1000 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(10/27/06 12:29am)
After searching many years for the most ridiculous thing a person could possibly do, my hunt abruptly halted in Columbus, Ohio, where I ran a marathon. That's right, a full marathon, 26.2 miles of pure pain and chafing galore.\nI'm sure we have all heard the cliché lines about life: Life is like a box of chocolates, life is like a roller coaster, life is like a big game of nude paintball, etc. I would like to add to this list: Life is like a marathon.\nJust like a new baby being formed in the womb, the runner must spend months upon months training and preparing for the real deal. Also like a newborn, when the race begins, the start is very crowded, and therefore one must "push" through the mass of people, like to a baby pushing \nthrough ... well, you know what I'm getting at.\nWhen the gun goes off, you get a burst of energy. Just like a small child, a runner easily makes it through the first 10 miles with positive thoughts and plenty of liveliness.\nThe next 10 miles might be compared to the middle-aged years of a person's life. The energy starts to seep out of you, and you may even have a mid-life crisis. Negative thoughts start to trickle into your mind.\nThe last 6.2 miles are when the elderly characteristics and mindset take over. Suddenly, you hate \neverything and everyone. Your joints ache, your head hurts and you lose the ability to smell your own stench. The only thing you want to do is give up.\nBut you can't give up. The streets are lined with people who are there encouraging you. They all hold signs with phrases like "Got Chafe?" and "It's all downhill from here." I even encountered one shirtless man with the words "You are amazing" written on his chest. Yes, shirtless men think I'm amazing. \nEven though I have always known how amazing I am, it was very comforting to have it reaffirmed virtually every two minutes by people I didn't know. Also, I have never had so many free things thrown at me in my entire life. I believe this was everyone's way of paying me tribute. Either that or they were working for the Columbus Marathon and were actually being paid to shower us with Gatorade and Power Gel. Nonetheless, there are always people there who support you and want you to succeed.\nEven though life (or a marathon) can be hell, you have to get through it, and at least try to enjoy the ride. Plus, you already paid your $85, and you might as well milk each mile for all it's worth ($3.24, to be exact). \nEven though it was easily the most miserable experience of my life, I can't really hate marathons. After all, it did give me a pretty kickass metaphor.
(10/27/06 12:28am)
The American Civil Liberties Union released documents Oct. 12, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, showing that the Department of Defense has been monitoring antiwar activities on U.S. college campuses. These documents were collected from a Pentagon database known as the Threat and Local Observance Notice, or TALON, intended for collecting information on potential terrorist threats. Included are reports on various collegiate antiwar protests, such as an April 2005 incident in which 300 students and activists disrupted a University of California at Santa Cruz career fair attended by military recruiters and vandalized the recruiters' vehicles, and activities by a group called Students for Peace and Justice, which blocked the entrance to a recruitment office with two coffins draped with an American flag and an Iraqi flag, respectively. \nThe TALON papers note that while "no reported incidents have occurred at these protests," an intense debate had occurred among antiwar groups over whether to conduct vandalism and civil disobedience. The report cites at least two members of a Students for Peace and Justice chapter who "expressed interest in doing more than just protesting." An earlier report showed that the department also monitored e-mails sent among protestors at several other universities.\nWait, wait, wait. What is the Defense Department doing with these groups' e-mails? What is this doing in the TALON database? The report merely says the e-mails were submitted by "campus sources." So the universities turned them over to the Defense Department? \nIf it's a matter of protecting the department's property, that should be handled by local law enforcement. \nIf it's a matter of monitoring possible terrorist activities, that is the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security and our many and various federal law enforcement authorities.\nWhether the campus antiwar organizations "do more than just protesting" or not, the Department of Defense already has its hands tied by federal law. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prohibits federal troops from active participation in domestic law enforcement. That means that no matter what information TALON can gather, military recruiters can do no more than ordinary citizens in the face of local crime.\nOf course, we would never condone campus groups breaking the law. But the Defense Department is clearly toeing the boundaries delineating its scope of action. If the Pentagon is somehow privy to threatening information about campus antiwar organizations, its duty is to forward that information to the responsible parties.\nJust across the river from the Pentagon, there's an old piece of paper that ensures that we Americans, including college students, can get together whenever we want and think whatever we want. And, as it turns out, members of the military have sworn to defend and uphold the ideas written on that piece of paper.\nThe Pentagon has no business spying on American college students. That job belongs to Facebook.
(10/26/06 8:14pm)
There's a disturbing new psychological disorder out there; one that's affecting the lives of everyday people like you and me. \nIt caused one woman to believe she was being attacked by microwaves. I mean, that's terrifying! Can you imagine trying to heat up some leftover pizza after a long hard day of classes, only to have your kitchenware turn on you? \nIt caused another man to believe he was the French monarch Louis XIV, the "Sun King." \nThat's pretty intense. Can you imagine what you could do to your credit score trying to emulate the opulence of the Sun King's court at Versailles? \nIt's caused embassies to repatriate tourists, including two women who believed they were being spied on in their hotel room as part of a plot against them. Big brother is watching indeed, overseas no less!\nA third of the patients suffering from this disorder get better immediately, while another third suffer relapses and the final third remain in a state of psychosis. \n(For the record, Dictionary.com defines "psychosis" as "a severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality and causing deterioration of normal social functioning.")\nSo what is causing these horrible symptoms in these otherwise everyday people?\nWhy, the city of lights, of romance, of fashion and croissants, none other than Paris, France! \nHave I gone mad? No, dear readers. It's called "Paris Syndrome," and it afflicts an average of a dozen Japanese tourists in Paris each year. \nThe underlying factor behind the grave symptoms these poor, unsuspecting tourists suffer is sinister indeed. The thing that sends them over the deep end is ...\nParis not living up to their expectations. \nGasp! Scream! Swoon! Shudder! \nLudicrous! Who would've ever thought a foreign country couldn't live up to the preconceived, romanticized notions people not native to that country might have of it? \nShocking. Utterly shocking. \nA psychologist interviewed on the story claimed that when "fragile tourists" come to realize the actual travel destination is not like their ideals of it, a "crisis" can ensue. \nThat might be one of the stupidest things I've heard in my life. Are people from industrialized societies leading such cushy, happy lives that they have to invent pointless crap to complain about? \nSeveral Japanese are quoted as saying it's shocking to find Paris not living up to their ideas of a "dream" city, that the people are rude, assistants don't look at you or help in shops, people using public transport are "stern-looking" and people steal purses. \nThat's one of the most pathetic things I've ever heard. Suck it up and deal with it. There are going to be times when customer service is less than exceptional, people can be aloof and petty crime exists pretty much everywhere. \nOf all the things a person goes through in life, unfriendly Parisians cause people to break down? \nI doubt those Parisians are worth such a breakdown. \nHell even a croissant, in all its buttery goodness, is not worth a breakdown.
