October 4, 2026

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: The ‘Cornell 7’ haven’t been charged. The mob doesn’t care.

The allegations of a gang rape at a Cornell University frat house in 2024 that are dominating headlines have transported me right back to the preceding decade, where cases of regret too often turned into accusations of rape.

These were the years of the Obama administration, during which colleges and universities were pushed to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct in ways that favored the accusers. The accused – almost always young men – were essentially stripped of their constitutional due process rights, and the accuser’s word was all that mattered. Many male students were kicked off campus, with their reputations in ruins while they often lost judicial protections.

This problematic and unfair framework was fixed during President Donald Trump’s first term, and as of Sept. 28, those guidelines have been officially reinstated.

There is a rush to judgment in the Cornell rape allegations

The heated reaction to the Cornell allegations and the rush to judge the young men involved before they’ve had their day in court makes me fear the country has learned nothing about the dangers of simply “believing women.”

Read the whole thing.

Related:

UPDATE:

Posted at 1:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: The Election of 1936: When ‘Democracy’ Was on the Ballot.

The text of Hearst’s speech was reprinted on election eve in his flagship newspaper, the New York American. Displayed on the American’s front page that day was an editorial that considered the specter of socialism sweeping America, should Roosevelt win reelection. The editorial made generous use of capital letters in proclaiming “voters will decide whether their country is to remain a CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY or become a SOCIALISTIC nation. Governor Landon is PLEDGED to continue the constitutional democracy founded by Washington, Jefferson and Madison.”

Only slightly less florid was the Chicago Tribune, then reliably conservative in its opinions. In a front-page editorial published the day before the election beneath the headline, “Paul Revere must ride again,” the Tribune declared, “If Landon is not elected you may have seen the last of free government as you have known it. … If you love your country and want to preserve it, see that Mr. Roosevelt is defeated.”

An editorial cartoon displayed nearby showed Roosevelt guiding a caricature of Uncle Sam, blindfolded, to the edge of a cliff marked “dictatorship.”

The day before, the Tribune said in an editorial that if reelected, Roosevelt “will do everything in the power of his dominating office to bring the people of America under the will of a President as imperious as any European dictator.”

Roosevelt scoffed at such allegations as “false issues” conjured by political foes, a tactic, he said, “as old as our democracy.”

He declared in a radio speech on election eve: “We believe in democracy because of our traditions. But we believe in it even more because of our experience. Here in the United States we have been a long time at the business of self-government.”

The election wasn’t close. Roosevelt carried 46 states, losing only Maine and Vermont, while rolling up 523 electoral votes to Landon’s eight. The Literary Digest aptly called the result a “superlandslide” for Roosevelt, a savvy liberal politician who had estimated he would win 360 electoral votes. Asked about the discrepancy between his prediction and the outcome, Roosevelt said mischievously that it could be due to “my well-known conservative tendencies.”

In the election’s aftermath, Hearst was conciliatory, if unctuously so. In a signed commentary on the front page of the American, Hearst averred that the “country is still a democracy.” Gone were references to Roosevelt as would-be dictator.

Similar fears would return four years later, ultimately leading to the passage of the 22nd Amendment:

Posted at 12:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

METAPHOR ALERT:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

RUSSIA’S STOLEN CHILDREN ARE BEING TAUGHT TO KILL — USING HAMAS’S PLAYBOOK:

ABC News Australia’s new documentary, Ukraine’s Stolen Children, released this week, brought me to an image I couldn’t shake: a young child holding a rifle, smiling proudly. The image was jarring for another reason. I had seen it before.

Not in Ukraine. In Gaza.

The countries are different, the wars are different, and the actors are certainly different. Russia is a state. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Their histories, ideologies, and objectives are not interchangeable. What was impossible to ignore, however, was the similarity in what children were being taught and the methods being used to teach them.

The documentary examines Russia’s removal of Ukrainian children, including children taken from orphanages, care facilities, and camps. More than 20,000 have been identified by Ukrainian authorities as deported or forcibly displaced, although the true number may be considerably higher. Yet it was what happens to some of these children afterward that caught my attention.

