Saturday, 4 September 2010
Video: The Norton Project
'This is a story about how me and my brother stole our fathers 1969 Norton Commando, had it restored and then gave it back to him for Christmas. He had no idea.'
H/T Canis 61
News.........
Day 57 – 4th September 1940
Week 8 Summary – The Churchillian Spell
The New Netanyahu?
An empty chair serves as a reminder of sacrifices made
"I beseech you, in the bowels of christ, pray consider you may be wrong." ... an open letter to glenn beck.
How the enemy sees the Ground Zero Mosque
A Reader Is "Sick Of White Bashing" In The MainStream Media
The Most Insane Zero Tolerance Story Yet
Couple Marries Inside Walmart
One More Rah-Rah: When The Bear Is Poked, The Bear Must Attack, Or Else It Will Become a Pet
British guns used against Nato forces in Afghanistan
New Zealand earthquake: state of emergency declared
Pakistan Taliban threaten attacks on US and Europe
Britain's top general in Afghanistan admits it will get worse before it gets better
Karzai urges Afghans not to panic as bank withdrawals accelerate
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Reforming Our Universities: The Campaign For An Academic Bill of Rights
At FrontPage Magazine, David Horowitz has some background on his new book, Reforming Our Universities:
The campaign we launched can only be understood in the context of previous developments in higher education. The modern research university was created in the second half of the 19th Century during the era of America’s great industrial expansion, its curriculum shaped by two innovations: the adoption of scientific method as the professional standard for knowledge, and the extension of educational opportunity to a democratic public. Before these developments, America’s institutions of higher learning were “primarily religious and moral” schools of instruction. In the words of James Duderstadt, president of the University of Michigan, “colleges trained the ministers of each generation, passing on ‘high culture’ to a very small elite.” The avowed mission of these early collegiate institutions was to instill the doctrines of a particular religious denomination. It was not to foster the analytic skepticism associated with modern science but to pass on the literary and philosophical culture that supported a specific faith.By contrast, “the core mission of the research university,” as recently summarized by one of its leaders, “is … expanding and deepening what we know.” In pursuit of this goal, “the research university relies on various attributes, the most important of which are the processes of rigorous inquiry and reasoned skepticism, which in turn are based on articulated norms that are not fixed and given, but are themselves subject to re-examination and revision. In the best of our universities faculty characteristically subject their own claims and the norms that govern their research to this process of critical reflection.” This has been the credo of American higher education throughout the modern era and is still the norm in the physical and biological sciences and most professional schools throughout the contemporary university.
Liberal arts colleges within the university are the divisions through which all undergraduates pass, and have been traditionally viewed as cornerstones of a democratic society, where students are taught how to think rather than told what to think. The curriculum of the modern research university supported these objectives. It was designed to inculcate pragmatic respect for the pluralism of ideas and the test of empirical evidence, and thus to support a society dependent on an informed citizenry.
All this began to change when a radical generation of university instructors matriculated onto liberal arts faculties in the 1970s and began altering curricula by creating new inter-disciplinary fields whose inspirations were ideological, and closely linked to political activism. Women’s Studies was one of the earliest of these new fields and remains the most influential, providing an academic model emulated by others. The curricula of Women’s Studies programs are not governed by the principles of disinterested inquiry about a subject but rather by a political mission: to teach students to be radical feminists. The formal Constitution of the Women’s Studies Association makes this political agenda clear:
Women’s Studies owes its existence to the movement for the liberation of women; the feminist movement exists because women are oppressed. Women’s studies, diverse as its components are, has at its best shared a vision of a world free not only from sexism but also from racism, class-bias, ageism, heterosexual bias–from all the ideologies and institutions that have consciously or unconsciously oppressed and exploited some for the advantage of others….Women’s Studies, then, is equipping women not only to enter the society as whole, as productive human beings, but to transform the world to one that will be free of all oppression.
Thirty years later, the academic landscape had undergone a sea change as a result of the political pressures from feminists, ethnic nationalists, and “anti-war” activists, and the curricular innovations they were able to institute. In 2006, state legislators in Pennsylvania gathered at Philadelphia’s Temple University to hold hearings on academic freedom. Among the witnesses was Stephen Zelnick, a former Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and a member of the Temple faculty for 36 years. Zelnick told the legislators of his concern that Temple faculty had grown increasingly monolithic and politically partisan in the years he had been there: “The one-sidedness of the faculty in their ideological commitments and a growing intolerance of competing views [has] resulted in abuse of students, occasionally overt and reported, but most often hidden and normalized, and the degrading of the strong traditions of intellectual inquiry and free expression.”
