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REGES
August 21, 2006
Here's a tale I've been
meaning to tell for ages:
Stuart Reges, fired by Stanford because
he chose to speak out against the Drug
Policy forced on the university by the
federal government.
Stuart Reges was a well-repected (albeit
untenured) professor of computer science
at Stanford, who somewhere along the
way decided to be an Honest Man.
No wonder he confused people.
I once heard him tell the story
of trying to get arrested for
"sodomy" when he was living in
Texas. He walked into the
police station, and tried to
give himself up. The cops were
confused about the legal
definition of "sodomy" (as many
people are), and didn't want to
believe that oral sex qualified
(and it doesn't even have to be
homosexual oral sex).
Also, they were confused about
his motives "Uh, do you feel
*guilty* about this?" Finally
they concluded "Oh... you're
just trying to prove a point!",
and threw him out.
Like I said, an honest man.
While he was at Stanford in the 80s,
he decided that the "War on Drugs"
was bullshit, and started writing
letters to people in the government He claimed he had written
to try to provoke them in some way. his well-regarded text book
No one paid any attention to him for while wired on cocaine.
a long time... finally he suceeded
in annoying a brand new "Drug Czar", He publically announced
and then the fun began. that he would not follow
the university's "Drug
Unfortunately, around that and Alcohol Policy"...
time, Stanford was involved
with an "indirect cost He listed various
scandal"... they'd been doing cases where he
funny things with government believed he had
money, like buying a yacht. violated it.
The Stanford administration o He took a bunch
was in even less mood to of undergrads out
stand up to the Federal to dinner and
administration than they let one order a
would have been normally. glass of wine.
The feds said "jump", o An undergrad who
and Stanford said "how high?"... had used LSD in the
and set about firing Reges. past was considering
MDMA, and asked
Reges for his
They needed to come up opinion. Reges
with some grounds for said something
getting rid of him, so like "Well, I've
they used one of his never had any problem
admitted violations of with it."
the Drug and Alcohol Policy.
o He claimed to
Care to guess which often carry an
one they picked? "illegal drug"
around campus
Letting an undergrad in his backpack.
order a glass of wine.
He would walk
Off with his head. Around that about on campus
time it was with a bright
not at all red day pack --
The general unusual for
reaction to dorm parties (The backpack
this at to spend was apparently
Stanford money on chosen intentionally
was a long heavy alcohol. to be on the
the lines of: line between
There were public and
Oh what's there undergrads private space.)
to be upset about? getting
wasted on Part of a game
It's not like vodka every he was playing
he had tenure. other weekend later was to be
(or so it coy about what
And what did seemed to me). drug it was
he expect, exactly.
making waves But what's a little
during the hypocrisy in our I had a couple
"indirect institutions of of theories
cost scandal"? Higher Learning, eh? (neither of
which I would
(Actually: he bet on):
started on this
before that (1) he was
scandal broke; referring to
it was the feds the detectable
that picked the traces of
time to make coccaine that
waves.) are supposed
to be present
on most US
currency.
After Reges had been fired,
he called a gathering of (2) maybe it
his supporters on the lawn was something
in "white plaza"... like AZT?
Could he have
It turns out that he wanted to AIDS?
tell the kids not to get
excited and do anything I mentioned that last
silly: he argued it would be theory to a few
far better to just continue people and it's funny
with their careers and try to how plausible they
change things later after they thought it was. A
were established in their fatal illness was a
fields. perfect explanation
for his "strange
behavior".
Then a guy in the audience
spoke up, a fortyish black Altruistic motives
guy who led off with a line are completely
like "You people make me unbelievable,
sick! Do you call yourself unless you're
revolutionaries?" planning on dying
soon.
Reges just looked at him
with a furrowed brow, and
said "But what would you
suggest?"
The guy went on ranting
about the need to take
action or some such,
without getting very
specific.
I was getting annoyed
after a minute of this
and commented aloud
"But what is he talking
about??!"
A guy sitting next to me
said "Have you ever heard
of an agent provacateur".
I immediately calmed down.
"Oh, yeah. You could be
right."
And of course he
was right. It was The coverage in the
obvious once pointed Stanford Daily the
out... a half hearted next day mentioned
attempt at rabble rousing this fellow. The
a bunch of people quietly reporter talked to
lounging around in the him, and got a name,
sun, chatting about and a claim that he The Daily
things... was affiliated with article was
the law school. useless in
all other
And that was my The law respects.
one and only school had
encounter with no knowledge The author
a real live of the man. accused Reges
US provacateur. of just
being after
(That I media
know of.) attention.
(A common accusation
from conservatives:
They don't just
disagree with
Sorry if this all liberal idealists,
seems trivial now... they don't believe
it's possible they
This was a more innocent exist.)
time, a few Republicans
ago, when the country RATACT
hadn't slid quite so far...
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