Just to finish off last week's nonsense about jackbooted thugs busting kids for taking out "Green Eggs and Ham."
The story was a hoax.
I for one suspected as much, but as I said last week I was prepared to assume it was true until we knew otherwise. Now, of course, we know the whole thing was made up. Look, the kid clearly has issues. The end of the news story indicates clearly that the kid needs attention, and he's used this as an opportunity for people to notice him. But some thoughts, in no particular order:
A) Why, of all things, did the kid pick this as his attention-grabber? Granted it's easier than faking your own kidnapping, but why a library book? And why, when the focus is on the War on Terror, would the DHS approach someone for taking out a communist book? Reasonable people should have picked this apart far more quickly.
B) A couple of things said by one of the professors who was part of this strike me as telling. First:
Dr. Williams said he does not regret bringing the story to light, but that now the issue can be put to rest. "I wasn't involved in some partisan struggle to embarrass the Bush administration, I just wanted the truth," he said.
I'm finding that a little hard to believe, Doc. You were all over this thing, talking about the "culture of fear" and the "government's chilling actions", as I recall the first article. Kindly don't p%&^ on me & tell me it's raining, OK pal?
Dr. Williams said the whole affair has had one bright point: The question of whether it is safe for students to do research has been answered. "I can now tell my students that it is safe to do research without being monitored," he said. "With that hanging in the air like before, I couldn't say that to them."
The problem with this is, Genius boy, that you could have, and SHOULD have told them that before. No one was monitoring their research before, no one will be now. The essential point he's making, as Terry noted about these types last week, is "well, we all know the government really wants to monitor you, and maybe they weren't here, but you're really safe NOW because I, I, your SAINTED PROFESSOR, have defended your rights mightily."
It's not all about you, and if you had a shred of common sense or weren't trigger happy to believe this about your own country, you would have investigated first and gone public after.
C) I have yet to get, nor will I get, any retractions from the people on the email list about their comments. Many people are away this week, and by next week other things will come up. If there is any honor among the correspondents I had last week, some of them will come forth and admit they went over the top. I will be shocked if anyone does come forth, frankly.
The hallmark of what passes for liberal thought is to jump the gun, make the accusations, raise all kinds of holy hell about it, then COMPLETELY ignore the unpleasant reality when it finally comes out. I'm terribly saddened by this, as I think these are on the whole decent people who happen to disagree with me. I can live with the disagreement, but the intellectual dishonesty is depressing. I deserve more consideration as an opponent in an argument, and they should be man enough to admit when they got it wrong.
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