Cardinal O’Malley: A man to honor on Mother’s Day

A righteous man stands tall for life

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, has issued this statement announcing his intention to boycott Boston College’s upcoming commencement ceremony. Enda Kenny, the Prime Minister of Ireland, will be the commencement speaker and is slated to receive an honorary degree at Boston College’s graduation.

Cardinal O’Malley has publicly opposed Ireland’s proposed abortion law, which Kenny has resolutely promoted.

The Cardinal Newman Society reports O’Malley has challenged Boston College for inviting the pro-abortion commencement speaker. He urged Boston College to “work to redress the confusion, disappointment and harm caused by not adhering to the Bishops’ directives,” referencing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops instruction that Catholic institutions not honor those whose views are inconsistent with the Church’s teachings.

By tradition, the Boston archbishop delivers the final benediction at BC’s commencement each spring. The college is scheduled to award Kenny an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at the May 20 ceremony. 

In his statement, O’Malley said the church considers abortion “a crime against humanity’’ and he noted that Kenny has been “aggressively promoting abortion legislation’’ despite opposition from church leaders in Ireland.

“Although I shall not be present to impart the final benediction, I assure the graduates that they are in my prayers on this important day in their lives, and I pray that their studies will prepare them to be heralds of the Church’s Social Gospel and “men and women for others,” especially for the most vulnerable in our midst,” Cardinal O’Malley’s statement said.

Cardinal O’Malley’s office number is (617) 254-0100. You might want to call and leave a message of appreciation for this outstanding and principled man.

Common Core: Rotten to it’s leftist core

Graphic sex and praising Castro

We urge you to read the this FrontPage magazine article exposing the squalid leftist core of Common Core. Mary Grabar’s report underscores the myriad examples of radical ideology masquerading as education.

This exposé of the outrageous federalized curriculum shows yet another load heaped on the pile of garbage being promoted by the Obama administration and public school establishment, as they attempt to undermine our nation’s students by imposing dumbed-down, politicized curricular conformity in America’s classrooms.

Michelle Malkin has written extensively about “outcome-based education” since the early 1990s — describing “Goals 2000,” “No Child Left Behind,” and “Race to the Top” —  reporting the bipartisan Fed Ed standards movement isn’t about raising standards at all. Whether under Bush or Obama, it’s about top-down control engineered through government-administered tests and left-wing textbook monopolies.

Check out Arizonans Against Common Core.

If you disagree with the federal nationalization of our education system and want to see control returned to parents, teachers, and local districts, now is the time to get involved!

In early March the Executive Guidance Committee of the Maricopa County Republican Committee (EGC) voted on a resolution opposing the implementation of Common Core — the Obama Education Department’s program to nationalize America’s public schools. The resolution passed unanimously. 

If you’re just getting up to speed, this video is enlightening:

Flores v. AZ: Tim Hogan’s never ending case

Back in 2009, in a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court took a major step toward ending what was then a 17-year legal battle in the Flores v. Arizona case. In their opinion, the justices wrote that lower courts erred by placing extraordinary focus on forcing Arizona to spend more money to assist English Language-Learner (ELL) students.

At the time, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote, the Court of Appeals “improperly substituted its own policy judgments for those of the state and local officials entrusted with the decision.”

Flores was sent back to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with instructions to consider whether Arizona had complied with civil-rights law by improving both English-learner programs and K-12 education policies.

The case was argued by Arizona’s then-Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horne. He served in that capacity from 2003 – 2011. Horne was elected Arizona Attorney General in 2010. He and Jim Weiers, then-Speaker of the Arizona House were listed as petitioners.

The majority opinion was issued by Justice Alito and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Justice Stephen Breyer filed the 47-page dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens and David Souter. If you’re so inclined, the Supreme Court’s 89-page opinion can be read here.

Fast forward to 2013. The lawsuit has reached the ripe old age of 21. And whad’ya know? A federal court decision last month upholding the state’s English Language Learner programs is being appealed by Tim Hogan of the left-of-center Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest. The case is now renamed Flores v. Huppenthal. Associate Justices Souter (replaced by Sonia Sotomayor) and John Paul Stevens (replaced by Elena Kagan) have retired.

