The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, November 21, 2008 Page: 3 of 24
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Op-Ed
Global warming consensus only; not fact
Having spent the majority of my
college career navigating my way
around my science and math re-
quirements (if you need a sugges-
tion for an easy Dill I'm the girl to
ask!), I can safely say that I am not
a scientist. 1 am a rational observer
of the scientific community and, as a
sentient human being, I am suscep-
tible to their discoveries and asser-
tions. Indeed, wizards in lab coats
have the ability to shape policies
and affect everyone's lives with their
findings. Presently, the breathless
dictum emanating from on high is
that mankind is warming the planet,
causing the oceans to rise and killing
the polar bears.
Caroline May
Once again, I do not claim to be a
scientist nor do I claim to know any
more about global warming than the
next person. What concerns me is that
the dogged proponents of man-made
global warming are asserting that the
debate is "over" because a "consen-
sus of scientists" believes it to be oc-
curring. In my opinion, to declare a
debate over and refuse further discus-
sion is to reveal that the argument is
weak and cause people — like me — to
question any further assertions. As the
treat and recently departed Michael
Crichton once said, "Let's be clear:
The work of science has nothing what-
ever to do with consensus. Consensus
is the business of politics. Science, on
the contrary, requires only one inves-
tigator who happens to be right... The
greatest scientists in history are great
precisely because they broke with the
consensus. There is no such thing as
consensus science. If it's consensus, it
isn't science. If it's science, it isn't con-
sensus. Period."
The consensus used to be that the
world was flat, that there were witch-
es in Salem and that the sun revolved
around the Earth. I am inclined to see
what others are saying on the matter,
and there are many highly regarded
scientists who are skeptical of man-
made global warming. Unfortunately,
the debate has become highly politi-
cized and agenda driven.
To power-hungry politicians,
anthropogenic global warming is
manna from heaven. How to stem its
effect is their long sought-after ques-
tion for the solution they have always
had: more state control, more taxes,
more regulations and more opportu-
nities for self-aggrandizement, a la
A1 Gore. Debate and inquiry greatly
hinder the propagation of this initia-
tive, thus a fascistic oppression of
dissent has become the order of the
day. Paul Joseph Watson has written
eloquently on the topic: "The asser-
tion that global warming is man-
made is so oppressively enforced
upon popular opinion, especially in
Europe, that expressing a scintilla
of doubt is akin to Holocaust denial
in some cases. Such is the insipid
brainwashing that has taken place
via television, newspapers and ex-
alted talking heads — global warm-
ing skeptics are forced to wear the
metaphorical yellow star and only
discuss their doubts in hushed tones
and conciliatory frameworks, or be
cat-called, harangued and jeered
by an army of do-gooders who righ-
teously believe they are rescuing
Mother Earth by recycling a wine
bottle or putting their paper in a
separate trash can."
While there is little doubt that the
planet has warmed slightly, nobody
can know for sure to what this can be
attributed. The lack of unquestionable
proof, outside of a majority opinion,
requires more investigation, an en-
gaged populace and a transpar-
ent scientific debate. The policies
promoted by those adhering to this
hypothesis — that temperature change
is man-made — are far-reaching and op-
pressive. Let us be certain that we have
something to fear and that our actions
will make a difference before we insti-
tute some of the most drastic initiatives
a free society has ever considered.
Caroline May is a Will Rice
College senior.
While we have gobbled up the lat-
est news on the numerous wars tak-
ing place across the world, another
war has gone unnoticed, slipping
beneath even the lowest of radars.
I'm talking, of course, about the War
on Holidays.
Sean McBeath
Do you remember a time when we
had Christmas Break? Easter Break?
Well, those glory days are over, my
friends. Wring what little pleasure
you can from the memories of those
greater times and relish what delight
you can from your "Winter Recess"
and "Midterm Break."
Like so many other grand revolu-
tions, this one began with a simple
playground truth: It's not nice to ex-
clude people. Labeling all our holi-
days in reference to Jesus isn't fair
to the rest of the worshiping/non-
worshiping world. And, even though
I still can't rightfully skip class on
Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah,
□ LETTERS
the sweeping tradition of American
Christianity has faded into the back-
drop, turning Christmastime into
"the holidays."
It's not so much the ridiculous
ways we attempt to circumvent the
use of any Christian references in
society as the ideals behind them.
(Though the use of B.C.E. and C.E.
still causes me to shake with fury. Se-
riously, you're using the same dates
as before. But I digress.)
