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4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, January 23, 2004
OP/ED
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LOUIE MEIZLISH
Editor in Chief
AUBREY HENRETTY
ZAC PESKOWITZ
Editorial Page Editors
We
have had a very
Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of
the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not
necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily.
serious anomaly on the
vehicle."
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- Pete Theisinger, manager of the
$400 million Mars mission, after
NASA lost contact with the Spirit rover,
as reported yesterday by CNN.
A trickle of tragedy
DANIEL ADAMS $29 OR TWO FOR $50
t's been an up-and- stops. You got Chuck Berry. You got primo hot coals, mention words like "America,"
down week in poli- food and drink. You cracked open the war chest. "Terror" and "Regime," as often as possi-
tics. Here are my And Iowa handed you a pathetic fourth place ble, and solidify your upcoming re-election
picks for the big win- finish. While Al Sharpton remains in the race, bid. Granted, I didn't watch the speech,
ners and big losers of you bow out, hoping that they kept your seat preferring to spend the time barricaded in
the week: warm for you back in Washington. They didn't, my room, but from the transcripts, I hear
Howard Dean: Still so join Carol Moseley Braun at the bar and toast that its stuttering cadence and jingoistic
reeling from getting your not having an ounce of electability. message were pure rapture.
upset in Iowa, you Verdict: Big loser. There were so many successes for you
decide that you're going John Edwards: One month ago, everyone Tuesday evening: the numerous television
to give a fiery, Pat- wrote you off. But you stopped telling the shots of the token minorities in attendance,
tonesque speech to staff and loyal supporters. "my daddy was a mill worker" speech, you the embarrassing shots of Ted Kennedy
Good. That'll fire them up for a hard battle in flossed once a day and said your prayers slumped in his chair, even your good for-
New Hampshire. But that's not what you did, and you finished a strong second in Iowa. tune in making it through the whole thing
Howard. You rolled up your sleeves, started Now, instead of being jammed in the trunk, without any major gaffes. However, possi-
talking really loud and made strange falsetto you are riding shotgun going into the fast- bly your biggest victory of the night was
pirate noises. You read a list of states, imply- approaching South Carolina primary, where when you read a long list of nations that
ing that you were going to fight hard in each. your southern background and toothy smile supported the war in Iraq. Included in the
Maybe, but you scared the shit out of every- will pay dividends. Kick it up a notch, and list was El Salvador. Excluded from the
one there, and Howard, you won't win South you might find yourself toe to toe with Karl list were China, France, Russia and
Carolina. They don't like carpetbaggers, Rove and the Bush Boys. Nice. Liechtenstein. Nevermind that of the long
minorities or Yankees. Verdict: Big winner. list of nations that you read, only a handful
Verdict: Big loser. Wesley Clark: Wes, you were my boy, matter, and fewer still could the average
U.S. House Minority Leader, Nancy Wes, you had the military credentials to be American find on a map; the list itself was
Pelosi: In an attempt to comment on the State tough on Bush's foreign policy. But a total so long that it appeared as though you
of the Union, you instead appeared bug-eyed lack of domestic policy has left you dead in cared about the international community.
and crazy. the water, and now, you content yourself I'm sold.
Verdict: Big loser. with pathetic potshots at the real contenders. Verdict: Big winner.
John Kerry: Holy crap John, you're on Good luck in New Hampshire, but Iraq won't U.S. troops stationed in Iraq: I'm sure
the scoreboard! Voters managed to look win this one for you buddy, and it's taken you found the president's optimistic pro-
past your painfully elongated facial fea- you two months to realize that. jections about Iraq moving. The downside
tures, your Gore-like mannerisms and your Verdict: Big loser. is that after the speech ended, the fact that
shameless pandering and rewarded you Al Sharpton: ? you're all stuck in a bombed-out, poverty-
with Iowa. You're a Kennedy with no Verdict: Push. stricken, semi-anarchic shell of a nation
charisma, but you beat the odds. Sadly, you President Bush: Instead of giving an became painfully obvious once again. Plus
will face inevitable defeat at some later actual depiction of the state of the union, side: Bush is a "glass is half full" kind of
date, either at the hand of your own party or you took some liberties with the speech, guy. Down side: The glass isn't half full.
by the great Bush machine, but enjoy the and despite suffering from what has to be a Verdict: 500 Americans dead and rising.
moment. It's Millah Time! bona fide speech impediment, you made
Verdict: Big winner. efficient use of a mere 50 minutes to suc- Adams can be reached
Dick Gephardt: You brought out all the cessfully rake your Democratic foes over at dnadams@umich.edu.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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Columnist Joel Hoard went
overboard in criticizing
Bush's faith, Christianity
To THE DAILY:
Please leash your columnist Joel Hoard.
