Yale Lecturer Behind Halloween Email Defending Free Speech Resigns
Posted: December 9, 2015 Filed under: Education, U.S. News | Tags: Academia, al Qaeda, American Society for Cell Biology, Anthony T. Kronman, Associated Press, Association of American Universities, Audrey Hepburn, Brown University, Butler University, Campus, College town, Connecticut, Harvard University, Ivy League, New Haven, Sexual assault, Undergraduate education, Yale University Leave a comment
Yale University have confirmed that the lecturer who sent an email stating that students should not seek to censor Halloween costumes has today resigned from her teaching position.
Richard Lewis reports: Erika Christakis, an expert in childhood education, sent the email as a result of student activist complaints about cultural appropriation and perceived racism on campus. The protests will best be remembered for producing this video where a female student screamed into the face of Nicholas Christakis, husband of Erika and a Bowdoin Prize winning academic, making the bold claim that the university campus isn’t an “intellectual space.” Mr. Christakis shall also be taking a one term sabbatical in the aftermath of the incident.
Why the email generated any controversy is anyone’s guess. Mrs. Christakis asked the question, “Is there no room anymore for a child or young person to be a little bit obnoxious, a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive?” Read the rest of this entry »
Uncle Strickland: ‘How to Talk to Your Pansy Marxist Nephew at Thanksgiving’
Posted: November 24, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Asian American, Citizenship, Harvard University, Holiday, Ivy League, Office for Civil Rights, Parody, Princeton University, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, satire, Thanksgiving, United States, Washington Free Beacon 1 Comment
“Am I othering you right now? Did I carpet bomb your safe space?”
This is a hilarious sendup of an outbreak of embarrassing left-wing hand-holding “How to talk to your Republican uncle at Thanksgiving” articles like this, and this, and this, that are appearing in advance of the upcoming holiday. This one is more useful, and funnier. Read the whole thing here. Also, don’t miss this, “Thanksgivingmanship: Your Guide to Surviving The Progressive Imbeciles Who Have Spent a Week Cramming on How to Survive You” at AceOfSpadesHQAceOfSpadesHQ.
Uncle Strickland writes:
Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for publishing my column. I’m a big fan of this holiday because few things are more American than boozing up and chowing down ’til your ankles swell and your corduroys pop. In between, you get to watch some football and share your thoughts on the trainwreck presidency of Barack Hussein Obama (hint hint). I consider myself a knowledgable debater because I read up on the blogs and I’m typically one
of the most “liked” commenters on the articles. The reason I’m writing this is because my brother’s dumb kid likes to get chatty with me. I’ve
never seen anyone bring so many printouts to the dinner table.
“I’ll tell you what, why don’t you invite one of your ISIS pals around the house and we’ll see how much he likes it when I slash his guts out with the turkey knife. You think that’s what he wants? They want us to crush them?”
His “talking points,” he says. Reminds me of my last divorce, all those friggin’ printouts. This kid, my nephew, will never admit to being a communist, it’s always this “moderate independent” crap. But his Facebook feed is full of Bernie Sandinista, if you know what I mean, and he recently tweeted some gibberish about riding the bus in Czechoslovakia and identifying as a “human being” instead of what he is, an American.
“Tell me something, how did you feel when your Little League team got mercy-ruled by those country boys in the district finals? Is that what you wanted? Were you just phoning it in for the “participant” trophy? Is that why you’re too afraid to shave that pathetic beard?”
He’s been a “student” at some Ivy League circlejerk for the better part of a decade. I think he’s 29, who the hell even cares? If he’s the future, this country’s digging its own grave and I’m glad I won’t be there when it finally kicks the bucket. Read the rest of this entry »
40% of Millennials Say Government Should Prevent Offensive Speech Toward Minorities
Posted: November 21, 2015 Filed under: Censorship, Education | Tags: Association of American Universities, Boston, Brown University, California Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College, Harvard Management Company, Harvard University, Ivy League, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York City, Princeton University, Yale University Leave a comment
Kerry Picket reports: A new Pew Research Center poll shows that 40 percent of American Millennials (ages 18-34) are likely to support government prevention of public statements offensive to minorities.
It should be noted that vastly different numbers resulted for older generations in the Pew poll on the issue of offensive speech and the government’s role.
US Millennials more likely to support censoring offensive statements about minorities https://t.co/58zV9e31k9 pic.twitter.com/wdHf7aB1oI
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) November 21, 2015
Around 27 percent of Generation X’ers (ages 35-50) support such an idea, while 24 percent of Baby Boomers (ages 51-69) agree that censoring offensive speech about minorities should be a government issue. Only 12 percent of the Silent Generation (ages 70-87) thinks that government should prevent offensive speech toward minorities.
