Nathaniel: I'm surprised at all of you. How can you be so disparaging of a man who prefaces his solution to a 55-year armed conflict with this:



I don't know a lot about international politics nor about regional religious tensions. I know next to nothing about Jewish and Palestinian history. But I do know this: the problems in the Middle East are not simple. It is not clear who is right and who is wrong. The history of the problem is black with bitter blood and hot anger. And people are still dying.



Well, he's quite right that its not clear who is right and who is wrong when you know next to nothing about the conflict. The unkind might suggest that people who know next to nothing would be wise to learn at least a tiny bit about the issues before commenting on them.



But surely such trivialities aren't really important under the circumstances. After all, he's been a freshman columnist for the D for almost 9 whole months now, so clearly he's more than qualified to expound on this topic. That being the case perhaps he can enlighten us as to how one reconciles a lack of belief in the possibility of a genocidal force with Mein Kampf's immense popularity in the Palestinian Authority?

In regards to Larry's posting on Friday on door locks, did anyone else notice that Redman said, "Technically we could've turned it on for winter term, but we would have needed to work day and night to train people." Train them to do what? Learn how to swipe a card? This really can't be that complicated. Door locks are an awful idea, but it's still pretty pathetic that it takes over a year to get them in working order when most every college in the country has been operating these systems for years.

Elsewhere: DMS professor Dr. Joseph Rosen studies and advocates unconventional plastic surgery. Says Rosen, "Human wings will be here. Mark my words." Rosen asked colleagues at a conference last year, "Why are plastic surgeons dedicated only to restoring our current notions of the conventional, as opposed to letting people explore, if they want, the possibilities?" His answer: "Judeo-Christian conservatism" (how's that for a mongrel meme?). Story in the Guardian, not the Weekly World News.



Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg on top-tier admissions and packaging at MSNBC.



More on freshman Lindsay Earls's suit against her school district in Oklahoma's mandatory drug testing for participants in extracurricular activities.



AP story mentioning DMS researcher Dr. John Baron's testing of the effect of aspirin on colon cancer.



"The finest film writer in the English language": The SF Gate on former Dartmouth film professor David Thomson.



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Dismissing David Brock: Slate's Chatterbox takes issue with Blinded by the Right author David Brock. Among the contentions: that Brock lied about his unfamiliarity with former Review editor Laura Ingraham's mid-Eighties Dartmouth exploits.