Are We All White Supremacists? Ayatollah Chad M. Topaz Decrees All Links to His QSIDE Website From His Critics Will Be Redirected to SPLC

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA - Ayatollah Chad Topaz has decided you are a white supremacist if you are critical of his hateful campaign to get a white female professor fired and to boycott her UC Davis math department. On Facebook, Chad Topaz announced he was setting up redirects for links to his QSIDE website created by bloggers critical of his extremist fatwa. In many cases, he altered his QSIDE website so that clicking on an author's link will now take the reader to a Southern Poverty Law Center web page instead.

Currently, his list of white supremacist bloggers include many of us who are surprised to be labeled as such including those posting at Anonymous Political Scientist, Campus Reform, Economic Job Market Rumors, Ephblog, The College Fix, The Other Dunwoody, The Reference Frame, Post Tenure Tourettes,  The Leitter Report,  Why Evolution is True and Williams Liberty. Chad Topaz's efforts to redirect traffic away from his website have continued as late as December 10, 2019 when he created redirects for a second article from The College Fix which quotes his colleague Colin Adams who reports that the petition critical of Topaz was signed by four Fields Medalists and eight past presidents of the American Mathematical Society.

All in all, it is easy to defeat these redirects. All you have to do is set up a new link, or link to a third party he deems safe which then links to his QSIDE website. For a while, it was a kick to simply use the Internet Wayback Machine to link to the earlier posts.

Now, however, Chad Topaz has used a simple insert to block the the Internet Wayback Machine from scanning his site. This, of course, may be seen as a good thing because it makes his posts at QSIDE less reliable and less accessible to future researchers.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist and a former Williams College professor. He is an occasional contributor at American Thinker, Breitbart, Front Page, PJMedia and WND. His pronouns are Master/Commander.

To Readers of Ephblog

LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA - If you would like to stay in touch, I have established a new blog called Williams Liberty.

Williams Liberty has a different mission compared to Ephblog. Williams Liberty will be focused primarily on breaking news. It will be promoted through my existing Twitter accounts, accounts that have more followers than the college's Twitter accounts. Covering breaking news at our nation's top liberal arts college is a service which cannot be provided by the Williams Record and would not be allowed on the college's websites.

It will, of course, be conservative friendly and politically incorrect.

In particular, it will provide the conservative viewpoint which has been largely absent on campus since 1989. Its contributors will be immune from ideologically motivated abuse or boycotts.

Consistent with conservative sensibilities, it will be well-written, tightly edited and moderated. Its language will be professional and PG at worst. Williams Liberty will be open to guest contributors (anonymous or not).

Guest contributors will be restricted to existing or prior William's College faculty and students.

Comments will be welcome from all. It may reserve a few spots for student contributors who will be picked on a competitive basis at the beginning of the school year or who have done a good job as guest contributors.

If you would like to submit an article for publication at Williams Liberty, please contact me through the form available on the blogsite, or me at 949.338.5921.

By the way, you can follow Williams Liberty on Twitter at @williamslibert5.

John C. Drew, Ph.D., is a former Williams College professor in American politics and political economy. He contributes to American Thinker, Breitbart, Campus Reform, The College Fix, and WorldNetDaily.

Fatal Flaw

CHICAGO - The distinguished free speech absolutist, Jerry Coyne of the University of Chicago, has reviewed the Sawicki Report and found it disappointing. To be more precise, he calls it "lame" and labels it "long and turgid."

The only thing Coyne likes about the report is it dropped the suggestion floated earlier by Jana Sawicki at Inside Higher Education that each student group should have a faculty adviser who would "...talk with the club members about whether they'd thought through how the speaker's views would affect their peers."

Ultimately, Coyne asserts it is impossible to combine freedom of speech with inclusion and diversity.
Setting an example of simplicity and grace, Coyne introduces his article with a short and easy to understand summary of the Sawicki Report and its most significant and fatal flaw. "The committee’s statement does not constitute a policy," he writes. "...it’s a farrago of good intentions and desires to balance free speech with diversity and inclusion. But it offers no guidelines about what speech is to be seen as “hate speech” that threatens “dignitary safety” and therefore subject to institutional action."

Fans of Ephblog will note that Jerry Coyne quotes liberally from my recent Ephblog article accessing the Sawicki Report. As you may know, Jerry Coyne is a prominent "New Atheist" along with Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. Reportedly, Coyne's Why Evolution is True blogsite has over 50,000 e-mail subscribers.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

The Purple Rubble: Williams College Council Deletes Anti-White Rant by Isaiah Blake '21

The College Council has removed from its Facebook account a controversial video. This video captured an example of profane, incendiary, anti-white bigotry directed at white student representatives by Isaiah Blake '21 - an actor and one of the most prominent black student leaders at Williams College on June 9, 2019.

The video featured a long, stream-of-consciousness rant by Isaiah Blake saying, in part, "...to be here is like sucking white d*** every f***ing day."

"You want a discussion and dialogue. Here’s the f***ing dialog. We don’t have dialogue, because every time we try to talk to you we get shut down by the white moderate, white liberal bull***t."

A link to the video was published on Ephblog on April 15, 2019. A partial transcript appeared at the Anonymous Political Scientist blog on that same day. Finally, The College Fix published a link to the video on April 19, 2019. The College Fix is a national-level conservative website where student journalists write on topics in higher education.

NOTE: A heavily redacted transcript of the June 9, 2019 meeting is still available at 4_9 Minutes.

According to the Williams Record, black student activists planned a demonstration to protest their treatment by the College Council. It was canceled, however, after links to the video of the rant by Isaiah Blake '21 were published at various on-line sites.

Thankfully, there is now a copy of Isaiah Blake's obnoxious rant available on YouTube. Isaiah Blake '21 has appeared in The Rainbow Experiment (2018).