The poll comes at a time when college activists, such as the group “Black Lives Matter,” are making demands in the name of racial and ethnic equality at over 20 universities across the nation.
[Read the full story here, at The Daily Caller]
Some of the demands include restrictions on offensive Halloween costumes at Yale University to the deletion of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s image and name at Princeton University to “anti-oppression training” for employees at Brown University.
“Woodrow Wilson obviously … had a very ill-informed and ignorant view of race,” 1968 Princeton graduate Eric Chase told Reuters. “But he is a big piece of Princeton history and he should stay a big piece,” noting that it’s a push to “erase history and whitewash it and put something else in its place.” Read the rest of this entry »
Survey Reveals: U.S. Schools Expelled 8,000 Chinese Students for Poor Grades, Cheating
Posted: May 28, 2015 Filed under: Asia, China, Education | Tags: Alien (law), Barack Obama, Cease and desist, Cheating, college, College Exam Scheme, Ivy League, United States Department of Homeland Security, University, WholeRen 1 Comment
The survey comes amid reports that federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh have indicted 15 Chinese citizens for allegedly taking part in a college exam scheme
Liyan Qi reports: As tens of thousands of Chinese students prepare to study in the U.S., they might reflect on the experience of some of those who went before them. According to an estimate by a U.S. education company, some 8,000 Chinese students were expelled from American universities last year alone – and the main reasons were poor grades and cheating.
“This is an issue not just about students in the U.S., but about the entire higher-education system in China.”
The estimate by WholeRen Education, a U.S. company that caters to Chinese students, was based on official U.S. data and a survey of 1,657 students expelled from American universities last year. More than 80% of these students were expelled because of poor academic performance or dishonesty, the company said.
“Chinese students used to be considered top-notch but over the past five years their image has changed completely — wealthy kids who cheat.”
— Chen Hang, chief development officer at WholeRen
The company surveyed students about their U.S. study experience a year earlier but didn’t make any estimate for expulsions.
The survey comes amid reports that federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh have indicted 15 Chinese citizens for allegedly taking part in a college exam scheme.
[Read the full text here at WSJ]
Stacked up against the huge numbers of Chinese students who go to American universities every year, the failure rate isn’t so bad, WholeRen said, though it does suggest a change in the once-shining image of students from China. Read the rest of this entry »
In Praise of the Dying Art of Civil Disagreement
Posted: May 20, 2015 Filed under: Think Tank | Tags: Baltimore, Barack Obama, Carl Trueman, Controversy, Facebook, First Things, Ivy League, Public Service Announcement, United States, Voting Leave a comment
Carl R. Trueman writes: I spent the first half of last week at a seminar at an Ivy League divinity school, where a friend and I gave a presentation on ministry and media. I had resolved before speaking that I would refer early on in my presentation to the fact that I belong to a denomination which does not ordain women. My discussion of ministry would be incomplete if I didn’t mention this subject, though I knew my comment would draw fire at a seminar with ordained women present.
“If we no longer have a university system which models ways of civil engagement on such matters, then the kind of civic virtues upon which a healthy democracy depends are truly a thing of the past.”
Sure enough, one of the women ministers present challenged me with some vigor on my position. For a few minutes we exchanged trenchant but civil remarks on the subject.We each spoke our minds, neither persuaded the other, and then we moved on to the larger matter in hand: The use of modern media in the church. The matter of my opposition to women’s ordination never came up again in the remaining two days of the seminar.
[Read the full text here, at First Things]
Later that evening, a young research student commented to me that it was amazing to see such a trenchant but respectful disagreement on an issue that typically arouses visceral passions. He added that he and those of his generation had “no idea” (his phrase, if I recall) how such things should be done. Later in the week, my youngest son confirmed that he too had never seen civil disagreement on a matter of importance in the university classroom. This is an ominous, if fascinating, indictment, for I had simply done what I had seen modeled when I was an undergraduate: Vigorous disagreement in the classroom followed by friendly conversation in the pub. Read the rest of this entry »
‘More Objective Than They Get Credit For’: State Judges Are Far Less Biased Than Law School Students, New Study Says
Posted: April 10, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: Abortion, Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, Barack Obama, Bias, Courts, District Attorney, Harvard University, Ivy League, Jacob Gershman, Judges, Law Students, The Wall Street Journal, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Yale University Leave a comment
The judges, lawyers and law students were instructed to assess legal problems designed to gauge their political bias
Jacob Gershman reports: You often hear from liberals and conservatives that judges are too political, that, instead of calling balls and strikes, they allow their own ideological, political or religious views to steer legal opinions.
A new study says judges, at least ones sitting on state benches, are more objective than they get credit for. The report, forthcoming in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, says judges by and large are able to exercise professional judgement and reach consensus on disputes that polarize the general public.
