Critical thinkers targeted in academic drone attack

Funny thing that just before going to bed last night I would write about uptight feminists (including a famous anti-sex law professor here at UM), because this morning I saw a local news item that made little sense in the abstract until I factored in the prudish uptight feminist mindset that reigns at the University of Michigan (and most) universities.

But even then I was still puzzled. According to the story, a local UM fraternity has been suspended because of a party invitation showing the members in “semi-nude” pictures.

The national Pi Kappa Alpha office has indefinitely suspended its University of Michigan chapter after semi-nude photos of fraternity members were leaked online, gaining national attention.

The pictures, which show many Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity members clad in nothing but an American flag, and an accompanying email were sent to U-M sorority Alpha Phi prior to a joint party and eventually posted on brobible.com.

Justin A. Buck, the executive vice president of the fraternity, commonly known as PIKE, called the photos “inappropriate and offensive” and said the email made “claims which are in violation of fraternity standards.”

“I am thoroughly disappointed in the choices … and regret any issues this has caused the Michigan Greek Community,” he said in statement. “Countless undergraduate and alumni members throughout our organization have contacted the office voicing their displeasure and the Fraternity is taking this situation very seriously. Pi Kappa Alpha does not condone this behavior, the image it portrays, or the claims which have been made by the Chapter.”

Meanwhile, U-M told AnnArbor.com Monday that its Office of Greek Life is looking into the fraternity’s behavior. The office, along with the school’s Interfraternity Council, will consider whether further disciplinary actions are appropriate.

“Inappropriate and offensive”? Here’s the picture featured in the story.

How  dare they!

There are more here, and while they are funny and theatrical, not one of them even comes close to nudity. No more so than the draped Liberty images on many US coins. Hell, virtually any swimming team posing in their speedos is more guilty of “semi-nudity” (whatever that is) than are these kids.

The incident has triggered a major outbreak of prudish humorlessness, and some of it (like this piece in the Detroit Free Press) resembles something I’d expect to see in The Onion. Notice the rhetorical shift from “semi-nude” to the more alliterative “nearly naked.”

Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity officials said Wednesday they expect eventually to lift the suspension of a University of Michigan chapter that made headlines with photos of its nearly naked members posing with the American flag.

Some people have concerns that the images further perpetuate negative stereotypes of fraternities.

“It portrays a juvenile attitude,” said Mitch Crane, a retired judge from Delaware who speaks about various issues at college campuses across the country. “It makes people wonder, ‘If this is what they’re willing to do … and post and believe it’s OK, what do they do behind the scenes?’ It shows a lack of forethought.”

Since when do retired Delaware judges get to deliver stern lectures on juvenile attitudes to young people in Michigan and inquire about what they do behind the scenes? Who the hell does this clown think he is? Dean Wormer?

Frankly, I don’t think the fuss is about the so-called “semi-nude” pictures.  I think what’s upset the humorless feminists and their Dean Wormer wannabe toadies is what the kids wrote, which I happen to consider one of the more brilliant pieces of satire and social commentary I have seen in years.

From the suspension notice as posted at the home page of PIKE’s national office:

“The Supreme Council of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity has placed the Beta Tau Chapter at The University of Michigan on interim suspension, effective immediately, due to members displaying inappropriate and offensive photos as well as making claims which are in violation of Fraternity Standards.”

“I am thoroughly disappointed in the choices made by the Beta Tau Chapter members and regret any issues this has caused the Michigan Greek Community,” stated Executive Vice President Buck. “Countless undergraduate and alumni members throughout our organization have contacted the office voicing their displeasure and the Fraternity is taking this situation very seriously.  Pi Kappa Alpha does not condone this behavior, the image it portrays, or the claims which have been made by the Chapter.”

Just what “claims” are they talking about? When I read the invitation, I was doubled up with laughter because it really is funny. As social commentary it positively drips with brilliance. George Carlin would have been hard pressed to do better.

Here’s the entire thing:

   Subject: Cute Puppies, Organic Gourmet, High Fashion, and How to Make Him Eat Your Box (aka URGENT!!!!)

