The teacher in question was suspended.
Shoulda been FIRED.
Here's the story.
My reaction? I've seen the filmclip, at the office of a friend. The teacher's lying like a rug when he says that the clip has to do with "other cultures."
And it has nothing, nada, zip, zero to do with "history."
Fire this jerk.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Thursday, April 20, 2006
The Cause of "Bushbot"
If you've ever visited FreeRepublic, the term "Bushbot" is familiar.
Peggy Noonan may have the cause of the term:
George W. Bush, on the other hand, does not tolerate dissent, argument, bitter internal battles. He is the decider. He decides, and the White House carries through. He is loyal to his aides, who carry out his wishes. (It is unclear whether this is a loyalty born of emotional connection or one born of calculation: Do it my way and the tong protects you.) His loyalty means they will most likely not be fired or leaked against, no matter what heat they take from the outside. And so his aides move forward with the sharpness and edge of those who know their livelihoods and status are secure. Bruce Bartlett has written of how, as a conservative economist, he was treated with courtesy by the Clinton White House, which occasionally sought out his views. But once he'd offered mild criticisms of the Bush White House he was shut out, and rudely, by Bush staffers. Why would they be like that? Because they believe that as a conservative, Mr. Bartlett owes his loyalty to the president. He thought his loyalty was to principles.
There are many stories like this, from many others. It leaves friends on the outside having to self-censor or accept designation as The Enemy. It leaves a distinguished former government official and prominent Republican saying, in conversation, "Those people aren't drinking the Kool-Aid, they're sucking it from a spigot!"
So Peggy's off the Christmas card list.
Peggy Noonan may have the cause of the term:
George W. Bush, on the other hand, does not tolerate dissent, argument, bitter internal battles. He is the decider. He decides, and the White House carries through. He is loyal to his aides, who carry out his wishes. (It is unclear whether this is a loyalty born of emotional connection or one born of calculation: Do it my way and the tong protects you.) His loyalty means they will most likely not be fired or leaked against, no matter what heat they take from the outside. And so his aides move forward with the sharpness and edge of those who know their livelihoods and status are secure. Bruce Bartlett has written of how, as a conservative economist, he was treated with courtesy by the Clinton White House, which occasionally sought out his views. But once he'd offered mild criticisms of the Bush White House he was shut out, and rudely, by Bush staffers. Why would they be like that? Because they believe that as a conservative, Mr. Bartlett owes his loyalty to the president. He thought his loyalty was to principles.
There are many stories like this, from many others. It leaves friends on the outside having to self-censor or accept designation as The Enemy. It leaves a distinguished former government official and prominent Republican saying, in conversation, "Those people aren't drinking the Kool-Aid, they're sucking it from a spigot!"
So Peggy's off the Christmas card list.
Sexual Abuse in Schools
It's not exclusively a "Catholic" problem--not by a long shot:
Hofstra University’s Charol Shakeshaft, the leading expert on public school sexual misconduct, testified to the Colorado General Assembly earlier this year that nearly 7 percent of students nationally report “being sexually abused in a physical manner by an educator in public schools.” That means, according to Shakeshaft, that “of the approximately 45 million students attending public and private K-12 schools, more than 3 million will have been the target of physical sexual exploitation by an employee of the school by 11th grade.”
HT: Open Book
But, as noted in the blogpost, public schools cannot be civil-suited--or if they can, the liability limits are very small.
Wonder if BagManJimbo will propose legislation changing that here in Wisconsin.....naaahh.
Hofstra University’s Charol Shakeshaft, the leading expert on public school sexual misconduct, testified to the Colorado General Assembly earlier this year that nearly 7 percent of students nationally report “being sexually abused in a physical manner by an educator in public schools.” That means, according to Shakeshaft, that “of the approximately 45 million students attending public and private K-12 schools, more than 3 million will have been the target of physical sexual exploitation by an employee of the school by 11th grade.”
HT: Open Book
But, as noted in the blogpost, public schools cannot be civil-suited--or if they can, the liability limits are very small.
Wonder if BagManJimbo will propose legislation changing that here in Wisconsin.....naaahh.
Asian Badger on China
Our operative in Asia (or Wisconsin, depending on the day...) has a take on the PRChina situation:
The U.S., which is dependent on China for cheap goods has legitimate concerns with China which should take the forefront of the discussions with Mr. Bush. Namely, it's time for China to step up in taking ownership of major world issues, i.e. terrorism, nukes in Iran and North Korea and intellectual property rights. China today is, in many ways, like the little dog who chased the car and caught up to it at a stoplight….."Now that I've caught it, what do I do?" China believes that it has obtained legitimacy in the world by hosting the 2008 summer Olympics. It hasn't. It can only obtain legitimacy by ACTING as a world citizen and focusing on how to maintain it's own status quo in the new world.
True. Of course, some of us would argue that PRChina has, indeed, "acted" as a world citizen--and acted very badly. (See posts below.)
It's also clear that PRC has another problem: India. For years, PRC has been aware that India is, potentially, its most significant opponent for South Asian hegemony--it is now clear that India may well be its most significant opponent in the "outsourcing" arena.
As Asian Badger also remarks, India has and enforces IP laws...and the labor is cheap, too.
Besides, India does not traffic in body parts...
The U.S., which is dependent on China for cheap goods has legitimate concerns with China which should take the forefront of the discussions with Mr. Bush. Namely, it's time for China to step up in taking ownership of major world issues, i.e. terrorism, nukes in Iran and North Korea and intellectual property rights. China today is, in many ways, like the little dog who chased the car and caught up to it at a stoplight….."Now that I've caught it, what do I do?" China believes that it has obtained legitimacy in the world by hosting the 2008 summer Olympics. It hasn't. It can only obtain legitimacy by ACTING as a world citizen and focusing on how to maintain it's own status quo in the new world.
True. Of course, some of us would argue that PRChina has, indeed, "acted" as a world citizen--and acted very badly. (See posts below.)
It's also clear that PRC has another problem: India. For years, PRC has been aware that India is, potentially, its most significant opponent for South Asian hegemony--it is now clear that India may well be its most significant opponent in the "outsourcing" arena.
As Asian Badger also remarks, India has and enforces IP laws...and the labor is cheap, too.
Besides, India does not traffic in body parts...
The Unhinged Now Threatens
Howard Dean:
"The religious community has to decide whether they want to be tax exempt or involved in politics."
