(no subject)

On the Academic Bill of Rights (horrible name) via bookslut:

Consider the statements of Dennis Baxley, a Florida legislator who has sponsored a bill that - like similar bills introduced in almost a dozen states - would give students who think that their conservative views aren't respected the right to sue their professors. Mr. Baxley says that he is taking on "leftists" struggling against "mainstream society," professors who act as "dictators" and turn the classroom into a "totalitarian niche." His prime example of academic totalitarianism? When professors say that evolution is a fact.

...

Scientific American may think that evolution is supported by mountains of evidence, but President Bush declares that "the jury is still out." Senator James Inhofe dismisses the vast body of research supporting the scientific consensus on climate change as a "gigantic hoax." And conservative pundits like George Will write approvingly about Michael Crichton's anti-environmentalist fantasies.

Think of the message this sends: today's Republican Party - increasingly dominated by people who believe truth should be determined by revelation, not research - doesn't respect science, or scholarship in general. It shouldn't be surprising that scholars have returned the favor by losing respect for the Republican Party.

Conservatives should be worried by the alienation of the universities; they should at least wonder if some of the fault lies not in the professors, but in themselves. Instead, they're seeking a Lysenkoist solution that would have politics determine courses' content.

Hey cretkid! If this kind of thing gets around, you could get sued for teaching that the Earth is more than 6,000 years old! Wouldn't that be fun?

Read The Whole Thing.

New word on me:

Lysenkoism

(thanks to the previous entry)

*shudder*

(no subject)

whee! spring, I can say cautiously, is here!

but I need to find a better way to get to work in the morning. (Assuming the TTC isn't on strike, that is.) This morning crankygrrl and I were waiting for the (new, freakish, special) Neville Park bus at 8:30ish. It arrived, oh, 10 minutes later. I got off at Kingston Road and waited for the Queen streetcar. And waited. And waited. There was a King streetcar and a Queen streetcar that was short-turning at Greenwood/Connaught, no good to me at all.

Finally, Queen streetcar, around 9:15ish. Sat towards the back and struggled not to leap up and kill the guy who was loudly telling his girlfriend? colleague? something?, as well as all the rest of the streetcar, about how rich some of his aunts were (they make half a million pounds a year because they work for the British military in some kind of medical capacity -- hey, I just report what I hear) but it's not part of their culture/background/whatever to be ostentatious with wealth. Successfully prevented myself from turning around and yelling "Obviously that gene passed you by, buddy." Girlfriend? colleague? something? told him as the streetcar filled up that he should maybe be quieter -- I'm pretty sure the few looks I gave them weren't hostile, but maybe she read the back of my head, or maybe someone else was glaring too.

Then someone who should really invest in better headphones sat next to me from about Leslie.

Then we stopped and didn't go again because the streetcar two in front of us had broken down. (It was labelled "King via Broadview", so what was it doing headed west on Queen at Church, I'd like to know.)

So I had a nice walk in the sunshine and got to see the cutest! fluffiest! littlest! Bernese Mountain Dog puppy EVER in Nathan Philips Square, so the commute wasn't a dead loss. But I got to work at 10, which means it WAS an hour and a half, which seems excessive even if I do now live in the middle of a construction zone.

Work somewhat productive although not in the direction I had hoped. And now I shall go home.