In his generally inane comments on political affairs at Harvard, Joshua L. Oppenheimer '96, co-founder of the Association for the Absence of Rabid Moralism (AFARM), made one correct observation when he compared ideological struggle at Harvard to warfare.

While the dorm rooms of Peninsula Council members have yet to be overrun by angry liberal forces, the battle analogy is apt.

And in this protracted conflict, both sides make their best efforts to stay out of the opposite group's line of fire. Conservatives and liberals, as they write in campus journals and speak out at public events, try to make themselves as invulnerable to attack as possible. In short, they try not to look stupid.

But whit the creation of AFARM, Harvard liberals have traded in jungle camouflage for shocking pink jumpsuits. They have jumped right out of the over of jungle foliage--and right into the sights of my gun.

So can you blame me for declaring open hunting season on them? (A note to my liberal friends: please do not interpret this usage of the language of warfare as a physical attack on liberals, call me Himmler or Goering, etc. This is all rhetorical.)

This editorial is a brief meditation on the stupidity of AFARM.

To start with, whether AFARM should even exist is dubious. It responds to the legitimate concerns of AALARM, the Association Against Learning in the Absence of Religion and Morality, not with open and smart discussion but with lame posters and infantile humor.

Here are some choice slogans: "Old MacDonald has AFARM" and "There is no cause for AALARM."

Ha ha. I am on the floor writhing in fits of uncontrollable laughter.

Some of the strongest arguments against AFARM can be found in a series of quotations by Oppenheimer himself.

When asked about his position in AFARM, Oppenheimer said: "I don't remember what I am. I think that is my position."

When asked about whether they engage in debate--the very model of rational and intelligent discourse: "I don't think we do debates."

In their continuing (and futile) effort to be irreverent and vaguely humorous, the members of AFARM took the names of their "leadership" positions from the Marquis de Sade's novel 120 Years of Sodom. (How trendy, how sophisticated, how culturally elite!)

This poor attempt at whimsy is not only not funny, but highly offensive. To borrow these terms from the Marquis de Sade is to ignore his extensive legacy of physical and sexual abuse against numerous innocent women.

It also means ignoring the Marquis's deviant sexual practices and immoral conduct, but I won't mention that because Harvard students couldn't care less.