When Professors Turn Foolish They Turn Really Stupid

The boycotting of Israel is a fashionable cause that brings learned fools out in droves. Everyone and his aunt glow with righteous wrath when the boycott show hits town. Clever people love to hang their faculty gowns on the peg of anti-Zionism.

 American Thinker   "It took a George Orwell to point out that higher learning and stupidity make a regular couple. “There are notions so foolish that only an intellectual will believe them,” wrote Orwell, laconic and lucid together. The luminary of that era who left a bonanza of political idioms, among them “Big Brother,” “Doublethink”, and “More equal than others,” found that intelligent people can be gullible people. He’s a reminder that professors may lack a modicum of common sense. He learnt that to parley with learned people may be to parley with fools. We don’t have to upturn rocks to uncover Orwell types. Look no further than a fashionable cause or a conventional wisdom and you’d find them – fool believers clinging for dear life to nonsensical notions.

 "In our troubled landscape one collecting point attracts more such pairings than any other point. A vast deposit of learned fools sticks to the brouhaha over Palestinian rights and Israeli wrongs. “A sore evil under the sun,” old King Solomon said. He might have been prophesying the cock-and-bull morality play called BDS. The boycotting of Israel is a fashionable cause that brings learned fools out in droves." . . . Read more:

 Boycott the Boycotters movement gains momentum

. . . " In addition to federal legislation, Illinois is on the verge of passing legislation which effectively causes the State to boycott the boycotters. The Washington Free Beacon reports, Anti-BDS Bill Poised for Passage in Illinois Legislature:" . . .

The bill, which would force Illinois’ five state pension funds to divest from any company supporting boycotts of Israel, passed by a 10-0 vote through a key executive committee on Wednesday and is now on its way to a full vote in the state’s legislature, where it is expected to garner widespread support.
The measure has been championed by newly installed Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has been pushing for such a bill since before his election in 2014, when he defeated Democrat Pat Quinn.

Evidence of Real Live "Moderate Muslims" - Parents of Students Picket Islamic School Because It Has Introduced New Curriculum Which is "Too Fundamental"

Infidel Bloggers Alliance

AUSTRALIA – Adelaide – More than 100 angry parents have picketed the Islamic College of South Australia, worried it is becoming too fundamental after it cut music and sport from its curriculum, described pianos as evil and stopped singing the national anthem at assemblies.

. . . FEDERAL Education Minister Christopher Pyne has warned of the potential radicalisation of Muslim students in Islamic schools, following another parent protest against management of the Islamic College of SA.

Parents rallying outside the school yesterday demanded the resignation of its board and called for State Government intervention.
They claim a hardline school board has introduced a stricter form of Islam, including more segregation of male and female students, while firing experienced staff and lowering education standards.

'He wanted to go to hell — he is going to get there early': Hero off-duty firefighter who rescued Boston bomb victims reacts to 'vile' Tsarnaev's death sentence

Daily Mail   . . . "Michael Ward was off duty along the marathon route when two explosions went off, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others.

"On Friday, two years after he pulled wounded men, women and children to safety, Ward was in court to witness Tsarnaev being sentenced to death.

' 'I remember the vile, disgusting thing that this person did and his brother,' Ward told a press conference. 'They destroyed countless innocent lives.'

"Seven women and five men unanimously voted to punish the 21-year-old with death for his part in detonating two bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others.

"Tsarnaev was convicted last month of all 30 federal charges against him, 17 of which carried the possibility of the death penalty.

"The jury found that he deserved the death penalty for some but not all of the charges - which means he will be executed by lethal injection." . . .

Some of his victims:

 

 

 Defiant: Tsarnaev is pictured above in a jail cell shortly after being arrested making an obscene gesture at a camera. He has been largely emotionless throughout the trial, even as his victims testified

ead more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3083297/Tsarnaev-die-Jury-delivers-death-penalty-verdict-trial-Boston-marathon-bomber.html#ixzz3aJeLFWXZ
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BARACK AND MICHELLE OBAMA:The Un-American Divider in Chief and His Wife

Clash Daily   . . . "As horrific as the states’ rights and slavery issues were considering the toll they took on the country, at least they were situations that mattered and worth the time and effort to resolve them. Take for example, the ongoing mission of the divider and chief, Barack Obama and his embittered wife, First Lady Michelle Obama. Just recently, Mrs. Obama gave a commencement address at the historic Tuskegee University in Alabama. Instead of encouraging the hopeful graduates to go seek opportunities and to be the best they can be, she chose to focus upon the wasteful topic of the limitations of racism. 

