Updates on earlier blog posts

It seems the 'winner' of our Doofus Of The Day #525 award, the Chief of Police at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, has been abandoned by her superiors. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) reports:

Under pressure from FIRE, national media, and actors Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin, the University of Wisconsin-Stout (Stout) has reversed its censorship of theater professor James Miller's poster featuring a line from Fillion's character in Joss Whedon's television series Firefly.

. . .

At least 1,000 people wrote Sorensen in defense of First Amendment rights at Stout, and dozens of articles about the case appeared in the national media. Today, Baldwin (co-star of Firefly) wrote about Stout's apparent double standard in censorship. Baldwin noted that earlier this year, Stout apparently had no problem with "Kill the Bill" posters based on the film Kill Bill, which depicted Uma Thurman with a sword and advocated against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's budget bill.

Finally, in a letter to all faculty, staff, and students today, the three senior administrators announced that Stout had reversed its decision, is developing a new protocol for handling such cases, and "will schedule workshops and/or forums during this academic year on First Amendment rights and responsibilities in higher education."

There's more at the link. Now, why couldn't UWS have done the right thing in the first place? Hadn't they ever heard of the First Amendment to the US Constitution? Or did they simply believe that their politically correct bull-droppings could override it at their discretion? (No prizes for guessing the correct choice between those alternatives . . . )

Next, last Monday I mentioned a 1944 Life magazine article about the Ledo Road, now available online. A couple of readers e-mailed me, asking where they could find more information about this campaign. I wanted to mention that the article in question forms part of a larger site, The Ledo Road, which aims to serve as 'a single point of information' about the construction project. It's an excellent site, with many articles and pictures. Highly recommended.

Peter