I The Behrend Beacon
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right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. - The First Ammendment to the U.S. Constitution
The Behrend Beacon
Published weekly hy the students of Penn State Mimic!
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Opinion Editor
Janet Niedenberger
Penn State Erie,
The Behrend College
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Times are a-changin'
Theresa Di Buono
staff writer
April showers normally bring May
flowers, but in April we have seen some
snow, and snow makes the flowers go.
This brings us to a larger, more impor
tant issue than just the death of some
flowers: the issue of Global Warming.
With pollution happening everywhere
you look, I often wonder why there are
not stricter laws on recycling, regula
tions on cars, and home and factory
appliances that produce carbon dioxide
(CO2) which destroys the ozone.
Did you know that if every American
replaced just one light bulb in their
home with an energy-efficient, ENER
GY STAR fluorescent light bulb, it
would prevent some 13 billion pounds
of CO2 from entering the atmosphere?
That's the equivalent to taking over one
million cars off of the road for an entire
This is something I think should be
made into law. All landlords and home
owners alike should, for the safety and
sustainability of the present and the
future, change all the old-fashioned
light bulbs that emit CO2 and simply
replace them with energy-efficient
ones. This would save homeowners,
business owners and landlords hun
dreds of dollars in overall energy costs.
THUMBS UP
401 / 4 I
111 -de
•
wow'
- Hammocks
- Fantasy Sports
- Rain as opposed to snow
THUMBS DOWN
- Possibility of Law & Order being cancelled!
- Locked doors in REDC
- Poor grammar
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Patrick Webster. Managing Editor
Lindsay Snyder. Advertising Manager
Kim Young, Adviser
Sports Editors
Danielle Brown
Kara Struski
If the government has the right to barge
into your home and appraise it for tax
reasons, why then, for life or death rea
sons, can't they take old bulbs off the
market and make them illegal?
Old manufacturers of light bulbs are
going to have to take the necessary
steps needed to be out with the old and
in with the new, and I believe the gov
ernment should stop blowing up other
countries and help fund this change so
that Americans can only buy energy
efficient light bulbs. If they are made
unavailable, the problem is solved.
We spend all this time trying to fix
and govern other countries, but we can't
save our own. I don't think terrorists are
threatening our country; we are our own
worst enemy. Maybe George W. Bush
should invest some of OUR tax dollars
into OUR country. Everyday, our rights
as Americans are taken away little by
little with new laws that are created or
enforced. I can't seem to figure out
why I need to wear a seatbelt to stay
alive, yet I don't need to protect the air
I breathe, or the ground I walk on.
This is yet another great wonder to
me. Why bother fighting terrorists now
to prevent any future mishaps, when we
may not even be here in the future if we
keep treating the environment the way
we do? People who don't care are just
stupid. and it really is that simple.
Change your light bulbs!
[l\l[Ckf
Humor Editor
Ben Raymond
Head Copy Editor
Rachael Conway
Copy Editors
Chris Brown
Janet Niedenherger
Jessica Samol
Photography Editor
Mike Sharkey
‘
IP° Nus
This week in politics
By Chris Brown
copy editor
This Presidential election is shaping
up to be one of the longest and most
expensive in United States history and
could end up being the first billion dollar
election. While it is tough to say how
the candidates shape up on every issue,
something noticeable in every candi
date's speech is their inability to separate
themselves from the current administra-
tion's practices concerning presi-
dential appointments
The Bush Administration has time
and again shown that loyalty is more
important than intelligence or prece-
dent; instead of representing the
interests of America, they choose to
make law for the 30 percent of
Americans in their base.
The Bush Administration exhibit
ed one of the worst uses of election
cycle cronyism ever in United States
history, and this could not have come at
a worse time. By appointing loyal sub
jects that would side with him on every
issue, instead of the smartest, brightest,
and most talented individuals, the gov
ernment has failed a large part of the
population. Tax cuts and a rising deficit
during wartime, the Iraq War and failure
of reconstruction, Afghanistan and the
return of the Taliban, Osama bin Laden,
Letter
I am writing this letter in regards to the
childish, sophomoric article written by
Ryan Gallagher titled WWE:
Professional Wrestling World's Worst
Entertainment? First off, the entire arti
cle written by Mr. Gallagher loses all
credence when the opening sentence of it
states that he does "not possess any
knowledge on the subject." While his
opinion is respected, I think he should
have been a little more mature about his
comments
On the subject of professional
wrestlers wearing tights, all one needs to
do is look at the amateur wrestling
organizations in the world to see that that
is not common to only wrestling. I hope
that the next action movie that features
Bruce Willis and his enemy fighting at
the end of the movie without their shirts
on gets as much criticism from Mr.
