Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, lists himself in Harvard 1962 alumni report; says ‘awards’ include eight life sentences.–Boston Globe, May 23, 2012
Show your colors! Ted’s crimson prison garb.
Ted Kaczynski Keeps in Touch with Harvard ’62 Classmates
Category Archives for Life and Culture
Things are Heating Up! Al’s Got a Gal Pal!
When last Miss wrote about Al Gore, he was hoping to rekindle his college romance with Jenny Cavilleri, having just split with his long-suffering wife Tipper.
Apparently things with Jenny didn’t work out, because the Washington Post is reporting that the former vice president has a new squeeze, California cutie one Elizabeth Keadle.
Wisely, the new couple are taking their romance step-by-step. According to the Post, their first big date was a closely chaperoned affair, combining romance with saving the world. They spent it with an
eclectic group of experts and VIPs (Richard Branson, singer Jason Mraz, actor Tommy Lee Jones) on a trip to Antarctica in January to raise awareness of climate change.
I don’t know about you, but the thought of Al Gore making out on an iceberg with a 50ish divorcee raises my gorge, but not much else.
Native Antarctic seal ROFLIAO at the lovebirds.
Ms. Keadle is reputedly a big, not mega, donor to politics and causes near and dear to Gore’s heart. An environmentalist herself, she lives in earth-friendly Rancho Santa Fe, California, an enclave last in the news when Heaven’s Gate cult members, nattily attired in matching jogging suits and Nikes, were carried off to an alien spaceship. Rancho Santa Fe also distinguishes itself being having a population that’s 90% white, in a state that is overall 40% white. No wonder the loving couple chose Antartica for their dream date. All that whiteness felt just like home!
Eco-friendly living in Rancho Santa Fe; the lights are on but nobody’s home.
Rancho Santa Fe is also a global-warmist’s ideal community. How do I know this? By checking out the homes for sale there. According to Realtor.com 247 are currently on the market. Of that 247, a mere 89% have central air-conditioning and a trivial 70% have hot tubs. Extrapolate from that, and you see how Ms. Keadle must live the spartan life of the dedicated environmentalist she is reported to be.
I wish the couple well. Seems like they were made for each other.
Hey, Elizabeth: pucker up!
Diversity for Me but Not for Thee: Crystal Dixon, the University of Toledo, and the Hierarchy Civil Rights
It all started way back in 2008, when a self-described “middle-aged, overweight white guy with graying facial hair” wrote an op-ed that played fast and loose with the truth about health care benefits at the University of Toledo.
Michael Miller, editor-in-chief of the Toledo Free Press, fresh from a town hall meeting sponsored by Equality Ohio and Equality Toledo, was righteously indignant over what he heard from its participants:
The frequent denial of health care benefits leads to horror stories. According to the panelists, UT has offered domestic partner benefits since then-president Dan Johnson signed them into effect. The Medical University of Ohio did not offer those benefits. When the institutions merged, UT employees retained the domestic-partner benefits, but MUO employees were not offered them. So, people working for the same employer do not have access to the same benefits.
Michael Miller. From his self-description, I'd know him anywhere.
Quelle horreur! Those homophobic academics! How dare they! How dare they combine gigantic organizations with two sets of HR policies, union contracts and insurance plans to be sorted out and fail to put gay rights at the top of their to-do list! Never mind that none of the benefits affecting all employees (including the black and disabled, whose pain Miller tells us he also feels) were initially changed when the two institutions joined forces. UT employees kept their benefits, MUO kept theirs. Policy, procedure, contractual obligations be damned: put those domestic partners at the front of the line!
A few days later, the Free Press publishes a letter in response to Miller’s column from one Crystal Dixon, who identified herself as a “Black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo’s Graduate School, an employee and business owner.” Her letter is a passionate articulation of “God’s divine order” as it relates to gays. How could she possibly know this? Eh. Another sheltered individual afraid of something she knows nothing of, I thought. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about, I thought.
