The Disraeli quotation, as I understand it, was actually uttered
before Disraeli's time, by John Bright, if memory serves. 

I heard the Mark Twain quip about Wagner's music attributed to George Bernard Shaw talking about Brahms.  That may be why you can't find it.

"The  first such institution for Black people in the  United States.  .  ." 

What is the meaning of "such" here?    First college?  First university?  First Catholic university? 

I think Paul Rahe's original contribution was quite insightful, especially when he mentioned the pedophilia scandals as in some way like this present controversy, in which bishops strongly object to the the church and its associated institutions being forced to provide insurance covering contraception but seem comfortable with businessmen who likewise object to contraception on moral grounds being forced to provide the insurance.

It's pretty clear that within the Catholic Church there is an "us" group and a "them" group.  (This is true for other religious groups too.)  "Us" is basically the clergy, with perhaps some lay senior officials of church-related colleges, schools, hospitals, and charities included.  "Them" is basically everybody else.   It is the "us" group that has the ear of the leadership; the "them" group and their interests come second -- I would not say their interests don't figure at all.

"In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice, they're different."   Theologically, the just liberties of all should be defended; sociologically, this will rarely happen.

 I am pretty sure Frances Perkins was an Episcopalian. 

 No one has mentioned Tolstoy's War and Peace yet, so I will.  The confusion of the battlefield, where units don't show up where they are supposed to because no one bothered to tell them, where no one has a full picture of what's happening, where armies withdraw in the night though all the troops are convinced they won the previous day, where small units improvise with unexpected results -- it's all wonderfully done.  And of course, the effects of the war on daily life is done even better.

 In New York (and doubtless elsewhere) rabbinical courts can make decisions on disputes about contracts and torts which have the force of civil court decisions, provided that the parties to the dispute have said in the contract that disputes will be decided by the rabbinical court, or after the dispute has arisen the parties agree to let the rabbinical court decide it.  Sharia courts would be accorded the same rights; the matter would be treated as one of arbitration.

It's wrong to suggest that this is inequality before the law, as the parties have to agree to it.  The principle that the parties involved have a right to choose the law that will apply to the case is a well-established principle of American law.  It does not apply to criminal matters or divorce, however.

Ivy turns gold?  Not here. 

 Why did Walter Duranty choose to believe that there was no famine in Ukraine?  The short answer is that he didn't believe it, though he said so for public consumption.  When speaking to a British diplomat he acknowledged that  millions had  died of starvation.  The figures he gave basically agreed with later Western estimates.  Consult Robert Conquest's Harvest of Sorrow.

 If it was a military trial, the Justice Department didn't have anything to do with it. 

My advice is, if you are given custody of a prisoner with the mission of releasing him, make sure you don't kill him, whatever else you do.

 I have nothing good to say aboout the video, but what's the connection with home schooling?  Van Jones does not run any public schools that I know of.

 Another book well worth reading is Henry Kissinger's Diplomacy, which shows how Europe reached the stage where Princip's deed could trigger a four-year war.

Incidentally, when I was in Sarajevo in 1961, I visited the Garvrilo Princip Museum, all about him, his co-conspirators, and the assassination.  Princip turned out to be, after all, one of the founders of the Yugoslav state.  It's now extinct, and I wonder if the museum is still in existence.

 I think you mean "cachet."  "Cache" means something like "stash."  Of course it isn't good to lose that either

 The market -- homebuilders and potential buyers -- is already aware that there is a large overhang of yet-to-be foreclosed houses.  It may not get much worse because the overhang likely to be already factored into the prices.