Zelnick then spelled out what this meant in terms of the instruction he had personally reviewed: “As director of two undergraduate programs, I have had many opportunities to sit in and watch instructors. I have sat in on more than a hundred different teachers’ classes and seen excellent, indifferent, and miserable teaching… In these visits, I have rarely heard a kind word for the United States, for the riches of our marketplace, for the vast economic and creative opportunities made available for energetic and creative people (that is, for our students); for family life, for marriage, for love, or for religion.”
I think I was lucky, especially as an undergraduate, but in graduate school as well, to have taken courses with very few of the radical, anti-Americanists that Horowitz's discusses. In fact, I'd be perfectly willing to confess that I wasn't much affected by hard-left activism in college, only inasmuch as I was a registered Democrat myself, sympathetic to civil rights, anti-poverty and other issues often central to the progressive agenda. It's when I became a professor, and especially my experience at my college since the Iraq war in 2003, that I've come to fully appreciate how institutionalized is the radical left's program of anti-Americanism and indoctrination. As some readers might recall, I've recently adopted a new textbook, American Government and Politics: Deliberation, Democracy, and Citizenship, and I'm thrilled that the text offers an uncommonly robust cultural approach while remaining objectively respectful of other nations and their unique historical and political trajectories. And in shifting my approach along with the book, I'm more frequently having students attempt to defend their more anti-American positions during discussions, and there's been a couple of highly critical students who've been unable to acquit themselves when faced with some Socratic questioning. (And that's interesting from a learning perspective, if it's the case that ideology is crowding out critical thinking, which sounds obvious upon reflection.) And I know that my college has some hardline historians and sociologists pushing basically a neo-communist, post-materialist curriculum --- heavy on the antiwar and racist/sexist oppression junk --- although my political science colleagues are pretty balanced overall. I've had my run-ins with leftists over a lot of these issues, for example when I covered the campus screening of Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story," which excoriated the U.S. market system as "evil." My experience --- and my recommendations --- at the institutional level is to stand firm against the leftist backlash, which will include allegations of "hate speech" and so forth, while upholding values of rigorous engagement with the facts over ideology; and of course professionalism in interactions with others. And I'm happy to report that I've beat back attempts at censorship, and of course outside attacks --- from folks like E.D. Kain and The Swashzone communists --- that have been dismissed as gratuitous attempts at harassment.
In any case, I encourage folks to read Restoring Our Universities, and also check in regularly at FrontPage Magazine and NewsReal Blog, where I'm now a contributing writer.
Cross-posted from American Power.
Friday, 3 September 2010
New Yorkers Oppose Ground Zero Mosque by Two-Thirds Margin
Astute Bloggers has the scoop, and it is big. See New York Times, "New York Poll Finds Wariness About Muslim Center." (And click the image for the full survey.)
Cross-posted from American Power.
Terror-Appeasing White House Yet to Announce Plans for Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks
Figures.
See Politico, "Few Options for Barack Obama on 9/11":
Every year it’s a challenge for the White House: how to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. This year is especially awkward, given the controversy around President Barack Obama’s remarks in support of an Islamic cultural center and mosque planned for a neighborhood near ground zero in lower Manhattan.Yeah, I'll say. There's going to be lots of activity in New York on September 11. I doubt too many families want Barack Hussein Obama on hand to help leftists spit on the remains of the fallen.
The White House has not yet announced the president’s plans for next week, though a source familiar with the matter was doubtful Obama would travel to New York.
But the president’s options are otherwise limited: Last year, he marked the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks at the Pentagon, and a return appearance there seems unlikely. This year, first lady Michelle Obama and former first lady Laura Bush will travel together to Shanksville, Pa., to honor the 40 passengers and crew members who died in the crash of United Airlines Flight 93.
That leaves the former World Trade Center site in New York, where Obama hasn’t been since the 2008 presidential campaign. But a presidential appearance at ground zero on Sept. 11 — where an activist group plans to protest the Islamic center project that day — will almost certainly reignite the political firestorm.
RELATED: "A special message for all 9/11 Family members - from fellow 9/11 Families Regarding the September 11 Rally against the Ground Zero."
Cross-posted from American Power.
News..........
