PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH? How They Learned to Stop Worrying and Hate the Bomb — Page 10 Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert — Page 15
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THE PRIMARY SOURCE VERITASESINEEDOLO PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH? How they learned to stop worrying and hate the bomb — page 10 Get your filthy hands off my desert — page 15 Tufts’ Voice of Reason November 5, 1998 Live out the American Dream Join THE PRIMARY SOURCE Weekly Meetings: Every Tuesday at 9:00 pm in the Campus Center Zamparelli Room. More questions? Call Keith at 629-0223 or e-mail [email protected] 2 THE PRIMARY SOURCE, NOVEMBER 5, 1998 THE PRIMARY SOURCE Vol. XVII • The Journal of Conservative Thought at Tufts University • No. 5 D E P A R T M E N T S From the Editor 4 Commentary 6 Fortnight in Review 8 From the Elephant’s Mouth 9 Truth in Numbers 9 Notable and Quotable 24 A R T I C L E S How They Learned to Stop Worrying and Hate the Bomb 10 by Jonathan Perle Tufts’ nuke exhibit explodes in emotion, but the facts fizzle out. page 6 Shalom Through Strength 15 by Keith Levenberg Netanyahu surrenders the crucial element of conservative diplomacy. Everyone Says I Love You 17 by Alyssa Heumann Competitors offer incentives, so why should good students go to Tufts? The Taxman Cometh 18 by Jacob Halbrooks Every year Americans succumb to government fraud... and pay taxes. Endangered Species 19 by Joshua Martino Tufts Republicans discover that diversity means various shades of liberal. The Strong, Silent Type 20 by Lew Titterton Your class council is a positive alternative to an inept senate. page 10 Re-thinking Conservatism 21 by Aliza Lipschitz A family tradition breaks through the stereotypes. Deconstructing the Budget Shutdown 22 by Craig Waldman ALBO discovers the fine art of subtraction. S P E C I A L F E A T U R E S Diversify, Diversify, Diversify 11 A university that looks like America is a pretty scary thought. The Vast, White Conspiracy 12 We smuggled in the minutes from the last meeting. Dear Parents 14 Tufts tries to explain a new idea to the people who actually pay the bills. page 15 THE PRIMARY SOURCE, NOVEMBER 5, 1998 3 FROM THE EDITOR THE PRIMARY SOURCE dedicate this editorial to anybody who’s offering reserved parking for pregnant Iever driven around the Back Bay or women or families with small children on Harvard Square for hours on end looking their own initiative. for a parking spot. I attack this big-govern- Rather than rolling back this big- ment annoyance at the risk of contribut- government intrusion as logic would dic- THE J OURNAL OF C ONSERVATIVE ing to conservatism’s undeserved mean- tate, it’s only gotten worse. The reserved THOUGHT AT T UFTS U NIVERSITY spirited image, but many remain unaware spots in shopping-mall lots are mandated of a vast, left-wing conspiracy which serves under the feel-good premise that someone to further marginalize America’s silent suffering from a physical handicap should KEITH LEVENBERG majority from its parking rights: handi- receive a spot close to his pedestrian des- Editor-in-Chief capped spots. tination, a reasonable idea. One wouldn’t Handicapped parking spaces began want to see a wheelchair-bound soul roll- Campus Affairs as an innocent infringement on some of ing helplessly down a parking-garage AIMEE PESCHEL / Editor the most fundamental rights of man and ramp, after all. But now the government National and International Affairs have only gotten more frustrating since mandates handicapped spaces of a differ- CRAIG WALDMAN / Editor then. The government approaches a prop- ent sort. Boston, Cambridge, and many erty owner and tells him that if his property other cities reserve spots on the street in Production contains a parking lot, it must contain a bustling downtown areas for the handi- JEFF BETTENCOURT / Manager designated number of handicapped spaces. capped. The goal isn’t to give physically The individual’s right to do with his own disabled drivers the most convenient Arts and Graphics property as he sees fit vanishes. Don’t see spots, because city-street spaces aren’t MIKE ABELSON / Manager the danger? Consider the Webster’s defi- designated for any particular locale. The nition of “fascism”: “a system of govern- goal is to guarantee parking spaces for Business ment characterized by… private economic the handicapped while others often find it PHILIP DE VAUL / Manager enterprise under centralized governmen- literally impossible to find a parking spot Contributors tal control.” during peak parking hours such as Friday J ONATHAN B LOCK • JARED B URDIN The attack on conservative mean- and Saturday nights. PAUL E WENSTEIN • ALYSSA H EUMANN spiritedness (proposed name for fallacy: The difference between lot spots and JACOB H ALBROOKS • RALAN H ILL argumentum ad Eleanor Cliftum) stems street spots is subtle, but it’s critical: rather DAN L EWIS • J AMES L UBIN from the