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February 2018

EDUCATION Comments turned off

The 10 worst colleges for free speech: 2018

By on February 14th, 2018

Every year, FIRE chooses the 10 worst colleges for free speech — and unfortunately, 2017 left us with plenty of options: Campuses were rocked by violent mob censorship, monitored by bias response teams, plagued by free speech zones, and beset by far too many disinvitation attempts. Although the number of colleges with the most restrictive speech codes has continued to decline, 90 percent of schools still maintain codes that either clearly restrict or could too easily be used to restrict free speech. https://www.thefire.org/the-10-worst-colleges-for-free-speech-2018/

Today, we present our 2018 list of the 10 worst colleges for free speech. As always, our list is presented in no particular order, and it includes both public and private institutions. Public colleges and universities are bound by the First Amendment; the private colleges on this list, though not required by the Constitution to protect student and faculty speech rights, explicitly promise to do so.

A new feature of this year’s list is our Lifetime Censorship Award. This “honor” goes to the one college or university that is so frequently discussed as a contender for our annual “worst colleges for free speech” list that it deserves special recognition. This year, that school is DePaul University.

Are you a student or faculty member whose free speech rights are imperiled on campus? Submit a case to FIRE. Also, check out FIRE’s Guides to Student Rights on Campus to help you fight for free speech, due process, religious liberty, and more.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Comey Held Secret Obama White House Meeting Before The Inauguration Ricahrd Pollock

By on February 14th, 2018

FBI Director James Comey held a secret Oval Office meeting with President Barack Obama two weeks before Trump’s inauguration and may have deliberately misled Congress about it, according to an email sent by National Security Advisor Susan Rice that GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham partially unclassified

.http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/13/comey-obama-secret-meeting/

The meeting — which Comey never previously disclosed to Congress — occurred in the White House on Jan. 5, 2017. It included Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Rice deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and Comey. The topic of the meeting was potential Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

By failing to inform the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the meeting in his June 8, 2017, testimony, Comey may have deliberately and intentionally misled Congress about his interactions with the former president, especially a meeting so close to Trump entering the White House.

“President Obama had a brief follow-on conversation with FBI Director Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in the Oval Office,” Rice wrote in an email written the day before the inauguration.

The National Archives gave Grassley and Graham “classified and unclassified emails” about the meeting.

Previously, Comey contended he only met with the Obama twice, once in 2015 and another “to say goodbye in late 2016,” according the former FBI director’s June 8, 2017, testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

College Leaders Think Free Speech Is at Risk Everywhere — Except on Their Own Campuses A new survey sheds light on a troubling mindset. By Frederick M. Hess & Grant Addison

By on February 14th, 2018

America’s colleges and universities are experiencing an intellectual crisis. While this is usually cast in terms of “free speech,” that is only a symptom of a deeper sickness. The root issue is whether universities remain true to their foundational mission or whether they are no longer invested in safeguarding free inquiry and welcoming heterodox thought. A new survey of college and university leaders offers a revealing look at how the mandarins of higher education view this crossroads. It offers little grounds for optimism.

Conducted by Gallup, Inside Higher Ed’s 2018 Survey of College and University Academic Officers is a representative nationwide sample of 516 campus leaders across 277 public institutions, 223 private institutions, and 16 for-profit institutions. In plowing through the results, one cannot escape the sense that those at the helm of the nation’s higher-education institutions suffer a case of willful blindness — and that, worse, they seem collectively sure that the buck stops somewhere else.

For instance, only 41 percent of college and university leaders said that free-speech rights are secure on the nation’s campuses, and only 36 percent said free speech is secure in the United States as a whole. Yet when asked about their campuses, fully 80 percent insisted that free-speech rights are secure. In other words, campus leaders see threats to free speech everywhere — except on their own campuses.

