Indoctrination anyone?
A new study confirms that the number of liberal to conservative professors in higher education is getting further out of balance, making a campus discussion within the arena of ideas practically impossible.
The study, published recently in the Econ Journal Watch and based on faculty voter registration, found that out of 7,243 professors at 40 leading universities, Democrats outnumbered Republicans 3,623 to 314, a ratio of more than 11 to 1.
Over the last several years as the balance has worsened, colleges and universities have increasingly been marked by race protests, the dis-inviting of conservative speakers and the rise of phrases such as "trigger warning" and "safe space."
The history department is where the balance is worst. There, liberals have a better than 33-to-1 ratio. That contrasts to an estimate as recently as 2004, when liberals were thought to outnumber conservatives somewhere between 9 to 1 and 15-1. In 1968, among history professors, a study showed the ratio to be 2.7 to 1.
Out of the five departments analyzed by the study's authors, the department friendliest to conservative scholars is economics, where there are only 4.5 liberal professors for every conservative.
A good laugh
Candidate debate audiences are often cautioned to remain quiet, but those attending the debate between incumbent U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., and challenger LuAnn Bennett couldn't help from laughing last week.
"For the last 50 years," Bennett, a Democrat, said, "both parties are agreed we have a health care crisis."
She went on to state that by 2005 the country had 47 million uninsured Americans, and health care costs had grown to 16 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
"The Affordable Care Act has made health care more affordable," Bennett said.
That's when the big laugh came.
Despite the outlandish sum of money expended to pay for the Affordable Care Act, an estimated 29 million Americans, one in 10, still lack health care. And Bennett may want to be careful what numbers she tosses around, because now health care spending has grown to 17.5 percent of gross domestic product.
Everyone knows she's windy
Last week as Hurricane Matthew bore down on Florida's east coast, Hillary Clinton's campaign hoped for the worst in order to achieve the most political gain. Realizing how many people in the affected area would tune in to the Weather Channel, as well as those around the country interested in the weather phenomenon, the campaign made a five-day, $63,000 ad purchase on the popular cable channel.
The worse the forecast, the more people would tune in, especially in a swing state such as Florida, the campaign opined.
The crass move didn't escape notice from Republicans, who said the ads were opportunistic and insensitive to the expected destruction and suffering. So, just as the ads began and the Category 4 hurricane began to skirt up the coast, the campaign postponed the ads.
Jesse Ferguson, a Clinton spokesman, naturally downplayed the significance of the last-minute decision.
"Earlier in the week," he said, "we made changes to our TV ad reservations across hundreds of stations in several battleground states including Florida. "Less than 1 percent of those changes included the Weather Channel. We have requested that stations in Florida delay any of those ads on the Weather Channel until after the storm passes."
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was among those who weren't buying it.
"Pulling these ads after getting caught won't cut it," he tweeted. "@HillaryClinton should apologize for using the storm for votes."
Mrs. judge and jury
The jury is in - the only one that counts, that is - on Sen. Tim Kaine's performance in last week's vice presidential debate. And that jury has decided the Democrat was, in fact, the interrupter-in-chief.
Yep, the Virginia senator said his wife told him he interrupted Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, the Republican vice presidential nominee, too much.
After admitting what national polls had already told him, Kaine then blamed his performance on his heritage.
"The debate was a little feisty, I got to admit," he said at a campaign rally in Philadelphia. "I'm Irish.
"For me," he added, "I got dinged a little bit, even by my wife, for, like, interrupting too much."
Estimates on the interruptions ranged from nearly 40 to nearly 80.
Of course, many theorize he did exactly what the Hillary Clinton campaign told him to do with the interruptions.