The 'Everyone Gets a Trophy' Mentality is Out of Control | Intellectual Takeout

The 'Everyone Gets a Trophy' Mentality is Out of Control | Intellectual Takeout
"Mark up another victory for the “everyone-gets-a-trophy” mentality. 
The latest victim of this mindset is a high school honor student from Texas.
A local ABC news affiliate reports:
“National Honor Society (NHS) stoles are frequent sight at high school graduation ceremonies around the country, but one Plano Senior High School student is frustrated that he won't be allowed to wear one when he puts on his cap and gown next month.
According to school practices, students are not allowed to wear NHS regalia.”
Officially, the high school has explained this situation by “saying that graduates do not wear any club or organizational regalia.”
The National Honor Society, however, “claimed school administrators want everyone to feel included in graduation and not single students out.”
...Such a scenario sounds eerily similar to the plan promoted by the demon Screwtape in C.S. Lewis’ famous letters of the same name.
Part of Screwtape’s plot to undermine education is described as follows:
“The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. … Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma – Beelzebub, what a useful word! – by being left behind. …
In a word, we may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when I’m as good as you has fully had its way.
All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish.
The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows?”..."
Read all.

Islam and Prison: Why Are So Many Inmates Converting? | Clarion Project

Islam and Prison: Why Are So Many Inmates Converting? | Clarion Project
"An estimated 40,000 inmates in U.S. prisons are converting to Islam every year. 
At the outset, it is important to note that religious conversion to Islam – or any religion — is not by itself an indicator of future extremism, violent or otherwise...

In Part I (below) of our three-part series on Islam in U.S. Prisons, we explore the question: Why are prisoners converting to Islam?

...Question: Can you tell us what are the main reasons why inmates are converting to Islam?...
Read all.

#1 This day 1953-----Where is your heart (Moulin Rouge)

Migrants apprehended at border are 'recycling' children to appear as a family, officials say

Migrants apprehended at border are 'recycling' children to appear as a family, officials say: 
"...On Wednesday, an agent working with the Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations discovered the two were not related after they gave inconsistent answers during interviews.
With help from other federal agents, officials discovered that the child had been used twice before for the same purpose.

• 'Recycling' of children in family fraud

Immigration authorities call the practice "recycling," explaining that migrant children are grouped with unrelated adult migrants to appear as families when apprehended..."
Read all.

i before e....

New York Times Describes Fetal Heartbeat as ‘Embryonic Pulsing’

New York Times Describes Fetal Heartbeat as ‘Embryonic Pulsing’:

As LifeNews further noted:
Rather than say the word “heartbeat,” the New York Times used the words “the pulsing of what becomes the fetus’s heart.” It also described the legislation as a “so-called fetal heartbeat bill” – as if it is questionable whether the unborn baby actually has a heart or a heartbeat.
NYT is not the only outlet that has struggled in this particular area. Recently, ABC correspondent Steve Osunsami described supporters of Louisiana’s pro-life law as those who “believe that a fetal heartbeat can be detected.”
An unborn child’s detectable heartbeat is not a matter of opinion, which makes his assertion questionable.

Traitors Must Be Prosecuted To Stop The Coup

Traitors Must Be Prosecuted To Stop The Coup
"...Undeniably, America is in the midst of a civil war. 
The only things not yet flying are the bullets.
Liberals in Congress are demanding our president be impeached for undefined offenses.
Liberal federal judges are letting themselves be used to thwart his policies at every turn.
A complicit liberal media, with the help of Hollywood, is doing its very best to enable the president’s enemies to foment in the public’s mind — without evidence — that he is a liar, a cheat and a criminal who must be removed from office. 
And Mueller's press conference brought this tempest to an even greater boil than when the president was first elected over two years ago.
Why?
For one reason, because the president has survived long enough to expose a coup attempted by former high-ranking officials within our government and complicit members of the media to bring him down.
Independent investigations have revealed they took affirmative actions in furtherance of a conspiracy to unlawfully — i.e., undemocratically — overthrow his administration, which is a crime.
In a word, they committed treason..."
Read on.

AM Fruitcake

History for June 4

History for June 4 - On-This-Day.com
Rosalind Russell 1908, Dennis Weaver 1924, Dr. Ruth Westheimer 1928


Bruce Dern 1936 - Actor, Michelle Phillips (Holly Michelle Gilliam) 1944 - Singer (The Mamas & the Papas), actress ("The Last Movie", "Knot's Landing"), Angelina Jolie 1975 - Actress


1940 - The British completed the evacuation of 300,000 troops at Dunkirk, France.


