More on Swarthmore

Swarthmore is a self described "Liberal Arts" college of 1,500.

You'd think that a school such as this would be very diverse and on first glance, they are. They proudly proclaim on their website that they have 33% "Students of Color". Who are these students? Well the breakdown is as follows:


Percentage of Student Body: 33%
African American
6.9%
Asian American
15.3%
Latino/a
9.5%
Native American
0.7%
Multiracial
0.4%

The national average of African-Americans is 12%. Swarthmore has just over half that number.

Why not more? This is not exclusive to Swarthmore as Haverford has similar data (link in PDF.)

They list 15.3% Asian-Americans, yet that diverse group is not considered a minority group when taking college entrance quotas into effect. Plus, this is a group that includes Japanese, Chinese, Arabs and others from the Asian continent.

Latino's make up nearly 14% of the population yet only 9.5% at Swarthmore.

What's my point you may ask. My point is twofold, The idea that Swarthmore even had to post their diversity numbers is appalling to me because, to paraphrase MLK, we should "be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin". If that is true, these numbers mean nothing.

Since we know that is not the case, isn't Swarthmore lacking in diversity as shown by these numbers? Shouldn't the Young Democrats be appalled by their schools stunning lack of diversity?

Maybe they're not as liberal as they seem to be.

Swarthmore Redux

A freshmen at Swarthmore has contacted me to complain about my treatment of one of his fellow students. He also said that the banner concerning 9/11 on the right is "racist". He and his friends decided this after discussing it. I have invited him to comment on the following questions and we can further the debate here. I've asked him the following to get things started:

• Did the US deserve to get attacked on 9/11 because of our policies in the past?
• Should the US appease the militant Muslims like Spain has done because if we do they won't attack us?
• Did Clinton have any responsibility for the September 11th attacks due to his past appeasement policies?

That should get the next debate between ER and the Swarthmore Young Dems started. I wonder if they will come in and respond.

Update: Here's a whole bunch more questions from the archives. They are in the form of a quiz and was by far the largest traffic I've ever had on a post. Charles Johnson even joined in the comments section.

What Do College Students Actually Learn About the Real World?

University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds has had a running theme about the "higher education bubble" and the huge increases in cost for higher education.

On one side you have the student loan bandits saddling kids with loans they will have a difficult time repaying. Add to the fact that student loans are not dischargeable in a bankruptcy and you essentially have people in their 40's or 50's paying off courses they took 30 years earlier. On the other side you have universities raising rates to egregious levels knowing that students will not worry about the consequences of paying those loans back and will pony up the cash.

What we are left with is a higher education system that is nothing but a business and the return on investment is horrific sometimes taking decades to "break even"...if ever. A student with a degree in Diversity or Ethnic Studies will never make that money back.

To make matters worse, our campuses are a nightmare of liberal thought and gestapo tactics designed to keep it that way.

Take Swarthmore College in the suburbs of Philly. Click the link above to find out just how insane things have gotten as described by the esteemed Thomas Sowell. Here's a snippet:

An all-too-familiar scene was enacted on the campus of Swarthmore College during a meeting on May 4 to discuss demands by student activists for the college to divest itself of its investments in companies that deal in fossil fuels. As a speaker was beginning a presentation to show how many millions of dollars such a disinvestment would cost the college, student activists invaded the meeting, seized the microphone, and shouted down a student who rose in the audience to object. 

Although there were professors and administrators in the room — including the college president — apparently nobody had the guts to put a stop to these storm-trooper tactics. Nor is it likely that there will be any punishment of those who put their own desires above the rights of others. On the contrary, these students went on to demand mandatory campus “teach-ins,” and the administration caved on that demand. Among their other demands are that courses on ethnic studies, and on gender and sexuality, be made a requirement for graduation.

That's just one example and this at a notoriously liberal private institution but it is playing out at public colleges around the country as well. As the saying goes "those who can't do, teach". That's essentially what we are seeing now. We have people teaching our students who never did anything. They've never built a business, risked their money, lost sleep over missing a payroll, faced the real threat of losing their house or any of the other things a person in business has to deal with regularly. They went to school, attained an advanced degree in 'Gender Studies', obtained a teaching job teaching the same useless course and are sitting fat with tenure on the back of the next wave of students who are in hock they'll never get out of.

