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“Free Speech” At Harvard, Penn, MIT And Other Elite Universities Francis Menton

Posted By on December 13th, 2023

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2023-12-11-free-speech-at-harvard-penn-mit-and-other-elite-universities

“At Gay’s Harvard, if your speech supports the conservative position, the thinnest allegation against you can destroy your career. If you support the woke narrative, even the most explosive allegations against you can be buried.”

Six days ago, on December 5, the Presidents of three elite universities — Harvard, Penn and MIT — appeared at a Congressional hearing to testify about their responses to pro-Hamas and anti-semitic demonstrations and advocacy on their campuses. In the most widely-viewed exchange at the hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik asked each of the Presidents whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violated their codes of conduct. The three answered by emphasizing the importance of freedom of speech on their campuses, and by saying that they could not give a definitive answer as to whether calling for genocide of Jews violated their codes of conduct, because the answer was “context-dependent.”

Over the intervening days, the responses of the three Presidents have generated widespread backlash, including harsh criticism from even some mainstream press sources, and even pushback from some major donors. The Presidents’ responses appeared to be, and were, tone deaf and highly legalistic. But were they wrong?

This may surprise you, but I’m going to stand up for the three Presidents on this particular point. If you have been a reader here for any substantial period, you know that I am close to what may be called a “free speech absolutist.” I think that people ought to be able to say even the most hateful and despicable things, short of immediate threats of violence. By saying such things they discredit themselves, and for the government (or a university or corporation) to claim the power to shut them up is an even worse problem than allowing the speech.

The problem with the statements of the three Presidents is not their position as to upholding freedom of speech for the pro-Hamas and anti-semitic speakers. The problem is that the Presidents don’t apply the same true free speech principles at all when it comes to political opinions with which they disagree, or that are out of line with current woke orthodoxy.

ANTI-SEMITISM, EDUCATION, HISTORY Comments turned off

Niall Ferguson: The Treason of the Intellectuals Anyone who has a naive belief in the power of higher education to instill morality has not studied the history of German universities in the Third Reich.By Niall Ferguson *****

Posted By on December 13th, 2023

https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-treason-intellectuals-third-reich?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=286155294&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-

In 1927 the French philosopher Julien Benda published La trahison des clercs—“The Treason of the Intellectuals”—which condemned the descent of European intellectuals into extreme nationalism and racism. By that point, although Benito Mussolini had been in power in Italy for five years, Adolf Hitler was still six years away from power in Germany and 13 years away from victory over France. But already Benda could see the pernicious role that many European academics were playing in politics. 

Those who were meant to pursue the life of the mind, he wrote, had ushered in “the age of the intellectual organization of political hatreds.” And those hatreds were already moving from the realm of the ideas into the realm of violence—with results that would be catastrophic for all of Europe.

A century later, American academia has gone in the opposite political direction—leftward instead of rightward—but has ended up in much the same place. The question is whether we—unlike the Germans—can do something about it.

For nearly ten years, rather like Benda, I have marveled at the treason of my fellow intellectuals. I have also witnessed the willingness of trustees, donors, and alumni to tolerate the politicization of American universities by an illiberal coalition of “woke” progressives, adherents of “critical race theory,” and apologists for Islamist extremism. 

Throughout that period, friends assured me that I was exaggerating. Who could possibly object to more diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus? In any case, weren’t American universities always left-leaning? Were my concerns perhaps just another sign that I was the kind of conservative who had no real future in the academy?

Such arguments fell apart after October 7, as the response of “radical” students and professors to the Hamas atrocities against Israel revealed the realities of contemporary campus life. That hostility to Israeli policy in Gaza regularly slides into antisemitism is now impossible to deny. 

I cannot stop thinking of the son of a Jewish friend of mine, who is a graduate student at one of the Ivy League colleges. Just this week, he went to the desk assigned to him to find, carefully placed under his computer keyboard, a note with the words “ZIONIST KIKE!!!” in red and green letters.

Just as disturbing as such incidents—and there are too many to recount—has been the dismally confused responses of university leaders. 

Testifying before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce last week, Harvard President Claudine Gay, MIT President Sally Kornbluth, and University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill showed that they had been well-briefed by the lawyers their universities retain for such occasions.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Dem lawmakers have history of praise for group whose leader said he was ‘happy to see’ Hamas attack Israel Sens. Baldwin and Brown said they condemn CAIR’s ‘blatantly antisemitic comments’ By Joe Schoffstall , Aubrie Spady

Posted By on December 13th, 2023

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/congressional-dems-history-praise-group-happy-hamas-attacks-israel

Several Democrat members of Congress have a long history of public support for an organization whose leader recently ignited a firestorm over controversial comments regarding Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israeli citizens.

