Harvard twit ruminates TAH criticism
You may remember the vacuous Harvard twit, Sandra Korn, who thinks that her education about the world around her ended on the day she was accepted to Harvard. Korn wrote “Keep ROTC Out of Range” in the Harvard Crimson recently which I critiqued to some acclaim. Well, it seems that she takes exception in her blog to some of our characterizations of her – specifically the one written by UpNorth.
Is it illegit to study things like “Sex and Power in Modern Latin America and US Latino Culture” and “Postwar Feminist Thought”? Are “Medical Management of the Female Body” and “Postcolonial Women’s Writing” somehow “liberal” courses? There is nothing inherently illegit or leftist about studying the 50% of the population often underrepresented in the philosophy, history, and literature departments.
Um, yeah it is, Sandra. Those aren’t subjects for a Harvard education, it’s the intellectual equivalent of taking “Basketweaving for fun and profit”. How do you figure a “Women’s Studies” major is going to prepare you for anything? Like the millions of college students who major in Psychology every year and end up working at a hair extension kiosk in the mall. It’s an absolutely useless endeavor that universities market to cum bubbles like you who think they can educate themselves to self-discovery.
Why, yes, in fact, I have considered majoring in “women’s studies,” although here’s it’s called “Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.”
What’s wrong with you, Sandra? Are you a complete moron? You’ve been accepted to arguably the most prestigious university in the country and you haven’t picked a major yet? I’m guessing you’re in your late teens and you’re piddling away your life complaining about the ROTC program and you don’t even know what you want to be when you grow up? Let me ask you, who the fuck do you think you are?
Many of the readers on my blog are on their second careers, having retired from their first…and you don’t even know what you want your first TO BE YET? Again, you little pretentious twit, who do you think are?
So it distresses me that for the uber-conservatives hating on my Crimson article, “women’s studies major” is an insult paramount to calling me an asswipe. I’m flattered, but I am disturbed by the connotation that only radical leftists would be interested in studying women’s** contribution to history.
And I truly hope that, at some point before the US abolishes its military and becomes a pacifist nation, Women’s Studies will become a widely respected and favored major for college students.
Yes, Sandra, “Women’s Studies” majors are indeed ass wipes, to use your word. If your ambition is to be nothing more than what you were on the day you were born, you’re a useless asswipe. Excuse the rest of us while we busy ourselves at keeping you safe and secure so you can be a useless twit the rest of your born days.
Category: I hate hippies
it’s the intellectual equivalent of taking “Basketweaving for fun and profit”.
That’s not fair. At least the Basketweaving class teaches the student a potentially useful skill.
And I think when I was in college, we referred to it as “Underwater Basketweaving 101”.
I kept reading…
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Furthermore, I recognize and applaud the military’s humanitarian efforts. They’re awesome. That’s honestly one of the most amazing things that any branch of the US government does. But a humanitarian group delivering “hundreds of thousands of food and aid packets to Pakistan’s flood-stricken regions” (as Sam writes on the Republican blog) does not need to be armed or trained in military strategy. The US military exists as a military for the purpose of fighting in wars — fundamentally, that’s what soldiers are trained to do — and in my opinion, America’s major military conflicts in the last fifty years have been universally unjust and antihumanitarian.
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She honestly believes that people without military training and strategy can walk into places like Pakistan and do humanitarian missions. First of all, how does she think we got over to Pakistan in the first place… that’s right, on military ships. No military, no military ships in existence, no travelling to foreign countries for humanitarian missions. Does she honestly think that groups like ACORN will raise enough money to build huge humanitarian ships, train thousands of people in first aid and ship them overseas on a moment’s notice for humanitarian missions?
She can’t really be this naive and ignorant, can she?
Still more…
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It is impossible to enter the military as a college graduate and effect immediate, or even gradual, change. It is impossible to enter and remain in the military as an advocate for peace without facing the possibility of engaging in combat. While the government has the potential to be peaceful, the military as it is currently structured cannot be.