1989 - In Beijing, Chinese army troops stormed Tiananmen Square to crush the pro-democracy movement. It is believed that hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators were killed.

Biden Present at Russia Collusion Briefing Documented in ‘Odd’ Susan Rice Email | Breitbart

Biden Present at Russia Collusion Briefing Documented in ‘Odd’ Susan Rice Email | Breitbart:

Vice President Joe Biden was documented as being present in the Oval Office for a conversation about the controversial Russia probe between President Obama, disgraced ex-FBI chief James Comey, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and other senior officials including Obama’s national security advisor Susan Rice.
In an action characterized as “odd” last year by then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Rice memorialized the confab in an email to herself describing Obama as starting “the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the Intelligence and law enforcement communities ‘by the book.’”

Conservative Lawmakers Fight the Swamp

Conservative Lawmakers Fight the Swamp:

But instead of having a robust debate, the bill was rushed through in the metaphorical dead of night. Rachel Bovard, the policy director of the Conservative Partnership Institute, explained in the Washington Examiner how this all went down. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. brought the bill to the floor after sending legislators home for vacation on Thursday.
Enter Roy.
“What [Pelosi] wasn’t counting on, however, was that one member wanted to actually read the bill—

The way we were-----33 RARE HISTORICAL PHOTOS WILL STEAL YOU BREATH AWAY

Boob-tube-----The Most Weird Vintage Toy Commercials

Alarmists issue rare prediction that can be tested – 30 years from now | CFACT

Alarmists issue rare prediction that can be tested – 30 years from now | CFACT:
"...In a rare departure from this, alarmists have issued a prediction that can be tested within the next 30 years, or sooner.
That may be too far in the future to prevent the mad hysteria currently gripping the establishment media and political discussion, but it is much more imminent than most alarmist predictions.
...The Assessment claims worsening summer heat will devastate the American farm belt. 
As observed by the Chicago Tribune, “Before mid-century, the report says, Midwest agricultural productivity will slip back to levels of the 1980s.”
...Global crop production has been setting records on a near-annual basis as the planet continues its modest warming. 
Longer growing seasons, fewer frost events, and more atmospheric carbon dioxide are playing a role in this.
Almost certainly, global crop production will not only fail to recede to 1980s levels, but will continue to set new records far into the future.
...Global crop production will have to begin a precipitous decline within the next 20 years to have any hope of meeting the Assessment’s prediction for 30 years from now.
It won’t happen, and climate realists should be poised to call alarmists out on it."
Read all.

Tucker Carlson: Mexico Is Not America's Friend | Blog Posts | VDARE.com

Tucker Carlson: Mexico Is Not America's Friend | Blog Posts | VDARE.com
"Tucker Carlson recently opined that Russia presents no danger to America’s election integrity, but Mexico absolutely does threaten through meddling with the opinions of its immigrants who reside here and may even be citizens of this country.

If anything, Carlson understates the case.

It’s been clear for a long time that Mexico is a genuine enemy of the United States. 

Its politicians may smile and pretend to get along, but they work to encourage Mexican immigrants’ loyal to the homeland and keep those remittances coming — $33.7 billion in 2018, nearly all of which comes from Mexicans of varying legality working in the US.

In 1997, Presidente Ernesto Zedillo proclaimed to the National Council of La Raza in Chicago, “I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders.”..."

Read all.

SONNY LOHMAN: Somalis have Changed Minneapolis. Now, due to continuing refugee placements as well…

Instapundit Blog Archive SONNY LOHMAN: Somalis have Changed Minneapolis. 

"Now, due to continuing refugee placements as well as chain migration there are an estimated 80,000 Somalis living in the Twin Cities metro area, or more like 79,000 if you subtract those who’ve left the country to join terrorist organizations like ISIS.

Anyhoo, here’s a week Minneapolitans had with their Somali neighbors last month:

On Wednesday, May 15th a couple of University students were attacked on campus at the East Bank Train station by two Somali thugs. It was an attempted robbery that the guys rebuffed sustaining injuries that required a hospital visit.

On Thursday, May 16th two Somalis burned down the pavilion at Lake Calhoun [or Lake Bde Maka Ska if you’re a virtue signaler) an eating and hanging out meeting place in the heart of the city enjoyed by generations of Americans around the prettiest city lake you’ve ever seen. This is in the most expensive neighborhood in Minneapolis.

Much, much more at the link.

