Tag Archives: liberal

Ashley Biden’s diary could implicate Project Veritas in a case with far-reaching implications – Singapore News – The Independent

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U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres rejected Project Veritas assertion that the governments investigation was an attempt to stifle the press, emphasizing that the First Amendment arguments were inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent.

It paved the way for prosecutors to access over 900 documents related to the alleged theft of President Joe Bidens daughters diary.

The legal saga traces back to November 2021 when raids were authorized, resulting in the confiscation of electronic devices from the group members, including James OKeefe.

The seized materials have the potential to shed light on the alleged theft of Ashley Bidens diary and could implicate Project Veritas in a case that has far-reaching implications.

Project Veritas gained notoriety for its hidden camera stings targeting news outlets, labor organizations, and Democratic politicians.

The groups lawyers argued that the investigation was politically motivated, contending that the government would not have probed an abandoned diary if it didnt belong to someone with the last name Biden.

The case took a significant turn with the guilty pleas of Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander in August 2022. The duo confessed to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property.

Their admission revealed a bizarre plan to sell stolen items, including the diary, to then-President Donald Trumps campaign.

Despite these developments, Project Veritas maintains its innocence, asserting that its activities were ethical and legal newsgathering.

Hannah Giles, Chief Executive of Project Veritas, recently resigned, citing an unsalvageable mess with evidence of past illegality and financial improprieties. Her departure adds another layer of intrigue to an already complex situation.

The intricacies of the alleged diary theft and its aftermath raise broader questions about the delicate balance between press freedom, investigative journalism, and potential criminal activities at the heart of political scandals.

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Liberal agenda is to replace White people in America?

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Ashley Biden's diary could implicate Project Veritas in a case with far-reaching implications - Singapore News - The Independent

The liberal arts’ role in mental health (opinion) – Inside Higher Ed

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I began my role as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Georgetown University shortly after we emerged from the instructional Zoom world of the pandemic. When Ifirst began informally meeting with students on campus, they told me that one of the hardest things they dealt with was the perceived stress culture, which they defined as a constant state of seeing who could be the most stressed out.

This cannot be a healthy culture for learning. And students at Georgetown arent alone.

America is experiencing an escalating mental-health crisis among college-age youth. Almost three-fourths of students report experiencing moderate or serious psychological distress, according to a recent survey from the American College Health Association.

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The alarm bells are sounding. It is imperative that we listen and respond.

It is not a coincidence that this mental health crisis is happening at precisely the same time we are devaluing intellectual exploration and a liberal arts education. In 2020, just 4percent of college graduates majored in English, foreign languages and literatures, history, or philosophy.

The increasingly public push against a liberal arts education is separating students from their intrinsic motivations for learning and pushing them toward purely extrinsic factors in their choice of major. A wealth of research demonstrates that intrinsic motivation is a catalyst for learning; it is associated with deeper engagement, perseverance and a greater understanding of new material.

A liberal arts education, with its commitment to exposing students to disciplines across the arts, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences, is rooted in the practice of discernment, embracing intellectual exploration and knowledge in a highly personal and meaningful manner. Discernment is the process of seriously pondering and reflecting upon whom you are supposed to be and what you are supposed to do. It is fundamentally about searching for your personal path and purpose in life.

I went to Yale University as an undergraduate with lots of financial aid, work-study jobs and a full dose of impostor syndrome. Back then, my immigrant parents did not understand how I would go to a university for four years and not graduate as somethinga doctor or a lawyer. At 18, I explained to my parents that this was the American educational system. Today, as the dean of a liberal arts college, I am a firm advocate for this educational system that provides students with the freedom to explore their intellectual interests and career options in law and medicine, and also in the multiplicity of fields and careers that many 18-year-olds may not know exist.

Fortunately, our students are smart and creative and, when confronted with the resistance to the liberal arts, they push back. It is what they are doing when they double major and minor in the humanities next to their ostensibly high-paying primary majors. Many students tell me that they are majoring in a field, like economics, for their parents and to prepare themselves for a high-paying job after they graduate.

However, these same students double major or minor in classics, English, French or Spanish. In the College of Arts & Sciences at Georgetown, about 76percent of our undergraduates have a second major or a minorthey often define these as what they study for themselves, to satisfy their curiosity, interests and passions. These second majors and minors are where their personal and intrinsic motivations lead them.

