As I opened the door to our office today, there were two notes slipped under our door. Here’s what they had to say:
Dear Oregon Commentator,
We would like you to cover the Pacifica Forum debate that took place today. My friends and I went, but what we found was not the free exchange of ideas but a circus, a shouting match that ultimately ended in nothing of intellectual value. The Nazis stormed out in the first 5 minutes, and the leader of the Pacifica Forum was harassed for the continuing 25 minutes of so. While the Pacifica Forum member spoke (who was not a Nazi) the protesters made coordinated pointing motions with their hands that looked shockingly like Nazi salutes.
What I saw today was a horrible re-enactment of what the Nazis themselves did; silence unpopular opinion, appeal to the basest part of human nature, and ultimately a crime against free speech. I hate the Nazis, both those of Germany and the ones I saw today at the Pacifica forum, both protester and speaker.
–Nash Callaghan
P.S. When my black friend went up to speak to the forum leader afterwards a cop came up and asked him, out of everyone in the group if, “they were cool,” it was bullshit.
P.P.S. I think you guys have a great publication
Last night Nick and I decided to attend a presentation by Sidney Milkis, a professor from the University of Virginia, hosted by the Poly. Sci. department entitled “Great Expectations: Obama and the Politics of Reform.” I thought this would be an even breakdown of Obama’s political moves in the past year, and for some reason I wasn’t quite expecting a worship session of the messiah, but it came fairly close. Yes indeed, a year post-election and we’re stilling talking about Hope and Change.
For a large portion of the time, and the beginning of the evening, Milkis spoke a lot on the subject of multi-culturalism (as if we aren’t beat over the head with it enough here in Eugene). According to Milkis, Obama was a multi-racial man who consciously chose to be African American, and he reaffirmed his intentions of remaining African American by marrying Michelle Obama. I wasn’t aware that one has such reign over their ethnicity; nevertheless the speaker seemed to be suggesting Obama was brave for making the choice. He then continued on his multi-cultural shpeel, talking about the ability of Obama to represent America, despite being black. Apparently Obama is the “first African American to truly embody America’s values.” (MLK only does on the third monday of January each year) Oh, I also learned that Barrack’s middle name, Hussien, is iconic of everything good and righteous in American politics.
The Pacifica Forum hosted its meeting, “Everything You Wanted to Know about Pacifica Forum but were Afraid to Ask” today in the Walnut Room of the EMU, and never has so much been said by so many about so little. The meeting began quietly, with a distinctly hostile attitude permeating the room. Picking up steam, it climaxed in a student leaving the room in tears after a heated confrontation over rape epithets.
But mostly the hate speech debate ran in circles between Forum member Billy Rojas and Michael Williams, a member of the Eugene Anti Hate Task Force. The core of the debate revolved around prior Pacifica meetings which many students allege advocated violent acts towards Jews and other minority groups. Emma Kallaway had a strong opinion against the forum, stating she didn’t want the forum in the EMU at all.
ASUO President Emma Kallaway called the forum to leave the EMU, saying "I don't want you here."
Beyond what amounted to a giant circle of “You’re hurting our feelings and making us feel insecure” countered by “Because we can” the single most intelligent point was put forward at the end of the debate with “why should we care?” The Black Tea Society does nothing but give these wackos more power when they attend meetings with signs and yell “Get off my campus!” As it was well put forward, no one is rushing to join the forum, maybe it’s time to stop caring and take the wind out of these wacko’s sails.
[The comments to this post have disappeared. The Commentator did not moderate them and believes it to be a technical error on the part of wordpress. We are working to return them.]
The cartoonist who drew this image, held as one of the most controversial in 2006, was attacked in his home in Denmark recently.
One of the cartoonists of the famous Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons was attacked recently, alongside his granddaughter, inside his home in Denmark. The man, 73, was attacked with an axe by a Somali man (whose name has been withheld in accordance to Danish law) who apparently “has close relations to the Somali terror organization Al Shabab and leaders of Al Qaeda in East Africa”.
