Calling All Pinheads
April 4th, 2008
Laurie’s just reminded me of some of your lamer attempts to ferret out personal information from me and/or get me fired. My favorite being Jim Paine, John Martin and Grant Crowell’s “alerting” CU’s legal team to a non-threat on Grant Crowell’s life made by somebody who wasn’t fucking me, which was somehow proof positive of my moral turpitude. Or something. I don’t think I’ve laughed quite that hard in years. At least not until I read CU’s legal team’s response, which was, how shall I put it, a wee bit dismissive. (One could almost hear the eyebrows arching at the good Ballerinas’ histrionics.)
My, we’ve had fun, haven’t we? You’ve called the CU office pretending to be students’ parents seeking photographs of me, you’ve tried to pass yourselves off as book club members who adored my review of The Road and were hoping I’d share my professional information with you, you’ve threatened time and time again to meet me after class one of these days — though, alas, not one of you has lived up to that one — hell, you’ve even called me at my home and videotaped my family.
One could be a little put off by such shenanigans, but, shit, all of its been done with the usual brand of frantic, and hilarious, intensity which makes it rather hard to get too worked up over. Not to mention the low intimidation factor that results from one’s stalkers being a gang of suburban geriatric Republicans. I figure worst comes to worst I can pilfer your heart medication or kick y’all in the hip and be done with it.
But, with that in mind, might I ask which one of you fucking idiots sent me the following?
Dear Mr. Whitmer,
I tried to reach the Mad Knitter about the Boulder Ethnic Studies Program, but I received no response. I noticed that that she hasn’t posted for some time, perhaps, she is not checking her email? Would you mind forwarding the below to her?
If you have any thoughts about the Colorado Ethnic Studies Department, I would love to hear from you too.
Thanks.
To: knitter.mad@gmail.com
Subject: tryworks.org
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:50:34 -0400Dear Ms. Mad Knitter:
I am a 20 year old undergraduate at University of Connecticut, and I am so frustrated by the mindless conservatism of my state and school. I am a history major and a supporter of indigenous studies in a state which seems to associate Indian reservations with the Mohegan Sun Casino, thus trivializing the entire history of our colonialist imperialist government.
Since discovering your blog about a year ago, I have been inspired by your politics and truthtelling even in the face of withering attacks. Out of all the voices on your blog, I am particularly inspired by the idea of a strong woman, never, ever backing down. As a result, I am considering applying to the University of Colorado at Boulder to enroll in a graduate program, perhaps in the Ethnic Studies Department.
I am curious what your experience as woman has been, and if you would recommend Boulder as a graduate department? If you have a moment and could respond with some of your thoughts, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance for your consideration. Keep fighting the good fight.
Kristen
I mean, really, y’all have set the bar rather low as lame maneuvers go, but this one might be the most pathetic yet.
Fight the good fight!
April 6th, 2008 at 4:39 am
Benjamin, you are incorrect in your assessment that I contacted CU’s legal team regarding anything to do with you. I have had no contact with them in any capacity, nor with anyone doing what you claim. I will agree that your fantasies of orchestrating my murder (similar to Ward Churchill’s fantasies – anyone still remember him?), were simply angry, anonymous blog fodder, which I was successful in outing you on. But that being said, I have never demanded of anyone that you should lose your job over your immature and antisocial activities, just that people have a right to know who’s making them.
That’s the difference between you and I. I support the free speech rights of others, including those who make up a littany of excuses for not supporting mine. I also have the courage to stand up for my convictions, and not hide behind aliases, like it seems every one of your posters of similar political mindsets does. Honestly, I may never tell if some or all of them are from you as well under new aliases, so if they’re searching for any credibility it won’t come from a silly handle.
But if its just a meant for them/you vent against a country and people you despise, knock yourself out. You’ve been successful at least in getting another blog group, and a few local reporters, to get all bent out of shape from your posts and CU teach-ins, so for that you deserve congratulations for your efforts.
April 6th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Well, then, apologies, Mr. Crowell. We’ll lay that one solely on Mr. Paine and Mr. Martin. But, just out of curiosity, whose free speech rights have I ever attempted to deny?
