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SOUND OFF ONLINE POLL i Create message boards at Should John Palms still be www.dailygamecock.com or oh USC’s payroll? send letters to the editor to www.dailygamecock.com. gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com Results published on Fridays. IN OUR OPINION USC should not own hotel State Sen. Glen McConnell introduced a bill Feb. 20 that would prohibit public institutions, including universities, from owning or operating hotels. The bill was aimed at USC President Sorensen’s plan to have a 125-room hotel built on campus property. Sorensen said he would not fight the bill, but made it clear that the university was going to neither own nor operate a hotel. Instead, the university had planned to invite a It’s not right for a public institution to compete with private businesses. private aeveioper to use university property. “I’m not interested in getting in the hotel business,” Sorensen said. Sen. McConnell is right that public institutions should not compete with private hotels. Owners who invest their life and money into a business cannot compete with publicly supported institutions that do not respond to profit and loss. But the university should be able to sell its own land — a legitimate transaction — to a developer and allow it to build near campus. As a private developer, it would have no more advantages than any other area hotel. USC is an autonomous institution and works with businesses in other realms—why not hotels? Winners and Sinners NEIL PATRICK HARRIS “Doogie Howser” star trades his scrubs for black nail polish to join the “Cabaret” cast — a child M.D. turned goth emcee. TONI SMITH Manhattanville College forward turns her back on the American flag in silent but effective protest against the war with Iraq. WASHINGTON STATE REPRESENTATIVES Lois McMahan and Cary Condotta protested a prayer delivered by a Muslim religious leader. VICTORIA’S SECRET Sued Kentucky sex shop Victor’s Secret for trademark infringement. The shops should team up and make gift packages. t GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS The story about the $1K Giveaway in Monday’s newspaper should have clearly stated that students who have registered for loans have been automatically registered for the $1K Giveaway and don’t have to apply again. In the sports section Monday, the game schedule should have stated that the women’s Thursday basketball game starts at 7 p.m., not 6 p.m. In Monday’s newspaper, Rene Turner’s name was misspelled in a byline. In a story Monday about Jump, Little Children in The Mix, the name of opening band Borrowed Angels was misspelled. The Gamecock regrets the errors. 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 O'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 Copy Editors Jessica Foster. 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 Production Manager Patrick Bergen 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 i ne bamecock is tne 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 PLACt AN AD i 11*3 V3amcuvv,n 1400 Greene St. Columbia, S.C. 29208 nuvei using. i i 1-0000 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 E CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Enjoy spring break with style DAVID STAGG GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM But be sure to keep a few key points in mind. Spring Break is just around the comer. Yes, it’s that time of inevitable joy when kids make the trip home to see families, re cuperate from the first half of a semester and catch up with the happenings of family life. Wait, that’s not right. This is spring break — ’03 style. The type of break where you need to travel somewhere remote to visit millions of other “spring break ers” — or, as they’re known in the suburbs, “those crazy kids who have no respect for authori ty” — in their ultimate goal: to contribute something to society. Or drink as much beer as pos sible without dying. But as we all know, most spring breakers will realize that it always seems like spring break is much too short. It’s never like Christmas or the ultimate break, summer. It’s more like a spring fracture. Instead of big-time surgery to fix it, you only need a crutch to walk. And instead of kids asking you what happened, they just kick your crutch in laughter. And then you go home and wonder why your mother never let you have a cool car so that the kids would think of you as cool and it wouldn’t matter if you had a fracture or not because you already earned their affec tion through expensive material goods. Regardless, this is not your parents’ spring break. Because of this, I offer you two important points to remember when you venture into your own spring break. Important Point No. 1: Keep your clothes on. I know this seems strange, but sometimes keeping your body covered is a respectable thing. It never fails: Somewhere, some per son with a cheap digital cam corder will film thousands of naked women as they run through the streets of Pamplona, Spain, closely trailing the men crazy enough to step in their way — traditionally known as the “Running of the Bulls that Bear an Uncanny Likeness to Women.” Men are killed every year after be ing trampled by the females in the run, and the survivors can see themselves on “Girls Gone Wild — Spanish Style.” Important Point No. 2: Location, location, location. Hardly anything is more im portant than finding the perfect spring-break getaway. Well, mak ing sure you turn off all the lights before you leave is also impor tant. And so is making sure you leave the toilet seat down. And, come to think of it, packing sun screen with SPF one million would be important, too. But nothing else. So let me start over: The fourth-most important thing to consider is location. Whether it be somewhere in Mexico (com monly known to us as “The Place Where We Say ‘Hola’ and ‘Como Estas’ More Than Anything Else Because That’s All We Know How to Say”), or in Utah (commonly known to us as “Utah”), you’re go ing to want to be close to an ocean, lake, river, toilet, bathtub—heck, any place where there’s water so you have an excuse to get in as lit tle clothing as possible. So please remember these key points when you return to your normal lifestyles after that an noying education got in the way of your break. And if you need me, I’ll be at home, catching up with my family. Stagg is a second-year media-arts student. IN YOUR OPINION Cost of war would be paid with lives The immediate effects of all wars are the same: death, dis ’ ease, pain, destruction and bit terness. An invasion of Iraq would not be an exception. U.N relief agencies estimate that if there are no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons involved, up to 300,000 Iraqi civilians could die during the fighting. An additional 200,000 people will die from the de struction of Iraqi infrastruc ture and