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(08/30/06 2:12am)
By taking advantage of a relatively new technology known as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, some cities in Great Britain are piloting a program that will weigh the garbage each business and household creates and provide monetary incentives to encourage recycling.\nIt's not easy to religiously recycle everything you throw away. It's not like people hate the environment, but it's such a hassle to separate plastics, glass and paper. However, for a slightly larger refund check, I might overlook the overwhelming inconvenience of dividing clear and colored bottles. \nReward is more effective than punishment, but at what cost are we sacrificing the freedom to make our own choices? Now, I'll be the first to sign up for mandatory recycling, but there's a much more sinister trend: This new plan is just another in a long series of government-encouraged behavior.\nThere is no mass conspiracy here, but the government is sanctioning very specific habits and choices. Some regulations do provide benefits for society in general, but many personal freedoms like smoking and retirement are being encroached upon using the same justification. \nConsider a pack of cigarettes. Many smokers will tell you they'll quit when they're good and ready, no matter how high the tax gets. As it stands, the average tax per pack is about 35 percent of the unit cost. That extra dollar per pack adds up quickly and has at least partially contributed to the yearly drop in number of new smokers. You might say, "Well, smoking is terrible for you, plus it stinks and causes lung cancer; it's a good thing people are quitting." Yes, you're right. It's all of those things. It's also a personal choice. No one should be forced to stop smoking just because it's unhealthy.\nThe list goes on: assisted suicide, online gambling, the national drinking age, even abortion. The most devious of them all is the forced labor system known as Social Security. Most readers won't be retiring for another 50 or 60 years, but someday the AARP will send you a membership card, and you're going to have to give Social Security a serious look. As the law stands, benefit recipients receive more money per month in proportion to the number of years they've paid into the system. In other words, a 65-year-old working for 40 years will get less than a 75-year-old who worked for 50 years but has much less time to collect. Benefits are an expensive payout for an already debt-ridden government, so the rules are written to encourage longer careers with the hope that Social Security recipients will keel over and die before they can cash out.\nThe morality behind the laws may be understandable, even justifiable -- live long, work hard, stay healthy -- but the decision to do any or all of those is among those unalienable rights and ought not be influenced by government edict.
(08/25/06 3:32am)
Back in August, Cindy Sheehan was all the rage. Her in-your-face attitude and tragic story of loss was gobbled up and digested by the media and regurgitated to news junkies. She hollered and carried on during a disgustingly long "slow news" season, and we all loved to watch Sheehan push the president's buttons. Alas, while she never actually sat down with Bush to tear him a new one, she did get her very loud message out. \nBut Mama always said try, try again, and Rockey Vaccarella always listens to his Mama.\nThe man hauled a replica FEMA trailer all the way to Washington, D.C., from the front yard of his dilapidated home in St. Bernard's Parish with a caravan of supporters following him on a cross-country tour. His plan was to roll into the capital and deep-fry the president in affection. Vaccarella invited the president (and I can only assume the first lady, as a Southern gent is apt to do) to a good, old-fashioned cookout. The president politely declined Vaccerella's dinner engagement, but the White House public relations machine set up a breakfast meeting and photo op. \nWhy the change of policy? Sure, Vaccarella's call for "another term in Washington" is easier for the White House to stomach than "you killed my son," but I don't think that's the whole story. \nNo one really expected Sheehan to get a face-to-face. People just enjoyed watching her make the president squirm. What killed the president's image was appearing not to reach out to Sheehan and seriously address her concerns -- in short, not being a people's president.\nWhat's so curious is that even Sheehan's fame barely lasted until the Democratic convention. And as a campaigning tool, it really seemed that candidates shied away from Sheehan's crowd because of how polarizing it can be. As for Vaccarella, he's a ham. He loves to be in the spotlight and would do anything to be made fun of on Conan O'Brien, but he doesn't have the sticking power to last until this column runs. \nSo why go after something so small? In actuality, the president didn't have much choice. Bush obviously couldn't decline dinner outright; it would be a slap in the face of everyone affected by Katrina. On the other hand, by extending an invitation to the Oval Office, the president opened himself up to murmuring disapproval. \nThe reality is that the value of a hard-line Bush supporter touting the hard work of his favorite person is negligible at best. But if Bush doesn't live up to his "common man" image by slumming with the working class, he runs the risk of reopening partisan wounds.\nMore than anything, I think that meeting Vaccarella suggests a serious lack of friends in the Bush camp. These days, when campaigning congressmen avoid Bush endorsements like the plague, the president absolutely cannot afford to refuse the loving praise of man who by all reasonable estimates could have drowned on the roof of his flooded house.
(04/21/06 4:06am)
The earth-shattering truth I'm about to reveal to you, dear reader, will overwhelm you with grief; your soul will dry out and crumble into thousands of colored crumbs, like Playdough left baking on the back seat of mom's Ford Explorer. The weak of heart are advised to stop here: go read the "Blender Kitty" cartoon, or "Help Me, Harlan!" until you're ready to learn what God himself is afraid to know.\nLadies and gentlemen, at exactly 8 a.m. this past Monday morning, Dead Week, was pronounced dead. Mr. Week's body was found partially mutilated in the attic of his Varsity Villas apartment, having gone missing around Spring Break. Crime scene investigators are on the case and conducting interviews with Week's friends and neighbors. The investigation is expected to continue throughout Little 500 but preliminary findings suggest that Week was murdered by a rogue group of highly trained professional killers known as P.R.O.F.S. IUPD considers the unit to be extremely dangerous, and advises students to stay off campus and away from classrooms.\nDead Week, or "DW," as he liked to be called was a good, honorable man whose only wish in life was that students of all races, genders and creeds would be free from their usual obligations for a few short days right as the weather was getting nice again. But the "People's Hero" was cut down in his prime by his enemies, those selfish and heartless monsters who have assigned more work than can possibly be considered humane. (The names of the heartless, selfish monsters will not be printed in order to protect the innocent: my GPA.)\nNo, that's not true. But there's no reason to keep pretending that Dead Week is any easier than a regular week, in fact, it's a lot more hectic. The rules say that a professor needs to give notice of any assignment due this week more than seven days in advance, so they assign work on the syllabus assuming that the first day of class is adequate warning. But the work isn't really assigned that early, is it? Sure it's on the syllabus, but the students don't actually receive the prompt until much later. By then it's too late for students to ask their professors to rearrange the schedule.\nWhat professors don't understand is that students don't have time to look days and weeks down the road: Assignments due tomorrow take precedent over assignments due a month from now. "Time management" just means getting today's assignment in on time, even if that means an all-nighter for tomorrow's work. It's hard enough keeping up with work, let alone getting ahead. A student won't give a major assignment a second thought until a week before it's due, not because we don't want to, but because something else is due sooner.\nFortunately, Dead Week is survived by his drunker, rowdier brother, Little 5 Week, who is holding memorial services on Kirkwood all this week. Ten minutes of silence might be too much to ask, but tonight, as eight shots of tequila and a half-digested pizza stares up at you from the toilet, remember that Dead Week is alive in all of us.