" Here we are in a nation facing a major crossroad in her history and Mrs. Obama complained about the “daily slights” that she and her husband have experienced. This is from a woman whose own husband won’t even associate with you on any level if you are not a fellow progressive. " . . .

No luck finding a print version of this to keep out the trashy ads. TD

The Final Posts of a Murdered Blogger

The Atlantic

 “No one with a free mind can limit themselves within the walls of narrow-mindedness,” Ananta Bijoy Das wrote hours before his death.

"Earlier this week, as he left for work, Ananta Bijoy Das was ambushed by four masked men outside his home in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Armed with machetes, the men—suspected Islamist militants—hacked Das to death in broad daylight on a busy street in the country’s fifth-largest city.

"Das’s crime was that he blogged. A writer critical of religious fundamentalism and enthusiastic about science, his fate matched that of two other men, Avijit Roy and Washiqur Rahman, who were killed in similar fashion in Bangladesh in February and March, respectively, for writing on and promoting secular themes in a country where 90 percent of the population is Muslim.

"Das’s work has been described as the least controversial of the three. “He had written about superstitions, but he wasn’t among the writers that would hurt the sentiments of religion,” one of Das’s friends told The Guardian. The friend added, however, that the frequency of death threats against Das had surged following the killings of Roy and Rahman." . . .

Das was a citizen of a nominally secular state. But that state has been failing to safeguard free speech and demand accountability for machete-wielding fundamentalists. Das wasn’t the first blogger killed; he was the third in three months. Bangladeshi politics are polarized between secular and Islamist camps, and, according to the BBC, the government has recently been cracking down “on civil liberties and freedom of speech … affecting both religious fundamentalists and those who argue for free speech and for faith to be separate from government.”

 

The major threat to civilized countries

Thanks to JP Curnutt; Madras, OR

George Stephanopoulos; Democrat operative.

Stephanopoulos and ABC News now in a no-win situation..."George Stephanopoulos’s self-recusal from the GOP debates constitutes an admission of his lack of impartiality, but he refuses to take it to the logical conclusion and recuse himself from the presidential campaign. That is going to be increasingly difficult for him and ABC News to defend. If he admits to being tainted, then how can he be trusted to cover Hillary Clinton fairly?" . . .

"The interview (video here) with Peter Schweizer that Stephanopoulos conducted repeated the Clinton campaign talking points (”no evidence”) repeatedly, and was the most aggressive one that Schweizer faced. It was also a bit deceptive beyond the concealed conflict of interest, as Jeffrey Meyer of Newsbusters pointed out:" . . .

He apologizes, but for what?

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2015/05/15/130569

 Victor Davis Hanson: George Stephanopoulos’s Clinton Foundation Hypocrisy Is Staggering . . . "When he attacked Schweizer for a supposed conflict of interest in having been a Bush speechwriter for four months, he assumed that his own much longer tenure as a war-room political flak for Bill Clinton could never impinge on his own objectivity — much less provide the context for his recent donations to the Clinton family foundation."

Well, we've passed it and know what's in it. Now what?

http://www.investors.com/editorial-cartoons/michael-ramirez/752996

Nancy Pelosi Peers Into Her Cracked ObamaCare Crystal Ball Again   . . . "Before reading too much into Pelosi's dire forecast, remember that this is the same person who, in March 2010, looked into her crystal ball and discerned that, despite the intense turmoil and the public's clear disdain for the law, ObamaCare would become hugely popular once the dust settled.

" 'We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it — away from the fog of the controversy," she famously said.

"Well, the fog of controversy lifted long ago, but only 45% approve of ObamaCare, according to the latest IBD/TIPP Poll. The law is especially unpopular among the uninsured." . . .

Krauthammer: Save Obama (on trade); "Think long-term, because the U.S. relationship with Asia will outlast this president."

Charles Krauthammer

 

" . . . That free trade is advantageous to both sides is the rarest of political propositions — provable, indeed mathematically. David Ricardo did so in 1817. The Law of Comparative Advantage has held up nicely for 198 years.

"Nor is this abstract theory. We’ve lived it. The free-trade regime created after World War II precipitated the most astonishing advance of global welfare and prosperity the world has ever seen. And that regime was created, overseen, guaranteed and presided over by the United States.

