Bradbury Hypes Global Warming in MU

Bill Bradbury, Oregon’s gerrymandering, electioneering Secretary of State, has now sunk to a new low. Thursday afternoon, Bradbury addressed students in the MU Lounge on the subject of global warming. Now wait, since when is Bradbury qualified to talk about science? He’s not a scientist, he’s a former businessman turned politician.

Which is why, perhaps, The OSU Daily Barometer’s account of the event said it “echoed Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’” As noted in a Liberty Blog post on Wednesday, many are questioning the scientific validity of Gore’s data. But Bradbury quoted some of Gore’s data, made a bad analogy about an orange, and compared global warming to fascism.

Bradbury’s brand of politics as Secretary of State has been shameful. The idea that he was qualified to speak about science, more so than the well-respected science professors of all political stripes employed at this university, is political cronyism at its highest level. The Barometer didn’t indicate who sponsored he even, but those people should find remember that unless political manipulation is the goal, it’s best to let scientists talk about science.

The Other Side Of Earth Day

On this Earth Day, it is worth mentioning the people no one will mention today. Scientists around the world have been facing professional, social, and political repression for stating that they do not agree with the consensus of the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change).

Lawrence Solomon has recently published an account of these scientists called The Deniers. National Review Online interviewed him about the process of creating the account, as well as some less than well known information about the IPCC and Al Gore’s methods. Since it is guaranteed that you will see some Global Warming hysterics today, I strongly urge you to read his interview as another perspective.

Happy Earth Day, readers.

A Short Legislative Review

The 2008 Oregon Legislature “not-so-special” Special Session has finally ended. More money was spent, and government now does more things. But the most ominous legislation passed, at least in my view, was a HJR (House Joint Resolution) stating that everyone has a “universal right to health care.”

There are a lot of places that this could go, and I don’t like any of them. Whether it be regulation of insurers, state subsidies of insurers, or blatant socialized medicine, the road to government intervention is health care is now wide open. When government guarantees rights, it feels the need to do something to protect them. Unlike any other right, however, this one is going to cost money.

The Liberty website will be updated soon, on which you can check out my column “The Matter of Rights,” which more clearly lays out why these notions of entitlements as rights are bogus.

SHAB Pounces On Those Who Puff

The Student Health Advisory Board, which does not seem to be very good at publicizing it's meetings or seeking student input, has announced that it is prusuing an initiative to make the OSU campus Smoke-Free. That's right. If their goals come to fruition, nowhere on our large, scenic, open-air campus, would a person be able to have something as simple as a smoke break.

Here's a less restrictive suggestion. Take some of that huge wad of cash we, as students, give SHS every term, and commission a study to evaluate potential locations for "Designated Smoking Areas" on campus. Criteria could include areas with (curently) minimal pedestrian foot traffic, the ability for smoke to dissipate quickly, and an absence of opening first and second story windows.

Instead, SHAB has chosen to take the easy way out, as government tends to do. Government is good at two things: Banning things and taxing things. For a government, especially student government, to do anything else requires exceptional intelligence and character among the members of that government body. Let's see if the SHAB has got it.

The Baro Doesn't Like Black People?

That's the message that protesters from the Black Cultural Center tried to send to the huddled masses waiting to get into the OSU-UW football game Saturday. Standing in a "circle" (looked more like a triangle to me) and holding signs that proclaimed an anti-diversity bias at OSU's camups daily and expounded such claims as "It's not just face paint" in reference to photograph run on the front page of the Baro preceeding the student-led "Black Out Reser" initiative.

I'll be giving a full discourse on this subject in the next Liberty, but just to be clear, if one looks at historical evidence, the Baro is the most diversity friendly (in the university's definition of diversity) newspapers anywhere, not just at OSU. It would appear the the multiculturalism crowd has a "one-strike" policy on not being nice to minorities.

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In the greatest traditions of the internet, we have established a blog.

This blog shall be a forum for commentary, satire, and the occasional bit of political rambling and posturing. Please feel free to comment. Also enjoy our regular website: www.theliberty.org

Recently, Greg Kendoll (Associate Editor) and Rockne Roll (Executive Editor) attended the Collegiate Network Editor's Conference in Scottsdale, AZ. The conference is the largest gathering of conservative collegiate journalists in the country. The bar tab reflected this fact. A session on journalism as a career mainly consisted of sitting at the hotel bar and watching UO march to victory over ASU. When the gentleman hosting the session was asked about this , his responce was something along the lines of "if you are really going into journalism, get used to this." It wasn't all fun and games, though it was all fun; A lot was learned, particularly about layout. You'll see results in print editions soon. But the best part really was the interactions with other papers, sharing tips and tricks.

During the game and most of the weekend, The Liberty staff enjoyed the presence of Ossie Bladine (Editor in Chief) and CJ Ciaramella (Associate Editor) from The Oregon Commentator, a conservative publication at UO. Plans for collabration were laid and the Civil War rivalry was cast aside in order that the two Oregon schools could pose a united front against the Ivy League pretentiousness that was so clearly expressed by (first and foremost) Harvard and others. Notable accomplices in our crusade, which mainly involved sitting around (you guessed it) the bar and watching football (like normal, non-Ivy College students), were the staff of The Sentinel (Ohio State University) and The Orange and Blue Observer (University of Illinois).

Thanks to everyone who was at the conference, to CN for hosting all of us, and especially to Joe Lindsley for letting us "put it on 289."