We’ve received an e-mail from Jim Paine informing us that it’s he, not Dianna Deeley, who runs Pirate Ballerina, the Ward Churchill-dedicated blogsite that keeps us up to the minute on the doings of the soi-disant American Indian and professor of “Little Eichmann” studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. So the Mailbag of March 4 stands corrected, and my humble apologies to Jim. Here’s his letter:


“Dianna Deeley–an excellent writer–does not own pirateballerina, nor were the correspondents who put together the Churchill genealogy hers. I own pirateballerina, and Dianna Deeley is but one of the talented people contributing to the Churchilliana there. I hope you can understand my need to correct the record, but also that I wish no detraction from Dianna’s talent. I’m pleased to publish her work.


“Just an aside: Most of the contributors to PB are women; some are doctors; some are teachers or professors; all are committed to ridding academia of the pestilence Churchill represents.”


To make amends, here’s a link (from PB) to Churchill’s resume from 1980! You’ll note that besides art, Churchill says he has teaching expertise in “Basic Marxism,” “Cultural Marxism,” “Marxism and the Native American,” and “Principles of Third World Revolt.” Just the qualifications–along with lack of a Ph.D.–for a $94,000-a-year tenured position as head of the ethnic studies department at a taxpayer-funded university. Not suprisingly, Colorado’s regents are trying to find some way to get rid of him without getting personally sued. I myself would train my sights onto the Colorado-Boulder professoriate that hired and promoted the clearly unqualified Churchill in the first place and is currently defending him to the teeth as a free-speech martyr.  


And here’s some more Ward Churchill fun. As you know, he’s also in  hot water for alleged art plagiarism. His “art” consists of turning high-quality drawings and photographs of Indians by others, at least one apparently still under copyright, into mediocre pen-and-inks and seriographs that he sells as his own work. Michelle Malkin shows us the number that Churchill did on Charles M. Bell’s haunting 1877 photo-portrait of Little Big Man. Click onto it and then click here (thanks, Michelle!) for a chuckle.


Update: Elizabeth Hoffman, president of the University of Colorado, who denounced efforts to scrutinize Churchill’s academic career and qualifications as “McCarthyism,” has just announced her resignation. Don’t count on Churchill’s doing likewise.