Note that the students in the linked article that they want classes on ethnic studies, gender and sexuality to be mandatory thus costing those who are attending with borrowed money more debt. Now I know not all people who teach at a college are in this category but an alarming number are and that number is burgeoning. This is the norm at many campuses. When did we get to the point that one was required to go to college to "make something of oneself"? How is a graduate of Duke University with a degree in "International Relations" working at Starbucks and collecting welfare a more honorable person than the guy who owns a sprinkler repair company or a plumber? Because they didn't go into massive debt, attend course on human sexuality and get a piece of paper that says they're educated they are considered lesser? Here's a bit of info for you; the plumbers, electricians and construction workers of this world are the ones who are getting up every morning, buying coffee at 7-11 and paying taxes. They are the ones who made America great and continue to do so. We need to get back to the point where a signed piece of parchment means you are "somebody".

Yes, a degree in engineering means you have passed the course and learned the basics but no one in this world comes out of college ready to work in their chosen field. It takes years to attain the skills needed to be a productive employee. I recall when I owned my own business and I was interviewing a recent graduate. The interview was great and I looked to hire this kid. The going rate was $45-50K a year. When I asked the kid how much he wanted, he said "$80,000 to start, that's what my professor said I was worth". My response was simple: "You've been chasing pussy and drinking beer for four years and have no idea what to do in this business. If your professor says you're worth $80K, have him hire you" and I showed him the door.

And that is it in a nutshell; we have far too many students promised a rainbow at graduation and their heads are filled with bullshit about how much they will make. Meanwhile they continue to sign up for even more loans and get into more debt without ever gaining the necessary skills to make the money back.

As an aside: I used to have numerous battles with Swarthmore student or "Swatties" as they're known. They are a product of the liberal elite in our nation. They went to the finest schools and enjoyed growing up the offspring of limousine liberals. Click the link above to find out exactly how they think. It's a horrifying look into what these young leftist's want our country to become and, with Obama guiding them. are getting closer to achieving.

Swarthmore Gets Riled

The good folks at the Swarthmore Young Donks are a bit upset that I picked on one of their own and put down Bill Clinton:

Your thoughts about Clinton are legitimate, though amusing, given the comment you posted the other day about how us evil liberals are always assuming the worst about Bush. See, you forgot to note a few thinks clinton pulled off that your boy bush hasn’t:

Ah, but we have had five years to see the true facts about the Clinton administration. We don't yet know about the Bush administration.

a balanced budget and surplus years of economic growth for everyone, from the rich on downhigher job approval ratings during a partisan witchhunt impeachment than bush has now

That is all that mattered to Clinton: poll numbers. A real leader has to make difficult decisions regardless of what the polls say. The Clinton impeachment was not a witch hunt. He lied under oath, period. No one gave a damn about him getting busy with Monica Lewinsky; self respecting people had no choice but to give a damn when he lied, both under oath and looking into the camera at the American people.

By the way, how can any self described "progressive" not take the side of Kathleen Willey or Juanita Broadrick when they are claiming that a powerful man took advantage of them sexually? Juanita Broadrick said that she was assaulted by Clinton, read Christopher Hitchens' No One Left To Lie To if you want to know what a credible person she is.

not to mention that the Clinton administration tried to get the Bush administration to focus on terrorism. But Ashcroft was too concerned about the breasts on the Justice dept. statue showing, the rest of the administration didn’t care at all, and Bush spent too much time on vacation and not paying attention when his PDB informed him that bin Laden was determined to strike in the US.

You beg this question: If Clinton did all he could to protect us, why was Sandy Berger caught stuffing documents in his pants that would have either proved or disproved your theory? Why did Clinton not take bin-Laden when he was offered by Sudan. Why did he not go after the real culprits of the first WTC bombing? On that point, why did he not even visit the WTC after the first bombing?

Lastly, let's look at what Clinton will be remembered for:

Don't Ask Don't Tell-A truly failed policy that people are still protesting to this day

Welfare Reform-A plan that would have made Ronald Reagan blush. Stolen right from the Newt Gingrich plan book.

Healthcare Reform-Dead before Hillary even started lying about it.

Scandal-Whitewater, Travel Office, etc.

Kosovo-We're still there.

A roaring economy-An extension of the Reagan tax cuts. At the height of a great economy driven by tech, Clinton's Justice Dept. sued the industry leader; Microsoft and bred a corporate climate that led to Enron, Global Crossing. etc.

Impeachment

'Nuff said.

ER-Making Friends and Improving the World

I've made some new friends over at the Swarthmore College Young Democrats blog. Who are they? Let's meet their new President, Julian:

Hometown: I am a proud New Yorker, from NYC
Year: I am in my second year here at Swarthmore.
Majors: My majors are in political science and economics, although that is almost certainly subject to change.
Favorite dem: … hmm… Bill Clinton.