And, for the record, I never said anything about murdering you. That was a comment left on the blog by someone else. That’s kinda of the point.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Well then, my apologies as well, Mr. Whitmer, to your second point.
To the first point, I had remember your comments about what I interpreted as your justification of Ward Churchill’s comments he had made towards demanding both my firing, expulsion, and wanting my death simply for drawing a editorial cartoon on a political comrade of his. You had argued because you interpreted my cartoon as racist, so if not his extreme desires were appropriate, my being fired certainly would be.
I was never fired, because I did stand up for myself, publicly. And for others on the political extremes, publicly. If we free speech rights for ourselves, we should offer no less to those that we deem as our adversaries.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Well then, my apologies as well, Mr. Whitmer, to your second point.
To the first point, I had remember your comments about what I interpreted as your justification of Ward Churchill’s comments he had made towards demanding both my firing, expulsion, and wanting my death simply for drawing a editorial cartoon on a political comrade of his. You had argued because you interpreted my cartoon as racist, so if not his extreme desires were appropriate, my being fired certainly would be.
I was never fired, because I did stand up for myself, publicly. And for others on the political extremes, publicly. If we free speech rights for ourselves, we should offer no less to those that we deem as our adversaries.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:35 am
I’m sorry, for some reason this is showing my handle as “Snapple.” I am not that person.
April 6th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Would you not being Snapple be along the same lines as the Scrunt’s insistence that she’s not “Fred,” Chief Walking Eagle?
Whatever. I’ve other fish to fry, so pay attention.
The Hawaiian Studies Department at the U of Hawai’i has a videotape of that famous rally on the Manoa campus where, as you tell it, Ward Churchill compared you to Joseph Goebbels and demanded your death.
Turns out that he did neither.
Churchill compared you to Julius Streicher, a figure of much lesser stature in the Third Reich. He then went on to observe that while the US had prosecuted Streicher at Nuremberg and hanged him for publishing cartoons comparable to those you’d been drawing, he was NOT calling for you to suffer a similar penalty.
The point about Nuremberg was plainly made to illustrate the seriousness of your offenses—US Supreme Court Justice Jackson described Streicher’s as crimes against humanity—but Churchill demanded merely that that the local paper stop publishing your virulently racist cartoons.
Whether that might be reasonably construed as saying you should be “fired” from the paper would depend on whether you actually held a position there. Do correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s my understanding that you did not, and therefore could NOT have been fired.
So, not only did Churchill NOT call for your death or firing, Walking Eagle, he—unlike a couple of other professors who spoke at the rally—said nothing about your being expelled from the university. In fact, he gave no indication that he was even aware you were a student.
Oh yeah, one other point. That “hot lead enema” line of Charlie Arthur’s that you, along with Jim Paine and John Martin, tried to cast as a “death threat”? It’s straight out of a Lenny Bruce routine.
April 6th, 2008 at 11:15 am
What Eku Mau Mau Hawai’i said. I never called for you to be fired, Mr. Crowell. That’s a Ballerina game.
April 6th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Benjamin,
What about that email from “Kristen” makes you think she’s not a woman with genuine interest in ES? I only think it’s odd because I had no idea MK could be a student at any college. Otherwise, isn’t it possible Kristen wants to be associated with people like you and MK?
I never contacted your boss (as if I would have found a sympathetic audience in your boss!) or made any inquiries about any of your blog participants. None, so far, have shown any maturity, intellect or talent beyond that of a high school student. So, who cares about their true identities? Not me.
April 6th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Hawai’i,
Why doesn’t Charley Arthur give credit to Lenny Bruce when he steals(and misuses)his lines?
April 6th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I’m gonna go with because it was fucking obvious, Laurie; Lenny Bruce is kind of a rather large presence. That said, that you fucking pinheads mistook a obvious nod to him as a death threat ain’t exactly surprising.
