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Show 17, 2001 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY BUSH, from page 1 nation's nuclear war plan and the nuclear code carrying briefcase, or "football," that will follow him everywhere. Bush spent the rest of the day conferring with aides over his Cabinet. Bush is faced immediately with finding a new nominee for labor secretary, a day after Linda Chavez took her name out of the running. The new administration also was scrambling to head off mounting opposition to Ashcroft, the Missouri conservative who lost race in November. his Senate Bush officials reacted angrily to word that Democrats were tapping into opposition research about Ashcroft compiled during the Senate campaign. "I just think the whole notion of people finishing their campaigns and providing opposition research on people who have been named to the (Cabinet) is disappointing," Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. "It is not sending the signal of bipartisanship, and that's disappointing." Ashcroft is opposed to abortion, and supporters of abortion rights fear that as attorney general he would be less than energetic in enforcing laws protecting those -- rights. Bush where he the basic The Cold began his day at the Pentagon got a chilling reminder of one of responsibilities of the presidency. War may be over, but the nuclear weapons that added so much tension to that era remain, and the Pentagon still has contingency plans however remote on how THE SUN Feature the president might order their use. With Cohen and Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, looking on, Bush was briefed on the single integrated operational plan, which includes "major attack options" involving scenarios for war. The "football," a briefcase carried by a uniformed military officer, has followed the president since the early days of the Kennedy administration when the advent of ICBMs reduced the warning time for nuclear war to a matter of minutes, according to Robert Norris, a nuclear arms expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an arms control advocacy group. The briefcase contains "authorization codes" used by the president to verify to military officers manning nuclear weapons launchers that a strike order is legitimate. The Bush team refrained from picking a fight with President Clinton Wednesday for remarks Clinton made the night before in Chicago questioning the way Bush won the all-o- presidency. But Bush spokesman Fleischer said he hoped Clinton would follow the tradition "of presidents leaving office with respect for their successors." Speaking to a Democratic audience in Chicago Tuesday night, Clinton said of the Republicans, "the only way they could win the election was to stop the voting in Florida." He was referring to the disputed hand recount of selected ballots in Florida, a state that proved decisive in Bush's electoral President-ele- George W. Bush, left, listens as his new Labor Secretary nominee Elaine Chao speaks at a news confer- King, from page 4 Consider a more concrete, though fictional, example. Suppose that since its creation in 1936, the XYZ Corporation refused to hire redheaded men due to a quirky bias on the part of its founder. The founder now dies, and an enlightened board of directors decides that something "positive" needs to be done to compensate for past injustices and announces that, henceforth, redheads will be hired on a preferential basis. Observe that: (1) this does not help the real victims the previously excluded redheads; (2) the newly favored redheads have not been victims of discrimination in hiring, yet unfairly benefit who are from it; and (3) the now excluded from jobs due to the redhead preference did not cause the previous discrimination and are now unfairly made victims of it. The proper solution, of course, is simply to stop discriminating based on irrelevant factors. Although redheaded bias is not a social problem, the principle remains the same when you replace hair color with skin color The traditional solution to the problem of racism is colorblindness, or, from the other side of that coin, individual awareness. For example, in the job sphere there are only three essential things an employer needs to know about an individual applicant: (1) Does the person have the relevant ability and knowledge (or the capacity to leam readily) ? (2) Is the person willing to exert the needed effort? and (3) Does the person have good character, e.g., honesty, integrity? The rational alternative to racial diversity, focusing on the collective, is to focus on the individual and to treat each individual according to his own merits. This principle should apply in every sphere of life from business, to education, to law enforcement, Americans have always abhorred the con cept of royalty, that is, granting status and pnvilege (and, conversely, inferiority and debasement) based on one's hereditary caste, because it contradicts the principle that what e characteristics poscounts are the sessed by each individual. Americans should abhor racism, in any form, for the same reason. On Martin Luther King Day-a- nd every day we should focus on the proper antidote to racism and the proper alternative to racial thinking: individualism. We need to teach our children and all our citizens to look beyond the superficialities of skin color and to judge people on what really matters, namely, "the content of their character." self-mad- Edwin A. Locke, a professor of management at the University of Maryland at College Park, is a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in Mari- Calif http:aynrand.org. The Instithe philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainna del Rey, tute promotes head. Send comments to reactionaynrand.org. ence Thursday, January 11, 2001. Bush named Southern Chao after Linda Chavez withdrew her name. nr Utah Ft University TRANSFER DAY 2001 photo by Tribune Media Services j t KDSC, from page 1 station this Spring semester. These students will learn what it takes to become a successful disc jockey; they will also be involved with designing new programming. The sound of KDSC will be directed to promoting a more unified campus. In addition to playing great music, students, faculty and the community of St.George, can expect to hear more live sports events, the promo and interview shows. The radio plans to have an open format and the needs of the campus and comsurmunity will hopefully be met through residents. St.George veying KDSC "The Disc," has unlimited potential with the new programming preparing to hit the air waves. With unified support of DSC radio, "The Disc" will hopefully be playing the tunes and programs you want to hear, for many years to come. 7 your $3 to everything you need to know about coming to Southern Utah University! January 19th tion of campus activities 12:00 pm SUU On-S- ite P-r- s -- 2:30 pm Student Center Admissions & Scholarships Food & Entertainment! |