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Even in Britain......and the Rest of Europe

2/25/2016

I hear often from other academics that we should be more like Europe. Honestly, I’ve never really understood this argument. I’ve been to Europe on several occasions and while Europe is great for Europeans, I’m not a European (don’t get on me about my Irish ancestors).

The more I thought about their “Europenvy” the more I wondered why it existed. After all, we in the US have a remarkable history, a thriving culture, wealth beyond imagine, and FREEDOM. Ah, there it is.......we have FREEDOMS that many leftist faculty don’t like. Guns, for example, are abhorred by just about every faculty member I know and surveys show that social science faculty STRONGLY support gun control and confiscation.

Other freedoms, too, appear to be greeted with suspicion. Alas, freedom to speak your mind comes immediately to mind. I don’t find it at all unremarkable that efforts to curtail freedom come from the academic left. Nor do I find it at all out of character that they would try their best to limit speech, limit exposure to certain ideas, and limit research efforts. This is what they do because that is who they are.

Members of the academic left are prevalent on American university campuses. Some campuses have more, some less. However, on European campuses, the academic left appears to be a strong majority. When I gave a talk in Portugal last year members of the academic left demanded to know why I was given a platform. Other European scholars also told me that they cannot get science courses approved through their respective departments because the academic left frets endlessly about sexism, racism, and every other ism under the sun.

Now we get to see the academic left in all of its glory. You can read about it here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/24/safe-spaces-universities-no-platform-free-speech-rhodes

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Why Have Universities Been Overtaken by Mob Rule?

2/25/2016

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The university system is really a marvel of our society. Today, after teaching a class, I attended a presentation on intelligent policing. The presentation was excellent and revealed the future of policing--data driven, focused, and multi-faceted. Moreover, the presentation showed how academic criminology can work with local agencies to improve public safety and to better control crime. Nowhere else will you find this type of thinking and research than on a university campus.

Yet the requirements for open dialogue, objective research, and honest criticism are in peril. Campus activists, social justice faculty, and administrators who compromise every academic value imaginable have created a climate that is sometimes hostile to the search for truth.

The consequences attached to this climate extend far beyond the narrow confines of academic research. As we place more and more constraints on speech, as we limit tolerance for competing ideas, and as we accept the cascading calls for censorship we create a generation unable to reason, unable to accept criticism, and unable to critically examine their own biases.

Along comes an excellent essay on the topic. Some quotes:

Intolerance for free speech among student groups reveals their disregard for reason. Any opposition to or skepticism of their cause is met with anger, threats, and possibly physical harm. This is because free speech honors man’s rational faculty, presuming it is the genuine commonality among human beings.

As such, progressive pieties often foreclose respect for humility, decency, and honest inquiry. Rather than persuading the mind, they command and shame it. Liberal education to the contrary requires a spirit of reverence aiming to liberate the mind from prejudice—the prejudices of birth, public opinion, one’s own distorted and inflated opinions of oneself—in preparation for citizenship.

The perspective of anger is incapable of understanding our nation’s needs and its common good. Neither is it capable of creating productivity, decency, self-respect, or political freedom. A public whose passions are its sole animating feature is unsuited for rule by laws.

Read the essay here: http://dailysignal.com/2016/02/25/why-have-universities-been-overtaken-by-mob-rule/

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No More PaddyCake Policing for This Guy

2/24/2016

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I’m not a fan of the current movement to make cops street corner social workers. Better educated and more data driven, yes. Better informed about how to use social science data to get thugs off the street, yes. Better capable of dealing with people in distress, the mentally ill, of course.

But when it comes to taking evil people off the streets.........TAKE THEM OFF THE STREETS. And yes, I use the term EVIL in its most pejorative sense. The term seems to cause criminologists more heartburn than does the actual behavior of street thugs--you know, like murder, drug dealing, rape, armed robbery.

Here is one way of getting the point across:

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Even When You are Wrong, You’re Right

2/24/2016

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A word of caution: DO NOT exfoliate with a facial cream that is black. If you do, the president of your university will publicly call you a racist........and so will everyone else.

And what will happen after they find out they were wrong? Nothing, of course, because their intentions were good.