The Commentator has always been supportive of the publishers of the cartoons as far as their right to free speech was concerned. Indeed, the Commentator ran the cartoons in their entirety in 2006 and was one of the only western media outlets to do so. Thousands of editorials were printed all over the country, but no one had the balls to contextualize them by re-printing the comics. Indeed, the Commentator found this depressing, and in that issue’s editorial, publisher Bryan Roberts wrote:
As this decade (the Twenty-oughts) comes to a close, the Commentator will inevitably examine the impact of several movements, from politics to pop culture, from the last ten years. In kind, much has happened over the last ten years to the Commentator itself, and I believe it to be important, dear readers, for you to learn about who we were at the turn of the century, if only to better understand who we are today.
Perfecting the Art
Just one month before the turn of the century, the Oregon Commentator was in some relative hot water over a front cover they had ran purporting then University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer to have died. Frohnmayer famously had a heart attack at a medical conference in Bethesda, Maryland but had escaped the ordeal relatively unharmed.
At the time, “Das Frohn” was rather upset about the cover, “Quite frankly, he was pissed off,” said then-OC editor Bill Beutler.
I’m not even sure what to do with this one… the upper line reads “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: this right includes freedom to hold opinions and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media…”
In compliance with that statement, I’ve blacked out the date and time for this event.
The original publisher of the Oregon Commentator, Dane Claussen, once said that the OC’s purpose was to print the news that, “the other publications are unable to tell you because of inexperience, incompetence or the narrow-mindedness of their staffs.” That was some 26 years ago and it seems the OC still has purpose. Not to continue to toot our own horn or anything but, as any regular reader of the blog knows (because we’ve been pimping it hard), the OC has recently published a 25th anniversary book edited by the current publisher Timothy Dane Carbaugh.
Call me crazy, but it seems to me students creating, printing and selling a 300-page hard bound history book completely on their own volition about a student organization that’s survived significant adversity for more than 25 years would be a newsworthy event. Which is why I am glad to finally announce that, now just about a month after the book was released, the Daily Emerald has gotten around to publishing a story.
You’d think that this would be the sort of thing that would hit the front page of any daily student newspaper, but here at the University of Oregon you’d be wrong. Instead, the story was buried deep in the “scene” insert. I would link to the article, but it is suspiciously absent from their online content. Luckily for them, we’ve published the article here.
I wonder if ol’ Mr. Claussen would chock this up to simple narrow-mindedness or gross incompetence? I can’t say, but you take a look at this editorial cartoon about Sarah Palin’s book recently published by the Emerald and you will probably agree that it is a real chicken shit outfit over there.
Do not ridicule someone’s “intellectual substance” if you are going to screw up the spelling of “rogue”.
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.
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.
“I don’t know about you but whenever I read a blog I do not let my eye drop below half the screen in case I accidentally hit the bit where the comments reside. Of all the stinking, sliding, scuttling, weird, entomological creatures that inhabit the floor of the internet those comments on blogs are the most unbearable, almost beyond imagining… Their resentment, their desire to be heard at the most vituperative level, at the most unpleasant and malevolent, genuinely ill-willed malevolent, level is terrifying…”
Stephen Fry, proving once again that he’s pretty much the man.
“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”
The student-produced “I Smell Roses” video has been getting a lot of publicity recently. Its nationwide attention has garnered positive reviews, however Disney and the UO Athletic Department are not happy.
The Athletic Department has asked the University of Oregon rap group “Supwitchugirl” to take down the video from Youtube. The band has adhered to the demands, but anyone who has been on the internet knows once a video is put on the internet it is almost impossible to remove it.
The problem is that Disney lets the UO have our mascot be in the image of Donald Duck. They are saying that the unauthorized use of the Duck in the popular video may end up in Disney pulling the ability to use Donald’s looks, therefore getting rid of Puddles.
In all likelihood there is no way that Disney will pull the Duck’s mascot due to the excessive backlash that would come from the media. The video is not offensive. It does not portray the Duck in a bad light either – he dances in the background for goodness sakes. The video is what college fandom is all about. Now the corporate bigwigs at Disney and the Athletic Department are drowning the fun. The only thing that will come out of this is more exposure to the video.
Here’s hoping that the Athletic Department and Disney will recognize they are overreacting.
As a former DuckU executive producer I have to say that I am proud of the video’s popularity and exposure for DuckU.
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.
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.
