Less than a week after ABC released (and Drudge essentially spoiled) the story that we were told could “end [Newt Gingrich's] career,” the former Speaker came from behind to win the South Carolina primary by a startling 13%.  Not only did South Carolina voters ignore the latest unverifiable mainstream media report on the private life of a Republican candidate—a report that was specifically timed to inflict maximum damage—many of them likely voted for Gingrich to spite the MSM.  Exit polling suggests that Newt’s entire margin of victory was comprised of South Carolinians who decided on their candidate near or on primary day, i.e. after ABC’s story had leaked.  Those who decided after the CNN debate in which Gingrich embarrassed CNN’s John King for his liberal bias voted solidly for Newt.

Conventional wisdom is that debates don’t decide nominations, but that notion is as antiquated as the paper route. This is, after all, the media age.  It’s the era of YouTube, Twitter, and the 24-hour news network.  Fear the candidate who can beat the media at their own game, and right now, that candidate is Newt Gingrich.

Their imperfect track-records aside, the former speaker has been able to distinguish himself from Governor Romney in two crucial ways.  The first difference is in who, or what, they are campaigning against.  The foundation of Mitt Romney’s campaign is keeping a narrow focus on Barack Obama.  This isn’t a bad strategy, per se, but it doesn’t comprehensively address the problems we are facing as a society.  After all, Barack Obama is a product of the American left.  He was raised in academia, sold to us by Hollywood, and elected by the mainstream media.  The President is the tip of the iceberg, and the Republican candidate should understand that Obama is a symptom of what ails us, not the cause. (more…)

This past Sunday, University of Maryland Professor Peter Morici suggested that the damage from hurricane Irene is akin to a mini-economic stimulus, exposing the perverse “logic” that is Keynesian economics and reminding us all of the crackpot economic policies under which we currently exist.

Among Morici’s claims, he cited the following logic as why we should all be praying for more natural disasters, riots, looting, and other ills that befall society (perhaps some more Fascist presidential administrations?):

“…When government authorities facilitate rebuilding quickly and effectively, the process of economic renewal can leave communities better off than before.”

A community about to undergo an economic boom, according to Morici’s logic

In an open letter directed to the so-called (read: Keynesian) academic Morici, George Mason Economist Don Boudreaux exposes the idiocy that underlies Morici’s reasoning (and, we might add, the same reasoning that progressive Leftists continues to employ)–essentially, as Boudreaux writes, that “people whose assets are destroyed will be made richer – because these destroyed assets are replaced with ones that are newer and more productive.”

To further underscore his point, Boudreaux suggests the following service to Morici:

I hereby offer my services to you, at a modest wage, to destroy your house and your car.  Act now, and I’ll throw in at no extra charge destruction of all of your clothing, furniture, computer hardware and software, and large and small household appliances.

Because, I’m sure, almost all of these things that I’ll destroy for you are more than a few days old (and, hence, are hampered by wear and tear), you’ll be obliged to replace them with newer versions that are “more economically useful and productive.”  You will, by your own logic, be made richer.

Just send me a note with some times that are good for you for me to come by with sledge hammers and blowtorches.  Given the short distance between Fairfax and College Park, I can be at your place pronto.

Oh, as an extra bonus, I promise not to clean up the mess!  That way, there’ll be more jobs created for clean-up crews in your neighborhood.

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Is Obama Smart?  It’s a question that more and more people are asking.  His devoted fans like to note that he made it through Columbia and Harvard—supposedly a stark contrast to Rick Perry’s less-than-stellar transcript from Texas A&M, though Obama’s refusal to release his own transcripts does blunt the comparison.

More to the point though, the evidence seems conflicting.  On the one hand, he ran a remarkable campaign in 2008.  He sensed what the American people needed to hear, and he emerged from nowhere to defeat vastly more qualified opponents.  On the other hand, his performance as President has been dismal.  Most Americans recognize that his policy preferences range from the irrelevant to the counterproductive, and leftists contend that he has been ineffectual in pursuit of their agenda.