(04/12/06 4:00am)
New York has no reason to be proud of the type of person who comes out of Long Island, nor does the overwhelming number of ignorant rednecks bode well for Indiana's future. The fact of the matter is that neither region makes much of a worthwhile contribution to the common good, but both sides need to recognize that they're not all that dissimilar. \nFor one, both have unflattering accents. If New Yorkers think in the same voice as they speak, I don't blame them for being so irritated all the time. Hearing them speak is like listening to a car crash. On the other hand, there is canned pork with larger vocabularies and clearer annunciation than some of the trash in Indiana.\nBut this debate is really about fashion at IU -- I'm sure of it because nothing else is quite so trivial -- so here are my two cents: Ugg boots, fake fur and gigantic bug-eyed sunglasses look totally ridiculous on everyone. The person designing these clothes hates you. Honestly, I'm trying to do you a favor. There's nothing wrong with New York, but the "uniform" looks like a 4-year-old playing dress-up.\nIt's not that the "Smallwood Type" is more aggravating than any other girl; they just happen to stock their closets with the suggestions of crazy people.
(03/24/06 4:45am)
On Tuesday an envoy of American senators met with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to discuss the future of his government, his country and our war. The group of powerful and hugely influential congressmen included the ranking Democrat on the Armed Forces Committee, Carl Levin D-Mich, who expressed concerns that not enough progress is being made — that Americans are becoming impatient.\nThree years since this whole thing started, Americans think "there's been too much dawdling." Levin said at a news conference, "Baghdad is burning." Really, Sen. Levin? The Iraqi people — many without water or electricity — live in constant fear of mindless berserkers laden with homemade pipe-bombs, and Americans wish the Iraqis would hurry up already?\nThe Washington Post reported that over 1,000 Iraqis have died since mid-February, many of whom have been tortured before being executed. Hospitals, schools and infrastructure still need to be rebuilt after being razed to the ground by American dollars, but gosh darn it, who says Rome can't be built in a day? I want 60 cents a gallon at the pump!\nNow that Bush's approval rating hangs lower than Chuck Norris' left nut, the Democrats' true colors start to come out. The minority party has no interest in actually running government; they just ride the wave of public opinion as it crashes violently onto the rocky shore of hindsight. No one in government cared about the Iraqi people. Bush's neo-cons wanted poll numbers, cheap oil and a strong economy, and the Republicans wanted to maintain their strangle hold on Congress. But the Democrats wanted to stay in office so they just stopped doing their job altogether. That's why Americans are so impatient.\nThe public has no idea how to wage war; they barely know the difference between an Abrams tank and a Kalashnikov. That's why they elect people who do. They assume that Republicans will keep government efficient, and the Democrats will keep the government from being evil. But when the Republicans rack up $9 trillion in debt during a war that should have paid for itself and the Democrats let Bush run amok in the Middle East just for kicks, that's when Americans get impatient.\nNeither the Democrats nor the Republicans have any right to say that the Iraqis are taking too long. Both parties stood by as "Shock and Awe" turned into "Duck and Run," arguing among themselves instead of doing the least bit useful thing for either country. In the end, they hoped that billions upon billions of dollars would be the answer to hundreds of years of turmoil and distrust.\nWhatever Levin, the Democrats or the Republicans are thinking, it seems clear that none of them have the best interest of Iraq in mind. It's not just the Democrats who are finally calling out the president; some Republicans are also abandoning the USS Dubya. Why? Because Americans are just starting to realize that this war was a stunt, a complete waste of time and money, and when election day rolls around the politicians don't want to be on the wrong side of the issue.
(03/10/06 2:40am)
"Space," the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy begins, "is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind--bogglingly big it is." It's dark, empty and conspicuously devoid of intelligent life -- not unlike Houston, Texas.\nOn Tuesday, the constituents of Texas' 22nd district showed their support for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. He secured the Republican congressional nomination -- besting his closest rival by nearly 30 percent -- despite a criminal indictment and known ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff. DeLay was publicly admonished by the House Ethics Committee and subsequently stepped down as House Majority Leader.\nIn September 2005, Tom "The Hammer" DeLay was accused of various white collar crimes: money laundering, unlawfully advertising, illegal campaign expenditures, conspiracy, that sort of thing. DeLay pleaded not guilty, which is fortunate considering that very few Houstonites consider it a crime to undermine American democracy. \nDeLay took 62 percent of the vote, enough to secure the nomination, but many political analysts believe he could be in serious trouble come November when he runs against the Democratic challenger. My guess is that this victory will give him the "Tommentum" he needs to get back to Washington. \nWhat does it say about an electorate that's willing to re--elect a known criminal? It says a lot of things actually, none of them particularly flattering. But then again, what good is flattery to a state in which half the citizens weigh as much as their mobile homes? OK, cheap shot, but so is redrawing district lines to tip the voter balance in favor of Republicans. \nThe first and most obvious reason DeLay secured the nomination is that he has nearly 100 percent name recognition. DeLay is a household name, like Clorox Bleach -- and just as dangerous to ingest. He is synonymous with the Republicans, hell, he basically is the GOP, which brings me to a second point: pork.\nThe man oozes power and influence out of every orifice. In many ways, DeLay is more influential than the president; he certainly has more authority over the party than Bush. DeLay can make things happen. I'm talking just about anything. If he had wanted to build a bridge to nowhere, he could've gotten the money and made Jimmy Carter build it. Houstonites are better served by seniority; even if the whole state went blue, it would still be in its best interest, regardless of the damage done to the country as a whole. \nBut Houston doesn't care about the rest of the country, and why should it? Texas is a hot-bed of ideological turmoil -- Southern whites versus a growing immigrant minority -- and the best way to uphold the conservative status quo is to run a known winner like Tom DeLay in November. \nDeLay's constituents are so distracted by trivialities like gay marriage and abortion that they're willing to let the government rape the environment and drive the country into unspeakable debt. Come November the congressional corruption that plagues both chambers will be institutionalized by majority vote.
