Begin stream of conscious rant...
I am sick and tired of David Horowitz and his lying. Even here at ECU [East Carolina University], which I admit is not especially known for its academic rigor, there is a small group of individuals who are determined to end true free speech and are instead trying to leave us with the "Biblically Approved" speech of this new dangerous Con movement. The whole assertion that social/christian conservatives receive poor grades simply because of their political beliefs is bull. As someone who has sat in classes with what I consider more than my share of conservatives [and shudder I was actully conservative myself in my younger days]
I can honestly say that I have determined that there are two types of conservatives at ECU. There is a small, quiet, thoughtful minority of conservative students who put out good work, and have excellent reasoning skills. I count several of these people as friends. Then there are the wackos who believe that its not their stupidity, but rather their political beliefs that get them bad grades. To be honest, I think that some of these people don't really care what they write, they're just looking for a better grade and are too lazy to study or do the work.
The wackos are the people who get pissed when they make F's on the biology quizes and exams on evolution. I have one friend who made a vigorous defense of the young earth hypothesis (note hypothesis not theory, a hypothesis is a tentative theory about the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena;). He got a B, why because he had a sound arguement. A simple, "In the book of Genesis, God created the world in 6 days" does not cut the mustard and deserves the F. Which brings me to Horowitz.
The man lies and poorly. His college based activism began with the story of supposed anti-conservative bias at University of Northern Colorado which was promptly found to be outright fraud. See MediaMatters.org for a nice discussion of Horowitz's tactics. The essay which started it all is available at SAF's website. Note that the student didn't even answer the question asked. In fact several conservative bloggers have come foward and agreed that that essay is one horrid piece of writing. See here and here. Now fastfoward to the present day.
The wonderful News and Observer has decided to tell the oh so sad story of a young conservative state senator who like Mr. Smith going to Washington has gone to Raleigh to make sure that those evil liberals don't corrupt the minds of our precious (and pernicious) youthful conservatives. State Sen. Andrew Brock has come to the rescue of those yockels (and I suspect future writers at the esteemed freerepuglic) who are determined to go through college without thinking a single original thought. I've got to say who can blame them, if a party all night, sleep all day C student can grow up to be president. If a so-called doctor who isn't sure if the HIV virus is spread through sweat and tears, who spent medical school butchering kittens which he lied to animal control and humane shelters to obtain, and who makes a diagnosis by way of a video tape (hey maybe Rush can get his perscriptions filled again) can become Senate Majority Leader. Come to think of it, maybe I'm in the wrong boat.
But I digress, I guess what really gets me is just that this whole Students for Academic Freedom thing is built upon lie after lie. If there really was a problem with students with opposing political views getting poor grades, I would stand up with them. But it is all a fiction. To prove a point, I called the local contact for SAF and proceeded to complain about a (fictional) Con Economics professor who gave me a bad grade because I wouldn't bash Keynesian economics. After a not so Christain or polite, "&*%$ YOU!" from the esteemed leader of the local SAF, my mind about the even remotely possible good-intentions of this organization went to pot. Thank God that the Democrats control the General Assembly and that bill is DOA.
End stream of conscious rant