Free speech has a very small constituency on the modern campus, particularly if the speaker under attack is conservative.

In 1997, the National Association of Social Work (NASW) altered its ethics code, ruling that all social workers must promote social justice "from local to global level." This call for mandatory advocacy raised the question: what kind of political action did the highly liberal field of social work have in mind? The answer wasn't long in coming.

If anyone ever starts a museum of horrible explanations, the one-liner by Newsweek's Evan Thomas about his magazine's dubious reporting on the Duke non-rape case — "The narrative was right but the facts were wrong" — is destined to become a popular exhibit, right up there with "we had to destroy the village to save it."

In 1967, Newark erupted in gunfire, looting, and arson, killing 23 people and injuring 700. But 40 years later, the New York Times still is not certain that this event should properly be called a "riot." In a news article marking the anniversary, the Times reminds us that "frightened white residents" of the 1960s opted for the word "riot," while "black activists" of the period called it a "rebellion."

Putnam’s study reveals that immigration and diversity not only reduce social capital between ethnic groups, but also within the groups themselves. Trust, even for members of one’s own race, is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friendships fewer.

This is a farewell column. After 18 years of punditry, it's time to work on other projects, including a book.

Remember when the city of Berkeley, Calif., declared itself a "nuclear-free zone" Cynics snickered, but the plain fact is that no nuclear weapon has gone off in the city since that day. So the policy seems to be working.

Just when you think the debate over embryonic stem cells can't get any more degraded, an outfit called the Campaign to Defend the Constitution comes along and proves you wrong.

Brittany McComb's microphone went dead at her high school commencement because school officials thought she was talking too much about religion.

Another baseball season has reached its midpoint, the All-Star break.

After 15 years of announcing that girls are being shortchanged in education, the mainstream media and some educrats have at last looked at some obvious evidence that girls are doing well while boys are lagging.

The South was once famous for "massive resistance." Now officeholders and civic leaders of the North and West are in the game too, this time to push "diversity" programs in defiance of the law.

The governor of Maryland fired one of his appointees to the Washington Metro transit authority board for stating a negative opinion of homosexuality on a cable TV talk show.

Writing in Rolling Stone, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. assures us that the 2004 presidential election was stolen.

Peter Beinart thinks the left needs more anti-totalitarian liberals like Harry Truman and Scoop Jackson, and fewer anti-imperialist liberals (think moveon.org, Michael Moore and George Soros) who can't seem to take terrorism and the jihadist threat seriously.

Many people believe that the American Civil Liberties Union no longer cares much about free-speech cases. Now, the organization is thinking of curbing the speech of its own officers.

Sen. John McCain had a rough week in New York City, facing protesters who resented his speeches at Columbia University's Class Day and the New School for Social Research commencement ceremony.

Tom Hanks thinks Christians shouldn't become irate about "The Da Vinci Code." He says it's just a story, "loaded with all sorts of hooey and fun kind of scavenger-hunt-type nonsense."

One of the bloggers suggests that 2006 may be the year of the Lou Dobbs voter. The blogger, the Influence Peddler, is no fan. He considers Dobbs a demagogue, but he wonders whether voters are ready for a Dobbsian program of opposing illegal immigration, "throwing the bums out of Washington" and staying wary of international trade.

It's time for this column to announce its Sheldon Award, given annually to the university president who does the most to look the other way when free speech is under assault on campus.