And then they came for the Dave Barry quotes…
Reason’s Hit and Run has a post up about how a “patently offensive” Dave Barry quote is no longer allowed on a PhD student’s office door at Marquette University. No surprises there: it’s a University. And as everyone who’s been following the Commentator for a past few years knows, words (and jokes in particular) are a potentially hurtful force in academia that must be vetted by secretly appointed committees before being uttered, posted, printed, or (if it were only possible,) thought.
But what I find funny is that the man leading the crusade against the posting of the heretical Barry quote, Philosophy Department Chair James B. South, is on the editorial board of Slayage: The International Online Journal of Buffy Studies. He even teaches a course for the honors program on Buffy. And people dare call Philosophy a “soft science”!
Anyway, the blasphemous Barry quote is after the jump. You know, to protect your tiny little brains from being polluted.
The offending Dave Barry quote:
As Americans we must always remember that we all have a common enemy, an enemy that is dangerous, powerful, and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government.
October 18th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
This is some sick Libertarian Party propoganda or something right?
I was under the impression that First Amendment jurisprudence has been particularly kind to office doors of university professors. Could be wrong though.
Either way, what a place to draw a line deliniating “protected speech” and “patently offensive speech.”
Yeesh
October 19th, 2006 at 10:10 am
Keep in mind this is Marquette University we’re talking about: “Marquette University is a place where much is expected from those who are given much — a place where you will be asked questions that don’t have easy answers. Where God is a part of the conversation.” Yes, where God is part of the conversation. Currently, they are conferring an honorary degree on the Ellen Johnson Sireaf, President of fucking Liberia. Apparently, Marquette is ranked as the 81st best university in the nation by U.S. News & World Reports (along with five others). Eat your fucking heart out, American University.
*UO is number 120, along with the University of Utah.