(10/26/06 8:13pm)
After an ugly, college football brawl on Oct. 14 between players from the University of Miami and Florida International University, the public outcry and hasty judgments from several sports reporters was almost as disconcerting as the fight itself.\nThe bench-clearing brawl included a player swinging a helmet at an opposing player, another swinging his crutches and plenty of cleat-stomping and fist-swinging in the tangle of bodies. The scene was certainly disturbing -- an embarrassing absence of sportsmanship. Undoubtedly, those who participated should be held accountable for their actions.\nBut I was appalled reading and listening to analysis of the incident.\nOne ESPN.com analyst, Bill Curry, offered brash character judgments. He described players who "ran into the fray looking for someone to maim" as "sociopaths" for whom "there are no innocents." He surmised that these players would be just as likely to swing at women and children (His journalism school also offered an arm-chair psychologist degree). Another ESPN.com columnist laced his commentary with coded racial language. The scene represented "horrifying football gang warfare," cheap shots that escalated to "street fighting." He likened the helmet swinging player to someone wielding a "medieval weapon" and branded it obscene "criminal conduct." Furthermore, several sports analysts have dubbed the school "Thug U."\nBut is it easier to classify the fight as "gang warfare" and "criminal conduct" when it features predominantly 18 to 21-year-old, black students? Are we prone to write them off as thugs from whom this behavior is expected?\nThe fight was inexcusable, but to blame the "thugs" on the field is to oversimplify the incident. We need a deeper analysis than the quick-to-condemn sound bytes that commentators and sports writers threw around.\nAt 18 or 19, we like to think we're at the peak of emotional maturity -- I certainly believed that -- but the reality is we are still figuring out how to manage our emotions, and in the heat of an adrenaline-charged football game, many of us might have made poor judgments. Was it stupid to rush the pile and swing a helmet? Yes. Was it criminal conduct? Questionable.\nFurthermore, before criticizing the students, we should reflect on a culture of sports violence in general as a root cause. Hockey is professional violence on ice. Pitchers regularly beam opponents intentionally. Off the field, parents model uncivil behavior for their children. A father in Pennsylvania recently pulled a gun on his son's coach over a playing time dispute.\nIn light of youthful emotions and violence at every turn, it seems a little rash to peg these students as "sociopaths." Anthony Reddick, the helmet-swinger, publicly apologized: "My behavior was a disgrace to my school, my family and my friends, especially the young kids who look up to me as their role model. I do understand that what I did was wrong."\nThat doesn't sound like someone who would also pummel women and children. That sounds like a young student who made a foolish judgment and learned a valuable lesson.\nI think almost anyone can relate to that ... except these snap judgment sports reporters.
(10/26/06 8:12pm)
Once upon a power-hour, a thirsty group of students pregamed before attending the lavish ball -- otherwise known as sorority formal. Thanks to a magical fairy godmother named Natty Light, the evil stepmother of sobriety was defeated, all with a couple swigs of bippity boppity booze.\nOh, yes, beer makes everyone feel like a princess.\nBurping and laughing, this group -- myself included -- approaches our "yellow carriage," a vehicle drawn not by beautiful horses with golden manes, but by a glossy bus driver with a nappy gansta' mullet. \nIt was magical.\nAbout 10 minutes into the ride, some of the tipsy princesses began to, coincidentally, lose their crowns.\nWe finally arrived, and burst from the bus, covering the grass with a collage of fluids. Yellow, orange, red -- a virtual sunset of vomit. In the midst of this chunky chaos, however, I saw her: Cinderella. \nAnd boy was she trashed.\nSwaggering across the lawn, a girl with a beautifully beaded white dress, missing one shoe, stopped in front of a bush and ralphed. Her date, a Prince Charming indeed, assisted by holding her hair back and cheering.\nIt was at that moment I realized fairy-tale romance is dead. \nWe now live in a culture -- and on a campus -- where men believe being "cavalier" is helping their girlfriends puke ... and women believe getting a drunk dial is love. \nWhether by phone, Facebook or IM, modern Casanovas are now courting their women with goofy, technological serenades, disregarding traditional methods. \nThis is the age of digital romance. Cupid has traded his bow for a Hotmail account. \nThe conventional process of wooing has digressed to a mere Facebook poke. Romantic poetry, similarly, has been replaced by sappy text messages.\nA female friend of mine, for instance, is frequently "serenaded" with messages from her boyfriend, like "U R MINE" and "I LUV U."\nAlbeit thoughtful, the abbreviation of nouns screams of nonchalance. True, guys send their girlfriends a text, but they won't spell out the "U" ... or even use a period.\nFor me, true love is found in proper punctuation. Semi-colons get me off. \nAs a result of this pathetic courtship, many women seem to be asking: Where have all the cowboys gone?\nTwo words: Brokeback Mountain. \nI, for instance, consider myself quite the Romeo. On my then-boyfriend's birthday, I led him by hand to a covered bridge, undoing his blindfold to reveal a candlelit dinner beneath the stars. On our anniversary, I surprised him with a CD of favorite songs and a meal of his favorite foods -- hiding a love note in the cookie sandwich. \nFast-forward to our breakup six months later -- to a burned note and an excreted pile of cookie dough. \nAlas, romance does tend to expire. Thus, it's important to keep it fresh. If you're currently dating, be sure to keep romantic surprises frequent. Lavishness is not necessary. All you need is a couple of votives and a gimpy Kroger rose ... bippidy boppidy boo ... instant romance. \nAt the very least, send a freakin' e-card.
