Captain's Quarters -

Just wondering, will -Graduated Duke U, in 2006-2007 help or hurt on a resume.

Just wondering, will -Graduated Duke U, in 2006-2007 help or hurt on a resume.

Critics of the Gang of 88 would do better to target the alumni who support the university with their donations. University administrators are most vulnerable to monetary pressures.

This is just another low achieved by our Academia. Years of natural (Leftist) selection created a politically correct, hysteric faculty mob at most Universities. These cliques keep to themselves and, unfortunately, distort minds of our kids. After indoctrination by these people it takes years to recover and start independent thinking.

Nifong's fate proves the system works. Those who abuse the public trust cannot do so with impunity.

Will Bush and his traitorous crew face the same ultimate castigation?

Nice work, reddog. Reinforce the perception that leftards suffer so much from BDS that they cannot keep on topic, but revert to Bush bashing at every convenient outlet. Stay off the blog if you can't participate in the topic at hand. And do your fellow idealogues a favor, and STFU.

I call them the 88 For Hate.

How many faculty members at Duke resisted what had to be intense pressure to be a signatory to the infamous advertisement? That, IMHO, would be the real story here, though I'm not sure we'd be doing them any favors by focusing on them.

Houston Baker, a professor of English and Afro-American Studies...

Gee, ya suppose the dude is a person of the African-American persuasion? So that at that point, a Negro was leading the lynch mob?

It seems to me the whole Duke episode could also be held up as a case of reverse discrimination every bit as much as the two murdered white kids in Tennessee.

Equally, if the instigators of the Gang of 88 *are* blacks, chances that Duke's administration will do anything at all about their perfidy are exceedingly slim. As in, nil.

Definition of "untouchable": an educated black person working in academia with tenure.

These people wanted the temporary catharsis of lashing out, but recognize no obligation to repair the damage they did.

This is a case study in modern leftism. It is infinite freedom to satisfy any impulse, and absolute immunity from the consequences.

In other words, modern liberalism is perpetual adolescence.

I'm holding out hope that although left wing academics subscribe to a morally and intellectually bankrupt orthodox religion, they aren't completely stupid.

Academics followed this whole case closely. Who didn't? And they saw the abject humiliation of the Group of 88.

Next time something like this happens, the academics may think twice. At least some of them, anyway.

Even better, this case allowed students to see what utter buffoons these people are, in no uncertain terms.

Amen Captain. Futile though it may be, it is always good to expect better from the worst among us. To say the 88 For Hate, fits perfectly. We see examples of this daily, nay, hour by hour throughout this once truly great land.

In some sensitivity training it gets pointed out that neo-nazis will use 88 as a code word (H = 8th letter of the alphabet, and heil hitler = HH)
88 is kind of appropriate for this group, a bunch of socialists rush to judgment and seize upon a false story simply to confirm their prejudices.

Dunno what the university could do, what with academic freedom and all, though there may be a libel suit against the gang. Are any reporters asking these knuckleheads if they think they owe the young men an apology?

The University included defamatory references to the matter in the course catalog (e.g. one of the Victims' Studies departments - Womyn's Studies if I recall correctly - included a reference indicating guilt on their part). If the University doesn't act decisively here, those hotshot attorneys ought to go after a large chunk of that $1 billion plus endowment (libel is one place to start, there ought to be others).

The University included defamatory references to the matter in the course catalog (e.g. one of the Victims' Studies departments - Womyn's Studies if I recall correctly - included a reference indicating guilt on their part). If the University doesn't act decisively here, those hotshot attorneys ought to go after a large chunk of that $1 billion plus endowment (libel is one place to start, there ought to be others).

Almost all of the 88 are from those rigorous academic disciplines of sociology, ethnic studies, feminist studies, English, political science and cultural anthropology. All from within the increasingly worthless trash can of social science and humanities. These areas of "intellectual" inquiry are about as worthless as tits on a boar hog and seem to attract mainly those individuals with enough brains to portray themselves as important but not enough to actually contribute much of significance to society. Do these people offer anything besides faux outrage and strident posture? No wonder a college degree is increasingly seen as a poor investment and no bargain.

How many of the Duke Lacrosse players are (were) Democrats? How many of the Duke Lacrosse families supported the Democrat Party, both with votes and with funds? How many DNC supporters from the national Lacrosse families watched this story unfold with complete shock and horror? Lacrosse is huge on the east coast, and is becoming huge throughout the country. This story has enraged most Lacrosse communities around the country, and while doing so has forced many to "deal with some realities of the Liberal wing of their party."

