Always Right

This is interesting...

Today's Washington Times has an article on so-called diploma mills. A diploma mill is where a company advertises itself as a university and grants degrees for a fee. People are purchasing Ph.Ds, MBAs, etc. The Times story mentions the case of "Laura Callahan, the former senior director of information in the Homeland Security Department who resigned last week. She had been on administrative leave with pay since June after revelations that she received three degrees from Hamilton University, which operates out of a motel in Evanston, Wyo." I actually worked on this exact issue in some detail this past summer for the US House Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization. It's nice to see that my research has paid off, almost a year later...

SCOTUS and the Pledge

Dahlia Lithwick has an interesting first hand account of the oral arguments in Elk Grove United School District v. Newdow, the Pledge of Allegiance case. She seems to think that Newdow argued masterfully and perhaps persuaded the court to find our Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional. The possibility of a 4-4 tie is very real in this case (Scalia recused himself). And of course, a tie means that the Ninth Circuit's decision, that the Pledge is unconstitutional, stands.

The Court could weasel out of deciding the case by simply holding that Newdow lacks standing to bring the suit since he doesn't have custody of the daughter for which he brought the suit in the first place. Hopefully, the Court will not take this road; instead, they should decide the case once and for all. Lithwick notes that, "One of the thorns in this case is that supporters of the pledge say the words "under God" are political, historical, ceremonial—anything but religious." I disagree though. It is religious in tone. The phrase may well be political, historical, and ceremonial, but it is equally religious. It doesn't expressly mention the Christian God, but I'm certain most people believe that is to whom "under God" is referring. I don't see anything wrong with that. Nothing. If you don't like it, don't say the Pledge....

UPDATE: Thanks to Nate at Southern Appeal for giving me a head's up to this post from Howard Bashman: "Because the Supreme Court of the United States did not announce today that the Ninth Circuit's ruling in the Pledge of Allegiance case was being affirmed by an equally divided Court, it would appear that a majority of the participating Justices agree on how the case should be resolved."

Alistair Cooke

Here's a link to an article in the Washington Post about Alistair Cooke, the long-time BBC correspondent and programming host who died recently. He led quite a life and I'd encourage everyone to read his masterpiece, Alistair Cooke's America, one of the best American history books I've ever read. He was the archetypal gentleman and scholar.

Massachusetts

Massachusetts is to propose a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, but allow same-sex civil unions. Some cynics believe that this was the gay lobby's goal all along (i.e., push for marriage, knowing that legislators would default to civil unions instead). The interesting side to this story is whether the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will stay its previous ruling allowing gay marriages to be performed in the state. The Attorney General has already indicated his unwillingness to petition the Court for the same. As it stands, the amendment wouldn't be in place until 2006. A good article on the topic can be found in the NYT, here...

The Federalist Society in the news again...

The Detroit News has an article on the ever increasing influence of the Federalist Society...

(LvHB)

George Schultz

Former Sec. of State George P. Schultz elucidates the U.S. position on the War on Terror. Check it out here...

A Study Shows Outsourcing Boosted Domestic Hiring by 90,000 jobs

According to today's WSJ, "U.S. companies sending computer-systems work abroad yielded higher productivity that actually boosted domestic employment by 90,000 across the economy last year, according to an industry-sponsored study." We've been arguing on Always Right for months that this was the case. It's wonderful to have some hard data to reinforce our propositions...

NRO Q&A w/ Joe Scarborough

Joe Scarborough, the host of Scarborough Country on MSNBC and a former US Congressman from Florida, answered some questions posed by NRO about the upcoming election. I like Scarborough, even though he went to UF for undergrad and Alabama for law school. I met him this summer in Washington and he took a few minutes to talk with me, so I'm a little biased. Evidently, he's also a top notch attorney on the side for a plaintiff's firm in Pensacola, Florida...

Europe and Islam

The WSJ has an op-ed today from a professor at Johns Hopkins who looks into Europe's "Muslim question." Some 15 million Islamists now live in the European Union (apparently not taking into account the enlarged free trade zone to be implemented this summer). The author makes the point that "[y]ou can't agitate against Mubarak in Cairo, but you can do it from the safety of Finsbury Park in London." Here's a portion of the essay that deals with the frightful demographics of the issue:

"Europe is host to a war between order and its enemies, fuelled by demography: 40% of the Arab world is under 14. Demographers tell us that the fertility replacement rate is 2.1 children per woman. Europe is frightfully below this level; in Germany it is 1.3, Italy 1.2, Spain 1.1, France 1.7 (this higher rate is a factor of its Muslim population). Fertility rates in the Islamic world are altogether different: they are 3.2 in Algeria, 3.4 in Egypt and Morocco, 5.2 in Iraq and 6.1 in Saudi Arabia. This is Europe's neighborhood, and its contemporary fate. You can tell the neighbors across the Straits, (and within the gates of Europe) that you share their dread of Pax Americana. But nemesis is near."

I'd encourage those of you who have weighed in on the immigration debate to read this article, since it propounds that immigration and assimilation are simply not how Muslims view the system. Rather, according to one person interviewed, "[w]e [Muslims] may carry their nationalities, he said, but we belong to our own religion."

Abortion in the federal courts

The partial birth abortion ban enacted last year is being challenged in three separate federal district courts across the country. Oral arguments are being heard today in the cases. Let's hope that the courts buy Congress' argument that an exception for the life/health of the mother is not needed vis-a-vis partial birth abortions (because more safe alternatives always exist). This was the sticking point in Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914 (2000), which overturned a previous partial birth abortion law. By the way, for explanation of the procedure, see Justices Kennedy and Thomas' dissenting opinions in Stenberg, and you'll understand why this is such an important thing to eradicate. Fox News has a good synopsis of the issue, which you may find here.