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News

McGill University and University of Calgary censor pro-life students

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The headline should be that these Canadian universities both continue to censor pro-life students.

Remember how students at McGill shouted down a pro-life debater and how the police arrested pro-life students at the University of Calgary? (See related posts below) There is no such thing as free speech in Canada, because the secular left has decided that they cannot stand to hear anything that offends them and so they will just censor and/or coerce anyone who says anything they disagree with.

Life Site has the latest from McGill University:

The Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) has reinstated the club status of Choose Life, the campus pro-life club, but only after forcing them to submit to special requirements that restrict the club’s ability to share the pro-life message.

The SSMU Council voted April 1st to reinstate the club, but also required them to attach an appendix to their constitution in order to “facilitate their compliance” with SSMU’s equity policy.

Natalie Fohl, Choose Life’s president, said that she was pleased with the return of their status, but denounced the special restrictions on their pro-life voice.  “I think it’s a double standard, and it’s very disappointing that they think that this is justified, and I hope that at some point it will be rectified,” she told LifeSiteNews (LSN).

In particular, SSMU has banned Choose Life from “advocat[ing] or lobby[ing] for the criminalization of abortion through the use of SSMU resources.”  According to Fohl, this means that they will not be permitted to do so in the Student Union building.

[…]SSMU has also disallowed the presentation of graphic images, such as those depicting aborted babies, in open public spaces.  Even in closed spaces, the document demands that such images never be shown “without the ability of the copyright owner to demonstrate that all images were legally obtained.”

“We don’t want [Choose Life] to be going around … trying to shame or shock students with graphic imagery,” said Dooley.

Life Site also covered the latest from the University of Calgary:

On Thursday, Campus Pro-life, the University of Calgary’s pro-life club, set up a pro-life display on campus – the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP).

Last year, the university charged the pro-life students with trespassing for erecting the same display, which has been displayed on campus peacefully and without incident twice per year since 2006.  The crown prosecutors withdrew the charges prior to trial, however.

But in an e-mail sent to the students’ lawyer Thursday, the university against stated that it “requires that Campus Pro-Life turn the Genocide Awareness Project signs inward so that the University community does not have to view them,” and threatened the students with sanctions for non-academic misconduct.

The pro-life students say that at Thursday’s event campus security initially appeared as if they would not intervene, simply standing on site as the group’s exhibit went ahead without incident.  However, in mid-afternoon that changed when U of C security went around the exhibit handing out notices to pro-life students, indicating that if they refused to turn their signs inwards, they could be subject to a fine up to $2,000 ($5,000 for further trespass), arrest, civil action, or non-academic misconduct.

Campus Pro-Life (CPL) president Leah Hallman remarked that, “To our knowledge, no other group has ever been asked to turn its signs inwards.”

Montreal (McGill) is one the most leftist cities in Canada, and Calgary is the most conservative. But the universities are all liberal to some degree or other. The academic left uses the power of the lectern and the grading marker to impose their views on generations of students. They use techniques like speech codes, expulsions, degree denials and promotion denials. The secular left is intolerant of other points of view. They don’t want to debate, they want to suppress. Hearing other points of view is too difficult for those on the academic left, so they put their hands over their hears and scream for the police.

It happens in New Zealand, which like Canada, is dominated by the fascist left.

What can we do to stop it?

This 15-minute podcast from Jennifer Roback Morse came out a while back and it talked about free speech on campus and the work of the Alliance Defense Fund to defend free speech rights from the academic left. I’ve listened to it twice, and I found it good. You young law students should consider going to work for firms like the ADF – they do good work. Canada has nothing like the ADF. And remember, Canadians trust the government because they depend on the government for their health care and other social programs. Purchasing health care privately is illegal in Canada. It’s really hurt their sense of individual rights and freedoms.

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News

Over 10,000 Minnesota tea partiers cheer Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin

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Rep. Michele Bachmann speaks to over 10,000 supporters in Minnesota

Here’s the story from TwinCities.com.

Excerpt:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin joined Congresswoman Michele Bachmann on a Minneapolis stage Wednesday, holding a raucous campaign rally of more than 10,000 fans that exceeded the size of many presidential whistle-stops.

Bachmann, an outspoken conservative whose national profile has made her a target of Democrats, is seeking re-election in what is expected to be one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Palin, another conservative darling who infuriates Democrats, came to Minnesota to offer her endorsement and help raise money.

