Higher Education

Gramscian ideas are far advanced in America. You see them in "hate crimes" laws, in gender equity legislation, in forced corporate "sensitivity" training, in the menace of coerced "right thinking" in the universities. You feel the nuances of it in casual conversation. It's an attitude at a cocktail party.

UH Manoa professor Farideh Farhi, an advisor to the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a group that lobbies for better relations with the Islamic Republic, challenged me a couple weeks ago...for a column questioning Iranian sincerity in diplomacy.... Today Tabnak (website of accused Buenos Aires bomber) suggests why: In the course of discussing the controversy, it mentions that Farhi worked some years for the Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Indeed, her work at the Foreign Ministry coincided with Holocaust revisionist conferences.

(SB Headline is "GOTCHA!".  After OHA's rent-seeking lawsuits begin, it will become more clear what that means.  For now everybody is celebrating ....) 

HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle today praised the decision by the board of directors of the TMT Observatory Corporation to select Mauna Kea as the preferred site for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)....

 "Having the most advanced telescope in the world on the slopes of Mauna Kea will enhance Hawai‘i’s high-technology sector, while providing our students with education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields." 

As hundreds of UH system president nominees whittled down to only one ethically-challenged candidate, many Hawaii political observers wondered how MRC Greenwood became the only choice left for UH system President. The short answer is political interference playing against the UH liberal arts faculty’s lack of respect for academic freedom.

On one side: Dan Inouye and his BoR cronies seeking a candidate who will defend federally-funded projects such as UARC, and the Thirty Meter Telescope, and defend UH biotech research on behalf of Hawaii’s contribution-rich biotech industry. On the other: the academic left’s open lack of respect for the academic freedom of anybody they disagree with—including those who wish to study plant biotechnology or do military-funded research.

The episodic challenges necessitated by Inouye’s political requirements contrast with many other US universities such as Greenwood’s former stomping grounds, UC Santa Cruz, which have simply caved into the demands of the left and no longer make any serious pretense of academic freedom.

Now--in response to the response--Frankel claims he “typed in the wrong date” for “Islam Day”. In a commentary posted May 25 on HawaiiReporter.com, Frankel pretends to “take full responsibility” for becoming the only person on Earth--other than Hawaii Legislators and Muslim Association of Hawaii (MAH) leaders --to claim that “the 12th day of Rabi ul-Awwal will fall on September 24, 2009 (Islam Day).”

Frankel then goes on to explain helpfully that, “September 24, 2009 should correspond to the 21st day of Ramadan in the Islamic calendar.”

Once again Frankel is dead wrong -- and has again exposed an utterly stupendous ignorance of his own field of study. One quick glance at an Islamic calendar shows that September 24, 2009 corresponds to the 4^th day of Shawwal. The 21^st day of Ramadan will be … September 11, 2009. Perhaps this is Frankel’s idea of a joke?

Some may have thought this problem was settled when activists were given plum jobs at Hilo’s shiny new Imiloa Astronomy center, but shakedown is the foundation of Hawai`i’s so-called economy and when Dan Inouye plops a $1.2 billion money bag on the top of Mauna Kea, the grasping begins.

“Nancy Aleck, the dynamic Exec. Director of the People's Fund, a progressive, grassroots, small-grants ($3,000 limit) organization, will be on the Big Island during Sept. 20-23 to present information and grant request forms ….”