Category Archives: Liberal

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

The view co-host Sunny Holstin has used her platform to rail against Republicans using the typical left-wing lines of racist colonists stealing land and exploiting slavery to build wealth.

But Holstin was recently left in shock when she discovered that her ancestors were slaveholders.

Holstin recently learned that her family tree reaches back to Spain, and that her family owned slaves.

Holstin had a black father and a Puerto Rican mother. Holstin said her mother prided herself on identifying as non-white, and that discovering that their roots are connected to slave owners would be difficult for her.

The glaring racism of Holstins comments notwithstanding, there is a bigger issue here when it comes to the tribal identity some push in America.

Holstin has been raised and identifies so strongly that being white equates to being evil that she considered her Spanish-linked DNA to represent the white culture.

A few decades ago, there were white people who would have reacted with remorse if they discovered any African roots on their family tree, and they were flat out racists. Holstin holds the same contempt in reverse, and like all racists, she feel justified in her disappointment in the very blood that flows through her veins.

The reality is if any of us explore our family trees long enough, we will find relatives from a wide variety of backgrounds, especially Americans. Our ancestry comes from many backgrounds around the globe, and while some prejudices tend to lump everyone in either white, black, hispanic or asian, each of these have multiple variations.

Holstin, like me, is an American. While she wants to identify as a specific color of skin, the genetic study she recently took tells a much larger truth, and the focus should not be on where we came from but where we are. It shouldnt be on the superficial color of skin but on what Martin Luther King, Jr., suggested, the content of our character.

But she was devastated. Stunned, she said.

Is it really the end of the world that she had an ancient relative who owned slaves? She had no control of that.

Societies hundreds of years ago do not have the advantage of understanding we have today. How can we expect people who thought the Earth was flat to understand the wrongs of slavery? We can always look back with a critical eye, or we can learn from where they were and how far weve come.

Another issue this brings is the current far left effort to push concepts like reparations.

What if more blacks discover they have relatives who also owned slaves? Would they still qualify for reparations?

What other historic injustices should we be trying to correct? Asians were treated very poorly in America. Ever hear of the Anti Chinese League? They were like civic clubs even in the Wild West after slavery was abolished.

Italians were not welcomed with open arms in many pockets throughout America, and the Irish were characterized as hot tempered alcoholics.

The scourge of slavery is not to be diminished. Blacks who suffered the injustice were greatly abused.

But the reaction has been to lash out against every white person as indicated in some of the theories of Critical Race Theory. Whites, they say, were born oppressors while people of color were born to be oppressed.

Both are patently false

But Holstins situation shows just how far apart we are because of those who want us to see our differences rather than our similarities.

She is ashamed of her ancestry because of a Spanish connection, and the reality that the world used to be a less egalitarian place.

They were wrong back then, for sure, but because of their wrongs we have learned to do it the right way. Society sometimes reflects what Thomas Edison told us about the light bulb. He didnt just discover how to make an incandescent light bulb, but he also discovered 999 ways how not to invent the light bulb.

History is not to be judged but to be studied. Its not a snapshot. History is a stream, and what you may find in one direction is much different as you continue to follow the path of the stream.

Holstin may have discovered something unpleasant, but at some point that changed, and she is here today, living in a land that has allowed her to live a charmed life.

We are all better off today because we have improved on the errors of the past and are committed not to repeat them by understanding them.

Rewriting history, or erasing it, can only lead to ignorance and the potential to forget how we got here, and how everyone else got here. It omits the struggles, the wars, the winners and the losers, and the reality that the United States is not a perfect story but still the best in human history.

Your history is only a tool to be used to create a better future.

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What happens when a liberal learns her family owned slaves? - Leader & Times

Maines liberal Members of Congress are either keeping quiet, pointing at former President Donald Trump, or defending President Joe Biden after the Commander-in-Chief delivered a confusing and widely-panned press conference Thursday evening.

The presser came in response to a Department of Justice report that said the Special Counsel investigating Bidens mishandling of classified documents would not seek charges but only because Bidens memory was too poor for him to stand trial.

Special Counsel Robert Hur, who was leading a probe into President Joe Bidens handling of classified materials, released a 388-page report Thursday finding that Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified documents after his vice presidency, but that no criminal charges are warranted.

In explaining his decision not to recommend charges against the sitting president, Hur said that Biden presented himself in his interview as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.

[RELATED: Biden Lashes Out at Press, Suffers Memory Lapse While Denying Senility]

The Special Counsel report details instances of Biden having serious lapses in memory, including struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries, and not being able to remember when he was vice president and when his son Beau died.

Hur speculated that it would be difficult to convince a jury to convict Biden due to the felony statute requiring a mental state of willfulness.

