College conservative group upset that ASU Biology professor compared Creationism to magic.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A biology professor at Arizona State University is under attack for an image he showed in class that compared creationism to magic. 

The conservative group Campus Reform, which targets educators it perceives to have a liberal bias, reported last week that professor Christofer Bang showed the image during a PowerPoint presentation in his Biology 100 class. 

The PowerPoint slide, titled “Evolution vs. Creationism,” showed the March of Progress illustration of human evolution next to an image of Jesus Christ shooting lightning out of his fingers to create a human. The image shows Jesus saying, “MAGIC!” 

A student told Campus Reform that the picture was offensive: “Quite a few students in the lecture hall were bothered by the picture, and it didn’t contribute to the lecture besides adding spite.” 

Conservatives at Arizona State University also expressed their displeasure with the professor on Facebook. 

“Liberal scum certainly exists on this campus! While I personally support the drawing on the left, I think it’s wrong and unethical for professors to shame those who believe differently,” one person wrote on the Facebook page for College Republicans at ASU.

Another conservative student complained on Facebook that the Founding Fathers also believed in Creationism, which is a point that is hard to argue against since Charles Darwin did not publish Origin of Species until 1859.  (Yes folks, that's your college tuition money at work.)

You know I recognize that it must be hard for some of these students to come face to face with  undiluted facts for the very first time, and it hurts their little irrational feelings when somebody points out that they have been lied to their entire lives. But really what's the solution?

I mean do you take each of these Christian school educated children into a room with soft light and soothing flute music, have them lie down on a comfy sofa with a cool drink, and THEN tell them that everything they think they know is bullshit and that their parents and teachers were fucking morons?

I mean come on if you suggest that Evolution, which painstakingly lays out exactly how organism evolved into what we see around us today, and choose to replace it with the idea that God made it all happen like this....

....then yes, you believe in magic.

Unless of course one of these little geniuses wants to explain exactly HOW God simply thought things into existence. Because I am fairly certain that the professor would LOVE to hear that hypothesis.

What everybody is talking about, the Newsroom's college rape storyline.

Courtesy of The Independent: 

The Newsroom has been accused of having a “women problem” before, but now Aaron Sorkin has come under fire for a rape storyline that implies male perpetrators are to be believed over female victims. 

The latest episode has been criticised for its portrayal of female rape victims after TV news producer Don Keefer said he felt morally obligated to believe the man’s side of the story because he had not yet been convicted of rape. 

The episode’ storyline followed a Princeton student who starts a website allowing women on campus to out their rapists after the city justice system failed to prosecute two fraternity members who she claimed raped her. 

The student is tracked down by the fictional news network ACN for a debate with her alleged attacker live on air. Don had also interviewed the man she claims raped her and when she asks him who he believes, the producer says he felt obliged to take the man’s side over hers.

This received quite a lot of backlash from all corners.

Including from a writer on the show who claims her misgivings about the segment were ignored, and that she was "kicked out" of the writer's room.

Sorkin himself responds here.

Actress Olivia Munn, who plays the character Sloan Sabbith on the show, also weighed in:  

“…The reality is that Sorkin writes things so that they can be talked about, and so we show both sides of it,” she said. “I think it was important to show what it’s like for women to be a rape victim, want to speak out, and then have somebody come in and say, ‘Hey don’t do that. That’s going to be bad for you.’ 

“Sorkin wasn’t saying ‘Don’t do that,'” Munn said. “He was saying ‘This is what happens.'” 

Personally I liked the episode. Partly because it left me conflicted, and not sure whose side I should take in the exchange between the Don Keefer character and the college student.

But that to me is the mark of great television.

I don't often watch shows that make me feel all warm and cuddly inside. I watch shows that make me think, piss me off, or make me grieve for the loss of a character that I have, against my better judgement, grown attached to. (Still miss you Beth.)

I think the show did everything that I would expect it would do with such a controversial subject.

