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SOUND OFF ONLINE POLL Should the creationism theory be Create message boards at added to college biology textbooks? www.dailygamecock.com or www.dailygamecock.com. send letters to the editor to Results published on Fridays. gametockopinions@hotmail.com IN OUR OPINION f Religion isn’t part of science The Discovery Institute Center for Science & Culture, a Seattle-based Christian group, is pushing to place creation theory alongside evolution in college biology textbooks. In courses meant to be empirical and objective, religion — especially just one religious group’s worldview — is inappropriate. Evolution is a scientific theory, based on more than a century of research following Charles Darwin’s voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle, whereas creation theory, despite research, is based on a Evolution isn’t taught as fact - it’s not a law, just a theory. But a hypothesis still must go through rigorous testing to reach even theory status. _i j_i__ religious belief system. Evolution isn’t taught as fact — it’s not a law, just a theory. But a hypothesis still must go through rigorous testing to reach even theory status. Integrating the creation theory into biology textbooks . ___x_t___:_x vvuuiu piumpt a.ii even gicaici ucu^iyicioii aganioi Christianity. The American Civil Liberties Union has already threatened, if the proposal becomes a reality, to sue the organizations that pushed for the proposal’s passage. But that’s not to say that merging the ideas wouldn’t be good in some ways. An interdisciplinary course could spend a semester on creation theories, evolution and history, such as the Scopes “Monkey” Trial. College Quote Board THE VISTA UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO “Altar serving is a corner stone for all the ministries. It is foundational for Catholics becoming ministers of the word and the Eucharist. Women cannot be priests, and Rome should not further lim it their participation. If the Church bans female altar servers, there is no telling when they will ban women from all forms of ministry.” MINNESOTA DAILY UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA “It is to the advantage of Islamic terrorist organizations to portray the United States as anti-Islamic because it justifies their argument for jihad and continues to affirm their belief that the United States is the “Great Satan.” The United States cannot possibly “win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people” by consistently offend ing religious sensitivities and depicting Christianity as Islam’s enemy.” GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS In a brief in Monday’s paper, anthropologist Leith Mullings name was misspelled. In Wednesday’s Winners and Sinners, Mother Teresa’s name was misspelled. A story about Critical Mass in Friday’s paper should have stated the program would celebrate its first anniversary this Friday. In Friday’s “Everyday Joe,” cartoonist Steven Olexa’s name was misspelled. The Gamecock regrets the errors. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Editor in Chief Charles Tomlinson Managing Editor Adam Beam News Editor Michael LaForgia Asst. News Editor Alexis Stratton Viewpoints Editor Gabrielle Sinclair The Mix Editor Meg Moore Sports Editor Brad Senkiw Asst. Sports Editor Wes Wolfe Photo Editor Morgan Ford Head Page Designer Shawn Rourk Page Designers Justin Bajan. Samantha Hall, Staci Jordan, Philii Whitehead Slot Copy Editors Amy Genobie, Mary Waters, Tricia Ridgway Copy Editors Jessica Foster, Steven Van Haren Online Editor James Tolbert Public Affairs Kimberly Dressier CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third flexor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com News: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@hotmail.com The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Public Affairs: gckpublicaffairs@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 Editor’s Office: 777-3914 STUDENT MEDIA Director Scott Lindenberg Faculty Adviser Erik Collins Creative Director Susan King Business Manager Carolyn Griffin Advertising Manager Sarah Scarborough Classified Manager Sherry F. Holmes Production Manager Amber Justice » Creative Services Whitney Bridges. Robbie Burkett. Sean O'Meara Advertising Staff John Blackshire, Adam Bourgoin, Ben Sinclair, Jesica Johnson, Ryan Gorman. Laytoya Hines The Gamecock is the editorially independent student newspaper of the University of South Carolina. It is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the fall and spring semesters and nine times during the summer, with the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the editors or author and not those of the University of South Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of Student Media is the newspaper’s parent organization. The Gamecock is supported in part by student-activity fees. One free copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $1 each from the Department of Student Media. TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock 1400 Greene St. Columbia, S.C. 29208 Advertising: 777-3888 • Classified: 777-1184 Fax:777-6482 fiuNOreiP Q(jgrS7lO^$ pCNTACOtSf PROQRC53 1M ^Ag-otJT^gftog 'call rue joiv7 CH\eps \ rp=^ oeSTAff aw7euvie* )'/ J'tuTAK^CA^e OP If ) \ I . if 7 rv 1,(^1 it CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS What does coffee mean to you? KRISTEN GILMORE GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM A cup of joe isn’t always just an excuse to date. In America, when you ask someone of the opposite sex to join you for coffee, chances are your motivation for doing so is to get a date. But believe it or not, this is not the way of doing things elsewhere. Consider, for example, the classic situation of meeting a stranger in a club. You look at them, you look away—this game goes on for several minutes until one person or the other walks over to introduce him or herself. Everything is fine as you dis cuss names, Zodiac signs, the weather — until somebody says, “Would you like to meet me for coffee?” At this point the other person will do one of two things —- ei ther accept the invitation or give an excuse not to. Be it “I have a boyfriend” or “I’ve made other plans,” there’s always a reason for the rejection. If the invitation is accepted, both peo ple usually get the first-date jit ters and dress to impress. Alternately, in many cultures across the pond, club-dancing isn’t about finding as many sweaty, half-naked strangers as humanly possible with whom to booty dance and feel no regrets — in general, you go to clubs and dance exclusively with your friends. Someone might meet a friend of a friend or someone by him or herself, and chat with them a lit tle. When this happens, more of ten than not, someone will pro pose coffee. Most of the time, whether the asker or askee is taken, single, straight, gay or what have you, the invitation is accepted. The purpose of meeting out side of the club, bar or grocery store is expressly to have a cup of joe and discuss common interests. In other words, coffee is not a date. It is instead a method of building and establishing inter personal relations, or evaluat ing the other person to see if you would make decent friends. On occasion, sexual attrac tion is the primary reason be hind suggesting coffee, but the number of people trying to make friends far outweighs the - number of people trying to score. Frequently, the only rea son two people will meet up out side of the club setting is to in troduce themselves without having to shout. Thus, when an unsuspecting person steps off the boat from France, Italy or a similarly gre garious nation, almost entirely friendless, they’re apt to meet people and, out of their cultural penchant, ask them for coffee. Imagine the confusion when girl after girl shakes her head, saying, “I’m taken,” and when every guy looks appalled and stammers that they don’t “swing that way” whenever Pierre or Antonio tries to sim ply earn some buddies. There is no point in trying to decide who is right or wrong in their use of coffee as a social tool —just as all cultures are differ ent, so are their uses of food products and restaurants. In the United States, the stereotypical person who will ask you for coffee is, in fact, a slimeball Italian or Frenchman who wants nothing more than to get in your pants. However, it would appear that this stereo type might be, or at least start ed out as, terribly misleading. Gilmore is a second-year theater student. IN YOUR OPINION Adams column is full of biting satire With a HotorNot.com rating of 7.9,1 believe that I am a pretty perlon. My response to Lauren’s article (“The ugly need to face up to reality,” Friday) will be a bit biased because of this. Lauren’s article was satire. It wasn’t supposed to be taken at face value. Lauren was merely poking fun at the stan dards set in place by our cul ture. Throughout her article, you should clearly see the hu mor. By the end, she even places herself in the “ugly” category with “ ... attractive people make 15 percent more money than unattractive ones. (I am so broke).” It’s been brought to my at tention that Lauren has re ceived some complaints about this article. If you complained about this article, you should really examine your life. It was a satirical piece. It was supposed to make you laugh, not complain. Stop try ing to be politically correct and laugh at life once in awhile. NICK WILSON SECOND-YEAR GRAPHIC DESIGN STUDENT USC students lack a sense of humor A long, long time ago, Johnathan Swift wrote the piece “A Modest Proposal.” After reading it, many thought he actually believed that soci eties should eat babies in order to keep the population down. Fortunately for our enlight ened American society, we can have a sense of humor about his piece and other works of sarcasm and farce, right? Lauren Adams wrote an opinion piece (“The ugly need to face up to reality,” Friday) in which she jokes about ugly people dating attractive people. | Anyone who knows Lauren j knows what a kind, thoughtful, sweet and sincere person she is, and knows that she has a wicked, hilarious sense of hu mor. Her previous articles in The Gamecock have proved that point, and if you haven’t read them, you should. Her article Friday was noth ing less than hysterical, and part of what made it so funny was that it was so obviously meant in jest. Since reading it, several people have comment ed to me how awful they think she is or her article is, but I wonder whether they’ve con sidered their previous experi ences or lack thereof in deal ing with her before condemn ing her attempt at an obvious ly ridiculous subject. My point is, it seems that far too many folks here have be