Diversity might be our strength or whatever, but before long they’ll be pining for “Minnesota nice” up there — if they aren’t already.---Posted by Stephen Green"

Cummings’ Wife’s Refusal To Turn Over Records On Her Nonprofit Is ‘Illegal,’ Expert Says | The Daily Caller

Cummings’ Wife’s Refusal To Turn Over Records On Her Nonprofit Is ‘Illegal,’ Expert Says | The Daily Caller:

At least three different groups have requested the forms, and to each, Rockeymoore Cummings has refused, even when told that the law requires it. She refused on the phone to NLPC, and did not answer formal requests to view the forms from the Washington Examiner and TheDCNF.
“Wow. That’s illegal,” Sally Wagenmaker, a Chicago attorney who specializes in nonprofit tax law, told TheDCNF. “It’s interesting and sad. You have the right to get them. The organization absolutely is required to provide the information, so to not do so would appear to be flaunting the law.”

BHF says drinking 25 cups of coffee a day is safe for the heart

BHF says drinking 25 cups of coffee a day is safe for the heart
KEY POINTS

• The British Heart Foundation claims that up to 25 cups of coffee a day won’t harden arteries.
• The organization co-sponsored a study of 8,412 people.
• Late last year, researchers at the University of Southampton in the U.K. found people who drink three or four cups of coffee every day could significantly reduce their chances of early death.

Read all!

'Kids Are Different: There Are Lots of Different Ways to Educate Them' - The Atlantic

'Kids Are Different: There Are Lots of Different Ways to Educate Them' - The Atlantic
"There are a dizzying number of theories out there about American education.
Smaller classrooms are the solution one day, the next, iPads.
Glenn Harlan Reynolds of Instapundit takes on these ideas and makes his own predictions in his new book, The New School. 
I talked with him about his conclusion that the future of American education is rooted in technology, choice, and customization.
Here’s a transcript of our conversation, edited and condensed for clarity and length.

• How did schools get to be like they are now?

Our models for education, both K-12 and higher ed, were basically imported from Germany in the 19th century. 
Those 19th-century German models were in many ways not bad models for the United States in the 19th century...

• Why do these German models fail us now in the 21st century?

...You have the quasi-monopoly with mostly unionized teachers in K-12 and the tenured professoriate in higher ed.
Frankly the administrators on both sides have arranged things...in ways that make their lives as comfortable and pleasant and secure as possible.
...That is relatively easy for the people who are teaching, but it doesn’t necessarily serve children well.
...On the higher ed level, the problem is a little different.
What you have is the cost of the college education increasing at slightly more than double the rate of family income increasing and the difference being made up for with debt, primarily student-loan debt. That doesn’t work once the debt reaches an unsustainable point...
...In your book, you predict that there are big and controversial changes coming to education, like homeschooling, charter schools, and online courses.
...How do online courses meet today’s needs?
My daughter did almost all of her high school on online school.
...She finished a year’s worth of work in one class in three weeks of intensive effort...
...Careers change a lot.
There are a lot of older people who really don’t want to go back and spend four years as Joe College and Betty Coed going to classes but need to get an education...

• What will the downsides of these reforms look like?

It’s going to be like almost any other system: Life for the producers is going to become less comfortable and probably less lucrative and life for the consumers is going to become a bit easier and cheaper.
Net, we will probably be better off as a society...
Why haven’t these changes happened yet?..."
Read all.

Lunch video-----20 Most Dangerous Kids Toys Ever Sold

Noon-toon

Nearly 9-in-10 Illegals Released into U.S. Not Showing Up to Court Dates

Nearly 9-in-10 Illegals Released into U.S. Not Showing Up to Court Dates:

Nearly 9-in-10 illegal aliens who have been recently released into the interior of the United States while they await their asylum hearings are not showing up to their court dates, according to a federal pilot program.
For almost half a year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ramped up its catch and release of border crossers and illegal aliens, specifically those arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border with children.
Since December 21, 2018, DHS has released at least 190,500 border crossers and illegal aliens into the interior of the United States. Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan told Congress this month that those foreign nationals are eventually given work permits that allow them to take U.S. jobs while awaiting their asylum hearings.

