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The university as a center for authoritarian indoctrination: How Ed Schools became a menace to higher education

student reading
I. The Miseducation of College Administrators

Years ago, at the college where I teach, some graffiti on a restroom wall caught my eye. Inked into the tile grout was a swastika the size of a baby aspirin, and just above it, in a different hand, someone had written in large letters: "This says a lot about our community." An arrow pointed to the offending sign.

I'd seen lots of responses to the odd swastika over the years-obscene remarks about the author's anatomy, say, or humiliating additions to his family tree. But a claim that this itsy-bitsy spider of a swastika signaled a web of hatred permeating one of the most left-leaning colleges in the nation? That was a new one.

More evidence for this web was adduced a few months later when some racially charged fliers were posted anonymously around campus. Because the fliers offended people who failed to notice that they were meant as anti-racist satire, administrators punished the undergraduate who had put them up, even after it was discovered that he was a minority student with left-wing political leanings.

Star of David

Israeli minister regrets letting in Soviet Jews - because they aren't 'real' Jews

orthodox jews
© REUTERS / Finbarr O'Reilly
The minister landed in hot water after lamenting the presence of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the USSR on Israeli soil and criticising the current situation in the Immigrant Absorption Ministry.

Aryeh Deri, Israel's minister of interior and head of the Israeli Shas religious political party, has found himself under fire over racist remarks he made towards immigrants from the former Soviet Union, The Times of Israel reports.

"Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of Israelis who immigrated from the former Soviet Union in accordance with the Law of Return aren't Jews according to halacha [Jewish religious law] and they are here, to my great regret," he said.

As the newspaper points out, about 400,000 people currently living in Israel, most of them immigrants from the former Soviet republics, are not considered Jewish by the Chief Rabbinate and therefore "unable to marry in state-sanctioned weddings or to enjoy other basic rights".


Comment: Ahh, Israeli 'democracy'. There's a reason Israel is the Middle East's only democracy: because there's no other democracy on earth like it! And that's because it isn't a democracy.


During his speech at a campaign event in Ashdod, Deri also criticised the current climate in the Immigrant Absorption Ministry where one allegedly cannot walk around "unless you speak Russian".

"The ministry will no longer exist to serve immigrants from the Soviet Union. It will be for those who make aliyah from France, and will be a home for Jews from Ethiopia," Deri said regarding his future plans.

Comment: Some context on the Israeli worldview and why racism like this is to be expected:


Bulb

Universal basic income for every American? In defense of Andrew Yang's Freedom Dividend

andrew yang
We should replace the ragbag of specific welfare programs with a single comprehensive program of income supplements in cash - a negative income tax. It would provide an assured minimum to all persons in need, regardless of the reasons for their need...A negative income tax provides comprehensive reform which would do more efficiently and humanely what our present welfare system does so inefficiently and inhumanely.
~Milton Friedman
I get emotional about facts.
~Andrew Yang
Although we are still a long way from the 2020 presidential campaigns, whispers of who the Democratic candidates will be and what policy platforms will be adopted is steadily droning into an orchestra. We can already predict some of the names that are likely to appear on the ballot sheet and the talking points that will be heard on the campaign trail, and it would not be imprudent to suspect the upcoming election will be even uglier and more contentious than the last.

While the overwhelming majority of political pundits seem to be pouring their energies into slamming the current president-criticizing old models rather than conjuring new ones-many are wondering what will be left standing in the wake of yet another crashing political wave.

Family

Single-parent kids aren't 'malnourished' - but if we don't need both a mother and father, then why have families?

Terry Crews and his family.
© Getty/Wireimage
Terry Crews and his family.
Actor Terry Crews has incited wrath by saying children without the "vitamins and minerals" of "maternal AND paternal love" are "severely malnourished." His views are not "disgusting" - they are normal; and worth fighting for.

It might be impolitic to tell the growing number of children being raised in single-sex households that they are missing out on essential nutrients, as the Hollywood actor did in a now-deleted tweet. Indeed, many single-parent - or grandparent, or a gay couple - households are much more loving than those of dysfunctional couples bringing up their own kid.

Crews tweet

Attention

RT report: Oxfam says Yemeni parents forced to sell young daughters for food

yemeni child
© AFP / Essa Ahmed
A girl suffering from malnutrition in Yemen. February 2019.
With the bloody conflict in Yemen raging on, desperate parents choose to make their daughters child brides, feeling it is the only way to let other relatives survive the famine and destruction on the ground, Oxfam told RT.

The "man-made humanitarian catastrophe" caused by the brutal civil war in Yemen forced some parents to sell off their daughters, some as young as three years old, in hopes that the dowry bride will keep the rest of the family alive, international charity Oxfam reported.

The relatives planned to use the money, paid for the child brides, to buy food and shelter.

"They think this is the only way" to stay alive, Oxfam's director for Yemen, Muhsin Siddiquey, told RT. "They can bring the dowry, and that can protect the whole family and other extended members."

