Where do you begin if you’re thinking about homeschooling? Can you do it if you’re not a teacher? And how can you make sure your kids get enough socialization? We’re joined by a special guest, Colleen Trinko—yes, Kate’s mom! Colleen, who is a teacher, homeschooled her five children for many years, and now works with other homeschool families to advise. Plus: A feminist is kicked off Twitter, seemingly for saying “Men aren’t women.”
We also cover these stories:
President Donald Trump is now threatening additional tariffs on cars in response to General Motors Co.’s announcement of layoffs and plant closings.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says there’s no “direct reporting” linking the Saudi crown prince to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
In an interview, Ivanka Trump made the case for why her use of a personal email was not at all the same as what Hillary Clinton had done.
The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now
EDITORS NOTE: This column with images and podcast is republished with permission. Photo: Ingram Publishing/Newscom.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/181128_mom-1250x650-e1543498114885.jpg374640The Daily Signalhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Signal2018-11-29 08:29:172018-11-29 08:29:17Podcast: A Homeschooling Mom Shares Why, and How
Without challenging this overarching narrative, the Manhattan Institute fellow said, “there is going to be no end to identity politics.”
The rise of identity politics has become a phenomenon not just in America, but in the West in general.
In many ways, debates over identity are defining and shaping the politics of our time and pose a unique challenge in particular to the United States, a vast, multi-ethnic country with potential identity fault lines that far exceed the more homogenous societies of the world.
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation, and Mike Franc, director of D.C. programs at the Hoover Institution, brought together a diverse set of thinkers to hash out why identity politics is on the rise and how to address it.
Besides Mac Donald, they included John Fonte, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute; Peter Berkowitz, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution; Michael Lind, a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin; and Andrew Sullivan, a writer for New York magazine.
Each highlighted the problem.
Hudson’s Fonte outlined what has become the framework for identity politics on the left.
“Multiculturalism, the diversity project, and critical theory” are the three major cornerstones of this creed, Fonte said.
In a 2013 article in National Review, Fonte described the “diversity project” as: “[T]he ongoing effort to use federal power to impose proportional representation along race, gender, and ethnic lines in all aspects of American life.”
Multiculturalism comes in a hard version and a soft version, he said.
The soft version celebrates ethnic subcultures, examples being St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo.
The hard version, Fonte said, has damaged society. He concisely summed up its tenets:
The United States is a multicultural society in which different cultures—African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, and women—have their own values, histories, and identities separate from and sometimes in opposition to dominant Anglo, white, male culture.
This creed divides America into many peoples and has become the dominant ethos taught in American schools.
The diversity project’s demand for statistical equality for groups, or “group proportionalism,” as Fonte calls it, is another integral element of identity politics. But taken to its logical extent, the diversity project is incompatible with a free society, he said.
There is simply no way to create perfect, equal representation of all groups in all fields, the Hudson Institute scholar said. Any attempt to do so would require state coercion on a massive scale.
Finally, Fonte said, critical theory—which explains the difference in group outcomes by classifying groups as privileged or marginalized—further undermines free society because it directly opposes the concept of “liberal, democratic jurisprudence.” Individual justice is subordinated to social justice—the oppressors and the oppressed.
These concepts fundamentally undermine our republic, Fonte said, and while he had no answer to solve the threat, he said a return to patriotism and national identity was a better way forward.
Hoover’s Berkowitz reiterated the obsession of identity politics with “race, class, and gender.”
These classifications become the essence of who a person is, and subordinate individual differences and individual justice.
“Group rights are distributed on the basis of the discrimination or oppression that the group to which you belong has suffered,” Berkowitz said.
Thus, he said, victimhood becomes a “virtue” and a moral status symbol demonstrating that one deserves greater political power.
Distinctions exist between the postmodernist ideologies of the 1980s and 1990s and the early 21st century, he said. A key feature defining the identity politics of today is that it has moved on from the relativism of earlier eras and become dogmatic in its certainties.
Identity politics adherents on the left, for example, are now certain in their assessment that the West—including America—is racist and sexist.
Dissent from this narrative is taken as “an act of violence, an expression of racism and hatred,” Berkowitz said.
These ideas not only have become dominant on college campuses, he said, but are a threat to the fundamental nature of liberal societies. They cannot coexist with concepts like free speech, due process, and limited government.
American universities won’t counteract the identity politics creed, Berkowitz said, and so Americans who oppose it need to find outside solutions if they want to preserve their free society.
Berkowitz, who has written extensively about restoring the value of liberal education, said such solutions may come through alternative paths to education at the K-12 level—homeschooling and charter schools—as well as more programs to provide alternative curricula to parents and young people.
Lind spoke about how identity politics is becoming a flashpoint for the most fundamental divides not only in the U.S., but throughout the West.
Half of America—mostly in the rural regions and exurbs—accepts and lives out the concept of the “melting pot,” while the other half—in urban environments—embraces and lives with predominant multiculturalism, Lind said.
This city vs. country divide sets this era apart from earlier ones where region was more of a factor.
For most of American history, the concept of the melting pot has worked, but Lind said he is pessimistic for its future because of demography.
“The native fertility rate in Western societies is below replacement … we need to have replacement immigration of some kind in order to prevent the population from just collapsing,” Lind said.
However, the continually low birth rates in these societies will put pressure on them to increase immigration, he said, and so feed the constant political base for multiculturalism.
Mac Donald, also a contributor to City Journal, said people of “courage” need to confront the ideology of identity politics directly for the sake of the nation’s future.
She summed up what she said is the crux of of the debate and the oppression narrative:
The main driver is race—women are sort of a fast second place—but the main driver of all this is the lingering racial disparities, and we both need to close them and be honest about what’s driving them.
I would say family breakdown is the biggest driver and other behavioral disparities and culture [are also drivers]. Those need to be closed because if not, the oppression narrative is going to be with us to our enormous misfortune.
Sullivan said that while identity politics has existed in the past—notably in the 1990s—it’s “different now.”
People debated the concepts of identity politics in earlier eras, and often vehemently opposed them, but now identity politics has taken over “all teaching in the humanities” and has been fully embraced by an entire generation of “the elite,” the writer said.
Sullivan, an early supporter of same-sex marriage and President Barack Obama, said that it’s “staggering” how the ideas of identity politics have been universally accepted by the young elite, without question.
These ideas have spread beyond the college campus, Sullivan wrote earlier this year, and entered the mainstream of debate in America.
