Bits & Bytes

• Making the Radical Left look moderate--In a debate in the February 1999 Bloomington Beacon, Pam Freeman, IU-Bloomington Assistant Dean of Students, advocates hate-crime laws and even promotes a chilling "law that identifies targeted groups and requires tracking of such incidents." On the same page, even the director of the gay advocacy Bloomington Human Rights Commission admits that such Orwellian actions would violate the 1st and 14th Amendments.
• Pork or beans?--The February 4 Bloomington Independent has as its cover story an article condemning the proposed I-69 expansion as a "pork barrel" project. It is strange, however, for the potential recipients of an alleged wasteful expenditure of federal funds to call it such. Could it be that the environmental groups resisting I-69 are so blinded by their eco-religious fervor that they disregard any potential economic growth?
• It's a mad, mad, mad, mad campus--According to Indiana Daily Student articles, on February 4 Union Board almost adopted Hoosier Review's idea to donate excess dorm meal points to the hungry. Instead, the money was going to bring the AIDS quilt to Bloomington. Meanwhile, OUT (IU's homosexual student union) collected canned goods (during a hunger strike!) to show support for gay students at Notre Dame. All we can say is...huh?
• Impeding justice to undermine values--According to the Associated Press, on February 5 an Ohio Appeals Court overturned the 51-year sentence of a man who raped his fiancee's 8-year-old daughter because while handing down the sentence, the trial judge quoted Matthew 18:6, where Jesus strongly warns against harming children.
• They both do their part--Hillary Clinton appeared at a meeting of population control groups on February 7. Amidst praising U.S. grassroots groups promoting family planning (read: pro-abortion activists), she said population control efforts "have come a long way in the last years." Meanwhile, her husband has been doing his part to invent sex that isn't actually sex and will not cause pregnancy.