University of Minnesota - Conform, Or Else

Yesterday's StarTribune reported the latest happenings at the University of Minnesota.  It seems the University is contemplating a new gender identity policy which would allow students and faculty to be called the pronoun of their choice.  Those that fail to do so could suffer being expelled or fired.

Beyond that, just last month, the U officially gave students a list of pronouns and gender options on its online registration website, MyU. If they choose, they can identify themselves as male, female, agender, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, nonbinary or two-spirit, or skip the gender question entirely. Pronoun options include he, she, ze, the singular “they,” none and “prefer not to specify.”

If you're a fabulous professor, why would you ever take a job at a place like this where a pronoun slip could cost you your job?  And if you're a great student, why would you go to a school that can't attract any decent professors due to their rush to be more inclusive than thou?

What the hell is going on?

The Sad State of Minnesota Sports

With our impending return to the state, Minnesota is suffering from sports futility.  How bad are things?  Let me count the ways:

• Despite being one of the best teams in the NHL for much of the season, the Wild have backslid and now are looking up at Chicago in the rankings.  We'll make the playoffs, but our fate will be ended at the United Center, if we even make it that far
• Despite having one of the best young teams on paper, the Twins will continue to suffer.  How bad is it?  Bung Ho Park has a good chance at making the club.  I'm not kidding.  This team is looking at another 100 loss season.
• Despite a resurgent season the the Big Ten coach-of-the-year, the Gophers went one and done in the NCAA tournament as a 5 seed, losing to a 12.  Sure, they were impacted by injuries, but holy cow, Middle Tennessee?
• Despite making multiple moves in free agency, the Vikings are not appreciably better.  Their offensive line, a massive need, was only upgraded slightly, and other adds have been marginal.  Likewise, losses of Mudderlyn and Patterson are going to hurt a whole lot.
• Despite being located in The State of Hockey, the Gopher Hockey team continues to disappoint.  They did make the NCAA tournament, but as far as the Big Ten tourney went, they placed exactly zero players to the All Tournament Team.  One and done for them as well?

Ugly?  Yep.  But it's home. 

Minnesota's Best Athlete?

Occasionally I'll get sucked in by one of those stupid "click aggregator" sites.  Oh, you know the ones: They'll usually have some outrageous list or scantily dressed woman and the headline "You won't believe what happens next!"

I usually have enough fortitude to put off clicking on them, but if something really gets my curiosity, I'll weakly wade into it.  That was the case last week when presented with a list of "The Best Athlete by State."

For Minnesota, my first thought was, to me, the obvious choice (we'll get to that in a second).  As I waded through each state alphabetically (cranking up the clicks that the site owner will attempt to justify as value for their advertisers) , I finally made it to my home state and found that they had selected Kevin McHale.

Wait, what?  Kevin McHale?  WRONG!

For me, the obvious choice was Dave Winfield.  Consider the following achievements:

• 1973 college world series MVP (as a pitcher!)
• Drafted by four different pro teams in three different sports
• College baseball Hall of Fame
• 12 time MLB All Star
• 7 time MLB Gold Glove
• 6 time Silver Slugger
• MLB World Champion
• MLB Hall of Fame

It doesn't get much more athletic than that.

That got me to thinking as to who else could have been considered Minnesota's best ever athlete (beyond, of course, Kevin McHale).  There are a lot of great athletes that have done very well, but none stack up to Winfield, with the exception of one.

A compelling case can be made for Roseu's Neil Broten.  Consider his bona fides:

• NCAA hockey champion
• Hobey Baker award
• Olympic gold metal winner with 1980 Miracle on Ice
• NHL World Champion
• 2 time NHL All Star
• US Hockey Hall of Fame

While Broten does get close, Winfield is still too much a stud to not be considered the clear winner here.  

The only thing that gets  Broten closer is that he is one of the few in the NHL that kicked Wayne Gretzky's ass.

Look out with who you're messing with, Great One:

University of Minnesota's Hot Issue: Use of Word "Redskins"

The University of Minnesota is campaigning to have the Washington Redskins refrain from using the name "Redskins" when they play the Vikings at the University's TCF Bank Stadium on November 2.  They've been working on this now for over a month.

Consider all that is going on in the world right now:

• Literal genocide in Iraq
• Ebola on the cusp of a breakout
• Russia on the verge of going into the Ukraine
• A US government that spies upon, intimidates, and persecutes its citizens that are deemed as political enemies (Hi, NSA!)
• Record labor participation rates and disability rates

And those are just the things going on in the world.  As we're all aware, college kids can be pretty egocentric.  Hence, consider things that are directly impacting them:

• Record tuition rates
• Record University costs and bureaucracy
• Record student debt levels
• Among the worst college graduate unemployment and underemployment in history

All of that, but the "U" is worried about a word.  A bleeping word.

This is so typical of what the Left has consistently done recently, which is to summarily ignore major issues that have true impacts on life on Earth to focus on fringe issues to keep the populace distracted.  Hence we get "war on women," gay marriage, and legalized marijuana nearly 24/7 in the media.  The Left and their willing partners in the media just keep the drumbeat going, and keep the focus on the fringe, and an ignorant and willing populace dutifully oblige.

It is a very effective game, and University is guilty of playing it.  And that is why, even though I'm a graduate of that institute and have the means to support them, the University will not receive a dime from me.

Not one thin dime. 

University of Minnesota Hates Free Speech

Per a recent StarTribune article, faculty and student groups are teaming up to get a speaking invitation to Condoleezza Rice rescinded.  She is scheduled to deliver a speech on April 17 at Northrup Auditorium.

Let's take an examination of a list of Ms. Rice's accomplishments, shall we?

• Masters from Notre Dame, PhD from Denver, and Provost at Stanford
• National Security Adviser
• Secretary of State
• First female member of Augusta National
• Published author
• Pianist

Wow.  Hell of a resume.  You'd think the U could gain some insight from a woman like that.  But they don't want insight.

They want silence.

Condi Rice is what the far left fears the most.  She is a thoughtful, learned, independent, and successful black woman who has done the research, made a choice, and has selected conservatism.  While they can claim "war crimes" for wanting to silence her all they want, let's all be adults here and call their boycott out for what it really is: they're pissed this black woman stepped outside of their boundaries and doesn't know her place.  

Despite her gender, she's an Uncle Tom - a term which has now lost all of its meaning, and now solely describes any person of color that doesn't look/act like a black stereotype and/or is conservative.

So the liberal bigots at the University of Minnesota can have their day, and while they may or may not be successful in killing free speech on their campus, they certainly are successful in keeping me from writing any kind of alumni check to them, now or in the future.  I refuse to support bigotry, hate, close-mindedness, ignorance, and intolerance.  And that is what is on display at the University of Minnesota right now.