Dissenting on Plouffe

In an email timed to coincide with today's Student Assembly meeting, former SA President C.J. Slicklen announced that David Plouffe, campaign manager for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential run, is this year's convocation speaker.

I think this is a regrettable choice.

I understand why Plouffe was an attractive speaker for the 2009 convocation. He is the man behind a campaign which enjoyed strong support from Cornell students and faculty. (In The Cornell Progressive's final pre-election campus poll, 74 percent of students backed Obama.) Hundreds campaigned for him.

Slicklen writes in the press release:

The Class of 2009 sought an individual who has had a profound impact on the society that our class has been prepared to enter. Mr. Plouffe was the mastermind behind one of the most significant and groundbreaking elections in our nation's history.

I disagree with none of this. However, the choice of an unquestionably partisan figure strikes me as inappropriate for this type of occasion. Convocation is not a political rally, and it should be noted that there are many on East Hill who opposed Obama's candidacy. If Slicklen's desire was merely to choose a successful public figure to deliver a motivational speech, there were plenty of nonpartisan options available. Imagine if five years ago the committee had brought Karl Rove to speak, yet attempted to mollify a rabid student body by promising that Rove wouldn't focus solely on politics.

As we find the student body -- at least those who write for the Sun -- divided on the Gaza issue, complete with dueling Arts Quad exhibits, Convocation provides a great opportunity to unite students with diverse perspectives. Plouffe, while certainly charismatic, was a major player in a lengthy, often negative presidential campaign, in which hundreds of millions of dollars were spent by both sides. He is celebrated as a hero by those of us who supported Obama, yet no doubt vilified by those who did not. Plouffe never attained a college degree, something the thousands of graduates in front of him worked hard to achieve, and has spent his adult life working for a succession of Democrats. I fail to see how his personal story, taken separate from partisan politics, is compelling.

I know that the search for a speaker began long before the Gaza issue captured students' attention, but bringing in someone as highly political and partisan as Plouffe spoils what would otherwise be a rare opportunity to bring the Cornell community together.

Map of an Obsession

After this coming weekend:

View Larger Map

Close-up of the northeast:


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I have no life.

The United States of Kenya

Hey, nutjobs! Get in on the latest big conspiracy theory! See, that whole 9/11 Truth/Ron Paul stuff is so yesterday!

Barack Obama isn't American! He was born in Kenya, which means he can't serve as president. Kick him out and put Newt Gingrich in!

First, over the summer we had all the stubborn Hillary supporters who just had to find some way to prevent Obama from winning the nomination:

A prominent Philadelphia attorney and Hillary Clinton supporter filed suit this afternoon ... The action seeks an injunction preventing [Obama] from continuing his candidacy and a court order enjoining the DNC from nominating him next week, all on grounds that Sen. Obama is constitutionally ineligible to run for and hold the office of President of the United States.

This massive cover-up didn't get too much attention in the fall, since people were more concerned with, you know, real issues.

But it's back! I give you United States Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), on Saturday:

During a community meeting at the All Steak Restaurant on Saturday, a local resident asked Shelby if there was any truth to the rumor, which appeared during the presidential campaign.

“Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate,” Shelby said. “You have to be born in America to be president.”

Exciting! Of course, Shelby's office claimed the newspaper distorted his words by failing to include the context in which the remarks were made. Or something.

Then, today, we have word that the entire U.S. military is quitting! No one wants to take orders from some African guy.

"As an active-duty officer in the United States Army, I have grave concerns about the constitutional eligibility of Barack Hussein Obama to hold the office of president of the United States," wrote Scott Easterling in a "to-whom-it-may-concern" letter.

Obama "has absolutely refused to provide to the American public his original birth certificate, as well as other documents which may prove or disprove his eligibility," Easterling wrote. "In fact, he has fought every attempt made by concerned citizens in their effort to force him to do so."

Right. Thing is, absolutely no evidence has been presented to cast doubt on the fact that Obama was born in Hawaii.

Let's look at what the highly respected Annenberg Fact Check said about this issue in August.

