« September 2005 | Main | November 2005 »
October 31, 2005
With Sisterly Love
What would Otelia say?
This Thursday is Otelia Cromwell Day. For those of you who don't know, Otelia Cromwell was the first Black student to attend Smith College. According to Mentha Hynes, Associate Dean of Multicultural Affairs and Student Affairs, fewer than 2000 have attended Smith since then. The purpose of Otelia Cromwell day, according to the Smith website, is to be "an effort to provide the college community with an opportunity for further education and reflection about issues of diversity and racism."
Though it is only Monday, a recent e-mail sent out by Hynes today provides an opportunity to kick start this discussion. The e-mail, sent out only to minority students, discusses how many students have been upset that Smith has not done anything to recognize the passing of civil rights hero (or s'hero, as the e-mail puts it) Rosa Parks. Heynes goes on to explain why students should not expect Smith to do anything:
Some of you have asked why the college has not acknowledged the passing of Sis. Rosa. My question is why would you expect "the administration" to care? Of course many members of the larger Smith community will have some appreciation for her life ... but not in the ways in which I expect you to.
Nevermind that, as an Associate Dean, Heynes is a part of the administration. But the importance of this e-mail lies in the questions it brings up. Can Smith increase its number of Black students when it addresses multicultural issues in a way that does not include most of the campus? Why should it be assumed that white students cannot appreciate the importance of Rosa Parks? And won't the administration provide every Smith student with an equal voice and an equal opportunity to be part of the discourse? How are Smith students educated by these administrative strategies? As a white student, will I never receive an e-mail from a Smith administrator signed "with sisterly love"?
Posted by Mandy Smithberger at 06:27 PM | Comments (8)
Public Safety Soft on Bat-Issues
In true Halloween style, a bat got into the 3rd floor bathroom in Morris House. I found out about it when I saw a housemate knocking on the HR's door. "There's a bat in the bathroom, and I called Public Safety an hour ago." She said, "I was hoping [the HR] would know someone I could call." We decided to give Public Safety another call, telling them that we'd be going in there ourselves if they didn't send someone. Looking back, I can see how that wasn't really an effective threat. We were told that there probably wouldn't be anyone coming tonight. And since leaving the bat in the bathroom wasn't really an option, I headed up to the 3rd floor for some hands-on reporting. Locating the bat was the only scary part, since I was convinced something looking like the winged monkeys in The Wizard of Oz was going to come flying out of the showers at me. In reality though, it was just a freaked out little thing looking like a mouse with wings (with really sharp claws). I had to pick him off the blinds with a trashbag I had found, and then shake him off out the window. No injuries or reports of vampirism as of yet.
Posted by Elizabeth Tangora at 12:44 AM | Comments (8)
October 29, 2005
Indictments limping along
The big story with the indictments is how they seemed to be modest after all the lead-up: "Scooter" Libby (above, with the crutches) was the only member of the Bush administration to face indictment on two counts of perjury and obstruction of justice. The new buzz is that the investigation has brought Libby foreward first to obtain the information they need to make future indictments stick. Hey, I've seen them do it on Law and Order, so I'll believe it, but that doesn't mean I'm expecting to see a Cheney mug shot anytime soon.
In other corruption news, apparently Walmart helped pay Tom Delay's bail.
Posted by Elizabeth Tangora at 08:04 PM | Comments (8)
Your Doll Industry Update
After hearing that there was a new Ken doll design in the works and that it looked incredibly "boy-band", for lack of a better adjective, I headed over to Barbie.com to see if I could confirm it. After about 15 minutes of being thoroughly weirded out I just went googling. Along the way, I learned about "Hacker Barbie" and proposed boyfriend "Incompetant Management Consultant" Ken, and then finally found an article (though a really stupid one) on MSNBC. The rumors, they are all true:
Posted by Elizabeth Tangora at 12:45 PM | Comments (11)
October 28, 2005
Waiting for "Fitzmas"
Thursday's Wallstreet journal discussed the fact that everyone watching for the Fitzgerald indictments is still holding their breath, since the announcement was expected for Thursday morning. "Fitzmas", a pun on the name of the special counsel on the case Patrick J. Fitzgerald (from my home state of Illinois, but we've got so many Fitzgeralds in politics there that I still have no clue who he is) and Christmas. Because indictments of politicians for betraying the faith of the country are totally like Christmas... Okay, I admit it, I'm looking forward to it. And I'll admit that I had a little party over the *other* set of indictments for Tom Delay. But only, I repeat, only because I'm a bottom-feeder from Chicago who loves it when politicians I don't like go down in court.
Aside from people like me, (and in the long run, even people like me) everyone loses when politics is reduced to this type of spectacle.
Posted by Elizabeth Tangora at 09:30 AM | Comments (5)
October 21, 2005
Color and Contrast
Posted by Elizabeth Tangora at 12:38 PM | Comments (29)
October 19, 2005
And a good time was had by all
Asking for trouble, last night Jon Stewart and the Daily Show had Bill O'Reilly as their guest. Since spin-off 'The Colbert Report' had premiered the night before, that was pretty much what they talked about, Bill O'Reilly taking some offense to the point where he accused Jon Stewart of making a joke out of Katrina and its victims (it got a little heated). Jon Stewart admitted that that's what the Daily Show tends to do, but added the best line of the night "We do add insult to injury, but you add injury". The whole thing stayed funny and light, and Jon Stewart even plugged O'Reilly's book at the end, half joking that he was only doing it because he "felt it was the right thing to do".
