Friday, March 22, 2013



Dems Vote to Punish School Children

On pretty much a party line vote, Democrats rejected Senator Coburn's proposal to shift other national heritage funding so as to restore White House tours for taxpayers -- the people who, in fact, subsidize the operation of what is supposedly "the people's house." (See here).  Had the positions of the parties been reversed, no doubt most of the MSM would be trumpeting headlines like that above.

The GOP should be trumpeting that fact to everyone who will listen.  Every time Democrats do this, we should be asking why there seems to be money, for example, for the President to throw swanky St. Patrick's Day parties for the elite and connected -- like Chris Matthews (See here) -- but no Democrat can seem to find a way to let school children into The White House.

If Republicans are serious about improving their standing with normal Americans, it's a good time to start pointing out that the party of Big, powerful government is the party that fosters exactly the kind of cronyism and insider dealing that should be anathema to a free people.  Democrats loooove to talk about insider dealing on Wall Street -- but we have an alphabet soup of agencies designed to inhibit and punish that kind of self-dealing.  In contrast, at the moment, there seems to be no Democrat in the Senate who is at all disturbed at the patent self-dealing practiced by the government class at the expense of the people.

Now that's a message to take to the country.

SOURCE







University Could be Defunded Over Sex Week

A group of Tennessee lawmakers is preparing to issue an ultimatum to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville – either defund the first-ever “Sex Week” or they will defund the university.

Lawmakers, alumni, and taxpayers are furious that the university allocated nearly $20,000 to fund a week-long salute to sex that included a poetry-reading lesbian bondage expert, a campus-wide condom scavenger hunt and seminars on—among other things – oral sex and lesbian erotica.

“We should be teaching these children what is important to learn so they can get jobs,” state Sen. Stacey Campfield told Fox News. “I don’t know what jobs they plan on getting if they’re having seminars on oral sex and bondage. I don’t see how that will help someone in their professional career – unless they plan on becoming a porn star.”

“This is truly an offense to the people of Tennessee,” State Rep. Susan Lynn said on the House floor. “I am offended for the people of my district at the University of Tennessee having sex week.”

A university spokesperson confirmed to Fox News that the nearly $20,000 event is being funded by student fees and university money.

The nearly $20,000 cost was covered by money given from specific academic programs “who see a common interest – from law, from sociology and from history.”

“The university is providing funding for this workshop because it covers a wide range of issues that are beneficial to our students,” the spokesperson said. “It’s tackling important topics related to sexual health, sexual identity, preventing sexual assault, gender roles and religion.”

State Sen. Stacey Campfield told Fox News he is beyond outraged.

“They’ve been trying to say it’s about safety and birth control,” he said. “These kids are supposed to be some of the smartest kids out there – and they don’t know where to buy condoms?”

Campfield called Sex Week “completely ridiculous.”

“If they can’t figure out where to buy condoms, I question whether they need to be in college in the first place – if they’re that stupid.”

Campfield has summoned university officials to the state capitol to explain why they signed off on the event. And he’s also going to try and withhold the university’s budget until they get answers.

“The university always cries poor-mouth, that they don’t have any money and yet they seem to have plenty of money to do this kind of stuff,” he said. “We’re going to try and hold their budget until it gets squared away.”

“This is not what tax dollars should be supporting,” he said.

Sex Week is scheduled for April 7-12 and includes 30 events including “Getting Laid,” “Sex Positivity; Queer as a Verb,” “Bow Chicka Bow Woah,” “How to talk to Your Parents About Sex,” “Loud and Queer,” and “How Many Licks Does it Take…” – a workshop about oral sex.

The university spokesperson said the student organizers did a good job making sure there are things to appeal to all students.

Noted lesbian bondage expert and erotica author Sinclair Sexsmith is scheduled to deliver a lecture titled, “Messing Around with Gender."

UT student Brianna Rader, one of the founders of Sex Week, told Fox News that Sexsmith will not be engaging in lesbian bondage demonstrations during her appearance.

“She’s doing a workshop on poetry about sexuality,” Rader said. ‘She’s also going to be talking about constructing and reconstructing gender roles in society.”

