EDITOR Josh Funk OPINION EDITOR Mark Baldridge EDITORIAL BOARD Lindsay Young Jessica Fargen Samuel McKewon Cliff Hicks Kimberly Sweet Our VIEW Computer illiterate Suspicious minds breed foolish thoughts “They’ve got to be kidding us, right?” the younger senator asked the older senator. The two sat in a smokers’ lounge, talking about one of the latest memos. “No, son, it’s quite a serious matter,” the older senator replied as he puffed on his cigar. “These are matters of national securi ty, you know. We can’t have the commies using our own technologies against us. We have these laws for a reason.” “Look, Apple’s making home comput ers, not some sort of superpowered code cracking machine!” the younger senator fumed. The proposal, in his mind, was a simple one. Apple is requesting a change in the laws that govern the export of “supercomput u ‘It plays frickin ’ videogames’ the younger man shouted, ‘not break into the Pentagon! ’ ers. The definition of that word, Apple argues, hasn’t kept up with the tech nology itself.. “See, hat’s how it might appear td laymen like you and me, but the boys who handle national security, they think about these kinds of things all the time.” The younger senator looked at me memo, aumo struck. “It says here that they are still cur rently debating over whether or not the new PlayStation will be considered a supercom puter or not.” “And?” the older senator asked. “It plays frickin’ videogames,” the younger man shouted. “It doesn’t break into the Pentagon!” “Ah, but it’s fast, and speed’s all one needs anymore. These hackers, they can redirect technology and corrupt it for their ■ own uses.” “Tell me again why we’re supposed to take this argument as valid?” The older senator nodded. “It’s a matter of national security, son. If the boys over at the National Security Agency say some thing might be dangerous, then we need to keep our eyes on it.” “Letting Apple sell its G4 personal computers to foreign countries is going to cause a breach of national security?” “Ah ah ah. Supercomputers.” “Right. How?” “Well... well, I don’t know exactly, but just the possibility is enough for me.” “Right, and I wondered why people think Congress is full of dimwits,” the younger man said as he ground his cigarette butt into the ashtray. “Now I know.” Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Fall 1999 Daily Nebraskan. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its student body or the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. A column is solely the opinion of its author. The Board of Regents serves as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises the production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employees. letter Policy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guarantee their publication. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any material submitted. Submitted material becomes property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Those who submit letters must identify themselves by name, year in school, major and/or group affiliation, if any. Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 20 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln, NE. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. Obenneyerjs VIEW youu NEW Believe rr-nestrangest thing Has just happened- c had a list of some G-IRLS ON CAMPUS I'VE gEEN MEANING To GET A HOLD OF, AND WHEN T'CAU- THESE NUMBERS HERE, X get idld r"Ai At "very bad Boy” and then x'm ASKED WHAT NAU&HTy TH/N6-S X'AI Going To , DO... THAT TUST SEEMS SO OUT OF CHARACTER... A you haven’t by chance seen another LIST LYING ABOUT, NAVE YOU? DN LETTERS Let’s Do Lunch I enjoyed Josh Moenning’s col umn “Third Party Predicament” (DN, Sept. 14). I think you’re right on the money that if Buchanan joins the Reform Party it would hurt Bush’s chances at getting elected. As a liberal, I’ve long been hoping that either Buchanan or (Gary) Bauer would join a third party and leach votes away from the Republican candidate. The most important outcome of the presidential election is that three Supreme Court justices are expected to retire by 2005. The winner of the election will have a chance to shift the balance of power on the court. I found your use of the term “mil itant and maniacal gay rights activists” interesting. A common tac tic of a group is to brand its oppo nents as insane, perverted or evil. As a member of the ACLU, I support equal rights for gays and lesbians (rights such as employment, housing, marriage and adoption). I often want to stereotype all Christian conserva tives but then I remember that I have friends and family members who are Christian, and they’re not all bad peo ple. If you’re interested, I’ll buy you lunch some Saturday, and you can see what a gay rights activist is really like. Jeremy Patrick Lincoln Forced Choices I would like to enthusiastically thank Jessica Flanagain for speaking out against this murder that society calls “partial-birth abortion.” The name itself, “partial-birth,” even suggests life, yet some ignorant people blindly refuse to see this par allel. The fact that the former sur geon general, many physicians, med ical experts and even some abortion ists acknowledge that this “proce dure” is never necessary should be enough for legislators and the American public to see the wrong in this act. To address Mr. Baldridge’s side: Isn’t the inalienable right to life of the child greater than the woman’s right to choose? Especially because thousands of women are forced into abortion by men who refuse to accept responsi bility for their offspring. Rachel U. Ronning sophomore undeclared Freshman Refresher Amanda Lighter could use a refresher course in freshman English composition. Her letter to the editor (DN, Tuesday) was, for a senior, poor in logic and worse in English, one of her listed majors. Regardless of your stand on Jessica Flanagain’s comments about the women’s studies program, when you use poor logic and horrible English to attack someone, you only display your ignorance and destroy your argument. Karl Baumgarten technician geosciences Boat Rocking Artists The recent uproar in New York regarding an art exhibit represents a common problem with our society’s “support” of the arts and of its per ceptions of free speech rights. Conservatives and liberals are both bashing this publicly funded Brooklyn Museum exhibit, which supposedly portrays the Virgin Mary with cutouts of pornographic maga zines and elephant “dung.” The Catholic Church’s position seems to be an outcry of the violation of church and state. (Which I find amusing coming from an institution seemingly bent on a theocratically ruled nation.) I doubt, however, that there would be anyone staging this as an important issue if the artist had painted a Christian religious icon in a positive light. The issue everyone is trying to mask as a church and state violation is really a matter of free speech. Call a spade a spade - this is a clear exam ple of censorship. It’s ludicrous for a nation to say, in effect, we support the arts but only to the extent that an artist does not mean or imply anything with which we may disagree. If we want to live in a country civ ilized enough to recognize the impor tance of artistic expression, then we must be strong willed enough to real ize that we are a nation of highly divergent opinions to which we must be tolerant. Nolan Gaskill senior music education I PS. Write Hack . . . ... Send letters to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 "R" St,, Lincoln, NE 68588, or fax to (402) 472-1761, or e-mail