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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 26, 1979)
Slouch by Jim Earle “Ycm know, I think Vm in agreement with you. Playing a good game, winning a moral victory, showing your cour age, and that sort of thing is okay, hut winning is better. ” Opinion Rampaging idiots Not idiots, perhaps, but foolish people. And their foolishness may kill somebody. The problem has been here since the two-wheeler first began competing with the four-wheeler. It’s not an even match. Bicyclists can lose, especially when they foolishly ride without any lights after sundown. Bicyclists know to look for cars, and they usually do. Automobile drivers, cruising the scene with their stereos on, can easily miss bicyclists in broad daylight. So what happens when a cyclist rides without proper lights or reflectors at night? Sometimes something very tragic. i ^ W» #*>*#*«** $$ ^ -j? Vote None-of-the-Above A man in Louisiana gives us hope. His name is None-of-the-Above. Until a court changed it earlier this month, it was L.D. Knox. NOTA, as he’s sometimes called, has filed a lawsuit to block the state’s primary unless his new name appears on the ballot for governor. It’s doubtful this ploy will work. All his other efforts — noble as they are — have been blocked. Although he has repeatedly said he does not want the job, NOTA says he does want voters to be able to reject all other candidates by voting for “none of the above.” Sometimes we’d like to do just that. the small society by Brickman The Battalion USPS 045 360 LETTERS POLICY MEMBER Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are Texas Press Association subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The Southwest Journalism Congress editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does I .av Nowlin not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be .* * * j , signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone Managing Editor Andy WllllcHTlS number for verification. Asst. Managing Editor Dillard Address correspondence to Letters to the Editor, The Battalion, Room 216, Reed McDonald Building, College _ ^ i i station, Texas 77843. News Editors . .Karen Cornelison and Represented nationally by National Educational Adver- Michelle BurrOWCS tising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Sports Editor Sean Petty Angeles ' City Editor Roy Bragg _ „ Campus Editor Keith Taylor The Battalion is published Monday through Friday from t-, t-. j .. t-» ii J September through May except during exam and holiday FOCUS Editors Beth Calhoun and periods and the summer, when it is published on Tuesday DoUg Graham hrough Thursday. Staff Writers Meril Edwards, Diane Blake, Louie Arthur, Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester; $33.25 per Richard Oliver Mark PatteFSOn school year; $35.00 per full year. Advertising rates furnished ^ i t-,1 ’ X r- . A n on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 216, Reed • Oarolyn BIOSSCT, Klirt Allen McDonald Building, College Station, Texas 77843 JJoto Editor ... Lee Roy Leschper Jr. United Press International is entitled exclusively to the Photographers Lynn BlanCO, use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it. Clay Cockrill, Sam Stroder, Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. ^ I-I** e** a Second-Class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. ^ en ^errerra Cartoonist Doug Graham Opinions expressed in The Battalion are Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self- those of the editor or of the writer of the supporting enterprise operated by students article and are not necessarily those of the as a university and community newspaper. University administration or the Board of Editorial policy is determined by the editor. Viewpoint Sa The Battalion #Texas A&M University Wednesday September 26, dick west Remedy for Congress pay-raise dilen is to let each man set his own salary By DICK WEST United Press International WASHINGTON — No other conflict in government is quite as exciting as the spectacle- of Congress wrestling with itself over whether to raise its own pay. It’s got everything. Action. Drama. In trigue. Suspense. And most of all, a rich tapestry of schizophrenia. They’re up! They’re down! They’re up side down! They’re beside themselves! What a struggle! As one congressman, explaining his po sitions of the pay issue, told me: “If you are talking about an increase that helps us cope with the ravages of inflation, that partially compensates for the long, gruelling