Georgetown 85, Notre Dame 82, final in 2 OTs. :(

Double overtime… after ND missed a potential game winning layup at the buzzer.

The Irish send it to overtime on a four-point play with 1.8 seconds left! 69 to 69!

ND trails, 36 to 28 at halftime. They are lucky Georgetown missed so many layups or it would be worse. The Irish are doomed unless their defense improves markedly. The photo is of people cheering for the halftime show, not the game. :)

GOOO IRISH, BEEEAT HOYAS!!! P.S. Chris Drewry sucks! :)

It’s official, the Disney/Pixar deal I mentioned yesterday has gone through.

Disney bought Pixar studios for $7.4 Billion. Pixar CEO Steve Jobs will become a member of the Disney board of directors, and John Lasseter, a former Disney employee and the creative genius behind Pixars films, will become the chief creative officer of the combined animation studios. Lasseter will also oversee the design of attractions at Disney parks.

Pixar shareholders will be awarded 2.3 shares of Disney stock for each share of Pixar stock.

Guestblogger: David Kreutz

Dane and Lisa point me to StuffOnMyCat.com (slogan: “stuff + cats = awesome”). Heh. Funny and cute. But I take issue with “Cutest battle… ever.” I think Toby and Saddam might have something to say about that.

My Contracts prof, Cathleen Kaveny, argues that President Bush “sets up a false dichotomy” when he says he wants judges who “will strictly apply the Constitution and laws, not legislate from the bench.” My Freedom of Speech prof (and many of my classmates’ CrimLaw prof), Rick Garnett, responds. (Hat tip: Alex Talcott.)

I was planning to attend, and liveblog, Father Jenkins’s speech to the student body this afternoon, but I overslept. (Yeah, I know — sleeping through a 12:30 PM event — totally lame. Stupid nocturnal sleeping patterns!) Anyway, firsthand reports from anyone who was there will be much appreciated.

P.S. Yes, I’m more upset about missing the speech than about missing Business Associations. ;)

UPDATE: Here’s an article from today’s Observer about yesterday’s Jenkins address to the faculty:

University President Father John Jenkins delivered a firm yet open-ended statement to faculty Monday about the interaction of academic freedom and Catholic character at Notre Dame, calling the University’s sponsorship of events inconsistent with Catholic teaching “problematic” while asking for continued dialogue before he announces a formal policy.

Jenkins said events sponsored by the University or one of its units, including academic departments, that are deemed to conflict or appear to conflict with Catholic values “should not be allowed at Notre Dame,” making clear his opposition to the sexually explicit anti-violence play “The Vagina Monologues.” Monday’s speech was the first of three addresses the first-year University president scheduled for this week aimed at soliciting feedback from faculty, students and alumni about striking the correct balance between academic freedom and Catholic identity.

“While any restriction on expression must be reluctant and restrained, I believe that, in some situations, given the distinctive character and aspirations of Notre Dame, it may be necessary to establish certain boundaries, while defending the appropriate exercise of academic freedom,” Jenkins said.

Pausing only for brief sips of water during the 50-minute speech to a nearly full Leighton Concert Hall in the DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts, Jenkins was steady and straightforward as he spoke candidly about the campus presence of “The Vagina Monologues” and the Queer Film Festival - events entering their third and fifth years at Notre Dame, respectively - in the context of academic freedom.

Rather than issuing a firm policy, Jenkins discussed his convictions and then encouraged feedback from faculty. He later declined to provide a specific timetable for his final decision or to predict how broad his eventual policy on the events will be.

“I don’t want to speculate on how much it will cover and how much it won’t cover - we’ll just listen to responses and see what the best decision is,” he said. “I want to give people a chance to respond, and I think that will take six to eight weeks just to give them plenty of time. It’d be nice to have some sort of resolution this semester, but I’m not going to commit myself to a definite timetable.”

While the permanent fates of both “The Vagina Monologues” and the Queer Film Festival will not be determined until Jenkins has heard and examined the opinions of various constituencies on campus, he said this year’s “Monologues” will be held in a classroom setting without ticket sales and the festival will go on under a new name.

