We reported on a very egregious example of repression of free speech here. A professor at Northern Kentucky University led her graduate students and destroyed a display of crosses, legally and with permission, put up by a campus anti-abortion group.
"I did, outside of class during the break, invite students to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy the display if they wished to," Jacobsen said.
Today, the president of NKU sent out a letter to the campus. It's a really good example of what colleges and universities should stand for (as opposed to Yale):
It has been heartening that student and faculty groups that do not necessarily support the position of Northern Kentucky Right to Life have come out strongly in support of the organization's right to be heard through their display. This reflects a commitment to the importance of free speech and inquiry as a hallmark of our University.
Professor Jacobsen has been removed from her remaining classes and placed on leave from the University. She will retire from the University at the end of this semester. The Faculty Senate, representing more than 1,000 NKU faculty members, has taken strong action today that affirms the importance of free expression as a defining quality of the University. Our campus has spoken with a strong and unified voice. Further action may occur once a full investigation has been completed.
Absolutely right. Please go read the whole thing. This is a great letter.
H/T Instapundit for this link
Or maybe both. Christopher Hitchens is absolutely ruthless in this piece at Slate.
In other words (I am prepared to keep on repeating this until at least one cow comes home), Joseph Wilson went to Niger in 2002 to investigate whether or not the country had renewed its uranium-based relationship with Iraq, spent a few days (by his own account) sipping mint tea with officials of that country who were (by his wife's account) already friendly to him, and came back with the news that all was above-board. Again to repeat myself, this must mean either that A) he did not know that Zahawie had come calling or B) that he did know but didn't think it worth mentioning that one of Saddam's point men on nukes had been in town. In neither case, it seems to me, should he be trusted with another mission that requires any sort of curiosity.
I notice a distinct lack of interest in the MSM to follow this. To me, that indicates there is quite a large fire under all the smoke. Because if, indeed, Joe Wilson is the blatant, politically driven liar he appears to be, almost the entire house of cards the MSM and their fellow-travelers have constructed comes apart.
Joe Wilson spoke – and the truth died.
Well, if I did the cut and paste right, I just put a "Blue Star Dad" image up in the sidebar. For those who understand it, it needs no explanation. For those who don't, it means I have a soldier deployed in Iraq. My son, to be exact.
It started during the First World War and was brought back for the Second World War. I don't remember it being used much during Vietnam, although I'm sure it was by at least a few people. It signifies a family member is serving on active duty in a war.
It means we here at home are so very, very proud of them.
It means, to me, that our service people are out there protecting even those who do not respect them for what they do.
The Washington Post received four Pulitzer prizes today, while the New York Times took three. Many of the prizes were for stories which the newspapers broke using leaked information. This, of course, is grounds for great pride in the media and they are bragging about it. On the other hands, the Bush administration continues to be excoriated because it dared to use a non-media approved leak,
It's those old NYT standards in play again. After all, only the media is a fit judge of what should be leaked. Sort of like the lefty's utter contempt for generals unless they're saying something bad about the administration.
UPDATE: Betsy Newmark has one of the best lines yet on this year's Pulitzers: "Let's face it. These were the Pulitzer equivalents of the Nobel Peace Prize for Jimmy Carter." Bwahahahahaha!
UPDATE: Ann Althouse has the longest post I have ever seen posted on her blog about Robin Givhan's Pulitzer. It seems Ms. Givhan is an astonishingly rich source of blogging material. We here at Blue Crab Boulevard should get out more, apparently.
I sure don't see how else to interpret this. Asia Times is reporting that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is welcoming some new members. Iran is among the nations.
The SCO, an Intergovernmental organization whose working languages are Chinese and Russian, was founded in Shanghai on June 15, 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The SCO's change of heart appears set to involve the organization in Iran's nuclear battle and other ongoing regional issues with the United States.
So much for the UN. If anyone seriously believes Russia and China will allow any Security Council action, they need their glasses fixed.
UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds just linked this. This is definitely beginning to show a (very unpleasant) pattern. This is beginning to look like the old Cold War Model of the Russians starting a proxy war.
UPDATE: John Bolton plans to introduce a Security Council Resolution identifying the four individuals mentioned in the Instapundit link.
This is Jamie Rose Bolin. She was ten years old when she was murdered.
The monster who murdered and raped ten year old Jamie Rose Bolin was arraigned on first degree murder charges today. His court appointed lawyers requested a gag order:
They complained that officials had made "inflammatory, prejudicial and conclusory statements" to the media that had helped fuel widespread interest in the case. A hearing on the motion will be held Tuesday, the judge said.
Blue Crab Boulevard is already in compliance. We gag whenever we think of your client. We also do not print the names of monsters who kill children. We prefer society remember the victim.
Earlier post on this case here.
April 17, 1961. Babalu blog has some amazing things about the Bay of Pigs invasion you'll never read anywhere else. Thanks to Val Prieto and George Moneo for putting this together.
