Back to School: Let the left-wing indoctrination begin

It’s no secret that our nation’s public universities want to transform American young people into a bunch of hyper-sensitive, intellectually-neutered cream puffs. 

But now – they’re trying to deconstruct gender identity by parsing pronouns.
Across the fruited plain, institutions of higher education are turning their taxpayer-funded fiefdoms into gender neutral zones where free thought is outlawed. I’ve got several incidents to share with you – so pour yourself a glass of iced tea and prepare to be dumbfounded.
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Consider what happened to Moriah DeMartino, a 21-year-old conservative student at Maryland’s Hagerstown Community College.

Across the fruited plain, institutions of higher education are turning their taxpayer-funded fiefdoms into gender neutral zones where free thought is outlawed.

College officials turned down her request to establish a campus chapter of Turning Point USA, one of the nation’s most influential student non-partisan conservative organizations. Instead, the college suggested she join the political science club.
“I have determined that both Republicans and Democrats, as well as any other political parties, are able to be fairly represented as members of the currently existing club, without the creation of any additional clubs,” Dean of Student Affairs Jessica Chambers told Campus Reform. 
Chambers touted the political science club as a “non-partisan, but inclusive” group that exposes students to “the principles of political science in a true objective manner with respect to all student rights.”
But Miss DeMartino tells me the advisor of the club is an “extremely liberal professor.”
“He’s the man I approached about my club and he instantly shut me down,” she said. “I’m really frustrated right now and I’m really upset.”
For the record, the college does maintain clubs for women’s rights and LGBT students – but not conservatives. No surprise, said Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk.
“More times than not administrators and deans are using their positions of power to block conservative viewpoints on campus,” Kirk told me. “We have seen this time and time again. Administrators have been trying to silence the conservative point of view.”
But when it comes to imposing draconian liberal ideology on students, no one can come close to Washington State University.
Campus Reform reports a number of professors have told students they will be punished if they use words like “illegal alien,” “male,” “and “female.”  
It’s a good thing I didn’t attend Washington State University. I would’ve flunked out during roll call.
The syllabus for a “Women & Pop Culture” class warned students that using any “oppressive and hateful language” could result in a failing grade.
Oh yeah, the professor has a problem with white folks, too.
“Students will come to recognize how white privilege functions in every day social structures and institutions,” the syllabus outlined.
Another professor told white students they are expected to “defer” to non-white students. That’s just a fancy way of telling all the pale faces to shut their pie hole.
Last week I reported on the University of Tennessee’s quest to introduce gender “inclusive” pronouns into the Big Orange lexicon. Instead of he and she, students and professors were encouraged to use words like ze and zir. 
“We should not assume someone’s gender by their appearance, nor by what is listed on a roster or in student information systems,” wrote Donna Braquet, the director of the university’s pride center. “Transgender people and people who do not identify within the gender binary may use a different name than their legal name and pronouns of their gender identity, rather than the pronouns of the sex they were assigned at birth.”
I receive correspondence weekly from parents and students who are troubled by the influence of liberal ideology on university campuses.
And it’s not just happening at public schools. Get a load of what the kids had to endure at American University – a private school in Washington, D.C. 
Incoming freshmen were instructed to introduce themselves by name, hometown and “gender pronoun,” according to Young America’s Foundation (YAF).
“I found that this school has an obsession with political correctness,” Freshman Tristan Justice told The New Guard. “Despite being informed that American University was a very liberal campus, I went to orientation with high hopes that it wasn’t as bad as it sounded, but I was wrong.”
Welcome to an education system operated by the tolerance and diversity crowd, Tristan.
I really feel bad for American moms and dads – I really do. They send off their kids to college as decent, freedom-loving people.  But they return home as gender neutral, secular progressives who can’t figure out whether to leave the toilet seat up or down.
Our institutions of higher learning need a courtesy flush, America.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is "God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values." Follow Todd on Twitter@ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.

