Will Someone Please Explain Diversity to Me?

I'm old, and recently it seems that a lot of what is going on in the world, and most especially America, confuses me.  No, I don't have Alzheimer's or senile dementia.  It just confuses me that so many adults, especially politicians, can't see things clearly.

Take the newest huge liberal cause: diversity.  When I was younger, we had affirmative action, which meant that minorities who were not as well-qualified as a white person for acceptance at a college, to be hired for a job, or to be promoted got all of this because of the color of their skin.  Evidently that didn't work out as well as it should have, because now we have the major problem of diversity, or the lack thereof.

Central Washington University, who just won a prestigious award for diversity, defines it thus: individual differences (e.g., personality, learning styles, and life experiences) and group/social differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin , and ability as well as cultural, political, religious, and other affiliations).

A study I read said that only about 30% of America's companies have diversity departments.  Who could possibly keep track of all of those things?  If we want to be truly diverse, what about including physical differences: weight, height, vision, body shape, degree and type of disability, etc.?  And what about intellectual differences?  Why isn't anyone screaming about equal rights for all the people who could be included in one of those groups?  Shouldn't Central Washington University include the items enumerated above in their definition?

Television isn't totally diverse.  There is BET (Black Entertainment Television) and other channels to meet the needs of other groups.  However, there isn't a WET (White Entertainment Television) channel.  It simply wouldn't be permitted, because it wouldn't be inclusive or diverse.  Almost all shows seem to have some blacks and at least one LGBT person, whether they fit into the plot or not.  That is, of course, with the exception of Empire, where a white person is rarely seen.  Maybe that's part of a reverse diversity plan, where stations that are not black or another minority have to have a percentage of their shows for only minorities.

Via: American Thinker

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Dem senators call for executive action on gun control

Connecticut Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats, have called on President Obama to take executive action to close a “loophole” in federal gun control legislation.

 

The so-called “default to proceed” rule under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act allows firearm dealers to sell a weapon to an individual if they have not been notified by the FBI of a buyer’s criminal background within three business days.

 

If the background check has not been completed within three days, the dealer has discretion to sell the firearm.

The rule allowed Dylann Roof, the alleged killer of nine people at a predominantly black church in Charleston, S.C., to purchase a gun even though he was arrested on a felony drug charge and admitted to possessing drugs.

 

"We shouldn't give known criminals the benefit of the doubt when it comes to guns. If law enforcement needs more than three days to ensure they're not giving weapons to dangerous people, Washington must allow them the time to do their jobs,” Blumenthal and Murphy said in a joint statement. 

 

“If we refuse to act, we're just biding time until this happens again."

 

The criminal background check on Roof was not initiated until two days after Roof first attempted to purchase the gun and did not discover his admission of drug possession until five days later.

 

FBI Director James Comey told reporters Friday that Roof “should not have been allowed to purchase the gun he allegedly used that evening,” referring to the deadly June 17 attack.

 

Republicans, however, blame the failure to bar Roof from obtaining a gun on “bureaucratic bungling” and say additional regulation is not necessary.

 

“It’s disastrous that this bureaucratic mistake prevented existing laws from working and blocking an illegal gun sale. The facts undercut attempts to use the tragedy to enact unnecessary gun laws,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement.

Via: The Hill

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[VDIEO] EXCLUSIVE DETAILS: DONALD TRUMP HEADING TO TEXAS BORDER

Breitbart Texas has learned that 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump is heading to the Texas-Mexico border to get a firsthand look at the current border security situation. Trump is expected to meet with Border Patrol agents of the Laredo Sector.

“We look forward to giving Mr. Trump a boots on the ground perspective on the Laredo Sector of the Texas-Mexico Border,” said National Border Patrol Council, Local 2455 President Hector Garza. “Mr. Trump is expected to be in Laredo later in the week.”

Garza told Breitbart Texas that following the border tour, Trump will have a town hall style meeting where law enforcement officers will be invited to provide feedback on their perspective of the border situation.