Today the State Superintendent of Public Instruction is fomer state senator John Huppenthal. He contends ELL students are making progress in the English program. Most test out of the program within three years. He believes the state will prevail in the lawsuit.

Tim Hogan remains, still representing the plaintiffs. Of his career-long case, Hogan has this to say. “We just think the district court judge has gotten the law wrong.”

The Center for Law in the Public Interest refers to itself as a “non-profit.” Obviously Hogan has been making a living from this long-in-the-tooth case.  What’s the funding source?

The daily’s coverage of this ongoing bonanza can be read here.

Arizona Republic exposes its foul, radical core

In a single issue — Sunday’s edition — The Periódico de la República de Arizona (Arizona Republic), bawdily bared itself in a fashion befitting a porn star. 

The Viewpoints section opened with illegal immigration hustler, Linda Valdez, spewing seemingly endless bile at recently deceased British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as she links her to conservative icon Ronald Reagan, hurling insults at both. Her abhorrence of the pair is palpable from the headline “Maggie, Ronnie cast dark shadows,” through the vicious conclusion of her commentary in which she characteristically berates what she calls hard-line conservatives and blames the ills on both sides of the Atlantic — and oddly Arizona — on the Tory and Conservative who contributed mightily to their nation’s progress.

Following Valdez’s vitriol is a lone editorial. It is a paean to Arizona’s senators and their key roles in extending the gift of amnesty to lawbreakers, noting that both John McCain and Jeff Flake “have a history of supporting reform,” though “both forgot that for a while.” The missing words are “while campaigning.” The editorial welcomes them both back to leadership roles in undercutting our national sovereignty and adherence to the rule of law. In 2011, the Republic denounced Flake as a mere “politician” — no longer a “statesman” — for emulating John McCain’s border transformation during his last senatorial campaign. Editorialist Doug MacEachern called Flake’s change of heart on legalizing millions of illegal aliens “jarring.”  (click on the links for a reminder of their campaign duplicity.)

Dragging bottom of the same page are My Turn columns by ASU President Michael Crow and Daniel Ortega, the former chairman of the racist La Raza, which the newspaper terms a “the nation’s largest and most influential Latino advocacy group.”  La Raza’s motto — “For The Race everything. Outside The Race, nothing” — is chilling to any sane person who values equality.

Crow uses his space to once again push for foreign ‘STEM’ (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students — those he claims are the best and brightest — to bypass our nation’s “antiquated immigration laws” and compete with our own American citizens for a place in university classes and in today’s tough job market.

Ortega rails about the “stain” on Arizona caused by the passage of SB 1070, and the imperative of “fixing” our immigration system by adopting a “sensible, humane, federal immigration-reform bill” that will “set our state and national economy on a road to greater prosperity.”

Stir in a photo of demonstrators rallying for amnesty — this time waving American, rather than Mexican, flags as John McCain helpfully advised them — along with a vicious cartoon lampooning Sheriff Joe Arpaio who was recently the target of an intercepted package bomb that officials say was capable of killing a person opening the box.

It’s all in the fish-wrapper so worthy of the name: The Periódico de la República de Arizona. No wonder it’s dying.

Leftist school assignments: Think like a Nazi; doses of political bias

Ed Supe blames Common Core for “Jews are evil” assignment

The Times Union reports on a “sophisticated” assignment given to Albany High School students. They were to watch and read Nazi propaganda and then write an argument that Jews are evil and the source of Germany’s problems, using a Nazi perspective. “You must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!,” their teacher instructed.  In addition, the students were asked to include ”any experiences you have with … Jews being evil.”

One third of the English class refused to participate in the assignment.

Albany Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard blamed tougher Common Core standards that require “sophisticated” writing linking English composition to other subjects, like world history.

Calling the exercise “especially tone deaf,” New York magazine noted that the assignment could have concerned a wide range of topics.

“I would apologize to our families,” Vanden Wyngaard said. “I don’t believe there was malice or intent to cause any insensitivities to our families of Jewish faith.” Vanden Wyngaard said that the teacher will face some kind of disciplinary action, which could range from a letter of reprimand to firing. “You asked a child to support the notion that the Holocaust was justified, that’s my struggle,” she said. “It’s an illogical leap for a student to make.”