(10/26/06 8:11pm)
OXFORD, England -- The Herman B Wells Library stacks might seem like large prison cells. The buzzing of its fluorescent lights might make students twitch. The 11th floor might be haunted. But IU Bloomington's main library offers more than what any library at Oxford University can: access -- and plenty of it. \nAmerican students take for granted easy access to library books. Wells library stays open from 8 a.m. to midnight every weekday. During the weekends, the stacks are still open for 11-13 hours a day. The Information Commons section is always open, providing impressive technology resources to any IU student, or anyone else, at any time. \nOxford University's Bodleian Library, perhaps the most famous library in the world, owns a copy of every book published in the United Kingdom in the last 400 years. It owns a 1623 edition of Shakespeare, among other famous first editions. However, students cannot check out books from the Bodleian. If students want to read its books, they must sit down and read them in the library itself. Librarians militantly monitor the books' safety -- signs remind readers that marking in their pages is a serious offense. The library also closes at 10 p.m. every night.\nThe Bodleian's novelty begins to wear once it becomes apparent how difficult its size renders getting a hold of books. Most of the library's books are actually off-site, packed up in warehouses until someone requests them. Once a student does so, it may take as few as six or as many as 24 hours to receive a book. While smaller, subject-specific libraries allow undergraduates to check out as many as 15 books at a time, they usually close earlier than the Bodleian, as well. Oxford students have to plan ahead to get their reading done. There's no room for error.\nMost students adjust their schedules depending on when they have access to the materials they need -- i.e. computers and books. IU's Wells computer lab is open 24 hours a day. With book services available for 16 of those 24 hours, IU students are free to follow a variety of study schedules. \nAt the same time, Oxford students will almost never need to ask their library to order a book from another library. Experience in working with a more difficult library system is also rewarding, and it's easier to feel a sense of accomplishment after a day in a reading room, confident that Facebook has not eaten away half of one's "study" time. With the convenience of easy access to texts, abstracts and technology, we may have lost the appreciation for the traditional schedule of the student, who held down the same hours as a white-collar worker: both were in their offices from nine until five. American students are used to our library luxuries and should appreciate the flexibility of hours that makes it possible for us to hold down jobs, play sports or have otherwise-crammed schedules while still making time to study. Near-unlimited access opens a lot of doors -- but it's certainly nice to have evenings off from the library.
(10/26/06 3:29am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis Colts defensive tackle Montae Reagor was "doing great" in his recovery from injuries from an automobile accident, his agent said Wednesday.\nReagor's head was injured when his SUV overturned after another car rammed it Sunday as he was driving to the RCA Dome for a game against Washington. He was scheduled for surgery Wednesday, agent Jeff Nalley said.\n"I was in Indianapolis the last two days, and Montae's doing great, everything's going well," Nalley said by telephone from Houston. "But until I hear something further (about the surgery), I'm not going to comment."\nThe Indianapolis Star reported that the surgery was to repair a fracture of the orbital bone around Reagor's left eye.\nThe Colts have refused to comment on the injury since releasing a short statement at Sunday's game, when they said Reagor had suffered facial lacerations.\nReagor was not wearing a seat belt, police said. Wearing one could have lessened the extent of the injuries, according to the police report on the collision.\nReagor was driving eastbound near the Colts' practice facility on the west side of Indianapolis when a car turned into his path, striking the driver's side of the SUV, Indiana State Police said.\nThe impact pushed the SUV into the curb and caused it to flip, leaving Reagor with a head wound and a female passenger, who was wearing a seat belt, with minor bumps and bruises, state police Sgt. Jon Smithers said.\nThe driver of the other vehicle, Wuya McCarthy, was cited for failure to yield right of way.\nSince joining the Colts as a free agent from Denver in 2003, Reagor has started 45 games and had a career high 5 1/2 sacks last season.\nAnthony McFarland, who came to the Colts in a trade with Tampa Bay last week, started Sunday's game in place of Reagor and had two tackles.
(10/26/06 3:27am)
In front of a homecoming crowd that IU coach Terry Hoeppner hopes will top 50,000, singer and Bloomington native John Mellencamp will perform his new hit song, "Our Country," before the start of IU's football game Saturday against Michigan State.\nKickoff is scheduled for noon at Memorial Stadium.\nHoeppner has challenged Hoosier nation to fill 'the Rock' with 50,000 fans for Saturday's game, and he hopes the Mellencamp performance will boost attendance. Hoeppner is close friends with the rock 'n' roll singer.\n"We appreciate my friend John Mellencamp helping us celebrate homecoming," Hoeppner said in a statement. "We want all of the Hoosier nation to arrive early, stay late and help us earn another victory."\nThe Hoosiers are 2-3 at Memorial Stadium this season with one more home game remaining against Michigan after this weekend's contest. IU upset then-No. 15 Iowa 31-28 in its last home game before 31,392 fans.
