Across the country this week, concerned college students on over 100 campuses took part in the largest conservative student protest in history. The Terrorism Awareness project, founded by prominent conservative activist David Horowitz, organized workshops, film screenings and protests as part of the group’s Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.

The event spurred useful dialogue concerning the extreme threat that militant Islam poses to our nation. Conservative campus groups and liberal student activists alike attended IFAW events to engage in well reasoned, peaceful, intellectual debate about the merits of the Terrorism Awareness’ message.

The dominance of liberal leanings in higher education is not a very shocking development; in fact, it is hardly newsworthy. What is surprising, however, is that the liberal and secular values that modern day academia espouses have begun to seep into a most unlikely academic institution: the Catholic university. Two of America’s oldest Catholic universities now find themselves dangerously close to having their affiliations revoked by the Church.

Two weeks ago, Sun contributing columnist Evan Baker Smith ’08 introduced the Cornell community to the small town of Jena, La.; a town that is now at the center of a racial — and media — firestorm, following the arrest of six African American youths for the savage beating of a racist classmate. The defendants in this case have come to be known as the “Jena Six.”

Liberté, égalité, fraternité. The conceptions of freedom, equality and fraternity were originally linked by the Most Reverend François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai, at the end of the 17th century. Fénelon, who penned The Adventures of Telemachus while still serving under Louis XIV, could not have predicted the impact that this association would have.

Parisians rallied round the slogan “Liberté, égalité, fraternité, ou la mort!” (Freedom, equality, brotherhood or death) at the outset of the French Revolution and even painted the phrase on their houses. This motto embodied the struggle of a people battling against oppression and tyranny.

The auto de fe was a ceremony used by Spanish inquisitors to publicly display condemned heretics just before execution. The ceremony would involve parading the condemned about the town square before reading the charges aloud and executing the “guilty.” The ritual, which many believed ended with the Inquisition, is actually still being used in Medford, Mass. today.

Deckhead:

John Manetta Once Told Me

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There are very few terms that intimidate the Democratic party more than the phrase “global war on terror.” Democrats in the House Armed Services Committee were so were so petrified of the slogan that they “banished” it from the 2008 defense budget last month. In doing so, the Democrats have affirmed their belief that the War in Iraq has no ties to the struggle against Islamofascist terrorist organizations worldwide.

Deckhead:

John Manetta Once Told Me

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In early modern Europe the infant mortality rate was astronomical. Crude medical practices led to a high casualty rate for mother and child alike. In many cases, new mothers would be forced to rely on lying-in-maids to handle maternal responsibilities, while they recovered from the exhausting and traumatic experience of child birth.

Deckhead:

John Manetta Once Told Me

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Striking new developments in the Iranian Hostage Crisis: nothing has changed. Despite the headlines that you may see emblazoned across the New York Times and Washington Post, there is nothing new going on in Iran.

Deckhead:

John Manetta Once Told Me

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Liberal Democrats and apologist Republicans alike are calling for the head of Marine Corp General Peter Pace. General Pace, who also happens to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has come under fire for his irresponsibility. His “irresponsible” behavior had nothing to do with a lack of body armor or the disgraceful treatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed. General Pace drew the ire of the left for something much more important than the safety of our soldiers: he made “irresponsible” comments regarding the Clinton administration’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and homosexuality in the military.