“It is staggering how people under the age of 30 buy all of this, have never even regarded it as questionable, that it’s become completely routine to believe these things,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan attributed this, in part, to parenting.
Parents tried so hard to create safe spaces for their children, he said, that the children were simply unable to handle disagreement or anything that made them feel unsafe.
Sullivan also said social media fuels surface-level hot takes and “virtue signaling,” rather than deeper thought.
What’s remarkable, he said, is that identity victimhood politics comes at a time when many of these groups are thriving more than ever before in history.
“We should talk about the successes that have occurred without this stuff,” Sullivan said. “In fact, I sometimes wonder whether this stuff is a function of having succeeded, because you’re terrified you’re going to lose the struggle you always lived with and you have nothing to do with your life.”
Reporters from The Daily Caller spent some time with a group of African-American conservatives Wednesday, following them as they visited Senate offices lobbying for a bill that aims to take the “first step” toward overhauling America’s criminal justice system.
The “First Step Act,” which passed easily in the House of Representatives last summer, would roll back some of the initiatives of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act —also known as the “Clinton Crime Bill.” Most importantly for its supporters, the bill intends to combat recidivism, which is the rate at which released prisoners return to criminal behavior.
If passed, the bill would allow some people in federal prisons to earn “good-time credit,” which would set them up for early release if they participate in programs which allow them to demonstrate improved behavior and preparation for life on the outside. The bill would lead to the release of an additional 3,900 prisoners in the first year of its implementation, according to estimates.
The group of mostly black conservatives met with Republican Sens. Steve Daines of Montana, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. They also found their way into the offices of a few other senators, not all of whom were available to meet with them.
Candace Owens and Gianno Caldwell lead a group of African-American conservatives in the Hart Senate Office Building on Wednesday, Nov. 28, as they lobby in favor of the “First Step Act” (TheDC/Jon Brown)
Among them were prominent young conservatives like Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk and Gianno Caldwell, each of whom spoke to The Daily Caller about why they are so passionate about ensuring the bill’s passage.
“It’s worked in Texas, it’s worked in Louisiana, it’s worked in other states,” Charlie Kirk, of Turning Point USA, said of the proposed reforms in the bill. “It’s in some ways an atypical issue for conservatives to be taking on, but that’s what I love most about [President Donald Trump], is that he’s willing to take on issues that are traditionally not always being taken on.”
“I don’t think anyone can make the argument that our prison system works, that somehow the prison system is working exactly how it should,” Kirk continued. “Once people leave prison, they’re much more likely to commit crimes after that. We as conservatives are worried about the financial burden that has on our society. We’re worried about societal burden. Obviously, we care a lot about freedom and we care a lot about justice and things like that, but it doesn’t help anyone when prisoners have the high recidivism rates that they have.”
African-American conservatives gather in Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office Wednesday, Nov. 28, to lobby in favor of the “First Step Act” (TheDC/Jon Brown)
“[Criminal justice reform] is one of the biggest issues in the black community, without question,” Owens said. “Every single one of us [in this group] has a family member that has served prison sentences. I know I certainly have. I have multiple family members that have served prison sentences. And we’ve all been outspoken black conservatives.”
“We’ve taken a lot of heat because of that,” Owens claimed.
“I personally spent time speaking to inmates down in the correctional facility in Tallahassee, Florida,” she continued. “They all say the same thing: If the system was not punitive, and instead was rehabilitative, we would see a difference in our recidivism rates.”
When asked what impact she believes passing bills like this will have on attracting minorities to the Republican Party, Owens said, “This is it. I think what we’re realizing is that Republicans don’t know how to approach the black community. They don’t know how. For so long they have handed the reins over to the Left and the Republicans have been falsely accused of racism. They don’t even know how to enter into the black community. This is it. This would be a major win if it passed, and it would allow them to knock on doors and broker conversations with our community.”
“And Republicans have all the power right now to deliver it,” Owens maintained. “So it’s something that hits close to home. And it’s something that feels like it’s within our control to actually implement.”
Gianno Caldwell, a political consultant and analyst, has been working for half a decade on issues of criminal justice reform. “This is something that is very impactful for me because it statistically impacts literally every member of the black community,” he said.
“In 2014, there were 6.8 million people within the prison system — and when I say ‘prison system,’ I’m talking about federal prisons, state prisons, jails and on parole. And of those 6.8 million — which, as you know, is the largest population in the world under the corrections system — 34 percent of those folks are African-American, or 2.3 million.”
“So statistically, it impacts every African-American in this country. So certainly, knowing what happened with the effects of the ’94 crime bill, I think that we absolutely have to take opportunities like these with the First Step Act — the literal first step, in terms of reversing those very draconian effects from that bill.”
“I think we can do more, but even changes like this — which some people are saying are modest— I think have a very large effect and impact on not just the black community, but those who want second chances across the country. So this is a great opportunity to start the work and hopefully, at some point after, continue the work.”
African-American conservatives gather in Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office on Wednesday, Nov. 28, to lobby in favor of the “First Step Act” (TheDC/Jon Brown)
This bill would also allow judges to insert their own discretion into certain cases in order to circumvent mandatory minimums. Since having passed in the House, it has stalled in the Senate — but recently picked up steam after receiving the president’s endorsement.
Despite widespread bipartisan support, the bill still faces opposition from both liberals and conservatives. Referring to it as the “jailbreak bill,” critics on the Right worry that the bill would release dangerous criminals into the general population. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton made such a case in a column for National Review, saying that it “goes against core conservative principles,” and allows for the early release of “violent felons.”
Critics on the Left argue that the law doesn’t go far enough, because it only affects the federal prison population. The number of inmates in federal prisons comprise only 183,000 of the nation’s 1.5 million inmates.
The First Step Act is currently not set for a vote, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is under pressure to bring it to the floor. Supporters believe they have the 60 votes necessary to send the bill to the president’s desk.
Last Sunday (Nov 25th) a group from the “Caravan,” a group of Central American migrants marching to the U.S. border, breached the border and tried to elude Homeland Security officers. In the process, some hurled rocks and bottles at U.S. officials who, in turn, shot tear gas at the crowd to break it up. No lethal force was used and about 50 people were apprehended after illegally crossing the border. All will likely be deported.
Conservatives see the “Caravan” as a legitimate invasion of our sovereignty, and they support President Trump’s deployment of military personnel along the border to prevent this from happening. They are also in favor of closing the Mexican border should the Caravan persist in trying to enter the country illegally.