The email’s a fake. There’s nothing anywhere to suggest that MK is a CU student; that’s a guess of John Martin’s (which rather indicates the culprit, yes?). Also, I’m guessing that anyone interested in a graduate degree in Ethnic Studies might do the background investigation to figure out that CU ain’t got one (which also rather indicates the culprit, yes?).
Glad to hear you’ve got better things to do with your life. And I ain’t being facetious.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Now, Ben, you know the Scrunt has always been vociferous in her condemnation of Pat Robertson for not crediting King James every time he steals a quote from the Bible. Right?
And, she’s obviously a leading expert on the wit and wisdom of Lenny Bruce (I “bet” she listens to his records every single night). So, who better to determine when his lines are being misused.
BTW, Scrunt, which of Mr. Bruce’s skits did you have in mind? No need to quote him verbatim. Feel free to paraphrase if you like.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Rock,
I never thought Lenny Bruce was terribly funny. In fact, he’s a tragic figure. While the coppers where trying to put him in jail for being “dirty”, he had addictions and wasted himself on drugs. While he said a lot of interesting things, he also was known to blow it on stage by ranting drivel. Some people made things out of the drivel in the same way people see things in clouds. That’s the nature of cult followers.
The misused line in full was something like “if you can stand the hot lead enema, you can throw the first stone.” I don’t see how that applies to a student’s cartoon but I’m sure you will find a way.
One thing he did say that I agree with is that “forbidden” words hold power. Now that some people drop the “F” bomb at least twice in every sentence, the word no longer has that power, except to annoy. You do know that Berkeley and later, Larry Flint carried the same message as Bruce. Now we all get to say fuck and look at Flint’s “shit eating grin” cartoon. Whoopeee!
April 7th, 2008 at 9:46 am
One more thing: I don’t believe I’ve ever heard Pat Robertson preach. He’s pretty strange in his public life, so I don’t follow him as a spiritual guide. Those ministers I have heard always cite any quotes from the Bible to show that their sermon is Bible based. You might not know that if you’ve never been to a church. To get a better understanding, you should step inside a few times or at least read about the theology.
Rock, I’m always amazed at how easily you comment on things and people you know nothing about. Quite a talent!
April 7th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Laurie, is it also your contention that every time the morons in your corner make a cultural reference they’re engaging in plagiarism if they don’t provide a cite?
April 7th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Speaking of commenting “on things and people you know nothing about,” Scrunt, you really blew it on the Lenny Bruce paraphrase. Not even in the same ballpark.
It’s easy to understand why you “don’t see how that applies to a student’s cartoon,” since it’s obvious that you haven’t the faintest clue what Bruce said, much less the context in which he said it.
So, here’s the question: Have you EVER bothered to have any idea what you were talking about before you talked about it?
April 7th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. I didn’t ask you whether the ministers you’ve heard preach “always cite any quotes from the Bible to show that their sermon is Bible based,” Scrunt.
Using Robertson as an example, I asked whether they ever made attribution to King James.
Citing “The Bible” without saying which one—there are several, they don’t read the same, and they’re intended to convey different interpretations of scripture—is pretty much like citing “the newspaper” or something you “heard on the radio.”
April 7th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Do you read the koran? My parents stopped going to church because my dad had bad experiences with faith healing as a child and my mother’s lutheran minister supported the nazi regime, but my wealthy landlord sometimes takes me to their bible church which is how they made all their friends, and I go to watch the people. Christianity is evangelical, but different religions have different perspectives on people lurking around sampling, like many people might go to an indian or thai restaurant for a cultural experience, which is how I use the landlord’s church. Mormons are very evangelical, but they won’t let nonmormons in a temple. There are mixed feelings in other nonevangelical religions about outside people dabbling in their ceremonies.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Great response Benjamin. I used to get mad at the clowns but they lack such intellectual capacity and are such sociopathic pathological liars that I too laugh at them. They are pond scum and criminals. That is all they know. It’s the neocon trash that has blown into Boulder. I feel bad that you even have to put up with them. You have called them out on so many lies that they are seen as nobodies with no ability to speak, write or comprehend the truth. I crack-up when these clowns go against you.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Rock,
You said “Scrunt, you really blew it on the Lenny Bruce paraphrase. Not even in the same ballpark.”
