Friday, October 1, 2004 The Behrend Beacon I'uhhsli, ,/ u,i / /; /., ;//, sni,!, ins ~/ /’. </// S/,//i ///< . ///<• H,'lni-iiJ ( i/h'^r Rthe behrend Beacon ‘ ‘Professionalism with a personality” Penn State Erie, the Behrend College; First Floor, The J. Elmer Reed Union Building, Station Road, Erie, PA 16563. Contact The Beacon at: Telephone: (814) 898-6488 Fax: (814) 898-6019 ISSN 1071-9288. The He-Man Poker Players Club By Ray Immekus editorial columnist The biggest sports fad since profes sional bowling, hits its peak on Tues day night with ESPN’s latest poker event, the Tournament of Champions. One week after the dominus of sports broadcasting aired Greg “The Fossilman” Raymer’s World Series of Poker victory, ESPN fed its gambling addicted masses with a gathering of poker’s finest communicants in a win ner take all, two million dollar Texas Hold'em Competition. The outcome of this event is sure to only increase poker’s new found popularity, since the only woman in the competition, Annie Duke, defeated seven of the top men in what most consider, a man’s game. Duke’s victory is the denouement ev ery high ranking ESPN programming official and poker savant was hoping for, since it is sure to expand the popularity of the game to the feminine population, and the advertising revenue of ESPN. I sincerely doubt this occurrence will cause a sudden shift in social planning amongst sorority sisters or teenyboppers across the country, but it certainly could show women that this is not just a man’s game. Or is it? I consider myself sports’ traditional ist. The day middle aged women sit down to drink white zinfandel, discuss soap operas, and play poker is the day I will move to Canada. Poker is one of a The views and opinions of Ray Immekus are not those of the Beacon or its staff. Praise for comstock Dear Editor, I would like to pass along my thanks and praise to Kristen. Your article was,very simply, TO THE POINT. Bush is throwing this country down the toilet and no one seems to care; it’s going to be a sad state of affairs if Bush is re elected. Again, I want to say thank you, I’m glad to FINALLY see that I’m not the only one on this campus who cares and has their eyes open to what has been Daniel J. Stasiewski, Editor in Chief Amy Frizzell, Managing Editor Courtney Kaplin, Advertising Manager Alyssa Peconi, Public Relations Manager Dr. Cathy Roan. Adviser Student Life Editor Lori DeFabio News Editor Brad Stewart Opinion Page Editor Calendar Page Editor Andy McNeil Rob Frank Sports Editors Copy Editor Sam Cibula Lacy Buzard Sara Kamber Jenn Haight Beacon Assistant Carolyn M. Tellers few remaining weekend escapes for men where the interruption and at tempted participation of wives and girl friends was never thought to occur. A cigar, case of beer, a wad of cash, and a deck of cards has been the Eden for a man and his cronies for an immeasur able amount of time. Now it is not the opinion of this writer to abolish women from the fu ture annals of poker, for there are women, such as Duke, who have proven they can beat us at our game. Look at it this way, if wives across the country begin to gather together to gamble on Saturday nights, who will be there to put us men in our place when we gamble away a car payment, or this year’s vacation money. In one house, a man loses a small for tune, and on the same night in a house across town, his wife watches their mortgage payment wash away amidst a few bottles of wine and a discussion on the deity of Martha Stewart. Di vorce rates would sky rocket, more and more children will find themselves in broken homes, and the whole human race would be wiped out within a few generations. Now I know I have just slightly ex aggerated the dangers of unisex gam bling, but girls, consider this, if you begin to play poker, you are taking the little power over your men that you have from yourself. happening. So one last time, thank you for put ting down just a small sampling of the hundreds of things that is wrong with the Bush presidency. As you have no ticed by now, I can’t say “thank you” enough. Let’s hope more students have read you article. Sincerely, James Farver As I lay dying... for freedom With earthquakes shaking up the West Coast, hurricanes battering southern states and George W. Bush leading in the polls, it looks like the end of the world is immi- There is good news, though. