PFC Chair Devon Duquette just resigned as chair of the PFC. Below is his resignation letter.

I formerly resign as PFC chair for the year. While I will still serve on the committee, at this time, I cannot handle the position with the diligent attention and time that this committee deserves. I apologize for the inconvenience at this time, during the beginning of budget hearings, I just cannot dedicate the time that being a chairperson demands. Personal issues, as well as time commitments, are preventing me from continuing my position, but my love for this committee and it’s programs prevent me from quitting the committee as a whole. Thank you for understanding!

Thanks,
Devon Duquette
PFC Member

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Sometimes, living in the Pacific Northwest, it’s easy to forget just how loathsome and malignant hipsters are. They are, after all, nearly as ubiquitous as such similarly squishy and useless northwest fixtures as “fog” and “moss” [Fog is not squishy. -ed], not to mention their close namesakes, hippies. We observe with embarrassed disgust these irritating, unimaginative raiders-of-long-dead-pop-culture pedaling around town on their fixed-gear bicycles, frequently sporting absurd facial hair and 1980’s garb — though neon-colored early-1990’s clothing has in recent years begun to creep into “fashion”.

But lest we forget how miserable and, ultimately, brainless and malevolent hipsterism is, one need only take a glance at the sorts of antics International Hipsterdom routinely engages in, specifically the marketing of designer jeans produced in such transgressive, counter-culture places like North Korea. According to the Swedish hipster at the center of all of this:

The idea for the project was born out of curiosity for North Korea, which has grown increasingly isolated in recent years under Western criticism of its human rights record and nuclear ambitions. “The reason we did this was to come closer to a country that was very difficult to get into contact with.” [emphasis added... also, die a painful death of syphilis, or something, you putrid sore]

Frankly, I agree. Damn the West for “isolating” North Korea by “criticizing” its human rights record. I guess when you’ve had the collapse of Enron happen on your soil, you’ve got no place pointing fingers at all those gulags. After all, it isn’t as if North Korea hasn’t walled itself off from the rest of the world since the 1950’s. Then again, no one ever accused hipsters of having any sense of history — unless you’re talking about what sorts of clothes were trendy from about 1978 until sometime in the 1990’s, that is.

Thankfully, it seems like non-hipster factions in Swedish society have come to their senses, refusing to allow shelf-space to so-called “NOKO” branded designer clothes (if you didn’t hate hipsters before, just take a look at the wastes of sperm pictured in the BBC report). At least one of the founders of “NOKO Jeans” admits that North Korea “sometimes treats its citizens terribly.” Huh. You don’t say. Well, it’s a good thing, then, that a gaggle of well-intentioned young lads decided to give it the good old college try and did what they could to fix the situation by… err… peddling North Korean-made clothing at exorbitant prices in Swedish luxury boutiques (the jeans were reputedly slated to be sold for $215). I’m sure that they really would’ve made a difference if the forces of international capital hadn’t forced their wares off the shelves.

The game’s just so loaded, you know?

At any rate, the next time you see some hipster galavanting around campus, cocksure in his faux-Mercury mustache or her unconvincing “nerd-girl” attire, just remember to ask that person if they’d buy the latest, hippest “NOKO” jeans if given the chance. At the very least, it’ll make them feel uncomfortable, defensive, and most importantly, unfashionable. What’s certain is that the those of us who don’t necessarily mind being used as marionettes by the forces of international capital need to take every advantage over this vile sub-species that we can afford, even if it means making them feel that they’re not decked out in the most transgressive and “avant” of duds.

Because that’s the real crime.

In many nations, the lazy fatcat bureaucrats in their towering spires of power are content to put their grotesquely corpulent feet up on the desk and leave the important business of creating building code to the teeming masses of hardworking municipal legislators.

Not so Switzerland, a small country in Central Europe. Oh no. In this bulwark of elbow grease, the hardworking, selfless lawmakers have made building code a national priority, starting with a referendum submitted to Swiss voters this November. They have finally put a stop to the threat of minarets, a move that doubtless massages the balm of hope into the bullwhip-scarred backs of hardworking municipal planners everywhere.

Of course, not being a municipal planner myself, I have no idea what that threat is, although this poster made by the Swiss People’s Party, which courageously spearheaded the ban, does provide some clue. I don’t read German, but I can only assume that those imposing black spires somehow endanger that attractive yet curiously overdressed Swiss woman in the front of the picture. Hmm?

I can’t quite figure out how, as the New York Times appears to be claiming, this elucidating clinic in direct democracy is in violation of international human rights conventions. Also, strangely, the large numbers of immigrants Turkey, Kosovo, and other Muslim countries that have become prevalent in Switzerland recently seem to be taking offense, despite, one assumes, having left their native lands to escape the tyranny of governments that did nothing about the skyline damage done by minarets. Answers in the comments please.

