Waking up a giant cockroach is nothing compared to life at college when one is secretly investigated for fighting anti-Semitism.
The decision of the American Studies Association to boycott Israeli universities in December 2013 had upset me. I wrote emails, circulated articles, and was pleased that my university president quickly declared his opposition to the measure. I joined a national steering committee that set out to fight the boycott and participated in the drafting of a few statements. As an American historian who delivered in 1987 his first paper at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association and served on the executive committee of Fordham’s American Studies program, I wanted Fordham’s program to sever official ties with the national organization until it rescinded the measure. Other programs have taken this courageous symbolic step, and I thought it proper for the Jesuit university of New York to take the moral stand against what most scholars of anti-Semitism consider anti-Semitic bigotry.
It was this stand that led Fordham’s Title IX officer to launch the proceedings. During an emotional meeting convened to discuss the appropriate response to the measure, I stated that should Fordham’s program fail to distance itself from the boycott, I will resign from the program and fight against it until it took a firm stand against bigotry. The program’s director, Michelle McGee, in turn filed a complaint against me with the Title IX office, charging that I threatened to destroy the program. (As if I could? And what does this have to do with Title IX?) This spurious complaint (the meeting’s minutes demonstrated that I did not make such a threat) ushered me into a bruising summer that taught me much about my colleagues, the university, and the price I must be willing to pay for taking on the rising tide of anti-Zionism on American campuses.
The following Monday, Coleman appeared in my office to conduct her investigation. Alas, she refused to explain what I was accused of specifically or how what I supposedly did amounted to a Title IX violation. Remaining vague, she hinted that others, including perhaps Fordham College’s dean, who chaired the fateful meeting, supported the complaint. Who are the others, I asked? Is there anything beyond that supposed one sentence? She would not disclose. I told Coleman that I took the complaint very seriously, but at the advice of my attorney I needed to think things through. Coleman told me she’d be in touch with my attorney, and we parted ways.
Over the next few weeks, Fordham’s general counsel, Tom DeJulio, and my attorney engaged in a few friendly conversations, in which we were led to believe that Fordham agreed I was perfectly within my First Amendment rights to oppose the boycott. We informed DeJulio that I’d be happy to meet with Coleman, even though we were still not informed what the specific charge was. I resigned from Fordham’s American Studies program because it refused to distance itself from anti-Semitic bigotry. Five other Jewish members of the program did the same. Not a single non-Jewish member resigned in solidarity.
Coleman never asked to meet me, and I assumed that the attempt to muzzle my opposition to the boycott died down. In late July, however, I received Coleman’s report in which she cleared me of the charge of religious discrimination. It was the first time that I learned what I was actually accused of doing, so I’m still not sure how opposing anti-Semitism amounts to religious discrimination. But Coleman was not satisfied to leave things at that. She went on to write that I refused to cooperate in the investigation (even though my attorney informed DeJulio weeks earlier of my willingness to meet her), and concluded that my decision to use an attorney was an indication of guilt. Coleman determined that in declaring I would quit the American Studies program should it not distance itself from anti-Semitism, I violated the university’s code of civility.
It was a sobering summer. I have had to defend my reputation against baseless, ever-evolving charges, ranging from sex discrimination to religious discrimination. I went through a Kafkaesque process in which I was never told exactly what I supposedly did wrong, nor was I ever shown anything in writing. Eventually I learned that the charge was religious discrimination born of my opposition to anti-Semitism. The implication is that anti-Semitism needs to be tolerated at Fordham, and that those who dare to fight it run afoul of university rules.
Related.
I find it telling that this man’s problem boils down to saying something that one woman thought was “mean,” and then not saying anything to another woman, who thought that was “mean” too.
“This business will get out of control! It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it!“
Fred Thompson. I see what you did there!
Fred Dalton Thompson to you, Bucko!
– Welcome to the fantastical Fascist world of the Progressives.
….In other news…
– Now that Ms Rice has jumped the shark (again) the little king is suddenly MIA.
– Obama and his clown car administration are in total free fall. We effectively have no leadership at this point. The Ebola problem “will get out of hand, and we’ll all be lucky to live through it”, and the worse it gets the worse it will be for the Dems on election day. A super majority in the Senate is not out of reach.
– It may turn out in the long run that Obama and the Progressive rein is the best thing that could have happened for Conservatives and Classic Liberals. Of course, as usual, whenever the Left gains power a hell of a lot of people get hurt, “for the greater good don’t ‘cha know”. Farking Bastiches.
Kalfka may well have been a piker, but Immanuel Kant was a real pissant.
BBH, I’d like to think that a super-majority could be reached, but I wouldn’t take a bet; we’re too far gone with the LIVs and the general lawlessness.
