Opinion
By Dave Scott, 12-5-25
Harvard University recently hired as an instructor one of the graduates of its Divinity School, who was charged with assaulting an Israeli classmate in October 2023, just weeks after Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 Israelis.
Elom Tettley-Tamaklo was caught on camera at a protest accosting a first-year student, an Israeli man, who was then studying at Harvard Business School reported National Review. After the encounter, Tettley-Tamaklo was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery. He was ordered by a judge to take an anger management course and complete 80 hours of community service as part of a pre-trial diversion agreement.
The National Review reported that Harvard Law School graduate Ibrahim Bharmal also participated in the October 2023 protest and was charged with assault for his involvement. Harvard also continued to support this student, and he was awarded a $65,000 Harvard Law Review fellowship.
No wonder these losers cling to their alma maters. Who else would hire them?
“I don’t doubt that if Jeffrey Dahmer were still alive, Harvard would hire him to lecture in their dietician school,” American Spectator writer and Tampa friend Larry Thornberry commented to me about the hiring in an email.
I responded to Larry suggesting that schools seeking interior decorators to recklessly rearrange pliable students’ mental furniture could add retired Navy Captain and Arizona Democrat Senator Mark Kelly to lecture on the Uniform Code of Military Justice; Texas Democrat Congresswoman Jasmine Crocket to teach logic, and Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson (D), who thinks islands will tip over if they are overpopulated, to head the Geology Department. There is no shortage of such candidates in the Democrat party.
There should be a notice posted above Harvard Yard’s Johnston Gate saying: “Enter at your own risk.”
***
Speaking Of Nutty Professors: New York University professor Jeff Goodwin gave parents another reason to save money and assure their kids’ financial future by sending them to trade schools when he was quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Monday, Dec. 1, about accused shooter Luigi Mangione, saying: “He had the chutzpah to actually do something spectacular, which people find attractive and courageous.”
The cowardly and vile weasel Mangione is accused of “allegedly” shooting and killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHeathcare. The murder was picked up by a security camera as Mangione shot the married father of two in the back as walked down a Manhattan street. This despicable NYU professor says Mangione’s murderous act was “attractive, courageous, and spectacular.”
Colleges and universities are becoming out of control breeding grounds for homicidal fruitcakes and as dangerous as the streets of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s lawless Chicago and Gavin Newsome’s San Francisco and Los Angeles..
***
Trading Places: Trade schools don’t have this problem with their no-nonsense instructors. Their graduates are in extreme demand with eager employers waiting to offer generous pay packages and benefits.
Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley publicly lamented just a few weeks ago that his company can’t find enough qualified candidates to run his automobile plants. He said Ford can’t fill 5,000 auto mechanic jobs that pay $120,000 a year. Show me a gender studies or black history graduate that makes that much starting out or ever will.
The owners of an automobile repair company on Amelia Island told me the other day that they have a great deal of difficulty finding qualified mechanics. They blame the local school system that has ignored teaching trades.
Farley agrees saying the country is in trouble because schools aren’t providing what businesses need. He said, “We have over one million openings in critical jobs, emergency services, trucking, factory workers, plumbers, electricians, and tradesmen. Ford is struggling to hire mechanics at salaries that Ivy League grads might envy.”
If Ford is suffering from the lack of mechanics then other car makers must be too. Why don’t they collude and create trade academies? Most of the Ivies are private and collect massive amounts of cash from alumni and corporations as well as government grants. Why should trade schools be any different?
Encouraging kids to go to college when trade school would be a much better fit and more economically beneficial is a huge mistake made by parents and high school guidance counselors.
Send junior to trade school and during the Christmas break he can come home and fix mom and dad’s car instead of embarrassing the family by parading around town protesting the local police departments and praising antisemitic Middle Eastern terrorists and other screwball notions he picked up on campus.
Mom and dad deserve a return on their investment not a kick in the rear from junior and sis.
***
Sunshine State Schools Shine: Local high school students and their parents hereabouts seeking a top notch college or university need to look no further than their own back yard as the University of Florida was ranked number one in the country by the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal that ranked 100 U.S. colleges. An added bonus is that residents pay in-state tuition.
The schools were assessed on qualities such as free speech, the school’s approach to politics on campus, and students’ professional success after graduation. A vibrant and inclusive social life, ideological pluralism among faculty, and a tolerance for controversial speakers were also factors.
The rankings also factored in the strength of the general curriculum and whether the university is providing excellence and not just coasting on a fancy reputation.
Florida State ranked seventh.
Not a single Ivy League school made the top 10. Notre Dame (no. 5) and Purdue (no. 8) were the only schools outside of the South to make the top 10.
***
Logical Local: Local logical thinker and polymath Dr. Jerry Decker stated here last week that one of the proposed solutions to tax increases and avoiding the despised paid parking proposal was to have Brett’s marina removal be paid for by a developer as part of the marina revitalization.
“Offer a long-term (intelligently designed) Brett’s lease to demolish, construct, and operate a new water-side restaurant”, suggested Decker. “Brett’s was much loved and a landmark. A new landmark is needed—not just trees and grass.”
It’s a solid idea, but I imagine a major stumbling block there would be paid parking advocate and City Commissioner Tim Poynter, who owns several downtown eateries and bars. Why would Poynter vote for a competitor to move in? Does he have a conflict of interest here? Maybe he should recuse himself from this whole nutty shebang.
Another simple solution is for the city to sell some of its nonperforming and untaxed real estate. If a private citizen or firm owned the millions of dollars’ worth of properties currently owned by the city, they would manage them to generated the highest return possible. The city is clueless. And Poynter will do everything he can to avoid providing the city incentives to attract competitors to his downtown enterprises.
The recall petition of Poynter and Minshew is a beginning. Getting rid of the potted plant called James Antun and tree-hugging extreme environmentalist Joyce Tuten, who is the hand puppet of former Commissioner Chip Ross, at the next election is the next step.
***
Making The Same Mistake Twice: If parking meters are such a good idea why did the city rip them out.
Phil Hendrix, who was born in Fernandina, grew up here, and worked for the city and the county, recalls going downtown shopping with his mother in the 1960s and listening to her complain about having to drop dimes and quarters in meters.
As a kid, Phil acted as a spotter looking for empty spaces with unexpired meters.
One of the reasons Centre Street was reconfigured was to encourage tourism and generate more downtown visitors recalls Phil.
He said that after the meters were cut off with acetylene torches the city hired a “meter maid” whose job was to patrol downtown, marking car tires with chalk. If the cars overstayed their allotted posted times, they were ticketed.
Phil’s attitude today is the same as his mother’s was some 60 years ago. “Why would the city make people pay to go downtown and shop?”
Republished with the author’s permission. Read The Dave Scott Blog– subscribe Free
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.