(10/26/06 3:25am)
When Kevin Swander joined the IU men's swimming and diving team as a freshman, promises were made.\n"I came here as a freshman under a rookie coach, and he promised the freshman class a Big Ten title," said Swander, now an IU student coach.\nAt the time, IU had not won a Big Ten title in 17 years. The program, which had once produced Olympic champions like Mark Spitz and legends like James "Doc" Counsilman, had hit a rough patch, a title drought with seemingly no end.\nIn 2004, Swander's junior year, the Hoosiers came within three points of ending the dry spell, finishing second in the Big Ten Championships. In the 2005-06 season, they finally broke through.\n"When we finally (won the Big Ten Championship), the guys were relieved but also excited," junior All-American Ben Hesen said. "IU's waited 21 years, and we got it. It was great."\nDuring the annual cream versus crimson exhibition at the end of September, the fulfillment of that promise came to mind. For the first time, the 2006 Big Ten men's title banner was unfurled from one of the diving platforms, and the "rookie coach" who made that promise five seasons ago -- IU coach Ray Looze -- looked like a prophet.\nThe newest banner was conspicuously absent from the long line of title banners that hang from the walls of the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center on Saturday during IU's dual season opener against Kentucky. It seemed to be forgotten.\n"Every year starts over," Looze said. "The Big Ten title is now in the past, and we're pursuing a new mission."\nThat new mission officially began this weekend when the Hoosiers made the Wildcats eat their wake, winning the first four events in a 175-125 victory. \nWith the men in crimson Speedos and white swim caps making most of the noise, the aquatic center echoed with shouts of encouragement and the rhythmic churn of water during the meet. Swander, who accumulated 13 All-American certificates during his four-year career, watched poolside as his former teammates won their first contest without him.\n"You want to get back in and keep swimming," Swander said, "but it's good because they need to learn how to swim and step up, and that's what they did. They're growing."\nThe Hoosiers were a veteran team last year, but after losing five seniors, this year's team must fill some major flippers to play at a comparable level.\n"We've got a little more work to do to fill out our depth," Looze said. "For us to compete for the Big Ten title, we need to score 20 to 21 individuals."\nTeam chemistry will play a large role in whether IU will be able to fill the gaps.\n"The coaches can be influential to a point on the accuracy of training and how well somebody can do," Looze said. "But when the team takes care of itself -- when they push each other in practice and give words of encouragement -- that's what really turns the corner and is profound."\nLooze stressed the importance of momentum in his program's rise back to the top of the Big Ten. Like a surfer riding a swell, the impact of winning a Big Ten title can be felt for years to come. \n"Momentum is a very important thing. When you lose momentum, it's probably 10 times harder to gain it as it is to lose it," Looze said. "To build momentum, it's not like you've got people holding the door open for you saying, 'Come right back in and win the Big Ten title,' or, 'Come on and join us in the top 10 or the top five.'"\nNow that the Hoosiers have found the title tide, they plan on riding this wave for a while.
(10/26/06 3:13am)
IUSA undermining Middle Way services
(10/26/06 2:44am)
Who among the student body has never complained about University policies? Who has gotten an outrageous bursar bill without reflexively cursing the University's management of funds? Who in the sciences has not lamented the inadequate funding of research? Who in the dorms has not whined about living on a "dry campus?" Who hasn't kvetched about the lack of diversity or unyielding attendance policies? Everywhere you turn you can hear about how dumb of an idea Ruckus is, the inefficiency of OneStart, the dearth of inaccessible parking and so on without end. With any problem a student might encounter on the campus, the nebulous entity that is "the University" is a frequent target for blame. If one were to judge from the amount of complaints heard around campus, it might be reasonably surmised that a large community of students must be actively protesting University policies. Oh, wait. That would assume the University wasn't brimming with fractious, apathetic egoists.\nCurrently at Washington, D.C.'s Gallaudet University, the world's only university for the Deaf, there is an all-out student revolt the likes of which hasn't been seen since the '60s. Students are barring the entrances to campus with their bodies, intent on completely disrupting the flow of academia. The revolt thus far has resulted in more than 133 arrests and the postponement of homecoming activities. Believe it or not, they're not angry about the war or Darfur or sweatshop labor but, instead, are protesting a lack of student voice in their university's presidential search. They care so profoundly about procuring a president who will best represent their needs that they are risking their liberty and education to get heard. And it's working. The board that once unanimously backed Jane K. Fernandes, the candidate the students so vehemently oppose, is beginning to show signs of acquiescence. With our own presidential search lurching forward with practically no representation of key groups affected by University policies (specifically, undergraduates or Bloomington students), we should take a cue from Gallaudet and demand a greater voice for our interests.\nGallaudet should be an example to our own administration. With the mobilization of a unified, activist student body, the administration would rue the day it failed to give us a voice. A handful of people picketing at the Sample Gates is a bit annoying. Thirty-eight thousand people marching angrily on Franklin Hall would render the big business of academia entirely impotent for as long as it took for our needs to be addressed. However, it would not require such an extreme effort for our voices to be heard -- 1,000 people in Dunn Meadow would make those at the top sit up and take notice, assuming we ever got our act together. The administration must allow Gallaudet to be a gentle reminder that it is the student body that is in the majority, that our fees make up the largest portion of IU's revenue and that we are at the core of this institution's purpose -- therefore we deserve to have a larger say in the determination of its future.