But when she stopped talking theology and began writing about university policy, she most definitely did know her stuff:
The reference to the alleged benefits disparity at the University of Toledo was rather misleading. When the University of Toledo and former Medical University of Ohio merged, both entities had multiple contracts for different benefit plans at substantially different employee cost sharing levels. To suggest that homosexual employees on one campus are being denied benefits avoids the fact that ALL employees across the two campuses, regardless of their sexual orientation, have different benefit plans. The university is working diligently to address this issue in a reasonable and cost-efficient manner, for all employees, not just one segment.
Naturally, a firestorm ensued. Because the editor-in-chief of the Free Press misrepresented the facts about UT employee benefits, you ask? Don’t be silly. Because Ms. Dixon—who wrote her letter to the editor as a private citizen—was at the time the associate vice president of human resources at UT. After she was suspended but before she was fired, the president of the university Lloyd Jacobs also wrote the Free Press:
Although I recognize it is common knowledge that Crystal Dixon is associate vice president for Human Resources at the University of Toledo, her comments do not accord with the values of the University of Toledo. It is necessary, therefore, for me to repudiate much of her writing.
Flash forward to today. Fired from the University, Ms. Dixon today holds a prestigious, high-level position in her field, based, no doubt on her experience and past performance at UT, where, “her work reviews from [her boss] Logie had always been positive and praised her in the area of diversity.”
Crystal Dixon
The University of Toledo was within its rights when it fired its head human resources administrator in 2008 after she wrote a newspaper column in which she said that gay people do not need the protection of civil rights laws, a federal judge ruled this week.
In his ruling, Judge David A. Katz found that the nature of the official’s position meant that she did not have First Amendment protections from being punished for expressing her views in a public forum. The “plaintiff’s interest in making a comment of public concern is clearly outweighed by the university’s interest as her employer in carrying out its own objectives,” Judge Katz wrote.
As a former apologist for a small liberal arts college who did her share of mucking the barn after the door had been left open, the company woman in me is cheering “Right On!” to the judge’s opinion.
But that cheer dies on my lips as I read further on in Judge Katz’s memorandum:
Plaintiff claims that her termination impedes diversity. She claims that accepting Defendants’ employer interest arguments would prevent any conservative Christians from holding managerial positions at the University of Toledo. Plaintiff’s claim is far too broad in two important ways. First, Defendants’ arguments only restrict those who cannot hold their tongues about their beliefs (or fail to submit their beliefs anonymously). Plus, the position would likewise restrict liberal atheists as well.
In other words, says the judge, if you hold an unpopular view, keep your mouth shut or your employer will get you. The bile rising in my throat evidences the bitter vindication of knowing I’d been right all long. If you are a conservative (but not a “liberal atheist”) check your opinions at the door if you want to work in higher ed. Listen to your colleagues spew their views, but keep yours to yourself. It’s kinda like “don’t-ask-don’t-tell,” except that you get told even if you don’t tell.
Judge Katz’s opinion puts the imprimatur of the law on the hypocrisy endemic in higher education. Consider his chilling statement: “Defendants’ arguments only restrict those who cannot hold their tongues about their beliefs (or fail to submit their beliefs anonymously).” Now substitute “sexual preference” for “beliefs.” Appalling, isn’t it.
I’m guessing in the wake of the judge’s ruling, the University will revise its answer to one or more of the questions on its Questions, Answers, and Facts page about “diversity”:
Q: Does having too much diversity weaken an organization?
A: No. While diversity is inevitable, it implies inclusiveness. Having diversity should not ostracize individuals or groups. The rationale for diversity is to provide opportunities where many perspectives and talents can be appreciated and utilized. True diversity is not about hiding differences. It is about capitalizing on them in order to make for a more productive and desirable work environment.
That part about “not hiding differences” is totally outside the parameters of Judge Katz’s sententia about keeping one’s mouth shut.
In the wake of Judge Katz's decision, the Office of Diversity at UT is busily silk-screening tee-shirts to distribute at the big rally for tolerance and inclusion.
