Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Preserving [Native American] Culture for Its Own Sake Is Not Part of the Marxist Agenda

Picture credit: Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

This poster art by the Maoist MIM suggests that MIM shares the murderous views of C.U. Boulder's Professor Ward Churchill, who reportedly told college students that "the colonized can over-come their situation through slitting the throat of their colonizer."
Source: Pirate Ballerina 1-28-07 via emak_bakia.

Wardo says he is for free speech, but how can we have free speech if Wardo or one of his minions cuts our throats? It is pretty obvious that Wardo advocates free speech only for himself and likeminded cohorts.

The MIM has supported the Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies, Ward Churchill. I think this is because Churchill is a Maoist, himself. Certainly he has supported the Black Panthers, a Maoist group.

Churchill claims to be an advocate for American Indians, but it is interesting that his MIM supporters falsely depict Indians as violent murderers and only want to use Indians as sock puppets to promote a violent communist revolution. Here is what the MIM writes:

"MIM would only see importance in ...a struggle to resuscitate [First Nations] culture if it opposed imperialism........A national struggle that advances the fight against imperialism is positive. Preserving culture for its own sake is not part of the Marxist agenda. Whatever resources the tribes can wrest away from imperialism they should take." ["Resolutions on Cross-Cultural Breeding" 2004]

U.S. State Department's "Identifying Misinformation" Web Collection

Picture credit

The State Department has a site that counters misinformation circulating on the Internet and in the media. They have a section on conspiracy theories about 9-11.

I am glad to read the official perspective unfiltered through the media.

The site states:

The "Identifying Misinformation" web collection is written by the U.S. Department of State's counter-misinformation officer, who has 13 years of experience in this area. He has extensive experience in researching deliberate disinformation spread by countries such the Soviet Union and Saddam Hussein's Iraq, as well as urban legends and conspiracy theories.

Ward Churchill Tells America's Soccer Moms to Snuff Their Children and Themselves to Save the Planet!

Picture credit

Boulder, Colorado's charlatan professor, Ward Churchill, admits that he abused his third wife, the late Leah Kelly, by slamming her into a wall. Churchill reportedly tried to push Leah, as well as his first wife, Dora Lee Larson, out of a moving car. [Search this blog for "Leah" or "Dora."] Leah was a Canadian Indian.

Churchill, a white radical who pretends to be an Indian, gave a speech in Canada where he reportedly said that "the colonized can over-come their situation through slitting the throat of their colonizer." Churchill is probably advocating that Native Americans should kill Americans of European ancestry.
Source: Pirate Ballerina 1-28-07 via emak_bakia
.

The Boulder, Colorado professor's violent words and actions make me believe that he is not "kidding" when he wrote in his essay, "I Am Indigenist," that American mothers should "snuff" their children and themselves to "do the planet a real favor":

"Every yuppie born counts as much as another seventy Chinese...Lay that one on the next soccer mom who approaches you with a baby stroller and an outraged look, demanding that you to put your cigarette out, eh? It is plainly absurd for any American to complain about smoking when you consider the context of the damage done by overall U.S. consumption patterns. Tell ’em you’ll put the butt out when they snuff the kid and not a moment before. Better yet, tell ’em they should snuff themselves, as well as the kid, and do the planet a real favor. Just “kidding” (heh-heh)."

Sunday, January 28, 2007

CU Boulder's Professor Ward Churchill Advocates Slitting "Colonizers'" Throats

Picture credit and information on domestic abuse

Boulder's disgraced University of Colorado plagiarist, Professor Ward Churchill, spoke at Halifax, Nova Scotia on January 27, 2007.

Churchill reportedly said that "the colonized can over-come their situation through slitting the throat of their colonizer."
Source: Pirate Ballerina 1-28-07 via emak_bakia.

Ward Churchill is a big hypocrite and a violent person: Churchill admits that he threw his third wife, a young Canadian Indian woman named Leah Kelly, into a wall. Leah later died when she was run over by a car.

Researcher Grant Crowell writes that according to Leah's sister, Rhonda Kelly, Churchill also tried to push Leah out of a moving car. Crowell reports that Rhonda also said that Churchill tried to push his first wife, Dora Lee Larson, out of a moving car, too.

Really, Ward Churchill just likes hurting human beings.

Litvinenko Poisoning Reportedly Orchestrated by Putin's State Security Services

Picture credit

International media are now reporting that the Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London's Millennium Hotel by drinking polonium-laced tea from a hotel teapot.

British officials say that Litvinenko, a vocal critic of the Kremlin's policies in Chechnya, was the victim of a botched state-sponsored assassination orchestrated by the Russian security services. Other critics of Putin's brutal policies in Chechnya have been murdered in Russia, too.

The Russians have refused to extradite the suspected killers, so the British are probably going to make their case against the Russian State Security in the court of public opinion. Their Health Protection Agency is probably going to lay-out the case against the Kremlin in March and has issued a press release about an upcoming conference.

