CCC
corning community college
THE CRIER
February 10th “The Voice of the CCC Student Body” Spring 2005
From: the Editor
Attention Video Production Students! Attention College Students!
The Christophers have announced the Eighteenth Annual Video Contest for College Students. Cash awards are given for the top three entries, $3,000, $2,000, and $1,000 respectively. There will be five honorable mention prizes of $100 each.
To enter students must interpret the theme, “One Person Can Make a Difference,” in a short film of five minutes or less.
Entries may be created using film or video but must be submitted in NTSC format on standard VHS tape only. This contest is open to any and all currendy enrolled college students. Students may enter more than once, but an official entry form must accompany each video.
Entry forms can be obtained by writing to: College Video Contest, The Christophers, 12 East 48th Street, New York, NY 10017, or by visiting wwwchristophers.org/contests.html on the web.
All entries must be submitted by June 10th, 2005. Videos become property of the Christophers and will not be returned.
“America the Beautiful: Fascist Swine?”
By Kat Friday (’04)
fas-cism (n.) 1. a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition. 2. a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control. ” (www.m-w.com)
Based on the definition given by Merriam-Webster’s On-line dictionary, I would have to say that America could be construed as a fascist or near-fascist republic*. President Bush seems to pride himself on the great lengths that his administration has taken to adopt new policies that strangely coincide with that of nihilism, specifically those of Nietzsche, eerily. Assuming, of course, that we are all aware of his outspoken and boorish spewing of “born-again” gibberish that he’s so fond of...
(*- "republic” used very lightly to refer to this facade of public involvement. The USA is certainly not a true republic. The people have very little true power. After all, we’re too stupid to vote without the backup system of the Electoral College.)
However, the President is proud to have these policies in place and while in his big-heart, small-mind-stumblings and brutal slayings of the American language and culture, he only proves to those of us who would notice and have the capabilities to know it is time to care, that he is as false a prophet as they come; no less than the likes of Koresh, Hitler or Hussein.
So, back to fascism: In the 1980’s there was a movement fueled by a specific genre of music, Punk, possibly the very first original philosophy to come out of America. And it spread and grew like wildfire. Now, I could argue that punk started in England but I won’t. That part of punk is based on music, and still very much open to debate by the old-school. The philosophical part of punk started right here in the good old U.S. of A. as a resistance against an ever increasingly fascist-resounding state, and from that fear, the fear of loss of liberty, the punks grew at a deafening rate. Spreading the word about the lies being spoon-fed to the starving, overworked, mindless mass that were being kept pacified so as to not upset the regime that secretly churned in the bowels of every greedy fat cat in public office. But no one would listen.
The herds didn’t want to be disturbed. They liked their cozy litde groups and weekly meager meal tickets. They liked to know that some one else is ultimately responsible for their well-being and livelihood. If they listened to the punks and revolted it would mean that they would have no one to blame when they were starving, tired and cold, because being truly independent would not be enough satisfaction to help them sleep at night.
And so the punks seemed to go away. The members of the herd were able to rest and get back in line for their scraps to be handed out by the government. And they were happy in their blissful ignorance.
But underground the punk movement thrives and evolves, ever aware of the churning in the machine’s belly. Someday the corpse will no longer be able to contain its fascism daemon and a new America will be born.
But the herd will have been so ingrained with the principles and lifestyle of the United Fascist State of Northern America that while the punks and philosophers run rampant trying to squash the bugs of ignorance, all will be peaceful to those who wear the goggles of the regime which would have been long ago surgically implanted on their faces.
Would I call America a fascist regime? No. By definition, not yet.
But I have my theories on New York State... And if Pataki gets another term I will officially declare myself forsaken and chalk up one more notch for complete fascism on the national level.
“Apathy”
By Kim Henderson
“An unused life is an early death.”
- (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Why, as of late, does it seem like all I hear from anyone is whining?
You hear it in country songs, in so called “punk,” even in Eminem’s latest hits. You hear it in all the lounge areas around CCC, at home, on T.V., from my mom when she calls me every other week. I mean, sure, as a whole, this nation has a lot to whine about, with our brothers, sons, nephews and boyfriends fighting a stupid war nobody really understands, jobs being virtually erased right from under us, sickness and disease spreading and mutating, yeah we sure have a lot to whine about, don’t we? My answer is, no, we don’t! I’m tired of hearing it, especially from people who usually have the least to whine about, while those with the majority of the above mentioned problems stay silent, or even worse, try to comfort the whiners.