In June, the Obama campaign released a digitally scanned image of his birth certificate to quell speculative charges that he might not be a natural-born citizen. But the image prompted more blog-based skepticism about the document's authenticity. And recently, author Jerome Corsi, whose book attacks Obama, said in a TV interview that the birth certificate the campaign has is "fake."

We beg to differ. FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as "supporting documents" to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.

The site also links to an image of a newspaper clipping announcing Obama's birth:

This is absolutely a non-issue, and judges throughout the country have been busy throwing out idiotic lawsuits challenging Obama's victory.

In some ways I sympathize with the wackos bringing these lawsuits. After the 2000 election I felt that George Bush had assumed office illegally, given that his victory in Florida seemed doubtful. I supported court actions for further recounts and held out hope for a couple of months that something would be done to prove that Gore was the rightful winner.

When you've invested time, money, or at least emotion in a candidate, you want more than anything else to see him/her win. It's hard to accept defeat, and it's easy to convince yourself that s/he should have won.

Still, in this case there just doesn't seem to be any support for the Obama-was-born-in-Kenya movement. I don't see how any of these legal efforts, or refusals to serve, will be successful.

Citigroup Incoming CEO Gets a Sex and Race Change

I know, it's only Politico, but still:


Yeah, not quite. Here's what Parsons looks like:
That Politico story is #1 on Drudge right now, so I wonder how many thousands of people have emailed in to correct that.

Never Too Early

The season still has at least three weekends left, hopefully more, but it's not too early to look ahead to next year's schedule. It's not complete, and my guesses are in italics:

Date       Opponent
Sat Oct 24 Exhibition
Fri Oct 30 Exhibition
Fri Nov 6  Dartmouth
Sat Nov 7  Harvard
Fri Nov 13 @Yale
Sat Nov 14 @Brown
Fri Nov 20 Princeton
Sat Nov 21 Quinnipiac
Sat Nov 28 BU @ MSG
Fri Dec 4  @RPI
Sat Dec 5  @Union
Sat Dec 26 Colorado College (Florida College Hockey Classic)
Sun Dec 27 Maine or Princeton (Florida College Hockey Classic)
Fri Jan 8  Colgate
Sat Jan 9  @Colgate
Fri Jan 15 @Clarkson
Sat Jan 16 @St. Lawrence
Fri Jan 22 North Dakota
Sat Jan 23 North Dakota
Fri Jan 29 St. Lawrence
Sat Jan 30 Clarkson
Fri Feb 5  @Quinnipiac
Sat Feb 6  @Princeton
Fri Feb 12 Brown
Sat Feb 13 Yale
Fri Feb 19 @Harvard
Sat Feb 20 @Dartmouth
Fri Feb 26 Union
Sat Feb 27 RPI

Not too many surprises so far. The conference schedule is basically just an inversion of this year's. A few observations:

--I'm not a huge fan of having the Harvard game right at the start of the season, since it's always more exciting when there's a lot riding on the outcome. Still, we hosted Harvard in November 2006 and it was a fun atmosphere.



--It's great to see a repeat of the Cornell vs. BU game at Madison Square Garden. Even though the team was embarrassed in front of 18,000 fans and a national TV audience when they played as MSG last season, it's a good experience for the players.

--As of right now, the team goes two months, from November 21 to January 22, without playing a game at Lynah Rink. I suspect this will change because the home and home series against Colgate seems to fit only in the January 8-9 weekend.

--The non-conference series against North Dakota in January will probably determine how great of a season we'll have. It will be an experience for NoDak to play at Lynah, and hopefully we'll get at least 3 points.

--A lot of us have complained over the past couple of seasons about how Cornell's weak out of conference schedule hurt them in the Pairwise Rankings, and therefore resulted in a lower seeding for NCAAs. There's a lot to like with this schedule. One against BU, two against NoDak, one against Colorado College, and the possibility of playing either Maine or a strong Princeton in Florida.

"My President is Black"

One of the best ways to learn about other cultures is to listen to their music. You can learn a lot about the political or economic situation in a particular country by listening to popular songs from a particular era.

