Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, February 17, 1984
Opinion
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Pragmatism ruined
chance to learn
Pragmatism is OK.
Ben Franklin was a Pragmatist.
Teddy Roosevelt was pragmatic.
What does pragmatic mean?
Webster’s defines pragmatic as practi
cal.
The annual Student Conference on
National Affairs is supposed to be a fo
rum for open debate, but the dis
cussion at the reception given for Ar
thur Miller, a communications law
expert from Harvard, was alarmingly
pragmatic rather than ideological.
What type of questions on commu
nications law did the anxious students
of the media have for Miller?
Did they ask about libel or the con
flict between First Amendment free
doms and the rights of individual pri
vacy? No.
Instead the students huddled
around the Harvard lawyer like dis
ciples of a guru and asked his grand
advice.
“How many people apply for Har
vard Law School?”
The grand master of the Law re
plied calmly, “9000.”
“And how many get accepted? And
what type of undergraduate degree
should we get? And what are the good
law schools and what are the bad?” the
chorus chimed.
Miller answered each question
gracefully, and each student went away
happy. But how much did each one of
them miss?
What could they have gained by
talking to the man in his field of exper
tise?
Nothing but a little bit of knowledge.
After the reception for Miller,
heated ideological debates did follow
in the round table discussions, where
delegates are divided into small
groups. But it’s still disheartening to
think some people are so career-
oriented that a few extra minutes with
Miller became a question-and-answer
session on law schoolrather than on his
field of expertise.
— The Battalion Editorial Board
Lab fee proposal
needs reworking
The Student Government finance
committee’s recommendation of a $1
fee for lab tests done at the A.P. Beutel
Health Center is a step in the right di
rection, but a giant leap is what is really
needed.
University officials say $1 per test
isn’t enough to cover the costs of proc
essing the paperwork involved in keep
ing track of a lab fee. And the health
center, beset by rising costs and low
student fees, is in need of funds.
The Battalion Editorial Board be
lieves students not only should pay for
their lab fees, but should pay enough
to cover the administrative costs as
well. A higher fee would not only dis
courage unnecessary tests but would
also help ease the center’s financial
burden.
Raise the lab fee, and let those who
use the service pay for it.
— The Battalion Editorial Board
Products with EDB
should be banned
A recent report from the Consumer
Affairs office of the U.S. Attorney
General warns shoppers against buy
ing products containing EDB at
slashed prices. The bargain, the report
warns, isn’t worth the risk.
A check of several local grocery
stores produced none of the products,
but elsewhere grocers haven’t pulled
all suspected products off the shelf.
Even more importantly, the federal
government hasn’t acted to ban their
sale.
In a case such as this, the health of
the American consumer should be the
only concern. If EDB — which has
been found in dangerous levels in con
sumer products — is a cancer-causing
agent, then the government should
have only one thing in mind: the safety
of the consumer.
As the list of cancer-causing chemi
cals grow, the American public finds it
self at the mercy of industries that fail
to adequately test products and chemi
cals and a government that is slow to
act in the consumer’s interest.
— The Battalion Editorial Board
3S»
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3#
Mergers have
sexy language
By Art Buchwald
• Columnist for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate
Every day you read more stories
1*.
>about takeover battles and mergers. It’s
,/ l.hard for people to understand what is
i£g oin g° n -
: X The takeover battle of corporations
y ‘ such as Warner Communications and
Texaco-Pennzoil are just the tip of the
2^*iceburg.
4 * Takeovers have now become the cor-
; 'porate equivalent of war.
The people involved even have their
"own sexy language.
An investment banker explained to
Tne how the system works
“The Bicarb Steel Company is selling
at a very low price because it isn’t mak
ing any steel. Sodium Oil decides to be
come an unwelcome suitor and tender
4 an offer to acquire her stock. Sodium is
known as the ‘Raider,’ and Bicarb the
V-' ‘Target.’
“Bicarb doesn’t want to marry So
dium, so she seeks out a ‘White Knight’
. to save her. A White Knight is a com
pany that Bicarb could go to bed with,
• -without feeling she had been raped.”
