Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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> TTT'WDA Vim Cl °~h.~ Page 5 I H J W H \ I \ “*«! f?oc? T , 0 I I A X X I \ W \ 111 www.dailygamecock.com to Monday, November 8,2004 ■ * ^ f ? V_>X _ l. l r\_/ vote. Results posted Friday. AMECOCK EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR Adam Beam DESIGN DIRECTOR David Stagg NEWS EDITOR k Michael LaForgia " THE MIX EDITOR Meg Moore COPY DESK CHIEF Gabrielle Sinclair VIEWPOINTS EDITOR Wes Wolfe SENIOR WRITER Kevin Fellner ASST. NEWS EDITOR Jon Turner IN OUR OPINION Young voters prove to remain apathetic Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry depended on the youth vote to help his campaign carry the several of the swing states, as his campaign had a 20 point lead with young voters. The only problem was that young voters didn’t come out for Kerry, and they didn’t come out for President Bush, either. ^ After what could be considered the most intensive drive to get w young voters to the polls in American history, nothing happened. MTV and Rock the Vote claimed victory in that their “20 Million Loud” campaign surpassed its goal, as an estimated 21 million people between the aees Young people will of 18 ind 29 went to the po11s not go out and vote on Tuesday. unless the One can make the analogy to candidates are a high -scoring football game, more appealing. though — it doesn’t matter if you score 41 points if the other team scores 56. As it is, it doesn’t matter that young voters turned out in higher numbers or at a higher percentage than 2000, since voters of all ages turned out in high numbers. ^ Indeed, 17 percent of all voters this year were young voters, » which was the same percentage as in 2000. Young voters will not turn out unless the candidates are appealing. Bill Clinton captured the imagination of young vot ers in 1992. lisinv rhe inaupural annearances of Rock the Vote and MTV’s Choose or Lose campaign in order to excite young voters. However, Clinton’s charisma and rock star-like personal life (as much as a politician can act like a rock star) no doubt > got the attention of young voters who wanted someone interest ing to vote for. The fact is that neither former Vice President A1 Gore or Bush in 2000, or Kerry or Bush this year, produced campaigns that could reach the broad base of young voters. Sure, the politically active and those that were drawn in by Iraq or moral issues might have been determined enough to go to the polls, but * nobody else much cared. If young people are going to turn out r again in high numbers, it’ll be up to the actual candidates to make it happen. IT’S YOUR RIGHT \ Exercise your right to voice your opinion. Create message boards at www.daitygamecock.com or send letters to the editor to gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. i-■---——..—-1 ABOUT THE GAMECOCK pnime I I Adam Beam i DESIGN DIRECTOR W David Stagg COPY DESK CHIEF Gabrielle Sinclair NEWS EDITOR Michael LaForgia ASST. NEWS EDITOR Jon Turner VIEWPOINTS EDITOR Wes Wolfe TUP MIX POITOP CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. The Editor’s office hours are Monday and Wednesday from 3-5 p.m. Editor: gamecockeditor@gwm.sc.edu News: gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu The Mix: gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu Sports: gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu Public Affairs: gamecockPR@yahoo.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726; Sports: 777-7182 Editor’s Office: 777-3914 Meg Moore SPORTS EDITOR Jonathan Hillyard ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Daniel Kerr SENIOR WRITER Kevin Fellner PHOTO EDITOR Jason Steelman SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR Katie Kirkland PAGE DESIGNERS Erin Cline, Staci Jordan, Jennifer Logan, ^ Chas McCarthy, P Jessica Ann Nielsen COPY EDITORS Jennifer Freeman, Anna Huntley, Daniel Regenscheit, Jason Reynolds, Jennifer Sitkowski, Shana Till, Steven Van Haren, Joel Wallace ONLINE EDITOR E.B. Davis PUBLIC AFFAIRS Jane Fielden, Katie Miles J 1 UL/L1’ • 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 Garen Cansler CREATIVE SERVICES Burke Lauderdale, Chelsea Felder, Laura Gough, Joseph Dannelly, Kristen Williams ADVERTISING STAFF Robert Carli, Breanna Evans, Ryan Gorman, Caroline Love, Jesica Johnson, Katie Stephens TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax: 777-6482 I I IC Od11ICCUCFV 13 II IC 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 a the publisher of The M Gamecock. The H 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. ..* anp, reizesA, pip you kno* puStf Flans To namc kusn umpauoh y CZA& Of PfiOAQCASTING AW WAKf OAV ' fZA1H6P- HlS OFFICE &oy ANP Voo0u Tuf TATfS of fNfFTKOVi WHO MOT CO AbAlNtT HIM ANO R6NAMF fVfFTT^lNO J , \jjfSTOf me AU55I55IPP/ rtw /h, Ano iHi/Ave ffiANCt anv ^CLOSe FooF SCHOOLS _ . _ . . Th ^ 'i1i n _ .