RILEY HOWELL WAS A HERO:  The UNC Charlotte ROTC student will be buried with full military honors.

NEARLY 200 UNIVERSITIES ENCOURAGE, FACILITATE THE RACIAL SEGREGATION OF THEIR STUDENTS:   Progressives are really regressive.

WHEN DEMOCRATS SPOUT OBVIOUS UNTRUTHS: It doesn’t fit the narrative, so it isn’t newsworthy.

WEIRD STORIES COME OUT OF RUSSIA: On this day in 1729, Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia, was born in what was then part of Prussia and is now part of Poland. If your mind leaps to a story about her you learned in the schoolyard in the 8^th grade … you know what story I’m talking about … the one about the horse … don’t play innocent with me … well it’s obviously an urban legend, and you and your 8^th grade pals would have immediately recognized it as such had you been a couple of years older. Remember: It’s Russia. Weird stories come out of Russia. That doesn’t make them true.

THIS MAKES ME JOYFUL:  My spell check is adamant that “intersectionality” is not a word.  Right you are, Mr. Spell Check.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  THE FALL OF SAIGON:  On the next day in history:  Re-education camps for anyone who seemed insufficiently enthusiastic about the new regime.

ELIZABETH WARREN ACCUSES JOE BIDEN OF SIDING WITH CREDIT COMPANIES OVER STRUGGLING AMERICANS:  But he can accuse her faking the results of her bankruptcy research.

NEW REPORT ON CAMPUS SEPARATISM:  Congratulations to the National Association of Scholars for taking on the issue of campus neo-segregation.  For too long, colleges and universities have been giving in to student demands for separate dormitories, separate graduation ceremonies, separate student relaxation areas, etc.  This is an important issue, so I hope to be saying more about it soon …

DACHAU LIBERATED:  On this day in 1945, the infamous concentration camp at Dachau was liberated by U.S. forces.

As an interesting footnote to history, it was a Japanese-American unit of the U.S. Army (the 522nd Filed Artillery Battalion) that liberated the camp at Hurlach, one of Dachau’s satellites.

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY: It happened on this day in 1789. And if what you know about the mutiny is what you saw in the 1935 movie or the 1962 movie, then you may be surprised that the acerbic William Bligh was more the hero of the story than the villain. It was complicated.

The HMS Bounty had been sent on its long journey to Tahiti to collect breadfruit trees and transport them to the British West Indies. But when it arrived it turned out that, among other things, the trees needed to be dug up, potted, and allowed to take root before they could be taken away. As a result of all the delays, for a period of five months, the crew of 45 had to remain on Tahiti and be entertained by the … uh … extremely hospitable ladies of the island. The men—especially Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian—really hated to leave. He was in love.

Contrary to the early 20^th “history,” the 33-year-old Bligh was not physically cruel to his men—not by late 18^th century standards anyway. He used the lash rather less than most captains. That is not to say that he was Mr. Congeniality. He could give humiliating tongue-lashings with the best of them. But the mutiny, which occurred about three weeks after leaving Tahiti, was more about a rash group of fools who desperately wanted to go back to the lovely ladies of Tahiti than it was about unreasonably harsh treatment.

And they were vicious. As leader, Christian’s plan was to cast Bligh and the men who were loyal to him adrift in the Pacific, where the odds that they would survive were very slim. One problem was that it turned out half the crew were loyalists and there was not enough room in the launch for all of them.   Several therefore stayed with the ship, some of them begging Bligh to remember that they were not among the mutineers. “Never fear, lads,” he told them. “I’ll do you justice if ever I reach England.”

The launch, which held 19, was equipped with only five days of food and water, a sextant, a compass, a few tools and cutlasses, nautical tables and little else. It was only Bligh’s impressive seamanship skills through stormy seas that saved their lives. Or at least some of their lives. An early effort to get food and water on the island of Tongatapu resulted in one crewmember getting stoned to death by the natives. They dared not stop in the Fiji Islands given their reputation as a home to cannibals. Instead, they headed for the Dutch settlement at Kupang some 3500 (yes, that’s 3500) miles away, requiring them to navigate their way through treacherous parts of the Great Barrier Reef and through a maze of other hazards.

