TSW Journal Nov-Dec 2010

8/3/2019 TSW Journal Nov-Dec 2010

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THESCHOOLOFWASHINGTONAnd All This For The Common Good

Volume I No. 3

A Non-profit, GW Student Magazine

SchoolofWashington.org


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- Table of Contents -

Business & Finance

Lyceum: Philosophy

Culture & Arts

Politics & Policy

Sports

Quantitative Easing: One Last Hurrah from the Fed............................................................................... 33 Reasons why Golds Value Can Increase................................................................................................... 3Are We Competing? Te U.S.-Korea Free rade Agreement.................................................................. 4

Beware the Social Media................................................................................................................................. 5Cold Weather Essentials: Sustenance for the Season................................................................................. 6Uncovering the Districts Musical Secret: U Streets Jazz Clubs.............. .......... .......... ........... .......... ....... 6Exhibit Review of Picturing the Victorians:British Photographs and Reproductive Prints from the Department of Image Collections.............. 7

Te Right Hierarchy......................................................................................................................................... 8P.E..A.: People Eating asty Animals........................................................................................................ 9

Te ies that Bind: Hegelian Master-Slave Dialectic and the US/Saudi Relationship................ ....... 10

Te wo Party System is Broken.................................................................................................................... 11Chinas Latent Role in North Koreas Nuclear Crisis................................................................................ 12

South Beach Struggle: Te Miami Heat Are Not Among the NBA Elite............................................ 13Dare I Say the Knicks be Patient for Another Year?.................................................................................. 14 Why We Watch Sports.................................................................................................................................... 15

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agenda or standpoint.


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Conditum Anno Domini MMX 3

And All This For The Common Good

between the economies o Japanbetween 1990-2005 and the UnitedStates are eerie. Japan suered rom

deation and lack o economic growththroughout the 1990s. Similar to theUnited States, Japan cut interest ratesclose to zero but had to search or anew solution years later.

Te Bank o Japan later created thepolicy now known as quantitativeeasing in 2001. Te experiment lasted5 years. At rst, prices stopped allingand the policy worked. However,deation crept back and negated

the positive eects, thus ending thequantitative easing trial.

Japan and the United States economies were and are dierent. Te UnitedStates has not been ghting deationor the past decade. In addition, theFederal Reserve should learn rom theBank o Japans mistake o not beingaggressive enough. Te Bank o Japanalso ailed to inorm Japanese citizensabout plans in advance. Tis is where

Ben Bernanke has already succeeded.He has careully outlined all o hissteps to the quantitative earning andthe intended repercussions. Te Fedhas the luxury o looking at the eventsthat took place in Japan and learningrom their shortcomings.

Bad scal policy can set the UnitedStates economy back months or evenyears. Heres another prosaic messageto Mr. Bernanke and his sta down

the street: tread careully.

Quantitative Easing:One Last Hurrah from

the Fed

By By Joseph CordiChie Financial Ofcer

wo years ater the recession, Americans rom New York toCaliornia are wondering the samething: when is this recession going tostop? Te economy is still sputteringand the unemployment rate seemsstagnant at 10 percent. How could

a super power like the United Statesstruggle to jump-start their economyover two years ater the meltdown?Citizens look at emerging marketssuch as those o Brazil and China

with utter conusion. O course thosecountries production has slippedsince 2008, but they are still growingand creating jobs.

Ben Bernanke, current Chairman othe Federal Reserve, has exhausted

all options available to stimulate theeconomy since the 2008 collapse.His latest action was purchasing $600billion worth o reasury Bonds. Heplans to buy roughly $75 billion eachmonth through the middle o 2011.Te purchasing o treasury bonds bythe Fed is reerred to as quantitativeeasing. Tis marks the secondquantitative easing that the Fed hasinitiated recently. Te rst was whenthey bought $1.7 billion worth o

securities while trying to combat the

nancial crisis.

wo characteristics o the economic

outlook that the Fed stresses are theunemployment rate and the inationrate. Te Fed believes that the inationrate o 1 percent is too low to promoteeconomic growth and is trying toincrease to the ideal ination rate o1.7 2 percent. Some economistseel that the current ination rate istoo low and may eventually turn intodeation. Te Fed is hoping that thesecond round o quantitative easingresults in higher ination rates.

Many argue that buying a massamount o reasury bonds will leaveless on the market and drive demandup. Once the demand is up, bonds

will be more expensive and theyields will subsequently be less, thusmaking them less attractive. Te Fedis hoping that investors would theninvest their money into other assetclasses like real estate.

On the other side, there are plentyo people who eel that the secondround o quantitative easing willinhibit growth within the economy.Tey ear this policy could causetoo much ination or create assetbubbles, which ironically caused the2008 nancial crisis.

Japan was the rst nation to tryquantitative easing in an attemptto spark their economy and raise

ination levels. Te similarities

Busi n ess & Fi n a n c e

3 Reasons why GoldsValue Can Increase

By Jonathan Cohen

Business & Finance Editor

1. Economy

How many times have you heard

the phrase not since the GreatDepression, applied to our currenteconomic climate? Its tting, giventhat the United States has enduredthe deepest and longest economic


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The School of Washington

November - December4

correction since the 1930s. Mucho the U.S.s manuacturing base hasbeen outsourced. Te ew jobs beingcreated are in mostly or governmentinitiatives such as the Census Bureau.Te unemployment rate hovers near

10%, and about 13% o Americans areon ood stamps. Volatility plagues theequity markets. Te 2008 economicrecession decreased real-estate valuesdrastically, sent oreclosures soaringand required a nearly $1 trillionbailout o investment banks that weretoo big to ail. Te U.S. governmenthas a huge problem o multi-trillion-dollar decits, and its not going toemerge rom that hole without highertaxes and painul austerity measures.

Meanwhile, our states also have hadsevere debt problems.

