Free Republic

America is in shambles from sea to shining sea. Unemployment is nearly at Great Depression levels. The real estate is still week and near collapse. And, of course, our U.S. Triple A credit rating is gone for the first time in history. But this is National School Choice Week and all of that terrible economic news is child’s play (excuse the pun) compared to our failing government-run education system. The accelerating and dramatic decline of our public school system is the shame of this once great country. I call our public school system "Every Child Left Behind." The failure of...

ABC News commentator George Stephanopoulos has a previously undisclosed connection to President Obama – the two were part of a small group at Harvard University that met for a period of three years purportedly to promote involvement with U.S. community institutions. Participants at the research project, which took place between 1997 and 2000, included scores of individuals with ties to Obama, including several activists who were later appointed to positions in the Obama administration. Other participants were instrumental in promoting Obama’s political career. Just yesterday, Stephanopoulos was the subject of conservative criticism for pointed questions he asked Republican presidential candidates...

In a crushing blow to academic freedom, Harvard University has censored and fired a prominent professor because university administrators didn't like what he said about Islam. The tenured professors at Harvard, who cannot be fired in order to protect their freedom to express themselves, have failed to rally to the cause of the fired professor -- and worse, the expulsion was occasioned in part by a faculty vote: At a meeting of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, faculty members voted with an "overwhelming majority" to remove two economics courses - 'Quantitative Methods in Economics and Business' and 'Economic Development...

Harvard University has dropped courses on economics taught by a Hindu professor, Subramanian Swamy, president of the Janata Party of India and a former Union Cabinet minister—not because they were poorly taught, or because Swamy advocated discredited economic theories (such as, say, socialism), but because he wrote an editorial last summer that Muslims find offensive. ... Neither Eck nor Kelly nor anyone else, however, bothered to mention that Swamy’s piece was called “How to wipe out Islamic terror,” and that it was written in the context of the Islamic jihad against India. I ran it on my website AtlasShrugs.com here...

Dr. Ann Maest is a managing scientist at Straus Consulting, and she’s the go to expert on all things groundwater. In the press release announcing her reappointment to the National Academy of Sciences, they mention that she is focused on the environmental effects of mining and petroleum extraction and production, and, more recently, on the effects of climate change on water quality. Maest is in high demand as an expert for those looking to stop oil and mineral exploration. She’s also heavily used by the federal government, even though after new details about her past work are coming to light...

Putting the power of life and death in anyone’s hands is a dubious undertaking, to put it mildly. Giving such responsibility to a pair of academics is questionable, at best. “Senior Al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki and another America-born militant were killed in Yemen early Friday morning by a CIA-led U.S. drone strike, marking the highest-profile takedown of terror leaders since the raid on Usama bin Laden’s compound,” Jennifer Griffin & Justin Fishel reported on Fox News.com on September 30, 2011. “Sensing they were on sensitive ground, officials of the Obama Administration illegally leaked information to The New York Times...

In what might be a record, 22 Obama Administration officials have already left the government for academia. Two cabinet officials are in this mix. Interestingly, both held the same position—chair of the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA). Another interesting note is that of the aforementioned group, seven, or about one-third of the total—decamped for Harvard. Yet and still, there is at least one indication that the exodus continues unabated.

In January, the Common Application decided not to include a question about college applicant’s sexual orientation or gender identity in its widely used application. Last week, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 told The Crimson that despite that decision, Harvard College is considering giving applicants that option on its supplement in order to show prospective students that the College is a welcoming space for them. If it does, Harvard will join Elmhurst College, which was the first college in the country to pose such a question this year. Peer institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania...

NEW HAVEN - A 30-year-old woman was killed today in a parking lot at Yale Bowl "notorious" for tailgating, after an out of control Uhaul truck loaded with beer kegs ran over her and two other women, police and other sources said. This is a big day for the lot because the Yale-Harvard football game is being played today.

American youth have realised the dream they have been prepared for won't happen - now they fight for a fair future. Something is unravelling in America. The dream, the purpose and the drive are worn and tired. The people are under siege. Occupy Wall Street is organic; it's homegrown and native. The voluntary, viral and near-spontaneous movement began as a reaction to a political system governed by a venal class of politicians and financiers. The story of their ascent to power is the story of the pauperised American worker and the indigent American family. It is the story of a...

The College is considering adding language to its application for admission that would allow prospective students to self-identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 told The Crimson. “We want to send a positive signal to students who are grappling with the issue of [sexual orientation] or gender identity,” Fitzsimmons said. “I think this campus is really welcoming to all students and that’s the signal we want to send.” Fitzsimmons said identification as LGBT would not act as a positive “tip” in the application process, unlike other factors like place of...