Liberals, on the other hand, portray the members of the Caravan as sympathetic characters who are destitute and deserve help. It is easy to sympathize with such people, but when they wave their own flag during their march, it is obvious their loyalty is with their homeland and are only interested in the economic benefits the United States has to offer, such as medical care, education, shelter, and food.
The difference between Left and Right here is whether it is necessary to follow “due process” in entering the United States.
Whereas Conservatives are inclined to follow the rule of law, the Liberals want the borders opened for anyone to enter. Again, such a policy would threaten our sovereignty and ultimately bankrupt the country trying to pay for a massive influx of immigrants.
Let’s be clear about this, we cannot possibly accommodate anyone and everyone wanting to enter our country. We may be the greatest country in the world with a charged-up economy, but we simply cannot take care of everyone; it is not economically feasible to do so.
Central America has long been known for corruption, drugs, and strong-armed government tactics. Regardless if they claim to be free and independent republics, their label of “Banana Republics” has not gone away, particularly those participating in the Caravan, including Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, et al.
Historically, America has sent these countries money as foreign aid, which is typically plundered by their governments; military weapons, which are used to keep the populace in check (and the dictator du jour in power), and; food and medicine to nourish the needy, but this often fails as well. Instead of planting the seed grain and reap the harvest, there is the temptation to consume the grain instead. Frankly, none of this has truly altered conditions in Central America which has stagnated for many decades.
How about something different, such as education? We’ve done this on a small scale with the Peace Corps and other groups, but we need to go beyond the basics and offer advanced courses. If outsiders truly believe America is great, they should want to replicate us, which begins with education. This includes teaching them to teach themselves.
Our founding fathers, such as Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Hamilton, and Adams were remarkable primarily because of their education. They were well versed in such subjects as law, philosophy, mathematics, languages, history, geography, architecture, speech, and theology. Without this background, it is unlikely the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution would have been written. This, of course, led to our separation from Great Britain, and allowed us to become the great country everyone wants to come to.
Education was deemed critical to the success of our new country, based on the premise it encouraged patriotism and citizenship, hence the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was created by our first Congress. The legislation includes verbiage stating, “Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” This led the public education system we know today which children are required to attend. Prior to this, only the children of rich families attended private schools. This also led to the creation of the first college in the northwest, Ohio University in 1804, my alma mater.
The point is, by cultivating education in other countries, we would not just be improving their skill sets, but we would be encouraging the populace to think for themselves and determine a proper form of government; something that feeds and protects its people, encourages invention and innovation, thereby creating jobs. There would be no reason to flee a country with peace and economic stability. And the United States would no longer be faced with an invasion of illegal immigrants.
The big question though is, do they really want to improve their homeland or forever seek handouts from other countries? If it is the latter, it will be necessary to toughen our immigration laws and borders. If it is the former, education will build better and more self-sufficient neighbors, as well as better trading partners. So, will it be education or tear gas? Forget sending them money, food and arms, invest in education instead. The return will be mind-boggling. Our own history proves it.
Just remember, the inscription at the Statue of Liberty reads:
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
It doesn’t read:
“Give me your deadbeats, your criminals, and those too lazy to improve their own country.”
EDITORS NOTE: All trademarks both marked and unmarked belong to their respective companies. The featured photo is by Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/luke-stackpoole-670781-unsplash-e1543493873181.jpg366640Tim Brycehttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngTim Bryce2018-11-29 07:18:172018-11-29 07:40:35What To Do About Illegal Immigration?
Now that Florida’s Keystone Cops, whiny Jim Acosta’s tantrum and other nonsense is in the rearview mirror, it’s time to take a look at what is happening in the real world — the world that the media is largely ignoring.
Hmmmm…looks like National Security Advisor John Bolton is quietly crushing the Make America Weak And Her Enemies Strong Obama Doctrine throughout this hemisphere.
Bolton has identified what he calls a “troika of tyranny” that includes Havana, Caracas and Managua, that is a root cause of enormous amounts of human suffering in those countries and in adjoining countries. Further, he says these three create much of the regional instability we are seeing that is leading to the expansion of gangs and the continual flow of migrant caravans northward toward the U.S. border.
Bolton called Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua “the genesis of a sordid cradle of communism in the Western Hemisphere,” at a recent speech at Miami’s Freedom Tower, the 17-story structure where Cuban refugees were processed in America after fleeing Fidel Castro’s brutal regime.
Identifying and isolating this troika of tyranny is a total break from the previous administration. Bolton said, “…we will no longer appease dictators and despots near our shores in this Hemisphere.”
The Obama administration took its normal approach with dictators — whether Communist, or Muslim, or nationalist (Russia) — which involved either doing nothing and whistling past atrocities with fine words and no actions, or actually rewarding some of them for no reason and with no positive outcome. Then-Secretary of State John Kerry said during Obama’s second term that the “era of the Monroe Doctrine is over,” which basically turned out to be enabling language for a weak America.
The Obama-Kerry team continued the Obama-Clinton team policies of giving financial and diplomatic rewards upfront to some of the worst tyrants, in return for the same vacuous “hope and change” he promised to Americans — and with the same awful results. It failed spectacularly in Iran with the totally one-sided nuke deal, it failed in Russia with the childish reset button and it failed through Central and South America.
For instance, the Obama Doctrine of appeasement and giving goodies did absolutely nothing in Cuba. Despite the glories of Jay-Z and Beyonce strolling Havana for propaganda pictures by the Havana tyrants, restoring diplomatic relations and travel did nothing but strengthen the still-iron grip of the Communist regime on the long-suffering Cuban people.
In Venezuela, Obama hugged that nation’s killer president, Hugo Chávez, and then punted any American policy to Brazil, thinking the neighboring country would help stabilize things. That was never going to end well and it didn’t, as Brazil itself spiralled into corruption and internal strife.
The same lack of vision and gumption allowed for the return of powerful Communist dictator Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Neighbor Honduras and Nicaragua are the two countries from which people are now escaping northward. Allowing Ortega back in power and appeasing and ignoring him is a part of the reason we are now facing a migrant crisis.
By identifying these three tyrannical governments, Bolton has ended the Obama-Clinton-Kerry troika of do-nothingness.
Ending the bad old policies is only the start. In the same speech, Bolton announced that the United States would be issuing new penalties against dozens of entities linked to Cuba’s oppressive military and intelligence services, plus restricting business and travel to the island.
