We just added a new button (look to your right) underneath the “Current Issue” button that you can click and be able to purchase a copy of our book By the Barrel: 25 Years of the Oregon Commentator.
Clicking the button takes you to another page that has a short description of the book as well as a picture of the cover and a list of chapters. At the beginning and end of the page there is a link that allows you to purchase a copy of the book with your credit/debit card or with PayPal.
You can also click this link and it will take you to the same place.
For just $10 you get a book that’s hardbound, has a dust jacket and has 24-pages of glossy color in the middle. Increase your money’s utility this holiday season by giving it to us.
It’s not often that I sit down and actually read the Emerald. I understand that statement makes me sound snobbish or just like an asshole, but it’s true. After last year’s absolutely dreadful run of print, it’s just not in my daily routine anymore. Sure, I grab a copy every-other-day or so, but I rarely open it up. Usually it just sits here on the Commentator couches until De Lancie or I do the monthly office cleaning.
Having said that, I did remark at the beginning of the year that I thought the Emerald was getting quite a bit better. I’d like to reiterate that sentiment now that our first term of this year is coming to a close. The news and opinion section has considerably better talent compared to last year, and the sports section, as always, is thorough and well-done.
For example, today’s opinion piece by Greg Dewar reminded me that the University of Oregon, as well as the Emerald, has many talented writers that are able to write about something, even video games, and make their arguments concise and fun to read.
I, for one, am glad to see that we have a campus paper that students can pick up and enjoy on a rather consistent basis. It’s what this campus needs, and I tip my hat to the Emerald.
To lift a line from Dewar, the paper is indeed “full of win”.
Why the Commentator receives e-mails like this I will never know. But Jesus, I’m glad we do. All I can say is that the world is slowly getting dumber, one rogue at a time. I’ll let the e-mail do the talking:
While the former Governor and Vice Presidential candidate has achieved success with record book sales and support for a 2012 presidential election bid, she has also achieved something else few public figures ever have: heroine status in a children’s book.
Guy Simmons and I will be appearing on the KVAL morning news, specifically an interview with anchor Shelley Kurtz on Monday, November 30th.
It will be my first time on TV since I appeared on Ramblin’ Rod when I was 7. I’m not sure about Simmons though; he’s from Alaska, I’m not sure if that kind of technology has made its way up there yet.
Well, “health care reform” is on its way to the Senate floor. When it passes (not if, but when), it will amount to little more than billions of dollars worth of wasted money and one big “WIN” check-mark in Team Blue’s column… and make no mistake, this isn’t about the so-called “right” to health care, looking out for the disadvantaged, making things more “affordable*”, or any of the other noble rhetoric people are deploying — it’s about politicians being able to point to some astoundingly expensive piece of legislation and being able to say, “LOOK!!! WE DID SOMETHING!!” Period. Full stop. Democrats get to crow about their “big win” for the common man and Republicans get to strut around and talk about all that “fiscal responsibility” they forgot about between 2000 and 2008.
“If you want, I can teach you how to make a bomb out of a toilet paper roll and a stick of dynamite.”
There was an interesting article published yesterday on boingboing.net about Britain’s new Internet laws that I think students (and owners of Utorrent) may be interested in.
The author of the article, Cory Doctrow, highlighted some of the law’s more ridiculous points
It consists almost entirely of penalties for people who do things that upset the entertainment industry (including the “three-strikes” rule that allows your entire family to be cut off from the net if anyone who lives in your house is accused of copyright infringement, without proof or evidence or trial).
Doctrow also describes the strain placed on Internet Service Providers by the law
A duty on ISPs to spy on all their customers in case they find something that would help the record or film industry sue them (ISPs who refuse to cooperate can be fined £250,000).
Of course Internet freedoms, including censorship and file-sharing, has been a popular topic for discussion since its inception into mainstream culture. The question for Americans is now whether or not the law proves to be popular enough for this country’s legislation to run with the idea and respond in kind.