The "gang of 88" will hopefully face their "judgement day" as this story continues to unfold; however, the exposure their disspicable behavior has exposed, brought about many relevations regarding the current state of modern acedemia. My oldest son just graduated from HS, and will attend Montana State University @ Bozeman this fall; my son is also a Lacrosse player and will hopefully make the team at MSU. This boy played defense (long stick) for Palos Verdes High for the past (4) years. PV High fielded a team of 26 players; a nice mix of boys coming from families that belong to both political parties; united these 26 kids stood in favor of the Duke Lacrosse team and it's players, as the facts started to surface and the case against the players became so obviously politically motivated.

Liberalism has once again been exposed for all to see, and it has been another very ugly example of an unjust ideology...

Higher educational cronies are inbred cohorts of utter selfishness and prejudice, and universities are populated by the most fascist societies in America. Faculty demand ALL of their students who must conform to BE the image of their faculty "maker" or be destroyed. Students exhibiting any unique genius or creative brilliance shame the jealous faculty for themselves not having produced.

The Duke example of castigation by prejudgement makes headlines. This example, though, is a mere fleck on the tip of the iceberg, and society--individuals ever striving to get ahead--is a Titanic.

Amazing, the true education an enlightened reader can gleen independently via libraries and internet, given blogs rather than classrooms.

Beware those who demand your soul for their favors. They lay traps and snares of the most intricate nature, and their destructive sophistries know no bounds. Mortals flock to partake of their bounty, augmenting the beast through collegial participation, rubbing shoulders to cover power broker plunder.

There are 88 names on that list. Seems like the Duke lacross players have 88 targets for a defamation of character lawsuit , not to mention Nifong for making statements outside of a courtroom about them.

"There are 88 names on that list. Seems like the Duke lacross players have 88 targets for a defamation of character lawsuit , not to mention Nifong for making statements outside of a courtroom about them."

I would add that the liberal bilge about "academic freedom" won't hold water in a court of law.

We live in a litigious society. In this case, I am glad. Let the suing begin.

People seem to have varying thoughts about what Nifong and the Duke Lacrosse case say about the justice system in general. Brogan & Partners Convergence Marketing
conducted a survey that found 49.2% of North Carolinians supported disbarring NIfong back in May. The survey shows other interesting results about people's thoughts on the justice system and Nifong, including some variance in opinion along racial lines. You can check out more at our blog post .

How many of the gang of 88 have publicaly apologized for their actions?

As far as I know, none. They are all still 'true believers'. They will never admit their cupability in having the entire lacrosse team called rapists, nor their support of Nifong's persecution, despite the revelations that eventually destroyed the case.

No, I anticipate the gang of 88 calling upon Duke's administration to offer Nifong a post on the Duke campus...probably teaching law and 'social justice'.

"There are 88 names on that list. Seems like the Duke lacross players have 88 targets for a defamation of character lawsuit , not to mention Nifong for making statements outside of a courtroom about them."

I am not a First Amendment lawyer, but I concur that a defamation lawsuit may help elucidate these intellectual boors on the consequences of character assassination.

They need to also savor the experience of being a defendant in a lawsuit, hiring and paying a lawyer, re-organizing your schedule to accomodate seemingly meaningless proceedings, etc.

I find it telling that there have been zero public apologies.

It is obvious that book knowledge, and not character, are all that the Gang of 88 bring to the academic table at Duke.

There would seem to be enough victims in this case already: the players, whose charges were dropped, but who aren't going to be getting ticker-tape parades; the "victim", who has been exposed as very troubled; Duke University, which will have a stain on its reputation for a long time to come.

The actual words by the "Duke 88" that are so "damning" are basically a statement that (paraphrasing here) "this incident highlights the racism and sexism that permeates the Duke campus".

Suppose that, after the party, no rape charges had been filed, but that the papers had a detailed account of it and published the story of a bunch of white male athletes hiring themselves a couple of black strippers for their party, and how they treated them.

In that case, would you have considered the comments above, in response to that report, to be justified or not?

They would seem justified to me.

The Gang of 88 are indeed everywhere.
Haverford College (PA) is ranked in the 'top 10' liberal arts colleges(with Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore heading the list). Haverford now requires a 1 year course in 'social justice' of its students.
Makes my skin crawl. It's a mighty tough slog unless you study hard science; the faculties are Ganging up.

Two words here:

Rodney King.

