University of Chicago spokesperson Julie Peterson says the school can’t back out of naming its new economics institute the Milton Friedman Institute, despite the fact that Friedman was a proponent of (no, not Nazism, not sadomasochism, not Fascism) the dreaded free market economic principles. The name has gotten some faculty panties in a twist, since the liberal arts softies have, as per usual, been getting sensitive about minute details.

According to WBEZ Radio:

The University of Chicago says it's committed to going forward with an institute named after a controversial economist, the late Milton Friedman. The university held a meeting with faculty members Wednesday. Some criticized the naming of the institute after Friedman, who championed strict, free-market ideals. But university spokesperson Julie Peterson says the institute is not attached to that idealogy.

 

PETERSON: It has always been intended as a place to foster the most distinguished economic scholarship and that's what the University of Chicago is known for.

The Milton Friedman Institute officially launched in July. Peterson says university officials will consider the issues raised during Wednesday's meeting.

To the University of Chicago whiners: go tell it to Oprah. No one cares if the institute is named after a dead guy who happened to believe in the economic principles which drove the American economy into the shitter. So rather than deconstructing the name of an economics school, why don’t you take your intellectual brain power and figure out what policies could be most beneficial to our crap-happy economy!