NU prof denies Holocaust -- look at the name ... sound familiar?

[Bozita]

Could Arthur Butz be related to Earl Butz?


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0602070235feb07,1,7168422.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true

NU rips Holocaust denial
President calls prof an embarrassment but plans no penalty

By Jodi S. Cohen
Tribune higher education reporter
Published February 7, 2006

Northwestern University President Henry Bienen said Monday that a professor's recent comments denying that the Holocaust happened are "a contemptible insult to all decent and feeling people" and an embarrassment to the university.

Bienen commented days after tenured engineering professor Arthur Butz commented in the Tribune and in the Iranian press that he agreed with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's assertions that the Holocaust is a myth.

Iran's semi-official Mehr News Agency and the English-language Tehran Times have published Butz's comments, promoting the Northwestern professor as one of the world scholars who support the Iranian president. Ahmadinejad, who also has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," recently ordered the restart of uranium enrichment, raising fears that Tehran could try to build a nuclear weapon.

Butz's comments did not address the Iranian president's statements about present-day Israel or nuclear issues.

more...


Here's some of the Wikipedia stuff on Earl Butz:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Lauer_Butz

Earl Lauer Butz (born July 3, 1909) is a former United States government official who served as Secretary of Agriculture under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

Born in Albion, Indiana, Butz is an alumnus of Purdue University, receiving first a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture in 1932, then a doctorate in agricultural economics in 1937. In 1948, he became vice president of the American Agricultural Economics Association, and three years later was named to the same post at the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers.

Butz was appointed Assistant Secretary of Agriculture by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954, and in that same year was also named chairman of the United States delegation to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He left both of the aforementioned posts in 1957, when he became the Dean of Agriculture at his alma mater, Purdue University; in 1968 he was promoted to the positions of Dean of Education and vice president of the university's research foundation.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Butz as Secretary of Agriculture, a position in which he continued to serve after Nixon resigned as the result of the Watergate scandal in 1974. In 1976, Butz became the center of a controversy himself, when it was revealed that he frequently told jokes that demeaned various racial and religious groups; he reportedly ridiculed Pope Paul VI for his stand on birth control, quipping that "he no play-a da game, he no make-a da rules," drawing fire from Roman Catholics, especially those of Italian-American heritage.

Butz allegedy uttered the following comment while on board Air Force One during Ford's 1976 re-election campaign, "I'll tell you what the coloreds want. It's three things: first, a tight pussy; second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to shit." American newspapers and news magazines wanted to cover this, especially after the resulting scandal resulted in his firing, but found it impossible to print a statement so racist and obscene. Some paraphrased, saying for example that Butz had commented on the desire of black Americans to have "good sex, comfortable shoes, and a warm place to go the bathroom." Others stated that he had said something too obscene to print, and invited their readers to contact the editors if they wanted more information. The negative publicity from the statement forced Butz to resign from his Cabinet post on October 4, 1976.

On May 22, 1981, Butz pleaded guilty on federal tax evasion charges, for having underreported income he had earned in 1978. On June 19 he was sentenced to five years in prison; however, all but 30 days of the term was suspended. He was also fined $10,000 and ordered to pay $61,183 in civil penalties.

As of 2006, Butz is the oldest living former Cabinet member, regardless of department or administration served in.

[Old and In the Way]

1. Earl Butz - the precusor to the New Republican Syndicate.

He had it all, didn't he? The bigotry, the corruption, and the stupidity. With role models like Nixon, Butz, and Watts (sounds like a law firm of ugly crooks), it's no wonder that the Republican Syndicate has institutionalized the very worst in America as their operating values.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[eggplant]

2. I fail to see the connection.

Can you explain the connection between Arthur Butz, who is the subject of the article, and Earl Butz, whose wiki page you quote?

Arthur Butz has his own wiki page which essentially repeats what appears in the Tribune article, and neither wiki page references the other.

[Bozita]

4. I'm not connecting ... I'm asking if there is a connect

[northzax]

5. Seymour Butz, more likely

what a schmuck. really. maybe he should stick to electrical engineering and leave the history to the historians? You don't see me publishing articles in the Journal of non-electrical Engineering questioning the conductivity of copper, do you?

by the way, I just read his article on the subject, it is incoherent and uses some really tortuous logic. I mean really tortuous.

[Cleita]

6. I thought it was Pat Buchanan who first said that there really

wasn't a holocaust, that it was overblown.