On every question about the campus experiences of liberals and conservatives, however, even these campus leaders report that disparities exist. For instance, regarding their own campuses, only 68 percent of campus leaders say that politically conservative students feel generally welcome in classrooms. This bears repeating: Barely two-thirds of campus administrators report that conservatives feel welcome — even as 80 percent insist that free speech is secure. (Meanwhile, just 3 percent say that liberal students feel unwelcome in campus classrooms.)

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Curious Michael Flynn Guilty Plea New developments in Flynn’s case raise questions about the circumstances under which he pled guilty to lying to the FBI. By Andrew C. McCarthy

By on February 14th, 2018

Back in early December, Trump fans started throwing stuff at me for suggesting that we await more information about FBI agent Peter Strzok before demanding that he be drawn and quartered.

Yes, it was clear that Strzok engaged in serious misconduct: The married G-man’s reported extramarital affair with his married FBI colleague Lisa Page was scandalous not only for the obvious reasons but as potential blackmail material against counterintelligence agents. Plus, Strzok appears to have been the main investigator in the Hillary Clinton emails case that the FBI and Justice Department bent over backwards not to prosecute; and there is reason to believe his rabidly anti-Trump text messages with his paramour crossed the line from arrogant political banter to unprofessional investigative decision-making.

But there were dissonant notes, too, cutting against the neat ditty about a high-ranking government agent acting on a corrupt partisan agenda. For one thing, I was hearing from people with good national-security credentials that Strzok was a highly effective counterintelligence agent.

And then there was Mike Flynn.

The first revelations about Strzok’s texts came only days after General Flynn, who had fleetingly served as President Trump’s first national-security adviser, pled guilty in the Mueller investigation to a charge of lying to FBI investigators. Strzok had conducted the interview with Flynn. Combine that with the fact that he had been a principal in all the important FBI interviews in the Clinton caper, and the presumption crystalized: Political hack Strzok went kid-gloves on the Hillary Gang and scorched-earth on Trump World.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran, Russia, and China’s Central Role in the Venezuela Crisis by Joseph M. Humire

By on February 14th, 2018

Prior to any discussion on what to do about Venezuela, a consensus about what led to this crisis needs to be reached. The role of Iran is critical in such a conversation.

As in the Syria conflict, Iran’s primary role is preparing the Venezuelan battlefield through a range of operations in irregular warfare, using non-state actors and surrogates to gain influence over the population.

Strong evidence suggest that Venezuela used its immigration agency to provide Venezuelan identities and documents to several hundred, if not thousands, of Middle Easterners. Without proper vetting and verification measures in place, and a high degree of counterintelligence support, our regional allies will not know if Venezuelan refugees spilling across borders are legitimate refugees or members of a transregional clandestine network between Latin America and the Middle East.

Any intervention in Venezuela — military, humanitarian or otherwise — will not work unless it is aimed at removing the external influences, especially Iran, Russia and China, that have turned Venezuela into the Syria of the Western Hemisphere.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson just completed, by most accounts, a successful visit to Latin America. He began his five-nation tour by invoking the Monroe Doctrine and suggesting the Venezuelan military could manage a “peaceful transition” from the authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro. This reminded several regional observers of President Trump’s suggestion last year of a possible “military option” for Venezuela, hinting at possible U.S. or multilateral intervention to stop the country’s collapse.

An armed action or military intervention in Venezuela by any nation in the Western Hemisphere, including Venezuela’s own military, must take into account the role of Iran, Russia and China in the crisis. Russia and China were prominently mentioned by Tillerson during his visit to the region; Iran, however, was notably absent from his remarks.

Prior to any discussion on what to do about Venezuela, a consensus about what led to this crisis needs be reached. The role of Iran is critical in such a conversation.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Palestinians: Abbas’s Lies and Falling Mask by Bassam Tawil

By on February 14th, 2018

For the past two decades, the anti-Israel rhetoric of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership has radicalized many Palestinians, to a point where they are no longer willing to accept any form of compromise or peace with Israel.

