This is what black eyes look like.
Posted on 12/14/2005 1:15:37 PM PST by .cnI redruM
Paul Mirecki -- the Kansas University religious studies professor who derided Christian fundamentalists as "fundies" -- is a strange man with strange tales of alleged persecution. Contrary to his knee-jerk defenders on the Left, it is not bigoted, hateful, or intolerant for me to scrutinize his story.
It's rational.
The professor first created controversy in November after penning an unhinged e-mail message expressing his desire to deliver a "slap" to the "big fat face" of the "fundies" by teaching an intelligent design course "as a religious studies class under the category 'mythology.'" The message was sent to the mailing list of the university's Society of Open-Minded (snort!) Atheists and Agnostics. Mirecki signed his taunting diatribe "Evil Dr. P." These are the words of an individual more than a few cards short of a full deck.
After his remarks were publicized, KU cancelled the proposed course. Mirecki was forced to apologize. And then, out of the blue, It Happened.
Last week, Mirecki claimed he was beaten by two mysterious white men on a rural highway. He says the unidentified assailants, in a pickup that tailgated him in rural Douglas County, Kansas, targeted him for his views while he was "taking a long, pre-dawn drive in the country to clear his mind," according to the student newspaper. Mirecki says he pulled over to the side of the road to let the men pass. He then said he got out of his vehicle. The alleged attackers got out of their truck and beat "the hell" out of him, reportedly using a "metal object," Mirecki said last week before abruptly clamming up about the attack and sequestering himself in his house.
News of the beating aligned perfectly with the mainstream media's template of Christian fundamentalists as right-wing vigilantes. Mirecki's liberal supporters on the Internet swallowed the story whole. The Wichita Eagle told those with questions about Mirecki's account to "give it a rest." A Kansas City Star columnist called allegations of a manufactured hate crime a "cheap shot."
Why?
Mirecki can't remember where the incident took place, according to local law enforcement, and has offered only the vaguest of suspect descriptions. There are conflicting accounts about Mirecki's physical appearance the day of the attack. While a faculty colleague claimed that "big swollen spots" had "transformed" Mirecki's face, Jesse Plous and Tiffany Jeffers, two of Mirecki's students, told the campus newspaper they didn't notice bruises or scratches when they met for his class six hours after the alleged attack. Lindsay Mayer, another student in the class, "said injuries weren't extremely noticeable." Mirecki did not mention the alleged beating in class.
Now, a week after the alleged attack with the alleged assailants still at large, Mirecki is poised to take both his university and the local sheriff's office to court for their insufficient support and investigation. The fundies! Academia! The cops! They're all in on it!
After university officials announced that Mirecki had voluntarily resigned as chair of the religion department, the professor came out of his shell to blast the school for forcing him to step down. The university stands by its account. Mirecki has complained that law enforcement officials have seized his car and computer, and doesn't like the direction of the probe. "If I have to sue, I will," he told the Lawrence Journal-World.
None of this smells right.
The truth is there are too many cases of hate crime hoaxers on campuses -- a phenomenon most left-leaning journalists are loathe to cover -- to dismiss the possibility in this case. Last year, Claremont McKenna College professor Kerri Dunn was sentenced to prison after she staged an anti-Semitic hate crime against herself. Earlier this year, a lesbian student at Mt. Tamalpais High School in Marin County, Calif., faked several anti-gay incidents to garner attention and sympathy. Leah Miller, a black student at San Francisco State University, admitted to scratching "NIGG" on a dorm room door and writing herself a note with the same epithet. Jaime Alexander Saide, a Northwestern University student, admitted making up anti-Hispanic threats against himself after the school rallied around him with "Stop the Hate" marches.
Strange, isn't it, how leftists on campus who sneer at blind faith are so often fooled by it themselves.
I have seen people who were worked over and they don't look even remotely like his face does..
Have given and gotten a bunch of black eyes in my life, those "black eyes" ain't, imo. It's the outside of the orbs that are attacked and hit --- where are the bruises there? And that arm bruise -- location seems off, shouldn't it be more to the side, if it were gotten in a beating?
He looks like the result of some sort of genetic experiment involving splicing the genes of Ward Churchill and Jay Leno.
I've given and received more than my fair share. The symmetry is very suspect. I've never seen it except in silly movies. I've never seen them angled downward either. Black eyes on both sides is from a broken nose. His lacks swelling. Black eyes come from broken blood vessels under the skin. That much damage and they'd be talking about surgery to repair it.
Funny; my cousin got that exact same pattern of black eye when a toilet seat cover smacked him between the eyes (don't ask).
More than that, the eyes, for black eyes of that type, would have a bloodshot look in the corners close to the nose. Nothing there.
You guys are truly desperate.
I have no idea of the truth of this matter, but allow me to add a bit of knowledge. I have worked my entire life in the oilfields of the US, Europe and Africa other than tree years in the Army. I have seen many, and been in a few fights. I can tell you for sure, this is not the look of a man who had the hell beat out of him with a metal object.
My son looks worse than this when his allergies kick in.
And I have seen a man hit on the bridge of his nose, and he looked exactly like that.
Don't bother. He won't accept anything out of his preconcieved notions. he should stick to the Crevo threads or DU.
Perhaps if hit ONCE, not many times with a metal object.
Bwawwwwaaah...Yeah, right.
Why don't you go down to Mirecki's bachelor pad, dry both your tears, and make it (the fake truama) all better.
I don't think the prof should be given any more benefit of the doubt. He is plain and simply making false statements.
He also sounds like a real prize, another Ward Churchill type who gets by with making idiotic statements because no one ever challenges him. When someone finally does, he is shown to be living in a house of cards.
And, in fact, the faculty colleague talked about "big swollen spots" which are in no way apparent on the picture you speak of.
Why don't you? Sounds like you have some experience.
If it pays, why not? It's not like you have to believe to be a good agnostic.
This is what black eyes look like.
Of course, the glasses would have been damaged.
I wonder if he had the presence of mind to take them off before he was "assulted".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.