webodec3ARCHIVEPreview
Open in TheBrain

Nat'l Assoc of scholars

see peter wood, pres

see 2

capt 616

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http://junkscience.com/2017/01/ucalifornia-profs-warned-not-to-use-school-resources-for-personal-attacks-on-president-trump/#more-91079

Wanna-be political activists masquerading as professors should not be using their taxpayer-funded day jobs as a perch from which to spout their politics.

The letter is below.

For more on liberal political activism at the University of California, read the April 2, 2012 report from the National Association of Scholars, “NAS Report “A Crisis of Competence: The Corrupting Effect of Political Activism in the :{University of California:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:.”

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January 25, 2017

Professor Eric L. Russell

UC Davis French

https://frenchanditalian.ucdavis.edu/people/profile/96

erussell@ucdavis.edu

Professor Dennis J. Silverman

UC Irvine Physics and Astronomy

http://www.physics.uci.edu/~silverma/

dennis.silverman@uci.edu

Dear Professors Russell and Silverman,

UC professors must not misuse UC resources for political attacks on President Donald J. Trump and his advisors. UC must adhere to underlying state law and must not engage in activities that might violate its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. You can make your political attacks using your own personal resources. Please read the four articles below and realize that you are being watched by those of us who want UC to adhere to its original mission and to not engage in political activism.

Thank you very much for your consideration of my request.

Sincerely yours,

James E.Enstrom, Ph.D.,M.P.H.

UCLA and Scientific Integrity Institute

jenstrom@ucla.edu

January 23, 2017 California Political Review “UC Davis Professors STEAL From Students/Taxpayers”

http://www.capoliticalreview.com/capoliticalnewsandviews/uc-davis-professors-steal-from-studentstaxpayers/

January 16, 2017 UCI Energy Observer “Trump Advisor Will Happer is Not a Climate Scientist”

http://sites.uci.edu/energyobserver/2017/01/16/trump-advisor-will-happer-is-not-a-climate-scientist/

January 18, 2017 UCI Energy Observer “Update on the Climate Science Denier’s Praise of Increasing CO2”

http://sites.uci.edu/energyobserver/2017/01/18/update-on-the-climate-science-deniers-praise-of-increasing-co2/

January 18, 2017 UCI Energy Observer “Trump’s Cabinet: Make America Dumber, Sicker, Smoggier, and Thirstier Again”

http://sites.uci.edu/energyobserver/2017/01/18/trumps-cabinet-make-america-dumber-sicker-smoggier-and-thirstier-again/

==

checker finnRR depr of ed duane r:

https://dianeravitch.net/2012/11/24/checker-finn-opposes-the-for-profit-model-in-education/

edison fail ohio

==

London, pipes

CA branch:

A Crisis of Competence: The Corrupting Effect of Political Activism in the Univeristy of California

Document 

A Crisis of Competence, Full Report

CAS Treasurer, Prof. Gail Heriot's Special Report,

A "Dubious Expediency":How Race-Preferential Admissions

Policies on Campuses Hurt Minority Students

August 31, 2015

Chester Evans Finn, Jr., (b. August 3, 1944) is a former professor of education, an educational policy analyst, and a former United States Assistant Secretary of Education. He is currently the president of the nonprofit Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in Washington, D.C. He is also a Fellow of the International Academy of Education, an Adjunct Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution where he chairs theKoretTask Force on K-12 Education.

Finn was Professor of Education and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University (1981–2002). He served as Assistant Secretary for Research and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education (1985–1988). Earlier positions include Staff Assistant to the President of the United States; Special Assistant to the Governor of Massachusetts(1972–1973); Counsel to the United States Ambassador to India (1973–1974); Research Associate at the Brookings Institution (1974–1977); and Legislative Director forSenator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1977–1981).

==

NAS616 capt

BS

Peter Wyatt Wood

President

pwood@nas.org

Peter Wood is an anthropologist and former provost. He was appointed president of the NAS in January 2009. Before that he served as NAS’s executive director (2007-2008), and as provost of The King’s College in New York City (2005-2007).

Dr. Wood was a tenured member of the Anthropology Department at Boston University, where he also held a variety of administrative positions, including associate provost and president’s chief of staff. He also oversaw the university’s scholarly publications and served as acting university librarian.

He received his Ph.D. in anthropology in 1987 from the University of Rochester. His dissertation, Quoting Heaven, examined the emergence of an American folk religion and pilgrimage center in rural Wisconsin. His undergraduate degree is from Haverford College (1975) and he has a master’s degree in library science from Rutgers University (1977).

Dr. Wood is the author of A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now (EncounterBooks, 2007) and of Diversity: The Invention of a Concept (Encounter Books, 2003) which won the Caldwell Award for Leadership in Higher Education from the John Locke Foundation.These books extend his anthropological interest in examining emergent themes in modern American culture.

In addition to his scholarly work, Dr. Wood has published several hundred articles in print and online journals, such as Partisan Review and National Review Online, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Ashley Thorne

Executive Director

thorne@nas.org

Ashley joined the NAS staff as director of communications in 2008, became director of the Center for the Study of the Curriculum in 2012, and became executive director in 2014. She received her master's degree in linguistics from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2014, and her undergraduate degree in politics, philosophy, and economics from The King’s College in 2007. In 2010 she published a chapter, “Ducking the Coffins: How I Became an Edu-Con,” in an anthology edited by Jonah Goldberg, Proud to Be Right.

Glenn M. Ricketts

Public Affairs Director

ricketts@nas.org

Public Affairs Director Glenn Ricketts joined the NAS staff in 1989. He was the founding president of the NAS New Jersey state affiliate, and served for 20 years on the NAS board of directors. A graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, he received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. He is also professor of political science and U.S. history at Raritan Valley Community College in Somerville New Jersey, where he has taught since 1982.

Rachelle Peterson

Director of Research Projects

peterson@nas.org

Rachelle Peterson joined NAS in 2013 as a research associate analyzing the campus sustainability movement. She graduated from The King’s College in May 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics.

David Randall

Director of Communications

randall@nas.org

David Randall joined NAS in 2015 as director of communications. He earned a Ph.D. in history from Rutgers University, an M.F.A. in fiction writing from Columbia University, a master’s degree in library science from the Palmer School at Long Island University, and a B.A. from Swarthmore College. Prior to working at NAS he was the sole librarian at the John McEnroe Library at New York Studio School.

Ivan Vajdle

Controller

vajdle@nas.org

Ivan joined NAS in 2015 after graduating from Passaic County Community College with a degree in accounting. He also serves as an associate pastor at Christian Fellowship Church of God in Rockaway, NJ. A graduate of Baptist Theological Seminary (Novi Sad, Serbia), he received his M. A. in Theology from Tyndale Theological Seminary (Badhoevedorp, The Netherlands). Prior to moving to the United States, he taught in theological institutions and church ministry in his home country, Serbia. He is the father of two girls, Rebeka and Tara.

Spencer Kashmanian

Development Associate

kashmanian@nas.org

Spencer joined NAS as development associate in May 2016 after graduating from The King’s College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics, philosophy, and economics.

Carol Iannone

Editor-at-Large, Academic Questions

Felicia Sanzari Chernesky

Managing Editor, Academic Questions

chernesky@nas.org

Felicia Sanzari Chernesky returned to the position of managing editor of Academic Questions in October 2007. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in English, majoring in American poetry, with a minor in French literature and a concentration in Latin. She began working for the National Association of Scholars in 1987, and served as an assistant director, editor of the NAS newsletter, NAS Update, and managing editor of Academic Questions. In 1993 she left full-time employment to begin raising a family. While remaining an independent consultant to the NAS, she also freelanced as an editor and writer. A published poet, she is pursuing an MFA in Poetry with an Emphasis in Formal Verse at Western State College of Colorado. She is also active in the New Jersey chapter of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and is represented by The Bent Agency.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

HERBERT LONDON

Chairman

hlondon@londoncenter.org

Herbert I. London is president of the London Center for Policy Research and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He is the former president of the Hudson Institute. He is professor emeritus and the former John M. Olin Professor of Humanities at New York University. He was responsible for creating the Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 1972 and was its dean until 1992. This school was organized to promote the study of “great books” and classic texts. Herbert London is a graduate of Columbia University, 1960, and the recipient of a Ph.D. from New York University, 1966.

STEVE BALCH

Founder

steve.balch@ttu.edu

Stephen H. Balch is director of The Institute for the Study of Western Civilization at Texas Tech University. He previously served for twenty-five years as the founding president and then the chairman of the National Association of Scholars. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California atBerkeleyand was for fourteen years a member of the faculty of the Department of Government and Public Administration of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of the City University of New York. In 2007 he received the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush. In 2009 he was the recipient of the Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award from the American Conservative Union Foundation and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

DANIEL ASIA

Professor of Music, University of Arizona, whose compositions include five symphonies, an opera, and numerous other works.

EVELYN AVERY

Associate Professor of English and former director of Jewish Studies, Towson State University.