What does he have to do with Nifong?

Well, after the cops were cleared of any charges by a local jury, Daddy Bush tried and convicted them in Federal Court for violating Rodney King's civil rights.

I don't like it but the situation as it currently stands is that for every local/state law, there is some national equivalent. I don't like it. It is defacto double-jeopardy and an intrusion into what should be the role of the states, but that is how it stands. So might as well make use of it in this case.

The Bush administration can and should arrest Mike Nifong for violating the Civil Rights of the Duke players. The fact that Bush hasn't done so when he so eagerly arrested the boarder guards (and convicted them) is a disgrace and an insult to all who voted for him. The public, ESPECIALLY REPUBLICANS should now demand that he steps in on this case and throw Nifong into a Federal Prison to await trial.

Bush has to be the worst President in American history. And the way that he is has personally betrayed his base is extremely offensive. Surely he could throw us a bone on this one couldn't he? We should demand that he does.

It should be noted that a "teaching license" is not normally required at the college level and, accordingly, the revocation of a professor's non-existent "license" by a licensing body is not an option. I believe the families, who are understandably very upset, will sue all concerned. This is the appropriate American type of solution, as was the disbarment of Nifong.

Actually, the first universities were founded in the early 13th century, and far from arising from the Age of Enlightenment, their four hundred years of rational thought and scholarship were a major force in creating the Age of Enlightenment. Not a pedantic point (I think) when atheists and secularists are once again reviving the old slander of Christian anti-intellectualism.

How many of the gang of 88 have publicaly apologized for their actions? As far as I know, none.

Don't be a silly goose. The University's attorneys have told them all to shut the fuck up, because if they apologize, it will be used as an admission of guilt and culpability when and if the lawsuits are filed.

I wonder if Duke carries the equivalent of Director's insurance, which means that their stupid loud-mouthed faculty would not be personally culpable for their own printed quotations, but would be covered by University-provided insurance.

For the Bush haters, its REALLY annoying that you keep trying to change the focus of the discussion to your own personal little obsession. You all need to be slapped a la Cher in "Moonstruck" and told to "Snap out of it!"

Cap,

With all of the excellent work that professor KC Johnson has done on his blog, Durhaminwonderland, along with John in Carolina and liestoppers, you surely could have come up with a much better, certainly much more credible source for this post than D'Souza.

The trouble for Nifong, and Duke U. is just beginning. Nifong will not only face civil action, but criminal action as well.

The university, already hit in the pocketbook by alumni who have used the travesty as a reason not to donate to the school, will find itself explaining its actions, or lack thereof, in a court of law as well.

I agree that there should be sanctions, but D'Souza of all people is the weirdest of messengers. Isn't the lacrosse players drunken revelry while watching naked women exactly the sort of thing that D'Souza says makes Islamic radical want to kill us? Even though they are innocent, by D'Souza's standards aren't these rowdy athletes directly responsibility for terrorist attacks againt Americans?

Duke's already caved - see various reports.

Details are confidential. Impact on Duke's Administration is unfortunately likely to be little. Apparently weaselhood still pays.

It seems as though the only college professors who aren't interested in brainwashing their students into adopting their own political views are the professors who are actually teaching their students worthwhile skills in the fields of medicine, engineering, law, etc.

I'd like to see some wealthy conservatives open up some vocational schools for these fields, where a kid can go right from high school to studying pre-med, pre-law, etc., without having to take all these other courses which have diddley to do with their field of interest.

The way I see it is that universities exist for two reasons.

1. To force kids who know exactly what they want to do for a living to take all these unecessary classes.

2. To enable kids who have no clue what they want to do for a living to spend four years partying and taking BS classes that provide them with no worthwhile skills in exchange for being able to hang a worthless diploma on their wall.

It's no wonder that universities have been taken over by Marxist fundamentalists. The university system insures that there'll be lots of kids with idle hands, regardless of whether they're there to pursue a legitimate career, or if they're there just to extend their youth by an extra four years.

And you know the old saying about idle hands.

"Suppose that, after the party, no rape charges had been filed, but that the papers had a detailed account of it and published the story of a bunch of white male athletes hiring themselves a couple of black strippers for their party, and how they treated them."

These guys weren't "a bunch of white male athletes hiring themselves a couple of black strippers" .

They were a college athletics team which ordered caucasian strippers from the escort service which sent them to the party.

And hiring strippers doesn't make them criminals, social pariahs or outcasts.

It does not necessarily follow that they are perverts.

