Among the numerous comments from Left, Right, Center, and Outer Space on my article the AAUP’s fanciful reconstruction of “academic freedom,” there is one that deserves a place in the National Archives. Or if not there, in the Phi Beta Cons Hall of Fame. Grover Furr is an English professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey. I gather he has a certain reputation among connoisseurs of fringe politics, cemented by a speech he once gave at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Essex County, in which he explained that the reason Stalin “is vilified” is that he gave “exploiters all over the world…something to worry about.” (My thanks to Winston Lyme for this spotting this.) I wouldn’t want to extrapolate from him to other professors who are pleased with the AAUP’s stand on academic freedom, but Professor Furr provided perhaps the firmest declaration of intent to misuse academic authority that I have ever seen when he avowed, “For example, I make a point of relating the American imperialist aggression against Iraq to whatever subject I teaching. As with everything in one’s teaching it’s important to do this responsibly and with care.”