(10/26/06 2:37am)
A federal judge has ruled Indiana can block a California-based group from making automated calls that attacked Democratic congressional candidate Baron Hill, who is challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Sodrel in the 9th District.\nIn September, Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter sued the Economic Freedom Fund in Brown County after receiving 12 consumer complaints about the calls, which are prohibited by state law unless previously agreed to by the recipient. The fierce 9th District race was expected to be one of the closest in the country as both parties fight for control of the U.S. House.\nFreeEats.com, the Virginia company that made the calls on behalf of the Economic Freedom Fund, later filed a federal lawsuit against Indiana claiming that its ban on such calls is an unconstitutional restraint on free speech and interstate commerce.\nTuesday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Larry McKinney denied FreeEats' motion, saying the automated-calls ban does not violate the First Amendment or restrain interstate commerce.\nEarlier this month, the company lost a U.S. Supreme Court challenge to a North Dakota law that bars telemarketers from making prerecorded interstate calls to that state's residents.\nMcKinney found Indiana's statute leaves open "ample alternative forms" of political speech such as door-to-door campaigning, bulk mailings, leafleting and use of posters and signs. He found the statute does not ban companies from calling Indiana residents, just the automated calls.\n"The government interest served by the statute is the protection and preservation of residential privacy," McKinney's ruling states. "As the (U.S.) Supreme Court has recognized, this interest is 'of the highest order.'"\n"Contrary to FreeEats' suggestion, the harm is more than the simple ringing of the telephone," the ruling states. "A call recipient cannot interrupt a prerecorded message and request not to be contacted, and if the individual does not answer the telephone or hangs up, he or she runs the risk of additional calls in the future."\nCongress has determined automated calls are more of a nuisance and a greater invasion of privacy than a live operator, McKinney found.\nHe also rejected FreeEats' claims that Indiana law is pre-empted by federal law and Federal Communications Commission regulations.\nIn a news release, Carter said "this ruling recognizes the individual privacy rights of citizens."\nFreeEats claimed in its lawsuit that it would cost more than $2 million and take much longer for live operators to call Indiana residents. It claimed the higher costs constitute a restriction of commerce, an argument McKinney rejected.\nA message left Wednesday for a representative at FreeEats' Herndon, Va., headquarters was not immediately returned.\nThe Economic Freedom Fund had agreed to stop making the calls while litigation proceeded.\nIn August, Carter sent a letter to Indiana's Democratic and Republican parties informing them that a 1988 state law prohibited automated phone calls for political purposes. He promised to enforce the law, even though it had been widely ignored during past political campaigns.\nSo far this year, the attorney general's office has taken legal action or filed agreements with eight companies for making prerecorded calls in violation of the state and federal statues.
(10/26/06 2:34am)
A new statewide poll has found greater support for Democrats regaining control of the closely divided Indiana House, while also finding more people saying the state is heading in the right direction than in the wrong direction.\nRepublicans now hold a 52-48 majority in the House, but 45 percent of those surveyed said they wanted to see the Democrats win control, with the GOP picked by 39 percent in the WISH-TV Indiana Poll released Tuesday night. Sixteen percent were not sure.\nThe poll found strong majorities of both Republicans and Democrats backing their party winning control of the House. Among independents and those of other parties, however, Democrats were the preference by 49 percent to 28 percent.\nControl of the House is the top state-level priority for both parties going into the Nov. 7 election. Republicans hold a commanding 33-17 majority in the state Senate and hold all elected state offices.\nThe poll also found 47 percent saying they thought the state was heading in the right direction; 41 percent said the state was heading in the wrong direction, and 12 percent were not sure.\nRepublicans thought the state was going in the right direction by a 62 percent to 28 percent margin, while Democrats disagreed by a 56 percent to 31 percent margin. Independents were closely split — 43 percent saying right direction and 42 percent saying wrong.\nThe telephone poll of 800 likely voters has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points and was conducted Oct. 17-20 by Maryland-based Research 2000.
(10/26/06 2:27am)
It's a familiar image for millions of Christians: Jesus, with a crown of thorns, hanging from the cross.\nWhat color is he?\nIn a controversial new film opening Friday, he is black.\n"Color of the Cross" tells a traditional story, focusing on the last 48 hours of Christ's life, as told in the Gospels. In this version, though, race contributes to his persecution.\nIt is the first representation in the history of American cinema of Jesus as a black man.\n"It's very important because (the film) is going to provide an image of Jesus for African-Americans that is no longer under the control of whites," said Stephenson Humphries-Brooks, an associate professor of religious studies at New York's Hamilton College and author of "Cinematic Savior: Hollywood's Making of the American Christ."\nWhat Jesus looked like has long been debated by theologians around the world. Different cultures have imagined him in different ways, said Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University. In Japan, Jesus looks Japanese. In Africa, he is black. In America he is almost always white, like the fair-haired savior painted by Leonardo da Vinci in "The Last Supper" in 1495.\nWhile some black churches have images of a black Jesus behind the altar and others have claimed Christ was black, Prothero says "none of those arguments or images have filtered much into the mainstream."\nFilmmaker Jean Claude LaMarre set out to change that with "Color of the Cross." LaMarre, who plays Jesus, wrote, directed and financed the film. It will open in 30 theaters in predominantly black neighborhoods.\n"Black people in this country are the only race of people who worship a god outside their own image," says LaMarre, 38, adding that showing Christ as a black man is "the most poignant way to deal with the issue of race in this country."\nhe world."\nIt also provides a positive image of blacks, something that's been scant in the U.S., says the Rev. Cecil "Chip" Murray, longtime leader of Los Angeles' First African Methodist Episcopal Church and a producer of the film.\n"It could be revolutionary because, for four centuries in our nation, blacks have been at the lowest end of the stratum," he says. "I think it will traumatize the United States more than it will foreign nations who, to some extent, don't have a centuries-old concept of equating black with negativity."\nHumphries-Brooks agrees. Other countries are likely to view the film "in a more detached manner," he says, "because of the way (they) see our race-relations problem."\nWhy does race matter in the story of Christ?\n"Jesus isn't in the hands of historians," Prothero says. "What we have now is our own debate, and, in that debate, race has to be a factor because race is a big predicament in American life."\nFilm is a powerful place to have the discussion, says Humphries-Brooks, who calls the medium "one of the last places that is quasi-public for the formation of values in America."\n"Artistic and aesthetic views are as important in developing religious values as the words we speak. Everybody goes to the movies. Not everybody goes to the same church."\nFilmmaker LaMarre thinks the film can only have a positive effect.\n"The message is that color, a colored Jesus Christ, doesn't matter," he says. "That's why the movie is important. When you have one prevailing image out there, it suggests color does matter"
