A loon of epic proportions

I had seen some chatter on the blogs, particularly Ann Althouse, about the goofy Wisconsin professor Kevin Barrett, but frankly I hadn't paid much attention to it - a university professor throwing out silly anti-American hate speech is about as noteworthy as a hot day in July. But then I heard an exceprt of the podcast that made him (in)famous, and I think I see what the fuss is about now.

Sure, he throws out the standard "9/11 was an inside job" idiocy, but that's just red meat conspiracy theory for the irrational America hating crowd, as crazy as that might seem to any rational readers. But he goes well beyond the tinfoil hat level into a category that hasn't yet been labeled, let's call it the "aliens control us all via anal probes" school of thought.

In Barrett's fantasy world, not only 9/11 (an "inside job" organized and commanded by VP Dick Cheney) but the Madrid, 7/7 and Bali hotel bombings, as well as most of the "Zarqawi style" bombings in Iraq, have been carried out as what he calls "false flag terrorism/operations" by US military intelligence. All as part of a government conspriacy to spark war in the Middle East. Just when I thought I'd heard it all...if you want to spark war in the Middle East all you need to do is assert that Jews have a right to exist!

And here's the punch line - this loon is scheduled to teach an inroductory course in Islam this fall. As disturbing as it is that this guy has allowed himself to become brainwashed to the point of insanity, that pales when stop to ponder the idea of him trying to indoctrinate students in any setting, much less one as potentially volatile as a course on Islam. That could do permanent damage to the more impressionable kids. It's no different from hiring the Grand Wizard of the KKK to teach a course in black history.

Hopefully the state will do the right thing, fire the guy (he's only an adjunct) and look into their hiring process for professors, although the early returns aren't promising. I'm sure that whatever happens, or if you want to see more background on the story, Ann Althouse (linked above) will be all over it, as she has been to this point.