4um: The Ten MOST DANGEROUS Organizations in America

Title: The Ten MOST DANGEROUS Organizations in America
Source: Crooks and Liars
URL Source: http://crooksandliars.com/
Published: Oct 25, 2007
Author: Nicole Belle
Post Date: 2007-10-25 20:45:58 by Zipporah
Keywords: None
Views: 228
Comments: 13

Be sure to visit Family Security Matters.. although none of the articles can be opened at the moment the titles will just make you want to blow an eye ..

LOL.. hmm I wonder if Erik Prince's alma mater Hillsdale College is included on that list?

I don't know anything about Hillsdale but a friend of mine does. He told me some interesting and troubling stuff about that place.

Hillsdale lives, breathes conservatism
Republicans love it, but college distances self from war-troubled GOP

Heading to class at Hillsdale College are Jeff Brewer, Jeremiah Regan, Brandon Muri, and senior class President Hans Zeiger. Hillsdale is known as a conservative bastion.
( THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON )

HILLSDALE, Mich. - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney first met Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn in Washington.

Mr. Romney, then governor of Massachusetts, had graduated from Brigham Young University in Utah and Harvard, yet he greeted Mr. Arnn with:

"How is our college, and how is our state?"

Mr. Arnn said he thought for a moment before everything clicked. The state comment made sense because Mr. Romney grew up in Michigan. And as for the "our college," many Republicans do think of Hillsdale as their own.

Jeff Brewer speaks as Lauren Clark listens during a discussion at Hillsdale College. Ms. Clark, who is a senior, says intellectual rigor matters more than does ideological shading at Hillsdale.
( THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON )

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After all, a Hillsdale president helped found the GOP in nearby Jackson, Mich., more than 150 years ago. The college itself espouses a limited-government philosophy near and dear to many party loyalists that Mr. Romney - Hillsdale's graduation speaker on Saturday - must sway to win the presidential nomination.

Commencement speeches can be bellwethers of a candidate's strategy.

Democratic candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke at the predominantly African-American Wilberforce University near Dayton yesterday.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani yesterday addressed graduates of The Citadel, a military academy in the battleground primary state of South Carolina.

Trent Demarest, a freshman political economy major, and Lauren Hildreth, a sophomore English major, study in the Heritage Room at Hillsdale. At right is Hillsdale President Larry Arnn. ‘It is not the purpose of this place to change the politics of America,’ says Mr. Arnn.
( THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON )

The students at Hillsdale invited Mr. Romney to their campus, an offer his campaign said he accepted in order to speak at a college in Michigan, where his father, George, was governor. As of now, no college from Massachusetts has asked Mr. Romney to deliver its commencement address.

But Hillsdale is distancing itself from Republicans, who will enter the 2008 election weighed down by an unpopular war and a voter rebuke last year of President Bush that gave the Democrats majorities in the House and Senate.

Issues such as abortion, immigration, and taxes motivate partisans. Hillsdale values ideas, a subtle discrepancy revealed within the classroom that is the source of the college's reputation among conservatives. At Hillsdale, the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas on just-war theory can be as critical as the presence of WMDs.

"It is not the purpose of this place to change the politics of America," Mr. Arnn recently said in his office. "We're not a political party around here."

Mr. Arnn arrived at Hillsdale in 2000. He succeeded George Roche III, whose 28-year tenure ended in scandal after his daughter-in-law, alleging she had an affair with him, committed suicide in the college's arboretum.

Between sips of coffee from a Bill of Rights mug, Mr. Arnn explained that he traded the California sunshine of the Clare-mont Institute for Michigan winters because of Hillsdale's articles of association.

That document, he quoted, charges the college to develop the "moral, social, and artistic instruction and culture as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of the students."

Hillsdale refuses to accept any government funds. It replaces federal scholarships and loans with private funds from a $265 million endowment. When administrators subtract financial aid from Hillsdale's $26,430 sticker price, the average annual cost drops to $13,430.

The college defies affirmative action and does not track the ethnic make-up of its 1,300 students. In a video to promote Hillsdale called "Educating for Liberty," Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says this policy dates to Hillsdale's establishment by Free-Will Baptists as an abolitionist institution that admitted blacks.

Hillsdale publishes Imprimis, a monthly that reaches more than 1.25 million readers and runs speeches given at college events by the likes of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The college stores on-line the complete writings of William F. Buckley, a grandfather of modern conservative ideology.