By accusing the Trump administration of hostility to the Palestinians, the Palestinian leadership has delegitimized the US to a degree where many Palestinians now feel that Americans are legitimate targets for violence and terror attacks.

How, exactly, do these condemnations conform with Abbas’s other claims that he seeks to resume peace talks with Israel? The mask on Abbas’s face has fallen once again. That mask has, in fact, been falling for many years. Perhaps one day the world will even see that.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas continues to say one thing to his people, and an entirely different thing to the international community.

To Arab audiences, Abbas describes Israel and the US administration as not far short of Satan incarnate.

When the PA president sends a message to the international community, however, he shows a different face.

Ever since US President Donald Trump’s December announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Abbas and his top aides in Ramallah have been consistently signaling to the Palestinians that the peace process with Israel is “over.”

The Palestinians have also been assured by Abbas that Israel and the US will pay dearly for the recognition.

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BOOKS, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Daryl McCann Roger Scruton and Enlightened Patriotism

By on February 14th, 2018

In the West, you can hold to the tenets of Christianity and still advocate for secular democracy, just as those agnostic about the Christian faith need not sign on as postmodernists. Under Islam’s absolutism no such manifestations of personal belief and intellectual inquiry are allowed. As Scruton observes, that’s the difference between us and them.

Ten important European thinkers attached their name to the October 2017 Paris Statement, a manifesto condemning the tyranny and utopianism of “false Europe” and calling for the re-emergence of “real Europe”, an entity Christian in character and taking the nation-state as its hallmark. False Europe, while denying the Christian roots of European civilisation, “trades on the Christian ideal of universal charity in an exaggerated and unsustainable form” and requires from the European peoples—in the way of multiculturalism and unrestricted immigration—“a saintly degree of self-abnegation”. Europe’s civilisational suicide, according to the Paris Statement, continues to take place under the auspices of the “ersatz religion” of universalism. One signatory to the Paris Statement was Sir Roger Scruton (above), the great English philosopher.

Scruton’s The West and the Rest: Globalisation and the Terrorist Threat, published in the immediate aftermath of September 11, begins by asserting that Samuel P. Huntington’s “clash of civilisations” thesis had accrued “more credibility” than ever. Although Western civilisation found itself under attack, little serious thought went into addressing a central problem: “What exactly is Western civilisation, and what holds it together?”

Individual self-determination, as I noted in “Standing Up for the House of Freedom” (Quadrant, September 2017), goes a long way towards answering the first half of that double-headed question, but what of the second part? As Scruton writes: “If all that Western civilisation offers is freedom, then it is a civilisation bent on its own destruction.” The glue that holds together a society based on Western principles—the Western nation-state, in other words—is a form of enlightened patriotism. Much of Scruton’s writing, in The West and the Rest and subsequent to that, is an attempt to clarify the uniqueness of the correlation between national identity and individual sovereignty in the West.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iranian Senior Military Advisor: Mutant Spy Lizards Reflect Atomic Waves Daniel Greenfield (huh????)

By on February 14th, 2018

Why, yes these people are fully rational. And we should absolutely trust them to use nuclear weapons responsibly. Unless the atomic lizards get to them first.

Western spies used lizards which can ‘attract atomic waves’ to spy on Iran’s nuclear programme, the former chief-of-staff of the nation’s armed forces has claimed.

Hassan Firuzabadi, senior military advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he did not know the details of the cases, but that the West had often used tourists, scientists and environmentalists to spy on Iran.

Firuzabadi was responding to questions from local media on the recent arrest of environmentalists.

‘Several years ago, some individuals came to Iran to collect aid for Palestine,’ he said.

‘We were suspicious of the route they chose. In their possessions were a variety of reptile desert species like lizards.

‘We found out that their skin attracts atomic waves and that they were nuclear spies who wanted to find out where inside the Islamic republic of Iran we have uranium mines and where we are engaged in atomic activities,’ he added.

I wonder if these ray reflecting lizards have the same rays as the ones that radiate from women’s hair so that they must wear hijabs?

