Cutting Remarks from the Clean Cut Kid II

I have posted a comment on Chad's site requesting a retraction.  Here is the note.

Chad:

Thank you for saying that I'm the sane one around here.  You should see the other inmates.

As for your passionate note:

1)  As I say on SDP, you badly misquote me.  I did not say:

"You say anti-war protestors support Castro and Kim Il-Jung and are "on the other side"?"

I do say:

"The groups sponsoring the Washington meeting are not anti-war at all; they are just on the other side." 

The difference in wording is obviously critical.  My criticism applied solely to those two groups-International Answer and United for Peace and Justice- which are clearly named at the beginning of my blog. 

I also provided a meaty quotation from Christopher Hitchens Slate article which substantiates my criticisms of the two organization.  Hitchens himself refers to two very left wing journalists who have made similar points about these two organizations.  They are also based on watching some live footage in which one speaker describe the insurgents in Iraq in glowing terms. 

Perhaps you know of information to the contrary?  If not, then you cannot know that my points were false.

2)  This past summer you jump all over my butt for daring to defend James Dobson.  What if I and the rest of SDPolitics attended a meeting sponsored by Dobson?  In all honesty, wouldn't you be all over that?  Why can't I make the same kind of complaint? 

3) For the record, I believe that many reasonable, honest, and intelligent people oppose the war in Iraq, and I am more than willing to include you in that group. 
I said nothing to the contrary, and if it is thought that I implied something about anyone else, let this stand as a retraction.

4)  What's with the "embarrassed for Northern" and remark about the President at the end?  Do you suppose that the President of the University is in the business of policing the speech of his professors?  Is that what you believe in: bullying people until they stop saying things you don't like?  You almost sound like Erin up there: Mom!  Mom!  He blogged nasty things about me!  But I think better of you than that.

5)  I humbly request at least a modest retraction.  I did  not say what you said I did.   I cannot come down on you too hard, since I myself have made similar mistakes.  I am perfectly willing to believe your misquote was an honest error.  Perhaps you were in a hurry.  At any rate, I think am within reason to ask that the misquote be acknowledged.

As I said above, I do not wish to come down too hard on Chad for the misleading description of what I said.  In the heat of blogging it is easy to make mistakes. 

I am a little more miffed about the rather snide references to Northern.  Anyone who reads the Aberdeen American News will notice that Jim Seeber is at the opposite end of the political spectrum from me, judged by our respective columns.  Students at Northern are exposed to Professors with a wide range of political opinions.  That's what colleges should be like.  If someone wishes to send their kids to a college where the political opinions of the Professors are rigorously monitored, and dissent is suppressed with more or less veiled comments, they shouldn't send them to Northern or to most other institutions.  Maybe a cloister would be more appropriate.  I emphatically add that all opinions expressed on this blog are my own and have nothing to do with my institution.