It's Winter Break! Bwog will be moving in slow motion.

QuickSpec: Burning Questions Edition

Did a friend of TC professor Madonna Constantine hang the noose on her door?

Atlas Shrugged is the second-most influential book ever; an April Fool's Day column, a day late?

Would "impeachment circus" be the correct term? How about "kerfuffle"?

Is a hyphen to thank for the sky-high levels of school spirit and sense of community?

A guilty Greek pleasure!


See also: Quickspec

Posted by hey, fyi, : #1 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Bwog, the header of the main page still reads "the Blog"
Posted by ugh : #2 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 11:23 AM (from campus)
People who like Atlas Shrugged should be too embarrassed to talk.
Posted by Hitler : #3 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 11:26 AM (from campus)
was also a shitty writer with terrible ideas, and you don't see people trying to carve his name into Butler just because he influenced morons.
Posted by ahahah : #4 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 11:40 AM (from campus)
duuuudddeee, i read this craaaazzzyyyy book this summer! you know what, we should add that shit to the core curriculum. cause dude, my friend says it's one of the most influential book and like i'm a sophomore with a good grasp of the world and economics so what the fuck!? let's do it!!!

this is such a college article. poor guy will probably be embarrassed about this one in a couple years.
Posted by rand? : #5 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 11:47 AM
noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Posted by Dude : #6 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 11:50 AM (from campus)
Chris Kulawik is going to Harvard Law next year. Word.

No, I'm not him.
Posted by well... : #7 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 11:50 AM
nikko is an incompetent kid.... i knew that last year when I saw him at the GSSC debate.... everbody was floored by how he took a bunch of pencils, dropped them on the ground, and said that "this is like GS, I will unite these pencils with one another just like I will unite GS"... he can't even keep his own council united

I knew right then that he was full of hot air and completely incompetent......
Posted by ??? : #8 (in reply to #6) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 12:01 PM (from campus)
You're joking right? Republican alumni connections?
Posted by ayn rand blows : #9 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 12:04 PM (from campus)
there's nothing like oversimplifying a bunch of complex philosophical traditions to make them seem like they're all of inherently equal value. just because rand's views are opposed to marx's doesn't make them deserving of equivalent attention. rand gets no respect in mainstream academia because she wasn't a very good philosopher.

plus, if you can't think of a good reason why Atlas Shrugged doesn't belong in the Core, here's a couple: it's 1200 fucking pages long and is a cartoonish, didactic soap opera of a novel. the polls that count it as one of the most influential books in history are the same ones that count The Lord of the Rings as one of the crowning achievements of Western literature.

but what's really pathetic is the total obliviousness to the fact that this is not a novel experience to have. the whole reason Atlas Shrugged is so popular (and supposedly "influential") is all the teenagers who read it and have exactly the same reaction this clown did. #4 is pretty much right--as youthful indiscretions go, wouldn't you rather be able to tell some story about how much jager you puked than about the self-righteous editorial you wrote?
Posted by cyang : #10 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 12:09 PM (from campus)
No one over the age of 14 should be able to take Ayn Rand seriously - I still feel embarrassed for reading her and liking her then.
Posted by cyang : #11 (in reply to #10) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 12:15 PM (from campus)
The author of the opinions article, Ben Weingarten, appears to be yet another ibanking frat boy. This comes at no surprise because the only people that like Rand into adulthood are iBankers and grizzly old men that store guns in their cabins, waiting for the apocalypse.
Posted by bannery : #12 (in reply to #7) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 12:27 PM (from campus)
Well Nikko did bust his ass for GS - he just neglected his council while busting his Ass. He had a price to pay - he paid it; now let him get back to work, and keep being the radical GS guy we need.
Posted by Kluge : #13 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 12:43 PM
If GS dissolved into CC, we'd be stuck with Michelle Diamond. I'd much rather take the radical or whatever over self-appointed NetNanny.
Posted by Alum : #14 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 12:47 PM
Chris Kulawik refers to "the Senate’s appointment of . . . Michael Mukasey (CC ’63), to the position of Attorney General[.]" Surely he knows that it was the President who appointed Mukasey. The Senate then confirmed the appointment.
Posted by ZvS : #15 (in reply to #1) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 12:54 PM (from campus)
Thanks. Gone.
Posted by ibanking frat boy : #16 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 1:03 PM (from campus)
Likewise, nobody over the age of 14 should rely on argumenta ad hominem when discussing philosophy. Doing so demonstrates at best intellectual dwarfism.
Posted by lol : #17 (in reply to #16) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 1:59 PM
Sorry, I was just amused that you thought discussing Ayn Rand constituted a philosophical discussion.
Posted by The Dink : #18 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 2:00 PM (from campus)
Hey now, let's not say things we can't take back...grizzly old men that store guns in their cabins while waiting for the apocalypse should never be placed in the same category as i-banking frat boys. Those men read Edward Abbey in their youth...not Rand.
Posted by I think : #19 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 3:09 PM (from campus)
that Ayn Rand herself devolved into ad hominem arguments when she called Kant a monster, so the guy who wrote this editorial shouldn't be upset if we do the same.
Posted by Right : #20 (in reply to #6) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 3:16 PM
Prison would be more appropriate.
Posted by cyang : #21 (in reply to #16) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 3:43 PM (from campus)
Which part do you dispute, ibanking or frat boy?
Posted by ibanking frat boy : #22 (in reply to #21) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 4:25 PM (from campus)
What is said isn't as relevant as the fact that you consider the identity of the proponent significant. Ideas are valuable or not because of their components, not the identity of the holder of such an argument. Additionally, #19 commits the "tu quoque" fallacy.