(You can also read more perspectives from Al-Jazeera, the NY Times editorial board, the Daily Mail, the Guardian, a fascinating trove of letters on the subject, etc.)

Well, “health care reform” is on its way to the Senate floor. When it passes (not if, but when), it will amount to little more than billions of dollars worth of wasted money and one big “WIN” check-mark in Team Blue’s column… and make no mistake, this isn’t about the so-called “right” to health care, looking out for the disadvantaged, making things more “affordable*”, or any of the other noble rhetoric people are deploying — it’s about politicians being able to point to some astoundingly expensive piece of legislation and being able to say, “LOOK!!! WE DID SOMETHING!!” Period. Full stop. Democrats get to crow about their “big win” for the common man and Republicans get to strut around and talk about all that “fiscal responsibility” they forgot about between 2000 and 2008.

(more…)

“If you want, I can teach you how to make a bomb out of a toilet paper roll and a stick of dynamite.”

There was an interesting article published yesterday on boingboing.net about Britain’s new Internet laws that I think students (and owners of Utorrent) may be interested in.

The author of the article, Cory Doctrow, highlighted some of the law’s more ridiculous points

It consists almost entirely of penalties for people who do things that upset the entertainment industry (including the “three-strikes” rule that allows your entire family to be cut off from the net if anyone who lives in your house is accused of copyright infringement, without proof or evidence or trial).

Doctrow also describes the strain placed on Internet Service Providers by the law

A duty on ISPs to spy on all their customers in case they find something that would help the record or film industry sue them (ISPs who refuse to cooperate can be fined £250,000).

Of course Internet freedoms, including censorship and file-sharing, has been a popular topic for discussion since its inception into mainstream culture. The question for Americans is now whether or not the law proves to be popular enough for this country’s legislation to run with the idea and respond in kind.

In any case, you know someone out there is trying to figure out a way to “Hoard me up some Internet cause the government’s gonna take it away”

Better head to Costco.

The ASUO president may have appointed a student to the Student Senate ineligible to vote in the race for his own seat, although nobody I’ve yet talked to seems to know with certainty whether that’s the case.

The student is ethnic studies major Xavier Aranda, whom everyone on the Senate seemed Wednesday night to agree was personally qualified for Senate Seat 14, the seat whose occupant represents students majoring in ethnic studies and 24 other linguistic and social studies disciplines.

Aranda, however, is also a Cal. State East Bay student attending the University of Oregon through the National Student Exchange. NSE students are represented by seat 19, which also represents journalism students. Former ASUO Elections Coordintor Aaron Tuttle said said NSE students “probably only vote for that seat.”

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The image found on a brochure given to us by OSPIRG

We were in the office yesterday, sifting through piles of random papers when out dropped a brochure from our recent trip to an OSPIRG meeting. On the front of this brochure was the image above, the windmill being one of OSPIRG’s main branding images.

Taking a page from PETA,  OSPIRG obviously wants the viewer of the image to associate their cause with the greatness of those who raised the flag at Iwo Jima.

Let’s put this into perspective though, shall we?

At the Battle of Iwo Jima almost 7,000 American soldiers lost their lives. A massive part of the struggle in the Pacific during WWII, including wounded it was the only battle during the war in which American casualties outnumbered Japanese casualties. A sculpture of “Raising the Flag at Iwo Jima” stands at the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.

Conversely, OSPIRG is a lobbyist organization whose practices and transparency are shady at best.

Using the “Raising the Flag at Iwo Jima” imagery as promotional for anything, much less propaganda for a lobbyist organization, is absolutely shameful. The “raising the turbine” image shows disrespect for the Americans who fought and died at Iwo Jima (and possibly even for the entire war as the image is the most powerful and well known from WWII).

Disrespecting our veterans (and for many of us, our own kin) in this way shows OSPIRG’s true lack of taste. Whatever your opinion is on OSPIRG, there can be no disagreement that their use of this image for their own self-promotion is absolutely depraved, disgusting and immoral.

Reedies have never exactly been renowned for anything at all except for being rich, pompous and insufferable. Sadly, they can now add to that list “have a worse student publication than the Comic Press.” For a long time, I was convinced that student-run publications couldn’t get any worse than the UO’s own Student Insurgent. Then the Comic Press (neè The Weekly Enema) started putting out issues and the bar was really and truly lowered.* Alas, my attention has now been drawn to “The Pamphlette“,  a student publication at Reed College that has been embroiled in controversy after running an article charmingly entitled “LC  [Lewis & Clark -ed.] students kill Jewish people” after swastika graffiti was discovered in Lewis and Clark’s library.