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

How Low Will It Go? Trustee/Donor Au Pair Scandal Rocks Globalists at Williams College

As you may know, Joey Shaista Horn ’87 has resigned as a trustee of Williams College in the wake of a court decision in Norway to punish her and her husband for the mistreatment of two Filipino au pairs. This court decision was part of a larger effort which ensnared the Horn's and two of their neighbors in a clear cut violation of Norway's laws governing immigration and human-trafficking.

The new Horn Hall at Williams College is named after Ragnor '85 and
Joey Shaista Horn '87, a wealthy couple convicted of crimes in Norway.

The puzzle, of course, is why the board of trustees consented to naming the new Horn Hall after this nefarious couple even though news of their arrests was freely available as early as December 2014.

As far as I can piece this together, Joey Shaista Horn ’87 is not some out-of-touch, hands-off trustee. Instead, she seems deeply involved in the business of the college, particularly in terms of efforts to bring more international students, such as herself, to the campus. (When she was a student, she was president of the International Students Club and performed Indian classical dance.)

In one of the college's webpages, she is said to have "led the charge" to bring more international students to campus. See, https://alumni-awards.williams.edu/frederick-c-copeland-award/joey-shaista-horn-class-of-1987/

Based on my experience with non-profit boards, I suspect that Joey Shaista Horn ’87 is indeed, as one of her au pairs described her, a perfectionist. It seems reasonable to me that this character flaw is one of the reasons she held on to her position as a trustee even as her husband was resigning left and right from his board-level commitments. She seems less willing than her husband to admit she made a serious mistake - punishable by incarceration and fines - and to accept the consequences of her poor decisions and lack of empathy. I think a healthier person would have resigned immediately, citing personal reasons, knowing the consequences this scandal would have for Williams College's reputation.

It may also be that Williams College tolerated (or even excused) Joey Shaista Horn's contemptible behavior out of a misplaced sympathy for her cultural heritage.

Unfortunately for her Filipino au pairs, not all aspects of Indian culture are as pleasant as the classical dance routines Joey Shaista Horn brought to campus in the late 1980's. Sadly, Indian culture has made it tolerant of holding the largest number of enslaved people in the world. As I understand it, a little over 18 million people — about the population of Chile — are still victims of contemporary slavery in India.

Frankly, I do not think it makes sense to neglect the contribution of Indian culture to her behavior. The au pairs report that they felt like "slaves" while they were in her household. Her own husband indicates that she was the one responsible for administering the au pairs. She certainly did not pick up her calloused attitude toward her au pairs from anything she learned in either European or American culture.

My guess is that she lasted as long as she did because she is a powerful board member, that she held on to avoid embarrassment, that her globalist vision is perfectly aligned with her fellow trustees, and that they were willing to cut her some slack because demanding her resignation would remind us all that cultural diversity is not necessarily a good thing, especially when one's received culture is relatively tolerant of the enslavement of others.

In more painful irony, it turns out Joey Shaista Horn ’87, who was based in Singapore when she came on board, was the very first international trustee. See, http://williamsrecord.com/2010/05/05/inside-the-boardroom-trustees-elucidate-role-at-the-college/ She was, initially, a triple affirmative action victory – Indian, female and international. In retrospect, I think she will soon be regarded as one of the trustee’s biggest mistakes. Maybe there should be a special trustee position set aside for the morally bankrupt/recently incarcerated?

NOTE: As a professional fundraiser myself, I would start picking away at this tangled mess by asking who on the development staff knew about her arrest in December 2014? I suspect that the folks who were taking credit for her $10 million gift had little incentive to shine the light on her creepy backstory.

In a recent article in the student-run, Williams Record, two reporters found that the trustee chair, Adam Falk and the development staff all knew about the Horn's arrest prior to accepting their $10 million naming rights gift for Horn Hall. You can now also open a copy of Joey Horn's post resignation explanation letter. From the article, it is clear that Adam Falk has lost his moral compass because he does not seem to get why a track-record of lying, criminality and abuse disqualifies someone from having their name proudly displayed on a student residence hall.

Finally, I suspect we will see that she is involved with other trustees at Williams College in ways that have nothing to do with the school. She may, for example, have been using her trustee position to market investment products to other trustees. It is entirely possible that she has entangled herself in their other business or charitable work too.

I predict her downfall will ensnare other trustees - as well as faculty, administrators and development staff - as it becomes more and more clear which of them knew about her dark side and which of them failed to confront it.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Greedy for Globalism: Williams College Trustee Joey Shaista Horn '87 Sentenced to Prison for Au Pair Abuse Crime

The evil, globalist influences at Williams College in MA are now slightly more visible. It turns out that Ephblog is reporting that Joey Shaista Horn '87 -- one of trustees of this previously prestigious institution -- is now sentenced to five months in prison.

She and her husband Ragnor Horn '85 will be jailed five months as punishment for their mistreatment of two Filipino au pairs. For more complete details on this case, please check out the English language article in News In English: Norway. According to an article in Ephblog, Joey and Ragnor were exploiting both young women: 

The Oslo City Court has sentenced a wealthy Norwegian investor and his wife to five months in prison each, in a case that has highlighted abuse of Norway’s au pair program. It’s supposed to serve as a cultural exchange for young people from abroad but the couple, aided by two neighbours, was found guilty of fraudulently and illegally using two young women from the Philippines as au pairs at the same time, and putting them to work as their low-paid household help.

In a related development, two of the Horn's neighbors, who had helped the Horns illegally bring the two young women to Norway, were convicted under Norway's human trafficking laws. During the trial in January 2017, the two au pairs reported that they felt like “slaves” and “in prison” in the Horns’ home. In a bizarre twist, Ragnor threw Joey under the bus, and then drove it back and forth over her, when he told the court that economic gain was “never a factor” in regarding the au pairs and that Joey Shaista Horn '87 had been responsible for administering them. According to one of the au pairs, Joey was “a perfectionist” who humiliated her.