Breitbart Texas Managing Director Brandon Darby worked with Agent Garza to prepare for Trump’s border tour. “It is of utmost importance that possible future leaders of our country visit the border region, especially the Laredo Sector. Most Texans and other Americans hear that the Texas border was secured, but it wasn’t. The Rio Grande Valley Sector was supplemented with manpower from the State of Texas, but that mostly stopped where that sector ended and the Laredo Sector begins.” Darby added, “Mr. Trump will learn firsthand of the many holes and vulnerabilities that the Los Zetas cartel exploits to enter Texas and oppress their victims. We will keep the details of Mr. Trump’s intended visit private at this time.”

Agent Garza added, “Breitbart Texas has been instrumental in making sure that the voices and experiences of Border Patrol agents in the Laredo Sector have been heard. We appreciate Mr. Trump and anyone else with such a platform who takes the time to hear what we are experiencing and seeing at the border. We assure you that the reality is far different from what the federal government is telling the public.”

Bob Price is a senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and on Facebook

Via: Breitbart

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Big Trouble for 'Inevitable' Hillary in New Poll ...

QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY, JULY 22, 2015 -  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is behind or on the wrong side of a too-close-to-call result in matchups with three leading Republican contenders, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in Colorado, Iowa and Virginia, according to a Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll released today.

Perhaps the biggest loser, however, is Donald Trump, who has negative favorability ratings of almost 2-1 in each state, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University Poll finds. The Swing State Poll focuses on key states in the presidential election.

In several matchups in Iowa and Colorado, another Democratic contender, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, runs as well as, or better than Clinton against Rubio, Bush and Walker. Vice President Joseph Biden does not do as well.

Clinton gets markedly negative favorability ratings in each state, 35 - 56 percent in Colorado, 33 - 56 percent in Iowa and 41 - 50 percent in Virginia.

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"Hillary Clinton's numbers have dropped among voters in the key swing states of Colorado, Iowa and Virginia. She has lost ground in the horserace and on key questions about her honesty and leadership," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. "On being a strong leader, a key metric in presidential campaigns, she has dropped four to 10 points depending on the state and she is barely above 50 percent in each of the three states."

"Against three Republicans, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Secretary Clinton trails in six matchups and is on the down side of too-close-to call in three," Brown added. 

Via: Quinnipiac

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Wayne Allyn Root: Hillary Clinton And Nonexistent ACORN Plotting To Steal 2016 Election -

Last week on “The Sam Malone Show,” conservative pundit Wayne Allyn Root wondered if Hillary Clinton is scheming with President Obama and ACORN, the organizing group which shut down in 2010, in order to steal the upcoming presidential election through massive voter fraud.

Root speculated that Obama threatened to launch a Justice Department investigation into the Clinton Foundation if the former secretary of state refused to endorse the Iran deal, but told her that “if you go along with this, I’ll help you steal the election like I did in 2012. I’ll get my old pals from ACORN back together again, the old gang is back, and we will steal states with weak voter ID laws, we’ll have illegal aliens voting, we’ll figure out ways to stuff the ballot box in inner cities so that more people vote than are registered to vote in that district. We will figure out a way to steal you the election the same way we stole it for me. But if you go against me, you’re done.”

Malone later stated that “how any liberal Jew out there in Hollywood could support the President or Hillary Clinton at this point is beyond me,” and hoped that they realize that “the Democratic Party is the party against the Holy Land.”

Via: Right Wing Watch

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MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD SKELETONS REMAIN IN HILLARY CLINTON’S CLOSET

No sooner had Hillary Clinton announced the start of her U.S. presidential campaign than several skeletons popped out of her closet.

The Clinton Foundation skeleton, at worst, gave foreign contributors a “pay to play” influence at the U.S. State Department, or, at best, the appearance of such. If the former, the Clintons have taken Harry Truman’s motto, “the buck stops here,” to mean millions of them.

Another skeleton is Hillary’s unauthorized use of a private email server along with her erasure of those communications while announcing her candidacy.

A third skeleton, Benghazi, is being examined by Chairman 

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC)

85%

 of the House Select Committee which is investigating the matter.

