Free Republic

BOSTON — It was a blow the immigrant boxer could not withstand: after capturing his second consecutive title as the Golden Gloves heavyweight champion of New England in 2010, Tamerlan Anzorovich Tsarnaev, 23, was barred from the national Tournament of Champions because he was not a United States citizen. The cocksure fighter, a flamboyant dresser partial to white fur and snakeskin, had been looking forward to redeeming the loss he suffered the previous year in the first round, when the judges awarded his opponent the decision, drawing boos from spectators who considered Mr. Tsarnaev dominant. From one year to the...

I got a shout out a few days ago from Nicole Ostil, nee Gomes, who responded to a piece I wrote not so long ago in which I criticized the 24-year-old wife and mother for going on the Internet and asking strange men to help her pay for breast implants. “Thank you for your personal insights,” she wrote, adding, she is “actually quite flattered at all the controversy” stirred up by new media writers like yours truly. For some reason, Nicole felt it necessary to stress to me that the web site on which she solicited her cosmetic surgery, MyFreeImplants.com,...

Muslim-led nations seek ban on insult As the U.N. General Assembly convenes this week in New York, several leaders of mostly Muslim nations are suggesting that the world body consider sanctions on blasphemy, amid widespread protests against an amateur movie that denigrates Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will focus at least part of his remarks on the film when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. “I am the prime minister of a nation, of which most are Muslims, that has declared anti-Semitism a crime against humanity. But the West hasn’t recognized...

If you want to know what really goes on in our public schools, go to a teacher-of-the-year banquet. Here you will see why schools aren't about academics anymore. Educators will never admit it openly, but an event like this reveals so much that outsiders never get to see.

Don't get me wrong. Not every conservative has a winning personality and not every liberal is a toothache in search of a mouth to inhabit. In fact, one of the single nicest people I know is a liberal (Hi, Julie Joyce!) Yet and still, it's not a reach to say that most liberals, especially the ones that are politically active, are just generally difficult to get along with. It's not just me saying that either. I've interviewed more than one big name conservative who has told me that they moved over to the right in large part because the...

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Sunday ruled out the chance of a US default following S&P's decision to downgrade America's credit rating. The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So there is zero probability of default" said Greenspan on NBC's Meet the Press. "What I think the S&P thing did was to hit a nerve that there's something basically bad going on, and it's hit the self-esteem of the United States, the psyche" said Greenspan.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Instead of feeling stressed by the money they owe, many young adults actually feel empowered by their credit card and education debts, according to a new nationwide study. Researchers found that the more credit card and college loan debt held by young adults aged 18 to 27, the higher their self-esteem and the more they felt like they were in control of their lives. The effect was strongest among those in the lowest economic class. Only the oldest of those studied – those aged 28 to 34 – began showing signs of stress about the money they...

Charles Darwin observed “ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” That was certainly true in 1995 when a man named McArthur Wheeler boldly robbed two banks in Pittsburgh without using a disguise. Security camera footage of him was broadcast on the evening news the same day as the robberies, and he was arrested an hour later. Mr. Wheeler was surprised when the police explained how they had used the surveillance tapes to catch him. “But I wore the juice,” he mumbled incredulously. He seemed to believe that rubbing his face with lemon juice would blur his image and make...

By now, most people (with the exception of many psychotherapists) recognize that the self-esteem movement officially launched by California in 1986 has been at best silly, and at worst injurious to society, despite whatever small benefit it may have had to some individuals. The movement was begun by California assemblyman John Vasconcellos. As the New York Times reported, “Mr. Vasconcellos, a 53-year-old Democrat, is described by an aide as ‘the most radical humanist in the Legislature.’” In an interview at the time, Mr. Vasconcellos told me he had personally benefited from therapy. It enabled him to improve the poor self-esteem...

The business of politics got a little dirty on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" Thursday night. Meghan McCain (yes, daughter of Arizona Senator John McCain) joined Stewart last night to chat about her book, "Dirty Sexy Politics," and the conversation soon veered into Palin territory. The book, Stewart pointed out, "is a view of the campaign trail that’s very personal" - almost like he was reading someone's diary, he said. “I basically wrote a very real book," McCain explained. "It’s very sad and I talk about everything – I talk about sex and politics and everything in between and...

The politics of many liberals are motivated by a lack of self-love and self-esteem. This claim can be inductively proven by an analysis of their behavior. People with a low sense of self can be found in any occupation. However the types of work to which they are drawn include positions of power and control over others (to compensate for their lack of power over how they think and feel about themselves), positions that can draw fame or praise (to fill their longing for esteem), occupations that involve emotions more than reason, and positions that are somewhat removed from reality...