(02/24/06 4:36am)
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Secretary of State and angry grimace extraordinaire Condoleezza Rice asked Congress for $85 million last week. Not for the war in Iraq, but for the war in Iran.\nAccording to newspapers across the country, Rice wants to increase pressure on the fundamentalist government in Tehran by throwing outrageous amounts of money at the problem. The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that "the money would be used to support political opposition and civil society groups in Iran, increase U.S. broadcasting into the country and underwrite more student study in the United States." The estimated breakdown of the 85 million Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers looks something like this: $5 million to scholarships for Iranian students; $5 million for "diplomacy efforts" including a "Persian-language Web site"; $15 million to increase Internet access; and $50 million for a radio station that would broadcast pro-American programs 24 hours a day in Farsi.\nThe plan is resistance to Iran's nuclear program, but also to encourage the Iranian people to throw off the chains of an oppressive theocracy, elect a legitimate government and sell petroleum to America at 20 percent under market. Not surprisingly, the Bush administration is already applauding its own cunning diplomatic strategy; although it should be noted that these are the same people who concluded the best way to encourage democracy and stability in the region was an all-out, balls-t'the-wall bum rush on Baghdad. \nIf the administration had any foresight at all they would recognize how ridiculous its plan is. It begins with $5 million to send Iranian students to American universities, while the 2006 budget slashes scholarships and grant money for research institutions. Educating the world's underprivileged and oppressed is a laudable cause, but I'd like to see more of my tax money than my refund check. \nA combined $20 million will be used to provide Internet access, and promote a government-run Web site espousing what will undoubtedly be interpreted as western propaganda. Iran is one of the few countries better at lying to its citizens than the United States; the Ayatollah will spin this as American imperialism and completely subvert the purpose of the campaign. \nThird-party experts seriously doubt the effectiveness of Rice's plan. Jon Wolfsthal from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington explained that many Iranians already watch foreign programming via satellite, and as yet, no one has been inspired to take arms against the Ayatollah after watching "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"\nBadly appropriated funds aside, what really blows me away is the utterly mindless strategy to broadcast pro-American messages in Farsi into Iran. In 1975 the CIA set up a similar program called Radio Free Europe (later Radio Liberty) which broadcast into the Soviet Union. The program continued until the collapse in 1991, but no one has ever claimed re-broadcasting Bob Hope USO shows was what brought down the Reds. \nBesides, what real incentive do Iranians have to shake off the chains of a tyrannical theocracy? The Palestinians tried to elect a government with the legitimacy to speak for the people. When they chose Hamas, we told them to try again.
(01/27/06 4:57am)
As a columnist I always need to be on the lookout for the next social injustice to espouse in my hopelessly ineffectual 500 words. This week's en vogue topics include Supreme Court nominations, Fourth Amendment violations and coal mine collapsations, but all that had to take a back seat to another more pressing matter.\nI've hired a paramilitary unit to assassinate the dangerously unstable (and quite possibly unionized) leadership of campus advocacy group No Sweat!\nI understand there may be some readers who feel my actions were impetuous and my opinions not entirely thought through, but if the great Pepsi Challenge called life has taught me anything it's that Coca-Cola is worth killing for.\nThe beverage nazis over at No Sweat! and similar groups across the nation would have you believe that the Atlanta based Coca-Cola company is behind the killings of union leaders at bottling factories in Columbia, and for that reason university administrators should cancel the contract IU has with Coke. This isn't the first time the issue has come up; eight colleges including New York University and the University of Michigan have discontinued their dealings with Coca-Cola. Fortunately enough for Coke, none of the allegations have been satisfactorily substantiated. According to Tuesday's Indiana Daily Student two separate judicial rulings have found no evidence supporting a connection between factory managers and union leaders.\nAll that aside, Coca-Cola is an American institution and singularly responsible for Christmas, or at least for Santa Claus' red and white color scheme. Unlike Pepsi, parading around in red, white and blue just like you know who ... the French. Now I try to avoid stereotypes, but those cheese-eating surrender monkeys at Pepsi don't have the balls to exploit their workers and murder union leaders. At IU, we need to make sure we're ingesting the kind of carbonated courage that only Coca-Cola can provide. Drinking Coke will ensure that the next generation of Kelley graduates is prepared to take over the difficult task of systematically subjugating the developing world, and in the end, isn't turning a profit what it's all about? \nFor the sake of argument, let's pretend that all the rumors coming out of Columbia can be proven. It doesn't really change anything. As a capitalist society in a global market place, the consumer is responsible for finding the best value. It's the reason Wal-Mart is so popular. More to the point, it's why IU basketball wears Adidas shoes instead of Doc Martens; never mind the fact that they were stitched together by six-year-olds in some non-air-conditioned basement in central Thailand. \nIt just seems excessive to cancel a contract that brings in $1.7 million a year because of a call to arms against multi-national corporations by misguided leftists who listen to System of a Down and attend World Trade Organization protests via CNN. Besides, even if everything were true — the kidnappings, the torture, the murders — the only mistake Coke made was not killing enough people (people who talk about things they shouldn't be).
(12/08/05 1:52am)
Here's the thing about revolution: as romantic as the popularized images of Che Guevara, Chairman Mao or Vladimir Lenin might be, if the government that's installed is as despotic as the government that fell, then there has been no revolution at all. It's merely a civil war and mindless chaos.\nSuch is the case in Iraq.\nCurrently, the most powerful party in the transitional government is the Shiite-controlled Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. According to the Washington Post ("Shiite Urges U.S. to Give Iraqis Leeway In Rebel Fight," Nov. 27), the Sunni Arab minority live in constant fear of both the party and its leader, Abdul Aziz Hakim, who has been linked to numerous torture facilities uncovered by American forces in recent weeks. We're talking real-life, honest-to-gosh recreations of the same torture chambers Saddam Hussein was using just a few short years ago. \nThese facilities operate under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior, an entity created by the more or less make-believe Transitional National Assembly to run the day-to-day bureaucracy of domestic affairs. The problem is that there are no national parks to manage, and no money to build hospitals, roads or schools, so the day-to-day activities of the Interior Ministry involve terrorizing the citizens by secret police. Now where do you think they got an idea like that?\nMaybe the only thing worse than an ineffective puppet government installed by an imperialistic Western power is the sense that two years and hundreds of cruise missiles later, all that work has come to naught. You can lead a horse to water, but if you cut off its legs it's not going anywhere. In other words, it might be possible to lead a country to democracy but not if you've razed it to the ground.\nSo where did we go wrong? What's the proper way to conduct a revolution? Maybe we ought to look at a couple successful revolutions in history: Cuba and America. In both these cases there was a concerted effort by the people: a strong leader organized the resistance, revolutionary ideas were printed and disseminated and the reasons for war were clear. In Iraq, however, none of these things exist. There are no George Washingtons or Che Guevaras; there is no Declaration of Independence or Federalist Papers; no one's even sure if the Americans are there to find WMDs, hunt down Osama bin Laden, take all the oil or put an end to religious fanaticism.\nThe point is, we're fighting the same war over and over again — the Bay of Pigs, Korea and, dare I say, Vietnam -- and they all turn out the same way. Whether we withdraw our troops tomorrow or 10 years from now, we've already failed. Not because of faulty intelligence or the president's incompetence (although much could be said on the subject); not because our troops don't have body armor or that our Humvees can't survive road-side bombs. We failed -- and I say "we" because, like it or not, the voters are the reason America is at war -- because the principles of successful revolution were put aside in favor of Hollywood-style theatrics and self-glorifying politicians.
