lackamas Print
Jtters to the Editor
I
___ J___________________ :_______
,
I have to say, your victory in the ASG elec-
extremely hollow and rather embarrassing one. What
dn isfltet? Certainly nothing to brag about!
n thejbction to be president of ASG. Yea, I was the
,ce offered, but I won.”
really wanted to prove yourself to even be worthy, you
fought for the other candidate’s right (that candidate
Izso) to run against you.
sitting back and winning the way you did - shame on
Opinion 3
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
The never-ending search
for someone to blame
‘grumble* ‘grumble*
Stupid Republicans
and their oil
company cronies!
... damn
hippies...
*grumble*
id
Bikes bite back
cd
[ up »latest issue of The Clackamas Print (v41, Issue
ge 2, Isaw your byline and picture on the “Sound-off ’
MMBtveled at what I found there.
trying to decide which is more amazing - that one
s of the newspaper would hijack the public forum
■ that the editor in chief of the paper would pri nt your
“abag of douche.”
^^»appropriate for you to commandeer this col-
our person 11 use, but to do so in such a shrill, unprofes-
inner really begs the question: “Who the hell let her on
-,
rver, there is the issue that you are simply flat wrong.
jrrently a motorcycl ist, but 1 have been in the past, and I
8 you that a motorcycle is no different than a car when it
parking privileges at CCC or anywhere else
■ the ^y few) designated spaces, if you look closely,
see thanKey are for motorcycles only.
Kayla Berge Clackamas Print
er words, they are reserved preferentially, both as a way
using a lower-impact transportation and in
onthatBers may be arriving in inclement weather,
ey would like to get art of quickly.
bly the mo ' disturbing part of your tirade was the ad
lattajO someone you don’t even know. Well, that and
picture df their bike, so at least some of us will figure out
»mpe»tn y for a low self esteem” that makes “your
for aqSeb;ll bat”
"di ng to flic goals stated in the masthead, The Clackamas
ns to report the news in an honest, unbiased, professional
And while
disclaims any responsibility for the
expressed therein, that disclaimer cannot by definition,
the staff who publish it
said. I’m not expecting the New York Times, but I’m not
; a juniorhigh school poop sheet either Save it for your
¡page.
lIw Coastable
■think that you had turned your paper around;
me much more professional and well-written
couple of terms than it lias ever been.
you reviews the presidential race and gave opinions
cling and tuition and other big issues, I
page was finally starting to cover subjects
explain them to me in a way that I can
er, youi stupid opinion columnist trashing my bike
^Hailing me “a bag of douche” and threatening
bat and a mob attack just goes to show how
crappy your rag can really be.
like mewho ride are passionate about our wheels. How
________ _ of my bike without my permission in your
me without ever once talking to me.
id columnist should look around next time
car people park. Maybe we riders don’t
_____
ignated spots” because you idiots with
have runinto our bikes in the designated spots more
I cap recall.
an issue with my self-esteem, I’d be driving a huge
4x4 truck jacked up on a 12-inch lift
^motorcycle that is four times as gas-efficient
than a tenth as miKjh pollution and, unlike
ist says, I can’t text-message or afford
you apparently do on a daily basis.
^dariirrThenexttimeyouhaveaques-
are thinking, maybe you should asA them
stuffup about them.
why you are such a terrible writer, because
to do your own job and instead you pull stuff
a page. I’d say to go back to writing about
t that good abort sports, either.
me an apology, and I expect one.
fifeg, mem ...
grew weed
NADER!?
ARMON DO
BORBOA
O pinion
E ditor
Global warming, illegal immi
gration, celebrity feuds on TV, fat
school kids out of control, spoiled
pets eating their owners, aliens
controlling government ... it never
stops.
You know what I mean.
No matter how serious or totally
ridiculous the cause, everyday sci
entists and researchers, celebrities
and rock stars and any number of
talking heads are all saying a whole
lot of nothing and never really fix
ing anything.
In most cases, these high-func
tioning idiots actually make things
worse the more they try to “fix”
what they think is wrong.
down their thermostats and learn
to live without their big gas-guz
zling SUV’s and fancy-shmancy air
conditioners.
Are you kidding me? Seriously?
I don’t think so.
Don’t get me wrong - the high
price of oil is a serious problem, and
our dependence on foreign sources
of supply is a critical national secu
rity issue.
