opinions editorial opinion Who's on trial? All rise! The rape victim nervously takes woman is fair game for rape. The ruling the stand. The defendant stares at the will allow the alleged criminal to say he is woman and smirks as if to say, “just try to just another sexual partner. prove you didn’t entice me; just try to prove The ruling illustrates “reversed justice,” you weren’t sleeping with another man where the victim is put on trial instead of around the time you cried rape; and while the criminal. you’re at it, why don’t you tell us a little bit Surely, the Rape Shield Law was not about your sexual history and try to defend intended to protect rapists and harass the your reputation.” victims of such a heinous crime. That’s Though it sounds like a scene from a right crime. Rape is a violent crime horror movie titled Reversed Justice, this against women and society. Rape is not a line of thought may turn into a similar line sexual act. The court has no right to treat of questioning for Pennsylvania rape vie- rape as it would treat the case of a jealous tims. lover; demanding to know the whos, whats Instead of cracking down on rapists, a and whens of the woman’s sex life. Not only recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling is this information irrelevant, but it is an has weakened a law protecting rape vie- invasion of the woman’s Fourth Amend tims. ment privacy rights. The court ruled last week that the Rape As Justice Nicholas P. Papadakosid said, Shield Law does not prohibit a defendant “Allowing this kind of testimony would from attempting to prove the victim had reintroduce the very evils which the Rape been sexually involved with another man Shield Law was designed to prevent.” near the time of the rape. Under the new Has common sense become something of ruling, the defendant can also present the the past? Or is this just another example of victim’s sexual history or reputation as a loophole law that muddles the judicial evidence against the woman. system? The court should reconsider the In the 4-3 decision, the court ruled that a decision that forces victims to prove their Lancaster County judge must reconsider innocence. Too many criminals are already the testimony of a 15-year-old boy who slipping through cracks in the system, contends he had sexual relations with a 14- Judges should be cementing the cracks; not year-old girl near the time when she was widening them. allegedly raped by her father. The Supreme Court did not act justly in its While not condoning the sexual activity of recent ruling and when a judge is unjust, a 14-year-old child, the actions for which the he’s no longer a judge but a transgressor, father was convicted in 1983, are not justi- In essence, the court has a checkbook fiable under any circumstances. power and unfortunately when used incor- If such a ludicrous idea is allowed to stand rectly as it was this past week, the account in judicial circuits, the legal mindset sends comes up unbalanced and victims riot crim a message to society: any sexually active inals are left to pay. So, how would you like to be fa- Early applications are now avail- mous? You could very well get your able in 12G Carnegie Building and name and photograph in this newspa- must be returned by 4 p.m. Wednes per on a regular basis if you apply for day, Dec. 10. Applicationswill also be /i imr-»fo+o a Spring Semester columnist position accepted during the beginning of the LrOlUmniSLS for The Daily Collegian. Spring Semester. \A/antorl Columnist will be expected to write Please pick up an application for VVal ILCU interesting, well-written and re- further details. Questions should be 1 searched columns for the editorial directed at Opinion Editor Terry page concerning issues and topics Mutchler or Assistant Opinion Editor V that are pertinent to the University Jim Higgins in the Collegian office or community. by calling 865-1828, ■■ -■ Sheldon Jones should be presented to the business the M Terry Mutchler, Megan O’Matz manager. If a complaint Is not satlsfacto daily vv/llvijicai B Town Editor Phil Galewitz rily resolved, grievances may be filed Assistant Town Editor ' with the Accuracy and Fair Play Commit- Thompson Holland tee of Collegian Inc. Information on filing Campus Editor Celeste McCauley grievances is available from Gerry Lynn Assistant Campus Editor Nancy Funk Hamilton, executive secretary. Collegian Sports Editor Mark Ashenfelter Inc. Assistant Sports Editors Rob Blertempfel, Matt Herb , „ _ „ ~ „ ~ , Magazine Editor Chris Raymond La « ers PoIlc y ; The Da,| y Colle 9 ian en ' Assistant Magazine Editor c °“ ra ? e , s c T men,a news coverage, Mark Brennan editorial policy and University affairs. Arts Editor Pat Grandjean LeUera m _ust be typewritten, double- Asslstant Arts Editor Jill Kosko spaced and no longer than one and one- The Daily Collegian’s editorial opin- Science Editor Kathi Dodson ha ' pages. Forums must also be type ion is determined by its Board of Graphics Editor Tony Clccarelli written, double-spaced and no longer Opinion, with the editor holding Photo Editor Cristy Rickard final responsibility pinions ex- Assistant Photo Editor Dan Oleskl pressed on the editorial pages are R H n» Mananmt the writer. Letters from alumni should not necessarily those of The Daily eoaro or managers include the major and year of graduation Collegian, Collegian Inc. or The Assistant Business Manager 0 f writer. All writers should provide Pennsylvania State University. Am y ß - Norris . their address and phone number for Colleoian Inc Dublishers of The Accounting Manager Lori A. Spossey verification of the letter. Letters should fbS ‘““nrtK!:?.""