Friday, June 27, 2025
Saturday, May 31, 2025
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?
Friday, May 30, 2025
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.
Monday, May 26, 2025
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
Saturday, May 24, 2025
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.