Reading between the lines on Iran’s nukes

By Joshua Steinman / February 28, 2006

On February 16, a cleric-disciple of Mesbah Yazdi, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s spiritual advisor, issued a fatwa legitimizing the use of nuclear weapons for “defensive” purposes. Logically, to use nuclear weapons for defense, one must first have them. The fatwa gives President Ahmadinejad carte blanche to publicly declare his desire for an Iranian nuclear weapon....

Good news about the insurgency in Iraq

By Joshua Steinman / January 26, 2006

Fierce retaliation ensued following the bombing of an Iraqi police recruiting station on January 5. Key local al Qaeda leaders were assassinated, and regional strikes were carried out in an effort to drive the foreign fighters from the city. Most interesting, though, was the acting party: Sunni insurgents. Iraq might be turning a corner, and...

The media is not spreading the good news

By Joshua Steinman / January 9, 2006

Mainstream media in the United States is misreporting what is going on in Iraq, and it is doing a disservice to our nation and our soldiers. To understand how coverage of the conflict is skewing the national perception, we need only examine three major events in Iraq over the past few months: the recent elections,...

A possible compromise for Google Print

By Joshua Steinman / November 10, 2005

Sergey Brin and Larry Page are learning a hard lesson right now: It is hard to be good. So far, their company—Google, whose corporate motto is “Don’t be evil”—has done it quite well. They simplified the web, e-mail, maps, and a host of other key internet services. However, their latest initiative, “Google Print,” has run...

Welcome to the U of C and the Core

By Joshua Steinman / September 13, 2005

You’re going to be told a lot of things this week—first and foremost, that you’ve come to one of the greatest educational institutions in the history of mankind. You’ll be told a slew of other things too, including how to get from Max Palevsky to Navy Pier, which coffee shop serves the best espresso, and...

Phoenix rising: Why the U of C works well

By Joshua Steinman / May 23, 2005

A recent Wall Street Journal article gets it right: the U of C “produces more heat.” The University is an academic hegemon, producing the ideas that are molding the social, political, scientific and economic culture of America. And yet, in a recent response in this section, one of my fellow columnists attributed the success of...

RSOs work hard and deserve ample funding

By Joshua Steinman / April 25, 2005

One person is a daydream. Three people make a conversation. Five turns into a club. And it is no wonder that as the College has increased its enrollment from well below the 1,000 mark to an expected 1,200 for the incoming class, the number of RSOs has blossomed as well. Unless you meticulously scanned the...

America needs to step up to the bullies

By Joshua Steinman / April 11, 2005

Remember third grade? I do. There were kids who liked to play soccer, the ones who hung out in the corner eating the string cheese their moms packed for them, the kids who staked out their “space” on the jungle gym or on the four-square court, and a host of others all doing their thing...

U of C must continue tsunami aid

By Joshua Steinman / February 22, 2005

Rousseau once bemoaned the fact that only in times of crisis would people be able to truly understand the character of those around them, for it was only in times of stress that people’s true natures were revealed. Crisis and tragedy strip away the cultural varnish of convenience and luxury that hides our basic human...

From “Way” to Grey: two decades of genre remixing

By Joshua Steinman / January 21, 2005

If you watch the music video for the remixed “Walk This Way,” there’s something amazing in Steven Tyler’s face when two vaguely thuggish rappers break through the wall and onto Tyler’s stage. Something in his eyes flickers with an awareness. His look is one not only of offense—his song was being hijacked, after all—but also...

America must engage Osama bin Laden

By Joshua Steinman / January 6, 2005

Recent Osama bin Laden videos have created a subculture of analysts who claim that the world’s most wanted man is moderating. Those individuals are creating a verbal house of cards built on wishful thinking and flawed logic. These armchair pundits, operating both in the mainstream and the “blogosphere,” misunderstand bin Laden’s history, motives, and goals....

America’s railways and ports are vulnerable

By Joshua Steinman / November 2, 2004

I take the train when I travel home from Chicago. A romantic at heart, I love the slow pace, coupled with the colorful countryside, and the relative freedom a train offers compared to a car or a plane. I also enjoy the ease with which I can travel by train. Chicago’s Union Station is only...

