JawsBlog

RightWingNews has some more pix from this past weekend

Glenn Reynolds also has a wrap-up and insights too

Some of the alums will love this one.

Members of the classes of 2004 and 2005:

Congratulations! You are among the very first Brandeis students to have the opportunity to participate in the Official Ring program of Brandeis University. The Official Ring of Brandeis is available exclusively to students who have achieved junior or senior year status and represents a lifelong link with fellow classmates and alumni. Join President R. in creating a tradition that will proudly reflect the Brandeis University traditions of critical thinking and social responsibility.

A brochure with information about the Official Ring of Brandeis University has been placed in your campus mailbox and the ring will be on display in the bookstore. Representatives from Balfour, the leading college ring designer in the country, will be at the bookstore to answer questions and take orders.

President R. will present seniors with their rings at an invitation-only reception he will host in late January. Juniors will receive their rings from President Reinharz in March at a private reception.

I encourage you to wear the ring as a symbol of your commitment to your alma mater.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering the rings cost in the ~$400 range. After all I’ve spent here on tuition, fees, books and all, I don’t think I’m ready (or willing) to simply drop another ~$400 on a ring….

Let the jokes commense…

First off, let me just re-emphasize what I’ve said before about this story. The student who the quote was allgedly attributed to, was grossly misquoted. The quote was also apparently taken out of context. This person was also totally unaware that they were being “interviewed” and the author of the piece has indeed pointed that out. I thought that I’d previously removed this students name from any and all postings, but apparently I missed that in a prior post, and I’ve proceeded to fix that. My appologies for this oversight–and I feel really bad for the prediciment in which he likely found himself.

Now the story continues…

The article has apparently been yanked from the Justice Website. Makes sense to say the least.

[via Steve Silver], it turns out that one of the local papers has picked up the story. The Waltham Daily News Tribune has written an article on it.

According to the article, the line/quote in question was: “was highlighted in red by a copy editor in training but never fixed.” Now, this adds more questions into the mix. Steve Silver, who is a former Justice Editor (he did the Arts section I think) has some commentary on this

Also, there are rumors, that the Justice, which normally comes out on Tuesdays, may come out later this week than usual. Why? The deadline for letter submissions was extended until yesterday (so then letters need proof-read, then fixed, then put into the paper–and having done page layout, I can attest to the fact that it can be a pain).

Steve’s guessing the number of letters about the article will be around 25. Any other quesses?

And a final point: Please do not write letters to the “Brandeis Free Press” abou this issue. The Free Press is in no way/shape/form related to the Justice, nor do we cover campus events (we cover world and national news). [I only post this since we've previously been asked]

On today’s Opinion Journal, former Delaware Gov. Pete Du Pont, has a piece titled: Good Buy, Columbus?
Ohioans may revolt against higher taxes and spending.

It brings up current Sec. of State Kenneth Blackwell’s (R) plan to repeal the recent one cent sales tax increase (from 6%-7%) enacted this past year by the state legislature. It’s being done by a group calling itself “Citizens For Tax Repeal”

Last year, during the whole Ohio Budget discussion, there were things cut (to the lament of certain groups–like the arts), in light of the forcast defecit–and then on top of that, spending (w/ the tax increase) went up 11%!!! However, it turns out that in the end there was a $200 Million surplus!

Ohio’s finances are a mess. The state’s school funding plan has been ruled unconsitutional by the State Supreme court 5 times I think? (I didn’t follow it that closely) That’s the top of the iceberg.

Unfortunately, the state GOP is against him (you idiots!) as the GOP controlls both chambers of the State Assembly and the Gov. is a Republican (more like a major RINO)–probably cause they think that this makes ‘em look bad. And here’s the real kicker–Blackwell is a conservative African American [think Thomas, Elder, Sowell, etc.]

Now at the same time, the left constantly moans about sales taxes, because they call ‘em “poor peoples taxes” [because apparently only poor people buy things, and rich people don't--I don't ask]. So I’m wondering if they’re supporting Sec of State Blackwell in his effor to repeal the tax.

Where do I sign up?

Again, I’m just gonna combine a few things into one post rather than a few seperate posts.

More news about the upcoming Reagan movie is out…and it looks like CBS and the advertisers may be in for a big storm

Sen John Corzine (D-NJ) is probably going to get whacked by the DNC for saying: “The tax cut has had some benefit in that, there’s no question about that”

Cox and Forkum have produced yet another great cartoon

The Smarter Cop also has an iteresting post up

And out on the left coast–my prayers for those caught in the flames of the forest fires.