JAY A. BERGMAN

Professor of History, Central Connecticut State University, whose research focuses on modern Russian history.

PETER BERKOWITZ

Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he chairs the National Security and Law Task Force.

WARD CONNERLY

Founder and President of theAmerican Civil Rights Institute,former President and CEO of Connerly & Associates, Inc., a land developing consulting firm, and a former Regent of the University of California.

MIDGE DECTER wacko?

Founder, Committee for the Free World, and widely published writer.

GEORGE W. DENT, JR.

Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University, where he is the Associate Director of the Law School's Center for Business Law and Regulation.

CANDACE DE RUSSY

Regent,Ave Maria University;member of advisory boards of FIRE, the Independent Women's Forum, the International Institute of Classical Humanities, and the Cardinal Newman Society; former trustee of SUNY and member of Board of Visitors of the U.S. Air Force Academy.

:{"Women went to college, the old joke went, to get their 'Mrs.' Now they can attend conferences in kinky sex and S&M, or take courses in lesbian and gay studies--and that is not a joke." – Candice deRussy, :(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:["Sex and Bondage 101" ] who stole fem? bk

{  bs nat rev

http://www.nationalreview.com/author/candace-de-russy

Candace de Russy is a nationally recognized expert on education and cultural issues. A former college professor with a doctorate in French from Tulane University, she was appointed to the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Air Force Academy by President George W. Bush in 2002. In 2005, when her term ended, she received the Air Force’s Exceptional Service Award. De Russy has been published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Academic Questions, the New York Post, the New York Sun and other publications. She served as a member of the board of trustees of the State University of New York from 1995 to 2007. In 2005 she joined the Ave Maria University board of regents, which in 2006 she was appointed to chair. She is currently a member of the trustees council of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni as well as a member and treasurer of the board of directors of the National Association of Scholars.

She serves on the advisory boards of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the Independent Women's Forum. From 2004-2009 she served as an adjunct fellow at the  Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., where she focused on academic standards, assessment, governance, strategic planning, accountability, funding and other issues in higher education. In 2005 she became a member of the Committee on the Present Danger, which is dedicated to protecting and expanding democracy by winning the global war against terrorism as well as the movements and ideologies that drive it. In 2004 she co-founded and became chairman of Democracy Project, whose mission it is to strengthen the institutions and contentions that support liberty and democrat Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/author/candace-de-russy Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/author/candace-de-russy

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/author/candace-de-russy

}:

DAVID GORDON

Professor of History, City University of New York, where he focuses on the economic history of France and French investments in East Asia.

GAIL L. HERIOT

Professor of Law, University of San Diegoand member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

THOMAS KLINGENSTEIN

Founder and Principal of Cohen Klingenstein LLC, a New York City investment firm; Chairman of Claremont Institute; and playwright.

ROBERT C. KOONS

Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin, where he specializes in the application of logic to metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, political philosophy, and philosophy of religion.

BARRY LATZER

Professor of Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, who has published widely on criminal procedure, the death penalty, and the history of crime.

THOMAS K. LINDSAY

Former president of Shimer College, and former provost of the University of Dallas, Director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and former deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. His research focuses on Aristotle’s teaching on the relation between education and democracy in the Politics.

WIGHT MARTINDALE

Former journalist and Wall Street businessman who worked at Lehman Brothers for 17 years as a Senior Vice President in the bond department and later as a managing director with Guggenheim Capital Markets. He has taught at Lehigh University, Temple University, and Villanova University.

ANNE D. NEAL

Co-Founder and President, American Council of Trustees and Alumni, which protects liberal arts education and high academic standards.

B. NELSON ONG

Associate Professor of Political Science, College of New Rochelle, focusing his research in the foundations of American constitutionalism.

NORM ROGERS 

Founder and former CEO of Rabbit Semiconductor, a California manufacturer of embedded microprocessors and software for embedded programming; volunteer senior policy advisor, The Heartland Institute, Chicago. He writes about global warming from a skeptical point of view.

BARRY SMITH 

Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University at Buffalo and Director, National Center for Ontological Research.

SANDRA STOTSKY

Chair, Department of Education Reform, University of Arkansas and nationally-known expert in English language arts content standards.

RICHARD VEDDER 

Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus, Ohio University; founder,Center for College Affordability and Productivity.

BRADLEY C.S. WATSON

Department Chair, Philip M. McKenna Professor of Politics, and Co-Director of the Center for Political and Economic Thought at St. Vincent College, Latrobe, PA.

AMY L. WAX

Robert Mundheim Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania, and an expert in civil procedure, appellate litigation, social welfare law and policy, and the law and economics of work and family.

KEITH WHITAKER

Founding Associate, Wise Counsel Research Associates; formerly a philosophy professor, Boston College, and writing instructor, Boston University.

CURRENT BOARD OF ADVISORS

John Agresto

Edwin J. Delattre

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Robert P. George

Gertrude Himmelfarb

Paul Hollander

Donald Kagan

Richard D. Lamm

Leslie Lenkowsky

Harvey C. Mansfield

Milton J. Rosenberg

Christina Hoff Sommers

Shelby Steele

Stephan Thernstrom

FORMER MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ADVISORS

Jacques Barzun

James David Barber

Walter Berns

Eugene D. Genovese

Irving Louis Horowitz

Harry V. Jaffa

Robert Jastrow

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick

Irving Kristol

Seymour Martin Lipset

Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones

Nelson W. Polsby

Willard V. Quine

Leo Raditsa

Stanley Rothman

John R. Silber

Ernest van den Haag

James Q. Wilson

==

hedges death lib class

lib = rule of law, international institution, eg Amnesty intl 149 (hobbled in israel); pro-palestine scholar pays price; Dershowitz enforcer; nat assoc of scholars has Sidney Hook award: said named names in 50's; Congress for Cultural Freedom took CIA $ 152

called for in powell memo: 

The Campus

The assault on the enterprise system was not mounted in a few months. It has gradually evolved over the past two decades, barely perceptible in its origins and benefiting (sic) from a gradualism that provoked little awareness much less any real reaction.

Although origins, sources and causes are complex and interrelated, and obviously difficult to identify without careful qualification, there is reason to believe that the campus is the single most dynamic source. The social science faculties usually include members who are unsympathetic to the enterprise system. They may range from a Herbert Marcuse, Marxist faculty member at the University of California at San Diego, and convinced socialists, to the ambivalent liberal critic who finds more to condemn than to commend. Such faculty members need not be in a majority. They are often personally attractive and magnetic; they are stimulating teachers, and their controversy attracts student following; they are prolific writers and lecturers; they author many of the textbooks, and they exert enormous influence -- far out of proportion to their numbers -- on their colleagues and in the academic world.

Social science faculties (the political scientist, economist, sociologist and many of the historians) tend to be liberally oriented, even when leftists are not present. This is not a criticism per se, as the need for liberal thought is essential to a balanced viewpoint. The difficulty is that "balance" is conspicuous by its absence on many campuses, with relatively few members being of conservatives or moderate persuasion and even the relatively few often being less articulate and aggressive than their crusading colleagues.

This situation extending back many years and with the imbalance gradually worsening, has had an enormous impact on millions of young American students. In an article in Barron's Weekly, seeking an answer to why so many young people are disaffected even to the point of being revolutionaries, it was said: "Because they were taught that way."10 Or, as noted by columnist Stewart Alsop, writing about his alma mater: "Yale, like every other major college, is graduating scores' of bright young men ... who despise the American political and economic system."

As these "bright young men," from campuses across the country, seek opportunities to change a system which they have been taught to distrust -- if not, indeed "despise" -- they seek employment in the centers of the real power and influence in our country, namely: (i) with the news media, especially television; (ii) in government, as "staffers" and consultants at various levels; (iii) in elective politics; (iv) as lecturers and writers, and (v) on the faculties at various levels of education.

Many do enter the enterprise system -- in business and the professions -- and for the most part they quickly discover the fallacies of what they have been taught. But those who eschew the mainstream of the system often remain in key positions of influence where they mold public opinion and often shape governmental action. In many instances, these "intellectuals" end up in regulatory agencies or governmental departments with large authority over the business system they do not believe in.

If the foregoing analysis is approximately sound, a priority task of business -- and organizations such as the Chamber -- is to address the campus origin of this hostility. Few things are more sanctified in American life than academic freedom. It would be fatal to attack this as a principle. But if academic freedom is to retain the qualities of "openness," "fairness" and "balance" --which are essential to its intellectual significance -- there is a great opportunity for constructive action. The thrust of such action must be to restore the qualities just mentioned to the academic communities.

