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Show -- Ttat33reattrMlcfc iiM Koss. IPeirot lacfe credibility,-realism- Cfcrcnlcb Edtcrtal Vou'd think after losing a presidential and railing to capture a single electoral vote that a scrappy Texas whiner like Ross Perot would shut up and sit down. But the didactic billionaire refuses to concede his shamelessly idealistic goals, and continues to be President Clinton's officious backseat driver. For the past several months Perot has used his "grass roots" organization United We Stand America to launch a Freddy Krueger-lik- e campaign against NAFTA, staging rallies across the U.S. Today Perot will debate Vice President Al Gore over the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement on Larry King Live. Ross Perot should realize that he is out of touch with people and politics and that he simply cannot get realistic about U.S. trade policy. thief thoughtless economists thoroughly dispute his claim. Even labor unions estimate the possible job loss at only 500,000, and economists Gary Hufbauer and Jeffrey Schott of the Institute of Economics in Washington estimate the U.S. will actually produce a net gain of 171,000 jobs by 1995, according to USA Today. Perot's antics prove that an entertainer just cannot produce realistic arguments on public policy. It is difficult to understand why Ross Perot maintains his loudmouthed dissidence, especially when so few people care for his opinion. Americans heard what Perot had to say about NAFTA and other subjects in 1992 and they soundly rejected his plans. Perot's ideology lost. "Hie Clinton administration should now be able to execute policy First of all, Ross Perot does not represent the common person, as he claims. Perot is a comfortable billionaire who cannot possibly relate to a blue collar worker or the middle class. Far from "grass roots" politics, his organization is funded mainly by himself and maintained by paid "volunteers." According to USA Today and CNN, Perot's public approval ratings have steadily declined by a full 22 percent this year alone, even though his campaign has gotten more publicity. Also, Perot's arguments have no credibility because he usually can't back them up with facts. Though Perot is good at delivering his wisecracks are rarely in accordance with America's voters. folksy accurate or substantiated. Hopefully, Mr. Perot will realize that his pubPerot tells people at his rallies how NAFTA lic assaults are futile, and give the president a will threaten 85 million jobs. But leading chance to form domestic policy. anti-NAFT- A one-liner- s, Letters EMCB on NAFTA ' Mvcot'SJ i WW Tfl - Editor Lunch consisted of a Union Taco Bell Express taco and burrito with a triple dose of salsa. With warm thoughts of the earlier burn I had enjoyed earlier, I had the same for dinner. Payback time came at 9 p.m. I was in the EMCB computer lab and had a more urgent than average urge to use the restroom. "No problem," thought I, "it's right next door." Three stalls, each equipped with double toilet paper dispensers, all of which were empty! I ran downstairs. Also completely out of toilet paper! Not even an empty cardboard tube on the floor! I didn't think I had time to run to the next building. What to do in my desperation? I spotted a C7wiy...while I prefer not to go into greater detail, let's just say the phrases "abrasive editorial," "cutting-edg- e journalism," and "hard copy" took on fresh meanings. So to the fiend that stole all the toilet paper Toilet paper is just 30 cents a roll at Smith's. At least you could have left a roll or two behind! May you be cursed with the need for Imodium AD while hot air ballooning during the vacation of your life. David DeHenne graduate, electrical engineering write the editor DusTiu SUPREME COURT UPU01PS AVIIMAL SACRVHCES B7 (jRoUfS. nonius Entertainers now lashing out against political correctness Dt's been a bad month for crusaders for a politically correct Howard Stern's book, Private Parts, has been number one lists since its first week of publication. on the Stern himself has been on just about every magazine cover that Rush Limbaugh and MTV's Beavis and d will surrender. Private Parts, with more than a million copies in print in just over three weeks of publication, will probably stay planted atop the lists until Limbaugh's See, I Told You and So, with its obligatory references to the Femi-Nazother intentionally offensive terms for liberals, hits the bookbest-sell- er Butt-Hea- Pop culture, it seems, is capitalizing on the constraints political correctness clamped on us. Those who campaigned for it thought that political correctness would make us sensitive to how insensitive we were. We would, of our own free will, choose to better ourselves and the environment in which we live by ridding ourselves of vile, offensive words like "manhole cover" and replacing it with pleasant sounding terms like "personhole cover." It made a lot of sense, didn't it? is stands. Beavis and - d have their own book in the works, This Book Sucks. Madonna's embarked on a new tour dubbed the Girlie Show. Shock artist Andrew Dice Clay is back with a new concert video, No Apologies. Jackie Mason is working on a one-ma- n Broadway show to be called Ted Incorrect. Even Danson grabbed headlines Politicilly when he donned black face makeup at a Friars Club roast for his lover, Whoopi Goldberg. Aren't these the kinds of events the battles for political correctness were to eliminate? Shouldn't these be mere nostalgic allusions to a bygone era, the "offensive old days" before Archie Bunker and his cohorts knew any better? " Or are they the results of inevitable backlash to this whole business of watching what we say, being sensitive to how things might be misconstrued, guarding ourselves against language which might carry unrealized and unintentional insinuations? Butt-Hea- Pop culture, it seems, is capitalizing on the constraints political correctness clamped on us. Ct:rcr.lcl3 Edltcrlzl Ccfcrr.r.lst For a iarge part of the country, I gather, it makes no sense at all. If I mean no offense by saying something like "mankind," why should I be forced to apologize to someone just because she has been told to be offended? Have I righted any wrong if I instead use some stupid new PC word like "humanwhen deep inside both kind," or worse, of us translate the gibberish back to its offensive yet understood original term simply as a means of comprehending what I'm saying? Preachers of this dry, sanitized PC ethos make the brash-nes- s d of Beavis and entertaining. The realization that the liberal intelligentsia who came up with the notion of political correctness busies itself worrying about Stern and Beavis and d and composing irate letters makes with antics their worthwhile. keeping up After all, if they've told us that we're to find cause to be offended where no offense lies, then perhaps we're justified laughing at things which really aren't mat funny. It may well be a knee-jeradolescent reaction to authority. But just like the kid who sneaks behind the barn to light up a foul tasting cigarette simply because he's been told not to, the public now derives perverse joy from stoking the embers of PC rebellion, not simply from the outrage itself. I have yet to hear anything from Stern that I'd consider the least bit funny, and even less that I found insightful. The same goes for Clay, Mason and Don Rickles. What I do find funny, however, is how intelligent, thinking people assume that they're under obligation to be offended. They create lawsuits. They clamor loudly for discretion, prudence and censorship. Suddenly it's funny that two poorly drawn geeks pick their noses, play frog baseball and, yes, play with fire. And, to look at the numbers, I'm not alone. Stern's listen-ershi-p is estimated to be near 16 million: Beans and d is far and away MTV's most watched program. For many millions of Americans, then, political correctHeh-heness, um, sucks. Heh-heButt-Hea- Butt-Hea- k, Butt-Hea- h. h. |
