In the News

Scott Hardie | January 7, 2003
Three news items for you today... Well, actually, two of them are editorial pieces, and the third one is so slanted that it may as well be an editorial.

This column attacks the media habit of projecting whether a holiday sales season has been a success. Ever wonder whether or not they can be accurate when giving results so soon? Ever wonder why the sales season always seems to be "the worst in X years"? This will give you a new perspective.

This article is by Charles Rangel, a U.S. Representative from New York, who explains why he plans to introduce legislation to bring back the draft. His reasoning? Our country is full of war-mongers, but they'd be more peaceful if ordinary citizens were going off to war instead of professional soldiers. In other words, instituting a draft might prevent war with Irag, North Korea, and other nations. I don't think it would work - it could turn the populace against war, sure, but many of us already are! The problem is that President Bush, his administration, and most of Congress are in favor of war, and let's not even pretend that public opinion sways them. (Personally, if I were President, I would push for a constitutional amendment outlawing the draft. It's even worse than the death sentence, because it forces its victims to kill as well as be killed, and unlike the criminals, they haven't done anything wrong.)

Finally, this article from Portland, Oregon is one of those fun pieces where the government officials said it was okay to violate the rights of citizens, so the reporters did the same thing back to the officials. It's a pleasure to read.

Scott Hardie | January 9, 2003
Ahhhh.