food-distribution sys tem. As in the previous war with Iraq, hundreds of thou sands of Americans could suf fer the debilitating Gulf War Syndrome that currently plagues close to 200,000 U.S. veterans. This is the best-case sce nario'. What happens if the Iraqi regime finds a way to launch a missile with poison gas or biological agents at Israel? Saddam Hussein might chose this option to gain sym pathy and support from the Arab people. Such an.attack could cause the Israelis to launch one or more of their many nuclear missiles at Iraq. Even if contained to the Middle East, an estimated four million people would be killed. As the CIA pointed out this past fall, there is a good chance that a war with Iraq would be the first modern war where more American civilians die than American soldiers. The Bush administration justifies such horrors by say ing the Iraqi regime possess es weapons of mass destruc tion and is violating U.N. res olutions by hiding such weapons. Yet Iraqi officials have allowed inspectors un fettered access to their coun try. Inspectors have conclud ed that Iraq no longer has a nuclear weapons program. In contrast, U.S. allies Pakistan and Israel both ille gally possess nuclear weapons and could easily use them in the future. Neither Israel nor Pakistan is being threatened with an American invasion. This war will create another generation of loss, emotionally distraught veterans, suffering widows, orphans and toxic en vironmental conditions. The war should never begin. DAVID BYER FOURTH-YEAR AUUOUNTINH STUDENT SG representatives epitomize laziness Ever wonder why your stu dent government sucks so bad ly? It’s because half of the Senate decides not to show up and half of those who do show up decide to leave half way through, leaving the remaining dedicated few unable to conduct business. Since I was appointed to the Senate because of a vacancy, I have seen nothing but apathy and laziness. The meetings are all for fun; few take them seri ously. What is the purpose of having a student government if one does not exist in the first place? This past Wednesday was an important night. We voted on how to reapportion senate seats in the future. There was a little talk surrounding that issue, but most of the debate centered on whether to have an end-of-the year banquet — whether we should spend close to $2,000 on an awards ceremony to celebrate ac complishments by individuals in Student Government. Although I know there are many in the orga nization who work hard, many do not put forth the same amount of time it takes to engrave the tro phies. Perhaps some have lost sight of what we are there to do in the first place. We are not there to cel ebrate our own greatness; we are there to serve the student body. BEN HAVIRD FlKST-YEAlt BUSINESS STUDENT Drinking isn’t taboo in other countries At the risk of sounding a lit tle pedantic, it amazes me to no end that people find it amazing that other cultures have a dif ferent approach to the social consumption of alcohol than our own (“Women inspire all inven tion,” Friday). The fact that a Catholic priest has devised a new way of making beer for his youth group in Germany is not so remarkable if one thinks about the fact that most Europeans grow up con suming alcohol on a regular ba sis and seem to get by just fine. Beer-making was, after all, per fected in German monasteries. GAURAV SHROFF 2001 USC (iRADUATE 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. Anonymous letters will not be published. Submissions are limited to two per person per semester. • Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more information. Where have the Clintons \ gone? BROOK BRISTOW GAMECCXiKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM America could sure use Bill in times like these. Although “all the world is a stage,” America is the savvy, ar rogant pre-Madonna, Pele player — no, scratch that. We’re not play ers; we just want to crush (other countries) a lot. So maybe it’s just me, but as far as worldly opinions and attitudes go, America is in more trouble than an overnight janitor mop ping the floors in a downtown Baghdad government complex. While Dubya and Shaft him self, Colin Powell, continue to lob by the world on our behalf, the rest of the world is looking back shaking its head, chuckling and pointing fingers like an on-duty policeman at a Krispy Kreme. Although we might be the most powerful nation in the world, the world sees America as the Statue of Liberty. But instead of holding the torch, she is holding a giant foam “We’re No. 1” finger that uses the middle finger as opposed to the index. And wasn’t that a gift from the French in the first place? And they won’t help us; you have to love the humor in that. Whatever your opinion is on the whole situation, you have to admit that America didn’t always have these problems. Not because we weren’t near war at the time, but because of our representation on the international front. I’m talking about the man who was originally married to America, the man whose name in Latin actually means “bold-faced liar who is loved by many,” former President William Jefferson Clinton. You definitely have to miss Billy Boy in times like this, be cause Clinton was the type of lead er who comes around once every generation. And he was the only president to ever have to change his last name from Clinton to Clinton-gate. No other countries had time to worry about weapons of mass de struction or tyrannical regimes. Do you know why? Because they were watching CNN, trying to get the latest scoop on the soap opera that was the Clinton administra tion. That’s why our economy did so well. Everyone in the world was out buying TV Guide, just to get a sneak peak at what would happen to Bill next week. “Bill has a close encounter with Monica; Janet and Erskine have an emotional reunion. Hillary gives Bill some ground rules about Monica, Gennifer and Paula, and confides her true feel ings to Al; Chelsea begins her treatments. Kenneth makes Bill’s life miserable.” Now that’s great television. Who needs “Days of Our Lives” when you have Bill? Bill was an ongoing Mardi Gras parade, and the Oval Office was Bourbon Street filled with topless interns with a never-end ing supply of beads. And how can Bush compete with that? Bush is the Eddie Haskell to Clinton’s Vinny Bobarino. Yes, Bush has done a good job as president. He is a moral, com petent leader who truly has a love for our country and is showing good leadership as we take steps to win the war on terror. The one thing he lacks is Clinton’s charis ma, which can’t be bought or even manufactured down at the Crawford Ranch. It’s a wonder that Bush hasn’t picked up on some of the Clinton charisma. That’s why Dubya goes to his Texas ranch so much. They’re still hosing some of the Clinton charisma off the Oval Office walls. But maybe jt’s just me. Bristow is a fifth-year advertising student.