He blowed up real good...
We beat him up real good!
Posted on 12/06/2005 3:01:46 PM PST by billorites
A professor whose planned course on creationism and intelligent design was canceled after he sent e-mails deriding Christian conservatives was hospitalized Monday after what appeared to be a roadside beating.
University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul Mirecki said that the two men who beat him made references to the class that was to be offered for the first time this spring.
Originally called "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies," the course was canceled last week at Mirecki's request.
The class was added after the Kansas State Board of Education decided to include more criticism of evolution in science standards for elementary and secondary students.
"I didn't know them," Mirecki said of his assailants, "but I'm sure they knew me."
One recent e-mail from Mirecki to members of a student organization referred to religious conservatives as "fundies," and said a course describing intelligent design as mythology would be a "nice slap in their big fat face." Mirecki has apologized for those comments.
Lt. Kari Wempe, a spokeswoman for the Douglas County Sheriff's Department, said a deputy was dispatched to Lawrence Memorial Hospital after receiving a call around 7 a.m. regarding a battery.
She said Mirecki reported he was attacked around 6:40 a.m. in rural Douglas County south of Lawrence. Mirecki told the Lawrence Journal-World that he was driving to breakfast when he noticed the men tailgating him in a pickup truck.
"I just pulled over hoping they would pass, and then they pulled up real close behind," he said. "They got out, and I made the mistake of getting out."
He said the men beat him on the head, shoulders and back with their fists, and possibly a metal object.
Wempe said Mirecki drove himself to the hospital after the attack.
Mirecki told the student newspaper, the University Daily Kansan, that he spent between three and four hours at the hospital. He said his injuries included a broken tooth.
"I'm mostly shaken up, and I got some bruises and sore spots," he told the Lawrence Journal-World.
Wempe said Mirecki described the suspects as two white men between 30 and 40 years of age. One of the men was described as wearing a red, visorlike ball cap and wool gloves. Mirecki said the men left in a large pickup.
Wempe said the department would investigate "every aspect," but couldn't discuss specifics.
Andrew Stangl, president of the Society for Open Minded Atheists and Agnostics at the university, described the attack as "bizarre and terrifying." He said Mirecki, who is the group's faculty adviser, was adamant that the beating was related to the recently canceled course.
"That absolutely shocked me," he said, "because people don't do that in a civilized society."
State Sen. Kay O'Connor, a Mirecki critic, said there is no excuse for someone physically assaulting the professor -- regardless of their politics.
"I have zero tolerance for thugs," she said. "There is never an excuse to behave in such a manner. This was just thugs. They used a flimsy excuse, if they had one, to behave as thugs. They can talk about the ID (intelligent design) course if they want to, but that's not an excuse."
"I'm sure the guys who kicked the crap out of him were in an old pickup with flannel jackets, snow boots and hats with ear flaps."
I'm sure the guy made the whole thing up, and in the unlikely event that there were any others involved, these otherse were students of his.
You are absolutely right, Andrew.
Which is why I am 90% sure this attack never happened.
"I'd bet money that it is a made up hoax"
This does have a sort of Piltdown Manish smell to it.
Obviously he doesn't get out much...or listen to the radio, or watch T.V. etc...etc....
Additional details emerge on the two attackers... They were wearing red flannel shirts under Farmer John bib overalls, and had long pieces of straw stuck between their gapped teeth. They stomped the unfortunate Professor with steel tipped worked boots and then climbed into their ten-year-old truck with a rusty bumper, trailer hitch, and "I AM THE NRA" bumper sticker...
I'm surprised he said one of them wore a red visor hat instead of saying he had a redneck.I also have a problem with the age of his supposed attackers.Thirty and forty year old men don't fit the profile of the average kid on a college campus.
"They stomped the unfortunate Professor with steel tipped worked boots and then climbed into their ten-year-old truck with a rusty bumper, trailer hitch, and "I AM THE NRA" bumper sticker..."
... and yelled "one nation, under GOD" out the window, as they careened away dangerously into the night. And they weren't even wearing safety belts.
He blowed up real good...
We beat him up real good!
Posted before. The obvious conclusion is that the incident happened, but not as he tells it.
This guy obviously has a bad temper and no control over what he says. That's part of the earlier record.
Most likely a couple of guys in a pickup were tailgating him, he got a fit of road rage and stopped with them behind him, they all got out, he foolishly started yelling at them, and they beat him up.
Then he saw a golden opportunity to make himself into a victim instead of a bully because of his rude behavior toward Christians and students. Sure, he was beat up, but it just strains credibility to imagine that someone followed him and beat him up because of something he said in an email, or that he stopped and got out of the car just so they could do it.
===============
Maybe, maybe not. Either way, when all is said and done, somebody should spend some time in the hoosegow.
I think he created the disturbance and it evolved into a beating.
Where's the BS meter?
This should put it in the red zone...
The question that isn`t answered in the article is who attacked this man? Was it religious extremists or athiest/liberal extremists?
Very well could have been either side.
One for his comments in his emails, the other for promoting a religious perspective on campus.
"University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul Mirecki said that the two men who beat him made references to the class that was to be offered for the first time this spring."
This would make you think it could be some leftwing nutballs.
"One recent e-mail from Mirecki to members of a student organization referred to religious conservatives as "fundies," and said a course describing intelligent design as mythology would be a "nice slap in their big fat face."
This comment can make you think it may have been someone who took offense to this comment.
So who did the beating?
"So who did the beating?"
Clue:
- The Professor
- In front of his bathroom mirror
- With a sockfull of pennies
You see this???
"Bad behavior. Period."
Yes, if it happened. He drove himself to the hospital so that probably means no witnesses.
There are people who do bad or stupid things thinking they are serving God so it's possible it's true.
I want a piece of that action.
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