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September 2016

A Safe Space for Unsafe Spaces Restoring free speech to campus will take resolve, but Chicago shows the way. By L. Gordon Crovitz

A University of Chicago letter welcoming freshmen with the warning they would arrive at a campus committed to “freedom of inquiry and expression” prompted a national debate on restoring free speech on campuses. The most interesting lesson is why it will be so hard for other universities to follow Chicago’s lead.

The letter rejected today’s higher-education fads: “We do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.” Rigorous but civilized debate “may challenge you and even cause discomfort.”

A few university heads tried to defend their safe spaces and trigger warnings. The president of Wesleyan dismissed the Chicago letter as a publicity stunt. Northwestern’s president wrote that his students need “spaces where members of each [racial or other identity] group feel safe.”

But now that liberal administrators and professors are increasingly becoming targets of political correctness, many would like to restore free speech. Brown University was widely mocked last year for setting up a safe space for students “with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies.” This year Brown’s president, Christina Paxson, declared in her convocation address: “Suppressing ideas at a university is akin to turning off the power at a factory.”

Liberal professors are terrified they will be set upon for an inadvertent offense, as happened last year at Yale when a professor was forced out for suggesting students could pick their own Halloween costumes without instructions from the administration. Recent surveys find most university students resent having to censor themselves out of fear of offending someone else’s beliefs.

Yet restoring free speech is easier said than done. Along with the letter, the incoming Chicago students got a book titled “Academic Freedom and the Modern University.” It recounts in detail the history of freewheeling debate at Chicago since its founding in the 1890s.

One factor that sets Chicago apart from other campuses is that it can rely only on serious academics for its reputation. President Robert Hutchins abolished the football team in 1939—despite many Big 10 championships—in order to focus on the life of the mind. Hutchins justified having communists speak on campus by arguing the way to rebut objectionable ideas “lies through open discussion rather than through prohibition.” CONTINUE AT SITE

Trump’s School-Choice Fight His plan to let money follow the child is a moral and political winner.

If Donald Trump knew that promoting school choice would cause such a ruckus on the left, maybe he’d have weighed in sooner. The Republican nominee has found a winning issue by pitching a plan to “provide school choice to every disadvantaged student in America.” Amen.

During a visit to the Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy, Mr. Trump proposed a $20 billion block grant for states by redirecting federal education money to support charter schools and vouchers. He also endorsed merit pay for teachers and said he’d support local candidates who champion school choice.

Most of the $50 billion or so that the federal government spends on K-12 education is targeted to particular programs like teacher training, and rural and STEM education. About $14 billion in Title I funds are earmarked for disadvantaged students. However, this money doesn’t follow kids to private schools, and states often shortchange charter schools.

Mr. Trump wants to let states use federal funds to boost voucher awards, so parents rather than governments get to choose where the money goes. As he noted in Cleveland, “there is no failed policy more in need of urgent change than our government-run education monopoly.” Judging by the panicky reaction on the left, you’d think he’d proposed eliminating public education.

Hillary Clinton said his block-grant plan would “decimate public schools across America.” Yet $20 billion is merely 3% of what states spend on K-12 education each year and less than the increase in school spending in California since 2012. By the way, charters are public schools—freed of union control. CONTINUE AT SITE

Iran Can’t Whitewash Its Record of Terror Saudi Arabia would welcome better ties with Tehran—but first it must stop supporting terrorism. By Adel Al-Jubeir see note please

Remember this oily charmer…”oozing charm from every pore, he oiled his way around the floor”…and apologist for the nation that financed and enabled 15 of the 9/11 terrorists….rsk

Mr. Al-Jubeir is the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia.

Ronald Reagan was fond of quoting John Adams, who famously said: “Facts are stubborn things.” So when Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif made public pronouncements about fighting extremism, the facts show that his comments are ironic at best and little more than insincere propaganda.