HT: JunkYardBlog
Besides the Revs. Jackson and Sharpton, we also note that the Rev. Coffin was never threatened, nor was the USCC when it was a gaggle of "Democrats at Prayer."
Evidently Dean has given up on silencing Limbaugh, Hannity (who's really not a threat anyway), Sykes, et al...and has decided that the conservative Christians (and the Catholic Bishops who have raised the issue of "pro-abortion Catholics" being hypocrites are the new target of the Democratic Party.
Good luck, Howie. How's the fund-raising going?
"The religious community has to decide whether they want to be tax exempt or involved in politics."
HT: JunkYardBlog
Besides the Revs. Jackson and Sharpton, we also note that the Rev. Coffin was never threatened, nor was the USCC when it was a gaggle of "Democrats at Prayer."
Evidently Dean has given up on silencing Limbaugh, Hannity (who's really not a threat anyway), Sykes, et al...and has decided that the conservative Christians (and the Catholic Bishops who have raised the issue of "pro-abortion Catholics" being hypocrites are the new target of the Democratic Party.
Good luck, Howie. How's the fund-raising going?
McIlheran on RedChina
Patrick McIlheran posts a condensed bill of indictment against the current "government" of PRC.
One only hopes that Our President gets a chance to read it.
Unmentioned is the fact that Newt Gingrich, now posing as a Conservative, joined with X42 in ramming through MFN trading status for this bunch of butchers and bullies-with-AK's.
Body parts, Tibet, Taiwan, ...
One only hopes that Our President gets a chance to read it.
Unmentioned is the fact that Newt Gingrich, now posing as a Conservative, joined with X42 in ramming through MFN trading status for this bunch of butchers and bullies-with-AK's.
Body parts, Tibet, Taiwan, ...
For $18MM and Change...
You can buy a containerload of ground-to-air missiles from Red China:
"The weapons proposed in this deal with the [agent] included 'QW-2 shoulder-fired missiles' with a 'ground energy unit,' 'firing unit,' and 'optical aiming device,' and the proposal forwarded by defendant to the [agent] called for the sale of 200 such missiles for a total price of $18,308,100," the statement said.
As usual, the PRC military (read: Friends/Relatives of PRC Dictators) is involved:
Wu told the undercover agent that the plan for getting the missiles out of China involved the help of a "corrupt customs broker" in China and falsified export papers, the statement said. The deal involved a "Gen. Wang" in China who was to supply the weapons. China's military has been linked to past illicit arms deals, including the attempted sale of AK-47 assault rifles to Los Angeles street gangs.
The Premier of RedChina will be chatting with GWB today--most likely about the $202 Bn. trade deficit. Thank God we prevented this $18MM addition to the number, eh?
"The weapons proposed in this deal with the [agent] included 'QW-2 shoulder-fired missiles' with a 'ground energy unit,' 'firing unit,' and 'optical aiming device,' and the proposal forwarded by defendant to the [agent] called for the sale of 200 such missiles for a total price of $18,308,100," the statement said.
As usual, the PRC military (read: Friends/Relatives of PRC Dictators) is involved:
Wu told the undercover agent that the plan for getting the missiles out of China involved the help of a "corrupt customs broker" in China and falsified export papers, the statement said. The deal involved a "Gen. Wang" in China who was to supply the weapons. China's military has been linked to past illicit arms deals, including the attempted sale of AK-47 assault rifles to Los Angeles street gangs.
The Premier of RedChina will be chatting with GWB today--most likely about the $202 Bn. trade deficit. Thank God we prevented this $18MM addition to the number, eh?
Chertoff Thinks We're Stupid
Mike Chertoff, the Big Man on Campus at Homeland Stupidity Security, advises that the 200 or so border incursions by Mexican military in the last 10 years are "overblown...." or "mistakes...."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff downplayed reports by the U.S. Border Patrol of more than 200 incursions by the Mexican military over the last 10 years, calling them "scare tactics."
While acknowledging the Border Patrol reports of crossings by uniformed troops, Chertoff told reporters in Washington yesterday he believes many of the incursions could have been innocent mistakes, according to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario, Calif.
The Mexican Government denies everything.
Mexican officials have said their military is forbidden from traveling within three miles of the border, though U.S. border residents repeatedly have spotted mobile patrols of Mexican military units traversing roads that run directly parallel to the international boundary. Mexico says the armed men crossing into the U.S. are paramilitary forces loyal to drug-smuggling cartels.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff downplayed reports by the U.S. Border Patrol of more than 200 incursions by the Mexican military over the last 10 years, calling them "scare tactics."
While acknowledging the Border Patrol reports of crossings by uniformed troops, Chertoff told reporters in Washington yesterday he believes many of the incursions could have been innocent mistakes, according to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario, Calif.
The Mexican Government denies everything.
Mexican officials have said their military is forbidden from traveling within three miles of the border, though U.S. border residents repeatedly have spotted mobile patrols of Mexican military units traversing roads that run directly parallel to the international boundary. Mexico says the armed men crossing into the U.S. are paramilitary forces loyal to drug-smuggling cartels.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
BagMan Jimbo's Personal Police Force
Sykes brings up an interesting little item:
At the same time that the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association (WLEA) is continuing to fight for a fair contract for its members, including State Patrol Troopers and Inspectors, UW and Capitol Police Officers, Driver’s License Examiners and Police Dispatchers, Governor Doyle rewards his dignitary protection troopers with promotions and hefty pay raises. In November 2004, Governor Doyle handpicked three State Troopers to serve as his drivers. The new supervisor of the unit, already a State Patrol Sergeant, got a pay raise and became the highest paid Sergeant in the State Patrol. The other two troopers received 14.5% pay raises upon becoming his drivers, not including earning an average of more than 640 hours of overtime each in 2005.
Am I the ONLY blogger in the State that thinks the State Patrol's highway-patrol function is, ah, redundant, expensive, and close to useless?
The highways can be patrolled by Sheriff's Departments, as is the case in Milwaukee County. In Waukesha County, the Sheriff patrols I-94, and so does the Town of Brookfield (another case of misallocated resources...)
Inspections, yup. Capitol Police--well, OK. Highway patrol? Nope.
