More on Academic Programs Subsidizing Intercollegiate Athletics

In an article for the Buffalo News, Jay Tokasz has reported yet another example of how our institutions are spending exorbitant sums to subsidize intercollegiate athletics—at the expense of academic programs and students. Here are the opening paragraphs from Tokasz article, “Small Crowds, Big Subsidy for UB Sports”:   “The price of pursuing athletic glory…

Dancing Cops and Free Speech

The famous “dancing cop” of Providence, Rhode Island, Tony Lepore, has been fired for organizing a “Blue Lives Matter” protest critical of the Black Lives Matter. Steven Paro, Providence Police Commissioner, declared: “Mr. Lepore was not authorized to speak on behalf of the Providence Police Dept. and his actions were, in my judgment, a disservice…

From the Far Right, a List of “Weird” Stuff Said and Done by Lefties on Campus

Writing for the Far-Right website RedState, John Hawkins provides the following list of “15 Excerpts That Show How Radical, Weird And Out of Touch College Campuses Have Become”: 1) “College Students Say Remembering 9/11 Is Offensive to Muslims”: The everything-is-offensive brand of campus activism has struck a new low: Students at the University of Minnesota killed…

“Black Friday” Is No Longer as Big as It Used to Be Simply Because It Is No Longer “Black Friday”

  From Amazon.com on Thanksgiving—below a significantly smaller box containing the message “Happy Thanksgiving!”:   From Barnes and Noble.com on “Small Business Saturday”:   From Amazon.com on “Small Business Saturday”:   I am waiting to see how the advertisers try to turn “Giving Tuesday” into an extension of “Black Friday” and/or “Cyber Monday.”   And…

Black Friday in Colorado Springs: A Brief Response

Given the increasing frequency with which these mass shootings have been occurring, it is all too easy to become insensitive to the life-altering impact of such events on those most directly involved—the victims and survivors and their families, friends, and co-workers. But until someone discovers a way to transform these cumulative shocks to the national…

Black Friday in Colorado Springs

All week, we have been watching media reports on the ramped-up security at airports, train stations, shopping malls, and public events—all intended to discourage ISIS-led or ISIS-inspired attacks and to reassure the public that there will be a rapid and decisive response if any such attacks should be attempted. Very thankfully, no such attacks have…

The Ten Things for Which Robert Reich Is Most and Least Thankful

I am re-posting Robert Reich’s Thanksgiving message because I largely agree with it. In a period in which partisanship requires almost absolute conformity to the “party line,” even when there is actually still no consensus on where or what that line should be, the adverb “largely” seems to have become a largely abandoned modifier. Yet,…