2. Fear

Investors are abandoning anything

with a minimal amount o risk. Tesovereign-debt crisis is aecting manycountries like Ireland, Portugal, andSpain, and is spreading across theglobe. Fearul investors are movingtheir assets rom the the Euro and

other weaker currencies into gold.Te stock market rebounded rom its2008-09 depths, but some analystssay its overbought and due orpainul correction. Meanwhile, thereare threats o war across the MiddleEast, Asia, and most recently Korea.Tese will cause more problems andmore movement towards gold.

3. Demand

Te Federal Reserve has kept U.S.

interest rates at basically zero, withno sign o a hike in the near uture,thereore lowering the opportunitycost o buying gold. Investors haveresponded with astonishing eagerness,

with golds price up to over 1350$. Ater all, golds value does not ariserom its industrial applications butrom its worldwide acceptance as asae store o value. As the public losesaith in debased paper currencies,

the ight to gold could increaseexponentially. Also ueling demandare the worlds central banks, whichin a major trend reversal have nowbecome net buyers o gold insteado sellers. Central banks in China,India and Russia could uel a greaterdemand or gold. Beijing not onlyis stocking up on gold as it divestsitsel o its dollar holdings but also isencouraging its increasingly auentbillions o citizens to buy gold. Te

creation o exchanged traded unds(EFs) o gold has caused greaterinvestment demand in paper gold,

which has increased the price o goldas well.

Are We Competing?Te U.S.-Korea Freerade Agreement

By Chloe ColbertIASs Informer Columnist

Te U.S. has worked diligently tomake sure that by the November2010 G-20 Summit, PresidentObama would be ready to sign oon a ree trade agreement with SouthKorea. When push came to shove,however, the U.S. returned homeempty-handed without a ree tradeagreement.

What happened? Te UnitedStates, with a powerul trade policythat emphasizes more exports andaccessing the markets o potentialtrade partners like the Asian tigers

(Hong Kong, Singapore, SouthKorea, and aiwan), claimed thatrestrictions on the auto industry or

American automobile workers andin the bee industry prevented thetrade agreements passage, accordingto Japans Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

Te White House signed a tradeagreement with the Republic o Koreain 2007 during the Bush presidency,but Congress did not move orwardin passing it. For the past threeyears, the Ofce o the United Statesrade Representative (USR) has

worked diligently in trying to passa version o the U.S.-Korea Freerade Agreement (KORUS), butirreconcilable dierences in the autoand bee industries prevented thispassage.

Te ailed attempt to pass KORUSnot only proved to be a loss or theU.S. in terms o accessing the Korean

market, but was also detrimentalto the U.S.s ability to aggressivelyinteract with the Asian tigers. TeU.S. is seeking to include more o its

Asian economic counterparts in itspending rans-Pacic Partnership.U.S. trade ofcials attended the

Asia Pacic Economic CooperationForum (APEC) in Japan this past

week -- but can the U.S. really garnerthe strength it needs to engage withthese Asian economic powers?

In the next 20 years, the U.S. willsee a rise in Asian countries thatnot only will have become strongereconomically, but also better educatedthan in the past. o engage in tradeagreements would demonstratehow the U.S. seeks to boost its owneconomy as well as create a brighteruture or the employees and theamilies that export-based jobssupport. Te United States cannot

just sit on the sidelines while the


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Asian tigers continue to grow.

Te European Union will enact itsree trade agreement with Korea in

July. Tere is no time to waste -- inan age where competition is no longer

solely based on military strength buton economic output, a nation mustdiversiy its economy to incorporateinternational trade i it truly wishesto compete. Te passing o theKORUS agreement is still a hurdle

or the U.S. to overcome, and itcould be an overarching predictor orthe uture o U.S. trade relations andinternational economic competition.Lets move orward, America, lest weall behind.

Cult ur e & A r t s

Beware the SocialMedia

By Victoria LeeColumnist

While your average college student

may not make a PowerPoint depictingtheir hookups like now-inamousDuke University student KarenOwen, Facebook, witter, Youubeand other orms o social media arestill usurping the day-to-day lives ostudents.

Trough the popular lm, TeSocial Network, which is based onthe creation o Facebook, we seean accurate portrayal o just how

dependent college students are whenit comes to the website. Te lmshows how the now-popular phraseFacebook me began and how itdeveloped into meaning the abilityto bring people together. With over500 million members worldwide,the power o Facebook is revealed.Entertainment Weekly describedFacebook perectly when it rankedthe site on its end-o-the-decadebest-o list, saying, how on earthdid we stalk our exes, rememberour co-workers birthdays, bug ourriends, and play a rousing gameo Scrabulous beore Facebook?

Whether its your new sorority sister,classmate, or the cute boy you meton Saturday, Facebook is increasingly

used to get in touch with others in arange o communities.

Businesses are jumping on the socialmedia train as well. According to ablog by Adam Hartung on Forbes.com, businesses use Facebook ormarketing and advertising purposes

and even or communication withcustomer suppliers. Hartung writes,Social media is the next big thingto improve productivity. You cannd out everything remarkably ast,oten quite accurately, at practicallyno cost. He stresses that you donteven need a server, a PC or sotwareto be social media-savvy. Businessescan connect to anyone and everyoneincluding customers, supply chainpartners, reviews, detractors and their

rival companies.

However, there is a distinct dierencebetween promoting a conerence orthe organization that you intern oron Facebook and posting pictureso the debauchery that you dontremember rom the night beore.Many college students do not thinkabout potential consequences beoreposting a picture o them andtheir riends drinking or partying.

According to CBS News, 20% oemployers now scan the Facebookproles o potential applicants beoreconducting interviews. Tey can alsoaccess proles that are supposed to beprivate. Many people do not realizethat what they post on Facebook

might send the wrong message tocompanies and even cost them a

job. I think it is very important tobe mindul o what you put on yoursocial media account because it ispublic and it does tend to come backand haunt students, sophomoreGabrielle Friedman said. My advice

is to use privacy settings and neverpost anything you wouldnt wantyour parents seeing.

