The Gadfly, Vol. XXXIV, Issue 10

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The Gadfly

02 The student newspaper of St. John’s College 60 College Avenue Annapolis, Maryland 21401 sjca.gadfly@gmail.com www.issuu.com/sjcgadfly www.facebook.com/sjcagadfly Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the student newsmagazine distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.

Opinions expressed within are the sole responsibility of the author(s). The Gadfly reserves the right to accept, reject, and edit submissions in any way necessary to publish a professional, informative, and thought-provoking newsmagazine.

The Gadfly will meet this Sunday at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. Articles should be submitted by Friday at 11:59 PM to sjca.gadfly@gmail.com.

Staff Nathan Goldman • Editor-in-Chief Ian Tuttle • Editor-in-Chief Hayden Pendergrass • Layout Editor Reza Djalal • Photographer Sasha Welm • Cartoonist Jonathan Barone • Staff Will Brown • Staff Jacob Glass • Staff Andrew Kriehn • Staff Robert Malka • Staff Sarah Meggison • Staff Kevin Morris • Staff Charles Zug • Staff Contributors Tanner Doxsey Michael Fogleman Erik G. Neave

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!"##$%&'()*'+*((#*'"',--.,--'/"0* Tanner Doxsey

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have the faintest feeling that Mr. choice legislation in the country. She Tuttle does not approve of President said the word “vagina“ because she was Obama. Excellent. Someone needs to dealing with vagina-oriented legislation. find fault in popular figures. However, Apparently that word was too much I was left confused by his last article. for her opposition to handle, so they Apparently our president has morphed silenced her. I have noticed that children into a responsibility-denying, bong- love acting inappropriately around hitting, dick joke-loving manchild words like “vagina” and “penis.” The straight from a Seth Rogen movie under Republican contingent of the Michigan all of our noses, and I didn’t even notice. I House of Representatives fits right in. am very glad that Mr. Tuttle brought this Another favorite tactic of a child in an to my attention; otherwise, I would have argument is to yell, “Shut up, I don’t completely missed it. (It does explain even care!” every time it seems they are all the crushed cans of Natural Light losing an argument. The Republicans surrounding the Oval Office windows.) nailed that one.

Mr. Tuttle brought up the way An adult makes decisions based on President Obama was portrayed as facts and logic. A Republican, apparently, the adult in the room in debt ceiling does not. On September 14th, the negotiations. This was because Obama Congressional Research Service put out understood the need to move towards a study on the way tax cuts help growth. a balanced budget and was willing to The study found that they do not. This compromise to get things done. He is devastating to Republican ideology. wanted a plan that would increase taxes So what do they do? They claim the some, as his party wanted, while still study is partisan, false, and poopy. They cutting discretionary spending, as the then make sure it is not widely released.

Republicans wanted. It was an adult way Instead of dealing with criticisms of to solve the problem. The Republicans their ideas like adults, they bury them decided to wave their like a child. Bravo. hands around in the Fortunately, the air and scream, “No Republicans have Instead of dealing new taxes!” at the with criticisms of their one hope for their top of their lungs. As party: Mitt Romney, ideas like adults, [ReI have seen it, one of the man who has run publicans] bury them a campaign on being the biggest differences between an adult and an adult by treating like a child. Bravo. a child is the ability to the electorate like compromise and not throw a temper children. We as the electorate should tantrum if things do not go exactly not ask Mr. Romney about the specifics your way. This is a skill much of the of his plans. They work. Because he said Republican party has not yet mastered. so. It does not matter that many say his Let’s talk about this whole debate tax plan is impossible; we should trust about the “war on women.” Mr. Tuttle Papa Romney. He has our best interests contends that to Obama, women are at heart. It does not matter that Papa just voting vaginas. Wonderful. I’d like Romney has said he would destroy to point out that considering someone a FEMA, that his plan calls for cutting it voting vagina is actually not immature. by 40 percent, and that now he says he’ll It is rude. Perhaps it is a tactically keep it. He’ll do it. Even though it will valuable position to take, which would make his budget even more lopsided. mean Obama is a jerk, but a crafty one. The same thing goes for Pell grants, It does bring up the image of a vagina about which he has also changed his standing on two legs casting a ballot, mind. Whatever you do, don’t question which is pretty funny. Granted, I do not Romney on the way he held a relief rally think a four-year-old has my talent for to support the victims of the hurricane, personifying anatomy, so I am not sure and then sent the materials only to the how immature my thoughts are. battleground states, instead of those that You know what is immature? were hit the hardest.