hours we spend looking after the national interest and that tends to attract more able candidates into congressional races, I’m for it. “But if you are talking about an increase that drains more precious resources from the hard-pressed private sector into the al ready bloated government, that imposes fresh burdens on the downtrodden tax payer and further insulates Congress from the country’s economic vicissitudes, I’m against it.” This helps explain why, during one stretch of soulsearching, the House wrote a 7 percent pay increase into a bill, then defeated the bill itself, then voted to re consider the rejection, and then, upon re consideration, rejected it again. For classification purposes, members of Congress may be said to fall into three groups: 1. Those who feel the raise is well de served and are prepared to take political risks to get it. 2. Those who feel the raise is well de served but are not prepared to take politi cal risks to get it. 3. Those who feel the raise is well de served and hope to profit politically by op posing it. You can see from that line-up why it is so difficult for Congress to agree on a pay scale. And you also can see what is behind the compromise arrangement I am about to suggest. As things now stand, a congressman who votes for a pay raise is voting to give it to a goodly number of his colleagues who lack the nerve, or gall, to give it to them selves. By RO& Battta Some studes wasting th« jie they eat. According tc= The solution, I believe, is to all# senator and representative to fkli pay scale. I realize a certain number mediately raise their pay by more amount recommended in the fede plan. But just as many, if not more, opt for no raise at all. And a fearful, few might actually cut! Thus, from the taxpayer’s the new system would just al even. it director v extra napk t and pepp— iver use con board plar* Each person* ling facilities ons and Dur— e of 3.2 nap* id. Each nag: 3S .3 cents- nny per peer “That does— til you cor~ er a millio isa alone,” = Thus, he nds $40, OC me. Reduci ii ~ep costs do' What it would accomplish is same ^ of a congressman’s right not to pay raised over his objections. Ii Congress engaging in a battle roJ the pay issue, it would be ever.] against himself. ber of saT ers take Ed ill grab han < only one c id. If waste nv luced it woul ne cost of tl paid, tbougVi ■te, prices v- to grow. I The 1979 ] geven-day bo lercent over |979, the cost creased 21 j irving a me £ ith said. ' A&M $1.78 1 '.pared to $2.2 I Students < Ian are charj lose on the ay only $1.5 tice in cost a he missed n on of the rx lent will pay i Food Ser- bout the sa Krs last ye i njoy a com aste food. 1 es out othc aste. "We’ve le now about lid. Each f eekly with lenu board. mrorfive s- reek and tal roblems cc es, indudir >k the stuci nmplaints a Kennedy challenge could upset CarteFs leadersfifi ystem. Food Sex management Sen. Edward Kennedy’s virtual an nouncement that he will seek the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination could undercut President Carter’s authority for up to 16 months, especially in foreign af fairs. The reason is that Kennedy is widely perceived as capable of beating Carter. And that belief could cause leaders in Washington and foreign capitals to view the president as a lame duck and to brush aside his initiatives. None of this is meant in criticism of Kennedy. He has a right to run for presi dent. Indeed he was brought up to believe that the office was family property, to be handed down from one Kennedy to another at the proper time. Also, it isn’t the Massachusetts senator’s fault that Carter is in deep political trou ble, with the polls saying only 30 percent of the public thinks he is doing a good job. With the same polls showing Kennedy running 2-1 ahead of the president, it is too much to expect a political animal to stay out of the race. That would be like lions refusing to eat Christians in the Col iseum. Sadly, with Kennedy’s challenge loom ing, the president will find it next to im possible to concentrate on the nation’s business. He and particularly his hyper political advisers will be worrying about Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary when the White House should be attending to inflation, recession and Soviet combat troops in Cuba. It is easy to imagine shrewd characters such as, say, Leonid Brezhnev, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin saying to themselves, “Why should I make a painful concession to Carter when in a year or so I can deal with his successor?” Developments could