The New York Times has reported that the Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Ogletree, Frederick Marquand Professor Emeritus of Theological and Social Ethics and former dean of the Yale Divinity School, has been condemned by the United Methodist Church for officiating his son’s same-sex wedding.

The United Methodist Church does not allow its clergy to perform same-sex weddings, and so, the 79 year old reverend is now facing a possible canonical trial for his action, accused by several New York United Methodist ministers of violating church rules.

Ogletree, who performed the wedding service for his son, Thomas Rimbey Ogletree, JE ’03, and Nicholas Haddad on Sat., Oct. 20, 2012 at a ceremony at the Yale Club in New York City, is being charged with violating the Methodist Church’s governing book, the Book of Discipline, which rules that  “the practice of homosexuality” is “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Based on past rulings, it is possible that Ogletree could be stripped of his credentials, if brought to trial.

The New Haven Register has reported that the Yale Divinity School is standing behind its retired  dean, and that current Divinity School dean, Gregory E. Sterling, expressed his support for his predecessor in a statement.

In a recent op-ed in The Washington Post (that you should all read) entitled: “Why I disobeyed the United Methodist Church’s unjust teaching on same-sex marriage,” Ogeltree outlined his reasons for administering the ceremony. A veteran of the civil rights movement, Ogeltree was once an active participant in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. He states that this experience has illuminated his response to what he considers to be “unjust disciplinary rules in the United Methodist Church, especially rules that denied my right to officiate at my own son’s wedding.”

You could call Yale Law students a lot of things, but until today, who would have thought that “self promotional” wasn’t one of them. Last month, Business Insider released a list of what it considers to be the “most impressive” undergraduate students at both Yale and Harvard Universities, and seemingly planned to do the same with Harvard and Yale Law Schools until Yale Law students denied this self promotional opportunity.  Editors at BI were surprised at this rejection, saying: “little did we know that this kind of ‘resume porn’ would prove so offensive to students at America’s best Law School.” There actually wasn’t one student who obliged, as most of the lucky few cited  YLS’s spirit of noncompetitive collaboration as the reason for their rejection.

Considering the prominence of and obsession over undergraduate “resume porn”,  who even knew non-participation was even an option? As an anonymous Facebook user put it: “Wish this had been the case for Yale College too. Kudos to Yale Law!”

The Bullblog is on Facebook: Like us to KIT over the summer!

Near the end of last year, while I was in the process of looking for something to Bullblog, I came across a list of the top ten most read stories on Yale News, the official news website for all of the University’s happenings (it’s not the YDN). Given all that happens here over a year’s time, the number one story might come as somewhat of a surprise: Yale scientists explain how ketamine vanquishes depression within hours.

But wait, no fucking duh this was the most read article. It’s like if they had penned an article entitled “Yale scientists prove direct correlation between cocaine and feeling awesome” or “Yale researchers prove direct relationship between drinking dish soap and having really incredible conversations” or “Yale geniuses illustrate causal relationship between whale’s semen and language cognition.” If Yale proves that something that was once considered to be unhelpful is now somehow very helpful, then of course it’ll be number one . Not surprisingly then, the article attracted over 14,000 readers.

My 7th grade health teacher once put Ketamine into a special category of drugs he called “designer drugs.” Streetnamed “Special K”, “Kit kat”, and “Cat valium”, with its designer status and funny nicknames,  I think most would still say that it is somewhat obscure—a designer, sure,  but an obscure designer your friends haven’t heard of so they aren’t jealous of your new coat. Think of this study as an attempt to rebrand ketamine—Ketamine: it’s healthy now.

Ketamine addicts must feel really pumped about this. The article can at least attribute some of its clicks to being circulated around their panlists as a source of solace, with subject lines: “fuck the haters!” and “excuse to deepen the k-hole.” Everyone who was thinking about quitting has changed their minds and is pumped about it now.

But read the article, the research seems promising.

On behalf of the students of Yale College, the Bullblog would like to apologize for your recent acceptance to the Yale Class of 2017 wait list.

There is no real reason why our college wait listed 1,001 of you. As far as anyone can tell, the University generally knows what its yield rate (percentage of students who accept an offer of admission) will be but they under admit by about 100 students to stay safe and not overbooked while holding down their admissions rate at the same time. For instance, last year, Yale accepted an abysmally low 7 percent (70 students) of its unfathomably high 1,001 wait listed applicants, while it had its lowest admit rate in the school’s history.

But if they know they’re going to need to fill so few spots, why do they need such a large pool to choose their 70 from? The Admissions Office has to figure that a student who is offered a place on the wait list might reject her spot, or if she accepts her spot and is eventually admitted, she might deny the offer, which would explain the jacked-up number left waiting. But this is Yale, so if students are accepting their spots on the wait list in the first place, logically, they would drop their previous plans to enthusiastically attend. So it is still unclear why the Admissions Office needs to keep a potential 1,001 students on-tap in college admissions purgatory. This number is so large that Yale could almost fill an entire class of 1,300 students with its wait list alone.

They probably just want options, which is why this process is so shitty.

