March 2015 - Binghamton Review

TRUTH AND TWO STAPLES

MONTH MARCHYYYY 2015

Binghamton Review

BINGHAMTON REVIEW

P.O. BOX 6000 BINGHAMTON, NY 13902-6000

EDITOR@BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM

Founded 1987 • MARCH 2015

Contents EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sean M. Glendon

Managing Editor Jordan Raitses

Layout Editor

William Schneider

Editor Emeritus Daniel Milyavsky

Contributors

Chris Gil, Dan Kersten, Yesac Roanoke, Mark Tverskoy

Patriarchs of the Review Louis Leonini Adam Shamah

Special Thanks to:

Intercollegiate Studies Institute Collegiate Network Binghamton Review was printed by Gary Marsden

We Provide the Truth, He Provides the Staples

Libertarians’ ron paul dilemma

PAGE 12 by Daniel Milyavsky

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The Interview in Review by Chris Gil

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Daytona $500 Contribution by Yesac Roanoke

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According to Brian Williams... by William Schneider

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The Most Lethal Sniper in History by Mark Tverskoy

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Deflate-getoverit by Sean Glendon

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A Vaccine a Day... by Dan Kersten

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Cuba Embargone by Jordan Raitses

Departments 3 4 5

EDITORIAL CAMPUS PRESSWATCH What you missed

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK! Direct letter to editor@binghamtonreview.com 2

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March 2015

EDITORIAL

From the Editor

Dear Readers, My name is Sean Glendon and this is my first issue as Editor in Chief. I’m a Junior in SOM, and am very excited to continue the traditions of the Binghamton Review.

Having learned so much from my predecessors, Dan Milyavsky (who’s still around to help, luckily!) and Jake Hayutin since becoming involved my freshman year, I am thrilled to have the ability to continue to balance the discussion on campus through this publication. I am also very excited to implement some changes that help us modernize and maintain a strong presence going into the future. While we are always looking for more contributors, some of these plans will create the opportunity for involvement in ways that haven’t existed or have existed in a minimal sense in the past. While I am happy with our current writers, we can always use more!

Similarly, having more students who are focused on editing and social media would

also be fantastic. If any of this interests you, feel free to email me at editor@binghamtonreview.com to get involved.

Anyways, I hope your semester has been off to a great start. In classic Binghamton fashion, I’d be generous to say this past month has been on average in the single-digits. I was recently thrilled to see a Saturday night forecast of 22 degrees. What has my life come to? Let’s just hope that spring comes sooner than later. Screw you Punxsutawney Phil. As a final note - with Parade Day and exams coming up, I wish your livers and GPAs the best of luck surviving so you can continue to read us!

-Sean M. Glendon

Our Mission Binghamton Review is a non-partisan, student-run periodical of conservative thought at Binghamton University. A true liberal arts education expands a student’s horizons and opens one’s mind to a vast array of divergent perspectives. In that spirit, we seek to promote the free exchange of ideas and offer an alternative viewpoint not normally found on our predominately liberal campus. It is our duty to expose the warped ideology of political correctness that dominates this university. We stand against tyranny in all its forms, both on campus and beyond. We believe in the principles set forth in this country’s Declaration of Independence and seek to preserve the fundamental tenets of Western civilization. Finally, we understand that a moral order is a necessary component of any civilized society. We strive to inform, engage, and perhaps even amuse our readers in carrying out this mission.

editor@binghamtonreview.com

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CPampus resswatch *Editor comments appear in bold Prospect Editorial Prospect “...We are part of the same community and act in togetherness. Yes, my worldview is very idealistic, some might say naive.”

I’d actually call it silly and immature, but different strokes for different folks! I’m not exactly sure what “acting in togetherness” even consists of, but that just might be my bias as a science major coming through, a field in which the words we use actually bear some degree of relationship to reality.

“At Prospect we do whatever we can to work with other organizations on campus and publicize their efforts.

While other publications might continuously put down other organizations, we realize that there are ways to uphold and champion your organizations without trying to degrade others.”

I agree, that conceivably, hypothetically, technically, we COULD champion our values without putting others down (see how I managed to avoid using the bulky word “organization” even once in that sentence? You used it THRICE!).

