Sex, Lies, and Georgia GOP Lawmakers

The state of Georgia is facing a $2.2 billion budget shortfall, but some GOP lawmakers believe they have the answer to curbing spending: a good old fashioned smut hunt, starting with public universities. State Representative Calvin Hill (R-Canton) issued a press release earlier this month to express his outrage regarding course offerings at Georgia State University:

What I am about to tell you will shock and disgust you.

Do you know that your tax dollars are being used at our state universities to pay professors to teach your children classes like “Male Prostitution” and “Queer Theory”? Yes, even in tight economic times like we are facing today, our Board of Regents is wasting your tax dollars to teach these totally unnecessary and ridiculous classes.

If that is not enough, you will even find a class entitled “Oral Sex” and another on “Sexual Orientation”. Yes, the list goes on and on.

In his zeal to incite constituent ire about the racy subjects being taught under their very noses, Rep. Hill failed to note he wasn’t actually consulting the course catalog. The subjects cited in Rep. Hill’s press statement are listed in the GSU guide to faculty experts, a document distributed to media outlets, governments, and research organizations to assist them with locating specialists. Oral sex and male prostitution are areas of faculty expertise, not entries on the course roster.

Male prostitution, for example, was the focus of a study of the spread of HIV conducted by faculty member Kirk Elifson. His results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1989. Societal messages about oral sex are being examined by senior lecturer Mindy Stombler, who hopes her findings will help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Their expertise qualifies them to act as research consultants in these areas; they are not offering how-to seminars.

Stombler and Elifson spoke to the House Higher Education Committee last Tuesday, but Rep. Hill declined to ask the professors any questions at the hearing. Despite clarification from GSU faculty and administrators, Rep. Hill continues to assert, “Our job is to educate our people in sciences, business, math.” Humanities and social sciences be damned!

State Rep. Charlice Byrd (R-Woodstock) is also incensed by this “major misuse of the state university system’s budget.” She told CBS Atlanta:

I probably am a fuddy-duddy. I believe in the Bible. I’m a Christian. I go to church, and these are not the things that we are learning in church and in the Bible. And so if you want to call me a fuddy-duddy, have at it.

In a finger-wagging rebuke of the University delivered via YouTube, notorious fuddy-duddy Rep. Byrd assured viewers, “the timing is perfect to eliminate positions of professors and staff who are paid to provide such services.”

Of particular concern to Rep. Byrd is a course that actually exists, a doctoral seminar on queer theory. The validity of queer theory is certainly controversial and if the topic concerns Rep. Byrd’s constituents, she is obligated to investigate. However, she completely undermined her credibility as an elected representative (and her status as a decent human being) by publicly posting an unsubstantiated, patently outrageous claim (see cached copy here) that “there is a professor in charge of Queer Theory actively recruiting young teenage gays to accompany him on international trips.”

Nothing like implied charges of pedophilia to get an investigation going, huh?

Rep. Hill also suggested inappropriate faculty behavior. “The concern is what are we doing on our campuses? Are we actually recruiting people, if you will, into a lifestyle?” he asked.

By spending time ferreting out queer needles in the academic haystack, Calvin Hill and Charlice Byrd are distracting the Georgia legislature from careful consideration of state budgetary woes. They are manufacturing scandals where none exist.

There is plenty of room for debate regarding the legitimacy of queer theory as a fruitful academic discipline. Camille Paglia once referred to queer theorists as a “wizened crew of flimflamming free-loaders,” and she may be on to something. I tend to believe the academy’s obsessive division and subdivision of disciplines along lines of gender and ethnicity creates intellectually isolated academic ghettos, but that’s an opinion, not a mandate for legislative interference.

Georgia code (§ 20-3-51) specifies that “the government, control, and management of the university system and all of its institutions shall be vested in the Board of Regents.” The Board is also given authority to allocate appropriations among institutions as members see fit. While members of the public are free to voice curricular concerns to the Board, micromanagement of course content is not a function of the state legislature, not even when taxpayer dollars are involved, not even if Charlice Byrd launches an inquisition.

February 16, 2009 · Filed Under Economy, Education, Gay Issues

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Finally, A Lawsuit I Can Get Behind

I have little patience for frivolous lawsuits that drain taxpayers’ wallets to give lowlifes an outlet for their vanity or easy access to get rich quick by exploiting the letter of the law. That’s why I get almost giddy when a fully merited lawsuit surfaces.