Chinese Cartoon

Huckabee: The staggering stupidity of Iranian self-inspections

Fresh off a golf vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, President Obama is back to doling out disparaging dialogue about critics of his Iran nuclear deal.  Even now, after learning that the deal includes trusting Iran to self-inspect, the president calls opponents “crazies.”  What’s crazy, is putting trust in the hands of Iranian leaders.
They say when the cat’s away, the mice will play. But when America abdicates its leadership role in the world, the rats run riot. President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran is a rat ship.
The latest chapter in this rat-infested deal: the Obama Administration has agreed to Iranian “self-inspections”.  Letting the Iranians “self inspect” their nuclear energy facilities is like letting mass murderers run a gun shop, hoping they’ll behave.
Never in the history of international arms control agreements have American diplomats agreed to something so recklessly ridiculous as “self-inspections”. The International Atomic Energy Agency has pushed for access to the notorious military installation at Parchin for more than a decade, yet the current administration is now willing to trust Iran to “self-inspect” this secret facility?

It makes more sense to make a convicted embezzler your financial planner than to allow the Iranians to "self-inspect" their nuclear sites.

This is absolute insanity. It makes more sense to make a convicted embezzler your financial planner than to allow the Iranians to "self-inspect" their nuclear sites.
While in Israel last week, I met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, members of the Knesset, and numerous security officials. I was constantly asked, "Why does Obama trust Iran?” Iran launches rockets on Israeli children every day. This murderous regime has killed hundreds of American soldiers and has the blood of thousands of Christians, Jews, and Muslims on its hands. It shouldn't take a mushroom cloud for the American people to wake-up!
Iranian negotiators have squeezed every last concession from this Administration, and the Free World has absolutely nothing to show for it. American hostages are still rotting in Iranians prisons. John Kerry meets with Iranian “diplomats” in the morning and the mullahs still chant “death to America” in the afternoon.  Sanctions relief injects $150 billion into Iran’s economy and military, which continues to bankroll terrorism across the globe.
So why do the Iranians negotiate with such confidence? Why do they run circles around John Kerry and convince American diplomats to agree to bizarre concepts like “self-inspection"? Because the mullahs believe they aren’t just dealing with a paper tiger, they are dealing with an inflatable pussycat, full of hot air but ready to deflate at the slightest jab.
Reagan said, “Trust but verify”. Obama’s approach is “trust but vilify” – he trusts our enemies and vilifies those who disagree with him. Let’s face it, this is a horrible deal.  We need to double-down on serious sanctions and tighten the noose on Iran.
Members of Congress are currently enjoying a summer recess vacation, which they certainly don’t deserve. But in two weeks, they will return to Washington where they’ll have the opportunity to kill this deal.  This deal is dangerous, but the “self-inspection” provision makes it a rat-infested absurdity.  I pray that Washington opens its eyes before its too late.

‘Anti-gun stupidity’: Honolulu destroys $575G worth of police firearms

Second Amendment advocates are firing away at a decision by Honolulu officials to destroy $575,000 worth of perfectly good handguns in a move one critic called the “height of anti-gun stupidity.”

Some 2,300 Smith & Wesson 9 mm handguns, including at least 200 that are brand-new and in unopened boxes, were issued to the city’s police department. But with the 2,200-member force upgrading to lighter and less expensive Glock 17s, the guns were set to be permanently holstered. While it is customary throughout the country for departments to auction the guns to law-abiding citizens, including the police who once carried them, or donate them to another department, Honolulu opted to destroy them.
“Mayor Kirk Caldwell and the Honolulu Police Department agreed that they would not allow the guns to be sold to the general public and end up on the streets of Honolulu,” Honolulu Police spokeswoman Michelle Yu told FoxNews.com. “The same goes for selling the individual gun parts that could have been used to assemble a gun.”

“These guns in the hands of lawful civilians could provide an important means of self-defense, especially for low income people who can’t afford them.”
- Alan Gottlieb, Second Amendment Foundation.