As the social media trend grows, theissue o privacy grows alongside it.Te inclusion o personal inormationon social networking proles leavessome wondering who really has accessto this inormation. A clip rom CBSNews eaturing John Quain, an Up tothe Minute echnology consultant,

reveals that Facebook has the abilityto collect inormation on their usersinterests and products through theLike eature. I someone Likesa brand or a V show on Facebook,then Facebook will show all o theirriends who also liked it. Te sitegains more inormation on what youare interested in by keeping track othe pages that you liked. Te siteuses this inormation to cater specicadvertisements to each user.

While social media has its perks, suchas helping you reconnect with yourold high school riend or promotingyour company to the world, it still hasrisks that cant be ignored. Te nexttime you are thinking o updating


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Cold Weather

Essentials: Sustenancefor the Season

By Zachary GorelickColumnist

As maroon leaves cling to theirbranches by a single strand, thetemperature drops and indicatesthe general passing o the warmermonths. Goodbye, sunshine. Now,as the wintry months approach, we

can look orward to a bevy o seasonalexperiences: the annual holiday gitrenzy, the brisk bite o wind againstour cheeks and, undoubtedly, thesignicant changes to our diet.

Each year, the onset o the colderseasons signals a vast array o shitsin both our bodies and withinsocietys calorie consuming habits.Heres a short list o ood and drinksuggestions or the upcoming holiday

season that are sure to make the otchilly transition that much warmer.

Dark Beer: As the colder monthsapproach, so do our animal instincts.

With each degree o temperaturegoes one last vestige o civility. Drink

up. Our bodies crave thicker, morecaloric oods as they struggle to

provide energy and heat on a day-to-day basis. Kick start your metabolismand get ahead o the game. Whileyour waistline may hate you or it,youll be too warm, toasty and at-out drunk to realize it.

Starbucks Specialty Lattes: Mine isGingerbread. Yours may be PumpkinSpice, or perhaps Peppermint. As theholiday season approaches, you maynd yoursel ordering the Eggnog

latte. Regardless, as temperaturesdrop, I expect to see the Starbucksline wrap around Gelman Library(though Ive noticed already thateven a 5 a.m. visit means waitingbehind at least three people). Sure,the drinks themselves arent the mostsophisticated: the sweet articialsugars provide the slightest sting tothe throat, packed with nearly 350calories per medium (ahem, grande)cup. Tat said, theres no reason why

the warm (and more importantly,caeinated) drinks cant cheer you upor keep you awake or another day atthe library or an overcrowded lecturehall.

Root vegetables: In season or this

year, rom greenhouse rhubarbs toeld-grown rutabaga, plants that grow

in the earth are ripe or consumption.Kept warm by the soil during theharshest o conditions, these veggiesare oten highly caloric and especiallytasty during the coming wintermonths. A healthy counterweightagainst the previously mentioneditems, potatoes, leeks, squash andbeets are but a ew gits o the winterbounty.Street hot dogs: You read correctly; Im

talking about carted vendors hawkingat passerbys to sell at $2 a pork-skintube o re-heated animal guts. Yum.Its not oten that I advocate towardssuch unnatural items. Im incrediblyprone to unhealthy oods, but at leastyou know whats in chocolate cake(chocolate and cake, right?). No, Imnot advocating the heinous McRib,an apparent medley o barbecue sauceand ground pig anus, but instead anall-American classic. Te delicious

street hotdog is a perect treat whenserved steaming as snow alls gentlyto the ground. It may not be thehealthiest, and its certainly mostmysterious, but theres not muchthat beats a meaty dog on a bleak,unorgiving aternoon.

Uncovering theDistricts MusicalSecret: U Streets JazzClubs

By Alicia FarinaColumnist

Simply stated, jazz music is anart orm underappreciated by thecurrent generation. Icons like Miles

Davis, Telonius Monk and DizzyGillespie have gone rom householdnames o the bebop and cool jazzeras to geniuses unknown to themodern young music listener. Teimprovisational style that makes jazzso great has been lost. As residents o

D.C., however, we have the abilityto rediscover the value o jazz andexperience it in its purest orm, not

simply through recordings or thememories o previous generations,but rather through live perormance.Te Districts U Street is home to ahost o jazz venues that allow all,rom the jazz novice to the enthusiast,to revel in the music and hear

your status to Ready or some FourLoko, ask yoursel this: What wouldthe State Department think i they

saw it? Social media is great, but thereare parts o peoples lives that shouldbe kept private and not streamed

online or the entire world andpotential employers to see.


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some o the worlds nest pianists,percussionists, guitarists, and windinstrument players.

A personal experience at U Streetswins Jazz epitomizes the Districts

jazz scene. Te space was dimlylit and narrow, with tables closelyaligned. People sat casually, sippingon drinks and savoring the Ethiopianthemed are. At the ront was theband, composed o a drummer,saxophonist, bassist, and pianist.Te sound o the tenor saxophoneresonated throughout the space andinto the street, supported by a strong

drumbeat and a repetitious piano ri.Te ngers o the pianist ew acrossthe keys as the bassist walked hisngers up and down his instrument.Crescendos and decrescendos addedemotion to the pieces while the

drummer swayed and bounced tothe beat. Troughout the eveningthe band transormed the originalmasterpieces o Charlie Parker,Cab Calloway and others into theirown creations, improvising on theestablished music and collaborating

with one another to construct lengthyexpressions o emotion. Each artisthad his chance in the spotlight, his

chance to add to the piece and moldit in his own way.

