Riehl World View

"Most Harvard grads tend to believe in such things as evolution and global warming"

We think it is fair to assume that the Little Kitteh that came to dinner — above staring at things we don't see in the early morning light — is of above average intelligence and education in the school of hard knocks.

By Sissy Willis of sisu

"I think it is fair to assume that most Harvard graduates are of above average intelligence and education and tend to believe in such things as evolution and global warming. It seems most Republicans do not," sniffs warmenist Edward G. Shufro, M.B.A. ’58 in a letter to the editor of the May-June issue of Harvard Magazine. Darwin's theory of evolution, yes. That's science. AGW? That's an article of faith. We were gratified to discover that Mr. Shufro — principle of a "targeted investment management" partnership co-founded by his father in 1938 — has generously supported, among other Democrat shining stars, three of our personal favorites, Joe Sestak (PA-7), Ed Markey (MA-7) and Carol Shea-Porter. Oh, and let us not forget Shufro's $2,300 gift to the Al Franken Recount Fund. Talk about above average intelligence …

Read full post here.

"Passaic Is Multi-Cultural"

h/t Instapundit for an item via JammieWearingFool, the 38 year-old NJ special education teacher caught behaving "wildly" on tape by James O'Keefe has been suspended. Honestly, my libertarian streak and a soft spot for misbehaving women after they've had a few drinks leaves me feeling ambivalent over the suspension. But this statement from the superintendent of schools grates. But then, I've always been a fan of American culture. Do we even have one today?

"Passaic is multi-cultural and everyone has to be extremely sensitive in their thinking if they’re on our payroll," he said.

Tucker Carlson's Pussified Prep School Pulls Out Of Game Fearing Injury

We had the strongest team by far back when I played junior league football. You couldn't play school ball until 9th grade. My second year, our coach took us over to PA to play a much older and heavier team without telling us who they were. We noticed as soon as we pulled up to the field. We also sensed what was coming.

They kicked our asses up and down the field in a 2 hour full contact scrimmage. I was the go to running back that year and I still remember every kick-off and carry. lol I got hammered every time, even just blocking. But I probably played harder right to the end in that game than any other I had ever played in. Our whole team did. We were crushed as far as scoring and obliterated on the field. Even more, I still remember the pride we felt afterward from playing them hard on every down.

I guess Tucker Carlson's prep school doesn't roll that way, along with too many other public and private schools today, I imagine.

Rhode Island school pulls out of game citing size of foe's players

That's exactly what happened Monday, when St. George's (R.I.) School canceled a game on Friday against fellow Independent School League member Lawrence Academy (Mass.), citing a concern over the disparity in the size of the two schools' players. St. George's is the first team to officially pull out of a game against Lawrence Academy (Mass.), one of two programs that has been completely dominant against ISL foes in recent years.

As laid out by both Mike Carraggi of the Boston Globe and Danny Ventura of the Boston Herald, the numbers behind St. George's decision are pretty stark. Three Lawrence Academy offensive lineman weigh in at 300, 335 and 350 pounds, where St. George's players come nowhere near those marks. Still, the withdrawal is a stark statement of competitive inequity in the entire league. St. George's stands at 2-0 after going winless last year, but still decided it was better off withdrawing than playing a team that won all but two of its games by 40 or more points in 2009.

Gov. Christie's message to politicians & lawyers against education reform: "I'm coming"

- Jennifer of Cubachi

Governor Chris Christie attended the premiere of "Waiting for Superman," a film exposing the failures of the American public education system thanks to corrupt politicians who put power and money over responsibility, greedy union and teachers who fight to become more powerful and rich off the public dime, rather than uphold their responsibilities to their students.

In his speech, Governor Christie laid out why education reform has become the pinnacle of his duty as governor.

Governor Christie leaves one message to those politicians and lawyers who put money and power, over the importance of children receiving a great education: "I'm coming."