traditional left-wing assumption than satisfying a special need of the handi- that if the government doesn’t pass a law capped so as to make their day-to-day JOSHUA M ARTINO • KATY M CCUNE mandating something, it won’t ever hap- routine as equal to everyone else’s as is JONATHAN P ERLE • IAN P OPICK pen. (One can imagine befuddled leftists possible, it confers on the handicapped a ANDY S ILVERMAN • KERSTIN N ELSEN S TROM wondering how man’s uncivilized ances- special privilege that nobody else has: the LEW T ITTERTON tors ever started walking upright without right to find a parking spot wherever they Founders a government program.) The left-wing fal- want, whenever they want. The argument BRIAN K ELLY • DAN M ARCUS lacy implies that if the government didn’t that the disabled deserve this right be- force businesses to furnish handicapped cause they are more dependant on their Special Thanks spots, nobody would. In fact, any business cars than the rest of us doesn’t really hold THE C OLLEGIATE N ETWORK that did not voluntarily offer parking spaces water. The cities that offer the guaranteed- reserved for the disabled would likely find spot service also offer handicapped-ac- THE PRIMARY SOURCE IS A NON-PROFIT, STUDENT itself the casualty of weekly picketing by cessible public transportation such as the PUBLICATION OF T UFTS U NIVERSITY. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN ARTICLES, FEATURES, PHOTOS, CARTOONS, OR ADVERTISEMENTS bleeding-heart social activists. T which deposits passengers in locations ARE SOLELY THOSE OF THE INDIVIDUAL AUTHOR(S) OR SPONSOR(S) The only difference is that reserved more convenient to their destinations than AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE EDITORS OR spots allocated by the free-market would even the best parking spaces. Given the THE STAFF. TUFTS UNIVERSITY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT OF THE PRIMARY SOURCE, NOR IS THE PRIMARY bear some relation to the number of spots immense cost to taxpayers of making these SOURCE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT OF TUFTS UNIVERSITY. people actually need. No more rows of train stations handicapped-accessible for THE PRIMARY SOURCE WELCOMES ALL LETTERS. WE unclaimed handicapped spaces in the front the minutely small number of disabled RESERVE THE RIGHT TO EDIT OR TO DENY PUBLICATION TO ANY of the store while those unfortunate enough people who use them, it’s quite unreason- LETTER BASED ON ITS LENGTH OR CONTENT. ANY LETTER TO AN INDIVIDUAL WRITER CONCERNING WORK PUBLISHED IN THE to possess no special claim circle the lot in able to expect the government PRIMARY SOURCE MAY BE PUBLISHED ON THE LETTERS PAGE. vain. That the free market is perfectly to also provide any num- LETTERS OF 400 WORDS OR FEWER HAVE A GREATER CHANCE capable of providing this service to the ber of other competitive OF BEING PUBLISHED. PLEASE DIRECT ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO: [email protected] or THE PRIMARY SOURCE, disabled community is apparent in the options. Competition, af- MAYER CAMPUS CENTER, TUFTS UNIVERSITY, MEDFORD, fact that many businesses have begun ter all, is the market’s job. MASSACHUSETTS, 02155. ALL LETTER BOMBS WILL BE RE- TURNED TO SENDER. ©1998. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 4 THE PRIMARY SOURCE, NOVEMBER 5, 1998 Letters Not Funny THE PRIMARY SOURCE is typical of those publications which are euphemistically re- The bilingual police ferred to as “conservative” (reactionary) in that its attempts at humor are cheap and feeble. But indeed, this is inherent in the have gone too far! nature of conservatism. Humor by its very nature is subversive in function (if only of expectation), so it should serve as no surprise that the only conservative exemplar of humor (albeit a shining one and the originator of black humor, which I was advised by a Dean of Students compiling a secret dossier, hun- dreds of pages long on me, came from Africa) was Jonathan Swift. Rather than offering support for its un- tenable positions, THE P RIMARY S OURCE prefers to engage in allergic thinking, and to hold up as sages those who show the greatest incapac- ity for subtle thought. With knee-jerk reac- tions and sophomoric digs, they think they can show how clever they are. Dan Boyer Medford, MA Read THE PRIMARY SOURCE... THE PRIMARY SOURCE welcomes all letters to the editor. Please address all correspondence to [email protected] or contact us via Where We Speak Your Language. paper mail at “The Primary Source, Mayer Campus Center, Medford, MA, 02155.” Everything You Always Wanted to Know About * *But*But EveryoneEveryone ElseElse WasWas AfraidAfraid toto TellTell YouYouSM Tufts Get the finest (not to mention most forthright and telling) THE P RIMARY S OURCE account of affairs at Tufts and elsewhere delivered to your doorstep. For a tax-deductible contribution of $30 or more you can receive a full academic year’s subscription via first class delivery.