(10/26/06 2:25am)
Rotting garbage piled along the curb, decades-old furniture decaying in the rain, discarded cigarette butts everywhere you look -- New York City can be a filthy place.\nTo many, it's a disgusting downside of living here. To Justin Gignac, it's treasure.\nThe 26-year-old spends his evenings collecting garbage, neatly packing the refuse into clear plastic cubes and selling them on his Web site for $50.\nIf the idea of displaying trash seems repulsive, consider this: He has sold more than 800, and the cubes are in 41 states and 20 countries.\n"If the city ever gets cleaned up, I'm screwed," he said.\nGignac doesn't have to worry too much. In one week, New Yorkers throw out enough garbage to equal the weight of the Empire State Building, and there's always an interesting scrap of paper or ketchup packet left squashed on the street.\nGignac considers his work art, but it's also more of a social experiment, and he's certainly not the traditional starving artist -- he has a day job at an advertising firm.\nThe idea for the cubes came to him when he was in a class at the School of Visual Arts, talking about package design.\n"I think packaging is really important," he said. "You can sell anything, even garbage, if it's packaged right."\nEarly mornings and late nights are the best garbage-picking, before the street sweepers and residential cleaning attempts begin. Gignac throws on a pair of gardening gloves and grabs a garbage bag.\nHe is discerning about his trash: He only collects what's on the street, no digging into bags. Nothing slimy or wet makes it into a cube. No used condoms, latex gloves or rotting foods. No cigars (they smell even when the box is sealed) and nothing that looks like it could be infested with some kind of critter -- he's really squeamish.\n"I know it makes no sense," the Connecticut native said. "I squeal like a girl when I see cockroaches. So why do I feel compelled to collect trash?"\nGignac has found movie scripts, handcuffs, old photos and some of model Heidi Klum's mail. Cigarette butts are most prevalent.\n"You can tell a lot about the city by its garbage," Gignac said.\nIn Greenwich Village, there's a lot of comedy club and tattoo parlor advertisements. Times Square is rife with play bills and ticket stubs, and near universities there are a lot of political fliers. In the summer, Gignac finds more Band-Aids because women are wearing more sandals. In winter, there are lots of coffee cups.\nHe takes requests and does limited, special editions for major city events, picking up trash at events like the Republican National Convention or the World Series .\n"People get crazy around playoff time," he said. "They'll take anything, a tissue on the ground near where their team was playing."\nThe cubes are about the size of a small bag of movie popcorn, leak-proof and odor proof. When organized on his shelf, the garbage actually looks pristine.\nThe work isn't revolutionary though. Allan Kaprow filled a gallery with garbage in the 1960s, and in 2000, Mark Dion displayed refuse found near the banks of the Thames River in London at the Tate Britain.\nJames Elkins, a professor at Chicago's School of the Art Institute, said Gignac's work is a bit too slick to be counted among Dion and Kaprow in the genre of "anti-art."\n"A lot of anti-art is very much against capitalism," he said. "This is a conjunction of anti-art, which is 40 or 50 years old, and an art that plays with capitalism in a campy, fun way. It's very unusual."\nAfter an hour of roaming around the city, Gignac lugs the bag up six flights to his immaculate and fairly spacious apartment in Greenwich Village. He lights a candle, sits on his Pottery Barn sofa and starts rifling through the bag.\nThe smell is surprisingly bearable, mostly because the trash is dry, and the process is fairly sterile, but there is an undercurrent of grossness about the whole thing.\nWearing his gloves, he arranges an empty coffee cup, a small red pencil, an M&M and some plastic wiring into the small plastic cube, throws in his traditional label "Garbage From New York City" and seals the box with a sticker that has the date he found the trash.\nHe never mixes days.\n"I don't want my garbage-picking credibility damaged," he said.\nGignac keeps leftover garbage in a sealed container in his closet with the date on it.\nTo John Firestone , an artist and blogger in Harrisburg, Pa., the cubes almost seem like reliquaries. He bought one of the boxes in August.\n"It is really easy to turn up your nose at this sort if stuff," he said. Still, "this work makes great sense if not great art. I'll bet Warhol would have decorated his factory with these little boxes."\nGignac is working on making keychain-size cubes, and if the site picks up, he may consider quitting his day job.
(10/26/06 2:24am)
I don't remember much about high school biology or physics, and I couldn't tell you how to compute a calculus problem, but, for the love of Will Smith, the theme song to "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" remains fresh in my mind.\nSmith's catchy rap opened each episode of his hit '90s sitcom, in which he starred as a street-smart teen from Philly who moves in with wealthy relatives. A whole generation knows the rap by heart, as well as the "Saved by the Bell" song.\nTV themes, from "The Beverly Hillbillies" to "The Brady Bunch" to "Cheers" to "Friends," conjure up memories of cozy nights, childhood bliss and a universal nostalgia for bygone days. Today, show themes are doing a fast fade as the networks crunch their programming budgets.\nAre they about to join the variety hour in the TV graveyard?\n"It's a rarity today," TV historian Tim Brooks said of the catchy, tuneful opening. "It's kind of like the Broadway musical producing hit songs -- it just doesn't do that anymore."\nBack in the day, even into the '90s, shows usually had a "main title," a 40- to 60-second opening montage that introduced the cast and was set to music written by a composer, said Jon Burlingame, author of "TV's Biggest Hits," a history of themes. Songs summed up what a show was all about, whether spinning the tale of how a group of wacky castaways ended up on "Gilligan's Island," telling how a spunky single career woman was "going to make it after all," or describing why six touchy-feely Manhattan singles were there for each other.\nNow, many shows -- like ABC's "Lost" are using less musical statements to open shows. \nWill Smith, back in the '90s, made a statement of his own while advising fans to "just sit right there/I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air."\nIn this fast-forward TV world, would they still listen?