Day 56 – 3rd September 1940
Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, Sep. 2nd
Indoctrination Nation
The President's Pivot and Divot
Four officers called to deal with 84-year-old WW II veteran... for riding his bike on the pavement
U.S. Soldier, Citing His Muslim Religion, Seeks Conscientious Objector Status
Uzbek terror commander serving as Taliban shadow governor killed by US special forces
Woman Wins Libel Suit Despite Suing Wrong Website
Churchill 'ordered assassination of Mussolini'
Taliban facing 'financial crisis', general claims
Whale put to death with explosives
Global food shortage fears as Russia extends wheat ban
Arizona sheriff being sued by federal government
Obama's Misguided Approach: America Has Become Too European
and finally....
New submarine in a class of its own
Switzerland to allow legal drive-thru prostitution areas
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Thursday, 2 September 2010
Everything Does Not Suck
"Everything does not suck Everything does not suck Everything does not suck
Nakbah!
Double nom de guerre Palestinian Pres Mahmoud Abbas or Abu Mazen may be ready to hit the escape hatch and bail out for his swanky beach front villa in Qatar.
Unverified sources leaked 'poetry' from his hackedberry and reveal the embattled ex PLO terrorist enabler who graduated moderate Charm School with Fatah is feeling down.
Low expectations and high stakes from GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD
If you thought the cat in the bin was bad.
Editors Note: I have thought hard about whether to post this or not. Ultimately this girl needs to be identified and brought to justice.
Twisted Girl Throws Puppies in River **This video contains scenes of repeated animal cruelty**
H/T Filippo
Letter from a "Proud American"
My Dear American Citizens,
For only the second time in my adult life, I am not ashamed of my country. I want to thank you hard working American people for paying $242,000 plus additional expenses for my Spanish vacation.
My daughter Sasha, several long-time family friends, my personal staff and various guests had a wonderful time. Honestly, you just haven’t lived until you have stayed at a 5-Star, $2,500.00 per night suite in a luxury hotel. Some of you say we are extravagant. That’s just not true. We booked only 70 rooms for our friends, staff and family. Also, we used public transportation, Air Force 2. Besides, we had little privacy with 70 Secret Service personnel who tagged along to be sure we were safe and cared for at all times.
I sincerely must ask the help of you American citizens. Please drive smaller, more fuel efficient cars and drive less too. We need to lessen our combined carbon footprint.
That old Air Force 2 used 47,500 gallons of jet fuel for our trip and carbon emissions were a mere 1,031 tons of CO2. It costs only $11,500 per hour to operate Air Force 2 and each additional plane for the other members of our party group. These are only rough estimates, but they are close. It’s quite a carbon footprint, as my good friend Al Gore would say. But who’s counting anyway.
I want you to know that I realize that times are hard and millions of you are struggling to put food on the table and many of your are exhausted trying to make ends meet. I do so appreciate your sacrifice and do hope you find work soon. I also was really exhausted after Barack took our family on a luxury vacation in Maine a few weeks ago. I just had to get away for a few days.
I had planned to have written you more from Martha’s Vineyard where we spent our sixth vacation this year with more of our family and friends, but Barack and I were just too busy eating shrimp. I just didn’t realize it is so much fun being proud!
Cordially,
M. Obama
H/T DML
News.........
Day 55 – 2nd September 1940
Is your state college a five star resort?
From the folks who brought you the Blood Libel MasterCard
Gun-wielding ecoterrorist calls for reduction in human population, gets wish
"Al Gore Told Me to Skin You Alive!"
A Gay Muslim Bar Next To WTC Mosque? Greg Gutfeld Vows To Make It Happen
Taliban operate ‘very extensive’ spy network in British Afghan bases
Man fired for charging scooter with employer's electricity
Business people behind bars in Russia
EU to discuss Gaddafi's €5 billion demand at Africa summit, Italy says
Obama Urges Court to Vacate AGW Decision. I Smell a Rat (or Two!)
Witness to Japanese surrender vividly recalls day
Proof: Democrats at Fault for the Recession
Switzerland Confidential: Behold the Legal Sex Drive-Thru
Pakistan military abandons US trips after being 'mistaken for terrorists'
UK house prices fall for second month
Former RAF helicopter pilot dies cutting down tree on orders of council
Six dead in Mozambique riots over food
The Sonderkommando Photos
and finally......
New York Times Reports (Sorta) On Brooklyn College’s Indoctrination Book
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