HARVARD FEMINIST SAYS ACADEMIC FREEDOM SHOULD BE ABOLISHED

A Harvard University feminist student writing in the campus newspaperThe Crimson recently posited this:

“If our university community opposes racism, sexism, and heterosexism, why should we put up with research that counters our goals simply in the name of “academic freedom”?

The column was titled  “The Doctrine of Academic Freedom – Let’s Give Up On Academic Freedom in Favor of Justice.”

Its author, senior Sandra Y.L. Korn, a joint history of science and studies of women, gender and sexuality major, called for the end of academic freedom and in its place “a more rigorous standard: one of ‘academic justice.’”

“When an academic community observes research promoting or justifying oppression, it should ensure that this research does not continue,” she wrote. “The power to enforce academic justice comes from students, faculty, and workers organizing together to make our universities look as we want them to do.”

Uh huh. She went there.

Via: The College Fix

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SURPRISE: Massachusetts Is Home To America's Worst-Performing ObamaCare Exchange

Massachusetts is struggling under ObamaCare. In the state that “inspired” the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with almost universal coverage and a functional exchange, most would assume the transition to the federal law would be largely cosmetic. Yet many BayState insiders have been surprised by the number of brick walls the state has run into during early implementation and are privately expressing deep concerns about the road ahead. Massachusetts is now home to the nation’s WORST-performing exchange.

It’s time the rest of the country take note.

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The ACA’s impacts will be widely felt in Massachusetts – from the premium rollercoaster ahead for small businesses to the largely non-functional exchange website, run for by the state-based exchange known as the Connector. Due to the ACA, a majority of small companies will see “extreme premium increases.” As a result state leaders have been reduced to begging the federal government for last-minute waivers and grace periods. In addition, residents will face a disproportionately heavy tax burden to finance the new law due to its industry mix, high-cost insurance and the commonwealth’s higher than average incomes.

Jean Yang, current executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, a state based exchange.

To add insult to injury, the Massachusetts exchange has failed in spectacular fashion and lags far behind the federal site in terms of progress toward fixing the problem.

State Has Enrolled .02% of First-Year Goal, 5% Of Three-Month Goal

Recently released U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) enrollment data through the end of 2013 put a fine point on how bad the situation is at the exchange. The goal for enrollment by March 31, 2014 is 250,000. As of the end of the year, the state had successfully enrolled 5,428 people. Compare that to Oregon, which many consider to be the worst exchange in the country. At 0.8% of the first-year goal, their enrollment of 20,000 looks robust in comparison.

The Connector has recently walked back the 250,000 goal, saying their real goal is 200,000 by March. To meet even this lower threshold, the exchange will have to successfully enroll and collect payment from 3,138 individuals every business day over the remaining 62 days of open enrollment. At their current conversion rate of moving those that have created an account through to selecting a plan, they will need 1.4 million total applications to be started to hit 200,000 in just over two months. This in a state with about 6.5 million residents, the vast majority of whom are on employer-sponsored insurance and one-quarter of whom are on Medicaid.

Exchange Website Has Not Successfully Enrolled A Single Person:Enrollment By Paper And Excel

Via: Forbes

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ELIZABETH WARREN: ALLOW POST OFFICE TO OFFER SMALL LOANS

 THEY CAN'T MAKE MONEY AT DELIVERING MAIL.  WHAT MAKES THEM THINK THAT THIS WILL SUCCEED.  IT'S THINKING LIKE THIS THAT THE USPS IS ON THE BRINK OF DISINTEGRATING BEFORE OUR EYES.

In November, the U.S. Postal Service reported it had a $5 billion loss for Fiscal Year 2013, its seventh consecutive year with loss. At the time, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe blamed Congress for the loss, citing an “inflexible business model.”

“We’ve achieved some excellent results for the year in terms of innovations, revenue gains, and cost reductions, but without major legislative changes we cannot overcome the limitations of our inflexible business model,” Donahoe said. “Congress is moving forward with legislation that has the potential to give us greater flexibility and put us back on a firm financial footing, and we strongly encourage that they continue moving forward.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), however, supports an idea that would expand the role of the U.S. Postal Service from just mail delivery to financial services as well. In an op-ed for the Huffington Post published Saturday, Warren cited an Office of the Inspector General report pointing out that 68 million Americans have no checking or savings account and rely on non-bank financial services like payday loans and check cashing to the tune of $89 billion in 2012.

