Anonymous

November 14, 2007 11:49 AM | Link to this

I see the teacher- and professor-bashing is in full force today, as expected. Conservatives hate the intelligent; we make ‘em look bad.

By Jim's A Cherry Pipcker

November 14, 2007 11:51 AM | Link to this

Hi Jim,

Have you noticed that there are a really, really disproportionate number of black professional atheletes compared to whites?

How about a column on that inequity? I, as a white male, am extremely concerned that my kind are underrepresented in professional athletics, and I’m interested to know why.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 11:57 AM | Link to this

Distantly related to topic today, an academic analysis of Bush Derangement Syndrome, http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010861

By Van

November 14, 2007 11:57 AM | Link to this

Just out of curiosity, when was the last time a left leaning speaker was denied the right to speak at a college or University?

In light of all the tolerance preached by the left, why are The Minutemen speakers, Ann Coulter and David Horowitz usually denied that same right?

By Dennis

November 14, 2007 12:00 PM | Link to this

By Dusty November 14, 2007 11:01 AM Dennis @10:47 “Obviously, if you have to ask about the “American way” in the reference I made, then you don’t know much about it. Psst..it is also called “freedomn of speech”. Ever hear of that?

Humm. Do I detect a hint of appreciation of liberalism here? Seems I recall conservatives as saying liberals who speak out against the war don’t support Bush (the American way).

All I’m asking is your vision of that “American way”.

But if that’s asking too much….

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 12:02 PM | Link to this

Peter @ 9:53,

Conservatism is just a silly way of stating I can’t think for myself, and following the crowd.

That’s not as unfair as you may have intended it to be. While I think most conservatives use (the popular term) “liberalism” as a reference to the silly way in which some people pride themselves on having discovered the wheel (not by a long stretch my own definition of liberalism, BTW), I think your Liberal’s Definition of Conservatism is fair enough. Conservatives do heed the crowd, not in the democratic sense especially, but in the sense of respect for the things that are known through tradition, through the long experience of masses of people. (It’s especially Jewish and Catholic, this particular defining characteristic of conservatism.) With that goes an acceptance of the hard fact that we as individuals often do not know which way is up. That’s one reason why my political theorist had me study the Gothic cathedrals, because that’s why the spire was invented, to convey that crucial caveat.

This is easily mocked, of course, and by all means go ahead. Ridiculous or not, this defining characteristic remains quintessentially conservative.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 12:02 PM | Link to this

Dear anonymous @ 11:49, I think you misread. We do not hate them, we are merely laughing at them, not with them.

By getalife

November 14, 2007 12:04 PM | Link to this

Well Van,

Were there arrested like the vets at the vet parade?

Kook.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 12:07 PM | Link to this

Dear Dennis @ noon, I don’t think you will find conservatives objecting to your war-opposition so long as you will affirm your wish that we could win the war against the terrorists. It is our occasional well-founded perception that you wish the bad guys to win that upsets us. E.g., if we could win the war against the terrorists, but as a consequence President Bush looked like a genius, would you still wish us to win the war? The mirror works – if President Clinton had won the war in Somalia, conservatives would have praised him.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 12:07 PM | Link to this

Anonymous @ 11;49, you schoolmarmish scold you. Kindly point out some instances herein of unwarranted “teacher- and professor-bashing.” Have we been telling tales out of school again?

By time to guillotine ALL treasonous cut and run appeasing leftist scum and CARPET BOMB Iran

November 14, 2007 12:07 PM | Link to this

The cocaine sniffing alcoholic Hollywood and rock n roll Bush hating left are amongst the dimmest and most pig ignorant hypocritical filth infesting civilised society. Most have barely made it out of high skool - let alone tainted even a Micky Mouse college campus with their luddite, prolish cretinism.

These celebutard (gedditt??) abortion bucket escapee vermin have few brain cells to rub together. Newt - as just one of countless examples of a visionary conservative intellectual systematically eviscerates these worthless treasonous COCKroaches every time he debates them or shreds one of their anally obsessive Bush hating cringe making attempts at public geo-political idiocy for dullards commentary.

But hey - just so long as the lefty maggot brained scum puke up sufficient rabid leftist anti-BUsh/GOP hate this hectoring herd of far left bloviating swine utterly ignore actual facts and logic that their slavish self absorbed daily wallowing in the requisite demoNcrat move your bowels.org hate America lies requires - always of course noisily reinforced Goebbels style - which the leftist hate pig lynch mobs gleefully robotically slobber over like energiser crackpipe debbieturds. Naturally with their trademark proud slavish denial of the objective awkward truth that undermines their despicable worthless rabid lies.