At the same time that the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association (WLEA) is continuing to fight for a fair contract for its members, including State Patrol Troopers and Inspectors, UW and Capitol Police Officers, Driver’s License Examiners and Police Dispatchers, Governor Doyle rewards his dignitary protection troopers with promotions and hefty pay raises. In November 2004, Governor Doyle handpicked three State Troopers to serve as his drivers. The new supervisor of the unit, already a State Patrol Sergeant, got a pay raise and became the highest paid Sergeant in the State Patrol. The other two troopers received 14.5% pay raises upon becoming his drivers, not including earning an average of more than 640 hours of overtime each in 2005.
Am I the ONLY blogger in the State that thinks the State Patrol's highway-patrol function is, ah, redundant, expensive, and close to useless?
The highways can be patrolled by Sheriff's Departments, as is the case in Milwaukee County. In Waukesha County, the Sheriff patrols I-94, and so does the Town of Brookfield (another case of misallocated resources...)
Inspections, yup. Capitol Police--well, OK. Highway patrol? Nope.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
The Beginning of the End for Cdl Mahony's Coverup
Via Rod Dreher, we learn that SCOTUS will NOT change an order requiring the LA Archdiocese to turn over priest personnel-records to criminal investigators--thus, likely, those records will also be available for civil litigants.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, rebuffed Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court in his request to keep two accused priests' personnel files private, now must turn those documents over to a grand jury and face the growing possibility that he may soon be forced to relinquish more confidential church records involving alleged sexual abuse.
Attorneys for the Los Angeles archbishop had argued that all communication between a bishop and his priests — including that about allegations of sexual abuse and resulting investigations — was protected under the 1st Amendment. In declining to hear his case, the Supreme Court effectively let stand a California appellate court decision that rejected the constitutional claim.
Cdl Mahony has been most intransigent:
The California appellate court ruling that was left in force Monday said "religious believers and institutions" must follow "the rules of civil society, particularly when the state's compelling interest in protecting children is in question."
Mahony has fought more vigorously than any other United States prelate to block attempts by prosecutors and plaintiffs' attorneys to gain access to internal church documents, a stance that has drawn heavy criticism even from the U.S. bishops' own national review board.
Leaders of Roman Catholic dioceses elsewhere, including in Orange County, Arizona, New Hampshire and Long Island, N.Y., have voluntarily turned over similar files to civil authorities.
"This has been an unprecedented and titanic fight," said Jeffery Anderson, one of the lead attorneys for the alleged victims in the Los Angeles civil cases. "Only Mahony had the audacity to do something like this."
Sooner or later, they'll get around to Fr. Widera, an ex-Milwaukee priest/predator. It's possible that the Milwaukee Archdiocese will have to kick in a large pile of money as part of a settlement for his actions.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, rebuffed Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court in his request to keep two accused priests' personnel files private, now must turn those documents over to a grand jury and face the growing possibility that he may soon be forced to relinquish more confidential church records involving alleged sexual abuse.
Attorneys for the Los Angeles archbishop had argued that all communication between a bishop and his priests — including that about allegations of sexual abuse and resulting investigations — was protected under the 1st Amendment. In declining to hear his case, the Supreme Court effectively let stand a California appellate court decision that rejected the constitutional claim.
Cdl Mahony has been most intransigent:
The California appellate court ruling that was left in force Monday said "religious believers and institutions" must follow "the rules of civil society, particularly when the state's compelling interest in protecting children is in question."
Mahony has fought more vigorously than any other United States prelate to block attempts by prosecutors and plaintiffs' attorneys to gain access to internal church documents, a stance that has drawn heavy criticism even from the U.S. bishops' own national review board.
Leaders of Roman Catholic dioceses elsewhere, including in Orange County, Arizona, New Hampshire and Long Island, N.Y., have voluntarily turned over similar files to civil authorities.
"This has been an unprecedented and titanic fight," said Jeffery Anderson, one of the lead attorneys for the alleged victims in the Los Angeles civil cases. "Only Mahony had the audacity to do something like this."
Sooner or later, they'll get around to Fr. Widera, an ex-Milwaukee priest/predator. It's possible that the Milwaukee Archdiocese will have to kick in a large pile of money as part of a settlement for his actions.
"Free" Wireless?
...and the cow jumped over the moon. Somebody did NOT ask all the right questions here.
Looking to give poorer students the technological muscle to scale the "digital divide," the Milwaukee Public Schools district is turning to the promise of an emerging wireless service described as "Wi-Fi on steroids."
Using WiMax, MPS would provide free broadband Internet service to the homes of all MPS students and staff
...Davis estimated that the test system MPS is developing would cost about $500,000. The district is to contract with a vendor to provide the equipment and installation.
The Milwaukee Area Instructional Network, including MATC, MPS and UWM, has been allocated a $440,000 grant from the federal Department of Commerce to pursue the WiMax system.
The two colleges declined to participate, however, and only MPS agreed to kick in the $220,000 for the local match in that grant program.
With the reduced local match, Davis estimated that the federal contribution would be $200,000.
Even if one concedes that Internet access is a "must have" for educational achievement (which would be news to anyone older than, say, 35 years of age) and even if one concedes that "it's for the children, so let's do it, (regardless of that little $400+K "Free of Cost" contradiction)---
WHY IS THE "STAFF" GETTING FREE WIRELESS?
Looking to give poorer students the technological muscle to scale the "digital divide," the Milwaukee Public Schools district is turning to the promise of an emerging wireless service described as "Wi-Fi on steroids."
Using WiMax, MPS would provide free broadband Internet service to the homes of all MPS students and staff
...Davis estimated that the test system MPS is developing would cost about $500,000. The district is to contract with a vendor to provide the equipment and installation.
The Milwaukee Area Instructional Network, including MATC, MPS and UWM, has been allocated a $440,000 grant from the federal Department of Commerce to pursue the WiMax system.
The two colleges declined to participate, however, and only MPS agreed to kick in the $220,000 for the local match in that grant program.
With the reduced local match, Davis estimated that the federal contribution would be $200,000.
Even if one concedes that Internet access is a "must have" for educational achievement (which would be news to anyone older than, say, 35 years of age) and even if one concedes that "it's for the children, so let's do it, (regardless of that little $400+K "Free of Cost" contradiction)---
WHY IS THE "STAFF" GETTING FREE WIRELESS?
Israel's Wall Starves the Catholics
We've heard about this--but Novak writes about it.
