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Open Debate?
Dear Editor, In your June 29th "Kicking the Habit" story, Editor Stephen Marth quotes the VP of health sciences as saying, "If you can smell smoke, you are breathing in cancer-causing chemicals." That's perfectly true. It's also perfectly true that if you are within 500 feet or so of a running car that "you are breathing in cancer-causing chemicals." And according to the National College of DUI Defense at: http://www.ncdd.com/dsp_articledetails.cfm?article=15 you will be breathing in carcinogenic benzene, as well as isoprene, acetone, toluene and a hundred or so other nasty chemicals if you happen to be sharing an enclosed area with another living, breathing human being: Human respiration is a mechanism for getting rid of many noxious metabolic byproducts and chemicals. So will the University be banning indoor space sharing and outdoor automobiles within 500 feet of campus (or at least ON campus)? I doubt it. Secondhand smoke is just the sideshow "smoke and mirrors" excuse for the real reason for bans on campuses, in bars/restaurants, and elsewhere, as admitted by Dr. Cappuccino: "By de-normalizing smoking on campus, we will be able to take steps in helping students never start." I spoke of "DeNormalization" and social engineering as motivations for smoking bans ten years ago and was usually met with the response that I was seeing "black helicopters" that didn't exist. Back then the motivation was rarely acknowledged publicly by those pushing for bans because it was felt it would inspire too much resistance: far better to simply trump up fears around scary sounding chemical names that people might be exposed to in almost imaginary quantities: picograms, femtograms, attograms, or even zeptograms. Today antismoking activists are at least a bit more honest about why they're doing what they do, but they still play the "fear" card and the "save the children" card, and they still wildly distort scientific studies or even deliberately design research from scratch to misrepresent facts to the public. And when students fall from ledges or get mugged on dark streets where they sneak smokes, or when fires occur because of improperly and hastily disposed of butts... where will the University, those activists, and those researchers be then? If the University actually believes in honest and open academic debate about its policies and any students would like more information about what lies at the root of smoking bans like this, they are more than welcome to email me at Cantiloper on the aol system. Michael J. McFadden Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains" 4424 Ludlow St. Philadelphia, PA 19104 215-386-8430
Correction
In the April 24, the article "Real men wear heels," incorrectly stated that The UB Men's Group hosted the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event this year. In actuality, SBI hosted the event this year. Effective next year (the fifth annual Walk A Mile In Her Shoes), the Men's Group will be officially taking over and running the program.
More school!
Last month President Barack Obama announced in a speech his opinion that the American primary school year should be extended to better prepare today's children for competition with tirelessly educated foreigners.
Goodbye
It is easy in a school this size to disappear. There is a potential for anonymity in a school of 30,000 that does not exist in smaller schools, and with that anonymity comes the potential for obliviousness; to your fellow students, to the school itself, to the events that shape us and the events we can shape ourselves.
Spectrum Cartoon
In whose shoes?
The UB Men's Group has a clear message: stop rape and violence against women. Their actions, however, are not as clear.
Standing up for humans
Over three years ago, I wrote a letter to The Spectrum expressing my annoyance of a workers' rights protest here on campus. I was a freshman, very apathetic and mostly frustrated that people shouting for the rights of workers were also flying anarcho-communist flags-as if that was representative of UB's custodial staff.
Real family values
The Statue of Liberty, which overlooks New York Harbor, was the first thing seen by visitors, immigrants and returning Americans before the jet age, welcoming them to the new world.
Supreme Court to debate free speech
Written into the United States legal system are categories of speech that have been deemed too inflammatory or damaging to be protected by the first amendment. Considered literally "unworthy of constitutional protection," (Liptak, NY Times,) these categories include child pornography, obscenity and the amusingly-named "fighting words."
True cost
To be committed to saving the planet, recycling, conservation, these concepts like so many other endeavors in human history have been perverted and twisted into idiot marketing schemes, sound and righteous fury, signifying nothing.
The same-sex marriage question
???New York State has a long history of fighting for equal rights. The state has gone from being the seat of Susan B. Anthony's women's suffrage movement to the home of the N.A.A.C.P. The latest on the list of progressive acts is joining Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts in allowing same sex marriage.
Tortured guidelines
???The latest effort by the U.S. Government to provide more transparency to its citizens is a release of memos detailing how the Department of Justice (DOJ) carried out certain torture methods.
Bold taxation
Gov. Paterson unveiled his shiny new budget Sunday night, and the people aren't pleased. In an era of recession, fear of depression and budget shortfall, why, they want to know, are we to be taxed further than ever before?
An open letter to tea enthusiasts
How do you invalidate the protests of the thousands of self-styled "tea-partiers" who demonstrated this past Wednesday against runaway government spending?
The end of a generation
Generation has had its leash tugged. In a surprise move to the editorial staff of the publication, Sub-Board I, Inc. (SBI) has suspended Generation's charter, effectively preventing the student-run magazine from electing their own leadership for the upcoming school year.
Assertion of dominion
???In recent weeks, Americans have been presented with two opposing examples of the stickiness of animal rights featuring two of the most beloved farm animals in the world: horses and pigs.
Porn
The University of Maryland College Park (UMD) recently had the entirety of its $424 million state funding held ransom against the showing of Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge.
Missile launch detected
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) the North Korean government successfully placed a satellite in orbit following a perfect launch of that nation's Taepodong-2 rocket Sunday.
Editorial Note:
???While this newspaper is in the practice of providing its readership with endorsements for student government elections as well as state and national elections, the editorial board of The Spectrum has declined to endorse a candidate for this week's University Council election between Marc Huberfeld and Student Association Treasurer John Martin.