Wednesday, November 14, 1934
Paga4
Dally Nebraskan
i o
o
3
1 1
Tl
M i II M li S
! 1 '
prrhe space shuttle has taken the won
a der out of space travel. It seems to go
-i- up about every other week.
Casually, nonchalantly, Discovery took
off last Thursday. It hardly made a ripple
In the national media. Monday the Dis
covery crew nonchalantly plucked a wan
dering satellite, Palapa 32, from its errant
orbit and will return it to earth. Astro
nauts Dale Gardner and Joe Allen put the
satellite into Discovery's cargo bay by
hand. The crew hopes to pick up another
satellite, Westar 6, today.
The operation will save millions of dol
lars. Both satellites were worthless in
errant orbits. They will be repaired and
resold by the insurance companies that
insured them.
The money spent on the space shuttles
has been called a waste, but the practical
aspects of the shuttles are readily becom
ing apparent. The number of satellites in
space now and in the future might even
tually msks shuttle flights somewhat more
economical.
The miracle of space travel U still fasci
nating, and it may on day become lucra
tive as well
A Reuter News report Item Tuesday
reported that congressional analysts have
challenged NASA's plans for the next
phase of U.S. civilian space development
and urged that NASA let corporations,
in thp ftnace Drosnram,
The Office of Technology Assessment
made its recommendations in a report
development closed to the private sector
and other countries. OTA encouraged
NASA to allow investment and projects
wirmthm two vears to complete, from other countries and industry in the
President Reagan directed NASA to build U.S. It would be a good way to defray
a permanently manned space station by costs and develop closer ties with other
1994. The congressional committee said countries .
NASA's space station plan is too broad OoKCtMn completely different,
and that its goals need to be more clearly Earlier this semester we ran an editorial
defined. . congratulating Nebraska fans on their
The estimated price tag for the station exemplary behavior at games. This week
is about $45 billion plus operating costs. ends tit gainst Oklahoma will be an
The station would make space travel emotionaily charged game. We imolore
even more commonplace. A station as
envisioned by NASA would be able to pick
up errant satellites.
and foreign governments become involved Thus far. NASA has kept civilian space
Reagan must raise dust
before honeymoon ends
fans to continue restraining themselves
from throwing oranges or getting exces
sively drunk. Go Big Red!
A s the dust settles and Demo- should be a lame duck the day
Zj crats settle down to the she (I am looking after President
A. J&L chore of arguing that Pres- Kirkpatrick's interests) is inaug-
jdent Reagan was denied a man- urated. Being a lame duck makes
date because he was denied the the chief executive less fearsome,
District of Columbia and his op- and fear is what makes Washing-
ponent's home state, the political ton work well, okay, 07 percent
system is slipping into what is fear and 3 percent devotion,
called the "honeymoon" period,
which lasts until the winner of an Repeal of the War Powers Act.
election claims a mandate to do It is unwieldy, unclear and clearly
something. Alexander Woollcott unconstitutional as a derogation
said that reading the last chap- of the responsibilities of the com-
ters of The Brothers Karams2ov" mander in chief vested in the
always "chokes me up and fills me
with a love of mankind which
sometimes lasts till noon of the
following day."
George
:m wni
The political
lowing day"
"noon of the fol
the end of the
presidency and exercised by most
occupants of that office. No pres
ident has yet quite complied with
the Act. Repeal would be the
straightforward approach.
Abolition of the Federal Elec
tion Commission and all limits on
campaign spending and giving.
The FEC is a bureaucracy that
exists to enforce limits on spend
ing, which are limits on the quan
tity of political speech. Fortunate-
honeymoon and the beginning of a ly, the FEC fails to do that. It
normal, which is to say occasion
ally stormy, marriage is com
ing soon anyway. So Reagan
should go ahead and raise a lot of
dust by raising the questions that
only a second-term president can
raise.
must fail, given the inventiveness
of the American mind regarding
loopholes of all sorts. Still, the
mere existence of the FEC is
unaesthetic, and an affront.
Those awes, J a 1
-v r - rf J Jm I : . 1 . , frrt S? -r. .
zi vara MMNhHHML. . TAKSN?
;i; lw fft V Cx fx 1 JK
X TRW
w r
cr p&ouT
V peer
iiW v V
Mi
v mil
0 K
i
"Quarantine" Nicaragua. This
was the good idea from the Mon-
It has been so long since we dale campaign. I do not know
have had one of those exotic precisely what he meant by it, but
creatures that we need to re- he now has the spare time to
invent the rules for them. But for explain it. Ke proposed it when
the fun of it, he could begin by( he was trying to get back to the
proposing the following: center after his competition with
T3.,wfv,Qo9 An,0nrt GjiT Hart for the Democratic
tllTt "Peace" constituency. Reagan
JncffYt could embrace the idea as an
F'tiUigftgh iifa iSS sample of bipartisanship in for-
to seek a third term. So he is just im J" h t f .