An outsider could confuse Hillsdale classes for boosterism of past Republican administrations.

A morning history class trumpeted President Reagan's 1981 tax cut as clearing the way for Microsoft, the Sony Walkman, and fax machines.

"The arguments have been documented 100 times on the theoretical level that the government raising money doesn't help the economy," said freshman Andrew Cureton, who can instantly tell his professor that Richard Nixon won every state in the 1972 presidential election except Massachusetts.

When students talk in class, they tend do so with a certainty of their convictions. Lauren Clark, a senior, said intellectual rigor matters more than ideological shading.

"What's the slogan?" she said. "Hillsdale College: Where your best hasn't been good enough since 1844."

The college requires students to complete a course on the Constitution, one that often influences their perspective on government.

Jeremiah Regan, a junior history major, said his political views have morphed since high school.

"I was a Republican when I came to Hillsdale," he said. "I'm much less Republican now and have loyalty to conservative ideas."

Hillsdale endorses this type of culture in an honor code that freshmen sign each fall. It asks them to engage in "self-government," a pledge meant to uphold every person's "natural rights" for the common good.

Senior class President Hans Zeiger, an American studies major, said their education is grounded in classical works that span Plato to Thomas Jefferson.

"It's not an Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity kind of conservatism," Mr. Zeiger said.

But the trouble with ideas is that they can imperfectly manifest themselves in actions. A war where the mission was accomplished can last long after a president's speech, causing the Republicans hoping to succeed Mr. Bush to run on the promise of pacifying the Iraqi insurgency.

The three GOP front-runners campaign toward that particular end. Sen. John McCain of Arizona wants more troops. Mr. Romney favors 100,000 more soldiers. Mr. Giuliani is against a timetable for withdrawal.

At a Hillsdale seminar last week on St. Thomas Aquinas, students debated the confusion between the means and the ends. And for some, the consequences are divine, not electoral.

"Are Catholics allowed to fight in unjust wars, like say the war in Iraq?" asked freshman Raymond Spiotta.

"My own view is that the war is troubling," responded politics professor Nathan Schlueter. "The evidence isn't sufficiently clear to resolve it one way or another.

And more...

Suspended President to Be Questioned About Daughter-in-Law's Apparent Suicide

By MARTIN VAN DER WERF

Police investigators plan to question George C. Roche III, the suspended president of Hillsdale College, about the apparent suicide of his daughter-in-law, amid rumors that he had been carrying on a long-term affair with her.

"We have no reason to believe it was anything other than a suicide," Hillsdale (Mich.) Police Detective Brad Martin said of the October 17 death of Lissa Roche, who apparently shot herself to death and whose body was found on the campus of the conservative college. "We want to interview people who might have knowledge of the death who have so far been unavailable."

Mr. Roche has reportedly been on his honeymoon in Hawaii. He was married in September. Ms. Roche, who had worked at the college for 15 years, quit her job about the same time as the marriage, according to several former and current faculty members. But she was persuaded to return, and had resumed working at Hillsdale shortly before her death.

One professor, who insisted on anonymity, said that rumors of an affair between the president and his daughter-in-law dated to 1990. Mr. Roche divorced his wife of 44 years earlier this year. His daughter-in-law was managing editor of Imprimis, a newspaper filled with conservative and Libertarian articles about social and political topics that was a leading fund-raising tool for the college. While not affiliated with any religious denomination, Hillsdale advertises itself as a Christian college that aims to build character in its students. The college refuses all federal money, allowing it to be exempt from federal affirmative-action laws and many government rules.

The Hillsdale Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet today to talk about Mr. Roche's future at the college. The trustees placed him on a leave of absence last week without explanation. Since then, the campus has been alive with rumors about what led to the suspension.

The Hillsdale Liberation Organization, a student group that is critical of the administration, posted a statement last weekend on the World-Wide Web saying that Mr. Roche was under investigation for many things, including the alleged affair with Lissa Roche. "We've heard this from too many sources, and too many reliable source [sic] to discount," the statement reads.

Several former and current faculty members told The Chronicle that the alleged affair was being openly discussed on the campus. Mr. Roche could not be reached for comment.

Ronald L. Trowbridge, Hillsdale's vice-president for external programs and communications, said he could not comment on the rumored affair, or whether it was the cause of Mr. Roche's suspension. "I can't respond to that. That's just not something I can talk about," he said.