So let me get this straight: Harvard students are “occupying” the Yard to protest how the 1 percent keep the 99 percent in economic servitude. But the Crimson protest against capitalist oppression is by invitation only, and all the gates on campus have been locked, chained and padlocked to keep out the real 99 percent? Occupy Harvard? It’s more like Occupy Gated Community. The pampered pukes are saying their faux encampment of Eddie Bauer and L.L. Bean tents is “symbolic.” It sure is — symbolic of the breathtaking hypocrisy of these limousine liberals. They’re in solidarity with the rabble ......

Occupy Harvard? Students Protest Course Of Romney Advisor Gregory Mankiw By Adam Ragusea (@aragusea) Nov 2, 2011, 3:40 PM Harvard University students and demonstrators from Occupy Boston protested outside of Gregory Mankiw's economics course. (Adam Ragusea/WBUR) Harvard University students and demonstrators from Occupy Boston protested outside of Gregory Mankiw's economics course. (Adam Ragusea/WBUR) It’s a long hike from the mud-caked tents of Dewey Square to the polished wood and stained glass of Harvard University’s Memorial Hall, but on Tuesday, Occupy Boston came to campus. And they brought their Occupy-style call-and-response. “Oh my god, this is a lot of people,” organizer...

It has spread from New York to Europe and as far afield as Mongolia. And now a new, perhaps unlikely, location has been caught in the Occupy Wall Street crossfire: a Harvard economics class. Around 70 students walked out of Professor Greg Mankiw's Economics 10 class this week, claiming his teachings have driven the inequalities in today’s society. In an open letter, they suggest his conservative curriculum has influenced former Harvard students – including today’s policy makers and bankers – to bring about the financial crisis.

In recent weeks, Democratic congressional candidate Darcy Burner has touted her Harvard degree in economics when talking about the nation's financial crisis and her opposition to the bailout package passed by Congress. At two debates this month, she brought up her academic background in her opening statement. "I loved economics so much that I got a degree in it from Harvard," she said at an Oct. 10 debate at KCTS-TV. "Now everywhere I go in this district, the only thing people want to talk to me about is the economy." But while she took courses in economics, Burner doesn't have...

Last week the unthinkable happened.  While you were distracted by the banal and only marginally important presidential primaries, the lion, Harvard Law School, publicly lay down with the lamb, the Tea Party Patriots.  The long-term political implications are, potentially, far more potent than a mere presidency. The SuperElite and the SuperPopulists convened at Harvard for a “Conference for a Constitutional Convention.”  It was co-hosted by Lawrence Lessig, from Harvard, and by Mark Meckler, co-founder of the 850,000 member Tea Party Patriots. Lessig is a leading figure on the social democratic left, the director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for...

Like many wealthy universities, Harvard offers only "need-based" financial aid, which means that rich parents need to pay much more than poor ones. Using the calculator at the site listed above, you can estimate the marginal income tax rate Harvard imposes. Assuming zero student assets, Harvard expects parents to contribute 10% of income up to $150K, which is $15K for parents earning $150K. Above that level, the marginal income tax is much higher. Parents earning $235K are expected to pay $52K. The marginal tax rate for income rising to $150K to $235K is (52-15)/(235-150) = 43.5% . This is of...

Harvard College’s Class of 2015 found something unprecedented awaiting their arrival on campus: an ideological pledge. It was framed as a request for allegiance to certain social and political principles. No such request had been made of Harvard students since the college’s founding by Puritans in 1636. First-years are being pressured to sign a “Freshman Pledge” committing them to create a campus “where the exercise of kindness holds a place on a par with intellectual attainment” — all in the name of “upholding the values of the College” including “inclusiveness and civility.” The request – originating from the Dean of...

A few not to be missed articles or blogs have appeared in the past few days. The first is by the conservative New York Times columnist, Ross Douthat. Most people, especially those who still buy the print edition, see his regular featured column. But fewer people read his blog, which appears only on the paperÂ’s website, and for that, one usually has to search to find. Two days ago, Douthat wrote about the myth spread by many Democrats and liberals: that conservatives and Republicans want to institute a theocracy in America. As Douthat points out, [A] spate of recent articles...