Some bloggers have claimed that the highly-radioactive teapot may have been planted later to mislead investigators into believing that Litvinenko's death was an assassination instead of a case of a polonium-smuggling conspiracy-for-profit gone wrong. The bloggers who contend that this was a case of smuggling note that the teapot was far more radioactive than the cup Litvinenko used to drink his tea and therefore could not have been the source of Litvinenko's fatal poisoning.

These bloggers are assuming the tea in the pot was poured directly into Litvinenko's cup, but this is not how Russians typically prepare tea; and the tea was reportedly made by a Russian named Vladislav who used a kettle of water in the hotel room to make tea.

Russians make a very strong brewed tea concentrate called zavarka. They pour a few tablespoons of zavarka into their teacup and then fill the cup with plain boiling water, called kipyatok. [See the note, below for more details.]

This Russian method of brewing tea may explain why the teapot was much more contaminated with radioactivity than the cup Litvinenko drank from.

I think that the British authorities are going to reveal their case to the whole world pretty soon. Scotland Yard, MI5, MI6, and the American government are all working on this case together.

I have written about this polonium poisoning and about the murder of Anna Politkovskaya and others on this blog. Readers can search my blog for "polonium" and for "Politkovskaya." According to some reports, Litvinenko was investigating Politkovskaya's murder.

NOTE: Russians sometimes let this concentrated brew, the zavarka, sit around in a teapot for a long time because the Russian tea doesn’t get bitter when it sits in the pot a long time. I suppose the zavarka could even be carried around.

This site has a description of how the zavarka is made, kept, and used :

A small pot, such as the one seen atop many samovars, is used to produce zavarka. This is the dark, concentrated brew. A considerable quantity of tea leaves are placed in this small pot along with boiling water. The minimum brewing time is 5 minutes with zavarka being used throughout the day and even the following morning for breakfast. When someone wants a cup, a small amount of zavarka is poured into their cup with a greater quantity of hot water to dilute the brew.

The type of tea used is important. If you used English tea for this procedure, it would become quite bitter if left to stand for several hours. A dark loose tea from India, or a Chinese black tea such as Keemun, coupled with a natural herbal or fruited tea is my favorite. Another favorite is Russian Caravan. This is a blend of Indian black teas with a slightly smoky flavor.

Jane Fonda, an American Traitor


Picture credit

November 22, 1970 -- During a fund-raising tour for GI deserters, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Black Panthers, Jane Fonda is quoted in the Detroit Free Press as telling a University of Michigan audience, "I would think that if you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would someday become communist.....

The peace proposal of the VietCong is the only honorable, just, possible way to achieve peace in Vietnam."---Jane Fonda

Check out "Hanoi Jane" Fonda on TV today. She shot her stupid, evil, traitorous mouth off at an "anti-war" march for "peace" yesterday in Washington D.C.

She said she had not been to an anti-war march for 35 years because she was "afraid of the lies" spread about her.

She means that she is ashamed of the truth: Hanoi Jane has never been a "peace" activist; she has always been a war activist; she just wants the other side to win. Fonda is a dispicable traitor and a coward. I hate her.

Jane Fonda is a dirty traitor who went over to the enemy and gave them propaganda right in their own country.

She should have been arrested for treason. This site tells what she did and even publishes the speech she gave in Hanoi. Apparently, she hasn't gotten any smarter.

It is one thing to oppose American policies; it is quite another to go to a communist country where people can't vote for their leaders and criticize America.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Meet CU Boulder's "Bobok"--Benjamin Whitmer!

Picture credit

"Depravity in such a place, depravity of the last aspirations, depravity of sodden and rotten corpses - and not even sparing the last moments of consciousness! Those moments have been granted, vouchsafed to them, and ... and, worst of all, in such a place!"--the narrator of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's short story "Bobok"
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's surreal short story "Bobkok" ("Little Bean") is about an unstable, failed writer who visits a cemetery and "hears" the voices of recently buried people talking to each other.
Although these people have already died, it seems that they might have a brief time even after death to consider their souls; but the deceased are full of stupidity and pettiness even beyond the grave. They have no thought at all for their souls, even though they have just died!
When I read Benjamin Whitmer's nasty blog Tryworks, the posters remind me of the voices that Dostoyevsky's narrator "hears" from beyond the grave.
Whitmer has now been exposed as the nasty poster known as "Moredock" on the Tryworks. But he still is nasty. He isn't a bit ashamed to be the toadie for a con-man like Ward Churchill. Whitmer is still croaking, "bobok, bobok, bobok."
As the narrator of "Bobok" remarks, "To begin with the smell."

Thursday, January 25, 2007

What is it? A bird? A plane? No, it's Ginger's dress!

Bird Friday!
Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in HIGH HEELS!

Picture Credit and "Reel Classics" film site

Feathers -- I hate feathers --

And I hate them so that I can hardly speak,

And I never find the happiness I seek

With those chicken feathers dancing cheek to cheek!