Tese perormers may not behousehold names, but they are theessence o jazz. Tey perorm in

a way many artists today simplycannot. Tey make music on the spot,demonstrating a mastery o the cratand a sincere, genuine passion. Forthis reason, we must take advantageo our location among some o thebest jazz venues and experience musicin one o its most natural orms.

Exhibit Reviewof Picturing theVictorians: BritishPhotographs andReproductive Printsfrom the Department ofImage Collections

By Andrew Hor

Columnist

Te exhibit may be viewed at theNational Gallery.

Picturing the Victorians: BritishPhotographs and Reproductive Prints

rom the Department o ImageCollections, an exhibit at the NationalGallery, eatures a sampling ophotographs, etchings and printsused primarily in advertisements andart publications in mid 19th centuryEngland. Despite its stuy title,themes o mass production and equalaccess to art throughout the works aresurprisingly simple and increasinglyrelevant to our current social mediaculture.

Beginning in the 1850s, advancedprintmaking and photographytechniques made the massdistribution o images, the rights o

which previously the upper classesheld exclusively, were made availableto the entirety o the public.Tis sentiment is captured perectlyby the wood engraving oA Sunday

Aternoon in a Picture Gallery,recognizable rom the NationalGallerys exhibition posters. Teengraving shows members o theSunday Society, a lobby organizationthat pushed or the emancipationo art rom the realm o wealthycollectors on Sundays, crowding theopening o the Grosvenor Gallery.

Among the crowd are men consultingguidebooks and women hunchingover a protective railing to get a closerlook at paintings they are presumablyviewing or the rst time.

However, these print reproductionsdid not exist simply or the bettermento public knowledge this was largelya prot driven movement. With thegrowth o the middle classes, exposureto art meant increased interest in theart market.

Tis was a development that JohnRuskin, the noted 19th centurygothic architect, clashed with on aphilosophical level. Ruskin advocatedthe use o hand construction withinGothic architecture in an eort toassert his aversion to capitalism and themachine. In his mind, industrialismcontributed to the demise o modernsociety, and the only way to breakree o the downward spiral was topush or dominance o the Gothicstyle over the easily massed producedclassical. Ironically, Ruskins dread oa mechanical, prot driven society

was caught o guard in a photographby William Downey, reproduced inpublications throughout London.You ought not to have introducedme to a man not to be depended on,said Ruskin o Downey.

Other interesting highlights o theexhibit include Valentine CameronPrinsep by Frank Dudman, aphotograph taken or a publicationcalled Artists at Home (1884).Prinsep and his mother were highlyinvolved in artistic and literarycircles, which remained closed to asmall club o salon-going members.Te photograph shows Prinsep in his


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Lyceum: Philosophy

Te Right HierarchyBy Raj PatelColumnist

In every society, in every culture,indeed, every time human beingshave come together on Earth to ormthe community, a hierarchy hasdeveloped. What does this mean?Teundamental belie in the inequalityo things, the need or the separationo things, and the acceptance o

the imparity between things shouldcharacterize the more honest andharmonious Weltanschauung o apeople.

Let us consider one successuland terriying moral code or thedierentiating between ranks ohuman beings: the Hindu castesystem. Te system includes dierentcastes prescribed dierent correlatingsocial roles held together by an abstract

metaphysical principle that places theBrahmins, the philosophers, at the topo the hierarchy. Te Brahmins wereplaced on top, o course, because theentire system was conceivedby them.Te orms o oppression neededto maintain the structure o such a

system o relationships were explicitly

put orward in a series o inhumaneedicts and instructions designed tox the essentialist properties o thosein the dierent castes: the eat wassimultaneously as astounding as it

was atrocious. Provisions in the lawsor the lower castes were set out: asudra [a person rom the lowest caste]

who insults a man rom any casteabove him will have his tongue cutout, or he is o a low origin (Lawso Manu, 270); i [a sudra] mentions

the names and castes o the thoseabove him insultingly, an iron nail,ten ngers long, shall be thrust red-hot into his mouth (Laws o Manu,271). Te Brahmins even assertedauthority over kings: thereore, eveni the king attains supremacy at theend o it, he resorts to the Brahminas his source. Tereore he whoinjures the Brahmin strikes at his ownsource. He [the king] becomes moreevil as he injures one who is superior

(BAU.I.4.11, my emphasis). Otherprovisions regarding the kinds onourishment dierent castes couldhave access to were also prescribedand enorced. Socially constructedbehavior (constructed with the useo a religious principle, which could

be aptly characterized as a Platonic

noble lie) was posited to be thenature nature o those exhibitingsuch behaviors through a spirituallyconstructed metaphysical authority.Viewed through a romantic lens, it

was with this severity, this evil, thatthe Brahmins violently asserted theirright to think in peace, without themenial duties or obligation that goalong with having to earn a livingor themselves. It was through thisgruesome but powerul spirituality

that they earned a meaning orthemselves.

For Nietzsche, this represented one othe most organic and authentic socialorders that had ever been created. Onebreathes a sigh o relie at leaving theChristian atmosphere o disease anddungeons or this healthier, higher,and wider world. How wretched isthe New estament compared toManu, how oul it smells! (I.8.3).

Te imposition o horrid conditionsby the higher castes upon the lowercastes, the exertion and discharge opower, and the undamental thirstor rank, is simply part and parcel othe ontological make-up o the worldTis is the healthiest state o aairs

study, surrounded by his works o art a setting that would have otherwisebeen sealed to plebian society. Asa book, Artists at Homeembodiesthe movement o high art and highculture unlocked or the rest o the

culture to enjoy.

Regardless o the motivation, whetherit be the pure, sincere desire to breakthe inequality o knowledge or thepractical prot-driven model to reapthe benets o an art-aware middle

class, these prints document themovement o art ideals to the masses.

