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THE GAMECOCK Wednesday, January 29, 2003 7 SOUND OFF 1 T17 WH ATMm O ONLINE POLL Create message boards at I 1-4 I /1 / I —^ I III I What was your favorite www.dailygamecock.com or I I 1 i I / I / I I III I l Super Bowl XXXVII ad? send letters to the editor to IIJWW I Xxlll I L I www.dailygamecock.com. gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com —I— ■ ^ w w —^ I ™ 1 I '''—' - Results published on Fridays. - - ' IN OUR OPINION New eateries spice up USC Variety hasn’t been Carolina Dining’s strongest suit. Until this semester, chicken-finger Wednesdays at the Grand Marketplace were all students really had to look forward to. But on Monday, four new eateries opened in the Russell House, adding convenient diversity to on campus eating. Pandinis, Sub Connection, Zia Juice and Cinnabon, all located on the first floor of the Russell House, have spiced up USC Pandinis Sub students’dining options. And Connection, zia they even opened on the Juice and scheduled date, an unusual feat Cinnabon have for any of the university's spiced up USC works in progress — most Students’ dining notably the Strom Thurmond options. Fitness and Wellness Center. But USC shouldn’t stop with the new Russell House eateries — other campus locations could receive their own dining facilities. Dining Services could also add more eateries to the business building and the Humanities Office Building. Cooper’s Corner in the Thomas Cooper Library is an innovative step toward improving the convenience of on-campus eating. The more eating options, the better. Carolina Dining’s improvements have made it increasingly worthwhile to be a meal-plan buying student at USC. Winners and Sinners U.N. INSPECTORS Lead one of the most extensive searches for weapons of mass destruction and found... nothing. STROM THURMOND CENTER Will finally open March 1. And here we thought we’d be Strom’s age before we’d be able to work out. USC PROTESTORS Students gathered at the reflecting pool to protest Bush’s State of the Union address. Make love, not pre-emptive war. PRESIDENT BUSH His high approval rating continues to fall. Time to refer to the “How Daddy Kept America Happy Handbook.” The Recording Industry Association of America is still cutting the wires of file-sharing Web sites. Today, Kazaa; tomorrow, the world! SEN. FRITZ HOLLINGS Suggested reinstating the draft, recruiting men and women from 18 to 26 years old. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS Ashley Vaughan’s name was misspelled in a byline in The Mix on Friday. The Gamecock regrets the error. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. . ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Editor in Chief Jill Martin Managing Editor Charles Tomlinson News Editor Adam Beam Asst. News Editor Wendy Jeffcoat Viewpoints Editor Erin 0‘Neal The Mix Editor Corey Garriott Asst. The Mix Editor Meg Moore Sports Editor Matt Rothenberg Asst. Sports Editor Brad Senkiw Photo Editor Johnny Haynes Asst. Photo Editor Morgan Ford Head Page Designers Sarah McLaulin. Katie Smith. David Stagg Page Designers Justin Bajan, Samantha Hall. Staci Jordan, Julia Knetzer, Shawn Rourk Slot Copy Editors Crystal Boyles. Tricia Ridgway, Emma Ritch Rim Copy Editors Alyson Goff, Mary Waters Online Editor Bessam Khadraoui Community Affairs * Kiran Shah CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com News: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@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 Faculty Adviser Erik Collins Director of Student Media Ellen Parsons Creative Director Susan King Business Manager Carolyn Griffin Advertising Manager Sarah Scarborough Classified Manager Sherry F. Holmes Creative Services Derek Goode, Earl Jones, Sean O'Meara, Anastasia Oppert Advertising Staff John Blackshire, Adam Bourgoin, Bianca Knowles, Denise Levereaux, Jacqueline Rice, Stacey Todd 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. IU rLAUt AN AD The Gamecock i 1400 Greene St. Columbia, S.C. 29208 Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 smie-oF-itie-ONioN SPeecnwRirepS looWng for. SNAPPY seouet To LAST TSAR'S "AXiS of EVIL".... CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Freedom is the future of sex SHANNAREED GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Medical advancements will start a revolution. For most of us born into the era of the Aids epidemic, we have known nothing but push and pull, debate and discourse of sex and sexuality. Borne out of the sexual revolution of the late ‘60s and ‘70s came an evil that spread out over the entire world and now threatens the human popu lation in a way that hasn’t been seen since the bubonic plague. The moral majority took the mass outbreak of herpes and then Aids as divine retribution for the rampant “immorality” that supposedly spurred the out break. Who can ignore Jerry Falwell’s chickens-coming-home to-roost-esque speeches in which he charged homosexuals