Further, President Trump has signed new executive orders placing sanctions on Venezuelan gold; and sanctioned Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, his wife, and his associates and supporting government officials. Cutting off money to tyrants is often a way of strangling them out of power.
These are solid steps toward weakening those regimes and the hold they have on their own people, and the instability they project to their neighbors.
And finally, Bolton and the White House are considering appointing a “czar” that would directly handle American policy with the troika of tyranny, along with those three countries’ connection to Russia. There are Russian fingerprints on all three and Putin will likely work to prop them up and make everything in our neighborhood worse unless the United States is aggressive in stopping them at the root.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/david-pennington-562462-unsplash.jpg396638Rod Thomsonhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngRod Thomson2018-11-28 18:12:392018-11-28 18:16:00John Bolton Erases The Obama Doctrine, Puts America First
President Donald Trump doubled down on disagreements with dire predictions made in the latest U.S. government global warming report.
“One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence but we’re not necessarily such believers,” Trump told The Washington Post in an Oval Office interview Tuesday.
“As to whether or not it’s man-made and whether or not the effects that you’re talking about are there, I don’t see it,” Trump said when the Post asked why he was skeptical of claims made in the latest National Climate Assessment released Friday.
The NCA, which is mandated by a 1990 law, issued dire warnings about future global warming’s potential effects on public health, ecosystems, and the economy. The report generated alarming media headlines of impending catastrophe if nothing is done to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The report claims “climate change is expected to cause growing losses to American infrastructure and property and impede the rate of economic growth over this century.”
“I don’t believe it,” Trump said on Monday when reporters asked about the NCA’s economic predictions.
Trump doubled-down on disagreements with the NCA’s projections, and the president also talked about global pollution problems.
“You look at our air and our water and it’s right now at a record clean,” Trump said. “But when you look at China and you look at parts of Asia and you look at South America, and when you look at many other places in this world, including Russia, including many other places, the air is incredibly dirty, and when you’re talking about an atmosphere, oceans are very small.”
“And it blows over and it sails over. I mean we take thousands of tons of garbage off our beaches all the time that comes over from Asia,” Trump continued. “It just flows right down the Pacific. It flows and we say, ‘Where does this come from?’ And it takes many people, to start off with.”
Trump also pointed to the “global cooling” scare of the 1970s as a reason he’s skeptical of global warming predictions.
“If you go back and if you look at articles, they talk about global freezing,” Trump said. “They talk about at some point, the planet is going to freeze to death, then it’s going to die of heat exhaustion.”
The Post suggested Trump may be referring to an “oft-cited 1975 Newsweek article titled ‘The Cooling World’ or a 1974 Time magazine story titled ‘Another Ice Age?’”
“But researchers who have reviewed this period have found that while such ideas were indeed afoot at the time, there was ‘no scientific consensus in the 1970s’ about a global cooling trend or risk, as there is today about human-caused climate change,” the Post reported.
However, many newspapers, including The New York Times, reported on the global cooling frenzy in the 1970s, not just Newsweek and Time. Scientists wrote to President Richard Nixon to warn of global cooling, and even the CIA prepared a report on the risks of global cooling.
The CIA’s 1974 report warned that continued cooling, as many scientists predicted, would “create worldwide agricultural failures in the 1970s.”
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/polspphotos526691-1250x650-e1543445652935.jpg378640The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2018-11-28 17:55:142018-12-09 17:32:21‘I Don’t See It’: Trump Doubles Down on Global Warming Skepticism
For the US government’s 2018 fiscal year, the US Postal Service reports that it successfully boosted its annual revenue by $1 billion over the previous year to $70.7 billion, marking a boom year for its mail and package delivery services. Unfortunately, it also spent about $3.9 billion more to provide those services than it took in during the year, a $1.2 billion increase over the loss it recorded in its 2017 fiscal year.
If that doesn’t sound like a success, that’s because it isn’t, which is why the editors of Investor’s Business Daily are calling for the nation’s postal service to be privatized:
By its own admission, the post office is doomed. Buried deep in its 10-k government filing is this bleak statement: “Existing laws and regulations limit our ability to introduce new products or services, enter new markets, generate new revenue streams or manage our cost structure,” it said. Imagine a private company telling its investors that.
This can’t go on. Privatization is the only viable option. The White House last summer proposed to do just that, by either selling off the post office or bringing in private managers to run it. At least a profitable postal company that can sell its shares to investors, manage costs, hire and fire workers, and expand and close lines of business would have a chance. Today’s US Postal Service doesn’t.
How bad is it? The IBD‘s editors cited reporting by Reason‘s Eric Boehm to justify its call:
Far from being an aberration, fiscal year 2018, which ended on September 30, is a sign of things to come. Without changes to how it operates, the USPS will continue to post losses at “an accelerating rate,” Postmaster General Megan Brennan tells Government Executive.
“Simply put, we cannot generate revenue or cut enough costs to pay our bills,” she says.
What’s really stunning is that the USPS managed to lose so much money in a year when income from shipping packages jumped by 10 percent and overall revenue increased by 1.5 percent. That wasn’t enough to make up for an increase of $896 million in personnel costs.
What’s driving that increase in personnel costs at the post office? The same factor that’s driven dozens of cities and counties into bankruptcy proceedings when they can no longer count on being able to tax their way into the black: the pension and health benefits it provides to each of its retired government employees.
Could US taxpayers be protected from having to pay the full cost of the financial failure of the US Postal Service? Reason‘s Eric Bloem considers an interesting possibility:
There’s a chance that might actually finally happen. A White House report released in June that highlighted the possible privatization of government services included two options for reforming the USPS. One idea would have private managers take over running the USPS with the government maintaining oversight responsibility. The second proposal would have the post office sold in its entirety.
A sale would likely require changes and restructuring to first net a profit, and would probably require the federal government to absorb the current debts. Still, it could net a windfall to help pay off the service’s massive liabilities—the Cornell economist Richard Geddes has found that a USPS IPO could raise $40 billion.
Just imagine how much the US government’s financial situation might improve if it returned its $1.2 trillion student loan portfolio back to the private sector.
Craig Eyermann is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/po-e1543444448370.jpg404640Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2018-11-28 17:35:012018-11-28 17:36:19Post Office Has Boom Year, Loses More Money Than Ever
It’s no secret that social media is in a bit of a shambles. The big players like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are purging accounts, censoring content, and mining data. Many users are very unhappy with them.
But what alternatives do we have? Maybe more than you think.
Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies along with Minds.com founder Bill Ottman as they talk about social media alternatives and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/FACEBOOK-AWFUL.jpg360640Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2018-11-28 16:45:042018-11-28 16:45:40PODCAST: Facebook Is Awful, but What’s the Alternative?
NRATV Frontlines correspondent and veteran Army Ranger Chuck Holton joins Dana Loesch to weigh in.
EDITORS NOTE: This column with video and images is republished with permission.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/dana-loesh.jpg337600NRA Institute for Legislative Actionhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngNRA Institute for Legislative Action2018-11-28 16:07:332018-11-28 16:07:33VIDEO: Northwestern University Teaches Students To Fight Shooters With Hole Punchers
Greater risk for frequent marijuana use and problems among young adult marijuana users with a medical marijuana card
With funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, researchers conducted a multi-year study of southern California children from middle school through high school.
At age 19, 28 percent (188) of 671 young adult marijuana users possessed a medical marijuana card.
Card holders showed steeper increases in frequent marijuana use (20 to 30 days in the past month) from ages 13 to 19 than those who did not have a card.
They also reported more problems in young adulthood than non-card holders, including negative consequences, selling marijuana/hashish, and driving under the influence of marijuana.
In addition, they were more likely to have tried to cut down or quit using marijuana in the last three months than those who did not possess a medical marijuana card.
The researchers conclude that given expanding state legalization of marijuana for medical use, this issue warrants further attention.
Read Science Direct summary of Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal article here.
FullMeasure takes a look at Colorado’s marijuana legalization
This 8-minute video and transcript presents a picture of the results of marijuana legalization in Colorado, the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use. We hear a lot about the up side of legalization, not so much about the down side. This reporting team set out to examine both.
The biggest surprise has been the expansion – rather than the demise promised by legalization advocates – of the black market. Cartels rent homes in upscale neighborhoods, rip up carpeting, tear down walls, and push up wooden floors to turn them into grow houses, totally destroying half-million-dollar homes in the process. And those are rented homes.
There has also been a spike in crime. In 2016, Colorado’s increase in its crime rate was eleven times more than the average 30 biggest US cities. Homicides are up by almost 10 percent.
Cannabis use and suicide attempts among 86,254 adolescents aged 12-15 years from 21 low- and middle-income countries.
Researchers analyzed data from the Global school-based Student Health Survey taken by 86,254 adolescents from 21 countries to assess whether suicide attempts in the past year might be associated with lifetime and past-month marijuana use.
Overall prevalence of past-month marijuana use was 2.8 percent (varying from 0.5 percent in Laos to 37.6 percent in Samoa).
Overall prevalence of lifetime marijuana use was 3.9 percent, while overall prevalence of suicide attempts was 10.5 percent.
The researchers found that past-month marijuana use was significantly associated with suicide attempts. Lifetime marijuana use was also independently associated with suicide attempts.
They call for the causality of this association to be confirmed or refuted in prospective studies to further inform policies for suicide prevention.
Mount Sinai researchers conduct study of second-hand marijuana smoke in children
Researchers found that nearly half of children whose parents smoked marijuana showed evidence of second-hand smoke exposure.
Their study was a secondary analysis of data and samples collected in a larger study evaluating the effectiveness of a tobacco cessation program for parents whose children were hospitalized in Colorado. Some of the parents also reported that they smoked marijuana.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested urinary biomarkers in the collected samples. They found that 46 percent of the children had detectable levels of a THC metabolite; 11 percent had detectable levels of THC itself.
“There are worrisome results, suggesting nearly half of the children of parents who smoke marijuana are getting exposed and 11 percent are exposed to a much greater degree,” says lead researcher Karen Wilson, MD, MPH of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
The parents of one-third of the marijuana-exposed children said they had stepped outside to smoke pot, but the children still were exposed, suggesting that their exposure may have come from third-hand smoke. Third-hand smoke is smoke that lingers in hair, clothes, even on skin and results in biological exposure that can be detected.
Read Mount Sinai press release of Pediatrics article here.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/colorado-logo-marijuana-leaf.jpg400640National Families in Actionhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngNational Families in Action2018-11-28 15:43:532018-11-29 07:42:17For every dollar gained in tax revenue, Colorado taxpayers paid $4.50 to mitigate the effects of marijuana legalization
Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith fended off her Democratic challenger, Mike Espy, on Tuesday by winning the election to retain her seat as junior U.S. senator to the state of Mississippi.
Hyde-Smith and Espy have been in a closely watched race since Nov. 6 when the Mississippi Senate election resulted in a runoff between the two candidates.
Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Cindy Hyde-Smith is introduced by President Donald Trump during a rally at the Tupelo Regional Airport, November 26, 2018 in Tupelo, Mississippi. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The race between the Senate hopefuls became contentious after Democrats and left-wing groups highlighted racial division in the deep red state and when issues of racism flooded the Senate news cycle.
Hyde-Smith fueled the fire in early November after she said in jest that she would “be on the front row” if a man she was campaigning with invited her to a public hanging. The comment, although taken out of context, was seized upon.
During a debate, Hyde-Smith apologized for offending anyone with her remarks and repeatedly denied any ill-will or racial implications. However, she subsequently faced scrutiny after a photograph emerged of her wearing a replica of a Confederate hat while visiting the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library.
President Donald Trump again endorsed Hyde-Smith on Sunday and held two campaign rallies in Mississippi the following day in a last-ditch rallying effort ahead of polls opening. Trump tweeted that she is “an outstanding person who “is strong on the Border, Crime, Military, our great Vets, Healthcare [and] the [Second Amendment]” and that she is “needed in D.C.”
Hyde-Smith was appointed to the U.S. Senate in April 2018 to serve out the remainder of Republican Sen. Thad Cochran’s term after his resignation. The appointment made Hyde-Smith the first woman to represent the state of Mississippi in Congress, and Tuesday’s win made her the first woman elected to Congress in the state.
The Mississippi runoff election concludes the 2018 senatorial midterms, officially providing Republicans with a three-seat advantage for the 116th Congress.
EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column with images is republished with permission. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/cindy-hyde-smith-trump-e1543409513349.jpg377640The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2018-11-28 07:53:052018-11-29 08:03:08Cindy Hyde-Smith Breaks Mississippi’s Glass Ceiling As She Becomes The State’s First Female Elected To Congress
The pro-life movement had a good year in 2015: Fewer American women reported having abortions than at any other time since abortion was legalized in the U.S., according to a new government report.