While walking through the exhibit,it is important to keep in mind therelevance o these ideas to modern

society. Tese images represent atransitional period rom whichenjoyment o arts remained restricted.Growing up in a generation thatshares art and ashion reely andinstantly through the internet, it ishard to imagine being excluded rom

the conversation. Tere certainly issomething to be gained in perspectiveby seeing the precursors to themodern digital image: the specialvalue art holds or all people, in allplaces, in all times.

Picturing the Victorians: BritishPhotographs and Reproductive Prints

rom the Department o ImageCollections runs until January 28th inthe East Building Study Center.


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given the way the world works. It is inthiskind o world where great humanbeings can arise (and sometimes,these great human beings representthe most elegant reaction to such asystem, such as Buddha).

Now let us consider the kind ohierarchy erected in ourmodern daysociety. Tat is, a society that has ahierarchical structure that gloriesa bourgeois value system and has aderivative principle o capital thatcreates the divisions between ranks.Perhaps this system would, prima

acie, look more humane: (1) it wouldhave the soothing lure o bourgeoiscomort or even those at the bottom

end o the system (e.g. Te AmericanDream); (2) such a hierarchy wouldperhaps have liberal ideologicaltools that theoretically createdantastic mechanisms through whichprovisions or the lower classes weretaken care o, in order to maintainits systemic stability as opposed toan actual ideological commitment tothe welare o those with wretchedlives (e.g. the Rawlsian dierenceprinciple); (3) nally, it would perhaps

be characterized by the ascension oone o the most disgraceully decadenthuman beings that any society hasever created (e.g. the quintessentialGW student: yes, our very own GW,academias bourgeois wet-dream, hasgiven rise to what is perhaps one othe most despicable orms o humanbeing yet).

Aspects (1) and (3) o bourgeoissociety, listed above, certainlyrepresent one o the biggest dangersaced by us more reective peopletoday. Anybody who has experience

with the average GW student,provided that one isnt the averageGW student, surely elt that all-too-amiliar sickness immediately ater.Tat I do not belong here eelingprobably then set in, or in Nietzscheanterms, one realized that one is sittingat a table where one doesnt belong.

Te reprehensibility o a society where the most decadent anddespicable kind o human being is

placed at the highest is derived romthe judgment o reprehensibility onemakes regarding the individualwe aregeneralizing about here. Tis is mymethodological individualism: theascension o this particular humanbeing as the highest also raises hisvalues and ideals to the highest andbrings them to the ore. Tis hasterrible societal consequences. Forexample, the arts are ravaged: all kindso sicknesses masquerade themselves

as art (would the Jersey Shorebe possible without a specicallydestitute value system that wouldpraise such a monstrosity as art?Te same applies or wilight!)

A high premium is placed uponthe approval o others, that is, theexternal afrmation o this kind operson is necessary to his overall

health. Incidentally, this is why thiskind o human being strives or theprotection o arcical associations obrotherhood and sisterhood (youunderstand by this I mean raternitiesand sororities). A lot can be inerred

about the character o someone ithey nd their natural place in sucha crowd. Brand culture is also putupon a pedestal because power isposited exclusively in terms o capitaland those raised with the goal o

pettybourgeois comort as their endbecome possessed by possessions.

Accordingly, possessions becomean instrument or the expressiono power (e.g. the kind o car onedrives) and thus those with the most

or best material possessions becomethemselves the highest expression opower in the society.

I wage war upon such a hierarchy andthe human being who tops such anexcrementitiously dened hierarchy.Bourgeois comorts simply cannot be the

fnal end or proper task o lie! Whatis needed is a new and more powerulmetaphysical principle to replacecapital as the determinant o the

order o rank: a newhierarchy, a moreorganicstructure, in other words, onethat gives rise to stronger and moreindependent human beings. Tenperhaps we will look back on thisperiod with a sufcient amount odistaste and embarrassment as to ask

why it took us so long to get overthisbourgeoisie accident o history.

P.E..A.: People Eatingasty Animals

By Christian GeogheganColumnist

In an age when veganism,vegetarianism and overall animal

rights have to been pushed to the

oreront o our consciousnessduein large part to the Michael Vickdog-ghting trial a ew years agothere has been one group that hasbeen the de acto aade o the overallmovement: P.E..A, or People orthe Ethical Treatment oAnimals.

While PEA may be perceived to be

a righteous maniestation o good,

they are in act hypocritical, supportterrorist acts, and have a total lack ovalue or human lie.

PEA is an organization thatadvocates, as PEA ounder IngridNewkirk describes it, total animalliberation. otal animal liberation


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Te ies that Bind:Hegelian Master-SlaveDialectic and the US/Saudi Relationship

By Madison NobleColumnist

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,a nineteenth century Germanphilosopher, is amous or his

Master-Slave Dialectic rom his work, Te Phenomenology o Spirit.Hegel argues that sel-consciousnessis achieved through recognition oanother sel-consciousness throughhis story o a master-slave relationship.

is the philosophic belie that allanimals, everywhere, should bereleased rom their bondage romzoos, or being owned as pets, in orderto roam reely in the world based onthe concept o animal rights. Because

PEA eels that humans and animalsare equal, animals should have thesame rights that we have such as notbeing murdered, used, or abused,especially in the case o using animalsor medical tests. In PEAs ideal

world, they would outlaw shing,circuses, dog shows, horseback ridingand zoos. Tey even oppose serviceanimals like guide dogs or the blind.Pet ownership, which is describedby Newkirk in the August 1, 1988

issue o Harpers as an absolutelyabysmal situation brought about byhuman manipulation, is orbiddentoo, so pet owners may want toreconsider donating to PEA.However, with PEAs notion o reeanimals with equal rights comes theidea o responsibilities. I animalsare equal to humans in terms o notbeing killed or abused, soon liberatedanimals will have to go back to cagesor killing their ellow animals (no

one animal is more important thananother, according to PEA)!PEA is not just conned toludicrous, ironic philosophicalbelies; they stretch their idiocy totheir advertisements as well. At onepoint, PEA issued a campaign ontheir website called the Holocaust onyour plate in which they juxtaposedimages o Nazi concentration camps

with images o livestock arms in

order to equate the treatment oJewish people with that o chickens.

