Some Thoughts on College Admission

 Back in 1960, MIT admissions required an application, mostly your address and school, a school record, and SAT scores. No essay, no list of parent funded research at some exotic location, no letter of recommendation from Nobel Prize winners, no pictures of the erstwhile student feeding starving children in some war torn country. Just grades. Also yearly tuition was $750 as was room and board. One could make that working hard over the summer so no student loans were necessary. One just had to be smart, hard working, and focused.

Thus a large group was from New York City, a lot were Jewish or friends of them. Many came from first class City schools or some quality Catholic High Schools. 

Now such students would have zero chance. The new cadre are either socially deprived, or family funded. Hard working city kids would never even get close. But it was those hardworking city kids that built trillion dollar start ups! 

We managed to get through the Vietnam War days with little disruption, although I got to know the Rosa Luxemburg SDS folks, mostly wandering down from Harvard.

The new Administrations have become social brewing pots, collecting the strangest group of social justice warriors possible. The Administration has ballooned into a social justice warrior enclave, a self perpetuating mass of hangers on who are over paid and under educated. 

What will happen to this institution? 

The Idiocy of Commencement Speakers

 I received my doctoral degrees in 1971. It was still amidst the Vietnam War and a year after the massacre at Kent State. The President of MIT, Prof Howard Johnson, just congratulated the graduates, no outside speakers, and no class Presidents. Just get the degree, show the family and friends and then get lunch! Commencement was a day for the graduates. The last thing we needed was some artificial pompous person pontificating on what we should be doing. Just get a job, avoid getting drafted, and become productive. Yet there we no jobs, Nixon had crashed the economy, the War continued, and getting productive was seeking out opportunities at McDonald's!

Come 2025 at MIT we see some Internet comedian giving advice to students who all seem clueless about the reality of life. That was followed by some political radical bemoaning her fate while apparently dissing many students who were too clueless to understand. 

Do Universities have problems? If one examines Commencements then one sees that they sure do. 

As for foreign students it is worth examining the MIT records. 

Remembering the Lost at the Battle of Surigao Straits

The following men were lost on my father's ship, DD-649, The Albert W Grant in the battle of Surigao Strait, most by friendly fire from the Light Cruiser Denver.

  Last Name                     First Name                        Position
Alexander                        Theodore Leroy           MM
Asmore                            Floyd Vernon               MM
Brannan                           Robert Joseph              EM
Cahiea                              William R.                   F
Cairns                              Clyde A.                       MM
Carlson                            Wallace K.                   CPO RM
Carson                              Clyde                            Ensign, Torpedo
Cheek                               Daniel Smith                S
Couette                            Armand N.                   TM
Cunningham                    Edwin James                MM
Davis                                Wilson Howard            CPO EM
Ellis                                  Milford                         CPO WT
Kuebker                           Kenton W.                    Bkr
Kusheloff                         Joseph Myer                 RM
Lee                                   William Danual           S
Luketic                             Anthony Rudolph        F
Markham                         Walter                          MM
Martin                              Joseph Eugene             PhM
Mathias                            Eugene                         RM
Mathieu                            Charles Akin                Lt jg Medical
McElroy                           Warren M.                    CPO MM
McGee                             James Carey                 S
McInturff                         Thomas Samuel           S
Messer                             James Henry                S
Noel                                 Claudius                       RM
Pack                                 Arless A.                      F
Rathburn                          Frederick H.                 TM
Roberts                            Earl Franklin                MM
Rothe                               Donald Terrance          F
Sarver                              Milton Dwight             S
Selleck                             William Marrtin           RM 1C
Springer                           Fred W.                        WT
Stephenson                      James Winfred             MM
Surprenant                       Donal Rosaric              CPO WT
Ward                                Francis Irvin                 CPO MM 

Weber                                                                   MM

An Observation

 In New Jersey there is a collapsed Interstate, I80.Going on a year of being closed. The reason is a set of mines under the highway which collapsed leaving "sink holes". Now if one looks at a map. they had such a few years back when the state decided to build, the Interstate went thru a town called Mine Hill! A hine perhaps that there would be trouble. But alas it was NJ's best employees who apparently did not get the hint. You see New Jersey in the early 1800s was the biggest mining state around. Duh!

BTW the Interstate is still closed. Perhaps the new Governor will take some action but do not hold your breath folks. 

BTW the NY Times finally caught on. How about the Gov!

A Great Bio on Gilson

The book by Michel, a biography of Etienne Gilson is well worth the read. Gilson was a Thomist scholar as well as a classic French intellectual. At a time when France welcomed Sartre, Gilson also played a significant role in the rejuvenation of Thomistic thought. I had studied Thomas Aquinas in college, as did most Catholic students in my day, late 50s to early 60s, before the Vatican II renovation of Catholicism. One must understand the structure of intellectual thought in this period. It was structured and had certain underlying logical assumptions that were open to later critiques. Gilson addressed these issues for the modern reader.

This is an exceptionally readable biography of Gilson, from his youth until his final days. It discusses his interactions with other French intellectuals, his move to Toronto, and his position as a 20th century Thomas alongside Maritan. I would strongly recommend this work to anyone interested in Gilson and this period. Regrettably I am not a Thomist but bent more towards Ockham. Where Aquinas integrated Aristotle into the theology and philosophy he presented, it was Ockham who made a break in many ways to what we see today. Aquinas became a saint and Ockham was excommunicated, albeit by a heretical pope.

Understanding Thomism is facilitated by Gilson more than Maritain in my opinion. Thus understanding the man and his life is a sine qua non to understand the Church and its beliefs. One should remember that Leo XIII, the image of who the current Bishop or Rome uses, made Thomistic thought the sole path for Catholic learning. Gilson's views may be a path to understanding that nexus.

Are you out of your mind!

 The Guardian notes that Leo XIV announces that Leo "opens the doors" for Ukraine and Russia can negotiate at the Vatican. Someone must have forgotten about history. The Guardian notes:

Pope Leo confirmed to Giorgia Meloni his willingness to host in the Vatican the next round of negotiations to try to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Italian prime minister said on Tuesday. “Finding in the Holy Father confirmation of the readiness to host the next talks between the parties in the Vatican, the prime minister expressed deep gratitude to Pope Leo XIV for his unceasing commitment to peace,” said a statement from Meloni. Leo, elected two weeks ago, said on 14 May that the Vatican could act as a mediator in global conflicts, without specifically mentioning Russia’s war against Ukraine.

 Now the Russian Patriarch in Moscow has unbroken lineage from the earlier Patriarchs in history. Unlike the Patriarch, the Bishop of Rome, AKA the Pope, has a massively disrupted lineage. There have been multiple Popes, Anti Popes, heretical popes, and of course the Borgias! Hardly the most sanctified lineage. For example John XII, an Avignon Bishop of Rome, never having set a foot in Rome, was declared a heretic! One of many. The list of issues is endless.

Thus to consider Putin, relying on the support of the Patriarch in Moscow, to entertain the kindness of Leo seems ate first glance to be a dunderheaded step by one oblivious of history. It would be akin of some grand Mullah to agree to negotiate under the auspices of the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem!

This was dead from the get go. But more importantly it shows how little the West even tries to understand Russia. It shows further that such lack of understanding leads to hostility.