Unlike the “Monologues,” which Jenkins said he has “difficulty seeing” as “the appropriate means” to the ends of promoting female empowerment and eliminating violence against women, the Queer Film Festival prompted two more specific concerns from the president.

Jenkins said the festival’s title - which some members of the University community understood as celebrating a homosexual lifestyle - and its content, which some said neglected to include the Catholic position on homosexuality, were his primary concerns, both of which have been resolved through discussions with the Film, Television and Theatre Department.

“Both of those have been addressed as I understand it,” he said.

He declined to specify the exact replacement title for the festival.

Jenkins repeatedly praised “The Vagina Monologues” in his speech for the play’s objectives - “that women should be aided to affirm their own bodies, the gift of their sexuality and their identity as women” - but criticized its attempt to meet them.

“The concern that I and many others have is that in the Vagina Monologues … there is no hint of central elements of Catholic sexual morality. The work contains graphic descriptions of homosexual, extra-marital heterosexual and auto-erotic experiences.”

“The Vagina Monologues” will be held in a to-be-determined classroom setting this year and will be open to the University community, Jenkins said.

“The point is it’s an academic exercise sponsored by an academic department in an academic setting,” he said.

That sponsorship for the long term, however, was exactly what the president said prompted his disapproval of events deemed inconsistent with “certain fundamental values of a Catholic university.”

“The fact that [”The Vagina Monologues” and Queer Film Festival] have been sponsored annually by units of the University, and have been widely publicized, prominently associates the University’s name with them,” Jenkins said, saying this publicity can mislead the public. “Such occurrences suggest the University endorses or at least finds compatible with its values certain views which are not in fact compatible. The wide publicity and prominence given such events tends to instrumentalize our collective identity and our higher mission.

“The concern here, as I said, is not with censorship, but with sponsorship.”

Theology professor Jean Porter said Jenkins’ statements about sponsorship seemed to place severe restrictions on the activities of departments and other units of the University. During the 20-minute question-and-answer session following Jenkins’ address, Porter echoed her colleagues’ fears about the president’s definition of academic freedom, which she interpreted as protecting faculty members when acting individually but restricting them when acting collectively.

“And that, I have seen, seems to be a very narrow construction of academic freedom, and I have to admit frankly I’m not sure how academic freedom can really exist if that constraint is taken seriously - particularly since much of school and academic life is carried out collectively as members of a department or unit,” she said.

To avoid narrowing his focus solely to events pertaining to Catholic teaching on issues of sexuality, Jenkins said, he mentioned in his speech hypothetical examples of other conferences that would be unacceptable for the University to host on the grounds of their own conflicts with Catholic teaching - including “Childish Fancy and Adult Ignorance: Theism as Delusion and Psychosis,” “The Moral Legitimacy of Infanticide and Euthanasia” and “The Moral Acceptability and Strategic Value of First-strike Nuclear Attack.”

“Again, the problem would be that this Catholic institution would seem to be sponsoring an event that supports or appears to support a position clearly and egregiously contrary to the certain central values of Catholicism,” he said.

Seated in the auditorium’s front row for the duration of the address, University President Emeritus Father Theodore Hesburgh said afterward that the discussions represent a constructive step for the Notre Dame community.

“I think it brings the University to what a University should be - a place of serious discussion, a discussion founded not just on emotion but on principle, a discussion that tries to avoid prejudice or unfairness,” Hesburgh said, “but which tries to bring to the fore the light of the object, which is truth.”

Hesburgh, who served as president from 1952 to 1987, the longest such tenure in Notre Dame history, said the University ultimately benefits from differing opinions.

“I’m happy the discussion is open, and I’m sure it will bear good fruit in time, and I don’t think it’s a question of personal animus or anything of that sort,” Hesburgh said. “I think we have to respect each other and each other’s opinions against the backbone of where we began as a Catholic university.”

And here’s an AP article about the subject. (Hat tip: Nick.)

