Western Washington Unraveled

Phase: ______ (fill in the blank)

2006-06-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

Since I am no longer a student, per se, at Western (so near graduation that is), the future of this blog indefinitely called into question. I should take this opportunity at the end of this school year to thank everyone who contributed over the two years we have written our thoughts on this spot. I hope it was a worthwhile read at some point for you at least. I can't make any promises regarding any future action for now, but check back later if you want to find out.

Cheers!

Campus election irony

2006-05-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

This year's head-shaker was the contest for the Vice President for Diversity position on the Associated Student Board of Directors--what was originally an uncontested race for Marcella Tomlin became a three-way contest with Chiho Lai, president of the Western Democrats and student senate chair, and our beloved David Zhang, guitarist, vandal and suppressor of free, diverse speech. Tomlin won the election with 41 percent.

Chiho joined the race apparently for the same reason's he expressed in his op-ed article to The Western Front during "White Privilege Awareness Week." In that article he took issue with the contention that Western is a racist school and ended up sounding almost conservative along side his leftist colleagues. Read about that article here.

I shouldn't be surprised at Chiho's loss, though realistically, he should have been the favorite. He made his frustration with myopic multicultural standards his primary campaign platform. As he put it in a position statement on Facebook.com:

Diversity includes not just minorities but also students who are traditionally considered part of the 'majority' as well. Diversity exists in all people, regardless of skin color, and no one person is more diverse than another.

On Zhang...

While I'm sure he meant well, I think he should know better than to expect much support after his disturbing attack on pro-lifers in red square. However, I should know better than to think he wouldn't get support anyway. He ended up garnering 217 votes--half as many as Chiho gathered, but still WAY more than he should have gotten. I wish Ms. Tomlin luck in her new job--whatever it is.

The vandal's apology

2006-05-11T01:06:00.000-07:00

I should have done a separate post on what happened in Red Square last week Wednesday. It seems that the perpetrator has had a change of heart regarding his actions.

David Zhang, the Fairhaven student who destroyed pro-life signs in red square last week issued an apology to the protesters on his blog:

Although i may disagree with the way certain pro-life advocates choose to get their point across, they have a right to express themselves however they wish. that is their right guaranteed to them by the first amendment, and i respect that.

my actions damaging their signs were wrong and violated their right to free speech. i realize that the way i chose to express my anger was inappropriate and inexcusable. I am truly sorry for any harm that i may have done, and i sincerely ask for their forgiveness.

The previous post is Zhang's own (somewhat dramatized) account of his actions and resulting arrest. It looks like some of the pro-lifers have been commenting and also one comment from the person who took the photo that was published in The Western Front, Andrew St. Hilare. A good read.

Zhang is a somewhat well known figure. Most know him as the perpetually barefooted guitarist who can be found either playing in Red Square at mid-day or "open mic" night at the Underground Coffeehouse.

The great American cop-out

2006-05-10T17:05:00.000-07:00

I never thought Western's campus would be big enough to house students who believe the First Amendment is null and void--um, to pro-life groups that is. See this coverage in The Western Front regarding one "offended" student's attempt to ravage the constitution:

In response to the anti-abortion display Tuesday and Wednesday in Red Square, Western senior Cara Pierson started a petition to ban hate speech from campus.

She said the photos of aborted fetuses, lynchings and Holocaust victims bullied and offended women who had abortions or considered having abortions.

For background on the displays and the fallout last week, see this article on the event and this one about the vandalism that ensued from one intolerant youth turned criminal.

Kudos to The Western Front for condemning the petition in this issue's editorial. Honestly, I can't imagine any newspaper coming down on the wrong side of this issue, but I'm sure it's possible.

If this amendment becomes campus policy, it would infringe on every student’s right to free speech.

Western should not ban any display — no matter how unattractive or offensive it may be — unless the display is breaking the law or purposefully inciting violence.

But even some self-described pro-lifers seem to have the makings of this tendency to censor. Censorship is usually motivated by one implicit goal: to squelch debate with hurried value judgments. Even if they aren't out signing petitions to censor, many people have been pointing fingers at the displays themselves instead of being willing to debate the issues. So while I don't know if such graphic displays are the most effective means of starting debate, I try not to distance myself from them because of my visceral discomfort.

Mark Iozzi, candidate for President of the Associated Student board of directors, seemed to attempt a fence-sitting move with regard to the petition:

“It is a slippery slope — infringing on free speech,” Iozzi said. “It is time to re-evaluate [whether] that the line is drawn in the appropriate place.”

No, it's not a slippery slope in this case--it is a cliff.

Thieves among us - did you hear about this?

2006-05-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

Recent state audits of Western uncovered upwards of $117,000 that had been stolen from the university by a former employee in the cashier office, according the Seattle P-I today.

The former employee, who was not identified in the audit, was fired in August 2005 after the suspected thefts were uncovered, a state audit of the university said.

The Whatcom County prosecutor charged the former cashier with 11 counts of theft last month, university officials said. The school of about 13,000 students has since changed its cash handling procedures, officials said.

Being a former writer for The Western Front, I hope for their sake and the sake of the student body that they are onto this story.

I haven't seen it till now. Why?

Either this information has been squelched for a while now (the charges were filed last month), or it hasn't been covered well by local media, or....maybe I'm just not as good at noticing what's going on--which is somewhat scary because I know I hear and read and know about what's happening more than the average student (who should know about this).

One way or another, we had all better stay tuned.

Will the real liberals stand up

2006-04-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I have now located the link to the Frontline article referenced by Chiho Lai.

Someone had better get a hold of Western Democrat's president Chiho Lai and push him back into line. It's quite clear he has stepped over the magic line that separates politically correct dogma from sanity.

Lai, and fellow Western junior Brandon Adams wrote a cutting critique of the editorial position The Western Front recently took with regard to diversity at Western (part of the White Privilege Awareness celebrations). This naturally also puts Lai at odds with the more extreme AS Review (see previous post).

19.1 percent of Western’s freshmen enrollment consists of students of color, a greater proportion than exists in the state.Whatever the case, we shouldn’t advocate treating individuals differently based on their race. Applicants to Western ought to be judged on their merits, not the color of their skin.

His dissent is refreshing to say the least. While I'm sure he and I share many differences as officers of two opposing political clubs, I can take this as further evidence that the Western environment is a nursery of socialist (not even liberal) thought.

An ironic side note: Professor Emeritus Hogan, of the Political Science department is back this quarter to teach Law and Society. His early sense of fair-mindedness has since worn off, with at least one student dropping the class out of frustration with the biased content. I heartily concur and a few of us had a good time showing him up on Wednesday. The good professor was visibly frustrated that only one student agreed with his (and the book's) perspective on the issue at hand. He out and out told us we were all being inconsistent, and continued to argue with one student until most had walked out. And yes, a recent issue we have discussed was racism and (according to the good professor) the "inherent flaws" of colorblind policies. Better to establish quotas...

Racists all

2006-04-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to see The Western Front embarrass itself a few weeks ago over its hyper-interest in immigration issues--no let me be honest--in its hyper-interest in border insecurity and the promotion thereof.

That's all well and good, but AS Review is the real campus embarrassment. It's almost been a week since their latest piece of idiocy was released on our fine campus. The Review is not only consistently ridiculous in their choice of content, but they insist on embellishing it with boring/haphazard presentation, and poor journalistic standards (oops, did I just imply they have SOME journalism standards?)

You'd be right if you thought, after reading that introduction, that I am reacting to something in particular. But I have yet to decide for sure whether it is just frustration over my momentary lapse in judgment sometime this week, when I picked up the latest edition of the Review, or whether the content was especially repulsive enough for me to physically gag. I hope it was just the former. But don't let me keep you in the dark any longer.

The cover of last Monday's issue (not online yet), is graced by a old picture, dating perhaps (by my best guess) to the 1940s. It is a partial photo of several dozen male *students* (perhaps just graduated, if indeed they are students), posing in front of a giant fireplace, most likely in a hall of some sort. Combed hair, clean shaved faces, and suits and ties...if that wasn't enough to condemn those in the picture, it would be the fact that they are all white--a point subtly alluded to by the bottom caption, which reads: "WHITE PRIVILAGE?" Who are these allegedly privileged young people? Goodness knows. Does it matter? They are obviously rather well to do (why else would someone wear a suit and cut their hair? Photo doesn't provide anything like the information I would prefer under something as "provocative" as this.

The point? Oh...well, it seems the White Student Union is sponsoring "White Privilege Awareness Week this month. Oops...that's the Anti-Racist White Student Union (ARWSU). Goodness, I almost implied they were a racist club! Isn't that amazing: They have to include the explicit "Anti-Racist" tag in their club name in order to avoid sounding racist. I guess I should probably join their group since I am a white anti-racist student. Or would that serve to just deny the fact that I prefer to remain color-blind, as a means to avoiding racism?

Underneath the cover of this issue lie two articles by Kelly Sullivan. One is about the "White Privilege Awareness Week," the other is about how everyone at Western is racist. Think I'm joking?

"I think that every institution in this country is racist, and that includes higher education, and that includes Western Washington University," said David Cahn, co-ordinator of the Social Issues Resource Center…

“Racism exists inside of all the people on campus. We’ve internalized these racist values. Unless we’re really challenging that, we can’t help but perpetuate it,” [said, Becky Renfrow, a member of ARWSU]

The reason?

…the GURs at Western only require two courses in the Comparative, Gender and Multicultural Studies bracket. “That’s basically nothing,” [Ian Morgan said]. “White privilege is in the curriculum, in the GURs that aren’t sufficient [to teach about multiculturalism, and ethnically diverse American experiences.] It’s basically the same at most universities.”

Did you catch that? Don’t teach me what I need to get a job. Teach me the doctrine that will make me an nicer person.

I still want to know who’s in that picture and when it was taken.

A peaceful beating...er, dialogue

2006-04-10T16:49:00.000-07:00

Was the band of three who stood out in Red Square last Wednesday just lucky? Should we have been beaten for promoting violence? Someone in Maine thinks so.

Even when the beating should be the point (hello!), the AP story does little more than issue a press release with a token "balancing quote" at the end.

The attacker, described as a Hispanic teenager, went after one of three white people carrying signs arguing that illegals have no rights, police said.

As the teen fled, the victim dropped to the pavement after being hit with something heavy that the teen had carried, possibly in a sock or a bandanna, said Portland Police Sgt. Robin Gauvin. There were no arrests as of late afternoon.

The victim, identified as Robert Gorman, 23, of Portland, was hauled away in an ambulance minutes before 200 people gathered. He was treated and released from Maine Medical Center.

"When you promote violence, you get violence," said the Rev. Virginia Maria Rincon, one of the organizers. "Our rally is about promoting a peaceful dialogue."

I suppose I should be thankful to the heavy police presence in Red Square for my current state of health.

Western walkout debrief II

2006-04-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

The newest Herald story is up. It includes a very cute photo...

I woke up early enough to catch the early morning newscast from KVOS and they covered it...with a short little snippet from our counter-stand in the square.

Still lacking more photos...hunting them down. Interesting note from the Herald story--apparently Tom Williams from the local Minutemen chapter was on hand downtown. Good to know there was someone on the other end of the march.

Debrief on walkout

2006-04-05T15:31:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day for a protest!

I was out there at 12 with my sign. I emailed the CR list last night as early as I could but it was still pretty short notice. Two other people kindly showed up to support. (thanks!) Sorry for the lack of immediate pictures--I laid my backpack down and, moved to the other side of the square, and didn't return to it for another hour. If I find any pics from either media or organizers, I'll be sure to send you to them. I couldn't follow the train of humanity downtown. I don't know that I would if I could.

Jon Gambrell of The Bellingham Herald interviewed me and also KVOS 12 (TV). Gambrell already filed online--that can be found here (my quotes at the bottom) for now. Don't know if or when it will update. I suppose you should also check channel 12. An educated guess from a look at their programming puts it at 6:30 a.m.

There's got to be better ways of getting a tan.

Herald: MEChA is harmless

2006-04-05T01:03:00.000-07:00

John Stark did a short, insightful piece in yesterday's Herald on Western's Prof. Larry Estrada--regarding his profile in David Horowitz's new book The Professors. In it, Estrada claims he is not a "founder" (although he was in attendance at the organizing meeting in 1969) of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán), and also that MEChA is not a separatist group. To his credit, Stark has searched through the pertinent documents to see if that claim squares with the rhetoric:

MEChA’s official documents contain statements that could be interpreted as separatist. For example, its “Plan Espiritual de Aztlan”(link mine) states: “Once we are committed to the idea and philosophy of El Plan de Aztlán, we can only conclude that social, economic, cultural, and political independence is the only road to total liberation from oppression, exploitation, and racism.”

But elsewhere in the same document, the plan seems to define political independence as the development of a separate political party, not a separate country.

I personally didn't see just a classical party implication--I think that's tantamount to donning blinders. Political independence is political independence. A typical political party is easy enough to form, but it, alone, certainly would not provide what the authors are seeking:

A nation autonomous and free - culturally, socially, economically, and politically- will make its own decisions on the usage of our lands, the taxation of our goods, the utilization of our bodies for war, the determination of justice (reward and punishment) (emphasis mine), and the profit of our sweat.

El Plan de Aztlán is the plan of liberation!

BUT:

“MEChA has never stood for secession from the United States,” [Estrada] said. “It stands for involvement and inclusion.”

Walkout opposition here

2006-04-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be out in Red Square tomorrow (Wednesday) at noon (when the planned student walkout is going on) to oppose the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán, (MEChA) and their separatist goals Read the article in the latest issue of The Western Front. If you believe it's not called "illegal" immigration for nothing, then make yourself a nice poster and come join in.

NOTE: This is not meant to be confrontational. We simply need to be heard and seen and make sure everyone knows that there are plenty of people out there who understand you shouldn't be able to live permanently in the US without becoming a citizen and paying taxes.

2006-04-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

Get your counter here at Conservative Punk!

On gullibility and polls

2006-04-01T02:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, my good friend James and I met in class and, just as the lecture began, he asked me the rhetorical question: "So Mark, are you a part of the MAJORITY of Americans that don't approve of Bush anymore?" You see, James has a unique set of views that range from pro-capital punishment to anti-war. It's great fun to trade jabs.

