Another measured, thoughtful column from Paul Campos

Today the CU law professor, who once likened blogger Glenn Reynolds to Ward Churchill, and just a couple of weeks ago called those who still insist on commemorating the 9/11 attacks narcissists, compares Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol to a pornographer he used to live next door to--unfavorably, of course:

The Porn King built himself an impressive mansion here in beautiful Boulder (this is just one of his several residences I'm given to understand), and it towered above my modest home.

I myself was more than once invited to partake of his food and drink, but politely declined. Still, I occasionally found myself engaged in a friendly stop-and-chat with my amiable neighbor. I always came away from these trivial moments of social intercourse with a slightly confused feeling. Was it, after all, a bit cowardly on my part to treat him as if I didn't know or care who he was?

All this came to mind last week when I glimpsed Bill Kristol's smooth and amiable face on the television, where it appears so often. Kristol - editor of The Weekly Standard, Fox News contributor, co-founder of the key neo-conservative group the Project For the New American Century, and current visiting professor at Harvard - is the very definition of a well-respected man about town, doing the best things so conservatively.

But how respectable is Kristol, really?Anyone who pays the least attention to him soon discovers that the ruling passion of Kristol's life is to involve the United States in as many wars as possible, with as many enemies as he can find or create.

Evidence? We don't need no stinkin' etc.

In short, Kristol thinks about war in much the same way the narrator of Lolita thought about 12-year-old girls: with a constant, obsessive, perverse longing.

I choose this analogy with some care [!]. An overwhelming lust for violence seems to be the common vice that links together Kristol, the various Kaplans (Lawrence, Fred, Robert), and other leaders of the contemporary neo-conservative movement.

All these men appear to genuinely love the idea of war for its own sake. The thought of their countrymen - not they themselves of course, as not one of them has ever come within a thousand miles of a live bullet - inflicting the horrific violence of modern warfare on various hapless foreigners is something that clearly excites these gentlemen quite a bit.

And that, when you think about it, is rather disturbing. . . .

For my part, I'd rather give the Porn King the Presidential Medal of Freedom than shake Bill Kristol's hand.

As with Ward Churchill frau (and former CU law professor) Natsu "Truthforce" Saito, one can only wonder: how is someone like Campos allowed anywhere near innocent students?

Update: Actually, Campos, as deranged and idiotic as he can be, is nowhere near as pernicious as Nutso Natsu.