EDUCATION Comments turned off

A Million-Dollar Punch : Peter Wood

Posted By on March 11th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/03/10/a-million-dollar-punch/

President Trump on March 2 announced he would issue an executive order addressing free speech on college and university campuses. The order itself hasn’t been issued, and so far there has been little indication of what it might say. That hasn’t stopped a torrent of criticism aimed at what Trump might do. The higher education establishment is worried. The president’s words suggest that significant funding could be at stake.

This is what President Trump actually said about the executive order during his two-hour speech at the Conservative Political Action Committee’s annual convention. First, he made some general comments:We reject oppressive speech codes, censorship, political correctness and every other attempt by the hard left to stop people from challenging ridiculous and dangerous ideas. These ideas are dangerous. Instead we believe in free speech, including online and including on campus.Then, after introducing Hayden Williams, the young man who had been punched while distributing conservative pamphlets at UC Berkeley, Trump continued:Today I am proud to announce that I will very soon be signing an executive order requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research dollars.If they want our dollars, and we give it to them by the billions, they’ve got to allow people like Hayden and many other great young people and old people to speak. Free speech. And if they don’t, it will be costly. That will be signed soon.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Liberalism Then and Now By Mark Bauerlein

Posted By on March 11th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/03/10/liberalism

If you go back just a few decades, here is what liberals believed:
1.Everyone should be judged as an individual. To see someone as a representative of a group is to stereotype him.
2.People have a right to privacy, which means that what they do in their personal lives isn’t relevant to their public and work lives.
3.Free speech is the basis of a free society.
4.Journalists should act as nonpartisan watchdogs monitoring the halls of power.
5.Western civilization is the story of freedom and equality spreading to more and more people in the world.
6.The United States is a city on a hill.
7.Scientific findings should be examined on apolitical grounds of validity and method.
8.One must accept the results of fair elections.
9.The best art transcends politics.
10.We must stand up for the working man.

Those positions weren’t controversial back then, but they are worse than controversial now.

POLITICS Comments turned off

The 1972 Progressive Pathway to Oblivion By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on March 11th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/03/10/the-1972

What is strange about the new envisioned progressive agendas for 2020 is that no serious Democratic presidential candidate next year could ever run on them.Instead, what we will see over the next few months are insidious efforts to ignore, disown, or recant endorsements of Democratic candidates for president. And if not, Democrats will be trapped by their own rhetoric and virtue signaling—and end up going the full McGovern in 2020.

Venom. The new progressive Democratic Party is prepared for existential war. Vice President Mike Pence cannot be said to be a “decent guy.” Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is old and in the way. America is not much above “garbage.” Immigrants arrive crushed that the “propaganda” did not match the reality of a pathological America. Yesterday’s condemnations from Jeremiah Wright’s pulpit sound mild today. In such a race to the bottom, expect in the next 22 months that each current slur and smear will be seen as counterrevolutionary within 24 hours. Yet most Americans do not appreciate their country being trashed by those who apparently know little about it.Green Deals. Much has been written about the “Green New Deal,” specifically its socialist redistribution schemes, and its notorious rapid phasing out of the internal combustion engine, which drew the polite ridicule from Feinstein and even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

A Month of Multiculturalism in Britain: February 2019 by Soeren Kern

Posted By on March 11th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13862/multiculturalism-britain-february

There is “a lot of anecdotal data” which shows that female genital mutilation (FGM) is increasingly being performed on babies and infants in the UK, according to FGM expert and attorney Dr. Charlotte Proudman. She added that it was “almost impossible to detect” as the girls were not yet in school or at nursery, thus making it difficult for any public authority to become aware of it. Proudman added that the lack of prosecutions for FGM is due in part to concerns by doctors and police over being accused of racism.

Oluwole Ilesanmi, a 64-year-old Christian street preacher also known as Preacher Olu, was arrested at Southgate Station in north London after complaints that his message about Jesus was “Islamophobic.”

Education Secretary Damian Hinds announced a plan to make anti-FGM lessons compulsory in British schools. As of September 2020, all teenagers in secondary school will be taught about the illegal practice, which may affect up to 60,000 girls in the UK. “I want to make sure there isn’t another generation of children at risk of this happening,” Hinds said.

February 1. A 37-year-old Ugandan mother-of-three became the first person to be found guilty of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Britain, where FGM has been a criminal offense since 1985. The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, known as the Old Bailey, heard how the woman performed FGM on her three-year-old girl. The woman claimed the girl “fell on metal and it ripped her private parts” after she had climbed to get a biscuit. Prosecutor Caroline Carberry QC told the court that investigators found evidence in the woman’s home in East London of spells and curses apparently aimed at “silencing” police officers, social workers and lawyers:

“Two cow tongues were bound in wire with nails and a small blunt knife also embedded in them, 40 limes were found and other fruit which when opened contained pieces of paper with names on them.