His question didn't really faze me at the time. And now I know why. Some things just don't lend themselves to credibility in my mind—one being the veracity of most of the polls cited in the media. Hearing that a "majority" of Americans say Bush is doing a bad job, or don't support the war, or (insert liberal campaign slogan here), just doesn't surprise me anymore because I've been hearing the same thing ever since Bush took office.

Ann Coulter (who has a recent string of worthwhile columns), did little work with some back files of New York Times headlines:

Poll Finds Most in U.S. Support Delaying a War (2/14/03)

Opinions Begin to Shift as Public Weighs Costs of War (3/26/03)

World's View of U.S. Sours After Iraq War, Poll Finds (6/4/03)

Study Finds Europeans Distrustful of U.S. Global Leadership (9/4/03)

Despite Polls, Pataki Backs Bush on Iraq All the Way (10/3/03)

Poll Finds Hostility Hardening Toward U.S. Policies (3/17/04)

Support for War Is Down Sharply, Poll Concludes (4/29/04)

Rising Casualties, One Falling Poll (5/2/04)

Polls Show Bush's Job-Approval Ratings Sinking (5/14/04)

Bush's Rating Falls to Its Lowest Point, New Survey Finds (6/29/04)

If these poll results were accurate, support for the war should be about negative 3,000 percent by now. The public would have stormed the White House, seized the president and flogged him to death.

James: I hope you and the rest of the MAJORITY keep the (blind) faith in polls--because that's all you have.

The seige continues

2006-03-29T14:57:00.000-08:00

As most people who don't watch mainstream news would assume, the protests of immigration reform are highly organized...hardly the "groundswell" of opposition the NYTimes has tried to portray.

FrontPage has a good piece by Ben Johnson connecting most of the dots.

These massive gatherings of illegals, who denounced their government unmolested by police or immigration officials, had an immediate impact – on legislation and on border security.

Reporter Sara Carter of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin says since these protests, border patrol agents have reported an explosion in illegal crossings from Mexicans (and others) keenly observing the Senate debate and emboldened by same. Some were under the impression amnesty had already been granted and hoped to be the first to take part in the second California Gold Rush.

The rallies had a political impact, too. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-CO, stated on Monday:
The immigration rallies over this weekend and today show how disordered our immigration system has become. For years, the government has turned a blind eye to illegal aliens who break into this country. It isn’t any wonder that illegal aliens now act as if they are entitled to the rights and privileges of citizenship.
As a sign of their political impact, Republicans immediately began discussing the potential threat their political careers face from an Hispanic backlash, should they have the temerity to pretend the United States is a sovereign nation with definable political boundaries.

I also recommend checking out Michelle Malkin's blog. Malkin, journalist and author of Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists Criminals & Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores has done a lot of research into border issues over the last decade.

Oh, it burns!

2006-03-23T17:35:00.000-08:00

Think we didn't know already? Well, it's good to watch just for the sake of seeing them wallow in "mortification,"--almost like an elder from the Church of Objectivity getting caught in an adulterous affair with *gasp* an OPINION!

Drudge has the headline today: "ABC NEWS EXEC: 'BUSH MAKES ME SICK'; E-MAIL REVEALED"

John Green, currently executive producer of the weekend edition of GOOD MORNING AMERICA, unloaded on the president in an ABC company email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

"If he uses the 'mixed messages' line one more time, I'm going to puke," Green complained.

The blunt comments by Green, along with other emails obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT, further reveal the inner workings of the nation's news outlets.

Three thoughts:

1: The media is really liberal.

2: The media is so liberal that he felt "safe" enough to send this out to everyone, expecting a outpouring of commiseration I guess (which makes his lament sound so pathetic now that he was "outed"). I feel sorry that he lost his sense of security from opposing viewpoints in the workplace--ouch--I mean, somebody backstabbed him for crying out loud! Worse, they spilled it to DRUDGE!!! Agh! Of all the people, Drudge is the epitome of the "anti-media" (if you factor in liberal bias).

3: On the other hand, what the point? I mean really, I was serious in my reference to the "church of objectivity" as the religion of journalists. While I appreciate a lot of the benefit embodied in the theory (fact-driven, consistent, concise, agenda-free reporting), it seems to appeal mostly to those who are shallow enough to be complete relativists. Green will probably be slapped on the wrist in a hypocritical show of "shaping up."

Crossposted at Meneltarma

The Professors: the one (or two?) up here

2006-03-18T16:36:00.000-08:00

The book makes headlines in the academic world by the simple virtue of its title - "The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America."

My favorate professor (Brad Howard) has lamented that he missed the list. Perhaps it is out of sympathy for his disappointment at being snubbed that I call on Mr. Horowitz to pen a sequel as soon as possible with my favorite professor prominently displayed on the front cover.

But...alas, back to the reality of the book itself. Western is blessed with one professor who was deemed worthy of mention. The Western Front finally published their obligatory protectionist piece on behalf of the besieged Prof. Larry Estrada of Western's Fairhaven College. It can be viewed in the last issue of Winter quarter...and can be found online here. I don’t have anything to add on Mr. Estrada beyond that he has been involved in forming the faculty union recently. I don’t know him, nor anything special about him. Fairhaven College seems in some ways like an isolated nursery. Walking around the faculty offices, absorbing the project displays and door posters, and talking to 6th year seniors forms the basis for my impressions. It’s always seemed like a good place to go for students who don’t want the pressure of living in the world or learning about it for as long as possible.

My copy of "The Professors" arrived the other day. It will keep me great company through spring break I'm sure.

Catch of the day...er...year!

2006-03-06T11:33:00.000-08:00

Matt Drudge is showing a link to an essay by Barbra Streisand, in which she accuses Bush of being an arrogant C student:

In her February 28th, 2006 essay, Streisand flubs 11 words, a personal record.

• Irag
• curruption
• dictatoriship
• crediblity
• Adminstration
• warrented
• desperatly
• preceedings
• ouside
• subpoening
• responsibilty

...Streisand has not seen fit to run a spellcheck on the rant as of Noon, March 06.

But alas, she had when I checked the link little bit ago--and ran it through spellcheck...but don't let that stop you from seeing it: The old version is still preserved in all its currupted glory in the Google.com cache system. It's quite entertaining so read it while you can.

Some gems for safe keeping:

In the 1970’s, during the Nixon Adminstration, serious political curruption arose and the Republican leadership stepped up and took responsibilty by holding hearings and subpoening administration officials.

The arrogance of this C student who maligns his opponents’ crediblity by calling them flip floppers, is the biggest flip flopper himself!

When debating Al Gore during the 2000 presidential elections, Bush spoke against nation building, yet went into Irag a year later to national build…which we now see has resulted in disaster.

Crossposted at Meneltarma

Faculty first

2006-02-28T11:53:00.000-08:00

Faculty members have taken the plunge--into who-knows-what.

The Western Front is reporting (not online just yet) that Western's faculty made the decision to unionize last Thursday (the 23rd). A narrow margin of 16 votes separated the two faculty camps. At least one of my professors has alluded to it since then but now we know: just over half of 584 faculty think they don't have enough status without a union.

Look for continuing coverage as I gather more feedback from select profs.

We still remember

2006-02-23T15:46:00.000-08:00

Students got a dose of reality Tuesday on one college campus. Undoubtedly, many others remain ignorant.

World Net Daily is reporting about a student who got so angry during a speech by Sen. Ted Kennedy, he stood to leave, but not before shouting, "Remember Chappaquiddick!" He will most likely face disciplinary action from Massasoit Community College.

[Paul Trost, 20], was upset by an introduction of Kennedy given by Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., in which the congressman noted how the long-time senator overcame hardship in life on his way to success.

"Lynch said Kennedy had overcome such adversity to get to the place he was, and that's a bunch of bull," Trost said of the introduction, which occurred in the school's student center yesterday morning.

The school administration has yet to act, but Trost has already faced criticism from instructors.

"One of my teachers called me ignorant and told me this was an embarrassment to the school," Trost told WND. "She said to me, 'Can't you forgive him after all these years?' And I said, 'No, he killed somebody.'

"If it had been me or any other person, we'd be in jail," Trost says he told his instructor.

"I wanted to send a message to him that my generation still knows about it. We haven't forgotten about it."

Read the complete story at World Net Daily.

Noise from the jungle (vol. IV)

2006-02-13T15:18:00.000-08:00

This is a direct continuation of my last installment regarding interesting quotes on campus. From the same professor:

The overarching mold of [media] objectivity is completely unrealistic.

Interesting to say the least, and not totally untrue. But what is to be the replacement if they are not to even bother striving for objectivity as we have expected them to do for so long?

The question is not whether there should be bias. The real question is: "Which bias benefits the largest number of people?" It is strictly utilitarian calculus. John Stuart Mill would be proud.

My immediate response is that the decision he speaks of, to decide what bias benefits the most people, is strictly subjective, and in his teaching methods, he ends up distracting from discussion the merits of his model (public journalism) by taking sides on issues and advancing an agenda through the model.

Clear as mud?

The swig

2006-02-09T12:41:00.000-08:00

*Gag*

Having just taken my first swig of any existing energy drink on the market, let me make my utter disgust known to the world. Yes, that's right, it is a sweeping generalization. Since we all understand that coffee is not an energy drink, I don't mind condemning all the other grog-like concoctions I haven't tried.

It all started Tuesday when I was just about to board an elevator in the Viking Union. A student sitting at a window table called to me...

"Excuse me sir," he said with his best car salesman demeanor pinned on top of his ordinary student looks. "Can you identify these cans?"

There he sat, gesturing with a professional flare to his row of seven or so cans, lined up with their backs to me.

"Red Bull," I answered.

"Good job! Here, have you tried it?"

"No," I said. "It's just really caffeinated right?"

"Yes...oh, are you not able to have caffeine?"

I laughed...hard...took the can and stepped into the elevator.

"Good job on guessing," he called after me as the doors closed. I just stood and wondered how desperate I would have to seek his job.

Fast forward to last night.

My coworker Mike and I were sitting for break at 6. I happened to mention the above episode. He was amused--and also surprised. Red Bull is pretty expensive, he said.

"Maybe you should sell that can," he joked. I laughed at the thought of me walking around the Com Building trying to hawk a single can of Red Bull for a profit of 2 bucks.

Fast forward to this afternoon.

I was just contemplating my options for lunch and decided to patronize the Atrium before heading to a computer to finish a past-due mini-project. I picked out a small wrap, and then stood irresolute as to whether I should buy a drink. I didn't want to spend a bundle like I have before (easy to do in the Atrium) on ton of small items. I shook back the inclination toward an apple juice and took my little wrap to the counter. Besides, I reasoned, this might finally motivate me to try that Red Bull sitting in a pocket on my backpack. If I don't like it, I can just dump the rest.

I took a seat, after warming my refrigerated wrap, opened it and took a bite. I then pulled out the can, hesitated for a second, then cracked it open. Out rose the obligatory vapor, designed perhaps to encourage us to subconsciously ascribe some mystical power to this beverage. Oops, I thought, there goes my two dollar pawn profit.

Two more bites and I grabbed the can and downed a mouthful... It was gross. Accuse me of not having an open mind, of being a coffee snob--I don't care; this had one of the most sickening aftertastes ever. I even tried several more swigs just to be sure I wasn't just fooling myself--no, I still got the impression I was drinking caffeinated chemical-heavy perfume. I think it is no coincidence they put these words right below the top on the opening side (where you are sure to see it as you move it toward your face):

Improves performance, especially during times of increased stress or stain. Increases endurance. Increases concentration and improves reaction speed. Stimulates the metabolism.

Hmmm. Perhaps, but maybe not today.

DePaul University: an unending saga?

2006-02-01T11:45:00.000-08:00

DePaul University has become a common target for student rights organizations such as FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). The most recent outrage to provoke angst is DePaul's suppression of an Affirmative Action bake sale (yes, the College Republicans had one here last year, as have many other CRs on universities across the nation). Here's an excerpt from the FIRE press release--it includes info on past FIRE interventions:

Earlier this month, DePaul University shut down an “affirmative action bake sale” protest, and is now investigating a student organizer for “harassment.” DePaul’s latest offense against liberty follows its 2005 dismissal of a professor for arguing with pro-Palestinian students and its censorship of students’ peaceful protest of controversial professor Ward Churchill. With this incident, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is intervening at DePaul for the third time in less than a year.

“DePaul cannot seem to resist punishing its students and professors for expressing their political viewpoints,” stated Greg Lukianoff, FIRE’s interim president. “Fighting repression at DePaul is becoming a full-time job.”

Indeed, reading up on DePaul's habitual repression is almost eye-popping. After so many campuses are finally starting to understand the concept of free speech, DePaul is a throwback to single-minded, single-sided suppression of dissent and guardianship of political correctness.

Noise from the jungle (vol. III)

2006-02-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

Mid-terms today in the BH class--the first for me this quarter.

In preface to this volume:
Honestly, I hope I haven't given the impression that I hate Professor BH's guts. That would be a misinterpretation of my frustration. Indeed, I think BH and I respect each other as human beings--he knows I have "differences" from the many hints I've dropped (and perhaps from faculty informants:), and we have even found time to joke about it.

Whether this bit of jungle culture can be described as "noise" is beyond me, but, for what it's worth, here is the main essay prompt on today's mid-term (for some limited context, read volume II):

Define hegemony and explain the role of qualitative research, including the Chicago School method and textual analysis, in exposing hegemonic messages to the public.

Upon completing what I hope was a comprehensive answer, and since the question left no room for disagreement, I included a little postscript that read (under the heading "ignore this when grading please"):

...and having said all that, I must say that I think most of the above is bunk.

I'm depending on his respect for academic honesty and perhaps his sense of humor to forgive me for taking that little bit of liberty.

Moving on...

Whither reform

2006-02-01T09:25:00.000-08:00

At the risk of going way out of range of university issues...here's a little national perspective.

Candidates for the House majority leader position are courting the right people: Rep. Mike Pence and his Republican Study Committee. For those who don't know (there are many) the RSC is the truly conservative bloc in the Republican party responsible for getting the first budget cuts we have seen in a long time after Katrina finally gave them an excuse to push some pork-busting measures.