” If you can take the hot lead enema, then you can cast the first stone!” Lenny Bruce
I said, “The misused line in full was something like ‘if you can stand the hot lead enema, you can throw the first stone.’”
’splain it to me.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
How’s about responding to my question? Do you demand citations from the Ballerinas for every cultural reference?
April 7th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Benjamin,
Today, Lenny Bruce borders on obscurity. Sure, there is a following, just as there are those who can’t get enough of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. I think of a cultural reference as being something most anyone would know about, probably since childhood. Lenny Bruce’s “comedy” routines are not a subject of many dinner table discussions in America. In fact, I think they never were.
So Charley Arthur said, “Comes the moment of our forthcoming 1-on-1 in Chicago, Walking Eagle, we’re volunteering right here and now to administer unto you a desperately-needed hot lead enema.”
“Two or three in succession, if need be.”
Doesn’t the phrase mean one must suffer the extreme pain and consequences for stating one’s opinions? How odd that Charley quotes Lenny Bruce while volunteering to be the executioner. He must think Lenny got what he deserved and Grant should get it too.
Does Charley think it’s okay to punish people for their beliefs but no punishment should be administered to a man who lies, threatens women, steals other people’s work, copies their artwork and sells it as his own, cites other people’s work to support his, when it doesn’t, writes things under another’s name and then cites it as a source? I think Churchill deserves and is getting his own hot lead enema for his misdeeds and not for his beliefs. And Charley’s a thug.
As for the “morons” in my corner, I can’t think of any.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Benjamin,
Today, Lenny Bruce borders on obscurity. Sure, there is a following, just as there are those who can’t get enough of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. I think of a cultural reference as being something most anyone would known about, probably since childhood. Lenny Bruce’s “comedy” routines are not a subject of many dinner table discussions in America. In fact, I think they never were.
As for the “morons” in my corner, I can’t think of any.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Benjamin,
Today, Lenny Bruce borders on obscurity. Sure, there is a following, just as there are those who can’t get enough of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. I think of a cultural reference as being something most anyone would known about, probably since childhood. Lenny Bruce’s “comedy” routines are not a subject of many dinner table discussions in America. In fact, I think they never were.
As for the “morons” in my corner, I can’t think of any.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Charley Arthur said, “Comes the moment of our forthcoming 1-on-1 in Chicago, Walking Eagle, we’re volunteering right here and now to administer unto you a desperately-needed hot lead enema.”
“Two or three in succession, if need be.”
So Charley thinks it’s right for people to suffer for their beliefs? How odd to use Lenny Bruce’s words in that way. It’s even more odd that Charley is willing to administer the punishment.
Meanwhile, Charley defends Churchill, who is getting his own hot lead enema, not because of his beliefs but because of his misdeeds.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Sorry for the duplications. I saw your second request for an answer but my original response wasn’t there.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Rock,
That reminds me of another story. My bro-in-law and sis-in-law both have DDs. Sis also has a Ph.D. in psychology. Bro had a chain of Christian book stores. My husband helped out during the holidays. A customer asked for a Bible. Hubby asked, “Would you like a black one or a white one?”
April 7th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Should the Ballerinas then have to cite every obscure reference to not be accused of plagiarism? Or just non-obscure references?
April 8th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Would that be “Fred” you’re talking about, Scrunt? I thought it was pretty well established that you/he were one and the same individual.
If not, it appears that you failed to credit him with having come up with the notion that Charlie Arthur should have credited Lenny Bruce that you then repeated on Try-Work’s as if it were your own.
After all, ol’ Fred’s accusation of “plagiarism” in this connection, predating yours, is still posted on PB. Which means that YOU plagiarized HIM, right?
Regardless of all that, all that your happy-face-adorned little anecdote demonstrates is that your “hubby”—assuming he exists—is truly your intellectual peer: dumb as a sack of rocks.
