There’s lots to post on today, but for now the quickest one I can put out is the original text of the letter I sent to the Wildcat, which I thought was much more eloquent and powerful than the Wildcat’s…uh…okay I’ll stop.
Among the most shallow possible responses to recent offensive speech at the University of Arizona, examples among which have been graphic pictures of pregnancy abortions and “gangsta”-themed parties, are calls for university administration to censor such speech. Neither the U.S. Constitution nor traditions of natural rights assert that one has the right to be protected from offensive speech. In fact, both assert that such speech ought to be protected. One who manages not to be exposed to offensive speech during a four-year college career should report immediately to the Administration building to request a tuition refund for not having learned anything.
Thankfully, the administration does not look to be taking any action to censor these examples of protected speech. In the wake of feminists selling candies resembling female anatomy on the mall, one observes that men and women with self-esteem have not been attempting to invoke the censorship of feminists’ current lyrical bastardization of the Australian folk song “Waltzing Matilda” for fear that our brothers and sisters from Down Under may otherwise become offended.
On a campus such as this, one also observes with genuine gratitude that opponents of feminists’ recent speech have chosen not to respond in turn by selling candies resembling male anatomy and hopes this remains so.
In a Federal body this would be easy: stop funding everybody. I’m not advocating we move to that kind of system; ASUA club funding is a fact of life here, and it requires checks and balances in order to ensure fairness in the process. Allegations indicate that the board was liberally-biased in the past, the proper response to which is not to run a conservatively-biased board. I surely hope this isn’t what we’ve concocted, is it?
I’m not quite outraged one way or the other quite yet, but somebody had better explains this to me and the rest of the student body. Is the “Vagina Warrior” (which by the way is an insult to the military) lying about appropriations board members joking about the aforementioned withheld word? Is the appropriations board exhibiting conservative bias against a student organization with rights just like every other club, no matter how disgusting their ideas are?
My first class today is at 11 a.m., which I hope conveys a message that I got up this morning at 5 a.m. to get schoolwork done, and instead I’m defending “Vagina Warriors” ad nauseam for an hour and having no time to cover the elections as I promised. Is there something wrong here?
The Politico has two stories (1 | 2) concerning the departure of Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) and others from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus after Sanchez accused its chairman Joe Baca of calling her a “whore.” Count Rep. Grijalva in among the defectors according to the first article there.
If you’re from Yuma, attempt to combine the kooky, hat-wearing mentality of former mayoral candidate Carol Engler combined with a teenage girl’s affinity/tendency for showing off her legs, except that Sanchez has a cat, not a hat. That’s Loretta Sanchez.
The East Valley Tribune is reporting that ASU Residential Life has placed 22-year-old political science senior Ryan Visconti on probation. Visconti claims it was because he gave an interview to the Tribune concerning his “sensitivity training” as a resident assistant. ASU Residential Life says it was for missing a training session dealing with homosexuality.
Hat tip to Anonymous Mike at Zonitics, who brings up some good questions to consider.
From my experience here at that other school, I’ve found it interesting that most of this kind of sensitivity stuff happens to underclassmen, and considering that most students here at UA move out of the dorms after the first year, that makes dorms the ideal place. However, there are also classes which underclassmen inevitably must take, including but not limited to introductory writing courses (i.e. English 101/102) and “geneds.”
<RANT ALERT>
A short selection of proven methods of getting me angry with respect to political correctness or lack thereof…
Make me take the side with which I disagree in a debate and still let me beat you. Badly. (English 102; ‘gay’ marriage debate)
Emulate Noam Chomsky in claiming a good chunk of my maternal family still would have been massacred “had [Pol Pot] been Mother Teresa.” (INDV 103 — “What is Politics?”)
Offer me an ‘Asian-American’ scholarship. What? Because my (half) race holds me back? F-you! (APASA)
Use student government resources to force a political or moral stance in the name of non-consenting students. (Too many to mention.)
</RANT ALERT>
I will enjoy watching ADF and Mr. Visconti kick rear-end in court.
“Soy is feminizing,” Rutz claims “and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion, and homosexuality. That’s why most of the medical…blame for today’s rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise of soy formula and other soy products.”
