
...Virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone that renders us invincible. These are the tactics we should study. If we lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed... Patrick Henry (1736-1799) US Founding Father





Denison students talk tolerance
University President Dale Knobel said the campus has had a history of
intolerance.
Addressing the assembly, Knobel said the acts of intolerance have built
up throughout time to the point some minorities wonder whether they belong at
Denison. He said for too long students who haven't participated in such acts
have stood by silently. By their failure to stand up against the perpetrators,
they are complicit in the acts, he said.A statement written by 10 faculty members that was disseminated at the assembly condemned acts of intimidation and discrimination and said it is the responsibility of not just the victims, but everyone, to remedy the problem.

Emotions fierce at Denison protest (7:00 p.m. update)
Nearly 200 Denison University students rallied on campus Thursday in
protest over news that a flier bearing a swastika had been placed under the door
of a black student Wednesday morning.
Students — some in tears, many angry and others admitting they’re
afraid — took turns with a microphone starting about noon to express their
outrage about the latest development in a two-week odyssey over racism and
intolerance on campus.
“What can you do but protest at a time like this,” Knobel said. “I
stand in solidarity with you, and I’m grateful so many of you have turned out
now.”
Generational test for Republicans
Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), once a skeptic of global warming, got a hint
that the political winds might be shifting when a longtime supporter warned that
he might vote against Inglis if he “didn’t clean up his act on the
environment.”
The warning came from Inglis’ eldest son, Robert Jr., now 22.
His daughter was no less blunt about the congressman’s refusal to
embrace the view that global warming was being caused by human actions and that a serious response is needed. “I have three more kids coming up — and they seem to share the same view,” Inglis said.
‘Fundamentally Inconsistent’ With University Values
Organizers of the Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Fund hoped to turn their new program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign into a Hoover Institution of the Midwest, a model for getting more free market ideals and ideological diversity into major research universities.
But when a faculty committee was able to get all the details of the
agreement that created the new center, it found provisions that were
“fundamentally inconsistent” with university values that are designed to ensure
a diversity of views. Specifically, the panel found that portions of the
agreement would have restricted funds to research designed to reflect certain
points of view, and that donors were given control over matters traditionally
left to academics.
The faculty panel — which was appointed by the chancellor — said it
was “deeply troublesome” that the agreement to accept the center was made
without faculty consultation and that many details were kept secret until
recently. The panel called for Chancellor Richard Herman to renegotiate the deal
for the academy and on Tuesday, a spokeswoman confirmed that he had pledged to do so.
...
“We’re open to working in a collaborative way with the donors,” Burbules said, as long as any arrangement shows “unambiguous” respect for academic principles.
WJC: She's big in Canada, Europe
The Clinton campaign puts a lot of faith in polls, but Bill Clinton, in the first of two stops in Western Iowa today, cited one I hadn't seen before: A survey showing that Hillary is the front-runner among Democrats and Republicans ... in Canada, Britain and Italy.
"In every country, without question, if you take out the undecided,
she had the absolute majority," Clinton said. "They like her, they respect
her."
(You do have to figure there's a name recognition factor here.)
"America's not going to get a honeymoon here," Clinton said, and
the next president will have to move fast to repair relations with the rest of
the world. "She would be the best to do that."
The Anti-Neocon Fervor
Not long ago, while visiting a friend at Oxford University, I found
myself in a heated political discussion with a Scotsman. The subject of our
dispute was the Iraq war, but the conversation turned toward the rise of latent
anti-Semitism in once-respectable quarters of British opinion. Two years
earlier, a story entitled “A Kosher Conspiracy?,” illustrated by a gold Star of
David plunged into the heart of the Union Jack, graced the cover of Britain’s
most prominent left-wing magazine, The New Statesman. Since then, the
intellectual climate had only worsened. In response to my remark that many use
the epithet “neocon” to describe Jews, my interlocutor replied, “I’d rather be
an anti-Semite than a neocon.”
Key words (to me) that Bob tries to couch his logic within:The Impeachment Of Dick Cheney
After all, one year ago yesterday, we elected the Democrats in overwhelming
numbers to amplify our screaming voices to a decibel loud enough to penetrate
the unchecked corridors of power in Washington -- we hired this party to speak
for us and to use this expressed authority to end the war and to hold this
historically unpopular executive regime accountable.
