EDUCATION Comments turned off

Professor Tried to Boost Female Students’ Grades Based Only on Their Gender By Katherine Timpf

Posted By on May 23rd, 2018

Thankfully, the plan didn’t work.

A STEM professor at the University of Akron in Ohio was trying to boost his female students’ grades — just because those students are women.

On Monday, the professor, Liping Liu, sent an email to students letting them know that three groups of students may see their grades raised a “level or two,” according to a screenshot of the email that was posted on Reddit.

The screenshot has since been removed because it contained recipients’ email addresses, however, a redacted copy of it was provided by a student to Campus Reform. It stated:

The following categories of students may see their grades raised one level or two:

1) Female students (it is a national movement to encourage female students to go to information sciences)

2) Students who had earned scores in exams (especially final exams) demonstrating a higher performance than their calculated ones

3) Students who attended class but missed reporting attendance (as long as I can tell)

Liu told The College Fix that he was well aware that his attempt to raise women’s grades could be “questionable,” but that he decided he wanted to “test the water” anyway and see if the grade raises might “attract female students into future classes.”

In a win for sanity, however, the plan didn’t work. The Fix reports that an administrator contacted the publication to say that Liu’s idea was “unacceptable,” and that no one’s grades would be raised.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

US-Israel ties: the 400-year-old unique foundations Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on May 23rd, 2018

-Israel relations have surged commercially and militarily since Israel’s establishment in 1948, and Israel enjoys a 74% favorability rating according to the 2018 annual Gallup poll of favorability (compared to 21% for the Palestinian Authority). This positive state of relations has been achieved despite the systematic pressure by all US Presidents – from Truman through Obama – and in spite of persistent criticism of Israel by the Department of State, the New York Times and the Washington Post (all three opposed the 1948 establishment of the Jewish State) and other representatives of the “elite” US media.

US-Israel relations have dramatically expanded in defiance of conventional common sense, but consistent with – and nurtured by – the 400 year old ideological, moral, cultural, religious and historical foundations of the United States, which have enriched the US-Israel saga, featuring a unique people-to-people, bottom-up relationship, with elected officials representing the wish of most constituents.

For example, on March 5, 1891 – antedating Theodore Herzl and the 1897 First Zionist Congress – US President, Benjamin Harrison, received the William Blackstone Memorial, which called for the reestablishment of the Jewish State in the Land of the Bible: “Palestine for the Jews.” The Memorial was signed by over 400 distinguished Americans, such as the Chief Justice, additional Supreme Court Justices, future President William McKinley, senators, congressmen (including the Speaker of the House and the Chairmen of the Ways and Means and International Relations Committees), Governors, mayors, university presidents, businessmen, clergy and media editors.

The signatories of the “Blackstone Memorial” were overwhelmingly Christian movers and shakers, who signed the document well before the emergence of the Jewish political lobby, reflecting the Biblical, Judeo-Christian roots of the USA.

POLITICS Comments turned off

From Blue Wave to Blue Trickle to Blue Gurgle By Ned Ryun

Posted By on May 23rd, 2018

Something funny is happening with the much-hyped “blue wave” on the way to the fall midterms. That wave of Democratic candidates that is supposed to sweep away the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives? The one that the press and pundits have been predicting for months? One would almost think the steady narrative of a blue wave is an attempt at psychological warfare by the mainstream media and the Left in hopes of depressing Republican donors and voters into thinking the outcome is a foregone conclusion.

But that narrative is completely detached from reality. The numbers now tell a different story.

Democrats entered 2018 with a double-digit lead in the congressional generic ballot, upwards of 15 points in some polls. Yet somehow in May, their lead in the RealClearPolitics average has shrunk to just four points. In some generic polls, such as the Reuters survey, the Democrats’ lead has disappeared entirely. In fact, in the most recent Reuters’ poll, Republicans are up more than six points generically.

Democrats right now are in a position mirrored almost exactly in May 2014, when they held a one-to-four-point lead on most generic ballots. Remember what happened? Democrats lost 13 seats.

Unmistakably, the dynamics of 2018 are different. President Trump is a volatile and polarizing figure. Moreover, nearly 40 Republican incumbents—including House Speaker Paul Ryan—are retiring. And every race is subject to contingency and local events.

A Tea Party Precedent?
Nevertheless, as we consider the “great and awesome” blue wave in 2018, it’s worth remembering the Tea Party wave of 2010. That year, 85 percent of House incumbents won. Put in perspective, that supposed seismic election was the worst reelection average for House incumbents in the last 40 years. It’s not unusual in most off-year midterms for incumbents to have a 94-98 percent re-election rate. In fact, the average reelection rate for U.S. House incumbents since World War II has been 93 percent.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Cop-hating communist Van Jones partners with Trump adviser to reform prison system By M. Catharine Evans

Posted By on May 23rd, 2018

On Friday, communist and cop-killer supporter Anthony K. “Van” Jones sat with President Trump’s close adviser, Jared Kushner, and his wife, Ivanka Trump, at a White House forum on prison reform.