Nihad Awad, the executive director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), recently said that he was “happy to see” the October 7 Hamas invasion of Israel and that the Jewish state did not have a right to self-defense because it is an “occupying power.”

“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7,” Awad said at the 16th Annual Convention for Palestine in the U.S. on Nov. 24. “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land that they were not free to walk in.”

He continued, “And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense — have the right to defend themselves. And yes, Israel as an occupying power does not have that right to self-defense.”

Awad’s comments forced the White House to scramble and scrub CAIR as a committed partner to fight antisemitism on its website. A White House spokesperson also strongly reprimanded his comments in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“We condemn these shocking, Antisemitic statements in the strongest terms,” the White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “The horrific, brutal terrorist attacks committed by Hamas on October 7th were, as President Biden said, ‘abhorrent’ and represent ‘unadulterated evil.'”

ANTI-SEMITISM, BOOKS, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Crossing the Jordan: The New Antisemitism and How it Will Destroy the West By Janet Levy

Posted By on December 13th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/12/crossing_the_jordan_the_new_antisemitism_and_how_it_will_destroy_the_west.html

As Israel deals with a multi-pronged Hamas-led invasion from the Gaza Strip amidst unwarranted international pressure, Canadian writer David Solway’s scholarly collection of essays, Crossing the Jordan: On Judaism, Islam and the West, comes as a timely reminder of how multiplicity in self-identification is undermining Jewish unity.  The book, to be released today, December 12, also addresses the idiosyncratic position of Israel among the nations of the world, the threat to liberal Judeo-Christian values posed by Islam, and the Left’s catalysis of the subsuming of Western culture.

Solway is a man of many parts – poet, scholar, teacher, chess enthusiast, education theorist, and literary critic.  Born Jewish but not particularly religious or identity-conscious, he underwent a transformation post 9/11.  He began to question his rejection of Jewish kinship and asked himself difficult questions that rid him of his Leftist inclinations.  Among other things, the book speaks of his epiphanic recognition that the fate of Israel is the fate of every Jew, regardless of nationality or political view.  In the light of the October 7 attack – Israel’s 9/11 (equivalent proportionately to seven 9/11s) – this exploration of personal change along with the impersonal twists of history makes for poignant reading.

Why, Solway asks, is Israel the only nation whose right to exist is questioned and threatened?  Why is it labeled an occupier and a colonizer when Eretz Yisrael and Judah predate any Arab presence in the Holy Land by more than a thousand years?  Why is it the only country that has been pressured to return captured territory after winning wars started by Muslim neighbors who have vowed to eradicate it?  Why are its defeated enemies allowed to dictate terms of peace? 

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel’s invisible victims To the west, Israeli military casualties don’t count Melanie Phillips

Posted By on December 13th, 2023

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/israels-invisible-victims?utm_campaign=email-post&r=8t06w&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The sickening reaction of so much of the western public to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza doesn’t just reveal a frightening degree of bigotry, double standards and moral bankruptcy.  It doesn’t just involve a staggering absence of knowledge about the Middle East, the history of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland and the fact that the forces Israel is fighting are also waging a war against the west itself.  It also displays a brutalised callousness based on profound ignorance of Israeli society.

The hostility towards Israel’s military action is based on understandable revulsion at the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza whose homes have been flattened by the Israel Defence Forces. Through relentless, disproportionate and often deeply distorted media coverage, this has eclipsed the brief window of sympathy that opened towards Israeli suffering from the depraved Hamas atrocities of October 7 in which more than 1200 Israeli women, men, children and infants were slaughtered, raped, tortured, decapitated and burned alive by Palestinian Arabs.

In the war that has followed to destroy Hamas, Israel has been portrayed as attacker rather than victim. In fact, the toll of Israel’s victims is steadily mounting. Yet to the west, these victims are invisible.

At time of writing, 433 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7, with 104 IDF soldiers killed during ground combat in Gaza so far.

This toll is not just a tragedy for the families of the fallen. Every one of these losses is also experienced as a knife to Israel’s heart. For these young men and women are felt to be the sons and daughters of all of us here in Israel. 