(11/17/05 7:10pm)
I've been on more flights to more places than most people ever will, so I consider myself something of an expert when it comes to air travel. Go on, ask me which carrier's the best.\nTake your pick; they're all ungodly.\nForget airport security and body searches. That bit stopped being funny when the public realized the Bush administration hasn't improved the situation. I'm talking about the actual airlines: cheap as dirt and about as unpleasant. It's no surprise that two weeks ago Independence Air (formally Flyi Inc.) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the latest in a list that includes former industry leaders Delta, Northwest and United.\nIn the early days of aviation, passengers paid excessive amounts of money to be transported in obscene luxury -- then air travel got cheap. When things get cheap, they get lousy. \nI'm in four frequent flyer programs, but I've never received a free ticket because one frequent flyer mile is only enough to get you from the security checkpoint to the gate. \nThen you board. Southwest had the brilliant idea to replace assigned seating with priority seating. The earlier you check in, the earlier you board. What this really means is the longer you wait in the check-in line, the longer you'll wait at the gate. Traffic problems? Crowded airport? Tough.\nYour plane will be one of two sizes: too low to stand in or big enough for a first-class section -- either way you're going to hate it. I don't play basketball, but I'm not exactly what you'd call short, which is why the last time I flew ATA, I slammed my head against the on-board TV. Still, nothing's worse than the condescending smiles of first-class passengers as you jam your laptop into the overhead bin while they polish off their third glass of champagne.\nSitting down is the next hurdle. If you've ever fit three people and a load of laundry into the back seat of a Mustang, you have some idea how cramped economy class is on Delta. In order to save money, the airlines squeeze as many seats as they can in a single plane, which is fine if you intend to leave your knees at home.\nThe airlines also don't expect you to have taste buds. For the most part, meals are a thing of the past; you'll be lucky to get ice water if you're flying domestically. But on international flights, they'll give you a menu with fancy typeface that makes the dishes seem more appetizing. The thing is, no amount of frill is going to change asbestos into marinara or make a Ritz cracker dance across my tongue.\nI'll concede that the airlines have had a rough couple of years, but this new trend toward discount airlines like JetBlue and Independence is far more problematic than terrorism or high oil prices. The industry-wide competition drives down ticket prices as low as $29 one-way that passengers flock to because no single carrier sticks out above the rest. It's hard to build customer loyalty when passengers wonder if the unheated cargo hold would be more comfortable than their seat assignment.
(11/03/05 3:53am)
If I learned one thing from my parents, and God knows they tried to teach me more than I committed to memory, it was to always, always get a flu shot. Every year at about mid-October, my brother and I would be taken to Dr. Kettel's waiting room and play with plastic trucks and find the hidden pictures in Highlights magazine. Then we'd be whisked off to the examination room where the smiles, stuffed animals and pictures of airplanes provided ample distraction before the nurse mercilessly drove the needle into our arms. \nTwo weeks ago when the nurse stabbed me with my 20th flu shot, I asked if this would save me from avian influenza. She told me no, but it'd keep me from legitimately skipping class, which was almost as good.\nA Sept. 15 memo to U.S. Treasury Under Secretary Tim Adams, titled "Conclusion & Minutes: Vulnerabilities Working Group/Economic Aspects of Avian Flu," recounts the minutes of a meeting attended by CIA and Treasury officials discussing the effects of the H5N1 virus popularly known as "bird flu."\nI know what you're thinking: SARS was supposed to be the end of the world and that didn't cause any serious problems, so what's different about this disease? The difference is 40 percentage points. SARS has a mortality rate of about 10 percent of infected humans; bird flu, on the other hand, kills 50 percent of its hosts. The memo estimates a global death toll of some 5.2 million, including 270,000 in the United States and Canada.\nBased on extrapolations of data from the SARS scare, the memo predicts governmental isolationism and a breakdown of infrastructure will cause the collapse of economies and order. This raises serious moral and legal questions, most notably those of containment and treatment.\nIn all likelihood quarantined facilities will not be necessary. Western hospital systems should be capable of treating realistic infection numbers. It's the question of forced admittance to those hospitals that will become the issue. Obviously the disease needs to be contained, but can the government overstep legal barriers in order to detain and treat infected citizens without consultation?\nThat question is still being grappled with, but in an uncharacteristic show of good judgment on the part of President Bush, at least the question of treatment has been answered. There is currently a limited supply of stockpiled antiviral drugs, which have raised concerns about priority. One's first inclination is to vaccinate the very young, the very weak or the very elderly, but that's far from the best policy.\nThe president made a speech Tuesday calling for a $7.1 billion preparedness package and outlined the response in the event of a national epidemic. Antiviral drugs will be administered to law enforcement, medical personnel and essential government employees first. \nTo some this may sound like a typically Republican-elitist response in which only the well-connected survive, but consider the lawlessness after Hurricane Katrina. As rare as these sorts of catastrophes are, they do occasionally happen and at such points human nature can't be trusted. If the first responders aren't vaccinated before the public, there's not much hope for anyone else. Nonetheless, I'd rather have martial law than the plague.
