Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

OCTOBER 17,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

MORE FIGHTING BACK – OVERNIGHT:  FROM COLLEGE FIX:   A Washington State school district equity leader has been removed from her position after her vulgar anti-white video rants came to light.
According to Jason Rantz, Alicia Busch of the Tahoma School District Equity Support Team proclaims in her recordings that white people are “amoral colonizers” and that the American Dream “is white supremacy,” among other things.  “If you are a person of whiteness, I don’t give a <expletive>. I don’t give a <expletive> about your comfort… your feelings…. about where you think your place is in the world,” Busch says in one clip. “If my existence and my statements and actions cause you discomfort, then I am doing the right thing.”
In another, Busch claims “there’s no safe place for BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, People of Color] to exist when whiteness is present. There just isn’t.”  What an ignorant statement.  Okay, they fired her, but how was she ever hired in the first place?  And how many like her are lurking in the shadowy precincts of our school systems?

October 17, 2021       Permalink

FIGHTING BACK – THE LATEST BLOW STRUCK BY THE GOOD GUYS AGAINST THE FORCES OF EVIL AND ANTI-AMERICANISM.  OVERNIGHT:    FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL VIA 6PARK.NEWS/VIRGINIA: 

Readers of these pages are aware that freedom of expression, academic freedom, and diversity of viewpoints are in big trouble at American universities. But many of those concerned about the state of campuses are almost resigned to the idea that the forces of illiberal intolerance have won out. The fight is far from over. On October 18, five groups of alumni will announce the creation of an organization to advocate for open inquiry: the Alumni Free Speech Alliance.

AFSA’s founders are groups of graduates from Cornell University, Davidson College, Princeton University (our alma mater), University of Virginia, and Washington and Lee University. Our partner organizations are the Cornell Free Speech Alliance, Davidsonians for Freedom of Thought and Discourse, Princetonians for Free Speech, the Jefferson Council (comprised of UVA alumni), and Generals Redoubt (W&L alumni).

AFSA membership groups are non-partisan and will protect the rights of teachers and students from across the ideological spectrum. The groups will share ideas and information, as well as promote and mentor similar groups of alumni from other schools. Our goal is to partner with dozens of groups of alumni not yet formed throughout the country.

Why alumni? Because, with rare exceptions, everyone else may feel too exposed to attack to oppose campus culture. Our experience is that the few student groups for free speech do not have many members (Princeton has around 20). Defenders of free speech among teachers are vastly outnumbered, even as many center-left teachers are beginning to realize that the mob can also brutally cancel them. The few students and teachers who speak often feel isolated and exposed.

University trustees, presidents, and other administrators are also often mired in the toxic environment on campus, which responds to heresy with attacks. Most have been bullied or genuinely believe in an awakened orthodoxy that sees free speech as an inconvenient interruption.

That leaves students as the only college stakeholders with the numbers and clout to lead the defense of free speech, academic freedom, and diversity of viewpoints in campus settings. Freedom of expression and academic freedom are essential to the advancement of knowledge and the success of our colleges and universities. Will all teaching and research in these schools soon be subject to a mandatory orthodoxy? Will parents still pay to send their children to places where the essential elements of learning are suppressed? These institutions constantly seek the participation and contributions of graduates. Graduates have the ability and the duty to demand that their schools uphold the reasons for which they were created. But to be effective, alumni must organize.

In a recent survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, more than 80% of students reported that they self-censored their views at least a few times, and 21% said they frequently self-censor themselves. The survey, of more than 37,000 college students across 159 campuses, shows growing support among students for various forms of censorship, especially conservative speakers, with 66% of students saying that yelling at speakers on campus may be justified. Other surveys report similar results.

Tolerance for freedom of expression among teachers appears to be marginally higher, but is on the decline; and left-leaning ideological litmus tests in teacher hiring have become common, while moderate and conservative teachers have become scarcer.

Hundreds of articles in numerous publications have reported harassment, suspension and even dismissal of teachers and students for expressing opinions, many quite reasonable, that offend awakened activists. Meanwhile, university presidents often do nothing, even when their schools’ free speech rules seem to require action.

Alumni, and that may include you, must act. Our five allied alumni groups are ready to help.