Patriettes,

Do you love your homeland? We at Pike sure do. We read Whitman’s poems by our fireplace and pour maple syrup on our apple pie. We hold Alexander Hamilton’s belief that keg stands are not “a feat, but an expectation.” We recognize His benevolence in bestowing upon us His great and Holy game of Football, and one of our sophomores drives a pick-up truck. We exercise our 4th amendment right to drink beer through any orifice we want. We paddle pledges because it’s a comprehensive upper body workout. We invoke imagery of James Madison to describe particularly attractive females. And because the effort to throw our parties is entirely our own, we see to it that the grand majority of our peers remain uninvited, and presumably underemployed with little to no health benefits.

What is America? America is a place where drinking until you puke means drinking until you win. America invented the blunt. And LSD. America is disregarding next week’s midterms because Kamchatka doesn’t drink itself. America does not let the bartender cut her off. America. America is the love child of 2 Chainz, Kate Upton, and Tim Tebow. America is the Doritos Locos taco and Mountain Dew Baja Blast. America is John Wayne and Ice Cube and Ronald Reagan and Andrew Carnegie. America. America is the Louisiana Purchase and defending The Alamo. America gave the world Hostess and then pioneered the capital management metrics which shut that shit down. America is losing legs in ‘Nam and hazing terrorists in Abu Gharib. America invented the condom, and promptly outlawed it. America.

If the preceding two paragraphs didn’t excite you at all, I suggest that you stay alert for a forthcoming drone attack, you terrorist whore. If, however, you count yourself a red-blooded, God-fearing American girl who has a specific spring-time gym routine to accommodate her summer-time jean shorts, come to Pike this Friday night around 10:00. (Be fashionably late. That’s America.) Wear your most patriotic threads as we celebrate this great country together.

Need some outfit ideas? A few of us created an inspirational piece with some possible suggestions. Trim fingernails before viewing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/93159884@N05/8470987382/sizes/k/in/photostream/

Redistribution prohibited without expressed written consent of WangTown Photography, LLC. (Copyright 2013)

Through the night with a light from above,

Pike Social

All I can say is wow. I find it refreshing to see young people actually engaged in critical thinking, as opposed to being stultified by humorless lefties and bludgeoned by radical feminists who claim to be teaching “critical thinking” but go bonkers whenever they see the real thing.

These kids are ridiculing sexual prudishness, sneering at the crackdown mentality, and (most damning of all) making the subversive claim that it is possible to love America in spite of its many flaws, and maybe even because of them!

Take that Howard Zinn!

Whether you agree with the above or not, the above is in the finest tradition of free speech, and I believe the kids are being punished not for showing off their pecs and legs, but for ridiculing what the intolerant ruling leftards regard as sacrosanct. To the latter, it’s not about images of “nearly naked” men, it’s about free thought, genuine critical thinking, and young people who refuse to bow to political correctness

They see the above words as naked aggression against all that the orthodox educational establishment consider holy.

MORE: The author of the BroBible piece I quoted responds:

As the person who wrote the original piece, let me be the first to say that this is a ridiculous overreaction and a blatant abuse of the national fraternity’s power. Pike’s national fraternity should reverse this ill-thought-out decision before any damage is done.

I refrained from editorializing on the original piece. I thought the photo and email spoke for themselves, and I probably wouldn’t have published them, period, if it hadn’t become clear that they were quickly circulating around Michigan’s email listservs, as these viral treasures tend to do. But now, we’re here, and it’s editorializing time.

The photos were hilarious, a clear turn of gender norms that showed the guys could “objectify” themselves without asking the women to do the same. And the email? Harmless and equally humorous. Honestly, I wish I hadn’t even put it in proximity to the Duke Kappa Sig email—this was a case of a group making fun of itself in a witty way (with, yes, some off-color humor); not a case of a group throwing a party that could potentially offend a race of people.

Read the comments on this Jezebel article. 95% of its commentators—feminists, all—loved the email and the picture.

So what could be going on?

I have to say, I am not proud to be living in a country where intelligent humor and critical thinking by students at a leading university is punished as a thoughtcrime.

I’m 58 years old, I lived in Berkeley from 1972-1999, and this is more Orwellian than anything I saw there.

The national fraternity should be ashamed of itself. And so should the faceless academic apparatchiks who doubtless pressured them behind the scenes.