Shorter University, a Baptist school in Rome, Ga., has decided to shore up its Christian identity. The institution is requiring faculty to sign a statement eschewing sex outside of biblical standards and also drug abuse, including public drinking near campus. As a result, at least 50 faculty members have announced their resignations.

Since when does a college not get to set its own standards?

Well, it’s NATO weekend here in Chicago. After months of preparation, millions of dollars of spending on security in the Second City (which is essentially bankrupt), and one inconvenience after another to citizens–for whose benefit this event is supposedly being organized–all manner of protesters, anarchists, and other seekers of television face-time have arrived to register their displeasure with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

They were all ready to protest the G-8 summit, too, but President Obama wisely decided to move it to the more secure Camp David. Mayor Emanuel, however, would not be denied and has his NATO prize–presumably to enhance his resume for a possible presidential run in the future. I think he’s dreaming, whether or not the meetings go off without a hitch.

Why are these miscreants protesting NATO, anyway? NATO doesn’t really do anything, does it? All I can think of on its resume are its role in restraining the now-defunct Soviet Union from taking over Western Europe, in defeating Slobodan Milosevic in the former Yugoslavia, and in overthrowing Moammar Gadhafi in Libya (with Mr. Obama “leading from behind”). Oh, yes, NATO has participated in the Afghan war, but I can’t think of anything else. So it looks like the anti-NATO protesters are actually for a fine assortment of the world’s dictators, thugs, and religious fanatics.

And I thought they were speaking for “the 99 percent”!

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Mitt Romney can do what he wants, but if putting a dog in a carrier on top of a car is relevant; if what Romney may have done to a fellow student back in prep school is relevant; and if what a great grandfather did in Mexico is relevant … then Barack Obama’s 20-year association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a man he called a father figure, is relevant–particularly if the 2008 Obama campaign offered Mr. Obama’s pastor $150,000 to shut up.

Remember all those confident assertions after 2010 that the Tea Party had run its course? Well, now that Republicans have just booted out longtime moderates such as Dick Lugar in favor of more conservative candidates, suddenly the narrative has changed. Now, Democrats such as John Kerry and Bill Clinton are warning their “colleagues across the aisle” of the dangers of “hyperpartisanship.”

Does this mean that reports of the Tea Party’s death have been greatly exaggerated? I expect the Tea Party will start trying to reach consensus with the free-spending liberals just as soon as Barack Obama offers to compromise just one his leftist principles–which, apparently, is never.

I think the real problem with Jamie Dimon and J.P. Morgan Chase, in the Democrats’ eyes, is not that the bank committed an act of capitalism (though liberals will use any seeming crisis to increase the reach of government). No, what really bothers them is that the $2 billion loss belies President Obama’s claim that he “reformed the financial system.” For a president who stopped governing a long time ago and who has a very short list of “accomplishments,” that’s an unforgivable sin.

Activists who support the “rights” of homosexuals to marry and to adopt seem to be saying that mothers and fathers are strictly optional. Heather, they imply, will do just as well with “two mommies” as with a mom and a dad. If that’s true, then why don’t we just stop celebrating Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and replace them with a generic Parent’s Day?

Scott Johnson, the head of Yahoo, is going to lose his job because he “inflated his credentials” on his resume. Apparently he lied about earning a computer science degree. Now if shareholders want to get rid of him for his duplicity or even for poor performance as CEO, that’s their business, of course. But to suddenly say that he can’t do his job because he didn’t get the degree is preposterous.

A college degree is no guarantee that anyone will succeed in the business world–nor is its absence proof that someone will fail, as the Yahoo! exec’s career proves. It is merely an entry-level requirement in most white-collar fields these days–a crushingly expensive one for many folks. But the man will lose his position because he dishonestly transgressed the academic requirement, not because the lack of a degree proves he can’t do the job.

I wonder how many degrees are like that today–expensive, but not strictly necessary?

If Mitt Romney’s high school sins (real or imagined) are fair game for the Obama campaign, then it’s just as relevant to discuss the current president’s admitted teen drug use, don’t you think? All’s fair.

Last evening I read one of those motivational posters in my son’s elementary school. It read: “Effort is the measure of success.” Call me overly critical if you want, but is effort really the measure of success? Is that the message we want to communicate to our kids? Yes, effort is important, perhaps indispensable to academic achievement, but it is hardly the measure of success. In the end, in most of life, results are the real measure of success. Telling our kids otherwise–sugarcoating this hard fact of life, in school, of all places–ill prepares them for the real world.

Republicans keep telling themselves that they can’t bring up social issues in order to focus on the economy, and yet Mr. Obama and the Democrats keep bringing them up (partly to avoid scrutiny of their abysmal handling of the economy and federal budget). Much as some would like to, we can’t sign a social issues “truce,” because the Democrats won’t.

North Carolina just became the 31st state in the nation to ban so-called “gay marriage,” which has been rejected in every state where citizens have actually had a vote. No, we must not ignore economic issues, which are vital to the survival of this nation, but if the liberals want to change the subject to social issues, this is a conversation we should be ready and willing to have.