UPDATE: Lisa, who was in the Monologues last year and will be again this year, comments:

The Vagina Monologues will be in Debartolo 101 on Feb. 13 and 14, and in Debartolo 101 or 102 on Feb. 15. This was announced to those of us in the cast on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in comments on my previous post, I think this comment from Monologues opponent Kate is interesting and provocative:

Certainly Fr. Jenkins’ statement makes clear that he believes that Notre Dame’s sponsorship of a production of The Vagina Monologues is inconsistent with its mission to promote Catholic values. And as a Church that believes in the universality of truth and morality, it follows that the Church would prefer if the ideas it were rejects were not embraced at all. So, yes, in effect what Jenkins’ words imply is that the University would prefer that no one sponsor a play like the Vagina Monologues that includes a scene wherein a woman “educates” an underage girl about sex. I have seen the play (and I imagine you have) and I have to admit I found it creepy. That said, I don’t really know that I buy the idea that particuar pieces of art necessarily promote certain values or that a Catholic university in order to fulfill its mission has to reject art that depicts objectionable behavior. As my boss said, if this is the standard there may not be a single movie the University can permit to be shown because there aren’t many out there (outside the animated realm) that don’t include morally objectionable behavior.

My problem with the Monologues? I have no idea how they forward the cause of preventing violence against women (an endeavor that Jenkins explicitly said he endorses, it should be said). And I should say too that I know some of the women involved in bringing the Vagina Monologues to campus and when I asked them why they thought the Vagina Monologues was the best way to take a stand against violence they couldn’t really answer me — but they could articular that they really though Notre Dame should be a Vagina Monologues school and that we might be able to get someone famous here. My take? They want it because it’s trendy. I understand that Eve Ensler has promoted the play as an anti-violence piece of art (and I have to say I would have liked to hear her justification for that) but I am rather confused about the connection. It seems to me that people just like what they perceive as the “shock factor” of saying “vagina” over and over again. I should say too, though, that I find it amusing when opponents of the Monologues (who seem overwhelmingly to be middle aged male ND alumni) refuse to actually use the word “vagina” when referring to it (typing it as “the V—– Monologues”). “Vagina” is not an objectionable word. Be a grown-up.

She later added:

Neither the Monologues nor the QFF are cancelled. The Monologues will still be presented but the setting will be “academic” and it will be free of charge. I think this is actually a good idea — it allows for thoughtful critique of the play, which should be encouraged in an academic setting. The QFF will be renamed and the content “limited.” That, I’m sure, will be a nightmare, as Fr. Jenkins gave no indication in his speech about who would be authorized to decide what art is suitable for presentation at the university and what is not.

I agree that “thoughtful critique of the play…in an academic setting” is a good idea, in principle. But by making the play “free of charge,” isn’t Notre Dame defeating the one purpose of the VMs that we can all agree on — donating money to prevent violence against women? I’d like to see the university make a sizeable donation to, say, a Catholic women’s shelter, to make up the difference. Perhaps ND is indeed doing this and it just wasn’t included in the news accounts. Does anyone know?

UPDATE 2: Becky/ALN is “very, very pleased” and calls this “a real and tangible victory for those who oppose the Monologues.” She also links to the full text of Jenkins’s speech to the faculty. (And here is the South Bend Tribune’s article in this morning’s paper.)

As for me… I find that Father Jenkins’s list of “other conferences that would be unacceptable for the University to host” increases my misgivings about this decision. The notion that Notre Dame might be unwilling to host an event discussing, say, “The Moral Acceptability and Strategic Value of First-strike Nuclear Attack” is profoundly disturbing to me. Shouldn’t we be able to openly discuss provocative issues like that at a university, even a Catholic one? (With alternative views presented, of course?) What about an event promoting the idea that the Iraq war was morally justified? The Vatican, after all, was opposed to the war. So, would such an event qualify as “conflict[ing] with Catholic teaching”? Where do we draw the line? Who draws it, and how? I realize the “slippery slope” is a slippery and iffy argument, but I am genuinely concerned about the road Notre Dame is going down here. And, as Kate says, the idea “that a Catholic university in order to fulfill its mission has to reject art that depicts objectionable behavior” seems rather over-the-top.

