Posted on 05/25/2005 4:13:47 AM PDT by veronica
A CUNY professor who called religious believers "moral retards" has gone on another Internet rant - calling himself a defiant "superman" and comparing religion to oppressive regimes.
A firestorm erupted at Brooklyn College after the views of Timothy Shortell - elected to head the sociology department this month - were revealed in a Daily News story on Monday.
"Christians claim that theirs is faith based on love, but they'll just as soon kill you," Shortell wrote in an online journal that is linked to his Web site (www.shortell.org).
Brooklyn College officials responded yesterday by launching an investigation into the controversial professor's views.
"I sharply disagree with the offensive anti-religion opinions of Prof. Timothy Shortell," Brooklyn College President Christoph Kimmich wrote in a letter to The News.
But Shortell remained defiant in his latest post.
"I have been attacked recently in the New York newspapers," he wrote. "We laugh at our critics. We will behold with joy their silly tantrums."
He also called himself and others who share his beliefs "Übermenschen," a reference to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's idea of the perfect person, or "superman."
"Another Sign of Trouble
Anyone who is concerned about the quality of American education ought to be worried about the political influence of fundamentalists. The damage they are causing to science education cannot be underestimated.
02.02.05 @ 02:09 AM EST
Thursday, January 20th
Where is the Outrage?
The cover-up of war crimes continues and no one is paying any attention. Check out Frank Rich's excellent coverage of the non-coverage. Corruption and moral terpitude will be overflowing in DC for the inauguration of our war-criminal-in-chief. The magnitude of the scandal is ignored. No wonder Americans are hated by so many people around the world.
01.20.05 @ 11:25 AM EST
Tuesday, January 18th
Fraud Watch The Bush administration's plan for the privatization of Social Security exposes the degree to which this administration is based on ideology and propaganda. True believers are willing to say and do anything if it furthers the cause. Federal agencies have become shills for the industries they are supposed to regulate. The foot soldiers are spewing lies knowing there is no consequence for mendacity.
Paul Krugman at the NY Times is watching closely, thank goodness. There is also a very good treatment of the matter by Roger Lowenstein in the Times Magazine. Hendrik Hertzberg provides a concise summary of the issue in the most recent New Yorker. See also the more general assessment of Rick Perlstein in the Village Voice.
Someone really ought to do a comparative study of this administration and the propaganda techniques of Nazi Germany. Karl Rove owes a lot to Joseph Goebbels. 01.18.05 @ 09:14 PM EST
Friday, January 7th
Burden of the War Machine
The burden of the war machine is not evenly distributed. What is the problem? See this Washington Post article for details.
Just as any fascist state, the megalomania of the ruling elite is paid for in working class blood."
What a nuttah....
This would be funny, except that he is teaching young adults this stuff.
Someone really ought to do a comparative study of this administration and the propaganda techniques of Nazi Germany. Karl Rove owes a lot to Joseph Goebbels.
Once Hitler and his minions took power, they took total control of all news media. Nothing was published that wasn't sanctioned by the Nazi regime. And that's analogous to modern-day America precisely how? I'm sure the New York Times would be interested to learn that they're a propaganda tool of Karl Rove and the Bush administration.
The problem with facile comparisons is that they're facile comparisons. If this sort of stuff is what Shortell traffics in, one wonders how he was able to make it through undergraduate school. On the other hand, maybe there's no need for wonder...
He basically is calling Christians and Jews Untermenschen by describing himself as an Uebermensch compared to them. He's the Goebbels.
"elected to head the sociology department this month"
Lol. Something tells me they aren't too happy with their decision now.
Why am I not surprised?
Ping.
So far, this seems like an issue of free speech. We disagree, and thank goodness for sane outlets like FR. But so far we don't have the integrity issues we had with Ward Churchill.
Of course there is no liberal bias on college campii. We need to just moveon.org. Nothing to see here.
This is not just liberal bias. It's hate-America venom.
Glad he wasn't at Brooklyn College when I was...
Seems like they should have done that before they elected him to head their sociology dept.
He sounds a little paranoid to me.
But then what more can you expect from a guy who says:
"My research interests include natural language processing, social semiotics, methods of text analysis, American public discourse, ideology and social class, and, social creativity and forms of knowledge production."
You will probably already know about this, but figured I would ping you.
>>Anyone who is concerned about the quality of American education ought to be worried about the political influence of fundamentalists. The damage they are causing to science education cannot be underestimated.<<
And to judge just how worried libs are about people who take the Bible as basically true, just watch how they act and what they say when these same people want to take their children out of "American education" (code for government-funded factory schools), and educate them at home.
The left's complaint? That this will damage public schooling! That it will have a negative effect on the children who "must stay" behind.
Well, this is all garbage. The real complaint is always about the loss of money and power to control and indoctrinate.
The left doesn't even know its own mind.
A very bitter man.....obviously in his youth, Sister Mary Magdalen whcked his knuckles with a ruler one time to many and pushed him over the edge....let him rave on, that the world shall know he is a madman....
Other colleges for this nutcase...Horticulture, animal science, drama, adult fiction...
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