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Monday, Jani ary 14, 2008 | Thk Rkd a Hi.ack
Juanita Cousins | Editor in Chirk
editor®- rantlb.com
Shannon Otto | Managing Editor
ratuth.com
Melanie McNeety | Opinions Editor
opinions® rtwdlt.com
Our Take
Majority opinions of The tied /Hack's editorial hoard
Please don’t Ruck us
Free music access not a solution to the
problem of illegal music downloading
In Thursday’s SGA e-mail update, the
University student body was informed that
we “now have access to free music and media
downloads” through Ruckus (ruckus.com), an
advertising-supported music service.
This media service is geared toward college
students and provides free, unlimited access
for anyone with a valid school e-mail address
(.edu).
At first glance, this appears to be an exciting
alternative to iUegal file sharing, especially in
light of recent lawsuits filed against students by
the Recording Industry Association of America.
While we applaud the effort to find avenues
for legal music downloading, the nature of this
Web site is not an appropriate solution for this
problem.
Upon further investigation, unless you plan
to carry around your computer with head
phones in the manner of a boombox in
the 1990 s— the Ruckus Player is not for you.
Not only are security components likely to be
included to prevent you from burning CDs from
Ruckus, you can't even upload the music to
your portable MP3 player unless it is equipped
with Microsoft technology.
In order to use the Ruckus program, you
must download the Ruckus Player to your PC.
And if you are a Mac user, you’re out of luck, as
the supported operating systems only include
versions of Windows with Windows Media
Player.
Basically, the music you download isn’t actu
ally yours. It’s no different than listening to a
band’s album on myspace.com. purevolume.
com or various other sites that stream full
albums.
There already are other Web sites in which
the visitor can listen to music at no cost with
out having to download a media player or be
discriminated against for their choice in operat
ing system.
If you’re interested in listening to music on
your computer while you study or surf the Web,
Ruckus is one option, but other options with
out the commitment, such as Pandora and Free
Napster, are available.
However, if you are interested in doing what
you wish with your music, such as listening to it
while you work out or walk to class, try looking
into Web sites that offer legal downloading for a
monthly subscription fee.
Currently, this seems to be the best alterna
tive to keeping yourself out of trouble with the
RIAA and being subjected to penalty fines if
you plan to actually use your music.
Melanie McNeely for the editorial board
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2008 candidates lack experience
I know I’m not the only
ignorant white rac
ist enrolled at this
University, so I’m sure I’ll
find a few people to lis
ten to me when I say I’m
afraid of Barack Obama’s
popularity.
Maybe I should
rephrase that, since my
picture comes with these
words, and both can be
offensive.
I suppose I’ll start
with the usual opening a
white male needs to use
these days when he says
he probably won’t vote
for Obama: I’m not actu
ally a racist. I’ve just been
watching this presidential
race pretty carefully.
I’ve noticed a trend
this year, and I don’t
think it’s a good one. On
both sides of the aisle,
many of the popular can
didates seem to be those
with the least amount of
experience.
Rudy Guiliani wants to
be president after being
a mayor for six years,
Thompson after a term
and a half in the Senate
and a little lobbying.
Hillary Clinton thinks she
can tout her 35 years of
(being married to) experi
ence, and John Edwards
and Obama think they’re
ready after a term or two
in the Senate.
Arguably the two
most experienced candi
dates, Joe Biden and Bill
Richardson, have had to
drop out for lack of funds.
I understand the aver
age American voter is not
an educated one. That
has been proven in study
after frightening study.
So it shouldn’t sur-
Kucinich falls behind in ‘corrupt system’
When the time
came for the
Nation magazine,
the country’s top liberal
rag, to give a presidential
endorsement, they
responded decisively: “In
his stands on the issues,
Dennis Kucinich comes
closest to embodying the
ideals of this magazine. A
vote for him would be a
principled one.”
That’s unsurprising.
Kucinich is the only one
running who, not only
voted against the war,
but voted against funding
it 100 percent of the time.
