Keyes
challenge: Return nation to principles (Pensacola News Journal) new
The people of faith in America bear a special burden to return
the nation to its founding principles, Ambassador Alan Keyes told
a crowd Friday in Pensacola. God Bless America? Yes, but I
keep hearing the question, Keyes said. Why? Afghanistan
terrorist Osama bin Laden did not introduce America to evil on Sept.
11, he said. Dont think you can escape responsibility
for your own. The moral challenge is simple, he said: Cease
to do evil, and learn to do good. .... We do not stand
on the same ground the nation was founded on. We do not stand on
the same principles the countrys strength was built on,
Keyes said. It reminds me of the old cartoons we used to see
when I was a kid. Roadrunner would get halfway across the abyss,
and he would suddenly realize where he was. I sadly believe that
in one respect, thats where we are in terms of our freedom.
Theres nothing underneath us anymore. .... We
have made the name of God obscene in our public schools. In ancient
Greece, obscene was something you could not show in public. The
name of God has been an obscenity in our government-run schools
for the last 30 or 40 years. Dont say it, dont show
it, dont speak it. Thats all been run out by this auspicious
principle of separation (of church and state) they're always telling
us about.... The most terrible departure... is the fact that
we have embraced an understanding of our rights that now encompasses
the lie that the most fundamental right which is the right
to live at all is not a matter of Gods will, but of
human choice. In the Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court
told us the right to life for each human being... comes from human
choice. How do we think we can have it both ways? I dont understand
this contradiction. It cant be Gods choice and my choice,
too.
What
Hollings Bill Would Do (Wired News) new
If Hollywood and the music industry get their way, new software
and hardware will sport embedded copy protection technology. A bill
introduced by Senate Commerce Chairman Fritz Hollings would prohibit
the sale or distribution of nearly any technology unless
it features copy-protection standards to be set by the federal government....
Anyone selling or creating and distributing digital
media devices may not do so unless they include government-approved
security standards.... It would be unlawful to import software or
hardware without government-approved security standards.... Network-connected
computer systems may not delete markers indicating a file is copy-protected.
Knowingly removing copy-protection markers from digital content
is prohibited.... It would be unlawful to knowingly distribute or
send someone any digital content that has been purged of its this-is-copy-protected
marker.... One part of the bill overrides a landmark lawsuit that
said the Rio MP3 player did not violate copyright law.
Frances
Bloody Hands (NYP) new
France is hardly in a position to lecture the United States
about justice, the death penalty or civil rights. The last time
that France was involved in a major terrorist campaign, in Algeria
from 1954-62, French security forces routinely tortured rebel suspects
while murdering uncounted thousands in summary executions.
Only recently, retired French Army Gen. Paul Aussaresses published
a sensational memoir calmy recounting his own role in these atrocities,
which were carried out with the approval of French government figures
such as future President Francois Mitterand. Even today,
the French criminal justice system is so weighted against defendants
that the accused is practically guilty until proven innocent....
In any case, its one thing for France which has officially
abolished the death penalty at home to register its unhappiness
at the prospect of Moussaouis execution, but its quite
another for this ally to threaten non-cooperation with
the Sept. 11 investigation. It is early in this war against terror,
but you can be sure the United States will not forget the countries
which stood beside her. And those that let her down.
Religious
leaders waste their energy (Bill Wineke) new
The question I have this morning is whether Jesus Christ went
to the cross to encourage us to drive Saturns. Because Sunday is
Palm Sunday, the first day of the Christian season of Holy Week,
I dont think thats an impertinent question. Yet, I have
on my desk a letter signed by 48 Wisconsin Religious leaders
telling me that God wants sport utility vehicles to get better gas
mileage and Im asking myself, why does the church keep
doing this? .... Among other conservation measures, the letter
calls on the senators to support policies to raise substantially
vehicle fuel economy across the board in the shortest feasible timeframe,
and require SUVs, minivans and passenger cars to meet the same standard.
But the letter doesnt stop there. It also calls for more investment
in wind, geothermal and biomass technologies, regulation of carbon
dioxide emissions and greater energy efficiency. It is signed by
leaders from liberal Protestant, Jewish, Roman Catholic and, even,
Zen religious bodies. For whatever its worth, I agree with
most of the ideas expressed in the letter. What I dont understand,
again, is why religious leaders are issuing such exhortations in
the name of God.
