Wisconsin Law Professor Ann Althouse has several posts on an Introduction to Islam course to be taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As part of the syllabus the lecturer, Kevin Barrett, proposes to teach 911 denial:''The physics of those collapses clearly could not have resulted from plane crashes and jet fuel fires with office materials.'' Barrett says jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel, and says recent tests on melted steel from the building prove his theory that it was wired to collapse, by the Government.
Barrett says the Bush Administration is fooling the American public with the Adolf Hitler 'Big Lie Technique'... ''Tell them a little lie and they'll wonder about it - weapons of mass destruction in iraq was a relatively little lie - and people are getting called on it.'' Barrett says. ''Tell em a big lie like 9/11 and they have a huge resistance to questioning it.''
University Provost Patrick Farrell calls the view "unconventional" and cites the Bascom Hall plaque that calls for the "continual fearless sifting and winnowing of ideas."
If there is to be a "sifting and winnowing" then why doesn't Farrell appoint a committee of the Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin to issue an engineering report? Why doesn't the Wisconsin Engineering Department take it upon itself to issue a technical refutation?
Will Wisconsin permit Holocaust denial to be taught? How about "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?" Voodoo and witchcraft? AIDS in Africa planted by the CIA?
5 comments:
"Will Wisconsin permit Holocaust denial to be taught? How about "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?" Voodoo and witchcraft? AIDS in Africa planted by the CIA?"
I certainly don't see why they wouldn't. Each of those reinforce the Articles of Faith upon which the religion of "Reason Above All Else" is constructed - why shouldn't they be taught? Being a true progressive means that your sense of reason is so well developed that it permits you to believe in all that imagination might encompass. I'm sure that everyone would agree that banning discrimination in favor of equality is the only path to enlightenment and so a rational mind should welcome exposure to all ideas.
Nice to see you back, Brylun.
Knuck,
I'll take the gunny. He's actually done something with a modicum of utility. I would be a bit afraid of having Barrett next door. Theoretically, brain rot is not contagious, but it's not worth the risk.
Knuck - You've got two busted links "where do we find" and "Provost Farrell".
Rick, thanks for the welcome back. In case you were wondering, I was with my daughter in Egypt, Greece, Italy, France, Netherlands and England.
University Provost Patrick Farrell calls the view "unconventional" and cites the Bascom Hall plaque that calls for the "continual fearless sifting and winnowing of ideas."
When I read that I just laughed. Farrell has the words but the meaning has escaped him. Ideas are sifted and winnowed to find the truth, which requires critical thinking and balancing against the facts, which requires knowledge and honesty. And most of all, it requires the idea of truth itself. Ideas aren't valid just because they are far out.
Somehow I don't think Barret is going to endulge critical thinking in his class. Folklore? Shades of Campbell and Moyers, I suspect it is another subject full of bozo theory and deep sounding words. Another passing fad in the boomers quest for something easier and more entertaining than mere reality.
Brylun--great to see you back. Are you going to give us some posts on the places you visited?
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