Also out on that coast the Angry Clam is giving an example of his version of “Social Justice”

As I said before, I didn’t watch the debate. Not only do I lack the attention span to watch such things, but I doubted anything important would take place.

Apparently I was right, and here’s Jonah Goldberg’s take on the event.

The other major issue the Dems are lacking on severly is that of Nat’l security. It appears that it’s not of importance to them. As Tom of Hootinan reports: Democrats Don’t Care About The War on Terror

This same sentiment is echoed by Andrew Sullivan in a few posts on his blog (excerpted by FP Magazine)

So we start pre-enrolling for next semester tomorrow. But now, many of us are looking at the course offerings for next term (see this page if you’re curious). They’ve slashed at least 1/4th [if not more] of the courses than they usually offer.

When my friends and I were in our first year here, we were told, oh yeah, if you can’t take a course early on, it’ll always be offered later. That used to be true (see older offerings). But now, we’ve been screwed!!!

It sucks! All my suitemates are also complaining about the scant offerings (amongst the six of us there’s: neuroscience (me), biology, economics, psychology, music, politics and English [the last two is a double major of someone].

What does the school have to say about it? “We lack funds….we had to cut courses to save money”. And yet tuition keeps going up, and the school spends money on pointless things left and right. It’s beyond absurd! I mean, I can tell you some of the waste the school can easily cut to save money (or put that money back into education–which I thought was the purpose of universities).

Okay, that’s my rant, I’ve gotta write some emails now…sigh…

It’s what we’ve all been waiting for! Pictures of the absurd ANSWER, anti-American, anti-Israel, protesters!

Right now, Anna of the Belligerent Bunny Blog has pictures up from yesterday in DC

And from the Left-Coast, Greg Yardley of CommieWatch has posted pictures which he took at the San Francisco rally

Hopefully more entertaining pictures will come out soon!

Julia , of contraindications and love songs brought something to my attention (and I thank her for that) which I should’ve previously clarified in this post.

First, I do think this Justice incident is significant–and of course needs adressed. It was from the volume and content of the emails I’ve been getting (from a few lists), there appear to be some on campus who are over-inflating this and it is from that which I got the “overly big deal” feeling. It is as if a group of people had an agenda and have been waiting for an incident to come up so that they could forward [their agenda]–and this incident served as the catalyst.

Second, my charactarization of the author were simply the impressions I’d had of him from meeting him once. Nothing more. I just threw it out as an observation–I meant nothing other than that.

Third, I think it was entirely appropriate for this individual to both resign from the Student Senate and the The Justice. No questions asked.

Fourth, an unrelated clarification, regarding this post. A friend informed me that the reasoning behind the walk-out was that the forum called for by the Justice thursday night, was apparently a time when the Justice was going into CYA mode. That’s why the walkout was staged; as there was the feeling that the important issues wern’t going to be addressed.

There’ll definitely be more developments and I’ll blog about them as they happen.

Just a few different things I wanted to touch on, which didn’t deserve posts of their own.

The Browns offense played horribly today against the Patriots. The Defense did quite well, but the Offense was non-existant! What’s with that!?!?

I’m happy that the Yankees lost. I’m not a fan of the Marlins either, but I still like them over the Bronx Infidels. I grew up with a dislike for the Yankees–and I don’t like ‘em one bit.

Why has ESPN been showing so much Pool and Poker recently? Aren’t there any other sports it could be broadcasting? Perhaps venture over to Europe, South America or even Australia?

A new club is going to the Student Union to be recognized–and this club is interesting. The club calls itself: The Inter-Greek Council (IGC) and states that its purpose is:

The Inter-Greek Council is committed to organizing Brandeis students in discussing, supporting, and educating the community of the diverse philanthropic, political, and social efforts of local and national Greek letter organizations. Additionally, the council is dedicated to serving as a liaison between Brandeis University and off-campus Greek letter organizations.

Unless you’re a Brandeis student or alum, you’re probably wondering what the big deal is. Brandeis specifically doesn’t recognize fraternities or sororities, and hasn’t since 1988 (as per a board of Trustees decision). To take an excerpt from “Rights and Responsibilites“

Therefore, social fraternities and sororities, in particular, are neither recognized nor permitted to hold activities on campus or use University facilities [Appendix B]

So it’ll be interesting to see how the Senate deals with this hot-potato.

I’m still not liking the whole time change thing very much. It’s starting to play games with my brain.

I’ll post more later, I’ve got some work to do now

Well, since adding a counter to my Blog in May, I’ve finally reached the 5,000 hit mark! Hooray!