A tale of misunderstanding and parting words

By Joshua Steinman / June 8, 2004

The letter would arrive in the Saturday post. Adam—we’ll call him that—was understandably nervous; the last year, if not the last two years, all came down to one simple envelope. We had met in class. We found hiding places far away from the din of the constant melodrama, sharing personal trials, theoretical conjectures, and idle...

Corporate sponsorship wrong path for SG

By Joshua Steinman / May 4, 2004

Last week, Ted Koppel staged what deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest acts of anti-war protest in the history of television media: instead of a normal hour-long Nightline program, he read, for a full hour, the names of the men and women killed in Iraq since the beginning of hostilities over a...

Dropping the ball: ’04 SG slates lacking

By Joshua Steinman / April 30, 2004

Three to four times as many students attended the porn classic Deep Throat at Doc on Wednesday night than sat through the Student Government (SG) executive slate debate in McCormick lounge. And with good reason. SG will never revolutionize the University of Chicago. In fact, if there were no Student Government executive slate next year,...

Despite complaints, SG fulfills its promises

By Joshua Steinman / April 23, 2004

I was very disappointed last week to read this newspaper’s editorial decrying the overspending of the SGFC. Bo Shan, Noeline Argulnenandran, and Yanet Bahena ran for executive slate on a simple platform last year: increase funding for campus activities. And they did it. For all you cynical Deaniacs or Reaganites who yearn for the times...

Frats solve the dating Prisoner’s Dilemma

By Joshua Steinman / April 9, 2004

Last column I detailed how there are greater incentives for players in the singles game between men and women to show or feign disinterest when it comes to their feelings about one another, based on the Prisoner’s Dilemma. What’s the solution to the “Dating Dilemma”? The answer is simple: create a system of repeat players...

A treatise on dating: the Prisoner’s Dilemma

By Joshua Steinman / March 12, 2004

After reading V.R. Dupont’s hilariously honest contribution on Tuesday (“The Economics of Meat Markets: Addressing the Question of Efficiency”), I felt compelled to stand up for the social sciences (in particular, international relations) and share with you a portion of a theory I’ve been working on. At moderately large schools like Chicago where social interactions...

Why progressives can support Israel

By Joshua Steinman / February 13, 2004

I think progressives have a soft spot in their hearts for the “little guy.” In fact, I’d say it’s almost inherent to the ideology: progressives believe that government can be a tool to help advance human civilization by uplifting and empowering the disenfranchised and allowing them to bring their talents to the aid of humanity....

If not Dean for president, then who?

By Joshua Steinman / February 3, 2004

“If not Dean, then who?” were the parting words of my last column. The answer is John Kerry. And if you stick around for the next few minutes, I’ll tell you why. Two months ago, I received a phone call from the Kerry Campaign asking me to drop out of school and come up to...

The failures of Howard Dean

By Joshua Steinman / January 23, 2004

Howard Dean has failed. In his quest to take on Karl Rove’s White House policy of “politics first,” he has lost sight of what should be the goal of every Democrat today: providing a clear, cogent, and easily understandable alternative vision to the entrenched Republican Party. There is no Dean Alternative, only Dean Anger. Whereas...

Recent attacks create opportunity for coalition

By Joshua Steinman / November 25, 2003

Al Qaeda’s recent attack on British interests in Turkey presents a unique opportunity to assemble a coalition aligned against reactionary Islamic extremism. It has been more than two years since Al Qaeda attacked the United States with four separate hijackings. Since that time, many commentators have openly (or in my case, privately) questioned the Bush...

Bush put self over country by refusing Iraq deal

By Joshua Steinman / November 6, 2003

There are two big reasons to be skeptical of yesterday’s allegations in The New York Times that “As American soldiers massed on the Iraqi border in March…an influential advisor to the Pentagon received a secret message: Saddam Hussein wanted to make a deal.” First, there is the issue of credibility. Saddam Hussein is not credible;...