Two of the majority leader candidates (minus Roy Blunt--not a big loss), have sat up to answer questions from the RSC. This if hopefully a strong sign the party, in general, is going to allow greater RSC influence in congressional affairs--they are the only group with the ability to save Republican credibility on spending issues.

Read Tim Chapman's article on Townhall.com for details of the RSC questioning--and a greater sense of what the future holds.

Crossposted at Meneltarma

Cowering giants

2006-01-30T00:28:00.000-08:00

Google et al. isn't exactly reacting favorably to calls from the Capital to attend a congressional briefing on February 1 about it's cooperation with Chinese censorship:

Microsoft and Cisco Systems have refused to attend the event, while Google and Yahoo are non-committal, officials said.

The firms were asked to attend the February 1 briefing by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus following uproar caused by search giant Google's decision last week to censor websites and content banned by China's propaganda chiefs.

"We have heard from Microsoft that no representative from the company will attend the briefing. So, with Cisco Systems, this makes two companies that have confirmed they're opting out," [said] Lynne Weil, spokeswoman for caucus co-chairman Democratic Representative Tom Lantos.

Google: the big engine that couldn't?

2006-01-29T16:33:00.000-08:00

Here is a facinating piece from the UK Times--a long read but I was riveted. Frankly it is the best "problem of Google" coverage I have read.

Some excerpts from John Lanchester's analysis:

Until now, Chinese net users who were blocked from accessing a site knew that the information was there and was being kept from them by their own government. From now on it is Google which will be keeping data from them, in direct contradiction of its own declared mission “to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. ...

...It seemed that the company’s real motto was something more along the lines of “don’t be evil unless the Chinese government asks you to and there’s serious money in it”. ...

...Google is cool, but Google has the potential to destroy the publishing industry, the newspaper business, high street retailing and our privacy. Not that it will necessarily do any of these things, but for the first time, considered soberly, they are technologically possible. The company is rich and determined and is not going away any time soon. It knows what it is doing technologically; socially, though, it can’t possibly know and I don’t think anyone else can either.

Lanchester weaves in plenty of history and context so it is not entirly a Google bashfest.

Spanking Google

2006-01-26T18:48:00.000-08:00

From the Financial Times:

Google will be called to task in Washington next month following a controversial decision by the internet search engine to launch a China-based version of its website that will censor results to avoid angering the country’s Communist government.

The decision by Chris Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey who chairs a House subcommittee on Human Rights, to call for a February 16 hearing to examine the operating procedures of US internet companies in China, represents the first signs of what could become a serious backlash against Google and other internet companies in Washington that are perceived as capitulating to the Chinese government.

I was livid when I heard of Google's decision to placate China for a bigger buck. After canceling my Google ads account, and sending them a letter about it, I sat back and bemoaned my own continuing reliance on such a beautiful search engine.

For that matter, as this UK Sunday Times article points out, bloggers in general are guilty of hypocrisy, even without relying on the Google big block engine.

Many of the bloggers who are most critical of China's human rights policies make their voices heard using Chinese-made PCs. Probably wearing cheap Chinese-made trainers while they're at it.

(Cheap trainers? huh? I thought these were pajamas I was wearing!)

Point taken--I can still be mad can't I?

Predicting the climate

2006-01-24T12:54:00.000-08:00

As a photographer for The Planet (Western's environmental journalism publication), i get the rare privilege of sitting in on a humorous discussion now and then. Some of the most interesting are the ones that cover how global warming should be reported objectively. The common argument I hear over and over is "since it's so hard to find scientists who question global warming and human causes, it's unobjective to include them at all cost in an article--especially since global warming is a scientific consensus."

Well, it's a consensus in the classroom no doubt where the hot air certainly seems to increase exponentially every time the topic comes up.

The latest news on the issue is hardly promising for these assumptions. While LiveScience.com is not what I would call a scientific journal, it's also plain to see they don't have a conflict of interest. The article states that scientist are "baffled" that less sunlight is reaching the earth, likely because of increased cloud cover. A few other articles bemoan the fact that clouds are so hard to predict. You've got to love the headline on this one in particular: Scientists Clueless over Sun's Effect on Earth.

I don't know, but I thought simple physics said that if you heat water it not only melts from a solid, but evaporates into gas,...ehem...clouds. Someone can now put this lowly ignorant journalist in his place.

Privacy: uncompromised

2006-01-23T21:25:00.000-08:00

I thought so.

The recent firestorm regarding the justice department subpoenas of Microsoft, Yahoo and now Google, has not been as dangerous as the fear mongers of the left (think a certain professor), would like to harp about.

Both Microsoft and Yahoo complied with the Internet search data subpoena and claim the data does not endanger personal privacy of internet users. Google has other motives besides the privacy of users for not complying with the subpoena it seems.

For more reading.

Souter v. grassroots

2006-01-22T17:54:00.000-08:00

The effort to oust Supreme Court Justice David Souter from his house and property has remained on the march. Although few honestly think it will work--it's certainly a worthy effort since no one is breaking any laws of course.

The effort is in response to the Kelo v. New London case, in which some home owners were evicted from their properties for the "greater good" of having a business established on their property and having higher tax productivity on the area: It's called "eminent domain" in law-speak; another way of stretching the beyond recognition. I thought I posted on this last year when it hit the news...but I haven't been able to turn it up in the archives.

Here's the Associated Press piece on the latest (admittedly retaliatory) efforts.

The group, led by a California man, wants Justice David Souter's home seized for the purpose of building an inn called "Lost Liberty Hotel."

They submitted enough petition signatures — only 25 were needed — to bring the matter before voters in March. This weekend, they're descending on Souter's hometown, the central New Hampshire town of Weare, population 8,500, to rally for support.

"This is in the tradition of the Boston Tea Party and the Pine Tree Riot," organizer Logan Darrow Clements said

Here's a few links for info on the Kelo decision.

A good abstract at Oyez.org

Justice John Paul Stevens, the majority held that the city's taking of private property to sell for private development qualified as a "public use" within the meaning of the takings clause. The city was not taking the land simply to benefit a certain group of private individuals, but was following an economic development plan. Such justifications for land takings, the majority argued, should be given deference. The takings here qualified as "public use" despite the fact that the land was not going to be used by the public.

Complete opinions (Steven's majority opinion and Kennedy's concurrence plus O'Connor's dissent and Thomas's concurring dissent)

Crossposted at Meneltarma

Noise from the jungle (vol. II)

2006-01-18T12:18:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday, I came to a particular class half asleep. I will admit to not remembering what we covered during those two hours.

Today however, I came to class energized somehow (the coffee?), and lived to regret it. I've never felt more like punching a wall than I did as I left the room. What could it have been that made an easy-going guy from the laidback rainy Northwest Washington so impassioned (I'm not sure I can describe it that way because I kept vacillating between being incensed, shocked, disturbed and amused in the extreme--like I could hardly keep myself in check)?

File under "Methods of Textual Analysis" (read: methods the professor endorses): Marxist Analysis and (here's a word for you) Hegemony:

"Refers to the process by which those in power secure the consent of the socially subordinated to the system that oppresses or subordinates them. Rather than requiring overt force, the elite, through their control of religious, educational and media institutions attempt to persuade..."

etc, etc.

Examples of hegemony a patriarchal society: Catholic, Mormon, and most Protestant church order... (yes there was a professing catholic present in the class). Another example: Promise Keepers--i.e. a group of men who get together for support in reaffirming their leadership role in their family (such a sickening idea you know).

I don't have the time to do more affirmation of what I will be tested on (oh, there's so much more I haven't mentioned). Professor BH (blowhard) insisted we don't need to accept these methods of interpretation--we just have to "know them cold."

Leave me alone! I'm busy sucking on gas!

Smoke in your eye

2006-01-17T17:25:00.000-08:00

Oh? Bellingham isn't so apathetic after all?

One local establishment is under siege for defying the smoking ban passed by voters in November. The Western Front has some good coverage here--take note of the feedback that has already been posted online. Dr. Chris Covert-Bowlds was the primary sponsor and spokesman for the ban campaign.

For what it's worth, I already wrote a piece on the ban last quarter--focusing kind of on the way everyone was falling for the utilitarian arguments of the left. A commenter on that string noted an interesting possible conflict of interest regarding Dr. Covert-Bowlds.

I'll be honest: I hope they keep up the protest (if I can do so without having to think about moral obligations to government)--at least it will keep the issue out in the open. Our constitution was not based on utilitarian "majority rule" ideals.

Do I sound libertarian yet?

Winter quarter stretch

2006-01-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

It's cold out--and so is the posting on here recently. But why not? No one needs to know about Western when no one is there for the holidays.

Winter classes start this very morning, though, so welcome back and Happy New Year!

Reply to comment

2005-11-28T23:15:00.000-08:00

NOTE: Since it was several posts back, I hope Mr. Henderson will not take this as grandstanding when I post my reply here instead of on the comment string. Here's the link to his comment...continue the discussion here if you like.

Hey Lance, good to hear from you. That's funny there are so many former Horizon writers floating around this year. Just a few thoughts...

I hope you don't really think this is a byproduct of closed minds and spoon-fed isolationism. To think that would be rather blind indeed. I'm glad you are so willing to refuse documentation for your own assertions while berating fellow students for the same error. You'd better come up with something other than your own and moveon.org's say-so on that Bush AWOL tripe.

It's funny how this tends to go... I guess the only qualification for serving as president is to have been on a boat in the south pacific. Crying "chickenhawk" is a Straw Man that avoids the real issues: we are at war and our leaders have a job to do. If you don't like the decisions being made, say so and vote him out. That's political debate--not character assassination.
Your words:

I bet if you all of a sudden you had to go to Iraq, you might be singing a different tune.

An accusation of cowardice? In another time or place that would be a rather serious challenge. It's not your place to say suggest such a thing--this is one student who has family there right this minute.

One Marine cousin in Iraq, one brother in Germany, one friend who will soon complete marine officer training, two local friends who just came back from Iraq, one after being wounded, one friend of the family who lost a son in Iraq, half a dozen other friends at either West Point, or the AF/Naval Academy.

Yes, that's just me. Are any of those people I mentioned voting against those evil chickenhawks in the White House? Not that I've heard--and I would know. It is extremely presumptive and dangerous to accuse a fellow student of cowardice. That is a personal (and pointless) insult and ought to be retracted.

Remember, the real world lies beyond the university campus. You'd better brace yourself.

Sheehan: over and out?

2005-11-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

It's a good question.

I'm sure more than a few "moderates" are thinking Cindy Sheehan's star has gone the way of a black hole. Here's a couple links that indicate a great deal of disenchantment over someone who has turned her "private grief" into a marketable bushbash.

First, there's the pretty AP photos from her Crawford book-signing.

Then, wow...a scathing Salena Zito column, putting Cindy down (to use the lighter term) for the infamous "open letter to Barbara Bush."

Sheehan has become the quintessential freak show, making everyone uncomfortable as we watch the drama -- her drama -- play out. In our heart of hearts, we really do not want to believe this mother has become a handmaiden of the Left.

Few things ever are what they seem to be. Truth often is awkward. And facing the reality that Sheehan's sincerity has ended and absurdity has taken hold is one jagged little pill to swallow.

Indeed, that's just a fraction of the criticism. I recommend reading whole column.

Crossposted at Meneltarma

'I'm just dad'

2005-11-23T21:51:00.000-08:00

Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana has done more in his five years in congress for the conservative cause than many do in their lifetime.

A super communicator, socially and fiscally conservative, a proven record of true leadership...what more could you want. I'm almost tempted to say to those who want him to run for president to just let him stay in congress so he can keep doing some good there. But then I look at the current field of RINOs and I'm more inclined to agree with the Draft Pence Movement.

That title quote comes from an article in The Indianapolis Star.

Crossposted at Head West, Turn Right

GSAVE? LOL!

2005-11-19T11:55:00.000-08:00

GSAVE? LOL!

If you like acronyms, you might like the proposed name for the so called global so-called War on Terror--not a perfectly accurate name either but it does better than GSAVE (Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism).

It hasn't caught on though. The president himself has avoided it in his recent speeches according to columnist Joel Mowbray. Read Mowbray's entire article here at Townhall.com. It's not about the acronym--it's like me to get a kick out of a little detail.

Crossposted at Meneltarma

Thus says Cheney!

2005-11-16T18:22:00.000-08:00

"The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone – but we’re not going to sit by and let them rewrite history.

We’re going to continue throwing their own words back at them..."

Amen and amen! Read the rest of the except on the Drudge Report.

Crossposted at Meneltarma

War protest a big success?

2005-11-10T11:41:00.000-08:00

It fascinates me how obsessed The Western Front has recently become with anti-war crowds on campus. One group, Western Against War, was featured on the front page of the Front twice in the last two weeks. The first article discussed the upcoming gathering in red square to read the names of fallen soldiers in Iraq (as if honoring those who died is somehow anti-war?), which would hopefully drum up some interest for the fledgling club.

Apparently the event was so successful that the Front ran a second front page article on Tuesday praising the gathering for their commitment to fight the inclement weather.

But despite inclement weather Thursday, a group of approximately 20 Western students and faculty in Red Square read the names of more than 400 soldiers who have died in the war in Iraq.

Sounds impressive. I first got the impression that a whole lot of students had jumped on board after hearing about the event and that the club was well on its way. However, later in the article it mentions that "Shirley Osterhaus, a professor at Fairhaven College ... organized the gathering and coordinated it with 14 other faculty members".

I don't know if all the faculty were there, and the picture really makes it hard to tell (I'm pretty sure I can say there are 5 students for sure but I couldn't positively say on any of the others). If it is the case that the entire faculty that organized the event attended, that leaves 5 students or so who attended. In fact, the first article mentions one person planning to attend the event from off campus and the second article quotes a 60-year-old lady who wanted to attend but doesn't actually confirm she did. So some of the non-faculty attendance can be explained by people who aren't students.