(10/26/06 2:12am)
MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed Wednesday that he would not try to run for another term but said he would retain influence over Russia even after leaving office in 2008.\nThe immensely popular Putin is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term, but supporters have called for a referendum on amending the country's laws to allow him to stay in power.\n"Despite the fact that I like my job, the constitution doesn't allow me to run a third time in a row," Putin said during a nationally televised question-and-answer session.\nThe Russian leader also vowed that the killers of a top Central Bank regulator and a well-known investigative journalist would be brought to justice. Putin also hailed the oil-rich country's robust economic growth rate of about 7 percent.\nWith his popularity high, Putin sees the session -- his fifth since taking office in 2000 -- as an opportunity to show he can respond directly to voters' concerns. He said the trust Russians have in him will allow him to keep influencing the country after his presidency.\n"Even having lost the powers and the levers of presidential power and not tailoring the basic law according to my personal interests, I will manage to retain the most important thing that a person involved in politics must cherish -- your trust," he said. "And using that, you and I will be able to exert influence on the life of our country and guarantee its development."\nAfter the question-and-answer session, Russian news agencies quoted Putin as telling reporters that he was not yet prepared to name his successor but that when he was, he would make his choice known through the media.\n"The time will come, and I will tell you about it," the ITAR-TASS quoted him as saying.\nDuring the broadcast, Putin reeled off statistics, chided North Korea for its nuclear test, pledged to protect agricultural producers and vowed his government would strictly monitor all companies, including foreign ones, for environmental violations.\n"In all, I can say we are satisfied with how the country is developing, including the economy," he said.\nDressed in a dark blue suit and striped tie and seated at a rectangular table, the Russian president gestured and pointed as he fielded questions, as if giving a lecture.\nThe recent killings of top Central Bank regulator Andrei Kozlov and investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya have stoked fears that Russia is returning to the violence of the 1990s, when business disputes were commonly resolved through shootings and bombings.\nPutin said contract killings had declined in recent years, and authorities were becoming more successful in cracking down on financial crimes.\n"The obligation of the state is to bring any such investigation to the end -- this concerns the killings of mass media representatives and killings in the economic sphere," Putin said.\nThe program had correspondents from the state-run television network relaying questions from small crowds in certain cities around the vast country, as well as people phoning in or sending e-mails and text messages.\nIt was impossible to tell whether the questions were arranged in advance or questioners coached. During past question-and-answer sessions, critics alleged that authorities and state television reporters screened questions and selected audiences to go live with Putin.\nSeveral Western oil companies that control energy projects in Russia have come under intense environmental scrutiny in recent months, which analysts say reflects a Kremlin drive to increase the state role in the strategic oil and gas sector. Foreign projects facing pressure include Sakhalin-2, a multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas development led by Royal Dutch Shell PLC.\n"Environmental agencies in collaboration with ecological non-governmental organizations will thoroughly monitor compliance with current legislation," Putin said.\nHe said Russia's economic growth would reach 6.6 percent this year, noting the government had paid off its Soviet-era debts ahead of time. He said real income had grown about 11 percent this year.\nOn North Korea, Putin called its nuclear test "inadmissible" but cautioned that pressuring the country could be counterproductive. He said the way to resolve the crisis would be to return to six-nation talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear program.\n"One should never lead the situation into an impasse; one should never put one of the negotiating sides in a position from which it virtually has no way out but one: an escalation of the situation," he said.\nPutin also addressed a diplomatic row with Georgia that prompted Russia to cut off air and land transport routes to the ex-Soviet republic.\nHe told one questioner that Russia was not seeking to incorporate two Georgian separatist regions where most citizens have been granted Russian citizenship. Georgia has accused Russia of encouraging the separatists.