Flashing his GQ smile, Obama’s former green jobs czar was back at the White House after being forced to resign in 2009 when conservatives exposed his anti-American activities.

Under Obama’s watch, the con man helped to scam taxpayers out of billions of dollars for bogus green energy projects designed to employ low-income minorities. Soon, the money disappeared, and over 60,000 jobs promised by Obama never materialized.

Now Jones has moved on to another big-government reform movement guaranteed to take money from people who don’t commit crimes and redistribute it to people who do. Jones and his Dream Corps #Cut50 initiative backed the First Step Act, just passed in the House.

Of course, Jones supports this legislation. It’s another windfall for the progressive huckster. No doubt, his network of lucrative non-profits will haul in part of the $250 million of taxpayer monies the bill authorizes for various educational and mental health support programs.

Since 2014, Jones has been pushing for sentencing reforms, early release, pleading down violent crimes to nonviolent misdemeanors, and generally driving down incarceration numbers, much as the PROMISE program does in Broward County.

According to some Democrat lawmakers, the First Step Act doesn’t go far enough, but President Trump told Jones during the WH gathering on Friday, “If you see something you don’t like, call me. We’ll get it changed before we sign it and have to go through the whole process again.”

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Islamizing the Schools: The Case of West Virginia By Pamela Geller

Posted By on May 23rd, 2018

This is an outrage, but it is common nationwide: the Daily Caller News Foundation reports that Mountain Ridge Middle School in West Virginia is “instructing junior high students to write the Islamic profession of faith ostensibly to practice calligraphy.” Students are made to write out the Shahada, which states: “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

This is exactly what I warned about in my book, Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance, in the chapter “The Mosqueing of the Public Schools.”

In order to convert to Islam, one says the shahada. Saying the shahada makes you a Muslim. The shahada is what is on the black flag of jihad.

No non-Muslim student should be forced to write or say the shahada without the qualifier “Muslims believe that…” This is because it is a statement of faith. If the school exercise is requiring students to write it, it should be clear from the wording of the exercise that this is Islamic faith, not the student’s faith. That distinction has been glossed over in many, many school textbook presentations.

This is in West Virginia, not Baghdad. And it’s a problem not just in West Virginia – it’s a national problem.

Rich Penkoski, the father of a Mountain Ridge student, contacted me and explained the situation further. He sent me the packets the school gave out for the Jewish and the Christian lessons and commented:

Notice no bible verses, no reciting the 10 commandments or the Lord’s prayer. No practicing writing in Hebrew (not even the 10 commandments) as compared to the Islamic packet.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Suffer the Little Children Philadelphia sacrifices Catholic foster services to identity politics. By The Editorial Board

Posted By on May 22nd, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/suffer-the-little-children-1527029941

What’s more important—finding a foster home for needy children, or identity politics? The answer from the political left is exacerbating a crisis in Philadelphia that is leaving hundreds of children to languish in group homes.

Catholic Social Services has worked in Philadelphia for decades and oversees about 100 foster homes. But two months ago the city abruptly halted referrals to the group because the Catholic charity holds Catholic beliefs about same-sex marriage. Last week several foster parents represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty sued in federal court to resume the group’s foster-care placements.

Catholic Social Services works with children regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation. But on Catholic religious grounds the charity won’t certify same-sex or unmarried couples as foster parents, instead referring them to another state-approved organization. More than two dozen alternative agencies exist, and Catholic Social Services says no gay couples have even sought its help for certification, much less filed a complaint after being turned away.

Philadelphia has nonetheless denounced Catholic Social Services as discriminatory and launched an investigation into its practices. Unless the group agrees to provide written certifications for same-sex foster parents, the city will terminate its contract in June.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

When Carter Page Met Stefan Halper A timeline that contradicts claims by Justice and the FBI.

Posted By on May 22nd, 2018

Multiple media sources have now confirmed that American academic Stefan Halper is the “top secret” informant the FBI asked to sidle up to Trump campaign officials in 2016. Some questions follow: Who asked Mr. Halper to keep tabs on the Trump officials, and when and why?

The answers go to the credibility of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s claim that it didn’t open an official counterintelligence probe into Trump-Russia collusion until July 31, 2016. The answers might also show if Obama Administration officials knew about this mission, or if political actors working for the Clinton campaign such as Fusion GPS played a role.

One mystery concerns Mr. Halper’s interaction with Trump aide Carter Page. The New York Times reported on Friday that Mr. Halper’s contact with Trump officials happened only after the July 31 launch of the probe. The story notes that Mr. Halper reached out to campaign adviser George Papadopoulos “late that summer” and then to Mr. Page “in the ensuing months.” A Washington Post story adds that Mr. Halper sat down with Trump official Sam Clovis on either “August 31 or Sept. 1.”