It's another perspective on the State of Israel's thought-pattern:
On Good Friday, I stood atop the remnant of the Santa Barbara shrine, destroyed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and observed a panorama of the picturesque village of Aboud. I could see properties confiscated to make room for the Israeli security wall, at the cost of centuries-old olive trees. Nearby are two enclosed, heavily guarded Israeli settlements, with four times Aboud's Palestinian population.
Defenders of Israeli policy claimed my facts were wrong Feb. 16 when I wrote that the wall threatens Israel's tiny Christian minority and particularly Aboud's Christian roots going back two millennia. Coming here for a firsthand look, I found the plight of the village's Christians worse than I had reported.
Christians share the harsh fate of Palestinian Muslims in the wake of the disastrous Second Intifada. The blunt-spoken head of Roman Catholic Palestinians, Latin Patriarch Michael Sabbah, told me: "The world has abandoned the Palestinians."
If the world is uninterested in Palestinians generally, the plight of their co-religionists attracts the attention of Roman Catholics -- with Aboud a striking example. Of the village's 2,200 residents, 418 are Catholics and 375 Greek Orthodox. Thirty Catholic families have moved out, and more are expected to follow.
With transportation to Israel for Palestinians cut off, some 100 residents of Aboud who used to work in Tel Aviv have nothing to do here. Suhel Fawade, a 31-year-old Catholic, told me he has not had a job for seven years and consequently cannot marry to start his own family.
Foreign Ministry officials assert concern for their country's Christians. But Father Firas Aridah, the Catholic pastor here, worries that his flock is losing its young generation. "They are after our water," he told me, referring to Aboud supplying 20 percent of the West Bank's ground water. The bitterness is intense. Israel's 2001 destruction of 500 olive trees, in reaction to a settler's murder, left scars. So did the IDF bomb planted in Santa Barbara's shrine in 2002 because of suspicions that terrorists were meeting there.
...Sami El-Youssef, financial vice president of Bethlehem University, said he believes there is a conscious Israeli policy of getting rid of the Christian minority, whose discomfiture is more politically embarrassing for Israel than Muslim distress.
...Israeli government officials argue the wall may not be pretty but saves lives. Retired IDF officers at the Economic Cooperation Foundation, a Tel Aviv think tank, believe the wall creates a climate of hatred. "I think it may be producing another generation of terrorists," Brig. Gen. Ilan Paz told me. That is even worse than driving out the Holy Land's remaining Christians.
One has to credit Joe Farah, a leading Dispensationalist, for running this column in his WND editorial page. It is certainly NOT the kind of PR that the State of Israel wants--but Novak's piece happens to reflect the truth.
It's another perspective on the State of Israel's thought-pattern:
On Good Friday, I stood atop the remnant of the Santa Barbara shrine, destroyed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and observed a panorama of the picturesque village of Aboud. I could see properties confiscated to make room for the Israeli security wall, at the cost of centuries-old olive trees. Nearby are two enclosed, heavily guarded Israeli settlements, with four times Aboud's Palestinian population.
Defenders of Israeli policy claimed my facts were wrong Feb. 16 when I wrote that the wall threatens Israel's tiny Christian minority and particularly Aboud's Christian roots going back two millennia. Coming here for a firsthand look, I found the plight of the village's Christians worse than I had reported.
Christians share the harsh fate of Palestinian Muslims in the wake of the disastrous Second Intifada. The blunt-spoken head of Roman Catholic Palestinians, Latin Patriarch Michael Sabbah, told me: "The world has abandoned the Palestinians."
If the world is uninterested in Palestinians generally, the plight of their co-religionists attracts the attention of Roman Catholics -- with Aboud a striking example. Of the village's 2,200 residents, 418 are Catholics and 375 Greek Orthodox. Thirty Catholic families have moved out, and more are expected to follow.
With transportation to Israel for Palestinians cut off, some 100 residents of Aboud who used to work in Tel Aviv have nothing to do here. Suhel Fawade, a 31-year-old Catholic, told me he has not had a job for seven years and consequently cannot marry to start his own family.
Foreign Ministry officials assert concern for their country's Christians. But Father Firas Aridah, the Catholic pastor here, worries that his flock is losing its young generation. "They are after our water," he told me, referring to Aboud supplying 20 percent of the West Bank's ground water. The bitterness is intense. Israel's 2001 destruction of 500 olive trees, in reaction to a settler's murder, left scars. So did the IDF bomb planted in Santa Barbara's shrine in 2002 because of suspicions that terrorists were meeting there.
...Sami El-Youssef, financial vice president of Bethlehem University, said he believes there is a conscious Israeli policy of getting rid of the Christian minority, whose discomfiture is more politically embarrassing for Israel than Muslim distress.
...Israeli government officials argue the wall may not be pretty but saves lives. Retired IDF officers at the Economic Cooperation Foundation, a Tel Aviv think tank, believe the wall creates a climate of hatred. "I think it may be producing another generation of terrorists," Brig. Gen. Ilan Paz told me. That is even worse than driving out the Holy Land's remaining Christians.
One has to credit Joe Farah, a leading Dispensationalist, for running this column in his WND editorial page. It is certainly NOT the kind of PR that the State of Israel wants--but Novak's piece happens to reflect the truth.
Campus Librarian Charged by Wet-Pants Crowd
You've read about the Ohio State University librarian who recommends a controversial book to incoming freshmen--the book, entitled The Marketing of Evil, tells a counter-"cultural" tale on Al Kinsey, perhaps the single most influential polymorphous pervert in the history of the world.
So the poor librarian gets taught a lesson by some creature who has an interesting job:
Assistant Professor Norman Jones (who teaches a course in "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender literature") said: "The anti-gay book Scott Savage endorses falsely claims that 'the widely revered father of the "sexual revolution" has been irrefutably exposed as a full-fledged sexual psychopath who encouraged pedophilia.' This is a factually untrue characterization of Dr. Kinsey and his work on every point ... I am frankly embarrassed for you, Scott, that you would endorse this kind of homophobic tripe."
Another professor who obviously is educated far beyond his intelligence lends the following closely-reasoned attack:
Associate Professor J.F. Buckley (author of such gems as "The Social Critic: The Rise of Queer Performance Within the Demise of Transcendentalism"), who wrote:
Rather than waste your time with the paucity of intellectual rigor that Kupelian [the author of the book in question] brings to the table, I encourage you to visit his website, and see for yourself his unmitigated homophobia and xenophobia. In short, he is a pontificating, phobic, cultural atavism bemoaning the loss of an (Anglo) America that only existed on such shows as "The Lone Ranger." ...
