[Buddha-l] Re: Greetings from Oviedo

[Lawrence K. Starner]

Where's the Buddhist content in this other than a trivial line at the end?

-- Larry Starner

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
> [mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com]On Behalf Of Richard P. Hayes
> Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2005 6:40 PM
> To: Buddhist discussion forum
> Subject: [Buddha-l] Re: Greetings from Oviedo
>
>
> On Wed, 2005-10-05 at 20:24 +0200, Joy Vriens wrote:
>
> > You can't be serious! He must be recording it on an MP3 player
> for notes...
> > Please tell me this is irony!
>
> Yes, it was a half-serious joke, a sort of mock paranoia. The background
> of it is that there is a well-known right-wing talk show host in the USA
> named Sean Hannity who has encouraged students to report professors who
> are too liberal, and he has said on the air that students should record
> what their overly liberal professors are saying so that they can use it
> as evidence of their professor's liberal bias.
>
> Also there is a website called www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org that
> is advocating a Students Bill of Rights, which would guarantee that
> every student be allowed to hear what they call "dissenting views". The
> subtext is the claim that the overwhelming majority of professors are
> social and political liberals, that liberals are intolerant of any kind
> of disagreement with their positions and that students who hold
> conservative views are in serious danger of failing their classes if
> they dare to state their real opinions about things.
>
> I have seen it said specifically about my university that 83% of all
> professors whose political affiliations are known are registered
> Democrats, 11% are registered Republicans and 6% are Green or
> independents. It is also reported that over 50% of the departments on
> this campus do not have a single registered Republican, and that 100% of
> the Faculty of Law are registered Democrats. These statement are nearly
> meaningless, of course, because the vast majority of people do not make
> their political affiliation public knowledge. Nevertheless, the local
> chapter of college Republicans is making a great deal of noise about the
> "atmosphere of fear" that allegedly prevails in classrooms dominated by
> liberal professors and that Republican students are living in constant
> fear that if they let their views be known, they will be ridiculed in
> class, denied letters of recommendation, disqualified from scholarships,
> and prevented from getting jobs. There are editorials every week in the
> student newspaper complaining about the tyranny of liberal professors.
>
> One of my colleagues told a joke in his class, and a complaint was
> lodged against him. Here's the joke:
>
> \begin{joke}
> In a daily briefing in the White House, an aide reported to George Bush
> that three Brazilians had been killed in an accident. Bush grew quite
> alarmed and said "Oh my God, that's terrible." All his aides were
> surprised by the force of his consternation. Then Bush said "How many is
> a brazilian, anyway?"
> \end{joke}
>
> A stupid joke, no doubt. But worthy of being reported? You decide.
>
> In an atmosphere such as the one that is being created on some campuses
> in this country, it is of course a joke when I say that a student is
> pointing his cell phone at me so that Sean Hannity can hear me saying
> that Intelligent Design is not science and therefore should not be
> taught in a biology class. But like most jokes, it is funny partly
> because there is a recognizable grain of truth in it.
>
> Speaking of which, did you hear the one about the Buddhist at the hot
> dog stand?
>
> --
> My Unitarian Jihad Name (http://tinyurl.com/6valr ) is:
> The Logging Chain of Loving Kindness
> You can get your own at http://homepage.mac.com/whump/ujname.html
>
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