Comments and analysis about the Duke/Nifong case (2006-2014).
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12 comments:
Notice he didn't say anything about protecting the academic freedom of the students paying Duke for their education or guarding said students against incursions upon their own essential academic freedom.
I can see Tom Segars arguing something along the lines of, "Shut up about the Constitution! That old rag gets suspended once they start paying us money to attend out college!"
Is Mr. Segars from Oceania?
Tom Segars engages in word noise.
"It is what I say it is and it isn't what I say it isn't and don't contradict me because I am the one to decide what is or is not true."
All along, the Duke administration,the Durham prosecutor's office, police, and courts have engaged in such word noise. One has to wonder how they can look themselves in the mirror - I guess the answer is that they don't.
cks
Notice the weasel qualifier "responsible": ". . . responsible academic freedom."
So whenever Duke wants to violate academic freedom, it rationalizes doing so by calling the act "irresponsible."
Duke Prof
Read the language of the statement carefully.
Duke only supports "responsible" academic freedom.
What-in-the-world is that?
Duke has made clear it reserves for itself the right to define what is "responsible". We have unfortunately now learned what that means.
Jim Peterson
It depends on what the definition of what the word "is" is. -William Jefferson Clinton, under oath. And he runs intellectual rings around any of these gentleman from Duke.
Pretty mind boggling. Was he paid to compose this bit of Orwellian incoherence?
Is Segars a Communist?
re: "Reasonable" academic freedom
No one could possibly support "unreasonable" academic freedom. Logically, then, no one should object to limiting academic freedom to "reasonable" academic freedom. Just like Duke University does.
In the same manner, and with the same logic, we and Duke could join together to support all kinds of "reasonable" behavior. Some examples that come to mind: "reasonable" racism; "reasonable" genocide; "reasonable" rape; "reasonable" murder. (How could you not wish to be "reasonable"?)
So, we see that Duke's sophistry is just a word trick.
I had a professor once who asked the class if you could have too much lettuce. A couple of students said they did not think so, probably contemplating the general healthfulness of lettuce in a diet.
But, as the professor noted, that was the wrong answer. Since it was logically possible to have "too much" of anything, then yes, it was possible to have "too much" lettuce.
The answer to the question was predetermined by the choice of words. That is what Duke has done. Its avowed fealty to "reasonable" academic freedom is thus utterly meaningless.
Jim Peterson
The blog comments need a "like" button, which I would have clicked for Jim's 3:53 comment.
Duke Prof
How about the freedom to receive medical, legal, and judicial services in Durham and at Duke free from cohersion and fear of having your life destroyed by them at their whim of what ever is making money, politics, publicity, and/or power and control of the minds of many to the benefit only of Duke and noone else so they can be number one always. Do they mention that?
Respectfully request that comment moderation be re-enabled for the good of the whole. ;>)
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