These three skeletons demand, and are receiving, close scrutiny. However, a fourth and much more damning skeleton—Hillary’s Muslim Brotherhood connection—still escapes scrutiny. Interestingly, in connection with the Benghazi investigation, three Hillary aides have been subpoenaed by Gowdy to produce emails. The one who has yet to do so completely is the one with the closest ties to the Brotherhood—Huma Abedin.

The subpoena stems from Gowdy’s efforts to track what communications were made by Hillary and her staff concerning Ambassador Chris Stevens movements prior to the Benghazi attack. Of interest also will be why efforts were undertaken after the attack to minimize involvement by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Some background about the Brotherhood is needed to understand its driving force and why, under Hillary’s leadership as Secretary of State, a decision would have been made to embrace an organization determined to eliminate America and her allies.

Because our Middle East allies understand this background, they have outlawed the group.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 as a Sunni Islamist religious, political and social movement. Founder Hassan al-Banna’s fundamental goal was Islam’s global domination. That effort quickly turned violent. As its influence grew, its tentacles spread to 80 other nations, laying the groundwork for an envisioned global caliphate.

An early influential Brotherhood member, Sayyid Qutb, wrote of the need to cleanse the world of Western influence by imposing sharia. Years later, his work became Osama bin Laden’s and Ayman al-Zawahri’s “bible.” But, feeling the Brotherhood was not moving fast enough to achieve global Islam, they created an offshoot group—al-Qaeda—to quicken the pace.

At various times, as the Brotherhood gained influence causing domestic instability, nations cracked down on it. To survive, it renounced violence—birthing numerous splinter groups to do its violent bidding.

In 1981, one such group assassinated a Middle East peace apostle—Egyptian President Anwar Sadat—for his peace treaty with Israel. Hamas was another terrorist splinter group.

Viewing America as an obstacle to Islam’s global dominance, the Brotherhood—to this day—seeks to destroy America, informing followers to be “patient” as it so plots to do so.

In the 1990s, Brotherhood leaders mapped out a secret war plan to accomplish this—one discovered completely by accident in 2004. Despite this discovery and our knowledge about what is in the plan (such as using Muslim Brotherhood front companies within the U.S. and making claims of Islamophobia whenever Islam is criticized), the Brotherhood openly continues implementing that plan today. Meanwhile, under Obama’s tutelage, the federal agencies responsible for protecting us from such a threat fail to do so.

Just like Osama bin Laden’s 1997 declaration of war against America received little media attention, so too did the Brotherhood’s 2010 war declaration against America by its Supreme Guide, Muhammad Badi.

Badi called for jihad against “the Muslim’s real enemies, not only Israel but also the United States. Waging jihad against both of these infidels is a commandment of Allah that cannot be disregarded.”

The Brotherhood’s long running anti-American platform properly inhibited U.S. recognition of the group. But, incredibly, under the Obama/Clinton team, that changed overnight.

Failing to support our long-time ally, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Obama welcomed the Brotherhood with open arms in June 2011—without even demanding it withdraw its war declaration or otherwise renounce its anti-American platform.

The skeleton in Hillary’s closet now in need of close scrutiny is how the Muslim Brotherhood instantly converted—in the Administration’s eyes but not those of the Brotherhood itself—from foe to friend.

Of note in all this is that the family of Hillary’s now longest serving assistant, Huma Abedin, has enjoyed an intensely close relationship with the Brotherhood for decades. Her father, Zyed Abedin, served as editor of an anti-Semitic journal funded by an Islamist; her mother, Saleha Mahmood Abedin, replaced him as editor in 1993 when he died. As editor, Saleha has promoted the Muslim Brotherhood (she is a member of its female division), violent jihad and the “right” of women to be repressed under sharia.

Via: Breitbart

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Massachusetts official faces charges for painting crosswalks

BOSTON (Reuters) - A Massachusetts town selectman who painted over fading crosswalks in his town in response to complaints from constituents was criminally charged on Tuesday for his efforts.