File this under “you can’t make this up."

http://www.channel3000.com/news/uwwhitewater-chancellor-responds-to-disturbing-racist-post/38059654

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“Sadly, support for robust free speech is declining among liberals as it’s ascending among conservatives...” Says the ACLU!

2/24/2016

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The former president of the ACLU made this strong claim in a recent interview about Purdue University’s commitment to free speech. The thrust of her comments can be found here:

http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7319

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It’s Called “Mansplaining"

2/24/2016

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I once took a history course from a professor who, in a prior life, was a station chief for the CIA in Central America. It was fascinating but I vividly recall that he expressly forbade his students from recording him. At the time I thought it odd but, later, he explained that a student once recoded him and edited the tape to make him appear to make statements he didn’t make.

So, given today’s campus climate, I am not a fan of students recording faculty. However, I sometimes wonder if people understood what exactly happens in some classrooms if life wouldn’t be better. Here is a good example.

Short version: https://soundcloud.com/jjustkkidding/with-her-cunt

Long version:

https://soundcloud.com/jjustkkidding/full

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Another Site Pick’s Up UC’s Ridiculous Title IX Position

2/24/2016

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http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/26331/

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The Death of Justice Scalia

2/24/2016

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I have to admit that I really admired Antonin Scalia and was saddened to hear of his passing. He was an intellectual powerhouse, jovial, brash, careful, and careless. He was like a lot of interesting people--complex.

Many will likely remember him only for his sometimes stinging dissents, which I always read for a good laugh. Others will remember him only for his originalist views on the Constitution and still others will remember him only for voting one way or another on a case that mattered to them. A full account of the man, his life, and his legal scholarship, however, reveals a jurist who valued intelligent legal analysis, honesty, candidness, debate, and even humility.

Few know this, but he advocated for Elana Kagan to join the court,

He would sometimes send his dissent to his friend, Ruth Bader Gingsburg, to help her better articulate the majority view.

He traveled with Bryer to various colleges to discuss the court and how their diametrically opposed views helped the court. You can watch some of these talks on YouTube. They are wonderful.

He and RBD were best friends and their families often vacationed together.

He would take Kagan out shooting.

He had nine, yes 9, and one of his son’s, a priest, conducted his mass.

Charles Grassley, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, posted on his website a wonderful litany of Scalia’s legal decisions. Scalia, as you will see, did much to protect the rights of those accused of crimes, including expanding 4th Amendment protections.

Justice Scalia lead an amazing life. He served the Court and his country with integrity.

You can read Senator Grassley’s post here: http://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/justice-antonin-scalia-and-his-role-protecting-individual-liberties

You can read his 10 best lines of dissent here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/06/gay-marriage-supreme-court-scalia-dissent

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More Campus Censorship

2/24/2016

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The president of Cal State, Los Angeles cancelled a talk by Ben Shapiro. Shapiro, you may know, is sort of a conservative antagonist. He’s bright but he’s brash and, well, conservative.....so his presence on a campus disrupts the natural utopia that already exists.

It appears that the typical group of faculty and students got upset, took to social media, and created a climate of intense victimhood. Shapiro, they argued, dismisses BLM, makes people uncomfortable, and belittles minorities. For these sins, he had to be banned.

Of course the president is a tad bit smarter than the professional crybabies. In his response to the student group who sponsored Shapiro’s talk, the president stated that he wanted to bring more people into the conversation with Shapiro so that “diversity” could be more thoughtfully discussed. Yes, the president wanted others to present with Shapiro so they could presumably defend Cal State’s diversity efforts.

I guess the president thinks he figured out a clever way to appease all the crybabies at the same time he allows Shapiro a forum. Hey, I’m all for the idea of a debate and always presenting opposing views and I’ll support that idea as soon as I see a panel on diversity include opposing views or as soon as I see a BLM panel be forced to include opposing views. I’m sure that will happen soon.

Just in case you believe all of these instances of banning conservatives from campus are a fluke, you should understand that our current crop of college students believe in censorship. A recent poll from Pew, shown below, finds that millennials are favorably predisposed to believe that government should be able to prevent people from saying things that might be critical of minorities.

Let’s get real: A handful of quasi-scholars have created a climate of intolerance and way too many campus administrators are afraid of them. More faculty need to speak up to counter this cancer or it will, surely, destroy us all.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/24/cal-state-los-angeles-cancels-conservative-speakers-appearance