What is especially nauseating to me is that Joey Shaista Horn '87 was involved in the political science department when I taught at Williams College in the late 1980's. As a student, she majored in biology with a concentration in Middle Eastern studies. In a time when the school is bending over backwards to bring more foreign students to Williams College, she had impeccable credentials since she had been the president of the International Students Club and performed Indian classical dance.

I do not remember her at all. After she graduated from Williams College, she went on to take her MBA at Yale in 1991 and has worked in a variety of roles in investment banking according to Bloomberg. She sits on a number of corporate boards.

She is of Indian decent and has apparently taken to heart the cultural traits which are the most dysfunctional aspects of Indian culture, a culture which seems to turn a blind eye to both prostitution and human-trafficking. See, https://www.theglobalist.com/india-the-modern-slavery-capital-of-the-world/ As a biographical statement from the office of the president indicates, the folks at Williams College have been celebrating her globalist credentials for a while now:

Having grown up in Paris and New York and lived as an adult in Singapore and now Oslo, Norway, Joey is one of the college’s more globally minded trustees. She is of Indian heritage and came to Williams as an international student, and she met and eventually married another international Eph—her husband is Ragnar Horn ’85.

Joey Shaista Horn '87 has been highly involved with the school according to its own publicity. for example, she joined the Board of Trustees as an alumni trustee in 2009 and was appointed as a term trustee in 2014. She served as an associate class agent, co-head agent and co-chair of her 25th reunion. She was involved in the Teach It Forward campaign as co-chair of the Women’s Leadership Giving Committee. Amazingly, she served as volunteer for the Windows on Williams program which is designed to encourage students to make an early decision in favor of the school. The school gave her the Frederick C. Copeland Award in 2012, in part, because of her efforts to "lead the charge" to increase the number of foreign students at Williams. You cannot make this stuff up.

The embarrassment for Adam Falk, the school's president, must be intense right now. The school's newest residential building, Horn Hall, is named after them. Here is a fawning article in a 2008 Williams College report that included information about this couple's globalist credentials including their residence in Singapore:

Horn Hall, as you might expect, is named after them because they funded this new residential hall with a $10 million gift to the school.

Joey Shaista Horn '87 has been a Williams trustee since 2009 where, it seems, she has been able to promote her lack of empathy and vision for anti-American globalism to a generation of Williams College students. The details of the Williams College trustees objectionable behavior are also reported in Ephblog today: 

The au pairs’ testimony was almost entirely at odds with the Horns’, according to media reports. The Horns claimed they considered the women members of their family and had tried to help them. They admitted to having surveillance cameras in their home but claimed they were not focused on the women while they worked. Mrs Horn, who was represented in court by one of Norway’s most famous defense attorneys, John Christian Elden, also confirmed the required use of face masks, but claimed that “was common in Asia” and was only required in the kitchen by one of the women who “coughed so much.” 

Evidence prosecutors referred to in court, however, included a chatting exchange Mrs Horn had with a friend that revealed her referring to her household help in derogatory terms and accusing her of coughing on the food or while in the bathroom. Mrs Horn told her friend the au pair would have to use both a face mask and disposable gloves while in the home or with Horn’s children. 

The conversation used as evidence in court also recorded Mrs Horn telling her friend that she had threatened to send the au pair back to her “straw mats in Manila.” Mrs Horn defended herself by saying it had been a “private conversation” with an old friend and that she actually “loved straw mats” and had one in her own home that she used for yoga.

From my perspective, the more pertinent issue is whether or not the U.S. and Williams College are ready for the globalist values of Joey Shaista Horn '87. As a matter of integrity, Williams College should return their gift and allow someone else, someone with better and more humane values, have the honor of their name on that building. Simple as that. If Williams fails to take action, the students on campus should begin protesting this outrage.

*******************************************************
I am pleased to report that the day before an earlier version of this article was published -- and later promoted through my Twitter account -- Joey Shaista Horn '87 resigned from the Board of Trustees of Williams College. Now, all Adam Falk needs to do is return her $10 million gift and scrape her family's name off the new residential hall. Someone should also be asking why it took about two weeks for Joey Shaista Horn '87 resign?

As a capital campaign adviser myself, I suspect the school procrastinated in severing its relationship with her until Ephblog raised the visibility of her conviction and sentence. This case, by the way, has been on-going since 2014 so the administration at Williams College must have known about the seedy side of this errant trustee long before they opened the doors of the new Horn Hall to a new generation of erstwhile social justice warriors.

*******************************************************
As I observed in one of my own Ephblog posts, "The larger issue is that Joey Shaista Horn '87 is a proven liar, a criminal, and an abusive employer, all qualities that make her unsuited to serve as a Williams College trustee. I don’t think that the Williams College that hired me in the 1980’s would tolerate someone with her criminal record, much less name a building after her." Hopefully, the revelations regarding this disgusting human being will cause others to ask serious questions about Williams College and its dysfunctional values. No one should lie about or mistreat au pairs.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Bad Professor: Schooling Derek Catsam of the University of Texas at Permian Basin

While making comments at Ephblog.com, I bumped into the hatred and foul language of Derek Charles Catsam. His most recent comments are particularly unhinged and provide evidence of a rather extraordinary level of anger and bitterness.

He is a tenured associate professor at the University of Texas at Permian Basin (UTPB). This is a school located in one of the most depressing and barren parts of the nation—west Texas. UTPB is low-ranked Tier Two school with a shameful six year graduation rate of 34%. According to public records, he earns about $64,000 a year and yet imagines himself to be something of an extraordinary scholar and a gifted teacher.

Derek Catsam, Associate Professor
University of Texas at Permian Basin.

(In California, for comparison, the starting salary for a tenured professor with a Ph.D. at a community college begins at about $64,000 per year and then moves up to over $100,000 per year.)