But what fun would that be? Press Watch is many readers’ favorite section. Their amusement is more important to us than your feelings!

Actually, you’re probably talking about us ignoring your emails about meeting together to find a printer. Well, we had already found one! I guess we could’ve been courteous and made you aware of this fact, but you tried to steal our office from us, and then came by in October and were shocked by the fact that we were still here. So while we won’t do a thing to inhibit your efforts, we’re also not obliged to encourage them.

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Written by our Staff Prepare the derriere: Don’t be afraid to open the back door Pipe Dream “In 2015, anal is in. Many people are afraid to open the back door, but with this step-by-step guide, men and women alike will grow to fully appreciate their derrieres. Many of you have asked, so here it is: the definitive guide to anal sex.”

Alright, this article is exactly what it sounds like - Pipe Dream’s resident sex columnist writes a nauseating article advocating that students have anal sex. It’s gross, and even though I read it, I’m a nice person, so I won’t make you read it and no more excerpts will be posted. Suffice it to say, quality and sound judgment are not Pipe Dream’s strong suits. I’m skeptical that many people have really asked, but whoever these “many people” are, I hope I don’t run into them.

Campus toilet paper leaves students irritated Pipe Dream “So, yes it’s true that this space could be used for a more important issue, such as the overpopulation of campus which leads to an unavailability of resources ranging from parking spaces to Pods, the frighteningly dangerous OCCT nightmare Downtown on weekend nights, how Sodexo is essentially a monopoly or

literally anything besides pooping.”

A free alternative to one-ply toilet paper is Pipe Dream, which you can easily find scattered throughout campus. This would cost no money, and you can even read during the process before you put your copy to good use!

Cheap gas prices distract from renewable energy Pipe Dream “Cheap oil damages our society by concentrating wealth and power into the hands of a select few.”

Nonsense. Why don’t you try talking to one of the millions of Americans who has to drive to work in the morning, and ask them what they think of cheap gas prices? “Renewable energy” is an obsession of well-to-do liberals who are insulated from the pernicious economic effects of the anti-growth climate policies they advocate. When you guys manage to develop an airplane or even a car that runs on sunshine, rainbows, and love, come back to those of us living in reality.

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WHAT you missed For no good fucking reason, Obama announced several days ago that fourth graders and their families will have free admission to all national parks for 2016. Why not third graders? Why not fifth graders? Who knows? Hope and change! Yes we can! First black president!

Someone has been slipping copies of the Worker’s Vanguard, a commie newspaper, under our office door which ironically, unlike our free issues, costs 50 cents. Headlines include: “Picket Lines Mean Don’t Cross!” “Imperialists Squeeze Greece!” “Capitalist Syriza Government: No Friends of Workers” I guess by workers they mean people who don’t actually work! Look, I’m flattered by the attention, I really am, but I’m not going to be converted to believing that government bureaucrats should control every aspect of my existence just because you slip your cute little rag under my door.

But really, thanks!

Citizen Four, the film about Edward Snowden’s quest to tell the American people how their government was tracking their every single digital communication, won the Oscar for best documentary. Snowden sacrificed a sweet life in Hawaii with a hot girlfriend and a six figure salary to do what was best for editor@binghamtonreview.com

America. Nevertheless, jokes like this were made: “Edward Snowden couldn’t be here for some treason.” For what it’s worth, the whole hero vs. traitor debate was always a silly distraction, and just an easy way for lazy journalists to frame the debate. Snowden appeared via live stream at the recent International Students for Liberty Conference (which yours truly was at!), and said that he does not believe that there are heroes, only heroic actions. Some food for thought.

Dustin Theoharis was shot 16 times as he lay in bed by police officers who kicked down his door and streamed into his house. He sued the county and settled for $3 millon, but the local prosecutors seemed to think that shooting unarmed people laying in bed is A-okay, and declined to prosecute the officers responsible, who got off scot-free and continue to be employed. Yeah justice!

Rudy Giuliani recently, perhaps foolishly, questioned whether Obama loves America. Rand Paul had the proper response, saying, “I think it’s a mistake to question people’s motives. It’s one thing to disagree on policy.”

That’s an important idea - we should save our ammo not for the intentions of the lefties, although these are often

suspect, but rather on their mistaken (maybe evil, maybe just incorrect?) ideas.

