Free Republic

Welcome back to our series on what weakens our integrity and how to strengthen it. Thus far we have discussed how we decide to commit a dishonest act, and how the distance between that act and its consequences can increase our ability to rationalize immorality as acceptable behavior. Today we are going to discuss another important factor that influences our comfort level with dishonest decisions: seeing other people make them. Dishonesty as a Social Contagion As psychology professor Dan Ariely explored the nature and motivations for dishonesty, he found himself wondering whether it might spread from person to person like...

Parents at Rose City Middle School are outraged at the behavior of a school board member and several teachers. Neal Erickson, a former teacher at the middle school in Ogemaw County, was convicted of having sex with an eighth grade student. Though he is in custody, parents are upset that a school board member and six teachers have publicly supported Erickson. According to the Ogemaw County Herald, West Branch-Rose City school board member Mike Egan sat with Erickson's family in court during sentencing, and the six teachers wrote letters to the judge requesting leniency. In their letters, some teachers blamed...

Grand Rapids Public Schools is laying off teachers this year and will be using an evaluation system that takes performance — rather than seniority — into account, according to WOOD-TV. The local teachers union president is unhappy, calling the system "unfair and subjective." Previously, when school districts made layoffs in response to declining enrollment (Grand Rapids will be down about 700 students this year), they did so based strictly on longevity, ignoring how good teachers actually were at their jobs. And when districts had a problem teacher, even criminal, the tenure process made it nearly impossible to remove them. Recent...

In the Tampa Tribune  there is a long, interesting article about a young man walking across the U.S.A.  It was a very positive experience for him.   About halfway through, he casually mentions that he had to use a previously concealed weapon to stop an attack: In Albuquerque, N.M., he was approached by a half-dozen members of a street gang, who began yelling at him to get off their sidewalk. They got belligerent, refusing to let him pass. “They just exploded in anger,” he said. He was reluctant to say what exactly happened next. “I have a concealed weapons permit,” was...

South Korean tutor Kim Ki-Hoon earns $4 million a year, according to Amanda Ripley, writing in the Wall Street Journal. He earns the near equivalent of an average NBA player’s salary by teaching English – primarily via paid Internet video – in the nation’s omnipresent hagwons, or private, after-school tutoring academies. This $17 billion after-school learning market has helped turn South Korea — a majority of whose citizens were illiterate sixty years ago — into the second top-performing country in the PISA global test of academic excellence (far outstripping the U.S.). Moreover, notes Ripley, South Korea’s 93% high-school graduation rate...

They try to justify murder Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 warn us: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” In his “Life of Lycurgus”, the Greek historian Plutarch (48-122 A.D.) records that in Sparta in ancient Greece, the Spartan elders examined all newborn babies and ordered that any who were not well-built and sturdy were to be killed by leaving them in the bush at the foot of Mount Taygetus:

 Open carriers in Arizona protesting politicization of the IRS On August 2nd, 2008, five years ago, Christopher Fetters was illegally arrested for exercising his Constitutional rights during the Coast Guard festival in New Haven, Michigan.  Parts of the original article are still available on  The High Road.  Fetters was legally carrying his holstered Glock when he was disarmed, arrested, and had his pistol confiscated. When the city attorney read the law, he realized that the City had made a mistake.  The charges were dropped and the pistol returned.    Mr. Fetters filed a Federal lawsuit against New Haven for civil...

In 2004, Walter French Academy charter school in Lansing closed after accumulating a $656,000 deficit and not meeting the terms of a $135,443 federal grant it was ordered to pay back. In 2013, Buena Vista Public Schools was dissolved after accumulating a $3.6 million deficit and not meeting the terms of a $580,000 state grant it was ordered to pay back. Although Buena Vista accumulated a deficit that was almost $3 million more than the charter public school and was ordered to repay a grant that was more than four times as high, Democratic politicians and union officials reacted far...

As is the usual case, there were a number of unworthy contestants for our Jerk of the Week honors. From Obama and his demonstrated weakness to Congress getting Obamacare waivers to property management companies trying to banish the Second Amendment (which has failed), there were quite a few who could have been chose. However, our choice this week truly represents the utter hypocrisy of the progressive liberal. Therefore our Jerk of the Week is Matt Damon. Matt Damon has long been a progressive liberal moonbat, believing that America is a terrible place. He loves the work of noted anti-American author...

When it comes to why Inkster Public Schools was dissolved, there has been plenty of finger pointing among politicians and school administrators. In a 2012 deficit elimination plan it submitted to the state, Inkster school officials blamed part of the fiscal debt on a previous emergency financial manager who had been gone for seven years and had left the district debt-free. Recently, some Democratic lawmakers have blamed Gov. Rick Snyder for Inkster's woes with one state representative saying the school board had to clean up "the mess he (Gov. Snyder) made," and another saying Inkster was part of a larger...