*'" s“s.,r rsr ,s, p .r p "■ tions, is a separate corporate insti Office Manager Laura Karp The Collegian reserves the right to edit tution from Ponn StatG. Assistant Office Manager Curt Sayers letters for length and to reject letters If ; Sates Manager David M. Profozich are libelous or do not conform to Assistant Sales Manager standards of good taste. Because of the Board of Editors Joe Palastro number of letters received, the Collegian Managing Editor Jeanette Krebs mailman** cannot 9 uarantee Publication of all the Oolnlon Editor Jill Graham . Katnieen J.Menman letters it receives. Letters may also be Assistant Opinion Editor Alan J. Craver Lay°ut Coord nator Nancy George se | e cted for publication in The Weekly Editorial Writers Marketing Coordinator Collegian. All letters received become Damon Chappie, Donna Saber Kristy Bur 9 ess the property of Collegian Inc. News Editors Letters and forums from University Bob King, Donna Higgins Complaints: News and editorial com- Park and State College: Please deliver Copy/Wire Editors plaints should be presented to the editor, any submissions in person at the office Sonya Baum, Rich Douma, Business and advertising complaints of The Daily Collegian. Wednesday, Dec. 3,1986 ©1986 Collegian Inc. Anita C. Huslin Editor William G. Landis Jr. Business Manager Quality television: The Cosby kids get Family Tied at Cheers and run I don’t know about you, but Thursday is my day of divine Sabbath. I refuse to work or to emerge from the dark on this day, and it is not only because of the enumerable pitchers I drink at a local bar the night before. Lacking a spiritual focus in my life until recently, I have now found that which provides my soul with inner awareness, peace and tranquility. To reach this Nirvana in your own home, kids, follow these easy to read instructions. Assemble your Tony the Tiger Home Neuro surgery Kit by folding on the dotted line and !.. sorry wrong instructions. First, buy multi-colored candles from your nearest discount pharmacy and place them on the altar, namely any late-model television. If you do not have a television then go directly to the sports page. Next, melt a package of Doritos or any simular semi-digestable snack food in your microwave as a symbolic gesture. If you do not have a microwave, go directly to Los Angeles and try out to be a contestant on “The Wheel of Fortune.” Finally, assume the Lotus position in front of the television and chant the three magic syllables that will bring joy and happiness to your life N...8...C...N ... B ... C . .. At this point, the television will switch on by itself and the miracle of the celebration commences. It is THE NIGHT OF QUAL ITY TELEVISION. (And there was much rejoicing). In tonight’s episode, the gospel of Bill, Alex, Sam, Harry and Frank come together as, The Cosby kids get Family Tied at Cheers and run into Night Court by the Hill Street Blues. The show opens as Dr. Huxtable and his family are celebrating Mrs. Huxtable’s birthday at “Cheers.” Norm challenges Clair to a Chug-a-Lug contest and wins. Dr. Huxtable’s beeper sounds. Joyce Da venport is ready to have her baby. Duty calls. Dr. Huxtable does not realize how drunk he is and because of his incompe tence, the baby is born with a stutter which renders it unable to appear on prime-time television. It is adopted by David Letterman who regularly pokes fun at it. Joyce is enraged, and hauls the doctor into “Night Court” on malpractice charges. Harry throws the case out of court so he can go see lawyer Dan make a fool out of himself by selling illegal exploding cigars to a Mullah in exchange for off-color photos of Nancy Reagan and Richard Nixon’s former dog Checkers. 