But Mr. Page tells us he actually met Mr. Halper in mid-July, at a symposium at England’s University of Cambridge, where Mr. Halper is an emeritus professor. Mr. Page says the invitation to that event came much earlier—the end of May or early June. Mr. Page declined to say who invited him but says it was someone other than Mr. Halper.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Bill Nye Proposes ‘Free-Market’ Tax on Cow Farts By Tyler O’Neil

Posted By on May 22nd, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/bill-nye-proposes-free-market-tax-on-cow-farts/

On Monday, mechanical engineer-turned-science TV host Bill Nye called for a government-mandated “fee” on cow farts. He even had the gall to refer to this tax as a “free-market” proposal.

“Well, this is what we can do and it’s a win-win: to have a fee on carbon,” Nye suggested. “So if you are raising livestock and producing a lot of carbon dioxide with your farm equipment and the exhaust from the animals, then you would pay a fee on that and it would be reflected in the price of meat, reflected in the price of fish, reflected in the price of peanuts.”

Nye told the Daily Beast’s Marlow Stern that this “would be a free-market way to reckon the real cost of a meat diet on the world.” He also insisted that “a carbon fee would be a fantastic thing for the world.”

Interestingly, Nye shot down the idea of pushing global vegetarianism to prevent climate change. “Well, we can all say that here in the developed world where we have the luxury of choice, but if you ware in a developing country, you need protein and your agriculture may not be sophisticated enough to provide you the protein,” he said.

“I don’t want to get in the business of judging people who aren’t vegetarians,” Nye explained, shortly before proposing a meat tax on cow farts.

Many climate alarmists have pushed vegetarianism as a solution to climate change. In 2010, the United Nations Environment Programme advocated a global vegan diet because “animal products cause more damage than [producing] construction minerals such as sand or cement, plastics or metals. Biomass and crops for animals are as damaging as fossil fuels.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Lying Liar James Clapper Just Lied Again About His Previous Lies About NSA Spying ‘I made a mistake. I didn’t lie.’ By Bre Payton

Posted By on May 22nd, 2018

http://thefederalist.com/2018/05/22/james-clapper-just-lied-again-about-his-previous-lies-about-nsa-spying/

In an interview with the ladies of “The View” Tuesday afternoon, James Clapper told another lie about his previous lies about the NSA program to spy on American citizens.

Meghan McCain confronted Clapper about a statement he made while testifying before Congress five years ago, when he was asked whether or not the NSA was spying on Americans.

“In 2013 when you were asked about it, you said ‘no,’” McCain said. “So that is a lie.”

“I made a mistake,” Clapper said. “I didn’t lie. I was thinking about something else, another program.”

Clapper then proceeded to prattle on about two different surveillance programs in an attempt to obfuscate his answer.

“I’ve been trotting up the Hill testifying for 25 years,” Clapper said. “Gee, just for a change of pace, I think I’ll lie on this one question and by the way do it on live television and do it in front of one of my oversight committees. So I made a mistake, but I didn’t lie.”

Let’s revisit the exchange that Clapper referenced.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israelis Respond to Biased Coverage of Gaza Riots: David Isaac

Posted By on May 22nd, 2018

‘Israeli soldiers do not thrive on shooting innocent Palestinians or even Hamas activists’
http://freebeacon.com/culture/israelis-respond-biased-coverage-gaza-riots/

TEL AVIV, Israel—A couple of weeks before the Gaza riots began, the pro-Israel media watchdog CAMERA put up across from the New York Times building a massive billboard: “The New York Times At it AGAIN: Defaming Israel with distorted ‘news.'” Although its strategic location made it impossible to miss, Israelis nearly universally agree that the Old Gray Lady didn’t get the message—and that the Times is but one of a slew of global media outlets copying from the same script, according to which IDF soldiers randomly kill peaceful protesters.

While the Israeli public is accustomed to anti-Israel bias in the international media, coverage of the Gaza riots appears to have a struck a nerve, perhaps because foreign coverage of “peaceful protests” is so at odds with what Israelis see on their local TV. On Israeli TV they see swastika-painted kite bombs setting alight Israeli fields, bullets lodged into the window sills of nearby Sderot homes, Hamas fence-cutting units crying “Khaybar, Khaybar”—a battle cry referring to the Muslim massacre of Jews in that Arabian town in 628 A.D. When these aspects of the story don’t make it to Western media outlets, Israelis are understandably aggrieved.

Nizar Amer, a deputy spokesperson at Israel’s foreign ministry, says that from the Israeli government’s point of view, most of the coverage in the international media fails to provide the full picture. “You didn’t see many media outlets saying that Hamas led and organized this campaign. There’s a gap between what’s happening on the ground and what the media is reporting.” A pundit on Israel’s Channel 20, a news channel with a nationalistic bent, argued that the country should start ejecting journalists who print falsehoods about Israel. Amer says given the importance of freedom of the press, he doesn’t see Israel doing that.