COMMON:   Good luck.  It's a great idea, if the founders brace themselves for what's probably coming – the big leftist smear that will declare that all members of this new group are racists.  That's the way the game is played.

But I do see this as a significant step forward in saving our educational system from the fascists of the left, who have taken over many schools and departments.  What's so sad is that free speech is not a priority for the news media, unless it's their speech, so the new group can probably expect little support from journalists. 

Some fix we're in.

October 17, 2021       Permalink 

OCTOBER 16,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

RECKLESS – OVERNIGHT – FROM DAILY MAIL:   Philadelphia became the first major city to ban police traffic stops of low-level motor vehicle offenses, a tactic which critics claim disproportionately affects black people.  The Philadelphia City Council passed two Driving Equity bills on Thursday that Mayor James Kenney is is expected to sign into law this week.   The law creates an open searchable database recording traffic stops and prohibits police officers from stopping drivers for minor offenses by reclassifying several offenses as secondary violations.  Secondary violations citations are issued to drivers by mail, eliminating the need for a low-level traffic stop, which is a tactic commonly used as a pretext to stop and search drivers. 'The way black men are often searched, specifically here in the City of Philadelphia, when pulled over by law enforcement, puts you in a position where you're very, very uncomfortable often,' said Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who drafted the Driving Equality bills.  How many reckless drivers will get away with it because of these new laws?  The fear of being stopped probably leads to more people driving safely, and within the speed limit, than any other factor.  And I wonder how many minority citizens will agree with still one more law that seems to favor the criminal.

October 16, 2021       Permalink 

GARLAND PROPERLY ROASTED – OVERNIGHT:  The new, and extremely disappointing attorney general of the United States, draws criticism for his recent, reckless statements.  From Fox: 

Four out of the eight members of the U.S Commission on Civil Rights have penned a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, chastising him for his recent memo regarding parents who protest school boards.

"We write to express our concerns regarding a recent memorandum issued by your office," the four members wrote in the letter, questioning Garland's motive for issuing the memo which instructed the FBI to take the lead on a task force to address threats against school officials, including creating a centralized way to report such threats.

The members who signed onto the letter include Commissioners Peter Kirsanow, J. Christian Adams, Gail Heriot, and Stephen Gilchrist.

"Your memorandum did not cite any specific examples of ‘harassment, intimidation and threats of violence’ that would provide any basis for law enforcement action by the Department," the letter read. "We are concerned that much of what the NSBA calls threats and acts of intimidation—and compares to "domestic terrorism and hate crimes"—can be merely classified as political speech."

Providing examples of political speech, the members insisted that "a parent concerned with a local schoolboard’s policy may portend an electoral challenge against an incumbent schoolboard member," adding that a move like that "would be well within the parent’s First Amendment rights and well without the Department’s purview as a federal law enforcement agency."

"We have combed the internet for signs that parents petitioning school boards are anything approaching a national problem," the members continued in the letter. "Nearly all of what we have seen so far makes us proud to be Americans: Parents care about the education of their children, and they are not willing to allow them to be indoctrinated into a radical ideology."

The members also concluded that if "a few of these parents have gotten out of hand and made threats," then local law enforcement is "entirely appropriate" in handling the situation. The members also asked Garland whether he is surprised that "concerned parents across the country view [his] memorandum as an endorsement of the NSBA’s description of their protests as comparable to "domestic terrorism."

The members closed the letter by asking Garland to provide "specific examples" of "harassment, intimidation and threats of violence" which Garland claimed as evidence for the need for federal intervention.

Garland's memo came shortly after the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a letter to President Biden claiming some rhetorical clashes between school boards and parents may amount to "domestic terrorism." The NSBA letter invoked the Patriot Act, which Congress passed to deal with terrorism in the wake of the 9-11 attacks. 

COMMENT:  Wonderful letter, well written, to our increasingly political attorney general.  The parents revolt is becoming one of the biggest issues of our day, and long overdue.  It will probably grow into a major movement trying to achieve true school choice.  When the parents are labeled "domestic terrorists" by the radical left, those parents may actually resent it...and grow more militant.  I can't wait.

October 16, 2021       Permalink