I did a little research on this darling of the extreme left. The truth about Derek Catsam is quite different than what he likes to report about himself. For example, I found that the Rate My Professor website indicated that Derek Catsam was one of the lowest ranked professors at UTPB with an embarrassing 2.6 grade. Only two others score lower than him. Ironically, it turns out that Catsam's wife, Ana Martinez, teaches in the same history department as him and she scores a much higher grade of 3.3.

Thankfully, websites like Rate My Professor now provide undergraduates with an opportunity to get out the truth about bad professors like Derek Charles Catsam. Here’s a great comment from one of Dr. Catsam's own students which seems match my impression of him at Ephblog:

“Derrick is an egotistical, arrogant professor who looks like a dork. He was probably picked on growing up and is now taking out his anger and bitterness on his students. No one cares about the idiotic book you wrote Derrick so stop talking about it! Avoid this LAME teacher (he’s not worthy to be called a professor) at all costs if possible!”

Like any normal person, I judge academic performance as a scholar and as a teacher according to the quality of the institution that hires you. At UTPB, Rate My Professor shows Prof. Catsam is under-performing his peers by a large margin. He is literally the worst of the worst compared to other professors on his own campus. Here is a sample of what his students went out of their way to write about him:

“This guy knows his stuff and obviously loves Africa. He is not approachable though and never cared if his students succeed or not. During presentations he wasn’t even paying attention and then proceeded to give most of the class C’s on their work. It’s fine if a prof is hard, but they should be willing to help you succeed too and he is no help.”

“I agree with most of the other raters, he is an egomaniac.”

“Catsam is the epitome of the arrogant prof. He is more interested in telling life stories and supporting his stupid Red Sox book than actually teaching history. And, by the way, missing class so much b/c of A. Martinez or his trips is not cool for us who pay $ for class.”

Sadly, Derek Charles Catsam ranks at the very bottom of the Rate My Professor numbers at University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Out of 20 professors who are rated, he ranks in the bottom 15%.

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/campusRatings.jsp?sid=4366

Clearly, the comments from his own students make him look like an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. If he taught at Williams College, Derek Catsam's Rate My Professor scores would place him in the bottom 7%. In the Williams history department, he would be its lowest ranked faculty member. Ideally, Derek Catsam should ask his wife for help and advice...maybe she could break the news to him gently, saying: "You're a bad professor." 

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Dr. Drew on Kenneth Thomas, Mental Health Issues, and the Famous Ephblog Website

While I was teaching at Williams College in MA, two of the 120 professors committed suicide.  I have always wondered if there was something wrong about the school which is - objectively - one of the most competitive places to enter in the nation.  The three years I taught there were alarming to me in that I discovered a lot of hatred expressed against white people and - especially - young white men.  I remember leaving in 1989 thinking that it was an unhealthy institution - especially for young Christians. (For sad news on how the administration at Williams handled a recent accusation of rape, please follow this link.)

In my experience, I think the money and prestige of Williams can be used to disguise a lot of deviant behavior and mental illness - as long as it is packaged as advanced liberal theory, theory too hard for the rest of us to understand.  It was sort of stacked with Rep. Weiner types who thought they could get away with lying to you even though what they said defied common sense.

To give you a little insight into Williams College, I should report that one of its most recent presidents committed suicide in 2008.  Harry C. "Hank" Payne, pictured above, jumped from an eighth-floor hotel room in Atlanta, GA.  In my view, the twisted policies of Williams College - including its absolutely inhumane policies pushing reverse discrimination - imply that any white guy that rose to power in that environment would have to have some serious internal conflicts and a startling level of twisted, self-hatred mixed with a stinging case of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. 

I did a little research about mental illness and Williams College and found a lot of bad news consistent this this sad pattern.  For example, I found that a recent student, Katie Craig, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and took her own life in 2007.  On a more positive note, another former student, Jon Stanley, freely advertises both his graduation from Williams and his bipolar disorder.  In the worst case, we have Eric Bellucci, a man diagnosed with schizophrenia who killed his mother and father in a borough of New York City.  He attended the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and graduated from Williams College. Mr. Bellucci boarded a plane to Israel and was apprehended after a ticket agent in the Ben Gurion Airport recognized him from media accounts and called the Israeli police.

One of the most spectacular examples is found in an NYT story regarding a black alumni, Natasha Williams '93, who died at 46 after many years of living on the streets in New York City. Surprisingly, she was in touch with a number of fellow Williams College graduates. Unfortunately, none of them applied enough pressure to get her into an institutional setting that would have addressed her rather obvious schizophrenia. She left behind two young children.

I also found out that Kai Green ’07, an assistant professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies (WGSS), is spending the 2019 semester on medical leave. According to her own Facebook report, she suffered a profound psychotic episode in November 2018. She is a black transgender man. She reports "I started taking my clothes off piece by piece, so by the time I got to the Clark I was completely naked. My clothes were like breadcrumbs on the dark road. Eventually police came and put me in the back of the car. I can’t remember if I hand handcuffs on. I remember handcuffs because I was singing to myself 'we have nothing to lose but our chains.' I remember thinking the song was magic spell that would unlock the cuffs."

I'm guessing that being a mentally ill liberal is probably okay at a "formerly" elite institution like Williams College.

For a slightly different take on the causes of mental illness at elite institutions, please see William Deresiewicz's comments on how an elite education can lead to a cycle of grandiosity and depression.

Personally, I was sort of startled by the insane level of hostility I faced at the Ephblog website, which - of course - is unrelated to Williams College itself.  It turns out one of the most visible people attacking me, censoring me and seeking to control my posts was also one of the saddest people imaginable - a pathetic, failed Ph.D. candidate named Kenneth Thomas who also goes by the name 1kenthomas or One Ken Thomas.