This song, only released a couple of years ago in South Africa, idealizes the Boers' victory over the British over 100 years ago. It celebrates Afrikaner nationalism and has attracted a tremendous amount of controversy for bringing up this violent part of South African history and tying it to current struggles between ethnic groups.



A sampling of the lyrics in English:

Because my wife and my child are in a camp dying,
And the Khakis are walking over a nation that will rise again

De La Rey, De La Rey can you come and lead the Boers?

In Spain, too, music continues to mimic political dialogue. One of my favorite Spanish-language songs, Pais Petit by Lluís Llach, was written as a celebration of Catalan culture at a time that the Franco dictatorship was trying to suppress these kinds of vibrant regional cultures:

The first verse, translated:

My country [Catalan] is so small
that when the sun goes to sleep,
he's never sure if he has seen it.
Old wise women say,
that's why he comes back.

Maybe this is an example of an historian's tendency to always think of a previous era as a golden age, but I don't think much of our contemporary music in the U.S. can compare to these politically salient songs from elsewhere.

In the 1960s and 1970s, certainly, we could point to direct ties between music and politics. Today, we are left with performances such as this one:

Lyrics:

Tell him I'm doing fine, Obama for mankind
We ready for damn change so ya'll let the man shine
Stuntin' on Martin Luther, feelin' just like a King
Guess this is what he meant when he said that he had a dream.

Even though I'm a fan of rap music in general, I'm left feeling like this doesn't really compare to what we see in other countries, or even from other eras in our own nation. But who knows...maybe in a couple decades we'll see it differently.

Disaster on Ice

Have a look at the uniforms the team will be wearing on Friday:

The ECAC has decided that every team has to wear these terrible things for one home weekend, and then they'll be auctioned off to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

This type of thing is pretty common -- you'll see basketball coaches wearing pink ties, or special patches on uniforms. Why they had to make these awful jerseys instead of just doing something like that is beyond me. I'd donate $20 to the ACS if it meant I didn't have to watch my team skate around with this shit on Friday.

Edit: Hahahaha, the bids are really piling up on eBay for these ugly shirts: Pinkattherink auctions

Free Fall

USCHO/CBS College Sports Division 1 Hockey Polls:

January 19, 2009

	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Notre Dame	(38)	19-3-3	986	1
2	Boston University	( 7)	16-5-1	931	2
3	Cornell	( 5)	13-1-3	877	5

------------------------------

February 9, 2009

	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Boston University	(49)	21-5-1	999	1
2	Notre Dame	( 1)	21-5-3	912	2
3	Northeastern		19-6-2	897	3
4	Michigan		21-9-0	847	4
5	Vermont		16-6-4	791	7
6	Cornell		15-4-4	688	5

-----------------------------

February 16, 2009

	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Boston University	(44)	23-5-2	993	1
2	Notre Dame	( 6)	23-5-3	945	2
3	Michigan		23-9-0	905	4
4	Northeastern		20-8-2	815	3
5	Miami		18-8-4	783	7
6	Vermont		17-7-4	731	5
7	Yale		19-5-1	677	10
8	Denver		17-9-4	659	8
9	North Dakota		18-11-3	564	11
10	Princeton		18-7-0	560	9
11	Cornell		15-6-4	495	6

Will History Judge Bush More Favorably?

During the last part of his second term, when the media began to focus on Bush's legacy, the former president appeared convinced that he would be judged more favorably from an historical perspective. His approval numbers were low, but his advisers insisted that the country would appreciate what Bush had done once a few years had passed.

A new survey by C-SPAN might give the Bush-backers some hope.

Timed for Presidents Day 2009, C-SPAN today releases the results of its second Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership, in which a cross-section of 65 presidential historians ranked the 42 former occupants of the White House on ten attributes of leadership.

There aren't too many surprises on the list.

The top 5:
1. Lincoln
2. Washington
3. F. Roosevelt
4. T. Roosevelt
5. Truman

The bottom 5:
38. Harding
39. Harrison
40. Pierce
41. Johnson
42. Buchanan

C-SPAN last conducted this survey in 2000, and none of the presidents moved more than a couple spots -- with one exception.

