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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 9, 1980)
Slouch By Jim Earle “I’m not sure that we can approve a class cut on the grounds that you’re on a tornado watch. “ Opinion Library problem is alarming A good joke is funny, but there are some things that will never be funny. Last night, as on Monday night, someone thought it would be lots of laughs to trip a fire alarm in the library. There are several ways to have fun in the library — tying up all of the elevators on one floor or looking up dirty words in the dictionary, for example. These are questionable but harmless ways of having fun in the library. Threatening people’s lives by sending in false alarms is another matter. Librarians say there have been so many false alarms? son4 ^ students ignore them completely. On both nights, several students chose to ignore the alarm, figuring that it was another phony. As it turned out, they guessed correctly this time, but what if it had been a real emergency? This semester alone, the library has been evacuated four times because of false alarms. Maybe someone actually thinks that tripping the alarm is funny. More than likely, whoever is responsible for the interruptions is stealing books, since the detection devices at the front door are shut off and the fire escapes are open for use. If it’s only books this cretin wants, perhaps the library ought to give the books away. Anything is preferable to the inconvenience and possible danger of any more false alarms. the small society by Brickman The Battalion USPS 045 360 LETTERS POLICY lA’tttrs to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being cut to that length or less if longer The edititrial staff reserves the right to edit such IctttTs and dtn s not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone number fttr verification. Address correspondence to lA'tttrs to the Editin'. The Battalion. Room 216. Reed McDonald Building. College Station. Texas 77643 Represented nationally by National Educational Adver tising Services. Inc.. New York City. Chicago and Los Angeles. The Battalion is published Monday through Fridas from September through May except during exam and holidax periods and the summer, when it is published on Tuesdax hrough Thursday. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester. $33.25 per school year. $35.00 per hill year. Advertising rates furnished on request. Address: The Battalion. Room 216. Reed McDonald Building. College Station. Texas 77843. United Press International is entitled exclusiveK to the use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. S«-cond-Class postage paid at College Station. TX 77843. MEMBER Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Congress Editor Roy Bragg Associate Editor Keith Taylor News Editor Rusty Cawley Asst. News Editor Karen Cornelison Copy Editor. Dillard Stone Sports Editor Mike Burrichter Focus Editor Rhonda Watters City Editor Louie Arthur Campus Editor Diane Blake Staff Writers Nancy Andersen,’ Tricia Brunhart,Angelique Copeland, Laura Cortez, Meril Edwards, Carol Hancock, Kathleen McElroy, Debbie Nelson, Richard Oliver, Tim Sager, Steve Sisney, Becky Swanson, Andy Williams Chief Photographer Lynn Blanco Photographers Lee Roy Leschper, Steve Clark, Ed Cunnius, Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of the University administration or the Board of Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self- supporting enterprise operated by students as a university and community newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the editor. Viewpoint The Battalion Texas A&M University Wednesday April 9, 1980 ■l| Althoi Carter’s ‘good news’ strategy is letting him manage the news ators can for towi property remain u Sparkv Wrecke March !• sfressed estrictio puncil rr i “I pro 1 By DAVID S. BRODER From “Showboat” days on, lyricists and pining lovers have only been able to hope that “maybe Tuesday will be my good news day.” But a President, especially a non campaigning President, can help manage the news to insure happy primary-election Tuesday by feeding the voters upbeat infor mation on their way to the polls. Jimmy Carter’s “good news” strategy in 1980 is a textbook case in the manipulation of public opinion by a White House poli- tican. Much has been made of Carter’s early- morning Oval office announcement last Tuesday of a “positive step” toward release of the U. S. hostages in Iran, beamed across the cPuntry by television in time to catch the voters in Wisconsin and Kansas at their breakfast-tables and before they cast their votes. But a look back over the past ten weeks of the 1980 political season shows something even more interesting: a clear pattern of pre-primary “news” created by the White House to shape a positive public percep tion of the President’s handling of key mat ters of voter concern. There have been many “exclusive” inter views given to news outlets in the primary states themselves, like the self-serving in terview Carter granted the Milwaukee Journal last week. In it, he used the pri vileged sanctuary of the Oval Office to ac cuse his challenger of taking “demagogic” positions on economic and foreign policy. But even more interesting are the occa sions on which Carter has made national “news” on the eve of important contests with Edward M. Kennedy. Here is a partial listing: On Sunday, Jan. 20, the day before the Iowa caucuses, Carter makes his first appearance as President on “Meet the Press,” and announces that he will insist that U.S. athletes boycott the Moscow Olympics unless the Soviet Union pulls its troops out of Afghanistan. The next day, he invites the U.S. Olym pic hockey team which has just upset