He has a 100 percent pro
labor, pro-gay rights, pro
environment, pro-fair
trade voting record.
No candidate wins
more blind-polls based on
positions; no other candi
date is proposing creat
ing a European-style sin
gle-payer universal health
care system which 65
percent of Americans
want.
Yet the Nation went on
to write, “But for reasons
that have to do with the
corrupting influence of
money and media on
national elections," they
cannot endorse Kucinich.
The Nation’s concerns
are valid. Kucinich
received almost no press
coverage from the corpo
rate-run media which,
according to a recent
study, spent only 6 per
cent of this election’s cov
erage actually talking
about the issues and only
1 percent on candidates'
records.
In debates, he already
was never allowed to even
speak. Since he has never
taken corporate dona
tions —• he grew up
homeless, watching his
parents count coins to
make ends meet and has
Mark McAfee
prise me that in today’s
election, a Crest-white
smile and an overdose of
charisma is all it takes
to bring you close to the
presidency.
Which brings us back
to Obama, who is having
no problem with funds.
Who had heard of him
before 2004?
The man makes a
brilliant speech as a
keynote speaker at the
Democratic convention,
and minutes later, he’s
being crowned the next
president.
That’s only being pro
pelled into the national
spotlight just three-and
a-half years ago. Does this
not worry anyone?
Sure, he can speak like
a painter laying down a
beautiful masterpiece,
with the audience almost
immediately in the palm
of his hand. If he were
to become president, he
could keep millions of us
enraptured for as long as
he’d like.
But then what? Here’s
a young man after half a
term in the Senate, which
historically has failed to
produce presidents, sud
denly introduced to the
Oval Office.
What will he do? Will
it hit him then that being
w
Jmi I
Zaid Jilani
vowed never to be bought
off by wealthy interests
he has been unable to
raise the money neces
sary to run a large cam
paign. Still, he raised mil
lions of dollars from the
grassroots and recruited
thousands of volunteers.
Yet he can’t compete
with Sen. Barack Obama,
who put $9 million dollars
into lowa and received
constant media atten
tion.
Don’t get me wrong
I am as wowed by
Obama’s speeches as
anyone else, and I find
him to be a brilliant
young Senator. Yet his
presidential run is unin
spiring.
He triumphs “change,”
yet his campaign takes
more money from the
insurance industry than
any other candidate
except Sen. Hillary
Clinton. His health care
plan is crafted with that
in mind it gives billions
of taxpayer dollars to the
HMOs and leaves millions
of people uninsured to
keep alive the for-profit
beast.
While reminding us
that he gave a speech
calling the Iraq war “stu
pid” in 2002, he went
silent on the issue when
he reached the Senate
constantly voting to fund
it and against withdraw
al. When ultra-hawk Joe
Lieberman was facing an
Red&Black
An imUputuismi stuitmt runt <tpafter smtng the CniverttUy of (icorgiu community
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president entails a lot
more than giving fantastic
speeches and kissing your
wife in public?
I know he’s sponsored
a bunch of bills in the
Senate. He also has voted
“present” on a lot of key
issues.
There are a few things
there to lay a claim to
being a good president,
but I’m not here to
argue over that. I also
understand that he is not
the president yet, and
many candidates in the
past had several unsuc
cessful runs at young
ages.
I’m just advocating
giving Obama a few more
terms to show us a little
more of what he can do
before we catapult him
into the highest office in
the land.
Perhaps nothing bad
would happen perhaps,
like Kennedy, he would
prove to be ready for
tough situations.
After all, politicians
always have smiled and
talked about change.
They just didn’t have
Obama’s superior dental
work.
There’s always the
chance where, like our
current president, Obama
really would get nothing
done in office.
At least at the end of it
all we’d have a man with
a more uplifting smile on
his face when he tells us
all the trouble our coun
try is in.
Marc McAfee is a
junior from Kennesaw
majoring in
broadcast news.
antiwar challenger,
Obama appeared at his
side, calling Lieberman
his “mentor."
