Pitzer Masculinist Club Gets OK: A Victory?

Will Bigham over at the Daily Bulletin just broke this story.

So the Pitzer student senate finally approved the Masculinist Club's proposal in a 13-9 vote. That's right, the Pitzer student senate is wasting money, but in a fair and equal manner.

Fred Beebe, student body vice president and member of the Student Senate, said he voted in support of the group Sunday.

"At the beginning there was genuine anger about the way that Dashiell was conducting himself, and now he has proven that he has accepted responsibility for some of the comments he made that people found offensive," Beebe said.

"He's made a lot of effort in terms of outreach and trying to make up for his earlier leadership mistakes."

It's still a cyanide pill, but its my cyanide pill. A good cyanide pill.

Los Angeles Times on the Petropoulos Affair

Petropoulos affair continues!

Tomorrow's Los Angeles Times has a story on the Petropoulos situation with the Pissarro.

(Would you believe they actually gave credit to The Claremont Independent? See TSL that's how a responsible newspaper handles the acquisition of information. Now they didn't have to have a measle non-apology apology in their publication. Ah yes, adhering to standards is tough for you, I know...)

The story is well worth reading if you are unfamiliar with the case and it is written in plain English, which I very much enjoy. I don't speak legalese or artiste, though I am proficient in understanding it.

I have a few thoughts on the whole situation now that new material has been added. I've put the relevant paragraphs down at the bottom, but it all boils down to this question: What was Petropoulos, an academic, thinking when he decided to get involved?

The Los Angeles Times suggests it was the allure of the money, but was it?

Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register -- which also had hoped to earn a fee from the painting's return -- said he warned Petropoulos that he didn't have the expertise to broker the return of a Pissarro.

"I'm sure the chance of making a big fee may have influenced his judgment," Radcliffe said of Petropoulos. "He wants to write a book about Lohse, a perfectly valuable thing to do, but you don't get yourself into negotiations involving a stolen picture and large sums of money. He did not behave dishonestly, but he . . . got himself into something he was not qualified to handle."

Los Angeles attorney E. Randol Schoenberg, an expert in Holocaust art restitution who won the landmark case that returned modernist masterworks by Gustav Klimt to their rightful owners, said that academics such as Petropoulos, who helped with the Klimt case, are invaluable for researching the whereabouts and ownership histories of looted art.

But he said the same people "are out of their league" if they try to negotiate a work's return.

Academics should stick to academia (that is, of course, assuming what Petropoulos and John Roth does is academic. I'm not entirely sold on that one. See here and here). Lawyers should stick to lawyering. Thieving art dealers should stick to thieving art dealing (and hoping they don't get caught). Book writers should write books, but not love their subjects too much.

Nobody get their roles confused! To refute the mighty Shakespeare, all the world's a stage, but one should only play the role they are best suited for!

Hey, Aditya, didn't I read about that in a bit on comparative advantage?

Trader Joe's Comes to Claremont

CJ's note: Claremont Courier brings us the news we love. Crunchy cons unite!


David's bit: I think someone should tell the Collins staff to start getting their olive oil from here, instead of the motor oil they put out at the salad bar right now.

Health Education Outreach Offers Massages by Appointment: Does that Make them a Beauty Shop Too?

Why is it that the penguin is Health Education Outreach's mascot?

I've already blogged about the travesty that is the Claremont beauty shop ban.

Now I learn that the Claremont Colleges' Health Education Outreach (HEO) also offers massages. Alas, they are only by appointment, but they sure have flexible (pardon the pun!) hours.

It got me wondering. Does HEO constitute an established beauty shop?

If no, why not? After all, they are giving out a service and there's a sure lot of red tape to get that service. Sure that service is free, but does zero cost mean no regulation?

You might be tempted to say that, oh well, it's for health purposes only, but then you'd be wrong. Here is what it says on the website.

The massage chair is not recommended as a substitute for physical therapy or other medical care.

I don't pretend to be a doctor, but why does HEO offer a service that is admittedly not even a substitute for physical therapy or medical care? Hey, doesn't that make them a subsidized business?

Might it be that they too are interested in offering a service albeit to the cost of every student who pays tuition?

After all, the password to login and use the "heochair" is "relax." I've never been to a doctor that proscribe relaxation. (If she did, I'd be inclined to seek a second opinion. No rest for weary souls!)

So that means if HEO ever wants to expand, it too has to expand upstairs or into alleyways, right? (Yes, I know that it was only Claremont Village locations that had this requirement, but that just illustrates how ridiculous this ban is!)

While we are at it, why does HEO have a penguin for a mascot?

Is it because it is for the birds? Or are they trying to make some larger statement about how you might walk in, but you'll come out on crutches? Penguins cannot fly so maybe they are trying to make some sort of statement on how you too will be like the penguin. You'll have appendages intended for a specific purpose -- walking and the like -- and then won't be able to use them once the health care (read: experiment) is administered.

So why the penguin? I don't know.

Maybe the guinea pig was taken.