Yesterday, the Register Guard reported that former UO Psychology professor Deborah Frisch resigned from her post at the University of Arizona due to flak the school received after she posted a number of psychotic hostile ramblings to the blog www.proteinwisdom.com. What exactly did Frisch write? The Register Guard reports:

“You live in Colorado, I see. Hope no one Jon-Benets your baby … If some nutcase kidnapped your child tomorrow and did to her what was done to your fellow Coloradan, Jon-Benet Ramsey, I wouldn’t give a damn … If I woke up tomorrow and learned that someone else had shot you and your tyke, it wouldn’t slow me down one iota. You aren’t human to me.”

The Guard doesn’t bother to quote the rest of her post:

Give your pathetic progeny (I sure hope that mofo got good genes from his mama!) a big fat tongue-filled kiss from me! LOTS AND LOTS OF SALIVA from Auntie MOONBAT, if you don’t mind! …

I am SHAKING, I tell you, SHAKING!!! in my boots at the prosect at an FBI and/or state police trooper tromping down my driveway to see if I was a threat to the progeny of the pissant name of Jeff “pissant” Goldstein of the pathetic, neutered, sissified, state of Colorado. …

Wanna escalate this game. Fine wit me.

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Sure, they’ve sort of done it in the past with the Westmoreland story. But ODE Senior Photographer Kai-Huei Yau bucked the trend by posting content intended for tomorrow’s paper, *gasp*, today. Will Thursday’s Ol’ Dirty readership drop due to this breach of protocol? How will advertisers react? Has journalism itself been sullied by this act of Internet reporting? Finally, what do the SPJ guidelines have to say on the matter? The blogosphere is abuzz with questions!

But seriously, it’s a pretty funny little piece. And to the Emerald‘s credit, they’ve treated the recent day’s attention whoring in the EMU Amphitheatre with about the same level of respect that it deserves: none.

After the jump, I’m going to flog this dead horse a little more.

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More Insurgent in the press today:

The Register-Guard prints an opinion piece giving some praise to the Frohn for his handling of the situation thus far. I guess the choice quote is:

During the Muslim riots, critics never missed an opportunity to point out that such violence was virtually unthinkable in the Christian world, given Western traditions of religious pluralism and freedom of expression.

But the Muslim hysteria was designed to produce the same result as the pressure being applied to Frohnmayer by angry Christians: complete suppression of the offensive speech.

The Sunday Oregonian also printed a commentary about the Insurgent affair that has some decent background and mentions some of our contribution to the whole affair. Sadly, author Steve Duin doesn’t add much to the debate.

Aroused Jesus just can’t get no love. We’ve had Bill Donohue, aghast at his improbable bright red erection; we’ve had Bill O’Reilly go so far as to call for Frohnmayer’s head over the matter. Now we have an Action Alert! from – it was only a matter of time, really – the American Family Association.

There is a new angle here: the AFA is protesting the depiction of Jesus as a homosexual. (They also seem to be implying that the Jesus-on-cross-with-boner image falls into this category, which is baffling.) Money quote:

The Insurgent would never show a naked graphic of the Rev. Martin Luther King kissing another man, both sporting erections. But offending Christians was of no concern to the Insurgent or to University President Dave Frohmayer. [sic]

Thanks, American Family Association. Thanks for that image. I just snarfed my coffee.

Anyway, brace yourselves for another wave of incoherently angry protestors. Ain’t we got fun?

I pass this story along without comment.

(Hat tip: Tim Blair.)

The Commentator crowd will be convening at Rennie‘s at 5:00 to watch Tyler Graf defend free speech on The O’Reilly Factor. Advance word is that Billy is calling for Frohnmayer’s head. It’ll be a party– join us!

Also: due to this engagement, we may be a few minutes late for tonight’s 6:00 meeting. So if you’re showing up for that, just hang out– we’ll be back to the office soon.

ASUO Programs Administrator and Bureaucrat David Goward today announced that he has ruled against the “Students of Faith,” a group created “in response to the recent escalation of religious intolerance at the” UO. Their basic contention is that the Student Insurgent published images and articles which slandered Jesus Christ and that this somehow violates school policy. Goward rightly points out that the publication of offensive images does not affect any student’s educational or professional access:

The Student Insurgent did not practice discrimination. Although students may have been offended by the content, no privileges or opportunities were denied to any incidental fee paying student through the publication of the Student Insurgent. Nor did publication affect a student’s ability to practice her or his religion.