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Ward Churchill's Late Wife, Leah Kelly

Picture credit and Rocky Mountain News (6-8-05) story about the late Leah Kelly, the third wife of Professor Ward Churchill.

Here is an interview that researcher Grant Crowell did with Leah's sister, Rhonda Kelly. The Kelly family are Indians from Canada.

Here is Professor Ward Churchill's self-serving rationalization about why he abused his wife Leah.

Here is a Denver Post (2-13-05) account of Leah's death.

Professor Benjamin Whitmer of the University of Colorado at Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies disparages Leah's sister Rhonda as a "loony" because she said that Ward Churchill tried to push her sister Leah out of a moving car. Rhonda also said that Churchill tried to push his first wife out of a moving car." I think that Whitmer's remarks are nothing but prejudice; they certainly aren't backed up by any research.

Whitmer has no basis for calling Rhonda Kelly a loony. I think that Professor Whitmer just parrots what the disgraced Plargarist of Ethnic Studies, Ward Churchill, says. Probably Churchill hired him, and he is afraid of losing his job if Churchill is fired.

It seems to me that these white, leftist, CU Ethnic Studies professors aren't happy if they can't script what Indian women say. Their behavior reminds me a lot of the party line taken my the Maoist organization MIM, which tirelessly defends Ward Churchill:

"MIM would only see importance in ...a struggle to resuscitate [First Nations] culture if it opposed imperialism........A national struggle that advances the fight against imperialism is positive. Preserving culture for its own sake is not part of the Marxist agenda. Whatever resources the tribes can wrest away from imperialism they should take." ["Resolutions on Cross-Cultural Breeding" 2004]

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Rocky Scores a Touchdown!

Picture Credit

Today, Vincent Carroll, the editorial page editor of the Rocky Mountain News, called the University of Colorado's Ethnic Studies Department an "intellectual slum":

RESURRECTING THE VENOM

Would it surprise you to learn that the founder of a viciously abusive Web site is a part-time instructor in CU's ethnic studies department? I didn't think so.

Suffice it to say that Benjamin Whitmer, like the academic hero he defends and apes (you know who I mean), has a weakness for fantasized violence. Here, for example, is a post on his site from last year, targeting, as it happens, me: "F--- him with every ghastly medieval torture device known to humankind. . . . Had we our way, we'd stake his lower intestine to the ground and make the motherf----- take a half-mile walk."

Whitmer shut down the site (whose name I won't give him the satisfaction of printing) when Ward Churchill critic Grant Crowell exposed his identity in December. But after expunging the offensive content under the excuse of protecting the identities of other contributors, Whitmer resurrected his creation this month.

"We were a satire site," is how he explains the ugly content he pulled down, proving that his honesty may rival that of his idol.

Oddballs with violent imaginations and an inability to engage in serious debate may be a dime a dozen, but most of us like to assume they will not be rewarded with jobs lecturing at public universities. But then most of us never imagined the sort of intellectual slum that CU's Ethnic Studies Department turned out to be, either.

Non-Tenured Position Opening Up in Lakewood, Colorado!

Picture credit

University of Colorado's embattled Professor Ward Churchill has finally slipped on a big bananna peel; his gig as Indian impersonator and tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies is rapidly drawing to a close; but the word on the street is that Denver's fun "Casa Bonita" restaurant is currently accepting applications for a new "Chiquita the angry gorilla."

Wardo should really consider submitting his resume and an application. He wouldn't be able to impersonate an angry Indian, of course; but he could impersonate an angry gorilla and beat his chest. He would still get to wear a costume, perform before a (much larger) audience, and act outrageously. No word yet on tenure.

Ward Kindermord's Modest Proposal for Making American Children Benefit Our Planet!

Picture credit and interesting film site.
Another interesting film site

"Every yuppie born counts as much as another seventy Chinese...Lay that one on the next soccer mom who approaches you with a baby stroller and an outraged look, demanding that you to put your cigarette out, eh? It is plainly absurd for any American to complain about smoking when you consider the context of the damage done by overall U.S. consumption patterns. "Tell ’em you’ll put the butt out when they snuff the kid and not a moment before. Better yet, tell ’em they should snuff themselves, as well as the kid, and do the planet a real favor. Just 'kidding' (heh-heh)."---Ward Churchill

[More about Wardo's "modest proposal" here.]

Professor Churchill doesn't only advocate interfamiliar violence, he let slip that he practices what he preaches in his own family. He researched, wrote, and footnoted an essay in which he admitted that he assaulted his young Indian wife, Leah. He claimed that Leah had been turned into an alcoholic by the repressive white culture, but the copious footnotes are nothing but a smokescreen; Churchill is the only white man who hurt Leah:

"I broke and slammed [my wife] back against our bedroom wall, telling her that if she kept it up, she’d be apt to land in a hospital."---Ward Churchill

[More "scholarly" thoughts about how to handle young wives here.]

