Editorials

• Board of Visitors takes a stand: University upholds previous nondiscrimination policies

  Editorials March 29, 2010 at 12:36 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Gleason S. Rowe, Student Representative Board of Visitors The George Mason University Board of Visitors (BOV) took a firm stance this past Wednesday on Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s letter regarding nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation. Specifically, Cuccinelli believes that universities that have policies enumerating sexual orientation as a category under which discrimination is prohibited should remove them due to the fact that the commonwealth has not included such categories in its policies. He stated in his letter that “Such invalid policies create, at a minimum, confusion about the law and, at worst, a litany of instances in which the school’s operation would need to change in order to come into conformance.” His recommendation has undoubtedly had contentious reaction throughout the commonwealth. Soon after the attorney general’s letter was received, Rector Ernst Volgenau, the leader of the Board, took action. He promptly drafted a statement on behalf of the Visitors and himself stating that “the Board of Visitors extends its full and unconditional support to all members of the university community and encourages continued focus on diversity and mutual respect that has become our hallmark.” Rector Volgenau’s response was swift and well-received but there was more definitive action to be […]

   

• The U.N. and its role in the world: How it affects and shapes our modern politics

  Editorials March 29, 2010 at 12:34 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Justin Lalputan, Staff Writer A few years back, when I first watched Hotel Rwanda, I was completely shocked and horrified. I was just finishing the 8th grade, and while I’d heard of the Holocaust and cases like it, this movie was raw to me. One of the scenes in the movie that got to me was when a news reporter was talking about apathy. People actually knew that this was taking place, but there was no intervention by the United Nations to save the people who were being killed, and as a result, thousands died. One of the goals of the U.N. is to keep peace. Well, how can you claim to be keeping peace if there are people killing each other left and right in some places of the world? Take the situation in Darfur for example: innocent women and children are raped every day, and nobody comes to help them. Even with the attention that many celebrities have brought to Darfur, still nobody has come to help these innocent people. Sure organizations and individuals send aid such as food and water, but will that make any difference in people’s lives? Speaking in the short term, yes, it […]

   

• Letters to the editor

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:30 am Comments are Disabled

  Don’t give space to Alan Moore I am extremely disappointed by the recent opinion piece in Broadside by Alan Moore, “Rebuttal to Climategate Response.” Quite frankly, the back-and-forth between Alan Moore and Colin Bennett is getting tiresome. Alan Moore writes some ridiculous piece with no basis in fact and Colin Bennett responds, thoroughly refuting Moore’s claims by correctly citing verifiable information. Moore then follows up with a piece that is more fantastical than the first. Once again, Bennett responds with a well written piece that completely debunks Moore’s claims. So Moore responds by writing a piece that is so absurd that it would be laughable were it not so offensive. In fact, Moore’s most recent rants serve to do nothing other than highlight the fact that he is apparently completely ignorant of any facts about climate change. I understand that Mr. Moore has the right to express his opinion, but Broadside also has the right to refuse to run his nonsense. I would like to see Broadside publish more information about how climate change is going to affect George Mason University and what our school is doing about it. I know that the Office of Sustainability has been hard at […]

   

• Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli defends recent letter

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:25 am Comments are Disabled

  By Kn Cuccinelli, Virginia Attorney General RICHMOND (March 19, 2010) Recently, the George Mason University community heard about my recommendation to Virginia’s public colleges and universities regarding the inclusion of sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policy statements. The issue has created some confusion for the public, so as your attorney general, I wanted to take this opportunity to set the record straight. The attorney general is the attorney for the Commonwealth of Virginia and its agencies. Each day, more than two hundred attorneys and staff work in my office to provide advice and legal counsel to state agencies on issues from transportation to health care and public safety to education. Part of our job is to advise client agencies that inadvertently might be doing something the law does not give them the power to do. Shortly after becoming attorney general, I received inquiries about whether or not sexual orientation could be included as a protected class in the non-discrimination policies of our state colleges and universities. A subsequent review of the law and of the opinions of at least five of my predecessors — both Democrats and Republicans — demonstrated that any decision regarding the creation of a new protected […]

   

• Technology gods: One man’s personal battle

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:23 am Comments are Disabled

  By Brandon T. Minister, Staff Writer The technology gods hate me. Somewhere, I offended their sensibilities, and ever since the deities of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have cursed me to a Luddite hell, where every piece of electronic equipment malfunctions straight out of the box. Customer support is provided by the departed souls of cavemen who insist the only way to cure my Blue Screen of Death is to bury alive a kinsman in peat. Where did I go wrong with the gods? I’m not sure, but it might have been in 1995 when I declared the Internet to be “sort of worthless.” Since that day, my fate has been sealed. Items I buy routinely become obsolete while I cross the store parking lot back to my car. Clamshell packaging severs my fingers. User instructions appear in every language except English, including Slovenian and Slovakian. Required battery sizes are obscure, or occasionally non-existent, like the single-A or B batteries. Proof of my cursedness can be found in the situations where electronics don’t fail. When my daughter was a newborn, she had a toy which needed only to be moved to play the opening notes of “Shave and a Haircut” […]

   

• Supreme Court approves corporate funding of presidents: Will the corporations of America now have control over who is elected?

