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Posted by Mary Chastain on September 05, 2016 2 Comments

Holy cow! Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel recorded a 4.0 GPA at MIT in his first semester of his PhD program. https://twitter.com/JohnCUrschel/status/735199097376940032 But it's actually not that surprising: He earned his bachelor's degree in three years at Penn State and spent his senior year working on a...

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 03, 2016 17 Comments
Joy Reid has a history of shutting down guests on her MSNBC show who disagree with her. Last week, Reid abruptly ended a segment when a conservative Latino guest tried to raise Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger's support of eugenics. Today, the ever PC-Reid instructed a Trump supporter not to speak of "illegals" when referring to illegal immigrants. African-American Trump supporter Paris Dennard was making the point that Trump is not opposed to immigration generally, but to illegal immigration, and that illegal immigrants take jobs from black Americans. Dennard twice spoke of "illegals." That led guest Juan Hernandez, a supporter of Libertarian Gary Johnson, to say he was "insulted." Reid agreed, adding "this is like being in a family home. And when you're in this home, we just ask that you please not use terminology that offends people. So y'all are guests in our house, please don't use that terminology."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 29, 2016 12 Comments
Wild-haired comedic genius, Gene Wilder, passed away Sunday night at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. Wilder was known for his leading roles in classics like "Young Frankenstein", "Blazing Saddles", "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and many more. From the New York Times:
Eric Weissmann, who was Mr. Wilder’s lawyer for many years, confirmed the death. A nephew, Jordan Walker-Pearlman, said that the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease. Mr. Wilder’s rule for comedy was simple: Don’t try to make it funny; try to make it real. “I’m an actor, not a clown,” he said more than once.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 29, 2016 17 Comments
One of my favorite articles not published at LI this year is the New York Times piece flummoxed by and bemoaning the fact that Obama's calls for gun control go nowhere and serve only to increase gun sales. Here's an excerpt:
More guns were sold in December [2015] than almost any other month in nearly two decades, continuing a pattern of spikes in sales after terrorist attacks and calls for stricter gun-buying laws, according to federal data released in January. The heaviest sales last month, driven primarily by handgun sales, followed a call from President Obama to make it harder to buy assault weapons after the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif.

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 28, 2016 50 Comments
A Harvard psychiatrist who works at Mass General Hospital is claiming that half of all college students have some sort of mental disorder. While this goes a long way towards explaining some of the campus behavior we've documented over the last few years, it also serves as just another excuse to treat college students like victims. CBS News in Boston reports:
New Concerns Arise About Mental Health Of College Students New concerns arise about the mental health of students on college campuses all across the country. Dr. Gene Beresin, a psychiatrist and Executive Director of The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital, says 50% to 60% of college students have a psychiatric disorder.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 27, 2016 19 Comments
In a move that is being hailed as cementing his conservation legacy, Obama has, with the stroke of his pen, expanded a national marine monument off the coast of Hawaii to over 582,578 square miles.  This move will, however, destroy commercial fishing and potential drilling and mineral collection in a vast expanse of our waters. The Hill reports:
President Obama on Friday morning created a massive national monument off the coast of his native Hawaii, the world’s largest protected area. The declaration expands more than threefold the size of the Papahānaumokuāke Marine National Monument, surrounding the outlying northwestern Hawaiian islands. The move in Obama’s final months further cements his legacy of using unilateral executive authority to protect far more land and water as national monuments than any other president.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 26, 2016 17 Comments
Advocacy group Student Matters filed a federal lawsuit in Connecticut to make education a constitutional right due to the state's restriction on magnet, charter schools, and school choice programs. It alleges the state's limited school choice for parents force "thousands of low-income and minority students to attend low-performing schools." The group insists now is the time for the federal courts to recognize education as a fundamental right:
“The fundamental principles of equality in our country demand that every child have a chance to get an education, to learn and to have that platform to succeed,” said Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., an attorney for the plaintiffs.
The Washington Post reported:
An advocacy group best known for using the courts to challenge California’s teacher tenure laws has now taken its legal strategy to Connecticut, where it has sued state officials over “anti-opportunity” laws that restrict the growth of magnet and charter schools and that limit inner-city students’ ability to transfer to more affluent suburban school districts.

