The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    The Kochs take aim at academic freedom

    By Flavius on Thu, 04/07/2011 - 10:04am |

    No sense wasting your time with my summary, read Juan Cole.

    http://www.juancole.com/

    BTW Cole's definition is not freedom to agree with him. He vigorously protested the resolution by the British academic union proposing a ban of UK entry for Israeli professors. As he said these were people he had debated in venues all over the world and it would have been particularly  craven for him to be silent. 

    Comments

    The way I see this issue isn't so much intimidation by the Right wing legislators and think tanks to detract from academic free speech, rather it's to stiffle any possible antagonist whose writings could be used by an angry public to vent at those most responsible for the financial breakdown soon to come. You can only buy so much protection from Congress with campaign contributions to keep angry mobs at bay. Eventually, I suspect they'll move for local police forces to follow the model of the Italian Carabinieri...the common name for the Arma dei Carabinieri, a gendarmerie -like military corps with police duties. Note in October 1, 2008, the US Army announced that the 3rd infantry division's 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of NORTHERN command (NORTHCOM), as an on-call federal response force for natural or man-made emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks. In short...it's almost a done deal.


    by Beetlejuice on Thu, 04/07/2011 - 11:07am