Friday, January 12, 2007

Letters to the Editor

“A Gem”, The Cover and More, A Different Look at OPAL

“But AD’s the Worst House on Campus”

Chris Miller’s The Real Animal House does its best to establish the real-life facts behind the Animal House mystique, and in doing so makes manifest Dartmouth’s sponge-like culture of consumption and the grim behavior that goes with it.

To Arms, at All Costs

H. W. Crocker III, author of Don’t Tread on Me, gives no apologies. He is an unabashed supporter of the armed services in a time when it is becoming increasingly popular to question its approach, size, and role in the world. Perhaps more provocatively still, Crocker is a vigorous voice in favor of that most heinous of American sins: imperialism.

And Starring John Wilkes Booth as Himself

Perhaps more than any single event in post-Revolution American history, writers, artists, and wide-eyed elementary school students have immortalized, and nearly mythologized, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Dog-Collared Svengalis

The problem of reconciling religion and secular government is more significant than it is often made out to be. By this I don’t mean that it’s of great magnitude, in the sense that theocracy or atheist tyranny is imminent; however, the friction between believers and the secular regime they obey is persistent and in fact inheres in liberal democracy itself.

The Other Side of Paradise

Macabre and luminous is the aesthetic order that renders The Road one of the most revelatory works of literature published this year. A near perfect creation: its achievement lies in rousing the reader’s soul, conscience, and heart by asking the questions that most people are loathe to ask or even hear—too afraid to be left alone with, as Chesterton would say.

Andrew Sullivan: Pick a ’Con

Sullivan’s opening sentence claims, “All conservatism begins with loss,” and indeed, in an era of rapid globalization, technological innovation, and social disorientation, he identifies the sense of loss of old institutions and its ensuing desire for stability as the second reason for the growing appeal of the conservative movement.

The West’s Last Gasp

To be fair, America Alone tries gallantly to bring an important issue to a wider audience than it might normally have. Steyn’s writing, though often over-the-top, is mostly enjoyable. Occasionally he brings to the table something quite interesting (for example, in an aside about traffic signs in a small Danish town), but unfortunately this is most often not the case.

Barrett’s Mixology

Sloe Gin Fizz

1 oz Sloe Gin
1 tsp Lemon Juice
Soda water to taste

The Last Word

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.
—H. L. Mencken