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.
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
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