Thus preDICKtably pinKKKo hate and their life long (collective) rabid intellectual dishonesty anally and blindly glosses over any awkward, actual factual logical conservative analysis which inevitably mercilessly skewers the pinKKKos’ indefensible treason and congenital imbecility.

As countless sullen commie pinKKKo lemmings, revelling in their zombie like Hamas towel head suicide bomber devotion practice their obligatory daily cult like religion of hate which ALWAYS means the unquestioning mandatory fawning worship of ALL screeching buttock bouncing f aggots, the pandering adoration of thuggish racist/sexist hippety hop knuckle dragging neanderthal gangbanging black scum, and the vile disgusting greasing the welfare palm for grasping illegal mexican type leeches and last but not least the gleeful blatant covering up of endless crimes perpetrated by the corrupt to the core perjuring pardon selling Arkansas rapist, its shrill screeching blubbery elephant arsed hatchet faced haggish lesbian venal pathological liar of a so called wife HiTllary and the vainglorious obese puffed up deranged lying hysterically hypocritical eco whacko TN slumlord the AlherpesSore.

Yes indeed folks PIG IGNORANT leftist hate America traitors abjectly humiliate themselves every damn time they open their fetid doltish gobsh!te gobs.

By RJ

November 14, 2007 12:10 PM | Link to this

Glenn wrote, “…schools and universities already have a worldview of their own, secular materialism.”

Secular materialism? Speaking of indoctrination…this Fox News fundamentalist has given us our daily fix of The O’Reilly Factor.

There’s nothing more entertaining than those who unquestioningly absorb such tutle from far right television demagogues seeking to educate us about “dogma” taught in our universities

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 12:15 PM | Link to this

Mnm-mm-mmmmmm. Chumleyput.

By JK

November 14, 2007 12:24 PM | Link to this

Van, I wonder if the instructional designers over at IBM Learning Services know you’re publicly dissing them (@9:54). I can call them for you if you like. I also presume you got your current cushy (time-to-blog) job from skills you learned all by yourself, with no help from any teachers. (Your resume does reflect that, right?) You are amazing! All people should be successfully self-educated like you. Then we could abolish the Dept. of Education like fake lawyer man wants, and have more tax dollars to spend on killin’. So many problems solved!!!

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 12:30 PM | Link to this

Come on professors, everyone’s doing “The Marty Hop”!

I.

But even though the laity preferred his catechism,

Little did he guess that he would found Lutheranism;

Trade pageantry

For pedantry

And German pietism.

By Faith Alone St. Peter’s Throne was rent into a Schism!

II.

This protest dance was all the rage, the latest hottest -ism,

‘Twas right up there with Fred Astaire and Moravianism.

“Do It Yourself”

Flew off the shelf

And outsold Biblicism.

By Faith Alone St. Peter’s Throne was rent into a Schism!

III.

Priests married nuns and taught the Huns a new nationalism.

They turned the “trans” into a “con” to end cannibalism.

Rome kept watch ‘cause

Prots smashed tscotchkes,

Quashing Paganism.

By Faith Alone St. Peter’s Throne was rent into a Schism!

IV.

Fat Henry couldn’t sire a line to serve his nepotism,

So suddenly he had a yen for late Scholasticism.

The dons showed how

To make priests bow

And even how to quiz ‘em.

By Faith Alone St. Peter’s Throne was rent into a Schism!

V.

Next thing you know the Prots set sail, all full of optimism,

For ports unknown to found a home for Anglo-Calvinism.

What they did here

In yesteryear

Made Rome a solipsism.

By Faith Alone St. Peter’s Throne was rent into a Schism!

VI.

Now moderns do the dans macabre of Nietshean narcissism

And superexistentialisticgaiamysticism.

“Embrace Your Fate”

As you await

The final cataclism!

By Faith Alone St. Peter’s Throne was rent into a Schism!

By Serial

November 14, 2007 12:34 PM | Link to this

The first thing conservatives should do is to read some of the evil liberal library of science. Warning to neocons: science of any kind is from the devil and you may lose your soul. Dont read anything scientific unless there is a bible within reach or a preacher in the room chanting to ward off the demons that will surely rise up from the ground while you read any science publication.

Of course science is only theory and nothing is proven as much as intelligent design, so dont worry. But to understand the depths of the liberal disease, it may be necessary to glance at a science book once in a while, that all I’m saying.

By Van

November 14, 2007 12:41 PM | Link to this

JK,

Go for it. Typical leftie ploy, threaten any dissent -

It is a stereotype that most lefties follow.