*4> “How does Bicarb find a White
Knight?”
- : r “Hopefully through an investment
-banker or a hired gun. You see, the
Raider plots his strategy for taking Bi-
carb by force with his hired gun, and
• then we’re hired to defend the Target’s
^ virtue. Both sides have unlimited num-
bers of lawyers.”
“It sounds expensive.”
“You better believe it. Now if you
can’t find a White Knight, you look for a
‘Gray Knight.’ A Gray Knight is some
one the Target isn’t in love with, but
could sleep with if she had no other
choice.”
“What about the ‘Black Knight’?”
“The Black Knight is a third party
that comes into the bedroom uninvited
at the last moment to spoil the wedding
night be tendering a higher offer.”
“And those are the major players in
the takeover war?”
“Not necessarily. There is the ‘God
father.’ The Godfather is a friend of the
Target, and he might acquire just
enough stock to scare off the Raider,
not because he loves the victim, but be
cause he stands to make a sizable profit
on his stock which the Raider has driven
up in the takeover bid. Suppose Bicarb
is selling for $7 a share; Sodium has bid
$10 for her body. The fact Sodium has
made the offer drives the stock up $4 a
share, because the market is betting the
takeover battle will be bitter and Sodium
will have to come in with a higher price.
Besides the Godfather there is also the
‘Grizzly.’ He buys up just enough Bicarb
stock, say 15 or 20 percent, so he can go
to the Target and say ‘Be nice to me
baby, and I won’t hurt you.’ That’s
known in the Business as a ‘Bear Hug.’
The guy who gives the Bear Hug may
do it either to make a lot of money, or
he may secretly want the Target for
himself.”
..THIS IS KOTA
PUBLIC HEALTH
EMERGENCY.
Letters
Limits of evolution
Shocking incident
Editor:
This letter is directed to the College Sta
tion Police Department and to all Col
lege Station residents.
On Feb. 12 the second Eagle Straight
Shot 10K race was held. Unaware of the
race and plans to block off Texas Ave
nue, I decided to do my laundry and
grocery shopping. I had to put my
clothes in the washing machine at a
laundromat across Texas Avenue be
fore it was blocked off. When I returned
to put my clothes into the dryer, I found
that a barricade had been set up pre
venting access to the laundromat. I
pulled up and asked an officer if I could
park my car next to the barricade or
somewhere close by so I could walk
...THIS IS A
PUBLIC RELATIONS
EMERGENCY
EPADMGS “
SFEETRX?
Editor:
I would like to comment on the recent
dialogue in The Battalion on the cre
ation/evolution controversy. As a Chris
tian theist, I believe that God not only
created but also sustains the physical
world. The so-called “laws of nature”
describe His customary care for His
creatures whereas miracles describe His
care in some extraordinary way.
For me, the question is not whether
but how. Did God create via process ex
clusively, via miracle, or using some
combination of the two? Put another
way, ( can we give a reasonable naturalis
tic explanation for the origin and pro
gression of life to its present state?
I have recently with two friends com
pleted a book entitled “The Mystery of
Life’s Origin: Reassessing Current The
ories” in which we concluded that scien
tists today have no idea of how life origi
nated.
I attended an International Gordon
Research Conference on the Origin of
Life which was attended by most active
researchers in this area. The closing
speaker at the conference noted that
current scenario of the origin of life is
about as likely as a tornado passing
through a junk yard creating a 747 air
plane.
In an origin of life presentation I
made at the University of Pennsylvania
this past fall, several non-Christian pro
fessors of molecular biology agreed with
my assessment of the current state of af
fairs, but were more optimistic than I
about what would be found in the fu
ture. Claims that we can give a naturalis
tic explanation to the origin of life at
present are either uninformed or dis
honest.
Why can’t we honestly present what
can be explained by evolutionary the
ory, clearly noting the limitations in
these explanations at present, and then
acknowledge what remains to be ex-
planed may or may not be found to have
a naturalistic explanation?
Clarence Darrow, the ACLU lawyer
in the famous Scopes trial, said it well:
“It is bigotry for public schools to teach
only one theory of origins.”