« i' *~~ i1' / & -I CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS How the Republicans stole Ohio ■ Conservative agenda skews election results and shames the country The first step toward recovery is admitting you have a problem. My name is Erica and I am from Ohio. I am severely embarrassed. On Tuesday, the country paid attention to the Buckeye State for the first time since the Wright Brothers. I would like to personally apologize for letting down 50 percent of the country, including myself. But Ohio wasn’t nearly as clear-cut a win as anyone, Democrat or Republican, would like to think In fact, Democrats, we were robbed again. Here’s why: I’m pretty sure that Ken Blackwell, chairman of Ohio’s Board of Elections, is the anti-Christ. While reflecting on this election, I seriously question not only his intentions, but whether he is mentally defective. Though a Republican, you would think that the chairman of the Board of Elections would attempt some non-partisan behavior. Not Ken Blackwell! Not only was he publicly quoted as saying that he would do anything possible to help Bush-Cheney, he also campaigned and personally financed the GOP nominee. Blackwell was also quoted as saying that using punch card ballots would be “a Florida-like calamity," but insisted on using them anyways and denied alternatives. Blackwell then hired William O’Dell, CEO of Diebold — a company that makes voting machines — to count the ballots. O’Dell also affiliates with the GOP and personally gave $200,000 to the Bush campaign. Here I could E RIC A start throwing KOLMIN numbers at you; provisional THIRD-YEAR ballots, ENGLISH STUDENT percentages, spoilage ballots, but I wont bother. Something tells me you wouldn’t believe my statistical mumbo jumbo, except clear and obvious problems with CNN’s exit poll of Ohio voters. At 12:21 a.m., a CNN exit poll surveyed 1,963 people. Males (47 percent of that 1,963) had voted for Kerry by 51 percent. Females (53 percent of that 1,963) had voted for Kerry by 53 percent. OK, good stuff. Then, at 1:41 a.m., CNN changed their results in favor of Bush. Now, with 2,020 responses (exactly 57 more people than the prior survey), males (47 percent of those polled) had 52 percent in favor of Bush and females (53 percent of those polled) were at 50/50 for Bush and Kerry. Now let’s do some algebra. The only way this can make mathematical sense is that if those 57 people polled were all women and all voted for Bush. However, even if you do the math, that only leads to a 2.3 percent increase in Bush votes among females. CNN is showing a 6 percent increase for female voters supporting Bush. Do I think this means much? Not really, but it sure is screwy. Why is CNN fabricating exit polls? And finally, Ohio’s “Issue 1," the gay marriage ban. George W. Bush himself pissed his pants when he found out this would be on Ohio’s ballot. Why? Because it brings Republicans, who are typically for restricting the rights of others, to the polls. OK — low blow. But honestly, the Republican Party has been more vocal about eliminating gay marriage from this country. So having Issue 1 on Ohio’s ballot was a huge plus for the GOP as it brought out more conservatives to vote for it. Too bad that Issue 1 not only banned gay marriage, but it banned gay civil unions, as well as heterosexual common-law marriages. It allows businesses, employers, insurance companies, hospitals and others to discriminate based on a piece of paper that reads, “I’m straight and I’m married." So what’s the point of this? Do I think that writing this will get Bush out of office? No, but it’s damn wishful thinking. Every fiber of my being says that Kerry won Ohio. I’m not a sore loser, I’m just very depressed. If only Kerry convinced all of America’s ignorant rednecks that Iraq attacked us on 9/11, then maybe we’d have a different ending. Ignorance is bliss, but I dare you to get educated. Because Democrats aren’t the only ones who lost this election. In the end, we all did. Fat stereotypes linger in public eye ■ Being overweight doesn’t make me a bad or unhealthy person I’m short, and I’m fat. More than that, I’m not suffering. I don’t subsist on salad — I don’t underestimate my portions. I don’t contest carbs. Hell, ifl feel like ice cream, I might just have it. I exercise. I breathe okay. And I don’t have heart disease. There are a few things that bother me about my “condition," though. Some have to do with national attitudes. Some have to do with “normative” constructions. None have to do with my own body or body image. A columnist recently wrote that, "(Exercise) makes you look good. It makes you feel good. The benefits are endless." That comment, while well intended, drives my point home. It suggests that thin is beautiful, and it seems clear to me that the media inundates us with images that imply fat people are disgusting overeaters, stupid and lazy. These fictive attributes seem the basis for why we are routinely made the butt of jokes and the laughingstock of many a comedy bit. An example of this happened just this Saturday on SNL with the fat rapper who had a segment on his skit about “The Grossest Thing You’ve Ever Eaten." These types of portrayals perpetuate our inability to feel comfortable with our lives, bodies Iand health. These portrayals stem from attitudes about fat people’s competence and also affect how likely we are to receive job RACHAL offers. HATTON promotions, raises and the FOURTH-YEAR like. WOMEN’S rv STUDIES Discrimination STUDENT based on physical appearance is often more difficult to combat than other forms of discrimination, and is currently not heavily (yes, I mean it both ways) discussed. The show “The Biggest Loser” plays on this as well. It sends a message that there’s something inherently unacceptable with being overweight, and that we should feel obligated to lose weight. “It’s for our health," they say. While it’s true that obesity can be a factor in diabetes, heart disease and a plethora of other conditions, it’s not the only mile marker. Lifestyle also plays a huge pan, and we fat people actually hurt ourselves more when we constandy diet, and we make it harder to lose weight with subsequent diets. Pre-teens and adolescents who yo-yo diet actually end up gaining more weight. The columnist is right about one thing: Dieting crazes aren’t only making us crazy — they’re making us sick. Another point of concern for