Saudi
newspaper editor apologizes for Purim blood libel (Jerusalem
Post) new
A Saudi Arabian newspaper editor yesterday issued a backhanded
apology for a column published last week which resurrected the medieval
blood libel against Jews by claiming they use the blood of Christian
or Muslim mature adolescents to prepare special Purim
pastries. Al-Riyadh editor-in-chief Turki al-Sudairi wrote that
the article, written by Umayma Ahmed al-Jalahma of King Faisal University,
was not fit to print. The paper had been sharply criticized
by the US government before Al-Riyadh published the apology. On
Monday, the Voice of America aired an editorial praising Saudi Arabia
for its peace initiative, but criticizing it for not doing more
to reduce Israel-Arab tensions. In the meantime, said
VOA, there is something that Saudi Arabia and other countries
could do right now to ease tensions in the Middle East. They could
stop newspapers and radio and television stations, especially those
controlled by the state, from inciting hatred and violence against
Jews.
The
fundamentalist question (Josie Appleton) new
So why did radical Islam begin to emerge in the West in the
1990s? The emergence cannot be explained by the strength of the
doctrine of radical Islam. Rather, the reasons some young Muslim
men began to be gripped by anti-Western religious dogma should be
sought in changes within Western society. The key factor in the
rise of fundamentalism in the West was the end of the Cold War in
1989. This effectively unfroze politics dissolving the left-right
axis that had structured political and social identities for much
of the twentieth century. With the collapse of the left, the right
could no longer sustain its coherence and in Europe and the
USA, right-wing governments tumbled. Society was left increasingly
atomised and directionless. This malaise was compounded by the erosion
of long-standing institutions which had helped tie individuals into
society, including the family, the church, the monarchy and civic
organisations. The ideology of Islamic fundamentalism grew stronger
in this vacuum left by the end of the Cold War. Where post-Cold
War politics seemed uncertain and unconfident, Islamic fundamentalism
promised firm rules, a coherent sense of identity, and a sense of
belonging to a global Islamic community.
Epidemic
of fear (Frank Furedi) new
Since 11 September, speculating about risk is represented
as sound risk management. The aftermath of 11 September has given
legitimacy to the principle of precaution, with risk increasingly
seen as something you suffer from, rather than something you manage.
Of course, taking sensible precautions makes a lot of sense. But
continually imagining the worst possible outcome is not an effective
way to deal with problems. Allowing speculation to dominate how
we think about risks may even distract us from tackling the everyday
problems and hazards that confront society. We dont need any
more Hollywood-style brainstorming. We need a grown-up discussion
about our post-11 September world, based on a reasoned evaluation
of all the available evidence rather than on irrational fears for
the future.
The
Social Psychology of Modern Slavery (SciAm) new
To many people, it comes as a surprise that debt bondage and
other forms of slavery persist into the 21st century. Every country,
after all, has made it illegal to own and exercise total control
over another human being. And yet there are people like Baldev who
remain enslaved by my estimate, which is based on a compilation
of reports from governments and nongovernmental organizations, perhaps
27 million of them around the world. If slaveholders no longer own
slaves in a legal sense, how can they still exercise so much control
that freed slaves sometimes deliver themselves back into bondage?
This is just one of the puzzles that make slavery the greatest challenge
faced by the social sciences today. Despite being among the oldest
and most persistent forms of human relationships, found in most
societies at one time or another, slavery is little understood.
Although historians have built up a sizable literature on antebellum
American slavery, other types have barely been studied.... Human
trafficking the involuntary smuggling of people between countries,
often by organized crime has become a huge concern, especially
in Europe and Southeast Asia. Many people, lured by economic opportunities,
pay smugglers to slip them across borders but then find themselves
sold to sweatshops, brothels or domestic service to pay for their
passage; others are kidnapped and smuggled against their will. In
certain areas, notably Brazil and West Africa, laborers have been
enticed into signing contracts and then taken to remote plantations
and prevented from leaving. In parts of South Asia and North Africa,
slavery is a millennia-old tradition that has never truly ended.
The
Social Life of Paper (Malcolm Gladwell) new
Computer technology was supposed to replace paper. But that
hasnt happened. Every country in the Western world uses more
paper today, on a per-capita basis, than it did ten years ago. The
consumption of uncoated free-sheet paper, for instance the
most common kind of office paper rose almost fifteen per
cent in the United States between 1995 and 2000. This is generally
taken as evidence of how hard it is to eradicate old, wasteful habits
and of how stubbornly resistant we are to the efficiencies offered
by computerization. A number of cognitive psychologists and ergonomics
experts, however, dont agree. Paper has persisted, they argue,
for very good reasons: when it comes to performing certain kinds
of cognitive tasks, paper has many advantages over computers. The
dismay people feel at the sight of a messy desk or the spectacle
of air-traffic controllers tracking flights through notes scribbled
on paper strips arises from a fundamental confusion about
the role that paper plays in our lives.