At a recent debate, he
wouldn’t promise to end
the Iraq occupation by
2013. His policy team is a
Wall Street wet-dream:
Lehman Brothers finan
ciers, Citigroup, defense
contractors, insurance
lobbyists. Edwards and
Clinton have assembled
similar policy teams
packed full of corporate
insiders and entrenched
military-industrial inter
ests.
They talk about
change, but they repre
sent Bushism without
Bush. They represent the
corporate wing of the
Democratic Party, whose
President Clinton passed
the horrific NAFTA and
“welfare reform," and
whose embargo against
Iraq murdered more than
500,000 children.
Some people wonder
why Kucinich chooses to
run in such a corrupt sys
tem. When I met him, I
finally understood. In his
mind, he’s still just
Dennis from west
Cleveland, working three
jobs to pull his family out
of poverty.
And he sees us this
country, the world —as
his family. And maybe
one day, we’ll live in a
truly democratic country,
where someone can win
on the strength of their
ideas, not on their ability
to please corporate finan
ciers and media. Until the
day comes, I say give ’em
hell, Dennis. You have my
vote.
Zaid Jilani is a
sophomore from
Kennesaw majoring in
international affairs.
LU
Drew Lichtenstein
Individuality;
independence
keys to beauty
Women: men do
not respect you.
Speaking from
the first hand experi
ence of being a man, I
am somewhat privy to
this information. In fact,
I’ll openly admit to not
always being a perfect
gentleman in closed cor
ridors.
We say demeaning
things about the oppo
site gender. About how
much we’d like to sleep
with a girl or how some
one is a “female dog.”
It’s incredibly pathetic,
really.
There are many guys
who really believe men
are inherently superior
to women. Since we live
in a society in which
most of us are going to
have to sustain ourselves
through brute physical
strength, I guess I see
where they have a point.
I mean, you weak,
emotionally-fraught
waifs aren’t going to
be hunting and cut
ting down trees, which
is essential in our pre
industrialized economy.
Clearly you need our
protection. It’s a pretty
complicated thing, this
interaction between the
sexes. Far be it for me to
understand it.
A good example
would be downtown gen
der interactions, which
seem ripe with blatant
sexism. Wear provoca
tive clothes, dirt with a
guy and then don’t sleep
with him? You’re a dirty
tease.
If you do sleep with
him? You're called
something that can’t be
published here. No mat
ter what men do, we re
blameless either the
girl was a tease or we re
a "player" if we do hook
up (don't worry, women,
you’re still tramps).
Yeah, that seems fair.
Maybe society is to be
blamed (though that’s
an easy out). We're con
stantly being oversexed
through the ideal
image of a voluptuous
and sultry woman in
movies or magazine ads.
It seems odd that
male fantasy is the driv
ing force behind what
type of woman models
underwear for women,
but, again, far be it for
me to understand things
beyond my control.
Even odder still is
how women try to con
form to fit Xhese unat
tainable goals in order to
be “attractive." It may be
my brutish male nature,
but I don't understand a
willingness to forgo food
for acceptance.
That’s a pretty
shallow person you’re
attracting if he actu
ally cares if you weigh
an extra 10 pounds.
Remember: people will
disappoint you, but no
one has ever been upset
with a delicious dessert.
Speaking of disap
pointment, I’ve known
far too many female
friends who get caught
up in disastrous relation
ships and then can’t get
out.
In what seems to be
a recurring theme, this
also doesn’t make sense,
unless the cultural belief
of women being inferior
to men has gotten to
the point where some
women believe it them
selves.
I’m not trying to be
some sort of prude here.
Wear what you want,
say what you want and
do what you want. Stop
tiying to impress us men
when it comes to sex,
not much impression is
needed to begin with for
most guys.
Don’t let yourselves
be dominated by a jerk
who simply sees you as
a means to an end or
a society that idolizes
unattainable levels of
perfection. There is true
beauty in individuality
and Independence.
Drew Lichtenstein
is a junior from
Marietta majoring in
comparative literature.