Michelle Malkin reports that Fox Business Network filed suit against the U.S. Treasury Department over failure to respond to legitimate Freedom of Information Act requests. The Network sought data on the allocation of bailout funds that … gasp … would give the American public the transparency promised by Hank Paulson when he ascended to the bailout throne earlier this year.

Kevin Magee, Executive Vice President, FOX News commented, “The Treasury has repeatedly ignored our requests for information on how the government is allocating money to these troubled institutions. In a critical time like this amidst mounting corruptions and an economic crisis, we as a news organization feel it’s more important than ever to hold the government accountable.”

Steven Mintz, Esq. of Mintz & Gold LLP, and legal counsel for the network added, “Despite the several requests for expedited information filed by FBN, it has become apparent that the Treasury will not cooperate without mounting legal pressure. Therefore, we have filed a complaint in the Federal Court in New York and ask the Court to make the Treasury provide the information sought by the journalists at FBN.”

Justice and government accountability – dare I hope?

December 19, 2008 · Filed Under Corruption, Economy

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How to Explain Wealth Redistribution to a Kid

Bill Dyer, aka Beldar, helps his daughter understand what it really means to redistribute to others what one has worked hard to earn.

“What will probably be your best grade?” I asked.

“Guitar,” she said, “That will probably be a 97 or a 98.”

“Cool,” I said. “You really have been successful. But I think you should tell your Guitar teacher that you want to give six or seven of those points to some of your classmates who haven’t practiced so hard or don’t have the talent you have.”

She looked up at me, startled. “What?”

“That class is easy for you, and you have lots more points than you need for an A. They need those points more than you do,” I explained.

“Then they should have worked harder!” she protested.

Read Bill’s full conversation with his daughter at Townhall.com.  I think he might even convince her to give up her Barack Obama lunchbox sticker!

October 28, 2008 · Filed Under Barack Obama, Economy

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Good Stuff: An Ethanol Bailout is in the Works

Holy crap! The ethanol industry is already basically one giant preemptive bailout, and now they’re looking for a 25 million massage from Uncle Sam?  I’m going to be sick.

October 24, 2008 · Filed Under Economy

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George W. Bush: Obama Fluffer

Can someone please explain why the bloody hell George W. Bush is vigorously fluffing Barack Obama?

Bush seems to be doing everything he can to make sure Obama will have no trouble screwing the country with socialist economic policies in the event he takes office.  Once we’ve bailed out Wall Street, sent checks to people who don’t pay taxes, and nationalized American banks, will Obama’s redistributionist rhetoric seem as radical?

Something’s getting stimulated, and it’s not the economy.

October 15, 2008 · Filed Under Barack Obama, Economy, George W. Bush

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Bailouts and Stimulus Packages and Nationalizations, Oh My!

The American economy’s got a fever, and the only cure is to put a lid on government intervention.

That’s the lesson economics professors Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian gleaned from their 2004 study of the Great Depression that suggested FDR’s New Deal policies actually stifled economic recovery for seven years and prolonged the economic crisis into a 15 year Depression. (Hat tip: Jonah Goldberg.)

“Why the Great Depression lasted so long has always been a great mystery, and because we never really knew the reason, we have always worried whether we would have another 10- to 15-year economic slump,” said Ohanian, vice chair of UCLA’s Department of Economics. “We found that a relapse isn’t likely unless lawmakers gum up a recovery with ill-conceived stimulus policies.”

…

“The fact that the Depression dragged on for years convinced generations of economists and policy-makers that capitalism could not be trusted to recover from depressions and that significant government intervention was required to achieve good outcomes,” Cole said. “Ironically, our work shows that the recovery would have been very rapid had the government not intervened.”

Billions of dollars were spent on economic stimulus checks, and more than a trillion is expected to be channeled toward Paulson’s bailout extravaganza. I’m no economist, but I’m pretty sure those expenditures qualify as significant government intervention and a lack of trust in capitalism.

And now, we’re looking at nationalizing banks and Pelosi has another ill-conceived stimulus package on the way? Doom and gloom may be too optimistic.

October 9, 2008 · Filed Under Economy

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