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AMERICAN GREATNESS, by Victor Davis Hanson — September 1, 2019

Excerpt:

Most of us who came of age in the 1970s revered the university—even as it was still reeling from 1960s protests and beginning a process that resulted in its present chaos and disrepute.

Americans of the G.I. Bill-era first enshrined the idea of upward mobility through the bachelor’s degree—the assumed gateway to career security—and the positive role of expanding colleges to grow the new suburban middle classes.

Despite student radicalism and demands for reform, professors had been trained in the postwar era by an older breed of prewar scholars and teachers. As stewards they passed on their sense of professionalism about training future scholars and teachers—and just broadly educated citizens. In classics, I remember courses from scholars like British subjects like H.D. Kitto and Michael Grant, who lectured on Sophoclean tragedies or the late Roman emperors as the common inheritance of undergraduates.

Overwhelmingly liberal and often hippish in appearance, American faculty of the early 1970s still only rarely indoctrinated students, or bullied them to mimic their own progressivism. Rather, in both the humanities and sciences, students were taught the inductive method of evaluating evidence in hopes of finding some common explanation of natural and human phenomena.

Yes, we studied “mere” facts—dates, names, grammar, syntax, and formulae—but deliberately to ground or refute theories with evidence and to illustrate and enhance argumentation. Essays bled red by old masters of English prose style, whose efforts were aimed at ensuring students could communicate effectively but also with a sense of grace.

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View the complete article at:

https://amgreatness.com/2019/09/01/from-icon-to-just-a-con/

Increasingly in the West, one must do as the Muslims do — or else.

FrontPage Mag, by Robert Spencer — August 27, 2019

Excerpt:

The principle is always and everywhere the same: in Muslim countries, one must conform one’s behavior to suit Islamic sensibilities. And in non-Muslim countries, one must conform one’s behavior to suit Islamic sensibilities. This was proven true again last Thursday in Duisberg, Germany, where a Muslim migrant thought a German woman’s skirt was too short, and started a brawl.

According to the German publication Waz, “Different views on the length of a skirt worn by a woman led to a fight between two groups in Duisburg. The police report a dispute over cultural differences, which began verbally and ended in a fistfight, in which a participant dislocated his shoulder.”

No establishment media source will ever dare to say what was really behind this kind of incident: not simply “cultural differences,” but religious beliefs.

A police spokeswoman, Jacqueline Grahl, explained: “The revealing style of clothing of a 50-year-old met with incomprehension in a 20-year-old.” Waz added: “According to information from our editorial team, the man who insulted the unknown woman and asked her why she had to present her legs in such a way is a Duisburger with Turkish roots. He was together with three other Duisburgers with Turkish roots in the Rheinpark.”

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View the complete article including image, links and comments at:

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274743/germany-muslim-migrants-start-brawl-over-short-robert-spencer

BREITBART, by Sarah Palin — August 22, 2019

Excerpt:

The President of the United States wants to buy an icy northern territory from a foreign country. Critics hate the idea and mock it as absurd and wasteful. But the President makes the deal, and the purchase proves to be one of the most brilliant geopolitical deals in history—a huge boon to American strength and prosperity.

Am I describing the 45th President’s effort to buy Greenland from Denmark? Nope, I’m describing the 17th President’s successful effort to buy Alaska from Russia in 1867. It was one of the best bargains America ever struck.

If President Trump can pull off another deal like that, I say God bless him! Greenland’s vast arctic expanse—which, at over 800,000 square miles, is more than a quarter the size of the U.S. Lower 48—is surely another Alaska in terms of untapped wealth. The media would do well to chill with mocking President Trump and instead learn some U.S. history. Our country’s desire to purchase Greenland predates the purchase of Alaska.

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View the complete article including image, links and comments at:

In China, scoring citizens’ behavior is official government policy. U.S. companies are increasingly doing something similar, outside the law.

FASTCOMPANY, by Mike Elgan — August 26, 2019

Excerpt:

Have you heard about China’s social credit system? It’s a technology-enabled, surveillance-based nationwide program designed to nudge citizens toward better behavior. The ultimate goal is to “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step,” according to the Chinese government.

In place since 2014, the social credit system is a work in progress that could evolve by next year into a single, nationwide point system for all Chinese citizens, akin to a financial credit score. It aims to punish for transgressions that can include membership in or support for the Falun Gong or Tibetan Buddhism, failure to pay debts, excessive video gaming, criticizing the government, late payments, failing to sweep the sidewalk in front of your store or house, smoking or playing loud music on trains, jaywalking, and other actions deemed illegal or unacceptable by the Chinese government.

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View the complete article including images and links at:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90394048/uh-oh-silicon-valley-is-building-a-chinese-style-social-credit-system