==========
The only organization in the world that guarantees peace and works for peace is the US Military (along with our coalition allies). Peace is brought about by law enforcement putting down the bullies. Apparently, she believes that evil does not exist and there is never a need for law enforcement to stop evil.
Also, it’s quite evident she does not know jack fucking squat about our military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan regarding keeping the peace. My brother is part of that effort in Afghanistan right now. This ignorant twit should spend less time on “women’s studies” and more time on researching what is actually going on in Iraq and Afghanistan regarding all the work our military members are doing to keep the peace there.
I thought Los Angeles and Hollywood were La-La Land. But now I’m wondering if New Jersey and Massachusetts have been infected with the disease as well. Oy…
I should have known to stop reading, based on the migraine I was getting from her dribble, but… ========== I am not expressing these views from the light of an Ivy-League pedestal — it’s not that I think Harvard students are too good to do the dirty work of patriotism or anything like that. In fact, I don’t think there should be military recruiting on any college campus, because similar arguments of justice and fairness apply. If any student truly wants to join the military, or truly needs an ROTC scholarship, those options should be open for her. I think it is beyond horrible if Harvard’s ROTC student don’t feel comfortable on Harvard’s campus, because I am friends with many of them and have an infinite amount of respect for their dedication and sacrifice — I’m pretty sure that I could never do that (which is why I sit at my desk writing articles instead). However, although I respect people acting in accordance to their personal ideologies, I do not personally agree with the ideology of the US military, and don’t think the majority of my Harvard peers necessarily do either. ========== So first she states that she respects those who want to join ROTC and that the option should be open to them to do so. Then she turns around and states that, because she personally is against the ideology of the military — and, based on her amazing sense of ESP, she knows the majority of Harvard students are against it too — she takes it all back and no, those who want to join ROTC should NOT have the opportunity to do so on college campuses. She’s a typical liberal fascist. She claims to respect the ideology of others, but then says they shouldn’t have the freedom to express it, because she says so. I imagine that if the majority of people at Harvard thought “women’s studies” was a ridiculous ideology and waste of a major and resources, and that it should not be allowed at Harvard, she would take issue with that. She’s a typical ‘progressive’… Read more »
You know, this chick brags about how great her school system is in New Jersey. I can’t help but notice that she is NOT a good example of that supposed great school system.
If the school system is spewing out good little, ignorant Marxist twits like her, then Governor Christie was damn right to cut the budget for it, since a bunch of little Marxist Zinns running around is NOT a sign of a successful school system.
“Base, this is street. I need R/A unit, one male down. Symptoms are exhaustion, desperation and multiple dry, meaningless readings from a mindless twit, bad examples, eyes are glassy. Location is 1818 Twit Row, Harvard University. Code three”.
J,
I don’t hate Women’s Studies. I just think the major is stupid, doesn’t prepare a person for the real world, and everybody involved is engaged in what could charitably bereferred to as “intellectual masturbation”. Of course, that isn’t reserved just for WS. In fact, that term can be applied to almost all of what currently makes up the “liberal arts”.
And I have a BA in History (almost a MA) and started out as a Mechanical E major. So I should know.
Saved by the Spade! LOL!
Michael,
Oh no, she’s sexist! “If any student truly wants to join the military, or truly needs an ROTC scholarship, those options should be open for her.” The funny thing is that we covered how to avoid sexist statements in English 101. The funnier thing is that I am technically a freshman in college like her, yet my military experience and schooling make me a junior credit-wise (the horror…). The funniest thing is that I can complete my degree online in little more than a year and am already looking at Master’s programs. What my school lacks in prestige compared to Harvard will be more than made up for by experience and true open-mindedness. Unlike her I can consider the opinions of the those whom I disagree with.
“She can’t really be this naive and ignorant, can she?” Sure she can, and she doesn’t even work all that hard at being so.
Let’s see, hates the military? Check. And I dare say, she probably doesn’t really know a single member of the military. Admires commies like Howard Zinn? Check. Doesn’t bother to vote? Check.