On Thursday, Joel wrote a touching piece
(How to tell a 10-year-old her president
sucks, 0 1/22/04) about his distaste for Pres-
ident Bush. While the column is typical of
the rampant factless Bush-bashing which is
tiresomely prevalent on this campus, I
wish not to debate that issue. However, to
call Christianity "baseless faith" is incredi-
bly insulting. If you wish to take potshots
at Bush, fine, but leave the world's roughly
2 billion Christians out of the fray. A little
advice for you: While name-calling and
slander may bring you the praise of those
who agree with you, foaming at the mouth
will not win over anyone. Also, slandering
one particular Christian, our president, is
politics; slandering all Christians is some-
thing completely different - it's bigotry.
ERIC DuEwEicE
LSA senior
Abstinence education is a
logical way to stop the
spread of STDs
To THE DAILY:
Because Joel Hoard has made the
assumption that President Bush's agenda
contains no common sense (How to tell a
10-year-old her president sucks, 01/22/04),
let me counter by making the following
claims regarding abstinence education.
Claim 1: Every single person who con-
tracted a sexually transmitted disease
through sexual intercourse had sex! I
know, this is a mind-blowing revelation,
and I apologize for stretching the bound-
aries a little bit. But dare I go on?
Claim 1 a: If having sex were the culprit
for contacting an STD, the obvious preven-
tion is not having sex. This is not a 'Chris-
tian' argument (which ironically, you seem
to claim for nearly every sort of irrational
my logic doesn't make sense.
MAT SCHAAR
Alumnus
Cagers' fans should unify
and rally behind team
To THE DAILY:
After losing three straight, to go 1-3 in the
Big Ten, the men's basketball team is down
right now. They are in danger of a poor show-
ing in the conference schedule and could miss
out on the NCAA Tournament.
This sort of situation brings out fans
like Joey Litman, who seems to surface
every time something goes wrong. He
writes letters to the Daily telling Coach
Amaker and Coach Carr how to do their
jobs or that they should be "ashamed,"
such as he did in Thursday's letter (Cagers
need an offense that puts the ball in the net,
01/22/04). The same guy who, two years
ago, cut and pasted hundreds of e-mail
addresses to make sure the entire Maize
Rage membership knew that he was
opposed to the leaders' encouraging stu-
dents to cheer loud and unify behind a
struggling team and that the thought of
being expected to wear a maize shirt is
ludicrous.
Some fans use this as an opportunity to
blame coaches and players, thereby finding
an outlet for frustration. True fans step up
their support of the team, knowing that this
is the time it needs us the most. I want to
see everyone with basketball season tickets
out in force at Crisler on Wednesday night,
and support your team more than you ever
have before. Others who haven't yet
attended a basketball game should take this
as an opportunity to see their first game.
Tickets are less than $10. We're still in
very decent shape for the NCAA Tourna-
ment, and with two home wins coming up
against Iowa and Purdue, we would be in
much better shape. We need to forget
about complaining, unify as a university
and will this team on to victory.
PETER LUND
LSA senior
Coach Amaker deserves
biggest jokes in the entire country. Three
years later, Tommy Amaker has completely
transformed this program, bringing respect,
pride and integrity with him, along with tons
of talent and substantial increases in wins
each season. He has personally invigorated
the fan base, engaged the student body, and
"anonymously" done everything he can to get
us excited about basketball again, and it's
working. Look past the 1-3 conference record
for a moment and see the improvement from
last year already (10-5 overall).
I also must take issue with the prepos-
terous interpretation of Bernard Robin-
son's quote. Perhaps Litman never played
high school ball, but I for one have played
"open," motion offense as far back as mid-
dle school and to think that precludes dis-
cipline and structure and shot recognition
is absurd. Michigan has certainly played
selfishly and carelessly of late, but that is
not a reflection on the system. Players can
throw the ball away just as well in Michi-
gan State's offense as any other, and it
would be foolish to assume that employing
such a system would magically change
things. We would also do well to remem-
ber that we're talking about freshmen and
sophomores. They are young. They will
make mistakes. And they will get better.
Opposing sentiments to the contrary,
Michigan basketball is back and it's only
going to get better, losing one key player
over the next two years! I for one am sin-
cerely excited to see how this team will
mature and progress, and I offer Amaker
my thanks for the resurrection that has
transpired since his arrival. Get off his
back and enjoy the ride.
JEREMY AKINS
Rackham
'U' needs to create better
programs to reduce
environmental impact
To THE DAILY:
While it's great that the University is
working proactively to reduce our impact
on the environment, putting up signs
throughout campus advising students to
turn off the lights is not the way to accom-
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