Show HSttESSSSi my tongues than thmugh I kind of S tJi(rtattv9ehctonm Transit center: Take the short route to a livable city are nice it’s true But every one I r i :I 1 of them is within eyeshot of a huge not hard to understand business owners’ objections to locating the proposed Logan Transit Districts transit center at the parking lot on Church Street and Federal Avenue But aren’t they being just a bit shortsighted? Let’s first make dear that we welcome the transit crater wherever it ends up More buses expanded routes and a pleasant place to wait can only increase the number of people using public transit unclogging streets and improving air qual- ity not to mention freeing up the large number of people wno don’t have access to a car The artists renditions of the proposed building make it look tasteful and well-design- ed And the more we think about what an asset the transit center will be the more we think it should be in the hippest part of town Small business owners in the area are underconcerned They’ve standably worked hard to make it the only place in Logan where someone Church-Feder- al nom Berkeley might feel at home But let’s look at it objectively The five or six cnic little shops Your view Spend USU bucks on books students To the editor So Utah State University’s president George Emert is getting vet another a new house On the heels of his buying a nice golf-courplace for $133000 sprucing it up to make it suitable for -- “schmoozing the high rollers” and selling it back to the taxpayers for $319000 we now learn that the Presidential Estate still isn’t suitable— and can’t be made so for less than $800000 (By the way since the University of Utah’s Presidential Suite cost a purported $900000 1 predict that USU’s won’t come in under a million bucks) se Of course President Emert and his men (sorry about the sexism the facts require it) will try to put a different face on it This won’t be Emert’s home He’ll simply be staying there till the trustees and regents select the next guy (at which time u precedent holds he’U buy back his present golf-courestate at a considerable discount) And it isn’t that they really want to spend state money that way (and they will deny it’s state money se they're spending) but that somehow they didn't notice when Mr Emert more than doubled the cost of his home that they were still in the “wrong neighborhood” and that the improvements hadn’t increased the parking I seem to recall that the money that was poured into the Haight Alumni Cen i unlandscaped parking lot that’s b i hardly ever full — not exactly in character with die sidewalk dining j and narrow streets How much worse could it be to have a beautifully landscaped pub- lic facility bringing people in on buses? The shop owners are worried that they’ll lose puking — but they’ll gain bus passengers And anyone who’s ridden the LTD lately can tell you that’s a sizable crowd The young environmentally aware people who frequent the Straw Ibis and mix their own massage oils at Earthly Awakenings are likely to welcome the bus station Already it seems there are more bikes than cars parked in the area What would be lost exactly? A big ugly parking lot The city has even promised to replace the lost spaces Gained would be a steady flow of bus customers many with time on their hands and money they By Jack Andaraon and Jan Molar didn’t spend on gas United Feature Svnctcata Inc Isn’t it time we got back to designing cities for people instead matter what a person's stature of cars? Church and Federal is the FBI Director I Edgar Hoover late the start to perfect place Hoover s FBI targeted Einstein ’ N would vacuum up gossip scurrilous rumors and sometimes outright inventions in an effort to bring die high and mighty to their knees before him Among the more ridiculous targets of ter several years ago was justified on the Hoover’s snoops were Jimmy Stewart very grounds being used yet again — John Wayne that we needed a posh spot to schmooze Walt Disney and die high rollers one with nearby parking for a hundred Beamers by the way Does the administration have an official explanation why that particular plan didn't work out? (IncidentallyfJ‘high rollers” r- a term Mr Emert seems fond of — usually refers tq (hos& gamblers xfcptpw afford to risk handsome stakes in hopes of e down the line cashing in Hmm) - big-tim- network I As one outside the old-bo-y can't help thinking what $800000 might buy in terms of increased Internet access (any other faculty members having difficulty working at home nights?) library holdings (ours are insufficient for a Carnegie 1 institution) more