(11/03/05 3:32am)
If I learned one thing from my parents, and God knows they tried to teach me more than I committed to memory, it was to always, always get a flu shot. Every year at about mid-October, my brother and I would be taken to Dr. Kettel's waiting room and play with plastic trucks and find the hidden pictures in Highlights magazine. Then we'd be whisked off to the examination room where the smiles, stuffed animals and pictures of airplanes provided ample distraction before the nurse mercilessly drove the needle into our arms. \nTwo weeks ago when the nurse stabbed me with my 20th flu shot, I asked if this would save me from avian influenza. She told me no, but it'd keep me from legitimately skipping class, which was almost as good.\nA Sept. 15 memo to U.S. Treasury Under Secretary Tim Adams, titled "Conclusion & Minutes: Vulnerabilities Working Group/Economic Aspects of Avian Flu," recounts the minutes of a meeting attended by CIA and Treasury officials discussing the effects of the H5N1 virus popularly known as "bird flu."\nI know what you're thinking: SARS was supposed to be the end of the world and that didn't cause any serious problems, so what's different about this disease? The difference is 40 percentage points. SARS has a mortality rate of about 10 percent of infected humans; bird flu, on the other hand, kills 50 percent of its hosts. The memo estimates a global death toll of some 5.2 million, including 270,000 in the United States and Canada.\nBased on extrapolations of data from the SARS scare, the memo predicts governmental isolationism and a breakdown of infrastructure will cause the collapse of economies and order. This raises serious moral and legal questions, most notably those of containment and treatment.\nIn all likelihood quarantined facilities will not be necessary. Western hospital systems should be capable of treating realistic infection numbers. It's the question of forced admittance to those hospitals that will become the issue. Obviously the disease needs to be contained, but can the government overstep legal barriers in order to detain and treat infected citizens without consultation?\nThat question is still being grappled with, but in an uncharacteristic show of good judgment on the part of President Bush, at least the question of treatment has been answered. There is currently a limited supply of stockpiled antiviral drugs, which have raised concerns about priority. One's first inclination is to vaccinate the very young, the very weak or the very elderly, but that's far from the best policy.\nThe president made a speech Tuesday calling for a $7.1 billion preparedness package and outlined the response in the event of a national epidemic. Antiviral drugs will be administered to law enforcement, medical personnel and essential government employees first. \nTo some this may sound like a typically Republican-elitist response in which only the well-connected survive, but consider the lawlessness after Hurricane Katrina. As rare as these sorts of catastrophes are, they do occasionally happen and at such points human nature can't be trusted. If the first responders aren't vaccinated before the public, there's not much hope for anyone else. Nonetheless, I'd rather have martial law than the plague.
(10/20/05 3:52am)
Many of my friends and readers think I loathe conservatives, so I want to set the record straight. I loathe irresponsible, boorish advocacy groups that lack common sense and self-control, and if way too many of those groups happen to be manned by right-wing nut-jobs, well that's just coincidental.\nCase in point: The Mississippi-based American Family Association and the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League. According to a Saturday Washington Post article, "Groups Threaten to Boycott American Girl," the two organizations are doing exactly as the headline suggests. \nThe American Girl doll line is essentially an alternative to the puerile, big-breasted model of unattainable beauty known as Barbie; she promotes patriotism, chastity, education, strength and puppies. I suspect if they ever came out with an American Woman line, she would endorse fiscal responsibility, state's rights and Bruce Springsteen. So why would the AFA and similar groups boycott American Girl?\nAccording to the article, the advocacy groups are upset about a partnership between American Girl and a nonprofit organization called Girls Inc. (formerly Girls Club of America), whose mission is to "inspire girls to be strong, smart and bold." Seventy cents of every "I Can" wristband sale is donated to Girls Inc. to "support educational and empowerment programs." \nBut the AFA and the Pro-Life Action League have uncovered a dark side of Girls Inc. According to the AFA Web site, Girls Inc. supports "abortion and a girl's right to abort an unwanted baby." Moreover, the company "supports contraceptives" and "offers resources encouraging lesbian and bi-sexual lifestyles."\nOh, the horror! The horror!\nThis is totally ridiculous. You want to know what else Girl Inc. supports? According to its Web site, since 1992, Girls Inc. has donated "$1.8 million in college scholarships to girls who have become leaders in all walks of life." I guess it's no surprise the AFA denounces higher education. Everyone knows college is where women become carpet-munching lesbians.\nAs for American Girl and its owner, Mattel, those heathens actually had the nerve to make a "cash donation of $100,000 to the American Red Cross," along with "a donation of several thousand toys worth up to $1 million to relief organizations in the (Katrina-devastated) area," according to a Sept. 1 press release. \nGroups like the AFA, run by narrow-minded ideologues, turn everything into niggling political debates. Organizations like Girls Inc. teach girls to be responsible women. Responsible women have responsible sex. Responsible sex means fewer abortions. These political advocacy groups ignore reality and see the world as a giant leftist conspiracy to turn women into banned-book-reading, sex-craved, militant feminists who have abortions just for the hell of it.\nIt's dejecting, if not alarming, how few advocacy groups advocate anything of any value to the public. By boycotting American Girl (and by association, Girls Inc. and Mattel), the AFA does so much more harm than good for young women. The headline really says it all, doesn't it? Don't boycott Nike sweatshops, SUVs or Wal-Mart -- boycott American Girl.
(10/06/05 3:46am)
Today I want to try something new. We're going to play "The Shoes Game." Don't know the rules? Don't worry. They're simple and go like this: Look around and find someone else's shoes. Next, put them on.\nDo they fit? Probably not. Can anyone tell me why? Yes, you in the back ... That's right, everyone has a different shoe size. We wear the shoes we buy because they fit; they don't fit because we bought them. \nIt's a lesson that Karen Hughes is learning firsthand as PR representative for "Bush Co.'s Middle East offices." The Undersecretary of State (for public diplomacy) took an all-expense-paid tour of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt last week, and wouldn't you know it, wasn't even greeted as a liberator! How's that for job satisfaction? \nNo one expected that Hughes' job of spreading the "Gospel of America" in the Muslim world would be easy, but most people assumed she would go in for culture training before she landed in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia, last week. The gathering of some 500 women at a Saudi university brought to the foreground a serious issue that could derail the whole Mideast campaign: What happens if the Muslim world doesn't want to change?\nAs far back as the settlers in the New World through the Cold War and up until today, this country has assumed that, given the chance, everyone would rather live like an American. Can we put aside this "land of opportunity" nonsense for a bit and come to the realization that America might not be all Hughes is making it out to be? Staggering murder rates, dropping literacy levels, environmental exploitation and pervasive inequality are just a few of the reasons why we should've left nation building to the Canadians.\nThe hand-picked audience of Saudi women, made up almost entirely of the wealthy and educated, were by far the most vocal group Hughes met on her trip. "There is more male chauvinism in my profession in Europe and America than in my country," Dr. Siddiqa Kamal, a gynecologist who manages her own hospital, told The New York Times. In the same Sept. 27 article, Kamal added, "I don't want to drive a car. I worked hard for my medical degree. Why do I need a driver's license?"\nAs I write this, the five-day forecast for Jeddah teeters on triple digits, and yet Saudi women continue to wear traditional black, head-to-toe covering, (called an abaya) because modest dress is dictated by religious culture as opposed to the common American sentiment that Saudi women are overtly oppressed. In fact, "it's convenient and it can be very fashionable," Nour al-Sabbagh, a 21-year-old student, told the Times. If the traditional conservatives in America can respect Jews donning a yarmulke, then surely they can understand that not everyone wants to wear Jordan jerseys and sand-blasted Abercrombie jeans.\nWhy is it we feel the need to export the American dream outside of America? I'm all about democracy, hot dogs and baseball but we need to realize that not everyone likes grandma's apple pie. \nYou may now put your shoes back on.