Clinton came in at #21 in 2000, but moves up 6 spots to #15 this year.

Similarly, GHW Bush moved up 2 spots to #18, leapfrogging John Quincy Adams.

The point is that recent presidents seem to experience a sizable jump in reputation once they've been out of office for a few years. Of course, this might be due to the latest President Bush's incompetence: Clinton's problems seem trivial when compared with the messes we've gotten into recently, while his father's presidency reminds us of what an effective Republican president looks like.

Still, a jump of 6 spots in 9 years is impressive. Clinton now ranks 3rd among all presidents in economic management, and jumped from #36 to #19 in relations with Congress.

Might Dubya also benefit from a post-presidency bump? He currently sits at #36, good for the 7th worst presidency of all time. This low ranking means he has plenty of room to improve. If Obama, too, has problems managing the economy, or the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, then it is possible that the Bush presidency will receive more respect. Until the next survey, it's safe to say that historians haven't quite come around to giving Bush the respect he predicted.

Superstition

I've never been a superstitious person -- I never had any particular clothes or actions that I was convinced would bring me good luck.

Still, when your favorite team (in my case, Cornell hockey) is in a slide, it's fun (and distracting from the real problems) to look at some potential scapegoats.

1. The early fan gets the win.

The team loses if I don't get to the rink for the start of warmups. If you've ever gone to a hockey game with me, you'll know that I make sure to get there at least 40 minutes before the game to watch warmups. I've arrived that early to 18 games this season (team is 14-1-3). The ones to which I arrived late (team is 0-4-1):

-@St. Lawrence. Stopped to get food with a friend and missed the start of warmups. Loss, 8-1.
-@Clarkson. Took longer to get there than I anticipated. Tie, 0-0.
-vs. Princeton. Game was delayed due to Princeton's bus breaking down, so I was next door in Bartels watching the women's basketball game. When warmups started, I was still walking over. Loss, 2-1.
-@Dartmouth. Ate dinner before the game with some other fans, missed the first 10 minutes of warmups. Loss, 5-4.
-@Harvard. Got lost on the way to the rink and drove in circles around Cambridge for 20 minutes. Loss, 4-2.

Clearly I shouldn't let myself get to the rink "late."

2. It's all her fault.

I took my friend Kelly to the January 23 game vs. Yale. Before then, Cornell was 13-1-3. Since then? 2-5-1.

3. It's the pep band's fault.

Last year, a few of us noticed that Cornell seemed to lose every game during which the pep band played "Paradise City." I haven't followed this trend too closely this season, but on Friday, the pep band played "Paradise City" during the second intermission and Cornell lost in overtime.

Of course, there are legitimate, non-magical reasons why the team has hit a rough stretch. It's not as much fun to talk about those, though.

Priorities

Friday is our Valentine's Day formal. Saturday is Valentine's Day.

This is also the weekend of the Cornell hockey games at Dartmouth and Harvard.

Where will I be both nights? I think you know.

As much as I would love to have a fun weekend in Ithaca, I made the decision to attend every Cornell hockey game this year to which I can reasonably travel. So far this decision has taken me to every game but the two in North Dakota. I'm sick and I have a lot of work this weekend, but tomorrow morning I'm dragging myself to the car for the 6-hour drive to Hanover, N.H.

It's not like I don't have fun at the hockey games. It's a great feeling to stand with a few other members of the traveling Faithful -- alumni, townies, players' moms -- in an unfamiliar rink somewhere in the frigid northeast. There's a sense of family and community that I haven't experienced anywhere except with my biological and fraternal families. I wouldn't travel to all the games if I didn't enjoy doing so.

Sometimes this commitment comes at a sacrifice. This is just one of those weekends I'm going to have to plunge into and assure myself that I'm doing the best thing.

This will probably be the last post until Sunday. I'll leave you with a picture I took at the Harvard game in 2007.

Does Anyone at the Sun Proofread Anymore?

Today's Sun article by Meredith Bennett-Smith about Volleyball coach Deitre Collins-Parker's departure:

Collins-Parker will be stepping up to lead a young Sand Diego team, not unlike Cornell’s squad of two years ago.