As a gay man I have long ago realized that the world is full of homophobic, hate-mongers who, of course, say that they are not. So I am not shocked, only deeply saddened – and THREATENED – that such mindless folks are on this great campus.
If all this sounds vaguely familiar, see my post below on Dan O'Connell...
So the poor librarian gets taught a lesson by some creature who has an interesting job:
Assistant Professor Norman Jones (who teaches a course in "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender literature") said: "The anti-gay book Scott Savage endorses falsely claims that 'the widely revered father of the "sexual revolution" has been irrefutably exposed as a full-fledged sexual psychopath who encouraged pedophilia.' This is a factually untrue characterization of Dr. Kinsey and his work on every point ... I am frankly embarrassed for you, Scott, that you would endorse this kind of homophobic tripe."
Another professor who obviously is educated far beyond his intelligence lends the following closely-reasoned attack:
Associate Professor J.F. Buckley (author of such gems as "The Social Critic: The Rise of Queer Performance Within the Demise of Transcendentalism"), who wrote:
Rather than waste your time with the paucity of intellectual rigor that Kupelian [the author of the book in question] brings to the table, I encourage you to visit his website, and see for yourself his unmitigated homophobia and xenophobia. In short, he is a pontificating, phobic, cultural atavism bemoaning the loss of an (Anglo) America that only existed on such shows as "The Lone Ranger." ...
As a gay man I have long ago realized that the world is full of homophobic, hate-mongers who, of course, say that they are not. So I am not shocked, only deeply saddened – and THREATENED – that such mindless folks are on this great campus.
If all this sounds vaguely familiar, see my post below on Dan O'Connell...
Turnabout is Fair Play
The Brits have all sorts of strange hobbies. One of them is to walk up to an unsuspecting chap and slap him, while recording the incident on a cellphone video camera. But sometimes, things don't work out as planned:
A HAPPY slapper’s mobile phone recording of an attack took an unexpected twist when his victim retaliated, flooring his assailant with a single punch.
In footage that is rapidly gaining cult status, an athletic young man in a white vest is seen plotting the attack on a stranger, filmed on his friend’s mobile phone.
The British man, on what appears to be a foreign street beside the entrance to a shopping arcade, addresses the camera and, as if he were preparing to sing on the ITV1 show Stars in Their Eyes, says: “Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be. . .a happy slapper.”
The cameraman, also British, can be heard encouraging his friend, saying: “OK, the next person who comes out.”
In front of the camera the would-be aggressor is getting excited. “Which hand?” he says. “I’ll give him both. A double, he’s getting a f***ing right slap.”
Sufficiently prepared for the assault, he tells his audience: “All right, let’s have it.”
A passer-by emerges from the shopping arcade: a smaller man, wearing a leather jacket, a bag slung over his shoulder.
The happy slapper runs towards him, drawing back one arm to swing and catch the man full in the face.
The victim recoils in pain and drops the bag.
He sees his attacker turn and walk back to his friend, who is laughing and still recording the scene.
Incredulous, he screams with rage. He asks his attacker what he was doing. Judging by his accent, he appears to be from Liverpool.
The victim then approaches the youth and throws a fierce right-hand jab, punching him on the chin and knocking him unconscious.
A HAPPY slapper’s mobile phone recording of an attack took an unexpected twist when his victim retaliated, flooring his assailant with a single punch.
In footage that is rapidly gaining cult status, an athletic young man in a white vest is seen plotting the attack on a stranger, filmed on his friend’s mobile phone.
The British man, on what appears to be a foreign street beside the entrance to a shopping arcade, addresses the camera and, as if he were preparing to sing on the ITV1 show Stars in Their Eyes, says: “Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be. . .a happy slapper.”
The cameraman, also British, can be heard encouraging his friend, saying: “OK, the next person who comes out.”
In front of the camera the would-be aggressor is getting excited. “Which hand?” he says. “I’ll give him both. A double, he’s getting a f***ing right slap.”
Sufficiently prepared for the assault, he tells his audience: “All right, let’s have it.”
A passer-by emerges from the shopping arcade: a smaller man, wearing a leather jacket, a bag slung over his shoulder.
The happy slapper runs towards him, drawing back one arm to swing and catch the man full in the face.
The victim recoils in pain and drops the bag.
He sees his attacker turn and walk back to his friend, who is laughing and still recording the scene.
Incredulous, he screams with rage. He asks his attacker what he was doing. Judging by his accent, he appears to be from Liverpool.
The victim then approaches the youth and throws a fierce right-hand jab, punching him on the chin and knocking him unconscious.
Dan O'Connell and The Silencing
A few years ago, a funeral director and his apprentice were shot to death in Northern Wisconsin. As it turned out, the shooter was a homosexual priest. The funeral director and martyr, Dan O'Connell, had confronted the priest about the priest's abuse of a young boy.
The case has gotten some publicity--murders are unusual--and was eventually solved by a couple of detectives. When it became clear that the detectives knew that the priest was the shooter, the priest hung himself.
That's not exactly the end of the story. A group of laymen in the Twin Cities area formed the Dan O'Connell Society, with the idea that they would support good priests and support good laymen through a defense of true fatherhood.
They began with a manifesto; it includes a few interesting paragraphs and what they state should have been the headline on the story of the murder:
Heroic Catholic man confronts and is killed by homosexual predator.
Their next observation is critical:
Ryan Erickson [the perp/priest] was trained in
seminaries that fostered a web of lies about patriarchy and
cultivated personalities that denigrated the fatherhood of
God and the brotherhood of the priesthood. This rebellion
against patriarchy, like the first original sin, has spawned its
murderer. Christ created an apostolic brotherhood of love.
He ordered the apostles to love one another as the Father
loved Him. This new affective bond shapes the public bond
of Christian brotherhood and animates a wide-radius
fraternal charity in Christian civic life. To eroticize this
bond in affection or action is a blasphemous and polluting
crime against the Father. Such a perversion of manly love
has the same devastating effect on the public communion of
the priesthood as incest does on the corporate identity of a
family. The disordered affection does not have to be acted
upon to destroy the emotional life of a brotherhood in service
to the Father. Outside attacks strengthen brothers linked in
arms.
