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When former Air Force Academy cadet Eric Thomas faced a disciplinary board in August 2012, a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations said he would come to explain how Thomas worked dozens of cases as a confidential informant and had been of great service to the Air Force. The agent never showed up, and Thomas was expelled from the academy eight months later. On Friday, an active-duty member of the Air Force Academy with direct knowledge of the case said the agent, Brandon Enos, did not show up because he was told not to by the...

The debate over the U.S. Air Force Academy's recent removal of the words "So help me God" from oaths and making the phrase instead optional for cadets has intensified as a chaplains religious liberty group is calling for the military branch to explain why the action was taken, and activists have stepped up their campaign against expressions of Christian faith within the academy located in Colorado Springs, Colo. The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty said in a statement received by The Christian Post on Tuesday that it is receiving calls from concerned parents of Air Force Academy cadets about the...

**SNIP** “The U.S. Air Force Academy has removed the words ‘So help me God’ from some written materials, including the oath administered to USAF inductees based upon the objections of a single atheist,” says Tom Fitton, director of Judicial Watch. **SNIP** “Unilaterally removing ‘so help me God’ from Air Force Academy materials is at odds with our nation’s history, the rule of law, and the fundamental values of the American people,” Mr. Fitton observes. “We want to get to the bottom of this controversy and it is a shame we had to go to court to try to get past...

A Texas high school principal threatened to sabotage a valedictorian’s appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy after the student delivered a speech that referenced God and the U.S. Constitution, the boy’s attorney alleges. Hiram Sasser, director of litigation with the Liberty Institute, said Joshua High School principal Mick Cochran threatened to write a letter to the U.S. Naval Academy disparaging the character of Remington Reimer. “It was intimidating having my high school principal threaten my future because I wanted to stand up for the Constitution and

1. LINCOLN 2. SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK 3. LES MISERABLES 4. THE IMPOSSIBLE 5. THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER 6. SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN 7. THE HOBBIT 8. A LATE QUARTET 9. ACT OF VALOR 10. WON'T BACK DOWN

Years ago I read an amusing piece in the London Telegraph about an exhibition of Damien Hirst’s, er, art work at some glitzy Cork Street gallery. The man with the formaldehyde sharks had lots of exciting new bijoux to offer his public. One immortal opus consisted of a tray full of dirty coffee cups, overflowing ash trays, and the like. After the opening party, a diligent janitor, who I hope has gone on to a post as an art critic, tidied up the tray.Yep, out went the master’s work, all those carefully arranged cigarette butts and lipstick-smeared napkins, valued,...

The professors interviewed on Press TV include Alex Vitale of Brooklyn College, Heather Gautney of Fordham University, and John Hammond of City University of New York. video at link

What had been one of the lowest-performing, under-enrolled schools in San Francisco was little more than a pile of rubble as workers demolished Willie Brown Jr. Academy in the city's Bayview neighborhood. Loud hydraulic excavators bit off pieces of the few remaining walls still standing last week at the school, which served about 160 students in grades four through eight until June 2011. With blue sky visible above and gaping holes nearby, a paper sign directed visitors to the now-nonexistent counseling office. Soon, the tons of mangled rebar and concrete chunks will be carted off for recycling and the 4-acre...

As this article notes, "Dozens of House lawmakers accused the U.S. Air Force this week of being 'hostile towards religion.'" But those lawmakers are mistaken. It's not religion in general which the Air Force is becoming hostile toward. It is Christianity. Jean Bodin, in his work "De la Demonomanie des Sorciers," writes, "Sorcier est celuy qui par moyens Diaboliques sciemment s'efforce de paruenir a quel que chose" - A sorcerer is one who by commerce with the Devil has a full intention of attaining his own ends." The Air Force Academy, while growing ever more hostile toward Christianity and the...

Best Picture: The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, War Horse Actor in a Leading Role: Demián Bichir, George Clooney, Jean Dujardin, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt Actress in a Leading Role: Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Rooney Mara, Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams You lost me there, Mr. Peabody. A Wayforward... machine?

