The Sidelines - today's article!

The Sidelines

Watch me take on state senator Doug Jackson (D-Dickson) in his quest to sanitize the TV of those pesky "Girls Gone Wild" ads, and also of free speech in the process.

Find something else to protest.

Sick and tired of the mouth-breathers whining about Forrest Hall at MTSU, I finally stepped into the fray for last Wednesday's column.

http://www.mtsusidelines.com/media/storage/paper202/news/2006/12/06/Opinions/Find-Something.Else.To.Protest-2523829.shtml?norewrite200612111359&sourcedomain=www.mtsusidelines.com

This one got lots of feedback.

Today's article in Sidelines

Today's rant is on the percieved evils of elitism, the shadowy pejorative lobbed at academics the world over (but mainly in the US, and mainly by stupid people).

I'm convinced that screaming "ivory tower" at your professors makes you look like a simpleton who just didn't get the lessons, in most cases.

read on...

http://www.mtsusidelines.com/media/storage/paper202/news/2006/11/30/Opinions/In.Higher.Education.Elite.Is.Good-2513853.shtml?norewrite200611301101&sourcedomain=www.mtsusidelines.com

Opinion: Thursday, November 16 2006

Continue to not trust politicians
Tenacious E
Evan Barker
Posted: 11/16/06

The times, they are a-changin'.

Although we may be tired of the political slugfest of recent months, there is change in the air, and it is our duty to make the best of it.

Regardless of how we all feel about the elections, there is a simple reality: they're finished, so get over it. If you're a Democrat, don't gloat about "your" win. There's too much work to be done to waste a minute on pride. If you're a Republican, don't sulk, or people will think you're a whiner.

The bottom line is, get over it, and get back to work.

The elections blew fresh air into the stale legislative branch of Congress, but it's no magic bullet to fix our country's problems. The only thing that a Democratic win was good for was to check an out-of-control Executive branch. From now on, if President George W. Bush wants something, he'll be forced to do the unthinkable: compromise.

The very same goes for the new Democratic majority. As they are well aware, the minority party can still make a life hell, and it would be wise to carefully choose where to shed blood.

Here are a few things that will probably happen: the Democrats will probably try to remove those pesky subsidies to oil companies, whereby the federal government pays tax money to oil companies to keep prices low.

Getting rid of this means higher gas prices for you and I.

The oil companies may or may not put up a fight, since allowing higher prices under the Democrats makes the Republicans look good, and the Republicans and oil companies are all very friendly.

Remember this in two years.

Minimum wage will probably go up. If you work on campus and you make $5.50 per hour, you'll take home a little something extra. It might almost be enough to live on, if you don't drive or eat.

Remember this in two years.

Expect wholesale inquiry into Sept. 11, 2001 and the government's response to it. The Democrats will want to vilify the Republicans to better posture themselves for the 2008 presidential election. The Republicans will try to sandbag the process to save their image, or convince you that you're still safer under them.

Expect to learn interesting things about what happened five years ago in September.

Remember them for two years.

Similarly, there will be wholesale muckraking of the reasons to go to Iraq, which the Democrats will probably declare were bogus, although they voted for war anyway.

A majority of our citizens will probably agree that the war is bogus, but at this point, what good will it do? We were already fooled into starting the fight, and proving it phony won't end the bloodshed, nor bring back the dead. It may, however, shock some of the public into trusting their politicians less.

Think about these for the next two years.

Essentially, that's what we need to do. The problem with our political process is the collective short-term memory of the voting public. If it helps you, clip articles about your politicians, so you can remember their every misdeed when it comes time to vote again.

To keep score, we still haven't caught Osama bin Laden, and our public schools are still in a tailspin. Additionally, our great-grandchildren will still be saddled with the nearly unfathomable debt incurred in the last 6 years, and there probably won't be any safety-blanket money left for our generation when we get old, thanks to the Baby-Boomers.

What can we do?

For starters, keep the heat on your representatives. Postage stamps aren't expensive, and you can send them all the scathing mail you want. If they think they're losing your vote, they'll be interested in problem-solving.

Check into one of the many third-party groups emerging right now. Some of them have some pretty fascinating ideas to refresh you from the usual glut of uselessness spewing from the Democrats or Republicans.

You might consider voting for one of them instead of one of the two evils.

In short, there are plenty of things to spend the next two years on, and petty political bickering should immediately drop to the bottom of the stack.

There's plenty of catching up to do.

Evan Barker is a junior music performance major and can be reached at ehb2d@mtsu.edu.

The AntiTonic, a little blog about music, politics, and life

This is the first post of The AntiTonic, my blog about life, music and some other things.

I'm an undergrad at Middle Tennessee State University, majoring in Viola Performance. I'm a wannabe composer and conductor. In my non-spare time, I'm an opinions columnist for the MTSU newspaper, Sidelines. I publish under the byline "Tenacious E" in case you're curious.

Occasionally (or every week, if i'm not otherwise inspired), I'll post my articles on this blog.

Basically, this blog is for musicians, thinkers, lovers of life, or anyone with an apprecation of beauty, art, and our place in the world.