“The last few years have been challenging for them, but they definitely have talent,” she said. “I would like to reinstate Sand Diego State as a force in their [conference] and increase interest in the San Diego community.”

Not once but twice.

What Jesus Wouldn't Care About

Your quote of the week:

“God wants me to serve.”
-Norm Coleman, Republican, on why he's still fighting to win the recount in the Minnesota Senate race.

When Mike Huckabee spoke at Cornell in April, I thought he made an excellent point. Huckabee praised Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) for announcing that he was an atheist, and said he wished more politicians would be honest about their beliefs. Huckabee seemed disappointed that politicians often invoked God and faith for political reasons, without really believing in what they said.

Coleman can't possibly believe that God cares about who wins the Senate runoff. This is just desperate pandering.

No Tears for A-Rod

The big news today in the sports world is Alex Rodriguez's confession to ESPN's Peter Gammons that he took performance enhancing drugs (steroids) during a three-year period when he was on the Texas Rangers.

Here's the video clip and article: ESPN

Of course, his excuses are poor:

"Back then, [baseball] was a different culture," Rodriguez said. "It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naive."

Keep in mind that A-Rod was 26 years old in 2001, having been in the majors since 1994. It wasn't like he had just been called up and didn't know much about the big leagues.

As for things being loose, by 2003 MLB was already conducting random drug tests. (At that point, this was just to see if drug testing was needed.) So there was already the sentiment that steroids were wrong, even though no penalty system was in place.

"And I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time."

This pressure comes from A-Rod's asshole agent, Scott Boras, who spent A-Rod's free agency period in 2000 hailing his client as the greatest player ever and predicting that he would shatter the home run record. This kind of pressure came straight from A-Rod's camp, so he has no one but his own people to blame.

One more reason to hate the Yankees.

EDIT: CBS News reminds us that A-Rod told Katie Couric in 2007 that he had never taken any performance enhancing drugs.

And, ESPN provides us with some interesting statistics:

Alex Rodriguez came clean about taking performance-enhancing drugs during a three-year period beginning in 2001. Here's a look at A-Rod's numbers during that time compared to the rest of his major league career:

	'01-03	Other 10 Seasons
Games/season	161.7	148.4
Batting avg.	.305	.309
Homers/season	52.0	39.2
Slugging	.615	.574

When Politicians and Technology (Don't) Mix

As someone who recently acquired a BlackBerry, I was a little concerned to read some quotes by the seemingly addicted President Obama about his smartphone:

Obama had one attached to his hip, if not his ear, through the entire campaign, and resisted calls to hand it over because of security and espionage concerns. “I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry. They’re going to pry it out of my hands," Obama told CNBC this month.

This was from a Boston Globe story announcing that Obama would be able to keep his BlackBerry with some added encryption. The announcement followed weeks of speculation about whether or not Obama would be able to keep it, and led to some interesting debate about whether the president's need to stay on top of things trumped national security concerns.

Well, here's a new chapter for the politicians playing with technology saga:

A congressional trip to Iraq this weekend was supposed to be a secret.

But the cat’s out of the bag now, thanks to a member of the House Intelligence Committee who broke an embargo via Twitter.

“Just landed in Baghdad,” messaged [Rep. Peter] Hoekstra, a former chairman of the Intelligence panel and now the ranking member, who is routinely entrusted to keep some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets.

So much for the surprise visit.

It wasn't just this one Twitter post, either.

Not only did Hoekstra reveal the existence of the lawmakers’ trip, but included details about their itinerary in updates posted every few hours on his Twitter page, until he suddenly stopped, for some reason, on Friday morning.

“On the way to Andrews Air Force base.12 hour flight to mid east. Be back on Mon instead of tues. Votes mon. I’ll keep you posted,” he wrote on Feb. 4.

In his last dispatch today, he wrote: “Moved into green zone by helicopter Iraqi flag now over palace. Headed to new US embassy Appears calmer less chaotic than previous here [sic].”

