Stanford Republicans Revived

Last spring, the Stanford College Republicans (SCR) slowly stopped meeting. After falling apart out of apathy, they lacked any presence at Stanford. The SCR had no table at the fall Activities Fair to advertise themselves, and has not played a large role in the 2006 election season. But the Stanford College Republicans are back with a vengeance. They held their first meeting of the year on Monday, October 30th.

Diversity: College Life 101

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have adjustments to make when I came to Stanford. Unlike many on campus, I fall victim to the three C’s, by identifying with each: conservative, Catholic, and Caucasian. Stanford presents a liberal atmosphere that challenges my beliefs daily. For that reason, I would also be lying if I said I never felt singled out. There are people who refuse to listen to me simply because they hear of my general political views before I can even open my mouth, chide me as a “Jesus-lover” when I’m asked where I’m going as I head to Memorial Church for mass, or when I’m not provided a white “big sib-little sib” group or a white-oriented pre-business group to join.

Editor's Note: Conservatives are Smart Too

I’m sick of hearing that conservatives aren’t “intellectual.” There always seems to be this stigma—especially at Stanford—that individuals of a non-liberal persuasion are lacking enlightenment. This belief is especially ubiquitous around Election Day. The frequency of parodies on Bushisms and Republican redneck stereotypes increase just as Americans are preparing to make important decisions that will shape our country.

Love in Singapore

Singapore is a modern, cosmopolitan city whose citizens come from all over the world. She is a wealthy, first world nation with a pro-U.S. and pro-Western foreign policy. And despite having a centralized government that is strong by Western standards, Singapore is a highly democratic republic, one of the freest nations in Southeast Asia.

A Review of CIA Memoirs

A generally enjoyable, highly-readable memoir of a short-termed intelligence officer. Moran recounts in fascinating detail her induction into the CIA in the late 90s, paramilitary training at a camp known as the Farm, and her brief service overseas in the Balkans. Unfortunately, the book is loaded with nauseating romantic interludes and frustrating discussions about how confused her work and these romances made her. Given her admission at the start of the book that she is adept at lying and exaggerating stories, one is forced to wonder how much is poetic license and how much is true.

Green Party Leader Discusses Integration

In last Wednesday’s annual Europe Now presentation, European Green Party co-president Daniel Cohn-Bendit delivered a provocative lecture entitled “Integration, Society, and Islam in the New Europe” on the current issues facing European unification. Co-sponsored by the Woods Institute for the Environment and the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, Cohn-Bendit discussed how both Islam and the heated debate over global warming have factored into European integration. Cohn-Bendit proposed that Europe draw attention to climactic change in order to strengthen its global position and organize the world around a single issue.

Satire: ACLU Fights Batman

Our scene: A well-lit room off of the lobby of one of the city’s finest hotels. Rows of chairs lined up before a podium with a small placard listing four capitalized letters, an apparent acronym. There was chatter throughout the room among the cadres of the press. A Post journalist was hitting on a Times columnist in the back row while a Daily reporter munched down some of the provided doughnuts. Some of the cameramen in the back were still getting ready when a flurry of activity began as the official spokesperson walked toward the podium and began to address the crowd:

Two Hours of Decadence

Marie Antoinette, the great enemy of the bourgeoisie circa 1789, is indulged, feted and revisioned in the new eponymous film by director Sofia Coppola, of Lost in Translation fame. Everything about the film’s aesthetic is a revision of the standard European-history textbook treatment of Antoinette and her husband, Louis XVI, second-to-last of the Bourbons. From the trendy soundtrack (featuring trendy artists such as Air, Gang of Four, and predictably, the Strokes) to the constant quick cuts and long shots, English dialogue (and British accents) this film is very clearly an ahistorical look at one of history’s most notorious rulers.

A Quick Look at Foreign Oil

The concentrated distribution of the world’s most important natural resource in so many unstable and dangerous localities is truly one of modernity’s cruelest realities. Many of the most prevalent oil producing countries are hostile towards the West, despite their reliance on the U.S.’s oil demand for survival; Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria, Iraq, and Columbia to name a few.