I wonder why he had to think about it and when he did he came up with a president who was impeached, disbarred and allowed America to be left vulnerable through his lack of action in Somalia, Yemen, Kenya, Tanzania and after the first WTC bombing.

Why are you a Democrat?: I am a democrat because I want to leave the country in better shape for my children than my parents left it for me.

I think every contestant in the Miss America pageant used that line last year. Anyway, old Slick Willy sure left a better world. So did Carter and LBJ. Moving on and skipping ahead past some mindless questions:

Favorite band: My favorite musician has got to be Hendrix, he is awesome.

Is awesome? I can't wait for that long awaited new Hendrix studio album to be released next year. I hear he has a guest appearance by the Black Eyed Peas and Wyclef Jean.

Well, that concludes our visit with Julian. I hope he has a great presidency. I for one feel much better about Republican chances for the foreseeable future.

Sunday Morning News & Notes

It's been awhile but got the writing bug back. I may be rusty but always try to bring my "A" game so here goes:

-The vile Nancy Pelosi says "we are all American's" while standing at the border where hundreds of thousands of people are swarming through unchecked. I wonder how she's feel if we shipped all of these illegals up to her district in northern California and forced them to pay for the care, housing and processing of them. I'm sure the rise in crime rates, burden on the local infrastructure and introduction of diseases would go over fantastically. K say we ship some to New York City as well since Mayor DiBlasio is of the same mind as Pelosi on this.

-Long time readers (if I have any more left) may remember the epic battles I used to get in with the Swarthmore College liberals. I liked them for the most part--at least as much as one can like the privileged children of wealthy white liberals who have had no real world, diversified experience outside of seeing one black guy who mistakenly took a wrong turn and ended up in Bryn Mawr. they used to attempt to debate me on the issues of the day in their cute, smug manner. Well, it appears things haven't really changed that much in the land of of the Swatties.

-To every person who's been paying attention the NY Times has done a horrible job (read the usual job) of covering the IRS scandal. Imagine for a sec it was a Republican president who ordered the IRS to audit and/or give special attention to his political enemies in a move to silence them. The story would be front page, above the fold every single day for months. The Times has not had one front page story and has barely even mentioned it. So after some inquiries from one of the fifteen readers they still have left, they did an internal investigation and found that they've done a fine job of covering a non-story thank you very much. Now shut up you rube.

-In what can only be described as the worst article ever written in a somewhat major online magazine; Slate tries to make the case that global warming is responsible for the carnage ISIS has caused in Iraq and Syria. No, really.

Could there be a connection between climate change and the emerging conflict in Iraq?The short answer is a qualified yes, according to Frank Femia of the Center for Climate and Security, a Washington-based policy institute advised by senior retired military and national security leader.

So who is Frank Femia? He's a guy who has a financial stake in ensuring the public takes global warming seriously so he interjects global warming into everything he can. Slate is of the same mind and using the fact that Femia's organization has affiliations with former top military men who are only seeking a paycheck has equated the lack of rain in Mesopotamia with the growing threat of ISIS.  The fact that ISIS is just the next group to follow in the 600 year tradition of re-establishing the great caliphate and is carrying on the same work as their ideological brethren form the 1600's is not worth the time to discuss. I would like to offer a new hypothesis: The downfall of Slate magazine has been caused by global warming: their incessant chattering about the topic that most America's rank last on their list of concerns has led to a massive decrease in their bottom line and forced them to publish articles that cause people to point and laugh at. 

Friday Morning Links

A busy day, what with McCain puffing out his chest and a conviction in the fake tallywhacker in the microwave case.

*Now this is funny. I wonder if he kept the receipt.

*Missed opportunities. Aggressive Tendencies has the story.

*That joyful group of Swatties is back at the Swarthmore College Young Democrats site.

*Those Jews are really clever, aren't they?

*As Frank Rizzo once said, "never write a letter and never throw one away".Our words will always come back to haunt us, whether it's two months later or 27-years.

*Update: Well duh!

3 Year Blogiversary

Well all, today marks the third anniversary of Environmental Republican. If you look at my first post, it is dated February 22, 2003. However, I posted several posts prior to that that were deleted because I thought the quality was horrible. Those two posts remain the only two posts I've ever deleted, and they were both about environmental issues but just seemed horribly written at the time. I stuck with the environmental meme for several of my initial posts including this one, which I still like.