Following the release of Hurs report, President Biden gave a press conference Thursday evening to respond to the allegations in the report regarding his memory.

Biden explained away the Special Counsels account of his apparent mental incapacity by pointing to the date of his interview with Hur being in the days following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.

The president angrily condemned Hurs report for noting that he struggled to remember when his son died.

How in the hell dare he raise that, Biden said. Frankly, when I was asked the question I thought to myself it wasnt any of their damn business I dont need anyone to remind me when he passed away.

[RELATED: White House Spins After Confused Biden Claims He Recently Spoke to Long-Dead French President]

The 81-year-old president did not inspire confidence in his memory later in the Thursday press conference, however, when he referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the president of Mexico.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins told the Maine Wire Friday that the Special Counsel report raises important questions.

I encourage people to look at it themselves and draw their own conclusions, Collins said. Its up to the Democrats to decide whom they want their nominee to be. And, ultimately, all of this will be in the hands of the voters.

Maine Sen. Angus King (I) has remained silent on the Special Counsel report and Bidens press conference.

Neither he nor Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-01) responded to requests for comment from the Maine Wire.

State Rep. Austin Theriault (R-Fort Kent), one of two 2024 Republican challengers to Democratic Congressman Jared Golden in Maines 2nd District, quickly responded to Bidens press conference by demanding to know if Golden still supported Biden for president.

Theriault also released a statement Thursday evening insisting that Golden join him in calling for President Bidens resignation.

This is a very somber, serious moment for our country. We cant have a president thats so mentally limited that they cant even stand trial, Theriault said.

In this case, its not a question of age there are plenty of sharp people who are older than Biden its a question of capability, he continued. This is a dangerous world, and a person who can start a nuclear war should not be in the mental state described by the Biden Department of Justice.

This is a time for bipartisan action: Jared Golden should join me in calling for Bidens resignation, Theriault concluded.

The Maine GOP capitalized on Bidens bad press in a Friday fundraising email, writing that Joe Bidens mental incompetency was made clear to the world TWICE yesterday.

First, a Special Counsel working for the Biden Department of Justice found that Joe Biden is so mentally incompetent that he couldnt even stand trial, the email stated. Then Biden gave an stumbling, bumbling, feeble address to the nation that proved the Special Counsel right without a doubt.

The Special Counsel report and Bidens surprise presser also drew attacks from national Republicans.

National Republican Congressional Caucus (NRCC) spokesperson Savannah Viar released a statement Friday morning declaring that Mainers deserve immediate answers from Golden on Bidens mental state.

Nothing could be more dangerous than a president going senile, yet that is exactly who House Democrats including Jared Golden are backing, Viar said.

Golden did not respond to a request for comment from the Maine Wire, though he provided a comment to the Bangor newspaper that was characterized as drawing an equivalency between former President Trump and Biden.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) posted to X Thursday that Bidens press conference confirmed on live television what the Special Counsel report outlined.

He is not fit to be president, Johnson wrote.

At the conclusion of a gun violence prevention event at the White House Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris slammed Hurs report as politically motivated and gratuitous.

Harris took a similar tact to President Biden by explaining the presidents reported mental incapacity during the two-day interview with Hur by noting it occurred directly after Hamas attack on Israel.

It was an intense moment for the commander in chief of the United States of America, Harris said.

The vice president added that the way that the presidents demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated, gratuitous.

New York Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler released a statement Thursday afternoon in defense of Biden, saying MAGA Republicans will no doubt now call to investigate the investigatorsits their favorite movebut the Hur report effectively ends the discussion.

President Biden cooperated fully with the Special Counsel and redacted no portion of the Special Counsels report, Nadler said. Unlike Trump, President Biden has nothing to hide.

Nadler contrasted the Department of Justices probe into Trumps handling of classified documents with that of Bidens, saying If Trump had cooperated with the [DOJ] instead of lying to investigators, again and againhe might have avoided at least some of the 91 criminal charges currently pending against him.

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Maine's Liberal Members of Congress Stand by Biden After Disastrous, Confused Press Conference - The Maine Wire

This weeks Liberal Media Scream features a look at new Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welkers treatment of Republican leaders. And surprise not she continues to be just as biased as former host Chuck Todd.

First, she lectured House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on the border bill released by the Senate on Sunday. You are now the speaker of the House. Do you not have a responsibility to your voters, to the people who put you in office, to address what you have called a crisis and catastrophe? Isnt something better than nothing? she said.

Then, she passed along the Democratic talking point that after three years of aggressively enacting open border policies, Joe Biden said he would shut down the border.

From Sundays Meet the Press on NBC:

KRISTEN WELKER: You have been calling for legislative change to actually deal with this problem. You are now the speaker of the House. Do you not have a responsibility to your voters, to the people who put you in office, to address what you have called a crisis and catastrophe? Isnt something better than nothing?

SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: Kristen, we did that. We did that nine months ago. And since we passed our measure in the House to solve this problem, and the reason we had to do it is because we saw that President Biden was not fulfilling his obligation under the law. Thats why it is such a failure of leadership, but we did our part. And by the way, since then, in the nine months since that bill sat on [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumers desk, collecting dust, 1.8 million illegals have been allowed into this country, welcomed into the country, sent around the nation into every community communities near everyone listening and watching this morning. And that is a catastrophe, and the American people know it, and thats part of the reason that Joe Biden has the lowest approval rating of any president facing reelection.

WELKER: Even former President Trump, though, called for legislative change on this issue. You have one of the slimmest majorities in the House in history. Dont you have to compromise to get something done? What you passed in the House cant pass in the Senate, Mr. Speaker. You know that.

JOHNSON: We are willing to work. We are willing to work with the Senate. I am not disclosing that, and Ive been very consistent for the hundred days that Ive had the gavel. We are willing to work, but they have to be serious about it. If you only do a few of those components, you are not going to solve the problem, and Kristen, that is not a Republican talking point. Thats what the sheriffs at the border, the Border Patrol agents, the deputy chief of U.S. Border Patrol, a 33-year veteran of the agency, told us. He said that its as though were administering an open fire hydrant. He said, I dont need more buckets, like the president has proposed. I need to stop the flow, and we know how to do that, but Joe Biden is unwilling to do it.

CATCH UP ON ALL THE LATEST BUZZ WITH THE EXAMINERS WASHINGTON SECRETS

WELKER: Let me ask you about your decision, and by the way, Joe Biden said he would shut down the border. Hes calling for more funding. Hes calling for you to pass this legislation.

Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: A perfect example of a so-called journalist serving as an advocate for Washingtons media-political establishment, demanding a recalcitrant conservative get in line and adopt the approved narrative.

Rating: THREE out of FIVE SCREAMS.

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Liberal Media Scream: Kristen Welker likes to lecture Republicans, too - Washington Examiner

Tasmania's minority Liberal government, the only of its colour in Australia, remains intact for now as the premier considers demands made by two key independents.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff issued an ultimatum to Liberals-turned-independents John Tucker and Lara Alexander on February 2, threatening the possibility of an early election if they did not agree.

The duo, whose decision to leave the Liberals in May plunged the government into minority, rejected the new deal which included a ban on supporting opposition bills.

On Friday, Mr Rockliff met with Mr Tucker and Ms Alexander, whose votes have propped up the government.

The premier said he would not ask the governor for an early election this weekend but did not rule out the prospect of a poll before Easter.

"I thank Mr Tucker and Ms Alexander for meeting with me," Mr Rockliff said in a statement.

"It was an opportunity for them to put forward their position, as I have mine."

Mr Rockliff said he would now take "the appropriate time to consider and to consult with my colleagues".

"This is an important matter," he said.

"Tasmanians need stability and certainty, and I am focused on delivering that."

Mr Tucker, who fronted media alongside Ms Alexander, indicated he had received some assurances from the premier.

He said the premier had agreed to abide by a parliamentary motion preventing any "shovels in the ground" for an AFL high-performance centre until plans for a new stadium passed parliament.

The new waterfront stadium was a condition of the AFL granting Tasmania a licence for inclusion in the competition, slated for 2028.

Mr Tucker said any flow-on impacts were a "question for the premier".

In January, Mr Tucker threatened to "bring down the government" and move a no-confidence motion if the premier did not abide by the AFL high-performance motion and another to make CCTV mandatory in abattoirs.

Mr Tucker and Ms Alexander said their preference was to continue with their initial May agreement with the premier for ongoing votes of confidence and supply.

Story continues

"I hope the discussions were conducted in good faith," Ms Alexander said.

"We have come here in good faith to resolve this crisis."

The state's Labor opposition said the premier had his "pants pulled down" by Mr Tucker.

"As if refusing to follow through on his threats after his ultimatum was rejected by the two independents wasn't embarrassing enough, Mr Rockliff is now giving in to Mr Tucker's demands to delay the AFL high-performance centre," Labor MP Josh Willie said.

"The premier is being held to ransom, but he's too weak to do anything about it."

Mr Tucker and Ms Alexander said the premier had given an assurance the trio would continue discussions late next week.

Parliament is scheduled to resume in early March, while the next election is not due until mid-2025.

Ms Alexander and Mr Tucker were concerned about government transparency around plans for an AFL team and stadium and the Marinus Link energy connector when they quit the Liberals.