(10/26/06 1:20am)
Another former altar boy says he was sexually abused in the 1970s by the same retired Catholic priest who acknowledged fondling former Rep. Mark Foley when Foley was a teenager, the man's attorney said Wednesday.\nThe new allegations against the Rev. Anthony Mercieca were made by a man who lived in North Miami and was an altar boy at St. James Catholic Church, where Mercieca worked, attorney Jeffrey Herman said.\nHerman said he planned to file a lawsuit Wednesday against the Archdiocese of Miami. His client, now 40 and identified in the lawsuit only as John Doe No. 26, says Mercieca abused him when he was about 12 years old.\n"He had been thinking about it before Foley came forward, and then when Foley came out and the church encouraged other victims to come forward, he decided to come forward," Herman said.\nThe man said "all of my nightmares came back" when Mercieca's picture appeared on the news last week amid Foley's claims that the priest had molested him. Foley had resigned amid accusations that he sent sexually explicit messages to teenage boys who had worked on Capitol Hill.\nMercieca, 69, now lives on the Maltese island of Gozo in the Mediterranean. No one answered the phone at his home Wednesday. His lawyer, Alfred Grech, did not return calls placed to his cell phone.\nArchdiocese of Miami spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta, asked about the latest allegations, said: "Any of this type of behavior by Father Mercieca was unknown to the archdiocese, and we had absolutely no information to indicate that the father did or would engage in any type of inappropriate or abusive behavior."\nThe Miami Archdiocese barred Mercieca from all church work as it investigates Foley's claim that the clergyman molested him when Foley was an altar boy at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Lake Worth in 1967.\nMercieca is now retired and does not serve in any parish, but he regularly celebrates Mass and hears confession in the cathedral on Gozo, according to the Archdiocese of Malta.\nIn multiple interviews last week, Mercieca denied having sexual intercourse with Foley, but he did acknowledge being nude with him when Foley was a boy.\nMercieca also denied having sex with any underage children.\nHerman said his client and Mercieca took a bicycle ride together one day after altar boy practice and then returned to the church where the abuse occurred.\n"It was fondling, and he performed oral sex on the boy," Herman said. "He attempted on another occasion following altar boy practice, but the boy declined to go on this bike ride, and he never went back to the church after that."\nMercieca served as an assistant pastor at the church from 1975 to 1985, according to church records.\nFoley resigned from Congress last month after he was confronted with sexually explicit computer communications he had sent to male teenage pages who worked on Capitol Hill. He has since entered a 30-day rehabilitation program for alcoholism, according to his attorneys.
(10/25/06 6:44pm)
In two weeks, patriotic Americans will go to the polls to perform their civic duty, and I will, reluctantly, be among them.\nYes, I love America. I've been to several places that are not America, and that makes me love America even more. And democracy isn't half bad, compared to the alternatives. But voting is kind of a drag.\nOstensibly, voting is the vehicle by which citizens control the decision-making process and voice their concerns. But in our representative democracy, voting simply doesn't do that. You can never find one candidate who perfectly represents your every political concern, or even most of them.\nSuppose you vote for Candidate A because he'll protect your right to unionize, while Candidate B threatens that right. But once in office, Candidate A passes legislation that outsources your job south of the border. Thus, the voter's concerns are thwarted regardless of his vote.\nSo when you go to the polls, you just have to make the best of it. The way I see it, there are basically three ways you can vote.\nYou can vote straight ticket: You decide one party deserves your whole-hearted support, so you throw your weight behind it.\nOr you might feel the weight of responsibility in your decision: You investigate and inform yourself of every candidate's position and carefully weigh each against his or her opponent. This is probably the way the system was intended to work.\nBut too much democracy becomes overwhelming. The first ballot I ever looked at had roughly 1 million candidates on it, give or take a few. On the school board alone, there were three people running for each of a half-dozen seats. I couldn't even remember all their names, let alone their positions on banal issues that won't affect me.\nThat brings me to the single-issue voter. This method combines the expediency of the straight-ticket vote with the faithful execution of informed decision-making. Since no candidate represents all your concerns anyway, select the weightiest issue and make your decision based on that. Thus, in 13 days I will be using my vote to support the right of unborn Americans to live.\nObviously, there are flaws to this voting method, as with the other two. For example, in 2004 I found myself supporting some men who have codified a policy of torturing detainees; some of those same men also started a war in the Middle East that has killed a lot of people.\nBut patriotism demands that my first concern be for those fellow citizens who are tortured and killed before their birth. In fact, patriotism aside, sheer numbers dictate that 1.3 million infanticides demand attention before the misery of a few hundred detainees.\nI've heard it before: "You're throwing your vote away!" I realize legislation will not overturn a culture of infanticide; the fight is for the hearts and minds of the American people. So in fact, my vote of conscience might be most importantly applied not to the Senate, but to the local school board races.
(10/25/06 6:40pm)
This weekend, I attended an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship conference in Washington, Ind. I would call myself a Christian with many struggles; some are with myself, but some are with trends in the Christian community that I find troubling. One of these trends presented itself through a chance encounter I had during the conference. \nOne day while walking back to the place I was staying, a guy stopped me and asked which direction was north. This immediately got my radar going that something was different here. So after trying to determine which way was north (rather difficult, considering we were in the middle of nowhere), we talked a little. I found out he was from Saudi Arabia, attended the University of Evansville and is currently taking intensive English seminars. Overall, he seemed like a very cool guy. When I found out he was Muslim, I asked him why he was at a Christian conference. He said he wanted to explore Jesus from a Christian perspective. I thought that was pretty cool, considering the huge difference in beliefs regarding whether Jesus was the son of God (as Christians believe) or just a prophet (as Muslims believe). \nWe talked about that for awhile, then the conversation turned to terrorism. He told me in somewhat broken English that all Muslims aren't like that, that very few Muslims would blow up buildings. I explained to him that I didn't feel that way, especially since as a black Christian -- a member of two groups that have had their fair share of negative stereotypes bestowed upon them -- it would be stupid on my part to stereotype another group. But as I walked away, I thought to myself that it was a shame that at a Christian conference, he felt he had to explain this to me. It was one of those moments when I was embarrassed to be a Christian. \nAccording to the Bible, Christians are not supposed to pass quick judgment on other people. It says in John 8:7, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone." And let's be honest: There isn't a Christian in the world who's without sin. In fact, Christianity as an institution isn't without its own sins of terror and destruction. Yet in an effort to be more American than anyone else, to associate Christianity with being American, we've been some of the first people to attack and criticize Arabs. Since Sept. 11, it has become a trend to cast aspersions at Arab-Americans, and Christians have unfortunately too often been at the forefront of that trend. The media aren't very friendly to Christians either, yet we are just as quick to stereotype others. I know this isn't only a Christian problem, but we're held to higher standards by God and by unbelievers. What's more important -- being American or being Christian? Either we're going to be like many Americans and continue to stereotype these people, or we're going to do as the Bible tells us and love them regardless.