Kenneth Thomas claims he knows me from my teaching days, and I vaguely remember him as an extremely bright but socially isolated, arrogant and emotionally immature kid.  After I left Williams College - with one year left on my contract - 1kenthomas apparently left too.  He ended up in a sort of dude ranch, work camp, boys-only school here in California called Deep Springs College.  As far as I can tell, Deep Springs College is more known for the quality of its students than its professors.  It is the sort of place that glorifies having the students do farmwork and gardening as a character building enterprise. 

To me, it looks more like a mental hospital specializing in occupational therapy than a legitimate college.  It is the perfect place to send a bright, irresponsible kid who needs to dry out and take his anti-psychotic meds.  (I suppose a year at Deep Springs College gathering up hay and feeding it to cows might - on its own - shock someone into maturity.)

According to their literature, about 1/3 of their students go on to become college professors.  Unfortunately, this high ideal did not work out too well for the troubled young 1kenthomas.  As far as I can tell, they never taught Kenneth Thomas that if you wait outside a professor's door for a year and they fail to show up...then you need to adjust your game plan...not extend your time in graduate school.

Amazingly, Ken Thomas has been working on his Ph.D. for about 18 years now.  You could tell that 1kenthomas was deep in his own bullshit when he posted about how it was a good thing for his life that he was still working on his Ph.D. and how 1kenthomas standards were so much higher than mine that it made sense for him to spend 18 years on his Ph.D. career.  I could not believe the madness I was reading.  I'm only a "near genius" and I still finished my Ph.D. in about four years. 

The poor guy is almost 40 years old now.  He's a liberal Obama supporter - living in Nashville, TN - who apparently hates America and sees white racism in every corner.  Predictably, he is unmarried.  I guess being married to the "Chief Boot Licker" has not yet been seen as an attractive prospect for the young women of Tennessee.  More research, sadly, indicated a pattern of behavior consistent with the sort of mental illness that leads an ex-college president like Harry C. "Hank" Payne to jump out a window. 

Remembering Harry C. "Hank" Payne, I decided to stop debating Mr. Kenneth Thomas because it was sort of like kicking a sick puppy.  At any rate, I'm not sure that everyone at the Ephblog site has caught on to Kenneth Thomas's employment or educational record yet.  He is a leader among their group because he provides free computer work.  Here, roughly, are my final comments regarding him and his behavior:

* * *

#114 kthomas

As you may know, I conducted a Google search of your education and employment record and have determined that you are too ill for me to continue to debate in good conscience.

For those who aren't keeping track, Mr. Kenneth Thomas is now in the 18th year of his graduate career at U.C. Berkeley and displays signs of delusional thinking including the odd idea that I'm a robot, a fringe theorist, or the advocate of "potential" hate speech.

For a great article that will help everyone better understand what I believe Mr. Kenneth Thomas is coping with, I recommend the following article in Scientific American, See, high functioning paranoid schizophrenia.

You will notice in Mr. Kenneth Thomas's life a persistent lack of focus, the bizarre changes in career, and a shifting sense of identify which are tell-tale signs of deeper problems.  At his last job, 1kenthomas referred to himself - inappropriately - as the "Chief Boot Licker."  He has been "self-employed" since February 2010.

I have assumed that everyone else was generally aware of Mr. Kenneth Thomas's status as an individual with severe difficulties in keeping up with his peers - including the five years he took to graduate from Williams College.  I can understand why it may be convenient to lean on someone like Mr. Kenneth Thomas for unpaid, low-skill computer work.  However, it would be obviously mean of me to continue any further debate with him.

* * *

I mean, I'm not perfect, but I thought I was doing him a favor and pulling the covers off of a potentially creepy situation regarding one of Ephblog's most outspoken self-promoters and braggarts, Kenneth Thomas, a.k.a. One Ken Thomas, a.k.a. 1kenthomas, a.k.a kthomas on EphBlog.com, a Williams College alumni site.

The sad case of this young man's story reminds me that we do need to separate out the causes for failure in graduate programs. In my experience, the biggest cause of failure to obtain a Ph.D. is almost always due to personal problems such as drug abuse, mental illness or alcoholism. At a certain point, the committee - and the school - write you off and give up on you. The solution here is for the student to get clean and sober and accept appropriate treatment.

It does not take a high IQ to win a Ph.D. It simply takes focus, adequate social skills and a high level of time management. Most people with normal physical and mental health can pull this chore off with a minimum of effort. I finished my thesis in only four years - even though I was living in poverty, did not own a car, and lacked family and social support systems.

There are, in fact, plenty of "failed" Ph.D. students - including Mr. Kenneth Thomas - who seem more than willing to give their advice to the lonely and frustrated graduate student. :-) I say, buyer beware, and look to proven models for success.  In addition, it is wise to Google the people you interact with to see how much of their story is real and how much is delusion or lies. 

I also just noticed that Kenneth Thomas is seeking to debunk my story about young President Obama's commitment to extremist Marxist philosophy.  Good luck with that...

FYI:  Please check out the comment section below in which Kenneth Thomas brags about how much he charges people for computer consulting work.  Like Dr. Evil threating the world with a demand for one million dollars, 1kthomas tries to impress me with the fact that he charges $150 per hour.  Here in Orange County, of course, that is not a whole lot of money.  Even among one of the Williams alumni who regularly contributes to Ephblog, this looks like a silly argument.  I certainly hope Kenneth Thomas finishes his Ph.D. and gets on with his life.

See, http://youtu.be/jTmXHvGZiSY 

The rest of the story, as of June 15, 2011.  I just noticed I was banned from Ephblog. As far as I can tell, kthomas seems to think this is an appropriate way to talk me into taking down this article I wrote at my blog site poking fun of his failure to earn a Ph.D., his odd habit of calling himself the Chief Boot Licker, and his claim that Williams alumni should respect him more because he charges $150 DOLLARS PER HOUR. :-)

Of course, I have no intention of taking down this article. It is getting a lot of hits and I think this sort of public exposure might cause William's most famous C*Phil to quit drinking and to examine his life with greater scrutiny. There is no way that wasting time at Ephblog is more important than finishing his Ph.D. at Berkeley or growing his business.