and the sexually free youth culture in general by saying, “You can’t shake your fist in the face of God and get away with it!” Because of the revolution, we, as the children of it, are more in formed of our bodies and our sex uality than any other American generation — but you can’t ig nore how the Romans got down. Sex culture has grown by leaps and bounds as technology has pushed us forward with the ad vent of better birth control, sex education, the Internet and VCRs. But always looming has been the threat of death, which keeps us all in check. At the turn of the century, it was the threat of disease, shame and pregnancy that kept sexual exploration at bay. The pill erased the threat of pregnancy, and the ‘60s began erasing the shame. One could argue that the shame still exists, but birth con trol erases the evidence of devi ation, and all that’s left is dis ease. But that might soon change. The New England Journal of Medicine reported this fall that a vaccine against HPV, or geni tal warts, was found 100-percent effective for women. Similarly, Tracvax, a vaccine against chlamydia, has been successful in pre-clinical trials with FDA testing beginning this year. So it seems a light at the end of the tunnel can be seen. In a perfect world, all S.T.D.’s will be wiped out, but what does this mean for the romantic and sexual climate of the country? Where do we go from here? As the final stumbling block to' complete sexual freedom is re moved, what institutions of our current existence will become void? I purport in my Miss Cleo-es que mode that the question of monogamy will become the new hot topic, as nontraditional fam ily units take an unprecedented jump. At the same time, Moral Majority will go on a rampage, taking aim at the booming pornography industry and call ing for legislation that bars ev erything from magazines and movies to the Internet. In a word, a backlash will be gin to happen. The new millen nium will introduce a new era of shaming. It was not the fear of death or pregnancy that kept the majority of women from experi menting for the better part of the century; it was the fear of being called a slut. Ahhh, the future seems so bright, but of course I could be wrong. What do you think? To be continued... Reed is a fourth-year public relations student. IN YOUR OPINION Garriott’s column was based on a lie Corey Garriott’s argument for a U.S. invasion of Iraq was illogical and misinformed (“Some things can’t be helped,” Monday). He claims that those who speak against war are pre occupied with “abstractions” but fails to mention any of the concrete, physical effects of war. Are the families that will be burned alive in their homes by our bombs “abstractions”? Are the more than 200,000 American veterans suffering from the hor ribly debilitating Gulf War Syndrome “abstractions”? The CIA guarantees that in creased Arab hostility caused by an invasion of Iraq will lead to more terrorist attacks on the United States. Is concern for the lives of Americans, includ ing Garriott. an ahctrar’tirm? Garriott’s argument is based on a lie. A recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.N. weapons inspection team confirm previ ous reports; Iraq no longer has any nuclear-weapons program. Yet Garriott uses the threat of this nonexistent program to justify a war of aggression against a poor, weak country that has never attacked our soil and has not engaged in any act of aggression for 12 years. Iraq posed more of a poten tial threat during the ’80s, when it was a strong, prosper ous nation with a developing nuclear weapons program. At that time, Donald Rumsfeld was actively making sure that our country supplied Saddam Hussein with all the chemical weapons he wanted. I challenge Garriott to end his armfchair politics, realize he is eligible for enforced draft, and recognize that dead hu mans are not abstractions. MICHAEL BERG 20(12 USC GRADUATE Bush is not making practical decisions I am writing in response to Corey Garriott’s column (“Some things can’t be helped,” Monday). I was moved to write by what I feel to be the inherent flaws in his argument. It has been a tradition for practical decisions to be based on firm evidence — the kind that the American and British governments have failed to pro vide beyond some out-of-date re ports that he even has weapons. The all-important link to ter rorist organizations such as al Qaida has yet to be proven. Thus it cannot with any degree of accuracy be said that Saddam currently poses enough of a threat to warrant war. Weighing up the conse quences of a war, one finds the already shaky reputation of the United States in the Arab world. This reputation forms a clear and coherent link with the kinds of international ter rorism that President Bush has been so keen to prevent. One also finds the establish ment and validation, by the most powerful nation on Earth, of the doctrine of pre-emptive war: war begun for fear of pos sible rather than real, practical consequences. The