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AMECOCK
EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITOR
Michael LaForgia
NEWS EDITOR
Jon Turner
VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Wes Wolfe
THE MIX EDITOR
Jennifer Freeman
ASST. VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Patrick Augustine
SPORTS EDITOR
Jonathan Hillyard
DESIGN DIRECTOR
Chas McCarthy
COPY DESK CHIEF
Steven Van Haren
IN OUR OPINION
Pittman’s defense
clouds drug debate
This week a jury in Charleston convicted 15-year-old
Christopher Pittman of killing his grandparents three years ago,
shortly after he began a prescription of the popular antidepres
sant Zoloft. While the jury was correct to reject the assertion
that Pittman’s actions were both caused by and excusable
because of the drug, the defense’s tactic of blaming the drug for
his actions further clouds the real debate about the use of antide
pressants among children. Following the FDA’s move four
months ago to put its most stringent “black box” warning label
on prescriptions of the antidepressant class of S.S.R.I.'s, to which
Zoloft belongs, pediatricians are left to reevaluate their reasons
for prescribing such medications to young patients.
ruDiic perceptions or anuae
There are no clear Pressants and those who use
Studies about how them have changed radically
children respond to during the last 10 years as the
neurotransmitter sheer number of drugs and pre
, therapy. scriptions has risen, but research
into their effects on certain pop
ulations has not kept pace with this upsurge. The unfortunate
consequence is that there are no clear studies about how children
respond to neurotransmitter therapy, and thus lawyers employ
defenses that distort science and give the public the wrong
impression about mental-health issues. Instead of portraying
Pittman as a confused boy who needed professional guidance in
addition to his prescription, his lawyer Andy Vickery chose to
build a case against the drug. Incidentally, Vickery is also
involved in lawsuits against Zoloft’s maker, Pfizer Inc. As a
result, media organizations paint pharmaceuticals that help mil
lions of Americans as dangerous and further negative stereotypes
of fully treatable mental illnesses.
Pittman was brought to trial three years after the murders,
which in itself is a miscarriage of justice. Along with a violation
of his right to a speedy trial, his two concurrent life sentences,
which will be served out in an adult prison after he turns 17,
will only keep him from getting the help he needs. Zoloft might
not be to blame, but the system that rushes drugs through the
approval process certainly is.
IT’S YOUR RIGHT
Exercise your right to voice your opinion
Create message boards at
www.dailygamecock.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
Michael LaForgia
DESIGN DIRECTOR
Chas McCarthy
COPY DESK CHIEF
Steven Van Haren
NEWS EDITOR
Jon Turner
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Kelly Cavanaugh
VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Wes Wolfe
THE MIX EDITOR
Jennifer Freeman
ASST. THE MIX EDITOR
Carrie Givens
SPORT5 EDITOR
Jonathan Hillyard
ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
Stephen Fastenau
SENIOR WRITER
Kevin Fellner
PHOTO EDITOR
Jason Steelman
SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR
Katie Kirkland
PAGE DESIGNERS
Jillian Garis, Staci
Jordan, Jessica Ann
Nielsen, Megan Sinclair
COPY EDITORS
Jessica Foster, Brindy
McNair, Daniel
Regenscheit, Jason
Reynolds, Katie
Thompson, Shana Till
ONLINE EDITOR
Ryan Simmons
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Jane Fielden, Katie Miles
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S|%ident Media.
f
k WHAT WAS
, ITHINKNG?
• wrd PEHN- promc tmsim
CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS
Bush ’s budget would inflate deficit
■ Fiscal pressure shifts
from domestic payouts
to massive war budget
The Executive budget (the budget
that is sent from the president to
Congress) was introduced, just to let
those of you that don’t care know. The
sad thing is, 1 do. Let me break it down
and make it very clear to those of you
who don’t understand its significance.
We all eat food. We all breathe air.
We all have crime in our community.
Most people have flown on airplanes.
Most people go, or have gone to school,
at some point. Most of us have been in a
lake, river or ocean. Surprise!
Government controls that and needs
money to do so.
I know what a lot of you are asking
yourself: “Who cares? Better yet, why
should I deal with it? Why not let our
government deal with it?" Guess what:
They are dealing with it — the wrong
way.
When you take money out of the
bank and you don’t have any money in
the bank, what happens? You owe the
money to the bank, right? So what
happens when the government takes
money out of the bank and they don’t
have it? You guessed it, they owe it.
They not only owe it, but they pay
interest to the bank. Do you have any
idea how much interest there is when
you owe more than $400 billion?
Obviously President Bush, a fiscal
conservative who is tired of seeing
runaway spending, will do something
about our debt.
Here is his
answer on how
he can save us
from runaway
deficits that all
the college
students will
have to pay back
CRAIG as soon as we get
SWAISGOOD out In fect- we
are already
^lit!?aIEAR “
SCIENCE state and local
STUDENT taxes, as well as
interest on our
credit cards and
loans.
