Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Victor Davis Hanson Calls Higher Education the ‘Ground Zero of Woke’

“Many of our once revered and most hallowed institutions are failing us.”  Victor Davis Hanson has written a new essay in which he diagnoses much of what’s wrong with higher education and how it is affecting the country.  From American Greatness:

Legal Insurrection

"Many of our once revered and most hallowed institutions are failing us. To mention only the most significant ones: our top-ranking military echelon, the leadership of our federal investigatory and intelligence agencies, the government medical establishment—and of course the universities.

"For too long American higher education’s reputation of global academic superiority has rested mostly on the sciences, mathematics, physics, technology, medicine, and engineering—in other words, not because of the humanities and social sciences, but despite them. The humanities have become too often anti-humanistic. And the social sciences are deductively anti-scientific. Both quasi-religious woke disciplines have eroded confidence in colleges and universities, infected even the STEM disciplines and professional schools, and torn apart the civic unity of the United States. Indeed, much of the current Jacobin revolution was birthed and fueled by American universities, despite their manifest hypocrisies and derelictions.

"Never in U.S. history have elite universities piled up such huge endowments, which soared during the lockdown. Harvard has $40 billion, Yale $30 billion, Stanford $28 billion, Princeton $25 billion and so on. The tax-free income from these huge sums ensures equally extravagant budgets that are somewhat insulated from market realities—at least in the sense that the larger endowments grew, the more likely university costs rose beyond the annual rate of inflation, and the greater aggregate student debt rose.

"Just as importantly, spending per pupil is rarely calibrated to whether graduating students leave better educated than when they arrived—the ostensible purpose of universities. ". . .   Read the whole thing.

Does Alec Baldwin Deserve Decency?

Does Baldwin deserve decency now? In the spirit of Christian charity or "shared humanity," yes. But armed with the memory of Baldwin's long record of indecency, that would be extremely kind and merciful.

Townhall  "It was probably the worst day of Alec Baldwin's life when he accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie "Rust" on Oct. 21. It's a time to feel terrible about a 42-year-old woman with a husband and a young son.

"Then, CNN's Jake Tapper used it in one of his commentaries to denounce the entire


Republican Party for making this tragedy an occasion for jokes. "There's something about our politics right now that is driving people away from our shared humanity."

"Tapper was upset that Rep. Lauren Boebert recalled a tweet from Dec. 5, 2014, where Baldwin wrote, "I'm going to make bright, banana yellow t-shirts that read 'My hands are up. Please don't shoot me.' Who wants one?" This was about the false claim that Michael Brown said "Hands up, don't shoot" in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014, when, in reality, Brown was reaching for a policeman's gun.

"But Baldwin's commentary on shootings is much worse than that. In a Feb. 17, 2006, blog post on The Huffington Post about Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shooting his friend (nonfatally) during a hunting trip, Baldwin had no decency. "Cheney is a terrorist. He terrorizes our enemies abroad and innocent citizens here at home indiscriminately. Who ever thought Harry Whittington would be the answer to America's prayers. (?) Finally, someone who might get that lying, thieving Cheney into a courtroom to answer some direct questions.". . .

CNN Host Angry Conservatives Don't Trust the Media, But Here's a Few Examples Why

 RedState   "It wasn’t that long ago that CNN was falsely trying to tell you that Joe Rogan was treating his COVID-19 sickness with horse de-wormer and now a host on the same network is complaining that the right is somehow in the wrong for not believing the media.

"This is, of course, right after they dedicated a segment advocating that the mainstream media should, indeed, discriminate against the right when it comes to reporting.

"To give you some background, the drama started when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appeared on Fox News and told Maria Bartiromo that the corporate media lies its head off that it’s pretty much a given at this point to not believe much of what they say.

"This apparently upset the host of CNN’s ironically named “Reliable Sources,” Brian Stelter, who began ringing the alarm bell about the “GOP’s anti-media streak and made it seem as if people should be aghast that a leader of conservatives should be telling conservatives that the biased media controlled by the left lies about conservatives.". . . 

'Serious enough for you now, Barack?' Furious parents tell Obama to apologize to vindicated couple and their daughter, who judge finds WAS raped by a boy in a skirt in school bathroom, after he called it 'fake outrage'

 UK Daily Mail  "Furious parents and conservatives have told Barack Obama to apologize to a Loudoun County, Virginia, couple and their daughter who was raped by a skirt-wearing boy in a school bathroom in May, after the former President called the row encircling it 'fake outrage' and a 'phony trumped-up culture wars'.  

