evolution

Prof. Paul Mirecki has a lengthy sit-down with Sophia Maines (the lady Scott Rothschild — about as friendly to him as any media outlet is ever going to get) of the Lawrence Journal-World.

He is a bit more circumspect about us bloodthirsty evil right-wingers:

Mirecki said he believes police will find the men who reportedly battered him. And he disregards claims by some of his critics that he fabricated the attack.

“Of course they’re going to say that,” he said. “I think something will happen. Something will turn up.”

[Emphasis is mine.] He had another, more combative sit-down in a separate story by Maines, in which he publicly threatens the university he works for as well as the Douglas County Sherriff’s Department:

Kansas University professor Paul Mirecki said he’s hired an attorney and is ready to go to the mat with KU and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

“If I have to sue, I will,” he said.

Mirecki said he’s angry because KU didn’t back him after religious conservatives attacked him for his plan to teach a course dealing with intelligent design…

…On Wednesday the university announced Mirecki had resigned as chairman of the religious studies department. But Friday, Mirecki told the Journal-World he was forced to step down.

“The University penalized me and denied me my Constitutionally protected right to speak and express my mind,” he wrote in a statement prepared for the newspaper. “I’ve become radioactive and the University’s administrators won’t support me.”

I’m not sure how that’s so. The university bumped him out of a leadership position after failing to show leadership — by setting a dignified example for the other faculty with his “private” (posted on the Internet) remarks. He’s not being “silenced” by the university (since he is the subject of three J-W pieces today); it simply refused to subsidize his behavior. I’d say the university is well within its rights. As to his case against the Sherriff’s Department, I don’t see how that will proceed, but maybe Mirecki and his lawyer know something I don’t.

UPDATE: There seems to be consensus on that last point.

[previously, and more from Malkin, who says, "Let's hope the sheriff's office can figure it all out and punish whoever caused those injuries to Paul Mirecki." Indeed.]

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 10th, 2005 at 10:43 and is filed under kansas, news/media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.