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:20 am Comments are Disabled

  By Justin Lalputan, Staff Writer The Supreme Court of the United States has recently approved unlimited corporate funding of presidential campaigns by way of a case called Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. This has come as quite a shock to many citizens who feel that this will give corporations too much power over presidential elections. I also feel that there are simply too many downsides to this ruling for it to properly work in our democratic system, however there are some that disagree with me. Before the recent Supreme Court decision, there were limitations on funding and all donations had to be monitored and documented. There was very little that people could do to get around the corporate funding regulations. Sometimes presidents would be questioned about exactly where they got their funds from. Now that there is unlimited funding, some key problems arise. First and foremost, I believe that this unlimited spending gives corporations too much power. Imagine what it would be like if presidential candidates had the ability to simply appeal to one or two companies to get all the campaign finances that they needed. First, they wouldn’t have to pander to the needs of interest groups anymore. […]

   

• Hail to the Redskins: Why our local football team should never change it's mascot

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:18 am Comments are Disabled

  By Alan Moore, Staff Writer As a long-suffering Washington Redskins fan, I know there are many things to be offended by from the team, but their mascot most certainly is not one of them. A select few have made the argument that the term “Redskins” is racist against Native Americans. Some have even called for all sports teams’ names that refer to Native Americans to be changed. Last month, a new court battle ensued to strip legal protection for the trademarked name of the Washington Redskins. In the politically correct and postmodern world that we live in, this really comes as no surprise, but these attacks are baseless. The Washington Redskins were known as the Boston Braves until they changed their name on July 8, 1933. They had adopted the name “Braves” because they played in the stadium of the Boston Braves National League baseball team. They moved from Boston to Washington on February 13, 1937. Owner George Preston Marshall changed the name to “Redskins” to honor their first coach William “Lone Star” Dietz, who was an Oglala Lakota Sioux. Dietz had been a student at Pennsylvania’s Carlisle Indian Industrial School and got his start playing football under Glenn “Pop” […]

   

• Student protests Obama’s health bill: Fears mount as the House passes health care legislation

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:15 am Comments are Disabled

  By Ashley O’Donnell, Guest Columnist As someone who had cancer four years ago and will lose my health insurance in two months because I’m graduating, there’s a lot I fear when it comes to health insurance. President Obama’s speech on Friday only made that fear worse. He told the audience that he wants to add more choice and competition to the insurance market, but those are the very two things that will be taken away if his version of the bill gets passed. This is why I was surprised when he said, “I don’t believe we should give government or the insurance companies more control over health care in America. I think it’s time to give you, the American people, more control over your health.” That statement is hypocritical, rhetorical “inaction.” The government already controls 49 percent of the health care market through Medicare and Medicaid, and they are going bankrupt, barely covering all the needs of those on these plans. What few realize is that private insurance companies are already heavily regulated. According to the Cato Institute, “States also limit enrollees’ freedom to purchase only the coverage they wish.” A study conducted in 2007 by the Congressional Budget Office […]

   

• Let’s focus on the big picture: Like the fact that global warming does exist

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:13 am Comments are Disabled

  By Susan Crate, and Chris Parsons, Guest Columnists If these words sound like words from a concerned adult when you were growing up, they are. We repeat them here because it seems that we need such reminders throughout our adult life. It is easy to slip into pettiness and squabbles, and thereby lose sight of the forest through the trees. Let us show you the forest in the context of global climate change. ­­We are disheartened to see Alan Moore’s recent Opinion piece in Broadside on March 1 using the mistakes in the IPCC and hacked climate e-mails as an excuse to deny the firmly established science of climate change. Mr. Moore is mainly echoing the words of many opinion and editorial writers in the past months, all of whom have lost sight of the big picture. As members of a department with research in this area, we’d like to remind our campus community of the big picture. Ice cores from Antarctica show that the earth’s atmosphere has not had the levels of CO2 that we have today in the last 600,000 years. The same ice cores show how temperature directly correlates with those CO2 levels — the higher the […]

   

• Letter from student government

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:10 am Comments are Disabled

  By Jennifer Mancini, Student Government Senator and James Nance, Student Government Senator Student Government would like to welcome everyone back from what was hopefully a relaxing and fun-filled Spring Break. We hope you all are ready to finish out the semester as strong as we are. The inevitable Student Government elections are going to be held March 30 – 31. Remember, this is an opportunity for your voices to be heard and we encourage everyone to take a few moments and vote through e-mail. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain. The candidates on the ballot for the prestigious position of Student Body president and vice president are as follows: D’Leon Barnett and Jackie Yoo, Lynn Gold and Dominic Pody, Sean Hobaugh and Evan Massengill and last but not least, Shane Smith and Richard Everett. Elections are expected to be competitive this year with 44 candidates running for 30 senate seats. Good luck to everyone. University Services has been working hard to institute a Housing Town Hall and the honorable Chairman Shane Smith would like everyone to be aware that there will be a meeting Tuesday, March 23 from 5 – 6 p.m. in the Johnson Center Cinema. It will […]