Holy Toledo! Ohio Employee Suspended for Voicing Her Values As an incident in Toledo, Ohio unfolds, it seems that civil rights may not be as secure as most Americans think. Crystal Dixon, the associate vice president of human resources at the University of Toledo (UT), boldly countered a column published in the local Toledo Free Press called "Gay Rights and Wrongs," which compared the struggles of homosexuals to the struggles of black or handicapped Americans. Dixon took offense at the article and drafted a response, which was later published. In it, she writes, "As a Black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo's Graduate School, an employee and business owner, I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil rights victims.' Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a Black woman. I am genetically and biologically a Black woman." Her comments, which were published as a private citizen without reference to her UT employer, so enraged college officials that she was suspended from her job and subjected to public humiliation by UT President Lloyd Jacobs. In a Free Press follow-up article, Jacobs said that the university will take "internal actions" to ensure that his staff "fully aligns [its] utterances and actions with [the school's] values system." In one fell swoop, Jacobs was informing the world not only that the University of Toledo denies its employees a private right of speech but that an African American employee has no right to assert her opinion regarding her own civil rights heritage. These days, it takes tremendous courage to fight for free speech in an educational system that only selectively tolerates the exchange of ideas. We applaud Dixon and urge you to protest the school's intimidation by contacting President Lloyd Jacobs at (419) 530-2211 or by emailing UTPresident@utoledo.edu.

News and commentary (News & Commentary)

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Is Mohammed a Murderer and a Pedophile -- Shocking You-Tube Video Revels the Darker Side of the Writings of Islam - In an explosive new video just released on YouTube to evangelize Muslims, the world's leading Internet evangelist Bill Keller, founder of Liveprayer.com, makes the case that Islam is a false religion founded by a murderer and a pedophile based on the writings of Islam!

McCain is right on health care By Star Parker - The key salvo is aimed at the central pillar of our health care system -- tax-subsidized employer provided health care. About 70 percent of Americans get their health care where they work. The McCain plan offers a $5,000 tax credit to families and $2,500 to individuals to purchase health care on their own. This would end the inherent inequity of some getting tax-free health care from their employers, but those on their own or working for small businesses having to purchase it with after tax dollars. It levels the field and relocates the focus of health-care-purchase freedom and responsibility to where it should be -- on individuals. McCain would further enhance competition and consumer power by ending the 50 separate state fiefdoms and allow the health care market to be open nationwide. Let's recall that employer provided health care is a happenstance of history. Firms started offering it as a benefit as a way to attract workers during the wage and price controls of World War II. Tax-free health care benefits subsequently were formally codified as part of the IRS code. Aside from the inequities, the employer-based system has been an engine for driving up costs. ...Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama can't grasp that our perverse health care economics result from over-centralization and bureaucratization, so they propose even more. They put more responsibility on employers and give government an even stronger role to define what health care is and how much it should cost. They propose to lower costs through subsidies financed by massive tax increases. McCain's approach will use markets and consumer power to drive down costs and open the door to innovation in health care products and delivery.

My Plea to Republicans: It's Time for Real Change to Avoid Real Disaster by Newt Gingrich - The Republican loss in the special election for Louisiana's Sixth Congressional District last Saturday should be a sharp wake up call for Republicans: Either Congressional Republicans are going to chart a bold course of real change or they are going to suffer decisive losses this November. The facts are clear and compelling. Saturday's loss was in a district that President Bush carried by 19 percentage points in 2004 and that the Republicans have held since 1975. This defeat follows on the loss of Speaker Hastert's seat in Illinois. That seat had been held by a Republican for 76 years with the single exception of the 1974 Watergate election when the Democrats held it for one term. That same seat had been carried by President Bush 55-44% in 2004.

Republican John McCain is castigating Democrat Barack Obama for voting against John Roberts as Supreme Court chief justice. McCain promised to appoint judges who, in the mold of Roberts and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, are likely to limit the reach of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. "They would serve as the model for my own nominees if that responsibility falls to me," McCain said in his prepared speech.  Obama likes to talk up his image as someone who works with Republicans to get things done, McCain said. Yet Obama "went right along with the partisan crowd, and was among the 22 senators to vote against this highly qualified nominee," McCain said. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's rival, also voted against Roberts, although McCain focused his criticism on Obama.

Rush Limbaugh Blamed for Obama Loss in Indiana - Hillary Clinton eked out a narrow victory over Barack Obama in the Indiana Democratic primary, but top Obama aides say Obama would have won if it were not for conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. David Axelrod, Obama’s top strategist, told reporters that he attributed Clinton’s lead in Indiana to Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” — his campaign to have Republicans cross over and vote for Clinton to prolong the nomination fight and damage the Democratic nominee. Exit polls appear to back up Axelrod’s claims. Results of the Indiana exit poll found that that 17 percent of primary voters said they would vote for Republican John McCain over Clinton in the general election. And 41 percent of those voters still cast a vote for Hillary in the primary, according to the Baltimore Sun. Citing these figures, the Obama campaign sent an e-mail to reporters Tuesday night asserting that 7 percent of the votes in Indiana could be attributed to the “Limbaugh effect.”

McCain to attend convention of 'reconquista' group Republican presidential candidate launches Spanish campaign website.

$346 BILLION ILLEGAL ALIEN COSTS: HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - By Frosty Wooldridge - Every month, month in and month out, year in and year out, your U.S. senators and House representatives along with President Bush allow 182,000 legal and illegal immigrants to move into America—give or take a few hundred thousand. By years end, they total 2.18 million virtually uneducated, unskilled and lack English language abilities while arriving with a plethora of diseases and other health care needs. Who pays? You do! How much? Each year, you shell out $346 billion in taxes to pay for those immigrants across 15 federal agencies. The Department of Health and Human Services spent $672.9 billion in 2007 according to financial analyst Edwin S. Rubenstein.