alternative proposed by opponents is not deterrence but investigation through inspec tion, disarmament of what al ready exists on the part of Iraq and resolve on the part of the international community to en sure Saddam does not acquire weapons of mass destruction in the first place. I sincerely hope the President and his increasing ly gung-ho cabinet will see the practical reality. DUNCAN ISAAC THIRD-YEAR HISTORY STUDENT Merit, not ethnicity, should define worth In response to the editorial about affirmative action (“Have equal expectations,” Jan. 17), peo ple should be accepted to a school or hired for a job on merit alone. How would you feel if a doctor were hired to fill a quota instead of a more qualified person and this doctor was to perform a ma jor operation on you? I think we would all agree that if we could always choose, we would pick the doctor we felt most quali fied for the job, no matter what the color. It’s not fair for any qualified prospective student to not be ac cepted to a school because of the same reason. It all boils down to who is more fit for the position. As for President Bush, he was not appalling. He was standing up for everyone’s equal rights, and in order for anything to be equal for everyone, we all need to be held to the same standards. Everyone should be required to fulfill the same requirements in order to be accepted to a school or hired to a position. GINNY POLIN FOURTH-YEAR CRIMINAL-JUSTICE STUDENT 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 gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. Letters will be edited. Anonymoufietters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more information. Boxing matches resolve conflicts PHIL WATSON GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Cowboy hats and fights would give SG meaning. Student Government is a joke. I can’t stand it, and chances are you don’t care about it. I read some where the other day, I think it was in the Washington Post, that the president and some other mem bers of SG are fighting about some insignificant issue that won’t even matter a week from now. ■ Personally, I think they should all be thrown out of office and the student government money should be used to build a statue of that guy in Five Points with the shopping cart and the dogs, but that probably won’t happen. So here’s what I propose to end this partisan feuding in SG: wannabe celebrity boxing. The president and whomever he’s engaged in a political conflict with can stop whining and settle it like men. The whole thing can go down in the middle of Greene Street. I’d like this to be a bare knuckle kind of deal, but PETA or someone wouia proDaDiy say it’s inhumane, so I guess we’ll have to do it with gloves. What a great way to settle disputes with in this organization and raise awareness of SG. If I were SG president, that’s ex actly how things would get settled. Can you imagine a more enter taining way to spend your Wednesday afternoon? Get some lunch and then see two power-hun gry wannabe politicians punching each other in the face. It would be like America’s pinnacle of social advancement, “Backyard Wrestling," crossed with “Saved by the Bell: The College Years.” If several people in SG want to pass a bill and several others don’t, we’ll have a cage match. Everyone will want to watch. Should all governments settle internal disputes with flstfights? Of course not. But I’m willing to make an exception with SG; I don’t think this move will cause SG to collapse and subsequently allow the commies to come in and take over USC. But boxmg isn t the only way I’d change things if I were SG president. I’d wear a cowboy hat, too. Haven’t you always wanted your SG president to wear a cow boy hat? People would be like: “Hey, there’s that guy who always wears the cowboy hat and fights people all the time. Isn’t he the SG president or something?” “No,” a friend might say. “That’s just some crazy guy who escaped from the mental hospital, but the SG president also wears a cowboy hat and fights people all the time, so you were close.” Indeed, cowboy hats aren’t just for backwoods types anymore. If for some reason I win the SG elec tions with write-in votes, I pledge to wear a cowboy hat every day. Now that’s a campaign promise you can believe. Just to remind everyone that SG can change and become ap pallingly entertaining, like re plays of injuries in football games, my mug shot will feature me in a cowboy hat from now on. I origi nally wanted to wear a cowboy hat and brandish a chainsaw in my mug shot, but they wouldn’t let me. I asked them if a rifle would be better, but they still said no. Pitchforks, sledgehammers and tire irons were also rejected. So I guess it’s just going to be the cowboy hat and me. Oh well, wielding a chainsaw would have been fun, but as long as everyone gets the point that I would be the most innovative president in SG’s history, I guess I’m satisfied. -r Watson is a fourth-year print journalism, student.