You've got to be kidding me! California taxpayers are financing a center for "the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military"? I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. Thank the Lord that I don't live in California - as if those loons don't support enough weird things already - now this?Carter's addendum:
The fact that California taxes go to fund the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military rather than for, oh let’s say, a “Center for the Study of Virtuous Heroes in the Military” doesn’t really surprise me. Still, I think it’s a sign of our nation’s misplaced priorities that we spend more money and attention on the role of sexual identity than we do on understanding the importance of virtue and character in our military. Perhaps, though, I’m simply out of touch. Maybe in focusing on such core values as honor, courage and commitment I’ve missed the significance that transgender tolerance plays in virtue ethics.
Many bloggers, of late, are gleefully denouncing the bias and shoddy research of the Mainstream Media (MSM). But what about shoddy blogging? Sims baldly states, and Carter echoes, that California taxes fund the Center--without a shred of evidence. Let's dig a little deeper.
Below the Center's Mission Statement, we find: The Center is an official research unit of the Institute for Social, Behavioral, & Economic Research of University of California. (See the handy organizational chart here.) Where does its money come from? I decided to take the time to actually find out, and contacted the program. Their funding is extramural, from private grants or donations.
But that doesn't sit well with the "easy" story--the one that took about ten seconds to coagulate on one blog, and a couple weeks to spread to another, and who knows where it'll go from here. My hope is nowhere, because it's a non-story. The moral: don't look to bloggers as a model for good journalistic research; oftentimes, we wear our biases like pajamas.
[Note: an important quote was removed at the request of its originator. I'm not a professional journalist, so I won't bother to use anonymous sources.]
3 comments:
Belkin, as the director, probably knows his own sources of funding; note that there are 14 separate research programs, and the report doesn't specify which funding goes where.
"In fact, there is not a single shred of evidence – apart from Mr. Belkin’s claims otherwise – that taxpayer funds are not being used to support the program."
There is the quote on the "How Can I Help" page, which I cited already:
The Center relies on donations to fulfill its mission.... Please make all checks payable to the "Univeristy of California Regents"...
The Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.
I emailed to get a copy of their non-profit statement, since that would include a list of their funding sources. That, for me, would settle the question. Belkin is paid by the school, but for his other duties as a professor of political science; there is no indication that he receives pay for his work with the Center, or, if he is compensated, that it comes from governmental funds. Grants can be written for all sorts of things, including technology, facilities usage, monetary compensation, etc.
[cross-posted]
It has been further explained to me that ISBER (the umbrella) merely manages finances for the CSSMM; they oversee, but do not underwrite, its activities. Clearly, if it receives any funding from the state, the amount is infrastructural and insignificant--hardly worth a ruckus.
Post a Comment