EDUCATION Comments turned off

A Mole Hunt for Diversity ‘Bias’ at Villanova An atmosphere of fear-imposed silence makes it impossible to achieve a real liberal-arts education.By Colleen A. Sheehan and James Matthew Wilson

Posted By on March 31st, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-mole-hunt-for-diversity-bias-at-villanova-11553898400?

Like many colleges in the U.S., Villanova University has launched an effort to monitor its faculty for signs of “bias” in the classroom. As Villanova professors, we believe this mole hunt for bias undercuts our ability to provide students with a liberal education.

Last fall we were notified by the Villanova administration that new “diversity and inclusion” questions would be added to the course and teaching evaluations that students fill out each semester. In addition to the standard questions about the intellectual worth of the course and the quality of instruction, students are now being asked heavily politicized questions such as whether the instructor has demonstrated “cultural awareness” or created an “environment free of bias based on individual differences or social identities.”

In short, students are being asked to rate professors according to their perceived agreement with progressive political opinion on bias and identity. Students are also invited to “comment on the instructor’s sensitivity to the diversity of the students in the class.” Professors are rated on their “sensitivity” to a student’s “biological sex, disability, gender identity, national origin, political viewpoint, race/ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, etc.” The “etc.” in particular seems like an ominous catchall, as if the sole principle of sound teaching has become “that no student shall be offended.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Mueller and the Obama Accounting The former President now owes the country an explanation for the historic abuse of government surveillance powers.By James Freeman

Posted By on March 31st, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mueller-and-the-obama-accounting-11553534271

The Mueller report confirms that the Obama administration, without evidence, turned the surveillance powers of the federal government against the presidential campaign of the party out of power. This historic abuse of executive authority was either approved by President Barack Obama or it was not. It’s time for Mr. Obama, who oddly receives few mentions in stories about his government’s spying on associates of the 2016 Trump campaign, to say what he knew and did not know about the targeting of his party’s opponents.

If he was briefed, for example, on plans by the Justice Department to seek wiretaps on Trump campaign associates, it’s hard to believe Mr. Obama would not have been highly interested in the matter. Going all the way back to his campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, Mr. Obama had aggressively advocated for preventing federal abuse of surveillance powers.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

The People’s Sovereignty Is the Foundation of Constitutional Law By Edward J. Erler

Posted By on March 31st, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/03/30/the-peoples-sovereignty-is-the-found

Although I don’t believe I have ever seen so many errors in such a short essay, the principal error in Mark Pulliam’s response to my recent piece, “Don’t Read the Constitution the Way Robert Bork Did” is this: If one claims to adhere to the original intentions of the Founders, one must first understand those intentions. In that effort, Pulliam fails in every respect.

Beginning with the question of natural law and the Declaration of Independence and moving in all directions from there, Pulliam presents a blinkered understanding of the purposes and meaning of our Constitution. There is not a single prominent American Founder—not Madison, Hamilton, Adams, Mason, Randolph, Wilson or any of a host of others—who did not believe that the Declaration served as the authoritative source of the Constitution’s authority. Miss this point and you cannot understand the original intent of the Constitution.

Pulliam cites Justice Scalia as an authority. However much we may praise many of the conclusions Scalia reached on the bench, it remains that Scalia, unlike Justice Thomas, was a positivist—saying on one occasion that if the majority voted to legalize abortion, then it should be legal. Thomas, however, realizes that according to natural law principles, abortion is a violation of the natural right to life that is expressly protected by the Constitution. In the face of Thomas’ argument, Pulliam collapses: natural law—“whatever that is.” Is it really so difficult!

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

ISIS Remains a ThreatBy Aynaz Anni Cyrus

Posted By on March 31st, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/03/isis_remains_a_threat.html

President Trump campaigned on getting America out of endless foreign wars. But he was also clear that he would let out military leaders fight the war as needed to win it, before leaving. So, at times, Trump grows impatient for the victory he wants to see during his term. In a mid-December 2018 tweet, Trump announced a bit prematurely that the United States was withdrawing from Syria, declaring, “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.”

But by the end of December, Trump had backed off a bit, tweeting that our battle remained against “ISIS remnants” as the group was “mostly gone.” He has since decided to maintain a presence of about 400 troops in Syria.

