The University of Kansas made a good move today in canceling the intelligent design class scheduled to be taught by religion department chairman Paul Mirecki. The professor and the course lost credibility with the release of an e-mail in which he mocked fundamentalists and said the class was “a nice slap in their big fat face.”
On Wednesday, conservative activist John Altevogt released several other anti-Christian and unprofessional e-mails allegedly written by Mirecki that were sent to the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, a KU student organization that he advises. Some of the e-mails disparage Catholics and the pope. Altevogt also has one e-mail dated April 26, 2005, that he says undermines Mirecki’s claim about being shocked — shocked! — about who was reading his e-mails:
“And whoever is the ‘FUNDY MOLE’ listening in to these emails, I have one comment for you and it rhymes with ’suck you.’ Cheers fellow freakoids, Evil Dr. P.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The Bush administration naturally wants Iraqis to see the war and rebuilding as it does — positively. But there is no justification for the tactic reportedly being used by the U.S. military of paying Iraqi newspapers and journalists to plant favorable stories under the guise of independent journalism. That the stories are “factual,” at least by Pentagon standards, is no excuse. If Iraqis take Pentagon propaganda to be independent reporting, they are being misled. And the Bush administration is undermining a crucial component of the democracy it’s otherwise trying to promote — media freedom.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The Coalition of the Willing isn’t what it used to be: It’s down from 37 to 27 countries. And despite efforts by U.S. and Iraqi leaders to stop the ranks from thinning, the nations planning or considering whole or partial troop withdrawals next year include Japan, Poland, South Korea, Italy, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Australia, Great Britain and — let’s be honest — the United States. The vast majority of the 177,000 foreign troops are Americans and Britons, but the trend suggests the mission is winding down, whether President Bush wants to acknowledge it or not and whether the Iraqi troops are ready or not.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Social conservatives want any person seeking election as a Republican to sign a pledge of support for every last sentence of the GOP state party platform, Topeka Statehouse political observer Martin Hawver wrote in an Eagle commentary. It seems that the social conservatives are trying to push out those they consider RINOs (Republican in Name Only), leaving only the “Real Republicans.” But as Hawver noted, they can’t stop someone from filing for office as a Republican, and most voters have no idea what is in the platform (and may not agree with all of it themselves). “As a result,” Hawver writes, “Republicans might actually fracture their party over something that the majority of Republican voters won’t ever see or hear about.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., is undeserving of sympathy. As he took $2.4 million worth of bribes in the form of a Rolls-Royce, a yacht, a 19th-century commode and more, he disgraced Congress and furthered the public’s mistaken idea that all of its members are crooks. He’s going to jail, and rightly so. Still, Cunningham’s tearful confession Monday stood out: It made you realize how rarely public figures not only admit wrongdoing but show obvious remorse. Why do so many think getting elected to public office means never having to say you’re sorry?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
As one Wichita adult store stands newly indicted for allegedly promoting obscenity, a pressing related question in Topeka is: When is a tax increase not a tax increase? Apparently when it’s offset by a tax cut. This novel thinking is the work of promoters of a bill to levy a 10 percent “porn tax,” many of whom are among the 31 state legislators who have made the Kansas Taxpayers Network’s pledge never to vote to raise taxes. According to the Lawrence Journal-World, those signaling interest in having it both ways included state Sens. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, and Kay O’Connor, R-Olathe. Can the lawmakers justify this leap of logic to their constituents? More important: Does $1 million a year in potential revenue from newly taxing adult businesses and products justify the costs of enforcement and legal challenge?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
In response to an unpopular U.S. Supreme Court decision, lawmakers in Topeka and Washington, D.C., are rushing to shore up property rights against the use of eminent domain for economic development. But where do local officials stand on this most local of issues? For its part, the Hays City Commission unanimously approved an ordinance ensuring it can’t use eminent domain for other than public purposes. Especially after this power was used in the case of one WaterWalk property, it makes you wonder whether officials in Wichita and Sedgwick County could support such a self-restriction — and hope that it will become an issue in the next set of municipal and county elections.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
One question left by the recent trial and conviction of Arlan and Linda Kaufman: Why did their abuse of mentally ill residents in a Newton group home go on so long? An article in Tuesday’s Kansas City Star noted that federal prosecutors in Kansas were first presented the case by investigators in 1990 and made a decision not to prosecute in 2002. U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren declined to specifically discuss the 2002 move but offered two lines of reasoning to The Star: “We file when we are able to amass a solid case,” and “Mr. Kaufman was a remarkably pugnacious individual.”
But the state’s paper trail on the Kaufman home’s “numerous problems” dates from June 1984. It’s unacceptable that residents were allowed to remain at risk for so many years. Lawmakers and the governor need to reassure Kansans that changes have been or will be made to prevent such a horror story from reoccurring.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