I stand by my original comment about this twit, outcome-based education, furthered in college. I would imagine her “advisor” is probably a cross between Rachel Maddow, and Keith Olberman. With the chromosomes of Maddow.
And, she’s just tickled silly that Obama’s “Recovery Act” saved the clubs at her high school? Wow, that’s just great. Yeah, they “did it for the children”.
what ever happened to the days of the “Gentleman and his Lady” oh right “post war feminist” thought killed it. Chivalry is dead and you killed it. good job.
Please, all, in this academic discussion it is essential to be both accurate and precise with our comments. The proper term is not “intellectual masturbation” it is “pseudo-intellectual mental masturbation.”
There is so much to say about this, I keep just deleting my post and starting over. Women are being taught to resent the big, bad man from kindergarten, it’s a fact. Some who buy into it, then, focus on the one thing they are taught IS NOT bad- women. It just follows.
Second, they fail to see how this “male-driven, industrial, capitalist machine” provides them with the opportunity for such narrow-minded focus (it’s no different than if I majored in Caucasian studies– which I wouldn’t because I am not stupid enough to think that only ONE SEGMENT OF SOCIETY IS IMPORTANT– it’s the interaction, stupid.) Trust me, women in Afghanistan, Uganda, Sierra Leon, are NOT afforded that luxury, And if you care about women, learn a skill and GO HELP THEM. Go teach them to read, to battle bacteria whatever– damn selfish twit.
Third, Doc Bailey hit it dead on. Historically, it made sense that we needed the protection of men, we were weakened by pregnancy, by nursing, by size, by the necessity of staying close to home, and by and large men provided the protection and treated women as a special class. In some cases they were treated poorly, but in most they’ve been permitted to flourish (note- we’re still here).
The world has changed, and men have largely said – “hell yeah, go get a job! Sounds like a great plan!” It’s the women who stir the pot, harbor resentment and insist men are trying to keep them down. (like quasimodo said: anger studies.) And it’s bull shit.
And, I want to know– were there actually people IN the ROTC at Harvard?
“…it’s not that I think Harvard students are too good to do the dirty work of patriotism or anything like that.”
Let me be the first to fly the bullshit flag on that statement.
hmmm and I wonder, also, how many of these women’s studies majors just go marry a lawyer after college. Someone’s gotta pay the mortgage.
I have to say, I have been thoroughly amused at the sentiment that we are intimidated or threatened by a little girl majoring in Women’s studies.
Here is what I think of women who major as such. That they will be taught how bad men are and how much they have been shafted by societal norms simply because of their gender. It *is* a freaking hate fest and I am not on board. Mike Adams of UNC Wilmington frequently writes about this kind of stuff and frankly, it is disturbing.
You see, I am a happily married person who used to think I had to be Helen Ready doing the roar. Surprise.
What I have learned by working with and being married to a man, is that I like the way they think and I do not need to roar, or hate them to be who I am. I can be independent, or not when I choose. I do not approval to express myself or stand up for my beliefs. I know money is comfort but not the end-all. And best, I have a great family and husband who has no problems with that. It wasn’t hard!
But these women’s study people seem to feel cheated in every aspect of life. Their attempts at being the overpowering figures nets them nothing but loneliness, great casual sex, lots of money, relatively speaking, of course. However, there is nothing of substance except they have this *great* life of independence from the evil opposite sex. They somehow have a need to prove they don’t need men in their lives to be happy.
I would never want to be Ms. Korn.
“What my school lacks in prestige compared to Harvard will be more than made up for by experience and true open-mindedness.”
And also probably by not being deep into six figures of student loan debt, a value which will be realized only too late by a host of liberal arts majors.
This is exactly what I picture when I listen to someone call Dave Ramsey with $150,000 in student loan debt and making $22,000/year with a Masters in Art History….
And also probably by not being deep into six figures of student loan debt, a value which will be realized only too late by a host of liberal arts majors.
