Free Republic

Fair warning: This article will piss off a lot of you. I can say that with confidence because it’s about Peter Thiel. And Thiel – the PayPal co-founder, hedge fund manager and venture capitalist – not only has a special talent for making money, he has a special talent for making people furious. Some people are contrarian for the sake of getting headlines or outsmarting the markets. For Thiel, it’s simply how he views the world. Of course a side benefit for the natural contrarian is it frequently leads to things like headlines and money. Consider the 2000 Nasdaq crash....

Higher education is in a bubble situation—its price has risen sharply, fueled by cheap federal loan and grant money (sound familiar?) while the return on the investment has fallen. More and more college students are either not graduating or are taking jobs that do not require college-level skills and often pay mediocre amounts. In investor parlance, the price-earnings ratio on investing in higher education seems to be rising sharply. Where markets operate without external interference, there would be a correction. Sensing lower returns on their investment, the demand for higher education would fall and, with that, enrollments. Declining demand would...

Eight young illegal immigrants were arrested for sitting in the middle of a busy street in front of the Georgia Capitol, protesting their lack of access to higher education.

FAIRFAX, Va. - To bear or not to bear arms? That is the question of the week at George Mason University. A group calling itself Students for Concealed Carry on Campus say this is "Gun Week" at George Mason. They are trying to call attention to their plight for the right to carry concealed weapons on the university property. Leading the charge is a former marine and current criminal justice major, Karolyn Galarza. "I have a concealed handgun permit for Virginia and I believe that I should be able to carry on campus because I have a concealed handgun permit,"...

<p>MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Marquette University in Milwaukee will begin offering domestic partner benefits to its employees beginning next year.</p> <p>The move by the Catholic, Jesuit university comes about a year after the school rescinded a job offer to a lesbian and scholar at Seattle University. Marquette officials said at the time, rescinding the job offer to Jodi O'Brien had nothing to do with her sexual orientation. But, it triggered heated debate on campus over the issue.</p>

President Obama has stressed that a college education is critical to the future of America and our ability to compete in the world marketplace. To achieve that aim, our government is spending 60% more in 2011 than 2008 and providing 123% more in tax breaks for post secondary education (i.e., college). The Government has taken over all federally backed student loans, pushing almost all private lenders out of the 100 billion a year market. But are we getting our money's worth? One of the hallmarks of bad government is spending that is out of proportion to what is actually...

UCLA announced Friday that it would not discipline or further investigate the student who released a controversial online video in which she complained about Asian students' behavior and mimicked an Asian language. But later in the day, the student, Alexandra Wallace, announced that she was withdrawing from UCLA because of death threats and because she had been "ostracized from an entire community." In a statement released to the Daily Bruin, UCLA's student newspaper, she apologized for offending Asians and called the video a mistake. Wallace's three-minute video had triggered a national discussion about racial stereotyping and what authority, if any,...

A drama class in Beginning Improvising and another in Social Dances of North America III were among dozens of classes on a closely guarded quarterly list distributed only to Stanford athletes to help them choose classes. The list, which has existed since at least 2001, was widely regarded by athletes as an easy class list. More than a quarter of the courses on the list did not fulfill university general education requirements. The classes on the list were "always chock-full of athletes and very easy A's," said Kira Maker, a soccer player who used the list her freshman year. Stanford...

Why do parents hope their children will go on to college? Most parents I know hope that college will provide the education and training needed for a satisfying and rewarding career that will also pay the bills. As the mother of two young women – one a college freshman, the other a high school freshman who will soon be contemplating some form of higher education – this is my hope as well. And I am so very thankful that my oldest is not attending Northwestern University, where students were recently treated to a live demonstration of female orgasm:

Last week the Muslim Student Association (MSA) of the University of Central Florida invited the Imam Siraj Wahhaj to give an address on campus – funded by UCF’s Student Government Association. It was an invitation that raised no eyebrows: after all, Siraj Wahhaj is one of the most sought-after speakers on the Muslim circuit, and has addressed audiences all over the country. In 1991, he even became the first Muslim to give an invocation to the U.S. Congress. After 9/11, his renown as a moderate Muslim grew when he declared: “I now feel responsible to preach, actually to go on...

Students at the University of Central Florida are protesting the expected appearance of a controversial imam speaking at the university as part of Islam Awareness Month. Imam Siraj Wahhaj -- who was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a character witness for Abdel Rahman, known as the Blind Sheik -- was invited by the Muslim Student Association to dispel misconceptions about the Islamic faith, reports MyFoxOrlando. But his appearence, scheduled Friday evening, has sparked controversy at UCF --a public university part of the State University System of Florida.