George Simolaris, a selectman in Billerica, about 25 miles from Boston, said he was tired of constituents asking when the white paint would be freshened up, so he fixed the problem himself. He said he bought cans of green paint, the town's official color, and spent the weekend painting over six faded crosswalks.

"All I've heard for months is: 'When is this going to get done?'" Simolaris said. "I got sick of it."

Police and town officials said painting the street without authorization was illegal and charged him with two counts of destruction of property, according to Billerica police spokesman Roy Frost.

Town Manager John Curran said the town was in the midst of a $400,000 pedestrian safety project that requires digging up the street including some of the crosswalks in question, which are slated to be repainted once construction is complete.

He added that Simolaris would be required to repay the $4,000 cost of cleaning up the paint, which he said chipped and smeared.

"His job is to uphold laws not break them," Curran said. "He has no respect for the governmental process."

Simolaris defended his actions.

"I'm just trying to do right by the people in my town," he said. "I didn't think I was intervening in other people's day-to-day activities or doing anything wrong."

(Editing by Scott Malone and Peter Cooney)

Via: Metro.us

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Report: 3 million more children in poverty under Obama, 22% of all kids

Ever since President Obama took office, the poverty rate among children has soared to 22 percent, with three million more children living in poor conditions, according to an authoritative new report released Tuesday.

The 2015 "KIDS COUNT" report from the Annie E. Casey Foundationsaid that the percentage of children living in poverty jumped from 18 percent in 2008, the year Obama was elected, to 22 percent in 2013. It added that the rate dropped from 2012 to 2013, in line with the improving economy.

RELATED: Pew: 84% of world population lives at or below U.S. poverty line

Among minority children and in some states, especially the South, however, the situation is dire. The report said, for example:

The rate of child poverty for 2013 ranged from a low of 10 percent in New Hampshire, to a high of 34 percent in Mississippi.

• The child poverty rate among African Americans (39 percent) was more than double the rate for non-Hispanic whites (14 percent) in 2013.

RELATED: Bernie Sanders wants to spend $3 billion on solar panels for the poor

The report also explained that a lack of jobs or good income above the poverty rate of $23,624 was the reason more children have grown up in poor families.

• In 2013, three in 10 children (22.8 million) lived in families where no parent had full-time, year-round employment. Since 2008, the number of such children climbed by nearly 2.7 million

• Roughly half of all American Indian children (50 percent) and African-American children (48 percent) had no parent with full-time, year-round employment in 2013, compared with 37 percent of Latino children, 24 percent of non-Hispanic white children and 23 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander children.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Judicial Watch: Federal Judge Declares State Department Will “Answer For” Any Destruction of Clinton Emails

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that a federal judge warned the State Department that it will “have to answer for” any destruction of Hillary Clinton email records.  U. S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras made the statement at a July 9, 2015 status conference concerning a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for records about the State Department vetting of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s potential conflicts of interest (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00688)).  The transcript of the July 9 court hearing is available here.

At the hearing, attorney Chris Fedeli pressed Judicial Watch’s concerns about the preservation of records, especially email records that were not part of the 55,000 pages of records turned over by Mrs. Clinton to the State Department late last year.

In response, Judge Contreras said he was also “concerned” about the preservation of these records:

If documents are destroyed between now and August 17, the government will have to answer for that, and, you know, if they don’t want to do anything out of the ordinary to preserve between now and then, they can make that choice. I will allow them to make that choice, but they will answer for it, if something happens.

After a Justice Department lawyer attempted to assure him that the administration was asking for government records from former State Department employees, Judge Contreras questioned the State Department’s position that it had no legal obligation to take additional steps to obtain other government records in the custody of Mrs. Clinton and other former officials who used her special email system:

[I]t is to state the obvious that this is not an ordinary case, and everyone should be working to make sure that whatever documents exist today remain in existence.