"Free to Choose," a 10-part television series starring Milton Friedman and highlighting free-market principles, first aired over 30 years ago. The education episode begins with students at Hyde Park High School, the camera panning across metal detectors and armed policemen surveillance as students enter school. “Isn’t that awful?" Friedman asks. "What can [students] conceivably learn under such circumstances?" You'd think that public education would have dramatically improved since then, away from a system where a student's school is determined by his or her home address; away from a system that too frequently results in mediocre or dismal outcomes for students....

State school superintendent Michael Flanagan says he is confident his plan to consolidate school services could save districts millions of dollars. However, if Eaton County's Intermediate School District has to follow Flanagan’s blueprint, it would end up costing as much as $30,000 more per employee, according to Eaton County ISD officials. Under Flanagan’s plan, intermediate school districts would be required to provide services like transportation, food service, curriculum development, administrative and other functions for local school districts in the entire county. In a letter, Flanagan wrote: “For ISDs to accommodate this financially, local school districts would be required to purchase...

Check out this New York Times article on the beginning of the bursting of the higher education bubble. In the 2012-2013 school year enrollment in for-profit and community colleges dropped. Now enrollment in 4 year non-profit colleges has begun dropping too. A Wall Street Journal article makes similar points. Some colleges will close. Others will shrink. The prestige racket will claim fewer victims. The number of kids turning 18 has begun to contract. But an even bigger transformation is starting to take shape: the shift toward online learning. I expect to a substantial shift toward online learning in order to...

Christine first came to South Korea in 2004 as the spouse of a US Army soldier. She quickly fell in love with the people and culture, and happily became involved with many activities and groups. It was through the American Wives Club that Christine first began volunteering at Eastern Seoul Welfare Society (ESWS), and learning about orphanages and adoption in Korea. Initially she would volunteer a few times a month. In 2008, after the tragic loss of her sister, Christine discovered her passion in helping others as a way to cope with this traumatic life event. "Volunteering at the orphanage...

(This question actually has nothing to do with the late Rodney King, who coined this phrase; but with the inclusion of the word “all,” the answer is emphatically no.) It seems we are hearing this phrase a lot lately, whether word for word or simply implied, especially from our elected public servants (and specifically the Republican ones.) I’m not trying to dog on the Republican Party here; in fact, I’ve voted that way almost 100% of the time since I have been of the age to cast my ballot. It’s just that my sentiment these days, that Republican is the...

Anyone that can dredge up the guts to teach in Baltimore's public schools automatically becomes a... Dave Miceli doesn't know me from a hole in the ground, but he's my new hero. Anyone that can dredge up the guts to teach in Baltimore's public schools automatically becomes a candidate for hero status in my book, especially if said anyone has taught in these schools for 20 years, as Miceli has. But it was his bold, insightful, no-punches-pulled letter to the editors of the July 15 edition of the Baltimore Sun that put Miceli on my hero's list. I'm reprinting that...

Hello friends, conservatives and fellow patriots! I cordially invite you to learn about our latest venture entitled, “Washington’s Axe”, a feature-length motion picture slated for nationwide release in the fall of 2014. America is badly broken, spiritually sick, beyond bankrupt and in serious need of reform. Many citizens are near the breaking point. Those of us desperate to “do something” find most political options futile. How do we positively influence our culture? Our answer is to reawaken our nation’s spirit through the power of entertainment. To reintroduce the magic of personal freedom, the romance of liberty and the noble principles...

Michigan Education Association President Steve Cook twice in the last three months has misrepresented the facts about public school funding in Michigan's two largest newspapers. In a May 13 op-ed in the Detroit Free Press, Cook wrote, "We’ve had two years of business tax cuts and cuts to our schools." However, the Michigan School Aid budget was cut only in 2011-12, and has been increased in 2012-13 and is projected to increase in 2013-14. Cook did it again with his July 24 "Labor Voices" column in The Detroit News when he made two factual errors. Cook wrote: "At the end...

Every year, public school districts in Michigan request classroom supplies from parents. But few seem to know that these items are not mandatory — state law requires them to be provided by districts. Some parents in the Standish Sterling School District received a flier from three fifth-grade teachers listing a half dozen “necessary items” their children would need and another five “optional items.” In Michigan by law, the school district is responsible for supplying students with necessary supplies. The state Supreme Court ruled that this includes basic school supplies. Standish-Sterling Superintendent Darren Kroczaleski said he checked into it and the...

