Gender-Neutral Loos

Jason sends us word that the University of Vermont is providing gender neutral bathrooms for its students and staff:

[These are designed] to accommodate transgendered people, as well as those with some disabilities. The four single bathrooms in the new Dudley H. Davis Center - each with a toilet, sink, shower and lockable door - cost about $2,500 a piece to build. Their wall signs identify each as "gender neutral restroom."

"It's about inclusivity and accessibility and the importance of meeting all people's needs, not just a few," said Annie Stevens, assistant vice president for student and campus life.

"Not just a few"? I would think that 98% of the students on campus would be adequately accommodated by traditional rest rooms.

What's next, we wonder. Perhaps separate bathrooms for the obese who find the usual facilities a bit too confining would be a good idea, and maybe, if it's about "inclusivity," the University might also consider luxury accommodations for those who are accustomed to them and standard facilities for those who are not.

It's easy to poke fun at the things the politically correct deem important, but seriously - does the University really suppose that gay and lesbian students who are not "out" will want to be seen using the new facilities? If they're reluctant to use them, and they doubtless would be if they're keeping their orientation secret, how many transgendered students on Vermont's campus will ultimately benefit from these $2500 rest rooms?

RLC

Inside Job

Byron passes along this excellent piece of analysis by Peter Beinart at The New Republic of the left-wing blogosphere's relationship to the Democratic party. It's an important read for anyone interested in how the left has morphed from political "outsiders" back in the sixties to political "insiders" today and how it exerts its considerable influence on the Democratic party.

RLC

Amusing Irony

Who do you suppose wrote the following:

"I have a hankering after what is actually true.

"We are confronted by those who deny the evidence of the real world and instead bend reality around a dogmatic belief system handed down by tradition.

"Sceptical rational enquiry is always the best approach. We don't have to follow the herd, ... instead we can think independently and be truly open minded. That means asking questions, being open to real corroborated evidence."

Sounds like it was written by an Intelligent Design advocate calling upon people to 1) Value truth above blind adherence to a materialist methodology; 2) To consider evidence rather than reflexively bowing to Darwinian dogma handed down by teachers who often don't themselves really know the evidence against the theory; 3) Urging people to think for themselves and not allow themselves to be herded into the corral of naturalism by their materialist professors, and 4) Encouraging skepticism and criticism of the established order.

That's what it sounds like, but in fact, it was written by the one man who does more to stifle and suppress all of these worthy aspirations than perhaps anyone else in the Western world: Richard Dawkins.

HT:Uncommon Descent.

Pretty funny.

RLC

Assault on Academic Freedom

Here's more on the upcoming film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The film is a documentary that reveals the extent of the Darwinian inquisition against any and all heretics, no matter how slight their deviation from the materialist orthodoxy. It also reveals, apparently, how Darwinism, alone among all intellectual disciplines, is slowly gaining state sanction and protection from any and all challenges.

RLC