Propaganda
at its best (Cal Thomas) new
Last week, ABC News allowed entertainer Rosie ODonnell
to take over two hours of airtime for a one-sided infomercial promoting
gay adoptions. All of the elements required for breaking
down what few social norms remain regarding the family structure
were present on Primetime Thursday. First, the celebrity
factor. In our postmodern, post Christian, post objective truth
generation, celebrity equals credibility. Celebrities have replaced
God. When they speak, some people think the rest of us should listen....
Rosie is right because she says so. She says President and Laura
Bush are wrong when they say that the ideal setting for a child
is in a home with a mother and father. End of discussion. The celebrity
goddess has spoken.... There are credible scientific, legal and
religious arguments against gay adoptions. ABC didnt
present them because if they had, Rosie ODonnell would not
have appeared on Primetime Thursday. This was journalism
at its worst but propaganda at its best.
They
Died for Lack of a Head Scarf (Mona Eltahawy) new
The fire was a tragedy that could have struck anywhere. Fifteen
girls between ages 13 and 17 were trampled to death and 52 others
were hurt when a blaze swept through their school.... Firefighters
told the Saudi press that morality police forced girls to stay inside
the burning building because they were not wearing the head scarves
and black cloaks known as abayas that women must wear in public
in that kingdom. One Saudi paper said the morality police stopped
men who tried to help the girls escape the building, saying, It
is sinful to approach them. Girls died because zealots at
the gate would rather see them burn than appear in public dressed
inappropriately.... What kind of virtue is it to allow girls to
die in a fire because of what they were not wearing? Whose Islam
is it that allows these men to dilute the faith I and millions of
others cherish for its teachings of compassion and justice to nothing
more than a dress code and sexual segregation? I grew up learning
God is merciful and that faith was based on choice you could
not force actions on anyone in the name of religion.
Zero
tolerance means educators cannot practice what they teach (Dave
Lieber) new
I keep waiting for Rod Serling to pop out in the story of
L.D. Bell High School student Taylor Hess and tell us it is another
episode from his old television show, The Twilight Zone. Hess was
expelled from school because his grandmothers bread knife
was found in his pickup parked on school property.... What
theyre trying to do is incomprehensible, Robert Hess,
Taylors father, told me. I just cant believe it.
Zero tolerance doesnt mean zero brains. You have to use your
judgment. .... This is so sad, what our public education system
has been reduced to, as administrators and teachers try to cope
with the very real threat of student violence. We have taken away
from them the very concepts that we try to teach our children. We
have removed their ability to use their own good judgment, their
reasoning powers and their ability to make decisions on a case-by-case
basis. If justice is not examined on a case-by-case basis, then
it is not true justice.
Youre
the Doctor: Whats as Easy as ABC? Only a Little Farther Up
the Alphabet? A PhD. (WP) new
These days, PhDs are like opinions and pie holes pretty
much everybodys got one. You can earn a PhD: in human nutrition
at Michigan State University; in social work at the University of
Texas; in recreational studies at the University of Florida; in
family studies at the University of New Mexico; and in fashion merchandising
at Texas Womens University. A candidate for a PhD in creative
writing at the University of Georgia can submit poems instead of
a dissertation. At the University of Michigan you can get a PhD
in literature without reading Shakespeare.... In fact, all kinds
of people are picking up PhDs. This year about 42,000 people will
earn doctorates in the United States, according to the University
of Chicagos National Opinion Research Center, which conducts
research for the National Science Foundation and five other federal
agencies. Most striking is a trend toward more PhDs in the humanities
up more than 11 percent between 1999 and 2000.... Candidates
in the past were required to possess a breadth of knowledge bearing
on a given subject. Often they had to study additional languages.
And their labor which usually took years of intense study
in required courses was subject to review by outside scholars.
In many cases, the requirements have been eased.
Mein
Kampf for sale, in Arabic (London Telegraph) new
An Arabic translation of Hitlers Mein Kampf
which has become a bestseller in the Palestinian territories is
now on sale in Britain. The book, Hitlers account of his life
and anti-Semitic ideology written while he was in prison in the
1920s, is normally found in Britain in academic or political bookshops.
But The Telegraph found it on sale in three newsagents on Edgware
Road, central London, an area with a large Arab population.... Copies
of the translation are understood to have been distributed to London
shops towards the end of last year and have been selling well. In
the preface, Luis al-Haj, the translator, states: National
Socialism did not die with the death of its herald. Rather, its
seeds multiplied under each star. The book was on sale alongside
newspapers, magazines, cigarettes and sweets at a newsagents
kiosk.
