Re: On target
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Jeez, DVaut1, please read the entire line of responses, not just the last two;-) And realize that discussions morph slightly when points are trying to be made or illustrated.
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Like I said - I have alot of respect for political science professors, and I won't deny I have an interest in defending the 'science' [as I was a political science major as an undergrad, and spent a good deal of time doing research there (at least the grunt work end of it) that I didn't find meaningless, nor detached from reality]; so yes, I'm going to take umbrage when the good work that occurs in political science is dismissed, and its wisdom replaced with that of diary farmers.
But I think that's debatable. Some people place their bets with political science professors, others with dairy farmers. To each his own. I certainly place my bets (as to who has more wisdom) with the professors, but I'll grant that perhaps dairy farmers have better; I don't know many dairy farmers, so I won't dismiss their wisdom off-hand.
Like I've also said before, though - I find language important. I think word choice is important. And I think syntax is important.
To that end, I don't think it was an accident (although I may be wrong) that you associated the study of 'political science' with 'Ward Churchill' - that is to say, 'Ward Churchill' is universally dismissed (fairly or not) as a crackpot, and to call him a 'political science professor type' is (in my estimation) meant to degrade the study of political science (in an effort, I think, to try to further your point that diary farmers know more than political science types).
So while you may think it's no big deal, or nitpicky, to point that Ward Churchill is indeed not a political science professor, I think it's important to point out that many of the academics the right so thoroughly dismisses as 'loony leftists' (Chomsky, Churchill, Nicholas de Genova, etc) don't study political science, nor do they work in political science, but are experts in other disciplines.
So consider this as my way of sticking up for political science, something that I don't think is irrelevant to this discussion.
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