“The names embedded included both police officers involved in the investigation of the case, the social worker, her own son and the director of public prosecutions at the time.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Democrats’ Election-Reform Bill Is an Unconstitutional, Authoritarian Power Grab By The Editors

Posted By on March 11th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/democrats-for-the-people-act-election-reform-bill-unconstitutional/

At some level, you have to give House Democrats some credit for ambition. They may have just sent to the Senate the most comprehensively unconstitutional bill in modern American history. It’s called the “For the People Act,” and it’s a legislative buffet of bad ideas.

The alleged purpose of the bill, H.R. 1, is to “expand Americans’ access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, and strengthen ethics rules for public servants.” In reality, the bill represents an extraordinary federal power grab. At every turn, it grants federal regulators more power. Time and again, it renders federal election law more complex — creating a chilling effect on political communication through sheer uncertainty and confusion.

The free-speech problems are so obvious that free-speech organizations on the left and right are united in opposition. Comprehensive analyses from the Institute for Free Speech and the American Civil Liberties Union are worth reading in their entirety and raise remarkably similar concerns.

At a time of extraordinary public harassment, boycotts, intimidating public shame campaigns, the act would expand financial-disclosure requirements, including in some circumstances requiring public disclosure of the names and addresses even of donors who did not know about or perhaps even support the political message of the organization they funded. Donors may give money, for example, to fund one aspect of an organization’s mission only to be involuntarily exposed as a “political donor” when the organization chooses — without the donor’s knowledge or consent — to mention a politician by name in a different context. As the ACLU points out, “it is unfair to hold donors responsible for every communication in which an organization engages.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Internet Collapses in Venezuela with 80% Offline; Twitter, YouTube, Sound Cloud Blocked By Paula Bolyard

Posted By on March 11th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/internet-collapses-in-venezuela-with-80-offline-twitter-youtube-soundcloud-blocked/

In the midst of a second nationwide power outage in Venezuela, the vast majority of the country is engulfed in a massive internet outage. The first electrical blackout, which swept across the nation on Thursday, left Venezuela with only two percent connectivity amid the ongoing presidential crisis. Most of the country has been offline since Thursday with limited or no connectivity being reported across large swaths of the South American nation. The NetBlocks Group, a private internet watchdog organization based in the UK, reported on Saturday that 96 percent of the country was offline:

The group provided an update on Sunday noting that 20 percent now have connectivity.Gains in connectivity have been lost through a series of three distinct new outages as shown in NetBlocks’ network connectivity charts.Internet-scale network measurements indicate which regions have been affected and to what extent. During previous network and power outages, concerns have been raised about attacks and military activity, and the risk of human rights violations perpetrated under the cover of darkness.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Last Days of Taliban Head Mullah Omar New report claims he lived in Afghanistan until his death, not Pakistan as CIA, others believed By Jessica Donati

Posted By on March 11th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-last-days-of-taliban-head-mullah-omar-11552226401?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=0&cx_tag=contextual&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s

Mullah Mohammad Omar, the founder of the Taliban, lived in hiding near a U.S. base in southern Afghanistan until his death, according to a new research-group report that contradicts long-held theories by U.S. officials about the notorious one-eyed leader.

The consensus among experts, including at the Central Intelligence Agency, was that Mullah Omar fled to Pakistan after the U.S. ousted the Taliban following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks orchestrated by al Qaeda, which operated in Afghanistan under the Taliban’s protection.

The new report provides a detailed picture of Mullah Omar’s final years spent mostly in seclusion in Afghanistan, not Pakistan. The report contends he lived with his bodyguard, Jabbar Omari, receiving infrequent visits from a messenger who traveled every few months between his location and the Taliban’s decision-making body in Quetta, Pakistan.

The report was published by the Zomia Center, a research group in New York affiliated with New America, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank. The research relies on interviews with some previously inaccessible sources, including current and former members of the Afghan government, the Afghan intelligence agency, the Taliban and Mullah Omar’s bodyguard, Mr. Omari, who protected him until his death and now lives under house arrest in Kabul.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Omar and the Conspiracy Democrats Her colleagues portray the freshman as a naïf. But she has a clear and menacing modus operandi. By Elliot Kaufman

Posted By on March 11th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/omar-and-the-conspiracy-democrats-11552245502

To hear Speaker Nancy Pelosi tell it, Rep. Ilhan Omar is a naïf. Nothing the Minnesota freshman has said was “intended in an anti-Semitic way,” Mrs. Pelosi explained last week. She merely “has a different experience in the use of words” and “doesn’t understand that some of them are fraught with meaning.” Yet Ms. Omar has been consistent not only in attacking the pro-Israel lobby, but in purveying a conspiratorial view of the world. The evidence-free accusation that illegitimate moneyed or foreign interests are corrupting her opponents and dictating U.S. policy is her modus operandi.

