GUEST COLUMN Love trumps all
After reading Igor Yanovich’s Sept. 9 column on the abortion issue, I felt that it was time to add a woman’s viewpoint to this debate. Quite honestly, I take offense when one characterizes the pro-life movement as an attempt to keep women “domestic, weak, and submissive to men.” I’m not so naïve as to think that the anti-abortion movement is without flaws. However, I would like to offer a different pro-life perspective for your consideration. Once you read this, you can judge whether the pro-livfe case is really all about control over women.
The anti-stimulus argument
In 1965, Milton Friedman, the scion of right-wing economics, famously declared, “We are all Keynesians now.” If he were alive today, Friedman might add, “And we are all Keynesians still.” The view of mainstream economics (and myself) is that the United States is suffering from a lack of aggregate demand, and the solution to our economic woes is economic stimulus, i.e., some combination of tax cuts, government spending, and an expansion of our monetary supply.
GUEST COLUMN When ignorance trumps knowledge
Unfortunately, Ryan Normandin’s Sept. 2 column “Why life trumps choice” only too vividly demonstrates what sheer ignorance and self-serving feelings of moral superiority can lead to when people are not informed by either science or compassion. It makes me truly sad that a person affiliated with a great science school can provide such a colorful demonstration of that.
Doctrineless and self-absorbed
The decennial of the greatest terrorist attack against the United States is an occasion packed with retrospection and reflection. Every news network and publication is offering its two cents on what the U.S. did, what it should have done, and where it should go in the future. Normally, I might complain about the artificiality of it all — shouldn’t we take stock of matters near actual watershed moments rather than a random anniversary? But September 11, 2011, strikes me as a well-placed time for self-assessment — with bin Laden dead, Qaddafi in exile, and our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan coming to a conclusion, we may well be looking at an inflection point in our foreign affairs.
EDITORIAL Focus on what’s important
Being an MIT student gives you a voice that few other people have. Like it or not, the MIT name makes you a representative of modern science and engineering. It’s no small secret that the world turns to MIT for its understanding of science, technology and related policy — just pick up the science section of the New York Times for proof. We’re not exaggerating, then, when we say that the pulse of MIT’s campus has a substantial effect on the world beyond the Institute.
The dark side of an MIT brain
In the early 90s, a young man named Lead Wey ’93 arrived on campus at MIT, just like all of us have been these past few days. Like us, he was intelligent, driven, and had an entrepreneurial spirit. Like us, he experienced the rush of success after mastering a particularly difficult class or problem set, along with the humbling knowledge that everyone around you is just as smart as or smarter than yourself. His years at the Institute, which he attended for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees, were both rewarding and, at times, uncomfortable. Both the positive and negative shaped what this man would go on to do.
Nonsense, followed by begging
Frequent readers of this paper may recall a piece by MIT President Susan J. Hockfield and Harvard President Drew G. Faust in the Boston Globe, titled “Riding the Innovation Wave,” and this columnist’s negative response, “Voodoo Innovationomics.” Well, last Monday, President Hockfield was at it again, this time with a solo piece in the New York Times titled, “Manufacturing a Recovery.”
Abortion is a fundamental right
The debate over abortion is plagued by misconceptions and misinformation. Just last spring I received a pamphlet from a campus pro-life group claiming that abortion raises the risk of breast cancer, yet if we can consider the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health as a trustworthy source, this factoid has been thoroughly debunked. On the flip-side, some pro-choice advocates still maintain that an embryo is not alive. Even without this surplus obfuscation the issue is complicated and delicate; both positions in the debate represent legitimate values on their own terms. In the interest of clarity, I will attempt to put forth a reasoned argument in favor of a person’s right to an abortion.
Why life trumps choice
The abortion debate centers on two rights fundamental to American society: life and liberty. The two sides say as much, with one labeling itself “pro-life” and the other “pro-choice.” In general, it is accepted that individuals are free to do as they choose as long as those choices do not harm others, society, or themselves, within reason. There is certainly some leeway here, as the boundary between “not harmful enough” and “too harmful” is often fuzzy. We’ve seen this in the implementation and subsequent repeal of Prohibition, the debate over the legalization of marijuana, and other differences between states’ laws.