In general, low self-esteem and a lack of self-love are the basis for the ideology of liberals. Liberals are those who would use government to reduce the freedoms of some people to provide benefits for others. Liberals argue for fairness and equality for all people, but neither is possible. Other than identical twins all people are genetically different and without exception each has unique life experiences that are interpreted differently. We are necessarily and naturally unequal in a worldly sense. (If "all men are created equal" in a Godly sense nothing more needs to be done to ensure it.) Liberals,...

In this spoof, NASA has a new plan for reaching out to Muslims and making them feel good about their historic contributions to science. Barack H. Obama 666 Pennsylvania Ave Washington, DC 20006 Dear Sir, I cannot tell you how much we appreciate your budget cuts, your cancellation of the space shuttle and any replacement launch vehicle for it, forcing us to rely on Russian Soyuz ships and their space program, which can't It will take approximately 3000 suicide bombers within the SRB's to provide adequate liftoff thrust for the shuttle launch. All systems go! even seem to dock with...

Yes, we have a self-esteem problem in our country, but we don’t recognize it because, well, we have a self-esteem problem. We need look no further than the bewildering popularity of the reality-TV show Jersey Shore and the instant celebrity garnered from its inhabitants despite their complete absence of qualifications. Though, admittedly, the bar for “success” in America these days is set scarily low; in the case of Jersey Shore and most of the famous-for-being-famous world), dark tans (haven’t they heard of melanoma?), large breasts, muscles, and ‘tude seem sufficient. It is safe to say that these New Jersey denizens...

Rich married men who are approaching retirement have the highest self esteem, scientists have discovered. Researchers found that confidence is lowest amongst young adults, but increases with age until it peaks around sixty. However, after this, retirement and failing health cause a decline in self regard, researchers said "We cannot know for certain that more wealth and better health directly lead to higher self-esteem, but it does appear to be linked in some way. "

With the coyness of someone revealing a bizarre sexual taste, my patients would often say to me, "Doctor, I think I'm suffering from low self-esteem." This, they believed, was at the root of their problem, whatever it was, for there is hardly any undesirable behavior or experience that has not been attributed, in the press and on the air, in books and in private conversations, to low self-esteem, from eating too much to mass murder. Self-esteem is, of course, a term in the modern lexicon of psychobabble, and psychobabble is itself the verbal expression of self-absorption without self-examination. The former...

Growing numbers of British school-leavers have 'attitude problems' and believe the world 'owes them a living', a Tesco boss warned today. Youngsters too often turn up late for work and interviews and fail to see the importance of dressing neatly and working with others, said Lucy Neville-Rolfe, director of corporate and legal affairs. Many also struggle with basic maths and English as exams become easier and schools fail to properly enforce discipline. In a hard-hitting speech, Mrs Neville-Rolfe, 56, one of the most powerful and well-paid women in British business, blamed failures in our education system. She said shortcomings among...

One afternoon in the spring of 2006, for reasons unknown to those who knew him, Mitchell Henderson, a seventh grader from Rochester, Minn., took a .22-caliber rifle down from a shelf in his parents’ bedroom closet and shot himself in the head. The next morning, Mitchell’s school assembled in the gym to begin mourning. His classmates created a virtual memorial on MySpace and garlanded it with remembrances. One wrote that Mitchell was “an hero to take that shot, to leave us all behind. God do we wish we could take it back. . . . ” Someone e-mailed a clipping...

The Me Diploma by: Malcolm A. Kline, July 28, 2009 When international test scores came out showing that American students scored lower on standardized math tests than Koreans but felt better about themselves, statisticians scratched their heads. It turns out that the Yanks may actually have been living up to what they were trained for. “In a recent study, 39% of American eighth-graders were confident of their math skills, compared to only 6% of Korean eighth-graders,” Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell report in The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement. “The Koreans, however, far exceeded...

The Logan's daughter hung herself after she sent a naked photo of herself to her boyfriend. He passed it on to several students in several schools. "My only baby that I will never be able to touch again," Cynthia Logan said through tears. "I will never have grandchildren. I will never be able to hand down my heirlooms. I'm just devastated by these parents that allow their children to do and say anything they want.""Schools need to understand our kids are targeting each other and how technology is being used as a weapon," Aftab said. "None of them (the schools)...