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Reversing the Bush Administration’s absurd policy of prosecuting users of medical marijana, regardless of individual state laws, the Obama Administration has announced that it

will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws…

Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws.

Score one for states rights.

(Via Instapundit)

I was interested in reading the Emerald’s article about yesterday’s anti-Columbus Day protest held in the EMU Amphitheatre by the Native American Student Union (NASU). In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past fifteen or twenty years, there’s been a somewhat high-profile effort nationally to end the celebration of Columbus Day because of the centuries-long decimation of peoples indigenous to the Western Hemisphere that happened in the wake of Columbus’ “discovery” of the Americas.

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According to Tomcat down at the Ol’ Dirty, the grievance filed against Emma Kallaway for failure of her duties was dismissed.

I’ve remained unimpressed with the stated greivance against Kallaway since it was filed this summer. Really, I could care less if she turned in her stated goals on time. I don’t expect much out of the ASUO and I’ll be damned if they don’t deliver.

Also, the grievance was obviously filed out of spite and the entire chain of events has been blown out of proportion–did anyone really think the ASUO would remove a sitting president? Especially when the newly appointed judges were chosen by her own office?

If this is what is going to stand for controversy in the ASUO this year, I will welcome it with open arms. (But I doubt that will happen)

Let’s get back to business in the ASUO, shall we?

All expenses paid student conferences in Hawaii for everyone!

What happens when an influential Senator dies and the law says that he can’t be replaced without holding a special election? Just get rid of the law, which your party put in place back in 2004 to prevent the rival party from potentially taking a vacated Senate seat, so you can appoint this guy to the seat and have 60 “aye”’s when it’s time to vote on health care:

Via Reason, The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a great article about one of the Commentator’s favorite topics — intellectual diversity on campus. It starts by discussing the (somewhat eyebrow-raising) opening of a “Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements” at Berkeley, and eventually moves into a broader discussion of the intellectual monoculture that’s evolved on college campuses over the last forty years:

Though we are no longer in the politically correct sauna of the 1980s and 1990s, and experiences vary from college to college, the picture [David Horowitz] paints of the faculty and curriculum in American universities remains embarrassingly accurate, and it is foolish to deny what we all see before us.

Over the past decade, our universities have made serious efforts to increase racial and ethnic diversity on the campus (economic diversity worries them less, for some reason). Well-paid deans work exclusively on the problem. But universities show not the slightest interest in intellectual diversity among faculty members. That wouldn’t matter if teachers could be counted on to introduce students to their adversaries’ books and views, but we know how rarely that happens.

[...]

Lyons was an American historian who wrote about the 60s and made no secret of his liberal politics or his loathing of Reagan and post-Reagan conservatism. But he was also disturbed by how few colleges offer courses on conservatism, treating it as a “pathology” rather than a serious political tradition…

The author, Mark Lilla, offers some anecdotal evidence of what happens when students are allowed the opportunity to take courses in conservative thought that are taught actively and honestly:

Lyons’s class was split almost evenly between liberal and conservative students, who had no trouble arguing with each other. They seemed to understand what thin-skinned professors wish to forget: that intellectual engagement is not for crybabies. The students had loud debates over Reagan’s legacy, Bush’s foreign policy, religious freedom, abortion, even the “war on Christmas”—and nobody broke into tears or ran to the dean to complain. And the more the students argued, the more they came to respect one another. According to Lyons, students learned that that conservative guy was no longer just the predictable gun nut or religious fanatic. And the conservative students learned that they had to make real arguments, not rely on clichés and sound bites recycled from Fox News. [emphasis added]

[...]

We should be grateful for his modest book, which has lessons for everyone. It reminds liberal academics of just how narrow-minded and conservative (in the nonpolitical sense) they are in their hiring and teaching, and how much they have to learn if they want to understand the political world we live in.

There are lessons for conservatives, too. Anti-intellectualism has always dogged conservative tradition (you betcha!), and figures like David Horowitz, who stoke the hysteria, only contribute to the dumbing down. Hopped up on Fox News, too many young conservatives have become ignorant of the conservative intellectual tradition and incapable of engaging civilly with their adversaries. [emphasis added]

Or maybe it’s just more convenient for some to promulgate the “racist, gun-toting, religious nut” stereotype and continue to churn out the thoughtless, pliable Nate Gulley’s and Diego Hernandez’s of the world.

That pesky little document that seems to be continually thwarting the best laid plans of our political class, the Constitution of the United States of America, was signed 222 years ago today. Let’s hope it keeps pissing people off and frustrating their ambitions for another 222 years.

(H/T: Instapundit)