TGIF

Finally Friday. Son only had a short class time today due to his first semester final this morning being the focus of the class. Two weeks down, two to go.

Hubby will be home this evening. More drowning practice this morning.

The Fool of the Week is a part-time lecturer at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. His name is Kevin Barrett and he is to teach a course called " Islam: Religion and Culture" during the fall semester. He is not a professor, only a lecturer, but his topic of teaching is troubling, to say the least. University of Wisconsin - Madison is a public university, paid for by the tax dollar.

Barrett is a self-described "Islamologist and Arabist", whatever that means. The troubling part begins when you understand the premise of his lecturing. He will be teaching "alternative" theories of how the twin towers came to collaspe on 9/11. He may teach his point of view as long as he teaches "other viewpoints", according to the university. Barrett claims that the Twin Towers came down as part of an inside job by the government. He thinks the government needed a reason to begin a war against Muslims and this was their ticket.

Barrett is not an engineer, a scientist or an aviation specialist. We all know the history of events of 9/11 during the attacks in this country. Two 767's, fully loaded with fuel, slammed into the two buildings at more than 500 miles an hour. The sheer heat and power of the fuel weakened the weight bearing support beams and the building pancaked down. Fairly basic logic, right?

Au contraire, mes amis, according to Barrett. He heads up a group of like-minded fantasy dwellers and they protest whenever the spirit moves them with banners held high. They believe the government planted explosives in the towers and carried out the disaster. I don't know how they explain the eye witnesses to the jets crashing into the buildings. I don't know how they explain the phone calls to loved ones the victims made describing the jets approaching, as seen out of their windows, or any of that aftermath.

Again, another bit of not letting facts get in the way of telling history in an American university.

By chance, today I was reading an interview on an internet magazine with the Verizon Airfone call center supervisor in Illinois, Lisa Jefferson, who took the call from Todd Beamer on Flight 93 on 9/11 as they were hijacked over Pennsylvania. She is a woman with a lot of faith and believes that God put her there at that time for a reason. I don't think she subscribes to Mr. Barrett's conspiracy fantasies.

The students at the university deserve better.