The Network of Evil Design Exposed! ...

Thanks to Lisa Roy Vox, the Apocalyptic Historian, I found Touchgraph. My technical language skills are, ah, limited, so let her say it:

Touchgraph is a wonderful site which has these Java applets for Google, Amazon, and Live Journal. Type in a web address into the google applet and you'll see all the web sites which are linked from that page. That one is not perfected yet .... But the Amazon applet is very cool. Type in a subject, say,"end of the world," and all of these books which have relationships through that subject will pop up in the applet—much more effective than Amazon's own device for finding"similar items." I performed that very search and actually came across a couple of books I've never come across before—which I have to tell you surprised me given the amount of research I've done.

If you type"http://hnn.us/blogs/2.html" into the Google applet, you get a kind of sociogram of Cliopatria's network. As Vox says, it isn't perfect. Some webpages register prominently. Jonathan Dresner's does, but KC Johnson's does not. Hugo Schwyzer has his own huge network, but the system doesn't know he is related to us. Shh, don't tell anyone, but most of the usual suspects are there. [Ed. Note: We've got to quit meeting like this!] For research purposes, the Amazon applet may actually be useful.

Beyond that, however, Vox found that David Horowitz used this Google applet to create a visual map of his Network of Evil Design. At its heart, of course, is the Ford Foundation and David maps you if you have received $ from the Ford Foundation. Obviously, his work is not yet complete. I have received $ from the Ford Foundation, but my name's not yet there! Still, I have this consolation:"When the map is scrolled up yonder, I'll be there!"

My colleague, Mark Grimsley, is more fortunate. If he's not yet mapped on the Network of Evil Design, one of Horowitz's drones attacks him and three other members of the Ohio State University faculty at Front Page Rag. See: Thomas Ryan,"OSU's Churchill Clones.""Churchill Clone!" no less. Ryan has this to say of Grimsley:

Another professor of OSU's Peace Studies program is Mark Grimsley, who teaches History in Columbus, and who has been the recipient of the university's Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching. Grimsley has taught the Peace Studies elective course"History of War." On his website, entitled, the"The Kinder, Gentler Military History Page," [sic] Grimsley sets out to admonish his colleagues who teach war history classes from a perspective in which war can be seen as a viable alternative. He insists:

Too often military historians take what might called the"drawn gun" approach to their subject. It is as if they focus not on the individual who has drawn the gun (his reasons for drawing the gun, why he has one in the first place), but focus on the gun itself – the armed forces – and take violent conflict resolution as a given. Still worse, military historians tend to utilize the same intellectual categories as the military establishment. That tendency, to the degree in which it is indulged, makes independent, critical analysis more difficult. Peace Studies provide a highly useful corrective.

On his website, Grimsley also provides links to a number of biased, anti-American and anti-Israel organizations, including Friends for a Non-Violent World, a group which has ignored the brutal dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein and blamed the Iraqi people's pre-liberation suffering on U.S. economic sanctions.

On his blog,"War Historian," Grimsley has plainly acknowledged that there is a left-wing predisposition inherent at Ohio State University, especially at the graduate level. He has reduced this trend to a"self-fulfilling prophecy" whereby conservative students fear scorn from the biased nature of the school, and therefore"do not apply to grad school in the first place." Grimsley has failed to recognize the contributions he and his colleagues make to advance this trend.

Grimsley has also used his blog as a forum with which to lambaste Front Page Magazine editor-in-chief David Horowitz, who has done a great deal to expose the bias in the university. Grimsley writes,"Personally I do not think that Mr. Horowitz is interested in the free exchange of views." However, Horowitz has sought to represent both conservative and liberal students who have had gripes with any university.

On his blog, Grimsley also failed to condemn Ward Churchill's remark comparing casualties of the 9/11 attacks to Nazi-resembling"little Eichmanns," about which he instead attempted to argue the statement's metaphoric effectiveness. Grimsley writes:

I continue to wrestle with the issue of whether the"little Eichmanns" metaphor can be made coherent. As I have said, a major problem with the Ward Churchill essay is that the essay fails to deploy the metaphor effectively, at least as an aid to analysis. As an aid to incitement, it has proven to be quite effective.

In other words: If only Ward Churchill had hated his country in more vivid metaphor! Grimsley goes on to praise the merits of Churchill, stating,"There are those, like me, who think opinions can be valuable especially if they seem dangerous or disagreeable."

I hope you noticed Ryan's quick slight of hand. Grimsley is a"Ward Churchill Clone" only two steps removed from Saddam Hussein! Forget counterposing Robert E. Lee and Che Guevara on your website, Grimsley. Counterpose Mark Grimsley and Saddam Hussein! This stuff is ludicrous, as it is insidious. David Horowitz began his campaign in Colorado with the introduction of his"Academic Bill of Rights" in the state legislature and now the University administration is reviewing the personnel files of all faculty members to make sure that their loyalty oaths are signed and dated. David Horowitz's"Academic Bill of Rights" has recently been introduced in the Ohio state legislature . ....

Update: On a related matter, see: John Holbo,"When Whigs Attack" at Crooked Timber and Holbo's"DiscovertheNutwork.org".