Later in the Front, Lance Henderson draws parallels between the Iraq war and the Vietnam war. One of his parallels is the student protests, he cites a high school student walkout that happened earlier this month in Seattle as evidence students are upset with the war. However this point really doesn’t hold. First, the event had far fewer students than expected and second, there were probably a number of students there just to protest (I was personally guilty of wanting to go down to the WTO riots when I was in school, just to say I was there).

Maybe I'm mistaken on this, but I feel like from what I've heard the anti-war sentiments on college campuses during Vietnam are not being replayed out during the Iraq war. In fact it seems to me that the teachers are angrier than the students.

I almost get the feeling the Western Front is trying to reach out to the students and say "come on you guys, wake up, we're anti-war remember, come on and protest or something." The same with the faculty.

At least they could admit that turnout for their event was really poor for students, especially after a front page feature.

Chivalry comes to Western

2005-11-08T00:14:00.000-08:00

Walking into the room a little early wasn't enough to grant me a seat. For once we were going to have class in the lab--all 35-or-so many of us, spreading ourselves among the 20 chairs. We had been warned to come extra early if we wanted to secure one of the plush computer chairs.

I wasn't concerned, though. I had already passed on the idea of even trying for one. I made my way to the back wall and sat on the floor, engrossed with a fellow student on a mutual project we had.

The room started to fill up with more floor sitters and suddenly Matt got up with a look of impatience...

"Caleb, get up! You too Chris! Let one of the others sit down," he said referring to the group of females by the door.

Matt is an interesting guy. No student in the journalism program is more respected. I say that with complete conviction because I respect him too (yes, even though he did beat me out for the Tribune internship--that was a no-brainer). He was Editor in Chief for my first quarter on The Western Front, and before then, he set the record for the most writing points accumulated by a reporter on the Front. Despite his high-powered abilities and skills, I sometimes think he's the most easy-going, even-tempered student at Western.

For my part, I do what I can on my own but the thought never crossed my mind to openly tell someone else they should practice it too. I guess if any student is going to be outspoken enough to promote chivalry in his fellow students, it would be Matt.

GOP: Media's best friend

2005-11-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

What is a good indication of political balance in the media? When lawmakers and politicians from both parties support media "shield laws" to protect confidential sources.

In the past, I've tended to consider this a more liberal issue, but not totally. My hesitation stems from being leery of the liberties many journalists take in using anonymous interviews--as I wrote in The Western Front last spring. At the moment, there is no federal shield law to protect journalist from grand jury subpoenas and the like. What conservatives have come out in support of more journalistic protection? The names are surprising.

Congressman Mike Pence, a conservative superstar in the Midwest, and increasingly more recognizable as one of the most effective conservative leaders in the House, has become one of the primary sponsors of a federal shield law. I hate to say it, but The New York Times reporter, Judith Miller's fight to protect a Republican source may have had something to do with the surge in GOP attention. That source, Cheney aid, “Scooter” Libby, has since, of course, been indicted in the leak you all know so much (or so little perhaps) about by now.

Note: I added a new link on my blog for my good friend Aaron Hankin, who heads up the "Draft Pence Movement" dedicated to promoting a Pence a presidential bid in 2008. There's a lot of material on his blog.

On the Washington state level, conservative Attorney General Rob McKenna has garnered the respect of journalists everywhere by first getting his hands dirty cleaning up the access laws (freedom of information laws) in Washington, and now, by publicly endorsing a state shield law. While Washington doesn't have a shield law per se, some Washington courts have ruled favorably to journalists in the past, setting minor precedent for partial protection. As stated in The Seattle Times, many would like the protection to be more water tight.

"Someone might say we don't need it; we've only had a few cases," (McKenna said.) "But not having it can chill the speech of a confidential source. You don't have to have a case where someone is being put in stocks in the public square for this to be a good idea. It will encourage confidential sources to reveal important information to the media."

It bears noting that Stefan Sharkanski of Sound Politics.com doesn’t really care about it, just as long as bloggers are included, and I would agree that there can’t be special privileges granted to some citizens just because they are gathering the information for a certain kind of publication. If the first amendment is going to be construed to protect one person, there had better not be a double standard.

Crossposted at Meneltarma

I-901: The great conservative sellout

2005-11-02T10:18:00.000-08:00

I hate to use such a vitriolic headline, but I can't find better words for it. I'm seeing just how uneducated conservatives can be in their own professed philosophy. I'm seeing Washington republicans throw away their principles just because they happen to not like smoking.

The source of my problem is Initiative 901, which is intended to effectively ban smoking anywhere but reservations and your own house (you might get away with it if you stand in the middle of an intersection too). Of course, you'll also probably have to be careful that you shut all your doors and close all your windows and light up in the basement...just in case your neighbor smells it inside his equally sealed house, get's a headache and lung cancer, files a complaint, or worse, sues you to pay for his lung transplant. If you happen to own a bar that smokers like to frequent, you'd better get a whole new set of customers because catering to smokers will be against the law.

Property rights? What are those?

Susan Rosenberry of The Western Front did a good job of covering it in last Friday's issue. One quote that struck me:

If it passes, the initiative would ban smoking inside Washington public spaces, including restaurants, bars, bowling alleys and public transportation vehicles such as taxis, said Dr. Chris Covert-Bowlds, a Bellingham physician and sponsor of the initiative. The smoking restriction would also extend to 25 feet away from the entrance of the public establishment, he said.

“It’s not that we are trying to force people to stop smoking,” Covert-Bowlds said. “We are just trying to protect employees’ rights to breathe smoke-free air.”

WHAT RIGHT WAS THAT? Where do we keep coming up with all these new-and-improved, extraconstitutional rights? What right can an employee claim if they knew they were applying to work in a smoke-filled environment?

A friend of mine who is a leader in the Whatcom County Republican Party (he helped write our county platform last year) had this to say about his support for the initiative when I asked him (email excerpt):

Never ask an ex-smoker (like me) how they feel about smoking! We converts/previous smokers all hate it and can't stand the smell of it!...Bottom line, your ability to smoke ends at the end of my nose and if I can smell it, you can't do it. Majority always rules sooner or later.

I have never heard anything quite so abhorrent to the basic principles of our constitution or the free market. He complained he can never bowl because they all are smoking establishments. So? Start your own bowling alley...don't sit there and force them, through trumped-up laws, to cater to you just because you have a medical aversion to something they do.

Is there a better way of saying this that I'm missing? Is something unclear? Does anyone know what private property means?

Smoking is still legal. Until it is outlawed, I will not support anything that restricts a business owner's right to cater to smokers. I'm sorry if your nose starts running and you get a headache...I sometimes do too. You've survived up to this point.

The government isn't here to make laws for my convenience!

Amy Goodman teaches reporting

2005-10-25T16:14:00.000-07:00

So I spent over half an hour listening to a far left propaganda machine this afternoon.

My professor admitted jokingly he was probably force-feeding...his reasons for playing a pod cast of DomocracyNow! in class is still a bit obscure, besides the fact that he "highly recommends it." You see, he probably thinks it's time we graduated from the elementary and archaic elements of journalism like, say, objectivity.

The pod cast was an interview with British Indy journalist Robert Fisk, a "veteran" of numerous conflicts and, from what I could tell, a pacifist as well. His rant was one continuous stream of deranged pessimism regarding Iraq and how it is simply a mess and he suspects he might not be brave enough to risk another trip.

One half-hour later, as he finished his rant, Goodman asked a final question after the audience finished applauding...

After all you have been through, and all the wars you have covered, all the death you have seem, "what gives you hope?"

...*silence*... "...Nothing...nothing. *shaky voice* I'm sorry, maybe ordinary people speaking out, but nothing really."

I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. I should choose the later I suppose because, as a Christian, I hurt for people who have this kind of empty hopelessness. That's got to be an awful way to live.

The prof finally made some point about this can teach us that we should never hesitate to challenge power...

Ok...is that all? Can I go now?

So conservative they look liberal

2005-10-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

I had an early distaste for the tactics that GOP haters...er...critics of Harriet Miers have employed in trying to scuttle her nomination. They have fooled themselves into thinking they taking a stand for principled conservatism, while all the while missing their own hypocrisy. The confirmation of Roberts was won primarily by debunking the myth that nominees needed to answer personal question and reveal privileged documents. Roberts stood fast and refused to answer hypothetical questions, brilliantly citing the Ginsberg confirmation hearings as precedent for his silence, winning general admiration even among those who were frustrated by his dodge.

And now...as soon as the "base" thinks they can't totally trust a nominee to be a carbon copy of themselves, they jump on the liberal bandwagon demanding the very hypothetical answers and privileged information Roberts and co. fought so hard to protect.

So for the first time, I suspect we are having conservatives partaking in the so-called "borking" of a nominee. I'm incensed. I began with just as much skepticism and disappointment as everyone else, and now I find I am totally dismayed. You see, if Miers is successfully borked by her own friendlies, there is an even greater chance of never again getting a strong constitutionalist on the bench of the United States Supreme Court.

Crossposted at Meneltarma

If you want to help

2005-10-20T15:02:00.000-07:00

Getting some discussion on here is the next goal--besides consistant posting, that is. I recently made up some fliers. Here's one:

Another one:

And yet another one:

If you click on the images you'll get 8.5 x 11 size (or you should anyway). But if you insist on a pdf, here's the links to all respectively:

promo1
promo2
promo3

Open mic at the Underground

2005-10-18T20:44:00.000-07:00

I have it on good authority (a friend who actually goes to this more often) that it was an unusually large crowd tonight at the Underground Coffee house.

It's good to know because I had the hardest time just walking the length of the room--and that's not an inducement for me to come here to relax on a regular basis if I know open mic is on the schedule.

There was a corner or two open though.

Washington State fails Justice Scalia

2005-10-12T11:44:00.000-07:00

That's the conclusion of many observers who are disturbed by the repressive tactics WSU appears to condone.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has been keeping up with the various outragious happenings in Pullman.

“The latest developments at Washington State are quite revealing,” remarked FIRE President David French. “After the administration twice refused to apologize for subsidizing disruptive hecklers and refused to guarantee that it wouldn’t do so again, the dean of education suggested that Justice Antonin Scalia’s beliefs might disqualify him from earning a teaching degree from Washington State.”

See the complete press release.

PETA: we throw tofu

2005-10-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

I really could care less about PETA's vendetta against Vogue Magazine's editor or about the two times they have thrown pie her way. In fact, I'm sure most people just find it amusing. What I do wonder is what on earth happens to people in France when they throw pie.

Really, this story is so definitive. Over here, PETA has allegedly stolen animals from some of the biology labs at Western...true, that was many years ago. In France, they apparently like to through tofu instead. Not only that, the AP story didn't say if anyone was arrested, which makes me think I might get a free pass if I decide to have a little pie-throwing fest outside Jackie Chirac's house. Come to think of it, that might be the easiest way to gain control of the french military--if that was something worth doing that is.

Minutemen are here

2005-10-04T00:19:00.000-07:00

Wherever they go, they make waves. The mere mention of the Minutemen and their activities on the border is enough to make the typical Bellinghamster cluck in disdain. Today I was a little incensed when a fellow Klipsun writer announced her feature on the Minutemen. She felt it necessary to explain who they were... "Those border watchers who carry guns and say they are peaceful but are not..." Objectivity...um...not quite. I felt like calling up the Minutemen and telling them to not give her any interviews because it really wasn't worth their time.

Local coverage hasn't been huge but it's been interesting nonetheless. The first story in the Herald had lot of basic info straight from the project, which surprised me--most papers would consider that level of reliance on one source to be biased. But it was worth it in this case because they had a lot of clarification to do. After their description of themselves, one is hard pressed to think of them has causing any harm--they do some pretty intensive screenings of members and limit themselves to zero contact with illegals.

Harmlessness notwithstanding, the local village idiots still found something to protest on Saturday. What were they protesting? Well from what I can see, I guess they are protesting the border's existence. What else can I conclude when I see a sign reading "No one is illegal?" Huh?

Conclusion: strange events make for strange people.

The premise

2005-10-03T23:26:00.000-07:00

Throw everything you have at him and hope something sticks.

That's the new rule of thumb for Ronnie Earle and co, the prosecutor leading the charge on Tom "the hammer" DeLay. You should have seen the utter giddiness of Western faculty when the first indictment was handed down. It was the first meeting of the College Republicans that evening and everyone had a story to share about their professors mentioning it in class. One prof. even went so far as to mix DeLay up with Senator Frist. What next!?

Good question. The judge had to throw out the first indictment because it was for a crime that wasn't a crime when he was alleged to have done it. Now they have gone back to the loading station to find a better caliber round. From the AP:

The new indictment, handed up by a grand jury seated Monday, contained two counts. The money laundering charge carries a penalty of up to life in prison. The charge of conspiracy to launder money is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

One thing is clear and indisputable from the events as they have unfolded: Earle has started with a biased premise: DeLay is a bad man and must have done SOMETHING wrong. (Is it door one? Door two?) Unfortunately for him, finding the right charge for DeLay is like playing a lively game of Pin the Tail on the Elephant.

San Fran sleaze

2005-10-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

It's the rather unfortunate lot of mine to have roots in the bay area so it's always kind of depressing to read up on the lunicy of that particular concentration of humanity. Zombietime featured some analysis of the September 24 anti-war protests as they were covered in the San Francisco Chronicle--or prehaps "covered" isn't the right term...white-washed maybe?

Here's a quote from Zombietime if you need inducement to see the photos and breakdown for youself:

It turns out that the woman giving directions belongs to one of the Communist groups organizing the rally -- if her t-shirt is to be believed, since it depicts the flag of Communist Vietnam, which has been frequently displayed by such groups at protest rallies in the U.S. for decades.

Check it out for yourself.

Two cities: the concise answer

2005-10-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

Horace Cooper (from National Center for Public Policy Research) writes in his column, A Tale of Two Cities, what many have been thinking and few have said out loud. He is to be commended:

While it’s true that the two hurricanes hit at different intensity levels, the important differences can best be described as a tale of two cities – New Orleans and Houston.

No two neighboring towns better embody the differences between the two main political philosophies competing in the U.S. today – Houston, Texas which is the embodiment of the Lone Star State’s can do spirit of limited government and self-reliance versus New Orleans, Louisiana, aptly nicknamed the “Big Easy” and perhaps the embodiment of welfare state dependence in the South.