Overall, "10 million are just on the brink of famine" in Yemen, he said, adding that the four years of war also sparked "the worst cholera crisis in the century."

"If the humanitarian assistance is not provided timely" and the food supply becomes "nonfunctional even for a day... there will be much more catastrophic situations," Siddiquey stressed.

Comment: See also:


NPC

PC police strike again: Will Smith 'not black enough' for role as father of Williams tennis sisters in new biopic

will smith
© Wikipedia Commons / Taís Melillo; Global Look Press / q48 / ZUMAPRESS.com
(L) Will Smith and (R) Richard Williams
Will Smith has been slated to play the role of Richard Williams, the father and first coach of tennis sisters Venus and Serena Williams, but his casting has sparked controversy, as some purists say his skin is "not black enough."

'King Richard' will tell the rags-to-riches story of Williams, who began training his daughters in tennis from an early age to see them become two of the most successful players in history.

But the fact that Williams happens to have a darker skin tone than Smith has broken political correctness rules in Hollywood and online, where a certain cohort who appear to be permanently offended by one thing or another, are complaining that Smith is the wrong shade of black. Yes, really.

Hollywood is no stranger to race controversies. Everyone already knows that it's probably best if white actors play white roles, black actors play black roles and Asian actors play asian roles. Actress Emma Stone found that out the hard way after playing an Asian role in 'Aloha' in 2016 and facing major backlash for the misstep. But now it seems that choosing a black actor for a black role is not quite good enough - and even promoting "colorism."

Brick Wall

One Israeli's journey from ultra-Orthodox settler to peace activist

Shabtay Bendet
© Tanya Habjouqa/NOOR / for NBC News
Anti-settlement activist Shabtay Bendet of Peace Now surveys the highway critics have dubbed "apartheid road."
The highway that critics dub "apartheid road" carves a path from the outskirts of Jerusalem north into the occupied West Bank. A fence tops the high concrete wall running down the middle of Route 4370, slicing the thoroughfare in two: The far lane is for Israeli-registered vehicles, the other for Palestinian traffic that is banned from entering Jerusalem.

"They say to themselves it is about security but it looks very bad," activist Shabtay Bendet says as he perches on a nearby rocky hill, referring to Israeli officials' reasoning for the segregated highway.

The road will hasten the growth of Jewish settlements on land Israel seized in the 1967 war with its Arab neighbors, concludes Bendet, 46, who sports jeans and small silver hoop earrings.

Arrow Down

Pakistani minister forced to step down after calling Hindus 'cow urine-drinking people'

Fayyaz ul Hassan Chohan
© Facebook / ChohanFayyazPTI / Global Look Press / Erich Schmidt
Fayyaz ul Hassan Chohan (L) and a hump cattle seen in India (R).
A regional Pakistani minister was forced to resign after a video of him delivering rude and derogatory remarks against Hindus surfaced online - causing fellow politicians to promptly ostracize the "embarrassing" speaker.

The offensive video of Fayyaz ul Hassan Chohan, now an ex-Punjab Information Minister, went viral on Monday - and it took a single day to cause the official's downfall.

The clip shows Chohan calling Hindus "cow urine-drinking people" and "idol-worshippers" while he spoke at an event in Lahore in late February.

NPC

Al-Qaeda chief's wife wins court battle after ECHR rules UK police violated her privacy

European Court of Human Rights
© GETTY
The European Court of Human Rights
The wife of an al-Qaeda recruiter who mentored the Charlie Hebdo attackers has won a long-running human rights battle in the European courts - leaving UK tax-payers to pick up a £21,531 legal bill.

The judges' decision brings an end to a marathon legal saga which began in 2011 when Sylvie Beghal, now 49, was stopped at East Midlands Airport after a visit her husband Djamel Beghal in a French jail. She claimed her right to a private and family life were violated by UK officials because they detained her without reasonable suspicion. The case was thrown out by the High Court and Supreme Court in London but the European Court of Human Rights has now ruled in her favour.

The airport incident led to Beghal being charged with failing to help officers - an offence under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Bad Guys

West too weak to punish ISIS recruits - instead they hand them off to Third World justice

Islamic State fighters Raqqa ISIS terrorist jihad
© REUTERS/STRINGER
At their peak - Islamic State fighters in Raqqa in 2014.
By refusing to repatriate citizens who fought for the failed caliphate, France, UK and the US are admitting the impotence of their legal system, and betraying the principles of fair justice on which their societies were built.

Emmanuel Macron has allowed 13 French Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) fighters to be tried in Iraq, the UK government will not take back 'jihadi bride' Shamima Begum, an example that was followed by Donald Trump's administration with New Jersey-born Hoda Muthana, who is set for a lengthy court battle to return from Syria.

Notwithstanding the Guardian's campaign that urged us to "put ourselves in Shamima's shoes," the calls have proved overwhelmingly popular with the electorate - on either side of the English Channel about three quarters of those polled are in favor.