I am reminded of my favorite Abe Lincoln story. A feller was tarred, feathered and marched out of town. “If not for the honor of it,” he was heard to remark, “I’d just as soon have walked.”
Anyway, on with the blog.
We’re No. 170! We’re No. 170!
No, that’s not the Gator football ranking. (Although the way things are going it could very well be.)
Rather it’s UF’s ranking among universities that value and support free speech.
This according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which compiles the rankings.
One hundred and seventy. What a tarred-and-feathered honor.
It means that they in Tigert Hall have well and truly guzzled The Great DeSanitizer’s kool-aid.
As per an account in The Sun, one of the factors in UF’s abysmally low ranking “is the number of ‘sanctioned scholars’ over multiple years, a term referring to investigating or penalizing professors and other staff for ideological reasons.”
Which has basically been UF’s default position ever since being Woke became a no-no.
As if to add insult to injury, upstate rival FUS landed No. 3 in the rankings, just behind the University of Virginia and Michigan Tech.
An indication perhaps that not all Florida universities have been willing to march to the anti-Rons drumbeat in his just don’t say it Free State Of Floriduh.
“Each of the top three schools have a ‘Good’ speech climate and actively defended free expression during campus speech controversies. None of the three schools have a perfect record, but their actions to uphold free speech contributed to their position in the 2025 College Free Speech Rankings.” FIRE commented.
I can’t believe I’m about to say this:
Go Noles! Boo Gators!
Shoot bullets not words
Given UF’s abysmal free speech record, it may not be wise to shoot your mouth off on campus these days. But it may soon be ok to shoot your, um, gun off.
After the most recent spate of school shootings, state Rep. Randy Fine, R-I’m The Great Sanitizer Squared, is promising to fix that nagging little problem.
Because clearly, the solution to campus shootings isn’t fewer guns on campus. It’s more. A lot more.
As Fine told USA Today recently, “there is nothing magic when you cross from non-university to university property. If you have the right to carry across the street from a college campus why shouldn’t you have that right on the college campus? We’ve seen that the government can’t protect everyone, everywhere.”
Which is a very good point. What “purely evil” would be campus shooter is going to chance killing kids if he knows that there my be a lot of “good guys” with guns on hand ready to shoot back?
That’s just Public Safety 101 in this here Free State Of Floriduh.
Fine has to win his election bid to the Florida Senate in order to carry out his the-more-guns-the-better-promise. But he’s already got the support of an organization with a lot of, um, fire power.
“Even though Florida claims to be the freest state in the nation it prosecutes Floridians who want to openly carry firearms,” said Louis Valdes, mouthpiece for Gun Owners of America.
It’s a brave new world in our FSOF: Watch what you say on campus…but better pack some heat with your (state desanitized) text books just in case.
FreeGNV 