“The experimental results furnished evidence strongly at odds with the conclusion that judges are influenced by political predispositions when they engage in legal reasoning.”
The study, which took more than two years to conduct, included about 1,500 subjects: 253 judges, 225 lawyers, 250 law students (from five schools including Harvard and Yale), and 800 adults members of the general public.
“Judges of diverse cultural outlooks—ones polarized on their views of the risks of marijuana legalization, climate change, and other contested issues—converged on results in cases that strongly divided comparably diverse members of the public.”
The judges, lawyers and law students were instructed to assess legal problems designed to gauge their political bias.
One sample scenario involved a police officer accused of violating a disclosure law that makes it a crime for a government official to intentionally leak confidential investigatory information about a private citizen.
There were two versions of that scenario — “prochoice” and “prolife” — and subjects were randomly presented one of them.
In the first, the officer supplied information to a ‘family planning’ abortion facility about a job applicant who secretly belonged to an anti-abortion group. In the “prolife” version, the officer leaked information to an anti-abortion family planning center about a job applicant who secretly belonged to a prochoice group. Read the rest of this entry »
Elizabeth Scalia: Twilight of the Vaginas
Posted: January 18, 2015 Filed under: Education, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere | Tags: Barnard College, College football, Elizabeth Scalia, Erin Murphy, Eve Ensler, Feminism, Ivy League, Massachusetts, Mount Holyoke College, The Vagina Monologues, Trans woman 3 Comments
Elizabeth Scalia writes: Here we go…Women’s College Cancels ‘Vagina Monologues’ Because It Excludes Women Without Vaginas
Yet I am a woman with a vagina, and this becomes an area of my concern when people start saying that I shouldn’t reference or acknowledge that—that it’s in fact bad and intolerant so 20th century to even speak about it. The fact that some trans women don’t have vaginas doesn’t negate the fact that the vast majority of women do. And now, in the name of feminism, “female-validating talk about vaginas is now forbidden,” as one anonymous writer on a Mount Holyoke messageboard put it. “That’s so misogynistic under the guise of ‘progress.’”
Well, in my book, it kind of is progress. For the past 20 years or so, women have been gushing over their vaginas and waving their vaginas around as though they were unique to humanity; they’ve been oh-so-daring and counter-cultural, really putting it to the man by shoving their vaginas in everyone’s faces, taking their vaginas out for spa days, carrying them around in public conversations as though they were a trendy pet (or as Eve Ensler might have said, “my vagina is an chihuahua that growls at strangers and runs to the door to greet my gender-unstipulated friends! I dress my chihuahau-vagina up like Princess Leia for Halloween! I put tiny poppin’ fresh cinnamon rolls on each side of my labia…).
Vaginas have not only become a big business, for the matriarchy the vagina and its attendant parts have served as totems for feminism, and since ladies are good at crafts, you need only slip a few words into a search engine to find vagina earrings, vagina megaphones (echo…echo…); vagina soaps; knitted vaginas that cover tissue boxes, crocheted catnip vagina toys for their…kittykats.
And then finally — finally! — a woman brought vagina-crafting to its zenith — or its nadir — and started knitting out of her vagina, over the course of a full 28 days, to insure the inclusion of every bit of her vaginal goodness. Read the rest of this entry »
Lux et Veritas at Yale: Free Speech?
Posted: September 11, 2014 Filed under: Censorship, Education, History, Think Tank | Tags: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Brandeis University, Hirsi ALi, Ivy League, Muslim Students Association, William F. Buckley, Yale, Yale University Leave a comment
From NR, The Editors: When, this spring, Brandeis University reneged on its commencement invitation to human-rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, it revealed the cravenness that characterizes many of America’s leading institutions of higher education. The decision of Yale’s William F. Buckley Jr. Program to invite Hirsi Ali to New Haven as part of its speaker series has exposed the same quality in 
many of that school’s students.
“Even the most enthusiastic Ivy League shill should know that spending $55K a year to have one’s presuppositions obsequiously endorsed is a waste.”
In an open letter sent to Buckley Program student leaders, members of 35 campus groups say they feel “highly disrespected” by the September 15 lecture “Clash of Civilizations: Islam and the West.” The letter, drafted by the Muslim Students Association, lays out their complaints.
“But in our age of studious political correctness, where the inmates write the asylum’s curriculum, these students are happy to insulate themselves against any opinions from beyond the Old Campus Quad.”
They are concerned that “Ms. Hirsi Ali is being invited to speak as an authority on Islam despite the fact that she does not hold the credentials to do so.” They accuse Hirsi Ali of “hate speech” and express outrage that she should “have such a platform in our home.” “We cannot overlook,” they write, “how marginalizing her presence will be to the Muslim community and how uncomfortable it will be for the community’s allies.”