Thanks for proving my point.

By Dennis

November 14, 2007 12:44 PM | Link to this

By jbmlaw November 14, 2007 12:07 PM

I’ll respectfully disagree that Conservatives would have praised Clinton had Somilia turned out differently - it wouldn’t be “politically correct”. (Too, to many people think that the movie, “Black Hawk Down” portrayed an accurate setting. It did not).

Regarding Bush and the terrorist, I think that even a smart lawyer can no longer make the case that Bush went after the “terrorists” in Iraq.

Had his terrorist theme been on the level, we all would have supported that, as we all support the troops.

The issue was then and still is OIL.

Now, I’m going to stick my neck out. I sent the following letter to several newspapers (when the subject was still fresh in the media) and not a one of them published it - perhaps it is too inflamatory? And, I may have to eat my words, we’ll see.

“In the late hours of November 8, 2007, the leadership of the Democratic Party, in spite of questions of his willingness to condem “waterboarding” as torture, caved in to the wishes of the Bush administration to confirm cotroversial judge, Michael Mukasey, to head the Department of Justice.

Seeing tht the nomination was in serious trouble, the Democratic leadership connived and intentionally ignored the seriousness of the confirmation and the concerns of the American peole, preferring instead to install the department of Justice with “some” leadership rather than the “right leadership”.

The ladership of the Democratic Party who supported the nomination need to understand that the American people are not fools, nor fooled.

Americans are well aware that the Democratic party has now guaranteed that there will be no worthwhile investigations, nor anyhone held responsible for the fiasco of the Iraq war, what led up to it, nor the war crimes committed in the name of the American people by the Republican Party, affirmed by the Democratic Party.

When all is said and done, protecting the wrong doings of the Bush administration and the leadership of the two political parties was what this vote was all about in the first place.

Further, one can already see that those responsible for the illegal spying on Americans prior to 9/11, and the corporations who conspired with that, will go unpunished.

If another nation tried to impose on us what our own government is imposing, we would all go to war.”

Since my composition of that letter, the N.Y. Times, Nov 11/07, said, “The truth is, Mr. Mukasey is already in the grip of that “extreme ideology.” If he were not, he could have answered the question about waterboarding.”

Supposedly in the last two days, Mukasey is going to take another look at the spying on American thing. But we’ll all see how it turns out in the end, won’t we?

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By Truthifier

November 14, 2007 12:45 PM | Link to this

jbmlaw, you said “It is our occasional well-founded perception that you wish the bad guys to win that upsets us.” While I can’t answer for Dennis @ Noon, I can tell you that for most of those who are perhaps a little left of center that perception could not be farther from the truth. You go on to say “so long as you will affirm your wish that we could win the war against the terrorists.” Speaking for myself, and many of my leftist friends (my personal friends I mean, not in the sense of using the word “friends” to be polite as you do) I can absolutely affirm that we want nothing more than for the USA to win the fight against terrorism. We are not naive not are we lacking in patriotism. Our objection to the tactics President Bush used to lead the nation to war in no way reflect on our patriotism and desire for Americans to be able to live without fear of terrorism. I hope that helps to clear things up for you somewhat. But let’s see what Dennis has to say.

By JK

November 14, 2007 12:49 PM | Link to this

Dearest Van, I’m sure you have the ‘nads to go over there yourself and tell the people in Learning Services that you think their skills are substandard. Surely they’ll appreciate the special way you shine your light into the darkness and illuminate the ugly truth, just like we do. Thank you Van, for all you do.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 12:57 PM | Link to this

RJ @ 12:10, you’re a flat out anti-intellectual schooled up dupe of the zeitgeist. You can’t see the ideological forest for the trees.

By Dennis

November 14, 2007 1:03 PM | Link to this

By Glenn November 14, 2007 12:30 PM

I am laughing my buns off !!!!!

What’s this from?

By Jackie

November 14, 2007 1:06 PM | Link to this

The Iraqi parliament stated they wanted the contractors out of the country in 6 months; they wanted the USA to leave and end the occupation by 12/08; there would be no permanent USA bases in Iraq; they wanted to be a sovereign and independent nation. Wonder what will happen now that the Iraqis have demanded to have their own country and their version of democracy? Will Dubya tell them they have no choice but to accept what we bring them? The Justice Department has said it is becoming more independent and has reopened investigations stopped by Alberto. Things are beginning to get a little warm in the White House.