"On Monday, juvenile court judge Pamela Brooks ruled that the boy - who has not been named - did force himself on the 15-year-old girl on May 28 in the bathroom at Stone Ridge High School in Leesburg, Virginia. 

"Loudoun County Schools hasn't commented on the verdict. Students walked out of their classrooms on Tuesday in a show of 'solidarity' for the victim. 


"Some stood in front of their school, chanting: 'Loudoun County Protects Rapists!' 

"The case drew national attention because the boy was wearing a skirt at the time and the girls' parents - Scott and Jessica Smith - said it was what they feared might happen more if Loudoun County Schools starts allowing boys into girls' bathrooms frequently as part of a progressive transgender policy. 

"Republican Gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin has harnessed part of his education platform in the case, saying: 'What tragedy next awaits our children?'

" 'We should be doing more to support people who are educating our kids.'  "

On Sunday, Obama was campaigning for Youngkin's opponent - Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe - when he attacked Youngkin's general position on education, the Capitol riot, and policing. 

He said, in part: 'We don't have time to be wasting on these phony, trumped up culture wars. This fake outrage that the right-wing media peddles to juice their ratings. 

'The fact he's willing to go along with it, instead if talk about serious problems that affect serious people, that's a shame. That's not what this election is about. That's not what you need, Virginia.

Why Democrats' Scheme to Tax Unrealized Capital Gains Should Terrify You

"If I didn't receive or earn that money, with what do you expect me to pay the tax?"  That, in a nutshell, is the entire problem.


 American Thinker  "Our current secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, is busy trying to find a way to tax wealth without calling it taxing wealth.  She has eyes on taxing unrealized capital gains.  What this means simply is taxing people for money they have not earned or received.  That's it in a nutshell.  That definition should leave even those who have never had a course in accounting or finance shaken.

"Not only is Janet Yellen considering this, but the Democrat party is on board as well.  Democrats claim that it is needed in order to pay for their agenda.  You know — the one that President Biden says pays for itself.  The idea of taxing you for the income you have not made is also a policy speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi proposes.  Apparently, there is some confusion here.

"Looking at this from my point of view, I recalled a picture of Casey Stengel, nicknamed "the ol' Professor," when he was the manager of the New York Mets in 1962 — a team considered the worst team to ever play in the major leagues.  He had his hat off and scratched his head with the caption: "Can't anybody here play this game?"

"Think about how absurd this idea is.  Imagine if an Internal Revenue Agent showed up at your house and said, we decided that you have to pay tax on the money you never earned.  Aside from how insane that sounds on the surface, one need only ask: "If I didn't receive or earn that money, with what do you expect me to pay the tax?"  That, in a nutshell, is the entire problem.". . .


David Ennocenti, is a retired accountant and graduate of the State University of N.Y. at Buffalo, School of Management with a degree in accounting and finance.  He passed the CPA Examination in 1983.  His writing has appeared in  American Thinker,  USA Today, The New York Times, and several other publications.  His screenplay, Sniper Queen, was an official selection of The Artemis Women in Action Films Festival.  He is a past winner of the Writer's Digest Annual Competition.

“Why Didn’t Anybody Tell Us?”: Angry Loudoun County Students Stage Walk Outs Over Sexual Assaults in Their Schools

Legal Insurrection   


"Students in Loudoun County have had enough. They’ve endured lockdowns, distance learning, all-day masking, and attempts to teach them a radicalized curriculum, all while their county’s partisan and inept school board declared war on their parents and failed to keep schools safe.

"What finally moved the students to action, though, was the revelation that one of their own — and possibly two — was sexually assaulted inside a school, the very place kids should feel safe and secure. To make matters worse, the superintendent, Scott Ziegler, failed to inform parents and students that attacks had taken place, thus jeopardizing every student in the county.

"Today, hundreds of Loudoun County students walked out of their classrooms, protesting the treatment of the victims, the victims’ families, and the student bodies of every high school, who were kept in the dark about the danger looming in their schools.". . . 

 ‘Loudoun County Protects Rapists’: Students Stage Walkout In Protest Of Loudoun County’s Alleged Sexual Assault Cover-Up   . . . "On Monday, a Virginia court ruled that there was enough evidence to find the teen accused of assaulting a female student in a bathroom guilty of engaging in “non-consensual sex.”

"The teen, who identifies as “gender fluid,” is standing trial on two separate cases. The first involved an in-classroom incident at Stone Bridge, and the second involved a ninth-grader at Broad Run who accused the teen of sexual assault, originally reported by The Daily Wire.

