SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

FASCINATING – FROM FOX:  The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating Yale University after a male student from another school filed a Title IX complaint in February, accusing the Ivy League institution of a “toxic environment against men.”  Kursat Chistoff Pekgoz, an English literature doctoral student at the University of Southern California who has no affiliation to Yale, filed the complaint after he singled out the Ivy League for its overall culture of anti-male discrimination by providing benefits exclusively for women, despite declining male enrollment. This is not the first time Yale has been accused of discriminating against men using Obama-era Title IX policies that have been pulled back under the Trump administration. But this complaint, unlike the others, is unrelated to sexual misconduct on campus.   This question of anti-male prejudice has come up on other campuses as well.  It goes with assaults on "whiteness" and, more recently, claims of "Christian privilege."  The Office of Civil Rights, under Obama, was an extension of the far left.  It has changed under Trump.  I'll be interested to see how far the change is carried.

THROWBACK TO THE 1960s – FROM AP:   BOSTON (AP) — Black students at Harvard University are organizing a graduation ceremony of their own this year to recognize the achievements of black students and faculty members some say have been overlooked.  More than 700 students and guests are registered to attend Harvard's first Black Commencement, which will take place two days before the school's traditional graduation events. It isn't meant to replace the existing ceremony, student organizers say, but rather to add something that was missing.  "We really wanted an opportunity to give voice to the voiceless at Harvard," said Michael Huggins, president of the Harvard Black Graduate Student Alliance, a campus group that is planning the ceremony. "So many students identify with the African diaspora but don't necessarily feel welcome as part of the larger community, and they don't feel like their stories are being shared."   They did this back in the sixties.  Can't think of a single positive result.  What happens when five other groups ask for the same thing?

FROM BRITAIN – TOMORROW'S ROYAL WEDDING ISN'T THE ONLY NEWS – FROM THE TELEGRAPH:   The last surviving serviceman to take part in the iconic Dambusters raid during World War Two has flown in a Lancaster bomber again.  Squadron leader George "Johnny" Johnson flew on board the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s (BBMF) Lancaster to mark the raid’s 75th anniversary.  Johnny flew in the bomb aimer’s position, the same position he had in 1943, as the aircraft flew over the dams of the Derwent Valley.  He described the experience as "wonderful," adding: "It’s surprising how 75 years just disappear.  "Over the Derwent Dam, the time was gone - just like that; I was back there …thinking about the times that we went there."  They were heroes.  While people are watching the British/American wedding about to take place, they might contemplate the men and women who saved both nations.

May 18, 2018