In this edition:
1)    Weekly welcome rant
2)    Upcoming events:
           Lib dinner:  today at 5:30, Commons
           YPU debate:  "Resolved: Anti-Smoking Laws Ought to be Repealed."  Tuesday at 7:30, LC 102
            Lib discussion:  "Is the family behind the times?"  Wednesday at 7:30, room tba
3)     Announcements:
            Women's Political Forum tea:  Friday at 4, Koffee Too?
            Students Against Hunger conference:  Oct. 31-Nov. 2, Hartford
4)      Links and Quotations
5)      Fun and Games

1)  Dearest Libs,
It saddens me to tell you that in just this last week, I have become everything pretentious that I abhor: I have dropped names of people I know and books I have not read. I have badmouthed TAs for simplifying concepts and impeding a proper appreciation of the subject. I have abstained from the loud inanity of television. I have used the word inanity. (See above.)
And, most damningly, I have begun to number the elements of this whipsheet.

The shame of such pretension is too great!  I must transfer to Harvard, where I may dwell with my own kind!

Sincerest apologies,
Elizabeth Anne Williams IV

2)  Upcoming events:
Lib Dinner
Tonight at 5:30, Commons.
Join us under the portrait of George H.W. Bush as we decide whether he's holding an umbrella or a billy club.

YPU Debate with Jacob Sullum:  "Resolved: Anti-Smoking Laws Ought to be Repealed."
Tuesday at 7:30, LC 102
So you've been racking your brains for the last few weeks, thinking, "There HAS to be a way to get lung cancer without the expense of buying cigarettes.  But what IS it?"  This debate is for you!  (Contact lindsay.bliss@yale.edu to speak in the affirmative.)  Or, perhaps you've been pondering, "How responsible are we for harm we do to society?  How can the legal system hold people accountable for the externalities of their actions?"  If I have just ripped your thoughts out of your brain and put them into electronic form, then email  aaron.margolis@yale.edu to speak in the negative (hopefully with further development of your cogitations).

Lib Discussion:  "Is the family behind the times?"
Wednesday at 7:30, location tba
"Family values."  What do we want politicians to do:  talk in very serious tones about morals (Lieberman), redefine the loaded term (Gore), or deny that "family values" are good in themselves and therefore refuse to respect them (Clinton???)?  What kind of family is it in which parents only exist to buy us new clothes and treat us to dinner on Parents' Weekend?  If Head Start has better results the more integrated it is into children's lives, then should the government take over raising children (or a particular subset of children)?  Does the decline in family size decrease social capital?  Are our families too geographically dispersed for us to ever raise kids who are rooted to one community?  Are instincts for family only vestigial  reminders of a time where strong family clans were necessary for survival?  Discuss.
Bonus discussion: "Is the Family behind the Times? Mafia influence on the New York press"

3)  Announcements:
Women's Political Forum Tea Friday at 4, Koffee Too?
In addition to planning some upcoming events and activities, we will be discussing the Democratic Presidential candidates - Whom should Democrats vote for? Who can beat Bush?  Whom do Republicans want to win the primary?  Should Clark be in the race?  Come ready to talk! Please email tiffany.clay@yale.edu if you would like to receive all of the WPF announcements.

16th Annual Conference on Hunger & Homelessness
October 31 - November 2, 2003 at Trinity College, Hartford, CT
Through workshops, discussion groups, panels, a hunger banquet, and an opportunities and action fair, learn current facts and what you can do for change.  Visit http://www.studentsagainsthunger.org/conference/ for more information and to register.

4)  Links and quotation(s):
http://reason.com/Bio/sullum.shtml  Bio of Jacob Sullum
http://www.reason.com/sullum/092603.shtml  "FDA regulation of tobacco could be deadly"
http://www.heartland.org/archives/suites/tobacco/defense.htm  The Smoker's Lounge
http://www.reason.com/sullum/051603.shtml  Secondhand smoke?  Bah!

http://georgia.forces.org/georgia/national/gored.htm  Family values and governmental enforcement
"A recent Internet porn conference in New Orleans began with a session entitled 'Vote Democratic!'"
from http://www.protectkids.com/donnaricehughes/article_onfamilyvalues.htm
http://www.epinions.com/book-review-69A0-8BBE9CA-39DD437B-prod1 "We need some good old family values"  http://www.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/01/tv.content/index.html  The TV "family hour"
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/ <http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?sourceid=00001199498828075562&ISBN=0805068937&bfdate=10-13-2003+01:47:34>  Joined at the Heart by Al and Tipper Gore

"Children are shaped not by parents but by genes, culture, and chance." --Steven Pinker

5)  Fun and Games:
http://fargo.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/~jjl248/jj_midterm.html  Surprisingly fun midterm review game, even if you don't read Taiwanese
http://www.lunchisfun.com/cgi-bin/lunch/021021  "Lunch is FUN!"
http://test3.thespark.com/deathtest/  Think your midterm will kill you?  Find out with this death test!
http://makeashorterlink.com/?D29952536 The Missouri Review rejects Bush!
At Lib dinner on Monday, some of us were discussing Nobel Prizes in Literature and Peace. Perhaps our President, despairing his hopes of ever getting a Peace Prize, has turned his hand to poetry...

http://www.polishnews.com/polonica/diduknow17.shtml Mundane Polish Trivia