Author: Andrew Geist

Though I suspect in our embarrassingly religion-illiterate culture that few have a clue what the Via Dolorosa even is, its use in depicting a Palestinian Via Dolorosa in a gathering at PSU on Thursday, May 28, sponsored by SUPER, is disturbing.

Oregonians need more jobs like OPB needs telethons. Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s personal telethon has been his promotion of the Emergency Jobs Program, aimed at “creating” 12,000 jobs.

Repeat criminal offenders, including those violating probation, aren’t given jail sentences, more often than not, out of sympathy. It’s just not practical. The ballot measures of Measures 57 and 61 last fall sought to clear a bit of this up, demanding more overall prison beds to handle new standards.

Compassion is an admirable virtue. So is pragmatism. The two are in something of a tangle to influence state legislators to grant in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants.

Some have taken to calling Ishmael Khaldi something of a “token” Arab spokesman for the state of Israel. How this former Bedouin shepherd turned into a foreign consulate and could embrace his identity so fully as an Israeli is something of a mystery.

For all the perceived benefits of increasing the minimum wage—moving the lower income population into the middle class, stimulating high-school consumer spending—continued increase in minimum wages will continue harm the very people meant to be aided, including college students.

One dollar is all a Colorado jury awarded Ward Churchill for a wrongful termination suit he filed against the University of Colorado. The jury found that he would not have been fired were it not for his political views.

There is a long tradition of giving government bills marshmallow-sweet acronyms. House bill 1388, which passed recently with the GIVE Act title, is no exception. But the GIVE Act’s main implication is to use college students to take from taxpayers—and maybe even commandeer you to do so.

Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. has given ground to students who believe seriously in the existence of time travel.

The group, Students for Justice in Palestine, following suit of Jimmy Carter, has given Israel the label of an apartheid state—like South Africa of the last century.

Former PSU Vice Provost Douglas Samuels got his $795,000 settlement with PSU for racial discrimination in late February. If, in fact, there were instances of acts of racism within our walls, then a lawsuit and settlement seem appropriate.

But no report presents any such evidence of individual acts of racism—no one specific has been indicted, and suits of this type raise serious questions about how an institution, and not an individual, can be responsible for racism.

Imagine this: you own a small but successful business in Oregon. Because of a law regarding the product you make, you pay $19,000 in taxes—not on your profit, but on your product. But this year, your taxes could increase to $370,000. Goodbye profit.