We live in The Onion

It seems unnecessarily hard to disentangle satire from reality. I am doing my weekly catch-up on The Volokh Conspiracy, a law blog and come across Conservative professor-blogger wins political retaliation case at trial by Eugene Volokh.

OK, interesting. Reading through the comments, there are a couple who seem to be taking the position that Adams is a racist. Well, usually this is simply an abbreviated form of "I don't agree with your priors and don't want to argue them". So is Adams really such a retrograde? I go googling. Turns out, conveniently, that he writes a column for Townhall, apparently a web and print magazine with a conservative orientation.

Looking at his bio at the site, I figure I have gotten confused in the search and I am reading a critic's mock bio.

Mike S. Adams was born in Columbus, Mississippi on October 30, 1964. While a student at Clear Lake High School in Houston, TX, his team won the state 5A soccer championship. Adams graduated from C.L.H.S. in 1983 with a 1.8 GPA. He was ranked 734 among a class of 740, largely as a result of flunking English all four years of high school.

After obtaining an Associate's degree in psychology from San Jacinto College, Mike Adams moved on to Mississippi State University where he joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity. While living in the fraternity house, his GPA rose to 3.4, allowing him to finish his B.A., and then to pursue a Master's in Psychology. In 1990, Adams turned down a chance to pursue a PhD in psychology from the University of Georgia, opting instead to remain at Mississippi State to study Sociology/Criminology. This decision was made entirely on the basis of his reluctance to quit his night job as member of a musical duo. Playing music in bars and at fraternity parties and weddings financed his education. He also played for free beer.

But no, it turns out that is actually true and his own self-mockery. He does get around to describing his path towards a PhD, religion and conservatism.

Reading through his columns I can see how some who might want to take offense, can find material to do so. But he comes across both in the columns and in his student reviews as witty, engaged, and sharp. The very best type of professor.

From a single brief column, Who Is Richard Greenleaf? there are, entirely aside from the trenchant criticisms of RG, the following sharp lines.

I had never heard of Elmhurst College when I received your letter but I kept on reading anyway. I’m not an elitist. Just so you’ll know, Richard, I finished in the bottom 1 percent of my class in high school and subsequently got all of my degrees from Mississippi State. So who am I to judge? In fact, I’m so humble my next book is tentatively titled “Ten Steps to Humility: And How I Made It in Seven.”

[snip]

I have been around academia long enough to realize that when a professor starts listing his credentials it means he’s about to scold you and you’d better listen. I was scared when I read this paragraph. But I kept on reading anyway. I’m open to criticism, even from Richards I don’t know.

[snip]

Professor, if you think that merely mentioning the Creator is unconstitutional then you are in the unique position of actually considering the Declaration of Independence to be unconstitutional. If that is your position, let me suggest that you are suffering from severe intellectual hernia. That is not ordinary stupidity. That is practiced stupidity. It takes work to become that confused.

Three guffawable lines in one column. OK, someone else to keep an eye out for for entertainment and edification.