War on Terrorism Has Deadly Consequences All Over the World
By Kavin Paulraj
Opinions Writer

It is appropriate to examine the fallout of the “War against Terrorism,” one year after the war began, in five crucial regions of the world: India/Pakistan, Russia/Chechnya, Israel/Palestine, Southeast Asia, and the Arab world at large. Though the United States may or may not have intended these consequences, they figure crucially in the future of these regions, and may lead to more state repression, violence and destabilization in the next few years. A new world order is being formed, where nation-states have more military power than ever before, but a hierarchy of states is clear; atop sit the five permanent members of the UN, with the US reserving for itself the emperor’s throne.

Internet Offers Thought Revolution, and Nudity
By Cory Forsyth
Opinions Writer

Moore’s Law, stated by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, in the sixties, says that the amount of information storable on a silicon chip doubles roughly every eighteen months. This law has held true for the last twenty years. In 1971, high-end chips had about 2,250 transistors, and now they have nearly 100 million transistors. A transistor is a tiny electrical device that is used by a computer to store information, but you don’t need to know how it works to be completely blown away by the implications of Moore’s Law. It means that not only is technology getting faster, but it’s getting faster at a faster rate every year.

Voting, Jury Service are Not Actually Civic "Duties"
By David Lydon
Opinions Writer

I was told at lunch today that if you don’t vote, you have no real right to complain, and that if you try to avoid jury duty, you can’t complain about the O.J. Simpson verdict. I heartily disagree with both these notions. I mean, I’m an American, and the Founding Fathers fought a revolution against the British (and the Germans, too, as I recall) so that people could have forever the right to complain about the O.J. verdict without government interference. But on a less-crazy level, the logic of not complaining still sucks.

Cartoon Missed Heart of Issues in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Elizabeth Mokyr
Contributing Writer

In the cartoon he drew for last week’s opinions section, Nathan Fisher criticizes Californians who avoid taking sides on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (“Neither side is right,” “Everyone’s acting so silly,” and “It’s easy to make an uniformed statement”), when it is clear that “only one side accepts billions in US aid and domestic tax $ to fund filthy, filthy colonialism.” Fisher (and others who criticize Israel’s current military politics) has a point; Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s hawkish government is harsh toward the Palestinians and sympathetic toward settler extremists.

Substance-Free Housing Threatens the Well Being of the College Lifestyle
By Michael Owen
Opinions Editor

The legitimacy of substance-free housing, in its present form, is the topic of a quiet, ongoing debate that tends to arouse the furious convictions of many Pomona students, when someone asks them about it. To consider the legitimacy of the sub-free designation requires scrutiny of individual rights, stereotyping and the responsibility and accountability of students in general. There is ample evidence to suggest that the increase in the availability of sub-free housing in recent years has been a response to student demand, and the increase in both sub-free rooms and the demand for them is likely to continue. If Pomona proceeds without variance from the course of the program as it has developed thus far, however, the college will endanger the sustainability of an already tenuous system of relationships our administrators fondly refer to as our “community.”

Claremont Residents Should Just Chill Out
By Peter Douglas
Contributing Writer

About the time on Saturday night when the crowd I was in started chanting “CPD sucks,” a thought occurred to me: Harwood Halloween is supposed to be this big thing, one of the best parties of the year. But in the two years that I’ve been here it’s been sub-par, just another hyped-up event that ends up being lousy. We hear for a month how amazing it is going to be, through clever flyers in our mailboxes and incessant digester messages. We buy our tickets for eight dollars—a lot of money for most cheap college students. We dress up elaborately, and find ways to make up for the fact that no alcohol will be served. By ten we’re ready to party, looking forward to four hours of debauchery to help us forget the stress and drudgery we tolerate every week. And then, an hour later, the Claremont Police take the stage and tell us the party is over. Disappointment doesn’t even really come close to describing it.