Center for American Progress helps Democrats

By Joshua Steinman / October 28, 2003

The Democratic Party is still adrift. With neither a guiding force nor a leading individual, the party is traveling in opposite directions, deepening the divisions already apparent. Pro-choice factionalists were dealt a defeat this week when the Senate outlawed so-called “partial-birth abortions.” Peace Democrats are constantly flummoxed by the President’s aggressive foreign policy. And Democrats...

SG pledges more money for RSOs

By Joshua Steinman / October 16, 2003

Last Year, Lei-Lei Shan, Yanet Bahena, and Noeline Arulgnanendran, the Metamorphosis administration, won the campus-wide election for Executive Council of Student Government on the platform of “more money for RSOs.” Increased spending will have many benefits for the College; not only for its students, but also for its reputation. Now that they have taken the...

How I learned to stop worrying and love the President

By Joshua Steinman / October 6, 2003

President Bush and Karl Rove are not guilty of treason. Even though it looks like they exposed the name of an undercover CIA. operative just to get back at her husband—Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson—for openly criticizing the decision to go to war in a letter to the New York Times, I believe that they are...

Bush’s “Old Boys’ Club” looking for good numbers

By Joshua Steinman / August 21, 2003

At the beginning of “The Thomas Crown Affair,” the title character, played by Pierce Brosnan, walks into his office at the top of a building that he owns, assertively strolls into his corporate bullpen, glad-hands some workers, says hello to his secretary, and then turns around and says to a character off-camera, “Give me good...

Bush misleads public

By Joshua Steinman / May 29, 2003

With sky-high poll numbers and a neat little picture of him in a flight suit now on his Oval Office wall, the President once again recently avoided the nagging question of his own credibility. President Bush made the case to the American people that the “war” (fought without a constitutionally required declaration) was worth hundreds...

Vote against the Slate that Shagged Me

By Joshua Steinman / May 5, 2003

If elections were determined by how much money candidates spent on advertising, the process of voting could be circumvented by a quick look at the candidates’ checkbooks. We all know that there is supposed to be an exchange of ideas, an honest look at the needs of the people, and then an informed decision on...

SG candidates present platforms

By Joshua Steinman / May 1, 2003

The six groups running for Student Government executive slate debated their campaign issues last night before a small number of interested students. Gathered in Mandel Hall Thursday evening, the five serious slates introduced themselves and explained their platforms against a backdrop of disruption by the Moose Party. “I think most of the slates did a...

On cronyism and corruption

By Joshua Steinman / April 14, 2003

For an administration that favors a free market, President Bush?s government seems to have an affinity for cronyism. As reported in The London Daily Telegraph on April 12, Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney?s former firm, stands to make over $7 billion on a no-bid contract it was awarded by the Pentagon. Cheney received a $30...

A veil of secrecy over the SGFC

By Joshua Steinman / April 4, 2003

Each quarter, undergraduates and graduate students at the University pay a student activities fee. In total, $190,000 is collected per year for student activities. This money pays for RSO budgets, activities and special events; its distribution is in the hands of the Student Government Finance Committee (SGFC). The students who sit on this committee are...

Lincoln’s legacy and relevance

By Joshua Steinman / February 25, 2003

“Our Constitution was created not to preserve a preexisting society, but to create a new one,” Justice William Brennan said in 1985. Since its beginning, our union has been in a state of rebirth. The Declaration of Independence led to the Articles of Confederation, which were reborn as the Constitution, revised with the Bill of...

Writer’s Response

By Joshua Steinman / February 14, 2003

Bush and the economy: A response to John Lovejoy’s article of January 31. In a Wall Street Journal poll, 55 percent of Americans opposed Social Security privatization. I couldn’t verify Lovejoy’s source for his assertions that “the plan is wildly popular,” or that the “claim that the unemployment rate has nearly doubled makes no sense.”...

A start for combating AIDS

By Joshua Steinman / February 7, 2003

At the end of George H.W. Bush’s presidential term in 1992, the United States was distributing over 800 million condoms annually to countries in Africa. Since his son took office, that number has been cut to about 300 million. In his State of the Union address, President Bush proposed $10 billion in new aid to...

