David Horowitz is still an asshole . . .
even if the rest of the country is unaware of it.
Horowitz, you may recall, is the former 60s student Stalinist reborn in the 21st century as a crusader for the so-called Academic Bill of Rights. Citing anecdotal evidence of left-wing bias on America's campuses, Horowitz recently convinced the state legislature of Pennsylvania to hold hearings to learn all about the crisis.
Oddly, no evidence of the crisis emerged during the hearings. In fact, Horowitz was force to backtrack on one of his more hysterical complaints, that a professor at Penn State forced his students to watch Fahrenheit 9/11 in the runup to election day 2004.
Still more odd, however, is the lack of coverage Horowitz' retraction has gotten.
Recently, though, in Oregon, we have another sterling example of pro-business bias in the Academy attempting to censor scientific research. Since the researcher's conclusions, if validated by further study, would lead to the adoption of policies antithetical to logging industry concerns, it's apparently perfectly legitimate for pro-industry academics to attempt to muzzle the findings.
Oh where is our savior David Horowitz when we need him?
Horowitz, you may recall, is the former 60s student Stalinist reborn in the 21st century as a crusader for the so-called Academic Bill of Rights. Citing anecdotal evidence of left-wing bias on America's campuses, Horowitz recently convinced the state legislature of Pennsylvania to hold hearings to learn all about the crisis.
Oddly, no evidence of the crisis emerged during the hearings. In fact, Horowitz was force to backtrack on one of his more hysterical complaints, that a professor at Penn State forced his students to watch Fahrenheit 9/11 in the runup to election day 2004.
Still more odd, however, is the lack of coverage Horowitz' retraction has gotten.
Recently, though, in Oregon, we have another sterling example of pro-business bias in the Academy attempting to censor scientific research. Since the researcher's conclusions, if validated by further study, would lead to the adoption of policies antithetical to logging industry concerns, it's apparently perfectly legitimate for pro-industry academics to attempt to muzzle the findings.
A group of professors at Oregon State's College of Forestry unsuccessfully tried to get the prestigious journal Science to hold off on publishing a study that concluded that leaving forests alone is the best way to help them recover from wildfires.
Editor Donald Kennedy, the former president of Stanford, said those who dispute the findings can respond to the study once it is published instead of using what he called censorship. The study was scheduled for Friday's edition of the journal.
An Oregon State graduate student, Daniel Donato, 29, led researchers in examining lands burned by the 2002 Biscuit wildfire in southwest Oregon, where the Bush administration and others at OSU had promoted logging as a means of restoring forests quickly.
Donato's team concluded logging slows forest recovery. They found that logging after the Biscuit fire destroyed seedlings and littered the ground with highly flammable tinder.
Oh where is our savior David Horowitz when we need him?
Since 1949, Durhamites have slept soundly, secure in the knowledge that, in our town, erection can be depended upon. Now, thanks to the power of the internets, we can spread that security all over the world.
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