Defending Traditional Sidewalks

There's a really cute bit of activism going on at Princeton in which advocates for "Princeton Prop 8" say that they love freshmen, they really do, but they should not be allowed to use the sidewalks. Sidewalks are for traditional use, not for some redefined non-traditional sidewalk values users.

From the comments on YouTube:
-"To be fair, freshman have the right of walking on the sidewalk. They just have to chose be sophomores."
-"There's just one little hole in this whole metaphor. Freshman turn into Sophomores after 1 year. Gay people don't turn into straight people over time."
-"You couldn't be more right. Freshmen knew what they were getting into when the made the choice of Princeton. They could have attended anywhere. They chose Princeton so TO THE GRASS WITH THEM."

(Via - Andrew Sullivan)

Orangina And A Brick Wall

How to fake an attack:

December 19, 2007 -- This Ivy Leaguer did a bang-up job giving himself a beating.

Francisco Nava, the Princeton junior who said he was attacked because of his conservative political leanings, only to confess that the wounds were self-inflicted, has revealed exactly how he gave himself a concussion, swollen jaw and cuts all over his face.

"He said he dragged his face across a brick wall to give himself the abrasions," Sherif Girgis, a Princeton senior who helped care for Nava after the attack, said yesterday. "He hit himself with an Orangina bottle several times," which caused the concussion.

He hit himself with the bottle so hard it broke, Girgis said. Nava also bashed his head against the brick wall.

"It's remarkable to me that someone can cause those kinds of face injuries to himself," said Nava's professor and confidant, Robert P. George. "One's natural instinct is to protect one's face above all. It seems one would have to have pretty grave psychological issues to do that.

"He seemed to be a kid who had it all together. It's so sad to see a Princeton career destroyed like this."

Princeton Student Faked Own Attack

Last week Francisco Nava, a conservative and anti-gay Princeton student, told police and campus officials that he'd been roughed up by "men in black ski masks" and received hate mail after writing a column in the student newspaper criticizing the school for giving out free condoms. Other members of Princeton's Anscombe Society, a conservative student organization, who have spoken out against premarital sex and same-sex marriage, said they received similar threats.

Turns out, Nava's injuries were self-inflicted and he was sending the threatening emails himself.

Mount Laurel, New Jersey) A Princeton University student who argued that his conservative views were not accepted on the campus confessed to fabricating an assault and sending threatening e-mail messages to himself and some friends who shared his views, authorities say.

Princeton Township police said that Francisco Nava was not immediately charged with any crime, but that the investigation was continuing.

Nava claimed to have been assaulted Friday by two men off campus, police said. But he later confessed that scrapes and scratches on his face were self-inflicted, and that the threats were his work, too, said Detective Sgt. Ernie Silagyi.

A spokeswoman for the Ivy League university said punishment, which could range from a warning to expulsion, was pending Monday.

"The university takes all matters related to the safety of its community members very seriously," said spokeswoman Lauren Robinson-Brown. "It's particularly concerning that a student would fabricate such matters."

Nava was turned in by his own friends after they noted inconsistencies in his stories. Another likely closet case, beating himself up about it. Literally.
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