Free Republic

The family of radical preacher Abu Qatada has won an injunction preventing protesters from demonstrating outside their home. His wife and five children were granted an “anti-harassment” order by a High Court judge in London. Justice Silber also granted them an injunction against various protest groups, preventing them misusing private information about the family—such as their names and address. The judge stressed that his decision did not prevent organizations from protesting against Qatada, provided demonstrations take place more than 500 meters (1640 feet) from the London house where they are living. …

William Bennett, a onetime student of Dr. Silber’s who served as US secretary of education under Ronald Reagan, praised his mentor’s pedagogic style in a 1986 Globe interview. “It wasn’t intimidating; it was quickening,” Bennett said. “Silber is frank and manly and direct. There isn’t enough of that these days. He believes human beings should be spoken to as if they were human beings, not as if they were flowers.”

Former Communist Party member and champion of the socialist folk-song movement Irwin Silber passed away on September 8 in Oakland, California, from complications of Alzheimer's disease. Born in Manhattan, New York on October 17, 1925, Silber grew up in in New York City's working-class Jewish Community. He joined the ranks of the Communist Party USA's youth wing, the Young Communist League, followed by joining the party proper.

The earnings of many top university presidents are spiraling up toward $1 million a year, according to an annual survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education, rising far more quickly than faculty salaries. Forty-two presidents of private universities were paid $500,000 or more in the 2003 fiscal year, the most recent for which figures are available, compared with 27 presidents the previous year. Just two earned half a million in 1994. The highest-paid private university president, William R. Brody of Johns Hopkins University, earned $897,786 in university compensation, not counting at least $100,000 in annual pay for membership on several...