Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Can Dartmouth Stand for Racism?

The symbol of the American Cowboy is an offensive and inaccurate representation of my contemporary American identity. Do I savagely round cattle and use a Smith and Wesson six-shooter? Do you see me, the modern American, herding domesticated animals and using the Pony Express instead of mail? How can people sleep at night when they shout “Howdy” as a salutation to friends? How dare they!

A True History of the Hovey Murals

Dartmouth isn’t interested in learning, though. Dartmouth has fully bought into a PC ideology that privileges minority demands, even if they’re ridiculous or anti-intellectual.

“Indigenous Peoples” Cause Outrage

It’s not clear where promoting a political agenda, even a good political agenda as fashions go, fits into the picture of promoting the education of a Dartmouth student. As the administration stands in as the muscle for NADs and Lambda Upsilon Lambda, one point becomes increasingly clear:
It’s a confidence game and we’re all the victims.

A “D” for Dartmouth

Not surprisingly—and rather ironically—many students seem to have little appreciation for the robust history of the people and ideas that afford them the extensive privileges that they simultaneously enjoy and hate—rendering George Santayana’s observation alarmingly apposite: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

OPAL and the History of Dartmouth

... this prompted another Dartmouth professor in the audience to exclaim: “What is it about ouch that these people don’t understand?” (“These people” refers to supporters of the Indian mascot, by the way.) This astonishingly childish remark, of course, received a barrage of applause from the crowd.

Fitzgerald and Hemingway; Modernism Goes Mainstream

Fitzgerald’s hero Keats, before dying young, said “I will be among the English poets.” I do not think Fitzgerald would have been surprised that he—and Hemingway—are among the great American novelists.

The Annotated President Wright

Day in and day out, I’ve been pounding away at the typewriter, hoping that in a year or so my magnum opus, The Annotated President Wright, will be ready for submission to some high-toned New York publishing house. The aim is to kind of contextualize his remarks and thereby produce a breezy read that Everyman can thumb through whether behind the eulogizer’s podium, at the beach, or in the privy. Here are two “relevant” preview excerpts, though of course the book is timeless.

TDR Goes to Kazakhstan

The only reason that Kazakhstan is making such a big fuss over Borat is because this is the most press attention the country has gotten since the Llama Ownership Accord of ’87—and we all know how that ended.

The Last Word

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.
—H.L. Mencken

Barrett's Mixology

Fallen Leaves

3/4 ounce calvados (apple brandy)
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth
1/4 ounce dry vermouth
Dash brandy
Squeeze lemon peel

Letters to the Editor

Well I Think YOU Are Damaging To The Globe; Up Close and Personal; No “Wah-Hoo-Wah?”; Let’s Be Frank About It, Then; I Would, but I’m Busy