What Can Be Done About the Campus

The ultimate responsibility for intellectual integrity on the campus must remain on the administrations and faculties of our colleges and universities. But organizations such as the Chamber can assist and activate constructive change in many ways, including the following:

Staff of ScholarsThe Chamber should consider establishing a staff of highly qualified scholars in the social sciences who do believe in the system. It should include several of national reputation whose authorship would be widely respected -- even when disagreed with.

on the case:

In the past 20 years this core group of funders has, by many reports, built and strategically linked an impressive array of almost 500 think tanks, centers, institutes and "concerned citizens groups" both within and outside of the academy. It is particularly telling to observe the funding sources of these organizations during the first 10-15 years of their existence, when their ideological identities were being established. A small sampling of these entities include the Cato Institute,the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute,the Manhattan Institute, the Hoover Institution, the Claremont Institute, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni,Middle East Forum,Accuracy in Media, and the National Association of Scholars, as well as Horowitz'sCenter of the Study of Popular Culture.

The absence of formal organizational linkages between the entities within these networks creates an illusion of independent analytical voices reaching similar conclusions about strategic policy issues, a technique known in the public relations industry as “astroturfing.” This network has developed an enormous capacity to generate “data” consistent with the targeted political agenda and world views of its core group of funders to quickly and redundantly represent these issues in the mainstream press by what appear to be the voices of independent analysts and to translate these viewpoints into public policy that serves the focused ideological agenda of this core group of funders. The Bradley Foundation under Michael Joyce's leadership has even established a publishing house, Encounter Books, to ensure that grantees like Horowitz have a quasi-academic outlet for their viewpoints.

The degree of interconnectedness within this network of organizations is considerable but almost invisible to the casual observer. For example, when ACTA’s president, Anne Neal, introduced herself to the Select Committee on Academic Freedom in Higher Education in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, she presented ACTA as “a bipartisan network of college and university trustees and alumni across the country dedicated to academic freedom.”

Full disclosure should have required some mention of the fact that ACTA (see funding sources above), which changed its name from the National Alumni Forum in 1998, was established by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in 1994. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute in turn evolved from William Bennett’s Madison Center for Educational Affairs and the Institute for Educational Affairs founded by Irving Kristol, Michael Joyce’s mentor, and William Simon, the first president of the John M. Olin Foundation. Bennett and Kristol also sit on ACTA’s Board of Directors. The remarkably consistent record of funding across all of the incarnations of this organization and the high degree of redundancy with Horowitz’s own, highly partisan Center for the Study of Popular Culture is not consistent with Neal’s definition of ACTA as an independent, non-partisan organization.

Another example illustrative of the quietly incestuous nature of this network is presented by an article by the Boston Globecolumnist Cathy Young. The article is entitled “Liberal bias in the ivory tower” and by all appearances is an independent opinion piece written by a regular Globe columnist. At the end of the article Young identifies herself as “a contributing editor at Reason Magazine.” What is undisclosed in the article is that Reason Magazine is the publication of the Reason Foundation, whose funding sources are virtually the same as those funding Horowitz’s "Academic Bill of Rights" project and Neal’s ACTA.

Young’s premise for the article is stated in her opening sentence: “Yet another study has come out documenting what most conservatives consider to be blindingly obvious: the leftwing tilt of the American professoriate.” The study that she references was conducted by Stanley Rothman, now emeritus professor at Smith College; S. Robert Lichter, emeritus professor at George Mason University; and Neil Nevitte of the University of Toronto, and was published in the online journal Forum. This study was also cited by Neal in her testimony in Pennsylvania. Young does not inform her readers that Rothman is director of the Center for the Study of Social and Political Change, a center with funding sources that are remarkably redundant with Horowitz’s Center for the Study of Popular Culture. Lichter is also president of theCenter for Media and Public Affairs, which again has funding sources that are redundant with those referenced earlier.

In addition, a recent article in Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting is highly critical of Lichter’s research methodology. Another example of such conflicted interests is provided by Professor Thomas Reeves. When Reeves writes in strong support of Horowitz’s proposals on the History News Network,he fails to note that he is a spokesman for the California Association of Scholars, a branch of the National Association of Scholars (see funding sources above) and that he is director of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, which was, again, brought into being by the Olin and Bradley Foundations.

This manufactured drumbeat against “academic bias” is amplified by Stanley Kurtz of the Hoover Institution (see funding sources above), Heather MacDonald, a John M. Olin fellow at the Manhattan Institute (see funding sources above), and Brian C. Anderson, editor of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal and a former research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (see funding sources above).

The relentlessness with which columnists and experts with direct funding relationships with Olin, Scaife, Bradley, Koch and Coors level charges of academic bias and assert the need for legislative reform of higher education is remarkable. The goal of this narrowly focused and ideologically driven public relations campaign can only be understood in terms of its fostering of a political climate in which federal regulatory “reform” of what is universally recognized as the finest system of higher education in the world, will be tolerated.

Indeed, as has been discussed, such regulatory oversight may already be in the offing. The academy stands today as one of the last spaces in America where the democratic ideas that shape the social, economic and political fabric of the nation can be openly and independently debated on the basis of their merits and without coercion or distortion from vested economic and political interests. It is certainly in the national interest that it remain such.

wood attacks mashey for defending mann 

http://www.nas.org/articles/Bottling_Up_Global_Warming_Skepticism

Peter Wood (2011-06-30). Bottling Up Global Warming Skepticism. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved on 2011-07-14.

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) is a non-profit organization in the United States that opposes multiculturalism and affirmative action and seeks to counter what it considers a "liberal bias" in academia.[1]

In 2010 and 2011, its president was espousing climate contrarianism under the group's auspices, with no evident expertise in the climate science field.[2]

The Association's officers are not answerable to its membership: according to its 2009 IRS Form 990 (Part VI Section A), the Association doesn't have members (line 6), members don't elect the officers (line 7a), and the decisions of the governing body are not subject to members' approval (line 7b).[3] Mid-2000s IRS filings also indicate that the Association was controlled by 0 or 1 person.

The Association's major foundation donor is the Sarah Scaife Foundation. By 2009, the majority of the Association's revenue came from "educational partnerships", the funding for which is winding down. While the NAS continues to describe itself as "an independent membership association of academics..."[4], in late 2009 membership was opened to all.[5]

Anyone interested in a more thorough report on this organization should read the later parts of John Mashey's 34pp "Bottling Nonsense" pdf, in the Resources section below.

Contents

Founding

The group was founded in 1987[6] by Herbert London and Stephen Balch[4][7] with the goal of preserving the "Western intellectual heritage".[8], or perhaps in 1982 with Barry R. Gross[9] and Peter Shaw[10],[11] It was originally called the Campus Coalition for Democracy[4].

bs bio: Stephen H. Balch was the founding president and is currently the chairman of the National Association of Scholars. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California and was for fourteen years a member of the faculty of the Department of Government and Public Administration of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of the City University of New York. In 2007 he received the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush. In 2009 he was the recipient of the Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award from the American Conservative Union Foundation and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

Mission

Former mission: to protect academe from outside influence

In 1995, "The National Association of Scholars describes itself as dedicated to keeping outside political influences from tainting teaching and learning on campuses", according to a New York Times article.[9]

De jure independent, de facto right

Against political correctness

While the Association's mission statement says it is "an independent membership association of academics" working to foster intellectual freedom and to sustain the tradition of reasoned scholarship and civil debate", a 1996[12] report by People for the American Way[13] pegs the mission as "to unite right-wing faculty against 'politically correct' multicultural education and affirmative action policies in college admissions and faculty hiring that take race or gender into account."

1960s cultural shift threatening study of Western Civilization

"In addressing issues that are of academic concern across the political spectrum, the N.A.S. has recently been successful in attracting a small number of liberal and moderate faculty, but the overall thrust of the N.A.S. remains conservative. In lecture halls and on the op-ed pages of many prominent national papers, N.A.S. members across the country put forward the idea that multicultural education, gender studies and affirmative action policies are simply trendy endeavors or throwbacks to 1960s "radicalism." 112 Invariably, these programs are described as threats to the study of Western civilization. As of 1996, the organization has approximately 4,000 members (faculty and graduate students), with 38 state affiliates; it has representatives in the American Sociological Association, the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association."[13]

Agnostic on - but participating in - climate science rejection

See "Actions" section below.

Funding

As of 2009

In its 2009 filing, the Association received ~80k from membership dues, ~600k from foundations and ~1.8 million from "educational partnerships", according to its 2009 IRS Form 990 filing.[1]

70% came from educational partnerships - Teaching American History (TAH)

In 2009, ~70% of Association funding came from "educational partnerships"; these reportedly involve providing teaching materials, speakers etc. to schools who contract with them, using monies from the U.S. Department of Education's "Teaching American History" program.[14][quit b/c ^fed ^$?]^

"The program supports competitive grants to local educational agencies.... Grants are used to improve the quality of history instruction by supporting professional development for teachers of American history. In order to receive a grant, a local educational agency must agree to carry out the proposed activities in partnership with one or more of the following: institutions of higher education, nonprofit history or humanities organizations, libraries, or museums."[2]

Foundation funding

Scaife has been heaviest donor

The Sarah Scaife Foundation, a heavy and consistent donor, appears to have been the Association's biggest foundation donor from 1991-2005MediaTransparency site and likely beyond: it gave $200k in 2009, $250k/yr from 2000-2008, $300k/yr from 1994-1999, and various amounts before then.[15]. The 2005+ Scaife funding does not show up on Media Matters.