For what it's worth, I'm not a huge fan of Rand (despite being a fraternity man heading to an investment bank after graduation). I like some of her ideas but her writing is tedious. That said, if ideas should be discussed at all, they should be discussed properly.
Posted by haha : #23 (in reply to #17) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 4:29 PM (from campus)
this is the credited response
Posted by Breaking News! : #24 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 4:38 PM
Local Soweto radio reports that the great Madiba, Nelson Mandela, has perished in a car crash! He suffered for so long, like Jesus, so his countrymen would be free!

Godspeed Mandela! You liberated us!
Posted by rjt : #25 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 4:57 PM
seriously guys let's put Ayn Rand in the Core also can we make room for my other favorite authors Chuck Palahniuk and Bret Easton Ellis they are pretty deep B-)
Posted by someone : #26 (in reply to #8) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 5:30 PM
Unfortunately, it's true.
Posted by Wow : #27 (in reply to #20) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 6:27 PM (from campus)
Disgusting. Are you one of David Judd's idiotic followers?
Posted by yikes : #28 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 6:51 PM (from campus)
some sadistic editor at the spec allowed this poor kid to do this to himself...

"I could have no greater lasting legacy at Columbia than to have garnered the inclusion of Rand in our CC curriculum"

a free press is a cruel mistress.
Posted by the lying soweto : #29 (in reply to #24) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 9:29 PM
Could you please describe your mental defect so that I can understand why you do this every few months or so? Are you epileptic?
Posted by apologies : #30 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 9:32 PM
My apologies for insulting epileptic people.
Posted by ... : #31 (in reply to #8) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 9:35 PM (from campus)
oh come on, think about it. i'm sure they were drooling over him. i suspect that his academic performance was probably decent and his angle was well executed.

"i was the conservative voice of reason in the liberal hell-hole that is columbia"

sure they might not agree with him, but he gets well deserved credit for positioning himself well.

yep. those damn liberals sure do love their diversity. the irony is beautiful. you could almost say that mr. kulawik may have been given a leg up through an off-the-cuff cousin of, dare i say it, affirmative action...

beautiful.
Posted by ......... : #32 · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 10:06 PM
His resume is probably as long as the Declaration of Independence.
Posted by He is : #33 (in reply to #31) · reply · track
April 2, 2008 at 11:19 PM
A complete and total fraud. I bet he lied on his application.
Posted by Tolerant Liberal : #34 · reply · track
April 3, 2008 at 12:58 AM
Guys, I'm proud to call myself a full fledge liberal. Social Welfare and free speech for all...except conservatives and others who disagree with our point of views.

This conservative war mongering schmuck who wrote this Rand story should be excluded from participating in any form of civic participation or media. After all, only liberals should be allowed to write articles and propose a school curriculum.

And whoever "He is" is out there, fight on man. Way to challenge the credentials and honor of someone you have never even met. Right on man.

Posted by ... : #35 (in reply to #34) · reply · track
April 3, 2008 at 2:24 AM (from campus)
oh jeez. here we go with a classic case of a freeper or redstater wandering into someone else's living room "to poop on the carpet" as they say on those boards.

if you had posted an equally antagonistic comment on redstate.com or freep, you'd be banned on the spot.

that said, allow me to point out that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

find an example where this blog has ever not ridiculed someone left or right for proposing any change to the core curriculum. yeah, that's right, it's called primary sources, not what your favorite tv/radio/internet blatherizer tells you to think...

Posted by Tolerant Liberal : #36 (in reply to #35) · reply · track
April 3, 2008 at 3:44 AM
hmm you are write. I guess comments such as when "He is" stated:

"A complete and total fraud. I bet he lied on his application," or when "ugh" wrote "People who like Atlas Shrugged should be too embarrassed to talk." are acceptable forms of criticism that wouldn't also be banned on the websites your noted. Anyone attacking those comments obviously has no idea what they are talking about.

I guess people like Bill O'Reilly are the only way conservatives gather their information. After all, their is such a right wing media bias. I still can't believe the New York Times posted that libelous article claiming Barack Obama had an extramaritial affair citing two unnamed sources. Darn those right wing media biased bastards!

Posted by ... : #37 (in reply to #36) · reply · track
April 3, 2008 at 4:11 PM (from campus)
no. they would also be banned, no one has insinuated that they wouldn't be. the point is, you're welcome to come spill your drivel all over the place here (as is anyone) and no one is going to ban you. you may get mocked, but that is the risk you (or anyone, who behaves ridiculously) runs when you open your mouth.

however, that is not true of the more conservative corners of the web. where you'd be banned and deleted in 30 seconds flat. funny how that works!

again, allow me to point out a few reasons why you have no idea what you're talking about:

1) you quietly changed the subject when i pointed out that anyone who proposes curricular changes gets mocked.

2) if you'd done your homework, perhaps you might have taken a look at the sorts of reactions that appeared here when the hunger strikers proposed massive changes to the core curriculum. surprise! surprise! it's a carnival of ridicule.

2) you're taking comments about two totally different people and mixing them together as if they're speaking of the same person. this is clearly indicative that you have zero knowledge of the context of the comments that have been posted.

finally i'd like to point out that the oppressed conservative act is old and tired. why is it so hard for you to acknowledge that you guys have had a little renaissance over the past eight years, where by and large the whitehouse and legislature have been controlled by your ilk. in case you haven't noticed, things are kind of a mess now. no matter how much you try to play the oppressed minority. the fact of the matter is you guys have been running the show, and the results speak for themselves. see you on the dole!
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