Goward also touches on Southworth:

Decisions regarding awarding incidental fee revenues to and use of incidental fees by student groups must be viewpoint neutral as cited in Soutworth v. University of Wisconsin “We conclude that the University of Wisconsin may sustain the extracurricular dimensions of its programs by using mandatory student fees with viewpoint neutrality as the operational principle.” Except to determine if the publication contributes the physical and cultural development of students, decisions regarding award of incidental fee revenues may not be based on content.

Overall it’s a good, well-written decision. (A 42k .pdf of the ruling can be found here)

I thought we were done with this crap. But now, much like their international overlords, some Campus-based believers have gotten together to call for the legal suppression of speech they find offensive.

Way to go, guys. Aside from not knowing the difference between libel and slander, you’ve managed to co-opt the very same rhetoric that the PC Crusaders have been using for years. Congratulations, you’ve now removed any illusions anyone might have had that there’s a discernable difference between the threats to liberty presented by the left and right. The relative merits of the incidental fee as a whole (I’m against it) are a different concern, but so long as it exists it cannot be legally, or morally, distributed based on the viewpoint of those in receivership. This is especially true for groups that are 1) publications and 2) have been receiving funding for years.

Either shut up and go home with your grievance filing and your amazingly silly quotations:

“I don’t think free speech should be suppressed, but that doesn’t mean what people say will be right, or inoffensive, or that they shouldn’t be ostracized for it,” Ivezic said.

Or start publishing your own Pro-Jesus rag. You’ve got, what, 96 signatories on your petition? Imagine the sort of student publication you could put out with that many staffers. Hell, the OC has had less than 20 committed members of staff for as long as I can remember (so like, since 2000) and it seems to muddle through just fine. Get over yourselves, get over your indignation, and use your outrage to put more speech out there rather than demand that a publication be shut down because your oh-so-delicate sensibilities were offended.

Planning on walking near the Heart of Campus^TM tomorrow? Curious as to what aborted fetuses look like? You’re in luck!

(Fair warning: pretty much every link in this post points to images which many may find highly disturbing)

On Wednesday and Thursday between 7:30 and 4:00 the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) will be displaying images of aborted fetuses, lynchings, and holocaust victims, amongst other things. Their purpose is to equate the images and consequently point out the genocidal nature of legalized abortion. This assuredly will lead to much hand-wringing, yelling, and other unpleasantries. As one would expect, the Women’s Center will be protesting the event. (Which is unfortunate, since the Women’s Center is implicitly excluding pro-life women from its organization by taking an officially pro-choice stance.) It also means I’ll have to look at pictures of aborted fetuses, people hanging from trees, and holocaust victims every time I go to the EMU the next couple of days. Sigh.

I must say that I do have rather mixed views of GAP’s tactics:

On one hand, even if abortion is genocide, then there’s still no particular reason to directly equate it to the holocaust, lynchings of African-Americans, or other evils. Not to sound like a nitpicking relativist, but something can be unequivically bad without being the same as something else unequivocally bad. If abortion is evil, then can’t it be its own evil? Don’t images of aborted fetuses speak volumes on their own?

And even if an image speaks volumes one way or another, it’s oftentimes inappropriate to push it in unsuspecting people’s faces. There are numerous students who know what an aborted fetus looks like, have an ironclad point of view one way or the other on the issue, and just want to go to their classes without having to see such images again. A very good friend of mine had relatives murdered in the holocaust and purposely avoids viewing images of the atrocities. He isn’t ignorant and he isn’t avoiding reality– he’s seen plenty of images and depictions of that particular genocide. But he does want to go about his day without an emotional load to bear. In a similar vein, a fellow Commentator staffer was bothered by the full image of the last Insurgent issue’s cover that I put up on the blog– for day or two when he visited the blog he pretty much had to view an image that offended him.

On the other hand, the images are undoubtedly powerful. People oftentimes benefit from being confronted by images they find offensive or disturbing– it either strengthens or challenges their existing worldview. I can’t imagine a picture of a late-term abortion could possibly strengthen a pro-choicer’s or weaken a pro-lifer’s respective belief in the righteousness of legalized abortion. Similarly, I can’t imagine a picture of an airstrike victim could possibly strengthen a hawk’s or weaken a pacifist’s view of military intervention. (Of course, in both cases opposing images can be found to invert argument strengths, which is why sensible people generally argue with reason rather than emotion.)

Additionally, images of lynchings in the deep south and of the holocaust were extemely important in convincing people of the respective times that there were unbelievable evils being committed. If a person believes that abortion is an extreme evil, wouldn’t they be negligent to not attempt to confront people with images such as these?

Anyways, enough of me saying what everyone already knows. Tomorrow and Thursday could be interesting, to say the least. If you don’t want to see the images, walk another route or avert your eyes.

