Story and interview here; any Arizona folks know more details about this peculiar incident? As Matthew Smith (Philosophy, Yale)--who called the story to my attention--remarks:
"The main concern I have with this is that the student's threats are the product of a broader campaign to equate dissent - particularly vigorous and public expression of criticisms of Bush's policies - with threat. We have seen this before here in the United States and of course it is a hallmark of the totalitarian state. I am not claiming that the US is a totalitarian state, of course. Rather, I am simply adding to the already substantial case that the right in the US is now fearless about publicly adopting (as opposed to covertly adopting) tactics that characterize totalitarian states like the USSR and Cuba, as well as quasi-totalitarian states like Apartheid-era South Africa, etc. Anyway, the mere fact that such threats are made seems to me to be somewhat unfortunate and perhaps is an indication of something more serious."
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