TRAVESTY AT WASH U

Yesterday's Inside Higher Education reports that Washington University released a statement defending its Trustees' unaminous vote to grant an honorary degree to Phyllis Schlafly. "The statement noted that past honorees have reflected a wide range of political views, and that the university has honored civil rights leaders like Jesse Jackson and Julian Bond; political and government leaders such as Madeleine Albright, John Major, Patricia Schroeder, John C. Danforth, Paul Simon and Richard Gephardt, and many others."

I am sorry but Schlafly does not belong in this august company. Why honor a woman who dishonors the shooting victims at Virginia Tech, who believes that dinosaurs and early humans walked the earth at the same time, who argues that "Mexicans obviously have no thought of invading the Southwest with troops, so their hope is reconquista by migration, both legal and illegal," and who told the Senate Labor Committee that "sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for the virtuous woman, except in the rarest of cases."

Phyllis Schlafly's paper trail is extensive and many bloggers are on the case.