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OCTOBER 18,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

GOOD PARENTS FIND A WAY – OVERNIGHT, From bizpacreview.com:    New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio may have inadvertently started a religious revival in the Big Apple after announcing the elimination of the Gifted & Talented (G&T) program for the city’s schools.  The Diocese of Brooklyn, which serves 1.2 million Catholics in Brooklyn and Queens, noted that their Catholic elementary schools’ enrollment grew by 2.4 percent for the current school year, according to a report by the New York Post.  The increased interest in religious education comes after more than a decade of decline in enrollment for parochial schools in New York.  But this year the tables are turned as public schools in the city have been plagued by low attendance and steep declines in enrollment with nearly 18 percent of New York City school children failing to show up on the first day of instruction. A risqué drag queen performance at a 2017 New York City elementary school talent show probably didn’t help enrollment numbers either.  “The families that came to us last year stayed with us,” Dr. Thomas Chadzutko, superintendent of the Diocese of Brooklyn’s schools explained. “This is a positive time for Catholic education within the diocese […] It is an alternative for families.”  In particular, pre-kindergarten enrollment has skyrocketed with a 20 percent increase in students this year. Chadzutko is hoping to keep 50 to 70 percent of the new enrollees in the diocesan system, which would boost enrollment in future years for elementary and high schools.  Many were enthusiastic about those clamoring to exit the government-run school system, with one person exclaiming, “Awesome! Make America God Again!”  That's good news, and another argument for school choice, with parents applying tax credits to choose the schools they wish for their children.  Anything anti-American about that?  Nope.

October 18, 2021       Permalink 

IN OUR OWN COUNTRY – OVERNIGHT:  I THOUGHT WE THE PEOPLE OWN THIS COUNTRY.  APPARENTLY, I WAS MISINFORMED.  WE'RE JUST NOT THE RIGHT PEOPLE  FROM FOX: 

Planeloads of underage migrants are being flown secretly into suburban New York in an effort by President Biden’s administration to quietly resettle them across the region, The New York Post has learned.   The charter flights originate in Texas, where the ongoing border crisis has overwhelmed local immigration officials, and have been underway since at least August, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Last week, The Post saw two planes land at the Westchester County Airport, where most of the passengers who got off appeared to be children and teens, with a small portion appearing to be men in their 20s.

Westchester County cops stood by as the passengers — whose flights arrived at 10:49 p.m. Wednesday and 9:52 p.m. Friday — got off and piled into buses.

Some of them were later seen meeting up with relatives or sponsors in New Jersey, or being dropped off at a residential facility on Long Island.

A Post analysis of online flight-tracking data suggests that around 2,000 migrants nabbed after sneaking into the US from Mexico have arrived at the airport outside White Plains on 21 flights since Aug. 8.

Records show some of the planes touched down between midnight and 6:30 a.m. — when a voluntary curfew is in effect — with two arriving from Houston at 2:13 a.m. and 4:29 a.m. on Aug. 20.

The clandestine nature of the operation raises questions about how the White House is dealing with a surge in unaccompanied minors.

The most recent figures from US Customs and Border Protection show that just during July and August, 37,805 unaccompanied minors were caught entering the US from Mexico — sometimes after being abandoned by professional smugglers known as "coyotes."

Video shows some children dropped over the border wall or abandoned in remote areas.

A source familiar with the operation at the Westchester airport said the underage migrants typically arrive carrying backpacks and are bused to locations including The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, upstate Newburgh and Bridgeport and Danbury in Connecticut.

On Friday night, one bus left the Westchester airport and barreled down the Hutchinson River Parkway — which is off-limits to commercial vehicles — at speeds greater than 75 mph before crossing the Throgs Neck Bridge.

COMMENT:  Is this any way to run a country?  Urgent Agenda is written in Westchester County.  I know well the locations mentioned in the story.  We never associated them with government smuggling operations.  I guess we were misinformed. 

It is not right.  Immigration should have law and dignity on its side, not secrecy.  This national administration is a disgrace.

October 18, 2021       Permalink

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