| Show 12A Friday January 22 1999 Opinion Standard-Examine- r V V Standard-Examin- er SERVING THE TOP OF UTAH SINCE 1888 Scott Trundle Publisher Don Porter Editorial Page Editor Ron Thornburg Managing Editor OUR VIEW Ogden’s Sundance sample a rare treat cinema visits the The world of independent often cutting-edg- e of this Utah via Theater week Top Egyptian screenings even bothers (“Lock Stock and Two the point Smoking Barrels”) and a period-piece The Sundance seriocomedy with Film Festival is America’s definite local appeal “SLC cinematic gatherPunk!” which purports to foling low the only “dedicated punk That the festival will again g Salt rockers in -five in nights Lake City Utah in the thorspend Ogden starting with this evening’s early oughly Reagan-ize- d screening of “Side Streets” -1980s” presents film buffs cineastes In other words nary a one and casual movie fans alike with an opportunity to view on that list comes anywhere motion pictures that theaters near the typical multiplex fare around these parts generally of “You’ve Got Mail” or just don’t screen “Meet Joe Black ” Why? Well look at the five But more than an opportufilms slated to play Peery’s nity to sample the eccentric Egyptian Theater and you’ll tales of the world’s indepenfind out The aforementioned dent film artists Sundance’s “Side Streets” is a continued commitment to look at the immigrant screen films in Ogden - via lives of various New Yorkers the good graces and financial “Return with Honor” on the other hand is a documentary subsidies of several Top of that weaves interviews with Utah donors both individual former American military piand corporate — is a continlots who were POWs during ued testament to the excelthe Vietnam War with North lence and unique nature of Vietnamese-filme- d footage of Utah’s only remaining movie their imprisonment palace If those two subjects aren’t We welcome the Sundance diverse enough there are films about a Los Angeles menage a Film Festival and hope this is a relationship that will last for trois (“Splendor”) an ultra-violeBritish crime film years and years to come Nobody pre-emine- nt God-fearin- nt ANOTHER VIEW Scandal and excuses The 2002 Olympic bribes by Salt Lake City’s bid committee cannot be justified because “everyone did it” they did not Olympics are to represent what purest in individual athletic striving Past failures to meet the full terms of this ideal have not made it any the less worthy as an Olympics goal But the Salt Lake case has an unhappy distinction of its own Charges are ricocheting that the city bought the games by bribing or otherwise suborning some members of the governing International It is Olympic Committee now being soberly explained that other countries with different habits of business and persuasion created a context The Bill in in which Salt Lake City a site universally declared to be fit on its own terms - without bribes - for the Olympic honor had to meet the real-worcompetition Thus is the familiar and lame argument of “culture” trotted out to disguise what is otherwise nothing more than plain corruption The Swedish town of Ostersund also evidently fully qualified on the merits played it straight and lost and with reason now feels cheated of a prize - The Washington Post The State of the Union speech was forceful global in sweep sometimes humorous conciliatory In a word: masterful ad-- " wagging dress turns the proceeding in-- 1 Too much? to a pep rally T Believe it One month to the stem-windi- ng day after a Republican-le- ' d House of Representatives voted two articles of impeachment against him President Clinton stood in the same chamber and all but taunted his critics with a State of the Union message that made diamond clear that he intends to COLUMNS Ji S The Dance of Clintonism plays on Depending on view speech was brilliance or gimmick ha th fo WASHINGTON - You can view President Clinton's major speeches in two ways You can say he draws on Republican ideas and weaves a bipartisan web to trap his opponents You can also say he draws some sharp lines to advance distinctly Democratic ideas This week’s Stale of the Union address may be the purest performance ever of the Dance of Clintonism If you like the choreography you see a brilliant mind at work If you dislike the show you see gimmickery and manipulation But whatever else he did Tuesday Clinton made clear he's not about to leave the stage Take matters issue by issue: Social Security Clinton’s plan gives the Democrats what they want most -he doesn’t carve private accounts out of Social Security But he bows to Republicans by creating those Universal Savings Accounts (USA) He reserves $27 trillion of the budget surplus to shore up Social Security over the next 1 5 years He’d invest a quarter of that in the stock market Though they’re politically more palatable than benefit cuts or tax increases each of these options is controversial Investing some of the Social Security fund in the market makes sense as a way of increasing the return on taxpayers’ dollars It’s what pension funds do - including those controlled by state and local governments But to most Republicans and to Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan the idea is dangerous perhaps even socialistic “The government becomes an owner of America's private sector companies” warned House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer R- - Texas Some Democrats think it’s risky But Clinton can ask opponents of this idea: If they don’t want to invest in the market what benefits would they cut to make up for the revenue they’d forgo? The savings accounts answer the one good argument made by those who want to privatize part of Social Security Low-an- d middle-incom- e Americans have low savings rates They spend almost all their income to support their families Shouldn't something be done to increase their capacity to save? Clinton would give these Americans help by matching their personal retirement savings with government money He’d put more into the accounts of those with smaller incomes He thus marries a Republican cause (more savings) with a Democratic wish (wealth redistribution) Democrats who mistrust Clinton worry he’ll bow to Republican efforts to transform his USA accounts into a big tax cut But that's the drama of a Clinton Dance - you never know how it will turn out And by using most of the surplus for Social Security Medicare and pension savings Clinton makes it harder for Republicans to offer