Miraculously, they made it.   On June 14^th they arrived Kupang, although several of the men were in such poor health they ultimately died before making it home.

Bligh arrived in London in March of 1790 where he was hailed as a hero. He was formally court martialed for the loss of the Bounty, but it was a foregone conclusion that he would be acquitted. (Of course, no mutineer was there to testify.)

Meanwhile, the mutineers had made it back to Tahiti (in a somewhat roundabout way). There, the group broke up. Fearful that British authorities would catch up with them and aware that many Tahitians had begun to view them with hostility, Christian and eight others essentially abducted 20 Tahitians (14 women and 6 men) and headed for faraway, uninhabited Pitcairn Island. If there was anyplace they could successfully hide, Pitcairn was it.

The rest of the crewmembers, including several loyalists, were allowed to remain on Tahiti, where ultimately they were arrested by British authorities. Some died in a shipwreck on the way back to London. After a trial (at which, fairly or unfairly, Bligh’s reputation was somewhat tarnished), four were acquitted, three were pardoned, and three were hanged.

The Pitcairn Island contingent was not discovered until 1808. By that time, things there had long since come undone. Five of the mutineers, including Christian, had been killed in 1793 by the Tahitian men, who themselves were killed later on. Violence and alcoholism had ravaged the island for more than a decade. In 1808, only one mutineer was alive—John Adams—along with several women and children.  It is a ghastly story, softened only by Adams’ efforts to ensure the children would learn to read and become good Christians.

THE ORIGINAL CHILDREN’S CRUSADES WERE CREEPY: Their modern incarnation is no different.

It’s hard to separate truth from legend when it comes to the 13^th century. But there does seem to be a kernel of truth to the story of the Children’s Crusades.

Stephen of Cloyes was evidently a real person.  And he appears to have been really 12 years old when he claimed to have received a message from God commanding him to lead a peaceful crusade to the Holy Land to convert Muslims to Roman Catholicism.

Stephen is said to have led an army of 30,000 children to Paris, where he demanded and received an audience with King Philip II. But Philip was not impressed with the little squirt. He declined to back Stephen’s grandiose plans. Stephen therefore decided to act without royal backing. Believing that the waters of the Mediterranean would part and that his followers could thus walk to the Holy Land, he led his army to Marseille.

There, the movement came to no good. The waters didn’t part. Legend has it that many were tricked into securing passage on a ship that took them to North Africa instead of the Holy Land, where they were promptly sold into slavery. Tough break, kids.

A similar movement appears to have been led by a boy named Nicholas of Cologne in Germany. There is even less known about it. But it was certainly no more successful.

Today we have Greta Thunberg, a now-16-year-old teenager with Asberger’s syndrome who lectures world leaders about climate change at Davos and at the European Parliament. Her parents really ought to be ashamed.

This week Greta did the British Parliament. And she helped lead traffic-disrupting protests in the London streets.  There is a Greta Thunberg cult out there today.

The only good news is that Theresa May did not show up for Greta’s meeting with British leaders. On other issues, the news about May has not been good lately. But so far at least, she, like King Philip II, is not taking her orders on climate change from a child.

WASHINGTON POST: “SRI LANKA’S MUSLIMS FEAR RETALIATION AFTER EASTER ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS”: Yes, of course, I sympathize with innocent Sri Lankan Muslims who fear that they will be associated and hence blamed for the sins of their ISIS co-religionists. But I’m not sure this is the most newsworthy angle on the Sri Lankan murders today. The victims are not even all in their graves. Shouldn’t we hear a bit more about them? Or about the royal screw-up of the Sri Lankan government, which had been warned that such an attack was being planned?

This appears to me to be another example of left-leaning journalists’ political usefulness bias. I suppose we all have such a bias, but given the disproportionate number of leftists in the media, it gets a little tedious.

