Duke case reducks: One of the good/bad things about our system is the time it takes for justice to prevail. It took far too long to get the Duke Lacrosse players off the hook. It took far too long to get Nifong on the hook. But Duke University, the gang of 88, the Durham cops and administration got off. Well, not so fast. The civil suits are building and the most likely suspects are facing the ruin of their pensions, loss of jobs, and judgments galore against them. More law suits are coming. KC Johnson of Durham in Wonderland and Lie Stoppers have the juicy details.

But in actuality they have been reporting on a seemingly tangential issue, one of our national diseases called "nobody fuks with my pension," an incurable illness. This disease dominates all bureaucracies from labor unions to corporate multi-nationals, from the smallest town to the most complex parts of our government. Once anyone perceives that their pension "might" be in danger the coverup begins and nobody will talk. What then occurs is that as more and more bureaucrats from more and more entities get involved, a spider web of lies are told; more and more underground caves are constructed in order to "cover the trail;" and the dirty party is in full swing. This bureaucratic octopus oozes its impenetrable ink into every crevice and canyon in order to cover completely the construction of a labyrinth of lies beneath. Once a maze is constructed you get Duke, Durham, and Abu Ghraib. Eighty percent of any panorama of bureaucrats are incompetents of various degrees hired for reasons other than knowledge or competence who are always afraid of being "found out." This fear of being found out is in all of us but those of us who aren't too fearful quash this emotion every day and then get to work. (I begin each day with that fear. So do my friends.)

My favorite current example of the assimilation of mediocrity and the fear of being found out is the UC Santa Cruz case in which a the faculty recruiting force sought out a lesbian (and only a lesbian) for the job as Chancellor. One was found and hired at $275K plus a moving expense of $65K. This new chancellor then insisted that her "lesbian lover" be hired for $192K to a position that did not exist yet. The Board of Regents dutifully created a tenured position that paid the amount demanded, a $60K "transition" payment plus all moving expenses. The PC Board of Regents, in meetings held behind closed doors, rubber stamped these insane salaries and perks at a financially strapped public university. Nobody blinked. So the new Chancellor spent another $600K in tax payer money to fix her house. Sixteen months later the lesbian chancellor, depressed when her financial and gender deal with the University came under "watch dog" scrutiny, and after telling friends that she was being singled out because she was a lesbian and a woman, killed herself by jumping off a roof. Her lover is suing to get her estate. Nice, huh?
3. At Duke---and everywhere else---we have useless departments staffed by agenda driven incompetents. The sorry truth is that these incompetents have Ph.Ds in specialties with no right to exist: feminist studies (how many of the "88" are from this department?), anything to do with "La Raza," urban studies and so on. It comes as no surprise that the curriculum in these empty "specialties" is composed of "victimization" subjects and purposes.

When useless people are gathered together they eventually become a mob. Once mobilized they become powerful and the only thing these undistinguished people can do is smear somebody; "get them" fired or barred from future employment; or go on strike for higher pay. They are not capable of lifting anyone or anything. Their only function is to bring other people down to "size". The book writing guys could write books that cover this "pension protection" situation, if they choose.

BTW any discussion of this nature must include tenure or any other device, like seniority and union protection, that prevents employee replacement