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Australia's only Liberal government lives on - for now - Yahoo News Australia

Claudine Gays demotion from the presidency at Harvard University is being painted by liberal media (and Gay herself) as part of a conservative attack on liberal institutions and our elitist betters. In reality, it is Gay and her fellow liberals who are destroying the respect those institutions crave.

Gay resigned her executive post after being mired in a plagiarism scandal shortly after saying that calling for the genocide of Jews didnt violate Harvards student code of conduct. Despite this, she will remain at Harvard as a professor, reportedly with a $900,000 salary. After her numerous plagiarism violations, you would think it wouldnt need to be said that Gay and her defenders were the ones destroying Harvards credibility by promoting her in the first place and allowing her to remain on as a professor. And yet here we are.

TRANSPARENCY GROUP BEHIND TRUMP BALLOT REMOVAL EFFORT HAS LONG RELIED ON LEFT-WING DARK MONEY

Gay summarized the liberal narrative as follows: This was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society. Campaigns of this kind often start with attacks on education and expertise, because these are the tools that best equip communities to see through propaganda. But such campaigns dont end there. Trusted institutions of all types from public health agencies to news organizations will continue to fall victim to coordinated attempts to undermine their legitimacy and ruin their leaders credibility.

The biggest mistake is there in that final sentence.

It is not coordinated attempts by bad actors that are undermining the legitimacy of these institutions and ruining leaders credibility. It is the institutions and leaders themselves doing that. Harvard promoted Gay, with a paltry academic record that we now know was bolstered by plagiarized materials, because she was a liberal ideologue and an examplar of the leftist notion of diversity. She was neither qualified nor prepared for the job. Harvard did that to itself.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The same is true for public health agencies and news organizations, Gays other two big examples. Liberal establishment news outlets, such as the Associated Press and the New York Times, have consistently exposed themselves as partisans who will not report news accurately to inform people if that news hurts their political allies. Public health experts torched their credibility throughout the pandemic by painting any opponents of their guidance as science deniers, even as those experts contradicted their own guidance in their support of ideological protests (Black Lives Matter) and in their own actions.

It is liberal activists and ideologues butchering the reputations of these institutions by hollowing them out, discarding their intended purposes, and using the husk of what is left to mask their partisan and ideological goals as respectable and bolstered by the reputation of, say, Harvard. The damage being done to these institutions is being done by these institutions on behalf of mediocrities such as Claudine Gay. They are the threats to education and expertise that Gay is so worried about.

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Liberal institutions are the threat to liberal institutions Claudine Gay is warning about - Washington Examiner

One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside John Lennon

The list of people who epitomize MAGA is long. But they share some universal traits. They are all liars, hypocrites, and loudmouth bullshitters, nemine contradicente*lacking empathy. The richest of the MAGA sewer-dwellers is the self-celebrating, eternally smug, free speech absolutist Elon Musk.

The legend-in-his-own-mind wears a skin too thin to stand the barb of a Q-tip. His actions gainsay his celebration of unfettered opinion-slinging. He has designed Twitters algorithms to seek out, identify, and block prominent journalists who have hurt his feelings. Under previous management, the site aimed to shut down liars. The new boss fights to banish the truth at least the truth that makes him cry.

Mediaite reports Twitters latest salvo against the left-wing media thus:

Elon Musks X/Twitter platform began suspending the accounts of prominent left-wing journalists and bloggers late on Monday night and into Tuesday.

Civil rights attorney Alejandra Caraballo began documenting the massive purge Tuesday morning and listed some of the major accounts that were suspended. Ken Klippenstein of the Intercept, Steven Zetti (who writes under Steven Monacelli) of the Texas Observer, blogger Rob Rousseau, the account for TrueAnonPod podcast, and blogger Zei Squirrel were among those suspended.

Caraballo additionally observed that most of those suspended are, shit posting accounts that were critical of Elon and Bill Ackman. This particular cull suggests that it was the posters' criticism, more than their politics, that caused their banishment. Mediaite says it reached out to Twitter for comment. However, they were brushed off with an automated reply that told them to fuck off. Although the actual verbiage was, Busy now, please check back later.

Musk is legend for his mental fragility. Ackman is less well-known. The founder of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management relishes his reputation as a contrarian. Which is a polite way of saying asshole. He has celebrated the killer Kyle Rittenhouse as a civic-minded patriot. It seemsvigilantism is an American virtue to desk-bound, tough guys. He has also claimed the bankrupt cryptocurrency fabulist and seven-time convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, was telling the truth.

Ackmans bte noire is corporate America and the Ivy League's adoption of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies. I suppose he thinks acting like a decent human is an unforgivable business sin even if the companies that embrace DEI are obscenely profitable. Let us note that just three who practice inclusion, Walmart, Intel, and Microsoft, had a combined net income of $242 billion in their last fiscal year.