Most of us instinctively have understood that The Disorder is closely linked to a general animus against Tradition, and certainly militates against genuine fatherhood. But the O'Connell group goes a step further, pinning the tail in the real donkey:
The lavender network in the church is closely linked to
ideological feminism, which Pope Benedict has called
“another religion.” Both the feminists and the homosexuals
decry the Fatherhood of God, the all-male priesthood, the
male-female character of marriage and a Marian femininity
centered on obedience, virginity, and motherhood. Catholic
teaching and Catholic living form an organic whole. When
the fundamental categories of sexual roles are called
oppressive, the patriarchal system loses its coherence. That
is exactly the goal of the feminists and homosexuals who
have had such an inordinate influence in the paid staff
positions of our church, our seminaries, and the
educational system.
They also observe that many of these feminists are now staffers in both parishes and Chanceries:
In a very bad trade,
the chancery’s clique has fired the old Martha (the
housekeeper who would work) and given eternal tenure to
the new Mary (the ecclesial minister who will not listen).
And, yes, it has had its impact on liturgy:
The war against patriarchy
erases our Judaic roots and erodes the confidence we pray
for every day in the Eucharist-to be able to call God “Our
Father”. This denigration of the fatherhood of God as one
metaphor among many radically depersonalizes God.
Prayer life becomes an exercise of human invention rather
than an ongoing incorporation with the Son in his filial
personal relationship with the Father.
(This is also a motif found in the writings of Cdl. Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI.)
They neatly and briefly summarize the effects of self-discipline (both priestly and lay):
There is a palpable Christian
sensibility of vigor and vigilance that attends the discipline
of sexual desire. Purity codes are not strictures that build
up crazed sexual energy, like a raging river rising against a
bulwark, creating pressure that downstream causes the
flood wall to burst in a torrent of anti-social perversion.
Purity, the Beatitudes teach us, lets us see the face of God.
As Shakespeare wrote, it is when “Pure thoughts are dead
and still / That Lust and murder wake to stain and kill.”
It is not fatherhood or the all-male brotherhood that is
the cause of sexual abuse and murder in the church. We
need more fatherhood, not less; purity, not perversion;
brotherhood, not incest; fatherly protection, not adolescent
preening.
And they proceed to corroborate the indictment of the USCC's "Commission" and the silliness of various administrative "solutions" to the problem. The excellent Bishop Bruskewitz could have written this passage himself:
Our own Judicial Tribunals are silent. Rather
than calling the priesthood into order, our Vicars General
smother the laity with mind numbing regulations and
abuse policies. Presently we are granting abusers lifetime
employment in the very judicial and record-keeping
positions needed for clergy reform and diocesan justice.
...
The present arrangement has reformed nothing. About
halfway between the day that Ryan Erickson murdered the
men of Hudson and the month he hung himself in Hurley,
the diocese of Superior got an excellent rating in fulfilling
the bureaucratic abuse reporting guidelines of the national
bishop’s conference. The charade continues.
We fingerprint the Catholic laity while hiding other hands
with spots of blood that will never wash.
...
Instead of
naming and removing known predators, we set up a
national “name that body part” program for Catholic grade
school children. Instead of using our own church judicial
structures to aggressively search out offenders, we park
criminals in those positions and wait for the civil legal
system to compensate a tiny fraction of the exploited.
Instead of a priestly brotherhood fostering protective
fathers, the priesthood has become a neutered
bureaucracy. Any priest who stands against the cabal can
be falsely accused and removed. Apparently if a layman
gets too close, he will be shot. No wonder the fascination
with paperwork; paternity has proven dangerous.
And, yes, they have a proposal to solve the problem:
To cleanse the Catholic priesthood, we must start in the
chanceries with the priests assigned to administer justice
and organize priestly life. Chancery offices are not
“administrative positions” of a bureaucracy. They are
offices of fatherly authority meant to maintain the priestly
brotherhood that fosters fatherhood.
We sympathize with men who find
themselves with homosexual tendencies but our sympathy
does not include calling them our spiritual fathers. We
stand in fighting opposition to men who celebrate these
tendencies as healthy or natural. We have to admit the
ugly truth about many officials in our diocese, and we have
to name names. The storyline of “the victimized
homosexual” needs a reality check with the comfortable
powerbrokers of urban politics, mainstream media, nonprofit
foundations and church bureaucracies. The
incestuous network of homosexuals polluting the Catholic
priesthood have convinced themselves and their secular
allies that “fighting sexual repression” in the Catholic
Church makes these spoiled white boys into Rosa Parks.
She sat on the bus. They kiss in the rectory. It’s all about
human rights. Well, Ryan Erickson is no Rosa Parks.
The manifesto goes on to mention by name the priests who enabled Ryan Erickson.
HT: a fellow Churchman in Milwaukee.
The case has gotten some publicity--murders are unusual--and was eventually solved by a couple of detectives. When it became clear that the detectives knew that the priest was the shooter, the priest hung himself.
That's not exactly the end of the story. A group of laymen in the Twin Cities area formed the Dan O'Connell Society, with the idea that they would support good priests and support good laymen through a defense of true fatherhood.
They began with a manifesto; it includes a few interesting paragraphs and what they state should have been the headline on the story of the murder:
Heroic Catholic man confronts and is killed by homosexual predator.
Their next observation is critical:
Ryan Erickson [the perp/priest] was trained in
seminaries that fostered a web of lies about patriarchy and
cultivated personalities that denigrated the fatherhood of
God and the brotherhood of the priesthood. This rebellion
against patriarchy, like the first original sin, has spawned its
murderer. Christ created an apostolic brotherhood of love.
He ordered the apostles to love one another as the Father
loved Him. This new affective bond shapes the public bond
of Christian brotherhood and animates a wide-radius
fraternal charity in Christian civic life. To eroticize this
bond in affection or action is a blasphemous and polluting
crime against the Father. Such a perversion of manly love
has the same devastating effect on the public communion of
the priesthood as incest does on the corporate identity of a
family. The disordered affection does not have to be acted
upon to destroy the emotional life of a brotherhood in service
to the Father. Outside attacks strengthen brothers linked in
arms.
Most of us instinctively have understood that The Disorder is closely linked to a general animus against Tradition, and certainly militates against genuine fatherhood. But the O'Connell group goes a step further, pinning the tail in the real donkey:
The lavender network in the church is closely linked to
ideological feminism, which Pope Benedict has called
“another religion.” Both the feminists and the homosexuals
decry the Fatherhood of God, the all-male priesthood, the
male-female character of marriage and a Marian femininity
centered on obedience, virginity, and motherhood. Catholic
teaching and Catholic living form an organic whole. When
the fundamental categories of sexual roles are called
oppressive, the patriarchal system loses its coherence. That
is exactly the goal of the feminists and homosexuals who
have had such an inordinate influence in the paid staff
positions of our church, our seminaries, and the
educational system.
