Why I Hate Those Stupid Bitches In Berkeley

"[Berkeley law professor Nancy K.D.] Lemon's Domestic Violence Law is organized as a conventional law-school casebook — a collection of judicial opinions, statutes, and articles selected, edited, and commented upon by the author. The first selection, written by Cheryl Ward Smith (no institutional affiliation is given), offers students a historical perspective on domestic-violence law. According to Ward:

'The history of women's abuse began over 2,700 years ago in the year 753 BC. It was during the reign of Romulus of Rome that wife abuse was accepted and condoned under the Laws of Chastisement. ... The laws permitted a man to beat his wife with a rod or switch so long as its circumference was no greater than the girth of the base of the man's right thumb. The law became commonly know as "The Rule of Thumb." These laws established a tradition which was perpetuated in English Common Law in most of Europe.'

Where to begin? How about with the fact that Romulus of Rome never existed. He is a figure in Roman mythology — the son of Mars, nursed by a wolf. Problem 2: The phrase 'rule of thumb' did not originate with any law about wife beating, nor has anyone ever been able to locate any such law. It is now widely regarded as a myth, even among feminist professors.

A few pages later, in a selection by Joan Zorza, a domestic-violence expert, students read, 'The March of Dimes found that women battered during pregnancy have more than twice the rate of miscarriages and give birth to more babies with more defects than women who may suffer from any immunizable illness or disease.' Not true. When I recently read Zorza's assertion to Richard P. Leavitt, director of science information at the March of Dimes, he replied, 'That is a total error on the part of the author. There was no such study.' The myth started in the early 1990s, he explained, and resurfaces every few years.

Zorza also informs readers that 'between 20 and 35 percent of women seeking medical care in emergency rooms in America are there because of domestic violence.' Studies by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, indicate that the figure is closer to 1 percent.

Few students would guess that the Lemon book is anything less than reliable. The University of California at Berkeley's online faculty profile of Lemon hails it as the 'premiere' text of the genre."

-- Christina Hoff Sommers, with more of Berzerkeley's insanity - that, somehow, passes as an education at the (expensive) University of California at Berkeley - but not in The Chronicle Review.