Op Eds
Diversitas? Take a Closer Look
It can hardly be said that Harvard is socioeconomically homogeneous but it would still be a stretch to call it socioeconomically diverse.
Old School Liberalism
It’s rather unfair that liberals have had to take on the baggage of the far left.
United Queer Nations?
The UN’s new focus on LGBT rights should be used to offer support to local activists and governments, not to perpetuate economic and social inequalities.
Obama Said No...
Clean energy development and investments in energy efficiency would create hundreds of thousands of jobs and save us billions of dollars.
The Path Beyond Durban
Each country has unique economic challenges, values, traditions, and norms, and each is affected by climate change in a different way. One treaty cannot encompass the diverse qualities and needs of every country.
Theory of Occupation
Members of Occupy Harvard and people at other Occupies have had philosophical discussions that center on what some consider a fundamental question of Occupy: Is it a protest or a community?
No Layoffs for Harvard Libraries
An announcement about library layoffs is sparking a new wave of worker-led protests on the Harvard campus.
'It’s a Girl' is Fatal
Unfortunately for women around the world, the progressive movement remains willing to tolerate gendercide as the collateral damage of their promotion of abortion.
Dealing With Drugs
Persistently, high crime eats away at the region’s societies; Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala have some of the highest murder rates in the world, and the numbers only get worse with each passing year.
When Fair Is Foul
Occupy Harvard sees “injustice in Harvard’s adoption of corporate efficiency measures such as job outsourcing.” And yet, simultaneously, we have this statement, from Occupy Wall Street: “Ending wealth inequality is our one demand.” An incongruity because it begs the question—whose wealth inequality?
Teaching, Tenure, and Trade-offs
This emphasis on teaching and research as a “zero-sum game” is misplaced and greatly detracts from a forthright discussion of tenure practices on campus. Strong teaching and innovative research are not mutually exclusive goals, traded off and balanced against one another.
Alabama Laws
The citizens of Alabama may be concerned about how the increasing surge of immigrants will affect their lives, but supporting such strict anti-immigration laws is not the best solution.
Harvard’s Money Matters
Harvard’s money matters, and together, we will change the way Harvard invests it, for a better future for all.
A Liberal Critique
To be sure, I agree with many of their demands—a living wage for employees, socially responsible and transparent investments, and increased diversity among the faculty to name a few—and I know and like many of the undergraduate Occupiers personally.
Mansfield’s Myth of Manliness
Harvey Mansfield propagates outdated, demeaning, and utterly unsubstantiated views on women.
Brutality of the Worst Kind
When we identify psychological reasons for horrifying actions, we try to understand them in a deeper way and recognize that we are animals.
Harvard or the Community College
For all our Nobel Prizes, it’s increasingly clear that investment in higher education gets the most bang for the buck when it’s put into community colleges, not Ivies. There are two reasons why community colleges should be a top priority for anyone who cares about higher education.
Firewalls against Disaster
As crucial to the economy and the welfare of everyday Americans as the payroll tax cut is the extension of unemployment insurance.
Personally Pro-Life, But…
Those who take the “personally opposed but pro-choice” position must confront the question: why are you “personally opposed” to abortion in the first place?
America’s Cain Scandal
I’m referring, of course, to Cain’s “if you don’t have a job, and you’re not rich, blame yourself” remark. Certainly the incident received some coverage. But it didn’t reach the heart of the matter.
Call to Action
For now more than ever the end of AIDS has become a legitimate scientific possibility—we just need the political and corporate support to make this vision a reality.
A Challenge to Occupiers
So, students, philosophers, bums, fellow classmates, and anyone else pitching tents in front of University Hall, get out of the Yard.
Holding Occupy Harvard Accountable
Before Occupy Harvard set up shop, three sexual assaults were reported to the police at Occupy Wall Street. The threat of rape became so palpable there that the protestors established a female-only sleeping tent that needed consistent guarding from an all-female patrol.
Profits and Bridges
There’s a scene in the new film “Margin Call”—a fictionalized retelling of the first 24 hours of the 2008 financial crisis—in which a recently-fired risk analyst sits on his front porch and reflects on his life’s work.
The Philosophical Argument for Life
The most compelling argument for abortion is denying that the fetus is a person. If one can do this absolutely, then abortion is not wrong. If one rejects one of the above premises, I’d like to ask him to consider the following quadrilemma. We begin with two new premises: The fetus is a person or is not a person, and we either know it or we don’t know it. We end up with four possible outcomes.