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 24, 2016 18 Comments
A recent sexual assault case at Stanford University which involved drinking has led to a new alcohol policy which bans hard liquor except in limited cases. Does anyone believe this policy will keep students from obtaining and consuming hard liquor? Campus Reform reported:
Stanford takes shots at alcohol, Pres. Hennessy bans liquor Stanford University has banned all hard liquor at undergraduate parties in an effort to reduce binge drinking on campus.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 23, 2016 9 Comments
How is this for an armed citizen story?! A 91-year-old man in Michigan shot a man who tried to rob him on Monday in a parking lot at a local Rite Aid pharmacy. As the suspect walked closer, the man told him he holds a concealed pistol license (CPL), but the suspect didn't care. When the suspect aimed something at him, the elderly man whipped out his gun and shot him:
"The person who fired the shots had a CPL and was lawfully carrying a handgun," said [deputy Chief Eric] Keiser. "He said he defended himself when he was attacked."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 22, 2016 12 Comments
In May, Texas, joined by twelve other states filed suit against the Obama Administration who'd recently issued a national transgendered bathroom use policy for publicly funded schools. A mixed bag of states joined Texas in legal action, those states included: Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arizona's Department of Education, Maine Gov. Paul LePage, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah, and Georgia. “This represents just the latest example of the current administration’s attempts to accomplish by executive fiat what they couldn’t accomplish through the democratic process in Congress," said Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton. Late Sunday, a federal judge granted the temporary injunction. Reuters reports:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 20, 2016 34 Comments
Here at LI, we've been covering the various attempts by the left to use global warming climate change as an excuse for everything from a falsely predicted "bee-pocalypse" to #Brexit to the rise of ISIS (or is that vice versa?). Bored with pointing out how climate change is responsible for everything bad in the world, some progressives have switched over to urging population control in the name of their "settled" science.  This time it's not an intellectual exercise, it's being "taught" by Johns Hopkins' Travis Rieder. NPR reports:
Standing before several dozen students in a college classroom, Travis Rieder tries to convince them not to have children. Or at least not too many. He's at James Madison University in southwest Virginia to talk about a "small-family ethic" — to question the assumptions of a society that sees having children as good, throws parties for expecting parents, and in which parents then pressure their kids to "give them grandchildren." Why question such assumptions? The prospect of climate catastrophe.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 20, 2016 25 Comments
My newest assignment at the consulting firm I work for focuses on marketing and client development. My recent reading and experiences have given me many great tips and tricks. However, embarrassing customers because of their politics is not among the recommendations I have seen. Yet, Lady Grey Jewelry thought that it was smart business to send Ivanka Trump, daughter of Donald Trump and enthusiastic advocate for her father, a snark-filled "thank you" note along with her web-order.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 19, 2016 7 Comments
Univision has decided to end production at Gawker after they bought the company for $135 million at an auction. Reporter J.K. Trotter wrote:
After nearly fourteen years of operation, Gawker.com will be shutting down next week. The decision to close Gawker comes days after Univision successfully bid $135 million for Gawker Media’s six other websites, and four months after the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel revealed his clandestine legal campaign against the company.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 18, 2016 43 Comments
The city of Seattle, WA, has offered a class on "white fragility" to white people in order to explain white guilt and why white people cannot "handle matters involving race." From Fox News:
Lecturer Robin DiAngelo, who coined the term, is teaching the taxpayer-funded class for the city Officeof Arts and Culture. She defines white fragility as "a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves."

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 17, 2016 47 Comments
We recently reported that some students at Pitzer College placed an ad for a roommate which specifically requested a person of color. The story set off a firestorm in academia and media as some people wondered if this qualified as racism. Two of the students involved have commented on the story. One claims it's impossible for him to be racist and the other says she just wanted to create a safe space. From AOL News:
Students seeking non-white roommate spark nationwide debate For some college kids, trying to land the perfect roomie can be a complete fail. That's why two students at Pitzer College in California decided to recruit a fourth roommate using Facebook. But, after listing "POC Only" as one of the requirements social media critics gave them a lesson on discrimination.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 15, 2016 4 Comments
Are your relationships bursting with laughter? Or has the fun faded? Researchers dedicated to the science of happiness have found that laughter may be an effective gauge for the level of happiness in a relationship. Comedian Yakov Smirnoff, host of PBS comedy special "Happily Ever Laughter," explains for Prager U, "we make each other happy first, then laugher reassures us that we're on the right track."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 15, 2016 22 Comments
As I blog, I'm entering my thirty-third week of pregnancy -- the home stretch. Meanwhile, our little miracle is all kinds of wiggly, making my belly dance. Early in our pregnancy, our doctor asked if we'd like the baby tested for Down's Syndrome. We'd already decided against testing for one very simple reason: our child would be loved the same regardless. Destroying this precious growing life because she might be a bit different or need particular attentions was never an option. We were required to sign a waiver declining the testing. So then I see videos like this one published by BBC3 earlier this month. If ever there was a reminder that every life is unique and special, it's this:
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