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Thursday, July 12,201
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ews in Brief
ing protester
3 companies
FRANCISCO (AP) -
jtterfly” Hill, who
e for more than
protest the logging of
:h redwoods, is gt
over a magazine
says mocks her.
j resembles widely pub-
lotos taken as Hill
:form in the 1,000-year-
ood, according to a fed-
auit filed last Thursday
AT&T Corp., OmniSky
id advertising agency
ilat/Day.
oman in the ad, howev-
dding a small OmniSky
Internet device. A man
»ase of the tree
; buckets and is looking
e ladder. A logo on h
ads sponge-bath.com
she, who had endured
hysical, mental and spin
illenges and risked I
jpport of her efforts
I growth forests, wo
rireless Internet and e-
vice to call a man to
er and would endorse
its’ products in a com-
advertisement was
comprehension," Hill's
Ina J. Risman of San
o, wrote in court papers.
26, was traveling
I and was unavailable
ment.
irsday.July 13.2000
IT
Viewpoints
nternet gambling opposition
should improve argument
r he high-stakes poker game has always been a roman
tic notion. In fact, gambling has been a high-rolling in
dustry for centuries. From the riverboats to the Bela-
;io, gambling establishments have thrived. As is the case
most industries, gambling has been riding the Internet
landwagon for some time. One can pick from roughly
1,000 Internet wagering sites to bet on anything from the
Super Bowl to a couple of spins on the roulette wheel.
that could soon come to an end if a bill proposed by
louse leaders becomes law. Attempts to eliminate Inter-
let gambling have been made before, but they have always
short of becoming law. This time, however, House
eaders are making a bolder and more comprehensive ef-
'ortto eliminate most forms of cyberspace gambling.
Among the people supporting the bill are conservative
eligious groups who have pushed Congress for years. The
groups say that gambling on the Internet could lead to the
ireakup of families whose members are drawn to a sys-
,em of gambling with almost no controls, conducted in pri
vate from the comfort of one’s home.
While this might be quaint discussion for a Sunday
School, it falls desperately short of a strong argument. The
ist of factors that contribute to the breakup of families is a
mile long. The efforts of these conservative religious groups
should be redirected to a worthwhile cause. The decision to
gamble is an individual one that is rarely influenced by the
ease with which the decision can be implemented.
Alcoholic beverage distributors are not to blame for al
coholism and its role in family breakups. Why change the
rules for Internet wagering?
The government’s justification for this ban also lacks
logic. The main argument presented by the government is
that Internet gambling violates the Wire Act of 1961,
which bans most interstate gambling transactions con
ducted via telephone. Technically this is true, but if one
digs deeper, the bureaucratic hurdles are easily cleared.
The 1961 Act was intended to control gambling trans
actions done through “bookies” for one reason: Neither
the bookies nor the profiting gamblers reported their in
come. All Internet gambling sites take the Social Security
numbers of their applicants. If any legislation is to be
passed, it should be the requirement of these agencies
to report the income of their customers to their respec
tive countries.
— Luke McMahan
Continued from Papl
front, at least, Clinftiw/
irak said Israel was.wd-
j>250 million sale ol an
airborne radar system to
the administration and
mbers of Congress had
ing security concerns.
spokesperson Gadi
/ said the decision was
to improve prospects for
iccess. Israel, he said, need-
erve its "intimate relations"
Jnited States,
e the news blackout at
vid, outside the Maryland
retreat representatives from
>s were speaking freely,
nian spokesperson Hanan
said Wednesday on CNN
was ignoring the plii
i refugees,
ing responsibility is not a
y to start (the summit),'
Cabinet minister
neated Israel's rejection of
n demands to establish
the traditionally Arab east-
of Jerusalem,
will be no division of sov
)ver Jerusalem," Tamir, thi
>f immigration and absorp-
on CNN. "Jerusalem
divided."
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‘Son of Sam laws’ effective,
protect criminal and victim
I n the ’70s, David Berkowitz, known as the Son of
Sam, went on a murder spree that attracted national
headlines. After his capture and imprisonment,
Berkowitz sought to sell his story to publishers, but be
fore he could, the New York Legislature passed a law
preventing convicted criminals from profiting from royaL
tyfees associated with their crimes. Thirty years later, a
similar California law is in front of that state’s Supreme
Court for review.
In response, the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) and several national book associations have
chimed in with choruses of censorship and free speech.
However, the criticism of California’s and New York’s
“Son of Sam laws” overlooks the reality of the laws. Not
only do the laws allow for a criminal’s freedom of
speech, they also protect the victim’s family from know
ing its loved one’s injury or death will not line the as
sailant’s pockets.