Political correctness has sur-
passed its usefulness. Case in point?
Thanksgiving. What's wrong with
Thanksgiving, you ask? Two words:
Turkey Day.
In our clamber to be the most po-
litically correct people we can be, we
have taken the war to our most sacred
of holidays (or a close second). I'm
not sure who came up with this trav-
esty of American history, but I hope
that they read this and are ashamed.
For what ludicrous reason do
we need to rename our own holi-
days? Thanksgiving is a uniquely
American holiday; we starved, we
got food, we were thankful. There's
no religious bias involved. Sure, the
pilgrims were Protestants. But they
were Americans (or their descen-
dants would be, someday). We don't
celebrate Thanksgiving in a church;
we celebrate it in our homes.
The fact that we came up with
another name for Thanksgiving
is an exemplary symptom of how
"political correctness" has outlived
itself, proof that what was once an
admirable fight against bigotry has
become a mockery of itself.
But I don't only hate the name
"Turkey Day" because of the pure
ludicrousness it projects upon all
who hear it. It also manages to tear
down a glorious ideal in the pursuit
of some grander, blander future
without bias and opinion. We might
as well call the Fourth of July "Fire-
works Day" if we're trying to wring
the grandeur out of everything.
Thanksgiving is a celebration
of life and all the great things in it.
And while many of us might think of
the pilgrims' first winter when we sit
down next Thursday, that's not re-
ally what this day is about.
So, if you hate America and the
concept of gratefulness, celebrate
your "Turkey Day." Personally, I
love the ideals this country was
founded on, and I am grateful for
a lot of things, so I will celebrate
my American holiday in America
as it was meant to be celebrated:
as Thanksgiving.
Sean McBeath is a Martel College
junior and calendar editor.
Despite student caricatures,
Leebron deserves praise
Editing the Backpage is a won-
derful job. I mosey into the Thresher
office every once in a while, sit in one
of our many comfortable chairs, make
fun of our editors in chief, avoid my
homework and occasionally write
something which I pray my mother
will never discover. Sometimes I even
make people laugh, but those weeks
are few and far between.
'Turkey Day' undervalues day's meaning
Tim Faust
In those rare moments when I'm
not busy scaling the mountain of hu-
mor godhood or trying to figure out
how to turn my weekly flirtation with
libel into a real-life job, I enjoy noth-
ing more than attending the weekly
Monday meeting of the Student Asso-
ciation Senate. As elections chair I'm
technically required to attend all SA
meetings, but this responsibility is its
own reward: Nothing gets my blood
a-pumping like glancing at the steely,
determined gaze of presiding officer
Matt Youn or admiring the sharp fo-
cus of the nine enthusiastic college
presidents or playing "World of Goo"
on my laptop while External Affairs
Vice President Nick Muscara talks
about some tailgate or another.
But the Nov. to meeting was
something which honestly took me
by surprise. President Leebron came
before the SA and requested to use
the meeting time as an open ques-
tion-and-answer forum to address
any and ail campus issues about
which those members in attendance
had concerns. He primarily discussed
the new colleges, the financial crisis
and the Rice-Baylor Medical School
merger, but he encouraged feedback
from all students on any subject.
The Leebron whom I write onto
the Backpage is the Leebron who
swims through vats of William Marsh
Rice's gold in his finest Scrooge Mc-
Duck attire and clams up in terror at
the thought of talking to undergradu-
ates. This obnoxiously exaggerated
caricature sails in a small lake of cred-
ibility — even the first Backpage that
discussed Leebron (Aug. 20, 2004) ex-
amined his goal to "transform Rice into
another Harvard" and the first editorial
cartoon of the same year painted him as
student-wary — but gestures like this
question-and-answer session at an SA
meeting threaten to suck all the wind
out of the sails of those critiques.
When Leebron offered to stay as
long as was needed to answer every
question in the room, it was as if he
had torn up these sails and sewn them
into a quilt for a veteran's hospital. I
must explain (or rather, confess) how
impressed I was with Leebron at the
senate meeting and how flexible I be-
lieve he has proven himself in learn-
ing to deal with Rice undergraduates.
Hold the phone. Am I really applaud-
ing President Leebron for, of all things,
his relationship to students and his at-
tention to their concerns? Absolutely.