The content of sex week prompted Rep. Bill Dunn to express his outrage on the House floor. “It’s debauchery,” he told Fox News. “They are treating sex in such a frivolous manner.”

Dunn, who graduated from the University of Tennessee, said he’s been overwhelmed with phone calls from angry citizens.

“I don’t think they approve of the university using their resources to push forth a hook-up agenda,” he said.

Dunn said he’s been in touch with university officials who told him they’ve already launched an internal inquiry into who ultimately gave the thumbs up for the event.

“There’s going to be an investigation as to whose thumb was up,” he said. “I’m not sure the president of the university was aware of what happened.”

Dunn said he was motivated to speak out after the House passed three bills dealing with human trafficking of children.

“Society needs to understand you are going to reap what you sow,” he said. “If you turn sex into some kind of a game – and toys and debauchery – does it really shock you that people then take it to the step of ‘Hey, kids are just sex toys that we buy and sell and we get our pleasure however we want to?’”

Dunn said it’s time for university presidents across the state to buck up and have the courage to say certain things are inappropriate.

“It’s time for them to stand up,” he said. “There are adults who need to grow up and act like adults and lead young people toward what is good and health – as opposed to promoting stuff that leads to the breakdown of the family and sexual abuse.”

Campfield said the inmates are running the asylum.

“They say it’s all about diversity,” he told Fox News. “Well, perversity does not make diversity just because it’s at the university.”

SOURCE






Revealed: Socialist links of academics trying to sabotage British reforms of the school curriculum

A coalition of Left-wing academics yesterday tried to sabotage Michael Gove's reform of the national curriculum by claiming it would doom children to 'failure and demoralisation'.  The group warned that 'mountains of data' pupils are expected to learn will 'severely erode educational standards'.

The 'endless lists of spelling, facts and rules' will narrow the experience of learning, they said, as it does not allow children to develop 'problem-solving, critical understanding and creativity'.

They argued that the Education Secretary's blueprint for education in England will lead to a 'dumbing down' of standards.

The blistering attack appeared in a letter published in the Daily Telegraph and the Independent yesterday.

But it quickly became clear the 100 academics – all of whom are professors of education or lecture in the subject at universities – were predominantly Left-wing ideologists with links to trade unions, socialists and the Labour Party.

The organiser of the letter, Terry Wrigley, a visiting professor at Leeds Metropolitan University, is a regular contributor to publications Socialist Worker and Socialist Review.

Other signatories include Meg Maguire, professor of sociology and education at King's College London and a member of the Hillcole Group of Radical Left Educators, and Professor Dave Hill, a professor in education at Anglia Ruskin University who has been a general election candidate for Labour and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.

A source close to Mr Gove accused the group of bringing about the 'systematic devaluation of exams' by 'peddling unscientific nonsense about the curriculum' for decades.

The academics said high-achieving education systems, such as those in Finland and Massachusetts, promote 'critical understanding and creativity, not rote learning'. They claim English children would be under pressure to learn 'too much, too young'.

The new curriculum is intended to usher in a back-to-basics approach to education, described by Mr Gove as arming children with the 'fundamental building blocks' needed to learn.

In maths, children will begin fractions from the age of five and know their 12-times table by nine.

There will be a greater emphasis on grammar, spelling and punctuation in English, with poems recited in front of classmates from age five.

One of the most contentious subjects is history, which will cover events chronologically from the Stone Age to the Cold War. Critics have claimed the focus on key dates and characters risks creating a 'monochrome' list of goodies and baddies and will be biased towards white British men.

For the first time pupils will also learn an ancient or modern language from the age of seven. The curriculum is far shorter than the one introduced by Labour and was intended to give teachers more leeway in how they taught.

But the academics argued it 'betrays a serious distrust of teachers in its amount of detailed instructions'.

They wrote: 'Much of it demands too much, too young. This will put pressure on teachers to rely on rote learning without understanding. Inappropriate demands will lead to failure and demoralisation. The learner is largely ignored.'

The curriculum is out for consultation until April. So far, nearly 6,000 responses have been submitted.

SOURCE

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