More on the Blog Libel/Harassment/PhD Committee threatening story

Goldstein has the all the details. The only thing I have to say about this is the motivation of Wallace Hettle, the asshat who is at the center of this. I've never met Hettle (that I know of, but you never know who you have stood next to on the elevator at conventions), but I think I know his type very well (as it's pretty endemic among my colleagues).

Let's be charitable and say this: You can't spell U-N-I-M-P-O-R-T-A-N-T without UNI. Or, as their motto goes, "The University of Northern Iowa offers a world-class university education,
providing personalized experiences and creating a lifetime of opportunities, from a group of embittered, cynical never-was PhDs who really, do we have to breathe the same air as these scummy, trailer-trash, Bush voting staff members? I mean, I'm all for Marxism and Derrida and the working class, as long as they don't park so damn close to my '89 Saab and keep my office spic and span."

Anyhoo, it's all too familiar to me. Which is why I love teaching in the Pacific Northwest so! Go Beavers!