EDUCATION Comments turned off

Another sad spectacle at Duke University By Nancy Andersen

Posted By on May 13th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/05/another_sad_spectacle_at_duke_university.html

University commencement speakers took the stage this past weekend to advise students of the Class of 2022 now ready to join the real world.  I observed the commencement ceremony at Duke University, as my niece graduated magna cum laude.  As a Duke alumna myself, I was proud of her: half of her college experience was marred by extreme COVID lockdown policies, yet she remained focused, worked hard, and earned her accomplishments.  My extended family — which included several Duke grads and employees — settled atop Wallace Wade stadium, bracing unseasonably cold weather, awaiting the commencement speakers’ advice to the next generation. 

The featured Duke commencement speaker was General Motors CEO Mary Barra.  She spoke of five lessons from the kitchen table.  I appreciated her speech and humble advice, especially grateful that she did not receive the memo that the words “diversity” and “equity” are crucial features of modern-day academic discourse.  Unfortunately, her grounded advice will be overshadowed by the student commencement speech preceding it.

Prior to Ms. Barra’s speech, the chosen Duke undergraduate student speaker spoke of a “Duke Nation.”  The Duke senior described the idea that if a moat existed around Duke, “[Duke] could be its own tiny island nation like Cuba or Sri Lanka.”  “Cuba?” I thought at the time.  “Well, that probably isn’t a terrible comparison when you really think about the communist collectivism on campuses.”  The remaining speech contained citizenship metaphors, passport allusions, and a “world of experiences.”

This senior had an impressive résumé, including an impending Bachelor of Science degrees in statistical science and economics with a religion minor.  She had been an editor with the Duke student newspaper and a Young Trustee Finalist, had studied at the Ecologic Institute in Germany for a summer, and was a Duke Student Government senator, among other accomplishments, and she “is passionate about empowering women of color in STEM,” according to the commencement program biography.

IMMIGRATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

OUTRAGEOUS: American Infants Go Hungry While Biden Sends Baby Formula to Illegals By Athena Thorne

Posted By on May 13th, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/athena-thorne/2022/05/12/outrageous-american-infants-go-hungry-while-biden-sends-baby-formula-to-illegals-n1597321

In a Facebook video, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) made a blood-boiling accusation: Even as American parents face the prospect of being unable to feed their infant children adequately amid a worsening baby formula shortage, the Biden administration has been shipping pallets of formula to the Mexican border to hand out free of charge to foreign nationals who enter the country illegally.

“Something that I absolutely have to share with you right now is the craziness of the Bare-Shelves Biden movement and the fact that they are sending pallets — pallets — of baby formula to the border. Meanwhile, in our own district, at home, we cannot find baby formula,” said Cammack. She held up two photos, one of alleged bare shelves in a Target store. The second photo, says Cammack, was sent to her by a Border Patrol agent and showed plentiful stocks of baby formula at Ursula Central Processing Center in McAllen, Texas.

EDUCATION, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Pseudo-Scholars Promoting the Demonization of Israel and Jews Academia’s contemporary blood libel.Richard L. Cravatts

Posted By on May 13th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/05/pseudo-scholars-promoting-malevolence-israel-and-richard-l-cravatts/

Jews have been accused of harming and murdering non-Jews since the twelfth century in England, when Jewish convert to Catholicism, Theobald of Cambridge, mendaciously announced that European Jews ritually slaughtered Christian children each year and drank their blood during Passover season.

That medieval blood libel, largely abandoned in the contemporary West, does, however, still appear as part of the Arab world’s vilification of Jews — now transmogrified into a slander against Israel, the Jew of nations.

But in the regular chorus of defamation against Israel by a world infected with Palestinianism, a new, more odious trend has shown itself: the blood libel has been revivified; however, in order to position Israel (and by extension Jews) as demonic agents in the community of nations, the primitive fantasies of the blood libel are now masked with a veneer of academic scholarship.

Masked as research and scholarship, the fruits of this academic malpractice are used to further the ongoing campaign of the demonization of Israel, and the intellectual capital oozing out of campuses in the thrall of a Marxist worldview of oppression and victimology has as its goal to substantiate Israel’s moral and existential inferiority in an attempt to make it a pariah in the world community. Part of achieving that malicious objective is scholarship designed to reveal every real or imagined sinister aspect of Israel’s culture, society, politics, and military, and to confirm that the Jewish state’s behavior is singularly perverse, malicious, sinister, and murderous—especially in its cruel, inhuman treatment of non-Jewish children.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Another Year, Another U.N. Scandal And another Norwegian U.N. official heading home in disgrace. Bruce Bawer

Posted By on May 13th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/05/another-year-another-un-scandal-bruce-bawer/

It doesn’t happen too often anymore, but every now and then we’re reminded that that wretched left-wing propaganda sheet, the New York Times, is still capable of publishing objective works of investigative journalism. Witness its bombshell May 7 report on corruption at the United Nations. Yes, the reporters bylined on the story are David A. Fahrenthold, who won a Pulitzer for smearing Donald Trump,  and Farnaz Fassihi, who’s been accused of shilling for Iran. But this time around their work looks legit.