Calling Bachmann a “fireball,” Palin asked the cheering crowd, “What do you say, Minnesota? Will you do the rest of the nation a favor and elect Michele Bachmann?”

Waving signs and cheering loudly, women seemed to make up a substantial part of the crowd at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

[…]The Bachmann campaign initially planned a much smaller event, but demand grew so that the Republican Party of Minnesota — which teamed with Bachmann to stage the event — eventually handed out more than 10,000 tickets.

“I’ve been to presidential campaign rallies that drew fewer people,” party Chairman Tony Sutton said.

[…]The two women overshadowed another speaker, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has been laying the groundwork for a potential presidential campaign. Bachmann and Palin are both national figures who share an appeal among followers — that their words are the unvarnished, unwavering truth.

“Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin are galvanizing the conservative movement across this nation,” Sutton said.

There’s something about hearing Michele speak that men really, really like:

Bill Birckweg, of Brooklyn Park, took a day off from work to attend the Bachmann rally.

He arrived at the convention center at 9:30 a.m. and dashed in when the doors opened at noon to stand in the front row next to the stage.

“I’m an independent conservative, and I’m here to support Michele Bachmann,” Birckweg said. “She’s being targeted by the national Democratic Party. All she has done is stand up for American values. That’s what I stand for.”

Michele’s definitely a grassroots candidate who would shake up Washington if she were to be elected President in 2012.

Meet your future President, America

And from Fox News. (H/T Dad)

Excerpt:

When Rep. Michele Bachmann grabbed the microphone and electrified a crowd of Tea Party loyalists in her home state of Minnesota on Thursday, her words — as well as a few other characteristics — bore striking similarities to another galvanizing force within the movement: Sarah Palin.

[…]”They’re both moms so there’s a lot of similarities,” said Annette Bystrom, who traveled from Ellsworth, Wis., to hear Bachmann speak. “They both stand for God, the truth and their families.

[…]”I am the chief coupon-clipper at our house,” she told a cheering crowd of 200 conservative activists outside the Minnesota state capitol. “Whoever balances the checkbook knows we gotta bring in at least a little bit more than what you put out.”

Bachmann went on to say that she and her husband, parents of five biological children (the same number as the Palins) as well as 23 foster children, “always bought used cars” and “clothes in consignment stores.”

“We’ve lived like all of you live because we balance the checkbook,” she boomed.

You can read more about her in World Net Daily, Atlas Shrugs, and World Magazine. These stories really explain why everyone, especially men, like her so much. She’s my favorite Congresswoman, and I would be very happy if she were elected President. A good start would be for her to be selected as House Majority Leader in November, when the Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives.

We need to put a normal person like Michele in charge of the country – someone who knows what it is like to homeschool children, run a business and clip coupons. Rich liberal socialists like Barack Obama have got to lose the next election to ordinary people.

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News

Veronique de Rugy shows that stimulus money was allocated for political gain

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Veronique de Rugy

Story here on National Review. (H/T The Other McCain via ECM)

Excerpt:

As it turns out, when controlling for state capitals and a host of other potentially relevant variables, we find that the original findings still hold. We learn a few other things, too:

  • First, how and where the money is spent doesn’t seem to be related to unemployment or decline in employment in the district where it is spent.
  • Second, the district’s party affiliation matters in where the money is spent. (We still don’t know how much it matters compared to other factors.) The average Democratic district receives 81 percent more than the average Republican district. Even after taking out the money spent through state capitals, the average Democratic district receives at least 30 percent more than the average Republican district.
  • Third, whether a district has part of a state capital in it is an important factor in how stimulus money is spent. However, controlling for this factor, or even taking the money going to state capitals out altogether, doesn’t negate the finding that the district’s party affiliation matters in where the money is spent.
  • Finally, how long the district’s representative has been in office seems to have a small but significant impact on how the money is spent (this is a new finding, as well).

There is still much more to learn on the question “How are stimulus funds being spent and why?”

The more I dig into this, the more important the question seems.

George Mason University is a pretty moderate school, but they boast a fine conservative economics department. Jennifer Roback Morse used to teach there, and Walter Williams still does. It’s probably the best place for a conservative or libertarian student to do an economics degree.

Now seems like a good time to re-post Michele Bachmann’s denunciation of gangster government, too.

Michelle Malkin calls them Corruptocrats. It fits.

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