me is how much we are being left out of national discourse. The media is constandy making it known which states are the fattest, and large teenagers routinely appear on Maury. In “Super Size Me," Morgan Spurlock talks about how smokers are chastised for smoking, but no one ever walks up to a fat person and rails them for their poor eating habits. It bears to mind that we rarely get fat-positive messages from the media and are never encouraged to examine the social construction of obesity and what it actually means. We get stories of gastric bypasses as if they were nose jobs. (My* mother had one and nearly died — they’re not the glamorous quick fixes they’re made out to be.) Just like any other marginalized group, the obese have a right to participate in the discussions about their condition. It’s so we can be the subjects of the discussion, not the objects. It’s so we can combat stereotypes. When fat people are shown on TV, it’s rarely in a positive light. I encourage you to look at how fat people are depicted, and inspect and renegotiate your own feelings about large people. It’s time the media and the public start focusing on lifestyle, not weight and expand the thin categories of what is healthy and beautiful. W COLLEGE QUOTE BOARD THE DAILY IOWAN [ - , UNIe|E$llTY OF IOWA leading up to this week’s presidential election, much was made about the alleged surge of youth-voter interest in this election, but after the final numbers have been Tallied, u looks as if that interest may have been a myth. Voters aged 18 to 29 vot ed in marginally similar numbers as the 2000 election and accounted for the exact same percent of general turnout as the last time around. THE LANTERN . OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY Earth to Democrats: Canada is not the Eden that Bush-bashers think it is. No nec tar or manna from heaven await America’s politically “disenfranchised,” only brutally cold winters, Bryan Adams music and the political clout of Luxembourg — the song “Blame Canada” from the “South Park” movie was surely not nominated for an Oscar based on its satire alone. U-WIRE T * New rules discourage confidence in dating m Asking out females at Carolina can be more trouble than it’s worth Dating status is often very hard to define in this day and age. I am no exception. My roommates deem my answers unacceptable. One has questioned, and re-questioned □ me, as apparently I am unconvincing at best. Even my family has, in a roundabout way, vocally expressed discontent with my misleading answer to the JULIAN simple question, MALASI “Why are you not dating? FOURTH-YEAR T, , . INTERNATIONAL 1 he aating STi rniFS STUDENT perplexing. Like most males, I admittedly have some self-doubt and a great deal of ignorance in this matter; therefore I choose to employ the Socratic method, learned in Philosophy 102, to illustrate why I and many other males in the modern world do not date. The first and most overwhelming quandary is the perceived lack of approachable females here at USC. Notice that I am refraining from identifying females as “women” or, a favorite among my sex, “psychotic beings." Often physical attractiveness does not correlate with intelligence. However, if a male manages to come, to terms with these facts, he still has to throw his ego on the line and take a 50-50 chance of complete rejection and humiliation. Rejection is not as hard to swallow, unless it becomes a fixed response The consolation of rejection is that our pain is normal. One’s absolute rejection is not a reflection of absolute judgment and does not directly correlate with one’s attractiveness. That does not mean we are inherendy unlovable with repellent characters. However, when rejection is constant, one naturally starts to consider that they are inadequate. There are many underlying factors that complicate the age-old custom of guys asking out girls. First of all, girls never give a guy a flat out “No.” They come up with creative excuses. Ladies, we men would like you to be honest; nothing short of No, not interested, you are weak, you plainly suck!" will suffice. Unfortunately, there is a widespread disease known as “hot girl syndrome." This is the disease where girls, hot or not, think that they are the hottest things since Paris Hilton. While these girls perceive themselves to be something special, in reality they have broad shoulders, cellulite and conspicuous strips of hair above their upper lips. In spite of this, they have a callous indifference to our suffering and tend to point out everything wrong with us. Girls prefer to be asked out by someone they are already attracted to and know to avoid any uncomfortable situations. Some like to “bump into someone," get introduced via a mutual friend or meet through a common activity. Unfortunately, the old custom of asking out that attractive girl across the room seems to have died out. The school setting makes it painless for anyone to find his or her next “victim," hence the practice of safe dating is essential to our continued existence. Some girls want a guy who attemDts to understand them, while others want a challenge. They like to be worshiped and showered with compliments and attention. Treated like a “queen," as one of my friends put it. It’s not hard to decipher one from the other. The new dating rules are hard to master, but there are two major rules to remember: (1) brutal honesty is the best policy, and (2) make friends and show interest if you want to get the girl. As for me, despite my rant, I have yet to figure out why I am not dating. I don’t sit in my room and pretend to be content with my love life, but at the moment I am taking a break.