In addition, as a MAGA sympathizer, Ackman is a de facto hypocrite. He may say DEI is a ruinous business practice. But in 2023, he added Google parent Alphabet to his funds portfolio despite Googles public embrace of DEI.

Ackman also thinks that Musk walks on water. He is either so keen to suck up to the worlds richest man, so blinded by pretty words, or so eager to make common cause with a fellow hypocrite that he ignores reality. In his convenient blindness, he celebrates the petulant baby mans verbal embrace of free speech as he ignores the inconvenient reality that his hero is a whiny bastard whose reverence for the truth has the solidity of pure wind.

Note 1: I hear whispers that Musk may be letting the banned back. If so, expect him to blame some underlingfor their expulsion in the first place.

*Note 2: I realize thatnemine contradicenteis pretentious. But I have never used it before, and I wanted to cross that lack off my bucket list.

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Elon Musk, the "free speech absolutist" kicks liberal journalists off Twitter - Daily Kos

By JOHN HALLWAS

Twenty years ago, I gave a lecture and remarked, Education in the liberal arts is under siege and in decline. Since then, our dismal situation regarding broad, life-shaping, and socially committed education has only gotten worse. Among the many books that discuss this problem are Michael S. Roths Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education (2015) and Fareed Zakarias In Defense of Liberal Education (2016).

But the general public is still often unaware of this crucial issue.

Our society needs to ponder the continual decline in liberal-arts education and what it means for American culture. In 1900, for example, more than 70% of American college students attended liberal-arts institutions, devoted to rigorous general-education programs, while today fewer than 5% of our students do. And in virtually all of our colleges and universities, there is enormous pressure to emphasize courses in major fields and de-emphasize, or trivialize, general-education requirements.

Moreover, recent surveys show that most college-bound high school students feel that the goal of higher education is just to get necessary training in order to secure a job. Simply put, todays students tend to be career-oriented, as well as impatient for material rewards, and they place a premium on acquiring specific skills (in accounting, law enforcement, business management, etc.) that will credential them for particular occupations.

Such students just reflect our culture at large a culture that often sees liberal-arts education as an expensive extravagance or a waste of time, a diversion from the real world of jobs, money, status and power. No wonder many of them dread their college or universitys general education courses and dont really engage with those subjects.

However, if higher education is simply viewed as having a market function to provide career-oriented customers with educational services so they can obtain promising jobs, and to provide companies or agencies with trained personnel so they can function better then the whole process is stripped of any moral or cultural influence on the lives of Americans or on the future of humanity.

But thats not our tradition. In America we have generally believed, until recently, that higher education should cultivate the individual for contributing to our democratic culture. As philosopher Martha Nussbaum points out in a fine book on the liberal arts titled Cultivating Humanity (1997), Unlike all other nations, we have asked higher education to contribute a general preparation for citizenship, not just a specialized preparation for a career.

By citizenship, she means finding common values and purposes, or drawing citizens toward one another by complex mutual understanding, in an increasingly pluralistic society. And that crucial effort calls for people with a background in history, literature, philosophy, sociology and other fields that comprise the traditional liberal-arts curriculum.

Moreover, the need for such a background has increased during recent generations. In the modern world characterized by lingering prejudice, violent social conflict, selfish politics, rampant materialism, impersonal relationships, and a deteriorating environment a liberal-arts education promotes critical reflection on the implications of participating in a global society. Our military, economic and social ventures into other countries must be as ethically well-grounded and culturally sensitive as our handling of issues within the nation, but that is sometimes not the case. So, if the decline of liberal arts continues, we will surely lack the human resources to comprehend our huge national and international challenges.

What we need to understand is that the fate of liberal-arts education is inseparable from the fate of multi-cultural America, as well as the fate of the world. Teachers, students, parents and others who believe in Americas deepest values and in our nations role as a global leader a model and inspiration for cultural understanding and social progress must encourage and support our traditional commitment to effective liberal-arts education. Thats the indispensable foundation for national and worldwide social responsibility.

People should always be learning and growing not celebrating their ignorance, defending their prejudice, protecting an outdated worldview, or simply striving for money. So, we have crucial work to do in our families, schools, libraries, civic organizations and governmental agencies to revitalize public awareness of our need for a broad education.

John Hallwas is president of the Illinois State Historical Society. The author or editor of 30 books and hundreds of articles related to Illinois, hes retired from teaching at Western Illinois University and heads a movement there that stresses the liberal arts through an annual Liberal Arts Lecture series.

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Liberal Arts and studies in humanities under attack on college campuses - The Community Word

This section includes announcements of important events in our livesbirths, graduations, engagements, marriages, and deaths. If you want to share an event with your community, please send a photo and a written piece to [emailprotected].

