The Third Rails of American Politics

Whew, we’ve had a busy couple weeks here at the Crowd.  Lots of good posts and some even better comments. Thank you one and all for making the SRC worth visiting - as it turns out Voltaire didn’t say, “Some of you are whacked but I’m totally behind your right to say any crazy thing [...]

College campuses don’t need “comfort”

[UPDATE: As of 4 p.m. on April 15, St. Thomas has decided to allow Star Parker to speak. More details on that here. Good for it.]
The Star Tribune’s trusty ruckus-raiser Katherine Kersten brings us a Monday column that asks whether the University of St. Thomas is rejecting “a group, a speaker — or a range [...]

God Forbid Learning Gets in the Way of Education

Forest Lake Area High School bounced some Iraq and Afghanistan vets out of a school program because the vets’ visit had become controversial and school officials were afraid there’d be protests.
Wouldn’t that be awful. Then teachers would have to interrupt their lectures for that inconvenient and messy occurrence — thinking. And debating. And learning critical analysis [...]

Reporters Aren’t Like Us

A KMSP reporter’s phone records are grabbed by the St. Paul police, and the station and the Society of Professional Journalists call it a violation of the First Amendment. And I doubt many regular citizens care, because journalists are not held in high regard, as Tony Snow helped me understand on Bill O’Reilly’s show tonight.
It’s [...]

At the Intersection of Journalism and Greatness

I attended the national convention of the Society of Professional Journalists in Washington, D.C., in October. It was an outstanding event, including sessions on the electronic revolutions reshaping journalism, remembrances of Presidential press secretaries, the frustrations of current White House reporters, and watching Helen Thomas interview Leila Fadel, the brave 26-year-old Baghdad bureau chief [...]

3rd Post From Princeton

We’ve been fed, exposed to art, exposed ourselves to art, been fed.  The discussion has been by turns emotional, thoughtful, circular, stalled, jumpstarted, simplistic, unrealistic.  For the most part, though, the discussion has been measured, polite, friendly, boundary-crossing.  It reaffirms that people - regardless of their political, religious, cultural, geographic backgrounds - share a lot [...]

2nd Post From Princeton

The gang has moved outside to begin the glazing process and enjoy the beautiful sunshine and the conversation.  Fascinating and interesting.  As soon as I figure out how to, I’ll post a couple of pictures courtesy of Chad’s camera.
- Austin

Speak The Word — Courage or Hypocrisy?

The power of a word. Genocide.
A US House committee calls the Ottoman Empire’s last gasp in killing perhaps 1.5 million Armenians in the early 20th Century “genocide,” and now our troops in Iraq may be put at greater risk because of Turkey’s angry reaction.
Commenting on events halfway around the world, while ignoring your own problems [...]

Tutu, Coulter, Ahmadinejad — Who Speaks?

Should the University of St. Thomas have allowed Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak on campus?
And, from a reputation point of view, what should St. Thomas do now? Change its mind?
University VP Doug Hennes, a longtime journalist who has done communications for St. Thomas for years (and, full disclosure, who edited the first story I ever [...]

Ugly Speech, Ugly Speakers, But It’s all Free

Free speech is often ugly, vile, abhorrent. That we protect vile speech is how we know we’re free.
Iran’s president Ahmadinejad comes to the US and speaks at Columbia University. Many say he shouldn’t have been allowed to speak. I believe firmly we need to hear from all countries, no matter how much we dislike what [...]