Oh, and the Yankees just lost to the Marlins in the World Series. Yankees Suck!

First off, welcome to all of you who’ve come from Steve Silver’s blog

I should note, that I’m receiving a lot of emails about this, as I’m a minority student (I’m a hispanic–and yes, I’m Jewish too)

Second, in reference to an “incident” in earlier posts about the hypnotist who offended some Asian students, here’s what happened

Third, the Student Senate put out the following “announcement”

So time for some new developments in this ever evolving story. Here’s some excerpts from an email from the director of the Intercultural Center (ICC) [I say exceprts, because there is some irrelevant stuff in the letter which I omit here for obvious reasons].

Since Tuesday, many things have happened. On Tuesday evening, the writer of the article that included the racist comment resigned from his Rosenthal [Quad] Senator post. By Wednesday evening, he also resigned from The Justice and will no longer contribute to any of their publications.

As many of you were present, on Wednesday evening, members of BBSO [Brandeis Black Student Org] and other concerned Brandeis students gathered in the BBSO office to discuss this incident further. At that time, it was revealed that the Justice was not taking the appropriate actions to resolve this matter.

Although they agreed to write an apology starting on the front page, it would not be on the front page in it’s entirety (meaning it would continue elsewhere in the paper). In addition, the Justice had no intention of firing editors responsible for the publication of the article. This was a major disappointment for members of BBSO and many within the ICC community and beyond.
[JawsBlog: What's wrong with an apology starting on page 1 and continuing like just about every other article? What if the apology is too long to fit on the front page? I mean use common sense here!]

Several other “forums” have been held, including the most recent in the atrium of the Shapiro Campus Center on Thursday night, sponsored by the Justice. It was at this event that several members of BBSO and other concerned members of the community (some who are ICC members and other who may not be) staged a “walk out”. I realize that many of you receiving this email may have been unaware that a walk out was planned prior to it happening, and are not clear about the purpose of the walk out. From this point, I will do my best to keep you informed about this sort of planned action
[JawsBlog: Why walk out on such a forum--the point of the forum was to try to tell the Justice how to learn from its error]

Last night I received word that the Justice sports editor has resigned. However, there is still work to be done. In my opinion this incident sheds light on larger issues that not only affect the ICC, and they must be addressed.

For now, there are things that you can do to support this cause:

Until further notice, I [ICC Director] will not provide the Justice w/any interview and ask that ICC leaders & members to consider doing the same (especially if asked to comment on behalf of the club you represent). My understanding is that Dean [of Student Life] Rick Sawyer is also planning to do the same. I know that Justice staff must be thinking about this a lot right now, and hope that this form of protest helps them to think harder.
[JawsBlog: I don't understand the point of this action? What if the Justice writer just wants to report your side of the story? I'm confused...]

The goal of this meeting (of ICC reps and ICC leaders and those we have
identified and contacted as ally group leaders) will be to discuss our needs as a community, and to articulate how the University can better meet the needs of all groups represented. My desire is to develop a statement that expresses our ICC family and allies’ position on the Justice incident, and in addition re-states our support of a particular group within our family (BBSO), since this matter affects them
so directly. This is a statement I would like to present to the entire student body, faculty, and staff.

During this difficult time, please remember how important you all are to resolving this matter. I know that many of you are feeling so many different emotions, and that sometimes there may be feelings of helplessness and confusion in terms of what role would be appropriate to play.

Your ICC Student Programming Board and leaders are working hard to stand up for what is right and necessary, and I have a great deal of faith in their ability to lead during this difficult time. I am working to support them (and you) as best I am able.

That’s the latest news for now. Oh, and if you want to write the Justice, the deadline is 5PM on Sunday for letters; and apparently all letters will be published.

NYT Headline: Some Democratic Hopefuls Question Value of Debates

Was their even a value to these circuses in the first place?

No, Debate Bingo doens’t count as a purpose. (but it is now available en Español)

For the first time in 2 or 3 weeks, I’ve got a free Saturday night (no holiday)! Wooohoo! Too bad its parents weekend, so all my friends are out with their ‘rents, so I’m stuck alone. Hopefully I can find something fun to do.

So we’re supposed to change our clocks tomorrow at 2AM. We “fall-back” an hour–which means we get an extra hour of sleep tonight. I like gaining sleep time. However, since I’ve already got a screwed up circadian rhythm, this time change screwes me up (even more) than usual–for a few days at least. At the same time, if you’ll forgive my dorkiness for a moment or two, in my Neurogenetics course we’ve been studying circadian, clock and cryptocrome genes (in drosophila) so in a sense, I have a better understand of some of the underlying biology. Okay, that’s been the moment of dorkiness.

