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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

Canadian Ambassador William Crosbie at the opening of the Afghan National Customs Academy (ANCA). (Photo courtesy U.S. Embassy Kabul) Courtesy Canadian Forces KABUL, January 19, 2010 — Canadian Ambassador William Crosbie and United States Ambassador for Economic and Development Affairs Anthony Wayne joined Minister of Finance H.E. Dr. Omar Zakhilwal for the opening of the Afghan National Customs Academy (ANCA).Established with the support of a number of international donors, the ANCA will assist the Afghanistan Customs Department to develop into a modern customs service. “The opening of this academy is of particular importance to Canada, as it furthers a key area...

How deep does the culture of political correctness run in the military and the service academies? We're getting some idea in the case of Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The Hasan story has rightly overwhelmed the news. Evidence of the red flags preceding his murder spree continues to accumulate and enrage. One inevitably sees in the disregarded red flags a case of political correctness run amok. The story of the Naval Academy's insufficiently colorful color guard has not quite broken out yet, and perhaps it won't, but it provides additional context to the case of Nidal Hasan. It appears that Naval...

Quick thinking by a dozen teenagers may have avoided an apparent school bus hijacking from turning tragic, said witnesses. A man boarded a bus as it stopped at Boulevard and Burroughs Road and tried to take control of it, school district and Atlanta police officials said. The suspect briefly fought with the bus driver, forcing her out of the seat and taking control of the vehicle. At about 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon, an Atlanta Public Schools bus ran off of Boulevard Road after Arris Pitmon, 23, forced his way onto the bus transporting Forrest Hills Academy students and began attacking...

COMBAT OUTPOST CARVER, Iraq, July 30, 2009 – After five long days of intense training and battling a pair of fierce sandstorms, more than 20 Iraqi soldiers graduated from the “Cold Steel Training Academy” here yesterday. Army Spc. Cesar Lopez gives pointers to an Iraqi soldier attempting to apply a pressure dressing on a simulated wound during a training exercise in the midst of a sandstorm July 29, 2009, at Combat Outpost Carver, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Pvt. Jared Gehmann  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The academy was established for 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers of Company A, 1st...

"The U.S. Public Service Academy will be an undergraduate institution devoted to developing civilian leaders for the public sector. Modeled on the military academies, the Academy will offer four years of tuition-free education in exchange for five years of civilian service following graduation. Its mission will be to educate, develop, and inspire civilian leaders who have the character, intellect, and experience necessary to serve the nation honorably and effectively, and who are committed to devoting their lives to public service. The initiative to build the Academy was launched by two Teach For America alumni in the wake of Hurricane Katrina,...

BAGHDAD — A joint effort between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the U.S. Air Force is improving the training facilities for Iraq’s Air Force (IqAF) cadets. The $1.96 million rehabilitation project at the Iraq Military Academy Rustamiyah (IMAR) includes five major components that will greatly enhance the learning and living environment for future IqAF officers. The academy, established by the British in 1924, serves as the sole site for training IqAF cadets. Cadets learn essential skills there, including English, before commissioning as officers ready for flight training. English is taught because it’s the mandatory international language for...

Darwinists Topple Darwin’s Tree of Life Darwin’s “Tree of Life” is a myth. It’s based on circular reasoning. It is a pattern imposed on the data, not a fact emerging from the evidence. We should give up the search for a single tree of life (TOL) as a record of the history of life on earth, because it is a “quixotic pursuit” unlikely to succeed – and the evidence is against it. Who said this? Not creationists, but a new member of the National Academy of Sciences in his inaugural paper for the academy’s Proceedings.1 W. Ford Doolittle and Eric...