For all the guff we give him, this year
Leebron has made a tremendous effort
to reach out to the undergraduate popu-
lation. I first noticed this change during
Hurricane Ike. President Leebron and
his wife, Y. Ping Sun, toured the colleg-
es before the storm and wrote frequent
blog-like posts on the front page of
www.rice.edu updating the out-
side world about Rice's condition
after most of Houston was thrust into
humid darkness.
There's also the Open Office Hour,
which I find to be a very funny concept.
It's held during classes when many
students can't make it and is always
prefaced by an e-mail so awkwardly
worded that I blush just by reading the
first paragraph (who really "engages
in conversation" these days?) but it
affords any schmuck at any of the col-
leges the opportunity to be heard. This
openness, however limited, is not fre-
quently paralleled at many peer insti-
tutions, and the fact that we can take
it for granted — not to mention make
fun of it — is a sign President Leebron
is doing his job well.
I must stress that this column must
not be mistaken for trifling toady(
ism. Eight years of Rage Against tht
Machine's "Battle of Los Angeles"
have taught me to decline the role of
sycophant as a general life principle.
I certainly don't agree with all of the
changes at Rice, but let's not discuss
Dirk's Coffee, the college and club fi-
nancial restructuring or the proposed
McMurtry and Duncan population
plan right now. I instead want to ac-
knowledge my gratitude for the prog-
ress we've made and insist that the
work can't stop here. In a time of such
rapid growth and the promise of many
exciting tomorrows at Rice, Leebron's
relationship with the undergraduate
population becomes more and more
important and these frank, casual in-
teractions must take a leading role as
a method of soliciting students' input
regarding the years and tuition they
invest here. The possibilities for such
interactions are wide. Why not get a
Facebook, President Leebron?
David Leebron heralded his ap-
pointment as president with a four-
month "Call to Conversation" that
emphasized discussion with stu-
dents, faculty and community mem-
bers. It is to his great credit that three
and a half years later he is still calling
and conversing. I trust that he will
cultivate this dialog in the future and
keep Rice a school I can call home.
But hopefully that happens after 1
graduate. Otherwise I'll need to find
new material for the Backpage.
Tim Faust is a Brown College senior
and Backpage editor.
tunities for visual arts space within
the next year or two. Further pa-
tience is required, from everyone.
Yes, VADA has a large number of
majors, but the statistics from the
registrar show the majors are evenly
divided between single VADA majors
and double majors. I think that says
something about the role and place
of visual arts at Rice It is wonderful
to see economics, political science,
computer science, even mechanical
and chemical engineering students
double majoring in visual arts. That
is one of Rice's great strengths, the
capacity to afford students a com
prehensive educational experience
at a major research university. But
we are not primarily an art school,
and no matter how fully the arts
may develop at Rice in the future,
they will always be part of a com-
prehensive educational philosophy.
I cannot foresee a stand-alone arts
school at Rice University but I can
see evidence of major investments
in programs, teaching and activities
that bring the arts into a broad spec-
trum of studies at Rice, and I am
hopeful this trajectory will continue
as the university goes forward.
Gary Wihl
Dean of Humanities
Honor Council
changes fall short
To the editor:
I would like to thank the Honor
Council for recognizing the need
to change its policies, and I ap-
plaud its decision to inform stu-
dents which class they are being
investigated in from the onset of the
hearing ("Council adds transpar-
ency clause," Nov. 14). However, I
feel that the change that has been
made is inadequate, and I urge the
Honor Council also to give students
a basic description of what they
have been accused of before the
investigative hearing.
Telling students in which class
they've been charged with a pos-
sible violation certainly can help a
student narrow down the possible
range of accusations. But no class is
subject to just one type of violation,
and unless we tell students what
the charge is they can still be left in
utter ignorance as to what the case
may be and how to prepare for it.
Withholding this information
from students is needless. A stu-
dent will not be able to weasel
out of the the Honor Council's ac-
cusation with knowledge of what
their case is, nor will they be able
to influence a professor any more
than they can now. The only thing
that would change is that students
would be better equipped to defend
themselves appropriately.
So my petition to the Honor
Council still stands. The council
should inform students about the
nature of their accusation at their
first date of contact with the stu-
dents. If anyone agrees with me
on this point, please contact me at
anzel(a)rice.edu. Thank you.
Paul Anzel
Will Rice College senior
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Chun, Lily & Farmer, Dylan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, November 21, 2008, newspaper, November 21, 2008; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443130/m1/3/?q=%22%22~1: accessed June 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.