Three sentences

From Professor Peter Kirstein's speech at NYU's "academic freedom conference" yesterday:

Let us be clear. Let us be direct. There is a movement in this country, while claiming a monopoly on patriotism, is a threat to the national interest.

Update: Onward and Wardward:

PB quotes from an account of a typical Ward Churchill class from a woman who took five of them (I'm snarkless) from the hack:

His midterm "exams" consisted of ten true/false items, with bonus points for spelling your name correctly. If you simply showed up for class, you got an "A" on this test. The final was the killer for most indoctrinated students, however, as Ward always wanted us to write a paper that dealt with how the material impacted our lives, individually. For me, this was a chance to place myself within a brand new reality pradigm, which challenged every assumption about the world I'd compiled to date. For most others, however, this idea of applying the material to their life was more than they could handle -- and it was astonishing to find out just how many students failed his courses for not completing the final.

Yeah, that must have been it.

The celebutards at the Ward Churchill Solidarity Network have posted their wart-take on the selection of Bruce Benson as prez of CU:

As you may remember, CU President Betsy Hoffman announced her resignation a few days after warning the faculty about the “new McCarthyism” attending Ward Churchill’s case. She was replaced by Hank Brown, one of the founding members of Lynne Cheney’s American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). ACTA issued its “How Many Ward Churchills?” report in the midst of the Churchill investigation. Brown announced his plans to retire almost immediately after ensuring that Ward Churchill was fired.

Benson’s qualifications?

A member of ACTA’s Trustee’s Council (click here for more on the ACTA connection to Ward Churchill’s case)

Multi-millionaire oil and gas executive

Has a BA in geology; apparently believes we don’t really need to worry about climate change (since people and plants emit CO2)

As president of the trustees at Metropolitan State, had the rules rewritten to eliminate tenured faculty and replace them with cheaper help (otherwise known as the Wal-Mart approach).

Update II: Wordsmith Kirstein again: "Senators Obama, Clinton, McCain: Your Silence on Gun Control is Defeaning"

Update III: In the New York Times, Stanley Fish sides with the Solidaires (and CriticalThinking Kirstein) on Benson's appointment:

In one of those ironies that make life interesting, the University of Colorado, which dismissed controversial professor Ward Churchill because of doubts about his academic qualifications, has appointed a president who doesn’t have any. (The final vote was taken on Feb. 20.)