"A shot across the bow"

No time to do this injustice justice, but the idea of having a congressional advisory board to "ensure" government-approved use of Federal grant money to academic programs is not a shot across the bows of the "radical Middle East studies lobby" that neocon Daniel Pipes describes, but a shot across the bow of academic freedom. If Congress wants to cut funding, that's one thing. But to channel funding to congressionally-approved programs only is a serious violation of academic honesty and is basically a bribe to grant-hungry researchers to put a pro-U.S.-policy slant on their work. It won't kill academic freedom or anything, but it's fair warning to anyone who wants to challenge policy that they are not approved and that the government will actively fund their competitors.

God forbid anyone criticize the war in Iraq or America's Israeli policy. And if this blog disappears tomorrow, y'all know why.