Warren sees this as an area for the Postal Service to get a foothold in order to see some have access “to affordable and fair financial services.”

“[T]he OIG explored the possibility of the USPS offering basic banking services—bill paying, check cashing, small loans—to its customers,” Warren wrote. “With post offices and postal workers already on the ground, USPS could partner with banks to make a critical difference for millions of Americans who don't have basic banking services because there are almost no banks or bank branches in their neighborhoods.”

The senior Massachusetts senator argued for “nothing fancy, just basic bill paying, check cashing, and small dollar loans.” She says that countries that have instituted a similar system with the postal services have “seen their earnings increase dramatically.”

Via: Breitbart

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HARVARD VOTES TO BANISH BOTTLED WATER

Harvard University students agreed by vote that plastic single-use water bottles should no longer be sold on campus, leaving the fate of plastic water bottles in jeopardy at the Ivy League institution.

While campus administrators cannot be forced to go along with the student vote’s outcome, organizers of the ballot measure say they expect cooperation from Harvard officials, who will be lobbied by the student government to comply.

“We will be working with the administration to make sure student wishes are met,” Katrina Malakhoff, chairperson of the Harvard Environmental Action Committee, said in an email to The College Fix.

Sixty-four percent of students who voted in Harvard’s fall referendum late last month supported “ending the sale and distribution of plastic non-reusable water bottles on campus (including at Harvard cafes and Crimson Catering events) and making drinking water more accessible through the installation of additional water fountains and reusable water bottle filling stations.”

Harvard University officials did not respond to phone calls and emails from The College Fix asking if they would support the student referendum’s majority vote to end the sale of bottled water on campus.

Malakhoof, in her email, said “now that students have shown their support, we are optimistic that these stations can be installed within the next few months.”

Funding for the new water stations will be shouldered by a grant the environmental action committee received, as well as support from the Harvard Office for Sustainability and other campus coffers, Malakhoff said.

Single-use plastic water bottles are the latest environmental trending cause. Critics contend the environment is polluted once to create the plastic bottles, then again when they clog landfills, and further tout tap water as just as good if not better than bottled.

Via: The College Fix

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“Good Moral Character” Gets Obama’s Illegal Alien Uncle U.S. Residency

DRUNK DRIVING, NO LICENSE, ILLEGAL & THIS IS "GOOD MORAL CHARACTER"?

STOP THE TRAIN.  I WANT TO GET OFF!!!

The “good moral character” of President Obama’s illegal immigrant uncle, arrested for drunken driving in 2011, has earned him legal U.S. residency and a chance to apply for American citizenship, a judge has decided.

This is a classic example of the benefits of having friends—in this case a nephew—in high places. Onyango “Omar” Obama had lived illegally in the U.S. for decades when he got busted driving drunk in Framingham, Massachusetts. At the time of his arrest Uncle Onyango had already been deported yet continued to live and work in the Boston area and he had a valid Massachusetts drivers’ license.

Clearly, Onyango has received special treatment from the feds and government documents obtained by Judicial Watch prove it. They weren’t easy to obtain because the administration obviously wants to keep details of the case from the public, but JW took legal action to obtain the Onyango files.

The records, released by JW in two parts (click here and here to see them), show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) withheld information on Uncle O’s release from the press and Congress and that the agency curiously permitted him to seek the reopening of deportation proceedings that had been closed in 1992. ICE leadership also tracked the politically sensitive case and granted Uncle O a special stay of deportation.

The files also include an embarrassing internal agency email from Brian Hale, ICE’s Assistant Director of the Office of Public Affairs, to ICE Director John Morton dated April 1, 2012, titled “Onyango Statement and TP’s [Talking Points].” The email (on page 43) confirms that ICE gave the president’s uncle favorable treatment.