Using the most recent data available, the abortion surveillance report published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows 638,169 abortions were reported in 2015, a 2 percent drop from the 652,639 abortions reported in 2014.
“This is welcome news. Medicine and technology continue to shape how we view children in the womb and underscores their undeniable humanity,” Melanie Israel, a research associate in the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal.
The abortion rate also dropped 0.3 points during the same time period, dipping from 12.1 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in 2014 to 11.8 for the same age group in 2015.
CDC began surveillance of legal induced abortions in 1969 and compiles voluntarily reported state data to produce national estimates every year since 1988, according to the agency’s website.
The number of legal abortions skyrocketed in the years following the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion across the country. This trend reached its climax in the 1980s. Since then, the annual number of abortions has been decreasing slowly, rising only slightly between 2006 and 2008 but continuing its downward trend to today.
The CDC report did not indicate a reason for the decline in abortions, but Heritage’s Israel said improved access to pregnancy resource centers and new legislation at the state level likely contributed.
“Thousands of pregnancy resource centers across the country provide services, education, supplies, counseling, and compassionate options—including adoption—to women experiencing tough pregnancies who may feel that abortion is their only choice,” Israel said in an email to The Daily Signal. “Pro-life legislators across the country are elected to office and pass legislation that protects the health and safety of women and their unborn children.”
The report did not contain data from California, Maryland, or New Hampshire, which opted not to participate.
The report also did not present information about deaths from complications arising from legal abortion in 2015; officials reportedly are analyzing that information.
Six women died as a result of undergoing legal, induced abortion in 2014, according to that year’s surveillance report.
What do you think of the proposition that no black youngsters should be saved from educational rot until all can be saved?
Black people cannot afford to accept such a proposition. Actions by the education establishment, black and white liberal politicians, and some civil rights organizations appear to support the proposition.
Let’s look at it with the help of some data developed by my friend and colleague Thomas Sowell.
The Nation’s Report Card for 2017 showed the following reading scores for fourth-graders in New York state’s public schools: Thirty-two percent scored below basic, with 32 percent scoring basic, 27 percent scoring proficient, and 9 percent scoring advanced. When it came to black fourth-graders in the state, 19 percent scored proficient, and 3 percent scored advanced.
Sowell compared 2016-17 scores on the New York state ELA test. Thirty percent of Brooklyn’s William Floyd elementary school third-graders scored well below proficient in English and language arts, but at a Success Academy charter school in the same building, only one did.
At William Floyd, 36 percent were below proficient, with 24 percent being proficient and none being above proficient. By contrast, at Success Academy, only 17 percent of third-graders were below proficient, with 70 percent being proficient and 11 percent being above proficient.
Among Success Academy’s fourth-graders, 51 percent and 43 percent, respectively, scored proficient and above proficient, while their William Floyd counterparts scored 23 percent and 6 percent, respectively, proficient and above proficient. It’s worthwhile stressing that William Floyd and this Success Academy location have the same address.
Similar high performance can be found in the Manhattan charter school KIPP Infinity Middle School among its sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders when compared with that of students at New Design Middle School, a public school at the same location.
Liberals believe integration is a necessary condition for black academic excellence. Public charter schools such as those mentioned above belie that vision.
Sowell points out that only 39 percent of students in all New York state schools who were recently tested scored at the “proficient” level in math, but 100 percent of the students at the Crown Heights Success Academy tested proficient. Blacks and Hispanics constitute 90 percent of the students in that Success Academy.
There’s little question that charter schools provide superior educational opportunities for black youngsters. In a story The New York Times ran about charter schools earlier this month, “With Democratic Wins, Charter Schools Face a Backlash in N.Y. and Other States,” John Liu, an incoming Democratic state senator from Queens, said New York City should “get rid of” large charter school networks. State Sen.-elect Julia Salazar, D-Brooklyn, said, “I’m not interested in privatizing our public schools.”
The New York Times went on to say, “Over 100,000 students in hundreds of the city’s charter schools are doing well on state tests, and tens of thousands of children are on waiting lists for spots.”
One would think that black politicians and civil rights organizations would support charter schools. To the contrary, they want to saddle charter schools with procedures that make so many public schools a failure.
For example, the NAACP demands that charter schools “cease expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate.” It wants charter schools to “cease to perpetuate de facto segregation of the highest performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious.” Most importantly, it wants charter schools to come under the control of teachers unions.
Charter schools have an advantage that some call “selection bias.” Because charter schools require parents to apply or enter lotteries for their children’s admission, they attract more students who have engaged parents and students who are higher-achieving and better behaved.
Many in the teaching establishment who are against parental alternatives want alternatives for themselves.
In Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, 25 percent of public school teachers send their children to private schools. In Philadelphia, 44 percent of teachers do so. In Cincinnati, it’s 41 percent. In Chicago, 39 percent do, and in Rochester, New York, it’s 38 percent.
This demonstrates the dishonesty, hypocrisy, and arrogance of the elite. Their position is, “One thing for thee and another for me.”
Walter E. Williams is a columnist for The Daily Signal and a professor of economics at George Mason University. Twitter: @WE_Williams.
The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now
EDITORS NOTE: This column with images is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Suad Kamardeen on Unsplash.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/suad-kamardeen-760160-unsplash-e1543406848138.jpg387640The Daily Signalhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Signal2018-11-28 07:07:372018-11-28 07:09:09How Liberal Policy Keeps Black Kids From Succeeding
The mainstream media and Democrats have criticized the Trump administration’s response to the migrant caravans storming the nation’s southern border.
However, many of the critiques either don’t provide full context or are factually incorrect, based on information released Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security.
Here are three narratives that the Department of Homeland Security is pushing back against:
1. Separating Myth From Fact on Child Separation
The long-running narrative has been that Border Patrol officials are separating children from parents. However, that doesn’t take into account fraudulent families, DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman noted in a statement.
From April 19 to Sept. 30, the government separated a total of 507 illegal immigrants within “family units” that weren’t legitimate, meaning the adults were not parents or guardians of the children, Waldman said.
A total of 170 family units were separated based on lack of family relation, she said, including 197 adults and 139 juveniles. Another 87 family units, including 171 adults, were separated based on a child determined to be over 18.
The Rio Grande Valley in Texas had the highest number of reported fraudulent cases.
“In response to the misreporting from multiple outlets, I wanted to highlight the rampant fraud taking place at our Southern border,” Waldman said in the statement. “Aliens know that if they bring any minor with them, they will be apprehended by Border Patrol and released into the interior of the United States.”
