Sender: Rare book and manuscripts <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry Blaz" <ffdog@EARTHLINK.NET>
Re: Hedy Epstein:
the results are idiosyncratic but often very strange.
Sorry, but referring to Hedy Epstein as strange doesn't amount to any sort
of meaningful criticism.
Finklestein was denied tenure because of his poor scholarship. His
specialty was not scholarship but polemics.
**Finkelstein was denied tenure because, for good reason, he was typically
and
consistently very critical of Israel. I will accept Noam Chomsky's
assessment that Finkelstein was (and is) one of the brightest and most
promising scholars he ever met.
I don't know how you determine what is "censorship,"
**I've never tried to formulate a definition, and if I did it certainly
wouldn't be limited to even a broadly legal one. Any well-rounded
definition should include what mainstream media, for example, does *not*
cover that is deemed by many to be critical, which as a former newspaperman
you ought to appreciate.
Having said that, however, it should be useful to point out that the United
States is practically alone among western countries without actionable hate
literature legislation. There are many countries with hate literature
legislation that cannot prosecute violators because they have set up their
sites on servers based in the United States.
"My Name is Rachel Corrie" is going to tour in most of the major cities in
the U.S. and Canada.
**If the censors have anything to say about it, there will be a struggle to
get it viewed at each and every location.
It is a play about a peace-activist who died when she got in front of a
bulldozer. Having operated a bull-dozer, I would never get in front of
one, because I know how limited the vision of the operator is, particularly
when the blade is raised. She was not struck by the bulldozer itself, but
some rocks in a pile the bulldozer was moving fell off the top of the pile
and struck her.
**The operator knew she was there (young Rachel had a bullhorn, and the
operator and Rachel had been in contact for quite some time -- over 30
minutes). He (the operator) knew she was there to protect the home from
being bulldozed (that is one main reason why activists from all over the
world have gone to Palestine -- to protect homes and more villages from
being wiped off the map forever). Yet, the operator still proceeded. Some
would call that a clear case of murder. Not far from me is the longest
standing blockade in North American history, and it sometimes involves young
aboriginal people laying down in front of heavy equipment including logging
trucks. The operators obviously know they are there, and until now have not
proceeded, and so there have been no "accidents" yet. ('Grassy Narrows',
for anyone interested).