By Jack

November 14, 2007 1:07 PM | Link to this

The Mrs. worked there until she found out that they really do suck the life out of you. She was much happier after she left.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 1:13 PM | Link to this

Dennis, ‘tis a mean thing, sir, but the work of mine own hand. A little reminder of how important professors and universities can be in world history, and of how they got into their present dangerous condition.

jbm, hope you’re here when I get back so we can do some cooking. This string has strayed from education, and I wanted to start with the stipulation that the US Dept. of Ed. can’t be abolished as long as there’s NCLB, the reauthorization of which is the hottest Hill ticket of the season.

By Sam

November 14, 2007 1:14 PM | Link to this

Re your question:And how is it possible to move them from Kodak diversity to full inclusion for conservatives in the curriculum, instruction and leadership ranks????….”Inclusion for conservatives in the curriculum and instruction…” is going to require more bright conservatives [PHD’s with genuine interest in knowledge of a subject] willing to live the academic life [which does not pay so well ] instead of going for the Big Bucks. Perhaps there are just more brilliant PHd’s who are politically left leaning than right leaning. Must be a reason for that.

By Curious Observer

November 14, 2007 1:22 PM | Link to this

Ah, what a pleasure it is to open a news magazine and read the headline, “Homophobic Surgeon General Nominee Reveals Bush Plans to Recess Appoint Him.” Yes, this gentleman from Asbury Theological Seminary is slated to be the next chief physician in the land.

Now there’s a solution to the AIDS problem for you: just declare homosexuality a moral failing. And speaking of educational lunkheads, what kind of moron would appoint such a person to a responsible government post? Nice going, wingnuts. Maybe with your next move you can appoint the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company to head up Medicare.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 1:44 PM | Link to this

Dear Glenn @ 12:30, great song. I can imagine ELO doing it. @ 1:13, a fair argument, I’ll sign on.

Dear Serial @ 12:34, your post suggests you have no idea what a “neo-con” is. Moron. Hint – Internationalist Jews generally do not object to Darwinism.

Dear Dennis @ 12:44, well I tried; I still cannot get you to say you “wish for the US to win there.” Rest assured, our noble troops in Iraq are not killing mere innocents passing through, nor are they killing oil. I respect your wish to believe otherwise. And I not only believe the Horndog could have won our respect in the horn of Africa, but we would have voted for Jimmy if his hostage rescue effort had not looked half-hearted. Conservatives are truly easily pleased.

Dear Truthifier @ 12:45, I salute you – your opposition to the war has my respect, and I deem it fully principled. While I will still disagree with you, I will defend your integrity.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 1:52 PM | Link to this

Dear Curious @ 1:22, what kind of magazine do you read that would describe as a “homophobe” one who dislikes homosexuality? Are you a conservaphobe? A Christia-phobe? Surely the politically correct crowd has not pushed us to the point where people are barred from public service merely because of personal beliefs? By that standard, should all conservatives disqualify all leftists from public service positions? Should all leftists disqualify all conservatives from public service positions?

By Tired of Liberal Lies

November 14, 2007 1:58 PM | Link to this

I have seen this lie repeated too many times from the likes of ignorant libs like TW: Here’s another neat little tidbit - the ten states with the lowest SAT scores in 2004 ALL voted for Republican George Bush.

That is a bold faced lie. Three of the bottom ten states voted for Kerry. Not included in this total is DC, which had the lowest SAT scores and also voted for Kerry.

On the flip side, 3 of the top 5, 6 of the top 10, and 16 out of the top 20 states with the HIGHEST SAT’s all voted for Bush.

I am suprised no one else has called BS on this lie before now.

By BS Aplenty

November 14, 2007 1:59 PM | Link to this

We should, as in most consumer decisions, let the people have a choice. We have a variety of public and private, secular and parochial schools tailored to most needs. The state should have no role other than to require basic reading and writing skills mostly acquired by age ?? and ensure continued choice.

Most of my arguments with Leftists, including Leftist professors, devolve chronologically through the following stages:

1) Leftist screams at Conservative rhetorically to comply with liberal doctrine, 2) upon failure, Leftist resorts to finding flaws in Conservative’s deductive reasoning (usually fruitless), or 3) upon failure, Leftist tries to find counter-example in Conservative’s inductive reasoning (occasionally fruitful but usually not productive in solving political problems), 4) upon failure, Leftist points out Conservative’s lack of compassion and resorts to some religious reference (in which the Leftist has no belief) and, finally, 5) upon failure, Leftist holds breath and/or spews vitriol that makes U.S. sailor blush.

What stage is your Leftist in?

JBMLAW your comments were insightful.

