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... After fifth grade, he found, student assessment becomes a matter of “a teacher’s subjective assessment of the student’s performance,” and is further removed from the guidance of objective test results. Teachers, he says, tend to assess students on non-cognitive, “socio-emotional skills.” This has had a significant impact on boys’ later achievement because, while objective test scores are important, it is teacher-assigned grades that determine a child’s future with class placement, high school graduation and college admissibility. Eliminating the factor of “non-cognitive skills…almost eliminates the estimated gender gap in reading grades,” Cornwell found. He said he found it “surprising” that...

If you have any doubt of the immediate, urgent danger confronting America- or even if you don't, please take the time to watch this documentary. And please share it widely. AGENDA: Grinding Down America was written, produced, & directed by Curtis Bowers. He is joined by people like The Hon. Ed Meese III, Brannon Howse (founder/ president of the American Family Policy Institute), Phyllis Schlafly (founder/ president of Eagle Forum), The Hon H. L. Richardson (former State Senator from California & founder of Gun Owners of America), authors Dr David Noebel (Understanding The Times, also founder & president of Summit...

We all remember the famous line delivered by the fictional Walt Kowalski played by Clint Eastwood. Walt, was a recently widowed UAW worker and Korean War veteran. Delivered from behind a freshly charged and precisely aimed M-1 Garand to a trespassing Asian gang member rolling in Walt's begonias' one night.....it definitely got the point across. As Walt would say later to three other wayward "utes" picking on a young girl as he calmly leveled his M1911 at them with a sneer....."Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have f#$ked with? That's me." Such men...

The high priests of the civic religion are very worried that people no longer seem to trust government. The law stands discredited. Once-hallowed institutions are under fire and losing status. People are openly loathing public officials. Movies, television, and best-selling books urge revolt. Most people don’t bother to vote. And these priests wonder why. Here’s an example of why. As the year opened, the House, Senate, and president all collaborated to enact the largest tax increase in human history — under the cover of night on the first day of the year, on the 100-year anniversary of the income tax....

PHILADELPHIA — Like many public schools here, University City High School is underused, underfinanced and underperforming. William R. Hite Jr., the schools superintendent, says the closings will help keep the district solvent. More Photos » Nearly 80 percent of its 11th-grade students read below grade level in statewide tests this year, while 85 percent failed to make the grade in math. Last year, about only a quarter of its students participated in precollege testing like the SAT. Largely because of the lure of local charter schools, the school is one-quarter full, with fewer than 600 students for its nearly 2,200...

12.21.12… THE END OF THE WORLD? After the recent elections, someone wrote: “The world ended on Nov 6, 2012.” America will survive an election, but people the world over are panicking because they believe the ancient Mayan calendar which apparently predicted that 12/22/12 would be history for the entire planet. Recently, thousands of letters, some threatening suicide, have poured into government agencies like NASA. But there is a brighter side. According to many experts, the Mayan calendar does not predict the absolute end of the world, but only the end of a cycle, thus offering a hopeful new beginning. Indeed...

ObamaCare is being implemented, having been upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in June in a series of cases now known as National Federation of Independent Business v. HHS. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that the court took a law that was flawed but potentially workable and transformed it into one that is almost certainly unworkable. More important, the justices also may have created new and fatal constitutional problems. ObamaCare, or the Affordable Care Act, was conceived as a complex statutory scheme designed to provide Americans with near-universal health-care coverage and to effectively federalize the nation's health-care system....

I tried to post this vanity a week or so ago but was refused publication. This is my second attempt. If the United States is ever going to control the war-like actions of our president we must pass a law could throw him out of office rather quickly. My proposal is that any legislator could call for the impeachment and removal from office if he/she has not sought congressional approval of the use of our military within 30 days.

Islamization isn't only happening in Europe. If these are our "allies", I'd sure hate to hear what our enemies have to say about us. According to Rabbi Baruch Efrati, "Jews should 'rejoice at the fact that Europe is paying for what it did to us for hundreds of years by losing its identity.' " "With the help of God, the gentiles there will adopt a healthier life with a lot of modesty and integrity, and not like the hypocritical Christianity which appears pure but is fundamentally corrupt," he explained." "even if we are in a major war with the region's...

Why not just do what the Dems did? Blow it up from the inside and blame the guy in power. This is how you do it 1. Raise Taxes: Let the Bush tax cuts expire for everyone thus raising taxes 2. Fiscal Cliff: Do not raise the debt ceiling 3. Blame Obama for the outcome The beauty of this approach is that it necessarily guarantees smaller government, if forces cuts in spending. It increases unemployment on Obama's watch (hey, they voted for this). It paints liberalism as the reason for the downfall. If I were running things up there this...

I congratulate no one. I am deeply distressed. I take hope from the knowledge that we are not yet past the tipping point, that the margin of victory was so slim, that half of us, at least, will continue to point to the fiscal and social wreckage of the past four years as it becomes the tragedy of the next four. I hope that we will be able to correct our course away from a European Socialist inspired "Progressive" society. I hope we have the strength of our Founders and enough belief left in a higher power to put the...

As the election results pour in tonight, I am confronted with by a period of time in which I must reassess my core values and beliefs, and how they fit into the broader population of the United States.

In the presidential debates, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney ranged across dozens of topics, but an important one didn't come up: federalism. And no wonder. The idea that the Constitution grants only limited and enumerated powers and leaves the remainder to the states is foreign to those who believe that the national government should or even could address voters' every concern. But contrary to the view widely shared by the political class, Washington—in particular, Congress—does not have the power to pass any law it wants in the name of the "general welfare." Politicians should take heed. Voters are increasingly focused...

I just finished watching a movie (out of free time).. It gave insight to what has become of our society from the "Social Networks"..

This is something I've been wondering for some time and am now putting it forward to FReepers in hopes of educating me and others. If we, as conservatives, believe in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, the Constitution, and all that was written down by the Founding Fathers (our founding principles), how come we are not members of the Constitution party? Why is the Republican Party better than choosing the Constitution Party?

The Barack-and-Bill double act on display this fall marks a new and intriguing phase in a psychological entanglement so rich that if Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung were alive, they would surely be squabbling over it instead of Sabina Spielrein’s hysteria. No one close to Obama or Clinton even bothers with the pretense that there is any real affection between them. But most concur with the assessment of a Democratic operative with tentacles deep in both worlds: that “the relationship today is totally transactional—and highly functional.”

Attorney David Rivkin to deliver Constitution Day address at Penn State

Whoever has access to his campaign. Very important. Sarah visited in 2008. More necessary for Mitt as the Left is raising this issue (Time Magazine cover issue currently -- for Oct 8th).

Prior to the debate… I had expectations as well as fears. Would he MAN UP? Could he handle the pressure? This was make or break time for Mitt Romney. How would he handle Obama’s flow of lies and deception? Would he be able to lay it all out for the American people in a way that would capture their attention, hold it, and make them fall in love with the idea of him as our President? Last night, Mitt Romney did MAN UP. He not only rose to the occasion, but he exceeded this woman’s expectations of what it would...

The Supreme Court ObamaCare ruling is the topic at a Federalist Society forum on October 4 at Florida International University College of Law. David Rivkin, who led the 26-state case against the US government, and Prof. Elizabeth Foley will present.