The fact is that Iran is the leading state-sponsor of terrorism, with government officials directly responsible for numerous terrorist attacks since 1979. These include suicide bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the Marine barracks at Beirut International Airport; the bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996; attacks against more than a dozen embassies in Iran, including those of Britain, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia; and the assassination of diplomats around the world, to name a few examples.

Nor can one get around the fact that Iran uses terrorism to advance its aggressive policies. Iran cannot talk about fighting extremism while its leaders, Quds Force and Revolutionary Guard continue to fund, train, arm and facilitate acts of terrorism.
If Iran wants to demonstrate sincerity in contributing to the global war on terrorism, it could have begun by handing over al Qaeda leaders who have enjoyed sanctuary in Iran. These have included Osama bin Laden’s son, Saad, and al Qaeda’s chief of operations, Saif al-Adel, along with numerous other operatives guilty of attacks against Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and other targets. It is a fact that Saif al-Adel placed a call from Iran in May 2003 giving orders for the Riyadh bombings that claimed more than 30 lives, including eight Americans. Yet he still benefits from Iranian protection.

Iran could also stop funding terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah, whose secretary-general recently boasted that his organization gets 100% of its funding from Iran. Iran could stop producing and distributing improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, which have killed or injured thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Iran could halt supplying weapons to terrorists and sectarian militias in the region who seek to replace legitimate governments with Iranian puppets.

In Syria, the blood of the more than 500,000 people slaughtered by the regime of Bashar al-Assad stains the hands of Iran, which sent forces—both regular troops and nonstate actors—to prop up the Syrian regime. Iranian leaders have said publicly that if not for their efforts, Assad would have fallen from power. CONTINUE AT SITE

Meat Cleaver Muslim Who Hacked NYPD Cops Threatened Synagogue Screaming “ALLAHU AKBAR”, Prior Knife Arrests see note please

From e-pal and friend David P.S……

This man was previously caught outside a Brooklyn Synagogue brandishing a knife and shouting “Allahu Akbar!” — or “God is great” in Arabic.

That is not what “Allah Akbar” means. It means Allah is great. It is easy for the mainstream media to sanitize this phrase to de-Islamize it, but this reporter, who knows what it actually means much, much better should say so.

We need to understand our enemy and saying that he is referring to “God,” when he is specifically referring to the Islamic God makes a world of difference in what the average reader will take away from the story.

The other thing very much worth worth noting in this piece is the tendency now to say that the attacker is mentally deranged so as to deflect the otherwise inevitable conclusion that these are religiously driven attacks.

The only missing, obvious conclusion is that, if they really are mental deranged ,and the suspect is truly found to be nuts and dangerous – and they clearly said he is both – why on earth is he being released into the general population again??

If it was you or me, we’d find ourself locked up in Bellevue awaiting the interminable process of having health/psychiatric officials decide if we are a danger to ourselves or others before we were permitted to be released. And if the finding was that we remained a danger, we would not be released. Or to put it more starkly, were the police to have found a Christian or Jewish guy outside a mosque shouting threats and brandishing a weapon, does anyone think the case would have been dropped and the record sealed? And does anyone think that the media wouldn’t have been all over this as a case proving that there is rampant islamophobia infecting the American people?

So what???

Muslim nuts get a free pass to be dangerous and, even while facing deportation, they are part of a law enforcement catch and release program. That’s for fisherman, not for police with potential killers in custody.

Speaking of fish, something stinks here. Fish rot from the head and you can be certain that the cop who was slashed by this guy who was wielding a meat cleaver, did not vote to release him. But the Queens DA dropped the charges and had the record of the whole matter sealed. Why? To protect the guy’s record of yoga classes and plans for his daughter’s wedding? DPS http://www.dcclothesline.com/2016/09/18/meat-cleaver-muslim-who-hacked-nypd-cops-threatened-synagogue-screaming-allahu-akbar-prior-knife-arrests/

*************************************The face of Islam in America.

Obama plans to import 250,000 of these savages.