Judge Contreras also voiced concerns regarding the State Department’s refusal to provide any information about the Clinton email issue:

But I am a little bit mystified that the government is not more forthcoming in just answering questions that will help this case proceed on a systematic basis, and on a basis that will allow everyone to get the answers that will eventually help resolve these cases…

The Court also seemed to reject the Obama administration’s contention that responding to Judicial Watch’s lawsuit in a timely way would derail its compliance with Judge Contreras’s order in another lawsuit (Leopold v. U.S. Department of State, (15-00123)) requiring that the 55,000 pages of Clinton email records be searched and produced under FOIA by January, 2016:

My order in Leopold was based on numbers and percentages. To the extent that documents from that universe are produced in this case, they qualify for the numbers in Leopold, don’t they? So that they’re not mutually exclusive from a resource standpoint, are they?

The Court then said his “inclination is to have a search done of the Clinton e-mail database that’s digitized and searchable for this relatively narrow, in my view, relatively narrow request.”

Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request on March 17, 2015, and subsequently a lawsuit on May 6, 2015, seeking:

• Any and all records that identify the policies and/or procedures in place to ensure that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s personal or charitable financial relationships with foreign leaders, foreign governments, and business entities posed no conflict of interest to her role as Secretary of State; and

• Any and all records concerning, regarding, or related to State Department review of donations to the Clinton Foundation for potential conflicts of interest with former Secretary Clinton’s role as Secretary of State.

  Judicial Watch has also announced that it has reached an agreement with the State Department regarding production of documents in another Clinton-related lawsuit (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00690)).
  Documents sought by the lawsuit include:

  Any and all records that identify the number and names of all current and former officials, officers, or employees of the U.S. Department of State from January 20, 2009 to the present who used email addresses other than their assigned “state.gov” email addresses to conduct official State Department business.

  In a joint status report filed June 29, 2015, Judicial Watch and the State Department reported to the Court that:

  The parties have met and conferred, and submit their joint proposed briefing schedule below:

  • Defendant will complete all searches and produce to Plaintiff all responsive, non-privileged, and non-exempt records within its possession, custody, or control no later than August 14, 2015.

  • The Parties will meet and confer and file a status report by August 28, 2015 indicating whether additional briefing is necessary.

  “This one court hearing shows that Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators in the State Department will have to account for each and every email on Hillary Clinton’s notorious email system,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
  A separate and ongoing Judicial Watch lawsuit, one of nearly 20 active Judicial Watch lawsuits at which the Clinton email system is at issue, forced the disclosure last year of documents that provided a road map for over 200 conflict-of-interest rulings that led to $48 million for the Clinton Foundation and other Clinton-connected entities during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. Previously disclosed documents in this lawsuit, for example, raise questions about funds Clinton accepted from entities linked to Saudi Arabia, China and Iran, among others.  Judicial Watch and The Washington Examiner partnered in thefirst story to break the Clinton conflicts scandal: “State Department approved 215 Bill Clinton speeches, controversial consulting deal, worth $48m; Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff copied on all decisions.”

Via: Judicial Watch

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Meet the 41 Companies That Donate Directly to Planned Parenthood

In the wake of two videos allegedly showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of aborted fetal body parts, Republicans in Congress are working to ensure Planned Parenthood is stripped of its federal funding.

However, it’s not only the government that fills Planned Parenthood’s coffers.According to 2nd Vote, a website and app that tracks the flow of money from consumers to political causes, more than 25 percent of Planned Parenthood’s $1.3 billion annual revenue comes from private donations, which includes corporate contributions.

2nd Vote researched the corporations and organizations to find which supported Planned Parenthood and found that more than three dozen donated to the group. Some companies donated directly, while others matched employee gifts.

Forty-one corporations and organizations directly contribute to the group.

Planned Parenthood has come under heavy fire following the release of videos from the Center for Medical Progress.

The first video, released last week, showed Planned Parenthood senior executive Dr. Deborah Nucatola meeting with actors portraying buyers from a “human biologics company.” The “buyers” discussed the sale of fetal body parts with Nucatola while they dined over lunch.

In the second video, released today, Dr. Mary Gattner, president of Planned Parenthood’s Medical Director’s Council, is seen negotiating the price of aborted fetal body parts.

