Libertarian Librarian

Spirited debate all 'round. Excellent. Threads going on Schiavo (still), media bias (I made a convert!) and what temporary costello's permanent name will wind up being! Rock on, and to TC's protestations that all I leave you blokes to work with is logic and analysis, I say, "Phaw! There's always humor, irony and the well-timed snark."

I find the balance of viewpoints being expressed to be quite invigorating. Greg and John out there on the right side of things while Troy, TC and Jack (where are you dude?) are weighing in from the left. I'm hanging out more in the middle enjoying the show. Only one complaint-- no women! We need more women (any women, actually). That's it! I'm starting an affirmative action plan for my blog. Greg, get Sarah to post. Troy, TC, Jack, Jim, John (my goodness--Jack, Jim, John? Never noticed that before), you guys must know some women, right? Get 'em on board. Let's get the female perspective on these issues. Heck fire, maybe I'll try to get my sister and cousin involved.

In the meantime, I leave you for the weekend with the following "Oh THAT Ivory Tower" observation. It's been just over a month since UW-Whitewater paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $15,000 to bring Ward Churchill to their campus for a little chat, and apparently UW-Madison doesn't want to get shown up in the 9-11 nutbag race. This past Monday, they brought David Ray Griffin to campus for a talk entitled "9/11 and the American Empire: How Should Religious People Respond?" Your tax dollars at work for those of you living in Wisconsin.

In case you are unfamiliar with Mr. Griffin's work, and most non-nutbags are (yes, that's perjorative, ad hominem and not very nice but sometimes you just gotta), he believes that the Bush administration at least knew about the 9-11 attacks ahead of time and may well have been complicit in them. He also believes that it wasn't a plane that hit the Pentagon, it was a rocket, possibly as part of a failed military coup (break out the bananas boys, its Junta time!). To get a feel for his views and those of people who agree with him, you can check out these sites. To get a feel for why I think Griffin and those who agree with him are flaming paraonid nutbags, other than plain common sense, you can go here.

But regardless of whether you think Mr. Griffin is a loon, or "America’s number one bearer of unpleasant, yet necessary, public truths," the fact remains that his is an anti-administration, radical perspective. Fine, universities can handle radical perspectives, even celebrate them-- but aren't they supposed to be open to... how shall I put this... OTHER viewpoints? I went here and tried to find the counterbalance to Mr. Griffin. Suprise! No luck.

So, here's the question/though for the weekend:

Wouldn't it be better for our country and the world if our universities actually lived up to the creed put forth by the UW Board of Regents more than 100 years ago that "Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere we believe the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found."?