Detective Martin said the investigation into Ms. Roche's death remained open. The police department is still awaiting the results of an autopsy and an analysis of fingerprints on the gun used in the shooting.

President of Hillsdale College Resigns Amid Allegations of Affair

By MARTIN VAN DER WERF

Hillsdale, Mich.

The president of conservative Hillsdale College, George C. Roche III, resigned under fire Wednesday, emphasizing "integrity, values and courage," even as rumors continued to swirl that an affair with his daughter-in-law had led to his undoing.

Mr. Roche's retirement was announced after the Board of Trustees met to consider his future at the college, which he has led for 28 years. He spoke to the trustees, then quickly left the campus without answering questions. His retirement letter was dated Tuesday, and was effective immediately.

The trustees, in a statement, said, "The combined pressures of his personal health and private family life make this step necessary." Mr. Roche, 64, suffers from diabetes, and was hospitalized as recently as last month. His private life has been tumultuous. In April, he divorced his wife of 44 years, June. She has cancer. In September, he remarried. His daughter-in-law, Lissa Roche, died October 17 on the college's campus here of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Hillsdale police officers have interviewed Mr. Roche in connection with the shooting. The Detroit News reported Wednesday that Mr. Roche said Lissa Roche had confessed to him two days before her death that she planned to kill herself. Since her death, rumors of an affair between her and Mr. Roche have swept across this small, wooded campus in rural southern Michigan.

The reputation of the college makes the allegations against Mr. Roche all the more shocking. He has made the institution a darling of conservatives by refusing all federal aid, a status that allows Hillsdale to ignore such policies as affirmative action and gender equity in athletics. As contributions have poured in, primarily from conservatives and libertarians who are attracted by the college's emphasis on free-market economics, the institution has gone from near bankruptcy to having an endowment of $172 million.

Two prominent conservatives, William J. Bennett and William F. Buckley, Jr., both of whom have been associated with the college and Mr. Roche in the past, agreed to serve with three trustees on the search committee for a new president.

Mr. Roche, in his letter to the trustees, wrote: "Together, we have built a wonderful dream. We have proven that integrity, values and courage can still triumph in a corrupt world. Hillsdale College is a monument to those beliefs."

Zipporah posted on 2007-10-25 21:39:59 ET (6 images) Reply Trace Private Reply

#8. To: Zipporah (#0)

Blackwater is super-dangerous? Hardly. They're doing exactly what on American soil? Not much of anything?

The author needs to get a clue if she thinks the KLAN is "horrible menace" - given that they vanished and are unlikely to ever come back...like the Hollywood Nazis. You've seen them on the news. All 20 of them. Nationwide. BIG THREAT!

And this gal thinks that others are looking for ghosts under the bed? She needs to look in her own kookycloset.

America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.

the point isnt the commentary by the author .. and she was being facetious .. the point is the RW kookery from the RW organization that created the list as the most dangerous..

Here in Oregon, up in Portland, the twinks at Portland State hold "AntiKlan" rallies. Never mind that there is not a Klansman within 500 miles. That and we shoot Skinheads on sight nowadays.

That same Uni also came up with "Post Traumatic Slave Disorder" - that's right, if any of your ANCESTORS were ever slaves, and you go on a shooting spree, you can call this kooky professor in as an expert witness that you have a legitimate mental disorder!

The ACLU I can see as being on many lists. Until they go to bat for the 2nd Amendment, their self-professed "Guardianship of the Bill of Rights" is a pile of hooey and they DESERVE criticism.

As for Media Matters and other so-called "watchdog" groups and MoveOn, they're on my list as "biased" -- the day they do anything but parrot the Democrat Party Line and laud Socialists they'll gain some credence. Until then....they're worthless.

America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.

Yea, though how anyone could equate them with skinheads, the Nazi's or the Klan is beyond me. The are pretty close to 100% in line with a Ron Paul platform...

You know how this all ends right? It ends with all of us screaming and thrusting bayonettes and bullets into each others guts while fat elites from both "parties" sit back behind their walled compounds and governmment complexes and count the money and wealth they skimmed off us before we begin to "cull" ourselves...

They can't go after Ron Paul because he just points them to the Constitution and they can't deal with that.

Bizzarely enough, Howard Dean lauded Paul's antiwar position over the weekend at a Dem function. Too bad the Dems themselves won't take that position.

America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.

Right wingers are dangerous people. Period. Anyone who thinks education is dangerous is per se a Nazi creepazoid. End of argument.