Oh, and there was a bit of controversy over whether or not the UO College Republicans were hosting the GAP. I talked with Chair Anthony Warren earlier tonight and he told me that someone from the CRs had indeed reserved the amphitheatre on behalf of the group but that otherwise there was no official connection or involvement on the part of the College Republicans.

I haven’t seen last night’s South Park episode yet, but I intend to ASAP. From an article on CNN.com:

Banned by Comedy Central from showing an image of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, the creators of “South Park” skewered their own network for hypocrisy in the cartoon’s most recent episode.

The comedy — in an episode aired during Holy Week for Christians — instead featured an image of Jesus Christ defecating on President Bush and the American flag.

[…]

Parker and Stone were angered when told by Comedy Central several weeks ago that they could not run an image of Mohammed, according to a person close to the show who didn’t want to be identified because of the issue’s sensitivity.

The network’s decision was made over concerns for public safety, the person said.

Comedy Central said in a statement issued Thursday: “In light of recent world events, we feel we made the right decision.” Its executives would not comment further.

Comedy Central’s decision is based off of the rather bigoted notion that American Muslims will violently react to something shown on a basic cable cartoon show. Incredibly, Cartoon Network apparantly believes that it would be held responsible for such a violent reaction.

Of course, where there’s defecation, there’s Bill Donohue:

A frequent “South Park” critic, William Donohue of the anti-defamation group Catholic League, called on Parker and Stone to resign out of principle for being censored.

“The ultimate hypocrite is not Comedy Central — that’s their decision not to show the image of Mohammed or not — it’s Parker and Stone,” he said. “Like little whores, they’ll sit there and grab the bucks. They’ll sit there and they’ll whine and they’ll take their shot at Jesus. That’s their stock in trade.”

If they’re whores, then consider me a gentleman caller.

The ODE runs a story today about the Family Planning Expansion Project:

Some members of the gay community on campus say a much-lauded federal program that offers free family planning services, among them sexually transmitted infections screening and oral contraceptives, is discriminatory.

The Family Planning Expansion Project, funded by a federal grant, was started in 1999 to provide comprehensive family planning services to low-income men and women and reduce unintended pregnancies, according to the 2005 Oregon FPEP Program Manual.

Reporter Susan Goodwin goes on to describe how many people feel that this is discriminatory. Two points:

1. This program shouldn’t exist in the first place. It isn’t the federal government’s job to discourage breeding.
2. The purpose of the program is to reduce unintended pregnancies. As far as I know, only heterosexual coupling can lead to unintended pregnancies. Thus, the program targets heterosexuals. Complaining that this is discriminatory towards homosexuals is like a man complaining that his HMO won’t cover birth control pills for his own personal use. Of course it’s discriminatory, but that doesn’t mean it’s insititutionalized bigotry. If the purpose of the program was to reduce reduce STDs, then it would be open to people of all sexual orientations.

Tommy‘s been my favorite contemporary artist for quite some time, but it wasn’t until reading this today that I really grew a true respect for the man rather than the artist:

In sworn testimony and interviews, they recount incidents in which an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas, cursed a former employee’s wife who came to his aid when he fell off a barstool, and palmed a startled woman’s breasts at a signing party in South Bend, Ind.

And then there is Kinkade’s proclivity for “ritual territory marking,” as he called it, which allegedly manifested itself in the late 1990s outside the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

“This one’s for you, Walt,” the artist quipped late one night as he urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure, said Terry Sheppard, a former vice president for Kinkade’s company, in an interview.

We can always use more original artwork in the OC, and I know I can always stand to have a little more light glinting off my soul. If it all falls down, you know you have a home here at Oregon, Tommy. We will have to ask you to stop groping women, of course.

BBC: Japan’s internet ‘suicide clubs’:

Naoki Tachiwana opened his apartment door with a surprisingly warm smile, and beckoned us in to a neat living room. His computer was switched on – the screen facing out towards Naoki’s eleventh floor balcony, and the night sky above Tokyo’s eastern suburbs.

“Last night I was up all night,” said Naoki, smiling again, “talking online to this woman who really – I mean really – wants to die. She asked me to do it with her today, but I said I couldn’t because I had this television crew coming to see me. So she said we can do it after they’ve gone.”

D’oh:

The home of the popular drag show “Shebang” will be closing on Feb. 28. The bar, Neighbors Bar and Bistro, has been open for nine or 10 years, owner Cindy Hill said. Hill said the building was sold, and the new owner plans to open a new restaurant.

Hill said she is currently not planning on relocating.

Until its final day, Neighbors will continue to hold “Shebang” on Friday nights at 10 p.m.

I’m quite surprised the owner isn’t considering relocating. Most distressingly, this means I’ll never be able to hear “some of my very best friends visit Neighbors!” again.