EDUCATION Comments turned off

Renu Mukherjee Affirmative Action Doesn’t Work, and MIT Knows It University officials have acknowledged that racial disparities in academic preparation begin at the K–12 level.

Posted By on September 24th, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/affirmative-action-doesnt-work-and-mit-knows-it

Several highly selective colleges and universities in the U.S.—including MIT, Yale, Princeton, and now Harvard—have finally revealed the racial makeup of their incoming freshmen, the Class of 2028. This is the first group to be admitted since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (SFFA), last year.

Supporters of racial preferences anticipated that the ruling would lead to a decline in black and Hispanic enrollment at America’s top schools. Opponents anticipated the opposite, contending that progressive university officials would find ways to evade SFFA and continue discriminating in favor of underrepresented minorities.

Both groups now have data that seem to vindicate their arguments. At MIT, the percentage of black enrollees in the freshman class dropped to 5 percent from 15 percent in the previous year; the percentage of Hispanic enrollees dropped to 11 percent from 16 percent; the percentage of white enrollees dropped to 37 percent from 38 percent; and the percentage of Asian enrollees rose to 47 percent from 40 percent. Yet at Duke, the combined share of black and Hispanic freshmen increased (compared with last fall), while the share of white and Asian freshmen fell. Meantime, at the University of Virginia, the racial makeup of the Class of 2028 remained virtually unchanged from that of the Class of 2027. Clearly, some universities, such as MIT, are taking SFFA more seriously than others.

Indeed, MIT’s President Sally Kornbluth and Dean of Admission Stu Schmill directly attributed the decline in black and Hispanic freshmen at the university to SFFA. Kornbluth, in a recent announcement to the MIT community, said: “The class is, as always, outstanding across multiple dimensions. What it does not bring, as a consequence of last year’s Supreme Court decision, is the same degree of broad racial and ethnic diversity that the MIT community has worked to achieve over the past several decades.” Similarly, Schmill told MIT News during an August 21 interview: “I have no doubt that we left out many well-qualified, well-matched applicants from historically underrepresented backgrounds who in the past we would have admitted—and who would have excelled.”

ELECTIONS, IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Non-citizens added to states’ voter rolls through DMV, even after admitting lack of US citizenship “We have hundreds where they actually mark on the form, ‘hello, not a citizen,’ and they still get registered to vote,” J. Christian Adams explained.

Posted By on September 24th, 2024

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/non-citizens-added-states-voter-rolls-through-dmv-even-after-admitting

Non-citizens have been added to several states’ voter rolls largely through motor vehicle departments, sometimes even after they have explained that they are not U.S. citizens.

States have been discovering non-citizens on their voter rolls over the years, with many being added through the “motor voter” process at motor vehicle departments that began with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). If non-citizens are seeking to become naturalized citizens, then being illegally registered to vote can prevent that from occurring.

An election integrity group has examined states’ voter rolls for years, finding many non-citizens who are illegally registered to vote across the country.

Pennsylvania

J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), said on a Just the News special report with The Association of Mature American Citizens to be aired Tuesday that non-citizens had been registered to vote in Pennsylvania for decades.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The EV Graveyard

Posted By on September 24th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/09/24/the-ev-graveyard/

Last week, the House approved a resolution to block the Biden administration’s emissions rule that would require more than half of the automobiles sold in the new-car market to be electric by 2032. The 215 representatives who voted for the bill, including eight Democrats, are far more in tune with most of the country than the White House. The “deplorables” and “bitter” clingers of the industrialized world are rejecting electric vehicles.

Nationwide, the inventory of unsold EVs had grown by nearly 350% over the first half of 2024, creating “a 92-day supply — roughly three months’ worth of EVs, and nearly twice the industry average,” says Axios, which is 54 days for gasoline-powered vehicles.

Ford, which lost nearly $73,000 on each EV it sold in the second quarter of 2023, continues to yield to reality, now ditching its plans to build a large electric SUV. This “course change,” says Just the News, “comes amid lower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles.”

The company has also “pushed back to 2027” plans for “another electric vehicle project for a pickup truck.”

“Based on where the market is and where the customer is, we will pivot and adjust and make those tough decisions,” said John Lawler, Ford’s chief financial officer.

