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When given the choice of standing alongside a decorated military hero or a bunch of militant LGBT activists – choose wisely. The leadership of Hampden-Sydney College learned that lesson the hard way. On May 19 I reported to you that the Virginia all-male college had chosen not to renew retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin’s contract – ending his stellar, nine-year career teaching leadership and ethics. Less than six hours later, the college reversed its decision and offered the retired general a one-year contract. “Hampden-Sydney College is a fine school with a proud history of young men who have led our...

When given the choice of standing alongside a decorated military hero or a bunch of militant LGBT activists – choose wisely. The leadership of Hampden-Sydney College learned that lesson the hard way. On May 19 I reported to you that the Virginia all-male college had chosen not to renew retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin’s contract – ending his stellar, nine-year career teaching leadership and ethics. Click here to join Todd’s American Dispatch: A must-read for conservatives! Less than six hours later, the college reversed its decision and offered the retired general a one-year contract. “Hampden-Sydney College is a fine school...

Beginning with a 23,000-square-foot basement, the house’s ground level is only slightly smaller and the second story is a little less than 22,000 square feet. Garage space alone accounts for 4,000 square feet. Interior plans include two elevators; 15 bedrooms; 14 bathrooms; a two-story, 1,600-square-foot library and two-story, 1,970-square-foot great hall. The master bedroom is 1,275 square feet. “It’s all concrete, and I’ve heard it’ll have bulletproof glass and a concrete roof,” said Steve Johnson, neighbor to the Woods Fork Road property. “My wife was told it’s supposed to be a corporate retreat.” “The walls are all concrete,” said Sheriff...

The South is today, for so many people, a symbol of lynch law, slavery, benightedness, and masked riders in the night. Like the American West, it has become a Hollywood fable bearing little resemblance to the place it was and barely, in spots, still is. The other night I was listening to Ode to Billy Joe, Bobby Gentry’s song of bleak rural poverty near Tupelo not all that long ago. To many, such ballads make no sense or seem whiney and self-pitying. No. It’s how things were. I saw the tag end of it. The rural South, like the West...

The Princeton Review's annual list of best colleges included lists of colleges most accepting of LGBT students and those least accepting. The Princeton Review's annual "The Best 361 Colleges" was released Tuesday, and authors included lists of the colleges that are most accepting of LGBT students and those that are not. According to a survey taken by 110,000 students at 361 top colleges, the 10 schools that ranked the best in being accepting toward gay students are: New College of Florida, Sarasota; Macalester College, St. Paul, Minn.; Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.; Eugene Lang College, New York City; Mount Holyoke College,...

<p>At the end of his nine-hour drive from Ohio, Andrew Mitakides rolls through the brick-columned gates of Virginia's Hampden-Sydney College. Etched in stone on one column is a Latin mission statement: "Huc venite iuvenes ut exeatis viri." Come here as youths so that you may leave as men.</p> <p>Mitakides passes students in blazers and ties, who wave at him as he drives down College Road past cupola-topped brick buildings and pathways that angle and arc beneath canopies of oak. Birch trees edge a fishing pond. A 180-year-old dormitory looks like it was imported from Colonial Williamsburg.</p>