She clarified, however, that the department isn’t claiming all cases are fraudulent.
“This data does not show, nor does DHS assert, that all minors apprehended as part of a family unit are illegitimate, but it does indicate that there is a significant problem that provides DHS the needed authority to protect the best interests and welfare of all children,” Waldman said.
In 1997, the Clinton administration entered into something called the Flores Settlement Agreement, which ended a class-action lawsuit first brought in the 1980s.
The settlement established a policy that the federal government would release unaccompanied minors from custody to their parents, relatives, or other caretakers after no more than 20 days, or, alternatively, determine the “least restrictive” setting for the child.
In a separate development, in 2008, a Democrat-controlled Congress approved bipartisan legislation to combat human trafficking, and President George W. Bush, a Republican, signed it into law.
Section 235(g) of that law, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, states that unaccompanied minors entering the United States must be transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, rather than to the Department of Homeland Security.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit expanded the Flores settlement in 2016 to include children brought to the country illegally by their parents.
2. Tear-Gassing Children
The caravan still moving toward the U.S.-Mexico border includes 8,500 migrants, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Media outlets and Democratic politicians seized on children being among the migrants bearing the brunt of tear gas deployed Sunday along the California border, when hundreds of the migrants rushed the border.
Ben Rhodes, a one-time national security adviser to then-President Barack Obama, pounced.
Also, the Obama administration used pepper spray when a far smaller contingent of only 100 immigrants charged the border in 2013, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement Monday that the current violent rush on the border eclipsed prior problems.
“First, the violence we saw at the border was entirely predictable. This caravan, unlike previous caravans, had already entered #Mexico violently and attacked border police in two other countries,” the secretary said in a Facebook post.
“I refuse to believe that anyone honestly maintains that attacking law enforcement with rocks and projectiles is acceptable. It is shocking that I have to explain this, but officers can be seriously or fatally injured in such attacks. Self-defense isn’t debatable for most law-abiding Americans.”
She added: “[T]he caravan is far larger and more organized than previous ones. There are 8,500 caravan members in Tijuana and Mexicali. There are reports of additional caravans on their way.”
3. Not Legal Asylum-Seekers
Critics of the Trump administration contend the migrants have a legal right to seek asylum in the United States.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., tweeted:
However, Nielsen pushed back, noting that many of the migrants in the caravan do not legally qualify for asylum. Meanwhile, most are not women and children.
The homeland security secretary wrote:
Historically, less than 10% of those who claim asylum from #Guatemala, #Honduras, and #ElSalvador are found eligible by a federal judge. 90% are not eligible. Most of these migrants are seeking jobs or to join family who are already in the U.S. They have all refused multiple opportunities to seek protection in Mexico or with the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
She also said “the caravan members are predominantly male.”
“It appears in some cases that the limited number of women and children in the caravan are being used by the organizers as ‘human shields’ when they confront law enforcement,” Nielsen wrote.
“They are being put at risk by the caravan organizers, as we saw at the Mexico-Guatemala border. This is putting vulnerable people in harm’s way,” Nielsen said.
This story was corrected to note that the Obama administration used pepper spray at the border in a 2013 incident.
Former Oklahoma seminarian discloses abuse for the first time.
By M.H.
I am a 68-year-old university lecturer and administrator who has been away from the Church for half a century. But once, I was a 16-year-old Roman Catholic, fervent in the Faith.
My #CatholicMeToo story comes from that time. In the spring of 1966, I was a student at the now-defunct seminary of St. Francis de Sales in what was then the diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa. In late April, while home on break after my sophomore year in the seminary’s high school program, I was introduced to Fr. Francis Albert Mantica, the predator whose self-indulgence shattered my innocence and flatlined my faith.
An unconventional priest in his late 30s, Fr. Mantica hailed from the diocese of Albany, New York, but had moved around through incardination in other dioceses before his assignment to my home parish, St. Patrick’s, as assistant pastor.
He first marked me for prey inside the confessional.
I had confessed I was struggling with a lustful hankering for the next-door neighbor girl. But Mantica made light of my sin by joking about it — the first and only time I recall a humorous comment inside the confessional. He then asked me my name — also a singular moment in my confessional life.
It was then he first employed his recurring thematic phrase of “You wanted me to ask you that, didn’t you?” In the conversation that followed, I revealed that I was a minor seminarian of the parish, and he convinced me that we should meet later to discuss whether I would consider working with him on his pet project.
Father Mantica was in the process of establishing “Youth Village,” a (short-lived) halfway house of sorts for troubled young men. After meeting with him, I agreed to help out over the summer break before beginning my third year at St. Francis de Sales. Once work began, I quickly came to know the predator behind the collar; over the next few months, Fr. Mantica repeatedly propositioned me, exposed himself and badgered me to fondle him. In short, he was relentless.
The harassment began in May after I had joined in efforts to start up the Youth Village project (at that time located in a house at S.W. 29th and Portland in Oklahoma City). His overtures ranged from attempts to “French kiss” me to groping to demands I touch his genitals. An especially traumatic incident occurred in midsummer.
While driving to a location southwest of Oklahoma City, Fr. Mantica exposed himself and pressured me to perform oral sex on him as he drove. When I refused, he insisted I grasp his exposed penis firmly (because it wasn’t masturbation, he said). I regret to say that I complied, and he quickly ejaculated. He tried to normalize the act, saying that when he was in the military, he had engaged in both oral and anal sex many times. As horrific as that instance was, the worst moment, by far, was still to come.
In August, my father died. In his final moments at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City, Fr. Mantica arrived to administer the sacrament of extreme unction. After my father died, I was overcome by grief, and at that moment, Mantica lunged. He sought to “console” me by attempting to kiss me, to fondle me — to assault me. Pawing at me just steps away from my father’s body, he urged me to reciprocate. But I challenged him, asking if his homosexual behavior was morally right. Without batting an eye, he responded, “It’s not as right as it should be,” and went on to speak of Christ’s love for St. John, “the apostle who Jesus loved.”
Mantica with boys at his New York “Youth Village”
Though annihilated psychologically, emotionally and spiritually, I resisted him. That was the last incident of abuse.
Still, I had been gravely wounded by all that had happened to me since May. Shortly after my father died, the high school department of St. Francis de Sales abruptly closed; reeling from the loss of both my innocence and my father, I decided to take a “leave of absence” from seminary and stay with my mother rather than accepting a transfer out of state.
