The local academic left’s reaction of late has been unwittingly comic. In their communications with one another, they’re making out that the two gravest threats facing the UNC system are (1) that the Pope Foundation wants to fund a curriculum geared toward the study of Western Civilization, and (2) that noted “extremist” David Horowitz spoke on the campus of N.C. State as part of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy’s conference on academic freedom.
Concerning (1), read the second letter in this week’s “Backtalk” section in the Independent ? a letter that’s being sent out on the “Progressive” (giggle) listserv at UNC-Chapel Hill by Sherryl Kleinman, who’s mentioned in the first letter.
Concerning (2), read this posting on a faculty listserv at N.C. State. For even fun, recall that the author was mere months ago arguing that the notion of leftist bias in the university was all just a conservative conspiracy. (I’m still trying to guess how Bill O’Reilly put her up to writing that e-mail.)
Thus I’d like to extend a big thank-you to those wailing banshees for proving our point that they are completely intolerant of opposing views ? which is not the sort of mindset one should have on a college campus, where free inquiry should reign. I’d also like to thank the Independent for all the free publicity of our conference, which no doubt contributed to our noticeable late increase in registrations.
