You've got a lot of nerve . . .

Marathon Pundit notes the appearance of America's goofiest academic, Professor Peter "Freewheelin'" Kirstein, at the just-concluded DePaul Academic Freedom Conference. Kirstein, naturally, posted excerpts from his speech, which was mostly on the denial of tenure to Norman Finkelstein and Kirstein's own problems with intemperate (and illiterate) e-mailing some years ago, but MP has the nut:

We must confront the new McCarthyism and some of its more prominent acolytes: David Horowitz, Daniel Pipes, Alan Dershowitz, Lynne Cheney and Laura Ingraham and demand that progressive voices will be heard and progressive calls for international peace and security will not be silenced. We must denounce universities that are complicit in this unseemly, autocratic purge of idealistic professors who defy the canon of Judeo-Christian elitism and American exceptionalism. Professors should profess and not be silent. To be silent, is to lie and accept the destruction of academic freedom and the inevitable closing of the American mind.

Such a writer. But, Laura Ingraham? What happened to Bill O'Reilly? Anyway, vintage self-delusion from our born-to-be-purged revolutionary.

By the way, check out the hot lineup of speakers for the event:

As'ad Abukhalil, Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, California State University - Stanislous

Bill Ayers, Professor, College of Education, University of Illinois - Chicago

Ken Butigan, author, professor and peace activist

Juan Cole, Professor, Department of History, University of Michigan

Marc Ellis, University Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University

Scott Hibbard, Department of Political Science, DePaul University

Robert Jensen, Associate Professor, School of Journalism, University of Texas - Austin

Joel Kovel, Editor-in-Chief of Capitalism, Nature, Socialism journal; Distinguished Professor of SocialStudies, Bard College

Marcy Newman, Visiting Professor, Center for American Studies and Research, American University of Beirut; Fellow, Initiative forMiddle East Policy Dialogue

Peter Novick, Professor (Emeritus), Department of History, University of Chicago

and a special documentary film presented by Landrum Bolling, Director, Mercy Corps

Pretty fast company for Our Kirsty (pip! pip!). And as MP notes, rads only--no "moderates," no conservatives, certainly no Thomas Klocek.

Update: Kirstein has a powerfist I'd never seen before:




Update II: Wedgehead though he be, Kirstein is right about Freewheelin'. Great album.