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The most important news this Saturday Yes, Liz Magill is gone, but Army beat Navy to win the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy.

I wrote, in a comment on one of Robert Stacy McCain’s articles, “The over/under on Dr Magill’s resignation date is Monday, December 11th. There’s a meeting of the Board of Trustees set for Sunday, Sunday! afternoon.” Well, the lovely Dr Magill didn’t make it to Sunday, resigning on Saturday.

Breaking: Penn’s Magil Resigns.

by Robert Stacy McCain | Saturday, December 9, 2023

Mere hours after I blogged about this (“‘Context Dependent’: Ivy League President Belatedly Realizes Maybe She Answered That Question About Genocide Wrong”), now the University of Pennsylvania’s embattled President Liz Magill has resigned:

University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill has resigned as president of the university in the wake of intense backlash over her failure during a recent congressional hearing on Capitol Hill to say whether advocating for the genocide of Jews is permissible on campus.

“Dear members of the Penn community,” the university began in its announcement. “I write to share that President Liz Magill has voluntarily tendered her resignation as President of the University of Pennsylvania.” Continue reading →

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Journolist Linda Blackford needs to get out more often She was fooled by a statistic that anyone could have seen was bogus

No, that’s not a typographical error in the headline: The spelling ‘journolist’ or ‘journolism’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term ‘journolism’ frequently when writing about media bias.

Linda Blackford’s biography blurb with what my best friend used to call the Lexington Herald-Liberal states that she “writes columns and commentary for the Herald-Leader. She has covered K-12, higher education and other topics for the past 20 years at the Herald-Leader.” You’d think that someone who has lived in and around Lexington for at least twenty years would be somewhat familiar with the Bluegrass State.

But, when the Williams Institute of UCLA’s law school reported that Kentucky had the highest percentage of homosexuals and transgendered people in the country, 10.5%, Mrs Blackford reacted with glee, and jumped right into a celebratory column. Unfortunately, that column is no longer available, because she had to issue a correction, using the same url:

It turns out Kentucky is NOT the gayest state in the U.S. | Opinion

by Linda Blackford | Friday, December 8, 2023 | 6:44 PM

Late Friday, the Williams Institute at UCLA issued an apology for a data error that said Kentucky had the highest rate of LGBTQ adults in the nation.

“We made a mistake, and we apologize to Kentucky and to you,” the release said. “We know there is a growing and thriving LGBTQ community in the Bluegrass State. But our report issued earlier this month incorrectly stated that Kentucky had the highest percentage of people identifying as LGBTQ. That percentage is 4.9 percent instead of 10.5 percent and in line with the national average of 5.6 percent.” Continue reading →

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Aren’t our universities supposed to be institutions supporting Western civilization? As for Presidents Gay, Kornbluth, and Magill, they're toast, and their careers are over; it's just a matter of counting down the days.

At least as of 9:58 AM this morning, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill still had a job, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer’s story, “Penn President Liz Magill faces mounting pressure to resign from Capitol Hill as university backs her: The school says president Liz Magill is staying put while rebukes increase over her comments on antisemitism on campus.” But the hits keep on coming, From The Wall Street Journal:

Penn Donor Threatens to Rescind $100 Million Gift Unless President Is Ousted

Warning from financier Ross Stevens comes as congressional panel announces investigation into antisemitism at Penn, MIT and Harvard

By Melissa Korn and Joseph De Avila | Thursday, December 7, 2023 | 11:26 PM EST

The turmoil engulfing the president of the University of Pennsylvania over her handling of antisemitism on campus intensified Thursday as a major benefactor threatened to withdraw a $100 million donation. Continue reading →

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Is Penn President Liz Magill as dumb as a box of rocks?

We reported, on Tuesday, how University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill not just toast, but toast which has fallen on the floor, buttered side down, after The Philadelphia Inquirer noted her terrible performance before a congressional committee:

When given the chance, though, the presidents — Dr Magill, Harvard president Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth — at times didn’t directly answer, struggling to explain the point at which hate speech rises to the level of incitement of violence — or, when students or faculty should be disciplined for it.

“It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman,” Magill said when asked repeatedly if calling for the genocide of Jews violates Penn’s rules or code of conduct.

What? If the question had been about calling for the killing of blacks or Hispanics or homosexuals, is there any doubt, any doubt at all, that Dr Magill’s answer would not have been that it was a “context-dependent decision”?

At least as of this writing, Dr Magill still has her job, but I wonder just for how much longer that will be: Continue reading →

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Liz Magill is not just toast, but toast which has fallen on the floor, buttered side down

We have previously reported how University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill has completely fouled up the school’s response to the antiSemitism on campus, costing the Ivy League university the good will of its many deep-pocket alumni donors.

Well, she may have just fired herself! From The Philadelphia Inquirer: Continue reading →

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Why are Westerners so deluded about #Hamas and #AntiSemitism?

