Chutzpah

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, July 11 — Columnist Jon Wiener is harshly critical of lawyer Alan Dershowitz's failed effort to get California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to block publication by the University of California Press of Beyond Chutzpah, a book by Norman Finkelstein.

Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors, is the author of several controversial books, including The Holocaust Industry, which criticizes Jewish organizations and Israel for exploiting the Holocaust and Jewish suffering. He is an assistant professor of political science at the Vincentians’ DePaul University in Chicago.

Beyond Chutzpah is harshly critical of Dershowitz — mostly for his arguments defending Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Weiner, who teaches history at the University of California-Irvine, described Dershowitz's “campaign,” which included numerous other letters of protest to University Press officials, as “simply unacceptable,” especially coming from a “civil liberties attorney.”

Schiavo Scholarship

ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, July 9 — Ave Maria University has established a scholarship in Terri Schiavo's name for students plan to study for the priesthood.

The Terri Schindler-Schiavo Scholarship aims “to carry on Terri's name and assist future priests and laypersons in creating and developing a Catholic culture of life.” Terri Schiavo died March 31 from dehydration after her feeding tube was disconnected by court order.

Numerous priests and religious gave comfort to her family and helped opposed the removal of her feeding tube as a violation of Christian principles.

Ave Maria, which graduated its first class this spring, has been conducting classes in temporary facilities pending completion of its campus next year.

Otherwise Permissible

ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 4 — A federal judge has ruled that a policy of Florida's Lee County School district prohibiting ads on the school grounds that officials deem “obscene, libelous, political or religious” is unconstitutional.

“The policy operates to exclude materials that deal with an otherwise permissible subject solely because the materials address the subject from a religious viewpoint,” wrote U.S. District Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington. “For this reason…the policy is unconstitutional.”

Student Center

CENTRE DAILY TIMES, July 6 — Centre County Pa. Judge Thomas Kistler has ruled that the municipality of State College cannot block the construction of a Catholic student center to serve Pennsylvania State University. The suit was brought by a neighborhood association.

Student centers are not among the land uses allowed under the area's zoning, but churches are. Judge Kistler ruled that any building devoted to religion should be considered a church, at least in a legal sense.

The project would supplant three established homes with a 21,773-square-foot building with 22% of interior space committed to worship.

Losing Support

REUTERS, July 4 — Armin Luistro, president of Manila's De La Salle University, have joined calls for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to step down amid economic woes and charges of corruption and election cheating, reported the wire service.

Reuters said Luistro's stand is indicative of a loss for Arroyo of “some support from the middle class and the Catholic Church — two of the key constituencies.”