Athol, Idaho (NorthWest Liberty News) Patriots and Preppers of all ages and professions joined together in northern Idaho, at Farragut State Park, for the 1st annual “Northwest Patriot and Self-Reliance Rally,” sponsored by Oath Keepers. Over 1300 guests, and over 100 vendors and volunteers were in attendance over the 3-day gathering. Vendors from throughout Idaho and the northwest were there to provide the goods, while guest speakers traveled from as far as 1500 miles to attend the event. The days were filled with on-the-hour workshops covering topics about Survival Oils, Self-Defense, Sound Money, and Dressing a Rabbit for Dinner, to...

Rush limbaugh Greta | Rush Limbaugh joined Greta Van Susteren for the full hour Tuesday night, and Limbaugh spent the first segment of the program bashing President Obama, sharing the "Limbaugh Theorem" for how the president governs, and taking the "slavish media" to task for not holding him accountable. He also had some choice words for Republicans capitulating too much to the Democratic agenda. On the "phony scandals" controversy, Limbaugh admitted he was stunned that the president was able to survive 2012 with the bad economy on his back. He came up with the "Limbaugh theorem" to explain why so...

Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform blog,Yes. The national intelligence has fallen that far. The morons in West Philly can't spell 'Cat'. At least 75% wouldn’t know the Vice President of the U.S.. More than 50% can't add 5 + 5. And 80% wouldn't know when and why the Civil War was fought.

Detroit Public Schools' Thirkell Elementary was the top-ranked school on the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's new elementary and middle school report card. The Center's report card takes student poverty level into account to better examine school performance and is based on four years of student test scores. Although nearly 90 percent of Thirkell students come from low-income backgrounds, Thirkell regularly posts higher than average scores on state MEAP tests. Adjusting for student background makes Thirkell's success even clearer. Parents, teachers and students all say that the warm atmosphere and focus on student learning at Thirkell is due to the...

Former Obama czar and now Harvard genius Cass Sunstein is lamenting over the lack of American students’ interest in science and math. Sunstein is right in noting that kids arrive in college with poor preparation in the sciences – I might add in bad physical shape because their high school PE programs were cut, their corpus collosi challenged because their right brain development in music and art programs were cut to make room for the political correctness of phony racial diversity, gender equality, sexual proclivity and hate America themes. And they expect kids to be motivated to subject themselves to...

This is part one of a one hour slide presentation I made in Laguna Beach for American Artist's "Weekend With the Masters" event. It deals with the issues as I see them between traditional and "modern" art.

On a literacy forum, a somewhat hostile teacher demanded to know if I was trying to frighten people? I answered: Yes, I am. I've studied Whole Word for almost 10 years. It doesn't work; it couldn't work. That our education establishment pushed this thing on people is a crime. If I can help frighten people away from it, that's good. As for phonics, people should understand that this is almost an umbrella term. In fact, I'm starting to think it's not so much a program or set of rules as a concept. If a kid knows that the letters on...

As school districts around Michigan grapple with how to balance their budgets, Dansville Public Schools found a way to save nearly a half million dollars over the past two years by dumping its union-affiliated insurance plan. Dansville Superintendent Amy Hodgson said the district saved about $250,000 in 2011-12 and another $200,000 in 2012-13 by switching from the Michigan Education Special Services Association (MESSA), which is an affiliate of the Michigan Education Association, to a high deductible plan. Not only did the district realize $450,000 in savings, but it also has been able to pay 100 percent of the premiums and...

Dickinson State University got caught issuing hundreds of phony degrees to foreign students, something for which nobody outside of former President Richard McCallum has been held accountable. McCallum, who I guess we’re supposed to believe pulled of this fraud by himself, was merely fired. Horwarth’s article quoted a newspaper editor in West Virginia who covered the HLC’s decision to remove accreditation from Mountain State University. “If I’m Dickinson State, I would be nervous,” he told Horwarth. That article prompted angry denunciations from DSU officials and North Dakota University System Chancellor Larry Skogen who called the idea of lost accreditation “impossible.”...

At a time when some experts are predicting a "higher education bubble" and many companies are placing less of an emphasis on college degrees, new organizations are working to connect potential workers with employers while avoiding the traditional university model. As tuition continues to increase well beyond the rate of inflation, a debate is taking place over how to deal with the cost of higher education. In the past decade, amidst perpetual budget crises, Michigan significantly cut appropriations to universities. In the two decades prior, the state funded its universities among the highest in the nation on a per-capita personal...