However,
thinking
that
Americans can significantly make
a difference cutting back on their
use of fuel by wearing sweaters and
driving less is not only unrealistic,
it also shows a complete lack of
understanding of the root cause of
our national problem.
Not really a disaster
The last time America had a
fuel crisis, it was way back in the
early ’70’s, and that crisis makes
the current one look like a joke in
comparison.
Gas prices would have to get to
well over $9 a gallon in order to be
as expensive in today’s dollars as it
An issue of my very own
was back then when you take infla
My favorite cause I love to hate tion into account.
Even the most inefficient road
is the high price of gas at the pump
and all the morons who blame beast SUV of today, the GM
everything under the sun, yet never Hummer 2.0, has a better gas mile
age and overall emissions stan
quite manage to figure it out.
You would have to be hiding dards than the average family sta
under a rock to not have noticed the tion wagon did 30-something years
nearly quadrupling increase in gas ago.
They also have more safety fea
prices the past few years.
At more than $4 a gallon already, tures, a longer useful road life and
the price of fuel is going higher on use fewer non-renewable resources
a daily basis without any signs of in their construction.
We just happen to drive an expo
abating any time soon.
At the same time, you can’t turn nentially larger number of cars now
on a TV or radio without some pun versus back then.
Our home appliances, refrig
dit screaming about the imminent
collapse of America and our need erators, TVs, microwaves, etc. are
more than twice as electricity effi
to start riding bicycles to work.
cient as they were in the ’70s.
Oh, please.
Again, we just happen to own a
Presidential candidate Barack
Obama, in a speech reminiscent lot more of them in each house now
of one given in the late 1970s than we did then.
I don’t know about you, but I
by the unknown Marx brother»
Jimmy Carter, recently suggested happen to like my air conditioner.
I like having a TV in each room,
Americans need to start turning
a dishwasher and microwave, a
second fridge just to keep my sodas
cold, an X-box in my office and
owning all the other electronic junk
cluttering up my house.
It is unlimited access to energy
that has made American the envy
of the world.
I enjoy my comforts, and I feel
no shame in admitting it.
Call me what you will, but being
an American means having a higher
standard of living than everybody
else and I am simply not ready to
give up my luxuries.
However, oil is a finite resource
no matter how you look at it. The
answer to the energy crunch lies
not in consuming less oil, because
eventually we will run out of oil no
matter how efficiently it is used.
“OK, Mr. Smarty-pants,” you
might say, “that is a no-brainer. So
what is the solution?”
Consequences
The answer is not just the devel
opment of alternative energy sourc
es, but the proper implementation
that will not cause more problems
than it solves.
Right now, the developments
of ethanol or cellulose fuels are
considered to be promising tech
nologies capable of someday com
pletely replacing oil.
The problem with using com for
ethanol is utilizing a food crop as
a fuel source is creating a domino
effect on other commodity prices
such as milk, cheese and bread,
which are dependent on com.
A devastating long-term effect
of developing ethanol is the mas
sive damage caused to the envi
ronment by nations such as Brazil
clear-cutting the rain forest to cre
ate fannable land for com.
Any solutions our science can
come up with will always carry
their own price.
We need to be sure we properly
identify what our problems are.
More importantly, we must be
willing to pay the price.
,1
:kamas Print
ickamas Print
>. Molalla Ave.
i City, OR 97045
'-6958, feet. 2309
Editor in Chief: Megan Koler
Copy Editor: Colleen Watkins
News Editor: Lydia E. Bashaw
A&C Editor: Emily Walters
Sports Editor: Andrea Simpson
Feature Editor: Kyle Steele
Photo Editor: Kayla Berge
Opinion Editor: Armondo Borboa
Photo Associate: John Shufelt
News Associate: John Hurlburt
A d M anager : Meredith James
P roduction A ssistant :
Mallory Bashaw
S taff W riters / P hotographers :
Kenton Benfield, Robert
Crawford, Matthew Garrison,
Lisa Sellars, Jess Sheppard
D epartment A dviser :
Melissa Jones
D epartment S ecretary :
Pat Thompson
G oals The Clackamas Print aims
to report the news in an honest,
unbiased, professional manner.
The opinions expressed do not
necessarily reflect those of the
student body, college admin
istration, its faculty or The
Print. E-mail comments to
chiefed@clackamas.edu.