The shout-down happened at a tournament at Wichita State University earlier this year, and a video clip ended up on YouTube this month, where it quickly became a hit.

It seemed to me a pretty pathetic spectacle, and in keeping with the creeping lack of civility and restraint in our public discourse.

On Friday, Fort Hays State fired Shanahan over the incident. University president Edward Hammond said in a written statement, “Everyone has the right to freedom of speech, but these actions are not acceptable for someone who is representing our university.”

Shanahan told an interviewer: “Obviously it got out of control, but to be honest I thought I was in a safe house. I thought I was part of a community that handled its problems internally and that recognized the dangers of exposing ourselves — no pun intended — to the rest of the country. It is so difficult as a nonparticipant to understand what is going on in the debate round.”

Maybe that’s part of the problem?

Here is Slate movie critic Dana Stevens’ response to a reader about the controversy: “You hold the view that the movie’s use of what advocacy groups are calling “the R-word” isn’t targeting people with disabilities; they hold the view that it is. But if the discussion is to go forward, shouldn’t everyone at least be willing to see the movie with an open mind toward the other side?”

She’s right that pre-emptive criticisms of movies often fail to judge the offending material in context.
One example: Critics who complain about the “racist” use of the “N-word” in Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” miss the author’s ironic use of the word and his larger point about its offensiveness and racism.

That artistic context may be utterly lacking in “Tropic Thunder.” I don’t know — I haven’t seen the movie.
But it’s satire. And as Stevens notes, “Satire is a notoriously difficult thing to police.”

WSU athletic director Eric Sexton has offered no comment on the Stephenson case and settlement except to call it a “personal issue.”

But it’s not merely personal. Stephenson is a highly paid, high-profile public figure whose reputation and conduct are closely associated with the WSU athletic program. That makes it a personnel issue.

“The rifle has ever been the companion of the pioneer and, under God, his tutelary protector against the red man and the beast of the forest. Never was this efficient weapon more needed in just self-defense, than now in Kansas, and at least one article in our national Constitution must be blotted out, before the complete right to it can in any way be impeached. And yet such is the madness of the hour, that, in defiance of the solemn guarantee, embodied in the amendments to the Constitution, that ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,’ the people of Kansas have been arraigned for keeping and bearing them, and the senator from South Carolina has had the face to say openly, on this floor, that they should be disarmed — of course, that the fanatics of slavery, his allies and constituents, may meet no impediment.” Three days later, in reaction to that speech, S.C. congressman Preston Brooks attacked Sumner and beat him with a cane into unconsciousness.

The positive record should reassure Kansans wondering which one of the casinos will win the bidding for a Sumner County casino.

Seems that in practice, they’re pretty much the same.

It’s still unclear whether a casino will provide a net gain to south-central Kansas, but the article should at least quiet critics still predicting that any casino will bring economic ruin and rampant corruption to the area.

That hasn’t been Mississippi’s experience with these companies.

“We’ve done numerous things to the landscape that took away these water-absorbing functions,” said Kamyar Enshayan, director of an environmental center at the University of Northern Iowa. “Agriculture must respect the limits of nature.”

Not everyone agrees that the transformation of the landscape played that much of a role in the recent flooding. Mother Nature dumped a whole lot of rain on Iowa.

But it’s also clear that a lot of rain wasn’t absorbed or diverted and went straight into the rivers.

“There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues,” Dole wrote. “No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits and, spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique.”

But Dole was just getting warmed up: “In my nearly 36 years of public service I’ve known of a few like you. No doubt you will ‘clean up’ as the liberal anti-Bush press will promote your belated concerns with wild enthusiasm. When the money starts rolling in you should donate it to a worthy cause, something like, ‘Biting The Hand That Fed Me.’”

Tell us how you really feel, Bob. If nothing else, he’s proved that he can still get in touch with his inner mean streak.

Maybe it’s sinking in with consumers that gas isn’t going to get any cheaper and it’s time to conserve. Then again, check out this Eagle story that says local big truck and SUV sales are still going strong.

The 15-year-old Cyrus has seemed squeaky clean and down to earth — a large part of her G-rated appeal. But an upcoming Vanity Fair photo spread that shows her bare-backed, clutching a sheet and looking bed-tousled has many people asking, “What were they thinking?”

Cyrus apologized to fans, saying she thought the shot was “artistic.” But she — and more to the point, her parents, who attended the photo shoot — aren’t media innocents. They should have known how fans would see the photo.

Its editorial went on: “Presumably that covers wars, pestilence, dictators, assassinations, environmental disasters, economic errors, political gaffes and the University of Alabama’s hiring of Mike Price as football coach.”

ll this would be funny, the board said, if Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, weren’t “threatening congressional legislation that would essentially take the contract away from Northrop Grumman-EADS. Now that would be a disaster.”

The owner is appealing the city’s animal control service recommendation that the dog be euthanized, saying the dog is a beloved family pet. But the dog has bitten someone before — the owner. And at an earlier appeal hearing, the city’s animal control supervisor, Dennis Graves, said he thought it likely the animal would bite someone again. That’s a potentally deadly situation, especially when a large, powerful dog breed is involved.

Charlton Heston, who died Saturday at age 84, was not only one of the great movie icons but also an extremely effective spokeperson for the National Rifle Association, which he headed from 1998 to 2003.
The NRA benefited from his star power and dramatic, uncompromising stands for gun rights. In fact, his galvanizing attacks on Al Gore over gun control laws is credited by some with tipping the presidency to George W. Bush in 2000.

“In the aftermath of the invasion, allies loyal to the United States were rejected, mocked and even punished” for not backing the U.N. resolution, Munoz wrote. But after the war started to fall apart, the administration needed some of those same allies to come to its aid.

“You have to laugh to keep from crying.” — Hillary Clinton, on having been a presidential candidate for 398 days

“Fun day. Fun day.” — John McCain, boarding his campaign plane amid stories about his ties to a female lobbyist and snags over campaign finance rules

“Have you vomited yet today?” — President Bush, to an ailing reporter on Air Force One, along for the Africa trip