ANTI-SEMITISM, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Antisemitic Mob Shows Up for Biden Fundraiser, Vandalizes Jewish Neighborhood Stephen Green

Posted By on December 12th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2023/12/11/antisemitic-mob-biden-fundraiser-n4924649

It was like a scene in downtown Tehran orchestrated by Iran’s ruling mullahs, one of those “spontaneous” protests in Ramallah on the West Bank, or from 1938 Germany as the Nazis whipped up antisemitic hate in preparation for Kristallnacht — and worse.

But it was modern-day Los Angeles on Friday night, the second night of Hanukkah, when a mob marched through a largely Jewish neighborhood chanting death threats to Jews.

According to StopAntisemitism, the mob also defaced several buildings, including synagogues. 

Here’s a short clip of the mob in action.

People who still rely on the mainstream media for their news missed scenes like these.

Remember, comrades — no peaceful protest is complete without at least a little property damage.

The mainstream media was largely silent on the mob and its death threats. FoxLA 11 reported it as part of its story on Presidentish Joe Biden’s fundraising sweep through Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Daily News gave it a brief mention way down in the 16th paragraph of a similar report on Biden’s trip.

To be fair, a similar mob of between 1,200 and 1,500 people showed up at Biden’s Holmby Hills fundraiser with chants of “Free Gaza” and “Ceasefire now.” They even accused Biden and his donors of supporting Israeli “genocide” against Gaza Arabs. There were about 1.5 million Muslim Arabs in the Gaza Strip when Israel unilaterally left the region in 2005. There are more than 2 million there today, and Gaza women have one of the highest fertility rates in the world.

Some genocide, eh?

“Literally, I believe, the future of American democracy is at stake,” Biden said during his fundraising speech in reference to Donald Trump. “We will be one of those generations that can say, ‘We saved democracy.”‘

That he said all that while a Nazi-like mob chanted outside is an irony too rich for fiction — it’s an absurdity that could only happen in reality. 

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Ukraine: Biden Helping Putin to Win by Con Coughlin

Posted By on December 12th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20217/biden-helping-putin-win
• The Biden administration’s persistent failure to provide Ukraine with the military supplies it requires poses a serious danger of gifting victory to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• [T]he Ukrainians… remain desperately short of key ammunition.
• [A]ny form of Russian success in Ukraine would not only spell disaster for Kyiv, but for the wider Western alliance.
• Putin has made no secret of his desire to extend Russian military aggression beyond Ukraine to include other regions of eastern Europe,
• [I]t is vital that the Biden administration not only renews its support for Zelensky during his visit to Washington this week, but also ensures Ukrainian forces receive the equipment they desperately need to defeat Russia.
• Only by making certain that Putin suffers a humiliating defeat in Ukraine will the West succeed in deterring autocratic regimes such as Russia, China and Iran from committing further acts of aggression.
The Biden administration’s persistent failure to provide Ukraine with the military supplies it requires poses a serious danger of gifting victory to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
From Abrams tanks to F-16 fighters, US President Joe Biden has constantly dithered over providing Ukraine with the equipment upgrades its forces desperately need if they are to succeed in defending themselves against Russian aggression.
The failure, moreover, to ensure that Ukraine achieves victory in its battle against Moscow’s unprovoked invasion has been a key factor in the failure of Ukraine’s long-awaited counter-offensive to achieve a decisive breakthrough of Russia’s heavily-fortified defences in Ukraine.
Even though it is a year since President Volodymyr Zelensky first made his request to the US and other Western allies to be equipped with superior heavy armour and warplanes, the equipment is only starting to become available on the battlefield now, just as the bitter Ukrainian winter takes hold, thereby severely diminishing its effectiveness.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Climate and COVID – Making It Up As They Go Along By Brian C. Joondeph, M.D.

Posted By on December 12th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/12/climate_and_covid__making_it_up_as_they_go_along.html

During COVID, we were all told to “follow the science.” The COVID poster boy, Dr. Anthony Fauci, went so far as to self-proclaim, “I am the science.”

What science was the “COVID experts” following? Masks were previously deemed ineffective during viral respiratory infection outbreaks until COVID when Dr. Fauci and Surgeon General Jerome Adams suddenly did an about face and proclaimed masks effective and necessary.