Ohio State won today, 35-6; and it looks like the team’s offense is (finally) starting to emerge. The Buckeyes are really missing Clarrett–and it shows. But perhaps Lydell Ross will step in to fill the void (or at least somewhat). I’ve got the Alabama-Tenn game on now…it’s 40-40 after 3OTs…wow! Look like a good one.

So there was the ANSWER/UFPJ rally hatefest in DC today. Apparently C-Span aired it. Anyone waste their time watching it? I’m sure that there’ll soon be reports in the blogsphere about it. I’d suggest checking out LGF, Hootinan and CommieWatch for news about it.

And there are new twists and turns in the Justice-racism story. I’ll share these later.

I’ve got to go help a friend fix their computer now…..I’ll blog more later.

Instead of a bunch of little posts about politics, I think I’ll just wrap ‘em all up into one post.

It looks like President Bush may finally use his power of veto (it’s about time!) after the Senate joined the House in voting to ease travel restrictions to Cuba.

Kucinich is throwing a hissy-fit over some campaign ads that Nikita Dean is running in NH. Doesn’t Kucinich realize he has a snowball’s chance in hell of being elected?

The Senate is apparently releasing a report criticial of the Intellegence gathered by the CIA about Iraq. Naturally, the CIA is denying the accusations. If it was the CIAs intellegence which was flawed (as opposed to the NSA, DIA and the other alphabet-soup groups), I think this time Tennet deserves to get a pink slip. Tennet has been the DCI since the Clinton administration, and simply put, the CIA hasn’t been doing too good of a job with intellegence, first terrorism in the 90s, then 9/11, and now this?

After reading Robert Baer’s book “See No Evil” (it’s a very good read too), I became somewhat skeptical about the CIA, especially the way that it has changed since the end of the Cold War. The Agency has taken a turn in the wrong direction, and needs to be put back on the right course. For another good read on this topic, there’s also Mark Riebling’s book “Wedge: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11–How the Secret War between the FBI and CIA Has Endangered National Security“

Finally, it looks like the Medicare bill is getting stalled in conference committee. This scenario looks like it could be a win-win for the President and the GOP. From what the news is reporting, either the Conservatives are going to get the bill they want (a win for them), and in the process, the President scores a win by nailing down Medicare as a campaign issue. On the flipside, if the Dem senators, led by Sen. “Swimmer” Kennedy (D-MA) try to filibuster and all, then their objections will be spun off as obstructing such a plan, and it’ll hurt them too.

This story sounds promising if it fully checks out to be true: Bush Drops Opposition To Building Of Barrier

Good! Let Israel finally defend herself!

So this weekend is family weekend, otherwise known as “Fall Fest”. Parents will be visiting (my family isn’t coming), which actually means things here at school will be better than usual. The food is usually an improvement over its regular status (to impress parents).

No, they didn’t plant the flowers this time (for open houses they plant flowers for the weekend then remove them; and apparently reuse ‘em).

I guess it is ironic that all the hoopla about the quote in the Justice is going on now…especially with so many visitors coming. But I don’t think it tops the food poisioning incident that sickened 400+ last year (myself included) the week before parents came.

Not much else going on to talk about….it’s just a cold day (again) here. Oh, it snowed yesterday too.

I heard Drudge on Hannity and Colmes last night before I fell asleep, and he was mentioning about how he’d seen the CBS TV Movie on Ronaldus Magnimus.

Now he’s reporting about how the movie defames one of the most popular Presidents in US History

CBS should re-think about airing this movie if it is indeed this bad. There will likely be a huge backlash against CBS and/or advertisers over this film….both from people on the right and left.

I guess it is sort of ironic, since Reagan did make enemies while he was in Hollywood; as he fought off communism.

Jonah Goldberg’s latest column is French Fried: France turns into even bigger foe.

I think Jonah is right on target…damn those “Cheese eating surrender monkeys”…

I first saw this story in today’s Globe: Poll finds GOP continuing its gains on college campuses

A new nationwide poll, released yesterday by Harvard University’s Institute Of Politics, finds she is far from alone: Of the 1,200 student respondents, 31 percent identified themselves as Republicans, compared with 27 percent who said they are Democrats. The largest number, 38 percent, called themselves Independent, or unaffiliated.

Who would’ve ever thought something like this would occur?

(here’s the list of other papers running this story)