Video: Sarkozy’s Speech Before Congress
What’s particularly interesting is that, years ago when the Bush
presidency was new and Iraq was a fresh issue, the left told us constantly that George Bush was making America less popular in the world. Yet during the President’s term in office three of our traditional allies (Canada, Germany and now France) elected leaders that displaced virulently anti-Bush and anti-American leaders with people more of Sarkozy’s temperament (Stephen Harper in Canada and Angela Merkel in Germany).
Sort of almost seems like...that whole “less popular America” thing
just isn’t true.
Decoy Election Websites Pretend to Root for Your Candidate
FredThompsonForum.com is one of a small network of sites with prime
domain names, like RudyGiulianiForum.com and MittRomneyforum.com, that have sprung up this year and share uncanny similarities. They use the same forum
software, are hidden behind anonymous domain-registration services and are
served by the same hosting company with a common internet IP address.
The content is also similar, sometimes featuring posts under the
impersonated names of popular political pundits and bloggers, or promoting
misleading links to candidate sites that route to YouTube videos attacking them.
Most posts adopt the persona of a supporter of the candidate, while offering
views that amount to over-the-top parodies of genuine boosters.
"A lot of it is sarcastic, and playing to stereotypical impressions," says Bill Beutler, a senior online analyst with the political consulting group New Media Strategies in Arlington, Virginia. "It is my impression that a majority of people on the (FredThompsonForum.com) board are Ron Paul supporters."
Alaska and Florida Courts Allow Under Age Girls to Abort Without
Parents’ Knowledge or Consent
Chief Justice Dana Fabe wrote that although the state “has an
undeniably compelling interest in protecting the health of minors and in
fostering family involvement” in such matters, Fabe wrote that the law “does not
strike the proper constitutional balance between the State's compelling
interests and a minor's fundamental right to privacy.”
...
At the same time, Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeal ruled Thursday
that a 17 year-old girl may go ahead with an abortion that she believed her
parents would object to on religious grounds.

................Mondale: Clinton best-suited for presidency
Hillary Clinton is not only the Democrat most likely to win the 2008 presidential election, but the candidate with the best chance of bringing about real change, according to former Vice President Walter Mondale, who endorsed Clinton Sunday in Iowa.
Thinking about Oscar Biscet
As I said in a recent column, conservatives are down on President Bush,
blaming him for everything under the sun, picking at him. Sure, he’s made
mistakes. But he also has greatness in him. And this was a great act. In
bestowing the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Oscar Biscet — an
all-but-forgotten and all-but-helpless man in a Cuban dungeon — George Bush has done an incredibly large-hearted and important thing.
The Word "Racist" Is Racist
FIRE lifted one of these rocks by exposing a thought control program imposed in the dormitories at University of Delaware. As part of "Life Diversity Facilitation
Training," RAs are force-fed definitions like this:
A RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on
the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to
all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States,
regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality. By this definition,
people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system,
they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of
discrimination.
...
The word "racist," as used by liberals, is nothing more than a racial
epithet employed to denigrate Caucasians.
It is directly analogous to the word "nigger."


Senators warn Bush has no authority on Iran
Thirty US senators wrote to President George W. Bush
Thursday, warning he had no authority to launch military action
against Iran, and expressing concern about the administration's
"provocative" rhetoric.
The senators, 29 Democrats and one independent, urged the
resolution of disputes with the Islamic Republic through diplomacy.
"We wish to emphasize that no congressional authority exists for
unilateral military action against Iran," the letter signed by senators
including presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Joseph Biden said.
The letter warned that a resolution passed by the Senate in
September, calling for the designation of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group, should not be used as a pretext for war.
It hit out at "provocative statements and actions" by the administration on Iran, after Bush last month warned Tehran must be barred from nuclear weapons to avoid the prospect of "World War III."
"These comments are counterproductive and undermine efforts to
resolve tensions with Iran through diplomacy," the letter, coordinated by
Virginia Senator Jim Webb, said.
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a fierce critic of the
administration's policies, sent his own letter this week to Bush, reportedly
calling on him to open direct talks with Tehran.
His staff confirmed the letter had been sent, but declined to
release a copy.
Creator(s):Turner, A. A. (Austin Augustus), ca. 1831-1866 -- PhotographerEven Pelosi is disappointed in Congress
Hours after touting the Democratic-controlled Congress' achievements at
a ceremony on the Capitol steps Thursday, Pelosi confessed that she would give
the legislative body low marks if a pollster asked her.
