The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, November 12, 1982 Page: 4 of 16
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THRESHING-IT-OUT
Zorro, the verdict is in:
You are a miserable rat
To the editor:
Zorro's whole argument seems a
little self-defeating to me. First,
SAT scores and IQs are unrelated.
They are designed t hat way. One is
an index of what one can learn
(which is why studying for the SAT
will help); one is an index of what
you have learned (which is why
your IQ -supposedly—remains
constant your whole life.) Seems
like apples and oranges to me.
Second, Zorro is quite cynical
about Dr. Martin's reason (simple
ignorance) for attending Abilene
Christian. He doesn't seem to
notice Dr. Martin's Ph.D. is from
Harvard. Anyway, since Zorro
was so gifted out of high school to
know everything, why the hell
didn't he read the catalogue? The
qualifications of each and every
faculty member are right there.
(Personally, I havtfyet to see a
relation between a teacher's ability
to teach and the school he
attended.) As for rolls—in the
Thresher a couple of years ago Doc
C. said grade inflation was good. It
was happening every where else, so
why not here? He has a Ph.D. from
Harvard. Larry Temkin in
philosophy, conversely, got his BA
from Wisconsin. Not your typical
Ivy Leaguer. On his first test (Phil
101) there were 14 grades of 1- or
higher out of 152 students. The
core curriculum may be a bad
idea—I think it is—but not
because the faculty is weak or
because teachers from "bad"
schools teach rolls.
Finally, with his brilliant rapier
work, Zorro stabs himself.
Quoting (loosely) from his second
letter, he says that a career in
thinking means..."knowing what is
shit and what isn't, and having the
guts to stand up and say so." He
then signs with a pseudonym.
Enough said, he doesn't pass his
own test. Maybe I do? Zorro, the
core curriculum proposal is bad.
Your letters are worse. And your
reasoning is shit. I am saying so.
Jack Tanner
Richardson '84
"Peacenik" puts family
ahead of nuclear arms
To the editor:
I don't know who Mr. Evnon
(see last week's Thresher) is
referring to as a peacenik or what
he means by this term, but I favor
an immediate freeze. I'm a medical
student from Rice with degrees in
biology and religion that wants a
family in the safest world possible.
Pretty radical, huh?
The tacts are these:
1) the United States has always
said we will use nuclear weapons
first if necessary. Read "Nuclear
Weapons and the Atlantic
Alliance" in the spring 1982 edition
of Foreign Affairs or any article on
this subject for verification.
2) Mr. Eynon says the Russians
only attack from positions of
overwhelming strength. If we
unilaterally dismantled every land-
based missile (with well over 1,000
deliverable warheads), and
grounded each of our 348 bombers
and their warheads, we would still
have 38 large nuclear submarines
carrying 4600 warheads each with
Molson
presents the
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the yield of at least three
Hiroshima bombs. Herbert
Scoville, former senior missile
systems analyst of the CIA, states
the above facts, supported
throughout the literature, and
concludes on page 74 of his book
MX, "...they are quite capable of
destroying most military
installations in addition to vast
devastation to Soviet industry and
population."
Former Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara addressed
exactly the argument put forth by
Mr. Eynon in the article "Fear of a
U.S. First Strike Seen As Cause of
U.S. Arms Race" in the April 8,
1982 edition of the Los Angeles
Times:
"To try to destroy the 1000
Minutemen, the Soviets would
have to plan to ground-burst two
nuclear warheads of one megaton
each on each site. That is 2,000
megatons, roughly 160,000 times
the megatonnage of the Hiroshima
bomb. What conditions do you
think our country would be in
when 2,000 one-megaton bombs
ground-burst? The idea that, in
such a situation, we would sit here
and say, "Well, we don't want to
launch against then because they
might come back and hurt us," is
inconceivable! And the idea that
the Soviets are today sitting in
Moscow and thinking, "We've got
the U.S. over a barrel because
we're capable of putting 2,000
megatons of ground-burst on them
and in such a situation we know
they will be scared to death and
fearful of retaliation: therefore we
are free to conduct political
blackmail," is too incredible to
warrant serious debate."
In conclusion, I want Mr.
Eynon's future children to have a
chance at life. I don't care if one is
conservative fiscally, morally or
religiously—the facts are clear.
The money going to further
nuclear weapons' procurement is a
waste and an abomination. For
more info see The Fate of the Earth
by Robert Schell (now in
paperback) or come to the convo-
cation at Rice Friday night and the
workshops Saturday morning, the
details of which are in last week's
Thresher under Notes and Notices.
Guy Gullion
Baker '82
Letters to the editor must be
submitted to the Thresher offices
prior to 5 p. m. Monday, if it hopes
to have any chance for publication
in that Friday's edition. Letters
should be fewer than 500 words in
(ength, and the Thresher reserves
the right to edit all submissions.
Anonymous submissions Wift not
be .accepted on the letters page.
See our fine selection
of Swedish clogs.
BLVD
HOUSTON, TEXAS 77005
522-1389
The Rice Thresher, November 12, 1982, page 4
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Morgan, Tom. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, November 12, 1982, newspaper, November 12, 1982; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245515/m1/4/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.