Reflections from the campaign trail
“It was just before midnight when I left Cambridge and headed north on U.S. 93 toward Manchester … back on the Campaign Trail …” So began Hunter S. Thompson’s legendary coverage of the New Hampshire primary in “Fear and Loathing,” the 1972 Rolling Stone essay that changed political journalism forever.
EDITORIAL Towards further engagement
Student-administration relations have seen progress this year. We’ve taken particular notice of Chancellor Eric Grimson PhD ’80’s efforts to foster more frank discussion between students and the administration, and those efforts should be lauded. However, substantial work remains to restore a sense of trust and partnership, and to build a shared vision of a better MIT.
Why the Occupy movement failed
Sparking up all over the world, the Occupy movement was one of the most popular trends of the second half of 2011. Starting with Occupy Wall Street, the movement soon spread to more than 95 cities around the globe. Before getting to its shortcomings, let’s first reexamine what the Occupy movement really is.
Google and others cyber-arming protesters
As I surfed the web exploring the Internet’s role in the Arab Spring for a cyber politics class, I stumbled upon the website . The site’s homepage immediately grabbed my attention with a large advertisement for a “How to Bypass Internet Censorship” guide. Not typical of the average political blog, I decided to investigate further. I was amazed to find Google-owned YouTube, CBS News, Pepsi, MTV, Facebook, MSNBC, and National Geographic listed as sponsors of the site. Moreover, the co-founder of Movements.org is Jared Cohen, the current Director of Google Ideas.
CORRECTIONS
An article published last Friday on Nightline misquoted Isabella S. Lubin ’12 as saying, “but often we feel that students should reach out to peers as a first step.” Lubin actually said, “but often we feel that students might want to reach out to peers as a first step.” The same article misquoted Tzipora R. Wagner ’12 as saying, “students won’t always need to go to a doctor or psychologist first.” Her comment was actually “students won’t always need to go to a doctor or psychologist.” This article also incorrectly listed Nightline’s hours as 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. — they are actually 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
No bang for your buck
At long last, MIT finally has a real dining plan. As all of you should know, unless you’ve lived under a rock all semester, MIT has finally revamped the old dining protocol, so we no longer have to pay absurd a la carte prices for meager portions, chosen from a limited selection. We now get to eat all we care to! It’s a shining beacon in the midst of the darkness that is vicious time crunches and carnivorous problem sets.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE: The headline for this letter, “SCEP does not make policy,” is ambiguous. UA SCEP is involved with making education-related policy at MIT, but not the specific end-of-term policies referenced in this letter.
CORRECTIONS
An article published on Nov. 29 incorrectly stated that the Dalai Lama has visited the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT three times. He has only visited twice. The same article also incorrectly said that Ethics Initiative talks involve approximately 15 students — it is actually closer to 25–30. In addition, these talks are made available on MIT World, not MIT OpenCourseware.
A sordid end for the ‘Cain train’
Last Saturday was a happy day. Republican presidential contender and former frontrunner Herman Cain announced the suspension of his presidential campaign. Cain, who initially gained support for his conservative values and rags to riches story, has been dishonored and discredited by a slew of lewd sexual assault accusations that eventually killed his political ambitions. Americans can now take a collective sigh of relief because Cain, with his questionable ethics (at best), is no longer in the running for our country’s highest office.
Oh Cain, you will be so sorely missed
Herman Cain, former frontrunner of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, announced late last week that he would be “suspending” his campaign in light of the numerous (read: many) allegations of sexual misconduct during his time as the CEO and President of the National Restaurant Association. Let’s take a moment of silence to mourn the death of his bid for the presidency and then reflect on the highlights of his campaign.
Congress needs to get its act together
Lost hopes and broken dreams: these seem to be the recurring themes with Congress nowadays. I’m sure most of you remember what happened back in August with the federal budget; if not, here’s a brief recap.
Vote YES on UA reform
Editor’s Note: The UA passed a restructuring bill last night, after the deadline for this column.
Occupying is not the answer
Throughout history, American movements for social justice have been given life by protesters exercising their freedom of speech. However, the ones that succeeded did so by coupling the voices of the people with concrete goals and actions. In recent months, Occupy Wall Street, utilizing the empty rally cry “We are the 99 percent!” has gotten only half of this formula correct. Everyone, including the protesters, is confused by the movement’s complete lack of a clear message. Occupiers, as they’re being called, despise corporate America, people with generously-paying jobs, and anything with a semblance of elitism.
GUEST COLUMN Two sides to every campus
Editor’s Note: The following was sent as an open letter to Chancellor Eric Grimson and Alan E. Siegel, MIT’s chief of mental health services.
Does OWS have an image problem?
Certainly there is no shortage of people with “The Definitive Opinion” about Occupy Wall Street and its hundreds of offshoots, but I figured I would go the marginally less tired route of addressing the unacquainted, the undecided, and the just plain uneasy.
Occupy yourself
“No entry without a Harvard ID,” I was told by a police officer. And I was not alone — this was the response that hundreds of tourists received when they tried to walk through Harvard Yard last week.
GUEST COLUMN Response from the Chancellor
I am writing in response to Stephen Tsai’s letter. Stephen has given me a fresh understanding of what pain and loneliness can feel like on our campus, and the accounts he gives of his and others’ experiences and feelings will remain with me as I lead efforts to review our support services and the ways we make them available to community members. Stephen, thank you.
Incompetency abounds in GOP pack
I envy people like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who get to talk about the many political absurdities on broadcast television. Since the beginning of the debates for next year’s Republican presidential primaries, the two hosts have had daily opportunities to expose how amazingly unfit for duty some candidates are. If I wanted to enumerate all the astonishing remarks made by the candidates, I think I would have to fill up an entire edition of The Tech. Instead, what follows is a “Best Of” list covering the top three candidates, who have managed to show unparalleled creativity in the many ways they mess up. So without further ado, let’s look at our winners.