Hands-On Professor Handed His Sentence: Drago’s on Probation
If only Drago had kept that finger to himself, his feminist credentials would still be intact.
Scholar Known for His Studies of Women in the Work Force Is Convicted of Sexual Abuse
By Robin Wilson
Robert W. Drago—a prominent scholar of issues affecting women in the work force, including academe—was convicted of misdemeanor sexual abuse of a minor last week in Superior Court of Washington, D.C.
We last read about Randy Robert back in September, 2011; his once live-in love the lithe Laurie Bonjo had blown a gasket when her daughter reported that Drago, then Director of the prestigious and proudly feminist Institute for Women’s Policy Research, had attempted to cop a feel or two. Or maybe three. Who knows? The seventeen-year-old did not talk to the press. Her mother did.
For the fleeting pleasure of feeling up a teenager, Drago’s been sentenced to eighteen months’ probation. According to the Chronicle, he’s also been given the life sentence of being listed in the National Sex Offender Registry. I almost feel sorry for him.
Almost.
Where are the OTHER Kardashian Sisters?
Miss has too much time on her hands. What with semester break keeping things quiet on campus, news of meth-peddling faculty, embezzling college presidents, and grievance-filing students is pretty hard to come by. So, until the higher ed hijinks resume in February or so (one whole month before spring break: academic schedules are grueling), I thought I would struggle with the question on everyone’s mind this time of year.
Why don’t all of the Kardashian sisters appear in the family’s annual Christmas portrait?
It’s easy enough to explain Khokaine Kardashian’s absence. Rehab. But where is lingerie model Khamisole Kardashian? And used-car saleswoman Kabriolet Kardashian?
Khamisole. One Kardashian is enough.
Every family has its black sheep, unwelcome at reunions and other gatherings of the clan, so perhaps that explains why Linda Jenner gives twins Khlamydia and Koprolith Kardashian the wrong address for the photographer’s studio. Bird-brained Khormorant Kardashian doesn’t need faulty directions to lose her way. It comes naturally to her.
Linda thinks Khormorant's unique sense of style doesn't fit the Kardashian brand.
I did learn that Kaballine and Kaprine Kardashian prefer to kick up their holiday heels in the country, and retire to the family farm for the season. Understandably shy Karbuncle Kardashian usually joins them.
Sisterly togetherness at the Kardashian family farm.
And ever since Khosher Kardashian converted, she refuses to have anything to do with the Christmas card.
Khosher Kardashian sends her own holiday greetings.
So there you have it. My Christmas gift to you: more Kardashians. Just what you were hoping for, I know.
Professor Kinzey’s Dream Date: Irina “Grandma Meth” Kristy
Fate is funny. You just never know when or where you will find your soul mate. Or your cell mate.
Such is this case of the romance I imagine between University of California San Bernardino Professor Stephen “Skinz” Kinzey and adjunct faculty member at Boston and Suffolk universities Irina Kristy. Both academics, he’s into kinesiology; she’s a mathematician. He’s 40ish; she’s reached the three-quarters of a century mark. He’s West Coast; she’s East. But although separated by disciplines, generations, and oh-so-many miles, the two share an irrevocable bond: each has been arrested, accused of running an in-home meth lab. You can read about Skinz here and here.
Grandma Meth, says the Boston Globe,
will be arraigned later this month on the same drug charges her 29-year-old son recently faced for running a methamphetamine lab out of their Somerville home, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s office.
Grandma’s mother-and-son business suffered, when, as the Globe story continues, the Somerville (Massachusetts) cops conducted
a daylong search of the second-floor residence at 19 Oxford St. that [son Gregory] Genkin and Kristy share, investigators from local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies recovered evidence that the site was being used to make methamphetamine, Somerville police said in a statement last month.
Grandma Meth prepares for class.
“A large amount of materials believed to be hazardous’’ were removed from the property by hazardous materials specialists, and other items believed to be dangerous were detonated by the State Police bomb squad, the statement said.