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero saved American consumers from a Patriot Act provision that forced Internet and telephone companies to turn over cus tomer records at the FBl’s request. Marrero, in his decision, saw the law as a violation of the First and Fourth Amendments, effectively ensuring the privacy and free speech rights of “John Doe” and the millions of other John and Jane Does in this country today. Bush supporters shouldn’t feel bad though; even FDR had unconstitutional legislation overturned. Unfortunately, FDR’s legislation wasn’t as dangerous to the American democracy as the still ac tive Patriot Act. I won’t lie. “Ordinary, law abiding” Americans aren’t being directly affected yet. It’s a North Carolina crystal meth dealer who is facing a life sentence on a chemical weapons charge. There’s also a California pipe bomb maker facing pros ecution for making a weapon of mass de struction. Most people have no sympa thy for anyone like that. Letters to the editor Comstock fails econ Dear Editor, I am writing in regard to the piece by editorial columnist Kristen Comstock (Your Alarm Is Going Off) from the 9/24/04 Beacon. It sounds like Kristen is a devoted democrat, and I applaud her for taking a stand that she believes to be right. However, I think if you look at a few facts, many of her arguments simply do not hold water. Her first concern was the deficit. Kristen seems alarmed at the level of deficits the US is running. During a time when the country is fighting a war, increasing spending on domestic pro grams, and recovering from a reces sion, is it unreasonable to expect that we would run a higher deficit? Our country has had deficits during years when we were not at war nor in a re cession. Deficits increase and decrease depending on economic cycles and are not a major concern. If you look at the deficit as a percentage of GDP, a truer measure of its size, it is even less of a worry. In fact, the gross federal debt as a percent of GDP is lower now than it was in 1992, as well as at any time during the Clinton presidency. Kristen also makes it sound as if Bush has done nothing for the Pell Grant program. In fact, after taking office, the president increased Pell funding from $3,300 per student to $4,050, an INCREASE of 23%. He has also enabled students taking AP classes in high school to earn an extra $l,OOO. She is right that he has not increased funding over the last few years, but there is no question that the funding Reaching for the snooze button Dear Editor, While the presidential election contin ues to get closer, and President Bush’s poll numbers get better it is no surprise that Ms. Comstock would write an edito rial like this. What is surprising is the lack of a counterpoint in this week’s edi torial page, and the slacking analysis by the writer, Ms. Comstock, on the President’s record. Her editorial was nothing more than a continued babbling of democratic talking points that liberals have absorbed into their heads by listening to Michael Moore, reading the New York Times edi torial page or watching the CBS Evening News. Yes, my alarm is going off and it be gan on the morning of Sept. 11. It is easy to analyze the Bush administration if you forget that on that morning the financial institutions of this country were de stroyed, 3,000 people died, and the radi cal fringe of Islam declared war on the United States. The 9/11 attacks are being used not only for a fraudulent war in the Middle East, but also for the permanent deten tion of non-terrorists which poses a dan ger to all our liberties. It’s a violation, if only because another person’s life is on our conscience Daniel J. Stasiewski That type of unlawful detention is no different from saying that we should ster ilize the mentally disabled and the poor. Rep. Phil English, a Bush-backer, had no problem harping on his Democratic opponent’s out-of-context remark about sterilization. If someone can be outraged at the inhumanity of sterilization, false imprisonment should be no different. has increased during his term. Kristen mentions job losses but conveniently fails to mention that the economic contraction started while Bill Clinton was still in office, and was worsened by the events of Sept. 11th. Bush’s fault? I don’t think so. His tax cuts are working and new jobs are being added every day. GE Trans portation Systems here in Erie re cently announced that it is adding 250 new high-paying jobs, which com pany representatives attribute to an improving economy. Jobs are cur rently being added in almost every sector of the US economy. The anti-war argument is the one that I find the most incredulous. There are people in this world who hate Americans and our way of life. This is nothing new and not something we can blame on Bush. Remember these same people exploded a bomb in the World Trade Center when Clinton was still president. Our choice is to sit back and let them bring the battle to our citizens on our streets, or take the battle to them. Democrats would have us believe that Saddam was not the problem, and that he had no ties to ter rorists. In fact, one of the 9/11 hijack