"The Loudoun County Public School board initially claimed it was not informed about the “specific claims” relating to sexual assault allegations, though reporting from WTOP uncovered that the district’s superintendent sent an email to the board members the day of the assault.". . . 

Judge Finds Skirt-Wearing Teen Boy Guilty Of Sexually Assaulting Female Classmate In Loudoun County School Bathroom


. . . The father of the sexual assault victim, Scott Smith, was arrested at a school board meeting which he attended after his daughter was assaulted to oppose a policy allowing students to use bathrooms of the gender with which they identify for “unlawful assembly.” . . .



Email Looks Like the Smoking Gun Against Biden on Kabul Evacuation Debacle

 RedState

So if 84% of the people rescued of that 124,000 number were “at risk” meaning not necessarily having any relation to helping America at all – 104,160 of those they got out fell into that category, assuming that number is accurate. And they wonder why there are now reports of problems? They basically threw random people on the plane – who knows who they are – from a country with a bunch of terrorists as well.". . . 


"When Biden initially began evacuating people out of the Kabul airport, Biden was supposed to be getting out American citizens and those who helped us during the war including SIV holders. But initially the numbers were low going out on the planes and people noticed, as we reported and Biden was getting hammered for the half-empty planes and being chastised for not having gotten our allies out earlier.

"But then the Biden team started getting more on the planes. Yet he ended up not only leaving hundreds of Americans, he also ended up leaving over 80,000 SIVs, as well as other people who had helped America.

"So who did he get out? I’ve always believed that when he started getting flack for not getting people out, they started putting pretty much anyone they could on the plane to pump up the numbers so it could look like he was getting people out. Whether they were the people we were supposed to get out or not, vetted or not, despite them claiming they had carefully vetted everyone. Meanwhile that very action of taking other people meant that even more people would crash the airport hoping to get out and blocking the people who deserved to get on the flights because they helped America.". . . 

Must-see TV: Sky News Australia takes on Greta Thunberg

Thomas Lifson  "Have you got 2 minutes to spare watching a teenage climate scold get her comeuppance?  A commentator on Sky News Australia ripped the hypocrisy behind the children's crusade demanding extreme measures to solve a problem that for thirty years or so has been about to end humanity in ten years.  Those with no adult responsibilities for the consequences of their actions feel free to make demands they wouldn't want to live with, if ever implemented.

"Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace who retains a skeptical mind, tweeted out a two-minute segment in which those kids are instructed on the sacrifices they would have to make if they got their way.

 CNN reporter notes that Gandhi and Cesar Chavez never had to deal with what these young ‘climate activists’ on hunger strike are facing


Hey hunger strikes worked for Gandhi when he was protesting for Indian independence, no reason they shouldn't for overprivileged suburban teens protesting against India getting air conditioning

The White House Terrible Two have joined in the strike for some time now:

 

 

James O’Keefe, Abigail Shrier, and David Daleiden on Investigative Journalism; plus a sample of that

 The American Spectator

                             Two of them have been arrested for their work.


"Winners of The American Spectator’s Barbara Olson  Award for Excellence and Independence in Journalism, Project Veritas founder and CEO James O’Keefe, Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, and anti-abortion activist David Daleiden, discuss the state of journalism with publisher of The American Spectator Melissa Mackenzie at the 2021 Robert L. Bartley Gala.

James O’Keefe: Thank you, Melissa. Well, things have changed because 10 years ago the mainstream media would have a dialogue with us. There would be a sense of engagement or consensus. When we did the ACORN story, the House and Senate were both Democratically controlled and they voted to defund ACORN — that would never happen these days.

Here is one product of their work: 

New Jersey's Phil Murphy has COVID plans he wasn't going to share with voters  "New Jersey's governor, Phil Murphy is another Democrat governor who has seen COVID's appearance on the scene as the opportunity to expand his power far beyond the Constitution's parameters.  In 2020, he implemented some of the most draconian lockdown orders in America, including locking down vulnerable seniors with people already infected with COVID.  Now that he's in a tight re-election race against a dynamic Republican candidate, Murphy planned to keep secret that he intends to mandate vaccines.  Project Veritas Action, however, gave away the secret.  New Jersey voters should be outraged.". . . 

In April, Murphy ordered the arrest of 15 men for attending the funeral of their rabbi, something that is exceptionally important in the Orthodox Jewish community.  When Tucker Carlson quizzed him about riding roughshod over the First Amendment's assertion that people have an inherent right to worship and assemble freely, Murphy guffawed, saying core constitutional rights are "above my pay grade."  Instead, he said, all that mattered were data.

. . .