come so closed-minded or un willing to take things with a grain of salt that they are not willing to see satire at work by smart, funny people. Does any one actually think Lauren be lieves that less attractive peo ple will muddle the gene pool? On a college campus where open discussion and unob structed speech and thought are supposed to be fostered and encouraged, are we so willing to take things at sur face level and unwilling to question what we read and see that we would believe Lau ren’s opinion that there is “a disturbing trend in advertis ing today: ugly people?” I hope people will be ,more willing to question and analyze things for their true meaning. If not, you should be taken out and shot. REBECCA MORRELL THIRD-YEAR FILM STUDIES STUDENT use, LSU both lend a hand to Tiger fans After planning the trip for a year, driving across five states and finally beating the traffic to make it to Williams-Brice Stadium, we were thrilled to see the purple and gold invasion of Columbia. Shortly after arriving at the sta dium we discovered that both our keys and game tickets were locked in the trunk of our car. We were a little surprised and very grateful to all of the Tiger and Gamecock fans who offered us assistance. While walking around the park ing lot in an attempt to find a “slim jim,” we were offered everything from coat hangers and beer to food and a brick. Fortunately, a locksmith from the area was able to come out and unlock the car door. Even though we went through a few stressful hours, it is wonderful to know that in the midst of the craze of college football, fans are willing to help other fans in need. A big thank you goes out to everyone from USC and LSU who helped us out. It really is true that SEC fans are the best! EMILY SCHULT, LEANNA BECNEL, MELISSA BROWN AND SARAH HAMMETT SECOND-YEAR LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS . Submission Policy Letters to the editor should be less than 300 words and include name, phone number, professional title or year and major, if a student. E-mail letters to gamecockopinions@hotmail.com. Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more information. Humans need a day full of chaos ■ft ALLYSON BIRD GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM Halloween is the time to let loose, forget life. It’s scary out there. You might have noticed that the FBI is investigating poison in our state’s mail. You might have gotten one — or 18 — listserv messages about the dangerous man on campus. You might have relatives in California who voted for Arnold. And you just might be lieve that USC is really going to build a parking garage within the time any of us are still around here. And yet it’s this time of year when we ask to be scared more. When people chase us in real life, it’s not so fun. But we welcome the guy wielding the chainsaw if we paid for him to harass us. I love it. I really don’t trust people who don’t like Halloween. It’s the annual excuse to dress to the whims of our wildest fan tasies and act like pagans. Guys can wear pantyhose without the guilt, and girls can be prostitutes for a night without all the work. But there’s something bigger to Halloween that makes me ask why on this night we like stepping away from our own personalities that we’ve worked our whole lives to build and why we like being scared, an emotion we don’t ap preciate much on any of the oth er 364 days. Halloween is annual proof that human nature craves turmoil. Our own little disasters keep us interested, even entertained, in our unraveling life stories. We want the drama of our fa vorite book and movie charac ters, though perhaps not so long term, and therein Halloween be comes golden. When our lives f aren’t fruitful enough on the chaos front, we’re inclined to help them out and create our own angst: Some people choose skydiving, and others get mar ried, but the smart ones get their dose of disaster by simply walk ing a haunted trail. Halloween helps the crazy side of human nature, the one that compels people to jump out of planes for the sheer “fun" of it or to approach the altar and commit to someone who will inevitably get old and ugly, by letting us dress funny and then pee all over ourselves in fright without look ing out-of-the-ordinary. Friday is your annual shot to do just that and not risk being put 1 in the social bin with the lady with 37 cats for the rest of your life. So have a good scare this week as long as you pay for it, but bear in mind the simple rules. For one, do not get a haircut on Hallo ween. The stylist will inevitably inquire about your costume for the night. Even if you make it abundantly clear that the style is for your life outside of your evening as an ’80s prom queen or as a redneck, you should anticipate coming out with Farrah Fawcett hair or something mullet-esque, so beware. And two, make sure that whatever vou do is for you. When I was a little kid and in trouble with my parents for mis behaving, I wrote a Halloween carol (yes, just like the f Christmas songs but creepy — in more ways than one) to appease my father, who is a musician. What seemed like a good idea at the time turned out that for the next four years, I had to sing to all the neighbors to get my can dy while my dad accompanied me on guitar. Oh, and watch for falling park ing garages. Trick or treat, y’all. Bird is a second-year print journalism student.