Nevertheless, the White House firmly maintains that it has not in any way intervened in Onyango’s case and that the president never even met his Kenyan paternal uncle. However, during this week’s deportation hearing in Boston Uncle O revealed that the president actually lived with him in the 1980s while he was a student at Harvard Law School. The White House had no choice but to come clean, explaining that it had not fully researched the relationship when it initially denied the president had met Onyango.

Via: Judicial Watch

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Thanksgiving at Plymouth

 In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.

Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the historic banquet’s exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the event, and that the Wampanoag guests arrived bearing five deer. Historians have suggested that many of the dishes were likely prepared using traditional Native American spices and cooking methods. Because the Pilgrims had no oven and the Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall of 1621, the meal did not feature pies, cakes or other desserts, which have become a hallmark of contemporary celebrations.

Via: History.com

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Obama's Stunning Snub

He almost was not asked to speak.

In October 1863, President Abraham Lincoln received the same plain envelope that was sent to hundreds of people, requesting attendance at a dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery here.

Col. Clark E. Carr, a confidant of several U.S. presidents and a member of the commission that organized the event, later admitted that commissioners scrambled to send a more personal invitation after Lincoln indicated he would attend.

Asking Lincoln to deliver a “few appropriate thoughts,” Carr said, was “an afterthought.”

You see, the dedication's real headliner was Edward Everett. A former secretary of State, U.S. senator, Massachusetts governor and Harvard president whose nationwide tour helped to save Mt. Vernon as a national shrine, Everett was considered the great orator of his time.

When Lincoln arrived, Gettysburg remained raw from the horrific battle that raged here for three days just five months earlier. More than 70,000 Confederate troops engaged 83,000 Federal troops around this crossroads town; the battle claimed more than 50,000 souls and 3,000 horses, and it changed the course of the war in the Union's favor.

The bones of dead horses still were strewn over surrounding farmlands; vultures hovered over the landscape, and unburied coffins stood stacked in town.

Lincoln had plenty of justifiable, honorable reasons to beg off from the ceremony: His 10-year-old son, Tad, lay sick with a fever in the White House; the war was going poorly out West; he was locked in a budget showdown with Congress; and his re-election bid looked grim against a general he fired for incompetence a year earlier.

Via: Fox News

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Romney: Christie 'Could Easily Become Our Nominee and Save Our Party’

(CNSNews.com) - Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who lost the 2012 election to President Barack Obama, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he believed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could “easily” become the GOP presidential nominee in 2016 and “save our party.”

Christie most recently made national news when he decided to drop a legal challenge to rulings in New Jersey state courts that declared same-sex marriage legal there. And not long before that, he changed his position on the question of whether illegal aliens should get in-state tuition rates at New Jersey state colleges. Now he backs legislation that would give that privilege to illegal aliens.

These two moves won Christie a recent article from the Los Angeles Times that described him as having "staked his place near the political middle ground."

Romney’s statement that Christie could “save our party” came even as Time Magazine’s website published an excerpt from the upcoming book “Double Down: Game Change 2012” by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, that was featured above the masthead on the Drudge Report, and that describes a Republican vice presidential vetting process that resulted in Romney himself deciding not choosing Christie as his vice presidential running mate.

Via: CNS News

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School lawyer lied about 'arrest' of girl suspended for trying to help drunken pal, attorney says

It was bad enough when a Massachusetts school threw the book at an honor student who tried to help a drunken friend get home from a party, but the district's lawyer made things even worse when he lied to a judge and claimed would-be designated driver Erin Cox was arrested, Cox's attorney charged.

The allegation leveled by lawyer Wendy Murphy is the latest development in a case that has already generated widespread outrage. Cox, 17, was suspended from the North Andover High School volleyball team for five games and demoted as captain, all for simply responding to a texted plea last month from a pal who was too drunk to drive home from a party. Minutes after Cox showed up, Boxford police arrived and shut it down. Some students were arrested, but most — including Cox — were given summonses for underage possession of alcohol. Police later backed Cox's version of events.

Murphy said the school district compounded its own injustice toward a kid when its attorney, Geoffrey Bok, said in court that Cox was arrested at the party. She was not.

“That a school would then lie to a judge in a court of law is an outrage and shows the length some school officials will go to to retaliate against a family that dares to challenge an irrational zero tolerance policy,” Murphy said in a statement.

Via: Fox News

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