Beth Sundheim of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics would have made me laugh out loud if I weren’t in a public computer lab with her perfect response to Cathy Young’s latest article in Salon.com’s on-going love affair with every trendy antifeminist they can find:

How comforting it is to know that when Phyllis Schlafly’s reactionary carcass is finally laid to rest, Cathy Young will be poised to assume her frilly pink mantle.

The Nuremberg Files drama continues as a huge coalition of reproductive rights groups files an amicus brief asking the US 9th Circuit Court of appeals to reconsider its ruling of First Amendment protection for the NF‘s terrorism. [Choices Campus Community]

David Greenberg’s Riot Act – The last century’s racial disturbances have a common cause: police brutality [Slate.com] provides a good discussion of the past century of riots by black citizens and its links to the white supremacist corruption of the police department and justice system. On the other hand, it has a lingering problem: it attempts to cast all race riots as black people rioting and attacking white people. This neglects the truly vicious white supremacist assaults on blacks in towns such as Tulsa and St. Louis. The article even tries to lump the 1919 Chicago white supremacist riot as a black-initiated race riot similar to Watts, L.A., or Cincinatti.

Yes, I know the article is an attempt to show how the rioters were provoked by massive police brutality and that oppressive police treatment of blacks has got to stop if we want to end the violence. But it has a subtle effect in reinforcing a few dangerous premises. It reinforces the conviction that racial problems mean black problems, and don’t have anything to do with the active brutality of whites. And similarly, it makes it seem as though racial violence is something that blacks initiate, even if we see that initiation as justified. In the vicious race riots of the early 20th century, that simply was not the case. All of this leads to a continuing view of blacks as a problem to be solved, as the (Greenberg’s words) the violent and the lawless element of a race riot.; What about the white thugs in Tulsa who dropped dynamite on black ghettoes from airplanes? What about the white St. Louis rioters who raped and tortured black women and men by the thousands? Blacks are not the only racial troublemakersof the twentieth century.

A coalition of stakeholders has joined forces to ensure communication and coordination between seven of the organizations that voted No Confidence in the Board of Trustees recently. This is one of the most positive developments I’ve seen in a long time. Hear Hear! award goes to Martin Olliff: When you speak with a united voice … people aren’t able to say it’s just a few malcontents. Indeed. Building a powerful network of information and self-defense between University shareholders, is the only way that the Board is ever going to be taken down.

Four gay activists visiting the Florida state capitol in Tallahassee were told by a veteran lawmaker that the country has lost a lot because of gay and lesbian activities and that their lifestyle is at odds with Christian principles. I told them I disagree with what they’re doing and I think they’re headed in the wrong direction, said Rep. Allen Trovillion, a Winter Park, Fla., Republican and World War II veteran. [Daily news 04/11/01 on Advocate.com]

What a flaming jackass!