My guess is that Hoekstra, who is 55, thought his Twitter was only visible to certain people. But as a public figure, he should have known better (or had someone on his staff point this out to him).

Even more embarrassing was the photo of Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau grabbing inappropriately at a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton. The picture, which was on Facebook, was discovered in December by the Washington Post.

From that controversy comes this unintentionally hilarious line:

It's been reported that Favreau has reached out to Clinton to apologize.

There's plenty of incriminating stuff about me on Facebook (and probably this blog, too), but you can bet that it would all disappear if I ever ran for office or gained a significant position. Why don't politicians think more about this?

And I Will Name My Child "Ithaca"

Sarah Palin just won't go away. Esquire published an interview with her in which we learn that the name of her daughter, Bristol, is due in part to the Connecticut town that houses the ESPN studios.

Two meanings in Bristol's name: I worked at the Bristol Inn, and Todd grew up in Bristol Bay. But also, Bristol, Connecticut, is the home of ESPN. And when I was in high school, my desire was to be a sportscaster. ESPN was just kicking off, just getting off the ground, and I thought that's what I was going to do in life, is be one of the first woman sportscasters. Until I learned that you'd have to move to Bristol, Connecticut. It was far away. So instead, I had a daughter and named her Bristol.

This thought process explains a lot of Palin's decision-making.

The whole interview is worth reading, if only to reassure ourselves that the country made the right choice in electing Obama and Biden. I'll leave you with this quote:

Everything I've ever needed to know I learned through sports.

Fun in the Sun

Since reaching its peak around 1978, the Sun sports section has gone steadily downhill. This has been particularly glaring when one looks at its hockey coverage this year.

Let's look at the article today by Matthew Manacher discussing Cornell goalie Ben Scrivens' chances of receiving the Hobey Baker trophy, given each year to the top overall player in college hockey.

Currently, Scrivens and Quinnipiac freshman Nick Pisellini are tied for the highest save percentage in the NCAA. Scrivens has dominated the category for most of the season, doubling Pisellini’s playing time in terms of minutes, 1231:46 to 607:57.

Man, Scrivens is really blowing the kid out of the water in minutes played. Might this be because Pisellini took a leave of absence two months ago due to his father's illness? No one knows if he'll return this season. This piece of information wasn't relevant to the article?

The consistency of Scrivens in net has been exhibited almost on a nightly basis as the Red, ranked fifth in the nation, has only surrendered more than two goals on two occasions this season.

Oh, boy.

Fri Nov 28 at North Dakota 3- 7 L

Fri Jan 23 YALE 3- 4 L

Fri Jan 30 at St. Lawrence 1- 8 L

Let's give it up for fact-checking. Next line:

Scrivens secured the starting job at the beginning of the 2007-08 campaign.

As the article notes, Scrivens actually held the starting job for part of our freshman year, and started 8 games in net.

There is nothing in the article about Scrivens' recent struggles, including being pulled in the second period at St. Lawrence last Friday after letting in four goals.

While we're at it, let's look at some other great moments in the Sun's hockey coverage this year.

Although Allie Perez realized and corrected her mistake a couple months later, her hockey season preview article talked about the team's bizarre strategy of expecting to play 30 minutes of overtime each night:

Last year, the message of the men’s hockey team was simple: play 90 minutes.

A full 90 minutes.

20+20+20=60.

From her article about the exhibition game against the U-18 team:

Jeremy Morin’s shot from the left penalty circle ricocheted off the right post past Garman to regain the lead.

There is no such thing as a left penalty circle. Or a right penalty circle. Or any penalty circle.

Good work, everyone.

"You Just Suck"

Since the new year, Athletics has been cracking down on profanity at hockey games. See my post from January for some background. There's been a lively discussion on eLynah, the Cornell hockey forum, about the profanity issue and the Athletic Department in general.

The most bizarre post comes this morning from JDeafv, who gives an explanation for the timing of the crackdown:

I was talking with one of the more friendly ushers on the student side of Lynah to understand why the return to an emphasis on the zero-tolerance policy for unruly behavior. They said the real reason for the crackdown against language, etc. was because of an incident at a game late last semester where a female student was giving oral sex to a male student in Section B.