They also observe that many of these feminists are now staffers in both parishes and Chanceries:
In a very bad trade,
the chancery’s clique has fired the old Martha (the
housekeeper who would work) and given eternal tenure to
the new Mary (the ecclesial minister who will not listen).
And, yes, it has had its impact on liturgy:
The war against patriarchy
erases our Judaic roots and erodes the confidence we pray
for every day in the Eucharist-to be able to call God “Our
Father”. This denigration of the fatherhood of God as one
metaphor among many radically depersonalizes God.
Prayer life becomes an exercise of human invention rather
than an ongoing incorporation with the Son in his filial
personal relationship with the Father.
(This is also a motif found in the writings of Cdl. Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI.)
They neatly and briefly summarize the effects of self-discipline (both priestly and lay):
There is a palpable Christian
sensibility of vigor and vigilance that attends the discipline
of sexual desire. Purity codes are not strictures that build
up crazed sexual energy, like a raging river rising against a
bulwark, creating pressure that downstream causes the
flood wall to burst in a torrent of anti-social perversion.
Purity, the Beatitudes teach us, lets us see the face of God.
As Shakespeare wrote, it is when “Pure thoughts are dead
and still / That Lust and murder wake to stain and kill.”
It is not fatherhood or the all-male brotherhood that is
the cause of sexual abuse and murder in the church. We
need more fatherhood, not less; purity, not perversion;
brotherhood, not incest; fatherly protection, not adolescent
preening.
And they proceed to corroborate the indictment of the USCC's "Commission" and the silliness of various administrative "solutions" to the problem. The excellent Bishop Bruskewitz could have written this passage himself:
Our own Judicial Tribunals are silent. Rather
than calling the priesthood into order, our Vicars General
smother the laity with mind numbing regulations and
abuse policies. Presently we are granting abusers lifetime
employment in the very judicial and record-keeping
positions needed for clergy reform and diocesan justice.
...
The present arrangement has reformed nothing. About
halfway between the day that Ryan Erickson murdered the
men of Hudson and the month he hung himself in Hurley,
the diocese of Superior got an excellent rating in fulfilling
the bureaucratic abuse reporting guidelines of the national
bishop’s conference. The charade continues.
We fingerprint the Catholic laity while hiding other hands
with spots of blood that will never wash.
...
Instead of
naming and removing known predators, we set up a
national “name that body part” program for Catholic grade
school children. Instead of using our own church judicial
structures to aggressively search out offenders, we park
criminals in those positions and wait for the civil legal
system to compensate a tiny fraction of the exploited.
Instead of a priestly brotherhood fostering protective
fathers, the priesthood has become a neutered
bureaucracy. Any priest who stands against the cabal can
be falsely accused and removed. Apparently if a layman
gets too close, he will be shot. No wonder the fascination
with paperwork; paternity has proven dangerous.
And, yes, they have a proposal to solve the problem:
To cleanse the Catholic priesthood, we must start in the
chanceries with the priests assigned to administer justice
and organize priestly life. Chancery offices are not
“administrative positions” of a bureaucracy. They are
offices of fatherly authority meant to maintain the priestly
brotherhood that fosters fatherhood.
We sympathize with men who find
themselves with homosexual tendencies but our sympathy
does not include calling them our spiritual fathers. We
stand in fighting opposition to men who celebrate these
tendencies as healthy or natural. We have to admit the
ugly truth about many officials in our diocese, and we have
to name names. The storyline of “the victimized
homosexual” needs a reality check with the comfortable
powerbrokers of urban politics, mainstream media, nonprofit
foundations and church bureaucracies. The
incestuous network of homosexuals polluting the Catholic
priesthood have convinced themselves and their secular
allies that “fighting sexual repression” in the Catholic
Church makes these spoiled white boys into Rosa Parks.
She sat on the bus. They kiss in the rectory. It’s all about
human rights. Well, Ryan Erickson is no Rosa Parks.
The manifesto goes on to mention by name the priests who enabled Ryan Erickson.
HT: a fellow Churchman in Milwaukee.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Perky Katy
The new anchor of See BS News is displeased:
According to this article, the feministas are riding to the defense of perky Katie Couric who apparently doesn’t like being called, “perky.” All of us who would call her “perky” are now condemned as chauvinist pigs. The inheritor of the Throne of Cronkite may be planning to change her billing to “Katherine Couric” to create a sense of gravitas. CBS should remember that the highest comedy is the result of one who doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously pretending to seriousness, such as the immortal Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. Perky is and perky does, Katie. Stick with it.
American Spectator blog
According to this article, the feministas are riding to the defense of perky Katie Couric who apparently doesn’t like being called, “perky.” All of us who would call her “perky” are now condemned as chauvinist pigs. The inheritor of the Throne of Cronkite may be planning to change her billing to “Katherine Couric” to create a sense of gravitas. CBS should remember that the highest comedy is the result of one who doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously pretending to seriousness, such as the immortal Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. Perky is and perky does, Katie. Stick with it.
American Spectator blog
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Saturday, April 15, 2006
McCann and Some American Bishops
The parallels are striking, right down to the legacies.
First, a couple of differences: American Bishops are not elected, and they are not really in the business of law enforcement, although it is a part of their duties.
That's about all for the differences...other than irrelevant stuff.
McCann, like many Bishops, had a lifetime job; he was never challenged seriously by anyone. He was an old-school liberal, like most of the Bishops, believing that a pointed session in his office would be sufficient treatment for most lawbreakers.
McCann also had a "favored group" or two, and among them were his close collaborators, the police. Similarly, Bishops had their priests.
Some Bishops simply would not understand that a few of their priests were bad guys--REALLY bad guys. They lectured them and sent them off for "treatment," but then put them back into parishes as long as they promised to be good boys. The promises were not kept.
Mike McCann simply did not understand that a few of the cops were bad guys--REALLY bad guys. He put up coroner's inquests (the pointed session in his office), but allowed them to remain on the street (unpunishable by virtue of union contracts) as long as they promised to be good boys.
It's said that some abused Catholics committed suicide as a result of the abuse. It's clear that there are a few Milwaukee residents who are dead as a result of questionable decisions made by police officers.