GETTING OUT OF THE RED The crisis in disability insurance
Social Security is primarily made of three insurance programs: old age insurance, insurance against on-the-job injuries (workers compensation), and insurance against career-ending disabilities (disability insurance). Old age insurance, being the bulk of Social Security, is what comes up in conversation most often. But the remainder of Social Security is in dire need of reform as well, and if Congress paid a little more attention to Disability Insurance (DI) in particular, they might go a considerable way toward fixing the nation’s budget deficit.
Embracing Africa’s newest nation
After decades of brutal fighting that left millions dead, South Sudan finally seceded from the North on July 9, forming the Republic of South Sudan. Led by President Salva Kiir, the South has many serious obstacles to overcome, including vast poverty, ongoing conflict with the north, and internal tribal violence. Regardless, secession is a vital step on Sudan’s journey towards a long-awaited prosperity, and it is important that the United States not only endorses the split, but also extends support to the months-old nation during this critical time of development, when the South’s government can so easily unravel.
EDITORIAL Wear a helmet!
For most MIT students, a brain is their most prized asset. So for the subset of those students who bike to class or work, we have one simple message: Wear your damn helmet.
If I were President
Having grown up in New York City, I follow the New York Times religiously. Nowadays, I don’t follow the local news (though interestingly chaotic), but rather opinion articles from columnists and bloggers. Recently, a piece caught my eye: “If I Were President” by Jesse Kornbluth. His work drew professors, C.E.Os, astrophysicists, and experts from all over, to answer: “What would you do if you were president?”
Why Senator Brown is wrong
In an August 13 op-ed in the Boston Globe on controlling the debt, Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) echoed the disgust many feel with the bickering in Washington, stressing the need for bipartisan policies to control the debt. Having voted for Senator Brown myself, I was hopeful that the proposals he outlined might indeed represent the type of bipartisanship he ran on during his campaign. I was sorely disappointed to find that his idea of reaching across the aisle was the same as Speaker John Boehner’s: unwilling to accept anything less than 98 percent of his demands.
GETTING OUT OF THE RED The 1.5 MRC Force
In the parlance of military planning, the U.S. wields what one would call a “two-MRC force.” That is to say, as structured, the armed forces should be able to fight two “major regional conflicts” (Iraq-sized wars), simultaneously. The logic behind this sizing is simple: should the U.S. choose to fight in one region (say, the Korean peninsula), it doesn’t want to find itself without a free hand in dealing with other regions (say, the Persian gulf). Two MRC’s worth of military might gives the U.S. the strength to conduct big stick diplomacy with troublemakers even while taking action against another rogue state.
CORRECTIONS
An August 3 article about the MIT Mobile application incorrectly stated that the software was available for the “most recent features phones.” The application is only available on Android and iOS devices, but the MIT Mobile website () can be accessed from any internet device.
Tea Party of America: Slowing down the future
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly known as the Stimulus, opened the door to many projects in America. ARRA aimed to boost America’s economy out of a recession that plagued the entire world. It paved the way for many things: $90.9 billion for education, with $2 billion specifically for Head Start and a 17 percent increase in the maximum Pell Grant to $5,350, and tax reductions for the middle class by $237 billion. Unfortunately for America, it indirectly led to the emergence of the Tea Party movement. This movement has done nothing productive for America and has only caused further interruptions in the country’s already strenuous democratic process.
Ten key words to learn in every language
Apparently there are more than 6,000 spoken languages in the world, as catalogued and described in the book “Languages of the World”, according to Wikipedia. So it turns out that to be outrageously multilingual, you’d have to learn a new language about every five days, given that you live until the ripe old age of 80 years. However, I would like to inform you of two possibilities you have in this regard:
Help fix MIT’s student government
In high school, many of you were likely involved in some form of student government. Whether as a class officer, a member of the executive board of Student Council , or as a student leader in some other capacity, I’m willing to bet that you left a positive mark on your school. In fact, I know you have. According to the May/June Faculty Newsletter, 31 percent of you founded an organization. Perhaps, like myself when I was a freshman, you are proud of what you’ve accomplished so far, but are wondering where you will find your niche at MIT. With over four thousand undergraduate students at this school, will you be able to have as big an impact as you did in high school? I’m here to tell you that the answer to that is a resounding “yes.”