Free Republic

Abigail Thernstrom is wrong to belittle this shocking episode. Forget about the New Black Panther Party case,” writes Abigail Thernstrom. It’s “very small potatoes.” She is suddenly upset over the “overheated rhetoric filled with insinuations and unsubstantiated charges” about the case that she grudgingly admits may “perhaps” have been a civil-rights violation. So she has explained in an NRO op-ed. Naturally, her “conservative dissent” has been seized on by the “nothing to see here” Left, which can now get back to its preferred big-potatoes-diet of Bristol Palin, Karl Rove subpoenas, and leaking classified information. It was just a year ago,...

"The issues don't really matter," says one party fund-raiser. "This guy is the dream candidate." The Economist, July 15 With the June 25 announcement by conservative Republican Jack Ryan that he was dropping out of the U.S. Senate race for Illinois, and legendary Chicago Bears tight end/coach Mike Ditka's July 14 announcement that he would not serve as the sacrificial lamb of the corrupt, Illinois Republican Party leadership, the seat falls to Democrat candidate Barack Obama virtually by default. Meanwhile, in what is taking on the airs of a coronation, Obama has been chosen (while Hillary Clinton has been snubbed)...

BooknotesNo Excuses C-SPAN Washington, District of Columbia (United States) Thernstrom, Abigail, Commissioner, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

A: Terri Schiavo Last I looked, the New York Times under the helmsmanship of Bill Keller, Executive Editor, and Prince Sulzberger, Publisher, has still failed to notice that Terri's guardian, the one person in the world who heard his then 20 year old wife demand that she be starved and dehydrated to death in the event of trauma which might leave her in a persistent vegetative state, is not mourning in solitude. The NYTimes has not reported that Michael Schiavo has formed a quasi-marital union with a woman who has now borne him two children. You can toss this off...

School performancesThomas Sowell (archive) September 24, 2003 Everyone knows that black students in general do not perform as well in school as white students, much less Asian American students. But few realize how painfully large the gap is. Even fewer know that there are particular black schools, even in low-income neighborhoods, where students perform above the national average. Discussing racial gaps in education is taboo in some quarters. But this subject is discussed deeply and thoroughly in a new book titled "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning" by Abigail Thernstrom of the Manhattan Institute and Stephan Thernstrom of...

Everyone knows that black students in general do not perform as well in school as white students, much less Asian American students. But few realize how painfully large the gap is. Even fewer know that there are particular black schools, even in low-income neighborhoods, where students perform above the national average.Discussing racial gaps in education is taboo in some quarters. But this subject is discussed deeply and thoroughly in a new book titled "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning" by Abigail Thernstrom of the Manhattan Institute and Stephan Thernstrom of Harvard. They are also the authors of...