A fusion between two worlds began 1300 years ago with Tariq ibn Ziyad’s crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar in 711. Please join us to commemorate the brilliant contributions resulting from the blending of eastern and western cultures. The agenda will tell the vital story of the achievements when Christians, Jews, and Muslims thrived side by side in Western Europe, building a society that lit the Dark Ages. Experts will discuss how to transform education, promote tolerance, civility, political reform, and advance human development so that we can emulate the spirit and triumphs of the early years. Diplomacy and Democratization...

LEXINGTON, Va. Feb. 10, 2011 – Undoubtedly, many of you have received information about the controversy during the past few days surrounding VMI’s “East Meets West” Conference which will be held March 23-25, 2011. The purpose of this is to dispel some of the misinformation that is appearing in e-mail and blog postings and ensure you are aware of what this conference is truly about. The online registration information on the VMI website contained a summary of the conference. In that overview it was stated that this year was the 1300th anniversary of Tariq ibn Ziyad’s crossing the Strait of...

There has been discussion of returning ROTC to Stanford University. The following is a letter to the editor in today's San Jose Mercury opposing it ROTC still does not belong at Stanford Contrary to Lisa Krieger's assertion (Page 1A, Jan. 20), discrimination against gays was never a reason for booting ROTC from Stanford. The real reason was (quoting the present committee's notes) "The majority (of the 1968-69 Ad Hoc Committee on ROTC) felt that the personal conduct standards of the three services 'can seriously limit the student's free participation in all facets of intellectual inquiry and legal political activity.'" It...

The Higher Education Problem and Some Solutions Abraham H. Miller A recent study of college undergraduates showed that there was no significant learning, critical thinking development, or writing improvement among nearly half of college students by the end of the sophomore year. At the end of four years and tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses, more than a third of college students learned little to nothing. No one who has taught in a college or university in the last several decades would be surprised by those findings. A lot of people go to college...

Virginia legislators will consider whether to bar illegal immigrants from enrolling in state’s public colleges and universities. Del. Christopher Peace’s bill would amend state law to explicitly prohibit people who are in the United States illegally from being admitted to Virginia’s public two-year or four-year institutions. Several previous attempts to pass similar legislation in Virginia haven’t succeeded. Federal law prohibits such people from paying in-state tuition at colleges and universities, but they can still pursue a public college education. Virginia’s public universities currently have the discretion to decide whether to admit illegal aliens as long as they charge out-of-state tuition....

As you read this, there are over 18 million students enrolled at the nearly 5,000 colleges and universities currently in operation across the United States. Many of these institutions of higher learning are now charging $20,000, $30,000 or even $40,000 a year for tuition and fees. That does not even count living expenses. Today it is 400% more expensive to go to college in the United States than it was just 30 years ago. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-student-loan-debt-2010-12##ixzz19C0sagpR

Complacent conservatives not only have allowed our primary and secondary school systems to descend into the pits of liberal philosophies, but we have kept silent while our American colleges and universities wallow in mediocrity. “They [students] are not being given meaningful instruction, regarding the responsibilities of citizens, and they are certainly not being taught the benefits of moral restraint,” (p. 213) says author Jim Nelson Black in his outstanding book, “Freefall of the American University; How Our Colleges Are Corrupting the Minds and Morals of the Next Generation.” As parents and grandparents struggle to get enough tuition dollars together, we...

On a quick break between classes last week, Reef Al-Shabnan slipped into an empty room at Catholic University to start her daily prayers to Allah. In one corner was a life-size painting of Jesus carrying the cross. In another, the portrait of a late priest and theologian looked on. And high above the room hung a small wooden crucifix. This was not, Shabnan acknowledged, the ideal space for a Muslim to pray in. After her more than two years on campus, though, it has become routine and sacred in its own way. You can find Allah anywhere, the 19-year-old from...

A very unscientific Google search for ‘government education grants’ yields over 4,000,000 hits. There are all manner of scholarships, grants, and loans available for every conceivable category of person, with the possible exception of politically conservative religious white heterosexual males. There is no room on college campuses for hate-filled superstitious racist homophobes. Not unless they are hate-filled Islamofascist racist homophobes, that is. They apparently go to the front of the Financial Aid line at University. But I digress. Federal, state, and local governments subsidize higher education with billions of our taxpayer dollars every year. And every year, costs go up....