Catch the complete piece at Townhall.com

Crossposted at Head West, Turn Right

Noise from the jungle - volume I

2005-09-29T23:44:00.000-07:00

I've decided to implement a few tactics to help me deal with my Advanced Reporting class. The professor, previously referred to by this publication as an extremely dedicated blowhard, has inspired me to be creative.

To start, it's going to be a regular feature of mine to include some of the brilliant quotes that would otherwise simply bounce off my propaganda blaster shields.

A couple of gems from today's class:

"The two most important jobs in America are a journalist and a teacher. I've been privileged to be both."

This from a former soldier!? Someone needs to do a little investigative reporting on him.

"I should be able to pick up my local newspaper and find everything I need to know about my community."

A community of a couple dozen?

I'm just sorry I've already let so many good quotes past over the last week.

What energy crisis?

2005-09-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Even I, a sceptic of doomsday predictions regarding declining oil reserves, found myself surprised by the latest reports on projected world reserves. A piece in the UK's Independant reveals just how thick the whool has been pulled over our eyes.

Exxon's Mr Tillerson told the convention in South Africa that his company estimated that global energy demand would increase by 50 per cent over the next 25 years. Mr Tillerson said that by some estimates there was as much as 7 trillion barrels of oil yet to be discovered. On a more conservative basis, the world still had more than 3 trillion barrels from conventional fields, oil sands deposits and other sources. "That is more than twice all the oil recovered up to now in all of human history," Mr Tillerson said.

The conservative projections are we still haven't used half of the world's supply! Does that even remotely square with the hype about unsustainable futures?

Now, before I get misunderstood, I should be perfectly clear that I don't think we should be sitting on our current status quo and ignore the future. I'm thrilled by the way the U.S. has started to lead in hybrid vehicle development--that stuff is great. I think we are sitting on a lot of technology that will prove once again that we are the most flexible economy in the world. I don't see a sudden shortfall and stagnation--that goes against the American way of problem solving.

And we have way more time than anyone thought to develop a better energy dependancy plan.

Canadian: blame throwing

2005-09-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

I've published this from an email forward I received. I claim no knowledge as to its copyright status and claim trust in the source as my reason for publishment.

Good piece that really hits home. I've seen similar sentiments and I echo them.

DavidWarrenOnline
ESSAYS ON OUR TIMES SUNDAY SPECTATOR
September 11, 2005

Blame throwing

There's plenty wrong with America, since you asked. (Everybody's asking.) I'm tempted to say, the only difference from Canada, is that the Americans have a few things right. That would be unfair, of course -- I am often pleased to discover things we still get right. But one of them would not be disaster preparation. If something happened up here, on the scale of Katrina, we wouldn't even have the resources to arrive late. We would be waiting for the Americans to come save us, the same way the government in Louisiana just waved and pointed at Washington, D.C. The theory being, that when you're in real trouble, that's where the adults live.

And that isn't an exaggeration. Almost everything that has worked in the recovery operation along the U.S. Gulf Coast has been military and National Guard. Within a few days, under several commands, finally consolidated under the remarkable Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, it was once again the U.S. military, efficiently cobbling together a recovery operation on a scale beyond the capacity of any other earthly institution.

We hardly have a military up here. We have elected one feckless government after another, who have cut corners until there is nothing substantial left. We don't have the ability even to transport and equip our few soldiers. Should disaster strike at home, on a big scale, we become a Third World country. At which point, our national smugness is of no avail.

From Democrats and the American Left -- the U.S. equivalent to the people who run Canada -- we are still hearing that the disaster in New Orleans showed a heartless, white Republican America had abandoned its underclass. This is garbage. The great majority of those not evacuated lived in assisted housing, receive food stamps and prescription medicine and government support through many other programmes. Many have, all their lives, expected someone to lift them to safety, sans input from themselves. And the demagogic mayor they elected left, quite literally, hundreds of transit and school buses parked in rows to be lost in the flood, that could have driven them out of town.

Yes, that was insensitive. But it is also the truth; and sooner or later we must acknowledge that welfare dependency creates exactly the sort of haplessness and social degeneration we saw on display, as the floodwaters rose. Many suffered terribly, and many died, and one's heart goes out. But already the survivors are being put up in new accommodations, and their various entitlements have been directed to new locations.

The scale of private charity has also been unprecedented. There are yet no statistics, but I'll wager the most generous state in the union will prove to have been arch-Republican Texas, and that nationally, contributions in cash and kind are coming disproportionately from people who vote Republican. For the world divides into "the mouths" and "the wallets".

The Bush-bashing, both down there and up here, has so far lost touch with reality, as to raise questions about the bashers' state of mind. Consult any authoritative source on how government works in the United States, and you will learn that the U.S. federal government's legal, constitutional, and institutional responsibility for first response to Katrina, as to any natural disaster, was zero.

Notwithstanding, President Bush took the prescient step of declaring a disaster, in order to begin deploying FEMA and other federal assets, two full days in advance of the stormfall. In the little time since, he has managed to coordinate an immense recovery operation -- the largest in human history -- without invoking martial powers. He has been sufficiently Presidential to respond, not even once, to the extraordinarily mendacious and childish blame-throwing.

One thinks of Kipling's "If --" poem, which I learned to recite as a lad, and mention now in the full knowledge that it drives postmodern leftoids and gliberals to apoplexy -- as anything that is good, beautiful, or true: "If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise..."

Unlike his critics, Bush is a man, in the full sense presented by these verses. A fallible man, like all the rest, but a man.

David Warren
(c) Ottawa Citizen

Beginning the year

2005-09-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

Classes are in full swing here at Western. For my part, the journalism classes are going to be full, interesting, annoying and challenging. Here in my senior year, I've finally hit a journalism class that is dedicated (by the professor's choice) to establishing a biased agenda in all of the students. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say, this is his first year at Western and is the most dedicated liberal blowhard I've ever sat under. I'm sure we'll become great friends none the less (don't ask).

But that's beside the point. This blog is in limbo right now by virtue of some needed organization which should happen soon. Some other options are on the table depending how many ambitious writers sign on for the year.

We'll keep you posted...no pun intended.

Same old (head)line

2005-09-12T22:16:00.000-07:00

It's helpful for a political junky (and journalism student) like me to be able to step back recite a basic fact to myself: a hyperpolitical outlook on the news can paint a very different picture than what really exists. For the average journalist, life in American is simply one long horse race in-between elections where every piece of news is compared and evaluated on the basis of how it will affect the next election.

It never changes. Just like all the other paint-by-number coverage from Katrina. The current line is this: a weak response from Bush shows he doesn't really care. From verbal celeb tirades to Judy Keen and Richard Benedetto's blowhard "news analysis" on page two of USA Today about the President's response to Katrina. What it amounts to is a hatchet job similar to the implicit attacks on Bush post 9/11. I can still remember the sneering ABC line after Bush's rock-the-world speech a week afterward: "A president finds his voice."

Where do journalists learn to see everything through red and blue tinted glasses? In the classroom. I've heard it many times at Western: a political science depth or minor is usually recommended for journalism students so that's what a big chunk of them take. It may not be because their journalism professors want to have the news reported that way, but they might think a journalist wouldn't be able to survive in America without a solid political science education. Unfortunately, those "survival" skills usually translate into bickering about how the president needs to be more expressive and empathetic--or the democrats might start looking like reformers (hint hint: the democrats ARE reformers!)

I've felt like holding my nose as I wade through the coverage of Katrina--and not because dead bodies disgust me.

Crossposted at Meneltarma

THE solution...I mean solutions

2005-09-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

Mark Ruscoe from The Culture Wasteland has some observations regarding the left's solution(s) to the oil crisis...and how they clash.

Compiled here with examples for each, do check it out.

Ruscoe is also biweekly editorial writer for the Asheville (California) Citizen-Times. Mike Adams had him featured in one of his recent columns.

The black sheep?

2005-08-11T23:36:00.000-07:00

Cindy Sheehan, most recently known for her outspoken anti-Bush activism after the death of her son Casey in Iraq, is now facing the public angst of the rest of her family according to an email they sent to blogger Matt Drudge. (see story here)

Drudge reported a few days ago regarding the fact she has changed her story about her visit with President Bush--first he was sincere in his condolences then he was completely agenda driven and cold. The whole story is summed up here in the Vallejo Times Herald and here's Drudge's piece too.

Apparently Drudge has the rest of Casey's family on his side, giving another black eye to the political hay the Democrats are trying to make over her activism.

'Over There,' way out there

2005-07-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

The ridiculous supposedly "apolitical" show "Over There" about fighting in Iraq, has had plenty of critics (along with the producers) saying it is gut-wrenching and "true to life." The very fact that a critic who has never been to Iraq as a soldier would make this assessment is laughable. Unfortunately, the series seems to be anything but in it's assumptions and errors. To a liberal, "apolitical" just means they act out what they "know" is the truth.

Photo: Gilbert W. Arias/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"In a preview of "Over There" at Camp Murray in Tacoma, 1st Lt. Eva Sovelenko reacts to a scene as Sgt. John Figueroa looks on."

But one reporter at the Seattle P.I. seemed to be just as suspicious and did what should have been done all along: asked the soldiers what they thought (what a concept!).

M.L. Lyke of the PI spent time with soldiers at Camp Murry (national guard base near Tacoma) as they previewed the first installment of "Over There." Their responses were stunning!

A truck tire hits a flagged wire, a roadside bomb explodes, a handsome private with shredded leg screams in agony. In the bloody chaos of the moment, his soldier buddies panic. One pukes...

..."People don't act like that when an i.e.d. (improvised explosive device) goes off. They make us look like idiots. We're not idiots!" said a first lieutenant previewing "Over There," the new TV series from Steven Bochco ("NYPD Blue," "Hill Street Blues") that debuts tomorrow night on FX cable network. It's set in Iraq, hyped as "true to life" by producers and hailed by critics as "unflinching" and "gut-wrenching."

"Bogus" was the preferred adjective among the eight soldiers -- most of them Iraq vets -- viewing the series pilot last week at Camp Murray...

Making American soldiers out to be (what amounts to) idiots is a favorite pastime of the left. They just can't imagine a 17-year-old American "boy" taking on all that responsibility and keeping his nerve. They are instead painted as desperate kids who signed up to escape a slum or get their education paid for. Nobody signs up because they want to serve unless they are some privileged brat with a senator for a dad. This calls for another story—lets have a reporter hang out at a recruiting office and ask any random recruit why he is joining.

To bring this home, one good friend who I sang with in high school choir went to Iraq (is still there) without his driver’s license. Being a gunner, he has since had to watch one of his buddies burn to death in one attack while remaining calm in order to cover his evacuation... Did someone say something about panic? This is someone younger than me, who hasn't even taken a civilian drivers test and he has already dealt with more than others can imagine...and overcome it.

To be honest, I'm worried about the damage this series will do to the perception of our military. It's not that the public would get hostile to the military as a result, but it still fosters a stark fatalism that is greatly at odds with the spirit of our military personnel.

For me, I can already safely assume I won't be watching it, not having any access to it in the first place--but a bunch of good people like yourselves will also help out and keep those ratings low right?

Exercising ignorance

2005-07-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

An utterly ridiculous commentary made its way into the LA Times today. Jonathan Chait has a bit of beef with a president who considers exercise important:

Bush can bench press 185 pounds five times, and, before a recent knee injury, he ran three miles at a 6-minute, 45-second pace. That's better than I could manage when I played two sports in high school. And I wasn't holding the most powerful office on Earth. Which is sort of my point: Does the leader of the free world need to attain that level of physical achievement?...

...My guess is that Bush associates exercise with discipline, and associates a lack of discipline with his younger, boozehound days. "The president," said Fleischer, "finds [exercise] very healthy in terms of … keeping in shape. But it's also good for the mind." The notion of a connection between physical and mental potency is, of course, silly. (Consider all the perfectly toned airheads in Hollywood — or, perhaps, the president himself.)

What a bogus thing to say. Since when did "all the perfectly toned airheads in Hollywood" bench press 185 pounds five times and run three miles at a 6-minute, 45-second pace. I doubt most of the actors in Hollywood could even run three miles without having a stroke or something. To make such an argument that mental and physical discipline aren't related is not a little spurious.

Fit though he is, as are most of our recent Republican presidents (no coincidence there I'm sure), I like to think Bush is just a small reflection of the impressive Father of physically fit presidents, Theodore Roosevelt. T.R was a lot closer to fanatical about exercise than any of us will ever know.

Crossposted at Head West, Turn Right

If you care enough about that...

2005-07-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

So while you are good and inflamed about the latest outrage of WSU or perhaps still rumbling about the Supreme Court decision, Kelo v. New London, denying property rights to home owners in favor of the "public good," believe it or not, there are those out there who are not quite as concerned about those issues. They have found something much more important to rant about: a reporter who went to jail...

The New York Times reporter, Judith Miller refused to reveal her source in the face of a subpoena and has been jailed as a result. The Reporter's Committee for the Freedom of the Press (among others) has taken upon itself to the call foul and start a petition "in support of her decision."

I'm going to take the easy course, refrain from doing any deep thesis piece on the "reporter's privilege," and simply note the obvious exercise in futility.

WSU plays dirty

2005-07-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

Imagine this: a group of 40 hecklers are paid to go and shout out threats at the actors in a "controversial" student play... Sound far-fetched? Think again.

This from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education:

On April 21, 2005, Lee and his student cast performed the final production of Passion of the Musical, a play they had widely publicized as being potentially “offensive or inflammatory to all audiences.” During the play, a group of 40 student protestors repeatedly stood up, shouted about being offended, and verbally threatened audience members and the cast. FIRE has obtained a document confirming that administrators at Washington State’s Office for Campus Involvement (OCI) purchased the hecklers’ tickets.

Read the full story on their site, but don't bite your cheek too hard!

'Batman' and Straw Man (spoiler alert)

2005-07-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching Batman Begins and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The acting was great. The effects were great and there was originality throughout. Granted, the music was unimpressive, contributing little beyond dark bombasticity--which is disappointing, since I heard Howard Shore and Hans Zimmer collaborated to compose it. It's one of the few movies from which I've come away without recalling one memorable bar.