If looking at naked women is truly terrible, I am sure that the Gang of 88 would happily volunteer their computers for verification that they would never check out similar virtual pursuits.

These are college kids and they were simply letting off a little steam and enjoying some performing arts - just like Pacman Jones, except with no guns.

To read more about Duke Group of 88 professors visit:

Group of 88

These academics were wrong. They trusted information from a government official who turned out to be a loose cannon - someone who was interested in the outcome, not the facts.

This scenario seems vaguely familiar - a "trusted" official releases only the information that supports the objective, even if the information isn't based in reality.

If only we had recognized the real BS before Bush unleashed Hell on Iraq.

Fred

in case you are curious, duke has entered into a cash settlement with the three players involved and the coach that was fired. nifong was disbarred and will likely spend time in jail.

while this was truly a disgusting event, it seems that it has been resolved the way we do things in america:

the prosecutor, who is the bad actor here, has had his career, reputation, and livelihood utterly and publically destroyed. and will likely spend some long hours in a small room.

the fired coach and the three students at issue have been financially compensated.

the university has suffered the loss of reputation, prestige, and money, and the folks who jumped the bandwagon have in the minds of the thinking world eaten tremendous helpings of crow.

oh, and duke lacrosse made it to the national championship game this year.

does this make it all ok? no. obviously in a perfect world, none of this would happen. but we live in an imperfect world. and we can only hope that other public injustices are as publically corrected.

and i am a liberal. and i have taught at a university. humm, there go some stereotypes ...

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-- Mahatma Gandhi

University Liberals would make it a lot easier for real-world liberals if they would start exemplifying the changes they wish to see.

Why focus on "Women’s Studies" or "African American Studies" (and demand equality of compensation) when a degree in this tripe and $3.00 will get you a latte? Why not study engineering, and get a decent job instead?

Why demand social justice yet burn these kids at the stake before they have a chance at a fair trial?

I really wish these ivory tower types would realize how much damage they do to their own cause. It sure would make it easier for the rest of us who live in reality.

This is one of those, unfortunately, not so rare case where everyone involved is wrong –

Nifong was an ass and led everyone down a dark path, but lets not be so quick to deify the lacrosse players. Yes it’s not illegal – if you’re of age, and everyone at the event is of age – to hire strippers, but it is against NCAA rules and violates every code of conduct for Division I athletes. This is enough to be dropped from a Division I program. And lets not forget that several of the players on the team were far from saints (Collin Finnerty http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/429880.html) and one player even sent an e-mail to another member of the team detailing how he was going to kill and skin strippers (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0405061duke1.html), a threat that under any other circumstance would have caused an uproar about his stability and forced his dismissal.

This is one of those, unfortunately, not so rare case where everyone involved is wrong –

Nifong was an ass and led everyone down a dark path, but lets not be so quick to deify the lacrosse players. Yes it’s not illegal – if you’re of age, and everyone at the event is of age – to hire strippers, but it is against NCAA rules and violates every code of conduct for Division I athletes. This is enough to be dropped from a Division I program. And lets not forget that several of the players on the team were far from saints (Collin Finnerty http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/429880.html) and one player even sent an e-mail to another member of the team detailing how he was going to kill and skin strippers (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0405061duke1.html), a threat that under any other circumstance would have caused an uproar about his stability and forced his dismissal.

i wonder when all the pundits who were completely wrong going to resign?

Granted-- Nifong should go to prison and those who condemned the Lacrosse team for rape should apologize. But I'm appalled that no one from the Right finds the lacrosse teams' party -- with paid hookers, illegal drugs and illegal booze (some underage) -- was ILLEGAL at worst, and IMMORAL second and really deserves some sort of punitive reaction from their coaches, the University and the State of North Carolina! They may be innocent of rape, but they are not "good boys" by any stretch of the imagination.

you see an equivalency between a lying prosecutor, the public presumption of guilt, race and class baiting on the part of Jackson/Sharpton/the 88 professors and the fact that these guys had a party and hired a stripper?? now that's an amazing piece of logic. i'm sure that these kids have heard it right and left from their parents, and that they've learned a big lesson, but you want to evenly distribute blame, "everyone" was wrong? nuts, man, plain nutty....

and by the way, don't expect one single apology from any of the involved. these people aren't interested in truth, or personal responsibility/accountability, or general credibility. they are only interested in their agenda, and once it's not served they will move on and re-write history in an instant. a kind of child-like expression, almost mentally ill/stunted, really.....