You’d think that after the Washington Post’s howler of a headline (“Christianity under attack? Sri Lanka bombings stoke far-right anger in the West”) earlier in the week that it would want to avoid such criticism … but I guess not.

THE LATEST DUELING NEWS STORIES: The Guardian reports, “Immigration Detention Centers Nearly Empty as Trump Claims Border Crisis.” Meanwhile the New York Times, reports on “overburdened detention centers” in “ICE Faces Migrant Detention Crunch as Border Chaos Spills Into Interior of the Country.” Whatever.

For what it’s worth at this point, here’s what I saw when I visited two immigration detention centers a few years ago. I am hoping to visit another soon.

WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HOSTS NO-WHITES-ALLOWED FACULTY AND STAFF MEETINGS: It’s to promote inclusivity.  Of course it is.

WHAT?: Apparently, it’s not just a racial slur, but it’s also a criminal offense in Texas to accuse someone of making monkey faces?

NON-PARTISAN: “AP U.S. History Textbook Calls Trump ‘Racist,’ Questions His Mental Stability.”

ON THIS DAY IN 2014: The Supreme Court decided the absurdly named Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary. In it, the Court held that it’s not unconstitutional for Michigan voters to prohibit the State of Michigan from engaging in race discrimination. Yes, it took the Supreme Court to decide that.

“MICROSOFT CONFUSES THE WORKPLACE WITH A WOKE PLACE”:  Make sure you read the last paragraph.

NEVER SAY NEVER: I really never thought I’d be praising Kim Kardashian. I’m not a celebrity-oriented kind of girl.  But her response to the celebrity college admissions scandal is actually praiseworthy: “If [my kids] couldn’t get into a school, I would never want to use privilege to try to force them into a situation that they wouldn’t thrive in anyway.”

Go, Ms. Kardashian!

Yes, if you’ve been reading Instapundit, you already know my view on race-preferential (or any other kind of preferential) admissions policies: that it’s a mistake for any student to attend a school where he or she doesn’t have a fighting chance at graduating at the top of class. What you didn’t know is that the fabulous Kim Kardashian and I are … uh … spiritual sisters (except for the killer sex appeal part).

“SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER,” THEY DEMANDED:  Williams College student newspaper demands segregated housing.

ACHIEVEMENT GAPS IN EDUCATION: No, you’re not going to fix them by blaming the schools.

DON’T ALL LIVES MATTER?: “Oregon county to pay black worker who complained about ‘Blue Lives Matter’ flag $100K settlement.”

Chaser: Buttigieg now regrets having said “All lives matter.”

And by the way: Black crime victims matter too.

THE TRANSGENDER BATHROOM CONTROVERSY CONTINUES TO ROIL: In February of 2017, the Trump Administration (at the behest of Jeff Sessions) withdrew the Obama-Era guidance that required federally-funded schools to allow anatomical boys who psychologically identify as girls to use the girls’ bathrooms, showers and locker rooms (and vice versa). Sessions was right about the law (as I believe I explain here pretty thoroughly).

But people are still arguing about that issue. And even if the Supreme Court ultimately determines that Sessions was right, that only leaves each school district the discretion to choose a policy for itself. Here are links to some of the little and not-so-little battles being fought just in the last few weeks.

ANOTHER MEN’S COLLEGE DECIDES TO ACCEPT “TRANSGENDER MEN”: But it says that it expects all its students to identify as male throughout their stay. Transgender women are evidently not eligible for admissions.

Here’s an odd angle:  It is ordinarily thought that there are more biological males who identify as women than there are biological females who identify as men. Hence by accepting transgender men, but not transgender women, a men’s college may actually minimize the likelihood that it will have transgender students.

“THE BIG FAIL:  WHY BAR PASS RATES HAVE SUNK TO RECORD LOWS”:  Glenn linked to this article yesterday and pointed out the the biggest problem is the decline in law students’ entering academic credentials. I can only add what I hope is obvious: Assuming the credentials decline is the same across racial groups (and I believe it is), the lower the bar passage rate, the more problematic race-preferential admissions (and the problem of mismatch) will be.