Wonderful story on Kevin Barrett (teacher who questions 911) in Cap Times

[undeterred]

What makes Kevin Barrett tick?
UW lecturer just doesn't believe the government
By Aaron Nathans

LONE ROCK - Kevin Barrett's father could have won an Olympic gold medal in 1964, if not for a mistake that nobody noticed but he. Peter Barrett was competing in a series of seven sailing races in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He accidentally hit a mark, grounds for disqualification, but wasn't caught. He nearly finished the race, but at the finish line, in first place, he dropped out, admitting the foul. He ended up winning the silver on the strength of his performance in the other races.

Sitting in front of his grandparents' television in Madison, a 5-year-old Kevin Barrett was watching. He recalled being proud of his father after learning what happened. He said he also learned an important lesson. "It's important to do what's right, and to follow the truth, no matter what," Kevin Barrett said in a recent interview, noting that his late father won the gold four years later. "Cheating for strategic advantage is unacceptable."

Kevin Barrett, now 47, says he has long searched for truth and deeper meaning. More often than not, he finds that truth in the pages of a book. Many of his books line a log cabin he often visits here in Lone Rock, a sparsely populated town an hour west of Madison. He takes care of the cabin for Khidria, the Madison Islamic organization that owns it. It is surrounded by towering pines. His 1964 Dodge camper, with a faded San Francisco State University bumper sticker, is parked out front. Visitors are greeted by his tan shepherd dog, Rushdie.

He calls the cabin his zawiya, or Islamic spiritual retreat. There's a lot of peace to be found here, an escape from the academic and political rigors of Madison, where Barrett, his wife and their two boys, 12 and 9, live in University of Wisconsin staff housing. Here, Barrett tends the peppers, tomatoes and squash in the organic gardens, complete with rain barrels. On a bright day, the sun reveals bass swimming in the lake out back. But there is little peace for Barrett these days.

http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/topstories/index.php?ntid=92026&ntpid=0

Sounds like my idea of a terrific person to teach at a university.