So just now, as I was sitting in my room talking on AIM and doing some reading for class, I heard shouting out in the hallway. I go outside to investigate and find a group of about 10 Brandeis students marching through my hall chanting, "Oppose Hate, Tolerate!" Now, I was visibly confused as to what was going on, wandering around and saying, "What's this? What's going on?" However, no one even tried to stop and explain to me why they were making this demonstration. Now I, for one, am all about opposing hate, but I do wonder what made them feel that this was an effective way of fostering tolerance. It seems that they are mainly disrespecting their fellow students who are trying to study and wind down from a long day. Instead of a productive exchange of ideas, I was prompted to once again look with disdain on the activists of this campus and share with my fellow bewildered hallmates the sarcastic proclamation," You know, I have always been for hate, but they've really showed me that I should tolerate instead."

The issues of the Justice have been found and are being distributed. I've been asked not to state the name of the person who took them for the moment. The sad thing is, most of the campus still has no idea that the issues were stolen in the first place.

The editors of the Justice have been wandering the dorms looking for the missing papers. 300 copies were found in a black garbage bag in East, one of the main sophomore dorms, and hearsay has it that there are a bunch more in a certain senior suite. Right now it's looking more like a prank than someone upset at the paper, but I can tell you that the Justice editors are livid either way. More updates and I learn them.

Apparently someone has stolen the entire 4000 copy run of this week's Justice. You can still read the issue online here, but I always like having the physical copy in front of me. Not sure if this is some prank or a protest related to the debacle of a few weeks ago. I'll try and update as I learn more.

Another entertainment industry death. Actor Art Carney, Ed Norton on The Honeymooners has died. Apparently his grandson goes to Brandeis and is friends with some people I know, but I've never met him.

Apparently the CNN Rock the Vote debate was pre-scripted Well, yeah. Perhaps I've grown up in too cynical of a world, but I never thought that those questions were spontaneous.

Saw The Matrix Revolutions on Thursday night. Enjoyable enough. Better than the second, not as good as the first, as all the reviews say. I think this article from Slate (warning, minor spoilers) has an interesting view on what went wrong. It really is sad that the greatness of the first movie has been lost a bit in the shattered expectations of the sequels.

While Revolutions has a narrative force that was missing from Reloaded that actually makes you care a bit during the battle scenes (as opposed to the "damn, this is cool, but do you really think anything will happen to Morpheus or Trinity" car chase of the second), the ending claims to wrap up all conflict, when in reality, all the questions of the first movie remain unresolved. **SPOILERS**If the Matrix still exists, isn't humanity still enslaved? And wasn't that the whole point of the war? If the war is over, will the machines release all of the minds from the Matrix? And if so, how will the machines power themselves? If the machines continue to use human energy to power themselves, wouldn't the humans be ideologically bound to still try to free minds that were ready? What exactly has been changed by Neo's martyr death? **SPOILERS**

The Matrix sequels have fallen into the same trap that has engulfed the Star Wars sequels. Too much hype, too little payoff. It's probably true that nothing could have lived up to the expectations of millions of fans, but no matter how bad the reviews, and how disappointed the fans, the movies continue to break box office records. And because of that, we will inevitably continue to see innovative, exciting movies that are ruined in the push for money-making sequels.

While the Justice issue has calmed down a bit on campus, the mainstream media is still talking about it. Today there was another article in the Boston Globe as well as one from the Jewish Telegraph Association. In addition, a friend of mine said her parents heard a piece about it on a talk radio show in Los Angeles.

On campus, there seems to be a sense that the worst is over. We're back to our normal actions of having "forums" and "discussions." The latest being a special workshop led by a "noted diversity workshop leader/facilitator" who "uses poetry as her medium
of choice in her presentations." On Tuesday there was a lecture on "The History of the N-word." These discussions are important, but we've had things like this before and the problem is with attendance. How do you get people to these events and how do you get people to care? For now, all I see is a decrease in the amount of cynical sneers directed towards the forums, but that is not going translate to more people going out and attending these events.