BALTIMORE, MD, August 16, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Researchers from several prominent U.S. universities will participate tomorrow in a Baltimore conference reportedly aiming to normalize pedophilia.  According to the sponsoring organization’s website, the event will examine ways in which “minor-attracted persons” can be involved in a revision of the American Psychological Association (APA) classification of pedophilia.  B4U-ACT, a group of pro-pedophile activists and mental health professionals, is behind the August 17 conference, which will include panelists from Harvard University, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Louisville, and the University of Illinois. B4U-ACT science director Howard Kline has criticized the definition...

“Teenagers and young adults who use marijuana may be messing with their heads in ways they don’t intend,” reports Harvard Health Publications. Also: Evidence is mounting that regular marijuana use increases the chance that a teenager will develop psychosis, a pattern of unusual thoughts or perceptions, such as believing the television is transmitting secret messages. It also increases the risk of developing schizophrenia, a disabling brain disorder that not only causes psychosis, but also problems concentrating and loss of emotional expression. In one recent study that followed nearly 2,000 teenagers as they became young adults, young people who smoked marijuana...

... American classical music is plagued by a lack of racial diversity. The Cuban choruses, however, seemed to reflect accurately the racial make-up of their country, with singers who were black, white, brown, and everything in between. It was refreshing to see that classical music didn’t predict the racial composition of the musicians as much as it did in our country. One of my friends on the trip wondered if there is less racism in Cuba, because communism places everyone on more or less equal economic ground. It is a bold claim: is economic equality a necessary prerequisite for full...

The following 1869 Harvard entrance exam was supposed to be a breeze, believe it or not (via GOOD). In those days colleges had to go out of their way to attract students. Harvard pointed out in a newspaper ad that 185 of 210 candidates passed the entrance test and were accepted in the previous year. But those candidates had the benefit of a focused prep school education. You will find this exam, which ranges from geography to geometry to Latin, extremely difficult. Take a stab at the answers in the comment section.

BOSTON (AP) — A Harvard University fellow who was studying ethics was charged with hacking into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's computer network to steal nearly 5 million academic articles. Aaron Swartz, 24, of Cambridge, was accused of stealing the documents from JSTOR, a popular research subscription service that offers digitized copies of more than 1,000 academic journals and documents, some dating back to the 17th century. In an indictment released Tuesday, prosecutors say Swartz stole 4.8 million articles between September 2010 and January after breaking into a computer wiring closet on MIT's campus. Swartz, then a student at the...

Democratic political candidates can skip this weekend's July 4th parades. A new Harvard University study finds that July 4th parades energize only Republicans, turn kids into Republicans, and help to boost the GOP turnout of adults on Election Day. "Fourth of July celebrations in the United States shape the nation's political landscape by forming beliefs and increasing participation, primarily in favor of the Republican Party," said the report from Harvard.

A beetle necklace, Mark Twain's microscope, a 19th-century slate bearing "messages" from the spirit world, and a 100-year-old Mexican tortilla — given more than 350 years, you can collect some bizarre and fascinating items. Harvard has been collecting things for a long time, probably beginning with the donation of a library by its namesake, John Harvard, upon his death in 1638. Since then, the university has amassed more than 50 collections, not including libraries. A recent exhibit, dubbed "Tangible Things," pulled together a peculiar assortment of items taken from backrooms and Z-closets — storage areas where miscellaneous, oddball items might...

US universities in Africa 'land grab' Institutions including Harvard and Vanderbilt reportedly use hedge funds to buy land in deals that may force farmers out Harvard and other major American universities are working through British hedge funds and European financial speculators to buy or lease vast areas of African farmland in deals, some of which may force many thousands of people off their land, according to a new study. Researchers say foreign investors are profiting from "land grabs" that often fail to deliver the promised benefits of jobs and economic development, and can lead to environmental and social problems in...

In his commencement speech at Hamilton College on Sunday, former Vice President Al Gore told the graduates that global warming is “the most serious challenge our civilization has ever faced.” But as an undergraduate at Harvard University in the late 1960s, Gore--one of the most prominent spokesmen on climate change today--earned a “D” in Natural Sciences. Gore’s transcript documents that during his sophomore year at Harvard he earned a "D" in Natural Sciences 6 (Man’s Place in Nature). Also, as a senior at Harvard, he earned a C-plus in Natural Sciences 118. Gore, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate...

A Washington, DC-based public-interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption reported on Friday that its officials have obtained documents suggesting US Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan helped coordinate the Obama administration’s legal defense of the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) while she served as Solicitor General. During her confirmation, Kagan claimed she was not involved in the Department of Justice (DOJ) preparations for legal challenges to Obamacare. Moreover, the Supreme Court justice did not recuse herself from the High Court decision in April 2011 when she and other Justices refused to “fast-track� the Supreme Court review of Virginia’s lawsuit challenging Obamacare. The following are highlights...