And in O'Reilly's defense, Colbert has openly admitted that Bill O'Reilly was one of the major inspirations for the tone of the spoof. So O'Reilly wasn't far off the mark when he accused Jon Stewart of having "some French guy on after you making fun of me".
Watch the interview if you missed it. It's both painful and hillarious.
Posted by Elizabeth Tangora at 04:44 PM | Comments (11)
October 17, 2005
Redrawing the ethical lines
Fascinating development in the Stem Cell Research debate: scientists have found a method through which the necessary stem cells can be collected without destroying the embryo. Most of the groups that have vehemently opposed stem cell research in the past haven't weighed in yet, but the feeling is that the only groups that will be able to oppose this are those that already oppose invitro-fertilization.
(If you don't want to read the entire New York Times article, check out the handy diagram from the article illustrating the differences between the two processes.)
And for those keeping an eye on the horizon, China (admittedly benefitting from a lack of government oversight on these types of ethical issues) has been experimenting with stem cells and has been performing operations with it since at least 2002. If you're interested in where we stand competitively that is, though this isn't exactly the space race.
Posted by Elizabeth Tangora at 02:33 PM | Comments (7)
October 14, 2005
Never though I'd see the day
Check out the Petition they've got up on the National Review website, one of the most conservative editorial news sources out there.
It presents an interesting question: if Republicans don't want Miers, should Democrats? The Democratic response has been lukewarm largely due to the fact that we were expecting something much worse. And experience aside, most conservatives seem to be most upset that they weren't given the Scalia II they were hoping for (considered the worst case scenario by liberals). If you review the docket of upcoming cases at Oyez (fantastic source for info on all things Supreme Court) you can see an image starting to take shape of why Bush would want a loyalist, even just considering the "War on Terrorism" related issues of torture, habeas corpus, fact finding, and interrogation that are all coming up. The rumor making the rounds though is that the Bush administration wants Miers confirmed quickly so she'll be on the bench for a series of big abortion cases.
Posted by Elizabeth Tangora at 09:45 AM | Comments (11)
October 12, 2005
Watch Out Oprah, Putin May Give the Best Party Favors
While I’m not sure what outgoing German chancellor Gerhard Schröder gave Russian President Vladimir Putin for his 53rd birthday, rumor has it that Schröder left with a in his goodie bag. Schröder denies that Putin offered him a highly paid position in the Russian energy giant Gazprom, although Putin has called in favors on Schröder’s behalf in the past. Last year Putin helped Schröder and his wife cut through Russian bureaucracy to adopt a child from a St. Peterburg orphanage.
Putin offers Schröder a Hand
Posted by Mandy Smithberger at 02:09 PM | Comments (8)
October 11, 2005
An Alternative to an Honors Thesis
Since Sliced Bread is a nation-wide contest for the best idea to improve the country, open to everyone and less than 175 words. And The top prize is $100,000, runners up can get $50,000. Best of all, the contest has the ear of a lot of senators and representatives (mostly democratic though, is my impression) so the winners truly do have a chance of seeing their idea put into action.
Most active state right now is California, and the top idea is currently a national voting holiday-- we didn't actually have to have a contest to figure out that was a good idea, did we?
Posted by Elizabeth Tangora at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2005
Who will be Chancellor?
This is the first post of a JYA student abroad in Hamburg. Some of you may have heard inklings of information about the German elections for Chancellor that just happened last month here. It's a bit of a different system here with Chancellors being elected by the party that gets the most votes rather than "directly" like in America. The current problem in Germany is that the largest parties CDU (Conservative) and SPD (Liberal) received such similar results (CDU 35.2% and SPD 34.3%) that both parties claim they have the mandate. In order to form a new parliament, however, a party or parties must have over 50% of the votes. This means that it is normal for parties to form coalitions and add their voter percentages together. Now, however, the only option for the German government is to form a coalition between the CDU and SPD, which to date has never occured. This is currently where Germany finds itself and the new chancellor must be picked by the 18th of October, which leaves little time for the parties to bicker over the details. Watch out in the next few weeks to see the results of the battle over Chancellor.
Posted by Neil Rodrigo-Kelley at 09:40 AM | Comments (11)
With a name like "Gasoline for America's Security Act"...
Wow. Just wow. I knew there was a reason I loved C-SPAN. Head over to Think Progress for a copy of a video of the recent battle royale on the floor of the house; on a blatantly oil-company pandering bill, the Republicans kept the vote going for 40-50 minutes over the 5 minutes usually given to voting, so they could patrol the floor and convince Republican 'no' voters to get in party line. The video does not play out the entire hour, but rather gives the highlights: a number of very pointed "parlimentary inquiries" including one from the Democratic leader as she asks if such an act of "dishonor" is part of "the culture of corruption of the Republican party". Watch until the end for something you never thought you'd hear: the Democrats of the House of Representative chanting "shame shame shame".
Posted by Elizabeth Tangora at 02:34 AM | Comments (7)
October 07, 2005
Motorcycle Fire
Over in the Ainsworth gym parking lot, at around 5 pm yesterday, a motorcycle caught fire. The smoke was visible from Tyler lawn, but the trees in the parking lot made it hard to see anything but that. From what little I could gather, it seemed the motorcycle had started putting out a lot of smoke after its rider started it, and it became a fire a little after that. Firemen were called to the scene and public safety blocked off the area while the fire was being handled-- the firefighters at the scene were cautious due to fears that the gas tank would catch and there would be an explosion. The fire was under control at about half past 5, without anyone injured.
Posted by Elizabeth Tangora at 12:28 PM | Comments (14)