College students need more, not fewer controversial ideas

Right-wing provocateur Ann Coulter has cancelled her plan to speak tomorrow at Sproul Plaza at U.C. Berkeley, on the very spot at which the Free Speech Movement was launched more than 50 years ago.   She was supposed to talk about immigration, (of great importance to the academic community) and event planners had hoped there would be a …

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Homophobia, ISIS, insanity and weaponry

It's hard to get one's mind around the horror of the worst mass shooting in the nation's history. There seems to have been a perfect storm, with multiple factors coming together to carry out this unspeakable tragedy. How many more before elected officials take action? The shooter, an American citizen born to Afghani parents, had a …

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Shame on Brandeis

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is, indeed, a controversial figure, especially for the vehemence with which she has criticized Islamic fundamentalism.  Just read her memoir Infidel, and you'll understand why.  Her childhood was spent in Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Kenya, where she survived genital mutilation, physical and emotional abuse, parental attempts at forced marriage and all the forms …

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