Web
Critics Take Aim at Old-Style Publishers (FOXNews) new
A small but growing contingent of amateur and semi-professional
media critics are taking aim at newspapers and periodicals, picking
up where those papers ombudsmen (if they have them) leave
off. One of the first to appear was SmarterTimes.com, a site that
painstakingly points out flaws in The New York Times. Since then,
similar sights have cropped up that skewer the Los Angeles Times
(LAExaminer.com) and the San Francisco Chronicle (Chronwatch.com).
The
Suicide of the Palestinians (David Gelernter)
We ought to face squarely the origins of the Palestinian descent
into barbarism. In July 2000, Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak
made a peace offer that stunned Israel and the world: Israel would
re-divide Jerusalem would turn over large pieces of its ancient
capital to the same people who had destroyed its synagogues, desecrated
its cemeteries, and banned Jews from entering when they last ran
the show. Arafat rejected the offer. Then in September 2000 the
new wave of murderous violence began, supposedly triggered by Ariel
Sharons visit to the Temple Mount.... Everyone knows about
Munich, September 1938: Britain and France generously donate a big
slice of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, in exchange for peace with
honor, peace in our time, and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Many people know about the Kristallnacht pogrom, November 1938:
Germanys approach to the Jews turns from mere oppression to
bloodthirsty violence. Kristallnacht was triggered by
the murder of a German diplomat by a deranged Jew. But some (not
all) historians point out the obvious: A leading cause of Kristallnacht
was Munich itself. Hitler read the Munich agreements as a proclamation
by England and France stating: We are weak; you have nothing
to fear; do what you like. The analogy is not close, just
close enough. Israel is no Czechoslovakia and was not sold down
the river. Barak made his offer freely and in good faith. But to
a significant number of Palestinians, the offer obviously said:
We are weak; you have nothing to fear; attack. Appeasement
doesnt merely fail to prevent catastrophe, it provokes catastrophe.
A
Peace of My Mind (Dave Shiflett)
Have you slapped a pacifist today? If not, get to it. Its
one thing to protest a war undertaken in some remote jungle you
have to take a long flight to, and whose purposes may be a bit gauzy.
Its quite another when the enemy is dive-bombing New York
and Washington. The fact that our enemies are determined to return
the world to the seventh century and force our women to dress in
sacks makes the anti-war position all the more controversial. There
seems little choice but to douse these people with the hot oil of
ridicule. At the outset, it should be pointed out that these contemporary
pacifists are not cut from the same cloth as historys grand
Mahatmas, whose neutrality may have sometimes been in error but
who were people of large and often courageous spirit.... Not so
the new breed, which appears to be largely made up of self-absorbed
snots. When the heat shows up, they run. If they get jugged, they
get someone to post bail, preferably on Daddys AmEx card.
Some do a bit of car-burning and looting on the side. They blossom
most brilliantly in the spotlight, which they are forever seeking,
and they hail from the expected provinces: Hollywood, the Ivy League,
the Ivory Tower, Trust Fund City. Many hold dual citizenship.
Study:
Death penalty deters scores of killings (Paul Rubin)
Executions are always controversial, and there are always
debates about whether states should use the death penalty. But this
debate cannot proceed rationally unless we fully understand the
advantages and disadvantages of execution.... One conservative version
of our model finds that each execution deters an average of 18 homicides,
with a range of between 8 and 28 murders deterred by each execution.
Other variants find even larger numbers of prevented murders....
We as a society might decide that we want to eliminate capital punishment.
But this should be an informed decision, and should consider both
the costs and benefits of executions. Our evidence is that there
are substantial benefits from executions and, thus, substantial
costs of changing this policy.
Minoritarianism:
A dangerous obsession (John Derbyshire)
In a civilized liberal democracy, majorities owe certain things
to harmless minorities: tolerance, civility, and the rights granted
in the Constitution freedom of speech, assembly, etc. However,
it seems to me that minorities owe something to the majority in
return: mainly, a proper respect for their tastes, beliefs, and
sensibilities, and a decent restraint in challenging them, if there
are some reasonable grounds for challenging them. This contract
imposes some costs on minorities, of course, but I think they should
look on those costs as the price of the tolerance they enjoy. Is
that patronizing? Well, then add being patronized to
the list of costs none of which, in any case I can think
of in American society today, is much more arduous or oppressive
than that. There are, after all, reciprocal costs on the majority
when they make those accommodations.... I dont see any danger
at all that majorities will ride roughshod over minorities unless
restrained by wise, omniscient elites. I do, though, see the opposite
danger: That by allowing themselves to be browbeaten by those elites
into yielding on every single point of accommodation demanded by
every loud minority, the majority will find at last that they have
no institutions, no traditions, no moral landmarks, no common understandings
left, and will be adrift in a wasteland of moral relativism, naked
to the cold, heartless winds of intellectual fashion.