Again: this sucks. We’re sorry. Yale can be an asshole.

Still have nothing to do this summer? Waiting for the right opportunity to come along? The Bullblog’s got you covered! Over the next few weeks, we will feature some really awesome underpublicized  summer opportunities that can potentially make the summer of a lifetime! 

This week: Pornhub.

Close your eyes  and imagine a summer internship that’s more fun than college, that’s equal parts “hard work” and “hard play”, and that gives you the opportunity to contribute to the operation of one of the internet’s most popular sites. Luckily for you, Pornhub.com is officially on the hunt for an enthusiastic new intern! (Seems too good to be true? Here’s the link.)

For those of you who are in class or the library and feel uncomfy clicking for more info, allow me to share some facts with you. Pornhub is a video-sharing website based in Montreal (I know you’ve always wanted to see Quebec) that’s always free! (so consider your work a public service!) that is about as popular as websites get  (just think, next stop Google!), and is always awesome (all of your friends are gonna think you’re the coolest!)

If the opportunities to travel and to be a good samaritan aren’t reasons enough for you to apply, maybe this internship isn’t right for you afterall. As the application states, they are looking to groom “one dedicated student from a workplace virgin into an experienced professional.”  If you aren’t ready to mature and grow over the summer then I think your Residential College Dean would just advise you to stay home.

Here are some of the skills they expect from their applicants. Arrange your resumes accordingly:

Jake Davidson loves bad bitches, that’s his fucking problem. Too bad none of them go to his Los Angeles Jewish private highschool. So who was he going to take to prom?

Moleskin has released a new special white edition of its iconic all-paper notebooks. Its design is so sleek, it’s as if it doesn’t even exist or something! I think it looks so simple and pure, and with it, your thoughts will be too! According to Gizmondo, the notebooks come in two sizes – large or “lit theory section sized” and pocket or “musings on everyday life sized”. According to Selectism, they’re now available online and will available in stores in July.

I don’t think it’s necessary to say how big of a deal this is. It’s is like when the white iPhone came out, or when Mac stopped making colored iMacs, or like the time when Mac made a black Macbook, or like the time when Mac came out with the Macbook Air. I’m so pumped. I’m gonna buy white notebooks for all of my classes. Sorry: I’m gonna buy white *Moleskins* for all of my *seminars*.

Move over  Morse,  Yale’s finest MC is officially Da’ Legend. His latest music video for his track, “Anything Goes Down” is honestly, one of the best things I’ve seen this month. Despite the weather outside, everyone just seems to be having the absolute best time of their lives. The included images (via youtube.com) are truly inspiring.

Look what I can do!

Alpha Delta Phi

Let’s get weird

Animal cruelty

Reps on reps on reps

Backup

The mean streets of New Haven

Study break!

Then I took a trip to Greece!

sswerve

My mother used to always tell me that it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. And she’s right: when people say “I love you” or “have a nice day”, more is expressed through the way they say it than anything else. When people say “literally”, they might mean to describe something “literally”, they might not mean to describe something “literally”, and they might, if said in the right tone, be referring to a “litter alley.” Like when she said “I literally died.” Did she?

Like she said, what is meant relies on how it’s said.  So, to honor my mom (every day is Mother’s Day!), allow me to try to better understand the most common conversation on campus at the moment—a perfunctory conversation about midterms.

Person 1: How are you?

Person 2: Ugh— Midterm.

So, here you might have thought: “Easy! That person is obviously talking about an exam.” Sorry, but you’re wrong. It’s obvious to me at least that Person 2 is actually talking about pregnancy—specifically, the middle of pregnancy. Like, the child inside of her is midway through his/her  in utero development. The use of the singular “midterm” and not “midterms” is an obvious reference to the singularity of this event and not a singular test (who says “midterm” and not “midterms” anyway?) This becomes even clearer when considering the discomfort inherent at the middle of a term of pregnancy, which is, from what I hear, “ugh” provoking.

Let’s move on to another example:

Person 1: How are you?

Person 2: Midterms, so eh…not so great.

Now you’re probably thinking: “Oh I know! This time it’s so obviously about midterms, like, the tests!” To which I would say, not so fast babe. To me, the referred to “midterms” in this dialogue are not exams, but midterm Congressional elections—the ones that happen two years after any Presidential election. How I know is because most Congressional elections, like more than 75 percent of them, aren’t contested. So when responding “not so great” it’s because the Congressperson involved is referring to the fact that they’ll probably re-win their House seat, and that campaigning or fundraising or whatever is “not so great”.

Here’s a final example:

Person 1: How are you?

Person 2: Midterms. I’m nervous.

So now you’re probably thinking: “I’m not letting this guy trick me again” so you probably think that I’m referring to the mid-term of an expiration of a patent. Well, you over-thought this scenario. Person 2 was actually referring to midterm exams this time, and I think that it’s really obvious. Midterms are something to be nervous about—they’re part of your final grades. To those who didn’t get this right: do you think this whole thing was a series of trick questions? Pay closer attention next time.

So study up on these, and happy midterms!