The Republican Party's Real Problem In A Nutshell John Hawkins - It goes without saying that the GOP is taking a dreadful thrashing right now. Conservatives are unmotivated, Democrats are obliterating Republicans in the fundraising arena, and the GOP's poll numbers have dropped off a cliff.

Unions focus against McCain as Democrats still battling - The AFL-CIO, which has not endorsed anyone in the Democratic primary, announced Wednesday that it is sending more than 6,000 of its people to more than 22 states during the next two weekends to talk to more than 200,000 union voters about McCain

Obama Wants More Supervision Of Everyone… Except Big Labor - The first sign of trouble was his questionable association with Chicago’s Tony Rezko. Then, we learned that his campaign was privately reassuring Canadian politicians while he simultaneously lambasted the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) to American audiences. More recently, Obama has withered beneath the embarrassing revelations regarding Reverend Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers and his comment about “bitter” working-class voters who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment.” Now, we learn that Senator Obama has cut a private deal with Big Labor, which has a well-known and unfortunate history of connection to corruption. After privately promising the Teamsters that he would work to end federal anti-corruption supervision, he received their endorsement. Apparently, Obama wants to subject practically everything in America to more government supervision – except for the Teamsters.

Caution! You are about to enter a gun-free zone Mike S. Adams - I don't have to remind my readers that I spend a good bit of my time disagreeing with campus leftists. Nor do I need to remind them that most of these disagreements are with leftist professors. But, until now, I haven't written about one of the subjects upon which we frequently disagree. That is the subject of whether deterrence theory "works."

Massachusetts "fiscal crisis" - From boom to bust in a week - Beacon Hill Politics 101: If you don't have a "fiscal crisis" to blame for raising taxes and thwarting the voters' 2000 tax rollback mandate, then by god create one quick! Despite months of doom-and-gloom about budget gaps and revenue shortfalls, when the latest announcement of record-shattering tax revenue could no longer be hidden, it had to be spent immediately on anything. $1.2 billion more than last year's take couldn't be left unspent, a temptation to taxpayers and voters who in 2000 demanded the income tax rate be rolled back to its traditional 5 percent. So the Beacon Hill feeding frenzy went into overdrive, burned the midnight oil until an additional $210 million in spending could be added to the 2009 budget and $412 million was spent from the alleged "rainy day" stabilization fund.

Your dollars at work this Saturday: "Youth Pride" day on Boston Common, featuring cross-dressers, "gay youth" parade, and transgender "prom". Kids bussed in from all over the state. Tomorrow - Saturday, May 10 -is be the annual crowning glory of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the Massachusetts Legislature gives the homosexual groups targeting children in the schools. "Youth Pride Day" is a convergence of hundreds of kids bussed in from across the state (in cooperation with student gay clubs) and adult activists, many of them men wearing women's clothes and other bizarre things. The event even has its own permanent website. It starts at noon with a huge "celebration" on the Boston Common. Later they have the kids march in a "gay youth" parade through downtown Boston past the State House. Then in the evening is the "transgender prom" with kids mixing with adults in the dark recesses of Boston City Hall (thanks to pro-gay Mayor Tom Menino). According to the homosexual movement, it's all for "student safety." Words can't describe how weird it really is.

Indoctrination - Without a Heritage every generation starts over

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Rebecca Hagelin: “Who could argue with the idea that, when it comes to sex education, our teenagers should be taught to say ‘no’? Considering what’s at stake (their health, their future, their dignity as human beings, their morality)—and because we love them and want what’s best for them—nothing short of a clear-cut abstinence message will do. At least, that’s how it appears out here in the Real World... Our teens deserve better than just a condom and a message to ‘be safe.’ Our children are not animals, incapable of controlling themselves. They are not hopelessly immoral creatures who are going to ‘do it anyway.’ Yet ‘comprehensive’ sex ed teaches them that they’re just that. Parents, this is a slander against our youth. It’s a lie—one that we must fight. Teaching abstinence may be hard work—and heaven knows it’s not going to win you any popularity contests. But for the sake of our teens, there’s simply no substitute. In the end, you’re the only real ‘protection’ they’ve got. So don’t let them down.”

Ronald Bailey: “In a quest to lower my impact on the environment, I calculated our [family’s] carbon footprint if we cut our use of electricity and natural gas in half, switched our two cars for a single Toyota Prius and reduced our annual mileage by half, tripled our train travel, and never took an airplane. Furthermore, what if we became vegetarians, ate only local organic food in season, bought only second-hand clothes, furniture and appliances, never went to movies, bars or restaurants, and recycled or composted all our waste? Even then our combined carbon footprint would be 7.3 tons per year, but that would get us just below the world average of 4 tons per capita annually... The creators of Carbon Footprint claim that everyone in the world must eventually emit no more than 2 tons of carbon dioxide per year. ...When did Americans last emit so little carbon dioxide? Around 1870.” 

Meet the 'Hippy-crites': Green Celebs Who Don't Practice What They Preach - Britain's Daily Mail published a perfect example of this maxim with a delicious piece about "hippy-crites": those pompous, holier-than-thou movie stars that go around the world advocating environmental causes and reducing one's carbon footprint while they themselves emit more carbon dioxide in a year than the average person will his entire life. Here are a few of my favorites (h/t NBer Blonde, picture right courtesy Daily Telegraph, others courtesy Daily Mail):

Thomas Sowell: When young people go out into the world, what will they have to offer that can gain them the rewards they seek from others and the achievements they need for themselves? Will they have the skills of science, technology or medicine? Or will they have only the resentments that have been whipped up by the likes of Jeremiah Wright or the sense of entitlement from the government that has been Barack Obama's stock in trade?

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