Other foundations

As of 1996, PFAW said

"The N.A.S. is heavily backed by the Olin, Bradley, Sarah Scaife, J.M., Coors and Smith Richardson foundations, among others, receiving a combined total in excess of $348,000 from these foundations alone in 1990-91."[13]

Shifts over time

2002-2009: rise of "educational partnerships", decline of membership dues

Association funding has come to be dominated by revenue from "educational partnerships". Revenue from these partnerships rose from nothing in 2002[3] to $30k in 2003[4], to $440k the following year[5], and since has grown to $1.8 million in 2009:{[:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:6].

Over this same 2002-2009 period, membership dues declined by a third, from ~120k down to ~80k.

2011,"educational partnerships" TAH funding going away

Funding for the Teaching American History program is winding down; it dropped by over half in 2011, and and no new grants are being awarded.[16]

Personnel

Board of Directors

As of July 2011 there were 34 members:[18]

Daniel Asia, Evelyn Avery, Jay A. Bergman, Philip J. Clements, George W. Dent, Jr., Candace de Russy, William A. Donohue, Kenneth O. Doyle, Norman Fruman, Bernard K. Gordon, Gail L. Heriot, Christina Jeffrey, E. Christian Kopff, Michael I. Krauss, Dorothy Lang, Barry Latzer, Thomas K. Lindsay, Herbert I. London, John N. Mathys, Wight Martindale, David D. Mulroy, Anne D. Neal, B. Nelson Ong[19], Jeffrey J. Poelvoorde, Edward A. Rauchut, Glenn M. Ricketts, Norman Rogers, Michael Schwartz, Philip Siegelman, Barry Smith, Sandra Stotsky, Jeffrey Walllin, Bradley C.S. Watson, Keith Whitaker

Confusingly, these names don't show on the 2002-2009 Form 990 filings[7]; although several have told me they've been board members for years or decades[20].

Advisory board

The only advisory board member I've corresponded with reports having joined at the NAS's invitation, but never being tapped for advice, and the board never meeting.[21]

2009

As of 2009's Form 990, the advisory board consisted of 27 individuals:

2000 or earlier

As of 1996, "Its advisory board lists right-wing intellectuals such as Jeane Kirkpatrick, co-director of Empower America and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; Irving Kristol; Leslie Lenkowsky, president of the Hudson Institute; and Chester Finn of the Edison Project, a corporation formed to privatize public education."[13]

Is NAS a one-man operation?

Governance information

Governing body had 0 votes; inconsistent answers on 990 filing

Since at least 2005, IRS Form 990 has asked how many members of the nonprofit's "governing body" actually have a vote; and the answers NAS has given are suggestive:

2005, 2006 and 2007: 0; with a roughly 10-member board.2008: 1, with 32 being independent(???); this 2008 board had shrunk to 5.[23]2009: 27, with 27 independent; yet the 27 "board members" listed were the advisory board.[24]

Actions

Science shift, from sanity to...

2006 and earlier, Science Insights

The association used to publish Science Insights, on science matters. It was edited by the late JohnWenger,http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v389/n6653/abs/389835a0.html

 and before that, by Patricia Hausman. From the Form 990 filings, it appears to have stopped publication by 2007.

2003, Excoriating intelligent design

In a now-defunct publication called Science Insights , Paul R. Gross wrote a 2003 piece pointing out that intelligent design was bogus science.[8]  http://www.yuricareport.com/Science/sci_insght74_DrGross.pdf

2003, Concerns about Bush censorship of climate scientists

John Wenger wrote in 2003, "Waxman...makes factual charges that, if true, are extremely serious and troublesome...if they are true, they document a shocking breach of the public faith."[9]  [gross critiques creationism: http://www.yuricareport.com/Science/sci_insght74_DrGross.pdf

 University College Dublin, Department of Chemistry, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. peer rev climatology?

180?

2010,2011: Dismissing climate science

As of 2010[25] and 2011[2], writings appearing under the byline of Association president Peter W. Wood have attacked sustainability, climate science, and recent efforts exposing the PR push to cast doubt on climate science.

Association member and climate scientist Kerry Emanuel objected to this effort in mid-2010, noting that "A true test of NAS’s commitment to reason and scholarship is whether it is prepared to take on an attack that this time is mounted largely from the Right." [26]

Affiliate chapter heads' views: agreement with their President, or silence

A question arose: do the association's affiliate chapters share the national group's president's views on condoning and acting to protect outside political influence on climate science?

50 affiliate chapter heads were emailed[27] an invitation to share their views on their president's climate writing. By 4 days later, three had weighed in on this topic, all to express agreement:

"I couldn't agree more with Dr. Wood's approach to the issue of global warming as presented in the academic environment." - Asia, AZ;"I am sympathetic to Mr. Woods' view. The problem of ideology posing as science is real as is the demonization of those who do not accept revealed truth from the left." - Glamser, MS;"Peter Wood's commentary ... is a lucid, brief, compelling and altogether logical essay." - Geshekter, CA.

Minorities and civil rights

1990, U of Texas course covering civil rights

"The association first gained notoriety in 1990 at the University of Texas, at Austin, where N.A.S. faculty succeeded in blocking the inclusion in an English course of civil rights readings that had been proposed in response to increasing racial and sexual harassment on campus. During the controversy, the faculty group also encouraged a right-wing student group to lead an ultimately successful campaign to defund the university's Chicano newspaper."[13]

199?, U Mass minority enrollment

As of 1996, "More recently, the N.A.S. released an update of a 1994 report urging the University of Massachusetts system toabandon its goal of expanding minority enrollment to 20 percent of the freshman class, and to end a program that encourages the hiring of women and minorities. The report focuses on SAT scores to claim that minority students are below average, and therefore unfairly take the place of qualified white students. The University of Massachusetts chancellor countered that the practice is based on the philosophy that "the class should reflect the diversity of seniors graduating from the high schools."[13]

1996 survey, back to basics

"The N.A.S. has also come out with a 1996 survey, heralded in a Wall Street Journal op-ed by William Simon, president of the Olin Foundation and major N.A.S. backer. The survey asserts that the decrease in core requirements at the top 50 universities and colleges since 1914 threatens "the common frame of reference that...has sustained our liberal, democratic society," according to N.A.S. president Stephen Balch. The N.A.S. fixes much of the blame on student activism in the 1960s "when the rage in higher education was a radical libertarianism based on notions of 'relevance.'" [13]

Contact details

As of July 2009:

