the libertine

the whip sheet of the liberal party

issue four / 10.02.2002

zero	a message from the secretary This week the Yale Political Union is debating whether or not the government should ever intervene in the economy. Ever. While I understand that we can’t all favor a socialist welfare state, I have a hard time imagining that some people believe that Alan Greenspan has a worthless job. But, apparently, Michael Lynch does, and I’m very curious to hear why. You might be, too. At the Yale Symphony Orchestra last night, the amazing solo violinist in a Shostakovich concerto was wearing a dress with a Buffy-the-vampire-slayer lace-up back. Nevertheless, she played brilliantly. –j.s.f.
one	goings on in the liberal party 11.02.2002 / Monday / 05.30 / Lib dinner We eat, as sometimes, under the portrait of G.H.W. Bush in Commons. 13.02.2002 / Wednesday / 07.30 / Lib debate For some reason we are still trapped in the aesthetic horror of the Berkeley common room, but that won’t stop us from debating “Intellectual Property is a Sham” tonight. Do you think that claiming ownership of ideas is unjustifiable? Or do you believe that unique intellectual endeavors must be protected under the law? Join us and discuss. 14.02.2002 / Thursday / 05.30 / Dinner at the new Sandra’s The great soul food restaurant has opened a lovely new location on Whitney Avenue. We’ll meet there for dinner before heading over to tonight’s big debate… 14.02.2002 / Thursday / 07.30 / YPU debate Tonight’s guest is Michael Lynch, the national correspondent for the magazine Reason, which I have never heard of. He will be speaking in favor of the resolution “The Government Has No Place Intervening in the Economy.” Come to listen or to speak. 18.02.2002 / Monday / 05.30 / JBB Dinner with Anthony Kronman I thought that I’d announce this a week early to build up excitement. Our first Jonathan Brewster Bingham dinner of the semester will feature Anthony Kronman, the dean of Yale Law School. Save the date.
two	a lecture by strobe talbott You might be interested in attending the talk by Strobe Talbott at Saint Anthony Hall on the topic “Yale, America and the World After September 11.” The talk is tomorrow at 4 p.m.—and it will finish just in time for you to join us at Lib dinner across the street. Here is some information from the organizer: “Mr. Talbott is the former Deputy Secretary of State, not to mention the current director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. Come this fall, he will re-locate to Washington, D.C. to head the Brookings Institution, one of the oldest public policy research groups in the country. He is a 1968 graduate of Yale College [note: he was in Silliman! –j.s.f.] and former trustee of the University.”
three	artist of the left: marjetica potrč, installation artist and photographer Two years ago the Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrč was an unknown. But in 2000, at the age of 48, she broke through when she won the third Hugo Boss Prize (previously won by Yalie Matthew Barney, a hero of mine for more than one reason) and had a solo show at the Guggenheim. Her works focus on the contemporary city and the role of the individual in its construction. Through photographs juxtaposed with verbal social commentary and through full-scale constructions of shanties, favelas and other lower-class housing that, to quote Kim Levin, “give minimalism and an anthropological edge,” Potrč celebrates the ways in which disenfranchised communities reject government planning and architectural imposition. While disdain for government control of low-income housing might not sound like a very leftist notion, Potrč advocates something even further left: determination of urban space by an empowered populace itself. Her expressions of “individual initiatives,” as she calls them, comment on the beauty gained when populations—be it lower-class squatter collectives, middle-class kibbutzes, or upper-class gated communities—reject corporate and corporate-governmental control of their living arrangements. Next to one photograph of a shantytown, she writes, “I think they are beautiful. Growing without any control or planning, they seem to mirror the rampant growth and high ideals of non-governmental organizations. NGOs are praised today. Shantytowns should be too. They point you in the same direction. You lose sight of your dream, you die.” You can see her work at www.potrc.org.
four	a final thought Personally, I don’t see the to-do over same-sex benefits. I mean, I haven’t had any problems and I’ve been the same sex all my life. —from Royal Canadian Air Farce