First, Michelle Obama called for healthier school lunches -- and kids complained that the first lady's menus left them hungry. Now, the United States Department of Agriculture has green-lighted a pilot program to serve trendy Greek yogurt in school cafeterias in New York, Idaho, Arizona, and Tennessee. If all goes well this fall, Greek yogurt may became a staple in Washington's $11 billion school lunch program in some 100,000 schools. In one sense, it's an example of America's growing European Union-style nanny state -- not to mention crony capitalism and insider influence. Two of the biggest cheerleaders of Greek yogurt...

Hungry for another claimed example of a deadly Stand-Your-Ground defensive encounter, the mainstream media has seized upon the gas-station shooting death of a black man by a rifle-armed woman, also black, this past Sunday in Houston. Video of the encounter was captured by the gas station’s security cameras, both inside the enclosed portion of the station, where it seems the encounter began, and out by the pumps where the encounter turned deadly. Much of the information available to date is from “news” sources, so the “facts” as described must be considered malleable. It appears, however, that the man made some...

Remember all those dire predictions about the damage Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s public employee union contract reforms would do? Remember the angst of Wisconsin’ teachers and other “vital workers” over what they saw as the end of the line for their cushy jobs and control over their state? Well they were right to be worried. They are getting crushed and put out of existence. Now that two years have passed and the dust has settled, it’s safe to say the union protestors who filled the legislative offices and camped out in Wisconsin’s state capital were actually optimistic. The results of...

Mark Levin weighed in tonight on a new HUD ‘fair housing’ neighborhood-mapping diversity program that is supposed to help ‘integrate’ communities by giving people access to better communities than the ones they currently live in. It’s social engineering like we did with Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac in the recent past…or as Levin called said, it’s communism and he likened it to ‘North Korea’. Levin says that tyranny is here and it’s spreading: Folks, I’m trying to tell you something. …It’s here, tyranny is here. And it’s spreading. And I don’t care what Bob Dole says. I don’t care what...

The constant drum beat by many involved with Michigan’s public schools is that the state isn’t spending enough money on education. Yet, a report by the Senate Fiscal Agency shows that the School Aid Fund will increase by $454 million from 2012-13 to 2013-14 even though the state is projected to have 6,100 fewer students. State tax dollars will account for $391 million of that $454 million increase. The rest are federal dollars. State and fedearl dollars account for $13.4 billion in the school aid fund for 2013-2014, with $11.4 billion of that coming from the state. "These people have...

The Obama-sponsored bill (SB 2386) enlarged the state's 1961 law by shielding the person who was attacked from being sued in civil court by perpetrators or their estates when a "stand your ground" defense is used in protecting his or her person, dwelling or other property. The bill unanimously passed the Democrat-controlled Illinois Senate on March 25, 2004 with only one comment, and passed the Democrat-controlled Illinois House in May 2004 with only two votes in opposition. Then-Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) signed it into law.

R.C. Sproul: There Is No True Prophecy Today By Julio Severo According to Charisma magazine, Calvinist theologian Dr. R.C. Sproul says he was “deeply immersed” in charismatic circles in the 1960s and that after receiving about 50 false prophecies, he said to himself, “You know, I’m going to live my life by what it says in the Word, because I know the Spirit has superintended that.” So, with his bad experience with prophecy, Dr. Sproul concluded that there is no genuine gift of prophecy for today. By coincidence, his personal bad experience aligns itself with a strong theological view in...

In Ann Arbor Public Schools, students will be charged for taking some classes and they'll pay more to play sports while many teachers get raises. The district is charging students for taking classes and increasing fees to play sports as part of a plan to eliminate a $8.7 million deficit for 2013-14. The Ann Arbor Public School Board approved charging students $100 if they want to take a seventh class. The ACLU has called that illegal. Additionally, a high school student will have to pay $250 to play a sport in 2013-14, an increase from $150. Numerous media reports mentioned...

Formal Head Of Africa Command Contradict Obama Administration! Benghazi Scandal - "It Was Clear Pretty Quickly" - General: Benghazi Was No Demonstration

We recently noted that University of California’s students were planning to protest the selection of former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as head of the system while she was meeting the governing Board of Regents in San Francisco. They did, and several protesters were arrested during the demonstration. Robby Soave of The Daily Caller News Foundation has the details: Students who support relaxing immigration laws — or are in the country illegally themselves — launched a failed petition calling on UC Regents to reject Napolitano, who authorized the deportation of over a million immigrants. They also protested Thursday afternoon at...

Thirty years ago, a panel of distinguished experts concluded that US public schools were so bad they could be an enemy attack. The famous Nation at Risk Report stated: "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” Thirty years later, nothing has improved. Probably the opposite. (“Nation is at Greater Risk. But everyone pretends not to know why." A new Examiner article explains why our schools don't improve. Link below.) We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of one of...