And in the light of the Rolling Stone campus rape scandal, it could not have been more timely.

Conservatives finally notice that a teacher has been asking his students to recite a rewritten Pledge of Allegiance for the past twenty years. Did you guess they were outraged? Well you were right.

Courtesy of Campus Reform: 

A tenured professor at Metropolitan State University (MSU) in Denver required students pledge their allegiance to a racist, sexist, homophobic America that targets "blacks," and "women who want abortions," in the name of Jesus. 

 Dr. Charles Angeletti, a self-proclaimed atheist and socialist professor of American Civilization at the publicly funded Denver university, required students recite the satirical Pledge of Allegiance during the fall 2014 semester according to a class flier obtained by Campus Reform. 

"I pledge allegiance to and wrap myself in the flag of the United States Against Anything Un-American and to the Republicans for which it stands, two nations, under Jesus, rich against poor, with curtailed liberty and justice for all except blacks, homosexuals, women who want abortions, Communists, welfare queens, treehuggers, feminazis, illegal immigrants, children of illegal immigrants, and you if you don't watch your step.”

Seems accurate to me. 

When asked why he had the students recite this, the professor responded thusly:

“We’re very racist, we’re very repressive, we’re very Christian oriented, we don’t tolerate other kinds of thinking in this country,” Angeletti told Campus Reform. 

“I could go on and on—and do in my classes for hours about things that we need to do to make this a better country.” 

Angeletti, who has taught at MSU since 1967, has a B+ grade on RateMyProfessor.com, but one former student addressed Dr. Angeletti’s liberal bias.

Dr. Angeletti admits he is “biased” and says that he has distributed the pledge for 20 years because it helps people look differently about what goes on in this country. 

“We are scared to death of anything un-American,” Angeletti said. 

During the interview, Angeletti repeatedly affirmed his love for America, his disdain for “family values people,” and his course, clarifying that he supports diversity of thought and allows his students to “say and do anything.”

Of course this freaked out those on the Right, including Greta Van Susteren who used this to further the Fox News agenda of attacking "liberal" education in America.

It should be noted that this is a UNIVERSITY class that is offered as an elective and is not mandatory for graduation.

Personally I think educators who challenge student's perception of their country, their religion, and even themselves are helping to create a generation of rational thinkers and that can only be good for the country.

Gunman opens fire at Florida State University, shooting three before he is killed by police. Update!

Courtesy of NBC:  

A gunman was fatally shot after opening fire in a library on Florida State University's campus early Thursday, sending hundreds of students who'd been studying for final exams running for their lives and cowering behind bookshelves. Three students were found suffering gunshot wounds at the scene. 

Police received a call about an "armed subject" at the Strozier Library on the school's main campus in Tallahassee at 12.30 a.m. ET. Officers confronted the gunman and ordered him to drop his weapon, according to Tallahassee Police spokesman Dave Northway. "The suspect did not comply with the commands and shot at the officers," he added. "They returned fire and the suspect was killed.” 

During a press conference at 6 a.m. ET, Police Chief Michael DeLeo described the shooting as an “isolated incident with one person acting alone.” It was unclear whether the gunman was a student. 

One of the shooting victims was listed in critical condition early Thursday, Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare spokeswoman Stephanie Derzypolski said. Another was in stable condition. Police said a third victim had received a "grazing injury" and was treated at the scene.

Several tweets were sent out during both the shooting and the police response.

This is one of them.

Students say a man started shooting at FSU, police told him to put the gun down. He didn't. "They lit him up, man." pic.twitter.com/ZK8vKJfe22
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) November 20, 2014

Here is video of the students in the library receiving instruction about the shooting courtesy of Gawker.

I can only imagine how frightened these students and their parents must have been  as this tragedy unfolded.

Currently there is no known motive, nor is it clear that the gunman was a student.

Update: Now we know that the gunman WAS a former student, and lawyer, named Myron May.