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Does Wardo Possess Oracular Superpowers, or Is He Just Possessed? Inquiring Minds Want to Know!


Picture credit and mythology site

After his wife died, Professor Ward Churchill reportedly tried to convince his wife's family to visit a clairvoyant who might be able to contact his wife Leah from beyond the grave. This reportedly made his sister-in-law Rhonda Kelly very angry. [I read this, but have lost the quote. I will document this when I find the source.]

Above is a picture of an ancient clairvoyant, the famous Pythia, or Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. The Pythia was a middle-aged woman. Ancient Greeks would bring her a goat and ask her important questions of state because the god Apollo spoke through her. The Pythia would often answer the supplicants' questions ambiguously.

In the picture above, a supplicant is having an audience with the Pythia, who is seated on the left.

According to the legend, the god Apollo always spoke the truth, but sometimes arrogant people acted rashly based on their misreading the Pythia's response. She got their goat in more ways than one!

The Pythia could even predict the future, although sometimes supplicants misinterpreted the clairvoyant's prophesies.

Let's face it; telling the truth has not been Wardo's strong suit. He has been found guilty of research misconduct by an investigation at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

But perhaps a plausable case might still be cobbled together for Wardo's prophetic superpowers. If you go to his famous 9-11 essay, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," Wardo divines that in 1996 Madeleine Albright "responded" to the 1998 remarks of a UN official named Denis Halliday!.....Hmmmm....I guess I am not convinced that Wardo was channeling Madeleine Albright. (1)

Still, even though all his balloons have been punctured, it seems that See-Through Boulder's most infamous gasbag, the prophetic Wardo, continues to inspire followers, of sorts. Or hats (scroll down).

Piece of Work Cited

(1) Wardo might have gotten his wires crossed; perhaps he was inadvertently channeling “comrade academician doctor engineer Elena Ceausescu, brilliant politician and patriotic scholar of broad international renown"? Hey, anyone can make a mistake! As Wardo would say, "So, I glad-handed things a bit. Mea culpa."

The Hutch That Chutch Built!


Picture Credit and link to Gutenberg's Ebook fairy tale The House That Jack Built.

Mr. Paine of PirateBallerina suspects that the name Faith Attaguile (1) may actually be a pseudonym for Boulder's disgraced University of Colorado professor Ward "Chutch" Churchill. Back in November, Mr. Paine observed:

CNews 14November06
From our We Knew We'd Heard That Name Somewhere Before department: The first signature listed on the recent Resolution published on the Ward Churchill Solidarity Network is Faith Attaguile, which we now recall is the same name as the contributing editor to the Dark Night field notes and ostensible author of "Why Do You Think We Call It Struggle?" The "Struggle" essay, as we commented over a year ago, reads very much like a Ward Churchill screed, which leads us to wonder if "Faith Attaguile" might have chaired the Ethnic Studies department at CU a year or so ago, perhaps under a different name....

In any case, here's a review "Faith Attaguile" wrote of Churchill's booklength version of On The Justice of Roosting Chickens back in 2004. Odd, but with a couple of exceptions, "Faith Attaguile" has confined her literary output over the years to the defense or review of Ward Churchill's platform. Quite focused, for a "contributing editor."

Incidentally, back in 1998, "Attaguile" formed Dark Night Press in Rancho Santa Fe, California as a nonprofit publisher. Browsing the Dark Night Press website, we encountered the name of Nick Cheung, who appears to have been the designer of the Dark Night Press website, and we wondered if Nick is any relation to Michele Cheung, another signatory to the Resolution, who once interviewed James Craven, yet another Resolution signatory, for Dark Night Press; Craven once transcribed a speech on residential schools by Roland Chrisjohn, still another Resolution signer, who wrote an article on residential schools for Dark Night Press, which also published "The Kingdom of Hawai'i Declaration of Independence" (subtitled "The Kingdom of Hawai’i Nou Ke Akua Ke Aupuni O’ Hawai’i Announces Secession From the United States of America"); coincidentally, Resolution signatory Haunani Kay Trask claims she is a member of the Kanaka Maoli (Hawaii's indigenents), in whose name the "Declaration of Independence" was made.

It's a small world, after all.

(1) Mr. Paine also observed on March 19, 2005:

The article, "Why do you think we call it struggle?" is ostensibly by Faith Attaguile, contributing editor, Dark Night field notes, but its copious footnotes and apparent complete access to Churchill's personal files suggest strongly that if Churchill himself didn't author the article, he had a great deal of input into its writing; for example, the 15,000 word document (about 40 pages) has 180 footnotes--a signature (though not unique) mark of Churchill's writing. Additionally, Churchill is a co-founder of COAIM, and a frequent contributor to its web-pages."

