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EDITOR
Josh Funk
OPINION
EDITOR
Mark Baldridge
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Lindsay Young
Jessica Fargen
Samuel McKewon
Cliff Hicks
Kimberly Sweet
!
Our
VIEW
Hands
off
Internet taxes could
kill fledgling market
For the next year, the World Trade
Organization will have all the time it
needs to make its obvious decision to
ban extra taxes for goods sold on the
Internet.
Last week, a one-year moratorium on
Internet taxes was passed by the WTO in
an effort to keep Internet trade a tjiriving
business.
uood old-tashioned capitalism
teaches that any time you think you can
squeeze a few more dollars out of any
one, do it. The problem is that it’s an easy
way to kill a fledgling market.
Five years ago, people scoffed at the
idea of buying things through the World
Wide Web.
Now, a thousand transactions occur
every minute. Where will we be five
years from now?
Many countries already have special
taxes in mind for Internet sales. The idea
is that governments want to take a bigger
chunk of the change from that money.
France already has a 20.6 percent
value-added tax on online goods;
Pakistan and Egypt both want to “keep
their options open.”
The problem is that when you tax
online businesses, you discourage com
panies from doing business on the
Internet.
In the future, the world gets smaller.
• Fiber optic cables and broadband con
nections speed up the Internet.
With the rise of Internet speed, use of
the Internet as a free market place is only
going to be on the rise.
People will buy and sell across the
globe more than they already do now.
Within 10 minutes, something can be
bought, paid for and ready to ship from
halfway across the world.
we re going to a global economy so
fast. It’s just beyond the horizon.
Internet taxes would only slow that
racing progress down and hamper busi
nesses that want to get that competitive
edge.
Mail order businesses have mostly
been exempt from taxes for a long time -
the Internet just takes it one step further,
one step faster.
And taxing the Internet is as imprac
tical as it is foolish. With millions on the
. Internet already and that number steadi
ly on the rise, trying to catch people
evading these taxes would be similar to
looking for one minnow in the Pacific
Ocean.
The Internet is the wild West of the
modem age and is rapidly evolving into
the town square of tomorrow. Anything
slowing that progress down needs to get
out of the way.
Editorial Pallor
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Fail 1999 Daily Nebraskan. They do
not necessarily reflect the views of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoin, its
employees, its student body or the
Univefsity 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:
Mters@unlinfo.unl.edu.
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DN
LETTERS
Editor’s Note: We’ve received rather a lot of letters on TailgateGate since Monday. Here’s a bunch, including one
from your chancellor and mine, James Moeser. See dailyneb.com for more.
Is our society so caught up in
being politically correct that we can’t
laugh at a joke?
Crystal Nelson
All that the people organizing this
event had to do was watch one
episode of Tom Green’s show, and
they probably would have changed
their minds or at least discouraged
taking small children to the show.
Sam Mertensen
Come on now, what did you
expect? I’m serious, anyone who has
tuned into Tom Green’s show on
MTV knows exactly what Tom is all
about. And so did the administration
that brought him here, whether they
admit it or not.
Dalen Rosiere
Rumor is that the comedian
Gallagher has expressed interest in
performing at next year’s “Tailgate on
the Turf.” I can’t wait for the universi
tywide apology when administrators
in attendance become upset after
being bombarded by exploding
watermelons.
Ryan Anderson
First off, I did not attend the event
because from what little I’ve seen of
Green in the past, I was already of the
opinion that he is not very funny.
Akim D. Reinhardt
To have someone write in and
whine about something that they
weren’t even a spectator at is hilari
ous to me, first of all. Second of all,
grow up.
Eric Oberembt
What the hell? Have you ever
seen his show? Did anybody really
research Tom before having him
come here and perform? I did not
know what he was going to do exact
ly, but I knew it would be “tainting.”
Personally I think it was a waste
of time for the apologetic e-mails
about Tom. They should be sorry for
the rest of the show.
Scott Philips
I am so tired of getting these long
ass “apologies” over e-mail from Bill
Byrne, the ASUN homecoming com
mittee and the Academic Senate.
You cannot tell me that none of
these people had any idea what Tom
Green was capable of. Hello, that’s
what the man does. His fame is based
on his ability to embarrass people and
do unthinkable and rude acts for a
laugh.
Kolleen Quinn
Why a parent would bring a child
to an event directed to college stu
dents makes no sense to me. Would
these same parents take their children
to see Howard Stern live or perhaps
George Carlin — comedians known
for their language and sexual refer
ences?
James S. Vance
Tom Green humiliates his own
parents on a weekly basis 10 times
more offensively than what he ever
did here.
As for those people who were
offended and brought their children
with them, well, let me just say, that it
is your fault.
You are the kind of people who
take your small children to the “South
Park” movie, with out knowing about
“South Park,” just because it is a car
toon.
Heather Ditsch
The university should have
known what to expect when it
brought Tom Green here, not apolo
gize after the fact when it was not as
politically correct as they wanted it to
be.
It would be like asking Eddie
Murphy to do his show or Chris Rock
and not use all of their techniques and
material.
I could go to 100 Tom Green
shows before I have to live to see
another GEEK, I mean greek skit.
Brian Fuchs
Last Thursday, I joined 8,000 oth
ers at the Tailgate on the Turf, an
event intended to reinvigorate home
coming’s pep rally.
As Tom Green’s act proceeded,
my enjoyment of the evening quickly
turned to embarrassment and shame.
For one of the very few times
since I have served as chancellor of
this wonderful university, I was
ashamed of an event on our campus.
Ashamed that we invited this “enter
tainer” who proceeded to violate the
very values for which this university
should stand.
How ironic it was that this
occurred after a morning in which the
university community came together
to celebrate the life of Melvin Jones
in a moment of remembrance and
love in which we celebrated every
thing that is beautiful and wonderful
about an academic community where
we truly care for one another as indi
viduals.
We have struggled to create a cul
ture that values and respects the
integrity of the individual, where sex
ual assault and harassment have no
place, where everyone is safe from
racial and gender stereotyping.
Almost as appalling as the perfor
mance itself has been the reaction of
some (at least as reported in last
Friday’s DN) that would indicate that
many found Mr. Green’s act not only
OK, but really-entertaining. That tells
me we have a long way to go be the
kind of university I think we should
be.
James Moeser
chancellor