the Soviet Union to the White House — a tele vision spectacular for the night before the first primary. new guidelines on sales ofhigh- products to the Soviet Union I troops are still in Afghanistan. He also says that he will press ahead with economic sanctions against Iran, in order to speed release of the hostages. On Sunday, Feb. 24, two days before the New Hampshire primary, Carter takes two moves to counter negative news of a sharp increase in the inflation rate and a state ment from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that the hostages will not be released be fore April. He returns from Camp David to tell White House reporters there is no cause for “extreme pessimism” about the hostages and convenes an unusual Sunday meeting to review budgetary and economic policy against inflation. On the March 2 weekend preceding the Massachusetts and Vermont primaries. Carter moves to take command of the infla tion issue. The Sunday papers reports Carter has ordered $20 billion in budget cuts; the Monday papers have him urging business to exercise price restraint; and the Tuesday papers speak, for the first time, of a ba lanced budget for fiscal 1981. Late on the night before the primary, Carter seeks to head off another problem by acknowledg ing that a “communications error” led the United States to cast an erroneous vote against Israel in the U.N. Security Council. On the weekend of March 9, preceding three southern primaries, there is marve lous news that the U.S. hostages will be transferred immediately out of the custody of the militants — followed by the shock of the transfer being blocked. Carter reacts by accusing Iran of reneging on its pledge. On the weekend of March 16, before the Illinois primary, with budget cuts and Iran in a holding pattern, White House officials disclose that Carter will issue “very tough” In the days preceding the d March 25 New York and Connertl maries, Carter announces plansfek talks with the leaders of Israel arnli takes the Iranian hostage case 1 World Court, sends his top aide, 1 Jordan, to Panama to negotiate the J of the exiled Shah of Iran to Etj surgery, and holds a White Ho«| mony to mark the approaching an:..t of the Egyptian-Israeli accord ofl:’ P 8 r01 But it is not enough — and when i?l xas ^ losses to Kennedy occur, Cartertt? , P anc * ] chairman complains, "There’s !wt useurn good news for ten days.” i|PP in g terest in With Wisconsin and MNow, i approaching, the White House 'hihits an correct the error. Carter sigasffeund. budget, showing the biggest dewiWildlii sets a March 31 deadline for thetr 40t). taugl the hostages, on pain of stiff new sajed “Natl The Monday papers report :The 16 < optimism” on the hostage situatim museum : the polls open, Carter himselfgoet dev elopir vision to report a “positive step, developn And — guess what? Another hoping to turns out to be his good news da; at the mi (c) 1980, The Washington PostCil “A nati Vv'vV.i, ; define,” ilea is th about the an area of ing trails lated exh “The cc student ai operation first sem effort to working 1 The nu ter at 323 e tract veloped v The m Quick-frying rice to revolutionize world-wide gourmet community By DICK WEST United Press International WASHINGTON — The quick brown rice jumped over the lazy cook’s back. I don’t suppose that line will ever catch on as a test sentence for teletype repair men. For one thing, it doesn’t encompass the entire alphabet the way a quick brown fox overleaping an indolent canine does. But if it were acceptable, that would be one way of calling attention to a new re search breakthrough by the U.S. Depart ment of Agriculture. The USDA reported this week it had developed “quick-cooking brown rice that can be prepared in a quarter of the time it takes to cook regular brown rice.” I hardly need point out that the less time it takes to cook brown rice, the less time the cook, lazy or otherwise, must spend slaving over a hot stove. But getting rice off the cook’s back is only the frosting on the cake, so to speak. The real import of quick brown rice lies in its potential for energy conservation. “Drying time is about half that required for quick-cooking white rice, and the tem perature used is lower, ” says a USDA press release. “In addition, the shorter home cooking time contributes to energy sav ings.” Fast foods, as you and your gourmet friends well know, have gotten a bad name among many consumers, the rap being that rapid cuisine is gastronomically inferior, digestively taxing, unnecessarily fattening and prone to cause acne. That prejudicial attitude generally was formed by such franchised outlets as the Mammy’s Little Baby Loves Pizza and Tacos chain. Nevertheless, it has to some degree carried over into the kitchen. There is a prevailing conviction that any dish that can be whipped up at the last minute isn’t compatible with gracious liv ing. But with fuel costs rising even more rapidly than the cooking time for brown rice is dwindling, the Agriculture Depart ment may have found a way to overcome that bias. The energy tie-in sounds so persuasive, I’ll wager it will virtually revolutionize the food industry. Even as we speak, poultry researchers may be at work on a quick baking turkey. Soon, perhaps, we ll see supfj advertising quick-frying eggs, browning potatoes and quick-popp? — all in the name of energy consl And why stop there? Perhaps modern science can :: with a way to make so-called cor!'? foods more energy efficient I* words, quick-thawing frozen dirf Beverages? Some of them use« preparation, too. So how aW perking coffee and tea that steeps 1 0 heat? This is only a theoretical discus understand. Persons at my won’t be directly benefited velop quick-boiling water. THOXZ By Doug Grahm j