Via: Daily Caller

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[VIDEO] Bereaved Father: Too Many Americans Are Being Killed By Undocumented Immigrant Felons

On Tuesday, Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) of the Senate Judiciary Committee presided over a hearing entitled, “Oversight of the Administration’s Misdirected Immigration Enforcement Policies: Examining the Impact on Public Safety and Honoring the Victims.”

During that hearing, Jim Steinle, whose daughter was recently killed by an undocumented citizen in San Francisco, California, testified about the devastating loss of his beloved daughter, Kate. 

“The day she was killed we were walking arm and arm on Pier 14 in San Francisco, enjoying a wonderful day together,” Mr. Steinle recalled. “Suddenly a shot rang out, Kate fell, and looked at me and said, ‘Help me, Dad.’ Those were the last words I’ll ever hear from my daughter.”

“The alleged murderer is an undocumented immigrant who's been convicted of seven felonies in the US, and already deported five times,” he added. “Yet in March of this year, he was released from jail and allowed to stay here freely because of [legal] loopholes. It’s unbelievable to see so many innocent Americans that have been killed by undocumented immigrant felons in recent years. In fact, we’ve recently come across a statistic that says between 2010 and 2014, 121 criminals aliens — who had an active deportation case at the time of release – were subsequently charged with homicide-related offenses.”

Three other witnesses also testified about loved ones who were inexplicably and brutally murdered by illegal immigrants. Mrs. Oliver Sullivan spoke about how her husband, Deputy Sheriff Danny Oliver, was shot in the head — and killed — by an undocumented alien while on duty in Sacramento, California. She explained that a day doesn’t go by that she doesn’t think about him, and how his death was in all likelihood preventable. Mr. Brian McCann, meanwhile, testified that the convicted felon who murdered his brother, Dennis, was able to post bail and actually leave prison because of a failure in immigration policy. How could such a “pathetic, miscarriage of justice” be possible in the United States, he asked the panel of US senators?

Finally, and equally as heartbreaking, Ms. Laura Wilkinson recounted the unspeakable tragedy of when her son, Joshua, was tortured, killed, and left in a field to rot by a so-called DREAMer. She therefore called on members of Congress to start implementing immigrations laws that put Americans — not criminals —first. (Her son’s killer was sentenced to life in prison. But, as Ms. Wilkinson testified, she expects he will one day be granted parole and won’t be deported). Not surprisingly, she also believes that many wrongheaded, status quo immigration laws simply aren't working. She explained that the infamous sanctuary city policy, for instance, is “inviting” dangerous criminals into the country, thereby jeopardizing the national security interests and safety of American citizens. This misguided policy, she intimated, directly contributed to her son’s death.

“I don’t want your sympathy,” she declared. “I want you to do something about it."

Via: Townhall

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Feds Spend $125,000 Studying Sexist Adjectives

The federal government is spending $125,000 to study adjectives that could be perceived as sexist or racist.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) tasked the University of Kansas with conducting the study last year.

“The proposed research predicts that stereotypes activate different standards of judgments for members of different groups; therefore, evaluations (adjectives) mean different things depending on the person described,” according to the grant for the study.

“For example, in a masculine work domain where women are stereotyped as less competent, ‘good’ for a woman may mean something objectively less good than ‘good’ for a man,” it said.

The project will examine letters of recommendation to see whether letters for women and minorities are “influenced by gender and racial stereotypes” that affect chances of admission into graduate school.

“In everyday life, we often are asked to provide assessments or evaluations of others’ abilities,” the grant said. “Stereotypes can subtly shape these evaluations and judgments, even among those who view themselves as non-prejudiced.”

“This can be very consequential in certain contexts; for example, hiring and admissions decisions can be based in part on the evaluative language used in letters of recommendation, and the language used may be influenced by gender and racial stereotypes,” the grant continued. “Further, audiences may also interpret this language with reference to those negative stereotypes about women and ethnic minorities.”

The NSF project said it has major implications for “understanding bias in real world, evaluative settings.”