But there's plenty more to say, as became evident when my friends and I left the theater and had a "parking lot philosophy" discussion about some of the themes which turned us to capital punishment and similar topics. I decided I needed to explore some of my negative reactions to the movie and the way it deals with the issues we discussed.

First of all, there's the portrayal of bad guy Liam Neesen's character. The taste left in my mouth is not just a fantastical bad guy striving with a clear conscience for the destruction of a city. I see also a bad guy who is simply striving, according to the film maker's view, toward what is the logical conclusion of a conservative (Texan? Cowboy?) sense of justice. Let me just say that the early introduction to Liam Neesen's character made me want to stand up and cheer. Quotes like, "criminals thrive off the understanding of society" really animated my sense of justice and got me initially on his side. I was impressed.

Perhaps my surprise when our hero turns his back on him was not the intended emotion of the director. At a scene where it is a simple matter of executing a murderer, our hero suddenly starts insisting on a litany of extra hurdles like a full-blown trial.

Now before I get too far along, there is no doubt that--looking at the big picture--the "league of shadows" is a twisted bunch. They have a huge self-importance complex, along with a Godless philosophy. Also, my judgment of Bruce's insistence on refusing the "executioner role" changes when he is back in Western society (explanation farther down). But I can't ignore the minor fact that the bad guys look, at one point, like Lockean purists. Is this just an accident? I don't know. If it isn't, I can't help but think the director has painted a picture that initially looks like what I saw (the Lockean purist) and then makes the case that there is only one logical conclusion to that way of thinking (the twisted blow-up-cities conclusion).

Finally, if I were to pick apart the specific situation facing Bruce at his botched initiation into the "league," I would have to say he made the wrong decision. Here's why:

His primary argument against following through seems to be about due process. With all due respect to due process, I must say this is an admirable impulse--albeit misplaced. For here he is in the middle of nowhere (the Himalayas!) with the closest thing to established government being the league he is joining--what kind of due process can he expect? I'm reminded of a memorable John Wayne quote from The Green Berets: "Out here, due process is a bullet." Even more importantly, I'm reminded of John Locke when he says in his Second Treatise of Government:

And thus it is, that every man, in the state of nature*, has the power to kill a murderer, both to deter others from doing the like injury, which no reparation can compensate...(*Note: Locke's state of nature is one with no government, where the laws of nature, and I would add, nature's God, are the only rule, and all men are free, equal, and independent within the bounds of the law of nature.)...and also to secure men from the attempts of a criminal, who having renounced reason, the common rule and measure God hath given to mankind, hath by the unjust violence and slaughter he hath committed upon one, declared war against all mankind; and therefore may be destroyed as a lion or a tiger, one of those wild savage beasts, with whom men can have no society nor security: And upon this is grounded the great law of nature, "Whoso sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed." And Cain was so fully convinced that everyone had a right to destroy such a criminal, that after the murder of his brother, he cries out, "Every one that findeth me shall slay me;" so plain was it writ in the hearts of all mankind.

If someone has any doubts about how influential was Locke's thinking on our founding documents, especially the Declaration of Independence, just let them read the complete Second Treatise and the Declaration and see if they can come away thinking Locke was just a crock.

I don't have the knowledge or credibility to claim the 'Batman' directors tried to denigrate Lockean justice using a Straw Man argument. So for now I guess I'll just be content with pointing you to the potantial.

I'm sure Robin will replace Straw Man as the sidekick in the next one.

Crossposted at Meneltarma

O'Connor's notice

2005-07-01T22:51:00.000-07:00

Now let the insanity begin.

If the first retirement has to be one of the conservative bloc, it might as well be O'Connor because her checkered career is more ambiguity than brilliance. At least she her move was made on a positive note--right after her solid defense of private property in the recent Connecticut case--although she shared much of that lost-cause-glory with justice Thomas.

Congress at its best

2005-06-18T01:14:00.000-07:00

This is what I call teeth!

From the AP:

Culminating years of frustration with the performance and behavior of the United Nations, the House voted Friday to slash U.S. contributions to the world body if it does not substantially change the way it operates.

The 221-184 vote, which came despite a Bush administration warning that such a move could actually sabotage reform efforts, was a strong signal from Congress that a policy of persuasion wasn't enough to straighten out the U.N.

I think the Bush administration has the wrong goal. They are operating under the assumption that the UN could be a credible authority in the world with just a few changes here and there. That way, if this passes the Senate, and UN doesn't follow through (I almost hope they don't), the current feelings of loathing for this world body might be put to even greater use to completely discredit and neutralize this farce of government (as if they aren't well on their way already).

The UN is simply hearing the voice of the American people in this vote. They ignore it at their peril.

Crossposted at Head West, Turn Right

Pictures from D.C.

2005-06-15T03:53:00.000-07:00

The trip was awesome. Plenty of great new ideas, running around on the metro at all hours of the night, new friends and the opportunity to rub elbows with the conservative movement's finest.

Myself (left) with the great Phyllis Schlafly and my traveling partner Joshua.

I took this at Union Station, where we had our pizza party on Thursday.

This is the inestimable Mike Adams who I mentioned being excited to hear in person. Yes I did get my book signed and he really is really awesome. (excuse the understatement)

The fact that we are represented by Rep. Larsen is compounded in this tragic picture as Joshua and I come face to face with the truth.

This random shot of a few us making our way out of the Library of Congress with Joe Calandra from Human Events (center right).

Finals and a trip

2005-06-08T00:30:00.000-07:00

My finals are over and now I'm headed to Washington D.C. in a matter of hours.

For those who are interested, I'm going to Eagle Forum's Collegiate Summit this Thursday and Friday. It should be a good trip and I'm hoping to bring some pictures back. The potential highlight of the conference itself is that the inestimable Dr. Mike Adams will be speaking. I'm bringing along my copy of Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel just for the chance to get it signed.

Cheers one and all. Be back on Monday.

Deep throated, over rated

2005-06-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

As a general rule, I think the media needs to lay off the deep throat story. For one, there are many people out there who haven't a clue who deep throat or Bob Woodward were. Also, the glory days of the Watergate exposure might have gotten dimmer since Mr. Felt revealed himself as the mysterious anonymous source nick-named "deep throat." Felt was passed over for the director's spot at the FBI. I don't know if that motivated him to squeal but I'm not comfortable with saying he's a hero. Lastly, the public is not about to be impressed with anonymous sources after Newsweek's bumbling.

The media has toned it down a little since the story first broke in Vanity Fair, but they would do well to just forget about it. The journalism department here at Western is one of the few conclaves of interest in such issues. Yesterday I overheard another journalism student complaining that so few of her friends know who deep throat was. I just laughed.

If journalists could stop being journalists for a day and still do their jobs, they would see the truth: it's not that big a story to ordinary people--don't cover it too much.

Planning ahead

2005-06-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

Just a little housekeeping info:

I plan to keep the blog up over the summer to some degree. I don't know what degree that will turn out to be, because I know I personally will not be taking summer classes.

Be sure to send a note our way if you are interested in contributing next year or if you just have ideas or comments you'd like to see implimented in the next go-around.

Oregon Daily Emerald: 10 reasons not to kill Bush

2005-05-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

A recent commentary in the Oregon Daily Emerald, a newspaper at the University of Oregon, made its way into the Drudge Report today. The provocative title, "10 reasons not to kill Bush," probably had more than a little part to play in attracting that kind of attention.

While written from a liberal perspective, I found the column by Jennifer McBride to be extremely refreshing and perceptive.

In all seriousness, I don't hate President Bush. I dislike a lot of his administration's choices, but I think he's a good man doing a difficult job. As a leader, you're always going to be hated. I am too often shocked by the vitriolic repulsion many people feel for our leader and America in general, especially because the loathing is often poorly informed. I've met people on this campus who see America as the worst human rights abuser in the world (unlike the angelic paradise of Cambodia) and people who sway liberal not because they actually know anything about issues but because it's popular.

If you want to see the original at the Daily Emerald's site, here's the link. If the site is really slow (as it was with me), the link at the top is faster.

Front opinion: Newsweek and anonymous sources

2005-05-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

My last commentary for this quarter in The Western Front is up online. The angle I took on the Newsweek lunicy is hardly my only thoughts on the issue--it's probably one aspect of the issue with which many liberals might agree: mainstream media needs to stop using anonymous sources as a staple.

Give it a read, for what it's worth.

World's biggest spamfest?

2005-05-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

Earlier today I paid a visit to the AS Review and was just in time to be interviewed for an article Landis is working on. It was about a big protest that is planned for June 1. In fact it was titled "World's biggest protest." The focus is on Bush, calling for his removal from office, and reiterating all of the same ultra-liberal lines about war for oil, war crimes, etc.

I gave her a few lines about how they aren't saying anything new and they just like to protest and it's not going to accomplish anything.

It wasn't until later that I realized what the event actually consists of. The event is a completely online protest, by email. The goal is to encourage people to email hundreds of media news desks and politicians requesting Bush's removal and investigation.

It seems almost laughable to me. I hate to break it to you, but swamping the media with email is probably not the protest wave of the future. In fact, I would venture the guess that thousands of emails in one day about removing Bush from office will probably not help the cause even with those who oppose Bush. Rather, it will make the recipients mad. I know at least for myself, getting hundreds of emails in one day with the same old info I've heard hundreds of times could get really frustrating.

The other part I find humorous is the fact that there is almost no advertising for this event. I'll be interested to see if they really get the huge response they expect. Even if they do, how will people know all of the emails aren't from one person with 20,000 email addresses?

I guess I think the event is silly. But I'm interested to see if and how the media responds to the massive influx of spam. I'm also interested to see how Landis frames her article. She seemed to think the idea was somewhat crazy too.

By the way, the event seems to be run by the "Independent Media Center" who apparently just opened a branch here in Bellingham. After searching online I found a copy of the flier Landis showed me but with a different title here.

Oh, and I just found the one for Bellingham here.

Think before you call foods racist

2005-05-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

I typically don't read the AS Review every week but today I was eating lunch in Arntzen and it happened to be sitting on the table. When I got to the last page I knew the fun was about to begin. Unfortunately, the AS Review does not appear to publish their articles online.... so get your copy of the May 23 while it's hot.

In fact, you may want to obtain your copy before reading this, but it's your choice.

The article is by Johanna Landis and is titled "Think before you eat racist pastries" It's so scandalous that I can't decide where to begin.

First of all, it appears poor Johanna was observing us for a fairly long period of time at the bake sale but never actually talked to a single CR. Either that, or she just didn't think our views jived with her thesis. I mean, unless she was using binoculars and earplugs or something...

Second, although she can certainly dish it out, she apparently doesn’t understand sarcasm when she sees it from others. This could end up being a problem for her. She claims the pricing of the foods was supposed to be less offensive than actually affirmative action. But that was honestly never the point. The point was to be offensive. What she ignores is that we were saying that we were offended by it too. I guess we should be glad she was offended, but disappointed that she couldn't catch our sarcastic point that affirmative action is no less offensive as our bake sale pricing.

Third, she makes false assumptions that could easily have been cleared up had she asked any one of us.

We were not trying to hide our intentions or the situation. Our original pricing plan was not shot down by higher-ups in the VU. We were threatened (or maybe just warned) by the Dean of Students and some token minority (I have no clue who he was or why he came with the dean, but maybe that was why. I don't mean it to be offensive. That’s just what it looked like).

But not only by them, but also by I-200 through which affirmative action has been made illegal in this state. Newsflash: affirmative action has been made illegal in this state. Yup, it is 100% illegal. The second assumption was regarding our pricing, which is really laughable because there was no specific implication between what was lower and what was higher price, the thing we were just trying to show was the stupidity of having different colors at different prices. In fact, I willingly pointed out that you could interpret our pricing many different ways and none of them was correct (besides, most of the "white" students bought brownies). Also, as a personal note, I'll argue with you that those lemon bars were easily worth a dollar for 6 of them as opposed to 50 cents for 1 brownie.

Fourth, she refers to our medium items as "swirled white and chocolate." I don't think we had swirled anything… She also referred to our "dark" items as "all-chocolate" although there were nuts in some of them.

Fifth, she "newsflashes" on our suggestion that maybe socioeconomic status should be used instead of race in affirmative action. But her newsflash never does anything to rebut the point.

Sixth, she ignores one of our main purposes in the "building a platform" department. She ignores it because she apparently never came within voice shot. We gave away two pieces of literature. One was the handout she came across somehow, the other was the information about the debate between Dinesh D'Souza and Tim Wise which was happening the following evening. Apparently in her eyes, getting people interested or offended one day and inviting them to come hear a solution the next is the same as providing no "platform" at all.

Landis seemed to miss a fundamental part of this demonstration against affirmative action. Ok, at least six of them. But I can't sit around all day and argue with her. It's funny that with most people during the sale, the same questions and objections popped into their heads, and we feel like we responded to them in an open manner even if we didn't change our overall views, and neither did the ones asking the questions.

Our main goal of the bake sale was to open a dialogue and get people talking, discussing and learning from each other about where our ideas might not be as strong as we thought. Even if it wasn't their intention, I would still have to thank the Anti-Racist White Student Union for being very respectful and working toward that goal. Unfortunately, that seems about as far as possible from Landis' main goal. I would venture to guess that she would rather call Republicans racist than discuss ideas with them. That’s not much of a guess though, because that's what she did.

Also don't forget that you can't sell your own non-racially assigned pastries on Vendors' Row, unless you do it as a club, or you pay $20.

The art of affirmative action bake sales

2005-05-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

You always start to wonder when a group supporting affirmative action just happens to show up right next to you, and happens to be giving away free baked goods, if there isn't some scheme to undermine you.

I propose to them either they just flat-out announce that they believe the college republicans are racist or change their name to the Anti-Racist Anti-College-Republican White Student Union. But I guess at a more important level, their attempt to undermine the CRs actually worked the opposite way.

We may have been negative on profits, but for most of the day we had attracted a mob of people just waiting for us to say something they could be offended by (ok, no one actually said something to that effect, but that was the vibe I got from a lot of the "customers").