known as Independent counsels." sightly signs proclaiming various sharply about this and my pa
Too often a special prosecutor is political and religious obsessions, tience is not inexhaustible. Con
used as a means of harassing These signs are the work of "pro- servatism means keeping your
officials of the executive branch testers" who actually are mere cotton-pickm' hands off funda
(for example, Hamilton Jordan exhibitionists. They are not mak- mentals. Reformers messed with
and Ed Meese). Besides, the law ing arguments; they are making a baseball's fundamentals. Today's
probably is unconstitutional It mesa. Millions of people have their conservatives are promiscuous
establishes a law-enforcement enjoyment of the nation's capital amenders cf the Constitution,
function outside the president's diminished by these acts of visual Surely they can see the need to
control, although the Constitu- aggression. Citizens should have restore baseball to its pristine
tion vests in the president the a right to pass through impor- condition,
duty to see that the laws are tant and lovely public spaces with- Now, these proposals would
faithfully executed. out having their senses lacerated, bring the honeymoon to a screech
Challenge the court rulings that just as they have a right not to be ing halt, bu t no marriage can be
say the First Amendment means grabbed by the lapels and forced ali bliss. As Dan Jenkins says in
that political "protesters" have a to listen to political outbursts. his hilarious new football novel,
constitutional right to litter "life Its Own Self" marriage is
LaFayette Square. The Square, Repeal of the American League's one year in Heaven and 20 years
ing the Constitution of the two- Repeal the law pertaining to directly across Pennsylvania designated-hitter rule, I have
term limit on Presidents. No one special prosecutors, who now are Avenue from the White House, is hitherto addressed the president
in the light-heavyweight division.
IS34, WaMatoa Post Wrftara Group
tt n Daily n
EDITOR
GENERAL MANAGER
PRODUCTION MANAGER
ADVERTISING MANAGER
CIRCULATION MANAGER
NEWS EDITOR
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS
ChrS3Vi?Esch,721TS3
Kitty Polisky
Tom eyrnt
St$v yyer
Kma Sodst.-sr3
Slsc!-! Thmm
ViZki n.ra
COPY DESK SUPERVISOR
SPORTS EDITOR Ward W. Triclstt 111
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
EDITOR
PHOTO CHIEF
ASSISTANT PHOTO CHIEF
PUBLICATIONS BOARD
CHAIRPERSONS
ChfSstophsr Eurbsch
Joel Ssrtcrt
DsvtJ Cressr.sr
Hick Fclsy, 47S-CI73
An;s.-s KltfId, 4T5-4331
PROFESSIONAL ADVISER Don Wtlton, 473-7331
The Daily Nebraskan (USPS 144-080) is published by the
UNL Publications Board Monday through Friday in the fall
and spring ssmestsrs and Tuesdays and Fridays in ths
summer sessions, except during vacations.
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and com
ments to th9 Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-2533 between 9
a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also has
access to the Publications Board. For information, call Nick
Foley, 476-0275 or Angela Nietfieid. 475-4831.
Postmaster. Ssnd address changes to the Daily Nebraskan,
34 Nebraska Union, 1430 R St., Lincoln, Nsb. 63583-0443.
ALL IMTEJUAL CCFYHJCJIT KZl DAILY KISJUSKAN
Quandry for sports fans
fTl here's a running argument going on down here at
I the office that you could help resolve:
-k- What good does sport do for the non-participant?
The quandry for sports fans is obvious. Literature,
i
ICoppelmae
theater, music and art have had teaching and aesthetic
value for Centuries. But how do you define the useful
ness of sporting events that date back to the bloodlust of
crowds watching gladiators fight to the death, or lions
devouring Christians.
This week,. a student wrote a letter to the Daily
Nebraskan congratulating the Nebraska Dance Ensem
ble for a fine performance, though the crowd was small
He suggested a tongue-in-cheek solution to draw crowds:
Start wearing helmets and cleats.
But the sports watching phenomenon is not limited to
Go Big Red, and this column is net another pro-arts,
anti-Husker gripe. Millions of Americans, including arts
lovers, invest millions of dollars into all kinds of sports,
from football to ping pong. The question is why do we go
to watch. What is the attraction to watching contests out
of which we gain little?
Direct your cards and letters to this newspaper, but
first read a few explanations of sports watching made
by famous commentators.
"In America, it is sport that is the opiate of the
masses."
Russell Baker
The New York Times
Baker sees sports as a narcotic. Sports fans often echo
the reasons drug abusers give for their addiction:
recreation for recreation's sake, to forget about life's
problems for awhile. Sports fans experience adrenaline
highs and nsars apoplexy.
Comparing sports to drugs b a negative enough com
parison (for most people). But other ofSce theorists
have gone on to suggest that sports addiction deadens
the senses that contact sports in particular kindle base
self-destructive urges in the human psyche. In the visual
arts, elements work together to supposedly create truth
and beauty. In visual spcrts, teams and individuals work
against each other in an atmosphere cf competition and
violence.