Boston’s chattering classes are struggling with the stunning political defeat of one of Harvard’s most popular academics at the hands of Canadian voters, painting Michael Ignatieff’s historic loss as Liberal leader as a new low in Canadian politics. A series of editorials and articles published this week in the Harvard Crimson, Boston Globe and elsewhere have blamed Canadians for being close-minded and anti-American when they handed Mr. Ignatieff and the Liberals the party’s worst defeat in history. “Harvard sees itself as the centre of the universe, so I’m sure it felt it very deeply,” said Graham Wilson, chair of Boston...

From the moment Barack Obama took center stage at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the world has been busily trying to decipher the man. No one has been more busy reading Obama in the years since than the chair of the Harvard History Department, the esteemed Dr. James Kloppenberg. At numerous symposia, on both sides of the Atlantic, he has shared his distinctive insights on our 44th president. In his new book, Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition, Kloppenberg has assembled his insights into a misreading of Obama so sincere and so profound that it causes one...

Harvard College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds announced on Wednesday (April 27) that she will appoint a new director to coordinate resources and develop programming in support of bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgender, and queer (BGLTQ) undergraduates on campus. Hammonds, the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and of African and African American Studies, said the director will be a resource for undergraduates who identify as BGLTQ or have questions about their sexuality, and for all students who want to help create a supportive climate for their classmates. “The new director will bring together the College’s existing — and...

BOSTON — President Barack Obama’s father was forced to leave Harvard University before completing his Ph.D. in economics because the school was concerned about his personal life and finances, according to newly public immigration records. Harvard had asked the Immigration and Naturalization Service to delay a request by Barack Hussein Obama Sr. to extend his stay in the U.S., “until they decided what action they could take in order to get rid of him,” immigration official M.F. McKeon wrote in a June 1964 memo. Harvard administrators, the memo stated, “were having difficulty with his financial arrangements and couldn’t seem to...

BOSTON (AP) -- Newly obtained federal immigration records indicate that President Barack Obama's father was forced to leave Harvard University in 1964 before finishing his doctorate in economics because the school was concerned about his personal life and finances. According to immigration memos, Barack Obama Sr.'s request to extend his stay in the U.S. was denied and he returned to his native Kenya.

Throughout a tumultuous career as an economist in Nairobi in the 1960s, Barack Hussein Obama, President Obama’s father, claimed to have earned a PhD from Harvard University. But according to federal immigration records, Obama was forced to leave the school by administrators alarmed at his freewheeling personal life and financial difficulties. In a May 1964 memo contained in the elder Obama’s Immigration and Naturalization Service file, an immigration inspector noted that Obama had passed his exams and was entitled to stay and complete the requirements for a PhD in economics. [...] Not long afterward, Harvard asked the INS to hold...

– LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. – Harvard University officials are speaking out on the release of the immigration file on Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. Documents uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act request to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, show that Harvard University officials worked with the INS to deny Obama’s student visa extension. An INS investigator, M.F. McKeon, wrote on June 8, 1964: “They (Harvard officials) weren’t very impressed with him and asked us to hold up action on his application until they decided what action they could take...

The net neutrality vision for government regulation of the Internet began with the work of Robert McChesney, a University of Illinois communications professor who founded the liberal lobby Free Press in 2002. ......... For a man with such radical views, Mr. McChesney and his Free Press group have had astonishing influence. Mr. Genachowski’s press secretary at the FCC, Jen Howard, used to handle media relations at Free Press. The FCC’s chief diversity officer, Mark Lloyd, co-authored a Free Press report calling for regulation of political talk radio. ............... Considering how openly activist the Berkman Center has been on these issues,...

The first direct link above is to Soros' own web page. Many of you will choose not to click on it and well that's your choice. But some of you should actively look and see for yourself. Open the PDF, scroll down to the year 2008. Electronic Frontier Foundation got 300,000 dollars from Soros. Now scroll down to the year 2007. Another 100,000 dollars. So the total is 400k. And there is more. Let's take a look at who it is that sits on their various boards: http://www.eff.org/about/advisoryboard I am aware of Ethan Zuckerman being a Soros buddy because of...

The irrepressible Donald Trump has raised still another question the major media have dared not to ask: Did Barack Obama qualify for Columbia and Harvard on his own accomplishments? "How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?" asked Trump of the Associated Press. "I'm thinking about it, I'm certainly looking into it. Let him show his records." Trump asks a very good question for which the anti-journalists of the major media have no good answer. So allow me to fill in the gaps. Although the late New York politico Percy Sutton admitted to helping Obama get...