By J Jenkins

November 14, 2007 2:06 PM | Link to this

jbmlaw@ 12:07 pm. It don’t matter if we did win the war in Iraq or if we win ten more wars while Bush is president. It would never make Bush look like a genius. Bush will never look like a genius. If Bush is an example of Conservative Genius, then I see why the universities lean left in the eyes of conservatives.

By Dennis

November 14, 2007 2:06 PM | Link to this

jbmlaw Dear Dennis @ 12:44, well I tried; I still cannot get you to say you “wish for the US to win there.”

Win what, the hearts and minds of the people, the civil war we’ve caused, the oil, the establishment of permanent bases there?

Forget the terrorist ideology for a moment and think about guerilla warfare, because that’s what we’re fighting? We aren’t going to win that any more than the Germans did in WW II.

Would you quit if Iraq had invaded the U.S.?

As to the terrorist ideology, the people in the Middle East are suffering more than anyone else, and it’s the pepole of the Middle East who will have to stop it.

I see the illegal spying on Americans by our own government as terrorism. For example, the Total Information Awarenss program. What do you see it as?

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 2:11 PM | Link to this

A word of praise, for a long-time opponent of the war in Iraq, musician Dave Mathews. His band performs two free concerts at the US Military Academy, tonight and tomorrow night. http://www.dmband.com/news/

By Van

November 14, 2007 2:22 PM | Link to this

JK,

Not sure what your beef is, it seems to be all over the place. Why can’t lefties keep to the topic or at least on the subject.

By Dusty

November 14, 2007 2:28 PM | Link to this

So many leftist logjams, so little time!

Dennis, I get tired of explaining the simplest things over and over to you. If I say people speaktheir minds in the “American Way”, I am still talking about freedom of speech. Got it? That is not a liberal leaning, it is a constitutional privilege.

jbmlaw at 12:07 answered most of your usual questions as you promote your liberal stance. I have yet to read that you want the USA to win this war. I don’t expect to see it.

Your statement is somewhat twisted. “Conservatives say that if you don’t support the war, then you don’t support President Bush”.

I think you don’t support the country and that includes every citizen including the President and the troops. It is OUR war, OUR country and OUR president. Is that too difficult for you? You have the freedom to say so. Go ahead.

Your propaganda endlessly refutes the truth that: Saddam was a malicious dictator whom we thought had WMD. We fought 9/11 terrorists in Afghanistan and then moved to remove dangerous conditions in Iraq. It was not OIL. It was danger.

Mukasey was following the rules of law, not liberal propaganda.

I commend the AJC for not publishing your letter which was loaded with lies. There were no Republican war crimes! There was no illegal spying before or after 9/11 and no companies concocting conspiracies. How much pure political imagination can you post here? Plenty, it seems, with no basis in truth. You are making leftist liberals look like brainwashed dissenters.

By Truthifier

November 14, 2007 2:31 PM | Link to this

See jbm! Even opponents of the war can have show respect for those who serve so honorably in the military. Plus, Dave Matthews puts on a great show!

By BS Aplenty

November 14, 2007 2:41 PM | Link to this

Tired of Liberal Lies

Thanks, it seems someone has.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 2:43 PM | Link to this

Dear BS @ 1:59, thanks.

Dear J @ 2:06, sorry to confuse you by using a hypothetical. Hypothetical cases are a useful teaching tool with students who understand how to analyze an issue.

Dear Dennis @ 2:06, methinks thou doth protest too much.

Dear Dusty @ 2:28, you focus an issue better than anyone on this board. I always read every word you write.

Dear Truthifier @ 2:31, agreed, and for that reason I felt an obligation to make the observation.

By Dennis

November 14, 2007 3:00 PM | Link to this

By jbmlaw November 14, 2007 2:43 PM Dear Dennis @ 2:06, methinks thou doth protest too much.

Think of it as the two of us in court, you’re a trained attorney and I’m a wannabe.

We’ll let the jury decide. (You can have Dusty as one of your picks).

I welcome your intelligent responses to my 12:44 and 2:06.

The original TIA program was originally intended only for Americans. Why?

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By JK

November 14, 2007 3:06 PM | Link to this

Van, can you even discuss your own words and statements without calling someone a “leftie?” What’s up with that? I’m right-handed; how would you know, and why would you care? You’re the one who dissed teachers, not me. I’m grateful someone taught me to read and do enough math to balance my checkbook, even though the practice of those skills would render me ineligible to serve in Congress!

