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Show li.4. editor@statesman.usu.edu st3tesma11@cc.usu.edu ion AboutUs OurView Editor in Chief Seth R. Hawkins Be Well program much needed ike all other fast food restaurants - except Burger King, which seems' hellbent on giving people their grease in the largest vessels possible -USU's Hub is going to start offering Be Well options, healthy alternatives to some of the less healthy options the eatery now offers. *• Buying wraps and veggies and whole wheat bread will now earn students a 10 percent discount. A punch card for frequent healthy eaters will also give students who are "being well" v.a free gobd-for-you meal after the purchase of 10 similar ones. !• This is great news. Giving students the '.option to eat healthy, and for less, is a great start to dealing with weighty issues - bad pun intended. In America, where our waistlines are expanding faster than the national debt, it's especially important to have these healthy, non-arteryclogging options on the menu. The smaller portion sizes - equitably priced, so you aren't paying the same amount for less food - also help hungry students get the right amount of something that is actually not too bad for them. At the same time, we must at least give lip service to the demonization of pizza and other fast food. For centuries, pizza boxes and junior bacon cheeseburger wrappers have been the hallmark of college eating. What will it be now, ..salad shooters and whole wheat crumbs? V" And what about the freshman 15? With new, healthy choices, will that go the way of Hootie and the Blowfish? 'We/, doubt any of these'vaunted collegiate cornerstones will go extinct. New options may give students the motivation to kick those things out of their personal lives, which may not be all bad. Who knows? Eating healthy will likely help USU students have more energy to get through long days of classes, homework and real work. We think providing students with the choice to eat these new healthier options is a palatable way of introducing the Be Well menu items. No college student wants to be told what to eat. We wouldn't want it to seem like mommy was trying to get us to eat all our Brussels sprouts before we can go play Nintendo. That sort of thing is off-putting. . But if students see all the popular kids choosing veggie-filled wraps instead of greasy pizzas, maybe they will turn to the health-food dark side. Kudos to the Hub and the campus dieticians for designing the new Be Well program and actively working to implement it. Not only that, we appreciate the efforts to make eating healthier more affordable than eating 'unhealthy choices. If only other food joints . would catch on to this idea. : • Now that we have.the option to eat healthy, how do we get students off the couch and News Editor Arie Kirk Assistant News Editor Alison Baugh Features Editor Brittny Goodsell Jones L : onto the treadmill? • ; -• l - x : ' .v..•••••••-.;.•, * Assistant Features Editor Di Lewis Sports Editor Samuel Hislop Assistant Sports Editor David Baker Copy Editor Are Americans smarter than a fifth grader? The other day I was watching "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" and wondered: How dumb must we, as a nation, be in order to ask ourselves this question? What an insult to our collective intelligence. But then, upon further reflection, I grew concerned. Are we smarter than a fifth grader? I have my doubts. At the Miss Teen USA competition last year, Caitlin Upton (Miss South Carolina) became a YouTube sensation by butchering a question about why so many Americans are unable to locate the U.S. on a map. Her now-infamous answer was: "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uhmmm, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh, I believe that our, I, education like such as, uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uhhh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us." Hilarious, sure, but also painfully true. Only one in five Americans own maps - even fewer care to study them. Take "the Iraq," for example. We've occupied the country for five years, yet 63 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 failed to correctly locate Iraq on a map. In the same survey, conducted by National Geographic a couple years ago, 90 percent failed to find Afghanistan, another country we occupy. And 70 percent could not find Iran, a country we may soon attack. The U.S. trailed all but one industrialized country in geographical-literacy in that survey, behind Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and Great Britain. Mexico narrowly beat us for last place. According to a recent Associated PressIpsos poll, one in four adults read no books at all in the past year. Of those who claimed to read, their favorite books were popular fiction and religious works. So just popular fiction, in other words. A 1999 Gallup poll revealed a quarter of Americans do not know we gained independence from Great Britain in the Revolutionary War. Worse still, nearly 20 percent of Americans believe that—get this— the sun revolves around the earth! In the "debate" over evolution, polls consistently show two-thirds of Americans support teaching creationism and/or intelligent design alongside evolution in public schools. More than a third favor replacing evolution with biblical creationism entirely. A 2005 Harris poll found nearly half of the respondents held strict creationist views, agreeing "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time." The well-supported theory that humans share a common ancestor with apes is absurd, these people say, but a bronze-age mythology that states women were created from a guy's rib only 6,000 years ago ... that's the gospel truth. This scientific ignorance is common, if not celebrated. On the Sept. 18, 2007, broadcast of "The View," a source of news for millions of American women, panelist Sherri Shepherd, said she didn't believe in evolution ... "Period." The other panelists, puzzled, asked her if the world is flat. "I don't know," she first replied, later explaining that she "never thought