Over the decades, of course, there’s been a lot of shameless, bald-faced corruption at the U.N. But the story served up by Fahrenthold and Fassihi is particularly ludicrous. It involves an obscure U.N. agency called the Office for Project Services (UNOPS), which, until May 8, was headed by Grete Faremo, formerly Norway’s Minister of Defense. The agency, as the Times reporters noted, serves as “a kind of general contractor,” hired by other U.N. agencies “to build schools and roads, deliver medical equipment or perform other logistical tasks.”

In short, UNOPS is low-profile and unsexy. But Faremo, after taking over in 2014, sought to change that. UNOPS “had stockpiled tens of millions of dollars in excess fees paid to it by other U.N. agencies,” and Faremo’s idea was “to lend out the money, like a bank, to fund profit-making projects in the developing world,” thereby converting UNOPS into “a revolutionary in-house investment firm.”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

How Zuckerberg Used a Tax-Exempt Foundation to Help Biden Fix the 2020 Election And got away with it. David Horowitz and John Perazzo

Posted By on May 13th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/05/how-zuckerberg-used-tax-exempt-foundation-help-david-horowitz-and-john-perazzo/

Everybody to the right of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez knows that the root cause of the crisis facing America — the most serious since the Civil War — is lawlessness. And everybody not under the spell of the Democrat spin machine understands that the lawlessness begins at the top, with government and the many agencies of the executive branch who are tasked by our Constitution with enforcing the law. Whether by failing to enforce our immigration statutes, or failing to prosecute criminals in our streets, or violating our election procedures to favor one party, Democrat administrations in our nation’s capital and our major cities have brazenly supported criminal behavior carried out by Black Lives Matter rioters, common street thugs, and anti-Supreme Court agitators seeking to extort decisions by fear. The effect has been to systematically undermine the rule of law, stoke the fires of anarchy, and sow chaos in our institutions.

This trend has been evident since the revival of the radical left on the eve of the 9/11 attacks and its creation of Sanctuary Cities designed to flout the law and prevent the enforcement of the PATRIOT Act. It escalated with Obama’s illegal, unconstitutional — and self-acknowledged — violation of America’s immigration laws. And it spread to the revenue authority of the I.R.S., which systematically rejected the applications for tax-exempt status of conservative organizations, until the scandal grew so large that it forced the resignation of the tax commissioner Lois Lerner. But while one commissioner is gone, the illegal partisan practices of the I.R.S.  have continued to grow under her latest successor, Charles Rettig, playing a key role in skewing the results of the last presidential election.

Tax-exempt foundations are barred from contributing their resources to election campaigns. There is no ambiguity in the law concerning this prohibition:

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity.

BOOKS Comments turned off

Reviling the West Peter Wood

Posted By on May 13th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2022/05/30/reviling-the-west/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=third

EXCERPT:

The story Murray tells here is less about the old fault lines in our civilization than it is about our strange susceptibility to believing the worst about ourselves. He doesn’t really venture an explanation of this pathology, though he locates its essential basis in the willingness of Westerners to credit the idea that white people are somehow transcendentally racist — unlike the rest of humanity, which is apparently graced with innate tolerance and respect for human difference. 

As a compendium of the absurdities of our age, The War on the West would be hard to surpass. As an explanation of our descent into this Boschian hell-scape, Murray’s book is circumspect. He calls attention to how those who revile our civilization steadfastly refuse to apply the same standards to any other culture or society. He observes — as have many others — that many people outside the West see with perfect lucidity that the West is both fundamentally different from and better than their own cultural legacies, and for that reason they seek to come to Western societies. They are immune to the cultural self-loathing invented by Western intellectuals, so rampant in all our key institutions. 

Murray lays out the optimistic possibility that we will discover a way “to make our multi-ethnic realities work.” But he worries that something like the opposite is taking shape: a form of Western identity along “exclusionary lines,” i.e., meeting hatred of the West with reciprocal hatred of those who slander it. Of course, the third possibility is that those who foment anti-Westernism will prevail and impose their own oppressive dystopia, not unlike what already exists on many college and university campuses. 

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Cardinal Zen’s Arrest Is an Inflection Point-Nina Shea

Posted By on May 13th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/05/cardinal-zens-arrest-is-an-inflection-point/

It signifies the end of religious freedom in Hong Kong, the last of the fundamental freedoms to be extinguished there.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, was arrested yesterday evening under the vaguely worded National Security Law, formally charged, and released on bail several hours later. He likely faces a three-year prison term, according to a Hong Kong lawyer I spoke with, raising the prospect that the 90-year-old cleric would spend his last years behind bars.

The arrest of this world-renowned champion of religious freedom, human rights, and democracy goes beyond the personal. It signifies the end of religious freedom in Hong Kong, the last of the fundamental freedoms to be extinguished there. It is a moment of truth for both Pope Francis and President Biden.

Collusion with foreign powers, the specific charge against the cardinal, could apply to every Catholic bishop and priest, who pledge fidelity to the pope in Rome. These charges, though, were based on Zen’s role as a trustee of the now defunct 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, set up for the legal and medical aid of pro-democracy protesters. Three other trustees were arrested at the same time.