In any case, you know someone out there is trying to figure out a way to “Hoard me up some Internet cause the government’s gonna take it away”
By the Barrel: 25 Years of the Oregon Commentator is now available for $10 in the UO Bookstore on 13th and Kincaid! The book is featured on a table as you walk up the stairs and also in the “University” section (go straight after the stairs, right corner).
The book sells for $10 in the store or you can order it online through the UO Bookstore’s website (www.uoduckstore.com) for $16 shipped to your door. (The book will be added to the site either today or tomorrow).
On a more personal level, the weight of the project hasn’t hit me until today after I saw it on the shelves with a UPC and everything. I’d like to thank everyone again for helping me out with special recognition to Guy, CJ, Owen, Scott, Bill, Fritz, Dane, Richard, Tom, Ossie, Tim, Olly, Drew, Dan, Ed, Mark, Bob, Chuck, Jon, Ian, Tyler, Ted and even the folks at the Emerald.
As always, you are also welcome to come down to room 319 in the EMU and purchase a copy from us as well.
Apparently LaGarrette Blount was reinstated today.
My opinion is, and always has been, that his suspension should have been a game, two at the most. Anthony Reddick, the player who used his helmet as a weapon and sparked a humongous brawl in 2006, was only suspended for four games.
If we are to take the FIU-Miami incident as precedent, LaGarrette punching one fat asshole and responding to racist Boise St. fans never warranted a full season suspension (at least not from a major football university like Oregon).
Then again, you could make the argument that no fighting should ever be tolerated and that both Reddick and Blount should have been tossed off their respective teams–meaning Reddick’s example and precedent is false.
It is my opinion, as a realist, that not only are emotions bound to run high in a setting like collegiate sports, but more importantly the universities make an insane amount of money off of our student-athletes. They don’t want to suspend these players.
Dare I ask you, the Duck fan, what your opinion is?
Don’t make me regret this now. Play nice with each other.
Drew, Guy and I are all going to the Collegiate Network conference in San Antonio tomorrow. Anyone who wants updates on our trip should look at our twitter feed.
I drove up to Salem today and got my first five advance copies of the Oregon Commentator book By the Barrel: 25 Years of the Oregon Commentator.
I have to say, it looks absolutely gorgeous. Josh McCormick did an amazing job with the cover, David Frohnmayer’s quote is still hilarious and the 24 glossy pages of color in the middle really showcase the artwork/debauchery we’ve been privy to during the last 25 years.
Look for it to be widely available through this website, our office and the University of Oregon Bookstore sometime next week when I receive the full batch.
The book will be priced at only $10 – Not bad seeing as how it’s hardbound, has a dust jacket and contains 25 years of the juciest campus goodies available.
Taking it to the CN conference this weekend to rub it in the noses of the Ivy League kids.
See you on the other side.
P.S. By the way, I have to send out my thanks to Mrs. Delgado’s 5th grade class at Robert Frost Elementary School in Silverton, Oregon. They were so excited about the book one kid wanted me to autograph his face. Little kids are funny.
The Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group was dealt another blow Tuesday when the EMU Board of Directors delivered notice that OSPIRG’s file cabinets have to be cleared from its spot in the east side of the EMU, its professional staff can no longer use incidental fee-funded resources and a recognized student group would soon move in to share quarters with the Survival Center and the Student Insurgent.
The explanation provided was that OSPIRG is no longer a recognized student group and therefore cannot occupy space in the EMU. The inconsistency, as ASUO President Emma Kallaway noted, is that OSPIRG has not been a student group for years. Until July, the ASUO had a contract for membership in the statewide organization. No one ever bothered to mention contracted services should not have been allowed space in the EMU.
Along with OSPIRG’s illegal occupation of the EMU, it seems they’ve been using other University resources such as phone lines and computers that they had no particular right to. That, of course, hasn’t stopped them from being a bunch of ingrates:
The EMU Board says OSPIRG staffers cannot use the phones paid for by the incidental fee. OSPIRG students say they use cell phones because the land line was cut in July. The board says OSPIRG can’t use the computer provided in its former office space; OSPIRG Chair Charles Denson said it was slow anyway.
Sorry the misappropriated computer in question wasn’t up to your standards, Chuck.