I'm sort of proud that I've been banned from Ephblog by Kenneth Thomas on the same day that conservative bloggers, like myself, have helped push Rep. Weiner out of office despite the fact that a majority of his liberal constituents wanted him to remain in office. I'm assuming that someday, Ephblog, will be able to afford competent support and this liberal reign of terror will come to an appropriate end.

NOTE: I checked the Ephblog website and found that Kenneth Thomas is no longer on their board of directors and that the site is back up and running as of April 25, 2015.

In the meantime, I certainly would not change a word of what I've written. Not until I see evidence that Kenneth Thomas has a year of abstinence from alcohol and clear evidence that he is making progress on his doctoral dissertation. Like Anthony Weiner, I think it is time for 1kenthomas to grow-up, become a man and take stock of his life with clear eyes.  Otherwise, we may end up with another guy like Eric Bellucci or Bernard Moore, or ex-Williams' President  Harry C. "Hank" Payne on our hands - an arrogant liberal who thought he should tell others how to live their lives, but who was unable to manage his own.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Censored Again: Dr. Drew Banned by 1kthomas and Liberal Fascists at Ephblog

EphBlog has no official connection to Williams College. 

Here is a great exchange that was apparently censored by one of the folks over at http://www.ephblog.com/  I imagine that the Dr. Drew fans paying attention to that site will be curious to see what information is currently being censored.  It starts with one of the editors, 1kenthomas, adding his "Potential Hate Speech" warning to the speech I gave this week at the Capistrano Republican Women Federated on April 20, 2011.  I thought my former students at Williams College and others would be interested to see it.  This is where the fun begins. 

71. John C. Drew, Ph.D. says:

===== POTENTIAL HATE SPEECH / FRINGE / TROLL WARNING =====

Here’s the YouTube video showing my recent speech on young Obama’s extremist revolutionary perspective at the San Juan Capistrano Republican Women Federated meeting on April 20, 2011. See, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81bhSQo_44E&feature=BFp&list=WL61A573845C692CF3&index=1 If I was still teaching political science at Williams College, then I think this YouTube would be quite exciting to the undergrad students.

===== END WARNING =================[93kwt]===

Reply April 21st, 2011 at 2:20 pm

72. kthomas says:

@John C. Drew, Ph.D.:

The biblical names index shows both “Stanley” (as per ‘Stanleigh’) and “Anne” as historical gendered female, though “Stanley” (per Stanly) has been primarily used for males in the 20th century. Otherwise, you’re engaged in a witch hunt and I’m not going to condescend to treat that witch hunt as anything but what it is.

Reply April 21st, 2011 at 2:58 pm

73.frank uible says:

You careerist, type A, over-achievers, when are you going to learn that lazy is good?

Reply April 21st, 2011 at 3:45 pm

74. John C. Drew, Ph.D. says:

=== WARNING: FRINGE IDEAS, POTENTIALLY RELIGIOUS HATE SPEECH ===========

LOL Really, I don’t know how anyone can take left seriously any more. :-) I’ve never really been attacked for “potential hate speech” before. LOL. (I’m laughing so hard I have tears in my eyes right now.) For the video tape of my recent speech, along with my commentary, please see http://anonymouspoliticalscientist.blogspot.com/2010/08/no-more-keys-for-you-president-junks.html

Also, notice the applause for my wife and for her bravery in getting out the truth about young Obama’s extremist ideology at 11:00 minutes into the YouTube video.

=== END WARNING =================[93kwt]==

Synopsis: “Closet Muslim” meme

Reply April 21st, 2011 at 9:27 pm

75. kthomas says:

WRT John C. Drew,

I’m not attacking anyone. Various individuals have expressed concerns about your postings, and I’m merely applying the best descriptive label I can to let people sort, at this point.

By ‘potential,’ I mean that your postings may potentially be considered hate speech, as I understand the articulation of that (admittedly questionable) term.

There are, of course, twenty-some other odd editors here, any of whom who can choose (wiki-style) to contradict me.

Otherwise, John, I don’t intent to deny you a forum at this point, but in my book, you look like a loon and quack like a loon, and are being treated as such :)

Reply April 21st, 2011 at 9:37 pm

76. John C. Drew, Ph.D. says:

@ #75 kthomas

Please… I’ve never even heard of “potential hate speech” before and your even sillier “potential religious hate speech” label is really causing me to split my sides with laughter.

The last time I looked, my Republican friends took over the U.S. House of Representatives. My take on Obama has appeared in at least four major publications since 2011.

As you may know, I’m a published author, and award-winning political scientist and a former Williams professor. I’m also a contributor at American Thinker and David Horowitz’s News Real Blog Site. I think it is fair to say that your silliness marks you as part of the cutting edge of what normal people think of as “liberal fascism.” See, http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html

[NOTE: Edited to remove editorial bolds / misuse of blockquote / bad behavior by JCD. --93kwt]

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 12:21 am

77. whileback says:

a neocon goes into a bar and says ‘i want 15 shots of your best whisky’. so the bartender lines them up and the neocon starts pounding them down.

the bartender says ‘whoa, slow down’. the neocon says ‘you’d drink this fast too if you had what i’ve got’. the bartender says ‘what do you have?’ the neocon says ‘a dollar’.

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 12:24 am

78. kthomas says:

@John C. Drew, Ph.D.:

You’re not an editor on EphBlog. I don’t care who or what you are anywhere else, but you’re just a passer-by here– we’re not equals in this forum in terms of privileges and you need to learn and play by our rules.

