Official censorship—now renamed speech codes and antiharassment codes—pervades the campuses. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) recently surveyed more than 300 schools, including the top universities and liberal arts colleges, and found that over 68 percent explicitly prohibit speech that the First Amendment would protect if uttered off campus. At 229 schools, FIRE found clear and substantial restriction of speech, while 91 more had policies that one could interpret as restricting speech. Only eight permitted genuine free expression.Read the whole thing, really, before sending your child off to college.
A 2002 New York Times article reported that today’s college kids seem more guarded in their views than previous generations of students. The writer suggested several possible explanations—disgust with partisan politics and uncivil debates on cable news shows, perhaps, or simple politeness. A more likely reason is that universities have made honest disagreement dangerous, making students fearful of saying what they think.(links added)
2. The tide appears to be turning for the school choice movement. George Will has a good piece relating news on various fronts.
3. Black History month starts today. This usually just irritates the hell out of me. I hate the fact that black history has to be beaten over our heads for a month. You cannot separate blakc history from general history and any attempts to do so are foolish. Furhtermore, black history month tends to be presented in such a way as for whites to feel guilty over past treatment of blacks--which just irriates me more. Next month is women's history month (I think) and there is a Hispanic history month, but I forget when. I despise all of these and will continue to do so until there is a White Ex-Military Lawyer from Florida month.
But still, things do seem to be changing with regard to actual diversity in the black community. James McWhorter says why.
4. The McCain-Feingold bill, or the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, should be renamed, the Bipartisan Hypocrites Act or at the very least, the Law of Uninteneded Consequences.
5. I have long been a fan of science fiction, both the written word and TV/movies. All such material invites comments and detractors, but in one of the more interesting posts I have seen on the subject is this one over at Volokh Conspiracy by Ilya Somin. In short, the post is about attemppts to explain plot holes in the Star Wars film. One that was not discussed in all the traffic--at the end of Ep. 6 (Return of the Jedi), Luke asks Leia if she remembers her mother, Leia replies images, feelings, blah, blah, blah. But at the end of Ep. 3, Padme dies in childbirth, Leia would have no memories. Not a terribly importantly plot line, but certainly a continuity problem.
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