Check it out. The new issue is out, and it’s filled with wonderful journalistic droppings.

Ordinarily, a pack of wild pigs would be incapable of dragging me to a symposium entitled “Homeland ‘In’Security: Race, Immigration and Labor in Post-9/11 North America” – so I’m saddened by the news that embattled University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill will not be attending.

This is a wise move on the part of the organizers. Churchill’s participation would have swamped whatever the meeting was supposed to be about, as people quizzed him on precisely how he justified describing the people in the Twin Towers as “little Eichmanns”. I was certainly curious to hear him try to dig his way out of, or more likely through, that one.

Here, by the way, is the comprehensive Volokh discussion on academic freedom that followed in the wake of the original story.

This has just been brought to my attention:

A Student Forum will be held on February 15th (this comming Tuesday) to discuss the Oregon Commentator, safety on campus, the usual stuff ad nauseum. It is sponsored by The Office of Student Life, the LGBTQA, the Women’s Center, and the MCC.

There will be a conflict resolution specialist and, if it is at all possible at this point, two neutral observers.

One question: was the Oregon Commentator and/or our supporters invited? We seem to be off of several invite lists lately, especially when it comes to discussing us in safe, neutral forums.

OK, that headline was a cheap shot. On the other hand, observe. The site they link to actually provides links to interesting information on vasectomies and tying of tubes… but that’s not what I think when I hear the phrase “spay and neuter”.

Here’s the thing: I think the “Spay and Neuter your Heterosexuals” site is a pretty funny idea, although their execution of it is somewhat lacking in subtlety. I imagine the Indymedia folk would roll their eyes and defend the site on the grounds that the heterosexual/pet comparison is an obvious joke, and you’d have to be an imbecile to read it and conclude that the author is calling for people to, well, spay and neuter their heterosexuals. I would agree wholeheartedly with this. And then I would give them a meaningful look and say well, exactly.

Hey, everybody. You can catch yours truly on the Victoria Taft show tonight at 8:15 PM — 860 KPAM in Portland (simulcast on the web). Ill be discussing all issues pertinent to viewpoint neutrality or the lack thereof at the University of Oregon.

Take this with a grain of salt people, but our sources tell us that the PFC has been dismantled at least temporarily.

The Con Court has reviewed our grievances against Eden Cortez, Dan (Theres A First Amendment?) Keifer and Mason Quiroz, placing injunctions against each one. This means that the PFC, left with only three members, is incapable of reaching quorum.

Apparently, and this is hearsay at the moment, a Con Court Justice marched into the PFC hearing and announced that Eden, Mason and Dan must step down and that PFC business could not resume until the court made a ruling. In light of this news, we do not know when our next PFC hearing will be held.

Also, our next issue will be postponed a day in order to find out what exactly happened. Stay tuned to find out all the gory details about the PFC.

Portland blogger (and frequent Suicide Girls Contributor) Michael Totten recounts his night drinking with Christopher Hitchens and arguing with angry Iraqis.

And yes, yes, yes, we all remember this. Totten isnt the only Portland native to hold his own with Hitchens.

Our next hearing is scheduled for February 10th, 6 PM in the Ben Linder Room. the Emerald hearing is at 5 so we should probably rally for them, too.

Well, I’m not sure what I expected, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t this. That was one of the strangest events I’ve ever witnessed.

Full-blown post-mortem to come. For now, a big thank-you to everyone who came out to show support. There were a lot of unexpected heroes last night, but a special mention has to go to Adam Petkun, who showed up with an armload of photocopies of the Southworth decision for the committee and hung tough throughout amid accusations of “ignorance” from Mason.

(Oh, and: “Are you insane?” may lack some of the gravitas of “Have you no decency, sir?” but the resonance was pretty much the same.)

It’s a beginning, not an ending. Updates on the way.

Today seems likely to feature a lot of people talking, if you’ll forgive the Britishism, bollocks. So, for the sake of levity, here are some people talking about bollocks. Well, and Sophocles.

Notable comments:

Please find an excellent historical quote and replace “being a man” (I bet Hemmingway [sic] would be a motherlode) with “having testicles”

leads to

“When once the itch of literature comes over a testicle, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can.”

and on, ineluctably to

I am but a simple Australian. What is this ‘Culture’ whereof you speak? Can you drink it?