Chipotle’s Twitter was hacked by some sort of racist Nazi on a Saturday night.

The hacker seemed very anti-Obama, anti-government and pro-swastika. Chipotle issued an apology, but began tweeting again without changing their logo back to their actual logo. Oops.

The Colonial opened its doors as another option to get wasted downtown. Hopefully, this added competition leads to better drink specials and less overcrowding all around State Street. But, probably not.

A Metro North accident in Valhalla killed 6 people, and injured 12 more. Our condolences go out to those affected.

Spike Lee came to campus and spoke about his life, filmmaking and race.

Marc Lawrence and Hugh Grant premiered their new movie The Rewrite on campus, which is about a professor that comes to Binghamton University.

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THE INTERVIEW IN REVIEW

The Interview in Review Written By Chris Gil

There was a lot of hype for the launch of this movie, as the arguably greatest comedic duo of this decade teamed up yet again in a movie about the murder plot of North Korea’s current leader Kim Jong-un.

Seth Rogen and James Franco have produced some of the funniest movies in recent years, including Pineapple Express and This is the End.

For The Interview, a movie with as ridiculous of a plotline as attempting to kill the Supreme Leader of North Korea, there were many movie watchers waiting anxiously to buy a ticket. However then Sony got hacked momentarily and there was fear that not only would the world never see the long-awaited-for movie, but also that the United States could receive further backlash from 6

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North Korea. Eventually the movie was released on select Internet sites, and thoroughly disappointed most viewers. Although there were occasional funny parts, all in all, “the movie that North Korea almost did not let us see” needed to be much better than it was.

The idea for the movie, although controversial, set itself up for comedic gold given the actors involved.

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg produced this movie belittling the most dangerous man in the world and to a degree setting our country at risk.

To justify going through with the production of this film, the expectation was that this movie would be so earth-shatteringly great that people wouldn’t care as much at how controversial the concept is.

The scene of James Franco and Kim Jong-un hanging out was pretty funny, but overall the jokes were repetitive and lacking the comedic genius that we have come to expect out of Rogen/Franco. Even worse, I can

never listen to “Firework” by Katy Perry again without it reminding me of this disappointing movie. I hope Seth Rogen makes up for this performance in his next movie.

GRADE:

C+

While the movie had great prospects, it did not deliver as well as it should have. I am thoroughly disappointed with Seth Rogen and James Franco--better luck next time.

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DAYTONA $500 CONTRIBUTION

Daytona $500 Contribution Written By Yesac Roanoke

An age-old joke recommends that politicians don the logo coated jumpsuits of NASCAR fame. Nearly every politician accepts funding from companies. The influence of big money in politics is a flashpoint in America. American belief maintains that big money is eroding democracy and corrupting officials.

NASCAR jumpsuits are humorously suggested to promote transparency in politics. A more serious consideration surfaced in New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo, and an increasing tide of state representatives, are championing public financing of political campaigns. Public financing of campaigns, like NASCAR, is really dumb.

American voters fear corporate influence within their representatives. Record contributions from businesses in the most recent major elections have birthed an unbridled concern of corruption. Frequently cited strangleholds are the National Rifle Association, the Koch Brothers, Act Blue, and the National Association of Realtors. Proposed public financing campaigns promise to banish these groups’ grimy fingers from politicians’ pockets. One proposal seeks to direct politicians away from big groups’ donations to focus on the little guys. The proposal states that every small donation, one that rests underneath a designated price ceiling, will be matched five times by public funding. A private $50 donation is matched with $250 of government funding for a total of $300.

This is dumb. Admittedly, the proposal is romantic. Big, uncaring businesses will be shunted as politicians cater to the honest individuals.

Humble donations coupled with innocent government cash will thwart corruption. The issue lies within the editor@binghamtonreview.com

‘government matching.’ An important word association should occur whenever the word ‘government’ is in the context of spending. First, change ‘government’ to ‘public.’

Then, switch ‘public’ to ‘me.’ ‘Me funding’ is grammatically incorrect, but is ideologically spot on. Every time someone shoots over cash to a politician, you’ll be adding five times that from your own pocket.

You, your family, your community will have their funds sent to a politician’s purse. The annoying robot calls, the despicable television ads, the garish banners, and the blaring radio spots will all be ‘me funded.’