School staff and parents feel they cannot criticise their children for fear of upsetting them, according to Dr Carol Craig, leaving them with an “all about me” mentality. Mothers and fathers now often tell teachers that it is “bad for his self-esteem” if their son fails a spelling test, or that their daughter is left “unhappy” by missing out on a part in the school pantomime, she claimed. Dr Craig called the self-esteem agenda, which has been imported from the United States, a “fashionable idea” that has gone too far and urged schools to reclaim their role as educators, not...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Aren't you ashamed of yourself? All these years, you've been trying to build up your child's self-esteem, and now a growing body of research suggests you may be making a big mistake. A study published in the December issue of Child Development finds that early adolescents with high self-esteem are more likely to react aggressively when they feel ashamed than their peers with lower levels of self-esteem.

As I sat through another interminable middle school award ceremony that lasted longer than the contest itself, I pondered how the self-esteem movement has wrecked this country. I had plenty of time since well-meaning adults were handing out participation medals to every eager participant. This current financial calamity is the logical result of the self-esteem movement. Don't get me wrong, I think self-esteem is wonderful when sprung from a healthy self-image and buoyed by real accomplishments. But like diversity, it is worthless when pursued for its own sake. Presidents Clinton and Bush were full of self-esteem as terrorists plotted the...

John Derbyshire of National Review Online has written a curmudgeonly piece railing against irrational optimism. It's an entertaining read that is even more apt in light of recent developments. I'm sure the jackasses who wrecked our financial system were full of exuberant optimism and overinflated self-esteem. This hits home with me because, like the author, I do not believe in the perfectibility of man. We are flawed vessels. This brought to my mind William Butler Yeats' poem, "The Second Coming." Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and...

Self-Inflicted Self Esteem by: Irene Warren, September 11, 2008 Psychologist Polly Young-Eisendrath, author of The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance argues that we, as a culture, are undergoing a cultural change which she identified as a self-esteem trap: a time when parents continue to interfere with their children’s developmental growth by constantly protecting them, telling them they are unique or special, thereby setting them up for a lifetime of grief and disappointments. To counteract what she believes is a growing phenomenon, Young-Eisendrath suggests raising children with the perspective that they are merely ordinary,...

A noted child and family psychologist says spanking a child can be an effective form of discipline, despite a recent study that states otherwise. A new report titled "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools" shows that more than 200,000 children received corporal punishment in U.S. schools. Texas accounted for the majority of the cases, although 21 U.S. states allow the use of corporal punishment. The study was conducted by Humans Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. According to a Reuters article on the study, "liberal groups regard corporal punishment as a barbaric relic...

Athens, Ga. – Oscar Levant, a mid-century pianist, film star and wit, once watched noted keyboardist and composer George Gershwin spend an evening playing his own music at a party and clearly having a great time. “Tell me, George,” Levant said, somewhat jealously, “if you have it to do all over again would you still fall in love with yourself"” Increasingly, psychologists are looking at such behavior and saying out loud what may go against the grain of how many people act: high self-esteem is not the same thing as healthy self-esteem. And new research by a psychology professor from...

Commentary by Daniel T. Zanoza, Executive Director So, it happens again, this time at Northern Illinois University. Five students are killed by a mad man, numerous others are wounded and then the killer takes his own life. For the next few weeks, we will be hearing loads of speculation as to why. Some will blame the DeKalb, Illinois killings on guns. Some will say the lack of guns at the University prevented school security from defending the innocent. And then some will go into the deeper, psychological explanations for why these young people kill. But many will miss the mark....

For decades now, psychology and pedagogy researchers have been debating the impact of competition on young people's self-esteem, with those wary of thought competition taking the lead. "We don't want kids to compete individually, put themselves in vulnerable positions as individuals," explains a leading administrator. "They can compete within teams," explains another. "So the focus is on community building rather than on personal value." But what about Sam's sense of personal value? Aren't human beings fabulously varied in their gifts and sensibilities? Excellent teamwork can be important, but is it the only admirable achievement? Should any school in the United...

Freedom Middle School Orlando school uses extra-sensitive dog as counselor for students Mr. Harv instinctively picks up on body language, facial expressions and tone of voice. Susan Jacobson Sentinel Staff Writer November 9, 2007 When Mr. Harv goes to school, he spends his time playing ball, sitting on students' laps and lying down on the job. It's all in a day's work for Harv, Freedom Middle School's unofficial mascot and Central Florida's only known full-time canine counselor. At Freedom, every day is a dog day. Students greet Harv with hearty "hellos" and a vigorous belly rub. If there's a crisis...

MISS MANNERS It's best to ignore strangers who shout their prejudices Judith Martin Miss Manners November 8, 2007 Dear Miss Manners: This evening I found myself waiting in line with two young men who proceeded loudly to proclaim at least five different countries they would like to bomb, and advocated reintroducing the draft so that everyone else would have to share their "sacrifice." They then loudly branded several political figures they disapproved of with a crude word. I bit my tongue and waited quietly. Then the people in front of me joined in and, incredibly, they all complained about how...

