April 9, 2004
Quote Of The Week
Steven Best is a tenured professor and chair of the philosophy department at the University of Texas El Paso; he is also emerging as the "establishment" standard-bearer of the radical animal-rights fringe. Best openly supports the terrorism practiced by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). And in an effort to lend academic legitimacy to terrorist lunacy, he co-founded the misanthropic Center on Animal Liberation Affairs (CALA). In addition to chronicling the ALF's lawless escapades and including Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine spokesman and violence promoter Jerry Vlasak among its "dedicated volunteers," CALA sponsors an annual "Animal Liberation Front Awareness Day." On this day, Best encourages college students to "book a classroom to allow a former ALF prisoner to speak." He claims the ALF represents "the dawn of a new civil war" -- and he ought to know. Speaking last week on the season premiere of "Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t," Best told the Showtime cable network's national audience: "I don't even think it's controversial to support the ALF (Animal Liberation Front). I don't see what the big controversy is."
After describing the Jewish struggle for freedom under Nazi oppression, Best continued:
It's the same thing with the ALF. We are breaking down doors, breaking into buildings, rescuing animals, and smashing property ... These tactics are legitimate, they're necessary, they're powerful, they're effective. America, welcome to the new face of animal rights struggle. [emphasis added]
This is a man whose job is to mold the minds of tomorrow. It may be time for Texas legislators to review the state's policy on the appropriate use of state tax dollars and send this nutty professor on an early (and permanent) summer vacation. You don't need a PhD to understand why someone discussing an FBI-certified "domestic terror" group in the first person plural is bad news.