WorldNetDaily editor-in-chief Joseph Farah, amidst massive hate mail from leftist websites, immediately defended Rutz, and called for women to be banned from eating beef, pork, poultry, beans, and dairy, for fear that increased testosterone levels might make them homosexuals, too.
Officials at the University of Arizona complimented the study, and are planning to increase the availability of soy in on-campus food in order to facilitate an increase in diversity. In contrast, Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University has banned tofu, calling it “The Curd of Tinky Winky.”
This news report is brought to you by the Law Offices of Bob Schmuck. Did your mother feed you soy as a infant? Are you sexually confused? Recent medical research has found that your sexual confusion is not your fault, and you may be able to sue for damages. For a free consultation, call the Law Offices of Bob Schmuck at 1-800-SOY-MILK.
Editorial note: I still affirm that homosexuality is a sin just like any other sexual sin, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking Jim Rutz is stupid.
Holowatz said a romantic relationship is the best place for sex because there is security in knowing that someone can be open with his or her partner. It creates less anxiety and makes each partner feel more valued, he said. "People should do what most fits with their values," said Debby Herbenick, a psychologist and lecturer at The Kinsey Institute at the University of Indiana in Bloomington.
This blog post is brought to you by ‘Non-casual’ Fornication: Feel more valued while you’re getting screwed.
If you’re just looking for something at which to either laugh or shake a fist, allow me to direct you to the Social Justice Leadership Center. More such gall came from last night’s ASUA Senate meeting [emphasis added]:
Transgender Awareness Week will take place from Nov. 12 through 20 and will feature events on campus and around the city, said ASUA officials at last night’s senate meeting.
Jessica K. Pettitt, coordinator of social justice programs, said one of the major events of Transgender Awareness Week will be the Free-Expression Walk on Nov. 18.
The walk will be composed of teenagers, and Pettitt said they will be excited to see the university community come out to support them.
The week is put on by the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership and Wingspan’s Southern Arizona Gender Alliance.
Pettitt said she wants as many groups as possible to attend the events because it is important for the transgender community to have support.
"We have come up with extensive training programs and events," Pettitt said.
Emily Mitchell, a field representative for Leadership Institute, reports via email that two Arizona State University professors assaulted, injured, and harassed her yesterday over her support of Caucasian-American Men of ASU, an officially-recognized campus group. Unfortunately for the assailants, she has video.
Mitchell’s hate crime report to the campus LBGTQ group, which is completely on her side on grounds of free speech, is as follows:
At ASU on Friday, September 29, I was verbally and physically assaulted by two professors who refused to reveal their names or departments. Both told me my club, Caucasian American Men of ASU, “is a racist agenda.” In truth, the club is about ENDING all forms of racial exclusion on campus by asking for equality. When I prompted them to read my flyer to learn that we are trying to end racism and sexism, they both refused. I was called “racist” by one professor “definitely racist,” by the other. At this point, I pulled out the camera to get them saying this on tape, because I was sure no one would believe me without evidence. Since my video camera is just a feature of a snapshot-style camera, they may not have realized they were being video taped.
I asked if I could record their viewpoint for educational purposes, and that our group encouraged open debate. They said “OK,” but as soon as I began, one professor said I didn’t have her permission to take her picture. She argued with me and then tried to steal my camera, wrangling me for it. At this point, she managed to hit the big button that stops recording, but of course there is video of her snatching for it. When she couldn’t pry it out of my hands, she deliberately took her thumb and tried to push the auto-extending lens back into the body of the camera, crunching the device that extends the lens.
I refuse to let go of my personal property, holding on tightly. She continues to crunch her thumb into my camera, and I’m now sure this is deliberate. In the physical struggle to keep or damage my camera, she digs her hands in so hard her short fingernails scratch my hand until I bleed between my index and middle fingers. I somehow manage to physically pry her fingers out of my skin and off my camera.
