Cars on Campus: Washington Post Comments

From today's Washington Post:

... almost three-quarters of the nation's 18.4 million college students will return to campus with a car, AAA said. The association's annual guide said some students will spend as much as $8,095 a year to keep and maintain a new car at school.

CJ: But not at Claremont McKenna, no sir! Here we ban freshman from having cars even though public transit is notoriously awful.

Students willingly shell out the money to pay for parking, especially in D.C. Why wouldn't they here? Just look at how much people are prepared to spend.

The AAA survey of [Washington] area colleges found that the annual student parking fee at Howard University was $240. A permit for the general parking lot at George Mason University cost $225. At American University, it cost an estimated $964 to park on a Nebraska Avenue lot. In College Park, the University of Maryland charges $412 for those who live on campus and $213 for those who commute daily to school.

George Washington University students pay $550 a semester for a parking decal, and students who commute to Georgetown University pay $656 a semester to park at satellite lots in Rosslyn.

CJ: I don't understand why CMC doesn't treat parking on campus as it treats tuition: Charge more for rich students and less for poor ones. Ideologically, I'm opposed to that, but you have to wonder why they don't do that. I hope CMC doesn't experience the parking ninjas that I warned about, but I wouldn't be a tad surprised if we did, especially seeing as the other colleges can't stop you from graduating for having unpaid parking tickets.

Dr. Matthew Spalding, CMC Alum, Assails Obama's Civil National Security Force

The clip is fairly short, only about 7 minutes, and aired a few days ago on Glenn Beck. Obama, apparently wants half a trillion dollar worth of funding for AmeriCorps, seeking all the while to turn it into some personal fiefdom. You can watch it here.

I've criticized this obsession with national service when I challenged David Gergen at the Athenaeum. As I pointed out to Gergin, I'm not interested in extra-constitutional, militarized, compulsory bureaucratic corp that owes its allegiance to the state. Thanks to CMC alum, Matthew Spalding, and Glenn Beck, we're finally exposing the inner workings of the Obama administration.

Is Akshata Murthy CMC's Youngest Richest Alum?

A profile puts newlywed Akshata Murthy's net worth at 1600 Rs (which, by my calculations, puts it at around $320 million.)

Does this makes her the youngest richest alumna? Does this make her the wealthiest woman graduate? Or am I missing someone?

Charles Murray Cites Professor Pitney on Nixon; Pitney's Honors Government Class

One of my favorite authors of all time, Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute, cited Professor John J. Pitney Jr., one of the country's foremost Nixon scholars, in a follow up blog post he wrote he showed some graphs showing how the country is becoming more conservative, while the intellectual upper is becoming vastly more left leaning.

He dubbed that phenomenon the Pauline Kael syndrome after the famous film critic who expressed incredulity that Nixon had won a landslide. Murray quoted Kael as saying the following after Nixon's reelection, "How can he have won? Nobody I know voted for him."

Professor Pitney wrote in with the correct quotation, which Murray commented on here.

Prof. John Pitney at Claremont McKenna sent me the actual quote, from the New York Times of 28 December 1972: “I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them.” Sort of the same thing, I know, but then I got another email from someone who wrote, “Pauline was a good friend, and was the farthest thing from a smug, unself-aware adherent of dumb liberal cant as you could imagine . . . She undoubtedly viewed Nixon as a sick puppy. But she was no insular, snobbish Margaret Dumont.” I take his assessment at face value, and will henceforth strike “Pauline Kael Syndrome” from my rhetorical arsenal.

Freshman should consider contacting Professor Pitney about joining his freshman Honors Introduction to American Politics. (I took it two years ago.) The class is a bit trivia-ladden, but that's to be expected. Daniel Pawson CMC '03 and the fourth most successful Jeopardy contestant ever, credited Pitney and CMC with his win.

Freshmen seeking to improve their writing should also consider applying by emailing Professor Pitney at this address. Good luck to you!