Can
There Be a Decent Left? (Michael Walzer)
A few left academics have tried to figure out how many civilians
actually died in Afghanistan, aiming at as high a figure as possible,
on the assumption, apparently, that if the number is greater than
the number of people killed in the Towers, the war is unjust. At
the moment, most of the numbers are propaganda; there is no reliable
accounting. But the claim that the numbers matter in just this way,
that the 3120th death determines the injustice of the war, is in
any case wrong. It denies one of the most basic and best understood
moral distinctions: between premeditated murder and unintended killing.
And the denial isnt accidental, as if the people making it
just forgot about, or didnt know about, the everyday moral
world. The denial is willful: unintended killing by Americans in
Afghanistan counts as murder. This cant be true anywhere else,
for anybody else.
The
man who knows too much (Jonathan Tobin)
CNN reporter Steve Emerson was stuck in Oklahoma City on Christmas
1992 with nothing to do and wandered by the citys Convention
Center, where a gathering of the Muslim Arab Youth Association was
taking place. Inside, he found books preaching Islamic Jihad,
books calling for the extermination of Jews and Christians, even
coloring books instructing children on subjects, such as How
to Kill the Infidel. Later, after listening to speeches
urging jihad against the Jews and the West from luminaries such
as the head of the Hamas terrorist group, Emerson called his contacts
in the FBI to inquire whether they were aware of this bizarre meeting
in the American heartland. They were not. A year later, Emerson
attended a similar Muslim conference in Detroit that included representatives
from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups. It
also included an appearance from a befuddled senior FBI agent. When
a member of the hostile audience asked the agent for advice on how
to ship weapons overseas, Emerson relates that the G-man said, matter-of-factly,
that he hoped any such efforts would be done in conformance
with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms guidelines.
Apparently, the FBI official had attended the radical conference
under the mistaken impression that it was some kind of Rotary
Club.
The
Core of Muslim Rage (Thomas Friedman)
It has to do with the contrast between Islams self-perception
as the most ideal and complete expression of the three great monotheistic
religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam and the
conditions of poverty, repression and underdevelopment in which
most Muslims live today. As a U.S. diplomat in the Middle East said
to me, Israel not Iraq, not India is a constant
reminder to Muslims of their own powerlessness. How could
a tiny Jewish state amass so much military and economic power if
the Islamic way of life not Christianity or Judaism
is Gods most ideal religious path? When Hindus kill Muslims
its not a story, because there are a billion Hindus and they
arent part of the Muslim narrative. When Saddam murders his
own people its not a story, because its in the Arab-Muslim
family. But when a small band of Israeli Jews kills Muslims it sparks
rage a rage that must come from Muslims having to confront
the gap between their self-perception as Muslims and the reality
of the Muslim world.
From our friends (?) the Saudis:
Special
Dispatch No. 354: Saudi Government Daily: Jews Use Teenagers
Blood for Purim Pastries (MEMRI)
In an article published by the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh,
columnist Dr. Umayma Ahmad Al-Jalahma of King Faysal University
in Al-Dammam, wrote on The Jewish Holiday of Purim.
Following are excerpts of the article: This
holiday has some dangerous customs that will, no doubt, horrify
you, and I apologize if any reader is harmed because of this....
For this holiday, the Jewish people must obtain human blood so that
their clerics can prepare the holiday pastries. In other words,
the practice cannot be carried out as required if human blood is
not spilled!!.... For this holiday, the victim must be a mature
adolescent who is, of course, a non-Jew that is, a Christian
or a Muslim. His blood is taken and dried into granules. The cleric
blends these granules into the pastry dough; they can also be saved
for the next holiday. In contrast, for the Passover slaughtering,
about which I intend to write one of these days, the blood of Christian
and Muslim children under the age of 10 must be used, and the cleric
can mix the blood [into the dough] before or after dehydration....
