North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 61, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 30, 2007 Page: 7 of 8
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NORTH TEXAS DAILY
titdaily.com
Views
Tuesday, January 30, 2007 Page 7
, M.
Shock /Talk
Phil Banker
Views Editor
Views@ntdaily.com
Editorial
Who pays for
Bataille s tour?
Gretchen Bataille has been president of NT for about
six months, following former president Norval Pohl.
On behalf of the Daily, we ask: what's the differ-
ence?
Since she's been here, Bataille hasn't done a single thing to
improve the everyday experience of the average NT student. In
fact, one of her first acts as president was to leave the state!
According to a story by Daily reporter Bryan Shettig, Ba-
taille and her entourage have spent $50,000 on her tour around
the country.
First, why does Bataille need an entourage? Who is in her
entourage? Large, black suited G-men with ear radios and
shades ready to bust a cap if someone tries to rush Bataille's
crew?
Greg McQueen said that the $50,000 was "recouped easily,"
but we remain skeptical. Where arethe records? We here at the
Daily want to see detailed records of where this money came
from and how it was spent.
If the entirety of the $50,000 was donated, did the donors
give this money knowing it would be used by Bataille on
her grand tour? If not, how do the donors feel about funding
Bataille's field trip?
Bataille was quoted as saying that this trip was about
"making friends." There are far more cost efficient ways of
making friends these days. Has President Bataille heard of a lit-
tle Web site called Facebook? There are tons of alumni on there
with which to make friends. Best part about it, she doesn't even
have to leave her office to make all these new friends!
Regardless of Bataille's claims of frugality, we have severe
doubts of how little money you can spend on a trip to San An-
tonio, New York City and Los Angeles.
And what precisely is she doing during the lag time between
her tour dates?
Expect to see a lot more about this in the Daily in the coming
weeks, until every bit of expense of this tour is laid bare for the
eyes of the public. Maybe that will get Bataille to come back
and get to work.
By the way, thanks for getting rid of Darrell Dickey and
Howard Johnson.
SHOCK TALK
¥ermont women s
prison evicts cats
Windsor, Vt. (AP) - At the
Southeast State Correctional
Facility, inmates are subjected
to head counts several times
a day. Not Ziggy, Marmalade,
Smokey and Shane, though —
they come and go as they please.
They're prison cats — but only
for now. They are being involun-
tarily paroled by the new super-
intendent of Vermont's largest
women's prison, to the chagrin of
inmates who feed them, pay for
their care and cherish them.
"It is not a physical plant that
is conducive to a pet program,"
said Superintendent Anita
Carbonell. "I know a lot of the
inmates consider them pets, but
they aren't really."
Cats have been fixtures at the
farm-turned-prison since the
1980s, sleeping in warm garages
and nooks and crannies on the
22-building campus and keeping
it mouse-free. The number fluc-
tuated as the prison became a
dumping ground for unwanted
felines and they found their way
under fences, into barns and into
the hearts of inmates.
Caring for cats "teaches
empathy, teaches responsibility,
teaches compassion and it's a
great educational tool," said Sue
Skaskiw, director of Vermont
Volunteer Services for Animals
Humane Society. "These women
have taken on these animals.
To take them away is unnec-
essary and insensitive to their
situation."
Inmate Susan Margiotti,
47, says the cats make her feel
better.
"When I was depressed or
something I'd go out and spend
time with them," she told the
Valley News, of Lebanon, N.H., in
an interview. "I could go outside
and yell to the cats and they'd
come running to me, just like
a dog."
But the cats have causedprob-
lems, too.
Inmates have been scratched,
and some are allergic to cats, or
just don't like them. Recently, an
inmate used a cigarette lighter
to burn the fur off one of them.
That cat has since recovered
and is now living with a staff
member.
"They see the benefits, they
see the therapeutic part of the
animals, but they don't ever see
the cost or they don't ever see
what happens when things go
wrong," said Correctional Officer
Mark McGuire.
Carbonell said the cats are
inconsistent with the mission of
the facility, which is to help the
women shake their addictions,
learn to control their tempers
and get educations.
About a month ago, the prison
started giving away the cats, first
making sure they were spayed
or neutered and up to date on
immunizations. About six have
already found homes.
One cat placed with a staff
member a few weeks ago disap-
peared the first time it was let
out, McGuire said.
"Some don't realize that these
cats arenearlyferalandyouneed
to keep them in the house for
the first six weeks or so," he i J
said. ^ J o,j
i
More troops raq's only hope
Many representatives
in the U.S. House
or Representatives
are wagging their
fingers at President Bush's
"surge" strategy while they
threaten to cast a vote of no
confidence in his new plan.
Some legislators, like Sens.
Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and
Barack Obama, D-Ill., are going
a step further and advocating
a cap on U.S. troop levels in
Iraq (levels as of Jan. 1, 2007)
in an effort to force a polit-
ical solution on the part of the
Iraqis in lieu of a military one
as the administration follows
a proposed troop withdrawal
to be complete by 2008.
