I think that Atrios is right about this. It's in the same category as Horowitz's abohorant ABOR legislation -- it exists to drive progressive thought in academia into the closet through intimidation and the misuse of law.
I'm hoping to post something else today, related to the recent publicity around the DePaul Unversity "Confronting Empire" series that I'm involved with, but for now, let me just quote Atrios:
The point is to intimidate, and the power to do so doesn't come from some idiots with a web site it comes with the implicit threat that you'll show up on O'Reilly one day and suddenly "professor nobody" will become Wingnut Enemy #1 over some out of context classroom quote.
There are a lot of professors who would just as soon hide under the covers, no matter the legitimacy of their work, than suffer such a fate. Not everything a professor says or does is political, and not every professor has an obligation (or even the right!) to speak out on political matters, but if the University exists to promote the intellectual, political, social and moral formation of active and conscientious citizens (as I believe it does), then it can't act as though the world of which it is a part and in which it lives and moves and has its being is irrelevant to its mission.
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