Now, is this their October Surprise? A little Bush/Republican Administration Hate right before the election from the NY Slimes? http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html?_r=0
– Red, when they are so desperate they have to dredge up BS memes from 12 years ago you know they know they’re in deep doodoo.
Meanwhile:
Why am I starting to suspect that the real reason air travel to/from Africa was never stopped was that they wanted to wait until they had an excuse to stop all air travel?
Shit is starting to get real. I think we’ve reached the point where disaster scenarios are no longer hypothetical.
Rush just said maybe we are on the cusp of a major american reawakening. Sure hope so, because I’m tired of being one of the few staying awake at night.
Greetings:
I grew up in the Bronx of the ’50s and ’60s. My parents were religiously and financially committed to having only other Roman Catholics educate their favorite and only son. When the time came to go to college, my mother’s first choice was Fordham’s Rose Hill campus probably because it was located in the Bronx and her sister’s son had gone there. My father’s take was somewhat different. He was more interested finding an institution that would contribute to the shaping of my character and my intellect but, I believe to this day, that he didn’t see that as a selling point that would resonate with me. So, when the time came for the important, private talk, my father’s pitch was “You’ll like the Jesuits. They’re like God’s Green Berets.”
A couple of ancillary thoughts. Back those days, Rose Hill (which was neither rosey nor hilly) was thought of (however euphemistically) as “The Harvard of the Bronx” an allegiance they now seem to be keeping. The Green Beret aspect has apparently been retired. Another triumph of progressively progressing Progressivism.
Perhaps we should re-term Progressives (and most Democrats, and more than a few Republicans) “Conformists”.
Better, Concrete-Shoe Conformists, because if anyone steps outside their rigidly-defended ever-solidifying political boundaries, they will do whatever it takes to destroy you.
Conformitarians. A conformist is simply someone who prefers to conform; in principle a conformist can also be a libertarian, supporting other people’s right to be different.
A conformitarian is someone who may very well reserve unto himself the right to live in a palace and travel on private jets, but everybody else had damn well better live in a stack of shoeboxes and ride mass transit!
Everything we see in our world is shaped by complex interactions of the five fundamental forces of the universe: Gravity, Electro-Magnetism, Weak Nuclear, Strong Nuclear, and #@$&ing Bullshit.
One of the most common subatomic particles, it turns out, is the yougottabeputtingmeon.
Speaking of Kafka, anyone noticing the weapons-grade sophistry coming from Our Betters?
Last night Beck interviewed some hip doctor from Purdue who (a) said that Ebola was scary bad dangerous, then when Glenn asked why we don’t shut down flights from the Ebola countries, the doctor gave such a piss-poor answer that I can’t even…
And then I got an apologist on Twitter (probably a paid shill) who objected to my “They had ONE JOB observation,” and responded, “You’re saying “the last budget cuts didn’t fix the cdc, so let’s cut some more, and blame them for every problem”?
Yes. That’s exactly where I was going with that.
These people are not the Keystone Kops, they’re WORSE: the Kops at least knew what a robber was. These people think that their nonchalant hipster posturing will save them.
Or worse, I suspect that some think a plague sweeping the land would make a fascinating scientific study. Or a good way to cull the herd. Or to seize power.
Beck’s studios are in Dallas, and 4 of his employees live in the same apartment complex as the second Ebola patient. The one who flew to Ohio and back.
Because the CDC is so obviously NOT doing its job — and has no intention of doing anything meaningful — everyone will stop going places and doing things, stop flying, stop shopping, stop going to school, stop riding public transportation, stop everything.
And THAT will 86 the economy fast enough, before our stupid fiscal policy does.
Yay us.
Conformitarians.
Nothing wrong with “The Borg Collective.”
– Except with Progressives the cant is “common sense is futile….”
– and di, they’re not doing anything because that’s how you avoid responsibility.
– Bumblefuck just went on his fav ankle licking network, ABC, and assured everyone that he can absolutely stop any chance of an Ebola epidemic here in America, and that there’s not a thing to worry about. He said what he’s really concerned about is Africa. (His base support among Blacks has slipped from 97% to 81% so…..).
– Meanwhile Mooch is dancing with turnips.
….. and Hair plugs checks in with his weekly shark jumping exhibition by calling himself “White boy” in S. Carolina.
– Of course what the DumbDems never want to draw attention too is the majority of party leadership is Lilly white so you have the Blacks being coddled and preached too by the hated “white privileged” in their own beloved caucus. But they’re either totally blind to whats going on or afraid to see the truth.
I save that for iPhone-and-Mac users.
That is so not the Indian name I had in mind for her.