By @@

November 14, 2007 3:16 PM | Link to this

Oh chit! All subjects converge into Sociology? Twas my major and an easy one at that. I’ve expanded on it and now teach “disabled children”. Maybe that’s the reason for the focus in the “hollowed” halls of academia. Group think, huh? Anyhoo…

I don’t know that I would be worried about such a study Jim. In the last four years I’ve had occasion to meet lots of college students. Few of them speak well of their professors…want to know from which planet they received their passports.

This sentence says it all:

That’s due in part to “unexplained differences in career motivations,” AEI reports, but “evidence also suggests that conservative students lack academic role models and have more distant relationships with faculty.”

Since when has a conservative required a role model Jim?

Conservatives just roll!

And to those liberals seeking external gratification; NO, I am not fat….

or fluffy.

I work too hard to be either/or.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 3:29 PM | Link to this

ear Dennis @ 3:00. As you wish.

In your 12:44, you made only one argument I left unaddressed @ 1:44, “Regarding Bush and the terrorist, I think that even a smart lawyer can no longer make the case that Bush went after the “terrorists” in Iraq.” Your argument is technically correct, but fundamentally misleading. President Bush did not go to Iraq to find terrorists, but he undoubtedly and successfully sent our noble military to Iraq to kill terrorists. (I assume you will not argue that our military has not been killing terrorists in Iraq.) As of 9/11, the worldwide Islamist anti-American movement was dispersed throughout the world – potentially the million paper-cuts exposure. By attacking Afghanistan, we confronted head-on the most militantly pro-Islamist government in the world, and deposed it. Little girls now attend schools, where they once were second-class citizens. Rather than allow the terrorists to escape to a new staging area between Afghanistan and Europe, we then attacked the most despotic regime then in the world, Iraq, and ultimately assisted that country to throw off 30 years of internal terror. An unanticipated side-benefit of attacking Iraq – instead of merely cutting off an escape route for the Taliban – we actually drew Islamists from all over the world, Islamists horrified to find the Great Satan within their heartland. Their reaction must have been the same as we would feel if we found a Democrat in Gwinnet County. Islamists flocked to Iraq in incredibly large numbers, to try to expel the Great Satan; to their great regret, the US Marines are incredibly effective when a formerly dispersed enemy localizes itself. Through genius or inadvertence, President Bush hit on the only plan that would make it possible to destroy formerly-dispersed Islamists in huge numbers.

@ 2:06, “Win what, the hearts and minds of the people, the civil war we’ve caused, the oil, the establishment of permanent bases there?” Yes, all of the preceding, which I think all neutral minds agree is a near fait accompli. “Forget the terrorist ideology for a moment and think about guerilla warfare, because that’s what we’re fighting? We aren’t going to win that any more than the Germans did in WW II.” Your optimism is admirable; the better analogy may be the roving communist-cells in 1970s Europe, and 1980s South America. Can you say “Che?” “Would you quit if Iraq had invaded the U.S.?” Actually, if they were here to depose Hillary, I may react the way the Iraqi tribal chieftains have reacted – “open arms.” “As to the terrorist ideology, the people in the Middle East are suffering more than anyone else, and it’s the pepole of the Middle East who will have to stop it.” Agreed, I think that change in strategy is why the surge is working. “I see the illegal spying on Americans by our own government as terrorism. For example, the Total Information Awarenss program. What do you see it as?” An effective tool to identify and kill head-choppers.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 3:32 PM | Link to this

Dear @@ @ 3:16, apologies to you, no slander intended in my remembrance of sociology. You have triumphed over your education (as I like to believe of myself.)

By Van

November 14, 2007 3:35 PM | Link to this

JK,

Disrespecting teachers, I do not think so, I disrespected leftist scumbags that do not allow both sides to speak.

I hold no respect for single minded educators that will not allow views different than their own.

Back in my day, I had the opportunity to study under Julius Sumner Miller. This was back when he taught at El Camino jr. College in the LA area.

He made Physics interesting and non political. I have listened to others and find them so wrapped up in their own little world that outside thought was unknown and their political leanings were part of the course. Can you imagine calculus with a political slant(a different war at that time)!

So wrapped up in there own war against the evil military-industrial complex that all application of their subject by them was akin to heresy.

They inspired me so much, that I just had to enlist, 40 years later, no regrets.

By jbmlaw

November 14, 2007 3:40 PM | Link to this

Dear Dennis @ much of my 3:29 argument presupposes acquiantance with an essay published this morning on the nature of the Islamist mindset, http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110010859 I steal from the best minds.

