Sorry for writing about two day old news, but, the New York Times had a story on Christmas Eve about the next made up fight for Conservatives, now that the War on Christmas is over: "liberal" academia. This one however, could have much more serious repercussions.

As Charles noted a few months ago, the right was successful in pusing the PA House of Representatives towards the so-called "Academic Bill of Rights." Basically, in a national campaign, an ultra-right wing nut named David Horowitz has been leading a charge against those damn liberal professors trying to indoctrinate conservative students. That battle has come home to PA, where unbeknownst to me, fresh off of being attacked over Christmas, conservatives are being attacked by a snarling band of PHDs.

Click read more to see the rest of the battle.

In response, they want some stupid review system set up, where professors are monitored to make sure they don't give bad grades to students for being conservative. In other words, some conservative kids got a few grades they didn't like, and now they have a national organization cooing in their ear that "it's not your fault. They are discrimianting against you for who you are. You are under attack."

The proof of the discrimination, or the terrible signs of liberalness? Well, unfortunately, there is not a whole lot. Instead you have wonderful complaints like this one, from a student in Rhode Island:

The student group has fielded concerns from people like Nathaniel Nelson, a former student at the University of Rhode Island and a conservative, who said a philosophy teacher he had during his junior year referred often to his own homosexuality and made clear his dislike for Mr. Bush.

Oh crap! Not only did the professor dare to say he didn't like President Bush, but, he said he was gay! Often! The goddamned nerve of that guy! Doesn't he understand that being Gay makes some people uncomfortable? Therefore he should be more considerate, hide this part of himself, and jump back into the closet? In fact, he might want to just go ahead and make up a fake, heterosexual family, with a white picket fence, a dog, and anything else that will make this guy feel more comfortable. Because that is what professors should be after: making students as comfortable as possible.

One thing I didn't realize back when the PA law first was passed was that all it did seemed to do was set up a investigation for the House, to figure out if there was a problem. And, in the end, some basic sensibility may prevail:

For now, the answer is unclear. While Mr. Armstrong said he had received complaints from "about 50 students" who said they were intimidated by professors expressing strong political views, Democratic members of the committee have called the endeavor a waste of time, and the Republican chairman, Representative Thomas L. Stevenson, seemed to agree.

"If our report were issued today," Mr. Stevenson said, "I'd say our institutions of higher education are doing a fine job."