Supposedly the two were observed by a security person on the far side of the rink (Section N), but by the time security mobilized to the scene they were "finished" and denied everything.

It was deemed unacceptable by the higher-ups in athletics that none of the ushers were paying enough attention to stop this from occurring. As a result, they decided to go back to a zero-tolerance policy that forces the ushers to much more tightly police the rink in general, but the students in particular.

I know I'm pretty focused on the ice during the hockey games, but I really doubt that this could have gone on in my section without anyone around the couple noticing. And for someone in Section N to have observed the act, there would have had to be no one standing in front of the couple. For these reasons I doubt the story is true, but if it can be confirmed, it should definitely go up on the Wikipedia page or something. Wow.

The Power of the Times Compels You

Although the newspaper industry -- the New York Times included -- has been struggling financially, there is something about a well written editorial that can't be replicated online or on TV. A ranting blog post or a red-faced Keith Olbermann simply doesn't have the same effect.

The Times' editorial page called today for Tom Daschle to withdraw his name from nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Daschle, like two other Obama nominees (Nancy Killefer and new treasury secretary Tim Geithner), was found to have neglected to pay enough taxes over the last few years.

In both the Geithner and Daschle cases, the failure to pay taxes is attributed to unintentional oversights. But Mr. Daschle is one oversight case too many. The American tax system depends heavily on voluntary compliance. It would send a terrible message to the public if we ignore the failure of yet another high-level nominee to comply with the tax laws.

Although Geithner was confirmed, Daschle followed Killefer today in withdrawing his name. Why?

NBC's Andrea Mitchell spoke to Daschle who said it was this morning's New York Times editorial that convinced him he had to withdraw.

That's the right decision.

Why I Hate The Cornell Store

Each term The Cornell Store sells all new textbooks at list price, and for larger classes offers used books for a little less. You can get a better deal on books through Amazon or any other online store, or simply by walking down to Kraftees in collegetown.

My statistics book was on sale for $129.00 at The Cornell Store, but I was able to purchase it online for $85.00. Problem was, I had a problem set due last week, and the book I'd ordered hadn't come. So, I purchased a copy from The Cornell Store with the intention of returning it within the 7-day return period in order to receive my full price back.

This morning, I brought the book back to return it, but was told that due to a small crease in the corner of the paperback cover I would only be able to receive the "used" price, or $94.00. The book has a flimsy paperback cover and by leafing through a few pages I had managed to decrease its value by $35.00. I returned it anyway, figuring I'd at least saved $9.00 by ordering online. Still, this seemed like complete bullshit, since the crease was hardly noticeable.

This afternoon, I returned to the textbook section of the store. Sure enough, back up for sale at the "new" price was the book I'd returned a few hours before. I knew because it had that small crease on the cover. Yet there it was, ready for someone to purchase it for $129.00.

Does anyone else see something wrong with this?

Quality sportswriting

And the award for the lede with the most over-used hockey saying goes to...

Max Delsignore of The Watertown Daily Times for his article on Cornell's terrible loss Friday:

CANTON — They might need to change the bulbs in the red lamps at Appleton Arena today.

The St. Lawrence University men's hockey team illuminated the lights behind the goal often as it dismantled Cornell, 8-1, in an ECAC Hockey matchup Friday night before a crowd of 2,750.

Ha ha.

Seriously, though, this was a great weekend. Driving for hours through lake effect snow, seeing Cornell give up 8 goals, freezing to death in the North Country weather, having to smuggle the cowbell into hockey rinks in my pants. Couldn't have asked for anything more.

EDIT: Allie Perez's lede was also a little bizarre:

At one point in the movie The Replacements, quarterback Shane Falco tries to explain why his team crumbled in a disastrous 1996 Sugar Bowl game, taking Falco’s fictional football career down with it: “You’re playing and you think everything is going fine, but then one thing goes wrong and another and another, and you try to fight back, but the harder you fight, the deeper you sink. ’Til you can’t move, can’t breathe, cause you’re in over your head. Like quicksand.”