I soon ventured into politics, including my first straight political post. A post that was about Dennis Kucinich and included a reference to a great blogger with the pseudonym Juan Gato:

Dennis Kucinich has switched from being anti-abortion to pro-choice. In other news; the Pope has converted to Judaism, Robert Byrd switched his name on his buildings, bridges, and highways with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Juan Gato has become a 12-stepper.

The link to Juan Gato's website is dead but the spirit of his blog lives on.

I also included in the first week links to a guy who made me want to blog and the first site I go to in the morning to this day--Tim Blair. Cheers Tim.

Our trip down memory lane continues with my post describing me and linking to a long dead website that I created when I thought I was running for Town Council. I also "fisked (rather poorly looking back) Paul Krugman but did have a good line or two referencing Howell Raines. Has anyone in hindsight been proven more wrong about the economy than Krugman?

I chose to blog more in the vein of Glenn Reynolds and Charles Johnson--two men who can say alot in few words. I've been successful every so often on that front. They are probably the two I've linked to more than any other.

During this last three years I've been linked to by the three mentioned above (including and Instalanche and Lizardlanche in the same week), INDC Bill, Cap'n Ed, PJ's Media, Newsweek, MSNBC's Connected Coast to Coast, Right Wing News, Greyhawk, The Commissar and numerous other bloggers on the left and right. No link from Jeff Goldstein or Michelle Malkin but one hope.

(Update: 2/17 0700) Be careful for what you wish. Thanks Jeff.

Anyway, thanks to all my blogger sisters and brothers including:

The Watcher
Terri
Dave Justus
Cardinal Martini
The lovely Kate (my blogchild)
Fred Fry
The Good Lieutenant
Scott at POV (who needs to blog much more often)
The Garnet Donkey Gang at Swarthmore College
The Liberal Avenger (the eternal debate continues)
MiniPundit (who I've been brutal towards)
Anyone I've forgotten, please forgive me but you are appreciated.

Anyway, on looking back on the 3,545 posts (wow, that's 3.24 per day) prior to this one, I can honestly say this:

Some were good, some I thought were great, some were decent and turned out to be horribly misguided, some started out looking prescient and ended up looking idiotic and some just sucked from the very beginning but I live by the bloggers code of not deleting anything (except for the first two posts but they weren't political and linked to the EPA website), just making corrections.

Thanks to all who've made this blog--my release and source of entertainment--what it is today. Because of this blog I know what the TTLB Ecosystem is, I type in "te" on the url address bar and it knows I want to access Technorati and Memeorandum and Lucianne.com have more information than any human could hope to comprehend and to a blogger are indispensible.

Lastly, I want to say that I appreciate the commenters who don't have a blog but read me and leave their thoughts. To them In say: start a blog and e-mail me, I'll link to you because your opinion is as important as anyone elses.

Here's to another three years (unless my beautiful wife just can't take it anymore and smashes my laptop with a hammer or my head).

Thanks all.

News and Notes From Around the Web

New posts below, news here:

I forgot to mention last night that Dave Barry is once again liveblogging "24".

Larry Bernard host this weeks RINO sitings. Being it was a travel weekend, I neglected to get Larry a link.

That'll leave a serious welt on Al Gore's irritating mug.

Dave Justus is as thoughtful as ever.

Catfight!

Update: I've been in a constant debate with the Swarthmore College Young Donks for awhile now and they've been worthy adversaries. I've asked them to add me to their blogroll as I did for them a few months ago.

At this site, the belief has always been that open and honest debate is paramount and for that debate to exist alternative views must be allowed.

Well, here we are and still no blog roll link.

Republicans/Neocons like myself have absolutely no compunction to link to those sites because their opinions add to the debate, they don't detract.

I really couldn't care less about the traffic, I'm happy with the traffic (or lack of) I get already. But if the Donks continue to only link to themselves they will continue to live in a bubble (and we thought it was Bush who lived in a bubble according to Newsweek). That is not healthy for our democracy as we need a viable opposition party and we don't have one at this writing.

Update: They've linked to myself, Dave and Kipper, although they linked to his old address at Blogspot. Thanks guys and here's to a quality debate.

News Roundup

New posts below, good reads here:

Dave Justus links to a UCLA report on media bias. An interesting read.

The New York Times, the NSA and the Iraqi Election all in one place.

The nominee for the FEC has raised the ire of many folks, whether it is warranted or not.

Colin at the Swarthmore Young Donks has a post about religion that's quite interesting. (link fixed)

The Christmas wars and Wal-Mart.