about it" — as if that was any less disturbing. Many Americans, far too many, came to Shepherd's defense. They found her comments to be endearing. This same phenomenon (American anti-intellectualism) is largely responsible for the George W. Bush presidency. Both Gore and Kerry were perceived as erudite elitists, but with brazen displays of ignorance, while Bush (himself a wealthy Harvard-educated career politician) was cast as the common man. The American people elected Bush, not because they agreed with him on the issues (they didn't), but because they'd like have a beer with him. To clarify, the U.S. has no deficit in talent or genius. Our problem is not our intellectual capability (IQ scores have actually risen in recent decades), but rather our intellectual curiosity (or the lack thereof). For whatever reason, we simply don't care about the world, science or politics. No, we're content to distract ourselves with the latest celebrity gossip and fill our heads with useless sports trivia. And as an editorialist for The Statesman, I find this disinterest especially frustrating. The torrent of angry e-mails I had expected (and at times hoped for) is nothing but a trickle. This isn't about me or my column, though. It speaks to a larger issue: apathy, campuswide and countrywide. In our democratic and ever-increasingly globalized society, we have an obligation to be engaged with and informed about the world. Until Americans fulfill that obligation, though, I am relieved only half of us vote. Jon Adams is a junior majoring in political science. Comments and questions can be sent to him at jonadams@cc.usu. edu. Presidential powers have expanded over time W Photo Editor Tyler Larson Assistant Photo Editor Cameron Peterson Multimedia Editor Gideon Oakes Editorial Board Seth R. Hawkins Arie Kirk Di Lewis David Baker Alison Baugh About letters • Letters should be limited to 350 words. • All letters may be shortened, edited or rejected for reasons of good taste, redundancy or volume of similar letters. • Letters must be topic oriented. They may not be directed toward individuals. Any letter directed to a specific individual may be edited or not printed. • No anonymous letters will be published. Writers must sign all letters and include a phone number or email address as well as a student identification number (none of which is published). Letters will not be printed without this verification. • Letters representing groups — or more tnan one individual — must have a singular representative clearly stated, with all necessary identification information. • Writers must wait 21 days before submitting successive letters — no exceptions. • Letters can be hand delivered or mailed to The Statesman in the TSC, Room 105, or can be e-mailed to statesman@cc.usu.edu or click on www.utah statesman.com for more letter guidelines and a box to sumbit let ters. Online poll - j hen the Constitution was drafted, the government it provided for was to be limited in its powers and functions. Over time, more power has been assumed by the national government, and it has grown dramatically. One example of the growth of our government can be seen in the office of the president. Article II of the Constitution discusses the powers of the president. Section 1 establishes the president as the Chief Executive of the U.S. This section further dictates that the president take an oath to "faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States... and... preserve, protect and defend the Constitution ..." Unfortunately, many presidents have not taken this oath seriously. Some nave even carried out actions that have served to undermine the Constitution. Section 2 of Article II outlines the powers that are delegated to the president. The president is to be the "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy ... and of the Militia ... when called into the actual service of the United States ..." The president can also "... grant Reprieves and Pardons or Offenses against the United States ..." Rebekah Bradway With the approval of the Senate, the president can make treaties. The president "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers * of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for..." The president may fill vacancies in the Senate during a recess. Section 3 declares that the president "shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." In extreme occasions, the president may convene one or both houses of Congress, and may adjourn them if there is a disagreement as to the time of adjournment. The end of Section 3 declares that the president "shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States." Article I of the Constitution grants the president one additional power. The president must approve all bills (or just not return them within 10 days) in order for them to become laws. The president also must approve "Every Order, Resolution, or Vote which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary..." However, the Congress can override the president's veto with the votes of two-thirds of the members of each house. Clearly, the president is to have an important, but limited position in our government. The expansion of the powers of the president can be seen by simply looking at the president's cabinet. In it, there are several departments with authority in areas.not granted to the executive branch by the Constitution. Among these are the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, Energy, Transportation, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development, not to mention the Cabinet-Level Environmental Protection Agency. Times of war or other national difficulties have I I See POWERS, page 10 How likely are you to eat at the Hub with the new healthier, more affordable options? Much more likely Sort of likely Undecided/neutral Not likely I won't step foot in there Visit us on the Web at www.utahstatesman.com to cast your vote. Check out these links on www.utahstatesman.com: • • • • • • • • Archives Forums joke's on You! Puzzle answers Activities and events Classifieds Wedding/Engagements Slide shows & Video |