...
Not surprisingly, Pelosi said President Bush and his Republican allies
are mostly to blame. She noted that Bush has vetoed Democratic-led efforts to
wind down the war, expand a children's health program and broaden stem cell
research.
The brokenhearted father of a Marine killed in Iraq won a long-shot
legal fight today after a federal jury in Baltimore awarded him nearly $11
million in a verdict against members of a Kansas church who hoisted anti-gay
placards at his son’s Westminster funeral.
The jury’s announcement 24 hours after deliberations first began
was met with tears and hugs from the family and supporters of Lance Cpl. Matthew
Snyder, whose March 2006 funeral was protested by members of the Westboro
Baptist Church with signs including “Thank God for dead soldiers.”
Snyder’s father, Albert, won on every count of his complaint, as
well as $2.9 million for compensatory damages and $8 million for punitive
damages.
Marx's erupting skin may have influenced writings
Karl Marx, who complained of excruciating boils, actually suffered
from a chronic skin disease with known psychological effects that may well have
influenced his writings, a British expert said on Tuesday.
Sam Shuster, professor of dermatology at the University of East
Anglia, believes the revolutionary thinker had hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) in
which the apocrine sweat glands -- found mainly in the armpits and groin --
become blocked and inflamed.
"In addition to reducing his ability to work, which contributed to
his depressing poverty, hidradenitis greatly reduced his self-esteem," said
Shuster, who published his findings in the British Journal of
Dermatology.
"This explains his self-loathing and alienation, a response
reflected by the alienation Marx developed in his writing."
While HS is linked to boil-like lumps, the painful condition also
causes more widespread infection, swelling, skin thickening and
scarring.
It could also explain a number of Marx's other complaints, not
previously linked, such as joint pain and a painful eye condition which often
stopped him working.
Shuster based his diagnosis on an analysis of Marx's extensive
correspondence, in which he wrote to friends about his health and described his
skin lesions as "curs" and "swine."
"The bourgeoisie will remember my carbuncles until their dying
day," Marx told Friedrich Engels in a letter from 1867.
Marx, who died in 1883, was one of the most influential
philosophers of the 19th century and his radical writings formed the basis of
modern communism.
U.S. diplomats vent over forced Iraq duty
Several hundred U.S. diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday
about the State Department's decision to force foreign service officers to take
jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a "potential death sentence."
...
"It's one thing if someone believes in what's going on over there and
volunteers, but it's another thing to send someone over there on a forced assignment," Croddy said. "I'm sorry, but basically that's a potential death sentence and you know it. Who will raise our children if we are dead or
seriously wounded?"
His remarks were met with loud and sustained applause from the
approximately 300 diplomats at the meeting. (emp. mine)
Kucinich: Time to question Bush's mental health
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D. Ohio) suggested today that President Bush's
comment about a nuclear Iran precipitating "World War III" is a sign of mental
instability.
"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental
health,"
...
"There's a lot of people who need care. He might be one of them. If
there isn't something wrong with him, then there's something wrong with us.
This, to me, is a very serious question."
Rep. Kucinich: "I'm from the universal-health-care wing of the Democratic
party. I'm from the Roe v. Wade-litmus-test wing of the Democratic party. I'm
from the abolish-the-death-penalty wing of the Democratic party ... I'm from the
gun-control wing of the Democratic party." (Tom Curry, "Kucinich Spices Up
The Race," MSNBC.com, 7/14/03)
Rep. Kucinich: "We prepare for war so grandly; let us prepare for peace
grandly by looking fearlessly and deep into the hearts of those who wish us
harm, and find that spark of recognition that connects us to a common humanity
and from that draw a flicker of hope to enkindle the warm glow of peace." (Rep.
Dennis Kucinich, Congressional Record, 7/20/06, p. H5494)
Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has seen a UFO,
writes Shirley MacLaine in her new book, "Sage-Ing While Age-Ing."
Kucinich, she writes on page143-144 of the book, "had a close sighting
over my home in Graham, Washington, when I lived there. Dennis found his
encounter extremely moving. The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him. It hovered, soundless, for ten minutes or so, and sped away with a speed he
couldn't comprehend. He said he felt a connection in his heart and heard
directions in his mind."