Bush is failing the union

By Joshua Steinman / January 28, 2003

I have a prediction to make: the State of the Union is going to be great theater. President Bush will speak eloquently yet simply. Unfortunately, he won’t stand by his accomplishments. That’s because he doesn’t have many. On education, President Bush has failed. His desire to see children tested on basic skills has led not...

Bush’s lip service to MLK

By Joshua Steinman / January 21, 2003

People packed the Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama on December 5, 1955. It was late, but news had spread quickly throughout the community that the Montgomery Improvement Association’s newly elected leader, a young reverend named King, was to speak. There, that night, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. elucidated the founding principles...

Ryan makes the right decision

By Joshua Steinman / January 17, 2003

Courage in politics is rare. On January 11, Governor George Ryan made a courageous decision. Against the wishes of the Republican Party, and even the incoming Democratic governor, Rod Blagojevich, he pardoned all 167 Illinois death row inmates. Taking the words of Justice Harry Blackmun on the death penalty, “The legislature couldn’t reform it. Lawmakers...

Bush’s southern strategy

By Joshua Steinman / January 10, 2003

How much political capital does President Bush need to act like a racist? Apparently not much. Less than a month after the resignation of Trent Lott amid accusations of his support for the segregationist policies of the old southern aristocracy, President Bush has decided to re-nominate Charles Pickering–a close friend of Lott–to the Federal Judiciary....

With friends like these…

By Joshua Steinman / December 3, 2002

There is a common phrase used in U.S. foreign policy: “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” This mantra is sometimes referred to as “The Jackal Politique,” a term coined by President Jefferson. During his presidency, our country was in danger of being overwhelmed by the French and the British. In order to preserve...

Decisions for Democrats

By Joshua Steinman / November 12, 2002

When John F. Kennedy ran for Congress in 1946, he billed himself as a “fighting conservative.” He did this in Massachusetts. And won. As a Congressman Kennedy routinely supported a like-minded center-left Republican who had billed himself as a “practical liberal” in his first run for Congress, also in 1946: Richard Nixon. Their offices were,...

What the Democrats should do next

By Joshua Steinman / November 8, 2002

I hate excuses. I’ve been listening to the radio over the past few days, and excuses are all I’ve heard from Democrats. A friend of mine came by my room Tuesday night and asked me how I could be angry, the people voted, and the results came in. He was absolutely right. I wasn’t angry...

Union protests Yale President

By Joshua Steinman / November 5, 2002

By Joshua Steinman Maroon SG Correspondent Yale University president Richard Levin was met downtown Sunday by a full-scale protest by the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union. Members of the University’s Anti-Sweatshop Coalition were present. The protest was in response to Levin and Yale’s attitude towards hospital workers who are attempting to unionize in...

University professors labeled anti-Israeli by Campus Watch site

By Joshua Steinman / October 29, 2002

Several University professors have been singled out on a Web site that claims to be an academic “watchdog” against forms of anti-Semitism in academia. The Web site, Campus-Watch.org, which is operated by Daniel Pipes, a former Harper Fellow at the University, has published various reports naming Chicago professors as having harbored anti-Israel or anti-Semitic viewpoints...

Trustees discuss current state of University

By Joshua Steinman / October 24, 2002

The University Board of Trustees met for the first time this academic year Wednesday and Thursday. The two-day event brought board members together to make major decisions about the academic, administrative, and financial status of the University. Kathryn Gould, M.B.A. ’78 attended for the first time since her recent appointment to the Board. “We’re having...

Sereno tells what matters to him and why

By Joshua Steinman / October 17, 2002

Paul Sereno, Professor of Organic Biology and Anatomy, spoke yesterday as this year’s first speaker in the Rockefeller Chapel lecture series “What Matters to Me and Why.” “I’m trying to do something creative with my life,” Sereno said, speaking about his career as a paleontologist, as well as his efforts to inspire young people. Sereno,...

Students vote for representatives

By Joshua Steinman / October 14, 2002

A record number of undergraduates chose to cast ballots in this year’s College Council election, held October 9-11, a 25 percent increase in voter turnout from last year according to Student Government president Enrique Gómez. Though the total turnout was higher, the 621 individuals who chose to vote represents a mere quarter of all undergraduates...