After all, Gideon’s Bible is come in forest green and deep maroon covers, as well as black and white.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Laurie, I still don’t get it. Maybe an example’ll help. A few days back William T. Sherman posted this on PB: “Buffalo! Slowly I turned, inch by inch and step by step…”
That’s an obvious cultural reference, right? A reasonably obscure one, right? One that had no bearing on the thread at the time, since the original reference to Buffalo was the city, so why’d that one not earn your ire? Sherman didn’t cite it as far as I can tell. Should he have?
April 8th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Your contention that “Lenny Bruce borders on obscurity” these days seems a just little out of touch, Anon.
A major motion picture has been made about him, after all, with no less noted an actor than Dustin Hoffman portraying him on screen, and standard industry sources indicate that the flic continues to generate respectable sales (in DVD format).
Bruce’s autobiography also remain in print after more than 40 years, a matter indicating both that he continues to be considered a figure of substantial cultural significance by those in “the trade,” and that a sufficient number of people agree to make such an assessment commercially viable (to say the least).
A quick perusal of the offerings on Amazon reveals that a further 15 books currently in print are devoted specifically to Lenny Bruce and the cultural/legal issues he raised (and symbolized).
Now add the scores of additional books in which he figures quite prominently…
You say think you “think of a cultural reference as being something most anyone would known about, probably since childhood.”
So much for William Faulkner, Mark Rothko, Robert Lowell, John Cage, Wayne Thiebaud, Susan Sontag, Eric Hoffer, Barnie Newman, Lillian Hellman… Using your definition, the list of those excluded from the American cultural lexicon is all but endless.
But, hey, we’ve always got Brett Favre, Bruce Willis, and Ronald McDonald. Right?
Perhaps the key to understanding your rather peculiar sense of “cultural references” will be found in your final sentence, where you announce that, “As for the ‘morons’ in my corner, I can’t think of any.”
Exactly so, Anon. The operant words there are “can’t think.”
As in, morons really CAN’T think: Not about who’s their corner, what constitutes a “cultural reference,” or much of anything else beyond the level of a reasonably intelligent chimp.
All of which tells us far more than we ever needed to know about the nature of the “dinner table discussions enjoyed by you and yours.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Rock,
I am not Fred. Fred is not me. My hubby is James. He doesn’t go by the name Fred.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Rock,
I didn’t know Fred made the same comment at the other blog. It’s not too surprising that it occurred to others.
My husband graduated at the top of his class. He got a full scholarship to USC. He’s a Rockabilly fan, too. Sorry you didn’t see the humor in his question.
Benjamin, my comment contained no “ire”. Maybe I should have inserted a happy face on it.
Law Prof, you are in the right business. No, your list is not of people the average American family would frequently quote in everyday conversations. Sad but true.
I’m not sure I ever saw “Lenny”. I’m certain there are some people who watched it many times. Hollywood loved it, if I remember correctly. As for the other 299,000,000 Americans, well, I don’t know.
Although some people still watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show, after 38 years, how many people know any of the lyrics to “I Can Make You a Man”? Say “He looks toward the homes of his sons and, as one by one the candlelights are extinguished, he offers a silent prayer that the morrow will be the same as today…” and more than a million American women will know the reference, the rest of the sentence and the context. I’ll bet a nickel you don’t.
Say “Doh!” or “Oh my God, they killed Kenny! The bastards!”, “I have a dream…” or “Ask not what your country can do for you…”, “and miles to go before I sleep…” or “Houston, we have a problem” and almost everyone knows the references. They reflect shared experiences and values in our culture.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Care to share the empirical basis—surveys, polls, etc.—for your assertion that “almost everyone knows the references” you mention, Laurie?
Last I heard, average Americans could neither name the capitol of Kansas—Topeka—nor locate it on a map (whether the sample included Kansans is not clear). And they seem to believe that “culture” is something that comes in a yogurt container.
I’m not at all sure that 8 in 10 wouldn’t be just as inclined to associate “I have a dream” with Malcolm X or Barack Obama as with M.L. King, or “ask not” with Ronald Reagan as with J.F.K.
