Viewpoint
The Battalion # Texas A&M University • Tuesday • July 10, 1979
Talkies fare badly at A&M
By ROY BRAGG
Texas A&M University traditions
set the school apart from almost every
other school in the country.
Notre Dame has their fight song,
and Texas has their big drum, but tra
ditions at A&M are in a class by them
selves.
I think the big difference is that
A&M has so many of them.
Here at Texas A&M, these tra
ditions are not just ceremonial,
they’re a way of life.
The majority of these rituals neatly
tie into football games: students stand
for the entire game, form “boot” lines
for the team to run through after
halftime, and all participate in yelling
for the team.
There’s the War Hymn, the Spirit
and the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Twelfth
Man.
On the domestic front. Aggies are
supposed to say “Howdy” to each
other on campus. Aggies don’t wear
their hats in the Memorial Student
Center or walk on the grass surround
ing the building.
Even the newer Aggie traditions
are one-of-a-kind: paying for football
tickets and then standing in line to not
get them, paying for the privilege of
parking a couple of parsecs away from
class.
Friday nights before football games
are especially active. Thirty thousand
students crowd into fifteen or so bars,
get blind drunk, go to midnight yell
practice and throw up all over the
alumni here for the game. This is Ag-
gieland.
But even destroying brain cells at
local nightclubs and passing out in a
stranger’s lap take a back seat to the
most rude and aggravating Aggie “tra
dition” — the predictable and almost
ritual “whooping” and “hissing” dur
ing movies, plays or concerts.
Nothing irritates me more than to
be watching a movie at the Grove or a
local theater and to hear a hundred or
so farmers (i.e. CTs ) screaming
“WHOOP!” or “SSSSSSSSSS” during
an important scene of a film.
After years of sitting in Aggie audi
ences trying to enjoy movies, I’ve
been able to discern several types of
Aggie movie audiences.
If the crowd “whoops” during the
climax of the film and whenever a
bikini-clad woman is shown, it is con
sidered an intellectual group. These
are the people often found discussing
New Wave films at the Sonic.
Whenever the cartoon before the
film gets a “whoop”, it can be said the
natives are “restless”. Anyone in the
audience wearing orange clothing
should carry firearms.
If the villain gets hissed throughout
the film, the crowd is labeled “ineb
riated”. Hearing the dialogue is con
sidered a luxury and occurs rarely. In
addition, it is unwise to smoke in this
crowd because sterno ignites so easily.
If the previews of coming attrac
tions are “whooped” and the opening
credits get a standing ovation, it’s
midnight and the film is probably
X-rated or about the Green Berets.
This kind of crowd could drown out
“Earthquake” in Senssurround. It
would be advisable for all women and
barnyard animals to stay clear of the
theater.
Since I know it’s impossible for Ag
gies to change habits any more than
they like to change socks, I suggest
that theaters in the area be equipped
with sound-measuring devices.
Whenever the crowd whoops or hisses
at a decibel level high enough to dis
rupt the hearing of the non-cretins,
the film would automatically stop, re
wind and replay the preceeding ten
seconds until everyone has heard it.
Now that I’ve had my say, I hope
lynching won’t become the newest
Aggie tradition.
Conservatives plan defeat
of SALT supporters in 1980
By DAVID BRODER
WASHINGTON — The Senate starts
its formal committee consideration of the
SALT II strategic-arms treaty with the
Soviet Union this week, and, so far as one
can tell, most of the senators advocating
and opposing the treaty are approaching
the issue with the seriousness it deserves.
But there are some people who would
like to substitute a blackjack for a persua
sive argument to kill the treaty. Their
threat to the senators who must weigh this
decision is, quite literally: Vote right or we
will knock you out.
The New Right Report, a political news
letter published by Richard Viguerie, the
conscyrvative direct-mail specialist, and
edited by Morton C. Blackwell, is an
example of the shillelagh school of SALT
debate.
“A growing number of conservative
political activists,” they write in their
latest issue, “now see the SALT II fight as
the key to defeating liberals in the 1980
elections. The 1978 election saw the defeat
of eight U.S. senators who had voted for
the Panama Canal treaties.” (Aside: It also
saw the re-election of seven senators who
had voted for those treaties and the defeat
of two anti-treaty incumbents — a point
Blackwell understandably does not men
tion.) “Conservatives believe that the
SALT II treaty vote will provide an even
larger crop of liberal scalps in 1980.
Whether the treaty is stopped in the Se
nate or not, those senators who vote for it
are in for a rude shock if they believe this
issue will blow over before next year’s
primaries and general election.