Their remedy, of course, is censorship. Read the rest of this entry »
[PHOTO] MILES DAVIS: ‘Best-Dressed Man of the 20th Century’
Posted: July 16, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Birdland, Birth of the Cool, Brooks Brothers, Don Cheadle, Duke of Windsor, Ivy League, Jazz, Miles Davis 1 Comment
Miles Davis was the best-dressed man of the 20th century. Starting out, he’d customise his pawnshop Brooks Brothers suits, cutting notches in the lapels in imitation of the Duke of Windsor. After 1949’s Birth of the Cool, he favoured the Ivy League look of European tailoring. In the 60s he went for slim-cut Italian suits and handmade doeskin loafers. He was always the coolest-looking man in the room. Hell, he even managed to look cool sporting a blood-splattered white khaki jacket following a scuffle with police outside Birdland. In the 70s his wardrobe went as far-gone funky as his music and he was the only man who could get away with wearing purple bell bottoms, kipper ties and hexagonal glasses.
The Supreme Court’s Biggest Loser
Posted: July 6, 2014 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Ivy League, Josh Earnest, Oval Office, Supreme Court, Twitter, United States, White House 1 Comment
For Breitbart.com, Charles Hurt writes a caustically funny, deadly accurate takedown of failing Law-sSudent-in Chief, in the wake of the Obama Administration’s epic court losses. Read the whole thing here. In the meantime, enjoy this excerpt:
Summer is hot upon us, another Supreme Court term is ending, and now it is time to evaluate America’s most tutored — and tortured — constitutional law student.
“Indeed, this is no ordinary student. This is a very special student with very special needs. Nine patient teachers. Limitless free school supplies. And a class size of one.”
It is unusual for a pupil of the Constitution to have such exhaustive continuing education courses, with such arduous nine-on-one tutoring from the foremost experts in the entire world. It is especially unusual since the pupil in question has actually had a constitutional law degree conferred upon him by an esteemed Ivy League institution and lectured on constitutional law at an equally esteemed institution of higher learning.
Indeed, this is no ordinary student. This is a very special student with very special needs. Nine patient teachers. Limitless free school supplies. And a class size of one.
Yet still, he cannot seem to grasp the most elementary concepts of constitutional law. Read the rest of this entry »
Obama’s Love of Elites
Posted: January 30, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Politics, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Harvard Law School, Ivy League, James Oliphant, John Boehner, Obama, Yale University 4 Comments
(NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
The president struck a populist note in his speech, but it’s hard to tell he believes it when you look at his administration
James Oliphant writes: President Obama drew applause from the House chamber for striking what seemed to be a populist blow against elitism in his State of the Union.
“I believe that here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth, but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams,” Obama said early in his remarks.
Looking at his administration, however, you would never know he believes that. Yes, as the president pointed out, both he and House Speaker John Boehner come from modest backgrounds. But as a graduate of Harvard Law School, Obama has shown himself more of that stripe, stuffing his administration with like-minded denizens of the Ivy League.
THE CHILL: Are Universities Breeding a Generation of Aspiring Totalitarians? [VIDEO]
Posted: October 30, 2013 Filed under: Censorship, Education, U.S. News | Tags: Brown University, Christina Paxson, Ivy League, New York, New York City Police Department, New York City stop-and-frisk program, Proactive policing, Raymond Kelly 1 CommentControversial law enforcement policies such as New York’s ‘stop-and-frisk‘ are a topic of legitimate disagreement and frank, candid debate. The ideal location for a spirited discussion of public policy should be a State University forum, or better yet, an Ivy League college. Unfortunately, Freedom of speech is no longer enshrined, or defended, in Universities (replaced with ‘speech codes‘, restricting free speech’) In fact, I’m not sure the First Amendment, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, civics education, critical thinking, logic, U.S. law, pluralism, freedom of expression, inquiry, philosophy, or tolerance, are taught at American Universities.
Brown University students shout Commissioner Kelly off the stage as he attempted lecture on policing
More than 100 Ivy League students protested the NYPD‘s stop-and-frisk policy and accused the department of discrimination against blacks and Muslims. Kelly had planned a lecture titled ‘Proactive Policing in America’s Biggest City’ but was driven out of the hall as students shouted over him…
More via NY Daily News
The cheat goes on at Harvard
Posted: September 6, 2013 Filed under: Education | Tags: Cheating, Harvard, Harvard Crimson, Harvard University, Ivy League, Rutgers University Leave a comment
Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts Photo: AP
Nearly half of the school’s incoming freshmen admitted to cheating on homework, exams or other assignments in their young academic careers, according to a survey by the Ivy League institution’s student newspaper.
“Some of the newest members of that community are already guilty of academic dishonesty,” The Harvard Crimson declared in its summary of the findings. Read the rest of this entry »