1 DID NOT SELL BOWS AIOP AtSRDvOS 15 'TWE INDIANS asjd i'm mot going- -to do it againl l * reader opinion Propaganda Picture Beaver Stadium. Fill the East stands with 36,000 students. Put the administration in the heated pressbox on the West side. Throw in a few heavily padded players and a couple of cheerleaders. A familiar cry comes from the East: “We are . ..” The response from the West? “Gee, who are these people?” I just saw a preview showing of the Campaign for Penn State slide show and was sadly disappointed. This production was created to entice the viewers, particularly alumni, to con tribute money to the University; $2OO million is wanted to improve the learning atmosphere at Penn State. Improve it for whom? Students were totally ignored in this show. Rather, we saw a progress report of Arms sales: Watergate revisited? Is the United States facing another Watergate scan- Materials should be directed to Opinion Editor Terry dal? Is the media exaggerating what’s happening with Mutchler or Assistant Opinion Editor Jim Higgins, the Reagan administration? Is President Reagan All authors must bring the materials to the Collegian fessing up to the secret White House arms sales to Iran office, 126 Carnegie Building, in person and present and money transfers to Nicaraguan rebels? Should a proper identification. (If there is more than one author, special Congressional Committee be appointed to all must be present). investigate the situation or should private counsel be Students’ letters should include the semester and hired to take a look at what’s going on? major of each writer. Letters from alumni should The Daily Collegian’s Board of Opinion would like to include the author’s major and year of graduation, know what the faculty, students, staff and area resi- Names may be withheld on request. dents think about the'entire Iranian arms sales situa tion. Deadline for letters-to-the-editor (no more than IV2 not conform to standards of good taste. pages;, double-spaced) and forums (up to three typed Due to the large number of letters received, publica pageS, double-spaced) is 1 p.m. Monday, Dec. 8. tion of each letter cannot be guaranteed. into Night Court by the Hill various alumni and all we really saw of their Penn State experience was that they graduated. I knew that. In fact, one alumnus interviewed said after the football what was he to do. Is Penn State really just a football school. What disheartened me the most was that not one current student was interviewed. We are the ones the funds will affect, yet we were forgot ten. We are Penn State, yet we are forgotten. Oh, yes, there were photo graphs of students. But all of these students were gazing in awe at their skillful professors. We are more than this and more important than we were represented here. One final aspect of this production that needs to be addressed is the Meanwhile, Theo and Rudy Huxtable are getting drunk at “Cheers” on Choco-Mint Schnapps. Alex, aspiring to assistant dis trict snitch whenever he finally leaves home at 39, calls in Sgt. Belker from Hill Street Station to come in and throw the ruffians in a drunk tank. So ends another evening of the best tele vision has to offer. But a few words must be said about the wonderful people who make this all possible. Actually, commercials these days are oftentimes funnier than the shows they so mercifully interrupt. There is now one in particular, about a seemingly sane woman who holds a lengthy conversation with a large animated depiction of talking toliet paper. This cheerful character, who appar ently does not know his ultimate purpose, actually seems superior in knowledge to this woman, who looks up at the toliet paper as if it is Carl Sagan or Albert Einstein expounding an astounding theory. So what’s the point you ask? The people The Daily Collegian Wednesday, Dec. 3, 1986 almost total omission of non-techni cal fields even the College of Busi ness Administration. I thought Penn State had one of the top-rated business programs in the country. Why was it excluded? The University tells me my Liberal Arts degree is well worth the time I’m spending to earn it. Why was it ex cluded? I understand big industry brings in big bucks. But isn’t the purpose of this show to accurately display Penn State? It doesn’t. Scratch that. The show does por tray the University as it is. The administration has always shown a blatant disregard for students. This propaganda piece seconds that mo tion. The opinion editors reserve the right to edit letters for length and to reject letters if they are libelous or do who say that television rots childrens minds have simply not taught the children to look at it in the correct way. To employ tele vision to it’s maximum utility one must simply not take it at all seriously. On our screens every night we find the ultimate examples of human folly and the consequences. These include greed, apathy, illiteracy and Ronald Reagan. These are things that are a result of people taking television seriously; as anything but a big joke. So the next time you have the urge to take television seriously, either turn on the only program on television ever made that was worth watching, which is “The Bugs Bunny Show,” or read a book. And if you must watch, just keep in mind how ridiculous it all is. Brian Schafer is a senior majoring in health planning administration and a col umnist for The Dally Collegian. His column appears every other Wednesday. Karl A. Kline senior-English Street Blues Journalists show alcohol effects By SHELLY NAPOLI Collegian Staff Writer Five Centre County media figures Horner said the test is often inaccu participated in a controlled drinking rate with a blood-alcohol content un demonstration last Tuesday hosted der 0.20. by a group