Bill Barton October 14, 1934 November 23, 2023

Bill Barton passed away peacefully at 1:17PM on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2023, in his sleep in the company of family and friends at his Westgate home in Eureka, CA. Bill was 89 years old.

Harold and Edna Barton, Bills father and mother were presented with a fine-looking baby boy at the hospital in Saranac Lake, New York on October 14, 1934. This made the family complete, along with Bills older brother, Harold A. Barton (Pudge). Bill (Buzzy) enjoyed school and graduated from Rainier High School in Rainier, Oregon, in 1952.

In 1952, Bills father and mother persuaded him to enroll in the Oregon Institute of Technology located in Klamath Falls, Oregon. During the next 2 years he excelled in boiler operation and heavy machinery repair. That became his hallmark. He was prepared for service. 70 years later he returned to Oregon Tech as an honorary Gold Owl alumni for graduation.

Bill served in the Coast Guard from 1954 1958, and during that time he serviced the St. George LightHouse and was assigned for two years to a Coast Guard Buoytender/Icebreaker Bulsam WLB-62 on the US West Coast and in the Arctic.

Bill met Ann Sherman at a dance in the Loleta Firemans Hall and they were married shortly thereafter. Bill and Ann were married for 41 years when she passed away in 1998. Bill met Betty Mowrey in 1999 and they were married for 18 years, Betty passed in 2017.

Bill worked as a rock crusher for the Columbia County Road Dept. in 1951, and then was assigned to Bizzard Matthews, Eureka in 1964. He then moved on to the Arcata City Motor Pool and later that year began to work for the State Division of Highways in Garberville, CA. He assumed the position of Head Mechanic until retiring in 1995.

After retirement Bill volunteered for a number of years in the rebuilding of the St. George Reef Lighthouse off the coast of Crescent City.

Bill was a Passionate Liberal, he was a regular reader of a number of local, regional and national newspapers. He was able to keep track of all of the issues, easily able to recall political players by name, home state and political affiliation. At one point Bill had as his outgoing voicemail message Bill Barton, the Liberal By The Bay.

In retirement, Bill established the Barton & Caruso Winery in Eureka specializing in Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot varietals. As a vintner, he prided himself on a special clientele. Bill never sold the grape, but only gifted the wine to family, friends, and the Eureka Elks Lodge #652. His wine became a symbol of his love for new and old acquaintances alike.

Bill leaves behind two stepsons, Mark Mowrey (Fortuna) and Dan Mowrey (Redding), brother Harold A. Barton (South Pasadena), step grandson Donald Mowrey (Lansing, Michigan), cousin Duane Bernard (Oregon), and sister-in-law Jane Sherman Frasher (Arcata). Preceding Bill in death are first wife Ann Sherman Barton and 2nd wife Betty Mowrey Barton, stepdaughter in law Linda Mowrey and grand stepson James Mowrey. Close surviving friends include Debo Lowe, LeAnne Morini, Collin Jackson, June Johnson, Jack & Linda Pearsson, Ollie & Alicia Pearsson, Howard & Karen Ritter, Tom Pederson, Jeff Coontz, Lonnie & Maureen Arney, Hank & Mitzi Beck, Bob & Cheryl Holt, Dave & Marie Eberhardt, Keith & Wendy Caruso and family and his many friends at the Eureka Elks Lodge and the Redwood Roamer RV Group.

For 21 years he was a member in good standing with the Eureka Elks and during that time helped establish the Redwood Roamers. He was an advocate of Elkdom serving on the House Committee and in the dining services.

Bill started working at the age of 16 and retired 46 years later, in his 62nd year. He was a workaholic and was devoted to anything mechanical. May his life story be a blessing to his family and many friends.

Bills family would like to thank his personal caregivers during his final few months, June Johnson, Alicia and Ollie Pearsson and Rhonda Taylor.

Memorial Donations can be made in Bills name to St. George Reef Lighthouse at https://www.saintgeorgereeflight.org/

A memorial service will be held at the Elks Lodge, 445 Herrick Ave, Eureka on January 13th, 2024 1-4 PM.

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Bill Barton: 'The Liberal by the Bay' - Redheaded Blackbelt

Shivani Bondada

In fall 2021, over 2,000 students began their educational career at Tulane University, many of whom already knew their field of interest. Of the 452 students who knew they wanted to pursue a degree in liberal arts, approximately 73% identified as female.

The School of Liberal Arts at Tulane was established as a key component of the institutions Renewal Plan after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It is the largest among Tulanes nine schools, comprising 16 departments and 19 interdisciplinary programs that are spread across nine buildings on campus. The School of Liberal Arts boasts the highest enrollment of students, faculty members, majors, minors, graduate programs and interestingly, some of the highest enrollment of female-identifying students.