“Conservative preparations for this bat
tle are nothing less than massive,”
Blackwell and Viguerie wrote. “On June
If only we
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Like other con
cerned citizens, I am hoping the Skylab
re-entry debris will fall harmlessly into the
middle of the ocean, striking nothing ex
cept open water.
But in case some of the pieces are de
stined to hit something more substantial, I
have drawn up a list of preferred landing
spots.
Pray let the plunging remnants of the
errant space station come to rest at one or
more of the following sites:
—The secret hiding place of former
Ugandi President Idi Amin.
—The computer that stores the data on
which OPEC oil price formulas are based.
14, several conservative movement lead
ers revealed at a news conference many of
the steps they are taking to stop SALT II.
“Their announcements show conserva
tives learned some lessons in the Panama
Canal battle. Political impact, not an
elaborate argument about missile
megatonnage, was the main thrust ...”
In outlining their planned “carrot and
stick” approach to the senators — an ap
proach that seemed weighted to the 2-by-4
or mule-training school of educational psy
chology — Blackwell said that no less than
nine of the “top political experts of the
conservative movement” had committed
their talents to the defeat of any SALT II
supporter.
One of them, Paul Weyrich, head of the
ironically named Committee for the Sur-
—Whichever concert hall or outdoor
arena that has booked that evening a per
formance by Led Zepplin.
—The headquarters of any motorcycle
gang.
—The room in the Florida state prison
that houses the electric chair.
—The television studio used to tape
episodes of “Eight Is Enough. ”
—The conference room at the Energy
Department where allocation plans to
minimize gas shortages are formulated.
—The recording studio where albums
are made by the Osmond family.
— The Iranian courtroom where pleas
for mercy are entered by enemies of the
Ayatollah Khomeini who are awaiting
execution.
vival of a Free Congress, is quoted as hav
ing said the “prime goal is to recruit anti-
SALT II primary and general-election op
ponents for senators who are wavering on
this treaty. Weyrich also observed that
“an effective threat to their re-elections
has a way of convincing senators to vote
right. ”
I know Richard Viguerie and Paul
Weyrich as vigorous political partisans,
but they — like their opposite numbers on
the left — approach this question with an
ideological fervor that makes me skeptical
about the quality of their own judgements.
Terry Dolan, chairman of the National
Conservative Policical Action Committee,
says the billboard which the newsletter is
planning to use against Sen. George
McGovern (D-S.D.), one of those up for
—The press relations office of the gov
ernment of Nicaragua.
—The storeroom containing the legal
pads upon which are written the majority
opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court in
cases touching on the First Amendment.
—The broadcast booth at any stadium
from where Howard Cosell reports sport
ing events.
—The private gasoline pump used by
government limousines assigned to lead
ers of the House and Senate.
-—Any movie theater where “Rocky II”
is playing.
—A bookstore shelf upon which are dis
played the complete collected works of
Harold Robbins.
—The ring into which 1980 Republican
re-election next year, is a digrace to politi
cal debate.
According to Blackwell’s and Viguerie’s
description, it “shows McGovern handing
a Soviet officer a box full of missiles
labeled SALT II and reads, “McGovern
sells out the U.S. ... again! If McGovern
wins, you lose.”
What the New Right is doing is not all
that new at all. Back in 1950, the club was
in other hands. Sen. Robert A. Taft (R-
Ohio) had opposed the Truman adminis
tration and led the unsuccessful fight
against the North Atlantic (NATO) treaty.
The administration, working with or
ganized labor, set out to purge Bob Taft,
recruiting a popular Ohio Democratic of
ficeholder, “Jumping Joe” Ferguson, as
the unlikely instrument of its retaliatory
policy. Truman sent no less a personage
thn W. Averell Harriman, then his special
assistant, to the AFL convention in 1950 to
charge that if Congress had followed Taft’s
lead, “Communist objectives would
thereby have been furthered.”
It was demagoguery then and it is de
magoguery now, when the same charge
comes from the other side of the political
fence. Taft replied that he thought the
people of Ohio “want an independent
Congress,” not a senator who “knuckles
under” to the dictates of “a President or a
Political Action Committee.” That
November, he beat Joe Ferguson by
431,184 votes, i don’t know what my young
friends in the New Right think of Bob Taft.
But there’s a monument to him on Capitol
Hill, which is more than can be said for the
kind of senator who would let himself be
intimidated by their threats.
(c) 1979, The Washington Post Com
pany
presidential candidates throw their hats.
—Any disco.
—The conference room of any Madison
Avenue agency engaged in the preparation
of television commercials in which actors
pretending to be consumers utter words of
thanks to the advertisers for having sold
them certain goods and services.