Selling the guns, with mandatory background checks to ensure they were only purchased by legal owners, could have netted the city $575,000, according to Hawaii News Now. Several police officers reportedly were interested in buying old service weapons for personal use, and the department has previously sold phased-out weapons to its staff, but this time opted to melt them down two weeks ago.
Yu said no other police departments were interested in the guns.
“Law enforcement in American Samoa initially expressed interest in acquiring some of the guns, but there was a change in administration and the new administration is no longer interested,” she said. “The local sheriff’s department recently replaced their guns, and other county police departments (Kauai, Maui and Hawaii) are looking to replace their Smith & Wessons in the future.”
A representative for Smith & Wesson declined to comment, stating that the company does not provide any information regarding their customers in law enforcement.
Despite Yu’s claims, the Hawaii state sheriffs division – which uses the same gun manufacturer – told Hawaii News Now that no offer for donation was made to them.
Hawaii’s Department of Public of Safety recently replaced its Smith & Wesson firearms with different SIG Sauer models and received a credit of more than $150,000 for trading in its old guns. But Yu no trade-in discount was available and insisted “the only remaining option was to destroy the guns so they don’t end up on the street.”
Destroying working firearms, as well as valuable taxpayer property, was “the height of anti-gun stupidity and will not stop one criminal from getting a weapon,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.
“These guns in the hands of lawful civilians could provide an important means of self-defense, especially for low income people who can’t afford them,” Gottlieb said. “Or the sale of them could help pay for much needed law enforcement equipment to help keep the public safe.”
Any city the size of Honolulu could use $575,000, said Amy Hunter, spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action.
“There is no reason why these firearms couldn’t be used by law enforcement or sold to law-abiding citizens, the proceeds of which could go to much-needed infrastructure, programs, training, etc,” she said.
The Hawaii Rifle Association’s President Harvey Gerwig, together with safety training non-profit Lessons in Firearms Education President Bill Richter wrote directly to Caldwell over the issue, emphasizing that “in these times of lean budgets and continual cost cutting to needed city services, to throw away a half a million dollars seems senseless.”
“The reason your office and HPD gave for not selling to the public seemed to be a slight on those legal gun owners who would have purchased them and who supported you during your election,” the letter continued. “You should be ashamed for suggesting that the good citizens of Hawaii cannot be trusted with buying HPD’s surplus guns for fear of them falling into criminal hands when record numbers of firearms have been bought by those same citizens for the last ten years without any such problems.”
Over the last 15 years, the number of guns registered in Hawaii increased dramatically. Data released by the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office shows that 420,409 firearms were registered from 2000 to 2014, in addition to the already existing one million firearms in a state that has an estimated population of 1.4 million.
Hawaii has one of the lowest gun death rates in the nation, which some attribute to its spike in ownership per capita, while others claim it is a result of its strict gun control laws.
Caldwell’s office declined to elaborate on Yu's comments. The Hawaii Police Officers Union, did not respond to requests for comment.
But while the destruction of the guns generated criticism from the gun rights community, others have welcomed it.
“It beats putting those (guns) back on the streets,” said Ladd Everitt, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “There are so many loopholes in federal law that dangerous people often get guns legally in this country.
“There's a reason that Hawaii has the lowest gun death rate in the country,” he added. “They'd rather see guns destroyed than families.”

Supreme Court rules against Kentucky clerk in gay marriage case

 Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis

MOREHEAD, Ky. –  The Supreme Court on Monday ruled against the Kentucky county clerk who has refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, and the clerk will arrive at work Tuesday morning to face her moment of truth.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis will have to choose whether to issue marriage licenses, defying her Christian conviction, or continue to refuse them, defying a federal judge who could pummel her with fines or order that she be hauled off to jail.
"She's going to have to think and pray about her decision overnight. She certainly understands the consequences either way," Mat Staver, founder of the law firm representing Davis, said on Monday, hours before a court-ordered delay in the case expired. "She'll report to work tomorrow, and face whatever she has to face."
A line of couples, turned away by her office again and again in the two months since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the nation, plan to meet her at the courthouse door.
Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses in the days after the landmark decision. Two gay couples and two straight couples sued her, arguing that she must fulfill her duties as an elected official despite her personal religious faith. A federal judge ordered her to issue the licenses, and an appeals court upheld that decision. Her lawyers with the Liberty Counsel filed a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court on Friday, asking that they grant her "asylum for her conscience."
Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees the 6th district, referred Davis' request to the full court, which denied the stay without comment. Kagan joined the majority in June when the court legalized gay marriage across the nation.
Meanwhile, a couple that had been turned away went to Rowan County Attorney Cecil Watkins to ask that she be charged with official misconduct, a misdemeanor defined by state law as a public official who "refrains from performing a duty imposed upon him by law or clearly inherent in the nature of his office." The crime is punishable by up to a year in jail.
Watkins cited a conflict of interest and forwarded the complaint to Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, whose office will decide whether to appoint a special prosecutor, generally a county attorney from a surrounding jurisdiction, who would decide whether to file charges.
As the clock wound down for Davis on Monday, the tension intensified between dueling groups of protesters outside her office window on the courthouse lawn.
Hexie Mefford has stood on the lawn waving a flag nearly every day for more than two months. The flag is fashioned after Old Glory, but with a rainbow instead of the red and white bars.
Mike Reynolds, a Christian protesting in Davis' defense, shouted at her that he found the flag offensive: He is an Army veteran, he complained, and they had desecrated the American flag. The two groups roared at each other. The Christians called on the activists to repent; the activists countered that their God loves all.
It was a marked difference from the cordial protests that unfolded there every day since Davis declared she would issue no licenses.
Rachelle Bombe has sat there every day, wearing rainbow colors and carrying signs that demand marriage equality. One particularly hot day, Davis, the woman she was there to protest against, worried Bombe would get overheated and offered her a cold drink. In turn, Bombe said she's checked in on Davis, whose lawyer says she's received death threats and hate mail, to make sure she's holding up despite the difficult circumstances.
"She's a very nice lady, I like her a lot," Bombe said of Davis. "We're on the opposite sides of this, but it's not personal."
On Monday, the Christians stood on the grass and sang "I am a Child of God."
The marriage equality activists chimed in after each refrain: "So are we."