Granted, i all PEA was involved inwas promoting twisted philosophicalviews, and immoral advertisements,

they may be deensible. However,PEA is deeply involved in witheco-terrorists, including groups like

Animal Liberation Front (a groupo anonymous activists who go toextreme measures to promote viewslike rebombing animal testing labsto destroy research, and ree animals).Rodney Coronado, one such activist,rebombed a Michigan StateUniversity Research Lab in the nameo animal rights. He also publically

admitted to six other arsons. He wentto jail. In the governments sentencingmemorandum, the US attorney wrotethat there was evidence that IngridNewkirk was connected to the crime.In act, PEA donated $45,200to the Rodney Coronado SupportCommittee. PEA also made a$25,000 loan to Rodneys ather, RayCoronado, but in truth, according toCenter or Consumer Freedom, Raysaid he never had to pay that money

back.

PEA also supports Gary Yourosky, who has been arrested thirteentimes, spent time in maximumsecurity prisons or ALF crimes, andcompared himsel to Dr. MartinLuther King Jr., Mohandas Gandhi,Nelson Mandela and Jesus. Youroskyis on PEAs payroll as their ofcialorator.

PEA vehemently opposes usinganimals or medical research asequally evil. However, withoutanimal testing there is no biomedicalscience and public health. Numerousvaccines, like those or Anthrax,

Chicken Pox, Cholera, Diphtheriaand Flu, and medications have beendeveloped due to animal testing.Insulin, one such medication, isused by approximately ten milliondiabetic Americans daily. Mary BethSweetland, one such American, hastype A diabetes and to stay alive sheinjects hersel everyday with Insulin,

which was developed using medicaltesting on dogs. However, MaryBeth Sweetland is PEAs senior

vice president. She admits that hermedicine still contains some animalproducts but then said I dont seemysel as a hypocrite. I need my lieto ght or the rights o animals.

Tough it might appear that PEAcouldnt be anymore hypocritical, theorganization has put down numerousanimals since its creation (including97% o all the animals they took inlast year) because, as Newkirk says,

sometimes the only kind option orsome animals is to put them to sleeporever.

PEA, while seemingly moral andwholesome, is in act as unethical asHamas or Hezbollah. Tey should beignored, treated with contempt, andshould be regarded as what they are:a group that supports terrorism andhas a blatant disregard or human lie.


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in the rst contested presidentialelection in US history. Teelection, sometimes reerred to asthe Revolution o 1800, was amessy aair that helped prove theuseulness o a two party system. For

the rst time in our nations history,politicians and voters were able toorganize themselves into two distinctand separate political groups. Eversince 1800 we have had two majorpolitical parties that have generallydone a good job o encompassing alarge amount o people under whathas become known as the big tent.

Te era o big tent politics has workedin the US because we have always been

able to compromise with each otherand look at our similarities as opposedto our dierences. Still, it seems thatin the past two election cycles, theprocess o working together towardscollective party goals has allen by the

wayside. As the recent surge o theea Party movement demonstrates,people have become rustrated withthe structure o the parties. Insteado rallying around the core tenets othe Republican Party, the ea Partiers

are trying to move the party urtherto the right while simultaneouslyostracizing those in its moremoderate wing. Liberal Democratsare no dierent in their discontent

with the Democratic Party. Manyhave taken stances urther to the leto Obama, such as moving aster on

DAD, implementing a cap-and-trade regime and not compromisingon the Bush tax cut extensions. Tere

were those on the let who were angrythat Obama didnt push or a singlepayer health care system and elt that

his administration didnt push orhard enough or stricter regulationsin the recent nance industry bill.

It can be argued that there have alwaysbeen those on the edges o theirrespective parties who wish to movethem urther to the extreme, and

what we are seeing now is no dierentrom previous times. Unortunately,this time the public rustration iscompounded by the act that it has

become politically expedient or theminority party to hold up as muchlegislation in Congress as possible.By working against whatever ison the docket, the Republicanshave essentially set up a legislativeroadblock and have promised tonever compromise. Once one is nolonger willing to compromise andnegotiate, the act o legislating stops,and one is let in a standstill.

So what are we to do? Some argueor small reorms like removingthe libuster or adding seats to theHouse. Some, like New York MayorMichael Bloomberg, have made hintsat the act that a third party politician

would make a good candidate orpresident. But the overall problem

is that act that our broad based twoparty system no longer works or thepublic or or those who we elect tosend to Washington.

I propose the creation o two new

parties, a Conservative party and aLiberal party. Much in the way thatParliament in Great Britain works, thetwo major parties would each be splitinto two smaller, more ideologicallycompact parties that would bemore ocused and have ewer tenetsthan the two major parties. TeRepublican Party would continueto exist as a home or moderateRepublicans and the DemocraticParty would continue to exist as a

home or moderate Democrats. InCongress, the our parties would beorced to work together because they

wouldnt be able to all simultaneouslyhold out against each other. Forthe presidency, the electoral system

would have to be abolished and thecandidate with the most votes wouldbe elected president. Te system

would take several election cycles tosort out, but once voters are able to

join closer-knit political parties and

those in Washington are orced towork with each other, the new systemwould begin to take shape and rmup. Clearly, a our party politicalsystem is the best way to x thebroken ways o Washington.