1 Airport Place, Suite 7Princeton, NJ 08540-1532Tel 609-683-7878Web: http://www.nas.org

Former address

221 Witherspoon Street, 2nd floor

Princeton, NJ 08542

Phone: 609-683-7878

Articles and resources

References

  1. ↑ National Association of Scholars From the website of People for the American Way. Accessed July 17, 2008.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Peter Wood (2011-06-30). Bottling Up Global Warming Skepticism. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved on 2011-07-14.
  3. ↑ 2009 Form 990
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Who We Are. National Association of Scholars. Retrieved on 2011-07-11. “NAS is an independent membership association of academics working to foster intellectual freedom and to sustain the tradition of reasoned scholarship and civil debate in America’s colleges and universities.”
  5. ↑ NAS Membership Form. National Association of Scholars. Retrieved on 2011-07-11. “NAS membership is open to all. This is a change as of October 2009. Before that NAS restricted membership to academics. We now encourage anyone who agrees with the principles we espouse to join.”
  6. ↑ Who We Are. National Association of Scholars. Retrieved on 2011-07-11.
  7. ↑ Wilson, John (1996). The Myth of Political Correctness. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822317133.
  8. ↑ Patricia Cohen (September 21, 2008). "Conservatives Try New Tack on Campuses", New York Times. Retrieved on September 22, 2008.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 David Stout (1995-07-21). B. R. Gross, 58, A Professor Of Philosophy -. New York Times. Retrieved on 2011-07-12. “The National Association of Scholars describes itself as dedicated to keeping outside political influences from tainting teaching and learning on campuses. Its predecessor organization, begun in 1982, was the Campus Coalition for Democracy, and Professor Gross was one of the organizers.”
  10. ↑ ROBERT McG. THOMAS (1995-08-21). Peter Shaw, 58, Literary Scholar Who Rallied Neoconservatives. New York Times. Retrieved on 2011-07-14. “At his death, he was chairman of the National Association of Scholars, a group he helped found in 1982 to oppose what he saw as an oppressive trend toward political correctness on college campuses.”
  11. ↑ Gross (then NAS national program director and treasurer) and Shaw (then NAS chairman) died in 1995 at 58, a month apart.
  12. ↑ Full Report Archive. People For the American Way. Retrieved on 2011-07-25. “Full Report Archive ... Buying a Movement 09/11/1996”
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 Buying a Movement - Right-Wing Foundations and American Politics (pdf). People for the American Way (1996-09-11). Retrieved on 2011-07-09.
  14. ↑ Glenn Ricketts, phone conversation 2011-07-25
  15. ↑ Sarah Scaife Foundation Form 990s on ERI, accessed 2011-08-04
  16. ↑ Teaching American History. Department of Education. Retrieved on 2011-07-29. “Funding for the Teaching American History (TAH) grant program was decreased in the FY 2011 full-year continuing resolution completion. As a result, there are sufficient funds only to support continuation grants for the TAH program to current grantees. Therefore, we will not be making any new awards in FY 2011 for this program.”
  17. ↑ Peter Wood (2009-01-12). A Tribute to Stephen H. Balch. National Association of Scholars. Retrieved on 2011-07-11. “A Tribute to Stephen H. Balch”
  18. ↑ People. National Association of Scholars. Retrieved on 2011-07-11.
  19. ↑ B Nelson Ong. Professional Development International, Ltd.. Retrieved on 2011-07-12. “Dr. Ong serves as the national secretary of the National Association of Scholars and is a member of both its board of directors and the executive steering committee.”
  20. ↑ Latzer, Mathys, Mulroy, in email
  21. ↑ Mary R. Lefkowitz, pers. comm.; she also recommends FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) as meeting the need that NAS was originally created to address.
  22. ↑ Eugene W. Hickok (2006-05-21). More Children Left Behind. Washington Post. Retrieved on 2011-07-11.
  23. ↑ 2008 Form 990, page 6
  24. ↑ 2009 Form 990, page 6
  25. ↑ Peter Wood (2010-03-16). Climategate Deniers. National Association of Scholars. Retrieved on 2011-07-14. “Climategate Deniers”
  26. ↑ Emanuel did note that NAS printed his response "word for word". Kerry Emanuel (2010-07-19). “Climategate”: A Different Perspective. National Association of Scholars. Retrieved on 2011-07-10. “NAS stands at a crossroads: is it truly committed to upholding standards of objective scholarship and free inquiry untainted by political agendas, or is it merely a particular brand of political passion masquerading as high principle? If the former, it should stop attacking climate science and turn its guns against those who are politicizing it.”
  27. ↑ sent 2011-07-12 a.m.

Related SourceWatch articles

External resources

External articles

Wikipedia also has an article on National Association of Scholars. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL.

Categories: Climate change | Academia | Right wing | United State

desmog

NAS President Peter Wood: wrong, dishonest or hopelessly compromised?

New Mashey Report Disrobes Climate Disinformer

What would cause a senior anthropologist such as Peter Wood to stagger outside his field of expertise and launch a bitchy, personal and error-ridden attack on a climate scientist and his defender? Wrong-headedness? Ideological blindess? Great wads of Richard Mellon Scaife’s cash? What?

Well, the question must be rhetorical, unless the President of the National Association of Scholars chooses to answer it himself. According to his fields of study, Wood is an “expert” in art, aesthetics, Catholocism and culture. He neither claims nor can demonstrate the tiniest academic mastery of atmospheric physics or any other aspect of climatology.

Yet he has used his launching pad as president of the NAS (suspiciously rendered with the same acronym as the National Academy of Sciences) and a podium at the Chronicle of Higher Educationto try to dismiss both **Michael Mann**and**John Mashey** as huckster fellow travellers of P.T. Barnum.

As the attached report demonstrates, that was a mistake. Because Wood doesn’t fare at all well when someone turns the investigatory camera on him. Wood has long had a tendency to question climate science or to laud whacky climate change deniers such as **Christopher Monckton**or**Fred Singer**,but his most recent outburst followed an excellent short feature of John Mashey by the journal Science. As Wood says, “Science reports that retired computer scientist Dr. John Mashey is attempting to patch the tattered reputation of ‘hide the decline’ Michael Mann, the climate scientist whose famous ‘hockey stick’ chart shows exponentially increasing global temperatures in the near term.”

Beyond correctly identifying Mashey as a computer scientist, Wood appears to be wrong on all fronts. Far from being “tattered,” Mike Mann’s reputation has been hardened in the fires of hell. Despite a pitched attack on his character and scientific output going back nearly a decade, every inquiry appears toexonerate his personal behavior and reaffirm the quality of his science. I suspect Mann’s work has been cited more in the last six months than Wood’s has in his entire career.

Neither was it Mann who penned the famous (and famously misquoted) “hide the decline” line from the stolen East Anglia emails. And the important part of Mann’s hockey-stick chart was not the exponential increase in global temperature: you can see that in any rendering of the actual instrumental record. The defining work in Mann’s graph (and in every other climate reconstruction that has been done since) is the demonstration that, before humans started pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, we had enjoyed at least a thousand years of remarkable climate stability (constituting the shaft of the hockey stick that came before the exponential blade).

So Wood either doesn’t understand any of this or doesn’t want us to. And Mashey, a ferociously energetic researcher, has created a 34-page report pondering Wood’s own frailties and setting forth some possible explanations of why the (less credible) NAS president could be so far off the rails.

There is, of course, ideology. Although the NAS declines to identify itself as a bastion of “conservative” thought, it seems to spend a surprising amount of time digging its nose into issues that are more of interest to its well-healed conservative funders than those that are centrally reflected in the organization’s own mission statement. (I dare you to find much “reasoned scholarship” or “civil debate” in Wood’s original salvo or in any of the back-and-forth commentary that followed.)

Mashey also points to the coincidence that the big donors to the (less credible) NAS are also suspiciously generous to organizations such as the**Competitive Enterprise Institute**and the**George C. Marshall Institute**-two of the most prominent climate science denying think tanks in the country. Now, it could be purest chance that all these organizations share a passion for spreading climate confusion.  Just as it could be possible that the devastating weather events that have marred America so far this year are entirely unrelated to climate change ….

You also have to admit the possibility that Dr. Wood just isn’t that smart - that he is doing all this work in purest good faith, but that he has the terrible misfortune to have consistently and repeatedly got all the details wrong.

Certainly, it was a case of misfortune that he attacked Mashey, or else the encyclopedic evidence of Wood’s connections and previous protestations would not have been gathered in this handy reference.

Alas, when you look at the clownish Monckton, the discredited Singer or Steve Milloy and, now, the unfortunate Peter Wood, you have to wonder that the oily barons can’t afford more impressive champions for their increasingly incredible cause.

SourceWatch

Peter W. Wood is President of the National Association of Scholars. He has a PhD in Anthropology and is listed as the author of two books published by Encounter Books.

In the role of National Association of Scholars President he has espoused climate contrarianism, but it is unclear that he has any background in the climate science field.

Contents[hide]

Background and experience

"He is a graduate of Haverford College, Rutgers University, and the University of Rochester, from which he received a Ph.D. in anthropology in 1987. He previously served as provost of The King’s College in New York City, and as associate provost and the president [John Silber ]’s chief of staff at Boston University, where he was also a tenured member of the anthropology department."[1]

Climate science and policy

Expertise is unclear

It is unclear whether Dr. Wood has any academic background or experience that would qualify him to hold informed views about the field of climate science.[2]

Writings are dismissive

In June 2011, in the Chronicle of Higher Education weblog, posts appearing under Wood's byline included a 3-part attack on sustainability[3],[4],[5] and a post[6] casting doubt on human-caused climate change and dismissing the work by John Mashey and others to expose and counter the climate denial PR effort.[7]

Articles and resources

References

  1. ↑ Peter Wood. Carolina Journal. Retrieved on 2011-07-12.
  2. ↑ Dr. Wood has declined to provide this information so far, saying he will take the request "under advisement." - Ahaynes, 2011-07-14; no further information, two weeks later
  3. ↑ Peter Wood (2011-06-16). Tyranny or Theft? Part 1 - Innovations. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved on 2011-07-10. “Tyranny or Theft? Part 1”
  4. ↑ Peter Wood (2011-06-16). Tyranny or Theft? Part 2. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved on 2011-07-10. “Tyranny or Theft? Part 3”
  5. ↑ Peter Wood (2011-06-16). Tyranny or Theft? Part 3. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved on 2011-07-10.
  6. ↑ Peter W. Wood (2011-06-30). Bottling Up Global Warming Skepticism. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved on 2011-07-10. “"At 15, P.T. Barnum showed what he was made of...Of course, man-made global warming is just one exhibit in the contemporary higher-education circus."”
  7. ↑ Tim Lambert. Peter Wood's double standard on plagiarism. Deltoid. Retrieved on 2011-07-10.

Related SourceWatch articles

External resources

External articles

Categories: Climate change | Stubs

Stephen H. Balch is the chairman and was the founding president of the National Association of Scholars.

He was previously involved in founding the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics, and the Association for the Study of Free Institutions.

He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California.[1]

Contents[hide]

Articles and resources

References

  1. ↑ NAS - The National Association of Scholars :: People. ?. Retrieved on 2011-07-13.