War is always messy. Nobody can ever predict where it will go and by when. The enemy will try to counter in unexpected ways to upset any predictions of victory by our side. It also does not help that American military leadership seems to be indoctrinated over past decades into war management, rather than a victory that would allow a secure troop withdrawal.

But Trump’s short messaging style does prompt others in his administration to try to add clarity about what the administration understands. So, in early March 2019, National Security Advisor John Bolton, in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” made the point that the Islamic State remains a threat, and that it is “growing in other parts of the world” besides Syria and Iraq.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Ocasio-Cortez falsely claims Constitution was amended to prevent FDR re-electionBy Thomas Lifson

Posted By on March 31st, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/03/ocasiocortez_falsely_claims_constitution_was_amended_to_prevent_fdr_reelection.html

One of the more ridiculous characteristics of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is her ability to lecture her audience in the tone of a professor while spouting utter nonsense as if revealing higher truths. Not just her absurd plans to devastate the economy in the name of global warming (while India and China merrily construct coal-fired power stations dwarfing any measures the GND might take to reduce American CO2 emissions). No, she earnestly instructs her followers in made-up history, in order illustrate her point — which also makes no sense.

In her district town hall televised by MSNBC Friday with unusual production values for a political event – shiny floor with the seal of the House of Representatives, dramatic lighting, and cameras on cranes swooping over the audience more like a rock concert than a report back to voters – she taught her admirers a lesson that is utterly false, claiming:“They had to amend the Constitution of the United States to make sure that Roosevelt did not get re-elected”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM ABSOLUTELY AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on March 31st, 2019

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Growing cells to kill cancer. Israel’s Sheba hospital is partnering with Switzerland’s Lonza Group to fast-track production of the CAR-T cancer immunotherapy invented by Israeli scientists. Sheba is the first hospital to trial and refine Lonza’s Cocoon manufacturing platform for growing cells to treat hundreds of oncology patients.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/replacing-clean-rooms-sheba-hospital-to-use-pods-to-grow-cancer-killing-cells/

Fast cancer diagnosis. Israel’s Ibex Medical Analytics develops a diagnostic system that uses computer vision, machine learning, and electronic medical records to confirm cancer diagnoses of tissue biopsies. Ibex’s technology helps minimize the risk of misdiagnosis. Ibex has just received $11 million of funding.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3758538,00.html https://ibex-ai.com/

Manufacturing center for tumor lasers. I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s HIL Applied Medical and its focused proton beam lasers to treat tumors. HIL is spending $5 million to set-up a research and development and manufacturing center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3758448,00.html http://hilappliedmedical.com/?p=864

Treatment for iron overload. Israel’s Teva has launched a generic version of EXJADE (deferasirox) in the US. It treats patients two years of age and older for chronic iron overload due to blood transfusions. Currently, one in eight generic prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. is filled with a Teva generic product.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-teva-launches-generic-iron-overload-treatment-1001279327

Marseille base for Israeli infusion pumps. (TY Calcalistech) I reported previously (Feb 2013) that Israel’s Q-core Medical was expanding the distribution of its infusion pumps to the US and Europe. Due to the increased demand for IV infusion systems in France, Q-Core has opened a new regional hub in Marseille.
https://www.qcore.com/single-post/2019/02/27/Q-Core-Medical-Opens-European-Hub-in-France-Kicks-Off-Direct-Sales-of-Leading-Infusion-Systems

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Brexit’s Message to European Union by Amir Taheri

Posted By on March 31st, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13974/brexit-message-eu

The first problem with the EU is that, though it is called a union, it isn’t really one. The EU is essentially an economic club; not a state.

Brexit has highlighted the key challenges that the EU faces. The first challenge concerns a widespread overestimation of the EU’s role. This is due to its perception as a supra-national state, which it certainly is not.

The EU is also facing the challenge posed by the return of the nation-state as the most popular model of socio-political organization across the globe. Right now all supra-national and/or international organizations, from the United Nations to NATO, are regarded with suspicion, if not outright hostility, not only in Europe but also throughout the world.