In the academic ghetto that is the greater Boston area, nothing rings in the holiday season like the sound of detonating explosives confiscated from a faculty member’s pied a terre.
Grandma didn't have too much time for housekeeping, what with running her own business and teaching on two different campuses:
I can hear the howls of protest all the way on the Vineyard. “But, but, but…” faculty are squawking, holding their noses in contempt as they point out, “Kristy is but an adjunct. She’s not really one of us.”
And indeed she is not. “Adjuncts” are one of the many dirty little secrets higher education likes to keep to itself. The difference between “adjunct” faculty members and “regular faculty members” is tens–hundreds in some instances–of thousands of dollars in compensation; health insurance; other benefits; and class size. While the salaries and benefits of regular faculty are many multiples higher than those of adjuncts, this discrepancy is offset by the fact that the the number of students in an adjunct’s class is significantly higher than the regular faculty member’s. Adjuncts, moreover, are typically assigned introductory and remedial courses; if they are very lucky, occasionally their department will throw them a bone of a survey course.
For English and math adjuncts in particular, this usually means that they are the gatekeepers of their respective disciplines: many a decision to major in one subject or another is based on the impression students glean from that introductory course they are obliged to take.
Adjuncts are typically not vetted in the same careful way that regular faculty are, so the chances of an adjunct’s running a meth lab on the side (they certainly need the extra income!) is probably greater than a regular faculty member’s, Skinz being the exception, one hopes.
But consider this. Suffolk University’s mouthpiece Greg Gatlin cuts the campus’s ties with Grandma Meth faster than you can say “Clery Report”:
“after the university learned of the charges,’’ she was “placed on administrative leave through the end of the semester,’’ school spokesman said Friday.
“Adjunct faculty are appointed semester by semester,’’ he said. “She has not been appointed for next semester.’’
What Gatlin neglects to add is that Grandma M has been teaching at Suffolk for over 26 years! That would be 52 semesters. BU had the good sense to muzzle its mouthpiece, thus avoiding the need to explain how the alleged criminal activity of a faculty member of 24 years’ standing could have gone unnoticed for so long.
Adjuncts represent the best and worst of the academy–they do provide cheap labor that keep tuition costs down. Many of them are as qualified–if not more qualified–than the tenured faculty whose hard work in the classroom they are doing. On the other hand, they can expect no institutional loyalty–even after 25+ years (compare Gatlin’s statement to what UCSB said about Kinzey)–and any sense of appreciation or respect for their work they might feel somewhat entitled to gets ground out of their spirit early on in their “temporary” appointments on campus, for they exist in an unseen netherworld, welcome only in the classroom, never in a faculty meeting and usually not in the faculty club.
As for the institutions that perpetuate such appointments decade after decade, well, let’s just leave it at this: next time you hear faculty yapping self-righteously about the 99%, ask them about their adjunct colleagues–and if they’d be willing to share some of their goodies with this sad underclass. Don’t hold your breath.
DUI*: The Karen Pletz Edition of “Where Are They Now?”
*Dying Under Indictment
It isn’t often that a column by Nicolas Kristof gets me thinking; usually his mealy-mouthed half-truths just make me mad. His Thanksgiving column, “Are We Getting Nicer?”, prompted me to return to a question about Call Me Miss that I have been pondering ever since I learned of the death of disgraced ex-college president Karen Pletz.
Devoted readers will recall that Pletz was riding high on the crime wave that swept through higher education last spring, when one embezzlement scheme after another was uncovered on campuses as elite as Vassar and as meat-and-potatoes as Pletz’s Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. Pletz was dismissed when investigators discovered a little matter of $1.4 million she’d apparently diverted for her personal use. In addition to theft on this grand scale, Pletz also stood accused of tax evasion, money laundering, dodgy hiring practices and assorted acts of workplace favoritism. All told, she racked up a 24-count indictment and was to go to trial in March, 2012.
Nevertheless, when news of her death in Fort Lauderdale reached Kansas City, lavish condolences were expressed by those who knew her, including
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, former mayor of Kansas City, [who] said Pletz should be remembered as “first of all, a civic leader.”