Quebec legislature bans word 'weathervane' Speaker says its hurtful and a slur after Charest called Dumont a weathervane one too many times October 16, 2007 THE CANADIAN PRESS QUEBEC – Politicians in Quebec's legislature will have to come up with a new way to slag their opponents now that the word "weathervane" has been added to the list of unparliamentary language. Speaker Michel Bissonnet judged the word to be "hurtful" as the legislature resumed Tuesday after the summer break. Premier Jean Charest has called Opposition Leader Mario Dumont a weathervane on numerous occasions recently, elevating him on Tuesday to "national...

When little Suzie paints her first piece of art in pre-school, it may look to you like your little girl could give Picasso a run for his money. When little Billy scores the winning soccer goal, you may have images of him being the next David Beckham. It's common to think your child is a genius, the star of the team or destined to be the next president of the United States. But some experts say that letting youngsters know those feelings may be setting him up to fail -- and to not be able to handle that failure. "I...

Once upon a time – a time you probably don’t remember if you’re younger than 30 – American schools sought to teach children self-control, personal responsibility, and respect for others, especially adults. Students were corrected when they made mistakes and reprimanded when they slacked off or talked back. Most unfathomable to the current education establishment, teachers assessed students on qualities such as “gets along well with others” – and some children actually flunked. In the eyes of schoolteachers and parents, shaping kids into productive and responsible citizens was more important than protecting their egos. Then, sometime in the 1970s, schools...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women who get cosmetic breast implants are nearly three times as likely to commit suicide as other women, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. The study, published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery, reinforces several others that have shown women who have breast enlargements have higher suicide risks. Loren Lipworth of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee and colleagues followed up on 3,527 Swedish women who had cosmetic breast implant surgery between 1965 and 1993. They looked at death certificates to analyze causes of death among women with breast implants. Only 24 of the women had committed...

UC names Cal diversity czar Tanya Schevitz Friday, July 20, 2007 07-20) 04:00 PDT Santa Barbara -- UC Berkeley has hired astrophysics professor Gibor Basri as the campus' new vice chancellor for equity and inclusion. On Thursday, UC's Board of Regents approved the appointment of Basri, 56, to increase diversity among faculty, staff and students. The position, created by UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, carries a $200,000 salary and is one of the first executive positions of its type in the nation. With a $4.5 million budget, Basri is charged with developing a more diverse faculty and staff and a...

Parents of government-educated school children...listen up! You already have heard many of the horror stories coming out of our government indoctrination centers. For instance, when little Cranston goes back to school in August he will have to turn in his crayon boxes and precious supplies for the good of the class. They aren't his supplies anymore, they are now government property. This first lesson in the power of government is being learned in more and more government schools every year. Now we have something else your child needs to know on that first day ... please sit down. I don't...

5-year term for investigator in forgery case - "I believe that the death penalty is illegal...It is barbaric and an atrocity...Any acts I committed are out of a firm belief against the state killing these people." Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau Tuesday, May 1, 2007 (05-01) 04:00 PDT Sacramento -- A former criminal defense investigator accused of forging statements from jurors, witnesses and others in death penalty cases pleaded guilty to four charges Monday and accepted a five-year prison sentence. Kathleen Culhane, 40, said outside a Sacramento courtroom that she filed incorrect documents on behalf of five condemned inmates because...

Growing older has many drawbacks and one unalloyed pleasure: passing judgment on the younger generation. Lately, people have been scrutinizing the members of Generation Y and finding them deficient. What's wrong with the kids? A recent article in The Wall Street Journal reported that because they have been told since infancy that they were special, they believe it and expect to keep hearing it. "Bosses, professors and mates are feeling the need to lavish praise on young adults, particularly twentysomethings, or else see them wither under an unfamiliar compliment deficit," it said. To critics, this generation is an army of...

....Rather than seeing self-esteem as something that flows from good performance, they made self-esteem the first priority, assuming that good performance would flow from an inflated level of self-satisfaction. It's like those no-score ball games. The goal is good feelings. Everyone plays, no one loses, every kid gets a trophy. It's like the teachers' contracts --- no scorecard, no linking of pay hikes to performance, everyone's a winner. It's a mind-set that sees score-keeping as too judgmental, too oppressive, too capitalist, too likely to deliver inequality and injured self-images, whether it's with pay or on the ball field....