The countries are different, the wars are different, and the actors are certainly different. Russia is a state. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Their histories, ideologies, and objectives are not interchangeable. What was impossible to ignore, however, was the similarity in what children were being taught and the methods being used to teach them.

The documentary examines Russia’s removal of Ukrainian children, including children taken from orphanages, care facilities, and camps. More than 20,000 have been identified by Ukrainian authorities as deported or forcibly displaced, although the true number may be considerably higher. Yet it was what happens to some of these children afterward that caught my attention.

Related:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

ABOUT YOUR FINGERPRINT: Today on HillFaith is the first of a dozen wonderful episodes of the “Glimpses of God” short videos produced by Illustra Media for the John 10:10 Project. Regardless of your views about the divine, each of these remarkable productions can inspire a new and deeper appreciation for the incredible beauty and complexity of the creation. Enjoy!

 

Posted at 8:16 am by Mark Tapscott

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Reality Slaps College Graduates In The Face. “A recent analysis from Burning Glass Institute found that unemployment among those 22-34 years old without a college degree is lower than it’s been in decades, but those with college diplomas are having a much harder time finding work than before.”

If only someone had offered some sort of warning.

Posted at 8:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

EVERYONE SHOULD: Even Democrats Oppose John Roberts Letting Foreign Citizens Tilt The House Of Representatives. “The survey, conducted by McLaughlin & Associates on Sept. 23, shows that of 1,000 likely voters, nearly two-thirds, 65 percent, believe the congressional apportionment base should be comprised solely of U.S. citizens. Strikingly, not only four in five self-identified Republicans, but also 54 percent of Democrats and nearly 60 percent of independents polled also somewhat or strongly agree with a policy that would necessarily exclude illegal aliens and other noncitizens from the count.”

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

October 3, 2026

OPEN THREAD: Party on.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THE NEW SPACE RACE:

Posted at 9:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Cornell brings back #MeToo.

#MeToo is back – thanks, largely, to Cornell University. A former student, identified only as Jane Doe, alleged in a civil suit last month that seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity drugged and gang-raped her in October 2024. Most of the subsequent social media outrage blurs a few distinctions. Prosecutors looked at her initial 2024 police statement and decided not to file charges. Cornell ran its own Title IX process. The county DA says the new civil lawsuit is “dramatically different” from what she told police at the time – as her original statement suggested she consented, and that when she raised concerns, the men stopped. The 2024 statement recounts Doe participating in three ketamine-fueled threesomes with four men, while three others burst into the room and snort ketamine off her naked body. The DA has since reopened the case and sent it to a grand jury, which could bring charges.

You would not know much about what Doe told the police initially from the social media clamor around the story – which centers on some vulgar but not incriminating Snapchat messages between the fraternity members, and how few of them were solely disciplined by having to write essays. After news of the civil suit broke, the Cornell Daily Sun newspaper decided to name the seven men it accused. Since then, Instagram, TikTok and X have been awash with outrage. People are being encouraged to call Cornell University and complain. At least one of the seven has been fired from his job at a North Carolina bank. A man unfortunate enough to share a name with another of the seven has been harassed online. On TikTok, mothers are filming themselves hectoring their male children about sexual assault, to broadcast that they’re not raising rapists. “Remove their heads in a public setting, it’s the only answer,” declares one Instagram post featuring the fraternity brothers’ faces, that has 200,000 likes.

Yet the events of the days that followed the night of the October 19, 2024 party merit consideration. The New York Times has more than 1,000 pages from Cornell’s internal investigation, which tell a broader story than the civil lawsuit or viral rage would suggest. 

Related:

 

Posted at 8:50 pm by Ed Driscoll

I SUSPECT PUTIN HAS REACTIVATED THE OLD SOVIET BIOWAR APPARAT:

Cipro and Levaquin are very effective treatments. Unless, of course, the strain has been weaponized with antibiotic resistance.

Posted at 8:06 pm by Glenn Reynolds