The truth, which is sadly
unapparent to Democratic
members of Congress and
several contributors to the
Views page of the Daily, is that
a fledgling democracy must
have respite from violence in
order to prosper on the polit-
ical front.
As renowned military
academic Frederick Kagan
wrote last week, "abandoning
American efforts to control the
violence in Iraq would lead
to an increase in
violence." Such
a result would
severely hinder
any "peaceful and
constructive polit-
ical discourse" and
would only split
further the rift
between radical
Sunni insurgents
and the Shia
militias in Sadr
City, sending the
country down a very slippery
slope.
Kagan, along with retired
General Jack Keane, recently
authored "Choosing Victory:
A Plan for Success in Iraq."
Calling for even larger troop
surges than President Bush's
proposed 21,500 increase,
the document is being used
in conjunction with a new
"counterinsurgency" manual
co-authored by the new U.S.
commander in Iraq, David
Petraeus.
In the report, Keane and
Kagan show that security is
"the precondition for a polit-
ical solution, not the other way
around."
Joshua Ness
The fact that
Petraeus has a
workable plan
for success in
Baghdad and
the surrounding
area is undeni-
able. Following
his success will
be an oil spot
effect as victory
and peace begin
to spread to the
outlying areas
due to political success by the
Iraqi government. Bringing
an end to the violence in the
streets of Baghdad is the only
way to ensure this happens.
To put a cap on troop levels
disallows Petraeus to effec-
tively do his job.
The president has changed
his strategy as he has been
urged to do from many sides.
He has adopted a workable
plan for achieving victory in a
theater in which he has admit-
tedly made mistakes. This is
not under debate. What is
debatable is how a group of
535 senators and representa-
tives can be expected to micro-
manage a war halfway around
the world.
The Constitution grants
broad foreign policy power
to the president, and he
is expected to act as the
commander in chief of the
military despite what an unin-
formed populous might wish
him to do. In doing so, he is
not "thwarting the will of a
nation," as some would have
you believe. Instead, he is
using information which most
citizens don't care to learn in
order to attempt to settle a
conflict.
A "gradual and responsible"
redeployment from the region
would be neither gradual, nor
responsible. Insurgencies
would grow, counter-
attacks would increase, and
involvement from Iraq's Sunni
and Shia neighbors would
destabilize the Middle East
and the world beyond any
of our worst-case scenarios.
Think Vietnam, only much
less friendly.
Joshua Ness is a Business
junior from Highland Village.
He can be reached at jcness@
unt.edu.
Internet lingo gains legitimacy
The use of the Internet
lexicon is becoming
more prevalent each
and every day. This is
evidenced by my increasing
desire to physically hurt every
person that uses the phrase
"lol" in waking life.
For the technologically
disinclined (known to those
of us on the information
superhighway as "newbies,"
"noobs," "nOObs," "t3hn00bs,"
or anyone over age 35), "lol" is
an abbreviation for the phrase
"laugh out loud." It is used
during Internet communica-
tions to denote amusement or
get away with insulting some-
one's mother (i.e. your mother
sells drugs lol!).
Unfortunately for those
of us who still live on planet
Earth, this innocuous-looking
abbreviation has slipped from
the womb of the Web into
conversational use. Whereas
its use online brings a sense
of humanity to an otherwise
soulless environment, hearing
it said in conversation makes
me want to puke.
I don't under-
stand why people
would opt for a
three-syllable
abbreviation when
"ha," a two-letter,
one-syllable word,
denotes the exact
same sentiment.
If you're going
to laugh out loud,
either do it or don't.
Say "ha" or even
"ha ha" if it's espe-
cially funny. "Lol"-ing is not
a choice. Anyone who utters
those profane letters in public
only brings us all closer to
the eventual heat death of the
universe with his or her blatant
inefficiency of language.
The madness doesn't stop at
minor social inconvenience,
however. The New Zealand
Qualifications Authority has
stated that answers given in
"text speak" on national high
school exams will be given full
credit. A novel in Finland has
been written entirely in text-
messaging slang. And across
the nation, English teachers
Kirk Cooper
cringe with
disgust
as these
linguistic
nightmares
show up in
essays.
ABCNews.
com reported
that one
Canadian girl
started slip-
ping abbre-
viations like
"ur" for "your" and "r" for
"are" into her schoolwork by
accident.
"My teacher came up to me
and told me my mistake, and I
felt kind of stupid," she said.
As so you should, little girl.
As so you should. If I tried a
stunt like that here at the illus-
trious NT (shameless plug),
a tribe of angry journalism
professors would scour the
campus with torches, crying
out for my blood.
Some language experts who
also like using abbreviations
like "PhD" after their names say
that "webspeak" is becoming
its own new dialect and that it
should be accepted into main-
stream society. Weirdly, we
wonder why the United States,
when it comes to test scores,
can't hack it in comparison to
educational leviathans like
Latvia, a country whose chief
export is sugar beets.
Personally, I love "webspeak."