Trey Gowdy was asked today if the GOP has proof that the president was involved in the IRS scandal, citing the objection of Elijah Cummings and Democrats. But Gowdy says that was never an allegation to begin with. However, given that Jay Carney lied about it being about two rogue agents in Cincinnati, Gowdy says that to say the White House wasn't involved now is balderdash.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — An immigration audit of a child care operator in the Twin Cities has sparked a local debate on the nation's immigration policies. Jardin Magico, a Spanish immersion daycare and pre-school that operates two locations in Minneapolis and one in Edina, lost a number of employees after Immigration and Customs Enforcement identified 60 out of 160 workers whose employment eligibility in the United States is in question. On Friday, the school informed parents by letter that, after an immigration audit, an unspecified number of employees left the school rather than contest the accuracy of their paperwork. The...

There is an illustrated list of Leftist and media reactions here. "It’s 2013 and an American jury just acquitted a man who admitted to stalking and killing an unarmed child" — Richard Dreyfus, actor I think you can see why in the face above.  That face is expressing glee  -- barely restrained delight.  The slightest hint that America is unjust is manna from heaven for Leftists.  They  build their self-esteem on being wiser and more compassionate than "the masses".  And given America's black/white tensions, a chance to see others as racist is not to be missed.  It is America's...

America is a smaller place today. Larry Grathwohl, one of America’s truly unsung heroes, has died. He will be missed. Readers may recognize Larry’s name as the only informant to successfully penetrate Bill Ayers’ communist Weather Underground Organization (WUO). He wrote a book about his experiences, Bringing America Down: An FBI Informer with the Weathermen, re-released this spring. During the run up to the 2008 election, an interview with Larry surfaced in which he described a meeting he attended where Ayers and company discussed how they would have to murder an estimated 25 million people following the revolution they were...

Apparently the TRUTH Behind Our Investigations are reaching the mainstream blogosphere. American Spectator has picked up the story. So too has Atlasshrugs:M-DSPD instructions developed and enforced by Chief Hurley reveal that their police reports were not created for the purposes of law enforcement, but for school disciplinary actions. â—¾The re-qualifying/redefining of student-police contacts ordered by the School Superintendent and the School Police Chief are at the heart of the issue that surfaces surrounding the Trayvon Martin case; and the involvement of Martin with the Miami-Dade School Police Dept â—¾It was during 2009/2010 that the police chief had instructed his officers...

Rep. Tom Price asks this official whether he was involved in any discussions with the Treasury regarding the delay of the individual mandate. He had to ask multiple times because the way this official answers the question you’d think he’s walking through a mine field: So basically his answer is yes. It’s a shame he couldn’t just say that.

I’ve never thought of Mitch Daniels as the heroic type; not until now. But he deserves a medal for trying to spare Indiana students the mis-education that comes from reading the execrable Howard Zinn. The Associated Press obtained emails by then-Governor Daniels, now the President of Purdue: Purdue University President Mitch Daniels said Wednesday he never tried to quash academic freedom while serving as Indiana’s governor and criticized an Associated Press report citing emails in which he opposed use of a book by historian and anti-war activist Howard Zinn.

The House Financial Services Committee (HFSC), headed by chair Jeb Hensarling, has approved proposed bill entitled, “Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners Act” (PATH) that is being sold to the American public as a way “to create a sustainable housing finance system.” Hensarling explained : “Our plan helps taxpayers and homeowners. It gives power and control back to consumers. Under the current broken system, unaccountable Washington elites have more of a say over who gets a mortgage than your local bank. The current system is a government monopoly run by the same types of Washington bureaucrats who run the IRS. America...

For those who have followed the research linking the political psychologies of Conservatism and Liberalism to the r and K-Selected reproductive strategies in nature, the Kindle version of the book consolidating all of the research into this will be free on Amazon tomorrow. It basically posits that in nature, evolution molds psychology to best function within an environment, as documented in r/K Selection Theory in Evolutionary Biology. As examples, look at the natures of rabbits and wolves. Rabbits are designed for what is called the r-selective environment, where resources are freely available (as rabbits experience in fields of grass they...

Once again, Michigan education officials are floating the idea of school district consolidation as a cost-savings measure. This time, State Superintendent Mike Flanagan is proposing that school districts be required to centralize certain services at the county or regional level. The proposal would centralize district transportation, curriculum development, staff training, evaluation systems, technology, accounting functions and food service, among other things. Consolidation is not a new idea: Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed spending money in 2010 to encourage districts to consolidate. Yet despite officials' interest, research shows that bigger school districts aren't always better. In 2007, Mackinac Center research found...