Chiropractic controversy at Florida State University

davros

Several professors are threatening to resign if a proposed school of chiropractic goes ahead at FSU. The story is here here.

It includes a funny campus map that one of the professors created showing other new schools - the College of Dowsing, the Bigfoot Institute, etc.

One of the objectors is Nobel laureate, Harold Kroto, who will be speaking in Dublin in February (Friday, 4th Feb, Burke Theatre, TCD).

robindch

This one got voted into the bin, ten to three, at the end of last week -- see this faintly odd follow-up article in the SP Times for further details.

While not apparently giving any firm + final reason why the proposed school was ditched, the article does imply that it was done (a) because another recently-opened chiropractic 'school' will produce more chiropracters than Florida actually needs (how do they know this?), and (b) more interestingly, on account of the wide circulation which the cartoon above received, bringing into disrepute the (Republican, almost inevitably!) legislators who were behind the scheme from the start.

Anybody here good enough to do a cartoon of our friends in GMIT and whatever west-of-ireland (Arrant?) slant they can bring to the watery shallows of homeopathy?

- robin.

robindch

Our Republican friends in the Florida legislature, still smarting from the above defeat at the hands of unelected trendy lefties and, no doubt, the odd commie or two, are hard at it again, busily extending what's on offer to university students to include just about anything. A bill approved on tuesday contains a now-obligatory Orwellian title, this time, it's the "Student and Faculty Academic Freedom in Postsecondary Education" bill, intended, according to a quote from its sponsor, one Dennis Baxley (Rep), to protect conservatives on university campuses from persecution, presumably by 'libruls'. Duing the House debate, this academic Titan recalled the day in uni when one of his lecturers told his students that if anyone had a problem with him not wanting to hear about 'Intelligent Design' in his lectures, that they could leave the class. So, Baxley's now seems to be doing his best to get his own back -- students will now, under this bill, be able to sue the lecturer for such statements.

Further, rather worrying, newsprint on this bill is available here -- interestingly, both creationists and holocaust-deniers were specifically singled out by the wilting Democrat opposition during the debate.

- robin.

KCF

robindch wrote:

Our Republican friends in the Florida legislature, still smarting from the above defeat at the hands of unelected trendy lefties and, no doubt, the odd commie or two, are hard at it again, busily extending what's on offer to university students to include just about anything. A bill approved on tuesday contains a now-obligatory Orwellian title, this time, it's the "Student and Faculty Academic Freedom in Postsecondary Education" bill, intended, according to a quote from its sponsor, one Dennis Baxley (Rep), to protect conservatives on university campuses from persecution, presumably by 'libruls'. Duing the House debate, this academic Titan recalled the day in uni when one of his lecturers told his students that if anyone had a problem with him not wanting to hear about 'Intelligent Design' in his lectures, that they could leave the class. So, Baxley's now seems to be doing his best to get his own back -- students will now, under this bill, be able to sue the lecturer for such statements.

Further, rather worrying, newsprint on this bill is available here -- interestingly, both creationists and holocaust-deniers were specifically singled out by the wilting Democrat opposition during the debate.

- robin.

That is crazy - you can be sued by your students for expressing near universally accepted scientific opinions. Frightening stuff. The title of the bill is right out of the dictionary of newspeak too.

However, when you look at the big picture, they are really shooting themselves in the foot. What decent scientist is going to want to teach in that type of atmosphere? If they do succeed in introducing ID into universities, then who is going to want to employ the graduates? If this neo-fundamentalism continues to gain ground, then the US will be left in a situation where foreign scientists stop coming and their indigenous students will be completely useless in practical terms.

robindch

> That is crazy - you can be sued by your students for
> expressing near universally accepted scientific opinions.

Since creationists, holocaust-deniers and the rest of the whole screaming, sorry lot can never win using facts alone, they've no choice but to resort to legislation such as this to batter their betters into silence.

Less generally, it's interesting to note in passing, that the US Republican party regularly attacks and impugns academic interests of one kind or another -- how many times have you heard of these guys slagging off academics as lefties, and universities as havens of far-left librulism? One rarely hears the opposite point of view, that educated people don't like the republican party. Or, perhaps, vote for them either -- see this (disputed) listing of alleged state-average IQ vs presidential voting record.

> The title of the bill is right out of the
> dictionary of newspeak too.

Orwell would be a sad man indeed were he alive today.

In the last while, the current US administration instructed its military to invade Afghanistan under the title 'Operation Enduring Freedom' (surely, freedom doesn't need to be 'endured'?); while the military invasion and occupation of Iraq is entitled 'Operation Iraqi Freedom'; the infamous 'Patriot Act' permits law enforcement agencies a wide range invasive and counter-constitution powers; and my own personal favourite, the "Clean Skies" initiative, which increases the amount of pollution which polluters can produce (see here for a comparison between existing legislation and the proposed stuff). And then, there's this interesting article about divorce rates (read 'moral/family values') in Librul Massachusetts versus the Heartland + Bible Belt. Or there's Fox News's hopelessly ironic catch-phrase 'Fair and Balanced' ('We Report, You Decide').

Toward the end of his excellent essay "Politics and the English Language", Orwell noted that "Political language [...] is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." One could usefully replace the last four words with "honesty to pure treachery".



- robin.

KCF

robindch wrote:

One could usefully replace the last four words with "honesty to pure treachery".
- robin.

There's a good example in the sptimes article you linked above:

"Jones (Republican-Treasure Island), a chiropractor and the school's biggest political champion, said millions of dollars in federal research money that could have been FSU's will now end up elsewhere.

But the big losers, he said, are students, especially African-Americans and Hispanics, who can't afford the cost of attending an out-of-state chiropractic school."

I am perpetually in awe of the ability of our media to print such statements with a straight face.