Society's ChildS


Bad Guys

Smiles amid bloodbath: Twitter users points out the bad optics of US embassy opening during Gaza massacre


RT
Tue, 15 May 2018 15:00 UTC
US Jerusalem embassy opening Palestinian protests
© Ronen Zvulun (L) Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters (R)Left: US and Israeli officials applaud during the opening of the new US embassy in Israel in Jerusalem, May 14, 2018. Palestinian demonstrators run for cover from Israeli fire and tear gas in the southern Gaza Strip, May 14, 2018.
As American officials smiled and clapped at the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem, Palestinian protesters were gunned down by Israeli bullets at the Gaza border.

Twitter users were quick to point out the competing visuals and bad optics on a day when US officials were touting the opening of the new embassy as a "magnificent tribute to peace."

Many users pointed out the images of White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump smiling and laughing at the opening of the embassy with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while protesters, among them children, were shot dead in Gaza.

Others pointed out the hypocrisy of top US and Israeli officials rubbing shoulders and talking about peace as bullets rained down on protesters a mere 50 miles away.
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Star of David

Apartheid regime: Life is completely segregated for Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem

Showkat Shafi
Al Jazeera
Sun, 13 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Jerusalem
© Twitter
Of all the places I wanted to visit, Palestine has always been at the top of the list. So when I got an opportunity to go there on a reporting assignment, I was very nervous.

I had heard horror stories about Israeli security checks and intense interviews, and as a result, I was anxious about the visa application process.

My travel agent, who had helped me obtain visas for Europe, Brazil and South Africa was clear; as a Kashmiri Muslim, my chances of getting an Israeli visa were slim.

Nevertheless, I travelled from Doha to New Delhi to apply.

After two days of waiting, I got a call asking me to attend an interview the next day at the Israeli embassy in New Delhi.

I was told not to carry any belongings with me. A friend accompanied me, and we stopped some 500 meters before the embassy. I gave him my phone, laptop bag, and wallet and kept 100 rupees with me.

The moment he left, a member of the security team ran towards me and told me to call him back.
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2 + 2 = 4

Conformity to identity politics or education: The student's dilemma

Avel Ivanov
Quillette
Tue, 15 May 2018 13:11 UTC
woman writing notes
Every year on university campuses across the country, students like me navigate a variety of disciplines in pursuit of numbers that will open the door to our career of choice. Whether we yearn for a high grade point average (GPA), a high grad school test score, or a high paying job, numbers are what matter to those of us who see university as an important gateway to future happiness and prosperity. However, in certain disciplines, it can be difficult to reconcile this aspect of the student experience with the freedom to pursue our studies in a spirit of open and disinterested inquiry. In the liberal arts programs in particular, activism and ambition can conflict so that students must choose between writing what they think and getting the grades they want and need.

Of course, this ought to be a false dilemma. That it exists at all raises troubling questions about academic liberty-a cornerstone of any educational institution-and what a university education is actually for. Although most schools continue to affirm free inquiry as central to their pedagogic mission, this honorable commitment is being eroded as the humanities and parts of the social sciences become increasingly insular and politicized within a wider climate of hyper-polarization.
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Heart - Black

Health ministry: 8-month-old Palestinian killed after inhaling Israeli tear gas


RT
Tue, 15 May 2018 11:51 UTC
An eight-month-old baby was killed after Israel fired tear gas at protesters in Gaza, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Her death is one of dozens that occurred during demonstrations against the US Embassy's move to Jerusalem.
Palestinians
© Mahmud Hams / AFP
Leila al-Ghandour was killed after inhaling tear gas on Monday, according to the ministry. It was not immediately clear how close the infant and her family were to the border fence.

She was killed along with dozens of other Palestinians on Monday, according to the ministry. Most of them were reportedly shot dead by Israeli sniper fire.
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Chalkboard

Identity politics is harming the sciences

Heather MacDonald
City Journal
Tue, 15 May 2018 10:53 UTC
Universities and other institutions are watering down requirements in order to attract more women and minorities.
National Science Foundation
© B CHRISTOPHER/ALAMY STOCK PHOTOConsumed by ideology, the National Science Foundation claims that progress in science requires a “diverse STEM workforce.”
Identity politics has engulfed the humanities and social sciences on American campuses; now it is taking over the hard sciences. The STEM fields-science, technology, engineering, and math-are under attack for being insufficiently "diverse." The pressure to increase the representation of females, blacks, and Hispanics comes from the federal government, university administrators, and scientific societies themselves. That pressure is changing how science is taught and how scientific qualifications are evaluated. The results will be disastrous for scientific innovation and for American competitiveness.

