For All Those Who Think the Universities are Full of Elite, Out-of-Touch Radicals Who Hate Their Country…

…. You’re not alone.

The Chinese Communist Party and Chairman Mao stand with you.



Just a sample:

I have undertaken the task of organizing conservative students myself and urging them to protest a situation that has become intolerable.
David Horowitz
The Campus Blacklist
April 18, 2003

Students on University campuses were organized into groups of “Red Guards” and were given the chance to challenge those in authority. Students quickly turned their attacks on their closest adversaries, their teachers and university administrators.
Therese Hoffman
The Chinese Cultural Revolution:
Autobiographical Accounts of a National Trauma
2001

...

Horowitz's organization has published ads in campus newspapers calling on students to report professors who try to "impose their political opinions" in the classroom.
The Daily Texan
Conservatives gaining ground at UT
March 8, 2004

Mao actively urged young people to confront, denounce, and even punish their teachers and other authority figures in their lives.
Christian Science Monitor
China hums with change
June 10, 2004


Naturally, organizations where it's the duty of people to study, learn, and debate are going to be strongolds of left-of-center thinking. Colleges are unique among other stages of learning because what people are taught is not harmonized - that is, a student could learn an idea in one class, then a contradictory one in another. Naturally, the ruling right-wing theories should be given a fair hearing, but they usually wither away in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Could you imagine the horror of a place where all institutes of higher learning instill the students with unquestioning awe of their leaders, ardent nationalism, and hatred of their country's enemies? Oh yeah, you can - it's called North Korea. Or Saudi Arabia, or Syria, or - well, you get the idea.

It's the responsibility of each generation to deal with the problems their elders leave behind. That can't happen if they're conditioned to believe the status quo is perfect.

Updates! Updates for All!

What good is a news story without a follow-up?

Global Warming

Further signs of this problem: the snows of Kilimanjaro have disappeared! Take that, Hemingway.

About a month ago, another study came out claiming that humans are causing this rapid, unexpected rise in world temperatures. I think that brings the total number of scientific inquiries blaming pollution up to about 290.

But all is not lost; if we’d simply phase out the older, dirtier polluters (coal factories, inefficient cars, etc.) and replace them with their cleaner, more modern equivalents, we’d be in good shape. After all, the average car in 2004 produces 1/10 as much pollution as the average car in 1970, and maybe less.

Sgrena

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced today that Italy would begin to withdraw its 3,000-strong force in Iraq. This certainly wasn’t Berlusconi’s idea; he’s a firm supporter of the war and a friend of President Bush. The Italian public, however, is strongly anti-war, and the business with Sgrena was just too much for them to take. I guess some aspects of democracy aren't totally dead in Italy. Yet.

P.S. Does Eason Jordan get his job back?

Saddam’s (Faked?) Capture

No more news yet; the US media is ignoring this thing entirely. The only references I’ve been able to find are Arabic publications repeating the original article and neocons calling the marine a liar. Of course, no one actually wants to have an investigation; the truth has a way of embarrassing everybody. Maybe we’ll find out in 50 years when the CIA files are unsealed.

I Hope Larry Kudlow Can Swim

For a long time, the trump card of conservatives was National Security. “Do you really care about the minimum wage, abortion, or gay rights?” they’d say, sneering at the very idea. “Are those namby-pamby Democrats going to protect you from Communi- I mean, terrorism?” One could argue that the Democrats had done a pretty good job in years past, and that terrorist attacks were sharply rising under the Bush administration, but that’d just make them mad. “Trust us, things would be a lot worse with Al Gore in the White House!” they’d yell, spewing crumbs everywhere. “IF IT WEREN’T FOR US, YOU’D ALL BE BLOWN TO PIECES! IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?!?! WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA!?!?!?”

Of course, that’s not what we wanted, and we did not hate America, and since it was fairly impossible to prove them wrong about a hypothetical situation, we usually shut up at this point and found someone more interesting to talk to.

But, even the threat of violent attacks pales in comparison with the total destruction of the human race as we know it. No, I'm not talking about nuclear weapons - though that should be dealt with sooner rather than later. I'm talking about something that, unlike its Republican equivalent, is a real, measurable phenomenon that is happening right in front of us.

It’s that old standby Global Warming.

Canada’s ice caps are melting away.

The original government release:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2005/Canada_Ice.html

For popular consumption:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050309142557.htm

What’s the response to this? Republicans certainly aren’t going to do anything about it; the unfettered free market isn’t concerned with such things. After all, it only seeks to maximize profit, not minimize losses.

How important is The Greatness of America if said Greatness is submerged under the Atlantic?

The Fallacy of Sanctions

A common 'moderate' way to deal with a rogue nation is to end trade. That way, there's no fighting, just a stern and unmistakable message telling the country we disapprove of them, and offering the possibility of restored trade if they change their ways.

