Free Expression

Everything Kathy Hochul has done has put us in a death spiral here in New York, and I want to be the pilot that pulls us out of that death spiral, Bruce Blakeman tells @Moira_Gleason_
on.wsj.com/4hTIXg1

I found myself on Columbia University’s campus on Wednesday afternoon. As I walked around, taking in the early fall sunshine, I noticed a faint clamor outside campus. Oh yeah. I remembered. It’s Oct. 7, writes @emmma_camp_ 
on.wsj.com/4y7x5xb

Priscilla Oppenheimer helped guide thousands of minor leaguers in their baseball quest. She pioneered initiatives to increase pay for athletic trainers and organized classes for Latin American players to learn English, writes @AMBS_Kernan
on.wsj.com/4jNqeFr

These portraits may seem innocuous enough. But they reflect, and serve to justify, the academic decline of K-12 public education, writes @NicoleReneeAult 
on.wsj.com/4yEHTDL

“Choosin’ Texas” is like mental velcro, stuck to the insides of all of our heads. It’s so overplayed that its admirable qualities have become dry and brittle. If they don’t stop playing it pretty soon, we’ll all be choosin’ cyanide, writes @rkylesmith
on.wsj.com/4rVAiOD

Parole is rarely a second chance; it’s more often the 10th, writes Edward Conlon
on.wsj.com/4hKloWU

Mamdani is giving money to organizations that practice antisemitism while pretending they’ll fight it. He’s hostile to Israel and opposed to legitimate efforts to counter antisemitism, writes @zach_kessel
on.wsj.com/4rUIbnG

Only the most ignorant, blinkered or malicious mind could liken Israelis to Nazis while conveniently overlooking Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who share both the Nazis’ goals and their tactics, writes @continetti
on.wsj.com/3WgoZEV

One of the wildest stories out of Silicon Valley is, alas, a rumor. Allegedly, some of the valley’s denizens are worshipping artificial intelligence as a god, writes @jackbutler4815
on.wsj.com/4zmR3ET

The U.S. Senate race in Kansas is tied, as near as anyone can tell, though the state hasn’t had a Democrat in that office since “The Wizard of Oz” premiered, writes Melinda Henneberger
on.wsj.com/3TIopz9

Like most people, I’m wishy-washy on the death penalty. But experience tells me that if you’re going to do a thing, you should at least do it right, writes @MattHennessey  
on.wsj.com/4hXot6i

Most Americans have never heard of Irkutsk, Russia, unless they’ve played the board game Risk. But they’re about to know all about Irkutsk, because Irkutsk is the location of a possible outbreak of plague, writes @MattHennessey
on.wsj.com/473CiuR

Despite online insistence that the university is still a den of anti-Israel hatred, Columbia on the third anniversary of Oct. 7 had a normal one. If anything, it was a nice day for a visit, writes @emmma_camp_ 
on.wsj.com/3TOudak

If graduates aren’t ready for college or the workplace, the real culprit is the progressive tilt of public education, writes @NicoleReneeAult 
on.wsj.com/4yAE3vr

It’s gotten easier to gain parole. Appointments to the New York State Parole Board, which require state senate confirmation, have been a political battlefield for a decade, writes Edward Conlon 
on.wsj.com/3VzAjMh

The “Testimonium Flavianum” is the oldest non-Christian account of Jesus. According to Christian scholar T.C. Schmidt, though the text has been contested, it is authentic, writes @heymiller.

Read more: on.wsj.com/4rY1MDl

Oct. 7 was a moral test. All too many have failed it, writes @continetti
on.wsj.com/4drfPvh

Christa Pike isn’t really a sympathetic figure. And yet, by botching the business so badly, Tennessee has managed to make her one, writes @MattHennessey
on.wsj.com/4AWIxxZ

Today: @continetti says we’ve failed Oct. 7’s moral test; Ed Conlon won’t grant parole; @emmma_camp_ visits Columbia; and @NicoleReneeAult paints a portrait of the modern high-school grad. Plus, @MattHennessey winces at Tennessee’s botched execution.
on.wsj.com/4ycbHXo

On the face of it, the funding package looks like patronage. But Mamdani’s plan to fight antisemitism is also the logical conclusion of Democrats’ compulsion to add “and Islamophobia” to every mention of antisemitism, writes @zach_kessel
on.wsj.com/4j64zbj