Notre Dame: Despicable

It amazes me. Notre Dame, stung by criticism of its decision to defy the wishes of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and honor abortion proponent Barack Obama, has been trying to hide behind the skirt of Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon. Luckily, Prof. Glendon is having none of it.

I learned that “talking points” issued by Notre Dame in response to widespread criticism of its decision included two statements implying that my acceptance speech would somehow balance the event:

• “President Obama won’t be doing all the talking. Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, will be speaking as the recipient of the Laetare Medal.”

• “We think having the president come to Notre Dame, see our graduates, meet our leaders, and hear a talk from Mary Ann Glendon is a good thing for the president and for the causes we care about.”

A commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame’s decision—in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops—to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.

Prof. Glendon is classier than I am. Had I been used in such a cynical CYA manner I would have simply told them to "stick your medal where the sun don't shine."

Screw Earth Day

I won't be happy until "Wind" and "Fire" have their own days as well.

Really, I'm just happy the stupid thing is over for another year.

Goodbye To A Great Friend

We only had you for a short time Lillie, but you made everything better. I will miss you more than I can say.

Christ, There Aren't Six Rational People In Colorado?

Really, these are the stupidest people I've ever heard of: Churchill wins CU suit but awarded just $1

Ward Churchill won his case against the University of Colorado today as a Denver jury unanimously decided he was fired in retaliation for his controversial essay about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The jury gave Churchill $1 for past losses, finding he was fired over protected free speech....

The four women and two men listened to the case for four weeks and heard 45 witnesses testify in the courtroom. Two male alternates were sent home after closing arguments Tuesday.

A day after the Sept. 11 attacks, Churchill wrote his essay "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens" to criticize America's economic and foreign policies. In the essay, he compared some of the victims in the World Trade Center attack to "little Eichmanns" after Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who engineered the destruction of the Jews in World War II.

CU launched an investigation to determine whether that essay was protected speech. Eventually, allegations surfaced that Churchill had committed plagiarism or academic misconduct in other writings, and another series of investigations was launched. A review of his work led to a vote by CU regents in 2007 that the tenured professor be fired.

CU counsel Patrick O'Rourke argued that the university fired Churchill solely because three committees investigated the professor over a two-year period and found he had engaged in fabrication, falsification and plagiarism in some of his writings on American Indians. O'Rourke told the jury that Churchill's termination had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 essay.

"The University of Colorado must diligently prevent misconduct," O'Rourke said during his closing argument. "That applies to every student and every faculty member to everybody who does anything in the university's name.

"You cannot plagiarize, you cannot falsify, you cannot fabricate."

Evidently you can in Colorado, and be tenured as a direct result of your academic fraud.

I will never hire a graduate from a Colorado state college or university, and neither should anyone else. There is no way anyone can have confidence in the quality of the education. In fact, as long as they have Ward "Look at me I'm pretending to be an injun!" Churchill around, I'm not sure they can be anything other than a laughingstock.

It's amazing that Colorado was able to find a jury made up entirely of people dumber than Ward Churchill.

I would have said that was impossible. I stand corrected.