Donald Trump is upping the ante against President Barack Obama's legitimacy, raising questions on Monday night about how the president was admitted to two Ivy League schools. Trump openly questioned how Obama, who he said had been a "terrible student," got accepted into Columbia University for undergraduate studies and then Harvard Law School.

Manhattan real estate mogul Donald Trump suggested in an interview Monday that President Barack Obama had been a poor student who did not deserve to be admitted to the Ivy League universities he attended. Trump, who is mulling a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, offered no proof for his claim but said he would continue to press the matter as he has the legitimacy of the president's birth certificate. "I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?" Trump said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm...

WOBURN – A New York man was sentenced today to life in prison without parole for murdering a Cambridge man inside a Harvard residence hall in 2009. Jabrai Jordan Copney, 22, was essentially living at Harvard with his girlfriend, who was a student, when he masterminded a plot to rob Justin Cosby at gunpoint of money and marijuana inside Kirkland House in May 18, 2009.

Did I read what Trump just told Hannity right? That he has Osama's college grades and papers? Now that would be a treasure trove, cuz I firmly believe that regardless of where Osama was born be attended college as a foreign student, lied all thru college and claimed various affiliations which he benefited from. Did I hear Trump right?

To those who are now speaking out about the Obama eligibility matter, I can think of no better statement than the one uttered by a very frustrated Officer John McClane, played by Bruce Willis in the movie“Die Hard.” In order to get the attention of a police officer oblivious to the carnage taking place inside of the Nakatomi Plaza building after making a very cursory inspection and finding nothing amiss,McClane tosses the body of a terrorist from an office window window onto the windshield of the police cruiser and fires at the police car, yelling “welcome to the party, pal.”

Amy Chua, the Yale law professor who enraged parents and morning show viewers everywhere when she published her parenting book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, must be feeling somewhat vindicated today. Chua's eldest daughter was just accepted to Harvard. Chua, better known as Tiger Mom, made headlines earlier this year for preaching the benefits of ultra strict parenting practices -- rooted in her own Chinese upbringing. The WSJ article that accompanied the release of her book was called "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" and preached a childhood free of video games, playdates, and TV and listed all the ways...

Since the time humans first began to control fire around 400,000 years ago we have had just a few simple tools to douse the flames. Now some Harvard University chemists believe they have found a way to bring fire suppression into the digital age by controlling flames with electricity. During a series of experiments to study the chemical nature of fire, scientists were surprised to learn that by applying an electrical field to a burning flame it easily went out. All they needed to do is wave a wand-like, electrified metal wire near the flame. ‘What did I do wrong?’...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Sen. John Kerry called on Yale University to follow Harvard's lead Friday and welcome the Reserve Officer Training Corps back to the Ivy League campus. Kerry, a Yale alumnus, wrote in a letter to the university's president that the breakthrough at Harvard is important in moving past a "difficult era" when many elite schools turned away ROTC to protest the now defunct ban on gays serving openly in the military. "As an alumnus whose life and values were in part shaped both by Yale, and by my service in the United States Navy, I would...

The problem with studies on college that come out of colleges is that they tend to stress the importance of higher education, even when their own data do not support that conclusion. “By 1940, the typical 18-year-old had a high school diploma, up from just 9 percent who had achieved this milestone in 1910,” a Harvard study released this month claims. “After World War II, the GI Bill helped usher in a huge expansion in higher education.” “As a result, members of the U. S. Baby Boom generation far surpassed their counterparts in other countries in educational attainment.” The report,...

You think? Can it really be that incurring tens of thousands of dollars in debt to attend a private university where most of what you learn won’t be relevant to your career is a bad investment?Everything I thought I knew about the world is … pretty much confirmed here, actually. A new report released by Harvard Wednesday states in some of the strongest terms yet that such a “college for all” emphasis may actually harm many American students – keeping them from having a smooth transition from adolescence to adulthood and a viable career…“It would be fine if we had...

Blizzard Bungling Sanitation Bosses Were Harvard-TrainedBy Ben Yakas in News on January 13, 2011 1:30 PM People have been extra riled up and angry at the Sanitation Department over their underwhelming performance cleaning up snow and trash after the Blizzageddon a few weeks back. But maybe people have been too hard on them—after all, it's not like they went to Harvard or anything! Except, they did: several top sanitation officials who are being investigated for the alleged slowdown were sent to Harvard for training—and it was paid for courtesy of taxpayers. Ten sanitation bosses were sent to Harvard for "management...