The California and New York laws do not prohibit
convicted criminals from talking about their crimes,
even to publishers and the press — they simply prevent
them from receiving payment for the interviews. As the
ACLU is quick to point out, criminals are guaranteed the
same constitutional rights as free citizens. The states
lave recognized that concern, and with the “Son of
Sam laws,” even convicts get their say.
On the other hand, victim’s rights are as important
as the aggressor's. The law needs to protect a victim
and his or her family from the insult of watching the
criminal profit from their suffering.
Simply put, there is no need for the California
Supreme Court to review these laws. Not only do they
arotect people on both sides of the crime, they also work
n another, very important sphere: crime prevention.
: ame and notoriety have more than once served as moti-
/ation for violent crime. The “Son of Sam laws” shine in
heir removal of one more reason to break the law.
Society will always have a fascination with crime and
/iolence. These laws ensure that the wrong person
toes not profit from that fascination.
— Eric Dickens
THE BATTALION
Frying eyes
Access to opponents’ playbacks will not ensure victory on the field
B efore being
shut down by
a pending law
suit, the Website
sportsplaybooks.com
was offering copies
of some well-known
college football play-
books, including
A&M's, to coaches, fans and players.
Many people feared that coaches across
the nation logged on and purchased
playbooks, and next season, will hold
the key to leading their teams to star
dom. However, some people do not real
ize that the playbooks of successful
teams like A&M and the University of
Texas are not the only reason these two
schools dominate their division. Skill,
talent, coaching and execution of out
lined plays are what really pave the road
to victory. It is not the amount of time
spent to perfect a system, but the re
sources available on game day that
carve out success. Execution beats
preparation every time.
Football is more than just a bunch of
X's and O's drawn in a formation. It is a
game in which knowledge, ingenuity
and ability are required to execute a
play. More importantly, football is a
game played on impulse. In one play, a
team can make a crucial interception
and score a touchdown, or carelessly
fumble the ball and lose the game. In
these instances, the playbook is irrele
vant. Recovering a fumble or intercept
ing a pass really has nothing to do with
a football playbook. The real test is to be
ready, to adapt and to react.
A playbook is only a basic founda
tion of the offense and defense forma
tions the coach chooses to run. The type
of formation is not as important to real
game situations, as the caliber of players
and the strengths of a team. Playbooks
themselves will not produce winning
programs. It all depends on the type of
offense the coach plans to use, based on
the skills of the players. Obviously, a
team's offense must be able to adapt to
different defensive formations and vice
versa. Coaches constantly scout upcom
ing teams and teach their players how to
execute plays according to an opposing
team's strengths. But in a real game situ
ation, players have to fall back on basic
knowledge to gain yards. Every team
that plays Nebraska knows the Corn-
huskers are going to run the option, but
for years, defenses have failed to stop it.
The talent and ability of Nebraska's
players have consistently beaten teams,
even when the opponents are lined up
to defeat the option.
R.C. Slocum helped A&M become
the most successful team in Texas in the
1990s. He has proven that no matter
how much research coaches and
their teams can do, they still
may not be able to defeat an
opposing team's strength,
such as A&M's Wrecking
Crew defense. Coach
es are aware of op-
posing teams basic idm
plays and usual-
ly even adapt I
their lineups ac- ®
cordingly. They v
focus on the
strongest players and plan
how to render them
useless. Coaches
spend
hours watching films of their own and
other teams in hopes of surprising their
opponents on game day. Then an under
estimated Cinderella team wins, and
everyone is caught off guard, because it
is not the film and the scouting that wins
the game; it is the ability of the players
and the coaches to focus and perform
under pressure.
Most coaches know that even if they
have a team's playbook, it does not
mean they can stop a team's offense or
: '
defense with any success. Victory de
pends on the experience of the coach,
the talent of the offense and defense,
and the heart of the players.
Probably the only people who
would benefit from this Internet play
book sale are fans who sit in the stands
with their teams' playbooks and criti
cize the coaches' every move, instead of
just every other move. Most fans do not
realize that there are other factors that
influence a coach's actions. Ultimately,
selling playbooks on the Internet
would only be good for those "arm-
Nsv chair" quarterbacks.
X As a coach would say, only
X 50 percent of football is
- ! preparation. The rest is
* ^ >jL X driven by reaction,
Ik desire and execu-
tion. Experience
,s. * and execution
during the
game give one
team an edge
j on the field.
| The playbook
: is simply the
first building
block in the
game of football.
Tire object of
the game is not to
/ see who can devel
op the best play
book, but who can ex-
I ecute those plays most
effectively. Winning
does not depend on a ma
terial playbook that consists only of X's
and O's. It is the talent and heart of the
players, the support of the fans and the
experience of the coaches that leads to
victory. It is not the playbook that makes
the difference.