I enrolled in a public high school, and, for two months, I stewed over what Mantica had done to me. Finally, I resolved to act. I decided to report the whole sequence of abuse to Fr. James Kastner, who had been my spiritual advisor at the seminary. To his credit, he took extensive and accurate notes of my disclosure and took them to Bp. Victor J. Reed.
In October, I accompanied Fr. Kastner to the chancery in Oklahoma City where I met with the diocesan chancellor, Fr. William Garthoeffner. Also in attendance was a St. Patrick’s parishioner who had assisted Mantica in founding Youth Village.
Father Kastner accurately read from his notes, and I answered his questions clearly. I concluded by saying I had no personal animosity toward Fr. Mantica nor a desire for vengeance, but in conscience, I felt that if he was plagued with this particular challenge, he should not be assigned to deal with young men.
After that meeting, I was never informed of any result. Several months later, I asked Fr. Kastner about what happened. His response was vague — something like, “Well, you know, the Church has its own ways of dealing with these things.” And that was the last of it.
Meanwhile, word of my allegations got out, and I became a pariah among many St. Patrick’s parishioners — injury heaped upon injury. I was devastated by the shunning of my fellow parishioners, who refused to believe a priest would do such a thing. It was my first experience with real opprobrium.
Though my pastor and other clergy were very decent to me and ready for me to be transferred to another seminary, within a year, I drifted away from attending Mass. I had already felt like a relic of the past, owing to my love of the Tridentine liturgy, and my rejection by fellow laity proved to be too much. Of course, it would be simplistic of me to blame all my character and behavioral flaws on the events of that summer and the ensuing contempt my disclosure elicited, but somewhere in the stewpot which is me, it is an ingredient.
As for Fr. Mantica, he refused to affirm or deny my charges against him. Apparently, behind a curtain of ecclesiastical silence, the matter was dealt with in a sadly typical fashion. In 1967, Mantica quietly “disappeared” from Oklahoma City. Soon after, he resurfaced in his native diocese of Albany, which in the coming years would develop a reputation as a haven for homosexual clergy under Bps. Edwin Broderick and Howard Hubbard.
Back in New York, Fr. Mantica was allowed to continue working among minors. In May 1968, he launched another “Youth Village” project. Within months, a dozen young men ranging in age from 11 to 23 were living in close quarters with him at a former horse-riding academy in Duanesburg, just outside Schenectady. Some were fatherless; others were from broken homes. All were vulnerable.
In an interview with The Schenectady Gazettein October of that year, Fr. Mantica declared: “I’m concerned about the youth. I always have been.”
“I’m communicating with them,” he added, “trying to have them understand the meaning of brotherly love. These boys are so sensitive, but they’re so beautiful underneath.”
Mantica in later years.
Like its Oklahoma City forerunner, Duanesburg’s Youth Village was short-lived; it closed the next year.
After returning to New York, Fr. Mantica soon developed a reputation for “difference of opinion” with the local hierarchy. By 1968, he had been granted a leave of absence by the Albany diocese.
In the ensuing years, Mantica’s sabbatical became permanent. He wandered away from his priesthood, deeper into darkness; though details are scarce, what is known points to a continuing devolution of his character.
At some point, Mantica embraced New Age/occultic thought. He immersed himself in the work of former Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a New Age pioneer silenced for his heretical teaching that man is evolving spiritually toward godhood. Mantica became a member of the Academy of Religion and Psychical Research, an organization focusing on the “intersection” of religion and parapsychology.
Additionally, he eventually involved himself with the Kundalini Research Foundation, a diabolical vehicle for New Age thinking. Reportedly, he went on to author a book titled Corology: The Phenomenon and Evolution of Love as well as other works on human sexuality.
It seems apparent that Mantica must have adopted his own syncretic approach, employing some tortured logic and demented theology to absolve his disordered sexuality — to fulfill his wish to make it “as right as it should be.”
Mantica died in 1997 at the age of 69.
It is no easy task to sort the effects of those months of 1966 in a man closing in on 70. I recall a brief emergency hospital stay when I was diagnosed with gastroenteritis at 18. The doctor suggested I needed to learn to not keep things in, but become more assertive; otherwise, I could likely be subject to other medical issues.
In failing to find a “golden mean,” I became more self-absorbed, more explosive, more judgmental. I took up the martial arts and, despite not being naturally adept, persisted through some tough years to earn a black belt. A failed marriage of five years, a stretch of more beer-drinking than was reasonable and foolishly fortified by my relationships with women, I eventually settled in to a sort of modus vivendi with myself.
In those early, rather unfortunate efforts to define “manhood,” I took some wrong paths in the labyrinth; somehow the remnant of faith has served as Ariadne’s thread to see me back to the light of day.
I have been away from practicing my faith for a half century. But in the past three years, I have spent a good deal of time following Church Militant, LifeSiteNews and other faithful Catholic websites. In spite of the appalling treachery and duplicity of the hierarchy and the mistreatment of faithful clergy and laity, I have the growing conviction I will again be in communion with the authentic Catholic faith which has remained dormant within me for so long.
I have tried not to make this a story of “poor me,” but rather, despite the scars, to add my account to a growing compilation of testimonies that will carry significant weight in the “house cleaning” which is in order. I am grateful for the opportunity to join with others in the #CatholicMeToo movement. For me, it is a moment when I can once again feel a part of Catholicism, experience a sense of healing and offer this as a prayer for the repose of my father’s soul after 52 years.
Church Militant contacted the archdiocese of Oklahoma City for comment on M.H.’s allegations. An archdiocesan spokesperson responded with the following statement:
Fr. Francis A. Mantica was a priest for the Diocese of Albany, N.Y. He worked briefly in the then-Diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa from June 1965 to March 1967. In late 1966, the diocese received an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. After investigation and substantiation of the allegations, Bishop Victor Reed revoked his facilities to serve as a priest in the diocese and asked him to leave the diocese. By letter, Bishop Reed informed Bishop [Edward] Maginn, Auxiliary Bishop of Albany, of the action taken to terminate Mantica’s faculties.
We encourage any victim of past abuse while a minor by clergy or church personnel in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City to contact the victim assistance coordinator at (405) 720-9878.
EDITORS NOTE: This column with images and video by Church Militant is republished with permission.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/2018-11-14-vatican-e1543362715557.png371640Church Militanthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngChurch Militant2018-11-27 19:00:302018-11-30 06:31:46#CatholicMeToo: A Survivor Tells His Story [Video]