Attacks on liberal arts education are nothing less than roadblocks, prohibiting discernment and inhibiting young people from finding their own values, interests and purpose in lifefactors that lead to happiness, well-being and a life filled with meaning and balance. Thus, liberal arts colleges are not a problem; rather, they are very much part of the solution to a rising epidemic tide of mental health problems among college-age youth.

There is a litany of factors affecting undergraduate mental healthrising social media usage, precarious world events and, of course, the lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic that upended the routines, educational paths and lives of todays college students. Yet even before the pandemic, college-age students were grappling with deteriorating mental healthnearly half reported they had felt so depressed that it was difficult to function within the last 12 months in the 2019 National College Health Assessment survey.

By encouraging students to pursue the breadth and reach of a liberal arts education, not only do we help tackle the mental health crisis spreading across college campuses, but we also better prepare and support young adults to become dynamic, motivated and courageous thinkers and problem-solvers.

Rosario Ceballo is a psychology professor and an expert on adolescent development. She is the dean of Georgetown Universitys College of Arts & Sciences.

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The liberal arts' role in mental health (opinion) - Inside Higher Ed

Chrystia Freeland definitely running in the next election amid Liberal freefall in polls – True North

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Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland confirmed her plans to run in the next federal election and even predicted a Liberal win.

Freeland, who has been a member of Parliament since 2013 and a member of Trudeaus cabinet since 2015, deflected questions about her ambitions for the Liberal partys leadership.

I am focused first and foremost on supporting Canadians right now, Freeland said in an interview with CTV.

Recent polling by Ipsosshows that 72% of Canadians think Trudeau should step down as party leader. Even 33% of Canadians who plan to vote Liberal want Trudeau to step down, up from 28% in September. Of all potential replacements, Freeland received the most positive reviews in the poll.

Freeland sidestepped the question but said the Liberals can absolutely win the next election.

I am also absolutely supporting our Prime Minister, who is leading our team doing a really, really great job, she added.

Freeland said that while journalists never believe her, her focus is not on the polls but her neighbours.

When you are put by your fellow Canadians in a position like mine, your job is to wake up every day and think, what are the problems people have? And what can I try to do today to make it better? Thats what I focus on, said Freeland.

Throughout the interview, Freeland discussed the economic challenges being faced by Canadians. She said that in her personal life, the thing that brings the challenge home to her most is that her church has a food bank every Wednesday, where the lines have been getting longer. True North previously reported that food banks across Canada were near a breaking point.

Facing questions about her political future after a decade in office, speculation had arisen about Freeland possibly pursuing an international role post-politics. However, when queried about these prospects, she firmly stated her intention to continue her political career in Canada.

Im definitely running in the next election. Up to my neighbours to decide whether I get re-elected, Freeland said.

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Chrystia Freeland definitely running in the next election amid Liberal freefall in polls - True North

Students need to stop turning their backs on liberal arts degrees – North Texas Daily

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The pressure to pursue a STEM major in college has steadily grown over the years, causing the arts and humanities to be overshadowed in exchange. The liberal arts are a necessary pillar of education that deserves to be valued and maintained.

The number of jobs requiring STEM qualifications has surged by 34 percent over the past decade, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Students have been told sciences are the future of our world and the most practical thing to study in college. Following that advice is usually at the disparagement of a liberal arts education, calling it a "useless degree."

The notion of a useless degree is misperceived because any form of education and learning will never be useless, and a liberal arts education is valuable. Most people who belittle arts and humanities usually do so from a place of ignorance. They misconstrue the liberal arts as being associated with the modern political idea of liberalism, or the opposite of being conservative.

Rather, the term liberal arts refers to the Latin word liberalesmeaning "free," as opposed to "subjugation" or "enslavement." The term was used during the Middle Ages to distinguish from the servile arts, which were vocational careers such as medicine, engineering and business. The liberal arts were considered the education of a free person in society unconstrained by the sole purpose of production, with the ability to learn liberating knowledge.

The fundamentals of a liberal arts education are grounded in the idea of broad interdisciplinary teachings that serve to create critical thinkers who recognize the interconnectedness of all knowledge. This form of education should be applied and taught to all majors, and would especially benefit the sciences. Being able to relate formulas and numbers to the arts and humanities would help foster creativity, innovation and remind students of the human aspect of their disciplines.

