Gore's misguided pep rally
Al Gore will be at the Frank Erwin Center today to speak about global warming. It is crucial to realize that, while recent global warming is generally accepted as fact, it is far from settled that mankind has a significant influence on this trend, or can do anything about it. For those few who don't know, Al Gore stands to make millions of dollars selling carbon offsets (look up "Generation Investment Management LLP") if his position prevails. I have nothing against profiting from environmental situations, but the demand should be based on scientific fact, not on scare tactics and salesmanship.
S. Fred Singer, founding dean of the School of Environmental and Planetary Sciences at the University of Miami, recently wrote:
"Human activities are not influencing the global climate in a perceptible way. Climate will continue to change, as it always has in the past, regardless of human action ... The fact that the observed and predicted patterns of warming don't match indicates that the manmade greenhouse contribution to current temperature change is insignificant."
He concluded that, "regulation of CO2 emissions is pointless and even counterproductive, in that no matter what kind of mitigation scheme is used, such regulation is hugely expensive."
Dr. Singer's full article and much more information is available at http://tinyurl.com/2N4L57.
Alan McKendree School of Nursing staff
Daily conservative grind
If the media isn't so blatantly biased, why do we young conservatives find ourselves defending our principles and actions nearly everyday in this Firing Line? Issues of the Texan without a YCT response to some fallacious attack or misrepresentation are few and far between.
Alas, following Colin Pace's ill researched report ("A conservative threat of Islamophobia," Sept. 24) on YCT activities, we must once again present the facts about the Professor Watch List. It is not some battle cry to disciplinary action, or McCarthy-style blacklist. The list is not about promoting one ideology over another: both conservatives and liberals appear on the list, as well as our corresponding honor roll. It doesn't matter who or what a professor personally supports, or even if they share their views in class. However, we don't want professors to make students adhere to their views to get an A.
The watch list provides students with an outlet to hold professors accountable for methods that prevent all viewpoints to be heard (i.e. one-sided debate), and/or overtly disrespect students' individual beliefs (i.e. intelligent design). For what students are paying, we deserve a fair education rather than indoctrination.
The revised and improved Professor Watch List and Honor Roll will be released Oct. 24. Students can e-mail submissions, by Oct. 17, to UTProfWatch@gmail.com.
Brianna Becker Government sophomore YCT Director of Academic Freedom
Method Man coverage a let-down
The article "Method Man brings Tical to the Union," Sept. 27, contained nothing about Method Man bringing Tical to the Union. It was a history of Method Man's work, not a recap of his amazing show in the ballroom. Often the Texan gives its stories misleading titles. Furthermore, if I wanted a timeline of Method Man's work, I would consult Rolling Stone, Blender or the Beat - not the Texan. Perhaps the journalists of "Life and Arts" should focus on providing their readers with information on actual events rather than mediocre-at-best biographies.
Raquel Mena Government junior
No protesting the lack of a draft
On Friday, Ms. Audrey Campbell asked why the current crop of college students doesn't display the same protesting fervor that our parents' generation did ("Protest of lack of protest"). Since I spent a few summers in a library devoted solely to peace studies, I'll take a stab at the answer with a maxim that is widely understood throughout our military leadership: Without a draft, there is no viable protest.
While it is tempting to blame student apathy on distracting technology or the consumption of shallow media, the decision to spend time on those is an after-effect of time management. Instead, assume that there were a draft going on right now. Both your best friend and your neighbor get called to Iraq, and a week later you are called to Afghanistan. Chances are decent that one of the three of you would come back permanently disabled if not dead. In this scenario, the South Mall would be jam-packed 24 hours a day with protestors, especially in a tech-enabled society like the UT campus.
It's not that students don't care. We have enough free time that UT is consistently ranked as a top party school. We're just not getting pushed hard enough, and the war planners know that. They learned their domestic (but not foreign policy) lesson in Vietnam. As far as they're concerned, a draft would only serve to pull a few wealthy 18-to 25-year olds into the military, alongside thousands of other regular folks who don't possess military skills and don't want to be in the armed forces. And you know for sure the U.S. government ain't gonna press that plan any time soon!
Alex Addison School of Information graduate student
Bin Laden foiled once again!
Six years after Osama bin Laden launched the deadliest terror attack in our nation's history right under the nose of an incurious and irresponsible George W. Bush, Daniel Earnest urges that we repeat the mistake of underestimating our nation's sworn enemy ("The left-wing terror king," Sept. 26).
"Drat!" Osama bin Laden must be thinking, hiding in the cave that George W. Bush is "truly not that concerned" about finding. "I thought that I could persuade Americans to join my struggle against Western corporate imperialism, but Daniel Earnest has foiled me once again by pointing out that I hate America!" bin Laden might say. "How could I ever have predicted that my enunciation of political ideas would make those ideas less, rather than more appealing to my sworn enemy!"
Thank goodness Osama bin Laden isn't as clever as Daniel Earnest, or he might be able to figure out that he could prolong our enormously successful Al-Qaeda recruitment drive in Iraq by pretending to be against it.
At least we can all rest assured that conservatives will now embrace higher taxes and gay marriage, since bin Laden is against them, too. After all, we wouldn't want conservatives to be inconsistent.
Argyrios Saccopoulos UT law student
Passion of the Earnest
I think that Daniel Earnest should switch his major to screenwriting. That last paragraph of "The Left-Wing Terror King," Sept. 26, was straight out of a Mel Gibson movie - it was light on facts, heavy on propaganda and entertaining only because of how completely ridiculous it is. So, thanks again to the Texan for another column that is completely devoid of critical thought whatsoever. You might as well have Miss Teen South Carolina write an editorial next time.
Caitlin Murray School of Information graduate student
Bin Laden as fake as a WMD
In his Sept. 26 column ("The Left-Wing Terror King"), Daniel Earnest tries to make a link between the content of Osama bin Laden's latest video and leftist rhetoric. His argument obviously hinges on the authenticity of bin Laden's video. However, anyone who has seen it should have doubts about its authenticity. I doubt bin Laden spent the last six years hiding in his cave touching up his graying beard with Just for Men. Moreover, if the video is the real deal, why is most of it a still image with audio overlay?
At this point, bin Laden is merely an idea and a symbol. He is an Emmanuel Goldstein used by rightists such as Mr. Earnest to stifle dissent. Use him to defend an argument and people stop listening. Bin Laden ranks up there with WMDs and links between Iraq and al-Qaeda.
Dries Berghman Music composition, urban studies and geography senior
Evil leaders not worthy
In reference to "The Left-Wing Terror King," Sept. 26: Good ideas don't always come from good people and good people don't always have good ideas. Earnest's comparison of remarks made by Osama bin Laden to American liberal rhetoric ignores this simple truth. It's a shame to the causes that I and other liberals believe in that bin Laden has, for whatever reason (let's not venture into his possible motives), decided to hit upon these issues in a propaganda video. But just because bin Laden, a truly terrible man, has brought up these topics in his barely-coherent rant, that doesn't invalidate those specific ideas and it certainly doesn't make him a political role model. Like Joseph Stalin's complete illegalization of abortion in the Soviet Union doesn't make him a hero for the American right, bin Laden's recent comments on global warming and ending the Iraq War don't make him a champion of the American left.
Will the bin Laden comparison become the new standard for petty, unfair political comparisons? Did the Hitler comparison finally get worn out? Why not just leave them out entirely? They're overly dramatic and almost never survive rational scrutiny. For the sake of an honest political discussion, let's never stoop to using them again.
Andrew Wildman Biology senior
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