And here’s the market’s message:

“Of the U.S. consumers planning on purchasing a new vehicle in the next 24 months, only 34% intend to purchase an EV, down 14% from 48% in the 2023,” says Ernst & Young’s Mobility Consumer Index, “a global survey of almost 20,000 consumers from 28 countries.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Mission: Preserve the Republic: Sydney Williams

Posted By on September 24th, 2024

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com\

Elizabeth Willing Powel: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”Benjamin Franklin: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”      Philadelphia, September 17, 1787

                                                                                                                    

That exchange took place 237 years ago outside Independence Hall, where delegates had met to discuss weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation, as they pertained to the central government. It was recorded in the journal of Maryland delegate James McHenry (1753-1816), a journal now in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. (The Articles of Confederation, agreed to in 1777, were replaced a decade later by the United States Constitution, which provided for a stronger central government.)

Democrats have seized the expression “save democracy,” which means elect them, not Republicans who they argue would destroy democracy. They express concern of storm troopers led by Donald Trump who they say would tear down our democratic institutions. But might this be an example of projection?

Our Founders were concerned about despotism, including what James Madison called “the tyranny of the majority.” So they constructed a Republic, with checks and balances, a federal government with three equal and independent branches – legislative, executive and judicial – to protect the rights of both the majority and the minority.

In a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, George Washington University law professor Jonathon Turley wrote: “In an October 2020 interview, Harvard law professor Michael Klarman laid out a plan for Democrats should they win the White House and both congressional chambers. They would enact ‘democracy-entrenching legislation.’ But what does that mean? They have called for the elimination of the Electoral College. They want to increase the size of the Supreme Court, and widen the reach of the federal bureaucracy through new administrative agencies.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Suicidal Jews By Joan Swirsky

Posted By on September 24th, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/09/suicidal_jews.html

When individuals kill themselves, we look for answers in their DNA, their environments, their personal reactions to feelings of impotent rage, rejection, disappointment, heartbreak, and mental illness.

But how to explain group suicide?  There are numerous examples, going back to 206 B.C., and these relatively recent cases:

In 1943, in the final phase of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, many of the Jewish fighters besieged in the “bunker” at Miła 18 committed mass suicide by ingesting poison rather than surrender to the Nazis.
In 1945, about 1,000 residents of Demmin, Germany, committed mass suicide after the Red Army had sacked the town.
In 1978, 918 Americans — including 276 children — ingested cyanide in the Peoples Temple, after being exhorted and compelled to do so by their cult leader, Jim Jones, in Jonestown, Guyana.
In 1997, 39 followers of the Heaven’s Gate cult in California died in a mass suicide, believing they would travel on a spaceship that followed comet Hale — Bopp.

Clearly, some groups took their lives en masse for ideological reasons, whereas others — particularly vulnerable people in dire need of a “leader” — simply followed orders.  In all the mass suicides in recorded history, dozens, hundreds, and up to one thousand people took their own lives.

But today, when looking at suicidal Jews, the numbers could be in the millions!

Currently, out of a worldwide population of eight billion people, there are about 15 million Jews — approximately seven million in Israel, almost seven million in the United States, and one million throughout the world.  This is, by any measure, a few grains of sand compared to the massive total population of the world.

According to U.S. voting patterns, Jews are overwhelmingly liberal — up to 80 percent — which means they vote in huge numbers for leftists like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden.  These people’s staffs have comprised, almost exclusively, career antisemites, who have done everything in their power to effect anti-Israel policies like the Iran nuclear deal, knowing that the fanatical mission of the mullahs in Teheran was — and is to this day — to wipe Israel off the map and exterminate every Jew in existence.

As Karin McQuillan explained in “Leftist Jew Hatred Has Come to America,” “the Left began with blacklisting and boycotting conservatives.  Now American Jews are in the crosshairs, no matter how liberal their politics.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Guterres stands by UNGA resolution calling for Jews to be removed from Jerusalem’s Old City Mike Wagenheim

Posted By on September 24th, 2024

https://www.jns.org/guterres-stands-by-unga-resolution-calling-for-jews-to-be-removed-from-old-city-of-jerusalem/?

A spokesman for the secretary-general told JNS that António Guterres “has called for an end to the occupation, and he has called for the end of settlements.”

Prior to the U.N. General Assembly’s vote on Wednesday calling for Jerusalem’s Old City, Judea and Samaria to be free of Jews, António Guterres, the global body’s secretary-general, told reporters that he would back implementation of the resolution should it pass.