Chinas Latent Role inNorth Koreas NuclearCrisis

By Min Kyu KimIASs Informer Columnist

Every country prioritizes its agenda

based on national interests, andbecause each country evadessacricing its national interests

or a greater cause, it is difcultor various bodies to cooperate intackling international issues. Ona positive note, it is important torealize that countries are willing totake indirect action towards a causevia the diplomatic interrelations that

exist among nations. Tis situationis observed in the present NorthKorean nuclear crisis. Among the

six countries deeply involved inNorth Koreas nuclear threat (NorthKorea, South Korea, China, Japan,the United States, and Russia), noneoutwardly voices objections to NorthKoreas nuclear disarmament. Perhapsthis homogenous sentiment rom the


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six parties seems reasonably innocent,but it is important to understand theulterior motives each country hasbased on its own national interests.O the six, Chinas intentionsregarding North Koreas nuclear issue

are most critical to analyze becauseo the disparity between Chinasintentions and belies regarding thisinternational dilemma

Around the time o the rst six-partytalks, the international communitybecame suspicious o North Koreasability to develop nuclear weaponsbecause it questioned whether NorthKorea had the necessary technologyand resources to produce them.

Proven dangerously wrong, theinternational community witnessedNorth Korea successully develop andtest nuclear weapons twice.

Chinas true intentions in supportingnuclear disarmament in North Koreahave maniested clearly during theprocess o cooperation among the keyplayers.

China considers North Korea to

be a shield, blocking avoritism

towards liberal democracy and thespread o Christianity that emanatesrom U.S.-Korea alliance. Duringthe Korean War, China and NorthKoreas alliance was described as therelationship o the lips and teeth,

which implies that the teeth willsuer rom the cold i lips are notpresent to protect the them. Chinasposition regarding the issue o NorthKorea has never changed since theKorean War.

What China ears is not NorthKoreas nuclear weapons and theiruse, but the disturbance or collapse othe stability on the Korean peninsulaas North Korea attempts to acquire

more nuclear weapons. For China,North Korea stands as a breakwater,protecting it rom strong waves odiplomatic and military powerinthis case, the United States.

Even though China has the capacityto disarm North Koreas nuclear

weapons (by discontinuing the oodsupply, or example) China hasnever taken such a decisive action,concluding that North Korean

possession o nuclear weapons is

more advantageous to its nationalinterests than the collapse o NorthKorea through disarmament. Chinasoreign policy prevents the collapseo North Korea, and does not seemto welcome adjustments or change in

the near uture.

Nuclear weapon engineers TomasReed and Danny Stillman publishedTe Nuclear Express: A Political Historyo the Bomb and Its Prolieration in2009. According to Stillman, whorecounts the unusual access he gainedto both the Soviet and Chinesenuclear programs during the 1990s,China helped North Korea buildnuclear weapons. Stillman asserted

that China had supported NorthKoreas nuclear problem by trainingthe scientists and providing importanttechnology since the year o 1982.During the time o Deng Xiaoping,China has been an accomplice inthe current North Korean crisis.Tereore, it is absurd to expectChina to make eorts towards NorthKorean nuclear disarmament whenChina was, in act, a key contributorto North Koreas nuclear weapons

program.

S por t s

South Beach Struggle:Te Miami Heat AreNot Among the NBAElite

By Arjun SethSports Editor

Its been a 144 days. 144 days sincethe basketball community was torndisputing how to hate LeBron James.

As the city o Cleveland burned his

jerseys, New Yorkers cursed their luck,rap star, business mogul, and New

Jersey Nets part owner Jay-Z severedties with the NBA star, and variousother courters turned their back indisgrace, South Beach continued

to party. 144 days later, Miami hassobered up and ESPNs Decision-maker has led the Heat to a shockingand struggling start.

144 days ago, the country halheartedlyagreed that the orthcoming NBAseason was going to be nothing short

o blatant. A powerul Los AngelesLakers team was ready to three-peat,and the star-studded Miami Heat wasready to give LeBron James his rstring. What was the point o watchinga season where the nale was so easily

discernible? Nobody likes readingthe last pages o a new book beorereading the rst ew. Oh, how thetide has changed.

A year ago rom today, the ClevelandCavaliers with LeBron James wereatop the Eastern Conerence, only


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second to the Boston Celtics.Presently, only 1/5th o a season in,the Heat are hal a game above the.500 Knicks. In the past ew weeks,it seems clear that coaches aroundthe league are reviewing tapes o the

Miami Heat deense and breakingthrough Erik Spoelstras code. Te3rd quarter explosion that becamecustomary or the Heat throughthe beginning o November hassimmered down. Te Utah Jazz, whoplayed the Cavs on November 9tth

were down 51-32 at haltime. Still,the veteran coach and his harmonizedteam ound a way to chip away at theHeats lead, douse the re with a 42point ourth quarter, and eventually

overpower the team in Overtime.

o inundate you with statistics wouldnot be air, but to overlook them

would not do the other 29 teams justice. Te Heat are consistently

ranking below the Lakers, Spurs,Mavericks, and Celtics in scoring,eld-goal percentage, ree-throwpercentage, and rebounds. Althoughstatistics dont always tell the wholetruth, the Lakerss stats dont lie.

Without a weakness thus ar in theseason, a three-peat does not seem aro, but whether the Heat join themat the NBA Finals is still to be seen.

Te Big Tree, who stood tall and

proud 143 days ago in South Beach, waving and grinning to a roaringcrowd, have had their Miami Heatsmothered. With Bosh playing small,averaging a shocking six reboundsthrough 16 games, an injury prone

Dwyane Wade, not ring on allcylinders, and no answer to the PointGuard position problem, the Heatare spiraling down into an abyss ohumiliation where there is no return.It seems, not even a Head Coachreplacement or Pat Riley steppingback into the light can save this Heatteam i some blatant changes are notmade, and made ast!

Dare I Say the Knicksbe Patient forAnotherYear?