Don’t do what you just did. Got it?

ReplyApril 22nd, 2011 at 12:28 am

79. kthomas says:

@whileback:

Thanks. Now I’ve had a laugh :)

Back to dealing with the AWS outage caused by SkyNet.

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 12:37 am

80. John C. Drew, Ph.D. says:

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

=== WARNING: PARODY OF LIBERAL SILLINESS – REALLY VERY FUNNY…LIKE MONTY PYTHON===

Please… kthomas. You are over the top silly right now.

It makes me grin to think that your ego is so fragile and that you think my comments regarding President Obama’s ideology and cultural background are so important that they demand that you take righteous action – right way – to prevent me from making fun of your silliness through imitating your use of bold and blockquote features of this website. Please… LOL

I can’t believe you have time for this sort of controlling, plainly aberrant behavior.

I wish someone from FOX News was watching this exchange right now. Your implied threat of your mysterious status as a high ranking government official is particularly bizarre.

It is a good example of why giving liberals just a little, itty bit of power rapidly turns them into scary, even dangerous people. You are behaving like a liberal fascist. I can’t believe, for example, that you are making up two new categories in the field of “potential” hate speech simply because you are too lazy to defend your outright censorship of my comments.

You should read A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell. FYI: I’m also an appointed member of the Orange County Republican Central Committee. I’m sure that an extremely important diplomat – like you – certainly understands the meaning of “appointed” when it comes to credibility in the real world.
=== END WARNING ===

Synopsis: “POTENTIALLY BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLE OF LIBERAL FACSISM” Meme

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 12:58 am

81. kthomas says:

I have moved a(nother) comment by JCD to “pending” status, largely without reading it. JCD seems to want to engage in a flame war or something. The comment will be restored by tomorrow unless another editor sees fit.

I plan to change any other incendiary comments from JCD tonight to “pending”, without further notice.

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 1:01 am

82. John C. Drew, Ph.D. says:

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

=== WARNING: LIBERALS CAUSE UNCONTROLLABLE LAUGHTER ===
One of the cool things about this blog site is that it provides a lot of us with ammunition for the upcoming Presidential campaign regarding how dangerous it is to have liberals in power. They are, quite frankly, a threat to freedom of speech. My wife and I have been willing to give our lives – and to risk our business – to get the word out about my face-to-face observations of young Barack Obama’s extremist Marxist ideology. I thought kthomas’s invention of two new categories of “potential” hate speech – as a tool to discredit me in public – was over the top silly tonight.
=== END WARNING: John Clayton Drew, Ph.D. ===

Synopsis: “CAN’T TAKE A PUNCH” Meme
Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 1:47 am

83. John C. Drew, Ph.D. says:

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

=== WARNING: DR. DREW EXPLAINS HOW LIBERALS ARE GETTING SNIPPY UNDER PRESSURE ===

Like kthomas, President Obama is also getting “snippy” under the stress of Democrat party failure. See, http://www.ketknbc.com/news/president-obama-gets-snippy

=== THIS CONCLUDES YOUR SNIPPY LIBERAL WARNING ===

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 2:49 am

84. frank uible says:

Book burning – sieg heil!

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 6:43 am

85. John C. Drew, Ph.D. says:

As they say, liberal fascism is alive and well…complete with demeaning others and censoring it’s independent and conservative opponents. On my Anonymous Political Scientist blog site, liberals can post their work without interference. Then, conservative ideology teaches me the value of freedom of speech. Snippy people are dangerous…if they are given just a little bit of power.

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 10:52 am

86. frank uible says:

Ya wohl, mein Fuhrer!

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 12:26 pm

87. kthomas says:

Ya nerozumim nemetzcy, dobje pritelkine.

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 12:28 pm

88. kthomas says:

Dear John C. Drew,

I have given you a wide leeway in face of objections of others, and in fact in the face of PO-ing a great deal of others on this forum.

Any restrictions you face are not content-based but based on the quality and nature of the material you post, and the behaviors you engage in.

In particular, you posted links to your “work” which suggests that Barack Obama’s mother is … something dark, shall we say… because one of her names is, in your rather uninformed opinion, typically “male.”

If that’s not “demeaning others” (for non-substantive reasons), I don’t know what is.

I did not censor this piece of material, but I did mark it in a way that our visitors might identify clearly, as, among other things, outside our norm.

That seems fair to me, though since we are a collectively edited site, other editors are free to express objections or take contrary actions.

You then began to engage in a childish game of tit-for-tat. Well, we’re not going to play such games, if for no other reason than I am not amused by them.

I hope this provides some explanation, insomuch as I am not seeking your understanding or consent. This is likely to be the final explanation you receive.

K

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 12:51 pm

89.frank uible says:

Rest easy Williams basketball fans. Mike Maker has been overlooked by Princeton in its search for a new head basketball coach.

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 7:16 pm

90. John C. Drew, Ph.D. says:

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

#88 kthomas

I’m sorry, but your last comment has caused me to think that you are seriously mentally ill. If you persist in this behavior, I’m going to put you in the same classification as “jeffz” – someone it is not fair for me to argue with…

To any normal person, naming your daughter “Stanley” is a sign of dysfunction in a household. As one of the few political scientists in the nation who has also taught courses on child abuse and neglect, I think you are dangerously out of touch with reality if you sincerely believe my comments on this aberrant, deviant behavior by Obama’s grandparents is, in any way, hate speech.

===WARNING HARSH WORDS FROM DR. DREW==FYI: There is no such thing as “potential” hate speech.===DR. DREW’S HARSH WORDS ARE NOW OVER===

Your suggestion that centuries ago some girls were named “Stanley” strikes me as plainly silly and beside the point. I wish you had been in one of my child abuse and neglect classes while I taught through the political science department at Williams in the mid-1980s. You would better understand the implications of Dunham’s cruel decision to name their daughter after her father without regard for the damage this would do to her life and her mental health.