A scientist at UCLA reports: "All across the country the big question now in STEM is: how can we promote more women and minorities by 'changing' (i.e., lowering) the requirements we had previously set for graduate level study?" Mathematical problem-solving is being deemphasized in favor of more qualitative group projects; the pace of undergraduate physics education is being slowed down so that no one gets left behind.

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Shopping Bag

Pass the sickbag: Fox host Judge Jeanine mocked for backing embassy's Jerusalem move because it 'fulfilled Biblical prophecy'


RT
Tue, 15 May 2018 09:20 UTC
US embassy compound Jerusalem
© Ronen Zvulun / ReutersInside the new US embassy compound in Jerusalem
Donald Trump has fulfilled a "biblical prophecy" by moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro declared, while broadcasting from Israel ahead of the site's inauguration.

Pirro compared Trump to the ancient king, King Cyrus of Persia, who proclaimed some 2,500 years ago that Jewish exiles in Babylon could come back and rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the same reference earlier this year after Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

"Donald Trump recognized history. He like King Cyrus before him, fulfilled the Biblical prophecy of the God worshipped by Jews, Christians and, yes, Muslims, that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish state and that the Jewish people finally deserve a righteous, free and sovereign Israel," Pirro said.
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Cross

Half of American evangelicals support Israel because they believe it's important for fulfilling end-times prophecy

Philip Bump
The Washington Post
Mon, 14 May 2018 09:03 UTC
rapture Jesus
© DREAMSTIME.COM/GRACEL21
Well before he was asked to offer a prayer at Monday's ceremony marking the U.S. Embassy's move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, earning the enmity of Mitt Romney, Pastor Robert Jeffress offered tangential insight into why he and many evangelicals think the move was so important.

"Jerusalem has been the object of the affection of both Jews and Christians down through history and the touchstone of prophecy," Jeffress told CNN last year. "But, most importantly, God gave Jerusalem - and the rest of the Holy Land - to the Jewish people."

The latter half of that quote hints at the deep religious meaning of the existence of Israel for Jeffress and other Christians. As University of North Texas professor Elizabeth Oldmixon told Vox last year, the issue of recognizing Jerusalem is inextricable from that belief.
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Star of David

Ivanka and Jared reportedly get blessed by Rabbi who called blacks 'monkeys'


RT
Mon, 14 May 2018 08:31 UTC
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump
© Amir Cohen/Reuters / ReutersJared Kushner and Ivanka Trump attend a reception in Israel
Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, in Israel to open the US Embassy in Jerusalem, have been reportedly blessed by a Rabbi who compared black people to "monkeys," and immodestly dressed women to "animals."

Since landing Sunday afternoon, Trump and Kushner's schedule included a meeting with Israel's Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzchok Yosef. According to one Jewish Insider reporter, Yosef gave the couple "a blessing."
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Alarm Clock

Powerful legal group, The American Law Institute changes the law while nobody's looking

John Fund
National Review
Tue, 15 May 2018 02:15 UTC
Outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
© PixabayOutside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
The American Law Institute increasingly seeks to advance a politically correct agenda. Next week, one of the most powerful private legal groups you've never heard of will hold its annual meeting in Washington, D.C. For nearly 100 years, the 3,000- member American Law Institute has exercised enormous influence through what it calls "Restatements" of the common law. Many judges, lawyers, and scholars rely on it for an objective, readable description of what the law is.

As I noted at NRO in 2016:
The ALI's Restatements are an effort to clarify and codify the common law. In many areas, actual statutes do not govern us, but "case law," or judicial precedent, does. The ALI tells courts what the case law is, and courts routinely rely on the ALI Restatements as authority for what the law is. The ALI's work serves as something between Cliff's Notes and an authoritative encyclopedia of law for many judges.
The Supreme Court cites the ALI every few weeks, on average, in its decisions.
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Pistol

School shooter drills become the new normal in US schools

Tom Dart
The Guardian
Tue, 15 May 2018 01:59 UTC
How is this going to help us?' a teacher asks as versions of this ritual are now stitched into the fabric of the American educational system
Lindsay Aikman
© Tanisha Lynn Pyron Creative PhotographyLindsay Aikman: ‘Whatever classroom I’m in I’m looking at how to exit in an emergency. That’s how we’re thinking now as teachers.’
The gunshots came from upstairs, pop-pop-pop, and Lindsay Aikman's heart thumped faster and faster. The school's public address system announced an active shooter.

The teacher dashed for the nearest hiding place - the boys' bathroom. She regretted it when the automated lights flicked on. Her thoughts raced: "Should I have gone to the girls' bathroom? Farther away. Library? Too open. A classroom? Sitting duck."

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