that makes drinking and WRSC personality Jerry Fisher, safe highways its main priorities with a blood alcohol content of .103, the Centre County Drunk and Irh- successfully stood for 30 seconds bal paired Driving Task Force, a group anced on one leg with his hands on his made up of members of the law side. enforcement community and the Other media participants were Centre County chapter of Mothers Chip Minemyer and Kevin Mattison Against Drunk Driving. of the Centre Democrat. Journalists from the Centre Daily In addition, all participants took a Times, The Centre Democrat and reaction test in which they sat in front State College radio station WRSC of a small box containing a gas pedal began drinking at 3:30 p.m. in a suite and a brake. They were required to furnished by the Sheraton Penn State, move their feet from the pedal to the 240 S. Pugh St. The blood alcohol brakes when a light came on. content of all five participants were The participants’ reaction times tested at random intervals until 7 varied from one-half to \\k seconds, p.m. A-blood alcohol content of 0.1 is The normal reaction time of a sober considered the legal intoxication lev- person is between one-third and one el in Pennsylvania. half seconds, University Police Offi- The demonstration was intended to cer Ron Horner said, educate the media so that they can Horner added that a drunk driver learn and report back to the public. will have to react to only one emer- In addition, participants were gency, and if they cannot react fast asked to complete several sobriety enough they could be in an accident, and simulated driving exercises to The tests which included the demonstrate the impairing effects of English alphabet test, the one-leg alcohol. stand, and the walk-and-turn were Matt Slovak of the CDT, with a like tests administered to persons blood alcohol content of .163, failed pulled over for drunk driving, the walk-and-turn test with two mis- Police officers administering the takes, the maximum allowed in the tests were Horner and Dwight Smith test. Slovak lost his balance as he of University Police Services, Gary started and did his turn incorrectly. Shaw of the Bellefonte Police Depart- His CDT colleague, Jackie Ward, ment, and Ralph Ralston of the State managed to recite the alphabet cor- College Bureau of Police Services, Keep up wixh sports. Reacl The PAily CollegiAN. rectly for the English alphabet test with a blood alcohol content of .194. University Police Officer Ron These Outstanding Teams Will Be In Rec Hall PENN STATE Cornell Morgan State Army Edinboro New Hampshire Binghamton Franklin & Marshall Pittsburgh Brockport Indiana , Slippery Rock Bucknell Maryland Syracuse • Central Connecticut Millersville Virginia Clarion Montclair State West Virginia Be prepared. Being prepared is essential for success in any field. As a university student, you already know that; you’re here to prepare yourself for the future. To prepare for your future beyond university life, stop by 126 Carnegie Building and see how Collegian Production can help you.get started with a resume tailored to your personality. With a variety of typefaces and resume formats from which to choose, you can have a resume that will keep you prepared for career opportunities. The future is yours, if you’re prepared to take advantage of opportunities. Collegian Production can help. because you never know when opportunity may be around the corner . Ah9U Invitational Wrestling Tournament CD collegian | production 126 Carnegie Building University Park, Pa 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday The Daily Collegian Wednesday, Dec. 3, 198&—9 863-3215 Seminar to discuss lithotripsy Techniques to dissolve kidney stones, including one technique used at the University’s Hershey Medical Center, will be the topic of a seminar sponsored by the bioengineering de partment at 11 this morning in 112 Kern. During the discussion, Thomas Rohner, professor of surgery and chief of urology at the medical cen ter, will speak on two procedures used to treat patients with kidney stones, a University professor said. Roger Gaumond, associate profes sor of bioengineering, said Rohner will discuss the “merits and disad vantages of ultrasonic and extracor poreal shock-wave lithotripsy.” Ultrasonic lithotripsy involves insert ing a probe through the urethra and then generating a brief pulse at a specific frequency near the kidney stones, Gaumond said. The pulse then strikes the stones, breaking them into smaller particles that can pass through the urinary tract. The procedure differs from extra corporeal shock-wave lithotripsy, which is being used at the medical center, because the extracorporeal method does not use a probe inserted into the patient’s body. Instead, a computerized X-ray machine emits a fast pulsing shock wave and a reflec tor is used to direct the beam toward the kidney stones. When the waves strike the stones, they crush them into sand-like particles. —by Ruth Follmer
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