Shaking now, I was determined to get her and the other professor saying what they said to me on video. I held the camera up while the assailant said, “You can’t take my picture because it’s illegal. I work with indigenous peoples all the time, and they would never do that.” After several other tidbits, two I remember verbatim as, “You have a racist agenda,” and “You have problems to work out.” I realized the camera wasn’t running and I pressed the button harder this time. Because she damaged the button, when I pressed it, it didn’t immediately begin recording (I now have to press it harder). At this point, I try to get them to repeat their hate crime speech, and they don’t deny it. They also refuse to reveal their identities. The only information they would give me is that they are in “College of Fine Arts.” I have the videos.
Epilogue: I spent the rest of the afternoon with CAMASU students trying to make CAMASU a university-recognized group. At almost 5:00, I went to the College of Fine Arts hoping a secretary could identify the faculty members for me. A secretary was still there, Sherri Thompson (phone number removed –GPO), and, shaking like a leaf, I explained my situation. I showed her the videos, and she was so appalled, she called cell phones to get the cell phone numbers of the people needed to immediately file an incident report. I was advised to go to student health to clean up the wound and put some ice on it. I have not heard back about the incident report, nor do I know what the consequences or procedures are for that, nor do I know if it’s different from reporting a hate crime. But I figured I can use all the help I can get finding these women who hurt me so badly, physically and psychologically.
As Sherri was busily orchestrating the report, the Dean of the College of Fine Arts, Dean Kim, walked past us and into his office. The secretary rushed after him to his office to explain the incident. I followed. Sheepishly entering his office, I showed him my injury and the videos. He was apologetic and appalled, saying he was embarrassed and that it should be taken care of. However, he didn’t recognize the faculty either. He also explained that there are many, many faculty members in the College of Fine Arts.
So now I want to press charges, but I have no idea how. And since I didn’t immediately call the police, and because by the time I would have, they had already vanished, I feel like now I have to get identification myself of these women. But in order to do that, I will have to visit every department in the College of Fine Arts and ask the secretaries if they recognize the professors.
Should I just go department to department looking for their identification? How do I find these people who hurt my feelings? The whole point of our group is to END racism and sexism on campus. Being called a racist is one of the most damaging insults I could have received, because racism is the very cause I’m trying to obliterate.
I REALLY NEED HELP! Please help me find the women who accused me of a label without first even listening to me or reading my flyer.
12 News in Phoenix picked up on it and has this video about CAMASU, but not the violent incident. Google News as of posting only makes mention of CAMASU, but not the incident, despite LI having put out a press release.
Emily has also been working very hard to promote change on the University of Arizona campus; I consider her a close associate. At minimum, the professor who injured her ought to be fired on the spot. The second surely doesn’t know anything about First Amendment freedom of the press: you have no right to privacy in your own conduct in a public area. At least they weren’t political science professors.
Oddly enough, FIRE’s speech code rating of ASU is better than UA: a yellow as opposed to red. Let’s see if they prove themselves worthy of yellow.
Update: Another press release. CAMASU students are now posting “Wanted” flyers for the two professors, but they are meeting resistance from the police, who contend that the flyers may “interfere in the investigation.” I’m not sure why the police have a problem; vandals are tearing down the flyers anyway.
TEMPE, AZ — Students at Arizona State University (ASU) posted “Wanted” flyers on campus yesterday in an attempt to identify two female professors who harassed and injured a female student recruiter at the Tempe campus.
But other members of the university community were not as willing to help find the two women.
“Within three hours someone had started taking down the flyers,” said Emily Mitchell, the Leadership Institute recruiter who was assaulted.
Members of the new, independent, student group, the Caucasian American Men of ASU (CAMASU), posted and handed out the flyers on Tuesday afternoon. The flyers pictured the two unknown professors who confronted Emily.
This morning ASU Police told Emily that they received “some complaints” about the flyers and requested that additional ones not be posted. And according to Laura Gill, an ASU police officer, the posters could “interfere with the investigation.”
Emily, a field representative for the Leadership Institute’s Campus Leadership Program, has filed a police report but is unable to press charges until she can identify her assailants.”
Emily also went to the College of Fine Arts, where the professors claimed to teach, and spoke with Dean Kwang-Wu Kim. Dean Kim said he did not recognize the pictures of the two faculty members, but was appalled at their behavior.
The initial confrontation occurred on Friday, September 29 while Emily recruited for the CAMASU group. The professors claimed Emily had “a racist agenda” and called her “a sexist.” One professor became aggressive, attempted to steal Emily’s camera, and scratched her, drawing blood.
