My worldview is based on Star Trek: TOS

PB notes an essay by Ward Churchill published in a 2009 book, fetchingly titled Evoking Genocide, in which Wart makes more accusations of deliberate infection of Indian bankies with smallpox. PB quotes this hunk (those are his brackets, too):

Sam Houston, the first president of Texas, almost certainly used blankets to infect the Wichitas with smallpox in 1843. This sort of thing ws actually reported in newspapers from time to time, as when, on March 6, 1853, the Daily Alta California [published in San Francisco, or Yerba Buena, as it was then called.—Ed.] announced that smallpox had been used to rid the northern portion of the state of its last remaining Indians.

Incontrovertible. The authors gathered in the book, according to editor Adam Jones, "pay eloquent tribute to the works of art and media that influenced their engagement with genocide and crimes against humanity. The subjects include books and stories, films, songs, drawings, documents, monuments, sculptures, personal testimonies, and even a Lego set."

One author's engagement was influenced by the "I, Borg" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The book, by the way, is "endorsed" by Mia Farrow, "activist and actor." Why? Because she would, that's why. One funny thing: In the "contributors" section, the Ward mini-bio ends with, "Most recently, a jury concluded that he had been illegally fired from his faculty position at the University of Colorado for expressing his political views. It is expected that he will be reinstated as a tenured full professor of American Indian Studies, effective fall semester 2009."

Update: Thanks again, Wart. Gamera: CU reconsidering rule that keeps fired professors on payroll for a year:

When the University of Colorado fired Ward Churchill, the tenured ethnic studies professor remained on the school's payroll for a year [to the tune of $96,000--ed.] because of a 45-year-old severance pay rule.

Now, that rule -- which has rarely been used but guarantees terminated tenured professors a year's worth of pay unless they're fired for reasons of "moral turpitude" -- may be stiffened in future cases.

Under the proposed change, the faculty panel on privilege and tenure would need to recommend that a fired professor receive one year's salary upon termination, and then the Board of Regents would be required to approve the payout. . . .

Probably can't make it retroactive, huh?

The current payout rule stems from a 1966 regents' decision to adopt portions of the American Association of University Professors guidelines on tenure and academic freedom. One of those rules requires that professors who are dismissed for reasons not involving "moral turpitude" receive salaries for at least a year from the date of dismissal, whether or not they continue their duties with the university.

In 1940, the AAUP adopted its principles on academic freedom in response to professors being fired for reasons that included being Catholic or Jewish, according to R L Widmann, a CU-Boulder English professor who leads the university-wide Faculty Council Educational Policies and University Standards Committee. At that time, job protection for professors was rare.

"We don't have these willy-nilly firings anymore," she said.

Yeah, it's a completely rational and orderly process now.