“Understanding how and when stereotyping can occur in evaluative contexts is a critical step towards reducing bias, prejudice, and discrimination,” the grant said.

Dr. Monica Biernat, a psychology professor at the University of Kansas, is leading the study. Biernat previously received $505,001 from the NSF, as well as $7,029 from the agency for a trip to Warsaw in 2006 for the “European Social Cognition Network.”

The prior NSF projects included “a meta-analysis” of stereotyping and judgments and the hypothesis that stereotypes “exert a wide-ranging influence on social life in that they pervade our language, our interpretations of what others say and do, our decisions about others, and our thoughts about ourselves.”

The latest project on stereotypes has cost $125,000. Biernat told the Washington Free Beacon that she would likely apply for additional funding in 2016, though “that by no means guarantees I’ll get it,” she said.

Aside from the adjective “good,” Biernat provided other examples from her research of the effects of stereotypes.

“Because of shifting standards, a female chief of staff may be described as highly competent, a hit from a female softball player may generate more enthusiasm than the same hit from a male, and a Black student may receive more praise than a White student for an identical transcript,” she wrote in Volume 45 of Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. “In each case, the target is being judged relative to lower expectations or standards for their group.”

Biernat also suggested that men should think about using words such as “aggressive” when describing a woman.

“This practice may be less practical in the kinds of social judgments we render as part of everyday social discourse—judging a female driver as ‘aggressive,’ a mediocre Black student as ‘really smart,’ or a father who walks his kids to school as a ‘great’ parent,” she wrote.

“But in these cases, awareness, education, and conscious self-correction may be important tools (‘I called her aggressive; would I have used the same label for a man?’),” Biernat continued. “This would of course require ability and motivation to correct on the part of the evaluator

Via: WFB

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RAND PAUL DESTROYS THE TAX CODE…LITERALLY!

Rand Paul has come out with a new video where he destroys the tax code by throwing it in a woodchipper, sets it on fire and splits it with a chainsaw. I guess with The Donald sucking up all the oxygen, Paul is kicking it up a notch to get noticed:

Via: The Right Scoop

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Jerry Brown Takes On Climate Change-Denying 'Troglodytes'

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) on Tuesday urged a group of 60 mayors to take action in their cities on climate change, warning that global warming is "the biggest threat of our time" and denouncing skeptics as "troglodytes."

At a climate change conference hosted by Pope Francis at the Vatican and attended by U.S. mayors and global leaders, Brown offered a dire assessment of climate change's potential effects in the near future.  

"We don’t even know how far we've gone, or if we've gone over the edge,” Brown said. "This is not some linear set of problems that we can predict. We have to take measures against an uncertain future which may well be something no one ever wants. We are talking about extinction. We are talking about climate regimes that have not been seen for tens of millions of years. We're not there yet, but we're on our way."

Brown criticized politicians and business leaders who are skeptical of global warming and its effects as "troglodytes" who have a vested interest in "bamboozling" the public about man-made climate change.

"We have fierce opposition and blind inertia. And that opposition is well-financed, hundreds of millions of dollars going into propaganda, into falsifying the scientific record, bamboozling people of every country," Brown said. "We have to fight that propaganda and overcome the inertia and the tremendous opposition." 

Noting that he's "not counting" on the GOP-controlled Congress to address climate change, the governor pressed the mayors to cut carbon emissions in their communities. 

"We have to respond and if we don't, the world will suffer," he said. "We will all suffer. In fact, many people, millions, are suffering already."

Brown, now in his fourth term as California governor, has made climate change one of his signature issues in office. Earlier this year, he issued an executive order accelerating California's targets for slashing greenhouse gas emissions. In May, he signed a pact with 11 other states pledging to sharply reduce emissions by 2050. And later this year, the governor will travel to Paris to attend the United Nations climate conference, where 196 countries will meet to sign a new climate change agreement.

The Vatican conference, attended by municipal leaders like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, comes one month after the release of the pope's encyclicalon climate change that called for a "bold cultural revolution" to fight global warming.

"Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods," Pope Francis wrote. "It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day."

Via: Huffington Post

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