By @@

November 14, 2007 4:23 PM | Link to this

jbmlaw @ 3:32:

You have triumphed over your education

I have a hard time accepting your statement as truthful since you felt the need to apologize. J/K

I’d be liberal had my feelings been hurt now wouldn’t I? Your apology is appreciated nonetheless.

The only thing I wear on my sleeve is kids’ snot from little opportunists with sweet angelic smiles.

By Serial

November 14, 2007 4:31 PM | Link to this

U R easily impressed, jbmlaw, Uriya Shavit’s 3000+ word treatise could have been summarized thusly: Religious garb, when perceived as a national flag, incites anti-immigration hysteria. In the wake of ensuing theo-political catastrophes, evolving senses of political correctness can dissuade prudent homeland security measures, and allow entrenched and traditional socio-political mores to be corrupted and neutralized by insidiously-accumulated consensus.

There. Or you could have not put an obnoxious blue-letterd link in your comment and merely referred to the article by saying that european anti-semitism of the last century is strikingly similar to the anti-islamo fever that pervades the continent now. You could have then thrown in your opinion about whether anti-semitism was founded then or anti-islamo fever is founded now.

Instead you chose to blog like the unpoulticed pustule you truly are.

lol just kidding, you done good, kid.

(roflmao, what a great sport jbmlaw is) he rocks!!

By getalife

November 14, 2007 4:42 PM | Link to this

What a load of crap ambulance chaser.

Van,

Do you agree with arresting vets at the veterans parade?

By Kansas

November 14, 2007 4:49 PM | Link to this

STFU, @@, you’re a snot rag.

Your crumbled contributions to the topic today are picked over and rolled up idio-sinu-syncratic nausi-nasal bugers. Like what’s on your face right now.

By Van

November 14, 2007 4:52 PM | Link to this

getalife,

Was due process followed?

By Van

November 14, 2007 5:01 PM | Link to this

Get a life -

It seems strange that you, a “progressive” would think that some people should not be arrested if they do something that warrants it. But then again, you have the Kennedy family.

By Van

November 14, 2007 5:04 PM | Link to this

Get a life -

It seems strange that you, a “progressive” would think that some people should not be arrested if they do something that warrants it. But then again, you have the Kennedy family.

By Tex

November 14, 2007 5:08 PM | Link to this

Van, Y ask getalife? He knows less than nothing. He hacks from Hannity or Rush. he’s a real over-strewn bowel-burger of refried bulemia.

He belongs in an assylum (With you if you read a word he squirts).

Both of you get lost.

By getalife

November 14, 2007 5:16 PM | Link to this

Van,

Don’t stutter, answer the question.

By @@

November 14, 2007 5:17 PM | Link to this

My goodness, the Scarecrow from Kansas is a wee bit grumpy today.

STFU, @@, you’re a snot rag.

Have at it buddy….blog thru at your pleasure.

Far be it from me to deny you your sole reason for living.

By PoFo

November 14, 2007 5:19 PM | Link to this

My faith in Sonny evaporated when he prayed for rain. How about an adequate aquaduct? We’d be better off banning baptisms to save water than we would be praying for rain.

Irrigate, dont irritate.

capiche?

‘muff said.

By Van

November 14, 2007 5:25 PM | Link to this

getalife -

What was the circumstances? Did they violate a law or refuse to obey a police officers request? Without context, it is pointless to say yes or no. But then again, you are a leftie, you don’t need a reason or want one.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 5:26 PM | Link to this

jbm, well I got back to find that the blog reverted to everyone’s Favorite Sermon: U.S. military footing. As our friend would say, Geez! Even the troops give the topic a rest sometimes. Last night I went to have a chat with some of them, and all they wanted to talk about was hooking up. Men and women both. Seems we really like a guy or a doll in uniform, and they really like one in civvies—or at least skivvies. Poor young, hot-blooded American celibates, I really feel for them. All I wanted to talk about was the military, which was the last thing they wanted to discuss.

BS hit a homer at 1:59. Wish I’da bin here for thattawon.

Here’s my thinking for our mess duty. You could knock the Dept. of Ed. back down to a Bureau within Interior—a proven recipe—but not as long as we’ve got NCLB to tend. There’s left/right consensus on NCLB being broken, but I’m with the minority that wants it sunsetted altogether. On this one I’m for federalism and therefore against federalization of ed. If you can’t eliminate NCLB, I’d argue, you can’t eliminate the Department.

I wish we could back-channel to Bill Bennett or Ted Bell, the two who serially saved the Dept. over Dutch’s wishes. I’d love to hear the reasons for that maneuver; we could easily guess, but it would be so much better to hear it from Jumbo’s mouth.