 From SourceWatch:

Foundation funding

Scaife has been heaviest donor

TheSarah ScaifeFoundation, a heavy and consistent donor, appears to have been the Association's biggest foundation donor from 1991-2005MediaTransparency site and likely beyond: it gave $200k in 2009, $250k/yr from 2000-2008, $300k/yr from 1994-1999, and various amounts before then.[15]. The 2005+ Scaife funding does not show up on Media Matters.

Other foundations

As of 1996, PFAW said

"The N.A.S. is heavily backed by the Olin, Bradley, Sarah Scaife, J.M., Coors and Smith Richardson foundations, among others, receiving a combined total in excess of $348,000 from these foundations alone in 1990-91."[13]

new addy:  1 AIRPORT PLACE, SUITE 7 | PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540

a hotel? has a dentist?

221 Witherspoon Street, Second Floor

Princeton, New Jersey 08542-3215

http://www.nas.org

Founded: 1985

President: Stephen H. Balch

Publications: NAS Update quarterly newsletter, Academic Questions quarterly journal, and Science Insights; and occasional reports

Finances: Has an income of less than $25,000 per year.

NAS Principle Issues:

NAS Principle Activities:

Major Right Wing Donors:

NAS's Board of Advisors:

Updated July 2004

UC hit job

JOHN M. ELLIS, PRESIDENT, CAS

CHARLES L. GESHEKTER, CHAIRMAN, CAS

PETER W. WOOD, PRESIDENT, NAS

STEPHEN H. BALCH, CHAIRMAN, NAS

Arthur N. Rupe Foundation and the Barnes Family Foundation for their generous support

press release:

John Ellis, President, CAS                       831-476-1144; johnellis2608@att.net

http://web.mac.com/calscholars/Site/Whats_New.html

October 10, 2011.

CAS Congratulates Orange County District Attorney

One of the most distressing signs of the deterioration of higher education is the increasingly common shouting down of visiting speakers, which often leads to cancellation of a lecture.  At the University of California, campus administrations have generally done little to stop this abuse. In February of 2010 at UC Irvine a well organized group of Muslim students attempted to prevent the Israeli ambassador from giving his scheduled talk on the campus. But in this case, not only did the campus administration take action against the students—thelocal DA also prosecuted them, and he obtained a conviction.

:{

}: 

Actions like these are long overdue, and accordingly, the board of the CAS wrote to Orange County DA Anthony Rackauckas to congratulate him on a much needed prosecution. We wrote (in part): “We have watched in dismay as the practice of shouting down visiting speakers has become a common one on University of California campuses. Contrary to the claims made by the disrupters and their many supporters, there can be no valid conception of free speech which includes the right to prevent others from speaking at a lawful forum. University campuses are nothing if they are not free and peaceful testing grounds of rational arguments. Yet administrative action against this increasingly common abuse has been rare, and prosecution until now non-existent. Your courageous action in pursuing this case has earned our respect and thanks.”

charges filed:  http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=4441467&ct=9109985

---

https://web.archive.org/web/20100713201925/http://web.mac.com/calscholars/Site/Officers_and_Directors.html

cal scholars

OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Charles Geshekter, Chairman.  Professor of African History, California State University, Chico.  B.A. in History, University of Richmond, 1965.  M.A. in African History, Howard University, 1966.  Ph.D.  in African History, University of California, Los Angeles, 1968. Developed curriculum in African History, Chico.  Interests and publications: Somalia, African languages, diseases of poverty.

not wacko http://reference.rethinkers.net/GESHEKTER.pdf on aids

John M. Ellis, President.  Professor emeritus of German Literature, University of  California, Santa Cruz.  Dean of the Graduate Division, 1977-1986.  Ph.D. in German Literature, London University, 1965; B.A. in German Literature 

and Philosophy, 1959. Interests and publications: Theory of language and literature, German literature. Founding secretary of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics.

Gerald E. P. Gillespie, Treasurer. Professor emeritus of Literatures, Cultures, Languages, Stanford University.  University of Munich, postgraduate, 1960-61; Ohio State University, M.A., 1958, Ph.D., 1961; University of Tübingen, postgraduate, 1956-57; A.B., Harvard University, 1956.  President of the International Comparative Literature Association, 1994-1997;  he is lead editor in its international project Romantic Prose Fiction.  Fulbright, Mellon, Guggenheim, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships.   Professor at the University of Southern California, 1961-1964) and SUNY Binghamton, 1965-1974.  Research fellow at the Universities of Pittsburgh and Cambridge and a guest professor at the Universities of Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, Peking, East Anglia, Munich, and the Fern-University, Hagen.  Honorary Professor of International Studies at Liaoning University (China).  Interests and publications:  European and New World literature from the 

Renaissance to the present; interrelationship among the arts; principles of narrative; literature and science; practice and theory of international comparative literature.

:{Matt Malkan, :(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{Secretary:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:. :{ Professor of Astronomy, University of 

California, Los Angeles.  Ph.D. in Astronomy, CalTech 1983.  C.P.G.S., Cambridge University, 1978.  M.A. in Physics, Harvard, 1977.   B.A. in Astrophysics, Harvard, 1977.   Interests and publications:  galaxies in their early stages, utilization and evaluation of advanced astrophysical instrumentation. 

}: 

Leila Beckwith. Professor emeritus of Pediatrics, University of California, Los Angeles.  B.S., College of the University of Chicago, 1950. Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Chicago, 1959.  Interests and publications: Parenting practices, infant and toddler development, attachment theory.

Jack Citrin.  Heller Professor of Political Science and Director, Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he has been on the faculty since 1970.  His research interests center on the relations of public opinion and public policy and he has written widely on political trust, direct democracy, affirmative action, immigration, and American national identity. He is the co-author of two new books in press Constitutional Controversies: The Supreme Court and Public Opinion (Oxford University Press 2008) andAmerican Identity and the Politics of Multiculturalism(Cambridge University Press 2008). He presently is a member of the California Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Glynn Custred.  Professor of Anthropology (Linguistics), 

California State University, East Bay.  Ph.D., Indiana University, Anthropology, 1973; M. A.  Latin American History, 1965; B.A. European History, 1962.   Interests and publications: language change, peoples of the High Andes, frontiers between nationalities and cultures.  Co-Author, California Civil Rights Initiative, Proposition 209 (banning racial preferences).

Gail Heriot.  Professor of Law, University of San Diego.  J.D. 

cum laude, University of Chicago Law School, 1981.  B.A. in Political Science, with highest distinction, Northwestern University, 1978.  Commisioner, United States Commission on Civil Rights, 2007 - present. Counsel, Senate Judiciary Committee, 1998.  Associate, Hogan & Hartson LLP, Washington, DC, 1984-1989.  Law Clerk, Illinois Supreme Court.  Interests and publications: civil rights law, election reform, tort reform.  Professor Heriot has written extensively on higher education issues, including race-based admissions policies, in the popular press, including the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Washington Times, the National Review and the Weekly Standard. She has testified concerning race-based admissions policies at hearings before both houses of the U.S. Congress. 

Charles R. Kesler.  Senior Fellow, Claremont Institute, and Editor, Claremont Review of Books.  Associate Director, Henry Salvatori Center at Claremont McKenna College.   Ph.D. in Government, Harvard.  Interests  and publications: contemporary American politics, the US Constitution, the American founding.  

Hal Pashler.  Professor of Psychology, University of California, San Diego.  Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 1985.    A.B. Brown University, Logic and Philosophy of Science and Sc.B. Magna Cum Laude, 1980.  Troland Research Award, National Academy of Sciences.  Interests and publications: cognitive psychology, vision, learning.

Sylvia J. Wasson. Professor of German and English as a Second Language, Santa Rosa Junior College.  Ed.D., University of San Francisco, 1993. M.A. (summa cum laude) in German Language and Literature, San Francisco State University, 1979.  M.A., B.A. Education and English, Paedagogische Hochschule Esslingen, Germany, 1970.  Interests and research: Cold War politics, Critical Theory and the Frankfurt School, the politicization of the contemporary American campus.

