Mark & Juanita wrote:

On 20 Feb 2005 05:58:07 EST, Tim Daneliuk wrote:

... snip of some more well-reasoned commentary



Ward Churchill leaps to mind because he's all over Fox News and Clear
Channel. Without Fox and Clear Channel pushing the story, nobody would
even know who Ward Churchill is. But by airing Churchill every night,

That is *not* true. Churchill has offended the living crap out of
people in his own community having nothing to do with Right wing
broadcasters. For the record, I oppose all federal funding for
schools, but, if we fund anyone, then we have to fund everyone. The
attempt to silence this walking rectal parasite is wrong. He should
continue to be able to speak his mind freely for several reasons:

1) Government ought not to be in the business of choosing who does and
who does not get to speak.

2) The best way to get rid of lousy ideas is let those ideas be
loudly spoken. The more often, the better, so that people see
what a fraud the speaker is.

3) The more his ideas get spoken, the more people will realize what
kind of nonsense their tax dollars pay for, and the sooner we
can get the government out of the (fake) education business.


they can pump up their ratings and stoke conservative indignation as
well.



While I agree with this sentiment, one of the problems is that the Ward
Churchills and their ilk have pretty much had free reign of our academic
institutions while effectively shutting out the other side; using tactics
such as labeling as "hate speech" and "harassment" any airing of arguments
contrary to theirs.

Actually, Churchill has already made a statement that gives a way out for
the University and the state of Colorado. Early in this debate, he made
the statement, "I don't work for the regents or the citizens of Colorado,
at least not in the way they think I do". Well, that pretty much
simplifies things, since he doesn't work for the regents or the citizens
(and thus by extension, he doesn't work for the University,which is
operated by the regents), there is no reason for the University or the
State of Colorado to continue paying him.


My hope is that *many* people will be offended by both people like
Churchill as well as the double standard you identify and act to
get government out of the education business entirely.


The antidote for all this, in case you care, is to reclaim our
intellectual and philosophical heritage. If the Left wants to be relevant
again, it has to admit to itself that wealth redistribution, no matter
how noble the intention, is theft in every case. It has to embrace
Federalism and limited government. It needs to affirm the power of
Capitalism and competition as the sole honest vehicle by which people's
lives are made better (by themselves). In short, the modern "liberal"
movement, needs to abandon the bankrupt socialism that has crippled it

from FDR forward and instead become a *Classical Liberal* movement. We

Classical Liberals would welcome you and any real Conservatives back
into the fold that built this nation. Until that happens, the Left will
continue to lose ground, the Right will continue to gain power, and
Liberty will continue its path to permanent extinction.


Classical liberalism has no relationship to modern liberalism (or
progressivism since liberalism has gotten such a bad rap -- they decided to
change names -- same program, totally different name). In reality, you
are distinguishing the difference between "statists" and libertarians (with
a small "l". The modern liberal movement, and to a degree, some on the far
right, readily embrace statist policies, giving the government more and
more power, taking it away from the citizenry. The left typically wages
economic warfare on its citizens in pursuit of these statist policies
(taking from those who have 'benefited' from society the most and
redistributing that take to those who will vote for them) although they
have recently gotten into the moral side of the equation also, using so
called "hate speech" and "harassment" laws to bend the people to their will
while silencing the opposition. At this point, I think your pessimism
regarding the death of freedom is misplaced; the places where the loss of
freedom continues seems to be those areas where the right has compromised
with the left -- my main beef with the current administration -- they are
too eager to compromise principals in the spirit of "getting along".


I did not want to use the "l-Word" because it is too politically loaded.
"Classical Liberal" is a more neutral term...

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Tim Daneliuk
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