Monday, February 12, 2007

Guess the Crank

As I pointed out recently, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) was caught offering rather large honoraria (or less charitably, bribes) to scientists or economists who would come forward and dispute the recently released IPCC summary for policy makers, which represents the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming.

The AEI, somewhat predictably, reacted to the negative press by flexing their persecution complex, claiming to be the victims of a mass conspiracy by the "orthodoxy" to repress academic freedom. Below I put a quote from a screed written by two AEI spokesmen which appeared in the Weekly Standard. Along with that quote, I decided to add two more. One is from a document titled, "The Holocaust Controversy: The Case for Open Debate" put out by the leading Holocaust denialist group. The other is from a piece titled, "Thought Police Try To Stifle Academic Freedom at Iowa State University" put out by the Discovery Institute, a leading anti-evolutionist group. I've removed references to the theories and people in question and just left the pure, unbridled paranoia. See if you can guess which quote comes from which crackpot:


1. No subject enrages campus Thought Police more than _________. We debate every other great ____ issue as a matter of course, but influential pressure groups with private agendas have made the _____ an exception. Elitist dogma manipulated by special interest groups corrupts everything in academia. Students should be encouraged to investigate _____ the same way they are encouraged to investigate every other ________.


2. The rollout of _____ and the _____ attacking us coincide with the climax of what can be aptly described as a _____ inquisition intended to stifle debate about ________. Anyone who does not sign up 100 percent behind _____ is deemed a "_____ denier." ... Show-trial hearing to follow? Stay tuned.


3. “The ______ inquisition is spreading,” said _______, president of ____, the nation’s leading ________. “_______ have recently hunted down and tried to disgrace _________ for daring to defy the ______ orthodoxy. Now we see that the witch hunt has turned to ____ and is focused on ________.”


And no fair Googling. You have to guess the source based on the quotes alone. Good luck!