Joke’s on you (and me):
Our new financial aid policy has dramatically reduced the amount families with incomes below $180,000 are expected to pay, and parents of families with incomes below $60,000 are not expected to contribute at all to college costs. We no longer consider home equity as a resource in our determination of a family contribution, and students are not expected to take out loans, which have been replaced by need-based Harvard scholarship.
WAAAY OT, but Claymore’s post:
“He doesn’t give a shit about your cat”
Made me recall something from AR-15.com about those dandy 9mm AR carbine range toys-
“9mm, takes care of all 9 lives with one shot.”
Psst, Sandra Korn, don’t let your sheltered upbringing and naievety about the world let you get Amy Biehl-ed…
The saddest part is that she’ll never wake to the Christmas morning joy of her better half buying her something with a trigger and a “4” as its first name.
Careful there ROS, I might actualy start to like you, lol. jk
Here’s a nice sob story about one rueful women’s studies major (technically “interdisciplinary degree in religious and women’s studies”) pulling down 27k a year after taxes, in a job that requires no degree at all, with $100,000 in (deferred) student loans.
“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back”
That about sums it up.
Okay, boys and girls. Here we go–here’s how “intense” our little girl’s life is, and how “pushed” she is:
“I was kind of worried that I wouldn’t enjoy college, but somehow I’ve managed to do a whole lot of activities and take some pretty hard classes without being stressed at all.
And I am so fucking happy about everything.
FOR EXAMPLE, I will now obnoxiously explicate every single thing that I have done today.
I woke up at 11.
I learned about damped oscillations and manifolds in Physics and Math respectively. I do not completely understand either, but eventually I will (hopefully)”
Seriously? WOKE UP AT 11? Let’s just put in a toss of the bullshit flag for pretty much everything else. Lemme give you an idea of what we “stupid” kids went through in a typical day, say, at Nuclear Power School back in the day…
0500–Wake up
0530–PT
0615-0700 Breakfast, shower, and change for class
0700-1130 Morning session at NPS. Typical classes: Heat Transfer/Fluid Flow, Physics, Math, Reactor Materials, Chem, Radcon, Reactor Physics, in-rate and cross-rate coursework. Testing usually held during morning sessions on above.
1130-1215–Lunch
1215-1600–Afternoon NPS session. Same coursework.
1600-1630–Head back to barracks, room/personnel inspections
1630-2300–Extra study, dinner thrown in at some point.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
And that’s BEFORE we get to the fleet, where we lamented about how “easy” we had it back in the training pipeline.
Tell ya what, hon–I’ll put my SAT up against yours anytime. What you know about the military ain’t one-thousandth of what you THINK you know. OTOH, as a college grad (as are many of the posters here–including professional degrees, etc), we’ve got a lot more knowledge of where you stand than you think we do. Jonn, wasn’t it Gen. Shinseki who said of your letter once, “Who knew infantrymen could write?”
11 in the morning? Seriously? Last time I woke up that late in the morning it was because I was coming out of a 4-hour surgery.
You guys are missing all the fun! Being a former Marine and retired police I am now going to college at UF and will get my degree in wildlife biology this spring (hopefully). I needle the hell out of these kids, I talk about shooting animals and devouring their roasted flesh. I blow their anthropogenic global warming arguments out of the water constantly. I have had many of them in tears asking why am I in this major (I told them manatees are speed-bumps for my boat!). I will be running a roller-chopper this summer in a local national forest, and I tell them that I can’t wait to start ripping up trees and destroying animal habitats. You should see the looks on their faces, its priceless!
#67 Scott,
Tuition assistance and the G.I. Bill will cover my education; I’ll end up having to use the latter for half of a year for my Bachelor’s and to supplement the TA for a Master’s.