Barring a female representative from And please, don’t call Mitt Romney speaking because she said the word a craven, uncaring, opportunistic and “vagina.” Lisa Brown said it while immoral politician whose every decision speaking to the Michigan House of is dictated by his own gain. He is our Representatives about the harshest anti- father after all, and he loves us. !

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The Gadfly

Ian Tuttle

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cial wrongdoing, we convinced ourselves that Providence had moved. We convinced ourselves that we were onstage in Act V with the orchestra rising to a roar, and the call of history was clear.

We convinced ourselves that we had found a savior. And we got the government that we deserved.

We got a government that abandoned American breadwinners to joblessness so it could pass an unpopular, unnecessary t is hard to look back through American history and not healthcare bill. We got a government that foisted an unconbelieve that Providence has at the necessary moments scionable “health” mandate on religious employers in direct brought to power the right men: Some historians believe that violation of their First Amendment rights. We got a governGeorge Washington’s abdication of the presidency after two ment that refused to prosecute minorities in civil rights cases terms was the most important moment while covering up its involvement in a in American history, the moment that enbotched gunrunning operation that led to sured America would not succumb to kingToday we will decide the death of an American Border Patrol ship. Perhaps no man could have held the whether we want to be agent. We got a government that surrenstates together in 1860, but only Abraham dered Afghanistan to the Taliban; turned the coddled subjects its back on Israel, our sole Middle East Lincoln could have healed a nation so torn of a soft despotism, ally; and refused to support the brave men apart. With courage and good humor, Ronhowever long it should and women who tried to effect regime ald Reagan stared down the Soviet Union and brought about the collapse of a system last, or whether We the change in Iran, while encouraging the asof oppression that had threatened America People will remain sov- cendancy of the repressive Muslim Brothand the world for half a century. erhood in Egypt. We got a government ereign.

“Every nation gets the government it dethat refused to come to the aid of its own serves,” wrote Joseph de Maistre in 1811. It ambassador in Libya as it watched his deis surely by sheer, gratuitous grace that we have sometimes mise in real time, and that has since misled the entire country received better. about the events surrounding his death—and the deaths of Barring some electoral confusion à la 2000, tomorrow three other Americans. morning a two-year campaign will be over. The siege of adverWe got this government because we convinced ourselves tisements, the daily polling, the campaign surrogates on the that the threads of history were converging and that, with a Sunday morning shows, every gaffe on the front page—over. pull of the lever, all could be well.

At least for a moment. There will be a President Obama or a But four years later, we are worse off than before. Our savPresident Romney, and one half of the country or the other ior has been exposed: his cool arrogance, his intellectual prewill breathe a sigh of relief as the other starts in with recrimi- tense, his unsavory past, his Chicago tricks—his fundamental nations and insiders sign book deals for tell-alls. Ohioans will incompetence for the task. return to their daily lives for another three and a half years.

The “mistake” wasn’t wholly Obama’s, though; it was ours.