State Department IT staff among those in the dark about Clinton's private email address

Members of the State Department's information technology staff were among those who were unaware that Hillary Clinton was using a private email address during her time as secretary of state, the latest release of messages from Clinton's private server revealed late Monday.

In one email, dated February 27, 2010, an IT worker on the State Department's computer "help desk" sends a message to Clinton's email address inquiring about why one of Clinton's correspondents has been getting a "fatal error" when she tries to send messages to the secretary of state.
Clinton forwarded the email to her top aide, Huma Abedin, asking "Do you know what this is [sic]". Abedin responds, "Ur [sic] email must be back up!!" and explains that a woman named Judith tried to send Clinton an email and called the department's IT team when the message was returned to her.
"They had no idea it was YOU," Abedin writes to Clinton, "just some random address so they emailed. Sorry about that. But regardless, means ur [sic] email must be back!"
Clinton's use of a private email address may have also created logistical problems communicating with State Department aides.
"Well its clearly a state vs outside email issue," wrote Abedin in August 2010, after another aide reported missing some messages from Clinton. "State has been trying to figure it out. So lj is getting all your emazils cause she's on her personal account too."
The State Department released 7,121 pages of emails from Clinton's server late Monday, the fourth and largest release since a federal judge ordered the department to undertake monthly releases of the approximately 55,000 pages of emails Clinton turned over to the State Department last year. The last batch of messages is expected to be released in April.
Clinton and her presidential campaign have repeatedly denied that she inappropriately handled classified information while secretary of state, a question that is currently the subject of a federal investigation.
The latest release also contains messages related to Clinton's iPad, which arrived in June 2010. Aide Philippe Reines informed her that the device had arrived, to which Clinton responded, "That is exciting news -- do you think you can teach me to use it on the flight to Kyev next week?"
Fox News reported in March that Hillary had requested the use of an iPad early in her tenure as secretary of state. However, security and investigative sources told Fox News in March that the device had not been certified as "secure" by the department's technical experts. However, an investigative source told Fox News that Clinton used the device despite the decision.
"I myself am not the most tech savvy person," Clinton wrote in her 2014 memoir, "Hard Choices," although I surprised my daughter and my staff by falling in love with my iPad which, I now take everywhere I travel."
Indeed, Despite approving the creation of a relatively complex email system in her home, Clinton seemed puzzled by basic technology. In a July 2010 exchange, Clinton quizzed Reines on how to charge the Apple tablet and update an application.
Reines asks Clinton if she has a wireless Internet connection, and she replies: "I don't know if I have wi-fi. How do I find out?"
Clinton has previously said she used the private server so she would not inconvenience herself by carrying separate devices for work and personal communications wherever she went. However, her use of the iPad as well as her State Department BlackBerry would appear to undercut her defense that she only wanted to use one device at a time.
The emails also contain a joke from Clinton about using multiple email addresses on her server. In a May 2010 email to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, Clinton says Rice should "please feel free to use (whatever my current address may be!) anytime." Fox News, citing independent research data, reported in March that Clinton appeared to have established multiple email addresses for her private use, and possibly the use of her aides, under the domain of “clintonemail.com."