air conditioning
How to beat the heat when you’re stuck in a dorm room
A lot of people complain about Rochester’s winters, but in my opinion, the summer months are far worse. When it gets cold, even polar vortex cold, you can always put on more layers. In the winter, heavy coats, long underwear, ski masks, or even goggles can become necessities outside the tunnels. When it gets hot, […]
Admissions
How to prevent wealth from predetermining admissions
It’s been hard to avoid the recent college admissions scandals, in which many rich and famous parents tried to buy their children spots at elite universities. This involved mail fraud and bribing athletic coaches and standardized test proctors, sometimes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Notably, the universities were themselves unaware of […]
Bernie Sanders
Why I’m voting for Bernie Sanders
Recently, Bernie Sanders announced his run for president. He quickly became the frontrunner, raising over $10 million in the first week of his campaign, with an average donation of $26. Of this, $1 million is recurring monthly donations; in perspective, the Trump 2020 campaign only has about $20 million on hand, after fundraising continuously since […]
Venezuela
Why it could make sense to depose Maduro
I’m generally opposed to foreign intervention. American meddling often makes bad situations worse — Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Cuba are all testaments to this. The only people to benefit from America’s interventions are the defense contractors and dictators who lobby for them. I once thought Venezuela would be no different: another oil-rich country where the […]
Shutdown
The shutdown mystery
Last night, when I was looking at the graph of Trump’s approval rating on FiveThirtyEight, my friend Charles said it reminded him of a brainwave activity graph. There’s no clear logic to any of the movements up and down, and past a certain point, the numbers don’t really stray beyond what’s expected from the random […]
malema
Enough with the collective blame
The left in America is less identitarian than the EFF, but still operates on many of the same principles. Read More
space force
Trump and the space force
If the idea of a space force was indeed harmless, it would just be another stupid, inconsequential Trump meme like rocket man or inventing the word “fake” (my favorite one). Read More
iran
Lack of an Iran deal means war
My grandpa was drafted during the Korean war but was lucky enough to be stationed in Alaska as a sharpshooting instructor, far from the fighting. My dad went to community college during Vietnam to avoid the draft. I fear that I might be unlucky enough to be alive during another draft, for an Iranian war. Read More
iran
Why we need the Iran deal
The nuclear deal is the only thing besides war preventing Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. It does this with two mechanisms: inspections and leverage. Read More
Syria
Think hard before intervening in Syria
Assad is a war criminal and monster, but to make the right decisions in Syria, Western leaders must compare his rule to the possible alternatives, and consider the costs of intervention. Read More