In the end, it became a "culture of enablement" in both places--until outside agents forced the Church to pay attention.
Maybe the culture will be changed when McCann leaves office--and maybe not. One certainly hopes that the City of Milwaukee will not have to endure what Milwaukee's Church had to endure as the Old Boys' Club broke down.
First, a couple of differences: American Bishops are not elected, and they are not really in the business of law enforcement, although it is a part of their duties.
That's about all for the differences...other than irrelevant stuff.
McCann, like many Bishops, had a lifetime job; he was never challenged seriously by anyone. He was an old-school liberal, like most of the Bishops, believing that a pointed session in his office would be sufficient treatment for most lawbreakers.
McCann also had a "favored group" or two, and among them were his close collaborators, the police. Similarly, Bishops had their priests.
Some Bishops simply would not understand that a few of their priests were bad guys--REALLY bad guys. They lectured them and sent them off for "treatment," but then put them back into parishes as long as they promised to be good boys. The promises were not kept.
Mike McCann simply did not understand that a few of the cops were bad guys--REALLY bad guys. He put up coroner's inquests (the pointed session in his office), but allowed them to remain on the street (unpunishable by virtue of union contracts) as long as they promised to be good boys.
It's said that some abused Catholics committed suicide as a result of the abuse. It's clear that there are a few Milwaukee residents who are dead as a result of questionable decisions made by police officers.
In the end, it became a "culture of enablement" in both places--until outside agents forced the Church to pay attention.
Maybe the culture will be changed when McCann leaves office--and maybe not. One certainly hopes that the City of Milwaukee will not have to endure what Milwaukee's Church had to endure as the Old Boys' Club broke down.
The Verdict
Beyond the JS' race-pandering sub-head lies the fact that there was "reasonable doubt."
The jury could not conclude from the evidence that these specific officers did what the DA said they did.
But SOMEBODY did it, and he/she/it/they was/were at that party, which was attended largely by members of the Milwaukee Police Department.
There's a stench in the air.
The jury could not conclude from the evidence that these specific officers did what the DA said they did.
But SOMEBODY did it, and he/she/it/they was/were at that party, which was attended largely by members of the Milwaukee Police Department.
There's a stench in the air.
Nichols of JS On Target
Couldn't resist.
The West Bend cop-shop, ever vigilant and brave, hauls a 17-year-old to the slammer for having an unloaded, encased .22 rifle in the back of his pickup truck while the said truck was parked in the lot at West Bend West HS.
Seventeen-year-old Joshua Rasmussen, a student at West Bend West High School who was arrested Thursday and taken to the Washington County Jail, had a turkey call in his pocket.
There was apparently some real fear he might gobble-gobble somebody to death.
He also, it is true, had a cased and unloaded .22-caliber hunting rifle out in the parking lot in his dad's truck. Like most kids that age, he is occasionally a bit of a "scatterbrain," to use one of his dad's words, and had left it there after going "plinking," shooting cans and whatnot, with some friends.
...He was booked, in reality, for a potential misdemeanor charge of possession of a dangerous weapon on school grounds, even though no one even remotely believes he was going to use it.
Even [WB police sergeant] Unertl says there is nothing to suggest he intended to hurt anyone.
Personally, I'm acquainted with high-school children. Using the term "scatterbrained" is polite--some of the one I know have forgotten everything but their pants when going to school in the morning.
The original story hints that the Cop Shop may have simply been the messengers:
The search involved the use of 12 specially trained dogs searching for drugs and ammunition in student lockers and parking lots. No drugs were found, said Dorreen Dembski, a district spokeswoman.
The district's policy states that the carrying or displaying of a weapon on school grounds can result in a suspension. Dembski would not comment further on the student or pending disciplinary actions.
So--was the action taken by some overzealous beat cop who obviously needs several weeks' work as a parking checker? or by some pathetic moron in the school administration?
Nichlols' take:
Unertl says he understands the argument that the police or school officials over-reacted - my exact argument, actually. You just know, he suggested, there would be people "up in arms" if they hadn't hauled the kid off.
He's right, of course.
But so what?
And just who, exactly, WOULD have been "up in arms" about it? C'mon, Mike--you're a reporter AND columnist. The world wants to know whose pink panties would have been all brown on the inside if this 'scatterbrain' simply stayed at school and went to class.
The West Bend cop-shop, ever vigilant and brave, hauls a 17-year-old to the slammer for having an unloaded, encased .22 rifle in the back of his pickup truck while the said truck was parked in the lot at West Bend West HS.
Seventeen-year-old Joshua Rasmussen, a student at West Bend West High School who was arrested Thursday and taken to the Washington County Jail, had a turkey call in his pocket.
There was apparently some real fear he might gobble-gobble somebody to death.
He also, it is true, had a cased and unloaded .22-caliber hunting rifle out in the parking lot in his dad's truck. Like most kids that age, he is occasionally a bit of a "scatterbrain," to use one of his dad's words, and had left it there after going "plinking," shooting cans and whatnot, with some friends.
...He was booked, in reality, for a potential misdemeanor charge of possession of a dangerous weapon on school grounds, even though no one even remotely believes he was going to use it.
Even [WB police sergeant] Unertl says there is nothing to suggest he intended to hurt anyone.
Personally, I'm acquainted with high-school children. Using the term "scatterbrained" is polite--some of the one I know have forgotten everything but their pants when going to school in the morning.
The original story hints that the Cop Shop may have simply been the messengers:
The search involved the use of 12 specially trained dogs searching for drugs and ammunition in student lockers and parking lots. No drugs were found, said Dorreen Dembski, a district spokeswoman.
The district's policy states that the carrying or displaying of a weapon on school grounds can result in a suspension. Dembski would not comment further on the student or pending disciplinary actions.
So--was the action taken by some overzealous beat cop who obviously needs several weeks' work as a parking checker? or by some pathetic moron in the school administration?
Nichlols' take:
Unertl says he understands the argument that the police or school officials over-reacted - my exact argument, actually. You just know, he suggested, there would be people "up in arms" if they hadn't hauled the kid off.
He's right, of course.
But so what?
And just who, exactly, WOULD have been "up in arms" about it? C'mon, Mike--you're a reporter AND columnist. The world wants to know whose pink panties would have been all brown on the inside if this 'scatterbrain' simply stayed at school and went to class.
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