There’s even more. EAG reports that eighth-graders in Wisconsin’s Union Grove School District were assigned to fill out a “Liberalism vs. Conservatism” crossword puzzle — learning some new and very questionable “facts” along the way.

In conjunction with their “civics” assignment the students got a good dose of political bias and indoctrination, as they learned conservatism is “the political belief of preserving traditional moral values by restricting personal freedoms.” And liberalism? That’s “the political belief of equality and personal freedom for everyone, often changing the current system to increase government protection of civil liberties.”

How about teachers coaching fourth graders at Cedar Hills Elementary in Jacksonville, Florida to write, “I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure.” Read more here.

On its website, Education Action Group (EAG) says it shines a spotlight on the leftist agenda and activists and their mission to “fundamentally transform” the United States of America through the government education system.

Good luck. America’s children are being indoctrinated by these people each and every school day.

Dem official compels students to mock Jesus & Updates

Deandre Javaris Poole, a Florida Atlantic University professor is the subject of national outrage after requiring students in his class to write the name “Jesus” on a piece of paper, then put it on the floor and stomp on it.

And wouldn’t you know? Poole is vice-chairman of the Palm Beach County Democrat Party.  Oddly, he is also a member of Lighthouse Worship Center Church of God in Christ, Fort Lauderdale, FL, where he serves as a member of the usher board.

Ryan Rotela, a junior in Poole’s class said some of his classmates complied with the instructor’s request to denigrate the name of Jesus, but he refused. He has since been suspended from the Intercultural Communication class. Florida Atlantic University is defending the controversial assignment.

According to Florida Atlantic University, Poole was conducting an exercise from the class textbook. 

Paul Kengor, executive director of the Center for Vision and Values at Grove City College, says he’s not surprised by the classroom lesson.

“These are the new secular disciples of ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’ –- empty buzzwords that make liberals feel good while they often refuse to tolerate and sometimes even assault traditional Christian and conservative beliefs,” Kengor said. 

Kengor said classes like the one at Florida Atlantic University demonstrate the contempt many public institutions hold for people of faith. “It also reflects the rising confidence and aggression of the new secularists and atheists, especially at our sick and surreal modern universities,” he said.

The university did not explain why students were only instructed to write the name of Jesus – and not the name of Mohammed or another religious figure

 

For those experiencing difficulty viewing videos, try this link.

More at WND.

H/T Commenter Euby

The national negative attention has had an effect. This is the message we just located on the Florida Atlantic University’s website:

http://www.fau.edu/explore/homepage-stories/2013_03message.php

Although the university’s message engages in some interesting word games, it concludes with this apology: “This exercise will not be used again. The University holds dear its core values. We sincerely apologize for any offense this caused. Florida Atlantic University respects all religions and welcomes people of all faiths, backgrounds and beliefs.”

March 29, 2013:

FAU Professor In “Jesus Stomping” Incident Placed On Administrative Leave.

No word as to whether or not this “leave” is paid or unpaid. Best guess is this is a paid vacation until the storm over this so-called professor subsides.

 http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/03/29/fau-professor-in-jesus-stomping-incident-placed-on-administrative-leave/

AZ AG Horne victory: Judge upholds ethnic studies ban

Sanity prevails

Federal District Court Judge A. Wallace Tashima has ruled on Tucson Unified School District’s (TUSD) appeal of the ban on the ethnocentric Mexican American Studies (MAS) Program, upholding the ban. The law was held to be constitutional, with one minor exception, Section (A)(3).

Judge Tashima said objections did not “meet the high threshold to establish a constitutional violation.” The 31-page ruling can be read here.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, was formerly the two-term elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction when this issue arose. Horne, who personally argued the case in U.S. District Court in Tucson, issued this statement after the decision was announced: “This is a victory for ensuring that public education is not held captive to radical, political elements and that students treat each other as individuals — not on the basis of the race they were born into.”  His complete statement can be read here. The order was enforced the last day of Horne’s term and enacted by incoming Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal, whose name appears on the ruling. A search of his website lacked any press release regarding this defining issue for his office.