GAINESVILLE, Fla. ? Women who undergo breast enlargement often see a sizable boost in self-esteem and positive feelings about their sexuality, a University of Florida nurse researcher reports. Although plastic surgery should not be seen as a panacea for feelings of low self-worth or sexual attractiveness, it is important for health-care practitioners to understand the psychological benefits of these procedures, says Cynthia Figueroa-Haas, a clinical assistant professor at UF?s College of Nursing who conducted the study. The findings ? which revealed that for many women, going bigger is better ? appear in the current issue of Plastic Surgical Nursing. ?Many...

Judges: No proof 'murderous coward' label affected verdict in murder trial - If the label fits, wear it. That is the conclusion of judges on the state Court of Criminal Appeals about Knox County killer Christopher Shane Harrell's argument that his rights were violated when a prosecutor called him a "murderous coward." "We conclude that the state's reference to the defendant as a 'murderous coward' did not affect the verdict and prejudice the defendant," the court opined. "The state presented a strong case against the defendant, and much of the evidence was undisputed." Harrell is locked away for life for...

The study, conducted by five psychologists, examined the responses given by 16,475 college students, between 1982 and 2006, on a written personality test called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory.....But the real source of today's narcissistic personalities, it seems to me, is the "liberation" movement of the 1960s (actually the late 1950s to early 1970s)....

The chickens have come home to roost. The first generation of students swaddled in the insanity of the self-esteem movement have emerged on the scene as arrogant, self-absorbed twits with an exaggerated sense of entitlement and self-importance. In short, they’ve been spoiled. Potentially, they’ve been ruined. The idiocy of social engineering in the classroom is again bearing catastrophic results. Here’s how we know. A group of five university professors has evaluated more than 16,000 personality profiles of college students gathered over the last 24 years. What they’ve discovered is that today’s young people have dramatically different self-concepts than the two...

NEW YORK -- Today's college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than their predecessors, according to a comprehensive new study by five psychologists who worry that the trend could be harmful to personal relationships and American society. "We need to stop endlessly repeating 'You're special' and having children repeat that back," said the study's lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. "Kids are self-centered enough already." Twenge and her colleagues, in findings to be presented at a workshop Tuesday in San Diego on the generation gap, examined the responses of 16,475 college students nationwide who completed an...

The rise of the self-esteem movement From the late 1960s on self-esteem became a fashionable and influential idea. One of the first exponents was a young psychology professor called Stanley Coopersmith from California. A more influential figure was Nathaniel Branden. Branden was a psychtherapist and devotee of the philosopher Ayn Rand. He has written countless books on self-esteem and is considered the intellectual father of the self-esteem movement. As we shall see in another section, Branden’s work is sophisticated and his definition of self-esteem, and notions of how it can be boosted, is a far cry from the exhortations to...

The dispatches arrived in a bunch and pointed too much to the same conclusion to be coincidence. The conclusion: We're doomed. And it's not al-Qaida doing us in. We're doing it to ourselves. In what is surely the tip of the social iceberg, a New England grade school has joined schools across the country in prohibiting the kids from playing tag at recess. Touch football is also banned. The schools are growingly - and legitimately - fearful of lawsuits over playground accidents by litigious parents. Seesaws and jungle gyms have long since disappeared from playgrounds. But there is probably more...

Central High School football coach Dave Cadelina found himself thrust into a national sports story this past week, though probably not one that he could have ever imagined before. Debate has raged across the nation about the possible dilution of one of this nation's proudest, most basic and most sacred traditions — high school football. That's because Cadelina violated a new, controversial Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference "score management policy," a policy that in essence says that anyone who coaches a football team that beats another team by more than 50 points faces a mandatory one game suspension.... Cadelina made clear...

Life is about contrasts. Happy and sad. Winners and losers. Pleasure and pain. Without bad days, how will you recognize good days when they come around? But to self-esteem despots, life is a even-steven proposition. Everyone, regardless of talent or temperament, perseverance or personality, is treated equally, even when they manifestly are not. The Associated Press recently recounted some of the horror stories arising from self-esteeming running amok. Many schools don't let children talk about sleepovers unless every child in the room has been invited. They don't let children hand out invitations to birthday parties if even one classmate is...

A few years ago, I was watching TV with an ex-girlfriend. It was an entertainment show that was doing an interview with actress Kate Hudson. She described her experience traveling abroad to Paris, France and being embarrassed by her fellow countrymen: "We're the most annoying, boisterous creatures in the world. I mean we come in and we eat mounds of food, and we're like, 'Where's the kaachup [sic] for our French fries?' I'm like, 'Shut up!' Sometimes I'll be walking down the street and I'll hear some American and I'll just go, 'Of course they hate us, of course they...