Were they making up mask science? It seems so. What changed? Not viral particle sizes. The British Medical Journal recently published a systematic review concluding,

Real-world effectiveness of child mask mandates against SARS-CoV-2 transmission or infection has not been demonstrated with high-quality evidence. The current body of scientific data does not support masking children for protection against COVID-19.

A Norwegian paper reported a 33-40% higher incidence of self-reported COVID in those wearing masks often or always, respectively.

COVID “science” said mask up when the actual science said no benefit or even harm from masking.

Then there was “safe and effective” vaccine science.

A BMJ study found, “A gradual increase in the risk of COVID-19 infection from 90 days after receiving a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.” Wait! The science said less COVID after getting vaccinated, not more.

A confirming Cleveland Clinic study discovered a higher incidence of COVID infection among their employees correlating with more vaccine doses.

Were COVID public health recommendations on masks, vaccines, and distancing about the medical science or the political science?

Now pivot to climate change, formerly known as global warming.

No scientist will argue that the climate is not changing. The planet has gone through numerous ice ages, large and small, obvious evidence of a changing climate. The disagreement is over what is causing that change.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Subverting Medical Science For A Race-Based Political Agenda By Paul Williams

Posted By on December 12th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/12/subverting_medical_science_for_a_racebased_political_agenda.html

The story of the change in testing standards for chronic kidney disease is a warning about the politicized degradation of American medical care.

For almost two years, everyone has ignored an important “health equity” story affecting 87% of Americans. It concerns the medical definition of chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is an impairment of the kidney’s ability to filter waste, toxins, and excess fluids from the blood. Affecting approximately 37 million US adults, the disease can lead to dialysis, kidney replacement, and death.

Physicians and health care providers rely on laboratory measurements of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) to diagnose CKD and to qualify patients for treatment, Medicare-paid education, referrals to a nephrologist (kidney specialist), and kidney transplants. GFR is usually estimated from a chemical in the blood called “creatinine.” High creatinine levels signify that the kidneys are not functioning well. Nearly 250 million creatinine measurements are made each year in the US.

On average, blacks have higher creatinine levels than non-blacks with the same kidney function. Their higher creatinine levels may arise because blacks in America have greater average muscle mass than non-blacks.

For over two decades, the formulas used to estimate GFR have included a correction for the higher creatinine concentrations in blacks in order to obtain the very best estimate of their directly measured GFR (the gold standard of kidney function.) This correction factor increased black GFR between 16% and 21%.

One might assume that CKD and GFR would be defined with scientific impartiality. However, one consequence of the race adjustment is that, at the same blood creatinine level, a black patient might not receive the same kidney treatment as a non-black patient. Thus, whites with lower creatinine numbers will receive medical intervention, while blacks will not.

This has led medical students and physicians-turned-activists to cry discrimination. Activists collected petitions at major hospitals calling to remove the race correction. Medical journals published no fewer than fifty commentaries, editorials, and articles calling for its abolition. Print and internet news articles dutifully reported that the formulas were racist.

There was little published opposition once the race correction was framed as a civil rights issue. Scientists’ reticence to speak out was not unexpected, given that research funding requires nearly unanimous endorsement from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and no scientist can risk alienating even one grant reviewer.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

LIZ MAGILL’S HYPOCRISY ON FREE SPEECH: HEATHER MacDONALD

Posted By on December 12th, 2023

https://www.city-journal.org/article/right-deed-wrong-reason

Liz Magill was forced to resign Saturday as president of the University of Pennsylvania—by all indications because, at a congressional hearing, she could not bring herself to declare that calls for the genocide of Jews are punishable speech. She would more justly have lost her job for being a bald-faced hypocrite when it comes to campus free expression. The future of higher education depends on which of these motives governs such decisions in the future.

Magill was part of a triumvirate of college presidents who testified before a House committee last week. Magill, Harvard president Claudine Gay, and MIT president Sally Kornbluth had been called to discuss the anti-Israel hatred embroiling their universities since the October 7 terror attacks on Israel. To call their performance robotic would insult robots. When asked a repeated question after their first evasion did not satisfy the questioner, these intellectual role models repeated their first evasion verbatim, maybe adding a cryptic non sequitur.

Congressman Jim Banks (R., Indiana) grilled Magill, for example, about a conference on Palestinian culture that the University of Pennsylvania had hosted two weeks before the Hamas terror attacks. Critics had demanded that Penn cancel the conference, due to the presence of alleged anti-Semites among its speakers. Penn allowed the gathering to continue, however, citing academic freedom.