As far as I can tell, all the comments that you have blocked from me are focused on making fun of your silly, snippy behavior last night. In these posts, I’m ripping up your pretentious, self-importance and the sheer nonsense that your cloak in politically correct jargon. What a joke! You don’t even post here under your own name. I feel sorry for the people around you who put up with you snippy behavior and what we used to call – at Opera Pacific – ‘queening out.”

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 8:58 pm

91. kthomas says:

I have quaranteened another comment by our favorite Ph.Dud. No further notice of quaranteened comments from this source will be given tonight.

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 9:23 pm

92. frank uible says:

Why are EphBlog editors necessary or desirable?

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 10:10 pm

93. kthomas says:

@frank uible:

Roughly, and not wanting to go into it: it’s like a ship, it’s how 99 out of 100 successful forums work, and thus, is how the whole software package (admittedly not “best in breed”) is set up. Or: the entire history of online forums says moderation is necessary, lack of moderation leads to pit-dom.

Our particular form, is of course not ideal, but it’s how we run.

You may best understand JCD’s current status as “twerp.”

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 10:13 pm

94.frank uible says:

I hold no brief for Drew (that’s his job), but I believe that I’m perfectly capable of self-editing any unedited thing which might appear on EphBlog as I believe most other EphBloggers are.

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 10:35 pm

95. frank uible says:

unedited.

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 10:38 pm

96. whileback says:

there are way worse ones than this one as far as censorship goes.

Reply April 22nd, 2011 at 11:24 pm

97. John C. Drew, Ph.D. says:

===WARNING HARSH WORDS FROM DR. DREW==FYI: It’s not cool, in America, to pretend to be an aristocrat.===DR. DREW’S HARSH WORDS ARE NOW OVER===

I’m really amazed at kthomas’s behavior. I think when, if ever, my comments are released, objective NYT reporters will be amazed at this example of pure liberal childishness.

What is particularly funny to me right now is kthomas’s aristrocratic language – reminding me that I’m not his equal on this forum :-) – or the really funny, “I’m not amused” comments. LOL This is a perfect example of everything people find frightening about liberals.

I’m grateful that I have my own website and my own access to the public through American Thinker and David Horowitz’s News Real Blog Site. This is a bizarre episode in my life. I give a well-received speech to one of the top Republican organizations in the nation and enjoy tremendous applause. Here, however, the exact same talk is given the bizarre label of “potential” hate speech. This is a fitting reminder of how sick, mentally ill and dangerous liberals have become to freedom of speech. In the current political climate, liberals are increasingly dangerous to the cause of liberty.

===WARNING MORE HARSH WORDS FROM DR. DREW==FYI: There is no such thing as “potential” hate speech.===DR. DREW’S HARSH WORDS ARE NOW OVER===

Sadly, in a divided nation, the real "hate speech" is the censorship and hostility directed at young, white, male and female conservative students.  As this censored exchange demonstrates, there is little sense of humor, or reality, among the liberals like Kenneth Thomas who think they know better than the rest of us what is the right course for our nation.  Standing up to these bullies is becoming an important part of protecting our freedom and liberty. 

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Bright Moon and a Dim Future: Dr. Drew on Why Obama is in Trouble with the Voters

As you may know, I post at http://www.ephblog.com/ with a great deal of frequency. EphBlog is edited by a William College alumnus, Dick Swart '57 of Portland, OR.  This steamy blog site has true blue liberal contributors, but has no official connection with Williams College.  Nevertheless, I like to post there to remember the good things I liked about my first two years as a young assistant professor in the political science department at Williams College.  It was a pleasure, for example, to teach in a classroom filled with some of the brightest young people in American in the late 1980s. 

One of my debates at that site seems important enough to recycle in Anonymous Political Scientist. As a political scientist, I think a bright moon is associated with some dim prospects for Obama's second term.  I'd like to explain why I think that way as briefly as possible.

First, it is silly to suggest - as one of the folk at Ephblog did - that Obama is doing okay right now simply because he out polls Congress.  For better or worse, the ratings of Congress are almost always lower than the ratings of the President.  See, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/behind-the-numbers/post/no-contest-president-vs-congress/2010/12/20/ABelgvF_blog.html  The public’s strong desire to elect generic Republicans over generic Democrats shows how damaged the Democrat party brand is after two years of Obama’s incompetence. It is a much better measure of the problems facing Obama than his relative popularity compared to Congress.

Second, one of the most immediate pieces of evidence that Obama is in trouble with the voters is dramatic shift in the generic congressional numbers as reported by Rasmussen.  According to Rasmussen Reports, Republicans have a nine-point lead over Democrats on the generic congressional ballot.  I think this number is significant because Rasmussen Reports limits its results to likely voters.  By their numbers, an impressive 46% of likely voters responded by saying they would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate.  Only 37% of these likely voters said they would pick the Democrat. "The gap is three points larger than it has been for the past two weeks," said Rasmussen Reports.

I find more bad news for Obama in Rasmussen's report on the public's lack of confidence in Obama's skills relative to turning around the economy.  See, http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/march_2011/just_31_now_give_obama_positive_marks_for_the_economy
The positive ratings for Obama on the economy are now at the lowest level they have ever been at since Obama took office in January 2009.  As a political scientist, I know the economy is the most important issue deciding presidential campaigns. That’s why I think that polling result is so significant…no matter where it comes from.

Personally, I think Obama made a huge political mistake when he took out time on television to announce his basketball picks instead of paying attention to the serious issues surrounding Japan and Libya. As far as I'm concerned, Obama’s decision to call massive public attention to his basketball picks is as politically tone deaf as his defense of the GZM during the height of the mid-term elections.  All in all, it looks to me like voters are making up their minds and they are not pleased with the direction our country is going under Obama's leadership.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.