<?xml version="1.0" ?><html> <head> <title></title> </head> <body> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> I should know better than to respond to ad hominem posts, because it always</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> spawns more, but let me select out the meat here: [TB]</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Please post any ad hominem attacks I made concerning you otherwise don't suggest that I have made them by posting something like this directly after a comment of mine. Questioning your motives is not an ad hominem if those motives are part of the debate.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> First, you don't understand the timeline. Churchill's fabrication of the </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Mandan</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> genocide was outed last September in an essay in Commentary, which was</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> reprinted on the History News Network web site. My only contribution</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> was to flesh out some of the evidence. LaVelle's exegesis of Churchill's</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> plagiarism and fabrication is on his web page. The press would have found</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> this story whether I existed or not. [TB]</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">This is news to me and it certainly makes you seem far less opportunistic than I originally thought. Letting it drop after the right-wing assault on Churchill had started would have been less opportunistic still in my mind and the right thing to do but even if you were so inclined I realize it is easier to suggest than to do. Still if the your essay came out before the move to oust Churchill began the charge of opportunism is effectively removed as a valid criticism in my view. I will check the timing of the release of your material and issue an apology to you for calling your attack opportunistic if YOUR essay pre-dates the attack on Churchill. I have as of yet been unable to find any reference to your essay pre-dating Feb 8th 2005. I am aware of the dates for LaVelle's criticisms going back to at least '96.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">So far to the best of my knowledge on you, Bob Black and John Lavelle have leveled any plagerism or fictional citation charge against Churchill. I will not contribute to Churchills problems by engaging in that debate at this time since I believe its validity has not been established.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Second, your suggestion that it's strategically correct to withhold </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> information</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> simply to gain a political advantage reveals that you and I live on </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> different ethical</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> planets. I think this strategy is elitist and ethically untenable. And to </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> justify concealing</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> information in order to advance a free speech agenda, you would have to </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> twist</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> yourself into a moral pretzel. [TB]</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">There is a difference between concealing knowledge with the intent of preventing it from becoming public and timing the release to be more or less damaging depending on the desired outcome. The later is what I have advocated. The twisting is being done by you and you are twisting my words. To suppose that the release of information is not timed for effectiveness is naïve.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> >I am surprised it isn't obvious to you but then most people have a hell of </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> >a difficult time</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> >realizing their mistakes and an even greater time publicly admitting them.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> I think you're mistaken if you believe there's a right outcome and a wrong</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> outcome in this mess. If Churchill stays, the academy is delegitimized by </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> his</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> presence. If he goes, academic freedom is diminished. Either way,</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> the academy loses.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">I disagree that Churchill staying delegitimizes anything therefore having Churchill stay is the preferable outcome in my opinion.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> I think firing Churchill will lead to the lesser of two evils here, because </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> the</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> right in Colorado will be mollified, temporarily, I hope. And he deserves</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> firing, so no great loss. On the other hand, if he stays, they are going to </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> take</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> out their frustration on the state university system, which could be a much</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> worse assault on tenure. I say throw the sharks the rotten meat and hope</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> they're satiated. It needed tossing anyway.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Again we disagree on this matter and we have no hopes of changing each others position. The right will not be mollified by having Churchills head. They want a hell of a lot more than that and getting Churchill for his essay is a step in that direction.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/> </div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">If my criticism of you for timing this assault to coincide with a witch-hunt was incorrect I will apologize to you for the accusation but I still disagree with your assesment of Churchill concerning the fabrication of a genocide. Since I do not wish to further that cause while Churchill is fighting for his job I will not debate that topic with you right now. In another time, when the witch-hunt is over, I would be happy to go over any alleged problems with Churchills footnoting and his use of reference materials.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">John Thornton</span></font></div> </body> </html>