Balking at Barzee
How much longer do we have to endure Mike Barzee’s horrible sports editorials?
The only thing entertaining or enjoyable about Barzee’s articles is how ridiculous they are. He has plenty of opinions — but nothing to support his arguments other than his own ignorance and personal bias. Sports editorials should be witty and clever — Barzee’s articles evoke memories of the junior high yearbook. His writing style is juvenile and his sentence structure is primitive. He should be getting his articles back with red all over them. Who is editing his articles? Who is the sports editor? Oh, wait — he is. Scary.
If the Daily Universe is really “the voice of the Brigham Young University community”, this complaint and dozens of others should make this clear: we expect better from a university-level newspaper.
Austin Taylor
Provo, UT
Exciting All-Star
I’m not quite sure why Mr. Barzee wants Bud Selig to “change the All-Star game back to the way it was — an exhibition game with the most popular MLB player.” How exactly will this make the game any more exciting? The All-Star game has lost meaning with the advent of interleague play, as well as the ever-strengthening union between the two leagues.
Back in the good old days each league had its own League President, its own identity and its own motivation to win. Those days are long gone; however, using the All-Star game result to determine home field advantage at least gives the managers and players a reason to play their hardest.
Personally, I thought this year’s All Star game was the most exciting since 1994. There were many great defensive plays, a lot of exciting baserunning, a great late-inning comeback and, of course, great pitching. Apparently Mr. Barzee forgot about all the players up on the dugout steps watching LA’s Brad Penny do his best Nolan Ryan impression. The game was played at a brisk pace, clocking in at 2:45 despite threat of rain and a Roberto Clemente ceremony. I don’t see how much more
excitement Mr. Barzee could ask for in a baseball game, other than a mindless offensive slugfest. Perhaps if his hometown Royals were ever any good he’d give the game more of a chance. After all, it’s been 21 years since Kansas City has had an exciting team — and even the 1985 Royals were a heavy pitching, light hitting team.
Daniel Evensen
South Jordan, Utah
Rights at Gitmo
Some would have us believe President Bush took the initiative to grant Geneva Convention protections to those incarcerated in Guantanamo and other U.S. detention centers. The truth is the Supreme Court forced President Bush to recognize the detainees? legal rights to basic human and legal protections under the Geneva Conventions. President Bush?s attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, asserted that ?the war against terrorism is a new kind of war [and] renders obsolete Geneva?s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners.? President Bush himself expressed the opinion that ?None of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with Al Qaeda.?
Despite Bush?s reluctant change of policy, he continues to urge Congress to pass legislation curtailing the rights guaranteed to detainees under international law, allowing the U.S. to grant only minimum rights to the detainees during interrogation and trial, if they are ever granted the right to a trial.
The Iraq War has given the United States a black eye, but the recent allegations of rape and murder by U.S. troops and the treatment of those incarcerated in American-run prisons have left a deeper wound by undermining our claim to be the world?s defender of human rights and civil liberties.
Eric Hyer
Provo, UT
LA Times not a bad source
Mr. Gunn claims that “anyone who has lived in the Los Angeles area knows full well the liberal bias…and the probable inaccuracy of anything [the LA Times] prints.” I lived in LA County for 18 years, and perhaps I missed
something, but I really don’t think this alleged attitude toward the LA Times is universal. Despite what Mr. Gunn says, I (and many other Californians) consider the LA Times a very informative and reputable publication, despite occasional bias (a completely bias-free news
publication doesn’t exist). In fact, I even subscribed to the LA Times, and contrary to Mr. Gunn’s characterization of LA Times subscribers, I’m not “non-religious” (although I confess that my political orientation is probably left of center). I’m also baffled as to how I was able to spend most of my life in LA, yet somehow not realize that “Southern California is a hotbed of anti-Mormon bias.”
Now, either I’m extremely imperceptive, I’m a very unorthodox Californian, or Mr. Gunn’s argument is unfounded.
A word to the wise: making fanatical generalizations and attributing everything that doesn’t sit well with you to supposedly wicked and non-religious liberals doesn’t win a lot of points when it comes to credibility.
Steve McIntyre
Claremont, CA
Plums just the start
Ms. Kramer (Plums on Campus, 13 July, 2006), I think you?re on to something. But why should we stop at harvesting plums? What about all of the grass on campus that goes wasted? Maybe BYU could have a few steers roaming campus. BYU could probably save a bundle on mowing expense. Imagine the amount of beef we could send to students in need (like out of work landscapists). And then what about the flowers? Beautification is so Temple Square. Let?s cut those suckers down and sell them to a floral shop. And those ducks that use our pond space, rent-free? Starving kids in Peking might know what to do with these squatters. Let?s work on turning CougarTown into CougarCo-Op?one plum at a time.
Dave Heywood
Heber City, UT
CleanFlicks decision
Finding commercial video editing illegal was the correct thing to do (see front page of July 11, 2006). I like CleanFlicks too, but copyright law protects movies from derivative works, particularly when derivatives benefit commercial firms. Whether our copyright law is right is a separate question.
Directors sometimes make movies, not just for entertainment, but for instruction. Some movies, like Schindler’s List, are meant to change the way you think, to move you. This is sometimes accomplished by showing shocking and disturbing images. Right or wrong, I might be upset too if someone took my movie and cut all the parts that might impact the audience.
That said, Schindler’s List and its kind are not for everyone, certainly not for children. For CleanFlicks addicts, check out ClearPlay. It is a DVD player that skips the “naughty bits” on commercial DVDs. It is legal, there is no derivative work, just skipping. For new movies, you can download filter files from clearplay.com which tell your DVD player where to skip. You can also set the level of filtering of violence, nudity and profanity. It has been smoother and cleaner than CleanFlicks films too. Since you use normal DVDs, cheap DVDs from Walmart work just fine.
Sean Giambattista
Fairport NY