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Afghan Governor Claims Taliban Spokesman Mohammad Hanif Arrested with Anthrax

Here is a story to watch, but so far the evidence is skimpy.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports via AFP:

January 17, 2007 -- An Afghan governor today showed the media photographs of arrested Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif, claiming he had been picked up in a house containing packets of anthrax powder.

Gul Aghar Sherzai, governor of Nangarhar Province, where Hanif
was arrested late on January 15, did not say how it had been proven the powder was the deadly anthrax bacteria or what quantity had been found.

Intelligence officials and police did not confirm the discovery of anthrax.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Bird Friday! Wat is datt denn?

Thursday, January 18, 2007

They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus!

...But ho, ho, ho! Who's got the last laugh now?

Picture credit and a short victory jig!

According to ZNet, Professor Ward Churchill's final dismissal hearing at CU Boulder appears to be over.

ZNet is talking smack, but I suspect that Churchill is about to go down in flames:

Dismissal hearings for University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill were held this past week. Ward Churchill appeared before the Privilege and Tenure Committee with many witnesses speaking in his behalf. The committee will have 30 days to issue its findings to CU president Hank Brown. Brown will weigh the findings and make a recommendation to the Board of Regents.

Opposition to his dismissal is growing on campuses across the country. The firing of Churchill, a tenured professor and former head of the Ethnic Studies Department at UC Boulder, is increasingly being seen by those in academia as an attack on academic freedom, dissent and critical thinking that must be stopped.

Heeeere's Benji!

Picture credit

A Colorado magazine called Westword has now written about the blog Tryworks, which employed physical threats and sexual humiliation instead of scholarly argument in a puerile effort to intimidate the critics of disgraced CU Professor Ward Churchill. Tryworks only succeeded in making Ward Churchill look ridiculous.

The Tryworks blogger known as "Moredock" turns out to have been CU Boulder professor and Ward Churchill sockpuppet, Benjamin Whitmer. Like his master, Professor Whitmer was a serial miscalculator.

The Drunkablog disects the Westword article here.

Update #1 Westword has a blog entry that describes Grant Crowell's debate with "Moredock"/Whitmer.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

The Grassy Knoll

The Greek philosophers in Dante's Divine Comedy lived in a walled garden in the first circle of Hell (Limbo). They couldn't enter heaven, but had a relative freedom in the heart of Hell. Wikipedia explains:

"They are not punished in an active sense, but rather grieve only their separation from God, without hope of reconciliation. The chief irony in this circle is that Limbo shares many characteristics with Elysian Fields, thus the guiltless damned are punished by living in their deficient form of heaven. Their fault was that they lacked faith —— the hope for something greater than rational minds can conceive. Limbo includes green fields and a castle..."

MUCH madness is divinest sense

To a discerning eye;

Much sense the starkest madness.

’T is the majority

In this, as all, prevails.

Assent, and you are sane;

Demur,—you ’re straightway dangerous,

And handled with a chain.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Undercover Video of Radical American Muslim Preaching in England!

Here are some disturbing undercover videos posted on the Little Green Footballs site. They are taken from a British documentary called Dispatches: Undercover Mosque.

A reporter went undercover and took these videos of Muslim sermons given in the Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham, England and in the Regent's Park Mosque in London. One of the main clerics in Birmingham was a black American, not an Arab.

I like to have respect for all genuinely spiritual people, but what is being taught in this mosque is just disgusting. Worshippers are taught to hit women and children, to throw homosexuals off mountains, to stab people with needles, and many other cruel practices.

Women are described as "deficient" because of their hormones. The preacher says that women should not be able to leave the house without the man's permission and that girls can be married before puberty.

The clergy preach against democracy and tolerance.

Second Trimester Triplets in Their Mother's Womb!

Picture credit and article

Aren't these beautiful little angels? Here is a site that has lyrics and music for children's songs.

"All Through the Night."

Sleep, my child, and peace attend thee,

All through the night;

Guardian angels God will send thee,

All through the night;

Soft the drowsy hours are creeping,

Hill and vale in slumber sleeping,

I my loving vigil keeping,

All through the night.

While the moon her watch is keeping,

All through the night;

While the weary world is sleeping,

All through the night;

O'er thy spirit gently stealing,

Visions of delight revealing,

Breathes a pure and holy feeling,

All through the night.

Hark, a solemn bell is ringing,

Clear through the night;

You, my love, are heav'nward winging,

Home through the night.

Earthly dust from off thee shaken,

By good angels art thou taken;

Soul immortal shalt thou waken,

Home through the night.

Mr. Toad's Wild Rider!

Picture Credit

For absolutely no reason at all, I've decided that Tuesday is "Toadie Day." This toadie is serving as a rickshaw to keep this little rat out of deep water. I haven't quite figured out what the toadie gets out of the deal.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Ward Churchill Calls New School's President Robert Kerrey a "Mass Murderer and Serial Killer"!

The New York Sun (12-12-06) reports that Professor Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado at Boulder called the president of the New York City's New School, Robert Kerrey, a "mass murder and serial killer" for his Vietnam military service.