"Like all modern presidents, Obama wants a deal. But he has utterly failed to bring his party along. It’s not just because for six years he’s treated all of Congress with disdain and prefers insult to argument when confronted with opposition, this time from Democrats such as Elizabeth Warren. It’s also because he’s expended practically no political capital on the issue. He says it’s a top priority. Has he given even a single televised address?"
 . . .
" That era might be coming to a close, however, as Democratic congressional opposition to free trade continues to grow." . . .

 Democratic infighting over a global trade deal is exposing both personal and policy issues between Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and President Obama. The Post's Chris Cillizza explains the feud.

Bill Looking Forward to Moving Back to the White House… If Only Hillary Will Let Him

 Class act Bill Clinton is cracking jokes about his own infidelity.

PJ Media   "Ah. It looks like Bill Clinton is in da house:

Bill Clinton hopes to be Hillary Clinton’s First Man in the White House, but there’s a big “if” … if she invites him to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. ”If she wins the election, the chances are 100 percent that I’ll move back,” the former president told David Letterman Tuesday night on “The Late Show.” ”By the way, if I’m asked!” he added with a smile.

"Ha-ha! Cracking jokes about cheating on your wife (because that’s what this all refers to of course): hilarious! Oh man, I can’t stop laughing. Especially because people in their position should try to be great role models for young generations. It’s killing me! Great fun!
Morality and the Clintons. They just don’t go together, do they?

. . . 

"In other words, Bill is full of it and he proves himself to be a utterly and completely immoral." . . .

Thomas Sowell on Race, Politics and Lies

 You cannot take any people, of any color, and exempt them from the requirements of civilization -- including work, behavioral standards, personal responsibility and all the other basic things that the clever intelligentsia disdain -- without ruinous consequences to them and to society at large.

Townhall

 

"Among the many painful ironies in the current racial turmoil is that communities scattered across the country were disrupted by riots and looting because of the demonstrable lie that Michael Brown was shot in the back by a white policeman in Missouri -- but there was not nearly as much turmoil created by the demonstrable fact that a fleeing black man was shot dead by a white policeman in South Carolina.

"Totally ignored was the fact that a black policeman in Alabama fatally shot an unarmed white teenager, and was cleared of any charges, at about the same time that a white policeman was cleared of charges in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

"In a world where the truth means so little, and headstrong preconceptions seem to be all that matter, what hope is there for rational words or rational behavior, much less mutual understanding across racial lines?
. . . 

 

Guaranteed to get Dr. Sowell attacked by the Sharpton crowd and the Congressional Black Caucus:

The "legacy of slavery" argument is not just an excuse for inexcusable behavior in the ghettos. In a larger sense, it is an evasion of responsibility for the disastrous consequences of the prevailing social vision of our times, and the political policies based on that vision, over the past half century.

Anyone who is serious about evidence need only compare black communities as they evolved in the first 100 years after slavery with black communities as they evolved in the first 50 years after the explosive growth of the welfare state, beginning in the 1960s.

 

The train issue: More demagoguery from liberals

 

A Shameless Train of Thought  . . . "Democrats forget that President Obama promised us that our infrastructure problems were over the day he signed the trillion-dollar stimulus package with the Orwellian name of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on February 17, 2009:

Because of this investment, nearly 400,000 men and women will go to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, repairing our faulty dams and levees, bringing critical broadband connections to businesses and homes in nearly every community in America, upgrading mass transit, building high-speed rail lines that will improve travel and commerce throughout our nation.

The Left Won’t Let the Amtrak Tragedy Go to Waste   "It took just a few sorry hours for the news to become politicized. On Tuesday evening, we were told of a tragedy. An Amtrak train running between New York City and Washington D.C. had derailed disastrously at Philadelphia, killing eight and wounding two hundred. By Wednesday morning, tragedy had become transgression. Speaking from the White House, press secretary Josh Earnest explained that he didn’t know for sure why the train had crashed, but that it was probably the Republicans’ fault. “We have seen a concerted effort by Republicans for partisan reasons to step in front of those kinds of advancements” that would have prevented crashes such as this one, Earnest proposed slyly. His message: “Yeah, the conservatives did it.”

"Before long, this theory had become omnipresent on the Left.

  GOP Budget Scrooges Didn’t Cause the Amtrak Wreck   . . . "After investigators revealed that the train was traveling 106 miles per hour in a 50 mph zone and that Congress has poured billions into funding for safety features that haven’t been deployed on schedule, liberals backpedaled in search of other equally absurd arguments.