The Internet never ceases to cheer me up.

Off-topic but happy news: my friend Matt – who contributes here under the mysterious nom de web “Stan” – and his girlfriend Amy recently got engaged. The unusual tableau is captured by their local paper here.

Congratulations are in order. But, Matt, how awkward was that going to be if she said no?

Todays ODE has the scoop on OSPIRGs budget hearing. And what a scoop! Because Mason Quiznos gets it right — finally:

It makes me uncomfortable to fund them when I dont know where the money is going.

Well, we do know where the money is going And I think somebody else mentions that in the same article

[OSPIRG] is simply a way for lobbyists in Portland to get money from students, said [Tyler Graf]. The PFC is sending a message that isnt consistent. Theyll nickel-and-dime other groups, but theyll give OSPIRG over $100,000.

OSPIRGs program coordinator responds by stating that OSPIRG plays a vital role by offering internships. But is that worth $100,000? Hell, lets assume, for the sake of argument, that OSPIRG is burning the midnight oil (read: patchouli) trying to come up with ways to lower textbook costs, as one of todays letters claims. Is that worth $100,000? (I could have conducted the same study cited, and I would have done it for far less maybe three forties of Steel Reserve) Students need to ask themselves whether OSPIRG is worth the money it receives, whether it makes a demonstrable impact on campus. Students also need to ask themselves what OSPIRG has ever done for them, and then, after students realize that theyve been hoodwinked, maybe we can get rid of this money drain for good.

But probably not. Batman was never able to kill The Joker either.

As Homer once put it: “OK, brain. You don’t like me and I don’t like you. Let’s just get through this so I can get back to killing you with beer.” For this week, at least, the ODE and the OC are liable to be completely simpatico. First salvo here.

Your student leaders are currently abusing their authority over incidental fees in order to settle personal scores with campus journalists — and dismantle your freedom of speech — by simultaneously trying to de-fund the two most visible student publications on campus: the Oregon Commentator and the Oregon Daily Emerald.

Testify. This is also a depressing read.

[Former Senator Sol] Hart said he was also concerned with a lack of viewpoint neutrality in the student government. He said PFC members’ attempt to defund the Oregon Commentator in December unsettled him.

“That bothers me, where it became clear that the PFC was making a decision on mission statements when they didn’t really understand the breadth of the reach or review they can engage in,” he said.

And they still don’t; but what’s new there? If the ODE can come within one vote of being completely defunded, it’s amateur hour on a hitherto unseen scale.

A weary, cathartic, unabashedly snobbish piece on American Idol here, from the SF Chronicle.

Just musing here. Riding a quiet, gurgling inner annoyance. Maybe what they’re doing on “American Idol” — as vindicated by the “judges” — is music. But in that it lacks passion of any kind, that it forsakes real emotion for overindulgent vocal tricks, well, then it’s not really music. Real music allows people to express themselves without the actual need to hit all the notes. That may go against operatic principles and raise a vigorous defense from people who like Whitney Houston and “pretty” voices, but it’s not up for argument. You should get a visceral reaction from music, not the sense that someone has sung lifeless pabulum to perfection. “I feel nothing from that song, but damn, she hit the high ones.”

Kudos also to writer Tim Goodman for adept deployment of the phrase “god-awful pox on humanity”. And if I’m only mentioning the piece because he cites Tom Waits and American Music Club – well, so be it. Nothing like having one’s own prejudices catered to.

Brace yourselves, everybody: tomorrow is set to be the most depressing day of the year, according to a psychologist from the University of Cardiff. I love this stuff:

The equation is broken down into seven variables: (W) weather, (D) debt, (d) monthly salary, (T) time since Christmas, (Q) time since failed quit attempt, (M) low motivational levels and (NA) the need to take action…The formula was devised to help a travel company “analyze when people book holidays and holiday trends,” said Alex Kennedy, spokesperson for Porter Novelli, a London-based PR agency.

This certainly is excellent public relations! Other than that… I knew things were pretty glum in Wales a lot of the time, but still, damn.