> What more perfect trap could there be for further weakening
> the left at this moment than for us all to rally in favor of a Bin
> Laden cheerleader?
Michael, for someone who was pontificating just a few weeks ago on the "freedom" and "rights" of scabs, you appear to have revised your "free speech" absolutist position mighty quickly. Once again, the issue here is not complicated, but you choose to make it so. No one on this list -- save for the Lumpen, but he doesn't count -- has actually endorsed the rancid content of the Churchill essay in question.
The issue, quite plainly, is that this is a witch-hunt, where the right is taking out an easy target first, in preparation for clamping down on everyone. Case in point, the "academic bill of rights" in Ohio and other places. If they succeed with Churchill, they are eventually coming for you. Your more "humanist" pretensions will not save you when the Red Channels crew starts accusing you of "indoctrination," and when some thin-skinned, asshole right-wing student reports you to David Horowitz or Daniel Pipes for challenging racism or something like that. This is not the kind of facile "slippery slope" argument favored by ACLU fundamentalists, either. This is a realistic assessment of the political situation, and everyone seems capable of seeing it but you. Why?
- - - - - - - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
Tell no lies, claim no easy victories