The National Academies issued its long-awaited report A Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States last week.  No one in West Virginia higher education seemed to notice – and for good reason.  West Virginia was one of only two states not to have a higher education institution included among the 212 participating institutions.

Why did West Virginia University not participate?  I suspect it is because the leaders of the state’s flagship university knew it would not have compared well on many of the measures of research success.  As a result, though, West Virginia University lost a golden opportunity to compare itself research-wise with institutions that it aspires to have as its peers.

As many of you know, I am a strong supporter of debate, particularly policy debate, as a tool for teaching students critical thinking skills.  Now, it seems, even competitive high school public forum debate is no longer a safe place to debate the public issues of the day.

Earlier this month, the National Forensic League released the following Public Forum Debate topic for the month of November:

Resolved: An Islamic cultural center should be built near Ground Zero.

Within twenty-four hours, the topic was changed:

Resolved: High school Public Forum Debate resolutions should not confront sensitive religious issues.

Apparently the original topic was too politically and religiously charged to debate.  It would be one thing if the original topic were not readily debatable – that arguments on both sides could not be made.  But that is far from the case.

• Pro Argument. America is a country that respects religious diversity, and the best way to ensure that our own religion will never be persecuted is to tolerate the religious activity of others as long as that activity doesn’t present an imminent threat to others’ health and safety.
• Con Argument. Ground Zero is a sacred place where America’s beliefs and ideals – primarily Christian – were attacked by Muslim extremists.  People aligned with those extremists should not be allowed to build anything on that site that might denigrate the sacredness of the site, show disrespect for the people who died, or upset their families.  Furthermore, allowing construction of a cultural center will create a greater chasm between Christians and Muslims, which harms both groups.

Various arguments – pro and con, religious and secular – could be framed easily by debaters who thought critically about the resolution.  And I seriously doubt any high school debater making or hearing such arguments would be scarred for life as a result of the experience.

Instead it is the substitute topic, clearly developed hastily, that has a resounding answer: No! – if we want to teach high school students to think.  Until now, I had assumed that was the one big non-debatable topic in the world of competitive debate.  I apparently was wrong.

If there’s one group you don’t expect to see among individuals arrested, it’s federal judges.  Federal judges are not just above the law; they are the law.

For every rule, however, there will be a rare exception.  Today that rare exception is Senior U.S. District Judge Jack Camp Jr., who is charged with illegal possession of cocaine, marijuana, and the painkiller roxycodone and aiding and abetting the possession of drugs by the person with whom he was having an affair – a stripper. It seems his stripper girlfriend turned him in.

I would bet a lot of money that Judge Camp, a Reagan appointee, sentenced all kinds of people to prison for long periods of time for drug offenses.  I wonder what those people are thinking this evening!