(09/22/05 4:32am)
Have you ever had a completely stupid argument? It seems to happen to me more than most people, but I know everyone has gotten themselves into a debate so aimless and meandering that the original topic gets buried beneath a pile of tangents and speculative analogies.\nLast week my roommate and I got into just one of those debates, and lo and behold, I have no idea where it started. However, as a point of interest, I do remember where it ended: orange packages of Ramen noodles are superior to blue packs; red is gross, pink is worse; and I'd rather watch a David Spade marathon than eat the hybrid flavors.\nThe political bickering of the last few years has been about as inane as any discussion involving Pepsi versus Coke. Somehow we moved away from the issues that matter, where viable, and more importantly, provable evidence can be gathered to make informed and progressive decisions. Instead we've found ourselves in these Gordian knots, irresolvable and to be perfectly honest, irrelevant. Our culture's morality is too diverse to find common ground on every topic, so let's discuss issues on which we all agree.\nThe arguments on abortion are equally valid whether you're on the right or the left, pro-life or pro-choice. If we can agree to disagree for just a little while, we can solve the problems that have been left unattended on the back burner and now threaten to boil over, setting fire to the kitchen and putting the whole house at risk.\nIt just doesn't matter if you think dinosaurs and men lived together in the Garden of Eden or that by some astronomically small chance, man sprouted from the loins of apes. I hope we can all agree that something needs to be done to save our failing education system. However, there could be a silver lining after all: If our children can't read the Bible or "The Origin of Species," then the whole matter of where we came from will go away on its own.\nShould we immediately concern ourselves with the morality of the death penalty? We could do away with the whole debate if we fixed the problems plaguing the criminal justice system. Likewise, we wouldn't have to deny our citizens the right to bear arms if we could publicly address the root cause of murder: hate, prejudice and gang violence.\nWhether you like it or not, it seems that homosexuality is here to stay. I have my doubts, but even if there is a correlation between gays and the deterioration of our moral fabric, alcoholism, drug abuse and sexual deviance are just as detrimental to society as anything else. Before we blame Sept. 11, and Hurricane Katrina on same-sex couples, we should mull over whether or not God considers a 50 percent divorce rate to be impious. \nIf we could just put our irreconcilable differences aside for a moment, take a step back and look at what really matters, our country could really make some progress. Debate is healthy for democracy, but implacable gospel is why men go to war.
(09/12/05 6:41am)
Whether it's the birth of a child or the Kennedy assassination, everyone has that handful of events in their lives that stick with them. While other memories fade and blur into one another, some stay as vivid as the moment they happened.\nFor the generation of current IU students, one of those moments will be the 90 minutes between the impact of American Airlines flight 11 into the North tower of the World Trade Center, and United Airlines flight 93's stone-like descent into a field outside Shanksville, Pa.\nAfter four years, thousands of fatalities, billions of dollars and a realignment of U.S. foreign policy, IU students from New York and Washington, D.C., still have that day on their minds long after the debris was cleared and the fires extinguished. While many questions might never be answered, the sights and sounds of Sept. 11, 2001, seem to linger, untouched by study sessions, midnight cramming and due dates.\nLike most students, junior Scott Lipsky of Suffern, N.Y., remembers exactly where he was when the first plane collided with the North Tower. \n"I was in my second period, computers in business," he said. "The principal announced it on the loud speaker." \nThe thought of a coordinated terrorist attack was as far from the minds of American citizens as it had been the day before. Seventeen minutes later it became painfully obvious that something greater than anyone could have imagined was happening. History, as the cliché goes, was in the making. \nStill, few could grasp the full scope of devastation.\n"It didn't actually sink in until later that night when President Bush addressed the nation," Lipsky said. \nStephanie Sautter, a sophomore from Washington, D.C., recalls canceled classes and dead cell phones when she first learned of the attacks. "Everyone was trying to make a call because no one was sure what had just happened." Asked of her original reflection, Sautter paused, breaking the silence with, "surreal."\nFour years later, and while some in the country have more or less recovered, the legacy continues. The Pentagon in Washington has been rebuilt and plans have been approved for construction of the Freedom Tower, to be the world's tallest building, on the former site of the WTC. Commenting on the NYC memorial, Lipsky considers it "respectful and proper."\nYesterday, memorial services across America and around the world brought a feeling of solidarity reminiscent of the days and weeks after the original attacks. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush observed a moment of silence for the victims of 9/11 on the front lawn of the White House. \n"Today, again, we are a city that meets in sadness," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, according to the BBC, at the beginning of a somber ceremony in New York City Sunday, where the names of 2,749 victims of the Twin Tower attacks were read. At sunset, two beams of light were projected into the air, visible across the New York skyline.\nRecently-elected Pope Benedict XVI, pleaded for a "global renunciation of hatred and asking for people to work together for justice and peace," according to the BBC.\nThe Moscow Times reported 500,000 people in the central Russian city of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, formed a 40-kilometer (about 25 miles) human "anti-terror" chain in a show of solidarity with the survivors of 9/11. \n"They stood side by side, holding hands, to reemphasize the need for international unity in the fight against terrorism," the report said. \nIt seems that even under the altered political landscape that has divided the country and the world along ideological lines, the memorial of the innocent men and women who perished is able to put those issues aside, if only momentarily, to remind people the world over that nothing in the present is too important that we can forget the past.\nAfter four years, thousands of fatalities, billions of dollars and a realignment of U.S. foreign policy, IU students from New York and Washington, D.C., still have that day on their minds long after the debris was cleared and the fires extinguished. While many questions might never be answered, the sights and sounds of Sept. 11, 2001, seem to linger, untouched by study sessions, midnight cramming and due dates.\nLike most students, junior Scott Lipsky of Suffern, N.Y., remembers exactly where he was when the first plane collided with the North Tower. \n"I was in my second period, computers in business," he said. "The principal announced it on the loud speaker." \nThe thought of a coordinated terrorist attack was as far from the minds of American citizens as it had been the day before. Seventeen minutes later it became painfully obvious that something greater than anyone could have imagined was happening. History, as the cliché goes, was in the making. \nStill, few could grasp the full scope of devastation.\n"It didn't actually sink in until later that night when President Bush addressed the nation," Lipsky said. \nStephanie Sautter, a sophomore from Washington, D.C., recalls canceled classes and dead cell phones when she first learned of the attacks. "Everyone was trying to make a call because no one was sure what had just happened." Asked of her original reflection, Sautter paused, breaking the silence with, "surreal."\nFour years later, and while some in the country have more or less recovered, the legacy continues. The Pentagon in Washington has been rebuilt and plans have been approved for construction of the Freedom Tower, to be the world's tallest building, on the former site of the WTC. Commenting on the NYC memorial, Lipsky considers it "respectful and proper."\nYesterday, memorial services across America and around the world brought a feeling of solidarity reminiscent of the days and weeks after the original attacks. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush observed a moment of silence for the victims of 9/11 on the front lawn of the White House. \n"Today, again, we are a city that meets in sadness," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, according to the BBC, at the beginning of a somber ceremony in New York City Sunday, where the names of 2,749 victims of the Twin Tower attacks were read. At sunset, two beams of light were projected into the air, visible across the New York skyline.\nRecently-elected Pope Benedict XVI, pleaded for a "global renunciation of hatred and asking for people to work together for justice and peace," according to the BBC.\nThe Moscow Times reported 500,000 people in the central Russian city of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, formed a 40-kilometer (about 25 miles) human "anti-terror" chain in a show of solidarity with the survivors of 9/11. \n"They stood side by side, holding hands, to reemphasize the need for international unity in the fight against terrorism," the report said. \nIt seems that even under the altered political landscape that has divided the country and the world along ideological lines, the memorial of the innocent men and women who perished is able to put those issues aside, if only momentarily, to remind people the world over that nothing in the present is too important that we can forget the past.
