Forest Romm

Research Associate @ManhattanInst | Writer & Reporter | Opinions my own

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

During the Obama administration, schools were put under the threat of investigation if suspension rates were different by race.

A student was violent, or brought a weapon to school? It didn't matter. Schools were still under the threat of investigation.

"They were really concerned about aggregate statistics and not concerned about the underlying behavior...so a lot of schools stopped reporting when things were happening. But that didn't stop the violence from happening."

@CarolynGorman_ spoke to @cabot_phillips on @realDailyWire's Wired In Live ⬇️

[Charles Fain Lehman @CharlesFLehman]

I'm in @TheFP this morning on the ways in which pot is more like cigarettes than like alcohol, and what that augurs for weed's political future.

https://t.co/e9Y130o8GO

[Neetu Arnold @neetu_arnold]

As I wrote in @CityJournal, the anti-merit experiments of the 2010s and early 2020s have failed

High-achieving students lose educational opportunities. Expecting them to “just deal with it” wasn’t a sustainable approach

[John Sailer @JohnDSailer]

NEW: Ed Secretary Linda McMahon just released a "call to action" to university presidents and boards, pushing a list of reforms. In some ways, this is similar to earlier statements. But notably, several university presidents reportedly helped draft it.

Read along w/ me 🧵

[Rob Henderson @robkhenderson]

41% of Democratic college students say they would not support a business run by a Republican. 37% of Democratic college students say they would not be friends with a Republican. And 30% say they would not work for one.

The numbers on the Republican side are much lower. Only 7% of Republican college students say they would not support a business run by a Democrat. Just 5% say they would not be friends with a Democrat, and only 7% say they would not work for one.

The difference is stark. On the Democratic side, roughly 30 to 40 percent of college students say they do not want to associate with Republicans, either personally or professionally. Among Republican students, the numbers are in the single digits—around 5 to 7 percent. A striking asymmetry.

[Forest Romm @Forest_Romm]

On a scale of Don Draper to George Santos…

[Wesley Yang @wesyang]

No respectable person was willing to say the truth that everyone knew; only the pariah and outcast who had been driven out.

It was the ideal circumstance for Arday and his enablers to launder away the accusation: everyone who knew what Cofnas knew (many many many people) was too invested in the system enabling the fraud to speak out. The case had to be as egregious as it was for the accusation to survive even that filter.

We thus are learning how fraudulent you have to be to get caught.

Anything short of this in any domain lacking a renegade with nothing to lose and (perhaps) something to gain by telling the truth will not be caught.

[Forest Romm @Forest_Romm]

This is a case study in what not to do if the right wants to avoid caricaturing itself. It doesn’t matter if the story is obnoxious (it is) -“I wouldn’t want my daughter reading that” is not a valid reason to curtail academic freedom.

[The Free Press @TheFP]

Vinita Prabhakar was fired for teaching an award-winning short story that the college president called “political.” She is now suing under a GOP-backed statute protecting free expression on campus, writes Josh Code. https://t.co/SUG4II3BR6

[Forest Romm @Forest_Romm]

The rare piece of MA legislation I can get behind.

[The Boston Globe @BostonGlobe]

A Massachusetts law bars residents from making virtual appointments with out-of-state therapists unless the therapist has a license to practice in the state. https://t.co/8xrGLbheqp

[Forest Romm @Forest_Romm]

Exclusion is society’s immune response to cultural pathogens. Without it, we get very, very sick.

[Colin Wright @SwipeWright]

"I wouldn't really say that I'm educated enough from a scientific standpoint. I don't ever believe that exclusion is the answer."

But exclusion is the answer. I'd be happy to consult with the Indiana Fever's coach on the science and explain exactly why.

[Forest Romm @Forest_Romm]

Women are crazy.

[Andy Ngo @MrAndyNgo]

A trans funeral home director in Houston, Texas has bonded out on an $800,000 bail after he was charged for allegedly forging documents to transfer millions of estate assets of a dead person to himself.

Michael Green, who now goes by “Unique Green” and is referred to as a “woman” in media, also had his business raided where authorities found human organs in a bucket. His business also had a $716,000 contract with Harris County. He transported bodies in rented U-Hauls.

[Mia Hughes @_CryMiaRiver]

In the conclusion of the essay I wrote last year about Neil Hopper and the overlaps between autogynephilia and apotemnophilia, I said this:

“The British public’s reversal on Neil Hopper — from applause to disdain — is but a small taste of what awaits when the West finally confronts the truth of what it has celebrated in the era of trans rights: a paraphilia disguised as a healthy identity, with paraphilic men paraded as cultural icons.