I have carpal tunnel syndrome,
so the abbreviations make
things easy on my nerve-
damaged hands. My personal
favorite is the winking face
on AOL Instant Messenger: ;-
). It's great if you're trying to
be sexually suggestive or veil
a death threat.
Frankly, though, Internet
jargon has its place. It's called
the Internet. Anyone who
believes otherwise is a char-
latan who should be dragged
through the streets and beaten
with dictionaries.
Lol.
Kirk Cooper is a journalism
sophomore from El Paso. He can
he reached at smartguy_kirk@
yahoo.com.
D enton political scene needs leaders
Denton, a city that once
exuded an abundant
display of activism,
now suffers from a
political quiescence. A decid-
edly pathetic instance was
the recent meteoric rise of the
"Save Fry Street Movement,"
followed by its equally prompt
demise.
Perhaps this example has
nothing to do with my concerns
and everything to do with
Denton's nomadic population,
which drains the city every
year only to be replenished by
a new class of hopefuls. Indeed,
the people who are the most
migratory are the ones most
apt to haunt the movement's
centerpiece.
Still, the fact that Denton
can't save one of its "cherished"
locales is intolerable, a feeling
that may have to be inured if
this recent example presages
Denton's taste for activism.
To begin, a modification of
the current means of activism is
in order. Whereas an activist's
time is often demonstrated in
the general ratio of 10 percent
learning and 90 percent protest,
the more beneficial invest-
ment to a movement would
be the inverse. Too often, I
have witnessed
the arrantly help-
less protester
espousing careless
reasoning to the
bane of a move-
ment.
Indeed, most
movements, histor-
ically, have had
some form of intel-
lectual leadership.
Now, however, with
the advent of the
"information age"
and its concomi-
tant technological advances,
leadership is often diffused
into many hands. This diffu-
sion does beget responsibility:
a responsibility, which my
preferred ratio would suggest,
is inextricably connected with
intellectual activity.
Activities like reading and
studying, as well as attending
and participating in public
debates and lectures are essen-
tial for promoting an effec-
tive movement: book clubs
over sign-making; debates
over yelling - how often is one
persuaded by a group of demon-
strators, replete with signs and
condescension, over a reason-
ably explained argument? The
Ben Schwab
ultimate goal is
to enhance the
perspective
and reasoning
of the activist,
and hopefully,
allow for a
public dialogue
where myth and
fact are easily
discernible.
One prepares
intellectually,
so that if a time
is ripe for an
actual street
demonstration, ignorance
wanes. For an effective demon-
stration, political groups must
possess three qualities: orga-
nization, professionalism
and creativity. Time does not
allow me the fullest explana-
tion, but succinctly, organi-
zation does not necessarily
mean hierarchy, profession-
alism means knowing how to
correctly interact with people
outside of one's organiza-
tion, and creativity does not
entail purposefully offending
people.
For groups lacking in any of
these three attributes, they can
do worse than reading about
and emulating the American
Civil Rights Movement.
We have witnessed many
campus political groups defi-
cient to some in degree in
the aforementioned charac-
teristics: this year's dismal
Pollapalooza is an unequivocal
example; the recent slide of
the FMLA, a once vibrant and
actually quite accomplished
group, as of late has diminished
considerably in status; the
ability of the fringe-right (a la
Young Conservatives of Texas)
to dominate the conservative
discourse without any notice-
able objection from the more
moderate College Republicans;
and of course, the luckless Save
Fry Street Movement.
Hopefully this clarion call
for enhanced local activism
will be heeded and if so, the
perennially, nomadic activ-
ists of Denton, who will no
doubt leave the city, will spread
their activism. In conclusion,
only through the encourage-
ment and spread of intellectual
pursuits can activism claim
success.
Ben Schwab is an education
graduate student from Rowlett.
He can be reached at bowlingis-
cool@yahoo.com.
NT Daily
Editorial Board
Every week, the NT Daily edi-
tors meet to discuss the editorial
topics and stances.
The Editorial Board includes:
Pamela Bond, Michael Neglia, Chel-
sea Douglas, Katie Farnam, Tony
Gutierrez, Katherine Frye, Danielle
Dominguez and Phil Banker.
Want to be heard?
The NT Daily is proud to present a vari-
ety of ideas and opinions from readers in its
Views section. As such, we would like to hear
from as many NT students and readers as pos-
sible.
We invite students of all creeds and back-
grounds to write about whichever issue excites
them, whether concerning politics, local is-
sues, ethical questions, philosophy, sports and,
of course, anything exciting or controversial.
Take this opportunity to make your voice
heard in a widely read publication.
To inquire about column ideas, submit col-
umns or letters to the editor, send an e-mail to
ntdailyviews@yahoo.com. Please include your
hometown, classification and major.
Note to Our
Readers
The NT Daily does not necessar-
ily endorse, promote or agree with
the viewpoints of the columnists
on this page.
The content of the columns is
strictly the opinion
of the writers and in no way re-
flects the belief of the NT Daily.
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North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 61, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 30, 2007, newspaper, January 30, 2007; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth145416/m1/7/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.