The students cheered when Mr. Churchill likened President Kerrey to the serial killer Charles Manson:

"That's who you've got moral equivalency in the president's chair at this institution...How about a cage rather than a president's suite?"

A New School student organizaton called the Women of Color invited Churchill to speak. Perhaps they have not heard that Churchill is a white man who abuses women of color. It is hard to believe that women of color want to be stupid little puppets for some violent white man who, even by his own admission, abused his own Indian wife.

It is even alleged that Professor Churchill tried to push his first and third wife out of a moving car!

Grant Crowell's Videos Expose Ward Churchill's Hypocrisy on the Issue of First Amendment Rights!

This link will take readers to You Tube videos made by Grant Crowell.

Mr. Crowell explains in four self-interviews that he decided to take on CU Boulder Professor Ward Churchill after Churchill told a crowd of people that it would be a "good thing" if Grant were executed, dismembered, and creamated like some NAZI cartoonist [Crowell self-interview #2].

Churchill frequently characterizes people who oppose his views as Nazis.

Grant says that Churchill is only interested in free speech for himself, but wants to intimidate others from having free speech.

Churchill argues that the 9th Amendment should prevent Americans from celebrating Columbus Day. In two videos, Mr. Crowell interviews four law professors who dispute Churchill's interpretation.

Mr. Crowell's Churchill-related videos go onto a second page. Right now, there are twelve videos.

Churchill is probably about be fired from the University of Colorado at Boulder for research misconduct, but he is trying to claim that he is being fired for his ideas and that CU is violating his free speech. In fact, he is being fired because of his plagiarism and dishonest scholarship.

Here is CU's Churchill Page. Official decisions about his Research Misconduct inquiry are posted on this site.

Chris Wallace Interviews Vice President Cheney (1-14-07)

White House Photo

Here are some excerpts of a 1-14-07 FOX NEWS interview with the Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney.

The Vice President discussed how the terrorists hope to break our will.

He responded to an article in the The New York Times about domestic intelligence gathering by the Pentagon and CIA.

Chris Wallace mentioned that the Vice President's former Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, goes on trial this week.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Polls change day by day, week by week. I think the vast majority of Americans want the right outcome in Iraq. The challenge for us is to be able to provide that. But you cannot simply stick your finger into the wind and say, gee, public opinion is against, we better quit. That is part and parcel of the underlying fundamental strategy that our adversaries believe afflicts the United States. They are convinced that the current debate in the Congress, that the election campaign last fall, all of that is evidence that they're right when they say the United States doesn't have the stomach for the fight in this long war against terror. They believe it. They look at past evidence of it and Lebanon in '83 and Somalia in '93, Vietnam before that. They're convinced that the United States will, in fact, pack it in and go home if they just kill enough of us. They can't beat us in the stand-up fight but they think they can break our will. And if we have a President who looks at the polls and sees the polls going south and concludes, oh, my goodness, we have to quit, all it will do is validate the al Qaeda view of the world. It's exactly the wrong thing to do. This President does not make policy based on public opinion polls. He should not. It's absolutely essential here that we get it right...

Q There's a report in The New York Times today that's been confirmed by administration officials the Pentagon and CIA have been obtaining financial records about hundreds of Americans suspected of involvement in either terrorism or espionage. Why involve the CIA and the Pentagon in domestic intelligence gathering?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, remember what these issues are. This is the question, as I understand it, of national security letters that allow us to collect financial information, for example, on suspected -- on people we have reason to suspect. The Defense Department gets involved because we've got hundreds of bases inside the United States that are potential terrorist targets. We've got hundreds of thousands of people, innocent Americans --

Q Why not let the FBI do that, sir?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: They can do a certain amount of it and they do. But the Department of Defense has a legitimate authority in this area. This is an authority that goes back three or four decades. It was reaffirmed in the Patriot Act that was renewed here about a year or so ago. It's a perfectly legitimate activity. There's nothing wrong with it or illegal. It doesn't violate people's civil rights. And if an institution that receives one of these national security letters disagrees with it, they're free to go to court to try to stop its execution. So there's -- this is a dramatic story, but I think it's important for people to understand here this is a legitimate security effort that's been underway for a long time and it does not represent a new departure from the standpoint of our efforts to protect ourselves against terrorist attack.

Q Your former Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, goes on trial this coming week on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury. As I mentioned to Mrs. Cheney when she was here a few weeks ago, I happened to notice that you invited Mr. Libby to your Christmas party, which you also invited me to. Given his legal troubles, why?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Why what?

Q Why invite him to your party?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: He's a friend. He's a good man. He is one of the finest individuals I've ever known. And I did invite him to the Christmas party. The last two years he's been at our Christmas party. And before that, he was working for me.

Q Was he honest?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I believe he's one of the more honest men I know. He's a good man. And I obviously appreciate very much his service on my staff over the years and have very high regard for him and his family.

