Author Archives: Roger Low

There’s a certain cheesiness inherent in a last YDN column. I don’t really see a way of avoiding it, so I’ve decided to embrace it with open arms. Consider yourselves appropriately warned, and let the cheese fly. There are, of course, some ways in which Yale has changed in the four years I’ve been here. »

A Republican president wins an incredibly divisive election, despite failing to win a majority of the popular vote. He enters office with a serious legitimacy problem. He is constantly criticized for his perceived lack of intelligence, with major New York newspapers commenting on his “small intellect” and his political opponents harping on his poor grammar »

Over spring break, with a senior essay deadline looming, I bit the bullet and did the only thing I responsibly could. I watched TV. In fairness, it was research — sort of. I reasoned, as I downloaded seven episodes from this season of “24” and watched them back to back, that I was doing important »

Comedian Lewis Black, who came to Yale a few weeks ago, has this to say about our annual celebration of Christmas: “You Christians have created a holiday that has become a beast that cannot be fed. Every year Christmas gets longer and longer and longer, and you don’t care. … How long does it take »

I somehow doubt that any of Yale’s pro-lifers, surely an endangered species at this university, were convinced to change their minds by Yale’s celebration of “Roe v. Wade Week.” The commemoration of the 34th anniversary of Roe last week (which apparently featured a workshop on manual vacuum aspiration, to Sean Hannity’s delight) was nevertheless an »

On its cover, “The Audacity of Hope” doesn’t seem remarkably different from any of the other dozens of campaign biographies penned (which is to say, ghost-written) by past presidential hopefuls. It features Barack Obama’s grinning mug, his pearly-white teeth gleaming alongside his vaguely hokey-sounding catchphrase-turned-title. Many Yalies, noting its striking surface resemblance to George W. »

The Yale administration has got to make its facilities easier for undergraduate student organizations to use. Let’s start with some good news: We live on one of the most beautiful campuses in North America. And give the administration credit for fostering that aesthetic. I can’t manage to keep my bedroom neat. It’s no small feat »

What a difference two years make. Liberal Yalies woke up on Wednesday morning after Election Day in 2004 and went about their schedules in eerie silence, stunned at the losses from the previous evening. The scattered crowing conservatives wore Bush-Cheney stickers to class and talked buoyantly about a new era of Republican domination. I have »

I’ve always had a soft spot for Congressman Mark Foley. You see, when I was a House page in high school in the summer of 2002, Congressman Foley was the only representative who would speak to me. You know the tiny droids on wheels in “Star Wars” that scurry away whenever Darth Vader strides by? »

If you want to understand the difference between Democrats and Republicans, consider carefully the sad tales of two moderates. Both moderates are U.S. senators, from different parties. Both have undergone brutal primary challenges. Both are deeply unpopular with their party’s base. Both risk defeat this coming November. With that said, the similarities end. On one »

The Class of 2010 has swept onto campus, their boxes, bags and anxious parents in tow. If history is any judge, they will bring to Yale a flurry of long-distance relationships, a sudden spawning of disoriented “freshman swarms” drifting through courtyards in search of dining halls and dorm parties and a healthy dose of political »

Maybe it’s egotistical, but I can’t help but feel that Josh Eidelson’s last two News columns have been aimed more or less directly at me (“Party divisions are key to progress,” 4/4; “Dems lose out in courting McCain,” 3/21). Earlier this semester, a skeptical Eidelson patiently listened to me gush like a giddy schoolgirl about »