(08/30/05 4:23am)
Twice a year the jet stream and the promise of a decent education bring a seasonal hurricane of U-Haul trucks and trailer hitches that batters Bloomington and reduces the functioning and accessible college town into a gridlocked chaos so overwhelming that only the supremely brave or supremely ignorant attempt to navigate it. \nLast Wednesday, that hurricane descended on us and gave the Midwest a touch of New York City at rush hour. When it was all over, surviving residents emerged from their homes amazed the whole town hadn't been replaced by a four-story parking garage.\nBecause all dorms open on the same day at the same time, some 10,000 students swarm like locusts on campus. In tow are parents, grandparents, pets, siblings and every possession that can be piled in the back of a Ford F-150. The ensuing free-for-all is only compounded in the time it takes a single student to unload the 1,500-pound maximum capacity of the family car.\nI'm continually amazed at the sheer tons of useless stuff that gets hauled into a dorm room. I see flatbeds, enormous rental trucks and more SUVs than are currently on the ground in Iraq; some even have trailers! When dorms open, the rolling warehouses cram onto every last bit of asphalt and grass for ten blocks, turning Bloomington into a used car lot.\nThe hurricane brings a flood of 30-inch televisions, portable grills, 10-cubic-foot refrigerators and surround-sound audio systems to go alongside lamps, five different blankets, 20 kinds of pillows, matching curtains and a month's supply of Easy Mac. \nThere is such a thing as too much.\nNow I'm as wasteful and ungrateful as the next person, but you're never going to convince me my dorm room needs a fold-out couch or a kitchenette.\nEverything is already provided for you on campus. Rooms come with furniture, Internet connections, heating and running water while dining halls provide obscene amounts of food. On top of that, ample open spaces, weekly movie showings, a top-ranked gym and three swimming pools should be able to keep anyone entertained without "Halo" or "Madden." If you're still bored, free-flowing alcohol, frat parties and poker games are easy to find. God forbid you pick up a book.\nI suppose in the end the whole point of lugging one's whole life to Bloomington is to keep a sense of familiarity. But is that really worth the trouble of carrying a 110-pound fridge up four flights of stairs? Call me lazy, but I doubt it.\nThere's absolutely no reason for students to bring some of the things they bring. The only things students need on campus are their clothes and enough quarters to clean them.\nHere's the real reason students pimp their dorm rooms: the more garish and over-the-top they can make it, the more likely it is that floormates will stop by and hang out. After all, who could resist watching MTV on a 40-inch plasma?
(04/22/05 4:17am)
It came and went, and hardly a person noticed. Which isn't much of a surprise, considering the men and women who participated in the National Day of Silence couldn't tell you what they were up to. Actually, the silence only lasts from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. because fighting for civil rights is really just a day job. \nSince 1996, the National Day of Silence has spread from the University of Virginia to more than 2,000 colleges and high schools across the country. According to an Indiana Daily Student report, the day "draws attention to those who have been silenced by hatred, oppression and prejudice," specifically the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.\nWay to go, guys, you've accomplished next to nothing!\nNot only does the Day of Silence barely receive any media coverage, it barely receives any acknowledgement from students across campus. Why? Because the symbolically oppressed don't have anything to say. \nTrying to make a statement without stating anything is like picketing without signs. It should be obvious to anyone how ridiculous the whole premise is and how little it's accomplished by how few people turn out to show support.\nI wholly support equal rights for the GLBT community, but no one can hear about the community's struggles and cause with mouths closed.\nThe narrow-minded ideologues who denounce alternate sexual orientations as sinful and unnatural would like nothing more than for you to sit down and shut up. So what did you do? You created a national holiday that's essentially just a collective gag order against your cause.\nAn entire day to sit down and shut up. Way to stick it to "The Man."\nBut Ronnie Houchin would disagree, quoted in the April 15 IDS saying: "People expect loud raucous marches. By being silent, it draws even more attention to the silence that we experience." It's a novel idea in theory, but in practice, it just doesn't work.\nDid Martin Luther King Jr. have a dream that one day black children would quietly sit down and stop causing trouble? No. Sit-ins aside, he recognized the importance of vast social movements, of chanting, of signage and picketing. Likewise, it's not as if the success of the women's suffrage movement came from weeks of meager protests and silence. \nAt best, one could argue that the National Day of Silence is akin to Gandhi's non-violent civil disobedience. While I'm all for keeping blood and tear gas off the streets, the difference is that Gandhi's movement had millions of followers, whereas IU's pseudo-demonstration barely had 40.\nRarely does social change come from anything but the most dramatic of movements, and while the silent treatment might work on one's younger brother, it just doesn't carry the same weight to influence entire societies.\nThe GLBT community is trying to sell its message to the public, but it has no slogan, no campaign. It doesn't draw the attention of those they need to persuade because there are no voices to go with the faces of the cause. The opposition, however, has thousands in the form of Bible passages and political talking points. Any advertising major will tell you that's why the opposition has the upper hand.\nI remember my high school observed the National Day of Silence. But was my young, impressionable mind spurred to take up arms against the callous and spiteful fundamentalists? No. Instead I just got pissed off at the students who didn't have to answer the teacher's questions.\nThe GLBT community needs to recognize that they're being alienated by their own silence, and if not alienated, then just completely ignored.\nAmericans champion too many other social issues to listen to people who aren't talking. Whether it's pro-choice versus pro-life, or preemptive strikes versus lengthy negotiations, all these causes have activist speakers, tour buses and infomercials. What does the National Day of Silence have? \nShh! Silence.