ers met with a top Iraqi official in Baghdad just a month before the trag edy (a fact you would not have heard if you get your news from Jennings, Brokaw, or Rather). Known terrorists have been found in Iraq, including those with ties to A 1 Qaeda. And we know Saddam used WMDs on his own people. Is your alarm going off yet? Regarding No Child Left Behind, After this the Bush administration had to fight the war on terror, heal a broken economy, and stifle a recession that be gan in the second term of President Bill Clinton. All of these, especially the war on terror, cost money, Ms. Comstock, and in all of our wars in history we have gone into debt. Tax cuts were needed to stop the advance of the 2001-2003 recession, a decision that has enabled the economy to grow tremendously in the last 10 months. OK, now you want to discuss why George W. Bush has not “created” any jobs for the poor college graduates. This is an easy one; no president can create jobs for the American people, no matter what John Kerry says. I will however cede the environmen tal point to Ms. Comstock, because I do not believe the president has addressed the question of renewable energy sources to reduce dependency on fossil fuels in the future. The Bush Administration spends more money on education than the Clinton The Behrend Beacon | 5 That is the logic we are dealing with as a nation right now. The war presi dent has scared everyone, even those in towns the size of Erie, into thinking that there is a dirty bomb in every garbage can and the only apparent solution is eliminating the riffraff. Luckily, there are judges out there standing up for every American’s free doms. Marrero is lining up behind the Supreme Court, which had previously overturned the Bush administration’s no lawyer policy for Guantanamo Bay pris oners. Such defense of liberty, ours and everyone’s, is refreshing. Still, it’s difficult to justify the ques tioning of a law named the Patriot Act. It was designed that way. It makes it easier to throw out the words like “un- American.” But as an ordinary, law abiding American, I’ll gamble with the idea of a terrorist making a long distance phone call and causing an explosion that would take me out. I have that thought hanging over my head everyday as a young man of draft age. Better people have died for the free doms that our make this country great. Here at home we have judges, the war riors on the benches, out there taking on the unconstitutional legislation when they see it. it’s a joke to think that education funding has decreased. The US is Cur rently at war, yet we are spending more money on education than we are on our military. We are also spending more money on education than we have at any time in the history of this country (almost $lO,OOO per student per year.). That funding per student is higher than the spending of every developed country except Switzer land (per the US Department of Edu cation web site). Finally, I would like to know how Ms. Comstock’s civil liberties are be ing threatened by the Patriot Act. This act is in place to better track and de tect those who wish to kill Americans. I have not seen my freedoms (or those of anyone I know) change one bit be cause of it. The fact that Kristen can write a letter blasting the leadership of her country leads me to believe that this is still a free country and that her liberties have also not been affected. In a free country, everyone is en titled to their opinion and the right to express it. We will be deluged with information between now and No vember. When looking at that infor mation, be it from democrats or re publicans, it would be wise to do so with a wary eye. It is time for all of us to focus more on facts and less on the hysterical rantings of those in ei ther party. Ed Miseta economics lecturer Administration, and more money will not solve our education problems, this can only be done with more discipline in public schools. The Patriot Act has not infringed on the civil liberties of myself, my family, and probably not even you, Ms. Comstock. The only people who should be afraid of the Patriot Act are the ter rorists, and this is a good thing. Your editorial could have analyzed several le gitimate failures of the Bush Adminis tration including the Mexican border chaos, the post-war control of Iraq, and the President’s inability to hold his staff accountable for bad information. Unfortunately you allowed your blind ideology to dominate your editorial and your lack of knowledge/analysis showed in your editorial. So I’m glad that I will be waking up to a President who under stands the prominent issue of our day, the war on Islamic fundamentalism, in the next four years. A.J. Zuber
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