It was really interesting to me to hear the arguments people would come up with to suggest that affirmative action is necessary. It tended to start with the question, "are you aware that affirmative action is already illegal in this state?"--as if we would be surprised by it after talking to people all day (or maybe we would decide our goal was accomplished and leave). It always opened the door for us to get into a conversation with the upper hand. For instance, "yes we know that; that's exactly why we can't sell with affirmative action pricing." Or maybe, "yes, that's a good start (outlawing it in Washington), but it is still an accepted policy across the nation, which goes to show that it clearly isn't just a conservative or republican issue.

Another tact was to ask about legacy scholarships? That's a good question but it doesn't apply as far as I can tell. It seems like an attempt to trap someone and say they're racist. The answer is that legacy scholarships aren't covered by affirmative action and we're not talking about them. But we would be willing to consider whether or not they are good. It just doesn't have any bearing on the issue.

Then there are the arguments that affirmative action is intended specifically as reparations for slavery, which, if true, is a poor solution because it's not targeted at all. But if you respond like this, they immediately go for the "you don't think slavery hurt people" angle, which (in case you were wondering) is not what we were saying at all. We were saying that it is wrong to hurt some people in order to atone for what someone with the same skin color of their great, great grandparents might have done to someone else with the same skin color of their great, great grandchildren...

We usually seemed to arrive at just the conclusion we were hoping for: The "customer" understanding that we weren't racist, and that we care about quality of life and success for minorities. We just don't think affirmative action is helping. Rather, it is hurting that cause. But we are definitely open to looking for better solutions and helping promote real change. Of course, they agreed with us on the last part, but not the first.

When it was all said and done, we were not perceived as racist...for the most part.

Dave Johnson lecture wrap

2005-05-24T01:46:00.000-07:00

All things considered, a lot of credit goes to Joel for ramrodding a last minute advertising campaign in red square. We had more than a dozen people spread around in that classroom. Thanks Joel!

Mr. Johnson made some good points. The talk was centered on his latest polling data (found here at his Web site). The data points to a growing disillusionment with the Democratic Party. The Democrats have, so far, lost the public relations war, Johnson said, starting with when some suggested "cherry picking" certain counties for hand recounts.

Mr. Johnson said election court challenges will be the wave of the future, building on a polarized political climate and the Florida and Washington precedents. He quoted Howard Dean as tagging Washington State as the Democratic model for dealing with close races last week at Cornell University. (I'm out trying to verify that --Johnson said no one reported it except the college paper).

Thanks to Mr. Johnson for making a second effort after missing the first attempt. Much appreciation for the informative talk and Q/A session.

David Johnson Speaking at Western Today

2005-05-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

That's right, Pollster, political analyst, and CEO, David Johnson, who was previously scheduled to speak here in April but had to cancel due to food poisoning, will be giving his interpretation of the events surrounding november's gubenatorial election.
Unfortunately, due to a situation, there hasn't been an email about it to the college republicans yet. Which only means it will be harder to advertise.
The event will be at 6pm in miller 104 tonight.

Skin workings

2005-05-21T00:49:00.000-07:00

You've noticed changes by now...

My main goal before this last round of work, amateur that I am, was to accomplish one thing: add a second sidebar. I'm pretty inexperienced and am forced to work through problems by examining other people's code and then implementing the ideas through trial and error--so, twenty-four hours later, we have two sidebars, more space, and some art from pictures I took just a matter of hours ago on campus. The title-art is a work in progress, as I figure out new ways of implementing the Western scene.

If you have feedback or suggestions on the layout and/or art, just shoot an email our way.

Front opinion: McConnell v. Le Moyne college

2005-05-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

Today's issue of The Western Front has my latest commentary on Scott McConnell, his expulsion from Le Moyne and his subsequent $20 million lawsuit against the college.

The article titled "College should allow all viewpoints" is not intended to justify McConnell's lawsuit--indeed, I think it is excessive. True, I think he probably didn't deserve to be expelled, but I fail to see where $20 million should play a role in rectifying the problem. While Le Moyne is a private, Jesuit college with the right to dismiss whoever they want, they are looking ever so hypocritical by pretending to be inclusive and then kicking someone out at the first sign of anti-PC. If they are discriminatory about what they allow students to believe on something as simple as classroom discipline, they should just say that and be done with it.

Anyway...here I go, saying what I could have said in the article.

Comparing 'Sith' to politics; can the temptation be resisted?

2005-05-19T02:58:00.000-07:00

So, after declining my invitation to the 3 a.m. showing (I came home after the midnight one instead), I couldn't help but click on the link to a review. What I found was a shame. A "review" of the movie that basically just said it was not a great movie and was all a political analogy and since you've all seen A New Hope you know the rest.

I'm not saying that comparing star wars to contemporary politics is a bad thing, or that it shouldn't be done (it most obviously will). Just that doing it in the form of a "review" of a new film is really biased and out of place no matter how you interpret it. Lucas didn't just write the film and decide to make it about today's politics, it's pre-scripted sci-fi.

Shame on writers and news sources who feel that review readers would much rather hear half of the review as a critique of modern politics as opposed to some kind of discussion of the merits of the film itself.

Maybe I'm a little harsh on the guy, but half of the review is definately too long to dwell on the subject. And it was positioned in such a way as to appear to be the main review for MSN.

Could we please just let Star Wars be Star Wars for at least a few days or weeks before tainting it with politics? After that we can let the outrageous comparisons fly. Besides, if Republicans are the dark side and democrats are the Jedi and Anakin is the american public being duped into supporting the wrong side. Then we know what the democrats might have in store for us. Sorry, I just had to.

oh, here's the link

Affirmative action, part 2

2005-05-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the ultimate exposé of liberal political correctness on campus... Gasps whenever Dinesh would say something wild like, "the founders weren't racists." ... You get the point. I, having already read many of his arguments, was glad enough to see what the real reaction is when they are employed.

I'm sorry I don't have good pictures of the actual debate--I couldn't deflash my China-made camera.

Ok, so the real exciting part was meeting Dinesh and having him sign my copy of "What's So Great About America." Then there's the photo-op with yours truly.

STEPPING BACKWARD

Yesterday, the college republicans did a little Affirmative Action bake sale...

Just doing their part to promote the debate. This has become a common activity for conservatives on many campuses across America. Most operate by selling cheaper to colored customers and more expensive to whites. It was made clear to the CRs, in no uncertain terms, that this type of activity would not be tolerated and would be shut down, were it attempted. Instead, they settled on just calling it an Affirmative Action bake sale (as an attention grabber) and selling the different baked goods for different prices.

(Liam, Steve and Justin discuss Affirmative Action with various "customers.")

Joel was there most of the time--I'm going to leave him to provide any details of the event.

Affirmative action in action

2005-05-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

There's an affirmative action debate to take place tomorrow featuring the great (excuse the blatant bias) author, Dinesh D'Souza and author Tim Wise. I won't go into a ton of detail about them but here are the details of the event:

Debate on racism with Dinesh D'Souza & Tim Wise
Hosted by The Civil Controversy Series

Time and Place:
Date: Wednesday, May 18
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Viking Union Multi-Purpose Room
Western Washington University
516 High Street, Bellingham

Contact Info:
Phone: 360.650.2526

School-yard politics

2005-05-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

Just a little notice regarding an active comment string. Check the comments on the April 17 post "Childish tactics." It's regarding the politics of judicial appointments. Some of the comments are interesting and I thought I'd point them out and see if anyone wants to chime in.

The other side of politics

2005-05-11T00:12:00.000-07:00

As the battle over the Washington governorship continues to play out, so does the satirical and fun side.

Accounting students at Washington State U switched from numbers to word-smithing when Gregoire came to call their commencement ceremony. Kudos to the graduates for the creative and deft jab.

Others have taken to merchandising slogans like the one below.

(Click for a larger version at Cafepress)

I'll let you judge it for what it's worth. The obvious hole is that no Republican would think it's funny if our female governor and senators were Republicans. Yes, some humor can be better directed.

Hat-tip to designer Clint

It's how you use it

2005-05-10T23:09:00.000-07:00

As an educator, this pushes my buttons.
This cheers me up, but only just.

I worry about our higher education institutions. I foresee a day in the not-too-distant future, when colleges such as Western Washington University, entangled by their own beauracracy, endeavor to cut costs by eliminating admissions essay readers. Instead, they think to themselves, we will use the national standard set by the essay-writing portion of the SAT. Surely the National Board knows what they are doing. Floods of letter-jacketed newbies, released into the college pool and reassured by the national standard scores, will be in for a sore surprise when they realize that their professors and future employers care more about content than length.

Scrap the SAT essays, and focus instead on teaching our kids how to write for content. And if you insist on testing writing skills in this way, at least provide correct information for the students to base their essays on, so they have no excuse if they fall flat on their facts.

Abortion article disregards a lot of other stuff

2005-05-07T18:30:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: to clear up the confusion you can now click here to see the original article.

***

Being a fairly adamant pro-life person, I'm always disappointed to see only pro-choice articles in the opinion section of The Western Front. But at the same time, it doesn't seem like a rare enough occurrence to write home about.

However, for as accusing as the tone of the article was, it seemed filled with just plain unfounded and fuzzy-logic arguments. I'd like to point out and comment on a few of the highlights and then leave you with a chance to pray for the state of The Western Front (I had to work the National Day of Prayer in there somewhere).

"Conservatives should not use their political power to attack constitutional provisions granting women the right to choose.

"House Republicans successfully passed H.R. 748, or the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, Wednesday."

Actually, 54 democrat representatives voted in favor of the bill. It wasn't just the republican representatives pushing through the bill with their majority.

"The bill would represent the fifth measure aimed at reducing the number of abortions since President Bush took office in 2001, according to the article."

It seems to me like a ton of liberal democrats are in favor of reducing the number of abortions, what's wrong with that?

"Parental consent laws are unnecessary for stable and supportive families, and they are ineffective for unstable families."

I guess she's implying that the vast majority of families are one or the other? I'd guess that the vast majority are somewhere in between where the laws could definitely be a benefit (not that they wouldn't in the two above situations).

"Women do not have abortions as a matter of convenience, but as a matter of necessity."

That's simply not true. Maybe it's possible that there are some instances where it's a matter of necessity but it's outright false to call all abortions a matter of necessity.

"Parental consent laws for abortions will only have negative consequences."

Riiiiight.

And just when you thought you had seen it all, Kuck clearly outlines the logic behind the article for all to examine.

"Whether abortions should be legal relies on the answer to the question of whether and at what point a fetus is a person. The answer to this question is based on a person's beliefs.
Separation of church and state reflects the American value that citizens do not want their government to decide their beliefs for them. This is why abortion needs to remain a personal choice."

It took me a while to grasp the logic of this sequence, but once I did I realized the whole basis for her abortion views is quite simple.
whether abortion should be legal = when/if fetus is a person
When/if fetus is a person = a belief
then because of separation of church and state
Constitutional rules =/= anything that comes from a belief
Constitutional rules trump other laws
Therefore the "Constitutional provisions" providing for legal abortion should not be subject to whether they should be legal or not. That's a stretch of logic if I've ever seen one.

After that she goes on though and makes the accusation:

"What is important to understand is that an argument is taking place between legislators in the federal government using religious beliefs to deteriorate the constitutional rights Roe v. Wade established."

Whoa now. Where did the "religious" part come in? Kuck, with no shred of backup in her article suddenly makes parental consent laws something based on religious beliefs.

Finally:

"While conservatives usually advocate less government control in other areas, such as social programs and the economy, they are pushing for more government control regarding what a woman does with her own body."

Actually, they are putting more government control regarding what doctors and other non-parents do with a young girl's body (and that of her baby) without the parent's permission.

The bottom line, I guess, is that I don't mind arguing with an article that supports abortion rights. No big deal. But this article doesn't even give support for abortion. It throws out a few outrageous statements, ignores some facts, and uses a contorted logic to demonstrate the cause's immunity from anyone's ideas or beliefs. I'm not sure why the Front chose to print that article but I am really hoping that the Front is moving toward and not away from better quality of opinion letters. I'd also like to encourage Ms. Kuck to look deeper into what the church and state issue was really about.

Election wrap-up...this time for real

2005-05-07T00:22:00.000-07:00

AS presidential candidates Tony Russo (left) and Nick Cizek (right) begin presenting their cases during the final grievance hearing on Thursday, April 28. After Russo's resulting disqualification, Cizek decided to drop his own candidacy, giving the victory to Shannon Hutchinson after Wednesday's run-off made it official.

The election is finally over. Read up on Peter's latest Front coverage. Cizek's official statement for dropping out is included.

UC 'tent university' commentary

2005-05-06T13:49:00.000-07:00

The Western Front has a rare conservative commentary in the current issue. I wish I could say it is on something really applicable to Western students--I'm allowed to criticize it because I wrote it...

But I'll not go too far without letting you read it for yourself.

AS Board of Directors upholds disqualification

2005-05-04T01:23:00.000-07:00

For an update on the election, check out Peter's latest story in the Front.

Very interesting statements by Peter Graves and there could be more developments. I'm checking into it. Stay tuned.

New lounge use policy

2005-05-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

Apologies to our readers for not taking this issue in hand sooner. If you are in the CCF or ResLife community, you have probably already heard of the new lounge policy or even been involved already. We'd love to hear from you if you have, so please write in and let us know your thoughts.
For those of you off campus or simply unaware, there has been some spice lately in the AS Board meetings concerning the new "lounge use" policy recently approved by ResLife. Joel has been doing some research into this, as have I, and what we have discovered bears repeating.

The Background:
Formerly, common areas in the dorms were open to any student group, any time, with the exception of certain reservations made by Hall Council. If you wanted to use the lounge, you just showed up with your group and claimed it. If it was already busy, you went somewhere else, no big deal. Now, it appears that some residents have felt "unwelcome" in their lounges due to "regular reservations" by student groups.

