Author: Andrew Sullivan

Thanks for your many emails. Here’s one I empathize with:

I had to take a class at the College of NJ called … hmmm… ah … SET (Science, Ethics, and Technology). A truly liberal-ating experience it was. During the Semester, a speaker was to give a lecture on the modern state. After the usual accolades, he began his lecture with his first point, “The final and greatest evolution of government is communism.” He later moved on to say that Gulf War I was pushed by the military to test newly developed weapons. Well I paid too much money and spent too much time in the military at Ft. Bragg to take his rhetoric any longer. I asked him openly “If communism is sooo great why did its bastion implode?” On the Gulf War point, I told him it was baseless and I didn’t think he knew what he was talking about. Anyway the rest of the semester I was attacked almost at every turn by brainwashed classmates. It didn’t matter. I got an A-. To the conservative students: do your homework; read ahead so they can’t trap you in an argument that they prepared throughout the 60’s and 70’s for.”

That’s good advice. But then you never know when it’s going to come flying at you:

This past fall term at the University of Oregon, I was taking a Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu class. The teacher decided that on Columbus Day, he would give the class a huge lecture on how evil it was for our government to celebrate a man who not only is to blame for the extinction of countless Native American cultures, but is indirectly a cause of Hitler’s Holocaust. This went on for an entire class, and at one point he even made a comparision of Bush to Hitler using what Bush was doing in the Middle East as his justification for that. This led to a diatribe on the evils of capitalism and the Oil Industry. Before that class session, I always thought that Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu was just about grapple-style fighting, little did I realize that if I were to be a true Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu artist I would have to battle the evils of genocide and capitalism as well.

And then there’s simple social bias, which in previous times, we’d have called snobbery:

The professor was explaining to her grad students — presumably all of like mind and background of course — that blue collar workers like police officers were a rather sad lot since they possessed little respect for formal education and consequently destined their children to a similar “fate” by failing to instill an adequate appreciation of higher learning and the personal and social benefits to be accrued from it. When I assured her that this was not the case seeing as my own father was a street cop who wanted his son to have more career opportunities, she was absolutely flabbergasted (and somewhat contrite, I like to think.) I couldn’t resist turning the screws a little by informing her that he had also earned a Masters degree while on the force. Since I was at one of the more prestigious universities, I eventually grew accustomed to the occasional disparaging remark directed at those who have to dirty their hands for a living, but whenever someone raised the topic I always remembered that time when my father took me to Dunkin’ Donuts after his shift (there’s some truth in stereotypes, of course). A member of some pacifist sect approached my father and said sanctimoniously, “I used to be a police officer once, and then I put down my gun.” My father replied calmly, “And the only reason you could do that is because I won’t.”

Reminds me of president Bush in Iraq. I’ve been overwhelmed with responses, so please only send some more if they’re really memorable. I find them all revealing in different ways.

Just as we can now get real pictures from liberation in Iraq, so we can get real pics of the first gay Americans to have their love and commitment solemnized by their own government. Thousands of them. In an act of civil disobedience. Yes, I know this is breaking the law. But Rosa Parks broke the law as well. Civil disobedience has always played a role in civil rights movements. If the religious right want to stop this, they should move to arrest the mayor of San Francisco or impeach him; or they should move to arrest the newly married couples. Then we’d really have a media spectacle. I think the real reason for the outrage is that these couples have finally shown what this is about: couples trying to solidify their love for one another. It is preposterous to believe that this can harm anyone. Once these marriages exist for real in Massachusetts, the public in that state will realize how cruel, wrong and baseless it is to attack couples for doing something constructive, real and social. And then the nation will.

“I’m an undergrad at Princeton and feel like I need to challenge this whole professorial bias business. I know it’s fun for you to receive letters about intimidated conservatives and cherry-pick the most shocking stories for publication, but (in my experience) these kind of stories either don’t happen or, at best, are very rare. I took a class called Discrimination and the Law that was taught by a very, very liberal professor, and was lucky enough to have her for my small-group discussion. Despite her personal politics, she would often pull the discussion to the *right* in our left-leaning precept if it was becoming too one-sided. In that class, just as in those taught by Robbie George (who is, by the way, one of Princeton’s most popular professors), students who make good arguments are rewarded regardless of political philosophy. If the writers whose anecdotes you printed had better thought out their positions beforehand, maybe they could have shot back and impressed their TA or professor.
Of course, this is just my experience, but it’s definitely not uncommon.”

Apart from that, the story holds up.

Kaus goes boldly where no Edwards supporter has gone before.

While the Republicans expand government at a phenomenal rate, the British Tories are daring to ratchet it back a little. It’s still peanuts compared to what we need to do to bring government back to a reasonable size – the proposals would reduce government’s take on national wealth from 42 to 40 percent. (I can’t see why it should ever be more than a third). But at least the Tories haven’t completely lost their smaller government vision.

The Iraqi police forces could have responded to a recent attack by seeking help from the nearby American military. They didn’t. They asked for more ammunition.

Here’s a 2002 letter from a Duke professor delineating why most faculty hires lean left:

“In seeking faculty, universities look for people who can analyze and discuss matters of some complexity, who are unafraid to challenge the wisdom of simple solutions, and who have a sense of social responsibility toward those who cannot buy influence. Such people tend to be put off by a political party dominated by those who believe dogmatically in the infallibility of the marketplace as a solution to all economic problems, or else in the infallibility of scripture as a guide to morality. In short, universities want people of some depth, subtlety and intelligence. People like that usually vote for the Democrats. So what?”

Quod erat demonstrandum.

Columbia students use blogs to pursue an Internet rumor.

SHE WAS BERATED IN CLASS: The young student who wrote the anti-race preference letter below talking about her two brothers – one white, one Guatemalan – had to endure one of her professors publicly berating her in class for her insubordination. Details here. Re-education camp next?

It’s high time the front-runner was sat down and peppered with serious questions about what his policy now is. The Washington Post yesterday ran an excellent editorial dissecting Kerry’s record of dizzying, shall we say, nuance:

In 1991 he voted against the first Persian Gulf War, saying more support was needed from Americans for a war that he believed would prove costly. In 1998, when President Clinton was considering military steps against Iraq, he strenuously argued for action, with or without allies. Four years later he voted for a resolution authorizing invasion but criticized Mr. Bush for not recruiting allies. Last fall he voted against funding for Iraqi reconstruction, but argued that the United States must support the establishment of a democratic government.
Mr. Kerry’s attempts to weave a thread connecting and justifying all these positions are unconvincing…

To say the least. I’d say his vote against the $87 billion is a huge liability in the coming campaign. Kerry needs a serious proposal on Iraq that isn’t designed purely to attack the Bush record. So far, I haven’t seen one.

THE ZARKAWI LETTER: Whoever wrote it, it fits completely with the atrocities now being inflicted on Iraqis trying to rebuild their country.