I’d love to stand corrected on that, but am hardly inclined to take the word of someone who finds Meatloaf comparable to Dustin Hoffman for it (no more than I’m prepared to accept at face value your claim that you’re neither Fred nor plagiarized him).
Ultimately, it seems to me that you and those for whom you’ve figuratively appointed yourself to speak are of the school of best represented by the famous declaration that “whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun.”
BTW, can you—without googling—name the person who made that statement?
April 9th, 2008 at 11:20 am
That’s a rather lame dodge, Laurie. The question is: should William T. Sherman have cited his source? If so, did you accuse him of plagiarism for making a cultural reference like you did Charley Arthur? If not, why not?
It’s an easy question, and, lest you forget, you’re the one who came trolling around here looking for a fight. Whyn’t you answer it?
April 9th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Yeah, and we’re just supposed to take her word for the Lenny Bruce “quote” she offered, too, Prof. As in, no source cited.
And no indication that the Scrunt’s in the least aware that the hot lead enema bit is a 15-minute monologue focused on a particular topic. Less still is there a hint that she might know what the topic actually was.
What you’ve got to understand about the Scrunt, Prof, is that she NEVER has anything with which to back up her “opinions.” It’s all just vacuous assertions of the sort you’re presently confronting.
This is so partly because she’s an habitual liar and partly because she’s guilty of the most egregious sorts of intellectual sloth in the 1st degree (that’s to say that, like most self-styled Good Americans, she’s too fucking lazy to bother actually knowing anything about a subject before expressing the strongest possible “opinions” about it).
In the current instance, she not only knows nothing at all about Lenny Bruce’s hot lead enema routine, she knows nothing about Bruce himself (she’s not even sure whether she’s seen “Lenny,” let alone read any of the material by and about him).
From this position of abject ignorance—and marked disinterest—that she first presumes to “sum up” his work and its significance (or lack of it), then—like the aspirant brownshirt she’s long since proven herself to be—she pronounces her conclusions to be reflective of those reached by “299,000,000 other Americans.”
Against this backdrop, your ending with the quote from Hermann Goering was brilliantly appropriate.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Ben, Metro, Rock, Prof, et al:
What a bunch of nonsense. You say the “hot lead enema” was straight frome a Lenny Bruce routine, later identified as being 15 minutes long and shouldn’t be interpreted as a threat, if one recognizes it, which only a moron wouldn’t because it’s a “cultural reference”. (Is that what was portrayed in the movie and is that your source? Some of us were alive and reading newspapers and magazines when Lenny Bruce became notorious. You might not know the phrase was used in many routines, some much shorter, some seemingly endless.)
You say that anyone who doesn’t recognize the phrase is a moron because it’s a cultural reference. When I say it’s obscure and can’t be a cultural reference, you say a cultural reference doesn’t have to be recognized by a large group and that some large groups of Americans don’t know our most famous quotations. You offer no citation for that information yet demand I give my references for my every sentence.
You block everyone else who posted here with opinions that differ from yours and then say I’m a self-appointed spokesperson. You say I’m Fred, who I don’t know at all and if I am not Fred, I’m, at the very least, married to Fred.
I can only conclude that the argument about the Lenny Bruce phrase, as a cultural reference, makes anyone unfamiliar with it a moron is bogus and a silly mind game. Charley Arthur made the statement intending to sound intimidating, which is clear from the tone of the rest of his comment. Whether he knew where it came from or not makes no difference. He made no suggestion that the phrase was not intended to be a literal and deadly description of what he intended to do to the man. It’s absurd for others to insert Lenny Bruce’s meaning for Charley’s words now. He intended Crowell to interpret the statement as an ugly, violent threat.
Ben, Charley could have cited the phrase for those who might misunderstand but he either chose not to or didn’t know the source. If some commenter wants to steal obscure phrases from another to make a point on a blog read by a few dozen people, I’m not interested in accusing that person of plagiarism. Who would care? I think it’s not ethical but it isn’t material either. You’re not stupid. You knew this when you asked the question.
Now if that same person wants to steal any part of another’s work, publish it, is in a position to require students to buy it for a profit, that’s another story.