(04/08/05 4:28am)
Congratulations, America! We're No. 1! As five-time winner of the World's Fattest Country award, we're officially a dynasty. Suck on that, France!\nUSA! USA! USA!\nAccepting this award on behalf of the country is Burger King's "Enormous Omelet Sandwich," a frightfully disgusting pile of eggs, meat, cheese and salt that weighs in at a mighty 730 calories and 47 grams of fat. Because there's no better way to start your day than with coronary failure. \nBut maybe I'm being too cynical. After all, something so delicious can't be all bad, right?\nWell, yes and no.\nHealth economist Roland Sturm and psychiatrist Kenneth Wells of the RAND Corporation have concluded that obesity has increased 60 percent between 1991 and 2000. The researchers claim that obesity is now a more serious problem than poverty, heavy drinking and even smoking because the obese spend "more on both (medical) services and medication than daily smokers and heavy drinkers." \nThe specific health risks of excessive gluttony are type-2 diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer, yet most Americans would rather shove a pencil in their ear than eat right. I've always found it interesting that the vast majority of people working out at the gym on any given day are people who are already in pretty decent shape.\nAccording to a March 17 article in The Washington Post, illnesses directly related to obesity are having a greater impact on American health than "car accidents, homicides and suicides combined." \nLet me put all of this into perspective for you; I'll even do the math.\nToday 88.5 million Americans are obese, about one-third of the total population. If only one-third of those obese Americans die from obesity-related diseases, there will be 29.2 million XXL graves to dig.\nThe Indian Ocean tsunami killed 118,000. The Black Plague only killed 25 million.\nSave the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there is, and has never been, a greater threat to global health than obesity. And it's our own fault.\nOur own lethargy keeps us from exercising and eating right. Because we're too lazy to do anything but stuff our faces with fast food, we cross our fingers hoping that some magic pill will keep us thin. It's just not going to happen.\nResearch done by Dr. S. Jay Olshansky, of the University of Illinois-Chicago, published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that because of our otiosity, for the first time in 200 years, the average American lifespan will decrease.\nIn other words, in the last 20 years, the fast-food and snack-food industries have effectively wiped out two centuries of medical and social health improvements.\nOlshansky predicts that in 50 years time, the average American lifespan will be cut by two to five years, and this is a conservative estimate. The impact is likely to be much greater because the research focused exclusively on adults. \nBut there's an upside to all this. If Americans don't cut their fat intake, Social Security might not cut our benefits. That is, of course, if you live long enough. \n"The U.S. population may be inadvertently saving Social Security by becoming more obese," Olshansky wrote. \nIt's perhaps the most perfect example of irony: Though this generation might, for the first time, experience less healthy lives than our parents, our gluttony might be our saving grace.\nBy killing off more Americans at an earlier age than the Social Security Administration planned, the rise in obesity-related deaths means fewer people will draw benefits from the government.\nIt should go without saying that drastic changes need to be made in American eating habits, but then again, I want my Social Security check. So eat up, America. It's your patriotic duty!
(03/22/05 4:03am)
It's a dog-eat-dog world out there. If you step on the toes of a large institution, the large institution will step on your face. It's a lesson in civil obedience that journalists Matthew Cooper and Judith Miller are having ground into their heads by the steel-toed boot of the federal government. \nIf you hadn't guessed, or if you get your news from MTV, today's en-vogue social issue is what the media has oh so cleverly dubbed "Plame-gate."\nThe chronological facts of Plame-gate go something like this: Former Ambassador Joe Wilson strongly criticized President Bush's 2003 State-o-The Union Address, in which Bush claimed Iraq sought uranium from Africa. In response, "two senior administration officials" leaked the identity of active CIA agent Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife, to Judith Miller of The New York Times, Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Robert Novak of CNN's "Crossfire."\nUnder the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, disclosure of classified identities of covert agents by government officials carries a maximum punishment of 10 years imprisonment and $50,000 fine. \nThe Justice Department began investigating immediately. Of the three journalists who received the classified information, only Novak published Plame's identity. However, when contacted by the Justice Department for questioning, both Miller and Cooper refused to divulge the identity of the officials, citing the right of the press to keep anonymous sources anonymous.\nThat's when the proverbial poo hit the fan, as it were.\nMiller and Cooper were subsequently subpoenaed by the courts to testify and release the source's names. Again, they refused. The two are now being threatened with jail time for contempt of court.\nThe scandal has sent waves of outrage through the press community, including many here at the Indiana Daily Student, who feel that their constitutional right of free press is under attack. Journalists fear that a precedent might be set that would frighten would-be sources from coming forward. However, freedom of the press is not the real issue in this case. The real issue is upholding the supremacy of the courts.\nThe freedom of the press is not under attack, as many media outlets would have you believe. This case is completely atypical and subject to consideration as it stands. \nAs journalists, Miller and Cooper are no more entitled to immunity from court summons laws than any other citizen -- especially when the classified information and identity in question is a national security risk.\nThe two of them have become martyrs of sorts in the press community when they should be prosecuted for obstruction of justice. While I deeply sympathize with both journalists and admire their courage, a citizen's duty is to country first and foremost. The country requires of all citizens cooperation with the entire legal system to see that justice is done fairly and effectively.\nThe First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press, however that same Constitution also maintains: "judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, [and] the Laws of the United States."\nBut with all the confusion about freedom of the press, it's important to remember that the real criminals are the "two senior administration officials" who selfishly disclosed classified information, endangering both Plame and her family.\nThe fact remains: Journalists are not special. They, too, are citizens and subject to the same laws as everyone else. Their right to withhold information from publication does not shield them from the courts. In order to uphold the rule of law, the courts require "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth"; without which, the entire system of checks and balances threatens to come apart.
