The OC Blog Back Issues Our Mission Contact Us Masthead
Sudsy Wants You to Join the Oregon Commentator
 

Archive for November, 2007

A smoke-free campus?

November 9th, 2007 by CJ Ciaramella

Just when smokers here at the U of O thought they could cough a sigh of relief with the stunning failure of Measure 50, along comes this story in the ODE, titled “Students push for smoke-free campus.”

According to the story, which is mostly about the Great American Smokeout, ASUO President Emily McLain said she would consider discussing the creation of a committee with Provost Linda Brady to explore making the U of O smoke-free.

The ODE story namedrops a lot of silly sounding organizations in its article, such as the American Non-smokers’ Rights Foundation, the Clean Air Project and the Fresh Air Initiative. I don’t even smoke, but I’m thinking of taking it up just because these people make non-smokers look so ridiculous. Do you people seriously feel that your health is compromised by someone smoking in the open air?

On top of this, the Oregon Legislature passed a law banning smoking from all public buildings earlier in the year, including previously protected bars, bingo halls and bowling alleys.

Chinese Pedophilia Date Rape Plot Foiled

November 8th, 2007 by Niedermeyer

The ongoing quality issues that have plagued Chinese imports and spurred waves of recalls took a turn for the absurd recently, when doctors in Australia discovered that “Aqua Dots”, a brand of water-fusing bead toys, creates a chemical related to GHB, a banned “date rape drug,” when eaten by children. Apparently doctors thought that a kid had been roofied by his parents, before discovering that “an obscure industrial chemical used to prevent water-soluble glues from becoming sticky before they are needed” actually turned into GHB when ingested, which resulted in parents finding children with coma and seizure-like symptoms and vomiting beads.  Now, we all know that kids have the inalienable right to put anything they want in their mouths without ever running any risk of consequences, and we also know without a doubt that GHB is bad. So what do we do about this grave risk to our precious little future Americans? Several local fraternities have offered to buy up remaining stocks of the GHB-producing beads for “proper disposal.”

Racist America

November 8th, 2007 by Sean Jin

Unprofessionalism abounded in ASUO tonight…but if you attend ASUO meetings, you know that by default.

My full ASUO post will come later, but briefly, I want to talk about our dear friend ‘Racism.’ I wouldn’t say Racism is a friend, more of an acquaintance. Racism seems to be suffering a case of mistaken identity, however. He’s definitely made his mark in history, but as of late, Racism seems to be public enemy number one when it comes to any problem, whether it is his fault or not.

Today, Sen. Papailiou was called racist for having an American flag on the table. Sure, America doesn’t have a squeaky clean history, nor is it a perfect nation. Our friend Racism is blamed again, when it wasn’t his fault. Looking at the flag as a symbol of history and of injustice is wrong, and saying that being patriotic is being racist is wrong. The flag does not exemplify the history of America. It is a symbol of the potential and principles that America was founded upon, and of HOW much this country can be.

No country’s history is ever clean. It just depends on who’s viewpoint you’re looking from. This is not to say that we should forget about the wrongdoings of our nation, but PLEASE, HAVE SOME PERSPECTIVE.

Rest in Peace, Joe

November 7th, 2007 by Sho

Joe Ryan, aka Viggy “Supafreak” James, friend of the Oregon Commentator and venerable contributor of haiku to the “Nobody Asked Us…” pages of the Beutler era, passed away yesterday. OC alumnus Brandon has written a fine post in remembrance of Joe.

ASUO Update

November 6th, 2007 by Sean Jin

Whoa, it’s Tuesday already, and I realized I hadn’t made my ASUO update.

Good call on the move for a paperless Senate. Working with programs, I know how crappy it can be to have to make 21 copies of every thing firsthand.

From my understanding, ADFC is being renamed the ACFC (Athletics and Contracts Finance Commitee) and will handle contracts, which are currently done by PFC (?). I’m not clear on the implications of it, but the decision to go forward with it seems pretty set, so it’s not like my opinion matters anyways.

