Althouse: "'Firefly' and Anti-Fascism Posters Get Professor Threatened with Criminal Charges on University of Wisconsin Campus."

September 26, 2011

"'Firefly' and Anti-Fascism Posters Get Professor Threatened with Criminal Charges on University of Wisconsin Campus."

Instapundit highlights this story from UW—Stout, stressing the threat of criminal charges against a professor who put a quote from the TV show "Firefly" on his office door.

If we're going to talk about this, let's face up to what the quote was: "You don't know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you'll be awake. You'll be facing me. And you'll be armed."

I can't fathom why a teacher would put that on an office door. I mean, I can see that this was a theater professor and it's a vividly theatrical line from a character some people are familiar with. I wonder what the whole story is, specifically, how the school attempted to handle the matter internally and cordially.

212 comments:

«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 212 of 212

Gospace said...: I worked at SUNY. Keeping the profs warm in winter and cool in summer. Noted that profs have ALL kinds of things posted on their doors. Didn't know they had justify them.

To you or anyone else.

Far side was extremely popular...

As was Che.

One prof posted a lot of NRA stuff- he didn't seem to be well liked by others.; 9/26/11, 10:35 PM
Thorley Winston said...: Speaking of the CW, is anyone else watching "Ringer" with SMG?; 9/26/11, 10:51 PM
Thorley Winston said...: (For that matter, while it was entertaining and not stupid, I think the lionization has gone a bit far.)

Have to agree, I used to listen to the Babylon-5 Podcast from Farpoint media and they went through each episode, one per show and then did the same for Crusade. It entertaining for a while but the constant worshipping at the alter of JMS got to be a bit much.

I wonder if part of the reason why Babylon 5 and Firefly are so popular is that there hasn't been that much new stuff that has been produced. As opposed to shows like Star Trek, Star Wars and Doctor Who which have literally hundreds of licensed works in their expanded universes. It's sort of dilluted the quality of the originals while B5 and FF have sort of remained purer by comparison.

Just a thought.; 9/26/11, 10:59 PM
traditionalguy said...: Freedom of expression is a very valuable thing that protects us by letting us know what the people around us think.

But over doing everything as a terrible threat meaning to show us we should feel safer, like the TSA's bomb inspections, has gotten far out of hand.

And police authority un restrained because of a claim of imminent attacks by an imaginary enemy IS Fascism in action.

They want us to live under Marshall Law.

Beware, there are Guns Walking around because of evil gun dealers...no wait that was the hoax that Tyrant Obama and his Secret Police Chief Holder's ATF ran to justify shutting down gun sales.; 9/26/11, 11:00 PM
altered states said...: For the entertainment of the Firefly fans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-yHSaP0Dyg

Still makes me laugh every time I watch it.; 9/27/11, 12:03 AM
Fred4Pres said...: I enjoyed seeing the Eagles fall this weekend. That tasted better than a 1000 Tastykakes (even butterscotch)

Even better than Trooper abusing Little Debbies.; 9/27/11, 1:43 AM
Robert Cook said...: "They want us to live under Marshall Law."

Do you mean "martial" law, or are you referring slyly to the great old superhero comic book satire MARSHAL LAW by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill, (and which I am suprised to learn by Google search is still being published at intervals)?; 9/27/11, 5:34 AM
Tibore said...: "I disagree, in the actual emails the Chief of Police comes across as the more calm, more professional and more cordial of the two."

Yikes, I just read that. No kidding.

I still think the Police Chief was in the wrong, but boy, that professor really came off as overbearing. My sympathies are with him, but he's being overly dramatic about it. Calm, reasoned discourse would've been more effective here. Someone needed to grab him by the shoulders and say "Hey, there's a right way to do this. Yours ain't it."; 9/27/11, 7:26 AM
Steve Koch said...: ricpic said...
"It's touching that Chuck Lorre thinks enforced universal honesty would usher in heaven on earth when in fact it's only artifice that keeps us from rending each other limb from limb."

Yeah, that possibility occurred to me but I haven't made up my mind yet on the implications of knowing when people lie.

My main points were:
* Chuck Lorre exists and he produces these two sitcoms that trooper likes which are quite different from each other.
* Chuck Lorre vanity cards exist and are interesting to read.
* Chuck Lorre thinks about interesting science oriented topics and is still able to turn them into comedy.; 9/27/11, 7:53 AM
Steve Koch said...: I don't have much sympathy for the prof. He is an employee of the university and needs to do what he is told wrt what he displays on his office door. He lacks common sense and needs to remember that he is an example for these students.

Bringing in the cops was unnecessary and stupid.

Firefly is OK but it does not blow me away. It seemed to me kind of like a post civil war story except set in space. The old timey way the lead character talks is consistent with that but rubs me the wrong way (seems phony). The lead character just seems stupid and none of the characters seem that believable.; 9/27/11, 8:37 AM
Anonymous said...: Why would a theater prof choose to showcase a line that precisely encapsulates a fundamental aspect of the character's persona? It's a mystery, I tell you.; 9/27/11, 9:17 AM
Thorley Winston said...: I don’t think that it’s “fascism” for an employer to restrict what is allowed to be posted on a publicly viewable wall or a door on the employer’s premises. Granted there may be some First Amendment issues if the employer is a public entity that somewhat restricts their ability to make distinctions between allowing some content and not other but the university can easily get around that problem IMO by just prohibiting anyone from having anything on the door other than their room number, name or office hours.; 9/27/11, 9:50 AM