But Islamists sure are paranoid about animals spying on them?

Last month, Hamas claimed that it had captured an Israeli “spy dolphin” off the coast of Gaza after it was caught engaging in “suspicious movements”. I’m not sure what those are, but then I’m not a meth-smoking Koran-reading Islamic Supremacist terrorist leader trying to find another press release to email off to Al Jazeera.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israeli bombing Syria enhanced US national security Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

By on February 14th, 2018

Israel’s unique contribution to US’ national security and US defense industries was reaffirmed on February 10, 2018, by Israel’s effective military operation against Syrian-based Iranian-Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries, early-warning radar stations, a launching-base of unmanned aerial vehicles and a command-control bunker.

While Israel lost one F-16 combat plane, its air force demonstrated exceptional capabilities in the areas of intelligence, electronic warfare – especially radar jamming – firepower capabilities, precision, maneuverability, penetration of missile batteries, early-identification and destruction of advanced unmanned aerial vehicles and their mobile controller, etc.
Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF) are analyzing the lessons of this recent operation, most of which will be shared, promptly, with the US – the manufacturer and provider of most of the systems operated by the IDF – as has been the case with a multitude of Israel’s military operations and wars. For example, much of the battle-tactics formulation in the US Army Headquarters in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas has been based on the Israeli battlefield experience.

The February 10, 2018 Israeli Air Force operation against Syrian-Iranian military targets has reinforced the legacy of the late Senator Daniel Inouye, who was the Chairman of the full Appropriations Committee and its Defense Subcommittee. Senator Inouye considered Israel a moral ally of the US, as well as the most effective battle-tested laboratory of the US military and defense industries – a primary outpost, in a critical region, sparing the US billions of dollars, which would be required to deploy additional US military forces to the area.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Hijab Shame: Rape, Murder and Loss of Face World Hijab Day, Macy’s and betrayal. Dawn Perlmutter

By on February 14th, 2018

February 1st was the fifth World Hijab Day. Hijab is the Muslim headscarf that the media continually mischaracterize as merely a symbol of modesty in Islam. World Hijab Day was founded by New York activist Nazma Khanin in 2013 and is now celebrated in 140 countries. The stated goal is to foster religious tolerance and understanding by encouraging women of all religions to wear and experience hijab for one day. Put on a pretty head scarf and you too can enter a popular victim class. If you are really lucky you may be harassed and enjoy the full discrimination experience. Ironically, many of the same feminists who wore pussy hats at the Women’s March put on head scarves to stand in solidarity with their Muslim sisters. One month these feminist fashionistas are dressing up like giant vaginas and the next month celebrating their modesty. It would be much less confusing if these women would stop using headwear to symbolize their political positions. It makes you worry what else is in their clothes closet.

A few days later Macy’s announced a new clothing line for Muslim women making them the first major department store in the U.S. to sell hijabs. This is part of a new trend called Haute Hijab to glamorize and normalize the covering of women. In an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Sonia Ossorio, President of the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women, said that hijab was a symbol of empowerment and resistance against Donald Trump. Her statement was in reference to women who never wore hijab before who decided to wear it in protest of the travel ban. While deluded Western feminists are embracing the most recognizable symbol of institutional oppression, women in Iran are risking their lives waving and burning their head coverings in protest against the state-mandated law.

Sonia Ossorio and other so-called feminists interpret the wearing of hijab from their own cultural perspective as if all women wear it of their own free will. They do not understand that one of the fundamental reasons that women must be covered is that modesty is intrinsically intertwined with Islamic concepts of purity, honor and shame. These feminist fashionistas do not realize that no matter how pretty the hijab head scarf, it is essentially a prison uniform. It is used as a shaming mechanism to make women think their own bodies are the cause of male sexual urges, that they are a dirty impure unclean gender who must be hidden, cloistered, secluded and segregated so they do not entice or contaminate the community of men.

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