No indictments were handed down in the ongoing Duke Lacrosse Team rape allegations. Is there really any reason for this continuing – other than the the prosecutor running for reelection? Be realistic, with no DNA matches, the prosecution would probably not be able to get a conviction. Some reports say the lacrosse team behaved like jerks, which doesn't mean they deserve to be prosecuted.
Original post here.
UPDATE: Possible correction. ABC News is reporting sealed indictments were handed down by the grand jury. They also say that the guard who first saw the alleged victim was never told anything about a rape and saw no signs of one.
Update: The New York Times is reporting that sealed indictments have been issued for two lacrosse team members. The District Attorney refused to allow the indicted to surrender voluntarily. The Media will undoubtedly cooperate and will furnish camera crews for a perp walk.
UPDATE: Most recent post here.
And do Iran's bidding. A Palestinian murderer with a bomb killed nine people in a packed fast-food restaurant.
The suicide bombing took place about 1:40 p.m. when the bomber, carrying a bag stuffed with 10 pounds of explosives, approached "The Mayor's Falafel" restaurant in a busy neighborhood near Tel Aviv's central bus station. The restaurant, which had been the target of a bombing in January, was packed with Israelis on vacation during the weeklong Passover holiday.
The Hamas led government proved why they should not be trusted with a government.
In a sharp departure from the previous Palestinian government's condemnations of bombings, the Hamas-led administration said the attack resulted from Israel's "brutal aggression." The bloodshed and the hard-line stance could set the stage for harsh Israeli reprisals and endanger Palestinian efforts to secure desperately needed international aid.
This is appalling.
Here is Haaretz on this.
It seems Maine is running out of bunnies. Estimates are that only 300 of the New England cottontail rabbits native to the state are left. So a major restoration program is underway to bring the population up. There is even talk of putting them on the endangered species list.
And in Kittery, a botanist has applied for a $100,000 federal grant to implement a similar habitat improvement program on an old farm where a rabbit population has managed to hang on despite development pressures.
Since bunnies breed like, well, bunnies, this one should be easy to take care of. If they continue to experience a shortage, we here at Blue Crab Boulevard stand ready to help. We will cheerfully ship the hoard of bunnies that is eating our landscaping to Maine. As a public service, of course. Maybe we could get a grant.
According to the headline in this AFP report, gay and lesbian parents intend to "crash" the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House.
Family Pride has been behind the calls for gay groups to crash the White House party which conservatives have condemned as an attempt to politicize a family event.
But the homosexual groups say there will not be a protest.
Family Pride spokeswoman Cathy Renna said about 100 families had already indicated they planned to attend. They have committed though not to use slogans or even wear t-shirts that could get them barred from the White House.
This is not a conservative call, this one of fundamental decency. It is wrong to do this. It is wrong to turn a children's event into a political rally or a protest. Please do not do this.
Please put the children ahead of your agenda.
UPDATE: Thank you for not making this children's event into a protest.
A Canadian man suspected of murdering two registered sex offenders in Maine shot himself when police boarded the bus he was on in Boston. He died later in the hospital.
Police in Maine were looking for (Stephen) Marshall, who traveled to United States from Nova Scotia to visit his father, after two men on the state's publicly available registered sex offender list were found shot to death on Easter morning, McCausland said.
As a precaution, the state on Sunday took the state's list of more than 2,200 registered sex offenders off-line and will decide on Monday when to put it back on line, McCausland said.
This is bound to be a strange one when the details come out.
A pub in The Harvester in Solihull, west central England, has set up an in-house tattoo parlor.
"It seems to be proving very popular with the punters. We have done lots of tattoos and we seem to be getting a lot of enquiries," said Phil Jones, a tattoo artist who runs the pub.
"The most popular style of tattoos are Celtic work, portrait work and tribal."
At last! You won't have to go find a tattoo parlor after you're drunk!
Well, it was only a matter of time until the sexual revolution reached the world of computers. There are now machines already available that allow a person at one computer manipulate a sex toy and use it on a partner at another computer. It's from a company called Sinulate Enterprises and it's part of the new field of teledildonics".
That's only the beginning, there's talk of all sorts of futuristic stuff to have sexual encounters without actually having a real live partner.
Brad Abram, president of XStream3D Multimedia, said his firm's "Virtually Jenna," an online game in which the player has sex with realistic cartoon of porn star Jenna Jameson, can link hardware devices following the action to genitalia.
We here at Blue Crab Boulevard, while somewhat fond of our computers, do not feel that close to them. Nor do we want to. Although we are used to getting screwed by Microsoft.
The Washington Post has an article speculating that anger at Bush may translate to losses for Republicans. Well, it might, that's hard to predict. One thing for sure, congress as a whole, both parties, are not at all well thought of by the public. That is likely to have a bigger effect than Bush's popularity. "Throw the bums out" thinking would catch a few Democrats, too.
The Ivory Tower | Gaius April 17, 2006 | 
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