Just as many are now wondering what exactly was Hopper’s motivation in pursuing a career amputating limbs, in the coming years, society will similarly have to grapple with what motivated paraphilic men to invade women’s spaces, “breastfeed” infants, and call themselves lesbians, all while the world cheered them on.”

This excellent Guardian article portrays the horror that a daughter feels at the thought of her mother being cared for by such a depraved man.

But surely even worse is all the children who are going to grow up and one day learn that their father “breastfed” them for sexual kicks. 

I truly do not believe there has ever been a more insane moment in all of human history.

[Charles Fain Lehman @CharlesFLehman]

This is the Burlington, VT state's attorney.

Again: these sites don't reduce deaths, and they are illegal to operate. Why are states spending millions of opioid settlement dollars on them instead of on treatment beds and free buprenorphine?

[Carolyn D. Gorman @CarolynGorman_]

This insane NYT interview downplays how terrible polyamory is for kids, with woman who says the worst thing about it for the kids she has talked to is “stigma” about the alternative family relationship.

As if. Children who grow up in households with unrelated adults have higher rates of sexual abuse, maltreatment, and are even more likely to die of inflicted injuries. They do worse in school. No study had ever found a positive outcome of polygamy, specifically, on children’s mental health, and infant mortality is higher.

The best environment for kids is living with two married biological parents, where they have the lowest overall maltreatment rate and best later life outcomes.

Even this article gives away that it’s bad, with the woman interviewed saying that kids told her the best thing about growing up in a polyamorous household was being given extra candy when parents say no because the parents’ “sweetie” won’t—the “sweetie” is more willing to give the kids candy because they don’t want to “deal with” kids’ problems. Who would argue that’s what healthy investment in a kids future looks like?

Polyamory might be “right for you” as the NYT wants you to think, but it’s not right for kids.

https://t.co/DcUCZNzQVt

[Forest Romm @Forest_Romm]

Utterly wretched.

[Carolyn D. Gorman @CarolynGorman_]

This is appalling. The elitist NYT is trying to normalize polygamy by interviewing someone they posed as an expert on how it affects kids.

This woman mentions a single study that only had 33 participants under age 18—BARELY enough for a sample size—and does nothing other than qualitative interviews. Then she and the NYT entirely downplay any bad effects.

This is NOT what the broader literature says about polygamy’s effects on kids. That literature says effects are terrible.

Hidden beneath the downplayed bad and overplayed good, this woman interviewed totally gives away that she has an agenda and that polygamy puts more uninvested adults in front of kids who don’t care about kids’ long-term well-being.

NYT asks her to what kids said are the “best things” about growing up in a polygamous family. The answer: she says kids describe being given extra candy because their parents’ “sweetie” doesn’t want to “deal with” their problems.

Soooo partners undermining parents and placating kids when they need support is the BEST thing about polygamy for kids?? How could anyone think this is best for children.

Classy, NYT.

https://t.co/Tdcg32BetE

[Neetu Arnold @neetu_arnold]

🧵Crazy story of grade tampering by admin at a South Carolina college

🔹86 changes inflating grades; D➡️C most common

🔹14 instances of Fs changed to non-failing grades

🔹The prof who blew the whistle on these changes was apparently fired after this info was publicly reported

[John Sailer @JohnDSailer]

The AAUP’s endorsement of El-Sayed is definitionally unprecedented, a first-ever endorsement by the 110-year-old organization.

It’s also entirely consistent with the group’s recent resolution on “building power,” which embraces politics unequivocally.

[John Sailer @JohnDSailer]

Yikes. This is an absolutely insane policy.

[REDUXX @reduxx]

🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨

An Iraq veteran serving a 167-year sentence for raping SEVEN women is now identifying as transgender and suing to be moved to a women's prison.

Aaron "Arya" Pernell is also demanding surgeries to give him a "fully functional" vagina.

https://t.co/WxyboRBXGg

[Leor Sapir @LeorSapir]

Very important 🧵

Science-minded commentators on the youth gender medicine debate cannot ignore questions about the core concept that animates the field, at least not if they wish to avoid being superficial.

[Forest Romm @Forest_Romm]

There may be few contemporary popular artists who are social conservatives - but we get Nick Cave, so who cares.