The Palestinian-drafted resolution, which passed by a 124-14 margin with 43 abstentions, is meant to give force to the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion in July, when the U.N. high court in The Hague declared Israeli presence to be illegal in any area over the 1949 armistice line.

JNS asked Guterres’s spokesman Stéphane Dujarric during a press briefing on Thursday whether the secretary-general now backs the resolution, calling for the Old City in Jerusalem to be Judenrein, which he said he would report.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Zion: A Place Worth Defending by Nils A. Haug

Posted By on September 23rd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20964/zion-a-place-worth-defending

In essence, Zionism is simply an attempt to re-establish their ancestral home, their place of refuge and sanctuary in an alien world which largely despises them. Zion (now Israel), is a place they can gather to practise their faith without persecution. The six ancient cities of refuge were located only within the Land of Israel, just as, in a microscopic sense, the family is a city of refuge.

The world desperately needs Jewish values and wisdom — those detailed in the holy scriptures. Jewish wisdom was among the first, after the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (c. 1,755 BCE), to present the world with social justice — not only in the Ten Commandments — but also in how we treat our fellow creatures:

“But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do” (Deuteronomy 5:14);

“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk” (Deuteronomy 14:21);

“If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young” (Deuteronomy 22:6);

“You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns” (Deuteronomy 24:14);

“You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets – for he is poor and counts on it” (Deuteronomy 24:15);

“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbour” (Leviticus 19:15);

“You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child” (Exodus 22:22).

Jews have historically defended liberty against tyranny and moral confusion…

The true calling of the Jews, with “the world’s most moral army,” as the IDF is referred to by military expert Col. Richard Kemp, as they now wage a war that was forced on them, is to bring eternal values such as those above, found in the Torah, to the world at large. The Jews remain, after all, a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” They are entitled to their land, a place historically theirs — Zion, Israel, their ancestral home. This land was promised to the Jewish nation forever. It is a place worth defending.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL EVEN DURING WARTIME FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on September 23rd, 2024

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Israel, a nation of about 9,400,000 people gets more news coverage than Brazil with a population of 211,140,729 people. Unfortunately, most of it is biased and low information, particularly during a war occasioned by barbaric enemies. As Michael Ordman details in weekly postings, what the biased media ignores is the outsize and remarkable contributions Israel makes in science, medicine, technology, agriculture and water recycling and preservation, to name a handful, to the entire world. Read it all. rsk

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
On a mission. Technion alumna Maya Shnur is a business manager at Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. “When the sirens start and I take my little boy down into the bomb shelter, I say ‘thank you Rafael for saving our lives.’” Maya contributes to Israel’s security and raises the profile of women in the workplace.
https://technionuk.org/news-post/on-a-mission-a-woman-who-protects-her-country-her-family-her-home/  
 
Cowboys don’t run away. (TY Israel21c) There are some 50 cattle ranches in Israel’s Golan Heights, under fire from Hezbollah rockets and drones. One, Merom Golan, has around 1,500 head of cattle. Shay Zerbib owns another ranch; he says, “Someone has to take care of the animals; they need to get fed no matter what,”
https://www.israel21c.org/cowboys-herding-cattle-under-hezbollah-rocket-fire/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-sazvRNUGM
 
Doctors answer the call. (TY Yanky) Since Oct 7, some 400 doctors and 30 health professionals from the US and other countries have arrived in Israel to assist in treating the large number of injured or to fill in for Israeli medical staff who are called to military duty.  Read about five of them here.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/foreign-doctors-answer-the-call-to-help-in-israels-hospitals-and-rehab-centers/
 
Christian support for the South. (TY Yanky) The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem visited the south and asked Rafi Babian, security chief of the Sadot Regional Council, what he needed. “Paramedic kits for all 16 communities under my watch, please,” he replied. The life-saving kits have now been delivered.
https://www.icej.org/blog/icej-donates-paramedic-kits-to-sadot-negev-region/
 
Montana retreat helps heal IDF vets. (TY Yanky) Healing in Nature (HIN) runs weeklong retreats on an isolated Montana ranch for IDF combat vets traumatized by their Gaza experience. Tel Aviv University psychiatrist Dr Roi Sar-el, uses biofeedback to track soldiers’ vital signs before, during and after the ranch trip.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/weeklong-retreat-in-montana-ranch-aims-to-heal-idf-vets-from-war-traumas/
https://www.hin-group.org/
 
