I'm Rubber and You're Glue. Whatever You Say Bounces Off Me and Sticks to You!

A psychology prof at the University of Ottawa uses a version of the above-mentioned schoolyard taunt to diss Steyn and defend an a-Houle. (It's a letter to the editor in the current issue of Maclean's, so no linky at the mo):

MARK STEYN referred to University of Ottawa provost Francois Houle's profession as a university teacher as a "taxpayer-funded, tenured mediocrity." The description actually applies equally well to Mark Steyn: Maclean's receives federal money from the Canadian Magazine Fund, so it is partially taxpayer-funded. As for tenure, I remember many columns from Mark Steyn defending his right to give his opinion without risking getting sacked or censored--that would be the equivalent of the spirit of tenure in universities. As for mediocrity, the demagogy in his piece on Ann Coulter's visit speaks for itself.

I'm not sure--is the chap with the fancy letters after his name agreeing that provost Houle is a "tax-payer-funded, tenured mediocrity"? From the fuzzy way his letter is worded, one could certainly come away with that impression. As for other fuzziness--I refer to the professor's thinking, of course--Maclean's is no university and Steyn has nothing that even comes close to tenure. In fact, both the magazine and the man almost got sacked and censored by the tax-payer funded "human rights" racket, which, had things gone differently, could well have ordered the magazine to publish a lengthy piece of pro-Islamic propogranda penned by the Canadian Islamic Congress and banished Steyn's writings from Canadian publications--forever.

If you want to talk about demagogy, Dr. Messier, that speaks for itself.