I left the U.S. this Thanksgiving break. France granted me access into their country sans glitch. I glided through their customs saying my bonjours, mercis and je suis americaines in all the right places, and so what if they lost my suitcase. Fast forward through some crepe consumption, oui-oui-ing ...
I am a Canamerican — one of the truest. Oh, and in the somewhat likely event that portmanteaus are not your bag, kind reader, allow me to elaborate: I am a dual citizen of Canada and America, and can’t for the life of me discern which country deserves my undivided national pride. Indeed, I’ve ...
As an enthusiastic blog-following liberal feminist, I welcome new theories that challenge traditional assumptions about men and women’s sexual “natures.” I’m naturally drawn to critiques of the stereotypical view that women seek meaningful relationships while men look only for sexual pleasure. ...
On Thursday, Nov. 15, Olav Ljosne, senior manager of international operations at Royal Dutch Shell, came to campus to speak on a variety of topics, including the future of energy demand and conflict surrounding oil. Both students and members of the faculty filled the Robert A. Jones ’59 (RAJ) Conference ...
A recent op-ed (“Divestment Creates Positive, Systemic Change”) argued that divestment is a valuable tool in the fight against global warming. While I wholeheartedly share in the author’s concern about climate change, I am not convinced that Middlebury College’s divestment from fossil fuel companies ...
This past week we kicked off the holiday season with Thanksgiving, which despite its most questionable history, has always been for me less about its origins and more an excuse to bring the family together to eat, drink and be merry. The holiday season itself, unfortunately, can be a divisive topic. ...
One of the College’s greatest strengths lies in its professors. The Princeton Review recently ranked the College seventh in the “professors get high marks” category, a fact that is likely unsurprising to many students here. What is surprising, however, is that a primary criticism that came from ...
After last Tuesday’s election, the media immediately began its post-presidential election process of savaging the losing campaign for reasons explaining their defeat. While it is true that Romney’s campaign could have made many small, yet beneficial changes to improve its positioning against President ...
For many students of the liberal arts elite, undergraduate existence is an era of unchecked decadence. You can eat a packet of peanut M&M’s and a cigarette for lunch and get nothing worse than a few judge-y looks from the girl headed towards the gym in Lululemon. You can saturate your bloodstream ...
Perhaps one of the most exciting results of last week’s election — for women, at least — is that the United States now has the highest number of women in Congress than ever before. Unfortunately, that only means 20 women in the Senate out of 100 seats, and 78 out of 435 seats in the House (although ...
In the past few days, I have read headline after headline detailing the damaging effects of Hurricane Sandy on the New York metropolitan area. Millions are still without power and dozens have been killed; countless homes and businesses have been destroyed. In scanning through the headlines, however, ...
I came into Peter Beinart’s lecture last Thursday night feeling very nervous. Mr. Beinart, a modern Orthodox Jew and author of The Crisis of Zionism, has received ample criticism from both the left and right on his view of the Middle East peace process, and is a controversial figure in the Jewish ...
The potential for an Israeli-Iranian conflict has been boiling for some time, notably escalating in recent days. A military factory in Sudan (one of Iran’s allies) was “mysteriously” bombed this month, and Israel was immediately blamed. Israel, in turn, suspiciously made no comment — this would ...
The past three months of travel on the Watson Foundation’s ticket has been the most phenomenally humbling, addictive, complicated, joyful experience of my life. I pause my travels to write you now only to do my part to ensure that you appreciate what is at stake here, which is nothing less than truth. From ...
I met my two best friends at a three week summer program about four years ago. Twenty-one days is all it took to develop close connections with them. I’ve seen my best friends fewer than 21 days since that summer. One of them lives in Virginia, the other in Taiwan. We have to communicate across state ...
Divestment is a tool that is best used as part of a broader movement towards a real-world goal. My goal is to keep the global temperature from rising two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial temperature, an increment that was about the only thing global leaders could agree upon at the Copenhagen ...
“I can be fair and impartial.” Every member of the judicial board — academic or community — must say those words before each hearing commences. If last week’s Community Judicial Board hearing involving the Dalai Lama Welcoming Committee (DLWC) is any indication, however, certain members of ...
It’s hard to believe that it’s been three weeks since His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama graced us with his presence and dropped enlightenment bombs like it was his job for two glorious days. With that said, this column may seem a bit dated, but hey, I needed to get that election column out the other ...
I recently watched a film (pronounced “filum” in Ireland. I think the technical term for such an elaboration between two consonants is called a schwa, and if that doesn’t do something for you … ) titled The Guard; it comes with my highest recommendation and also a sufficient and heartening dose ...
The Community Judicial Board’s (CJB) recent decision to reprimand those students who were part of the Dalai Lama Welcoming Committee has undoubtedly sparked conversation within the College community. It seems as though much of the chatter surrounding the public hearing that took place last Thursday, ...