However the election turns out, though, there will be a America does not do saviors; it has never gone in for princes. markedly different tone at the victory celebrations—or, at We got an incompetent, corrupt government, happy to spend least, there should be. itself into oblivion and extend its tentacles into every moment On Election Day in 2008, Chicago’s Grant Park was the of our day-to-day lives, because we accepted that that is govscene of weeping and jubilation. “Historic” was the word ernment’s prerogative. We accepted that government could for the occasion. Since then there have been many more his- be our keeper, our provider, our paladin. torics. An historic recession. Historic unemployment. HistorToday’s election will show whether we, as a country, stand ic spending. Historic debts. by that decision. In 2008 we mistook a small moment for a History has inflection points. There are major and there are grand one. But this time the stakes are genuinely high. Today minor, but not always are we able to tell which are which in we will decide whether we want to be the coddled subjects of the moment. Victor Hugo wrote, “Waterloo is not a battle; it is a soft despotism, however long it should last, or whether We a shift in the world’s front,” but he says that it would not have the People will remain sovereign. been had Napoleon only remembered his infantry at the moThere are no saviors on the ballot today. There are two men ment the Hanoverian battalions buckled. who will lead a people content with America’s fading away, In 2008 we confused the moment. Seduced by soaring ora- or a people willing to shoulder the responsibilities of citizentory and the prospect of atoning for America’s history of ra- ship. !

Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers.

But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope….We are the ones we’ve been waiting for, [Barack Obama] liked to say, but people were waiting for him, waiting for someone to finish what a King began.

— Nancy Gibbs, “How Obama Rewrote the Book,” TIME, Nov. 5, 2008

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The Gadfly

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Examining Junior/Senior Language Michael Fogleman

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ast Thursday, November 1, the SCI and content in the language tutorials. convened to discuss the junior and Jacques Barzun’s Essay on French Verse: senior language tutorials, and specifi- For Readers of English Poetry was mencally the French language. Why do we tioned as a possible supplementary text study French, as opposed to English, on French verse. Alternatively, reading Greek, or German? How well do we ac- a short novella or text like Flaubert’s A complish our stated goals?

Simple Heart in the original could give One tutor suggested that our aim in students a more immediate experience the junior and senior language tuto- with the French language. Memorizrial was to read authors like La Roche- ing poems or other short passages also foucauld, Racine, and Baudelaire in the provides a way for students to listen to original. Because French is accessible and think about the French language to English speakers, students are able and its use by various authors. One tuto begin studying these works in the tor suggested that students put aside original relatively quickly. Additionally, their prepared English translations and the tutorials dedicate time to studying just looked at the original text in class. the elements of French verse, so that we If class discussions and student papers can discuss the effects of the sound in cited the original French instead of an individual poems. In particular, French English translation, the skills of pronunpoetry’s use of alexciation, listening, andrines is an interand speaking could Why do we study French, esting alternative to be emphasized, and as opposed to English, German and English each tutorial might Greek, or German? How find a natural synpoetry’s use of iamwell do we accomplish our thesis in its discusbic pentameter.

However, it was sion of form and stated goals? felt that these goals content. are not fully reached in practice. StuFinally, the discussion turned to the dents reported that tutorials ordinar- proposal that juniors and seniors study ily consist of comparing translations the English language instead of French. before shifting to a discussion of the Students might be able to appreciate the work’s content, so that consideration of depths of our own poetry much more its form is usually abandoned for semi- quickly, and in a much fuller way, than nar-style conversations about its ideas. with French poetry. But students and One possible cause was suggested: the tutors seemed hesitant to suggest such a language manual, Palmeri and Milligan. radical change, especially since the secIts focus on reading is in one sense ex- ond semester of the sophomore and sepedient for our purposes, but it neglects nior language tutorials is spent discussan emphasis on pronunciation, speak- ing the English language. A less radical ing, and listening, so that students often alternative was standardizing the course have widely divergent skill levels in pro- of study of second semester senior lannunciation, and lack a satisfactory level guage classes. Specifically, the response of comfort with the French Language. of poets like Yates and Eliot to BaudeAdditionally, because Palmeri and Mil- laire could allow students to discuss lanligan focuses on grammar, students guage and poetry in both languages and generally learn about the elements of more generally. verse from serviceable but perhaps unAll agreed that the fact that an English necessarily concise handouts. All agreed speaker can learn the French language that it would be ideal if class discussions quickly is both a boon and a hindrance considered a work’s form and content to meaningful discussions in the lansimultaneously, but it seemed difficult guage tutorial. The adoption of various given this lack of skills. practices and policies suggested at the Various suggestions were made meeting could ameliorate these difficulfor finding this unity between form ties. !

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