So is Obama smart?  Yes.  Obama is a certain kind of smart.  Unfortunately, it’s the wrong kind.  President Obama is the sort of smart that our finest institutions recognize, promote, and reward.  There is no surer path to academic success than learning the orthodoxy of your field and the particular bent of your professor; explaining why only those blessed with suitable experience, training, and insight can comprehend the complex problem under consideration; and then parroting the professor’s previously articulated answers shortly before he or she reveals them to the class.  Mastery of this skill continues to pay dividends in the real world, most prominently among business consultants versed in telling corporate boards what they want to hear, and attorneys capable of tailoring their arguments to the predispositions of the judges before whom they appear.

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The University of Missouri-Saint Louis (UMSL) has released the following statement about its review of lecture videos from the “Introduction to Labor Studies” course taught at UMSL and at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Today, BigGovernment.com will publish the first-hand account of a student who participated in the UMSL course and who has, in the face of threats and intimidation, come forward to describe in full what went on in the classroom.

Dear Colleagues,

We have finally completed viewing the videos originating at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) from the UMSL course Introduction to Labor Studies. The excerpts that were made public showing the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) instructor Don Giljum and students as well as the UMKC instructor and students were definitely taken out of context, with their meaning highly distorted through splicing and editing from different times within a class period and across multiple class periods.

As stated previously, our campus supports academic freedom, civility, diversity, open discourse and the pursuit of knowledge. We support the academic freedom of faculty, staff and students at UMSL. Contrary to some reports, Don Giljum has not been fired from the campus faculty, and in fact, is completing the course; he remains eligible to teach at UMSL. We sincerely regret the distress to him and others that has been caused by the unauthorized copying, editing and distribution of the course videos.

During the past two weeks, we have received communications over a wide spectrum of viewpoints, and we appreciate people letting us know what they think. We have learned more about video and Internet technologies that can be beneficial or detrimental to positive, civil discourse, and security issues related to the use of such media. We shall explore ways to improve security in the use of electronic media for instruction, research and other activities.

Sincerely,
Tom George
Chancellor
Professor of Chemistry and Physics

Glen Cope
Provost
Professor of Political Science and Public Policy Administration

When Dwayne Whitney started his trucking business decades ago he had only one truck. Today he has eighteen and 20 employees. But that’s about to change.

“The State of California says my trucks are killing people,” says Whitney. “What do you say to that?”

In a few years, new air quality regulations approved by the California Air Resources Board will render Whitney’s entire fleet illegal.

“New CARB rules are putting me out of business,” he says.

CARB claims that diesel particulates, a type of pollution emitted from buses and trucks, contributes to 2,000 premature deaths in California each year. But UCLA epidemiologist Dr. James Enstrom says the number should be closer to zero.

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Big Government would not exist were it not given sanction by the people.  Those who continue to support it have been duped in large part as a direct or indirect result of the ideological subversion of our academic institutions.  The leaders in all fields of our society were raised in the politically correct, militantly liberal academy, and so it is only natural that the influence of socialist ideas has infected every aspect of our culture.  In so doing, academia has produced leaders that undermine our society rather than helping it to flourish.

It is evident that educational institutions are turning society on its head when we see the kinds of leaders they herald as the shining examples for our students to follow.  On May 17th of this year, the graduating students of Columbia University will spend their morning listening to their Class Day speaker, Benjamin Jealous.  Readers may recall that Mr. Jealous penned a piece for the Huffington Post in which he ardently defended and praised Van Jones, calling him “an American treasure.”  He is being called on to speak because he is a star in the social justice movement.

For as Columbia’s Dean puts it, “Columbia’s undergraduate experience is built on the idea that our college must not only help students develop their capacities for critical thinking, but also nurture in them the responsibilities of citizenship in a democratic society. Benjamin Todd Jealous wonderfully personifies the value that Columbians have long placed on active engagement in the world and in finding the solutions to society’s challenges.”  Jealous does so by leading what he refers to as “a volunteer army for social change” in the NAACP.  That he would describe the organization in such a light should come as no surprise as Jealous is a former New York community organizer and AFL-CIO spokesman.

Mr. Jealous’ address to my class will mark a fitting end to my four years at Columbia in which I witnessed the attack on members of the Minutemen, the speech of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a professor pushing for students to join the peace corps in the middle of his science class and Israeli Apartheid Week amongst innumerable other travesties.

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