Now I don't have a solution to this. I don't know if anyone does. But unless you really hit people where they live, unless you get at something that affects them, it's very hard to make them care. I wonder how many members of the BBSO were active during the "Men's Room" scandal two years ago when the racial slurs were directed towards Asian women.

For a change of pace:

This essay on the feminization of the American male, which I found via Instpundit and has apparently been making a splash around the blogosphere, doesn't seem all that original to me. I've heard most of it before, in a way less offensive to women. It also has shades of a Fight Club rant.

Campus Press Notes has some interesting updates from a source on the Justice. I think this quote pretty much sums up how I view the situation:

One person's racism is not symbolic of the whole community's thought. By saying that this type of racism is prevalent at Brandeis b/c one person holds views is irrational (and stupid).

Yana Litovsky's (Justice features editor) resignation letter is published in this week's issues, which came out on Friday instead of Tuesday as reguarly scheduled because of more demands from BBSO. It is full of justified frustration and anger, while still being reasonable and logical. I disagreed with some of Litovsky's opinions two years ago during the Men's Room incident, but I must say that I whole-heartedly support this letter.

The Justice apology and defense is equally well-written and logical, while still full of emotion, though I agree with Steve Silver that the defense should not have been placed above the apology. I only hope this misjudgment doesn't bring more heartache to the already drained editors.

I've only gotten through about half of the letters to the editor, but they seem to be pretty varied. A few, I am happy to say, try to address the fact that this campus has a habit of 'protesting for the sake of protesting.' While I don't think this is the case here (protest was warrented, just not to the degree that it happened) it is something that is quite widespread and it's good to know that others on this campus are recognize it.

Thanks to JawsBlog for the link. I think it's my first outside of my sister, so it really means something. Unfortuantely, it had to be on such an upsetting issue.

Campus Press Notes has a great, clear timeline up of everything that's happened. And Steve Silver, former Justice editor, is still going strong. There was a report on the local news last night with student interviews.

I had lunch yesterday with one of my good friends who is the photo editor of the Justice. That's right, people, she is in charge of the pictures. Not words, not content, photographs. She has been acting on minimal sleep for the past week and a half and says she does not feel safe going to her Spanish class because the other students give her hostile looks and refuse to speak to her. This is ridiculous. Nobody should feel unsafe in their classes or anywhere on this campus.

I'd write more, but I have to go give a tour for admissions and try to remember the I love I have for this school.

As life continues to be way too busy (I'm actually skipping class while writing this post; it's the only way I'd have time), I haven't been blogging much lately. In the past week a huge controversy has exploded on campus. You can read great ongoing commentary (much better than I can do) about it at JawsBlog and Steve Silver's blog.

The basic gist: a rascist comment was published in the school newspaper, The Justice. An article was written blaming the Cubs general manager for blowing the NLCS championship and ended with a quote saying "the only thing [he] has a Ph. D. in is a work that starts with 'n' and rhymes with Tigger, the lovable scamp we all fell in love with from Whinne the Pooh." The Black Student Organization (BBSO) presented the Justice with a list of demands. The student who wrote the article resigned from the Justice as well as his position on Student Senate. The sports editor resigned. On Sunday night, the Student Senate met from 7pm until 6am and passed a resolution that called for the resignation of the editor in cheif. This demand has now been met and the editor, who had been in office for one week when this incident occured, agreed to step down.

What was printed in the Justice was inexcusable. The writer rightly was forced to resign as was the sports editor. The issue had to be dealt with, but the way BBSO is reacting is completely unconstructive. They staged a walkout on a forum on Thursday night; a forum designed to have an open dialogue and discuss what should be done. This, to me, shows a distinct lack of willingness to work with others. BBSO was hurt and has been reacting out of anger and without thought ever since. They have continued attacking the Justice editors even when demand after demand has been met. The administration has picked up this issue like no other in my time at Brandeis. The leadership of the Justice has been decimated. And now, the most well-established and basically the only form of communication of news on this campus may well disappear.

