A Noted Academic Takes a Fall
So, Dinesh D'Souza, the conservative religious authority, frequent Fox guest, and person behind one of the right wing's current smear movies about Barack Obama, has lost his job as "president" of some miserable place called "King's College," for which he was paid the handsome renumeration of one million dollars a year, because he seems to have had a wife and a "fiancee" at the same time, while passing himself off as a paragon of Christian virtue.
Suspecting strongly that the "King's College" they were talking about here was not King's College Cambridge, founded in 1441 by Henry VI, and just down the street from Green Eagle's former school, Corpus Christi College, I thought I would find out what this particular "King's College" really amounted to.
Well, on to this "King's College." It apparently was founded not in 1441, but way back in 1938, by a fundamentalist evangelist, radio minister and gospel singer named Percy Crawford, in that epicenter of education, Belmar, New Jersey. I was never able to determine what justified the name "King's College," although, unlike the one in Cambridge, it certainly was not because it was actually founded by a king. Go figure.
In 1994, after having moved twice, "King's College" went bankrupt and closed down. However, the college's charter, for some reason, still remained valid, so it was subsequently bought by the Campus Crusade for Christ, one of the most malicious Christian propaganda factories in the country. Campus Crusade for Christ still owns the place, lock stock and barrel, where they offer degrees in the following: "Business management," "Politics, philosophy and economics" and "Media, culture and the arts." Nothing in, say, divinity or theology, which indicates, I think, something about the real commitment to Christ to be found in the Campus Crusade for Christ.
The latest figure I could find for the enrollment at "King's College" is 258 students, which means that Mr. D'Souza was being paid $3876.00 per student. Wikipedia reports that "students sign an honor code pledging not to “lie, cheat, steal, or turn a blind eye to those who do." Apparently, it is just fine for Mr. D'Souza to steal from and cheat them. By way of reference, the president of Harvard University, often listed as the highest paid university president in the country (behind Mr. D'Souza, of course, at least until today- he must be so happy to have regained first place) is paid approximately $44.00 per student.
This story provides a perfect example of how people of weak or nonexistent moral fiber are enticed by ridiculous salaries to prostitute themselves to the rich by accepting phony positions at supposedly learned institutions, and then parroting Republican cant. This is true for all of the bogus "think tanks" right wingers run, like the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute or the Cato Institute, and it is equally true for miserable excuses for colleges like this. Being unable to induce real academics to lie for them, it has proven easier for the right to just create fake ones of its own, which the pathetic mainstream press continues to pretend are legitimate sources of opinion, and then pay people obscene amounts of money to spread their vicious fictions. And thus we get "controversy" over such long-decided subjects as global warming, whether cutting taxes on the rich helps anyone except them, whether women have a right to contraception, or whether we have a right to slaughter the people of any country of our choice because we are blessed by God, and on and on.
As a famous movie character once said, "what a world."
Suspecting strongly that the "King's College" they were talking about here was not King's College Cambridge, founded in 1441 by Henry VI, and just down the street from Green Eagle's former school, Corpus Christi College, I thought I would find out what this particular "King's College" really amounted to.
Above- the real King's College. Unfortunately, I was able to find not a single
picture of the "King's College" we are talking about here, which seems, as far
as I can tell, to occupy some office space somewhere in lower Manhattan.Well, on to this "King's College." It apparently was founded not in 1441, but way back in 1938, by a fundamentalist evangelist, radio minister and gospel singer named Percy Crawford, in that epicenter of education, Belmar, New Jersey. I was never able to determine what justified the name "King's College," although, unlike the one in Cambridge, it certainly was not because it was actually founded by a king. Go figure.
In 1994, after having moved twice, "King's College" went bankrupt and closed down. However, the college's charter, for some reason, still remained valid, so it was subsequently bought by the Campus Crusade for Christ, one of the most malicious Christian propaganda factories in the country. Campus Crusade for Christ still owns the place, lock stock and barrel, where they offer degrees in the following: "Business management," "Politics, philosophy and economics" and "Media, culture and the arts." Nothing in, say, divinity or theology, which indicates, I think, something about the real commitment to Christ to be found in the Campus Crusade for Christ.
The latest figure I could find for the enrollment at "King's College" is 258 students, which means that Mr. D'Souza was being paid $3876.00 per student. Wikipedia reports that "students sign an honor code pledging not to “lie, cheat, steal, or turn a blind eye to those who do." Apparently, it is just fine for Mr. D'Souza to steal from and cheat them. By way of reference, the president of Harvard University, often listed as the highest paid university president in the country (behind Mr. D'Souza, of course, at least until today- he must be so happy to have regained first place) is paid approximately $44.00 per student.
This story provides a perfect example of how people of weak or nonexistent moral fiber are enticed by ridiculous salaries to prostitute themselves to the rich by accepting phony positions at supposedly learned institutions, and then parroting Republican cant. This is true for all of the bogus "think tanks" right wingers run, like the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute or the Cato Institute, and it is equally true for miserable excuses for colleges like this. Being unable to induce real academics to lie for them, it has proven easier for the right to just create fake ones of its own, which the pathetic mainstream press continues to pretend are legitimate sources of opinion, and then pay people obscene amounts of money to spread their vicious fictions. And thus we get "controversy" over such long-decided subjects as global warming, whether cutting taxes on the rich helps anyone except them, whether women have a right to contraception, or whether we have a right to slaughter the people of any country of our choice because we are blessed by God, and on and on.
As a famous movie character once said, "what a world."
Comments
In any event, I am glad the hypocrite took a fall.