Irrespective of the pretext, the Cardinal’s arrest was expected. In February, in a report in the pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao in Hong Kong, Zen was likened to Falun Gong, which, for the past 20 years, the Chinese Communist Party has been savagely targeting for “elimination” in the mainland. He was blamed for “inciting” in 2019 pro-democracy protesters who had been educated in Christian schools. Such hatchet pieces typically presage roundups.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Garland vs. Parents House Republicans report Justice Department investigations of school board protesters. By James Freeman

Posted By on May 13th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/garland-vs-parents-11652388388?mod=opinion_lead_pos11

“Even beyond the question of Mr. Garland’s candor in his testimony to Congress, is there any way to look at this re-engineering of Justice priorities as anything other than partisan, ideological and threatening to liberty?This column may have to make it an annual habit to express gratitude to the man who kept Merrick Garland off the Supreme Court.”

How far has the U.S. Department of Justice gone to investigate parents who were angry with local school boards and administrators? A new report from two Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee suggests that federal powers are being misused just as First Amendment defenders feared.

Readers may recall the revelations that came to light last fall. A Journal editorial noted in October:

It took a few weeks, but the National School Boards Association has apologized for sending a letter to President Biden suggesting that “threats and acts of violence” at school board meetings might be “domestic terrorism.” The NSBA now admits there was “no justification for some of the language included in the letter,” which could have parents investigated under the Patriot Act for trying to influence what their children are taught.
The retraction comes after tremendous blowback. First came parents at school board meetings with T-shirts saying “Parents are not domestic terrorists.” Then 21 state school board associations distanced themselves from the letter. The Ohio, Missouri and Pennsylvania state associations cut ties altogether.
It turns out that when Chip Slaven, the NSBA interim executive director and CEO, and president Viola Garcia sent the letter, they did so without consulting their own board. But according to one of Mr. Slaven’s emails, they did work with White House staff.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

California Parents Say No to Anti-Semitic Ethnic Studies Activists are pushing curricula that portray Israel as a ‘settler state’ founded on ‘genocide.’ By Lori Lowenthal Marcus and Jesse M. Fried

Posted By on May 13th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-parents-say-no-to-anti-semitic-ethnic-studies-public-school-children-classroom-israel-anti-semitic-11652389663?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

A group of Jewish public-school parents and teachers filed a federal lawsuit Thursday challenging the adoption of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist curricular materials in Los Angeles public schools.

Last year California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring public-school students in the state to complete a course in ethnic studies to graduate from high school. He said it was needed because “students deserve to see themselves in their studies, and they must understand our nation’s full history if we expect them to one day build a more just society.” But the ethnic-studies movement has never been about representation or justice. A creature of 1960s radical left-wing activism, ethnic studies was from the start about attacking the U.S., capitalism and Zionism.

Advocates—including teachers union officials, public-school teachers and other ideologues—have formed the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium, through which they hope to influence the teaching of ethnic studies in the state. The consortium, which disseminates teaching materials lifted directly from radical anti-Israel websites, rejects the idea that all cultures should be studied. It asserts that ethnic studies is about only four groups: Native Americans, black Americans, Chicanos/Latinos, and Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders. That last group includes Arabs from the Middle East—but not Jews, who’ve lived in that same region for millennia.

The consortium’s materials—many of which have been taken offline in recent months—are filled with attacks on Jews and the Jewish state. They deny that Jews are indigenous to the Middle East and teach that Israel is a “colonialist” and “settler state” founded through “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid.” They falsely define Judaism, teaching that “Zionism is distinct from Judaism” and that Zionism isn’t a Jewish religious belief but an invention of the “late 19th century.”

Tell that to the millions of Jews who end their Passover Seders with “next year in Jerusalem,” or end every Jewish wedding by breaking a glass to mourn Jerusalem’s destruction, or pray each day facing Jerusalem—or whose bible, prayer book and calendar have for thousands of years been filled with the yearning for a return of the people of Israel to sovereignty in the land of Israel.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Democrats’ War On Children

Posted By on May 13th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/05/13/the-democrats-war-on-children/

Democrats often like to preface policy debates with phrases like “it’s about the children,” as if such patronizing mantras could sanctify even the worst ideas. The sad truth, however, is that one look at what the Dems have done since 2020 shows their real concerns are anything but the children.

From abortion to school shutdowns to runaway inflation to baby-food shortages, seemingly everything the Dems do these days has an adverse effect on children. After all, they control Congress and the White House.

To take the most egregious example, look at the just-defeated deceptively titled Women’s Health Protection Act, which had unanimous support from Democrats, with one brave exception: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who voted against it.

For public consumption, Democrats claimed the bill was a self-defense against the expected overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark that made abortion an American right, even though there’s no mention of that in the Constitution.

It wasn’t. The Democrats’ bill went much further, in essence making abortion legal all the way up to delivery. It was infant-murder-on-demand legislation, having nothing to do with so-called “therapeutic” abortions for medical purposes or women’s health.

It was also the most anti-child law imaginable. The truth is, 29 states already allow full-term abortions for nearly any reason at all. The congressional bill simply would have forced the other 21 states to do the same.