Palindrones

Nutty professors tend to get even nuttier during presidential election campaigns. “It has been years since groups such as the Montana Militia, the Posse Comitatus and the Sagebrush Rebels, and individuals such as Terry Nichols and Ted Kaczynski have made us wonder why so many ‘angry white men’ populated our rural regions,” historian Catherine McNicol Stock informs us in The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Many of us have forgotten the threat once posed by domestic terrorists and instead have turned our attention to foreign terrorists.”

“But we should never forget that in the late 20th century, ultra-Christian, antistatist and white-supremacist groups flourished in the states of the Pacific Northwest—called by many the ‘Great White Northwest’—the very region that Sarah Palin and her family call home.” It should be noted that Stock, who heads the history department at Connecticut College, gets high marks from her students.

Nevertheless, the same people who cry “guilt by association” when investigators question Barack Obama’s communist mentors and political and financial support from people with terrorist connections should do doublebackflips on Professor Stock’s prose. By the way, in an April 24, 2007 Accuracy in Media report, veteran journalist Wes Vernon reported that “In an e-mail to AIM, (author Jayna) Davis cited intelligence reports and alerts issued by a U.S. Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Warfare which predicted weeks before the Oklahoma City bombing that Iran-sponsored Islamist terrorists had recruited ‘two lily-whites [McVeigh and Nichols were “lily whites”]’ to carry out the bombing of a federal building somewhere in the heart of the U.S.”

When you go to Professor Stock’s website, it gets even better. “If we make no attempt to understand those roots—and until we recognize that those radicals behind Waco, Ruby Ridge, the Oklahoma bombing and the Republic of Texas are not a new phenomenon—today’s history may be tomorrow’s tragedy,” she proclaims.

As a historian, she should know that the carnage at Waco and Ruby Ridge was wrought not by “ultra-Christian, antistatist and white-supremacist groups” but by the Clinton Administration. “Numerous high-ranking FBI officials who have made decisions or have taken actions which, in hindsight, turned out to be mistaken or just turned out badly (i.e., Ruby Ridge, Waco) have seen their careers plummet and end,” Coleen Rowley, then a Minneapolis counsel to the bureau wrote in a letter to her supervisor after the September 11, 2001 attacks upon the United States.

To be sure, the history chair from the Nutmeg State has many clueless compadres among the so-called elites. “What is the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist?” Professor Juan Cole asks on Salon. “Lipstick,” is his answer.

The University of Michigan historian has offered up many such bon mots in his academic career. “Are there Muslims who are fascists?” he asked two years after the September 11 attacks on the U. S., “Sure,” he admitted.

“But there is no Islamic Fascism since ‘Islam’ has to do with the highest ideals of the religion.” As for Cole, “He applies a particularly brazen double standard, decrying the term ‘Islamo-fascist’ as a ‘thoroughly abhorrent’ form of bigotry, even as he routinely brands Zionism (without any hyphen) ‘racist’ and ‘fascist,’” author and activist David Horowitz writes of Cole in his book, The Professors: The 100 Most Dangerous Academics in America.

Cole’s anonymous ratemyprofessor.com reviews are also quite illuminating. Here are a few highlights:

• “Frankly the guy is knowledgeable and experienced, however he is very biased. In the U of M world, this is ok, but in my book a professor should not turn a course on the Middle East into a forum for his politics, opinions and most of all his bias against Israel.

• “Very knowledgeable Professor, who presents both sides in every discussion. I did not feel he was anti-Israel, he simply acknowledged that both Israel and Palestine are to blame for the current situation. This is a great class and I learned a lot. I highly recommend it!”

• “I sometimes wonder if he should have been in Poly Sci because he’s all theory and no facts. Kissing his butt always helps as well.”

• “A mediocre teacher but a truly terrible human being. He will actually take off points for disagreeing with his silly political ideas. If you want to get to him, call him ‘John’ (his real name).”

Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.

Malcolm A. Kline
Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia. If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail contact@academia.org.