Pages

Friday, October 22, 2004

Leftist Law School Intolerance

A Christian law student club sues UC Hastings over the school's homosexual membership policy. Hastings, a government funded law school in San Francisco, won't afford the Christian club official recognition unless it allows practicing homosexuals to become members and officers.

"UC Hastings has apparently decided to withdraw itself from the 'marketplace of ideas,'" said ADF Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull. "What’s next? Will they require a vegetarian club to admit meat-eaters or a Democratic Party student group to admit Republicans?"

"Permitting people to join HCF [Hasting Christian Fellowship -- sic]who disagree with the group’s beliefs and goals would contradict and undermine their purpose,” Bull added. "The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that student organizations have the right to determine their own membership."
Signs That the "Catholic Democrat" Will Soon Be an Endangered Species

From Colleen Carroll Campbell:

Election-year polls have shown Catholic support about evenly split between Kerry and President George W. Bush, with churchgoing Catholics favoring Bush and those who rarely attend Mass preferring Kerry.

But other polls suggest that Bush may be pulling ahead among Catholic voters as a whole. In midsummer, Zogby International pollsters began seeing a significant Catholic shift toward the president in such swing states as Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. Zogby senior political writer Fritz Wenzel told the Catholic News Service that increased attention on Kerry's pro-abortion policies combined with strong pro-life networks in those swing states was making the difference for Bush. The numbers show "concern about the legitimacy of the war in Iraq being overridden by ongoing discomfort with Kerry's stand on abortion," Wenzel said.

By the end of September, the difference was obvious to pollsters at the Barna Research Group, who found a "seismic shift" in support for the President among Catholics. In May, Kerry had led Bush 48 percent to 43 percent among Catholic voters. Late last month, a 22-point shift had put Bush in the lead, with 53 percent of Catholic voters supporting him and just 36 percent backing Kerry. Survey director George Barna said many of Bush's Catholic supporters "have traditionally voted Democratic, but have chosen a different course this time around."

The numbers remain in flux and conclusions are premature. A new Zogby poll suggests that Kerry may be regaining a slight edge among Catholics, though white Catholics — who tend to vote in greater numbers — continue to favor Bush. The race for the Catholic vote may be too close to call, but the fact that a Catholic Democrat running for president has failed to lock in the Catholic vote at this late stage should worry Kerry's team — and buoy the Bush camp.
Not Your Mao's China Anymore

The world's best fried chicken wings hits China via Hooters.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

The Off-Centered Mind of Jimmah

QandO points out this little gem from a Chris Matthews interview of ex-Presidente Jimmy Carter:

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you the question about—this is going to cause some trouble with people—but as an historian now and studying the Revolutionary War as it was fought out in the South in those last years of the War, insurgency against a powerful British force, do you see any parallels between the fighting that we did on our side and the fighting that is going on in Iraq today?

CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we‘ve fought. I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war. Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive to the colonial‘s really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely, and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a nonviolent way.

As QandO points out, Canada, India and Australia didn't effectively become independent until the 20th century. And the claim about the Revolutionary War and War on Terror being the most bloody wars the US has ever fought is just plain wrong. Yes, I do believe Jimmah has been smoking a few too many peanut plants.
High Hopes Dashed From Lack of Cash

The unfortunate and abrupt ending of Campion College in San Francisco:

In late July Campion College, San Francisco's upstart Catholic college, announced that it was shutting its doors after two years of operations. Citing the decision of Guadalupe Associates to cease their funding of the college and an inability to raise alternative funding, the college informed the archdiocese of San Francisco that it had no choice but to cancel classes for the fall semester.

Campion College was conceived by Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio in February of 2002, following the well-publicized gutting of the University of San Francisco's Saint Ignatius Institute. The idea for an authentically Catholic, two-year liberal arts college had been discussed by Fessio and John Galten, the former director of the Ignatius Institute, a number of years ago, but it remained in the discussion stage until the Jesuits moved on the institute, leaving a void in Bay Area Catholic higher education.

Under the umbrella of the Guadalupe Associates, the parent organization to Ignatius Press, a curriculum was drafted, administration positions filled, and faculty hired, all under Father Fessio's direction.

(...)

When the Guadalupe Associates board unanimously decided to sever its funding relationship to Campion College, Galten, who is a voting member of the Guadalupe board, was on the East Coast on a combination vacation and student recruitment trip. "I knew that there was going to be a planning meeting to discuss matters for the future," said Galten. "They knew that I was going to be away. I guess that matters came up at that meeting. I was not aware that the fate of Campion College might be discussed."

While the meeting without Galten and the lack of warning to either the faculty or students takes on a darkly conspiratorial note to some involved, Brumley insists that the board did not go into that meeting with a premeditated intention to cut funding. According to Brumley, "[while] over the past year, we had concerns, it was really at the end of May that it became clear [that there was a crisis]. A couple of factors: we were unable to recruit a sufficient number of students. We only had two for the fall who were committed. We needed to see ten students for Campion to be viable. That would be one factor. We had a few students who had told us that they were not returning, and many of the students who were returning were not in a position to contribute much more financially. Third was the overall financial strain that Campion was posing to Ignatius Press."

One father of a Campion student (who asked not to be named) discounted this, noting that a responsible business should have been able to see the budget and recruitment problems no later than December of 2003, when a decision to discontinue funding would have left faculty and students adequate time to make other plans. Furthermore, he added, "I had never heard that we should be looking out for money. They asked those of us on financial aid to let the college know if our financial situation changed, but there was no importuning for us to seek outside donations to help the college financially."
Terrorist Enablers and Sympathizers

Proving once again that they are even kookier than their ideological brethren on the kooky Left, the ACLU turns down $1.15 million in funding from the abortion loving Ford and Rockefeller foundations. Why? Because both of these institutions have expressly said that their money can't be used for anything that encourages or facilitates terrorism.