This case is not about free speech. It is about harrassment, abuse of power, and intimidation.

And I can now see that Ace has pointed out the "harrassment" thing.

Oops. I'll be quiet now.

Wait, you mean that someone's exercise of their free speech rights might actually have consequences? Perish the thought.

Things might have turned out differently if the incident hadn't gathered national attention, she said.

Yes indeed.
She would simply have had to suck it up and do nothing while this asshole smeared her and her group all over campus.

The funny thing is that I thought this was going to be about that crapferbrains who was giving Paul Deignan so much trouble and wrote a nasty e-mail to Deignan's graduate advisers because Deignan left a few pro-life comments on someone else's lefty blog.

See, there are so many of these cases of lefty professor-student harassment I can't keep them all straight.

Don't let the door hit ya, etc.
The only problem with this action is that it quiets what could have been a decent storm. Focus and attention must be paid, and the MSM is in no hurry to highlight the all-too-many stories like this out there.

I'm sure he'll be writing for the New York Times soon.

If the professor had simply expressed his opinion in the email, he would have been in the clear. Most student/faculty conduct codes, however, have clear prohibitions against speech that can be considered threatening.

In the end, it was a single sentence:

I will continue to expose your right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like your won't dare show their face on a college campus.

Just wait. This guy will be honored as the bravest martyr to come along since Joe McCarthy had all those screenwriters hanged for voting Democrat.

He is not the one whose resignation was needed as much as the college president that defending the loon and took the student to task for daring to object to the instructor's harrassment.

THAT guy really needs to go.

Slublog:

I think it was this sentence that got him in more trouble:

I am asking my students to boycott your event.

A direct abuse of the trust and responsibility of his position.

Ah, true.

This will be spun by cry baby lefties as suppression of free speech, but this is clear academic bullying. This jerk-off used his position of relative authority and power and tried to intimidate a college undergrad. That's disgraceful far beyond any objections to his lunatic lefty philosophy. I'm just glad that one of these pathetic bully professors actually got canned for this crap.

The annoying thing is that this guy will be doing book/speech tours for the rest of his life talking about his brave stand SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER.

Gee, I hope some lefty students protest the engagement.

Show us all what kind of behavior they expect from academia.

Trouble is, this asshat will be playing his "poor me the victim" card on the lefty lecture circuit for years.

Good.

If there's one thing that repels Americans from a cause, its pitiful mewling.

We can recognize oppression when we see it, and this ain't it.

We're also not terribly sympathetic to pussies who get beat up by a freshman girl.

lauraw:

If there's one thing that repels Americans from a cause, its pitiful mewling.

It just depends on who's doing the mewling, I guess.

One less Lefty bully.

He resigned? What a wuss.

Apparently this adjunct ambulatory POS didn't even have the testicular fortitude to publicly defend his actions.

What about "speaking truth to power" , "moral conviction" and all of those other beloved lefty clichés?

What a cowardly ass-mortarboard.

I can't believe this poor sclub was fired for simply suggesting Americans should kill Americans
/sarc

So now TOM DAILY has been forced to resign its just like when MICHEAL BELLESILES wrote a book called ARMING AMERICA he tried to claim that guns were never a factor in early america it was found out that bellesiles had lied and fabricated the whole thing and he was forced to resign from EMORY UNIVERSITY and return the BANCROFT PRIZE now if only nasty persons like WARD CHURCHILL and PETER SINGER would be forced to resign they are evil persons as well

Dude, go eat some turkey and watch the game.

Speaking of blowhard academic nincompoops.
Stephen Hawking is so over-rated.
Is there any college or university that hasn't given this guy an honorary degree?

"I think that computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image."

This guy is supposed to be smart?
Does he mean a computer virus is a sentient being or is it alive like a tree is alive? Either way it is stupid and typical of the kind of clap-trap that wins awards within academia.

If a computer virus is alive, why isn't a computer program alive, Stephen?

This asshat said that computer viruses are "life" just to make a his point that human nature is destructive. What a philosophical asshole.

Just a minor comment from someone who teaches at a community college and is appalled at what this moron did and said - while it may not be the case where he formerly taught, most of us don't have the title "Professor," but are instead referred to (when referred to at all) as "instructors." Nor do we enjoy the benefits of tenure (at least, not at any cc that I know about) or the perks and privileges that accompany it.

Which is fine, as far as it goes, although it is frustrating to teach exactly the same courses as those offered at a university while somehow being relegated to a different category. That being said, though, it may be giving this jerk a status he doesn't deserve (even retroactively) to call him "Professor" even in a generic sense.