Q Libby's lawyers say they're going to call you as a witness, and we've had presidential scholars covering it. It appears it may be the first time ever that a sitting Vice President has testified in a criminal trial. Will you participate in a videotaped deposition or will you go into court and raise your right hand?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Chris, I'm not going to get into the trial. That's a matter that's before us. I have indicated from the very beginning my wholehearted cooperation with the investigation and with whatever legal proceedings emerge out of that, and this will all unfold here in the very near future.

Q Do you have any problem going into open court, sir?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'm going to leave it where it's at. I'm not going to comment on the trial itself.

Q Now that it turns out that Libby wasn't the one who first leaked the name of Valerie Plame, what do you think of the one that he's the only one who's being prosecuted in this case?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I have strong views on the subject, but I'm not going to talk about it.

Q Let me ask you, because your wife, when she was on, and let's put it up on the screen, said, "It's bizarre and does not reflect well on our judicial system."

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'm not going to talk about it.

Q Do you agree with your wife?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'm not going to talk about it, Chris. I have strong feelings on the subject. I am likely to be a witness in this trial. It would be inappropriate for me at this point, shortly before the trial begins, to enter into a public dialogue with you about my views on --

Q But there's nothing that you have heard, nothing that you have read that shakes your confidence in Scooter Libby's integrity?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's correct.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Surprise! Benjamin Whitmer Uncritically Accepts Ward Churchill's Word that Rhonda Kelly Is a "Loony"!


Photo of the Kelly family; Rhonda is standing on right
Picture credit and Rocky Mountain News Article (6-8-05)

"Hell, [Canadian Indian Rhonda Kelly] might’ve said it, but that doesn’t mean anything. She’s a loony..."----Professor Benjamin Whitmer, University of Colorado, Boulder

Commenter Grant Crowell, who researches CU Boulder's disgraced professor Ward Churchill, alleged on the pro-Churchill blog Tryworks that Professor Ward Churchill tried to push two former wives out of a moving car on separate occasions:

"Rhonda Kelly...mentioned that Ward Churchill tried to push her sister and Ward’s deceased wife, Leah Kelly, from a moving car. Rhonda also claimed that Ward did this to his first wife as well." ["Grant Crowell" 1-10-07 comment to "Stepping off the Deep End"]

Tryworks moderator and Ward Churchill apologist, Benjamin Whitmer, responded to "Grant Crowell's" accusation dismissively:

"Hell, [Rhonda Kelly] might’ve said it, but that doesn’t mean anything. She’s a loony in-law who hates Churchill.....there’s no corroboration, just her word?" ["Stepping off the Deep End," 1-8-07].

Mr. Whitmer says there is no corroboration except Rhonda Kelly's word, but he uncritically accepts Professor Churchill's uncorroborated word that Rhonda is "loony." That is called bias, not scholarship.

Mr. Whitmer might be skeptical if the testimony of Churchill's "loony" Indian relatives were indeed uncorroborated, but an honest, unbiased scholar who wanted to uncover the truth could ask Churchill's first wife, Dora Lee Larson, if he tried to push her out of a moving car, and he could see if there is a court record. When she divorced Churchill, Larson asked that her address be secret because of "violence and threats" from Churchill.

And then there there is the best corroboration of all: the written, published evidence from Churchill himself admitting that he assaulted his wife, Leah: "I broke and slammed [my wife] back against our bedroom wall, telling her that if she kept it up, she’d be apt to land in a hospital." [Churchill claims she was attacking him.]

Leah Kelly died on May 31, 2000, when she was run over by a car near her home. Leah Kelly had a blood-alcohol content of 0.35 percent when the driver ran over her. According to the Denver Post, "the driver said she was lying in the road and he had no time to stop." [A fuller discussion of Leah's life and death can be found here.]

In his published writing, Churchill has also "jokingly" advocated inter-familial violence as a means of saving the earth.

If Mr. Whitmer were a real scholar of Ethnic Studies who tried to make sure Indian voices were heard instead of a despicable apologist for a white con-man who exploits, threatens, and muzzles Indians, he would not falsely disparage Rhonda Kelly's testimony as "uncorroborated."

Mr. Whitmer has Internet access to Churchill's creepy published testimony about how he "broke" and threw his wife into a wall.

The thuggish Professor Churchill once even made a sick "joke" in I Am Indigenist: Notes on the Ideology of the Fourth World about "snuffing" American children and their yuppie mothers:

"Every yuppie born counts as much as another seventy Chinese...Lay that one on the next soccer mom who approaches you with a baby stroller and an outraged look, demanding that you to put your cigarette out, eh? It is plainly absurd for any American to complain about smoking when you consider the context of the damage done by overall U.S. consumption patterns. Tell ’em you’ll put the butt out when they snuff the kid and not a moment before. Better yet, tell ’em they should snuff themselves, as well as the kid, and do the planet a real favor. Just “kidding” (heh-heh)."