The
Crescent and the Gun (Brian Saint-Paul)
The problem, then, is not in the Koran itself but in those
who are free to twist it. Because theres no one to interpret
the book authoritatively, its vulnerable to any charismatic
leader willing to abuse it to justify his personal hatred. The sad
result is clear for all to see: The Korans command not to
harm civilians is ignored; its prohibition against suicide is interpreted
away by suicide bombers; its call for freedom in worship is cast
aside in many Islamic states; its order to stand up for the oppressed
is ignored by those too afraid to speak out against the persecution
of non-Muslims. Islam has the Koran, but the Koran has no interpreter.
An analogous situation is in Protestant Christianity, where the
inheritors of the Reformation gather around the call of sola scriptura
(Scripture alone). Different Protestant denominations read the Bible
in different ways, with no single, authoritative interpreter. Why
then dont we see fringe Protestants strapping bombs around
their waists and walking into crowded malls? The answer brings us
back to the different concepts of justice. In Islam, following the
Old Testament model, the attacker can be justly destroyed. In Christianity,
following the just-war theory, the attacker must be repelled
but only in proportion to the attack. Ultimately, the violence perpetrated
by Muslim fringe groups has two roots: first, the Korans command
to fight the oppressor, and second, the lack of a single voice to
identify who that oppressor is. Without that authority, any group
any people, any nation can be considered an oppressor
by those who feel theyve been wronged. The result, too often,
is bloodshed.
Spying:
The American Way of Life? (Wired News)
In the six months since the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans may
not have exactly embraced a surveillance society, but they appear
to have grown to accept portions of it. A Zogby poll conducted last
December says that 80 percent of respondents favored video monitoring
on public places such as street corners. Especially in the dark
days after the Pentagon was hit, the White House targeted, the Capitol
anthraxed, and the World Trade Center leveled, that public reaction
was predictable. In national emergencies, the uneasy relationship
between freedom and order edges toward greater restrictions on individual
liberty. But Bushs war on terror is not a traditional military
conflict with a clear end that can be met after, say, U.S. soldiers
capture a city, eliminate a Taliban command post or even
snare Osama bin Laden himself. Bush and other top administration
officials repeatedly have warned that the attempt to exterminate
al-Qaida dens may continue for years, even decades. It conceivably
could succeed the Cold War as the most important political struggle
of the 21st century. If that happens, new surveillance powers that
police receive today likely will become permanent.
Profs
Do Better on Shorter Leash, Study Concludes (NewsMax)
Tenured college professors might be bad teachers and even
worse scholars, but their institutions and peers have little ability
to influence their conduct, according to a recent study by The Fraser
Institute, a libertarian think tank in Vancouver, British Columbia.
To improve the quality of their teaching, professors need incentives,
something radically nonexistent in the individualistic culture of
the North American university, write Rodney Clifton and Hymie Rubenstein
in Collegial Models for Enhancing the Performance of University
Professors. Often when professors receive tenure they neglect
their students and focus on research or outside assignments like
consulting businesses, Clifton and Rubenstein write. The sheer number
of extraneous commitments may cause professors to view students
as nuisances rather than the paying consumers they are, according
to the authors.
Whooping
It Up: In Beirut, even Christians celebrated the atrocity (Italian
journalist Elisabetta Burba)
Where were you on Sept. 11, when terrorists changed the world?
I was at the National Museum here [in Beirut], enjoying the wonders
of the ancient Phoenicians with my husband. This tour of past splendor
only magnified the shock I received later when I heard the news
and saw the reactions all around me. Walking downtown, I realized
that the offspring of this great civilization were celebrating a
terrorist outrage. And I am not talking about destitute people.
Those who were cheering belonged to the elite of the Paris of Middle
East: professionals wearing double-breasted suits, charming blond
ladies, pretty teenagers in tailored jeans. Trying to find our bearings,
my husband and I went into an American-style cafe in the Hamra district,
near Rue Verdun, rated as one of the most expensive shopping streets
in the world. Here the cognitive dissonance was immediate, and direct.
The cafes sophisticated clientele was celebrating, laughing,
cheering and making jokes, as waiters served hamburgers and Diet
Pepsi. Nobody looked shocked, or moved. They were excited, very
excited.... Back in Italy, I received a phone call from my friend
Gilberto Bazoli, a journalist in Cremona. He told me he witnessed
the same reactions among Muslims in the local mosque of that small
Lombard city. They were all on Osama bin Ladens side,
he said. One of them told me that they were not even worthy
to kiss his toes.
Anti-Americanism
blamed on college teachers (WT)
Professors and administrators are to blame for anti-American
sentiment on college campuses today, according to a report by the
American Council of Trustees and Alumni. More than 140 college campuses
in 36 states have held anti-war rallies denouncing the countrys
military actions in Afghanistan, the report says. The document
Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America
and What Can Be Done About It concludes that many professors
and administrators are quick to clamp down on acts of patriotism,
such as flying the American flag, and look down on students who
question professors politically correct ideas
in class.