He proposed spending cuts in more
governmental programs than anyone
since Reagan. To us fiscally responsible
people, that sounds good, right?
Unbelievably, the deficits are going to
get worse under this plan. How is that
possible? Well, he expanded a few
programs so much that we are not going
to save a penny from cutting all this
“wasteful spending."
By the way, I would like to take a
moment to explain to you what our
president considers wasteful spending.
Agriculture will take a 9.6 percent cut.
Who cares? It’s just food. Water quality
programs will be cut by $170 million.
Who really uses water, anyway? We cut
96 percent of the COPS program that,
in the 1990s, put 100,000 new police
officers on the streets of America. We
cut the FIRE act by 30 percent, which
allows firefighters to buy new equipment
to ensure their safety. We cut the Office
of Violence Against Women budget by
more than 5 percent. Veterans will now
have to pay 210 percent of what they
used to pay for prescription drugs, along
with an annual fee of $250. 48
educational programs were cut,
including ending some loan forgiveness
for our armed services and Peace Corps.
Overall, we cut one-fifth what he just
asked for to pay for the war in Iraq.
But finally we are going to get back
on the path to fiscal responsibility. Or
are we? He cut a few billion in key
programs out of a $2.57 trillion budget.
Isn’t that kind of like putting a band aid
on someone that just lost an arm? As I
said before, we are actually increasing
the debt, and that does not count the
$80 billion the president just asked for
to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. This
also does not count the hundreds of
billions per year for the privatization of
Social Security he is asking for.
Paying approximately $80 billion a
year on interest, it will be hard to get out
of debt. Not to worry my fellow
students — we will get a good crack at
paying this off for the next 40 years.
Shouldn’t we find ways to increase
our revenue before we start spending on
things we can’t afford? After all, that is
what we did in the 1990s, starting with
President Bush, the elder — that is what
we would do if we were borrowing
money from the bank.
As Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said,
“I guess the days of the Republican Party
being the party of fiscal discipline are
over."
IN YOUR OPINION
Broom just jealous
of NASCAR drivers
In response to Jake Broom’s
column ("Is it really fair to call
NASCAR a ‘sport?'," Wednesday), it
is offensive that the author would
take the time and energy necessary to
write this piece and turn what could
have been a valid argument into a
free-for-all bashing of people to
whom he feels superior. Maybe he
doesn’t understand why drivers and
pit crews make more money than he
does, but it is because they are the
cream of the crop in their chosen
field. It takes mote than just four
years to get to where these
competitors have chosen to direct
their lives. Most of the people
involved with NASCAR have
dedicated the greater part of their
lives to this pursuit. Broom has
chosen to lead his life into the
political science arena. An argument
could be posed that Broom has
chosen to spend his life — as most
politicians do — becoming a
professional liar, telling people
whatever it is they want to hear in
order to live off the public dollar as
long as possible. He has chosen to
harass people who make an honest
living because the roots were less
than honorable. They were breaking
a law that was so heinous the courts
and politicians saw fit to reverse the
law they were circumventing.
He couldn’t stop there. He had to
then proceed to insult all who
follow, love and are remotely
involved with NASCAR.
Apparently, anyone who watches or
has any involvement must be a
blooming idiot. Broom has no idea
the intense education that goes into
being a NASCAR member. Whether
it be as a crew member, an engineer
or a team doctor, the intelligence in
the NASCAR garage is far greater
than Broom can ever expect to
surround himself with in his lifetime.
Maybe he can^ get back to his
intellectual and carefree days of 8
when he did not feel so superior to
those he was jealous of because of
their bank accounts. This I promise
you, Broom: The drivers will enjoy
you waiting on them later in life
when you are asking their kids,
“What kind of drink with your
Happy Meal?1'
If you support NASCAR, don’t
forget to get your Pabst Blue Ribbon,
Skoal and dirty underwear ready
before Sunday, because according to
Broom, that is the mentality that
must be watching the race Sunday.
JIM COWART
Third-year mechanical
engineering student
Chow culls theories
in evolution debate
Curtis Chow paints an inaccurate
picture of the evolution-creation
debate ("Evolution debate uses straw
men,” Wednesday). He sets up a false
dichotomy in which he claims the
battle lies between atheistic
evolutionists and theistic creationists,
when in fact nothing could be further
from the truth. The greatest-kept
secret in this debate is that the
majority of Christians — Catholics,
mainline and liberal Protestants —
made their peace with evolution
decades ago.
The reason is because they weren’t
drawn into the false either/or
philosophy Chow sets up. A
wonderful diversity of thought has
developed in the Christian
community as it struggles to reconcile
improvable ancient beliefs with
provable modern science.