Father Jenkins’s big speech on “Academic Freedom and Catholic Character,” addressing the Vaginagate and Queergate controversies, is Tuesday from 12:30 to 1:45 PM at Washington Hall.

3L Becky Austen, who is staunchly opposed to the Vagina Monologues, is reading the tea leaves, and she likes what she sees:

Fr. Jenkins met with the faculty today to discuss academic freedom and Catholic character. I’ve been informed that he told the faculty that anything that takes place at ND is perceived as being sponsored or endorsed by ND and that events that are antithetical to Church teaching should not be presented. He also said that the Monologues make sexual objects out of women.

This is looking really good. And boy will I celebrate if cancellation actually takes place.

She previously posted about the issue here.

Okay… y’all are disgusting :) so I am declaring myself the winner of the previous contest. Hey, I’m just as impartial as an NFL referee!

Now then, on to the next contest… shown here are the groomsmen: from left, Casey, Sören, Sean, Tim and David…

Suggestions?

It’s six down, eight to go in Gonzaga’s quest to go undefeated in West Coast Conference play for only the second time in school history.

The Zags, tied for 7th with Illinois in the latest coaches’ poll and #7 all by themselves in the AP poll, avenged one of their two WCC losses from last season and improved to 6-0 in conference, 16-3 overall, with a 84-75 win at San Francisco Monday night.

Gonzaga star Adam Morrison scored 41 points on 14-for-23 field-goal shooting, including 5-of-7 from three-point land. He also made all eight of his free throws and had nine rebounds. According to the AP, it was Morrison’s “third 40-point game of the season and fourth in five games,” proving that Adam Morrison isn’t just good, he’s so good that he defies the laws of mathematics! Heh. (I think they mean it’s his fourth 30-point effort in five games.) Anyway, it was almost like Morrison — who scored “only” 16 points, his second-lowest output of the season, in the Zags’ close call against San Diego on Saturday — was answering player-of-the-year rival J.J. Redick’s 41-point effort in Duke’s loss to Georgetown.

Speaking of Georgetown… the Hoyas, fresh off their win over the Dukies, visit Notre Dame tomorrow at 7:00 PM. Becky and I will be there.

Oh, and speaking of Duke… the #2 Duke women crushed #1 Tennessee on Monday, 75-53 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Lady Vols coach Pat Summit, whose career record dropped to 900-173 with the loss, said, “Losing’s one thing. Losing the way we lost is something quite different. It’s unacceptable in this program. So we will learn from it.”

P.S. Getting back to Gonzaga… I’ve created a Bloypedia entry that attempts to answer the question, “Why do you root for Gonzaga, Brendan?” It’s still a work-in-progress, though.

Canadian election update:

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will become Canada’s next prime minister, as Canadians have elected a Tory minority government and ended a 12-year reign of Liberal rule.

Nationwide, the Tories are currently leading or elected in 122 ridings, the Liberals in 104, the Bloc [Québécois] in 50 and 30 for the [New Democratic Party].

(Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

It sounds like the Conservatives made major gains in Ontario and Quebec, but didn’t gain as much as they’d hoped in the Atlantic Provinces. More here. CTV has a good breakdown of results, and a cool chart thingy.

Canadian citizen and NDLS 3L Becky Austen (a.k.a. Aspiring Lawyer Nun) is happy.

Iraqi rebels turn on Qaeda in western city.

As Glenn said yesterday, “May both sides fight to the last man.”

Britain’s Buisness Telegraph is reporting that at today’s Pixar shareholder meeting a take over deal by Disney will be approved. The stock for stock deal would make Pixar (and Apple) CEO Steve Jobs the largest single shareholder in Disney (about 6-7% of total Disney shares).

Buisnessweek speculates that not only will Jobs likely join the Board of Directors, but he might push for being elected as Chairman. Regardless of where he sits, Jobs has never been afraid to assert his opinion, and with the departure of Michael Eisner, whom Jobs often was at odds with during the Pixar/Disney strategic alliance of the late 90’s, it is possible that Jobs will become the de-facto dominant force on the board.

Guestblogger: David Kreutz