sweeping tax cuts Education Here’s the question: If reforming the schools is an urgent na wi tional necessity shouldn’t the federal government provide localities with strong incentives to do the job? Clinton embraces many of the goals of Republican education reformers: ending social promotion shutting down failing schools imposing higher standards for teachers creating more charter schools But he uses a method - federal sticks and carrots And he links reform with a federal school construction program Democrats love Some Republicans have already rejected Clinton’s ideas and retreated into “local control of the schools” rhetoric But Republicans would do better to embrace Clinton’s plan as a starting point and call for tougher standards and more reform Child Care Republicans rejected Clinton’s child care proposals last year arguing that they favored e families over those with a mothers parents usually It's true that a family in which one person makes $60000 a year - let alone $200000 - has it easier than a mother and father who have to go out to earn $30000 each Thus the need for more child care But middle-incom- e families in which one spouse gives up wages for more time with the children deserve some help too So Clinton links a modest tax credit e for parents to his child care plan One Clinton administration official put it candidly: “This robs the Republicans of their excuse to oppose our protwo-inco- stay-at-hom- gram” EJ Dionne is a former reporter for the New York Times His column runs on Tuesdays and Fridays remain in office until the final But the minute of his term was remarkable not message so much for what he said but the way in which he said it -direct blunt defiant toward his critics America won’t tolerate his removal not at this time Mr Clinton walked not unlike into the House Daniel entering the lion’s den And like Daniel he walked out again The lions were cheering The Miami Herald - Just what is ‘sex’? We’re Medical editor is history but the research data is not kansas and Monica Lewinsky was still in Dr high school the study’s June Reimsch was worrying about high-ris- k sex among college undergraduates The issue was AIDS and STDS not impeachment But accurate information was hard to assess If you asked students whether they’d had sex how could you evaluate their answer? What was their definition of or Well well Here it is the first anniversary of life with Monica and someone finally got fired on account of sex No not Henry Hyde the corpulent adulterer lecturing us about broken oaths Not Bob Barr the champion of the Defense of Marriage Act Not even Bill Clinton Not yet The man handed his walking papers was George Lundberg a doctor and editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association Lundberg was canned after 1 7 years for printing a survey in this week’s JAMA showing that 60 percent of college students think oral sex isn't sex The AMA summarily ditched the editor who brought JAMA from the medical backwaters to the edge for “inappropriately and inexcusably JAMA into a major political debate that has nothing to do with science or medicine” Until now I had never thought of Dr Lundberg as a member of the media although Lord know's we could use a doctor But with a nose for news and an out-sizego Lundberg helped put public health issues from domestic violence to tobacco on the agenda As for the notion that the AMA is apolitical? This group traces its roots back to the days when doctors played golf on Wednesday afternoons and Medicare was “socialized medi- thought m cine Moie to the point this survey is no potboiler nor is it junk science recycled for the Drudge Report It’s a tip sheet of sexual attitudes that was designed for doctors not Geraldo Back in 1991 when Clinton was in Ar twice-divorc- too-cutti- ed pro-Clint- all confused sex? Reinisch was then directing the Kinsey Institute those wonderful folks who shocked my parents’ generation in 1948 with data about masturbation This time the researchers asked 599 students to answer specific questions: “Would you say you ‘had sex’ with someone if the most intimate behavior V The students you engaged in was were then given a list of options from kissing to intercourse Everyone agreed that intercourse counted but 2 percent also thought that kissing was “having sex” while 18 percent thought that anal intercourse was not And in the infamous statistic 60 percent of these overwhelmingly conservative students didn’t think ora! sex was “doing it” Somewhere between the first and second Clinton administrations the researchers broke this news to doctors at various conferen jes Then last January as Reimsch remembers all too clearly “we hear all these pundits lawyers and senators saying very strongly that all Americans believe that oral sex is sex We had the data to show that wasn't true” So they finally wrote it up sent their paper for the usual peer review process and had it accepted The rest is - as is George Lundberg But thehistory data lingers on “I was not at all surprised that 60 percent of young people don’t count anything but intercourse Haven’t you heard of ‘technical virginity?’ ” Reinisch asks “There’s also something called ‘technical fidelity’ ” At the risk of alienating the AMA for sounding too political myself I too think this is Clinton's story We know far far too much more than we want to know about one man’s sexuality But you get the queasy feeling that this is one weird guy trying to cut a fine moral deal with his own conscience Think Clinton's confused? Consider an October poll showing that 81 percent of people in America do think oral sex is a “sexual relationship” Can you have a sexual relationship without having sex? As Monica would say “Hello?” So what is sex? “There is no right answer It’s what people think it is” says Reinisch Her own definition of an unfaithful husband however is closer to my own “I tell my husband - it's if he has a romantic candlelit dinner" Maybe the Republicans are nght Maybe this impeachment isn’t about sex after all g Puhcer columnist Ellen ag di ga ga ar gr O St at Pi it’ ga la th N cc Pi V fr fa th ga cc dc w fo fo y it! P av th E 9( By Th Sti wi ci th se to II ar th 'tit ne ca la P of gc post-Moni- ca 1 Proe-wimun- Goodman is associate editor Globe : j th fai I ld the lion’s den a movie script Imaginethe man on trial front of his accusers and jurors and in a finger- - "What you're going to see is my version of Armageddon on two thousand dollars" of The Boston poor c( |