Delerium Twitters: College Blocks Social Media For Week

Which would end more real life relationships, Social Media, or the blocking of it? It's going to be interesting, what with new generations coming up without knowing what it's like without so much social media.

The 800-student college called for the ban to see how the technology affects the lives of students and faculty.

Most students complied with the week-long experiment earlier this month and some discovered that the technology could rule their lives.

Darr cited one student who felt compelled to check Facebook 21 hours a day and blocked posts between 2 and 5 in the morning to get some sleep.

"It sounds like an addiction to me," said Darr, who initiated the blackout, which was implemented by blocking social media access to the college's IP address.

Darr acknowledged that students or faculty who felt forced to feed their social media addiction could do so via smartphones, but he said most complied, and some were pleasantly surprised by what they found.

"The majority of students behaved much like smokers who sneak cigarettes after class," he said. "They would sneak off to check things on their smart phones."

Christie Vid On Bureaucrats: Not Normal, Thinking, Breathing Human Beings

The gold starts at 2:15 in from this Cavuto clip. At 3:10 it's, "if anyone in DC had a lick of common sense," as he speaks generally to how people are fed up with government and Washington. At 3:50, he asks if Obama's people are just down there checking boxes like mindless drones? Well, ... yeah. Is that really news to anyone? There may be some fine people in government, but, as with anything, it's now so vast, it's simply collapsing in on itself. If it can happen to IBM, and it ultimately did, it can happen anywhere.

Good stuff.

Change: Christie To NJ Ed. Commissioner - You're Fired!

This is New Jersey. Schundler's a name, a made guy. He's supposed to get a promotion, or prominently disclosed soft landing with a scapegoat when he screws up - not fired. This is what change looks like.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced he was firing his education commissioner Friday, days after it was revealed that a simple mistake on an application form might have cost the state a $400 million education grant.

The dismissal of Commissioner Bret Schundler comes after New Jersey became the top runner-up for the Race to the Top grants, missing out by only a few points. The Star-Ledger of Newark later reported that budget figures for the wrong years were supplied in one section of the application.

Christie had defended Schundler on Wednesday, saying he gave the federal government the missing information during a meeting in Washington this week. But a video released Thursday by the federal Education Department shows that wasn't the case.

Colleges Resort To Panhandling Among Freshman Class

Can you imagine, you just finished forking over all that coin for tuition. And the first thing they do is hit you up for cash at the door. Or, is there so much tuition being handled by the taxpayers, they figure the students can spare it? Most of their parents work, after all.

On a growing number of campuses, first-year students are hearing another message. Please give. Not for tuition, but instead as a young donor.

With alumni-giving rates at record lows and lagging state support of postsecondary education, public and private schools alike are focusing their efforts on building lifetime loyalty among still-impressionable students.

Some schools start small. Fundraisers at Emory University in Atlanta pass out piggy banks for freshmen to collect spare change. Texas Christian and California University of Pennsylvania ask for $1 donations at their new student convocations.

Berkeley Protesters Want John Yoo Removed

Ah, school has begun at Berkeley. They aren't happy unless they are unhappy about something. Maybe they should chill out and watch a re-run of Yoo on with Jon Stewart. I doubt they lay a glove on him, either.

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Anti-war activists are protesting at the University of California, Berkeley to demand the removal of a law professor who used to craft legal theories for the Bush administration on waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques.

Monday is the first day of classes at UC Berkeley's School of Law. The target of the protest there is John Yoo, who worked for President Bush's Office of Legal Counsel in 2001-03. The demonstators want Yoo to be prosecuted for war crimes.

Updated: So, Why Did Harvard Sell Its Israeli Holdings?

I left the door open in my post, citing an old story on some financial maneuvering. Via Soccer Dad, that's likely what it actually was. Still, one does have to wonder if the whole situation with Iran wouldn't also figure in people's thinking in an investment sense, right now.

The first assumption was that this was the reult of political pressure from the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement.

Update: Confirmed.