Money talks University presidents are learning the hard way: promoting anti-Semitism costs schools deep-pockets donors

As we previously reported, on Friday the 13th, Marc Rowan, University of Pennsylvania alumnus, Wharton school of business graduate and CEO of Apollo Global Management based in New York, called on UPenn alumni and supporters to “close their checkbooks” until President Liz Magill and Chairman Scott L. Bok step down, saying that under their leadership, the college had embraced anti-Semitism. The linked article from The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that all four of the protesting trustees were Jewish.

And now there’s this:

Penn president said university ‘should have moved faster’ in opposing Palestine Writes speakers with a history of antisemitism

Liz Magill’s comments came within days of a trustee’s resignation over Penn’s handling of the event and after several heavyweight donors withdrew funding support.

by Susan Snyder | Sunday, October 15, 2023 | 2:53 PM EDT | updated: 6:12 PM EDT

The University of Pennsylvania “should have moved faster” to share its position strongly against some speakers with a history of antisemitism appearing at the Palestine Writes festival held on campus last month, the school’s president said in a statement to the campus community Sunday.

Liz Magill’s email comes one day after major donor Jon Huntsman Jr., former governor of Utah and former U.S. ambassador to Russia, China, and Singapore, said his family’s foundation would halt donations to Penn, which he said has “become deeply adrift in ways that make it almost unrecognizable,” according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper, which obtained and published his email to Magill. Continue reading

Another (alleged) groomer arrested The Philadelphia Inquirer's editors must be hopping mad!

Well, I got it wrong!

When I first heard about this story, via a tweet from Steve Keeley of Fox 29 News, I guessed that, when and if The Philadelphia Inquirer covered this story, a crucial piece of information would be omitted. After all, when the newspaper covers crime, it routinely censors all references to race in its crime stories, so, even though race is not involved in this story, I guessed that censorship would be used.

Special education teacher charged with sex assault of students at Burlington County elementary school

Vincent Root, 58, of Philadelphia, worked at Chatsworth Elementary School. He was taken into custody Thursday morning, prosecutors said.

by Robert Moran | Friday the Thirteenth, October 2023 | 9:08 PM EDT | Updated: 9:30 PM EDT

A 58-year-old Philadelphia man has been charged with sexually assaulting students while working as a special education teacher in Burlington County.

Vincent Root, who taught at Chatsworth Elementary School, was taken into custody Thursday morning at the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office in Mount Holly and was being held pending a detention hearing.

School district officials said Root has been placed on administrative leave and has been banned from school property, Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw said in a news release.

Continue reading

“There are no friendly civilians!”

From First Blood:

Colonel Trautman: “Look John, we can’t have you running around out there killing friendly civilians.”
John Rambo : “There are no friendly civilians!”

It was inevitable, of course, that our nation’s major newspapers would allow opinions on the Israeli-Hamas War from ‘both’ sides, but I have to ask: is there really more than one ‘side’ in response to a deliberate terrorist attack which has killed more than a thousand Israeli civilians, including children and infants? Apparently Karen Attiah of The Washington Post believes that there is! Continue reading

This is what’s wrong with Cracker Barrel!

Laying in bed this morning, I saw this story on my iPad news reader:

‘The over-65 group is particularly value-conscious’: Older Americans are losing their appetite for restaurants such as Cracker Barrel and Olive Garden — here’s what’s keeping them away

by Serah Louis | Thursday, October 12, 2023 | 8:00 AM EDT

Several fast-casual restaurant chains have reported declining foot traffic and sales following the COVID-19 pandemic — especially among their older clientele.

Company representatives at Cracker Barrel CBRL: (%) and Darden Restaurants — owner of Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse — have pointed to increased prices and ongoing health concerns alienating some of their over-65 customers.

“We just have not yet recovered the visits with that group [over 65 years old] to the extent we thought we would, really, since the pandemic,” Cracker Barrel CEO Sandra Cochran said during a September earnings call.

But while some of these eateries have taken these changes in spending in stride by appealing to different demographics, it’s possible that others are being held back by their original consumer base.

Well, Sandra Cochran, net worth $51 million, you need to pay attention to that last quoted paragraph. From further down in the article:

When the chain introduced plant-based breakfast sausage last year in an effort to accommodate more consumers, there was a mix of praise and backlash on social media.

“Stop pushing this woke garbage,” wrote one outraged user in response to a Cracker Barrel Facebook post promoting the new product. “We go to Cracker Barrel for Traditional Values and Traditional Country Cooking… If you want to serve Lefty food, open an alternative store.”

You know, I really don’t care if Cracker Barrel has a “plant-based breakfast sausage,” as long as they have their real breakfast sausage available as well. The far bigger problem is their biscuits and gravy. Southern-style biscuits and gravy uses a sausage gravy, but the restaurant replaced that with their “sawmill” gravy years ago, and it really should be named sawdust gravy, because they removed the sausage and replaced it with some combination of spices which they somehow believed would taste the same.

Well, it doesn’t taste the same, and doesn’t taste even remotely close. Sawdust gravy would be a far more accurate name for the stuff. That’s what you need to fix first! If you want the older customers, the ones you’ve lost since the panicdemic, to return, the best way is through returning to better food!

How many people knew about Josh Kruger’s (alleged) activities?

We have previously noted the perhaps-not-so-surprising developments in the murder of Josh Kruger, something of a minor celebrity in the City of Brotherly Love. Mr Kruger was shot at his residence in the Point Breeze neighborhood, and the alleged killer’s family have made the claim that Mr Kruger had a sexual relationship with the shooter when the shooter was only 15 years old. Continue reading

I love it when a plan comes together . . . and when someone else’s plans fall apart! When people tell you who they are, believe them!