While the Tulane student body is predominantly female, the male population on campus is less likely to study the liberal arts and tends to sway toward business degrees.

This trend of female-dominated liberal arts is not isolated to Tulanes campus. In the 2020-2021 school year, postsecondary institutions conferred 400,000 degrees in the fields of liberal arts and sciences, general studies and humanities. Of these liberal arts degrees, 65% were awarded to female-identifying students. On the other hand, male-identifying graduates of the same year dominated the fields of law enforcement, computer and information sciences and engineering. At the same time, women constituted the smallest percentage of these fields.

A 2021 study on the gender gap in majors suggests that women tend to choose liberal arts majors due to various factors such as socialization, gender stereotypes and lack of exposure to STEM fields. Women may be socialized to believe that they are not as good at math and science as men, which can discourage them from pursuing STEM fields. Gender stereotypes may also lead women to believe that they are better suited for fields that are traditionally associated with women, such as education and social sciences. Additionally, the study found that a lack of exposure to STEM fields in high school or earlier may also contribute to womens lower participation in these fields.

With the rapidly changing global economy and artifical intelligence boom, there is an increased demand for workforce-ready graduates in the fields of engineering, finance and computer science. A 2023 research.com report on the best college majors to pursue ranked computer engineering, actuarial science, computer science, management and electronics engineering among the top five majors for college students. Similarly, of the top nine fastest-growing jobs in the United States, not one was relevant to the field of liberal arts. This leaves liberal arts majors, and therefore many female-identifying graduates, wondering where they will fit into this technology-dominated world.

The University of Northern Colorado found the answer. The universitys College of Humanities and Social Sciences website states, The broader knowledge and understanding of the world a liberal arts degree cultivates helps students engage in some of the most important issues of today: the environment, foreign policy, social justice, national and international security, ethics. This is reflected in companies such as Google, Apple and Facebook, where two-thirds of jobs are in nontechnical positions and are filled by liberal arts graduates.

There will always be a demand for critical thinking and communication skills, the main tenets of a liberal arts education. As tech companies grow and produce user-friendly products, there will be a subsequent demand for trained professionals who can simplify and market these products to the general public.

Liberal arts degrees leave a unique space for female-identifying students, opening opportunities for them to bridge the gap between the male-dominated tech world and the public.

It is also important to encourage female participation in STEM fields and promote equality in a rapidly expanding, male-dominated tech industry. Colleges and universities need to reform their established approaches to STEM education to create a learning environment that is equitable, encouraging and effective for female students.

By doing so, these institutions will take an active role in closing the gender gap and thereby contribute greatly to our tech-dominated future.

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OPINION | Female-dominated liberal arts imperative in male-dominated tech world - Tulane Hullabaloo

Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts

Tarleton State University seeks an experienced educator, researcher, and administrator to serve as Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts.

The Dean serves as the academic officer responsible for executive management of the college and its full range of programs and initiatives; exercises leadership responsibility in advising the college regarding administrative, curriculum, and budgetary matters; and provides a vision that contributes to achieving the goals of the institutional strategic plan: Tarleton Forward 2030. The ideal candidate will be a person who can articulate the importance of the collective disciplines of the college to outside stakeholders, and thinks creatively and energetically about the challenges of the changing demographics in higher education. The position reports to the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Institutional Profile

Tarleton State University is an energetic, comprehensive Carnegie R2 Doctoral University: High Research Activity, with the elective Community Engagement classification, and a new member of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The Wall Street Journals latest rankings have Tarleton State fifth among U.S. schools highly recommended by their students and recent alumni.

Fall 2023 brought another all-time high enrollment, outpacing many institutions nationwide. A total of over 14,500 students is up over 10% from 2019, making Tarleton the fifth fastest-growing university in Texas.

The university offers 84 bachelors, 39 masters, and three doctoral degree options, with 10 additional research and health professional doctorates proposed for 20242028. For their majors, students choose from seven academic colleges Agriculture and Natural Sciences; Business; Education; Health Sciences; Liberal and Fine Arts; Science and Mathematics; and the Mayfield College of Engineering.

Tarleton State University is a proud member of The Texas A&M University System and serves students on the main campus in Stephenville, its growing Fort Worth campus, in Waco, and on the A&M-RELLIS campus in Bryan. True to Tarletons values of excellence, integrity, and respect, academic programs emphasize real-world learning and address regional, state, and national needs.

Joining NCAA Division I in July 2020 as the ninth full-time member of the Western Athletic Conference increases national recognition for student-athletes and academic programs, positioning Tarleton State as a frontrunner for anyone seeking a university education. Among numerous milestones, its storied rodeo program boasts eight national team titles and 29 individual CNFR (College National Finals Rodeo) champs, making it a top pick for many cowgirls and cowboys.