I confess that my first reaction when I read Rep. Cleaver’s comment was to reflect on its dispiriting honesty.
But then it also made me think about whether, since the alleged embezzler has now met her maker, I should remove the original post I wrote about her indictment. The abrupt dismissal of a college president generally takes place when there is overwhelming, incontrovertible, compelling and public or soon-to-be-public evidence of wrong-doing on a grand scale. In other words, the smoke generated by a pink slip means there is fire. So, yes, although death cheated Ms. Pletz out of her day in court, in my view there was nothing “alleged” about the crimes for which she was to be tried. But the woman is dead, by her own hand. Should a snide blog post continue to persecute her, even after the feds and the state drop their charges?
To use Nicholas Kristof’s eloquent language, should Miss be “nice”? And if she is “nice,” and deletes the post, does that mean that other posts will go, once the academic miscreant has served his or her community service?
To me, these are real questions for which I honestly do not have answers. Do you?
Miss, trying to think--but nothing's happening.
Paul Krugman, Jimmy Hoffa, Barack Obama: Paragons of Cultural Decline?
Much ink has been spilled over the last few weeks about Junior (“Take Them Out”) Hoffa’s death threat to those of the Republican persuasion. That it comes as a surprise to anyone that a union goon should talk like a union goon is as baffling to as it is unsurprising that President Obama, with his eloquent silence, condones Hoffa’s lethal orders to the rank-and-file. We live in a time in which man’s political nature, red in tooth and claw, reveals just how debased our culture has become.
But Jimmy told me to, and Barry said it was OK.
In the sub-basement of our decline resides the New York Times‘s Paul Krugman, who has chosen the tenth anniversary of September 11 to add his voice to the many who have spoken out in memory and reflection of that terrible day:
The Years of Shame
Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?
Actually, I don’t think it’s me, and it’s not really that odd.
What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. Te [sic] atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.
A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity?
The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.
I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.
Paul Krugman speaks out.
Where I come from, week-long NPR special reports on a single topic, week-long programming on myriad broadcast and cable channels, and 21 (i.e., every single one) of the Huffington Post’s “Featured Blog Posts” hardly add up to a “subdued” recognition of September 11. Perhaps, however, in the dark reaches of societal decay where Krugman hangs his hat, news of these commemorations has yet to penetrate.
When Mayor Giuliani raced to Ground Zero and gave New Yorkers a glimmer of hope that their city would not be torn asunder, I sincerely doubt he was thinking about cash. When George Bush assured the recovery workers that he—and the world—heard them he was not working the crowd at a political fundraiser.
Whatever poison has tainted the memory of September 11 leaks from the pustules bubbling up from the caldera Krugman calls home. Safely ensconced in his cesspool, Krugman spews his bile, insulting his readers by claiming they “know” he speaks the truth—then with the courage of one who hides in the cover in darkness takes his final shot: “I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.”
And this is where we live today. In a country that tolerates a president who thinks it’s OK to make death threats to US citizens. In a country that gives a platform to a writer who tells one lie after another then taunts readers for their lack of recourse.
Makes you proud to be an American, doesn’t it?
Home, sweet home
This is Getting Serious, Folks! Vassar’s Short $1.9 Million–More Academic Embezzlers Out on Bond!
Every year about this time, the competition within the academic world revs into high gear. High school seniors are frantic to know if they made the cut at their first-choice institution. Admissions officers are holding their collective breath in the hopes that their offers of admission will yield the perfect class: students whose parents can pay the full freight of the whopping tuition bill; students whose high school GPAs and board scores will make the class look smart; students who have a special talent with an oboe, a tennis racket, or a paint brush; students who are not white. The competition in the world of college admissions is gloves-off, bare-knuckled, and implacable.
This year is no different, except that in 2011 the competition is not about who gets in and who does not as much as it is who steals what and how much from the campus coffers.