Underwater protection. The IDF Navy’s Underwater Missions Unit (Yaltam), protects Israel’s maritime borders, performs complex rescue operations, and neutralizes underwater threats. Since Oct 7, its missions included neutralizing and removing vehicles, devices, and weaponry from attempted sea infiltrations.
https://www.jns.org/deep-dive-into-israels-elite-underwater-unit/
 
How female soldiers saved lives on Oct 7. We read about how female IDF intelligence soldiers were ignored when they warned of Hamas Oct 7 invasion preparations. This video tells of an all-female unit that helped defend beleaguered Israeli communities on that fateful day.
https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-female-soldiers-play-crucial-role-in-hamas-conflict/
 
IDF father and daughter reunite in Gaza. Another emotional family reunion on the battlefield.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-father-and-daughter-reunite-on-gaza-battlefield/
 
Rebuilding the South & North. A historic agreement between the two largest Zionist organizations KKL-JNF and Jewish National Fund-USA has established a joint venture for reconstruction and renewal in Israel’s southern and northern regions. Each organization will contribute $25 million for each rebuilding project.
https://www.jns.org/wire/keren-kayemeth-leisrael-jewish-national-fund-and-jewish-national-fund-usa-lead-rebuilding-efforts-in-israel/
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Can we talk? Researchers at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center have created LIV – a new generative AI-based platform offering personalized patient interactions and effective diagnostics to people with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. It reduces bottlenecks from an acute shortage of mental health experts.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/edglfl4h6
https://sheba-global.com/transforming-mental-health-care-with-ai-liv-the-next-step-in-psychiatric-innovation/
 
Pain relief is also anti-inflammatory. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s PainReform (see here previously) has developed new improved anti-inflammatory properties for its PRF-110 pain relief treatment. These have then been successfully tested in a Phase 3 multi-site US trial of 443 patients undergoing bunionectomy surgery.
https://painreform.com/releases/painreform-announces-positive-safety-profile-for-prf-110-in-phase-3-bunionectomy-study/  https://painreform.com/releases/painreform-announces-development-and-successful-manufacturing-of-new-formulations-providing-anti-inflammatory-and-extended-analgesic-effects/
 
Hope for hypothyroidism sufferers. Israeli researchers have discovered that a common pollutant (perchlorate salts – found in pesticides and automobiles) interferes with the proper functioning of the thyroid gland, leading to hypothyroidism. They built a detection device that uses a receptor molecule to alert to pollutant’s presence.
https://ats.org/ats-news/new-sensor-detects-chemicals-that-impair-thyroid-gland/
https://phys.org/news/2024-01-sensor-chemicals-impair-thyroid-gland.html
https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/chem.202302968
 
Positive thoughts can heal the heart.  At least it can in heart-diseased mice.  Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute induced positive emotion and motivation, resulting in an immune response that helped heal cardiac scarring, increased blood vessel formation, and improved cardiac performance. So pass on my positive news!
https://technionuk.org/news-post/can-good-thoughts-heal-the-heart/
 
Predicting and preventing brain diseases. Researchers at Israel’s Technion Institute have developed a model to predict problems involving proteins that can lead to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other brain diseases. This model could serve as a basis for designing new proteins that can treat these diseases.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2024/08/new-hope-for-alzheimers-and-parkinsons-patients/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46881-w
 
Shape-shifting pill gets US approval. Israel’s Epitomee (see here previously) has received US-FDA  marketing approval for its pill that expands in the stomach, making it feel full and discourage overeating.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/qmnwnpw1b
 
Life-saving deliveries. (TY Hazel) Israel’s Magen David Adom is training some 1,000 Wolt delivery drivers in CPR, treating injuries, how to stop bleeding, etc., and giving them life-saving first aid tools. Wolt drivers often encounter emergencies all over Israel, in which first aid training could be vital.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-820579
 
Even smarter. (TY Hazel) Israel’s Sheba Medical Center was ranked 10th in Newsweek’s latest list of the world’s smartest hospitals, having risen from 13th (see here previously). Sheba’s standout categories were Robotics and Telemedicine.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/health-and-medicine/sheba-medical-center-ranked-10th-smartest-hospital-worldwide/2024/09/18/  https://www.newsweek.com/rankings/worlds-best-smart-hospitals-2025
 