Pictures from downtown LA capture the problem it faces with trash as it tries and rodents | Daily Mail Online

Pictures from downtown LA capture the problem it faces with trash as it tries and rodents | Daily Mail Online
'Collapse of a city that's lost control': Shocking new pictures from downtown LA capture the huge problem it faces with trash and rats amid fear of typhoid fever outbreak among LAPD

• A decision to not cap property that homeless people can keep on Skid Row was announced last Wednesday...
• Images from the downtown area show trash piling up as workers struggle to keep the area sanitized 
• Rows and rows of tents line the sidewalks of Skid Row in the sprawling 50-block area, home to around 4,200
• On Thursday it was revealed a Los Angeles police detective has been diagnosed with typhoid fever..
• In an op ed for The LA Times reporter Steve Lopez called it 'the collapse of a city that's lost control' 

#1 Movie this week 1975-----French Connection II (1975) Official Trailer #1- Gene Hackman Movie HD

Incredibly, this leftist sees the truth!-----Russiagate, Seen From the Far Left | Power Line

Russiagate, Seen From the Far Left | Power Line
"Stephen F. Cohen is a leftist professor emeritus of Russian studies at Princeton and NYU. He published this article, How Did Russiagate Begin? in the Nation, a left-wing journal edited by Cohen’s wife, the heiress Katrina vanden Heuvel.

It cannot be emphasized too often: Russiagate—allegations that the American president has been compromised by the Kremlin, which may even have helped to put him in the White House—is the worst and (considering the lack of actual evidence) most fraudulent political scandal in American history.

***

Rational (if politically innocent) observers may have thought that when the Mueller report found no “collusion” or other conspiracy between Trump and Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin, only possible “obstruction” by Trump—nothing Mueller said in his May 29 press statement altered that conclusion—Russiagate would fade away. If so, they were badly mistaken. Evidently infuriated that Mueller did not liberate the White House from Trump, Russiagate promoters—liberal Democrats and progressives foremost among them—have only redoubled their unverified collusion allegations, even in once-respectable media outlets. Whether out of political ambition or impassioned faith, the damage wrought by these Russiagaters continues to mount, with no end in sight.

Cohen asks, how did Russiagate begin? His preferred explanation:

The third possible explanation—one I have termed “Intelgate,” and that I explore in my recent book War With Russia?: From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate—is that US intelligence agencies undertook an operation to damage, if not destroy, first the candidacy and then the presidency of Donald Trump. More evidence of “Intelgate” has since appeared. For example, the intelligence community has said it began its investigation in April 2016 because of a few innocuous remarks by a young, lowly Trump foreign-policy adviser, George Papadopoulos. The relatively obscure Papadopoulos suddenly found himself befriended by apparently influential people he had not previously known, among them Stefan Halper, Joseph Mifsud, Alexander Downer, and a woman calling herself Azra Turk. What we now know—and what Papadopoulos did not know at the time—is that all of them had ties to US and/or UK and Western European intelligence agencies.

Cohen goes on to explore the dishonorable role of the press in Russiagate, and concludes with this:

We are left, then, with this paradox, formulated in a tweet on May 24 by the British journalist John O’Sullivan: “Spygate is the first American scandal in which the government wants the facts published transparently but the media want to cover them up.”

That tells you all you need to know about the state of American “journalism” in 2019."

#1 This day 1960-----Everly Brothers - Cathy's Clown (1960)

Illinois Passes Constitutional Amendment to Allow a Progressive Income Tax – Reason.com

Illinois Passes Constitutional Amendment to Allow a Progressive Income Tax – Reason.com: 
"The proposal on the ballot would replace the existing single 4.95 percent rate with a six-bracket progressive income tax. 
Gov.J.B. Pritzker's plan would raise taxes on income over $250,000 to 7.75 percent, income over $500,000 to 7.85 percent, and income over $1 million to 7.95 percent. 
...The simple, flat personal income tax of 4.95 percent has remained a rare bright spot of Illinois' tax code. 
...Another concern is that high-income earners will respond by leaving the state, a phenomenon known as tax flight. 
...And it would be a mistake to focus on millionaire out-migration alone. 
The personal income tax isn't just paid by rich individuals—it's also a tax on businesses whose profits are passed through to their owners' individual tax returns. 
Pass-through businesses employ over 57 percent of private sector workers in Illinois..."
Read all.

...you ought to know!

Bubonic Plague ‘Likely’ Already Present In Los Angeles, Dr. Drew Says | Daily Wire

Bubonic Plague ‘Likely’ Already Present In Los Angeles, Dr. Drew Says | Daily Wire:

The famed doctor also said California cities are suffering after allowing thousands of illegal aliens to flow in. He said the liberal politicians running most cities are “disgustingly negligent.”
Homelessness is also exploding in San Francisco — the home district of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.
“A federal count shows the number of homeless people increased by double-digit percentages in three San Francisco Bay Area counties over two years as the region struggled to tackle the growing problem, including 17% in San Francisco and 43% in the county that includes Oakland,” the Associated Press reported.

Rowan Dean: The Al Gore Effect

AM Fruitcake