Jehuda Reinharz, president of Brandeis University, co-authored an anti-intimidation pledge signed by other university presidents and published in the New York Times. It was written mainly in response to events at Concordia University and SFSU where Jewish students were harrassed and attacked by pro-Palestinian protestors. The student newspaper here published an interview with him on the subject this week.

It's really disappointing that what started out as being a wonderful opportunity to educate the student body about events happening across the country (how many people here really know what happened at Concordia? 2 our of 6 people I ate dinner with last night I can tell you) ended up with Reinharz backtracking and becoming defensive. The subject of some anti-Arab flyers put up around campus was brought up and Reinharz advocates throwing these students off campus? Putting up fliers around campus, however biased the opinions on them are, is nothing like having mobs of students yell anti-Semetic comments and vandalize school property. It encourages discussion, it doesn't stifle it. If Reinharz could make his position consistent I'd be a lot prouder to have him as my unveristy president.

As a hard-core Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan I really wanted to check out Joss Whedon's new creation Firefly. I've only been able to see 2 episodes due to the extremely bad time slot the show has (Friday nights at 8 on Fox), but what is really interesting is the official website for the show. Normally network websites are quite low on content and you have to go to fan-run sites for all the fun, juicey details like spoilers and epiosde recaps. But Firefly has the most in-depth network website I've ever seen. There's the obligatory message boards, but also a spoiler sections with pages from next week's script, interviews with the cast and crew, and even a blog by a production assistant on the set. Dig around and you can even find coveted footage of everyone's hero Joss Whedon. It's almost more fun than the show itself!

They've caught the guy who made the Bali bomb. This one's hitting a little too close to home as well. My roommate's friend from home is studying abroad in Australia this semester and was supposed to go to Bali at some point. My roommate e-mailed her after we heard the news about the bombing and she hasn't heard back in 4 days.

UPDATE: My roommate got an e-mail from her friend in Australia and all is well. Thanks for all your concern.

They've called in the military to help find the D.C. sniper. I really hope they find him soon. Especially because my Aunt lives about 20 minutes away from where most of the shootings take place. And also because I'm supposed to be in D.C. in two weeks to perform with my dance group. Nine killed, 2 injured, it's been almost 2 weeks and they still haven't found him. What is taking so long?

Wow. My Con Law professor reads blogs. He sent us an e-mail this morning about a case the Supreme Court heard (Eldred - about copyrights) and said
"Blog coverage at:
http://www.corante.com/copyfight/
http://allafrica.com/staff/kwindla/eldred.txt
http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=392
Media coverage at:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55684,00.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961467.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/10/business/10BIZC.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3508-2002Oct9.html
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/4251014.htm"

Blog coverage! I wonder how many other people in the class undertand what that means. And the third post on the first link is to the Volokhs. Maybe I can go impress my professor with my close family connection there. :-)

For once Instapundit is behind the curve! I posted news of Seventeen Magazine's coolest college rankings weeks ago.

Instapundit points us poor college students to this item on why not to buy used textbooks. This is what I've been saying for years! It's also why I was upset at the begining of the year when there weren't any new books in the bookstore for one of my courses. If there's anything we've learned today it's this: Never trust idiot with highlighters.

He's back! Yes, Stephen Green is back from a week-long vacation with his usual wonderful content. Seems he spent the week playing computer games and enjoying newly-married life. My lull in blogging, however, hasn't been for quite so fun reasons. Let's hear it for midterms!

Professor quote: "It's good to have people who follow things through to their logical conclusions. It's good to have these kinds of extremists. Like libertarians."

What? Libertarians are extremists? Oh yes, I keep forgetting.

Supreme Court won't intervene in New Jersey case. My constitutional law professor brought this case up in class this morning by asking, "Is anyone here from New Jersey?" As if the only people who would have heard about or cared about this issue were from the state. Well, I know a few people from Washington DC, New York, and Tennessee who know a thing or two about it.

My sister has a very interesting post about college students' views on the war with Iraq. Now Brandeis, as opposed to Bryn Mawr, is quite a politically active campus. Just say you're having a protest and you'll get loads of people showing up, probably without even having to tell them what it's about (though the wonderfully vauge topics like 'peace' and 'tolerance' will bring out the most). But I think that the last paragraph of her post sums up the ideas that all of these activist students have. 'If we could only get everyone to sit down and talk about what's bothering them we could easily come up with a solution.' They cannot imagine a situation when this strategy would not work. They can't believe that everyone can't just get along. You cannot convince them otherwise. That is why they are dangerous.

Supreme Court won't intervene in New Jersey case. My consitutional law professor brought this case up in class this morning. He asked if anyone knew anything about it by asking "Is anyone here from New Jersey?" As if the only people who would have heard about this or cared about it were those from the state. Well, I know of some people from New York,

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How to watch sports with guys. Turns out I've been doing it all wrong. I do wish I could still impress guys with my knowledge of sports, but the truth is I haven't had time to really follow anything since, well, since I started college. Damn classes getting in the way of my flirting.

(Link via The Agitator)

I'd been wondering how many Brandeis students had attended the protest in D.C. this weekend and how many were arrested. Well, now that it's Tuesday, my trusty school newspaper, The Justice, has come out and let me know. 30 went, none arrested. How disappointing.

While I suppose it's pointless to fisk a school newspaper article, there was one line that just make be laugh out loud:

Radical Students Association (RSA) member, Lee Tusman '04, said that the WTO acts to help finance projects in developing nations, but as a condition, they dictate restructuring of the economy, opening of markets, and a weakening of government social services.
The countries that get financing loans must pay them back.


Horror of horrors! Countries that get loans have to pay them back? Who would have thought? I mean, you would think that the word loan no longer meant the same thing as gift.

I usually enjoy reading Lileks every morning while I'm eating breakfast, but Jess Ventura is "a dead pinky toe that will fall off some day, and we won’t even notice until we shake it out of our shoe"? Ew.

Some thoughts on how to be happy. Seems like I've got a pretty good start. Born female: check. Go to church (well, synogogue): check. Country dancing: As soon as Nissa gets back from Scotland we're going again. Now I just have to work on that pesky marriage thing.
(Link via Quare)

Megan McArdle is appalled at the amount of cheating that goes on in public high schools today. I suppose we all should be, but the article she points to is a completely accurate reflection of what went on in my high school. Two years before I graduated, one of the valedictorians (yes, we had several) was caught cheating a month or so before graduation. She remained valedictorian.

With all the talk of bloggers running for president (here's two potential candidates I'd support) I was wondering. Are there any politicans with blogs out there? It would be a wonderful way for them to keep in touch with their constituents and publish their thoughts and views about issues. It would also help prove that they're actually doing something and allow them to easily get input from the people they represent. On the other hand it would mean that they'd have to be honest about what they thought and take definite positions. So maybe there's a good reason there aren't any politicians in the blogosphere.

I am, with rare exception, neither eloquent nor persuasive. Luckily, I have a blogosphere out there to learn from. This post by Stephen Green puts beautifully one of the many things I wish I could get across to my fellow students. This country has done things badly, yes, but we have also done many, many things well. Our past failures must be studied and examined and we must always question, but don't let mistakes of the past tie our hands in what we need to do today.