As a former A&M, football player and
a current high school football coach said
after a losing effort, "On paper, our X's
can tackle their O's, but on the field, our
boys cannot defeat their men!"
Cay la Carr is junior
journalism major.
E-government gets disconnected
Bureaucracy takes toll on President Clinton’s interactive Website
F or years the federal government has been
searching for avenues by which to regulate the
burgeoning Internet. Finally, seems to have
struck upon the solution: let the bureaucracy at it.
A few people have caught President Clinton's
new Saturday Web addresses, his "Webside chats."
For the past three weekends he has heralded the ar
rival of the government, and particularly his admin
istration, on the Internet.
On June 24, in his inaugural address, he an
nounced the impending creation of firstgov.gov, an
interactive Website designed to consolidate govern
ment information and services. The new site will,
above all else, supposedly do away with the legacy of
a difficult bureaucracy where limbo is a standard op
erating atmosphere. Welcome to the e-llusion.
"In the spirit of cutting through red tape," Clinton
said, "this new Website will be created in 90 days or
less." The idea behind this is to prove how the gov
ernment is advancing side-by-side with business in
its pioneering technological adventures. That a site of
such magnitude might be created in 90 days or less
would be, when accomplished, quite the show of a
new federal efficiency. That is, if it were true.
The firstgov.gov domain name as well as the .com,
.net and .org suffixes were all registered by a federal
employee nearly a year ago, on July 15,1999. The claim
of a 3-month incubation time is then nothing but smoke
and mirrors.
With a little more than 14 months to prepare the
site, even the bureaucrats would have to put forth a
special effort to fail in meeting the promised opera
tional deadline.
The new site will, above all
else, supposedly do away
with the legacy of a difficult
bureaucracy where limbo is
a standard operating at
mosphere. Welcome to the
e-llusion.
Alternately, of course, the government might have
truly been sitting on the domain names and the entire
project for the past year, a tribute to the sluggish pa
per trail of their forebearers.
One look at whitehouse.com will show why the
administration is anxious to erase any possibility of
oversights in its new endeavor. A porn site, while per
haps a fitting tribute to the president, is not his idea.
But making sure that someone who wants to check
on their Social Security does not end up with a choice
of sultry "First Ladies" is still the least of its concerns.
On the day Clinton announced his new era of e-
government, immutable forces of nature were active
at work against him. Web browsers sent to
firstgov.gov automatically defaulted to the .com site.
Not a catastrophe by any means, but precisely the op
posite of what had been intended, the classic bureau
cratic foible.
This after nearly a year to prepare for that one mo
ment. What promise lies ahead.
When questioned about the slip-up, the official
media rep for firstgov.gov first expressed ignorance
(the error was quickly fixed) and then concurrence as
to the irony of the mistake.
Even top e-govemment officials agree that any on
line services are at least five years from comparing in
ability with those of e-business today. For all not keep
ing track, that is the same e-business of server delays,
lost information and sites vulnerable to intrusion by 13-
year-old children.
Of course, the real circus is till over two months
away, when the site premieres and its claims are put
to the test. While it is nice to know that there are still
humans with the ability to make mistakes behind the
impersonal electronic networks, the frightening part
is that they are branching out.
James Stockstill is a columnist for the
Daily Mississippian at the U. of Mississippi.
Mail Call
Sex-a-thon part of Internet’s
diversity, idea marketplace
In response to Amber Rasco’s July 12 Viewpoint.
i Raseo argues that this Webcast depredates the In
ternet because she disagrees with its educational val
ue as well as finding its subject matter immoral. The
Internet is too large and diverse a medium for any
one thing to diminish. And because it it this diverse
medium everything has a place on it.
While admittedly the Webcast’s taste is ques
tionable it is, however, not “immoral.”
Sex between consenting adults is their choice
regardless of who they decide to do it with and
whether or not they decide to broadcast it. Morality
is a relative thing and no one has any right to tell
anyone else what to do.
. Rasco also suggests that this Webcast will
harm children. It will not — if their parents are any
good at parenting they wilt know what their kids
are watching and restrict it as they, the parents
and not anyone else, sees fit.
People were having sex for fun long before they
linked it to reproduction. We also cannot hide sex
from the young; they will one day participate in it
themselves, and we must prepare them with the
proper knowledge so that they will do it responsibly.
So if in the future they decide to practice in such
an exhibition they will know that while a condom is
not perfect protection it is better than none when
they engage in sex with many different partners.
Terrell Rabb
Class of ‘02
The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 300
words or less and include the author’s name, class and phone num
ber.
The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style
and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 014 Reed Mc
Donald with a valid student ID. Letters may also be mailed to:
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