In
war, grownups cant play silly games (Mark Steyn)
But the six-month suspension of normal politics is taking
its toll on Democrats. We seem to be good at developing entrance
strategies, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, West Virginias porkmeister
par excellence, whined the other day, and not so good at developing
exit strategies. Well spotted, senator. Heres something
else that will shock you: Churchill didnt have an exit
strategy for World War II.... You dont have exit strategies
when your national territorys been attacked; you have a responsibility
to see the war through to the end.... The headline on Jules Witcovers
column in the Baltimore Sun read, Democrats Ask Tough Questions
On War. In fact, tough questions would be welcome. But Byrds
and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschles criticisms are pathetic:
Theyre about spin, posturing, about how itll play on
TV. In war, grownups dont have time for silly games in the
congressional schoolyard.
Being
reasonable about faith when we all ignore God (Hanna Clark)
This fact versus faith dichotomy relies on a gendered and
racialized conception of the human mind and soul (or are they even
separate?). White people are seen as rational and logical, living
in the world of logic and ideas. People of color are seen as more
spiritual, irrational and emotional. The same can be said of men
(theyre rational) and women (theyre irrational). And
the same can be said of Macalester atheists (rational) and the rest
of us (irrational). The problem is that Atheism is just as based
on faith as any other religion. At Macalester, religion is often
seen only as an institution that tries to exert control. Theres
a knee-jerk reaction to the imposition of rules and social mores,
and all religion and spirituality is thereby ridiculed. Its
ironic that so many people use a patriarchal and racist ideology
to critique what they think is an engine of oppressive authority.
The
Pristine Myth (Katie Bacon interviews Charles Mann)
For years the standard view of North America before Columbuss
arrival was as a vast, grassy expanse teeming with game and all
but empty of people. Those who did live here were nomads who left
few marks on the land. South America, too, or at least the Amazon
rain forest, was thought of as almost an untouched Eden, now suffering
from modern depredations. But a growing number of anthropologists
and archaeologists now believe that this picture is almost completely
false. According to this school of thought, the Western Hemisphere
before Columbuss arrival was well-populated and dotted with
impressive cities and towns one scholar estimated that it
held ninety to 112 million people, more than lived in Europe at
the time and Indians had transformed vast swaths of landscape
to meet their agricultural needs. They used fire to create the Midwestern
prairie, perfect for herds of buffalo. They also cultivated at least
part of the rain forest, living on crops of fruits and nuts.
Diagnosis:
Delusional (Drs. Michael A. Glueck & Robert J. Cihak)
People need to feel right about themselves. Not just good
right. Morally right. For some people, hating America provides
an inexhaustible source of unearned moral stature. They cant
be right unless their country is wrong, always and forever wrong:
an attitude empowered by the quaint notion that dissent is somehow
automatically morally superior to consent, and refusal to participate
a greater good than support. Sadly, there is much in this country
to criticize. Were far from perfect, and in many ways the
intensity of our self-scrutiny stands as a badge of our virtue.
But there comes a time when some overweening emergency takes precedence.
Correctness
Crack-Up (Stephen Goode and Christopher Jolma)
But the response to Sept. 11 at U.S. colleges and universities
might be bringing about a bigger, more profound transformation thats
now in its earliest stages. Its change that challenges and
may undermine the gospel of political correctness, which
has ravaged U.S. schools for nearly two decades. Its a transformation,
too, that may bring an end to the power held at American universities
and colleges by the left-wing 1960s activists many of whom
long have held senior and tenured positions at American schools
and have used those positions to preach the same tired left-wing
politics and anti-Americanism they began so loudly advocating 40
years ago.
Campus
Capers (David Horowitz)
In any case, the media blackout of my book makes my current
campus speaking tour something of a necessity. I have one additional
agenda, moreover, which is to cast a spotlight on the rampant political
bias in the hiring of faculty at American universities. This repression
of conservative viewpoints an academic McCarthyism that puts
McCarthys puny efforts to shame is blatant, unconstitutional
and illegal, but ubiquitous nonetheless.
What
will it take to persuade? (Balint Vazsonyi)
The brutal murder of journalist Daniel Pearl has shaken even
our own television news analysts. That is significant, since some
of our most highly visible and highly paid commentators
had never known a foreign terrorist they didnt like. Well,
that might be a bit harsh. Let us say instead, they had never seen
a foreign terrorist whose cause they didnt respect.