The Philadelphia Inquirer noted the latest pro-‘Palestinian’ march stopped outside Goldie, a Jewish-owned falafel shop, chanting “Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” This left The Editorial Board to opine:

Intimidating Jewish businesses will not end the bombing in Gaza | Editorial

Protesters are well within their right to put on peaceful demonstrations, but those who went out of their way to target a Jewish-owned restaurant only helped inflame already heightened tensions.

by The Editorial Board | Tuesday, December 5, 2023 | 6:00 AM EST

Juden Verboten, Paris, 1940.

The hundreds of protesters who marched through Center City and University City on Sunday are free to demand a cease-fire in Gaza. But stopping to chant outside a restaurant owned by Israeli-born Michael Solomonov undermines calls for peace and reeks of antisemitism.

Specifically targeting Jewish businesses in Philadelphia or elsewhere summons up dark historical memories of World War II German atrocities and should not be tolerated. Gov. Josh Shapiro was right to call out protesters who harassed Goldie, Solomonov’s falafel shop.

“Tonight in Philly, we saw a blatant act of antisemitism — not a peaceful protest. A restaurant was targeted and mobbed because its owner is Jewish and Israeli,” Shapiro wrote on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. “This hate and bigotry is reminiscent of a dark time in history.”

While I’m happy that Elon Musk bought Twitter and ended the censorship of conservatives on that site, I absotively, posilutely refuse to call it “X”! There’s more below the fold, including a video. Continue reading →

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If using rape to terrorize Jewish women helps achieve a ‘Palestinian’ nation, Pramila Jayapal Williamson is not ready to allow “hierarchies of oppressions” to stand in the way!

One would think that women, conservative, moderate, liberal, and even whacko hard left, would all be united on one question, namely that rape is a bad thing, a horrible thing, an assault on everyone’s dignity. But that’s apparently not the case when it comes to at least some women, namely those who support the ‘Palestinian’ cause.

CNN host clashes with progressive Democrat over Hamas’ use of sexual violence: ‘You turned it back to Israel’

Jayapal claimed she had specifically condemned Hamas’ attacks against Israeli women

By Hanna Panreck, Fox News | First Sunday of Advent, December 3, 2023 | 2:27 PM EST

CNN host Dana Bash clashed with progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., over the lack of widespread condemnation of Hamas’ use of sexual violence against Israeli women during their Oct. 7 attacks.

I’m putting the rest of this below the fold, because it includes the video of the interview. Continue reading →

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Are you ready to surrender your rights for the “common good”?

I’m old enough to remember the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, a product of mostly leftist students on campus.

With the participation of thousands of students, the Free Speech Movement was the first mass act of civil disobedience on an American college campus in the 1960s. Students insisted that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students’ right to free speech and academic freedom. The Free Speech Movement was influenced by the New Left, and was also related to the Civil Rights Movement and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement. To this day, the Movement’s legacy continues to shape American political dialogue both on college campuses and in broader society, influencing some political views and values of college students and the general public.

I’m not a leftist by any means, but I completely support the freedom of speech, and all of the rights enshrined in our great Constitution. Sadly, so many of today’s left do not support freedom of speech, at least not when they believe they have the power to restrain it.

Irish senator under fire for advocating bill to restrict free speech

One critic calls Ireland’s anti-hate law ‘draconian,’ adding it will have ‘severe implications’

By Brianna Herlihy, Fox News | First Sunday of Advent, December 3, 2023 | 4:00 AM EST

A speech delivered in June by an Irish lawmaker who said the work of legislatures is about “restricting freedoms” in the name of the “common good” has gone viral, with criticism on both sides of the Atlantic.

Senator Pauline O’Reilly of the Green Party, in defense of Ireland’s proposed Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences Bill 2022, spoke at the Houses of the Oireachtas in June, saying, “We are restricting freedom, but we’re doing it for the common good.

Well, of course she’s a member of the Green Party, of the hard left.

“You will see throughout our constitution, yes, you have rights, but they are restricted for the common good. If your views on other people’s identities go to make their lives unsafe, insecure and cause them such deep discomfort that they cannot live in peace, then I believe that it is our job as legislators to restrict those freedoms for the common good.”

If a right is “restricted for the common good,” is it a right at all?

Senator O’Reilly’s speech is embedded below the fold, since videos take up a lot of bandwidth on the front page. Continue reading →

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Killadelphia

According to the Philadelphia Police Department’s Crime Maps and Stats page, there have been 383 homicides in the City of Brotherly Love as of 11:59 PM EST on November 30, 2023.

With November 30th being the 334th day of the year, that works out to an average of 1.1467 homicides per day in Philly, which, multiplied by 365 yields a projected 418.5479 murders for the year. That’s a heck of an improvement, even if it’s still ridiculously high, but anything under 422 killings will give Mayor Jim Kenney, District Attorney Larry Krasner, and most-of-the-year Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw a four-year average slightly under 500 per year.