 ===

January 18, 2011

CAS statement on UCB Chancellor Birgeneau’s message on the Tucson shootings

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau of UC’s Berkeley campus issued a message to his campus on the occasion of the Tucson shootings which was clearly an attempt to promote his personal political ideology and condemn those who don’t share it. CAS issued a statement condemning this abuse of the Chancellor’s office:  “Robert Birgeneau, Chancellor of the Berkeley campus of the University of California, has issued a statement on the shootings in Tucson. The California Association of Scholarsfinds this statement improper and incompetent.  It demeans the office which Birgeneau holds and the institution which he serves. (More)

Charles Geshekter, Chairman, CAS      530-343-7097; chollygee@earthlink.net

Peter Wood, President, NAS                    609-683-7878; pwood@nas.org

Stephen Balch, Chairman, NAS              609-683-7878; balch@nas.org

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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National Association of Scholars|   |

Founder(s)Stephen Balch, Herbert London
Founded1987
LocationPrinceton, New Jersey
MottoFor Reasoned Scholarship in a Free Society.
Websitewww.nas.org

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) is a non-profit organization in the United States that opposes multiculturalism and affirmative action and seeks to counter what it considers a "liberal bias" in academia.[1][2] The NAS describes itself as "an independent membership association of academics working to foster intellectual freedom and to sustain the tradition of reasoned scholarship and civil debate in America’s colleges and universities."[3]

Contents [hide]

[edit] History

Originally called the Campus Coalition for Democracy, the National Association of Scholars was founded in 1987 by Herbert London and Stephen Balch[3][4] with the goal of preserving the "Western intellectual heritage".[5]

[edit] Positions

The National Association of Scholars opposes campus speech codes, which they argue violate the First Amendment. The NAS strongly objects to racial and gender preferences in college admissions and hiring, but states that it does not oppose all forms of affirmative action. Time Magazine called NAS the "faculty opposition to the excesses of multiculturalism."[6] The NAS describes its main work as the defense of "the core values of liberal higher education."[3] William A. Donohue, former NAS board member[7] and leader of the politically conservative Catholic League,[8] writes in American Conservatism: an Encyclopedia that the NAS wishes "to foster renewed respect for the proposition that rational discourse and scholarship are the basis of academic life" and to emphasize "the Western commitment to freedom and democracy."[9] These contentions are questioned by Jacob Weisberg, who states that NAS is "prone to conflating its admirable ideals with far less compelling political prejudices."[10]

[edit] Publications

The NAS' quarterly journal, Academic Questions, publishes articles and interviews on higher education, with a focus on the perceived excesses of political correctness in academia. In a review in The Times Literary Supplement, Jonathan Rauch noted the journal's ideological tone, writing, "Though written mainly by scholars, it is a missionary journal, not a scholarly one." Rauch concluded: "If at times hectoring, Academic Questions is that rare and useful thing among journals—a live wire."[1]

[edit] Organization

Stephen Balch, a former associate professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, is the co-founder of the organization and chairman of the board of directors. Balch received a 2007 National Humanities Medal from U.S. President George W. Bush for his "leadership and advocacy upholding the noblest traditions in higher education. His work on behalf of reasoned scholarship in a free society has made him a leading champion of excellence and reform at our nation's universities."[11]

Peter Wood is the president.[12] The advisory board of the NAS has included several notable individuals. Jeane Kirkpatrick was a United States ambassador and adviser to Ronald Reagan. Chester Finn helped to form the conservative movement's education policies.[13] Irving Kristol, founder of the neoconservative movement, "characterized multiculturalism as 'a desperate strategy for coping with the educational deficiencies and associated social pathologies of young blacks.'"[13]

Prominent board members of NAS have included conservatives Jeane Kirkpatrick and Irving Kristol.

NAS membership is open to all. This is a change as of October 2009. Before that NAS restricted membership to academics. NAS "now encourage anyone who agrees with the principles we espouse to join." NAS does distinguish between academic and public members. Membership includes a subscription to Academic Questions.[14] According to the association, it has affiliates in 46 states, as well as in Guam and Canada.[15]

[edit] Controversy

Since its founding, the NAS has been in the midst of numerous controversies in higher education. It was an early critic of political correctness, engaged the American Association of University Professors over some of its policies, and complained to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, Lamar Alexander, who ruled that the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools eliminate its diversity standard. NAS's stands have led critics to label NAS "conservative",[16] a "group of reactionary scholars" and "a leading vehicle for the conservative attack on multiculturalism and political correctness".[17]

The NAS denies that the views it advocates are conservative. Instead, the NAS describes itself as "liberal," referring to classical liberalism. NAS executive director Peter Wood writes: "Both Left and the Right produce their share of intellectual obtuseness. The NAS is not a partner with either. We are not a political organization, but a body of scholars who hope to sustain a vision of the university as a fundamentally good institution that deserves to be sustained."[18]

Chapters of the NAS have been involved in a number of campus controversies related to affirmative action and multicultural studies programs. According to People for the American Way, NAS faculty at the University of Texas, Austin blocked the inclusion of civil rights readings in an English course; the readings had been proposed to address concerns about racial and sexual harassment on campus.[19] In 1990, the NAS had placed an advertisement in the Daily Texan (the University of Texas student newspaper), calling for the rejection of a proposed multiculturalism curriculum at the University of Texas.[20] Simultaneously, the NAS encouraged a successful campaign to defund the university's Chicano newspaper.[19]

In 1990, a Duke University chapter of the NAS was formed by political science professor James David Barber. The new chapter provoked "a sometimes bitter debate" about the NAS stances on race and gender, and on whether academic freedom should extend to what NAS critics viewed as intolerance. Stanley Fish, chairman of the English department at Duke, wrote that NAS "is widely known to be racist, sexist and homophobic." In an interview with the Durham Morning Herald, Barber called Fish "an embarrassment to this university for his gross insult to this organization." In response to the NAS chapter formation, a larger group of faculty formed "Duke Faculty for Academic Tolerance". The dispute was covered by the New York Times.[21]

Also in 1990, the Harvard University community debated the presence of the NAS. Writing in The Harvard Crimson, Martin L. Kilson, Jr. acknowledged some "overzealous behavior by supporters of ethnic studies and women studies" but argued that the NAS was an "overkill neoconservative response." In Kilson's view, NAS had succumbed to "anxiety and maybe phobia" of multiculturalism. He asks, "why shouldn't persons on our campuses go to great lengths to avoid the tag '"racist'? Or the tags 'homophobic', 'sexist', 'anti-Asian', etc.?"[22]

In 2001, it was reported that the ColoradoCommission on Higher Education had paid the National Association of Scholars $25,000 to generate a report on several Colorado universities with education programs. The NAS report criticized diversity curricula and recommended that the University of Colorado's education program be suspended and new admissions to other programs be halted.[13] University of Colorado, Boulder dean William Stanley resigned in protest of what he called "teacher-bashing" by the NAS,[23] while regent Bob Sievers deplored "anti-teaching, anti-C.U./Boulder, anti-women and anti-minority bias." Questions were also raised regarding why money was paid to a "right-wing" organization like the NAS[23] rather than to a group "with credentials in teacher education."[13]

In September 2008, the New York Times published an article entitled "Conservatives Try New Tack on Campuses," which described the NAS as intensively and successfully lobbying for a section of the Higher Education Act of 2008 which provides federal funding for programs which emphasize "traditional American history, free institutions or Western civilization". The article makes the case that NAS and allied organizations are seeking to advance conservative causes by attaching conditions to university donations.[5]

[edit] Funding

NAS has been funded extensively by politically conservative foundations, including the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, the Castle Rock Foundation, and the Smith Richardson Foundation.[24][19]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-rauch_0-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-rauch_0-1) The Times Literary Supplement, Jonathan Rauch, "Academic Questions" [1]
  2. ^ National Association of Scholars From the website of People for the American Way. Accessed July 17, 2008.
  3. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-who_2-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-who_2-1) c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-who_2-2) Who We Are, from the National Association of Scholars website.
  4. ^ Wilson, John (1996). The Myth of Political Correctness. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822317133.
  5. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-nyt-sept-2008_4-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-nyt-sept-2008_4-1) Patricia Cohen (September 21, 2008). "Conservatives Try New Tack on Campuses". New York Times. Retrieved September 22, 2008.
  6. ^ Olson, John. "Academics in Opposition." *Time*, 1 April, 1991
  7. ^ "National Association of Scholars: Contact Us". 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-23.
  8. ^ Catholic League website
  9. ^ Donahue, William A. "National Association of Scholars," in American Conservatism: an Encyclopedia. Wilmington: ISI Books, 2006.
  10. ^ Weisberg, Jacob. "NAS - Who are These Guys Anyway?" Lingua Franca Apr. 1991: 34-39
  11. ^ National Endowment for the Humanities Medal Announcement
  12. ^ NAS Contact Us
  13. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-csindy_12-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-csindy_12-1) c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-csindy_12-2) d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-csindy_12-3) Bob Campbell, Colorado Springs Independent, "State Education Commission Coming Under Fire," 24 May 2001 Accessed 04 June 2008.
  14. ^ NAS Who We Are
  15. ^ NAS Affiliates
  16. ^ Chicago Cultural Studies Group, "Critical Multiculturalism," in Multiculturalism: A Critical Reader (David Theo Goldberg, ed.) Blackwell Publishers, 1994
  17. ^ Feldstein, Richard. Political Correctness: A Response From the Cultural Left. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
  18. ^ Wood, Peter. "Media Opacity." 4 December 2007. http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?Doc_Id=110
  19. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-pfaw2_18-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-pfaw2_18-1) c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-pfaw2_18-2) "Buying a Movement: Conservative University Programs and Academic Associations" (PDF). People for the American Way. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  20. ^ Getman, Julius. In the Company of Scholars: the Struggle for the Soul of Higher Education. Austin: University of Texas P, 1992.
  21. ^ Cite error: Invalid `` tag; no text was provided for refs named nytimes; see Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text
  22. ^ Martin L. Kilson, The Harvard Crimson, "Keep the National Association of Scholars Away From Harvard" 11 December 1990. Accessed 04 June 2008.
  23. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-DPost_22-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Scholars#cite_ref-DPost_22-1) Dave Curtin, Denver Post, "CU dean resigns, rips state," 08 April 2001. Accessed 4 June 2008
  24. ^ ""Anti-PC activists trade war stories at Harvard", Anthony Flint, Boston Globe, 12 April 1994, p.22

[edit] External links

John Agresto

Jacques Barzun

Walter Berns

Edwin J. Delattre

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Eugene D. Genovese

Robert P. George

Gertrude Himmelfarb

Paul Hollander

Harry V. Jaffa

Donald Kagan

Richard D. Lamm

Leslie Lenkowsky

Harvey C. Mansfield

Milton J. Rosenberg

John R. Silber

Christina Hoff Sommers

Shelby Steele

Stephan Thernstrom

Edward O. Wilson

James Q. Wilson

1 of 3?