Sounds like a clarification needs to be made and often:
AIRBORNE— Virus free-floats in the air. You inhale it and get infected.
AEROSOLIZED — Virus is contained in fluid droplets that are expelled during a sneeze or cough. If a droplet gets into a mucous membrane or you inhale/swallow it, you get infected.
Ebola is aerosolized but not airborne. The danger of it mutating to airborne form is fairly remote.
The dangerous mutation would be the virus showing up in the bodily fluids prior to the onset of symptoms.
Also, Glenn Beck just did a demo wherein he followed the robing procedures of the Dallas nurses, had his crew fling spaghetti and chocolate syrup at him (to simulate projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea) and then disrobed according to the written procedure.
The FIRST step is to remove the gloves. He touched all the fluids on the outside of the garment and stuff got into his eyes. His neck, back of head, and throat were totally exposed. There was no provision for booties or for washing shoes (that traipsed all over creation).
Absolutely appalling.
Stool samples sent through the pneumatic tube system, thereby exposing everyone in the lab who touches samples sent after that. The nurses who treated them were not put under guard by the CDC.
We are so damned screwed.
the 4 horsemen of the barackyalypse are here to serve
>
CBS News reporting that nurse Amber Vinson called #CDC BEFORE boarding the plane and was told she was OK to get on the plane with 99.5 temp
6:43 PM – 15 Oct 2014
Vinson called CDC several times before flying, informed staff she had fever. It allowed her to fly, reports @DrLapook on @CBSEveningNews<
link
The country is in the very best of hands.
Top. Men. and Pros from Dover every last one of ’em.
Whadday mean we’re screwed? The Top Man atop the Pros from Dover assures us that we have nothing to worry about. That Ebola is unlikely to get here, and in the unlikely event it got here, was very hard to catch, that, unlike Africa, our modern health care system was more than capabable of dealing with an unlikely Ebola patient –no special isolation wards needed, just a room with a private bathroom and a meticulously rigorous, yet easily followed, protective garbing and disgarbing proceedure.
You teatards just want to start a panic because you can’t stand to see a black man succeed as President!
If the first step WASN’t spraying him down with a diluted bleach solution, then I can see why the Top Men have the Pros from Dover reviewing their procedures.
>you can’t stand to see a black man succeed as President!<
he should resign and do something he "succeeds at" like: golf and chooming
> spraying him down with a diluted bleach solution<
greedy big bleach to the fed trough;)
Wait! Good news! Amanda Marcotte is on the case and assures us we have nothing to fear. It’s all a conservative plot. (Via a Comment at Stacy McCain’s)
He may not have known about the germ theory of disease, but ol’ Thucydides did know a thing or two about a plague like this back in c. 415 BC:
Not for nothing was this shit Ebola classified a Biosafety Level 4 agent four decades ago. Why so many assholes in charge then? Democracy, glorious democracy. Shine on, shiney.
>Why so many assholes in charge then? <
that's mean to the proggtarded
Ebola (And Polio?): President Pestilence
NOTE: These posts are not an attempt to be comprehensive in coverage of the Ebola story, nor of the Polio story. They just contain some items that have caught my eye [which is still not hemorrhaging blood, I’m happy to report — that only happens when…
sdferr, we have nothing to learn from dead white guys, especially those that have been dead for, like, 100 years or something.
> we have nothing to learn from dead white guys<
misinformation transfer is big with the proggtarded
You could probably make the case that the reason our response to Ebola, like our response to so many of the social ills that ail us, is because our elites learned from the wrong dead white guys.
Marx, Lenin, Sorel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Mussolini, De Man, Derrida, Foucault, Sartre.
Di, McGehee: Look, the best nickname for Michelle The Mooch is the one I came up with, lo, those six years ago: Lady Michbeth.
My favorite uncle was a pike.
From up north, he was.
I save it for those android users. That perpetual feeling of inadequacy makes them a bit wacky.
I suppose as seen from the perspective of actual inadequacy an Android user might appear wacky.
> those android users.<
robot rape culture?
Ebola, Etc: FUBAR SNAFU Charlie-Foxtrot
NOTE: These posts are not an attempt to be comprehensive in coverage of the Ebola story, nor of the Polio story. They just contain some items that have caught my eye [which is still not hemorrhaging blood, I’m happy to report — that only happens when…
The only time I mention I have an iPhone is in response to Android users claiming I’m a borg. Otherwise, I just use it without much comment.
Androids, on the other hand…
Actually, I reserve the “Borg Collective” epithet for Appleborgs who act like members of a collective and then get all offended when this is pointed out to them.
Good-natured sparring doesn’t rise to that level.