Before Ms. Omar was sworn in on Jan. 3, she had already been dogged by a menacing 2012 tweet, which she deleted late last month: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” That sounds like a classic conspiracy theory, with the evil force spreading false consciousness to keep its hand hidden.

On Jan. 15, not two weeks into the job, she tweeted about Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s turnabout to support President Trump: “They got to him, he is compromised!” Two days later, she mused on CNN that the senator was being blackmailed and it “has to do with his funding.” After repeated questioning, Ms. Omar admitted it was merely her “opinion” but claimed the truth was “visible” to her and that “there are lots of Americans who agree.”

FOREIGN POLICY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Answering Taiwan’s Defense Call Trump can improve deterrence with an F-16V fighter sale.

Posted By on March 11th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/answering-taiwans-defense-call-11552256483

After Chinese President Xi Jinping in January pledged “all necessary measures” to reunite Taiwan with the Chinese mainland, the island democracy is redoubling efforts to buy American fighter jets. Not since George H.W. Bush has a U.S. President approved such a sale, but President Trump can help a democratic ally defend itself by allowing it to proceed.

Kim Strassel, Jillian Melchior, Bill McGurn and Dan Henninger discuss their hits and misses of the week which include Melania Trump’s “Be Best” initiative, Colorado’s dropped cake baker lawsuit and New Jersey governor Phil Murphy’s proposed budget. Image: GettyTaiwan’s defense ministry last week requested war planes to “demonstrate our determination and ability to defend ourselves,” according to Deputy Defense Minister Shen Yi-ming. Taiwanese media report up to 66 F-16Vs could be included in the request, though the ministry said it didn’t specify a number or model and would defer to a U.S. offer.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Jewish Americans and the Democratic Party: Time to Go? Welcome to JEXODUS. Bruce Bawer

Posted By on March 11th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273109/jewish-americans-and-democratic-party-time-go-bruce-bawer

On Saturday, Roger L. Simon lamented at PJ Media that anti-Semitism is once again becoming respectable – or at least acceptable – across the Western world, and that this time around the Jew-haters are predominantly Muslims and leftists. Among the more prominent new standard bearers of this old hatred, noted Simon, are our two recently elected Muslim congresswomen, who, he quite reasonably surmised, “were likely inculcated at an early age, as were too many Muslim children, with the belief that Jews only (pace Darwin) were the descendants of pigs and apes and should be wiped from the Earth.” Simon argued that in the face of the Democratic Party establishment’s shameful readiness to excuse – or at least relativize – these women’s Jew-hatred, as demonstrated by its feeble response last week to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s fondness for vile anti-Semitic tropes, it’s about time for American Jews, the overwhelming majority of whom have long been loyal Democrats, to pack their bags and check out.

Alas, I’m afraid it’ll take more than a little Der Stürmer-type rhetoric by Muslim Democrats to budge True Believers whose weekly religious devotions consist not of attending shul but of soaking in the Sunday New York Times, that secular Torah. No devout adherent of the Gospel according to Sulzberger would jump ship, after all, as long as all-knowing guru Paul “I won the Nobel Prize” Krugman can write, as he did last Thursday, that “only one brand of antisemitism scares me — and it’s not on the left.” I wonder what Natan Sharansky has to say about that.

On Friday, for her part, Krugman’s fellow Times oracle Michelle Goldberg offered this bit of Solomonic wisdom: “I assume Omar has been reckless rather than malicious.” And what, pray tell, is that assumption based on? Definitely not a familiarity with the Koran. Goldberg went on: “As one of the first two Muslim women in Congress — and the first to wear a hijab — Omar has been subject to a terrifying campaign of racist vilification.” How remarkable that, almost eighteen years after 9/11, you can still get away with deep-sixing Islamic ideology – and the symbolic significance of the hijab – by pretending that Islam is a race. Goldberg concluded: “Omar needs to do better, but right now there’s still only one political party in America that is a safe place for hate.” Of course, Goldberg meant the GOP, because in today’s Democratic lexicon, hate no longer means hate – it means a refusal to honor the current victim-group hierarchy, which places Muslims at the very top and, ignoring not only the Holocaust but the whole history of Jewish suffering, places Jews at or near the bottom, if not eliminating them from the picture entirely.