One thing that most kids (meaning high school seniors and college underclassmen) don’t realize is that college itself is not an end-all, nor is it a guarantee of future employment. I dropped out of high school at age 16 to work full-time. Despite not graduating I found decent jobs and learned a good trade; in fact the only thing that a lack of a diploma really hindered was my joining the Army. Granted I worked 2 and even 3 jobs for a while, but my level of income at age 22 was only about five hundred dollars a month shy of what the girl in the link in number #74 is making. Cosidering the fact that I lived in an area with a much lower cost-of-living than SF and that this was back in 2000, I’d say I was much better off financially. Keep in mind that I had no student loans and “only” a GED and some factory training which I got paid for.
There is a reason why we have people with one or more degrees walking or calling in quite often. They graduate college, spend six months or more working a dead-end job, then realize they have a chance of joining the Army and going straight to OCS, making real money and earning experience their education never provided. Ironically, many of them are unable to score high enough on the ASVAB to become an officer, and some are unable to even qualify for enlistment.
NHSparky,
Didn’t you read this post? http://the-red-line.blogspot.com/2010/11/of-tourists-and-their-cameras.html
“I have also been taught that Harvard’s tourists are not only intolerable, but also interminable: they throng around the Yard from the obscene hour of 7 AM until nightfall, accosting innocent freshmen with their cameras and obstructing every convenient path.”
It is obvious that the thought of waking at 0500 is abhorrent; heck the parties probably don’t die down until after that.
She goes on to mention the celebrity status Harvard students feel. I rarely mention it but I wonder if this “celebrity” feeling is anything like the feelings I got when real celebrities like John Michael Montgomery, Darryl Worley, and Kelsey Grammer shook my hand and thanked me for my service. Or perhaps when, at the same Inaugural Salute to the Troops event (did the 56th Inauguration even have one?), former President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush did the same. Perhaps the feeling is the same as when all eyes were on me as NCOIC during funerals in Arlington, or when I participated in Twilight Tattoo or Spirit of America in front of admiring crowds numbering from the hundred (TT) to the thousands (SOA).
Nevermind, in most of those instances I was humbled, being a simple man who seeks no accolades for my service. During the funerals I was somber, wondering what the life of the Soldier I was burying had been like. Then again I’m not a self-righteous 18-year-old socialist. I doubt Korn really needs those tourists to drive her ego, she seems more than capable of building it herself.
Seriously? WOKE UP AT 11? Let’s just put in a toss of the bullshit flag for pretty much everything else. Lemme give you an idea of what we “stupid” kids went through in a typical day, say, at Nuclear Power School back in the day. . . ========== NHSparky — My freshman year in college, I was a wreck. I lived a VERY sheltered High School life (I was so distraught by insecurity, acne, braces, glasses, etc that other than intramural sports in which I participated for 4 years, I never went out on a weekend but once.), so when I went from an all male Catholic high school (Brother Rice HS in Chicago) to Purdue University, it was completely overwhelming for me. Well, my freshman year, I thought I had it rough. Freshman Engineering program, big campus with tens of thousands of students, both male and female now, still dealing with insecurity and now dealing with freshman engineering courses with which I struggled, as opposed to in High School where everything came easy to me. Anyway, my sophomore year we had a few ROTC guys on our floor in the Residence Hall. After spending most of my freshman year locked in my room afraid to go out and meet new people, I joined intramural sports and finally got around to meeting the great guys we had on our floor. Became friends with some of the ROTC guys as they were in Aeronautical Engineering (I was in Mechanical) and we had a couple of the same classes. I also met a freshman who not only needed ROTC to pay for his college expenses, but also needed to work a couple jobs. I knew he worked at the Res Hall cafeteria, but I found out he also had another job in addition to that. I was joking with him that I rarely saw him around and whenever I did see him, he looked worn out and exhausted. That’s when he told me of his schedule. It was similar to yours, only with working two jobs thrown in there as well. My… Read more »
Korn would never do that, Mike, she already knows everything. It must be great to see the world through those rose-colored glasses, having all the answers already. If only the U.S. was a socialist republic, everyone would own their own unicorn, and the supply of Skittles would be endless./sarc.
She, and the multitudes like her, would never want their worldview challenged, so they insulate themselves in an environment that reinforces their own biases.