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The West’s Self-Assisted Suicide Michael Galak

Posted By on September 23rd, 2024

https://quadrant.org.au/features/qed/wests-self-assisted-suicide/

EXCERPT

Instead of the leaders with iron resolve we got terribly Democratic and profoundly weak Joe Biden, a succession of the UK PMs whose names nobody can remember, former GDR Young Communist League member Angela ‘Mutti’ Merkel, ex-Secretary-General of the Portuguese Socialist Party Antonio Guterres and the ever-elegant Emmanuel Macron, addicted to long chats with Vladimir Putin. In keeping with the trend, Australia has granted itself the honour of being governed by Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong.

It seems the proudest achievement of the human species, Western Civilization, is quietly expiring under the assault of resentful and determined enemies. Sensing weakness, they are gathering for the kill. In too many instances the West facilitates its own demise, aiding and abetting those who would destroy it.

Those who are as old as I might remember big buttons proclaiming “Nuclear? No thanks”. Ubiquitous, they were a visible aspect of the unilateral disarmament campaign orchestrated by Moscow and conducted by the front organisations such as People for Nuclear Disarmament, the World Council of Churches and the like. Motivating this campaign was the Soviet fear that the Western nuclear deterrent might succeed in defeating Moscow’s conventional arms assault on Western Europe should push ever come to shove.

Now, the “protest” movement is more sophisticated – it fights for the clean environment, nothing political, you see. The neo-Marxist movement has weaponized ecology and, under the guise of saving the planet, undermines the West. They do it by posturing as “green” movements, fighting to stop fossil fuels production in the West. The result has been spectacular. We are forced to buy the necessary fuel from OPEC and Russia, countries have no homegrown protest movements which can pump oil to their hearts’ and treasuries’ content. According to the July issue of the Foreign Policy, before its assault on Ukraine, Russia was getting around $US1 billion US dollars every day in oil revenues. After the Western sanctions that figure declined to $720 million dollars per day — a decrease certainly, but still more than enough to wage war on Ukraine, finance anti-Western activities while keeping things on the homefront relatively content.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The death pains of the European Union Even arch-Eurocrats are admitting that Brussels is leading Europe to ruin. Fraser Myers

Posted By on September 23rd, 2024

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/09/22/the-death-pains-of-the-european-union/

The largely unspoken trade-off involved in membership of the European Union is that democracy and national sovereignty are sacrificed in return for economic prosperity. Member states give up much of their control over critical policy areas to an unelected, technocratic elite who are entrusted with delivering higher living standards and productivity. But Brussels is not keeping its part of the bargain – and hasn’t for some time.

Worse, the EU economy is about to endure decades of ‘slow agony’. This is the grim prognosis not of a Eurosceptic or populist, but of one of Europe’s most senior technocrats, Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank and ex-prime minister of Italy. Last week, Draghi unveiled a 400-page doorstopper report, commissioned by the EU, on the ‘future of European competitiveness’. Without radical economic reform, he warns, EU member states will suffer from stagnant living standards, technological backwardness and geopolitical impotence.

As Draghi’s report makes clear, the EU has been in deep economic trouble for some time now. At the turn of the century, the EU and US were on a relatively equal footing. But, on a per-capita basis, real disposable income in the EU has grown at only half the rate of the US since 2000. The US now massively outperforms the EU in advanced technology. Only four in the world’s top-50 tech firms are European. Almost a million manufacturing jobs were lost in the EU in the last four years alone. For too long, Draghi argues, policymakers have viewed the growing gap between the EU and US as merely an ‘inconvenience’, rather than the ‘calamity’ it really is.

In truth, Draghi’s bleak assessment actually underestimates the scale of the EU’s economic malaise. Looking at averages across the 27-member bloc obscures the depths of the crisis. Astonishingly, the economies of Italy, Spain and Greece, having been battered by the Euro crisis and EU-mandated austerity, are actually smaller than they were in the late 2000s. Germany, traditionally the EU’s economic powerhouse, is rapidly deindustrialising. In France, the EU’s second-largest economy, debt is spiralling to the kind of levels seen in Italy just before the Euro crisis. The cost of all this foregone growth is a diminished quality of life, stretched public services and decaying infrastructure.