Perhaps my good friend Christine Flowers didn’t get to cancel these people herself, but it does show that while we all have our freedom of speech, other people have a freedom to listen, and some people might not like what you have to say!

Harvard students scramble to take back support for letter attacking Israel as some CEOs look to blacklist them

By Melissa Koenig | Wednesday, October 11, 2023 | 2:34 PM EDT

A flurry of Harvard University students and groups are desperately trying to backtrack on their support of a letter blaming Israel for the mass slaughter of its own people by Hamas terrorists — as some business titans seek to blacklist them from future jobs. Continue reading

A surprising (?) new twist in the Josh Kruger case This looks to me to be a set-up for Robert Davis' legal defense

There were rumors floating around for a couple of days now that 39-year-old Josh Kruger, shot to death in his home at 2346 Watkins Street in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Philadelphia, allegedly by 19-year-old Robert Edmond Davis, had not only been in a ‘relationship’ with Mr Davis, but had been so while Mr Davis was still a minor. What I did not expect is that, even if true, The Philadelphia Inquirer would report on them:

Family of man wanted for killing Josh Kruger says the 19-year-old and the journalist shared sex and drugs

The assertions by Robert Davis’ mother and older brother add new complexities to a killing that has garnered national attention.

Continue reading

The Israeli-Hamas War and the frustration of the Usual Suspects

As my good friend and occasional blog pinch-hitter William Teach has noted, the Editorial Board of The New York Times has unambiguously supported Israel following the sneak attacks by Hamas guerrilla fighters.

The brutal terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas is a tragedy, one that may change the course of the nation and the entire region.

The Editorial Board minced no words in calling the attacks “terrorist,” which they certainly were:

To the world’s horror, they attacked civilians — including older people, women and children — and took them hostage. More than 150 people remain captive in Gaza, in a further atrocity.

As we previously reported, the Times covered the attacks extensively. The 24-hour cable news networks? They are doing the same thing. But, as we also reported, the very #woke[1]From Wikipedia: Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from … Continue reading Philadelphia Inquirer has been strangely quiet on the whole thing. Columnist Trudy Rubin, who does appear to support the Israelis at least somewhat, criticized Israel’s security policies, which is at least realistic given that the nation was caught completely by surprise.

Far-left columnist Will Bunch? He gave the obligatory statement that yes, Hamas attack was “butcherous,” “immoral and unconscionable”, right before blaming Israel and it’s “long-running, brutal occupation regime”:

When I was 11, I naively hoped the song lyric, “War! What is it good for?” would be a transistor-radio memory and not a question I’d be asking myself again and again for the rest of my life. The butcherous attacks by Hamas on civilians in southern Israel are immoral and unconscionable — as are Israel’s policies that turned the Gaza Strip into an open-air prison for 2 million people. There were plenty of chances for the world to fight for peace in this troubled land, instead of waiting until the bombs are bursting in air, when it is always too late. On that same plastic radio, I heard John Lennon sing, “War is over … if you want it.” He would have turned 83 on Monday. .  .  .  .

This week’s question: Most U.S. politicians have rightly condemned the barbarous attacks on civilians by Hamas, but with little mention of Israel’s long-running, brutal occupation regime. Is that fair under these circumstances? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me your answer.

American leftists supporting a people who would throw them in jail — or off a tall building — if they were actually queer in ‘Palestine.’

The newspaper’s Editorial Board? Pretty much the same thing, telling readers how horrible Hamas surprise attack was, but then turning right around to blame congressional Republicans, and, for good measure, Donald Trump:

Over the weekend, rather than uniting around a plan for peace, Republican leaders, including Trump, tried to sow division by blaming Biden for releasing $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets in August as part of a prisoner swap.

Never mind that Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the money was earmarked for humanitarian support and had not been spent yet. Or that Trump may share some blame in provoking the Palestinians — and encouraging Netanyahu’s right-wing supporters — when he moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

It would take someone completely uneducated in economics to fail to understand that even if the freed dollars were entirely spent on “humanitarian support,” the fact that they exist frees up other money which can be then used for other things, including weapons. And President Trump was simply obeying a long ago passed law which mandated the embassy move to Israel’s capital. Continue reading

References

References
1 From Wikipedia:

Woke (/ˈwk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from the African-American Vernacular English expression “stay woke“, whose grammatical aspect refers to a continuing awareness of these issues. By the late 2010s, woke had been adopted as a more generic slang term broadly associated with left-wing politics and cultural issues (with the terms woke culture and woke politics also being used). It has been the subject of memes and ironic usage. Its widespread use since 2014 is a result of the Black Lives Matter movement.

I shall confess to sometimes “ironic usage” of the term. To put it bluntly, I think that the ‘woke’ are just boneheadedly stupid.

1,891 lives saved in Kentucky!

I’m sure that columnist Linda Blackford and the rest of the editorial staff of the Lexington Herald-Leader are aghast, but almost 1,900 lives were saved!

Kentucky abortions dropped by nearly half last year, showing impact of statewide bans

by Alex Aquisto | Thursday, October 5, 2023 | 4:48 PM EDT | Updated: 5:11 PM EDT

The number of reported abortions provided in Kentucky last year dropped by roughly 43 percent, according to new annual report tracking the medical procedure.

The reduction in legal pregnancy terminations correlates directly with the commonwealth’s trigger law banning abortion and a six-week ban, both of which became enforceable last summer with the overturning of federal abortion protections by the U.S. Supreme Court. Continue reading