By @@

November 14, 2007 5:27 PM | Link to this

Hey PoliFore, you dropped your “‘muff said” over at ml’s. I thought it was exclusive to your individual posts. It seems you left your brain in the haystacks.

By PoFo

November 14, 2007 5:12 PM | Link to this

My faith in Sonny evaporated when he prayed 4 rain. The whole thing is so over the rainbow.

Are you teetering on the edge today? About to become unhinged?

Sho ‘nuff looks like it.

Take a breather. Life will have more to offer tomorrow.

By Dusty

November 14, 2007 5:28 PM | Link to this

PoFo you pilferer of IDs now as “Serial” @4:31

You missed the point in your mindless missive.

Anti-Semitism was brought about by the misconceptions people had of Jews. This was twisted into hate. Jews were victims of mindless hate alone.

Anti-Muslimism has come about from the actions of a small group who murder in the name of that religion. Thus almost all Muslims have become victims of prejudice brought about by one vicious strain of their religion.

The misconception of Muslims is to think that all Muslims are terrorists. That is not true. We must avoid that to prevent a “holocaust”of another nature.

We must never ever acquire any reason to kill millions of people for a terrible misconception of innocents or the terrible actions of a few.

War is another thing of national defense. That is a subject of another nature. I won’t venture into that here.

By getalife

November 14, 2007 5:35 PM | Link to this

Van,

They lost their freedom for expressing an opinion. I posted a link.

These vets fought and died for your right to express your opinion.

You cowards happily give away your freedoms because you are scared.

Pathetic.

By Jackie

November 14, 2007 5:38 PM | Link to this

Will Mukasey be following the rule of law when he frog-marches the criminals out of the White House? Or, will he too be consider a liberal full of propaganda?

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 5:43 PM | Link to this

Dusty, seems like you’re buying the premise that the peeps is intolerant of Muslims. I can’t buy that for a half a cent. Does anyone saying this know what real intolerance looks like, first-hand? If they do know, then how does America’s attitude toward Islam resemble such intolerance?

And if the status quo in the U.S. is intolerance in this department, what then would the free exercise of Islam look like here? How different?

If anyone claims to be freedom-loving, then let her love the freedoms we really do have. Love and appreciate and exercise them to the maximum. What exactly is blocking this, like, glorious flow?

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 5:46 PM | Link to this

Actually, Jackie, you are “a liberal full of propaganda”, as witness your not specifying which White House criminals and which crimes, enforceable by the Justice Dept.

By Dennis

November 14, 2007 5:51 PM | Link to this

By Jackie “November 14, 2007 5:38 PM Will Mukasey be following the rule of law when he frog-marches the criminals out of the White House? Or, will he too be consider a liberal full of propaganda?”

If I were a member of the White House or someone who authorized leaking the name of Valeria Plame, or giving the green light for torture, or an executive of the telecome industry that was spying on Americans prior to 9/11, I’d be sleeping peacefully now that Judge Mukasey is installed.

But let’s keep in mind that the Democrats caved in, (Pelosi, Feinstein, et al.) also, for the purpose of covering their own culpabilities in the Iraq war.

There isn’t THAT much difference in the two parties. Hardly a dime’s worth of difference.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By Glenn

November 14, 2007 5:51 PM | Link to this

get, ever since Jim’s Friday column you’ve been saying that conservatives are scared, in the context of the bloody occupation of Iraq and the strife in Pakistan and tensions around Iran. I listen to everything you have to say, and I don’t understand what you mean by that. Nobody thinks you’re a coward, and Lord knows you speak your mind. So you must really mean something by it other than taunts. What is it, please?

By getalife

November 14, 2007 6:03 PM | Link to this

Glenn,

I think expressed my position clearly.

Dennis,

I agree. I doubt he will enforce the law and do his job.

Probably keep the Justice Dept. as w’s loophole to break the law like ganzo.

By Dusty

November 15, 2007 9:11 AM | Link to this

Glenn@5:43

I’m not sure that I have interpreted your post correctly. You said “looks like you are buying the premise the peeps is intoleraent of Muslims”? Peeps? People?

I was commenting, like the original article in WSJ linked by jbmlaw, that there is the dangerof extensive prejudice against Muslims because of terrorism. That we never want another “holocaust”.

The WSJ article included the state of Muslims in Europe.

I do not think there is much prejudice against Muslims in the USA but already we are trying to avoid it. Our church (a Christian denomination), for example, has had three different Muslims who came to tell us more about their religion. They seemed to be very loyal American citizens.

I was simply commenting on the origins and executions of hate that we as Americans always want to avoid.