Can a "Patriotic" Mob Take Over the Universities?

Baruch Kimmerling is a prominent Israeli sociologist. The Chronicle of Higher Ed rejected this article. Our commitment to academic freedom these days seems as deep as Donald Rumsfelf's commitment to world peace. Read Kimmerling on the Columbia witch hunt.

Investigating Professorial Anger

Joseph Massad has been proven to have replied "angrily and heatedly" to a student. He has been proven to have asked a rhetorical question in a testy manner during an off-campus talk. He is anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian. Does this in itself mean that he has acted unethically, or that he was not a rigorous scholar? The New York Times Editorial at the very least suggests that given his positions and his personality, he warrants further investigation.

It glosses over the question of the hate mail and death threats received by the professors themselves and by continuing to imply that they are indeed "guilty" of something, they will encourage the virulence of pro-Israeli extremists in and around the Columbia controversy to suppress dissent.

Read "New York Times Supports McCarthyite Witch Hunt"

The New York Times would rather see attempts to voice sustained, rigorous dissent over US and Israeli policies in the Middle East. See why Juan Cole is cancelling his subscription. Informed Comment

Iif you criticize Israel, and if you do it in a consistent way, and if you are sympathetic to the cause and the struggle of the Palestinian people, you will be accused, if not of anti-Semitism, then of demagoguery. The editorial says that judging the quality of teaching at Columbia was not the mandate of the investigation, but of course it was...because poor teaching is demagoguery.

What Massad and some of his colleagues at Columbia are teaching is a Middle Eastern history that does not favor Israeli OR American state policy. His right to continue to do so is guaranteed by the academic freedom policies of American Universities.

The pseudo-liberalism of the New York Times should be seen for what it is..., the news from the US makes me shudder...

the Pope continued...

Never, ever did I want my last post to be construed as an endorsement of the Pope or Catholicism. Nor do I think that the poverty = grace doctrine is in any way justifiable. The Cold War Pope only appeared progressive or "modern."

So, it is in that spirit that I post what Tania has sent:

"No praise for pope from AIDS campaigners" AIDS campaigners sounded a jarring note Monday over the papacy of John Paul II, describing his ban on condom use, abhorrence of homosexuality and conservatism on women's rights as bleak failures in the fight against HIV." The pope's tenure straddled AIDS' rise from a disease first seen in a handful of American gays to a global pandemic that by last year had claimed more than 20 million lives and left nearly 40 million others infected with HIV. As the catastrophe unfolded, the pontiff repeatedly called for support for people sickened with the human immunodeficiency virus and always pleaded for the cause of AIDS orphans. But he always followed an unbending line when it came to the causes of AIDS and preventing its spread. In his edicts, he fought tirelessly against condoms, branded homosexuality immoral and emphasised a passive role for women as family anchor and child bearer. With an eye to Catholic liberals who suggested condoms could help protect against HIV, the pope declared in a landmark message in 1988 that use of contraception was "intrinsically illicit." "No personal or social circumstances could ever, can now, or will ever, render such an act lawful in itself," he said.--"
PARIS (AFP) Apr 04, 2005

"Pope: Afro-Cuban Cults Not Religion" -- "Ending his Cuban visit Sunday, Pope John Paul II cautioned against putting Santeria and other Afro-Cuban religions on a par with the Roman Catholic Church. ... As many as 70 percent of Cubans adhere to Afro-Cuban beliefs, according to anthropologist Natalia Bolivar." The brief story also said John Paul excluded Santeria representatives from a meeting he had with leaders of other religious traditions. Associated Press, Jan 25 '98.

"a new world war" in higher ed

A higher-education think tank warns of a “new world war” among universities fighting to hire talent. Read about it in The Times

blogging the pope

I was about to get all mad about the endless coverage of the Pope's death, until I talked to a friend in the Upper Midwest this morning who said that she heard some one say in the Protestant bastion of bad haircuts and self-righteousness, that John Paul was the leader of a cult. Now that is just unfair and incorrect. Catholicism is not really suited to capitalism since it actually does preach a doctrine of poverty and grace, and so appears to the common-sensical Lutheran as excessive and superstitiou, or what the Brits used to call simply "popery" (rhymes with pot-pourri).

The Protestants have triumphed in every conceivable way against the Catholics over the past four centuries. The ruthlessly pragmatic Protestant attitude has made them so much more adaptable to capitalism -- even when they are going evangelical -- look at W! I decided that because of that Protestant low blow, I would honor John Paul's passing by linking to thoughtful reflections upon the progressive aspect of his legacy. Informed Comment and Body and Soul .