scholarships for undergraduates or decent stipends for graduate students lowered textbook costs (more in keeping with those at say amazoncom) or even sidewalks along the University's 800 East properties to make walking to class a trifle safer And I can't help thinking that once again from Emert's private restroom to die milliras poured into the football program insecure administrative egos have turned an educational institution's priorities upside down off-stre- et Will Pitkin Hyde Park John Lennon You can add to that list Albert the Einstein greatest physicist espionage links to spy for the Soviet Union - The were discharged for professors named by Einstein were elected to the Academy” anti-Semiti- That is ridiculous We have closely wmiimrf the “evidence” and historical writings on Einstein including his own and there is not one iota of proof that he even toyed with the idea of being a Sovi-- ?s Einsteia was both a pacifist and a "joiner" He lent his name to a number of groups and committees that he believed were sincerely trying to promote world peace Several of these groups were regarded as subversive and nis association with them was enough to arouse Hoorn’s darkest suspicions In dealing with the man whose theory of relativity was the fundamental concept behind nuclear energy the govern- ment gumshoes devised formula of their own D equals AS1-whose genius led “disloyalty to development Kequals association Jtimes suspicion of the atomic squared” bomb that helped his adopted country According to documents in the file Einstein WAS offered n chance to work win the war with Japan Hoover apparently was convinced that in the Soviet Union in 1946 after World Albert Einstein was a communist spy — War IL He could have “whatever funds laboratories buildings equipment but it was all based on fallacious “evidence” trumped up by FBI agents aim- books and assistance he might need” according to a report from the US ing to please the dictatorial director Our associate Dale Van Atta took four Embassy in Moscow Einstein's brilliant response also in some of the to Sars ofprythe FBI and weinvestigative eventually the files was a letter in Hebrew to obtained 1500 of 1800 pages contained Joseph Stalin himself expressing appreciation for die offer but asking: "Why in the file What makes this salacious bit of are Jewish scientists not permitted to Hooverism more relevant today is the hold prominent posts? Why are apparpenchant of some to try to gun headlines ently unnecessary obstacles placed m the — or sales — by suggesting Einstein way of Jewish scientific mid research workers? Why were certain Jewish prowas a communist agent not elected The latest permutation came when fessors of medical science to the recently created Medical AcadeSotheby’s recently auctioned off love letters Einstein wrote to a woman named my?" The implicit charges of Margarita Konenkova after the death of his second wife in 1936 Konenkova was were at first denied and the Soviets alleged to have been a Soviet spy The repeated their offer to Einstein But Stalin had his secret police investigate the letters were proof positive some suggested that Einstein had the requisite scientist’s charges with astonishing of this century results: “Certain high Soviet officials — m But Einstein never gave a second thought to going to work in die Soviet Union Army intelligence agents dutifully ran down an accusation by a former Beilin dtess-sho- p owner who claimed Einstein was a communist The agents reported that the woman “did not make a favorable impression as to her reliability” In fact she wu an “amateur mathematician" who was miffed because Einstein hadn’t replied to her letter asking Ids help on a system that would enable her to win a Berlin gambling pool Hoover never followed up on this information since any evidence against Einstein would have needed to hold up ' in court’ Another wild goose chase hegan’when an informant told the FBI that “Dr Einstein (was) the brain that was setting up Hollywood in the 1930s for the big communist push” The best the could produce on this was a 19S4 report on Einstein's friendships with Charlie G-m- en Chaplin and architect Frank Lloyd Wright Of the sadder items in the Hoover-Ein-stefiles were two letters foiwarded by in the late gossip columnist Walter Winchell who was trying to Ingratiate himself with Hoover in return for information The two letters sent in 1930 and 1931 contain derogatory scuttlebutt about the Nobel physicist The FBI began its intensive investigation of Einstein in 1930 And it wasn’t until July 27 1933 that the FBI issued a final recommendation after “all logical investigation had been conducted” The recommendation: “Close case" It was high time Einsteia had died three months earlier at the age of 76 Prize-winni- ng What the world sees when the United States goes postal By Bonnie Erbe Scripps Howard News Service L — It's fascinating to watch an American crisis from an international perspective It's particularly fascinating when the topic is yet another murder spree by an American madman with a weapon Last Friday night 1 was watching a British TV network report from Washington on Russell Weston Jr's alleged murder of two Capitol police officers and wounding of a bystander The first minute or so of the report outlined the facts as known at that early stage of the event Then the reporter cut to a statement by House Speaker Newt Gingrich R-and then to a teary-eye- d House Whip Tom DeLay paying homage to the dead officers When the reporter appeared he said “Remarkably since this ra event took place there has been no talk of gun control by any high-levUnited Stales official” He went on el to chronicle the now-lon- list of g shooting sprees Americans have endured in recent times including four major shootings at public schools in the past year and countless more “minor” ones where only one or two children have been murdered And he reflected the view rtf his incredulous audience that American society would tolerate so much violence — to the point where “going postal" has become a universally understood addition to American jargon — without widespread calls for some sort of regula- tory action In England national gun control has been a reality since the tun of the century Strict national controls banning most gun ownenhip later took effect in 1920 The US gun lobby spends huge sums of mooey trying to persuade the public and Congress that gun ownenhip and crime rates are unrelated They champion the claim that controlling (or perish the thought binning) gun ownenhip on the national level would have no impact on our crime rate nor on the doings of Russel Weston Jr and his ilk But statistics simply do not bear that ouL No one knows for sure what impact strict national gun control would have on the American crime rate since it’s never been in effect Banning ownenhip would certainly cause n remarkable drop in homicide and violent crime rates According to World Health Organizathe Unittion figures between 1982-8- 8 ed States homicide rate (88 per 100000) was roughly 12 times that of England and Wales (07) Those figures (the -1 in Washington DG and Dallas Texas boasts on its Web site that gun ownership and homicide rates are unrelated It touts for example an extremely high countries An international victimization seriously It's depressing but not surprising that even the shooting spree at the Capitol will not prompt a serious dialogue on major national gun control ft should be noted however that in the eyes of most western nations we look like fools who suffer our own ignorance gladly 12-to- ratio) correlate quite closely with gun ownership rates in the respective survey cited in Experiences of Crime Across the World (1991) showed weapons ownership at 4S9 percent among Americans and 47 percent in England and Wales The National Center for Policy Analysis a pro-gu- n lobby group with offices murder rate ia Northern Ireland (7 in 1989 as compared to the American rate of 88 1 cite above in the previous year) But let's remember that Northern Ireland wu until last month in die middle of n civil sectarian war And its murder rate till lower than ours These are not statistics a rational person would cite Mallard Fillmoro A Herald Journal My rpsfrtfAM The OpMon page is bunded to acquaint vmotci wn wwiy or vuupavn on dpubiolHiportifloiiHdpiowilmnwbwcf nmi VwooiNnunKifiMi iloninilDffiiiMfiMVk Fonontl odunvut ctfloons mtf litoft from fmdofs fdM Vn opinions of tfuir writers md creators Edtoriala under tie haadnqOur tapmsam me mews or aw natan journal tel board Members of tie adtorW board: BRUCE SMTHtputMnr CHARLES MoCOLLUMAmanafltosedtor MIKE WENNERGRENfety editor CMDYYURTMtoatorasedtor L L The Hamid Journal watoomas Mars to lie adtor PotontiaSytoalouaoiorianahalaaam a not ba piMmad howavar and tw adnor leeanea tie right to edR al hears to contone to ttatongdi and alyls requiremantsoltte Letters should be: TypewrtUsn and rlnubie spaced No mom tosn 450 words In tsngto Addmsaad and Muds dsytms phons number lor purposes olverillcaSoii Signed by Bteautoor IndMifeiato are Med to ana publshad latter wtftiin any 3frday period Address tsosreto NMiarehjnewsoun Guest commentaries am also weioomo and am nm at Itoedtor’adtaretott f |