Instead, universities and their federal funding are adopting a hard stance on turning colleges into vocational schools, investing more within their STEM departments and phasing out the arts. The National Endowment for the Humanities budgetwas only$180 million in 2022, and the National Science Foundations budget lapped that number by 50 times, according to The New York Times. The future of higher education is now blindsided with the prospect of creating a world of scientists and business professionals, approaching students as cogs needed to fit within the business world framework instead of as learners.

Even politicians are pushing toward the death of liberal arts education. Miguel Cardona, the current secretary of education, said Every student should have access to an education that aligns with industry demands and evolves to meet the demands of tomorrow's global workforce. Insinuating the sole reason for education is to meet industry demands instead of self-fulfillment or the development of moral virtues, qualities philosophers like Socrates and Aristotle intended education to create for individuals.

What these advocates of a strict STEM paradigm fail to recognize is that only some are suited for science and math. Whether it is because they do not find enjoyment within the numbers or they simply do not have the predisposition for a mathematical aptitude, no one should feel pressured by industry demands or STEM job qualifications.

Students should pursue whatever major they are passionate about or what brings them enjoyment. The construct that some majors are better than others or prepare you for life better needs to be reevaluated. Most majors within the arts and humanities focus on the human aspect of their disciplines and are well-versed in soft skills such as communication, adaptability and creativity. Eighty-nine percent of recruiters in LinkedIns 2019 Global Talent Trends report claimed people who did not get hired lacked these skills.

Although many value the sciences as being more vital to society than the arts, the need to value the cultivation of culture and the understanding between people that the liberal arts establish must always remain a priority within education. After all, what is the point of doctors saving lives and engineers crafting towers if there is not music to be heard or art to witness?

That begins with universities and federal organizations recognizing the importance of a liberal arts education and implementing more funding and opportunities for liberal arts colleges. Core requirement courses must extend to include more classes within the humanities and arts for STEM majors to foster a holistic education rather than a technical one.

Steve Jobs said it best: Technology alone is not enough. It is technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that [] make[s] our heart sing.

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Students need to stop turning their backs on liberal arts degrees - North Texas Daily

Don’t knock the economic value of majoring in the liberal arts | Brookings – Brookings Institution

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For years, economists and more than a few worried parents have argued over whether a liberal arts degree is worth the price. The debate now seems to be over, and the answer is 'no.'

Can we please lighten up on knocking the value of a liberal arts education? With a recent spate of bad press for liberal arts departments on university campuses, many commentators conclude that the writing is on the wall. When it comes to economics, I argue the liberal arts still belong on college campuses: The liberal arts pay.

There are many reasons to be legitimately concerned about the direction the humanities and other liberal arts have taken in recent decades. Course enrollments and declared majors have plummeted across many disciplines since the pandemic, ranging from history to foreign language. This is the continuation of a decades-old pattern: According to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Humanities Project, the share of humanities degrees out of all bachelors degrees peaked in 1967 at 17.2% and by 2018 had fallen to 4.4%.

Research universities also continue to turn out humanities doctorates for whom job prospects are bleak. Liberal arts colleges have been at risk for decades.

Despite arguments that a liberal arts education may be exactly the right preparation for a world in which routine tasks are taken over by AI, students are apparently not yet persuaded. Thus, humanities departments in colleges face very real budget pressures, including sometimes the risk of being eliminated. Indeed, West Virginia University is eliminating all foreign language degrees, and the University of Nebraska at Kearney has also proposed cutting its theater and philosophy programs.

I suspect that part of the political push to eliminate the humanities, especially from off-campus sources, is connected to the myth that the price of college has skyrocketed. In fact, the real price of college attendance has been falling modestly in recent years. Consequently, the share of undergraduates taking out student loans and the loan values are also down slightly.

Since Im an economist, in what follows Im going to stick to earnings numbers. But I also recognize there is more to a career than earnings. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences reports that responses to the statement I am deeply interested in the work I do are about the same for majors in the arts, humanities, engineering, and social sciences, although responses were a little higher in education and the natural sciences. And for a good reminder that careers are not all there is to life, see this article by a former poet laureate of Mississippi who writes, Students who master written and spoken communication can change the world.

Angst notwithstanding, here are two facts that are both true:

Heres a picture that illustrates why both are true.

Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) collected between 2017 and 2021, Ive looked at graduates falling into one of four categories: education ended with a high school diploma, education ended with an associate degree, education ended with a bachelors degree in a liberal arts field, and education ended with a bachelors degree in a field other than liberal arts. Using the categories provided in the ACS, Ive defined liberal arts majors as Area, Ethnic, and Civilization Studies, Linguistics and Foreign Languages, English Language, Literature, and Composition, Liberal Arts and Humanities, Fine Arts, and History. Everything else Im categorizing as not liberal arts. The figure above gives average annual wage and salary income for each kind of degree. (The latest data is for 2021, so all the figures are in 2021 dollars. The sample is for ages 23 through 65. For a similar analysis with slightly older data but a broader listing of majors, see The College Payoff.)

For fact number one, compare the dark blue liberal arts bachelors bar to the orange bar for other majors. The latter is considerably higher. On average, people with a liberal arts degree earned only $50,000 a year while those with other degrees earned $65,000. Thats a big difference. (Median earnings are lower than average earnings of course, but the gap isnt much different$37,000 versus $50,000.)

For fact number two, compare the dark blue liberal arts bar to the light blue bar for those earning only a high school diploma. The liberal arts bar is much highergetting a liberal arts degree is a good investment compared to not going to college at all. On average, the liberal arts degree led to a $50,000 annual income compared to $28,000 for those stopping at the end of high school. (Median earnings are $37,000 versus $21,000 for high school only.) A $12,000 annual difference in earnings will, over a lifetime, more than pay for a college education. Suppose one worked for 35 years after graduation. The lifetime difference would be $420,000 (ignoring inflation). That way, way more than makes up the cost of tuition plus and foregone earnings from a student not working while in college. Unsurprisingly, pay associated with an associate degree falls in between what liberal arts bachelors degrees earn and what one gets with a high school diploma. Its worth noting that employment rates in the data also follow a similar pattern: strongest for non-liberal-arts bachelors holders (81.9%), followed by liberal arts bachelors holders (78.5%), then associate degree holders (77%), then high school graduates only (64.4%).

An important part of the story is that right out of college, liberal arts majors do not earn much more than high school graduates, though this understates earnings potential over the long term. Earnings for all college graduates rise rapidly after graduation and continue to rise for decades. In contrast, the age-earnings profile of high school graduates is relatively flat. One hidden advantage of majoring in non-STEM fields is that students learn general skills that last a lifetime, where the specific skills in more technical subjects often have a shorter shelf life and differences between majors eventually narrow later down the career path.

The picture above shows average earnings for holders of each credential across different survey respondents ages; this provides a plausible pathway for earnings over the course of ones career (though its possible nobodys career path looks exactly like this). At age 22, the liberal arts line is not much higher than either the high school or associate degree lines. But the liberal arts bachelors line rises very rapidlymuch more so than is true for either high school graduates or those whove earned an associate degree. You can also see that graduates with bachelors degrees outside the liberal arts do begin their careers earning noticeably more than either liberal arts majors or high school graduates, and the gap grows over time. For example, at age 50, the average earnings with a liberal arts degree are $67,000 a year. Thats not as good as a non-liberal arts degree at $81,000, but its quite a bit better than an associate degree at $49,000 or a high school diploma at $33,000.

One hopes that students go to college for more than just the financial value of the degreenot just for their own sake but also because society needs a citizenry equipped to think broadly. But that hope aside, liberal arts degrees do pay. They dont pay as well as other college degrees, but they do pay and policymakers need to be clear-eyed about that before running roughshod across humanities departments. The humanities are indeed in trouble, but its silly to say that a liberal arts degree is not worth the price.

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Don't knock the economic value of majoring in the liberal arts | Brookings - Brookings Institution

Laughing Stock: ‘A liberal agenda’ may not be what you think – Tucson Weekly

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Once every quarter or so, Em Bowen holds forth at Crooked Tooth Brewery with a standup comedy show like no other in Tucson. It has what can only be called standards.

Theyre not the sort of standards some might consider censorship. The subject matter isnt proscribed; rather, Bowen is concerned with quality the quality of the composition as well as the quality of the joke. But their priority concern is how audience members, of any kind, will feel when they leave the show.

As for the name, Bowen said we should regard it as we do any other name Felix, say, or Amanda. Like a humans, the name contains multitudes.

A middle-school teacher by day, they are working toward an advanced degree related to community development. To that end theyre currently focused on publishing their research in learned journals.