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Rajaa al-Sanei's "The Girls of Riyadh: a Novel"

Picture Credit

Rajaa al-Sanei's new book, The Girls of Riyadh: A Novel, tells the story of the lives of four upperclass girlfriends in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The novel "speaks openly of sex, lesbianism and young women's desire to lead freer lives" [BBC].

Author Rajaa al-Sanei is a 24-year-old woman dentist from Saudi Arabia. Her work was legally published in that country, even though it infuriated religious conservatives.

Surprisingly, the Minister of Labour Dr. Ghazi al Gosaibi, endorsed the novel right on the cover:

“This work is worthy of being read. The novelist is very promising...Rajaa al Sanea embarked on a great adventure that reveals the exciting world of young women in Riyadh...When the curtain is removed, the scene is exposed to us with all its funny and sad elements, with all the details unknown to those outside this enchanted world.” ” [Asharq Al Aswat].

In one episode, two of the novel's heroines dress up as young men so that they can go out in society. Their first stop is a famous coffeeshop. Boys stand in the street and hold up signs with their cell-phone numbers so that passing cars with girls in them can write down their numbers.

The novel is written as a series of e-mails from the narrator's internet group to her subscribers, mixes classical and colloquial Arabic, and uses the informal writing style typical of Internet forums. Here is a review of the novel in Asharq Al-Awsat.

The BBC's Heba Saleh has an interesting review of the book and observes:

Conservatives say the novel smears Saudi society. But the Minister of Culture, Iyad Madani, says it reflects the way many young people in the Kingdom actually live.

"It connected with the new generation because it was based on how our young people use their mobile phones to create relationships."


The comments that follow the BBC article are also interesting.
One woman wrote, "Rajaa is great, i have so much respect for her, she told the truth in a very loving manner to her country."

I think it is easier for people to be more accepting of social change when difficult truths are told in a loving manner and with some humor. I am very excited about reading this new book from Saudi Arabia.

The story is summarized on this website:

An unknown girl in her early twenties decides to narrate the story of her friends. She is like a modern Scheherazade that narrates these stories every weekend. Her motivation is to revenge the tyranny of life and the society against her friends. Each chapter in the novel starts with a piece of poetry, a verse from the Quran, or lyrics from a famous song that captured the idea of the chapter.

The narrator sends e-mails from her internet group to the subscribers. Those e-mails as the narrator forecasts in the novel stir the media especially popular newspapers in Saudi like Al-Riyadh, Al-Watan and Al-Jazeerah...[continue]

Santa in Algeria!


Picture of Tizi Ouzou

On December 24, 2006, an Algerian newspaper published an op-ed complaining indignantly about the "Christianization" of Tizi Ouzou, a Berber town in Algeria. In recent years, there have been tensions between non-Arabized Algerian Berbers and the central government.

Here are some excerpts of the Algerian article as translated by MEMRI, [links are mine] but the full article is worth reading for the entire picture:

"We couldn’t believe what our eyes saw as we roamed the streets of Tizi Ouzo [in the Algerian Berber region of Kabylie]. If it were not for this photo caught by our camera [of Santa in a sleigh pulled by goats], we would have said we were lying, and you would have said we were lying as well - and rightfully so.

"'Santa Claus' came down to the streets of Tizi Ouzo, without asking permission, and here he is… making the rounds gleefully in his carriage full of bells, attracting people who are weak in their faith and distributing 'presents' to them in the name of the Lord 'Jesus.' All this happens without anyone saying anything or raising any objection, from the Ministry of Religious Affairs to the last of those authorities who are zealous for Islam.


"Whoever walks through the streets of the Tizi Ouzo district these days will run up against the strange cultural turning away from Islamic principles, in that the city's streets show the distinctive signs of the Christian New Year holiday. This phenomenon is not limited to the Tizi Ouzo district, but [also] encompasses some of the country's major districts, and is expressed in what we see - namely, that the preparations for celebrating this occasion are comparable [in scope] to the preparations for [Islamic] religious or national celebrations, sometimes even outdoing them.


"Anyone who wanders among the food shops in this city will notice that they are devoting themselves to making Christmas cakes… The owner of one of the shops told us that on the eve of the holiday, the demand for these cakes exceeded the supply, despite their high price… He also said that sometimes, the lines of citizens who won't do without these cakes even reach outside the shop. This reflects the devotion of some residents of this region to this occasion [i.e. Christmas]. In addition, the streets of Tizi Ouzo are not without stores selling Christmas trees…"

Friday, January 12, 2007

The Sirens!


"The SIRENS, they say, had maidens' features, but from the thighs down they had the forms of birds. One of them played the lyre, another sang, and another played the flute. By these means, and by clever, knavish, and deceitful words, they persuaded passing mariners to linger, thus causing their destruction. That is why the island where they lived was full of the bones of those who had perished."

Picture credit and Greek Mythology Link