(more…)

Philanthropist of the Year: Sudsy

November 6th, 2007 by Ossie

This year’s ASUO sob story thus far, other than a broken rib for the Executive second-in-command, has been the Ad Club, who was denied two special requests to Senate to make up for last year’s Ad Club leaders who missed the budget deadline. I’m not sure when the club realized they would be without a budget this year, but fundraising should have started at that moment, not in the last couple weeks.

Like several senators and the President, who said she would veto a special request, I think it won’t be too hard for the club to raise this money. This could set a good example that groups do not, and should not too avoid disasters like this, rely entirely on the incidental fee, especially for a group that is career oriented, benefits a small group of students and should be financially supported by the department or school it is connected to.

I hope the Ad Club has fun asking random people and groups for money, sometimes it leads to new and beneficial connections. The OC is donated $25 bucks to the Ad Club. As Shawna Harsh wrote to us in an e-mail,

“Every penny counts, and we will be grateful for anything that you are willing to contribute.”

Emperor Musharraf

November 6th, 2007 by Sean Jin

Wow, it must be nice for President Musharraf to be able to suspend the Constitution whenever he wants. Really convenient. And then he disbands the Supreme Court. You can’t be illegal if there is no law, right?

Glucklich loves men

November 5th, 2007 by Jake

In today’s Emerald, Opinion Editor Elon Glucklich wrote a piece titled “Who sucked all the masculinity out of politics?” that sounds strikingly similar to the entire Man Issue. Glucklich writes:

Where have all the cowboys gone? Singer/songwriter Paula Cole wanted to know in 1997. Now I’m asking. Once upon a time this country was imbued with a survivor’s mentality: either kill, or be killed. And while I don’t mean going as far as to advocate pillaging or murder, the idea of taking your neighbor’s land because you have a larger rifle/musket/pitchfork harkens to truer times.

First, what kind of call for manhood starts with a Paula Cole reference. She sang the theme song for Dawson’s Creek. Plus, real men do not have a kill or be killed mentality. For a real man, there is no choice. The only option is kill. (more…)

The ‘Face’ of Modern Politics

November 2nd, 2007 by de lancie

Maybe we shouldn’t be looking at Facebook as a place to gather information about politics, but with the addition of the US Politics application and the increased popularity of the facebook, I feel it is interesting if nothing else to do so. the young people of America are very strong with their support for Senator Barack Obama. He has 159,299 supporters, 100,000 more than the runner up, the lovely Senator Hilary Clinton with 50,453. And this is not just on the Democratic side. Out of 16 presidential candidates who have created profiles for themselves on Facebook Obama in the only one who has reached the 6 digit mark, and only 7 candidates have reached 5 digits. Ya’ll’ll get a real kick out of this. Ron Paul takes third with 35,078 supporters. Thats more than Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani combined. By the way, Giuliani is never going to win because his name is too darn hard to spell. Jesus! So things look pretty good for Obama now. The next step is getting all these youngins to vote…

Volume 24 (2006-2007): Now Up-to-date

November 1st, 2007 by Sho

Last year’s archive of back issues has finally been updated. Enjoy.

Move Over October, It Is Movember

November 1st, 2007 by de lancie

And I thought the Oregon Commentator was all alone in caring about mustaches and manly things this month. I was so wrong. Movember is a charity event held during the month formally known as November to raise as much money and awareness about male health issues as possible. Men begin the month by submitting a clean-shaven photo and then have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their Mo (Australian slang for mustache I am told). Men that get involved are referred to as Mo Bros and the women that help them are called Mo Sistas. Well if anyone wants to get involved I will be his supporting Mo Sista, ‘aight. I encourage you to check the whole Movember thing out. Oh yeah and Playboy is a big sponsor. Just in case you were wondering.

Oh yeah it is not only considered a month but also a place, the Republic of Movember. Kinda like Jefferson…

Read up you scumbags

November 1st, 2007 by Ossie

The Man Issue will be on the stands Monday Nov. 5, but you can check it out right now in pdf form. Inside we rip apart the AK47, do a lot of journalistic finger pointing and aide the good fight against the emasculation of men at the University. If you don’t like it, come tell us to our face.

Contest: The first person to name the lovely couple on page 16 gets a free sudsy tee or tank. (OC staffers cannot win.)