—The liquor cabinet or wine cellar at
any Iranian embassy.
—Any magazine rack containing any
periodical containing any article about the
doings of Jackie O.
—Any radio studio from which origi
nates a talk show on which one of the
guests is Truman Capote.
—The satellite tracking station at
NASA.
could choose where Skylab falls
the small society
m 6PAPDATEJ? LA^T
A^NTH -
by Brickman
(Sit i.r, Stdl J .'.ilC alts liu.
7- // '
Top of the News
STATE
Davis’ retrial delayed 3 weeks
The Fort Worth retrial of millionaire T. Cullen Davis on charges of
conspiring to have his divorce judge killed was postponed for three
weeks Monday because the defense claimed it could not locate a key
witness. Defense attorneys said witness Pat Burleson, a former karate
school instructor and friend of Davis’ former wife, could not be lo
cated in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. They maintained Burleson’s
testimony was a cornerstone of Davis’ defense and the millionaire
industrialist could not receive a fair trial unless Burleson could be
questioned. District Judge Gordan Gray granted the delay and re
scheduled jury selection for July 30.
Jury deliberating in Estes trial
Courthouse sources in Dallas said Monday it was unlikely a de
liberating federal jury would reach a verdict before midweek in the
complicated fraud and income tax evasion trial of Texas swindler
Billie Sol Estes. The eight-woman, four-man jury began deliberations
late Thursday. After a weekend recess, the panel resumed its work
Monday morning. Estes, 51, and his codefendant, Abilene busi
nessman Ray K. Horton, were charged last year with collaborating to
defraud three industrial leasing companies of about $600,000 through
am arrangement to market 36 heavy duty steam cleaners used in oil
field work. The government said the cleaners — like Estes’ thousands
of liquid fertilizer tanks he once claimed to have owned — did not
exist.
NATION
Explosions on rig kill one
AMA says laetrile use can kill
FAA says DC-lOs still grounded
WORLD
French ship rescues 837 refugees
A French hospital ship arrived in Singapore Monday with 837
Vietnamese refugees, i ncluding three pregnant women, rescued from
boats in the South China Sea, a French Embassy spokeswoman said.
The ship, the He de Lumiere, was sent by French voluntary organiza
tions to provide med ical aid to Vietnamese refugees on the refugee
island of Pulau Bidong off Malaysia’s east coast. A French Embassy
spokeswoman said Panis has guaranteed their resettlement in France.
She said the boat people will be brought to a refugee center about 20
miles north of here to await departure to France.
Students y (Chinese fight over noise
Two explosions and a fire ripped through an Amoco oil rig in Port
Hudson, La. Monday, killing one man and injuring three others, two
of them critically. Firemen and other emergency crews were pulled
back from the well, located off U.S. 61 in East Baton Rouge Parish,
after the second explosion about two hours after the first. Additional
equipment and manpower were called to fight the blaze. The steel
structure atop the well toppled to the ground and a gasoline storage
tank next to the site was in danger of igniting, authorities said. There
was no immediate report on the cause of the accident.
Laetrile, the controversial cancer treatment made from the pits of
apricots and other fruit, can kill, the American Medical Association
said in Chicago Monday. The AMA based its allegation on the re
search findings of Dr. Janardan D. Khandekar at Evanston (Ill.) Hos
pital and Northwestern University Medical School. Khandekar fed
Laetrile to groups: of tumor-infected rats to study the affects of the
substance, also known as amygdalin. He reported not only a progress
ive increase in the* size of the tumors, but also death rates as high as
56.8 percent from cyanide poisoning in three of the study groups.
Federal Aviation Administration officials in Washington said
Monday several obstacles still remain before the nation’s DC-10 fleet
can be returned to the skies. FAA spokesman Denis Feldman said
there are still a “number of unresolved issues that the administrator
has to take care of. B ond grounded the DC-10 on June 6. Before he
allows the planes to fly again, he must give a federal judge 24 hours
notice under terms of an agreement in a suit filed by the Airline
Passengers Association.
African, Asian and! Arab students fought Chinese students in a
series of battles at the Shanghai Textile Institute, leaving 21 foreig
ners and one Chinese injured, a student said Monday. A spokesman
among the foreign stv.idents said by telephone from Shanghai that the
fight began at the night of July 3 when Chinese students came to the
foreign students’ dor naitory to complain about loud radios. He said
the Education Ministry in Peking “appealed for calm” July 5 and
“Asked us to leave our building. We left behind our radios and tape
recorders and everything on the street. The foreign students were
taken to a small hotel near Shanghai. The student said they could not
return to their classes on textile production “as we fear for our lives.”
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