I say shame on both those groups! Neither of you should stay silent, but whiners, please stop whining! The world sure could use all that energy you use to whine to your buddies for good. And those of you who stay silent about your problems, (which, by the way, are really rooted in the whole political mess our country is in right now, so they aren’t just your problems they are OUR problems,) you should all be ashamed of yourselves, too. Make some noise if you have any self-respect! But please, don’t join the whiners! We need people, in these desperate times, to stand up and make much of their situations. We need people to picket, protest, write letters and articles. I hear many people saying, “People tried that in the sixties and seventies and it didn’t do any good.” Bullhocky! Racism, women’s rights, and the state of the environment were all turned around by just those things. Rachel Carson wrote a simple book and the government (that’s right people, the United States government) sat up and not only noticed but enacted the Clean Air and Water Acts. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, and the race riots began (sure, the race riots weren’t initially a good thing, but they eventually lead to more equality among the races.)
There have been countless others who have actually made a difference by doing those simple things that whiners believe won’t change anything. I know it is trendy (especially right now) to just give in and become a whiner, but believe me your apathy won’t change anything. Please think about the small things you can do today (especially today since you are likely jobless and don’t have that much on your plate anyway) that might start a ripple of changes in our trendy, bacteria-infested pond.
Internet Pirate’s Corner:
APC Members: “armed and boisterous!”
“Fare at the Fair”
By Neith Little
“11 Things I hate about significant other...”
One of the things I love about CCC is that they feed us here. I’m apparently not the only one who feels this way, as any activity involving free food tends to be attended by at least half the student body. The Student Activities Fair a couple of weeks ago was no exception. The cafeteria, where it was held, was so packed with people that it was literally impossible to see across the room for most of the hour and a half that I was there.
While the food (pasta, garlic bread, the ever-present salad, and giant cookies) was definitely the main draw, the Activities portion of the Fair was pretty interesting, too. There were tables for clubs that I didn’t know existed. The Tech Club, for one, was news to me. Then again, so was the fact that The Commons has more than one set of stairs, so the surprise is not that they exist but that I actually noticed. Then again (again), the dancing robot on their table was pretty attention getting. At least, I think he was dancing... Let’s move on to another club. WCEB (the campus radio station) had speakers set up by the main doors, which provided background music for the Fair and an interesting soundtrack for the video being played by the Anime Club. Aside from these contributions to the festive air, the two groups entertained the folks in line for food with a spirited water-battle, thankfully sans water, using squirt-guns provided by the Activities Programming Committee (APC). The Crier table had a good view of this epic conflict because our table was between theirs, putting us in the traditional place of reporters, the cross-fire. This particular cross-fire, however, was more entertaining than dangerous and was much more interesting than the homework that I should have been doing.
If you get a chance to come to next semester’s Student Activities Fair, I suggest you do so, just to see what happens. And for the free food, of course!
my
Beauty and the Beast
Beauty about the Beast: “It’s not so much the fact that he has fur, but that he sheds it. Everywhere.”
The Avengers
Mrs. Peale about Mr. Peale: “I hate that I had to make him up in order to prevent people from thinking I’m a loose woman.” Steele (somewhere in the background): “And I’m sure those skin-tight jumpsuits you wear have nothing to do with that misconception. Ouch.”
Robin Hood
Robin about Maid Marion: “The relatives. Definitely the relatives.”
Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman Doctor Quinn about Sully: “It’d be nice if he’d tell me sometimes before he disappears into the woods for weeks.”
James Bond
James Bond about every love interest he’s ever had: “They either die, turn out to be evil, or disappear into thin air a month after I’ve saved the world.”
Indiana Jones
Indiana about every love interest he’s ever had: ’’What he said.”
Tartan
Jane about Tarzan: “It would be nice to travel somewhere on something that doesn’t resemble a theme park ride.”
Tarzan about Jane: “Jane laugh when Tarzan talk. Me don’t know why.” Andromeda
Captain Dylan Hunt about the lady from the past whose name I don’t know: “If
you think long-distance relationships are hard, try conducting one over a three thousand year time-gap.”
The lady from the past whose name I don’t know about Captain Hunt: “He seems to be under the impression that grinning heroically will make any statement sound witty.”
The Mummy
Aken-thingy about Amenhotep: ”He insists that brushing teeth is newfangled flummery, and that toothpaste has got to be some kind of devious poison.”
Next week: “11 Things I hate about my parents.” Send in your pet peeves to cee_cee_response@yahoo.com!
Dear Tech Support:
Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources. In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activity. Applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Hunting and Fishing 7.5, and Racing 3.6 no longer run, crashing the system whenever selected.
I can’t seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications. I’m thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the uninstall doesn’t work on Wife 1.0. Please help!
Thanks, A Troubled User REPLY:
Dear Troubled User:
This is a very common problem about which men are complaining. Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is just a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING!!! It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend
7.0. It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files from the system once installed. You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings - Alimony/Child-Support. I recommend that you keep Wife 1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the background application “Yes Dear” to alleviate software augmentation. The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway. Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance. Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep
3.0, Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2.
However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag Nag 9.5. Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0 ! WARNING!!! DO NOT, under any circumstance, install Secretary with Short Skirt 3.3. This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the Operating System.
Best of luck,
Tech Support