TWO FROM THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Okay, I'm in tech rehearsals for the show I'm in right now, so I'm really short on time. Consequently, I'm posting this lazy twofer consisting only of a couple of excerpts and links. But it's good stuff, a couple of nice essays from the Chronicle's op-ed section. Enjoy.

'Academic Bill of Rights' would limit speech, learning

In truth, these efforts only hurt the students they purport to help. Horowitz and his backers aren't protecting our rights; they're impeding our educations. The Academic Bill of Rights would substitute political correctness for the free exchange of ideas on campus by preventing faculty and students from discussing fresh or controversial ideas in class. It would restrict what professors can teach and what students can learn.

This exchange between teachers and pupils lies at the heart of liberal education. But ABOR's backers argue that professors presenting new ideas might "indoctrinate" or offend students. Their bill denies us the right to evaluate the merits of ideas and arguments for ourselves by banning "political" or "antireligious" speech from classrooms.

Click here for the rest.

A year to remember: GOP turned from hope to slimy

Ronald Reagan's brilliant achievement on behalf of American conservatism was to capture hope and optimism from a liberal movement that enjoyed a near monopoly on those virtues from the day Franklin Roosevelt told us we had nothing to fear but fear itself.

Whatever else it will be remembered for, this year's election campaign will mark the moment when Republican leaders who govern in the name of conservatism turned definitely away from hope and waged one of the most trivial and ugly campaigns in our country's history.

Click here for the rest.

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