The comment made was inexcusable. But so is that action taken by those who, instead of adding constructively to the dialogue on this campus, instead decided to lash out and destroy one of the greatest organizations on this campus. Those students who are being attacked now, the majority of the editorial board, had nothing to do with the article which was printed. We have punished those responsible. We cannot hold the entire organization responsible for the stupidity and mistakes of the few.

EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot. The story has been picked up by the Boston Globe. This, I think, is the saddest thing.

I love Brandeis. I have gone through four years here and worked damn hard on Orientation, Famly Weekend, and other activities to make this school a better place. We have a great community and incredibly passionate students who care about what they are doing. When an event like this get so blown out of proportion that it is all anyone can talk about, this is the image that the rest of the world sees of us. This is not the face of Brandeis. This is an isolated incident that has caused shuch hurt feelings that people are blinded by their anger. It upsets me greatly when issues like this become what people know of Brandeis. This is not the school I know. This is not the school I love.

What do you use a dictionary for?

Fitting that I should return to blogging with an article about Buffy. Virginia Postrel sets out the assumptions of the Buffyverse and shows Why Buffy Kicked Ass.

While I hate to declare a hiatus so soon after starting up again, there will be a 3 weeks pause in blogging. I'm planning Orientation for my school and the Orientation Leaders come back this Tuesday, then the freshmen on Sunday. So I will basically be working non-stop for the next 3 weeks, barely having time to check my e-mail, let alone read the news. After September 1st I will have my life back and hopefully keep up the decent pace of blogging I've had the past couple weeks. And thanks to everyone for the renewed interest!

Proof that Texans really are crazy:

"The difference was Bush was the great uniter. Perry and DeLay are the great dividers."

This quote from a Texas Democrat. What is the world coming to?

Flash mob hits the Harvard Coop. Now why wasn't I invited?

(Link via Instapundit

There are some heart-rending posts on Andrew Sullivan's site regarding the recent declaration from the Catholic church and President Bush's comments against gay marriage. While the hate mail and stories of people losing their faith and trust of the Catholic church are awful, it is warming to see people standing up for the right to love whoever they want and not allowing themselves to feel guilty for it.

People are often asked what they think is the most important thing in life. There are many answers, and while as a 20 year old senior in college I have much more to learn about life, at the moment my answer is love. To find that one person who makes you so happy, who fills your life with extra meaning, who makes everything that much better just by existing, just by being with you. It is so rare and so hard to find, how can you say that you can't find it in someone of the same sex, or someone of a different religion?

This is why I get so upset when I talk to my friends who refuse to marry anyone who isn't Jewish. Yes, my Judaism is important to me and I believe I will want to raise my children Jewish, but how can you allow something like that to overshadow a chance at love? Differences can be worked around, problems can be worked out, but when I find that person who I know if right for me I will not let anything stand in my way. And how dare you deny someone else that kind of happiness? How dare you deny yourself that kind of happiness?

Bush wants marriage reserved for heterosexuals.

"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, and I think we ought to codify that one way or another," Bush told reporters at a White House news conference. "And we've got lawyers looking at the best way to do that."

I think I'm going to be sick.

Good news from Iraq.

I've often been fascinated by the idea of how to start a government from scratch. There are so many things to consider; so many needs to take care of. The fact that someone at one point sat down and wrote out a Constituion and established a rule of law seems only a story out of history books. So it strikes me as especially odd and amazing to read about Iraquis actually doing this right now. While I idly while away my summer there are men convening a constitutional convention to establish a new government for their country. It really is an amazing and inspiring thing.

Den Beste provides a big picture summary of the war on terror fron September 11th to Iraq and beyond.

If ever I was to question my decision to not go to law school I think this post reaffirms it.

I return from a long hiatus to blog an aricle on something I used to be guilty of myself. Bigotry against Republicans.

I've mentioned the pro-America Brandeis club

I've mentioned the pro-America club on campus,