Betrayed by my alma maters

It's bad enough that I've already decided to withhold my pledge of financial support to my undergraduate alma mater until that right-wing asshole Michael Powell is no longer chairing their Board of Visitors. After all, he orchestrated the departure of a fine president purely on the grounds of his (the president's) leftward ideological bent (and don't tell me it's for non-political reasons, because those reasons are wholly pretextual).

Now, thanks to an e-mail this morning from my blogfather Wes in Cincinnati, I have learned that the university where I earned my law degree has, in short, lost its collective fucking mind. Not only is Washington University in St. Louis offering an honorary doctorate to rabid anti-feminist lunatic Phyllis Schlafly, but their commencement speaker this year is none other than Tweety himself: MSNBC's Chris Matthews, the Most Ignorant Person in Broadcasting. (One presumes Tweety will add to his collection of honorary degrees, er, I mean, "Ph.D.s" -- wink, wink, nudge, nudge -- as well.)

According to the Facebook group, No honorary doctorate for anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly:

This is the woman who lives the hypocrisy of having a career that takes her around the country lecturing "family values" groups on how women should stay home.

This is the woman who said of husband-wife rape, "By getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don't think you can call it rape [sic]."

This is the woman who described sex education classes as "in-home sales parties for abortions." Do her views fit with the future the men and women of Wash U's graduating class see for themselves and their peers? Probably not. Then why honor her with them? Wouldn't having someone like her in the midst of Wash U's female graduates be incongruous at best, offensive at worst?

E-mail Chancellor Wrighton and let him know what you think! Wrighton@wustl.edu.

There are few people, let alone women, so unalterably deluded, so utterly and completely misogynist, so reprehensibly self-loathing as Phyllis Schlafly. How in the world can a person so anti-intellectual be invited to receive an honorary doctorate by a heretofore prestigious university? What, wasn't John Hagee available?

And speaking of "anti-intellectual," Tweety is pretty much the poster child for brain-dead America. His speech is likely to be full of platitudes and anecdotes about his unrequited man-crush on Drunky McStagger or how his $5 million annual salary allows him to understand exactly what working class America thinks and wants. Yeah, right.

This is ludicrous. More than that, this is embarrassing. And it leaves me with just one unsullied degree left ... wondering what that school is going to do to piss me off next.

UPDATE (3:01 pm 5/8/08): One thing that just occurred to me: I wonder whether Wash U's longstanding connection with the Danforth family (e.g., U.S. senator and ambassador John, professor and Wash U chancellor emeritus William) has anything to do with the Schlafly decision.