With the Brexit saga’s denouement still uncertain, the European Union would do well to re-examine its performance as a daring experience in socio-political engineering on a grand scale. Even if, as expected, the United Kingdom somehow manages to fudge Brexit and remain tied to the EU, the fact remains that millions of Brits and other Europeans are unhappy with aspects of the experience.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

UK: Radical Muslims Welcome, Persecuted Christians Need Not Apply by Raymond Ibrahim

Posted By on March 31st, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13975/uk-unwelcome-christians

In rejecting the claim for asylum of a man who converted from Islam to Christianity, and presumably compelling his return to Iran, the British government is effectively sentencing him to death.

“[O]ut of 4,850 Syrian refugees accepted for resettlement by the Home Office in 2017, only eleven were Christian, representing just 0.2% of all Syrian refugees accepted by the UK.” — Barnabas Fund.

At the same time, the Home Office allowed a Pakistani cleric, Syed Muzaffar Shah Qadri, considered so extreme that he is banned even from his native Pakistan, to come and lecture in UK mosques.

“It’s unbelievable that these persecuted Christians who come from the cradle of Christianity are being told there is no room at the inn, when the UK is offering a welcome to Islamists who persecute Christians…. There is a serious systemic problem when Islamist leaders who advocate persecution of Christians are given the green light telling them that their applications for UK visas will be looked on favourably, while visas for short pastoral visits to the UK are denied to Christian leaders whose churches are facing genocide. That is an urgent issue that Home Office ministers need to grasp and correct.” — Dr. Martin Parsons, Barnabas Fund.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Trump Is Right about the Golan Heights by Alan M. Dershowitz

Posted By on March 31st, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13976/trump-is-right-about-the-golan-heights

No country in history has ever given back to a sworn enemy militarily essential territory that has been captured in a defensive war.

Predictably, the European Union opposed the U.S. recognition of the annexation. But it provided no compelling argument, beyond its usual demand that the status quo not be changed.

Has any European country ever handed over high ground, captured in a defensive war, to a sworn enemy? Recall that at the end of the first and second world wars, European countries made territorial adjustments to help preserve the peace. Why should the European Union subject Israel to a double standard it has never demanded of itself? The answer is clear: The European Union has always acted hypocritically when it comes to Israel, and this is no exception.

No reasonable person would ask the Israelis to give the Golan Heights to the Syrian mass murderer Assad. It would be suicidal to hand the high ground overlooking Israeli towns and villages to a madman who would use it to target Israelis civilians with chemical barrel bombs, as Assad has done to his own citizens. No country has ever returned a battleship captured in a defensive war to an enemy sworn to its destruction. In addition, the Golan Heights is a big battleship that would be used to attack Israel.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

When Prosecutorial Discretion Is Woke Throwing out charges against Jussie Smollett is consistent with the social-justice narrative that a hate hoax can be true in a deeper sense.Heather Mac Donald

Posted By on March 30th, 2019

https://www.city-journal.org/jussie-smollet-indictment-dismissal

The expunging of the 16-count felony indictment against actor Jussie Smollett for faking a hate crime against himself is being treated as a manifestation of Chicago-machine politics, whereby the politically well-connected enjoy a different standard of justice than everyone else. Feminist attorney Tina Tchen, the former chief of staff to First Lady Michelle Obama, had contacted Cook County prosecutor Kim Foxx about the case on behalf of a member of Smollett’s family. But the dismissal of a seemingly watertight case, based on the sworn confessions of Smollett’s two co-conspirators and reams of physical evidence, represents more than celebrity justice. It is rather the latest example of the incursion of academic identity politics into the workings of government.

Had Smollett been a straight white male who had staged his own attack by fake Antifa Trump antagonists, he would most certainly still be facing a trial and the prospect of prison time. But Foxx is a leading figure in the recent national wave of progressive local prosecutors who came to power by playing race politics. She campaigned on the Critical Race Theory credo that the criminal-justice system is endemically biased. She inveighed against the so-called school-to-prison pipeline and promised to reduce racial disparities in prosecutions. Last month, she dismissed aggravated battery charges against a 16-year-old student who had attacked two Chicago police officers; the Chicago police union argued that her dismissal of the charges fit a pattern of favoring offenders over police officers. Foxx operates in a cultural milieu that holds that the fact that a hate crime is a hoax is less important than the fact that it could have been true. Prosecuting Smollett could have sent another black man to prison. Is there a race-based system of justice here?