Joel Swanson

Columnist lays down the law with terrible movies

Every so often, you come across a news story so absurd that it just begs to be written about. Last week, I found one. Christopher Nolan, director of the Batman movies “Batman Begins” (2005) and “The D…

Body image problems also affect men

I applaud Tamar Lerer’s piece “Something to Chew On,” published on September 11th. Lerer’s column addresses a subject that has been grossly neglected by the Swarthmore community. Almost no one on camp…

An elegy for chauvinism

There are probably few more loathsome literary archetypes than the lonely, alienated heterosexual male chauvinist who views women not as actual humans with their own desires, but as mere objects on wh…

"Graduate" misrepresentative of Swarthmore's values

Since I’m supposed to be writing a column about film this semester, I figured there was no better place to start than with the movie that is perhaps the closest Swarthmore has to an official work of a…

The changing face of conservatism

One of the truisms which the media tells us that we are supposed to accept about American culture these days is that the country is becoming more religious, and that this will necessarily translate in…

Now an embarrassing time to be an American

There is perhaps no single event which embodies the absurd depth to which America has sunk in the past few years more than President Bush’s response to Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf’s declarati…

Armenian genocide needs recognition

I never thought I’d say this, but I recently found myself wishing that Bush was even more evil than he already is.

Oh, he’s an incompassionate dickwad to be sure. Anyone who is willing to spend hund…

Depression not just about numbers

Science has taken us all the way to the moon, but the inner workings of our mind still remain a mystery.

A study released last week in the American Journal of Psychiatry suggests that scientists may h…

Segregation still exists

Sometimes it’s amazing how little progress we’ve made.

Fifty years ago, on September 25, 1957, nine brave African-American students first entered Little Rock Senior High School in Little Rock, Ark…

US meddling literally dictates backfire in support overseas

On the week of September 11, it is worthwhile to reflect upon the lessons of that day and the ways in which they apply to the contemporary geopolitical scene.

And no, I’m not talking about September 1…