As Dr. Norman Geisler has said, “If it
was bigotry in 1925, then it is still big
otry in 1984. Bigotry has not changed in
the past half century; only the bigots ha
ve.”
Walter L. Bradley, Ph. D.
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
TBCtoumtemt
across the street to finish my laundry.
The officer very threateningly replied,
“I don’t want to hear your mouth! Turn
your car around and get out of here!” I
was shocked at the officer’s quick tem
per when I was only asking for his help.
I then turned my car around and found
my own parking place, then finished my
laundry.
This incident has also -changed my
view on the road blockades set up from
time to time on FM 2818. At this block
ade officers check your driver’s license,
safety sticker and license expiration
date. .This now appears to me as a
checkpoint one would experience while
driving in Russia, not as something set
up to help the residents of Gollege Sta
tion.
I had previously heard that the Gol
lege Station Police Department was dis
courteous and short on patience, but in
the past two-and-a-half years that I have
lived here, I have never had any prob
lems until now. I only hope that the resi
dents of Gollege Station take a closer
look at the police officers who are paid
to protect us. Otherwise we may need
another police department — to protect
us from our present one.
Harry Callicotte
about proper English. “All youp
there, if you don’t change and asll
forgiven then stay away from me]
my friends. My friends and I are
mal, and we would rather pair up]
ones which are of the oppositesei
God wanted us guys to do in tlif
place.”
Did God make Eve for Ada
Adam for Eve?
Mikei
Class t:|
Speaking up
Editor:
Every now and again one mustspeal
to keep one’s self-respect. I wishtoi
ment on the letter of Walton,
Bates.
God punishes gays
Editor:
Gome on A. M. Hudson!
I don’t think the person sitting next
to you on the intra-campus was really se
rious when he said, “All the gays in the
dance room should have the doors
locked and then be gassed to death.”
It seems to me that you approve of
the gays. And as far as your last four
words of your letter goes, (“live and let
live”) I will let them live but I pray for
those who are gay and that they will
change their ways. For I believe that
gassing is by far from a bad punishment
as what God will and has already done
to some (AIDS).
I don’t believe the punishment is up
for us to take. God will punish those
who misuse what he has given us in his
own way if they don’t change their ways
and ask for forgiveness.
It looks to me like your attitude is the
“back-of-the-barn”, my friend. I would
like to say this last thing with forgetting
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
Editor Rebeca Zimmermann
Managing Editor J°h n Wagner
City Editor Patrice Koranek
Assistant City Editors Kathleen Hart,
Stephanie Ross
News Editor Tracey Taylor
Assistant News Editors Susan Taloot,
Wanda Winkler
Editorial Page Editor Kathy
Wiesepape
Sports Editor Donn Friedman
Assistant Sports Editor Bill Robinson
Entertainment Editor Shelley Hoekstra
Assistant Entertainment Editor Angel
Stokes
Photo Editor J°hn Makely
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I first note that heterosexual reM
a sexual preference for persons^
opposite sex, whereas homosexual^
ers to a preference for persons!
same sex as one’s self. That’s all ™
gards whether or not the latteri
mal,” an orientation shared by a®!
vatively estimated 10 percent .pj
American people certainly seems^
pical biological occurence.”
The notion that homosexuality^
nates in the ongoing changes in>
values is neither new nor corretil
DePalma can speak to the degrtj
“choice” he had in the matter olfef
sexual preference. Taking his et?
ence to be typical, I would exf
more exercise of conscious choice 1 ]
went to form the preferences of" 3
Hicks, Bates or myself.
The notion, too, that an unpopj
lifestyle (more so if volmT
adopted?) is a fit object of “flack. *
son, mental and physical harass®]
and societal persecution by theSai®
the-Majority, is such an old one tL
ought all recognize it. When wed
should purge ourselves of it.
“Live and let live.” Pete, Robert]
Kenneth, I say to you that tolerail
not a concession to those for who®|
have no concern: it is an enlig
recognition and acceptance of therti
of those with whom you disagree ]
are your fellow human beings.
Steve 1 ?
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