Climate Thuggery

July 29, 2011, 10:04 am

By Peter Wood

Is anthropogenic global warming (AGW) a valid scientific theory? Is it well supported by the empirical data or is it mostly an artifact of computer modeling?  I don’t have answers to these questions.  I stand, rather, on the side of those who favor rigorous scientific inquiry, transparency, and openness.  I am not a climate scientist, but neither do I cede the whole matter of answering such questions to the designated experts.  Good science doesn’t limit itself to the views of narrow-cast specialists.  Valid observations, corrective criticism, competing hypotheses, and rigorous testing can and often do arise from other sources.

It surprises me, however, that proponents of AGW, or what might be called the climate orthodoxy section of AGW theory, often respond to criticism and dissent with a kind of fury.  Far from welcoming discussion, they seek to suppress it. In doing so they jeopardize both their own authority and the prestige of the scientific community.

A month ago I posted on Innovations a brief item,“Bottling Up Global Warming Skepticism,”about the machinations of one of Professor Michael Mann’s ardent defenders, Dr. John Mashey, who has taken a no-holds-barred approach to silencing Mann’s critics. Mann himself has deployed nuisance lawsuits in a similar fashion. He has sued Tim Ball—a Canadian global-warming skeptic, an environmentalist, and former professor of geography—for libel for writing that Mann “should be in the State Pen, not Penn State,” for his role in Climategate. Mann also threatened a lawsuit [on watts up, no doc for claim] against Minnesotans for Global Warming for a satiric YouTube video titled “Hide the Decline.” (YouTube suppressed the original video. There is now a “Hide the Decline II.”)

The tactic of suing critics of AGW theory to silence them isn’t Mann’s alone, and it isn’t the only extracurricular means the global warmists use in attempts to shut up dissenters. The BBC recently announced that in an effort to be more attuned to the scientific “consensus,” it would no longer strive to provide balanced coverage of climate issues. Its decision followed a report by the BBC Trust, “Review of impartiality and accuracy of the BBC’s coverage of science.” 

In 2007, Weather Channel meteorologist Dr. Heidi Cullen seemed to call for the firing of meteorologists who expressed doubt about AGW. She later clarified to The New York Times that “I didn’t exactly say that. I was talking about the American Meteorological Society’s seal of approval. I was saying the A.M.S. should test applicants on climate change as part of their certification process. They test on other aspects of weather science.” In 2009, Environmental Protection Agency economist Alan Carlinwas subjected to a gag order by an EPA administrator after submitting a report that was critical of the role of CO2 in recent global warming.

The techniques vary. The results, however, are similar: What cannot be established by transparent science can be imposed by coercion and intimidation.

John Mashey, who was the subject of my initial criticism, exercised his right to post replies on Innovationsand elsewhere to my initial article.  He is welcome to express his opinions, but the pretense that he is defending science or academic due process wears thin. His replies posted to The Chronicle and elsewhere come in the company of some very irate people. Many of them seem to think that only those who accept the premises of their own sectarian version of climate modeling have a right to speak in this debate. Anyone else is fair game for—what shall I call it?  It goes well beyond scolding.

For example, one of Mashey and Mann’s supporters has made it her business to contact by telephone and e-mail NAS trustees, members, employees, and others with leading questions about my views on climate change and sustainability.  Her questions have insinuated that two former employees of NAS who died in 1995 were murdered, perhaps at the behest of Richard Mellon Scaife! (As it happened both died of heart attacks; and both had suffered previous heart attacks.)  This woman has similarly attacked other people and organizations that express views on climate change that she disagrees with.

Her targets have sometimes spoken up, but as far as I can tell she is accepted by AGW proponents as a welcome contributor to the effort.

Let me go back to what started all this.  On June 30, I wrote:

Science reports that retired computer scientist Dr. John Mashey is attempting to patch the tattered reputation of “hide the decline” Michael Mann, the climate scientist whose famous “hockey stick” chart shows exponentially increasing global temperatures in the near term. Mashey has been, as he puts it, “trying to take the offense” against global warming skeptics by flyspecking their publications. “You hope they make a mistake,” he says, and when they do, he pounces with demands that journals retract whole articles. Some journals indeed have. As Science puts it, “His critics say Mashey is more interested in destroying his foes than in debating the issues.” Professor Mann is extolling his efforts at “exploring the underbelly of climate denial.”

The issue of Science I referred to is Vol. 332, No, 6035, 10 June 2011, pp. 1250-1251.

The only mentions of Michael Mann in my article are in the two sentences quoted above.  This provoked not only the long string of mostly hostile comments (over 60) on the original article but also threads of vehement commentary on other sites.  Since I had said next to nothing about Mann himself, his scientific contributions, or the controversies surrounding him, it was up to those posting comments to focus their anger by inventing through creative inference things that I did not say.

Thus, for example, several respondents introduced the idea that I had somehow endorsed the behavior of a George Mason University economist and statistician, Edward Wegman, who was forced to retract a 2008 paper critical of Mann that he had published in the journal Computational Statistics & Data Analysis after Mashey published a 250-page online analysis of it identifying “portions of other authors’ writings” in Wegman’s article “without sufficient attribution.”  Wegman defends himself as “innocently unaware” that a George Mason student had cut and pasted the paragraphs that he included in the report.  George Mason University is investigating whether Wegman is guilty of plagiarism.

I, of course, said nothing about Wegman.  I don’t know his work.

Rhetorical excess seems endemic to these defenders of Mannian climate orthodoxy.  Scott A. Mandia declares in all caps, “DR. MANN’S WORK HAS BEEN VERIFIED BY MANY OTHER SCIENTISTS,” and that to doubt the hockey stick graph is “to also believe in magic.”  Naumer and Mandia are among several correspondents who posted repeated declarations, in a crescendo of agitation.  Mostly they seemed to want to drag me into a discussion of the scientific details.  That wasn’t my topic and I declined, which brought out still more Mann enthusiasts.  Ted Kirkpatrick observes “Dr. Mann’s reputation is extremely good, as his fellow climate scientists regard both him and his work highly.”

Mann’s reputation is “good?”  Well, indeed, after Climategate, Mann’s work was subject to a series of extraordinary committee reviews—three that I know of.  In each case, the committee found no particular fault with his work.  I pass no judgment on those committees and I don’t presume to know Mann’s work well enough to venture an independent assessment of the quality of his science.  But to rest the case, as Kirkpatrick does, on what “his fellow climate scientists” think is a doubtful proposition.  I know of several climate scientists (e.g., Will Happer, Richard Lindzen, Fred Singer, Stan Trimble) who certainly don’t join in that endorsement, and some in the academy and among the general public judge Mann’s scientific contributions as suspect and his behavior as deplorable.

The hardball approach of his defenders is in large part a reflex of this loss of prestige and authority.  The proponents of AGW, however, have chosen a very foolish tactic.  Bullying skeptics and sneering at those who raise questions is no way to regain public trust.

The sharp practices of the warmists also damage the tenor of academic, scientific, and public debate.  Frivolous lawsuits, intimidation, mobbing are not the flying buttresses of modern science.  They are the rot that undermines the intellectual authority of science.  Can you trust anything said by someone who engages in such tactics?

This warning can be turned against some of the global warming skeptics as well.  There is, for example, a blogger who writes as “The Hockey Schtick” who refers to Mann’s 1998 article in Nature (which introduced the hockey stick graph) as “the most thoroughly  discredited paper of the modern age.”  Rhetorical excess for rhetorical excess.   Some of Mann’s defenders, however, much as they preen themselves as defenders of scientific rigor, are skating in the same rink.

The science will, in due course, be sorted out.   Shoddy hypotheses will be discarded. Data massaged to accommodate models will prove discrepant with better observations.  It could be that anthropogenic global warming will win out as a valid theory; it could be otherwise.  I’m not taking sides on the science.  But when it comes to efforts to silence debate and intimidate critics, I very much take the side of those who want to see science rid of such mischief.

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