Jeff in Florida is my new hero…the tears from clueless retards fuels my blackened soul, and for that, I am eternally grateful for Jeff giving me an endless supply.
Claymore,
For you I will intensify my efforts, the honor is all mine Sir. It shall make me chortle with much glee!
Semper Fi
WTG Jeff!! Don’t forget this one, ‘I love animals, they’re delicious!’
🙂
Claymore, Jeff, and Jacobite…
Damn you guys, in a good way!! At least I wasn’t eating peanuts. A former Army pal works for IBM in Boulder.
Of course, you must know that eating meat of any kind is tabooin *that* hippie town…and he does the same to them as Jeff is doing to his understudies!!
I am in tears from laughing!!
I love that you’re just kidding about liking me, Italian.
Ass. 😀
I just waiting for the “What if they had a war and nobody came” quote to appear on her blog.
Or how about the “arms are for hugging” quote, Daniel?
Our Troops are Not Your Personal PhotoOp, Mr. President…
So, the POTUS dropped into Afghanistan for a few hours on 3 December 2010. He was his third trip ever and the shortest, though he never found the time while he was the Chairman of the Senate subcomittee on the War there, until he became a candidate for…
#75–
Jesus Sparky, you need a graphic flashback warning on that comment! I got the shudders, the yips, and pretty sure ricketts…spent a long time trying to cleanse the memories of the Ghost of Uncle Hymie.
If you went to Orlando you also needed to include the 1600 daily lightning lockdowns. 😉
Sparky, my dad was a Nuke on an old Permit class. Used to tell me nightmares about people studying till they were ragged. Seemed to like it though.
well Fuck. Team America World police to the rescue. . . oh wait Barry wants to talk? well we can still make em sweat a little. . . no that’s too aggressive.
I GOT IT! We can use the Gay Bomb on them. I seem to remember the DoD conducting research on a chemical weapon that would overpower male troops into homoerotism. Roll right by the Russians while they’re busy raping each other. . . oh wait Barry wants to use that on our Troops so they’re ok with the repeal of DADT. . .
ever get the feeling that the CiC doesn’t want AMERICA to succeed?
http://the-red-line.blogspot.com/2010/12/further-ruminations-of-harvard-twit.html#comments
Awwwww….poor Sandy. Every time I think of her, I think of the bar scene from Good Will Hunting, and the quote, “The sad thing about a guy (girl) like you is in 50 years you’re gonna start doing some thinking on your own and you’re gonna come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life: One, don’t do that, and two, you dropped a 150 grand on a fuckin education you could have gotten for a dollar-fifty in late charges at the public library.”
But Sandy, dear, it ain’t like I’m gonna get your phone number and start telling people, “How you like THEM apples?” As much as you’d like to think you’re dedicated, “wicked smaaahhht”, and all the rest, face it–you’re not. Nor are we a group of chest-thumping Neanderthals with 1300 cc brain cases, in case you hadn’t yet devined that fact. And in a bet between you versus the world, I’m betting on the world. But that’s okay. Maybe you’ll grow up someday. Or not. Just keep in mind that there are LOTS of differing opinions out there, and if you’re not willing to take the heat, yadda yadda yadda.
ETA: Daniel–she’s got one up. From Albert Einstein. I guess she doesn’t realize how much imput he had on starting development of the atomic bomb. Sucks for her.
Squidthoughts: If you went to Orlando you also needed to include the 1600 daily lightning lockdowns.
Oh, hell no–staff used that (and Jap motorcycles) to weed out the stupid ones in NFAS before they ever got to Power School. One time, I was doing night study and saw some kid come out of the Helm Club on his buddy’s borrowed crotch-rocket, lose control on the grass, hit the drainage ditch and plowed both himself AND the bike into a staff instructor’s truck. BOTH were new. Then again, everyone who went through that place has some kind of story to tell.
http://volokh.com/2009/11/02/in-memoriam-mike-weston/
Good story about a man whose character transcended his Harvard Experience.