Reading List For List Complete List Complete List By Subject Introduction Arranged by Recommender's Name To contribute to this list, or add to your own list below, plese use the Reading List for Life suggestion form. Professor Richard Abels, History Department: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. (PS 3558 .E476 C3 1961) Regeneration by Pat Barker. (PR 6052 .A6488 R4 1961) Waiting for the Barbarians by Joseph Coetzee. (PR 9369.3 .C58 W3 1982) The Making of the Middle Ages by Richard Southern. (CB 351 .S6 1953a) The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. (Book: PG 3326 .B7 G32, Audiotape: PG 3326 .B7...

I join [the Communist Party USA] without enthusiasm, but with a sense of obligation. ... My fundamental reason for joining is that I don't like capitalism and want to get rid of it. ~ Richard Hofstadter (circa 1938) Like the proverbial frog in a cauldron of water, the distinction separating a warm bath and frog soup is only a difference of a few degrees. Likewise, people are dumbstruck with how America's academy (i.e., colleges, universities, law schools and, to a degree, public schools) has gradually devolved since the 1860s from vaunted institutions of higher learning to breeding grounds for Marxist...

Professor Bruce Fleming is not your typical US Naval Academy (USNA) Professor. He teaches English and he also happens to be a liberal. I’ve written favorably in my books about his work because he also happens to believe in speaking the truth. And by speaking the truth about the dirty secrets of affirmative action at the Naval Academy, he has set off a fire storm. Fleming wrote a piece last year exposing the fact that the USNA had a “two-tiered” system of admission that was designed to bring more minorities into the academy. (Since access to the full article has...

FINDLAY, Ohio (AP) -- Katherine Miller got pretty good at hiding her sexuality in high school, brushing off questions about her weekend plans and referring to her girlfriend, Kristin, as "Kris." She figured she could pull it off at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, too.

, In New York, a public school system that once was the envy of the world has become an international laughingstock. The laugh track is not likely to die out anytime soon. “Virtually the entire New York press corps do not read the state test,” Harvard professor Daniel Koretz alleged at The Atlantic K-12 Education Forum. “Last year, the chancellor’s office, in a press conference, admitted that they did not read the state tests.” Maybe they should see The Lottery instead. The heart-wrenching documentary tells the tale of two families applying to the Harlem Success Academy (HSA). Five thousand applicants...

3/23/2010 - BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- A team of Airmen from the 440th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron and Soldiers from the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, Task Force Falcon, led the first class of Afghan National Army Air Corp soldiers through the Afghan National Security Forces Crew Chief Academy March 6 here. The joint team of instructors led the inaugural class of five ANAAC crew chiefs through the three-week academy with classroom instruction and nearly four hours of proficiency training flights in UH-60M Blackhawk helicopters. Classroom instruction included lessons in fuel management, preparing an aircraft, Army academics and multiple-aircraft operations....

MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, Ind., March 19, 2010 – Patriot Academy, the military’s first accredited high school, graduated its first class here yesterday. Army Pfc. Scott Wayne proudly holds his newly earned high school diploma with smiling family members at the Patriot Academy’s first graduation ceremony at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Butlerville, Ind., March 18, 2010. Wayne decided to join the Patriot Academy to earn his diploma and serve his country. The Patriot Academy is the U.S. military’s first accredited high school. U.S. Army photo by John Crosby  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The program provides troubled...

It was no oversight. The executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has apologized to the friends, family and fans of Farrah Fawcett, who was conspicuously omitted from Sunday night's Oscar-event tribute to Hollywood personalities who had died over the past year. While some agents and publicists, besides actors, were included in the memorial, Fawcett, a high-profile star better known for her TV work (who also appeared on the big screen), was not. Neither was Gene Barry -- who was seen in both versions of "War of the Worlds" -- or Bea Arthur. Among those criticizing...

A large wooden cross was placed at an Air Force Academy worship area for pagans and other Earth-centered religions, prompting an investigation by academy officials, though some caution that it’s hardly “destructive behavior.” Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said an Air Force Academy staffer spotted the cross — erected with railroad ties — lying against a rock at a worship area for pagan groups at the academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Jan. 17.

Link only - Respect healthy for different faiths