First there was Middlebury Associate Professor Kateri Carmola’s penny-ante pilfering of historical society funds up in Vermont. Not to be outdone, the heartland’s own Queen of Embezzlement Karen Pletz scored something in the neighborhood of $1.5 million from the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. Now comes a mom-and-pop appropriations committee late of Vassar College, located in scenic Poughkeepsie, New York.
Fortunately, as a construction manager Fisher could borrow the equipment necessary to scoop up the cash he removed from Vassar's ample supplies.
According to the Journal News, Arthur Fisher and his wife Jennie have brought the embezzlement record back to an East Coast elite institution, where some might argue it belongs. The Fishers stand accused of ripping off Vassar to the tune of $1.9 million over five years. Mr. Fisher, until December, was a “project construction manager” at the college. His management skills netted himself and his little woman quite a haul:
four late-model BMWs and one Ford F150 truck, worth approximately $500,000 combined; three Rolex watches valued at $50,000; 10 unregistered handguns and one military style .223-caliber rifle; and various fraudulent law enforcement IDs and badges from a host of agencies, including the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the FBI and the New York Police Department, among others. Police said the IDs contained Arthur Fisher’s name and photograph.
Found among the badges cops seized from the Fishers.
You’ll be relieved to learn, as I was, that police are fairly certain the fake badges and ID’s do not “appear to be stolen….They appear to be replicas.”
Perhaps you’ll also be comforted to learn, as I am not, that Vassar was all over locking the barn door that in their haste the Fishers left wide open when they absconded with their loot. Says hapless college spokesman Jeff Kosmacher, “There have been steps taken at the college in terms of financial and project management oversight that will strengthen how we handle the business of the college in the future.” Kosmacher went on to insist that “the college maintained strong control systems before the alleged embezzlement.”
Artist's rendering of Vassar's strict financial controls.
I am not comforted because I feel so bad for Vassar. It’s just announced a fundraising campaign with a goal of $400 million, $262 million of which is already in hand. Will donors who give less than $1.9 million now wonder if the college will be able to keep track of their giving? Imagine the donor contemplating a gift of $1.5 million. Will she now feel compelled to make the donation directly to BMW and Rolex, rather than letting the funds pass through the college? What a terrible state of affairs!
The Fishers' garage, before the Feds arrived.
But, this story has a punch line. Guess where the Fishers live: Ossining. How convenient.
The Fishers prepare to enjoy conjugal relations at their home on the Hudson.
Move Over Kateri, There’s a New Queen of Embezzlement in Town…
…and she makes you look like the small-time petty thief that you are. All you faculty-wannabes out there who aspire to a career in higher education take note. If your career path includes embezzlement, you’d do well to consider the shining example of banker-turned-academic Karen Pletz.
From the March 31 Kansas City Star:
former president of Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences president Karen Pletz today was named in a 24-count indictment alleging she embezzled more than $1.5 million from the university, made false statements on her tax returns and engaged in money laundering.
Not part of the indictment–nor illegal in any way–are the questionable employment opportunities that Pletz made available. Standing tall for women in the workplace, and acting as a one-woman affirmative action employer, Ex-President Pletz hired not only her daughter, who lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, but also the daughter-in-law of her trusted Vice President of Institutional Advancement Douglas Dalzell–you know who that is, don’t you? The head fundraiser, of course. The one who apparently directed a staff member at the University to keep the books of his son’s Kansas City restaurants.
Says former-president-soon-to-be-convicted felon Pletz, in the February 7 Star,
“I believe we operated with integrity, and I will stand by that always,” she said. “We don’t give jobs to people who aren’t qualified or aren’t committed or aren’t weighed against other people.”
And I’ll bet her daughter’s qualifications were held up to scrutiny in a nationwide search. The Star story continues:
“It’s a very family-oriented institution,” Karen Pletz said. “Osteopathic medicine has always been about family.”
That would be the Corleone Family.
President Peltz gave this stylish mouse pad as a Christmas gift to the trusted members of her "family."
Soon to follow: the continuing saga of Embezzlement Queen Karen.