But this was too much, even for them. Are we mad enough yet?
How
The Left Undermined Americas Security (David Horowitz)
Underlying the Clinton security failure was the fact that
the Administration was made up of people who for twenty-five years
had discounted or minimized the totalitarian threat, opposed Americas
armed presence abroad, and consistently resisted the deployment
of Americas military forces to halt Communist expansion. National
Security Advisor Sandy Berger was himself a veteran of the Sixties
anti-war movement, which abetted the Communist victories
in Vietnam and Cambodia, and created the Vietnam War syndrome
that made it so difficult afterwards for American presidents to
deploy the nations military forces.
The
cost of academic integrity (Walter Williams)
College budgets depend on admitting warm bodies. That means
we cant expect college administrators to do anything to stop
unprepared students from being admitted, courses dumbed-down and
fraudulent grades given. Boards of Trustees tend to be yes-men and
women for the president, so we cant expect anything from them.
The money spigot needs to be turned off.
Alumni, foundations and other charitable donors not to mention
taxpayers should be made aware of fraudulent practices and
academic dishonesty.
The
Plains vs. The Atlantic: Is Middle America a backwater, or a reservoir?
(Blake Hurst)
The combination of progressive taxation and urban real-estate
prices ensures that almost nobody on the coasts has more spendable
income than the highest paid people in Franklin County or the rest
of rural Red America. People here in Missouris small towns
can buy a beautiful older home for less than $100,000. Brooks makes
much of the fact that he literally could not spend more than $20
for a meal in Franklin County. The fare in Red America is a bit
limited. You cant buy one of those meals with a dime-sized
entrée in the middle of a huge plate, with some sort of sauce
artfully squirted about. But you can buy a pound of prime rib for
ten bucks. Class-consciousness isnt a problem in Red America,
because most people can afford to buy everything thats for
sale.
Proof
that the classics speak to everyone (Katherine Kersten)
For 35 years now, weve been hearing that the classics
the great books of the Western world are largely irrelevant
in todays classrooms. Why? Most were written by dead white
males. Obviously, then, they can hold little meaning for females
or for black or Hispanic kids. Everyone knows that if young people
are to be moved or inspired, they need books whose authors look
like them. Try telling that to the students at Wilbur Wright
College, a two-year community college in a working-class neighborhood
in Chicago. Students at Wright are predominantly black, Hispanic
or from immigrant families. Wright is for kids who arent ready
for four-year colleges. Yet students there are flocking to a Great
Books program and lining up to read authors like Plato, Cicero and
Dante.
Why
the Muslims Misjudged Us (Victor Hanson)
Two striking themes one overt, one implied characterize
most Arab invective: first, there is some sort of equivalence
political, cultural, and military between the West and the
Muslim world; and second, America has been exceptionally unkind
toward the Middle East. Both premises are false and reveal that
the temple of anti-Americanism is supported by pillars of utter
ignorance.
Parsing
out grammar (Linda Chavez)
I learned how to diagram sentences in elementary school
or what we used to call, appropriately, grammar school.... Progressive
teachers and their professional associations, especially the National
Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), believe diagramming sentences
is make-work that bores students and turns them off to writing.
So they banished diagramming from the classroom years ago, along
with most grammar instruction.
Slouching
Toward Bias: A Neo-Conservative Critiques the Media (Poynter)
The media, notably certain powerful big city dailies
and the network news divisions that generally follow their lead,
reflect a worldview that is not only distinctly liberal in character,
but hostile to those who hold alternative views.
The
Education of Abraham Lincoln (Eric Foner)
He read incessantly, beginning as a youth with the Bible and
Shakespeare. During his single term in the House of Representatives,
his colleagues considered it humorous that Lincoln spent his spare
time poring over books in the Library of Congress. The result of
this stunning work of self-education was the intellectual
power revealed in Lincolns writings and speeches.
Lost
Boys (Amy Benfer)
Suddenly, the debate among researchers is focused on the boys:
Are they behind because of the girl empowerment movement? Are they
being shortchanged in the classroom simply because they are boys?
Skewed
News: Fair and balanced coverage requires diversity of opinion (Cathy
Young)
Neither Goldberg nor McGowan allege a deliberate vast left-wing
conspiracy to distort the news. Rather, they convincingly argue
that news coverage is often influenced by a knee-jerk bias stemming
from the journalists own views on political and social issues.
Why
We Don’t Marry (James Q. Wilson)
“Marriage was once a sacrament, then it became a contract, and
now it is an arrangement. Once religion provided the sacrament,
then the law enforced the contract, and now personal preferences
define the arrangement.”
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