As Superintendent, Horne protested the program and was instrumental in passage of HB 2281 which “prohibits a school district or charter school from including courses or classes that either promote the overthrow of the United States government or promote resentment toward a race or class of people.” (Complete bill information here).

Interestingly, Horne had an unlikely ally in his efforts: The Arizona Republic.  On Jan. 4, 2011, the newspaper ran an editorial rightfully calling the data used to buttress the claims “repeated constantly by [the program’s] defenders that students perform better academically as a result of taking ethnic studies classes and that they go on to college more often” — “academically unsupportable.” Further the newspaper stated that officials who make such claims “are acting irresponsibly in doing so.” The editorial goes so far as to say the results “appear rigged.”

Enforcement of the law resulted in cancellation of TUSD’s racially discriminatory Mexican-American Studies Program after an independent Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found that the program presented material in a “biased, political, and emotionally charged manner.” The ALJ also stated: “Teaching in such a manner promotes social or political activism against white people, promotes racial resentment, and advocates ethnic solidarity instead of treating people as individuals.”

Readers can refresh their memories regarding this ongoing and radical saga here.  Horne was killed in effigy by students as a thuggish mob of La Raza Studies supporters tried to shout down the Attorney General.

Weekend reading guaranteed to make you smarter

We’ve been hearing the term “Common Core” tossed about with greater frequency.  But how many of us actually know the reality behind this insidious scheme to surrender state autonomy on education to Obama administration bureaucrats and promote a nationalized system of education well beyond the appropriate scope of the federal government. In addition, the curriculum associated with Common Core relies on an international perspective instead of traditional studies of American and World History or the study of Western Civilization.

Syndicated columnist and Fox News regular, Michelle Malkin, is writing a continuing series “Rotten to the Core.” Following this fourth installment “The Feds’ Invasive Student Tracking Database,” are others that we recommend to our readers.  If you are a parent or grandparent, even the neighbor of parents with school aged children, consider it your civic responsibility to get up to speed on this invasive governmental expansion and despicable lowering of standards.

These are Malkin’s previous columns on Common Core: (Keep checking back. We will continue to add the latest ones to the top of this list as they become available.)

Time To Opt Out of Creepy Fed Ed Data-Mining Racket

Attention, parents: Common Core opt-out form now available

Rotten to the Core, Part 3: Lessons from Texas and the Growing Grassroots Revolt

Rotten to the Core, Part 2: Readin’, writin’ and deconstructionism

Rotten to the Core, Part 1: Obama’s War on Academic Standards

Then, as a bonus, watch Michelle Malkin being interviewed by Megyn Kelly as she busts Oberlin College for its history of ridiculous hate crime hoaxes:

ASU’s Crow backs lower tuition for illegals — again

Co$tly deception abounds

ASU President Michael Crow is back to his old tricks of dropping tuition rates for illegal alien students. We wrote this back in 2007, pointing out that Crow was skirting the provisions of Prop 300, a voter-approved law that, among other matters, requires such students pay higher, out-of-state tuition rates. The law passed overwhelmingly 1,060,444 to 423,994.

Fast forward to March 6, 2013. The amnesty-supporting Periódico de la República de Arizona (Arizona Republic) headline cheers the news: “Crow backs lower migrant tuition.” The daily newspaper is keen on cunningly using imprecise words such as “migrant” and “undocumented“ to describe illegals. “Migrants” sound deceptively akin to the swallows, making their yearly journey each March 19 to California’s Mission San Juan Capistrano, and departing for their home in Argentina the following October 23. Our “migrants” come here in violation of our laws and national sovereignty and never leave.

Acquaint yourself with the severe restrictions imposed by Mexico’s Constitution on foreign-born, naturalized Mexican citizens. Those who enter Mexico illegally are not even this fortunate.

Tuition and fee increases were the order of the day for Arizona’s three universities going into the 2011-12 school year as the Arizona Board of Regents provided the double-digit increases the schools requested.  ASU freshmen received a 20 percent hike, to $9,716 a year. UA undergraduates stared wide-eyed at a 22 percent increase, and  NAU students found themselves facing an 11 percent increase. At the time, only two of the nine regents voted against the increases. Room-and-board costs can add an additional $10,000.