Gallagher as wrestling matches do.
The WWE grosses hundreds of mil-
a resurgent al Qaeda, illegal immigra
tion, an overstretched armed forces,
Hurricane Katrina: and the list goes on.
All these things can be attributed in
some way to horrible appointments
made by Bush or the insistence that loyal
Republicans be hired over qualified civil
servants. That's not to say some of these
mistakes and failures could have been
averted with a Democrat in office, but at
least I would have known the govern
ment gave America its best shot.
America does not need another profes
sional politician that rewards its loyal
subjects with posh jobs in the White
House. The past seven years have been a
disservice to the American people.
America needs a president that will serve
all of America and not just the people
that voted for them; a president that will
nominate and appoint people that are the
best in their field and not just represent
their interests, but the nation's interests;
and a president who vows to end the par
tisanship in Washington D.C.
Over the last week a number of news
reports have revealed student loan scan
Bush needs to get
off of his moral
pedestal and step
into reality.
dais across the country. The scandal
revolves around two primary issues. One
is where private student loan company
employees answered calls for financial
aid offices for universities. Often times,
students just assumed they were talking
to an employee of the school. The other
issue is the amount of money student
loan companies give to university finan
cial aid officers to promote their private
to the Editor
lions of dollars every year with top stars
such as WWE Champion John Cena
earning up to five million dollars a year.
Hmm, that sure doesn't sound like a suc
cessful business, does it? Cena has also
gone on to star in his own action movie
titled The Marine, which has grossed
over $4O million dollars worldwide.
When professional wrestling is bashed
because it is "fake" by uneducated, holi
er-than-thou people such as the writer of
the article, I simply retort with this;
Movies are fake. TV sitcoms are fake.
Soap operas are fake. 24 is fake. The
Sopranos is fake. They are all scripted
forms of entertainment, just like the
WWE is. Next time Mr. Gallagher's
friends go see the latest action flick at the
movie theater, is he going to ridicule
them and write an article about how fake
the movie is and how dumb and "igno
rant" they are for watching it and paying
to watch it? Doubtful. When Bruce
Friday, April 13, 2007
loans. Many financial aid directors
received kickbacks for serving on lend
ing boards that made recommendations
for preferred lender lists and with over
90 percent of students following the sug
gested lenders schools give them, the
amount of money at stake is enormous.
As first time lenders, many students
rely on the expertise of the financial aid
officials at their school to help navigate
the treacherous waters of financing a
college education and maybe that is what
makes this scandal so sickening. With
the number of inquiries increasing and a
push for the Securities and Exchange
Commission to investigate, I'm sure as
time passes the problem will be revealed
to be much worse than first thought.
The Senate passed a bill that would
expand embryonic stem cell research
funding on Wednesday, April 11. The
bill would let researchers use stem cells
at their own discretion and would
remove the restrictions placed on federal
funding for stem cell research currently
in place. Bush has vowed to veto the
bill, but it is not yet clear whether the
Senate has enough votes to overcome
While researchers can use
whatever stem cells they want with
private funding, the federal funding
issue creates difficulties. Because of
the restrictions, any university that
receives any federal money, which is
pretty much all of them, is forced to
move its stem cell research labs to a
separate off-campus facility.
Bush needs to get off of his
moral pedestal and step into reality. No
one in the scientific field believes an
embryo is a human life. Even in the
abortion debate, pro-life pundits have
given up on this scientifically bunk argu
ment. The current restriction is inhibit
ing the United States' ability to compete
globally and is denying the potentially
life-saving benefits of research to
Americans and it is time for a change.
Willis kills the bad guy at the end of the
movie, is Mr. Gallagher going to claim
that no one won in the end? I think not.
And yes, Mr. Gallagher, Wrestlemania
23 did just air live on pay-per-view.
Guess what? It's not the only show that
people pay to watch. WWE provides 16
pay-per-view events per year, with an
average of around 300,000 buys per
show. Wrestlemania this year is estimat
ed to have drawn over 1,000,000 buys.
That's a lot of "ignorant" people.
Mr. Gallagher, was there any justifica
tion for your insulting statement that the
"actors" are illiterate and cannot read the
signs that their fans make for them? A
little ignorant, disrespectful, and out
landish if you ask me.
Thank you,
Robert Staaf