Emily plans to press charges as soon as the assailant is identified.
To Frisch: Writing something on the internet so creepy and offensive that you are forced to quit your job before getting canned. Ex. Deb really frisched herself when she threatened that blogger’s 2 year old child with death and sexual molestation.
I think that’s what we have here, only without the threat of child molestation or murder. Let’s hope this guy gets canned. Here’s his boss’ contact info.
It sickens me that Republicans, who always tout their "tough-on-national-security" stance, have resulted to one thing in trying to regain the confidence in Americans before the Nov. 7 general election: politicize 9/11. We have seen this recently with baseless attacks on two of Arizona’s strongest leaders, Democratic Congressman Raúl Grijalva and Gov. Janet Napolitano. The governor’s ultraconservative opponent, in trying to criticize Napolitano for politicizing 9/11 is, ironically, politicizing 9/11. With nonpartisan help from state leaders and Arizonans directly affected by the attacks, the governor turned an idea to establish a permanent 9/11 memorial in Arizona a reality. Rather than criticizing her work, her opponent should stand with her in honoring those who died and the numerous Arizonans who assisted in relief efforts. Republicans have also attacked Congressman Grijalva, who stood courageously when he voted against HR 994, which lost its true focus of honoring the victims and their families when Republicans entered into the bill language that was essentially equivalent to hammering a campaign yard sign at ground zero. The resolution also claimed our "nation is safer than it was on Sept. 11, 2001," when in fact, a recent assessment commissioned by this current government found otherwise. If Republicans actually cared one bit about keeping their jobs, they’d take a big dose of reality and try to remedy the worsening conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq instead of attacking Democrats and politicizing 9/11.
David Martinez III pre-education senior president, UA Young Democrats
That’s right, Mr. Martinez. Completely avoid what the memorial actually says. If you actually cared about logical debate rather than just winning, you’d stand with those who the memorial insults. I see you found it in favor of your winning not to say what the memorial actually says that might be controversial. Go ahead. Read it. Publish it in a letter. Show us why it shouldn’t be reviewed and destroyed. Justify it line-by-line. I dare you.
The University of Arizona strives to create and sustain a campus environment that supports and values all members of our community, including visitors. One aspect of creating a comfortable environment is providing safe, accessible, and convenient restroom facilities. Many people may experience difficulty and inconvenience when required to use gender-specificrestrooms. Parents with children of a different gender are not able to accompany them into a gender-specific restroom and the same holds true for others with attendants/caregivers of a different gender. Additionally, transgender individuals may be subject to harassment or violence when using male- or female-specific restrooms. Consequently, this statement has been developed to declare the University’s commitment to creating an inclusive and supportive campus environment.
In keeping with the University’s policy of nondiscrimination on the basis of gender identity, the University allows individuals to use the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity. In addition, to address restroom facility access issues not related to gender identity such as parents and attendants/caregivers as described above, the University is committed to designating and maintaining a gender-neutral restroom in as many of its buildings as reasonably feasible. In some instances a designated gender-neutral restroom may contain multiple stalls. Additionally, the University is committed to include at least one gender-neutral restroom in new buildings constructed on campus to the extent feasible.
Peter Likins
Date 6/26/06
President
Uh huh. Perhaps the Wildcat could have considered the possibility of an upstanding woman beating the crap out of a man dressing like a woman just to see them shower. Not that certain naked men don’t spectate the men’s showers already. The next thing you know, the "gender-neutral" restrooms won’t be as big and they’ll insist on same-sized rooms.
There is good news, though, and it has nothing to do with my car insurance. We’re ranked higher than ASU in sexual health, so let’s hope we make it to the playoffs. Our depth chart indicates that we need to improve our condom availability game, since they’re only available at multiple locations on campus for a very cheap price. Care to guess who ranked last overall? It wasn’t ASU.
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PORN ACCOUNTABILITY
Fighting porn alone is like voting for moderate RINOs after they promise to shrink the government and subsequently fail to do so. Take it from me; get some accountability. Download and install the software, and email Garrett if you need an accountability partner.
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