The Impact:
Technically, large group activities wanting to use the lounge should reserve these common areas through the Hall Council. However, this issue seems to be hard to pin down primarily because some groups do not formally "reserve" a lounge for activities, but rather plan on meeting on a regular basis without going through any channels of residence authority. Without setting up a regular schedule of lounge use time, which is counterproductive in most halls since it negates the purpose of a "common area," I see little resolution in store. Yet, with a schedule, it is inevitable that some groups will be excluded from the roster due to space and time restrictions. Based on the priorities and limitations for reservation, groups such as Bible studies and even academic study groups may be excluded from the possibility of reserving space.

This issue has an impact on a number of student groups, notably Campus Christian Fellowship, whose small groups - known as "cores" - meet weekly, often in the lounges in question. If the policy is approved as it stands now, core groups would not be able to plan ahead more than a week in advance, leaving many of their members at a great disadvantage. And what of groups who require the use of equipment that can only be found in the lounge, such as certain sports equipment or a television? Would these groups be forced to disband because of a lack of access?

The Politics:
The policy regarding lounge use has so far remained the same, with the addition of two points. The first addendum as I understand it, is merely a rephrasing of the inclusion policy, stating that "You may not angage in any activity that is not open to all residents." It is the second addition that seems to be causing most of the fervor among the campus groups: "All residence halls with more than one lounge must maintain at least 50% of lounges open to non-scheduled use. For any hall with one lounge, the hall council may not restrict scheduled use to less than 20% of available time." (taken from a handout from the April 27th AS Board meeting)

These additions are in response to oral and written feedback that residents have felt on a consistant basis that they have been excluded from their own lounges due to the activities of groups that meet on a regular basis (i.e. every Wednesday evening) such as Bible studies or pool afficianados.

One Woman's Opinion:
The three years I lived in the dorms (Nash and Kappa) and attended a core group, this was never an issue. There were always lounges available, and we often relocated if our normal lounge was busy. I think this is molehill turned mountainous based on isolated cases of lounge-hogging. Reservations for lounges, filtered and sifted through the fine grate of the hall council and ResLife, will be limited to Hall Council-planned activities and little else. The policy will have become one of "if we can't use it, no one can." which benefits no one and harms all.

Russo disqualified, run-off scheduled

2005-04-29T15:08:00.000-07:00

The election board ruled last night on four separate grievances by various candidates. All but the two involving Cizek and Russo were dismissed. Both candidates were found guilty of all the charges brought against them. The only action taken by the board was to disqualify Russo for violations of three sections of the elections code.

The election results, which were announced a couple hours after the ruling, made it clear Russo would have won with approximately 57 percent of the vote. He said he is planning an appeal.

The code-mandated run-off between Hutchinson and Cizek is scheduled for Wednesday, April 4 (next week).

***

That's the short answer many students already know since it was in The Western Front this morning--thanks to fellow Front reporter Peter Jensen and myself. We stayed the whole time and when he offered to let me take part of the story for the Front, I couldn't resist--this was big stuff and there's nothing like staying up all night on deadline.

Unfortunately...

Because I covered the story for the Front, I need to refrain from commentary at the moment on the events of last night to avoid ethical conflicts. Rest assured that last night was pretty straightforward and you probably didn't miss a whole lot by just listening to the facts, after the fact.

Stay tuned.

Be sure to check the Front article.

National Grievance Filing Day?

2005-04-28T17:25:00.000-07:00

Emotions are running like crazy today, and the sad thing is that most students walking through red square don't realize it…even the ones who are voting.
The latest number I heard was five. Five grievances have been filed by AS candidates today. Hearings will commence at 7 (when the polls close) and go until decided. This whole situation is just plain not pretty.

You know how when you campaign with a group on election day there is the line you can't cross and there's always a person in the group that's paranoid about people crossing it? But no one ever does. Picture that they allow posters inside the polling area but no candidates with signs or any form of campaigning, and picture thousands of people just passing through the polling areas, and maybe this whole deal won't sound like such a fluke to you.

Here's the rundown of today's grievances filed as I've been told by a few of the candidates:

Nick (maybe Shannon too?) against Tony (it may be the one about handing out candidate statements for the presidential race while holding Russo signs that was filed yesterday). All I know is Tony appears to be freaking out about it and if you see him you'll understand what I mean--he looks like it.

Tony filed against Nick for a comment about decreasing tuition when he really just lobbied for a lower increase (sounds similar to accusations I've heard in other types of political debates)

(Christy Valle?) and Brian Perrow filed against Alanna (forgot last name) because of a supporter handing out handbills in red square during the polling.

Same as above for one of Alanna's posters that was blown down by wind, I'm not sure the exact story but apparently supporters folded the poster up and did not make a reasonable effort to leave red square with the campaign material expediently, instead walking the long way across campus. (they claim to have pictures that they will present at the hearings)

Monira against Mark Iozzi for the same handbill in the grievance against Alanna case (I'm sure you may have noticed their names together on a lot of material).

It's been an hour or more too, so who knows what the final number will be (although the candidates are currently being extremely cautious and uptight).

I am certainly thankful at this point that I am not on the election board because there are no set policies as far as actions for the board to take when they find a candidate guilty of an election code violation after the voting is concluded. From what I have been told they have authority to level any punishment they see reasonable. From what I've seen, the election board doesn't seem to be very forgiving. So it appears reasonable to assume that there will be at least one guilty verdict. The only punishments I have been able to imagine are public apology and removal from the race. What happens then though? Because this was not instant runoff voting, does second place become prez/VP? or do we have another election?

The hearings start at 7pm in the VU (not sure which room but if you're there on time it shouldn't be hard to get the info).

Media lingo 101

2005-04-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

"There is no reflection of reality in the mainstream media. The New York Times is completely biased."

There are things to keep in mind when speaking to journalism students. Mainly, it's a matter of knowing the vocabulary. For instance, most journalism students are very adamant about the inherent bias of the media.

"Oh," you say. "What's wrong with that? Don't we all think the mainstream media has a bias?"

Absolutely, and journalism students are the first to stand up and say it's wrong to do biased reporting. It's so simple: report the facts, interview both sides of the issue at hand and don't have a conflict of interest.

Not so simple.

First of all, the media bias the student is talking about is a right-wing bias.

"Huh?" you say.

Take my mass media history class this quarter. I don't think I've ever taken a class that took me so deep into the mindset of modern journalism. If you think the professors are the big lefties in journalism, you are partly right. But you can thank the liberal professor of this class for at least sounding somewhat moderate compared to the student responses he gets.

The quote at the top is from a student during discussion last week. Her point: The New York Times, the newspaper most identified (even by themselves usually) as being on the liberal side of the political spectrum, is completely right-wing.

So what's normal, unbiased, reality reflecting journalism?

One person she mentioned in class is Dahr Jamail, an independent "journalist" who recently visited Western to give a documentary on American "atrocities" in Iraq. His Web site is a compilation of his "reporting," interviews with such vaunted publications as Socialist Worker Magazine, photos of dead Iraqi "citizens" (he is so original as to use raw official identification photos--opened body bags, etc.), and his uniquely unbiased, behind-the-scenes perspective, which is a funny concept since he was quoted in the Bellingham Herald as saying he went to Iraq because he was mad about the job the mainstream media was doing, which would mean, of course, he went there with his preconceived notions of what the real story was.

I could keep going on about the many other notions students hold, at which I can only sit back and shake my head in bewilderment. After all, since when was the government a smaller threat to the freedom of the press than "corporate consolidation?" But for now, just be assured that there is a different language you must learn to talk about such things with the average student of journalism.

Elections update

2005-04-27T00:36:00.000-07:00

Just a quick election update:

The AS board on Monday finally reviewed the decision regarding the Tony Russo party--I mean campaign. The elections are heating up.

I can't speak for all the writers here about the candidates...just for myself, and therefore I will limit my comments. Collegiate politics is an odd duck. I know many people don't vote ideologically because they might trust a good friend rather than someone with whom they agree. I don't have any friends per se in the crowd of candidates. I am acquainted with a couple but that's all.

I had the opportunity to hear some candidates yesterday and so far haven't been able to find much to dislike about Nick Cizek, candidate for AS president. I don't know if he has as much support as the other two candidates but he certainly does his best to make up for it in enterprise and appearance. He is the most conservative, which leaves me wondering why he hasn't received (unofficial) support from more conservative clubs.

No matter. Both Tony Russo and Shannon Hutchinson claim to be liberals. However it should be understood that I don't mean to label the candidates and end the discussion there. That wouldn't help anyone, least of all the students who are voting.

Conclusion: read up on the candidates and vote. Online voting is up and it couldn't be easier.

King County update

2005-04-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

It's time for everyone to take another look at the postings on Sound Politics. Dean Logan is, from what I have gathered, a hair away from being deposed as the director of elections all the "irregularities." He's having to reveal everything in order to avoid perjury and what he's admitting is ugly.

County Executive Ron Sims will have a lot of backtracking to do soon on his constant and unfailing support of Logan. Today's Sound Politics postings are a veritable disaster for anyone who is trying to keep this out of the news. It will be there soon.

Hearing wrap-up: Russo guilty

2005-04-20T23:11:00.000-07:00

Charges that Tony Russo made misleading statements regarding his involvment with the creation of the AS Review student publication were sustained and he was found in violation of election code 6a2.

He will no longer be allowed to display campaign posters like the ones below or destribute handbills on campus. He is still allowed to run, but his supporters will be limited to hand-held signs only.

(click for second image)

Developing...

Grievance Hearing against Tony Russo campaign

2005-04-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

There will be a Grievance Hearing brought against the Tony Russo for AS President campaign Wednesday April 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Viking Union building, room 464. That is about all I know at this point. I don't know if it has anything to do with the previous complaint about Facebook campaigning with AS material.

I may try to be there myself, but I can't guarantee anything at this point. I do know there are two people bringing the grievance, and I would be there if you want to know what's really going on with these elections.

They are getting more interesting all the time.

NYTimes and Time left with one appeal

2005-04-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

Things are looking grim for Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller of The New York Times. They are both resisting a subpoena regarding the identity of their sources in the case of a leaked C.I.A. agent. The federal appeals court rejected their request for a stay on the subpoena and they now are limited to going to prison or attempting a last appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. It's unknown what part their testimony would play and I don't think liberals quite know what they want out of this case. Many are wishing they could pin the leak on the Bush Administration--something they have already done their best to imply without opening themselves up to libel charges. On the other hand, if these two reporters (from liberal leaning media outlets) hold the line and don't reveal their sources, then it would seem the Democrats have no chance to attempt to pin the tail on the elephant.

The case is a complicated one, seemingly full of rumor and intrigue. The case involves intelligence on WMDs out of Iraq and the case for the War in Iraq. Former Ambassador Joe Wilson was commissioned to confirm WMD reports and reportedly came up empty. His information was not given as much weight in the final decision and I cannot assume to know the reason--as does every liberal in Washington D.C.

His wife, an "undercover" C.I.A. operative named Valerie Plame, ended up getting leaked to the press via several "sources." The first to mention anything about her was syndicated columnist Robert Novak who "some say" has cooperated in the investigation. There is also confusion about whether her actual job description would have made it a bid deal for her name to be revealed--something Novak said is the case--that it wasn't a problem because it wasn't a secret really. The investigation, Novak said, is standard procedure in all leaks.

Novak's original beef was with Wilson's record of anti-Bush action--he didn't think that he could be trusted to get an accurate report with his record. Wilson was the one who then accused the White House of leaking his wife's name in retaliation...and that was just the beginning.

Here's some good links for background information:

An October 2003 CNN article here, Novak's original July 2003 "Mission to Niger" column that started it all, and also his response to the ensuing hoopla.

***

All that is neither here nor there and I hate to get into it. The issue at hand is the two reporters who have refused to reveal their sources. Again, the federal appeals court rejected their request for a stay on the subpoena and they now are limited to going to prison or attempting a last appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. And herein lies the greatest issue of interest to me:

I don't think the high court will take the case, but if they do, they would set themselves up for a landmark decision regarding reporter's privilege. Personally I think journalists, who constantly refer to “critics” who say one thing or another, or “government sources” who say this or that, abuse what privilege they may have. This forces the reader to put ultimate faith in the reporter--something the reporter doesn't have a right to ask of the reader. Journalists who cite anonymous people do so because they think they won't be able to get any information at all if government officials are cited by name. The two problems are these: first, there is the ultimate trust in the journalist issue, and then there is also the temptation on the part of the "sources" to leak something false to an unwitting press, and since they won't be named, it won't hurt them.

Enough about journalism for a few days. Thank you for actually reading this far and I hope I haven't sent you back to normal life more confused.

Crossposted at Head West, Turn Right

UC Santa Cruz 'tent cities'

2005-04-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

A professor friend sent me this article regarding the tent city protesters in California.

My initial understanding, when I first heard about these protest plans, was that there was a significant effort to coordinate dozens of similar protests. The sentiment isn't as strong elsewhere so I don't know if any other universities came through. The purpose was not to attack faculty and institutions--although that's what they end up doing--but rather to protest the recent education budget cuts that hit California...(ok, that the governator just approved. You can imagine where their anger is aimed--hence my specific mention of Arnold because he is one figure liberal students love to hate--the very image of personal popularity translated into a successful ousting of bleeding heart liberalism from the governor's mansion)

The ABC article is brief so here's the full text:

Students set up tent city classrooms on the UC Santa Cruz campus, saying they would teach themselves. Campus police arrested the students for violation of a no-camping ordinance.

The students say they are fed up with fee hikes, less financial aid, crowded classrooms, and low wages for campus workers.

So they are attacking the very institution that provides the jobs for those poor campus workers.

Despite the arrests, students plan to continue the protest.

Lauren Langone, UC Santa Cruz student: "We're just going to try to continue with our purpose, which is to form a democracy and have a space where everybody can be heard."

Campus officials say violators of the UC no camping policy could be suspended or dismissed from the university.

Students claim the arrests are denying them the rights to assembly and free speech.

Ok...

I wish that made some kind of sense. I shouldn't complain. At least they are clearing out of those crowded classrooms and providing plenty of space for students who are there to get an education. That's not said totally tongue in cheek because there is no statement that I can see regarding inability to learn because of what amounts to poor living conditions. Anybody else get the impression they expect college to be some kind of alternative welfare program?

Memo to tent city: Learn your ABCs, then go out and get a real job.