By Zuhair MalikColumnist

One thing in the NBA has beenconstant over the past decade or so:the Knicks are a running joke year inand year out, an abysmal basketballteam with a terribly run ront ofce.It starts with the owner, James Dolan,

who has ull authority and has madeterrible organizational moves thathave run the Knicks straight to theground. Where to begin? Te PatrickEwing trade, Allan Houstons ill-advised contract, and the mess madein the hiring o Isiah Tomas are alllikely contenders. In came Donnie

Walsh, a respected name in the NBA,to help the team recover just intime to be in contention to lure bigtime ree agents like LeBron James,Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh.

With virtually no substantial dratpicks and minimal talent, the Knickshad bet their money on bringing two

o the marquee ree agents to New York. However, the patience o theans didnt pay o, as the top threeree agents decided to sign or theMiami Heat, leaving the Knicks withthe services o Amare Stoudemireand Raymond Felton.

Even though young and reasonablytalented, the Knicks are ar rombeing an elite team able to competeor the NBA title. Ater waitingtwo plus years or the chance tosee LeBron James in a Knick jersey,ans o New York are now let withmore mediocrity and a team thathas started 3-6 in 2010. New signeesFelton and Stoudemire have played

well, but the team is struggling tond consistency in their play. Teloss o David Lee has hurt the Knicksin the rebounding department, and

they oten struggle against bigger andmore physical teams.

Te new hope and savior o theKnicks now appears to be Carmelo

Anthony, who will be a ree agentin the summer o 2011. Rumors areaplenty regarding making a trade or

the prolic scorer. Fans are desperateor a trade to build a competitive, inot a winning team. Any possibletrade with the Nuggets would requiretrading away, at the very least, twoyoung talents on the Knicks: DaniloGallinari and oney Douglas. Whatshould the Knicks do? Once again beimpatient and trade two rising stars,or wait one more year at the end o

which Melo will be a ree agent andcome walking through the door atMadison Square Garden?

Te sensible answer is the secondoption. Te acts o the situationregarding Melo are such: Melo hasmade clear he wants to play in New

York, and that it is by ar his preerredteam. He has not and will not sign anextension, which is the major obstaclein any trade; no team will agree to

trade or a star player or hal a seasonand lose talent and picks at the sametime. Tis appeared to be the reasonthe rumored our team trade with theNets, Bobcats, and Jazz ell through.

From the Knicks point o view,capitalizing on Anthonys desire to


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Why We Watch Sports

By Harris DavidsonPolitics & Policy Editor

A casual reader o the School o Washington might question the

necessity o our newly introducedsports section. Some will argue thata magazine devoted to discussingthe intellectual topics o our daymight not be the appropriate place todiscuss the sporting news and topicsinvolving athletics. But I would arguethat sports have a natural place in oursociety and the role that they serveis both one o entertainment and oa competitive nature. Sports are somuch more than one person kicking a

ball or another person running downa eld that I nd mysel determinedto deend them. Tere is an aspect osports, whether team or individual,that excites the viewer at home, eveni that person has never played.

Te stereotypical image o a sportsan is someone rom Wisconsin witha oam cheese-head on, beer in onehand, and the Packers game on V.

While there are certainly people who watch sports with an empty mindand a ull stomach, there are alsothose sports ans that watch the gameon a much deeper level.

Being a sports an is more thanscreaming at the V when your team

is loosing. It means understandingthe commitment that the players havemade to themselves, their team andtheir an base. As the great HermanEdwards once said, You play to winthe game. It is mans eternal drive tocompete and win that drives those

who play sports. Te same urge that we eel in regular lie to succeed atour jobs and succeed in school and todo better than our peers in magniedin the ring, the eld or ballpark.

Watching people compete, and itdoesnt matter which team you arerooting or, is exhilarating becauseyou understand that sports is so muchmore than a game. For the athletesit is their job to win and when theydont, there is a crushing sense o

deeat and ineptitude. is the essenceo evolution: a quite literal survival othe fttest, and all honor bound to thatconnotation.

Because we love to see people andteams compete with everything onthe line, sports ans naturally lovethe underdog. A team that goes intoa game where everyone expects themto loose has a certain re in them thata team who is avored to win doesnt

have. Watching a game where theunderdog is winning is one o themost exhilarating eelings in sports.

And i they are able to pull o anupset, those who watched the game,even i they werent ans, come away

with a eeling o awe and admiration.

Cheering or the underdog isquintessentially American, just as weroot or the Horatio Alger characterand those who have been wronged bysociety.

While there are some teams whom I

blindly root or no matter what, I amable to ollow any game i I ascertain

why it is important to the playersand the ans o those teams. Nexttime you see a sporting event on Vthat you arent interested in, beoreyou change the channel, take a ewminutes to nd out why the game isbeing played and why it is important.It could turn out that you are

watching the most important gameis history o the state o Oklahoma.

It may not be important to you, butwhen you realize that the losers willgo home crying and the winners

will be showered with champagneand be remembered orever, you willunderstand that the game meansmore than two teams moving a balldown a eld. Sports are the wars o

peace.

play in New York is crucial. Te ball isin Anthonys court, and i he has madeclear he wants to leave Denver orNew York, the Knicks should use thisto their advantage. Being impatientand losing a sharpshooting scoring

talent like Gallinari would be a hugeloss, as he has shown signs o beinga very important player or the team.Same goes or Douglas, an energetic

deender and excellent shooter, skillsthat the Knicks will require to besuccessul at the point guard position.Despite the 3-6 record this season,the Knicks have shown signs o beinga solid team that can compete or a

playo spot. However, consistencyis lacking, though it should develop with time. As chemistry intensies,the team creates an identity. Te

Knicks can use this year to build asolid base o their team, and thus thebest solution or the Knicks is to waityet another year (sorry Knicks ans,blame LeBron), keep and developall their talent, and welcome Melo

with open arms as a ree agent in thesummer o 2011.


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TSW Journal Nov-Dec 2010

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