On the creationist side, going from
the extreme right to left, you start out
with young-earth creationism. This
holds to biblical creationism most
literally, asserting that the earth is a
mere 6,000 years old. Immediately
following is old-earth creationism that
still holds to biblical creationism, but
accepts the well-established science
_•r 1_: . ' • ■' v
that the Earth is in fact billions of years
old. In trying to reconcile the rather
large time gaps found in this view, gap
creationism and day-age creationism
have developed. The former believes the
large temporal gap is between the fitst
two chapters of Genesis and the latter
holds that the temporal gap is spread out
among the six days of creation.
Progressive creationism builds off this
base, but we start to see the first
acceptance of evolution, though only on
the micro level. Then there is the
familiar intelligent design creationism.
Generally, this level of thought
incorporates more acceptance of
evolutionary theory but still holds that
God started it all.
On the evolutionist side, we start
with evolutionary creationism. With this
we find full acceptance of evolution, but
God is said to use evolution to bring
auuui uic uuivcisc duuiuiug im piaii.
Very similar to this is theistic evolution.
It is more or less the same as
evolutionary creationism, but places
more emphasis on evolution than
creation.
The point in all of this is to show that
a person need not be sucked into the
false premise that one must either accept
evolution and therefore be an atheist, or
deny evolution and therefore be a theist.
If you wish to remain a creationist, you
don’t need to hold to the most far-right
position that creation occurred in six
literal days and not even microevolution
is possible. And if creationism doesn’t
seem plausible and science makes more
sense, you can very easily accept
evolution and still be a theist.
SCOn CURRIER
Third-year political science
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
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will be edited. Anonymous letters will not
be published. Call the newsroom at 777
7726 for more information. f i
Ml
Help me:
I cheated
on my best
lab report
■ V-Day has passed,
but I still feel the guilt
of two-timing my love
All right, enough with Valentine’s
Day. It’s over. It will be remembered as
the day before USC’s basting of
Kentucky and the day after I hired an
escort. Quit with
the V-Day
theatrics. It’s
really just
embarrassing.
jB|gypout my
i i,: I Valentine's date
was so hot. Great
figure. Lots of
curves. Firm,
STEVEN supple
VAN spreadsheet. All
HAREN the right margins.
Three hours of
S£ “g -d
ENGINEERING fruitless pecking
STUDENT
just to get more
digits.
My lab report is so sexy.
Schoolwork is consuming me. If
Internet pornography were my steady
girlfriend, schoolwork would be my
nagging mistress. My lab report is a great
companion. Hey, I always have plans on
the weekends. In a devilish way, I’m
never satisfied. My lab report keeps me
nervous and skittish. I haven’t felt this
way in 21 years.
But she can get in the way. The more
I see her, the fatter she gets. I try to trim
hejr down, but she balloons to 15 pages.
What’d I get myself into? I just wanted a
fling, something fun, light work outside a
steady diet of heavy class loads.
Some days, I feel the need to cut her
off. She starts complaining and wagging
her cursor at me.
“Are you going to work on me over
spring break? Fill me in, you ass. Type
me, edit me and bring me to an earth
uiauviuig pi till juu.
Back off, wench. I can only take so
much time out of my epic stack of work
and downright-dangerous pom addiction
to deal with this. So sometimes I leave her
at the lab for a day or two. I’d make her
come to me if she wasn’t an electronic file
with no legs.
I always come back, but I stay pissed
for a while. I cheat on her. I — sniffle —
hang out with humans.
I was human once too, before I
became a calculator with Levi’s that was
too whipped for his own good. When I
cheat on my lab report, there’s an intense
readjustment period when I have to
remember that telling a dirty joke doesn’t
require finding the “JOK” function on
myTI-83.
I get to playing guitar again, seeing
my buddies and considering the margins
of that sweet girl I always talk to. I’m a
perfectly disgusting human again, rather
than a perfeedy disgusting robot.
Then my buddies elbow me and ask
about my mistress.
“Is she still a fine piece of mass?" they
ask.
“Mass," I say dreamily, remembering
those crazy nights when I got real stupid
with Newton’s second law and she still let
me erase my mistakes.
Then I m back at the lab, having
multiple prints.
Schoolwork consumes me. I’m here to
work, but this is also my life. This isn’t
about college, but about staying human
while I happen to be in college.
If every college class was offered only
on the Internet, “college” attendance
would be 0 percent. I promise. I’m sure
some Nazi bookworms, as 1 can become
from time to time, would love this lack of
human interaction. They think we’re
here only for work and won’t let anyone
get in their way of trying to be career
driven and emotionally detached.
The single dumbest thing a person
can do is block a relationship, especially
in the name of “I don t have time. You
always have time for what you want to
do, so leave your lab-report mistresses
once in a while. Booyah.
That girl with the perfect margins can
lead to things far better than what you’ll
find on a damn computer.
And her curves are much more
interesting.
' *