save the country from top-level paralysis. Carter could pick up in the polls, causing Kennedy to decide not to run. Or Carter could win the early primaries, shedding his lame duck appear ance and establishing himself as seal politicians and foreign leaders havet| with seriously. The chances of either coming ah leave to readers to judge. But | gloomy possibility that Washingtoil be without effective leadership uniij guration Day, 1981, we look withe Great Britain and Canada. Bothi held national elections and replaci top leaders in only four to six' Clearly this country has somethil learn from our British and Caw Scripps-Howard Newspapers Letters One A&M student has trouble bragging about his school to an interested friend Editor: The past weekend, while visiting home, I was talking to a good friend of mine. He had a slightly more than casual interest in my going to A&M, and was asking me a few questions about school. “Say, Bob, how’s school?” he asked. “It’s great, man!” I replied automati cally. “Classes are OK, huh? Pretty small?” Pause ... “No, not really — around 150 or 200 people in most of them.” “Oh, I see. Well I guess you can get lots of personal help from the instructor if you need it.” Longer pause. “Well, no; they’re kind of hard to get to ... But I get by alright.” “Yea. Well, how’s campus? Get around OK?” Still longer pause. “No, it’s really large. About a half mile between some of my classes.” By now I’m thinking about having to park way over on the other side of the rail road tracks, or the miles of lines I have to stand in, and praying he won’t ask me about that. He didn’t. “Well I guess there are just loads of good-looking babes!!” he said with a twinkle in his eye. Terribly long pause. “Come to think of it, there are few, but A&M only has 35 per cent women.” Now it’s his turn to pause. Momentarily, “Well, I guess you’ve got a football game on Saturday afternoon to look forward to, right there, and every thing. ” I’m beginning to turn green. “Well, Roger, they’re working on the stadium, and we have to drive to Houston.” I slid back in my chair, wanting to hide under the tablecloth. We sat there, look ing at each other, me wondering what was coming next, and him painfully thinking of something more to say. Presently — “Say, Bob?” “Yes, Roger.” “Why do you go to A&M?” “They have the top engineering school, and the people are very friendly.” — Bob Lawson, ’82 — Bob Bandas, ’82 Science, theology Editor: It is hard to believe that there are still ideas floating around which are uninhi bited by logic, rationality, reason, and good common sense. I refer to the idea in general and the editorial specifically (Sept. 24) that says an “intelligent creator” ex plains the phenomenon of life. Does saying “God did it!” explain abso lutely anything? To those hopelessly enmeshed in theological mythomania it is the only explanation needed, but for those who wish to do a little research to seek answers founded on evidence and sound argumentation it simply is not enough. The days of explaining earthquakes, dis ease, mental aberrations, atmospheric dis turbances and other purely natural phenomena by the supernatural are de clining. They have been declining ever since the day man refused to let ignorant priests think for him. As human knowl edge increases, the gods’ sphere of influ ence decreases. We would be called fools if we were to say God, or the plethora of other gods, causes lightning, cellular lysis, car wrecks, and bad test scores. So why should the phenomenon of life be any different in necessitating a supernatural explanation? It is only because life is a mystery, and theology breeds like rabbits on mystej rational, logical, scientific explanation! the theologian out of a job. Saying “God did it!” is simply no| nation at all. Not only is it devoid offl ing, but it’s like inventing a mystej explain a mystery. It brings usnocloi an answer than saying “evil spirits e disease.” It is the lazy-person’s way of solsij problem. Those who want the evidene evolution theory can examine] thousands of books and journals in t ! brary classified under the Library of) gress call letters “QH.” It may i lifetime to finish them all. Those who want the “scientificl dence” for special creation can take II five minutes to read the entirety of J the religion section of the library, the appropriate LC call letters “BS. | — John McCullocli, THOXZ by Doug Grahm HOW TiARE YOU.'.' "WHAT HAPPEN EV) ?/ CHEESE WORTH? ( r^DUNNO) r THINK T LEARNED GOTTA PAIR Vasa reporter. -OTHEt rtLGfl) DESEE iMEB&E t< tv CAU this ] .PRINT Joy