It’s doubtful these real-world issues factor with the over-paid Crow. Crow’s wife Sybil Francis is also on the ASU payroll as a six-figure ‘senior advisor.’ (Her precise salary is well hidden.) Here’s a review worth checking out: Crow’s annual salary of $475,000 plus benefits comes in at $742,500. There’s that $50,000 housing allowance to assist in maintaining their exclusive $1,250,000 Paradise Valley digs, and a nifty $10,000 yearly car allowance. The ASU Foundation on which his wife serves as a “senior advisor” to the group advocating her husband’s pay increases, kicks in an additional $100,000 annually in compensation. His yearly $85,500 pension and $22,000 in retirement, would round it all out nicely…but then there are the proposed yearly crank-up bonuses: 2013: Up to $40,000, 2014: Up to $40,000, and the major step-up in 2015: Up to $180,000 for exceeding benchmarks for freshman retention, research revenue, bachelor’s degrees awarded and transfer students.

Living high, Michael Crow doesn’t quite get the plight of struggling students. The faltering economy is not on his radar screen.  He and his wife are clearly not in danger of losing their Paradise Valley mansion to foreclosure.

The crushingly large tuition hikes were frozen going into 2012-2013 for the first time in 20 years. Given Michael Crow’s grand scale generosity to foreign national students, expect tuition and fees to soar again for Arizona‘s citizen students. The money will have to come from somewhere.

Michael Crow, Sybil Francis: A$U’s pricey duo

He’s quite a deal at 3/4 of a million, plus, plus, plus…

The usually fawning Arizona Republic is shining a bright light on ASU’s President Michael Crow. The headline was captivating in its revealing jab, “Reaching for the bonus money.“ In what appears to be a carefully selected accompanying photo, Crow is ostensibly waving.  But with his fingers splayed, and riveted stare, he appears to be grasping for an unseen money bag.

The report says. “ASU’s crow could get up to $260,000 extra in 3 years.”

There is only one takeaway.  Crow has done something to tick off the newspaper. The question is, what is it?

There appeared to have been a respite after the March 2008 article in which the daily ripped Crow’s wife Sybil Francis  questioning her hiring by the ASU Foundation for the healthy sum of $160,000. Interestingly, in her current Center for the Future of Arizona bio, she is still “deeply embedded in the Arizona State University Community and serves as a Senior Advisor to the ASU Foundation.” The Foundation is ASU’s main fundraising arm.

At the time, Johnnie Ray, ASU’s Foundation’s president and chief executive officer, called her a “senior advisor” and claimed the Crow/Francis duo was worth their weight in gold. According to Ray, Francis “is present at many university events and helps cultivate potential donors.”

How she serves as a senior advisor to the group that hired her is mystifying.

And Crow?  His annual salary of $475,000 plus benefits comes in at $742,500. There’s that $50,000 housing allowance to assist in maintaining their exclusive $1,250,000 Paradise Valley digs, and a nifty $10,000 yearly car allowance. The ASU Foundation on which his wife serves as a “senior advisor” kicks in an additional $100,000 annually in compensation. His yearly $85,500 pension and $22,000 in retirement, would round it all out nicely…but then there are the proposed yearly crank-up bonuses: 2013: Up to $40,000, 2014: Up to $40,000, and the major step-up in 2015: Up to $180,000 for exceeding benchmarks for freshman retention, research revenue, bachelor’s degrees awarded and transfer students.

That bonus money Crow was reaching for?  In a move that surprised no one, the Board of Regents approved it yesterday, adding the $260,000 bonus clause to his contract.

And Sybil Francis? Finding her current salary is a task we have not mastered. But it’s a sure bet it far exceeds the $160,000 salary she was paid five long years ago. 

We’ve written about Michael Crow previously:

Sept. 8, 2007;  Dec. 16, 2007; March 8, 2008; March 25, 2008; April 2008; April 2009; May 2011 and June 2011.