Some Would Call It Treason?

None Dare Call It Treason:

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/526

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I think we have been there and seen it all before -- the concerted attacks on the 'academic elite' sponsored by such as the John Birch Society in the 1950s and 1960s. At least that attack was redirected from the pre-WW2 targeted enemies -- Catholics and Jews -- by their earlier prototypes -- the America Firsters, corporate types and others such as our American hero, Charles A. Lindbergh, who greatly admired Hitler and urged us -- until December 7, 1941 -- to let him do his thing.

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Professors' Politics Draw Lawmakers Into the Fray
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
In Pennsylvania, lawmakers are examining whether the political climate at 18 state-run schools requires legislation to ban bias.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/25/national/25bias.html?th&emc=th

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Officials Want to Expand Review of Domestic Spying
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Congressional officials want to investigate the disclosure that the National Security Agency had gained access to some of the country's main telephone arteries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/25/politics/25wiretap.html?th&emc=th

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I suppose such wanna be authoritarians are part of the human political game. It is sad to see it crop up periodically in the U.S. But that is what free speech is all about. Check them out -- there are many more web sources for each of the above. I have previously commented on the David Horowitz hits which I find equally despicable.

Needless to say teachers who plumb contemporary social/political/economic matters have faced a long history of charges -- "zealot" in the instance of the man whom we honor this day and corrupter of youth and proponent of impiety towards the gods by Socrates. There were some real hazards for those who challenged the established orders in those days. Fortunately we Americans are protected by a Constitution in which free speech and due process are enshrined.

But beware those who periodically would sabotage those protections of human rights in democratic societies. They are always lurking at the gates and will do whatever they can -- fair or foul -- to worm their way to power.
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Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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