Jihad Joudeh had a record of possessing and menacing with knives — including a bust for waving a blade and threatening to kill a 24-year-old store employee in Queens. The DA dropped the charge – the records are sealed? Why wasn’t he prosecuted? Did Obama’s DoJ interfere and have the DA drop the charge? Why aren’t any reporters asking these questions?

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We now know more about the Muslim who attacked three cops with a meat cleaver on Wednesday. The meat cleaver Muslim who hacked an NYPD cop is a “Palestinian” busted two months ago while screaming in Arabic outside a Brooklyn synagogue.

Joudeh, 32, here on a Jordanian passport had at least three arrests involving knives, sources told The Post. His latest arrest, on July 27, came after he allegedly parked outside a Brooklyn synagogue with two knives behind the passenger seat.
He got out of the car and started shouting “Allahu Akbar.”

Brooklyn prosecutors declined to prosecute Joudeh, one source said, despite his record of possessing and menacing with knives — including a 2010 bust for allegedly waving a blade and threatening to kill a 24-year-old store employee in Queens.

Why wasn’t he prosecuted? Did the DA fear they would be labeled islamophobic? Did Obama’s DoJ interfere and have the DA drop the charge?

“The NYPD went back to the DA and said ‘You guys are out of your mind,’ ” the source told The Post.

Officials are investigating Minnesota mall stabbing as potential act of terrorism By Kristine Guerra and Jessica Contrera

Authorities are investigating the stabbing of nine people inside a Minnesota mall on Saturday night as a potential act of terrorism after a news agency linked to the Islamic State militant group claimed that the attacker was “a soldier of the Islamic State.”

The suspect was identified by community leaders as Dahir Aden, a student at St. Cloud State University and a private security guard at Electrolux, a home appliance store located near the mall. Abdul Kulane, of the Central Minnesota Community Empowerment Organization, said he was contacted by Aden’s parents, who did not know what their son’s motive was for the attack.

[Terror dragnet sweeps up Somali American’s sons: ‘Now everything is broken.’]

Aden moved to the United States from Kenya at age 2, Kulane said. He grew up in St. Cloud and graduated from Apollo High School. His parents described him as smart, quiet, and interested in soccer. Kulane said he does not believe Aden has taken any recent trips overseas, and his family and his community are in shock.

St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis said the attacker lunged at Jason Falconer, a part-time police officer in Avon, Minn., west of St. Cloud. Falconer then fired shots at the stabber, who fell but got up three times before he died.

Falconer “clearly prevented additional injuries and potential loss of life,” Kleis said during a news conference Sunday afternoon. “His heroic actions are exemplary.”

Falconer, who was off duty at the time, is also a former police chief in Albany, Minn.

[‘We saw these guys just dripping with blood’: A quiet night at the mall turns to panic]

The attacker, who was wearing a private security uniform, made at least one reference to Allah during the attack and asked at least one person whether they were Muslim before attacking them, according to the St. Cloud Police Department.

In a statement Sunday, the Amaq news agency — linked to the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS — said the attacker “carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition.”

Richard Thornton, FBI special agent in Minneapolis, said during the news conference that the stabbings are being investigated as a “potential” act of terrorism, but the suspect’s motive remains unknown.

THE REAL MEANING OF ‘ALLAHU AKBAR’ — ON THE GLAZOV GANG

As the terror attacks transpired over the weekend in NYC, New Jersey and Minnesota, reports came in that the man who stabbed eight people at Crossroads Center mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, was screaming “Allahu Akbar” and asking his victims if they were Muslim.

In response to these developments, the Glazov Gang is running its special episode The Real Meaning of ‘Allahu Akbar’ — with Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the editor of Frontpage’s blog, The Point.

Daniel explained why you should be very suspicious of the translation the media provides of ‘Allahu Akbar’ after every Jihadi attack.

Don’t miss it!

And don’t miss the special Mark Christian Moment with Dr. Mark Christian, in which the President of the Global Faith Institutediscussed Hillary’s Islamization of America, focusing on Huma Abedin, the Muslim Brotherhood and other threatening connections: