She claims that her students violated her civil rights. She says student’s “anti-intellectualism” made her life a living hell. So, this ex-Dartmouth professor is threatening to sue her students for the temerity to have doubted her hairbrained theories on “ecofeminism” and the “French narrative theory.”

Oh, professor Priya Venkatesan was all in high dudgeon that students would dare question her efforts to “problematize” science all right. She was all discombobulated that her students were “irrational,” and “subversive” with their questions. She even thought them filled with “fascist demagoguery” — after all, isn’t it “fascist” to ask questions and not t just swallow whole what a professor dishes out? Why, it was so horrible for her that she felt she had to consult a physician for her symptoms of “intellectual distress.”

Joseph Rago of the Wall Street Journal has some more of the details.

Priya Venkatesan taught English at Dartmouth College. She maintains that some of her students were so unreceptive of “French narrative theory” that it amounted to a hostile working environment. She is also readying lawsuits against her superiors, who she says papered over the harassment, as well as a confessional exposé, which she promises will “name names.”

Ms. Venkatesan lectured in freshman composition, intended to introduce undergraduates to the rigors of expository argument. “My students were very bully-ish, very aggressive, and very disrespectful,” she told Tyler Brace of the Dartmouth Review. “They’d argue with your ideas.” This caused “subversiveness,” a principle English professors usually favor.

If it’s “subversiveness” to challenge a theory, then what exactly is college for? But, Venkatesan was having none of that silly exchange of ideas stuff.

After a winter of discontent, the snapping point came while Ms. Venkatesan was lecturing on “ecofeminism,” which holds, in part, that scientific advancements benefit the patriarchy but leave women out. One student took issue, and reasonably so – actually, empirically so. But “these weren’t thoughtful statements,” Ms. Venkatesan protests. “They were irrational.” The class thought otherwise. Following what she calls the student’s “diatribe,” several of his classmates applauded.

Ms. Venkatesan informed her pupils that their behavior was “fascist demagoguery.” Then, after consulting a physician about “intellectual distress,” she canceled classes for a week. Thus the pending litigation.

But, I have to say that we really cannot blame Ms. Venkatesan. After all, this is where our institutions of higher “learning” are headed. Venkatesan can certainly be excused for imagining that such off the wall theories as feminist “thought” et al are to be accepted as gospel, never to be questioned. This is the atmosphere we have engendered in our so-called universities. Out with the old (white men) and in with the new (gender based) truths is the ticket for the learned these days.

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Tags: Publius Forum, Warner Todd Huston, Education

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Of course, no one could expect less of organized labor but to attack Republicans, even John McCain. But the amount of money proposed to be spent to destroy McCain really makes one wonder if every last union member would approve of such vast expenditures of their dues money?

To answer that question, the AFL-CIO, for its part, intends to “talk to their members,” at least according to the Associated Press. In fact, if one weren’t paying too close attention, one would think that the union is asking permission about who to endorse — and if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you…

The AFL-CIO, which has not endorsed anyone in the Democratic primary, announced Wednesday that it is sending more than 6,000 of its people to more than 22 states during the next two weekends to talk to more than 200,000 union voters about McCain.

As if their not endorsing anyone at this time is meaningful? Hardly. Besides, what does it matter if it is so obvious that they are attacking McCain? By process of elimination, if the unions don’t support McCain, who might they support? Answer: ANY Democrat! So, their specific endorsement is pretty meaningless.

The SEIU is also “focusing on McCain.”

Meanwhile, the nation’s largest union, the Service Employees International Union, is increasing its focus on the likely Republican presidential nominee. The union’s political action committee is already running commercials critical of McCain’s health care plan.

So, the unions are gearing up to attack McCain. The sort of massive union spending we always see against Republicans could be made a bit less overwhelming, though, if we could get laws passed all across the nation so that members can opt out for their dues to be spent on political efforts of which they do not agree. But, these sorts of laws, while making headway in places like Ohio and Washington state, have made headway, a landslide Democratic victory in November will put a major crimp in the success of future efforts and further step on the rights of individual union members.

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Tags: Publius Forum, Warner Todd Huston, Union Corruption

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New Orleanians born and bred in the welfare-state seem honestly believe that they are not required to do anything to help themselves.

A large number of people, most of whom apparently are residents of New Orleans, have favored me with four-letter-word denunciations of The god That Failed New Orleans.

A common allegation was that I had written that New Orleans deserved its fate. No one, however, cited specifics, for good reason: I wrote nothing to that effect.

For example:

And do they want the levees to break? I guess it depends if you are (as a New Orleans blogger commented to a brain-dead Repug at the link) “a fuckmook” who believes New Orleans deserved it (and there are, sadly, many more like this)…__My thought is that they … don’t care. We’re the last major city port at the mouth of the largest river system in the United States, and they don’t give a rat’s ass. We have some of the best food, culture, history and characters to be found, and are unique unto ourselves in this world, but they pretty much summed it up with Dennis Hastert’s comment: “It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed.”

In other words, New Orleanians don’t need to exert themselves rebuilding the city. They’re entitled to have the taxpayers of the nation do it for them, because New Orleans has all sorts of things that cater to sensual appetites.
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Tags: Publius Forum, Thomas Brewton

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Here is a sad example of the subtle anti-war bias that the MSM constantly hides in stories even when they are heartwarming tales of the great things our soldiers do for the people of Iraq. In this case, it is the Sacramento Bee putting in some almost subliminal anti-war sentiments in the mouth of Staff Sgt. Luis Falcon who worked his heart out to get some prosthetic legs for an 11-year-old Iraqi girl who lost her legs to a road side bomb. This is a wonderful story that is marred by the SacBee’s attempt to interject into the story doubt about the war effort in Iraq.

As it happened, Staff Sgt. Falcon made friends with little Shahad Abbas who had been the victim of a road side bomb that was detonated as she was walking to school. Her little brother was killed in the blast. Falcon had been visiting the girl and was bringing her gifts of toys and medical supplies when at last she asked him for new legs so that she might again walk to school.

To his credit, Sgt. Falcon worked his heart out to get the poor girl those prosthetic legs and he succeeded in his goals. It is a heartwarming tale and highlights just one of the thousands and thousands of similar stories being lived out by our soldiers on a daily basis throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.

But, even with all this tear provoking details, the SacBee couldn’t resist some subtle jabs at the war by characterizing Sgt. Falcon as being confused about the war and seeming to doubt why we are there. In two short declarations the Bee made of Sgt. Falcon a doubter.

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Tags: Publius Forum, Warner Todd Huston, Media Bias, Sacramento Bee

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They make anti-American films that bomb at the box office and lose money. Then they make more films that make fun of the conservative base of the country, they lose more money. They make films that attack, belittle and infantalize our men and women at arms — all as we are in a war, adding insult to injury — and they lose still more money. So what do they do? They make yet more films like these previous lemons. Any guesses what will happen next? That’s right, box office poison.

There is a whole raft of new projects that are sure to become box office stinkers that make Americans rather want to stay home instead of stream to the movies. There’s Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) extravaganzas, anti-capitalist potboilers and global warming scaremongering galore all coming to a theater near you!

Of course, we all know of the Oliver Stone movie about George W. Bush that is beginning principle filming now. We’ve heard how everyone that has any knowledge of president Bush is saying that this schlock entirely misses Bush the man and presents a silly, unbelievable caricature instead of a serious movie (when even the entertainment press is reporting that the Stone debacle is over-the-top, you know we have trouble). But, then again, it is Oliver Stone who has proven over and over again that truth is not what he is interested in. On the contrary, his own special brand of far left propaganda is his real goal.

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Tags: Publius Forum, Warner Todd Huston, Entertainment, Hollywood

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The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) suffered a stinging rebuke when nearly 47% of the nurses at three St. Rose Dominican hospitals in Nevada voted to join a rival union this week. It wasn’t enough to decertify the SEIU — 50% was necessary — but with nearly half of the members voting against the union, this shows quite a widespread dissatisfaction with the SEIU.

Asked to explain why this vote against the SEIU was so large, SEIU Nevada Executive Director Jane McAlevey said, “Smart people do stupid (expletive).”

While this might explain why people who are claimed to be so “smart” would join a union at all, it doesn’t necessarily serve as a satisfactory explanation of why the SEIU has lost so many members’ confidence. McAlevey went on to posit that the SEIU isn’t really being rebuked and that this large anti vote was really only a result of the “dirty campaign tactics” of the California Nurses Association (CNA) SEIU’s rival union.

For her part, CNA chief Rose Ann DeMoro said, “This historic vote is a window to a rebellion brewing among SEIU nurses across the nation.”

Troubles for the SEIU have been plenty over the last several years with SEIU chief Andy Stern facing a stiff challenge to his leadership from within his own union as well as assaults from other competing unions. Charges have been made that Stern rules the union with an iron fist from the top down and has gerrymandered local union boards to rubber stamp his own presidency.

It could all come to a messy head in Puerto Rico at the SEIU convention the first week of June where members will be able to cast their vote on Stern’s presidency.
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Tags: Publius Forum, Warner Todd Huston, Union Corruption

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