Tarleton Student Body

Over 50% of Tarleton State students are first generation with no family tradition of seeking a post-secondary degree. Others are legacy students following their parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents as proud defenders of the purple and white. Some graduate from the only high school in their rural county, and some transfer from large urban community college districts.

Tarleton State students are a diverse group (almost 40 percent report an ethnicity other than white) from all parts of Texas, 48 states, and 47 countries. Over 80% receive some form of financial assistance, and 37% are Pell Grant eligible. They love the university its people, its traditions, its commitment to student triumphs in and out of the classroom.

The university is fast approaching status as a Hispanic-Serving Institution with almost 23 percent of its student body identifying as Hispanic in fall 2023.

The Class of 2027 is over 2,700 students and represents the largest, and most well-prepared group of incoming students in the universitys 124 years proof that Tarleton State is quickly becoming one of the nations premier comprehensive public universities.

Financial Stability

Tarleton States comprehensive operating budget for fiscal 2022 was $276 million, giving the university sound financial footing. The universitys largest-ever comprehensive capital campaign recently met its $125 million target 18 months ahead of schedule. These campaign dollars will strengthen student success, enhance the academic experience, elevate Tarleton States institutional profile, and fortify the schools infrastructure. Tarleton State saw the second-highest percentage growth in funding in the A&M System (only behind A&M-College Station) as part of a record $1.19 billion appropriated to the System by the 88th Legislature. The university also received a $5 million exceptional item, reflecting its contributions to research and innovation in rural healthcare. Tarleton State annually generates an estimated $1.2 billion for North Central Texas and $2 billion in added income for the state. College of Liberal and Fine Arts

The College of Liberal and Fine Arts (COLFA) is dedicated to providing an academically challenging education through exemplary teaching, significant research and inspired creativity. Home to 298 faculty and 26 staff who serve over 1,500 undergraduate majors and over 250 graduate students, the college manages a budget of almost $10 million and consists of the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Public Administration, which houses the departments of Criminal Justice and Public Administration, and six additional academic departments: Communication Studies; English and Languages; Government, Legal Studies, and Philosophy; History, Geography and GIS; Performing Arts; and Visual Arts and Design. The college offers 22 baccalaureate and five masters degrees, as well as the PhD degree in criminal justice, and plans to seek system and state approval for a new PhD program in Public & Applied Humanities.

COLFA Points of Pride

Named for a distinguished Tarleton alumnus and chairman of the Texas A&M Board of Regents, the Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center opened in 1980, and is considered a crown jewel of Tarleton States Stephenville campus. The facility features a theater, an auditorium, two workshop theaters, band and choir rehearsal halls, music and art design labs, and an art gallery.

Criminal Justice Research: The college is home to four dedicated research institutes that are nationally recognized for specialized work that is addressing challenges and issues in the criminal justice system: The Institute for Criminal Justice Leadership and Public Policy; the Institute for Homeland Security, Cybercrime, and International Criminal Justice Studies; Institute for Predictive and Analytical Policing Science; and the Institute for Violence Against Women and Human Trafficking.

The Texas Folklore Society is the second oldest folklore organization continually functioning in the United States, after the American Folklore Society founded in 1888. Chartered in 1909, The Texas Folklore Society held its first meeting at the University of Texas in 1911. The society has stimulated the recording and study of Texas rich folk culture, has attracted both laymen and scholars, and has distributed its publications throughout the world.

Responsibilities of the Dean

Required Qualifications and Credentials

Preferred Qualifications

Emphasized commitment to student success demonstrated through impactful and transformative educational opportunities; Experience in launching and sustaining masters and doctoral programs; Accomplishments in building institutional capacity for research and creative scholarship. Procedures for Applying

All applications, nominations, and inquiries are invited. Applications should include the following components, as separate .pdf documents:

A detailed letter of interest addressing the responsibilities and qualifications outlined above; A full curriculum vitae with relevant administrative and scholarly accomplishments and responsibilities; A list of five professional references, including names, titles, organizations, phone numbers, and email addresses, noting the candidates relationship with each reference. References will not be contacted without prior knowledge and approval of candidates. Application packets only accepted online at: https://www.tarleton.edu/jobs/externalapplicants/

Apply directly to posting: Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts

The search will be conducted with a commitment to maintaining confidentiality for candidates until finalists are selected. Finalists will participate in on-campus interviews that may include a public presentation. A background check (including identity, degree verification, and criminal records scan) must be completed satisfactorily before any candidate can be offered this position.

Candidate materials received by January 15, 2024, will be given full consideration, although applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

Tarleton State University provides equal opportunity to all employees, students, applicants for employment, and the public regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, genetic information or veteran status.

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Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts job with Tarleton State University | 37572379 - The Chronicle of Higher Education