Colleges and Universities: Representative of Political Thought? Mark Steyn: Judiciary, Libin: Stupid politician tricks

College Faculties A Most Liberal Lot, Study Finds Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer, March 29, 2005

College faculties, long assumed to be a liberal bastion, lean further to the left than even the most conspiratorial conservatives might have imagined, a new study says.

[. . . . ] "What's most striking is how few conservatives there are in any field," said Robert Lichter, a professor at George Mason University and a co-author of the study. "There was no field we studied in which there were more conservatives than liberals or more Republicans than Democrats. It's a very homogenous environment, not just in the places you'd expect to be dominated by liberals." [. . . . ]

Is there a study of the political leanings of Canadian university teachers? Would it constitute research crime to reveal the results -- or has that been passed into hate legislation yet? Just kidding. NJC





Mark Steyn -- on the judiciary

Steyn is so enjoyable to read. I had missed this one; if you did, read it.

The ruling class 3 January 2005

[. . . . ] But then as now, “we the people” (to use a quaint, un-Canadian phrase) will have little say in the matter--until we disabuse ourselves of the notion that a man or woman can utter any fatuity and, if he or she’s wearing drapes and on the bench, it must be accorded an inviolable respect. We call those banana republics I mentioned at the beginning “rogue states.” Advanced western democracies are robed states

Stupid politician tricks Kevin Libin, 4 April 2005

[. . . . ] Here’s what the charter really says, in its very first line: “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law . . . ” Here’s what it says immediately afterward: “The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”

You might remember that these are the same “reasonable limits” that allow the government to limit gun ownership and ban certain types of speech that it finds offensive. Yet, somehow, whenever it comes to Liberal causes--gay marriage, voting rights for prisoners--limits are deemed unreasonable. [. . . . ]