For more than a decade, though, Bowen has enjoyed a leadership role in the rarefied company of Tucson writers and storytellers gifted in their craft.

Like Bowen, some are also gifted crafters of jokes, as intelligent as they are gut-busting. Their material is original and their delivery expert. They are comfortable on the stage. They love making people laugh, Bowen said, but There was a lack of spaces that I really wanted to perform in.

Then a friend made it easier. Bowen said. I had this one friend who was a rugby teammate who was working at Crooked Tooth, and I know the owners of Crooked Tooth very well. Ive been drinking the beer that Ben (Vernon) brews since before they were a brewery. So, my friend said, you should do a show on the Crooked Tooth patio.

Bowen considered it, considering all the competing demands on their time. They feared they might drop the ball unless, they speculated, they wanted to do it badly enough to make it sustainable. The No. 1 caveat: It couldnt be a regularly scheduled grind.

Tucson notoriously doesnt show up to things, Bowen said, so I thought, Well, Im just going to make it novel so you cant say, Ill just go next month because it might not happen again for four months.

The particular scene that I tried to create is one that is a bit more curated in terms of content. Comedians making vulgar jokes and jokes with sexual overtones thats still comedy. But I wanted a space in which I was asking people to do punch up comedy.

For example, Bowen said, If I am a white masculine person, Im making jokes about that, but Im not making jokes about black folks or disabled folks. Im not making disparaging jokes of any kind unless theyre in alignment with my own experience.

And I wanted to take it a step further, Bowen said, because, I wanted comedy that, when you walked away from the show, you felt a little bit better about the world, and better in some comedy spaces.

Then they mixed one more challenge into their vision. What if comedy was also being used to critique systems of power? What if this show were a place where we learned what it was like to do comedy that had a little extra stuff in it?

The success of Bowens comedy project can be measured in the fan-base it turns out. The crowd for The Liberal Agenda regularly ranges from 60 to 90 people.

Reflecting on their own standup sets, Bowen said, When I write comedy, it needs to give me a different perspective or make me look at a situation that is challenging and hard, and use it in a way that it creates another meaning, so I can hold it a little lighter and make joy.

I work with children, they said, and I need to have a particular presence of mind in order to go into a classroom with a bunch of 12- to 14-year-olds and hold a world view for them that is hopeful.

Its a writer-mindedness, an impulse. Its how I figure out what I mean and what life means to me.

The Liberal Agenda, Crooked Tooth Brewing Company patio, 228 E. Sixth Street, Tucson, 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, Em Bowen hosts Amie Gabusi, Morgan Kuehn, Allana Erikson-Lopez and Zo Thomas

(Hotel Congress/Submitted)

Matt Ziemak and Autumn Horvat host The Switch.

OTHER SHOWS THIS WEEK

Corbett Brewery, 309 E. Seventh Street, 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, free, touring comic Jonathan Gregory headlines, w/Nicole Riesgo, Tony Bruhn, Jordan White and Cory Lytle.

Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress Street, http://www.hotelcongress.com

7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 11, free, The Switch, a curated cast of comedians makes up jokes around topics guests text in. Matt Ziemak and Autumn Horvat host. Reservations recommended.

Laffs Comedy Caffe

2900 E. Broadway Boulevard,

http://www.laffstucson.com

8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, and 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, $15, $20 preferred seating, Sean Finnerty, left Ireland for the United States as soon as he was old enough to drink here and became the first Irish guest of Jimmy Fallon.

Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress Street, http://www.rialtotheatre.com

7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, tickets start at $30, Ali Siddiq; Saturday, Dec. 9, noon, tickets start at $22.50, Old Pueblo Holiday Radio Show benefitting Doctors Without Borders

Tucson Improv Movement/

TIM Comedy Theatre,

414 E. Ninth Street,

http://www.tucsonimprov.com

$7 each show, $10 for both shows, same night, free jam, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, Cage Match; 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, Improv Jam; 7:30 p.m. The Soapbox with Corey Seemiller; 9 p.m. Improv vs Standup; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, The Meeting and Shatfan; 9 p.m. Ugly Sweaters and Auld Laugh Syne

Unscrewed Theater,

4500 E. Speedway Boulevard,

unscrewedtheatre.org, $8. Variety of comics and shows.

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Laughing Stock: 'A liberal agenda' may not be what you think - Tucson Weekly