Yet from Iraq to Palestine to Cuba, they’ve been an exercise in futility. They’ve produced plenty of poverty, disease, and resentment, but they’ve never managed to actually bring down a government unless followed by a large-scale invasion.

Sometimes it can be necessary to restrict the importation or exportation of certain things (such as, say, nuclear bombs), but to forbid food, medicine or workers to enter a country is worse than useless.

Whenever a nation is threatened by an external force, the people look to their leaders for protection and support. An embargo is the same as a bomb, and sometimes worse.

But wouldn’t those who suffer under an embargo blame the actions of their leaders which caused the sanctions in the first place?

No; not in the entirety of recorded human history has that ever happened. People simply do not think that way. They say to themselves “It wasn’t our corrupt, dictatorial leaders who imposed the sanctions, it was those foreign powers. It is cruel to make us suffer for something our leaders – who definitely are none the worse for wear because of these restrictions – have done.” This is assuming, of course, that the people of the isolated nation don’t support their rulers in the first place, while oftentimes they do. The notion that an entire country will embark on a collective guilt trip and beg forgiveness is ridiculous.

Some poeple never learn.

A Brief Look at the Right-Wing Media

I could spend today talking about the massive pro-Syria rally in Lebanon or Bush's failing efforts to sell his privitization scam, but that's too easy. Instead, let's look at some of the people who feed the conservative movement:

William F. Buckley Jr. - Reacted to being called a ‘crypto-Nazi’ by becoming violent and homophobic. Actually is a crypto-Nazi, if his hatred of gays, Jews, and his love of despotism are any clue.

Jonah Goldberg – Barely fifth rate; he’s not even interesting. Has absolutely nothing to say yet continues to milk his connection to the whole sordid Lewinsky affair. Wrote articles from a Jewish perspective for years before admitting he had never considered himself Jewish in any way. Pathetic.

George Will – Pretentious idiot. Thinks he can prove he’s smarter than you by cramming quotations into his lousy articles. Once wrote a piece pining for the days when people with HIV would wither and die in only a few years; bemoaned the fact that these newer, more effective AIDS drugs would “lead to a lack of understanding about the danger” of HIV. More out of touch than Louis XVI.

Ann Coulter –Too many things to mention; Coulter is essentially Hitler with boobs and a blond wig. Before you accuse me of playing the Hitler card indecently, I might remind you that Coulter has called non-white people ‘savages’ and talked at length about ‘the benefits of fascism’. So maybe I’m not so off-base.

Laura Ingrahm – The poor man’s Ann Coulter, by which I mean they’re both whores (no disrespect to whores, of course). Claimed that being ‘elite’ had nothing to do with wealth or power, making a pro-choice homeless man more elite than President Bush. Also said that art is useless unless it enforces the status quo.

Michael Savage – Actually mentally ill. Claims to hate gays, but writes homoerotic prose and lives in San Francisco. Calls people ‘sheeple’, Ruth Bader Ginsburg ‘Ruth Badgirl Ginsburg’, Madeline Albright ‘Secretary of Hate Halfbright’ and third-world countries ‘turd world countries’. Hilarious.

Jeff Gannon – A sad shell of a man. Used a fake name and phony credentials to pretend to be a journalist so he could ask Bush ridiculously slanted questions. Now, he operates a blog (under his fake name) and essentially reprints White House press releases. Maybe he should go back to being a prostitute; I hear he’s got 8 inches.

Rush Limbaugh – A sad puffball of a man. Spreads right-wing lies on the radio hours and hours every day, and what does he get for it? Drug addiction, three divorces, a recurring weight problem, and his arch nemesis is gaining on him in the ratings. To top it off, Mr. Snerdley doesn’t even exist.

Sean Hannity – Indistinct party hack. Writes crappy books, has a crappy radio show, and does whatever the GOP tells him. Treats squirrel-man Alan Colmes like his pet poodle, which I suppose is right.

Thomas Friedman – Graduated Brandeis, alas. I count him as right-wing. Why? He blithely shrugs off the monetary and human cost of our involvement in the Middle East; then says we invaded Iraq ‘because we can’ without choking on his own shame. Reacts to tough questions by running off the stage.

David Horowitz – I didn’t like him when he was a Stalinist and I don’t think he’s changed. Spreads ridiculous lies about my professors and my school. Thinks that drawing a line in Javascript between people proves that they’re part of a conspiracy.

Bill O’Reilly – His idea of ‘debate’ is to scream at you for ten minutes and then cut your mic off when you try to respond. Claims to have won Peabody awards, been a college football star and served in combat when he did none of those things. Contradicts his own mother about his childhood and expects no one to notice. Told the son of a man who died on 9/11 to “get out of here before I tear you to fucking pieces.” Wrote the world’s worst sex scene. Also, ‘falafel’.