You, instead of AT&T or the United Auto Workers, would foot the bill for ridiculous advertisements.

Your dollars would pay for Willie Horton’s headshot and the nuclear bomb dropped on little Daisy.

Some other person halfway across the state opens her wallet, and by the miracle of legislative antimatter, your wallet pops open too. Worst of all, the money you earned would go to every eligible candidate. Imagine having to fund Todd Akin or Eliot Spitzer. Maybe one day your paychecks will go to Vermin Supreme, the 2012 presidential candidate who ran on the “Every American Deserves a Pony” platform. You’ll have absolutely no choice, because public funding is taxpayer money which is your money.

corruption perception on American paranoia levels. A report from The Economist shows that Britons cite big money influence in politics as a source of eroding democracy. Regulation won’t solve any perceived corruption. Public campaign financing will make things even worse by having the taxpayers shell out for lambasting ads. Though, voters shouldn’t roll over just yet.

A true solution is more abstract. The only reason businesses pump millions of dollars into candidates is to get something back in return. These secret agreements are devastating to consumers and the free market.

Consider when sugar company puppets pushed through a law classifying the sweet miraculin berry as an ‘additive,’ effectively destroying any chance of it entering the food industry despite its health benefits. The fastest way to kick big money out of politics is to strip politicians’ powers to unfairly influence the market.

Certainly an ambiguous recommendation, but it’s a surefire to dam the corporate money flood. Until legislatures’ abilities are reigned in, we’ll need an interim solution. Do we have volunteers to sew the NASCAR jumpsuits?

Politicians are subject to corruption, and companies are one source. Passing on the bill to taxpayers is not the solution. In fact, public financing may not even work. Back door contributions, monstrous super PACs, and shady political accounting can keep the illicit funding from the public eye. England, which heavily, heavily regulates campaign spending (no TV, no radio spots) suffers from Binghamtonreview.com

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ACCORDING TO BRIAN WILLIAMS

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According to Brian Williams Written By William Schneider Brian Williams himself assured me that via his power of telekinesis, which he also assures me is one of many, he has already told you all that Brian Williams has been declared the new President of the United Nations, representative of Planet Earth during negotiations with the aliens he discovered, and that Brian Williams is by far the most popular person place or thing across the entire internet! ...according to Brian Williams.

Actually that last one isn’t too far from the truth lately, seeing as the internet has recently been flooded with memes like this one.

Basically what happened is that back in 2003, Williams claimed to have ridden in a helicopter that was hit by ground fire over the war torn country of Iraq.

Over time the story changed to him looking down the barrel of an RPG that hit the helicopter in front of his, causing everyone to look towards the crew of that helicopter for answers. In their account they certainly got hit, but Brian’s infamous helicopter was trailing them by roughly thirty minutes which, even without bunny hopping, is more than 8

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enough time to get the hell out of there and avoid the danger.

Naturally this upset a lot of people, resulting in both NBC suspending him as anchor of NBC nightly news for six months and the internet’s society of meme creators labeling him public enemy number one. Now I’m sure a lot of you will agree with my personal opinion that this is all a result of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Not because of his time in Iraq, but because Brian Williams was born in Elmira, NY which Google maps cites as just under an hour away from the Twilight Zone, and we all know what that can do to a person.

Regardless, the internet has branded Williams as the most infamous liar since Bill “I did not have sexual relations (or inhale)” Clinton, and has resulted in depictions of him in countless situations reporting or exaggerating events from the very high left shark in the most recent Super Bowl to the freaking extinction of the dinosaurs!

* “Brian Williams here reporting live from Pangaea where the sky is literally falling!” -c/o twitter

Aside from being hilarious this trend really shows us how serious the internet and its many

denizens are taking the whole incident. While many people are skeptical of news reports, in this digital age we still expect the most respected sources to give us some biased bastardized version of the truth. Clearly having someone who has been among the most popular and well respected faces in the news is not something we are going to take lightly. I mean, the entire job is basically just to tell us what is going on. Blatantly lying to everyone’s face about debatably the most controversial subject material in the country is probably not the best way to implement your artistic license.

Fortunately, as much as everyone has been going berserk about this, Brian William’s credibility isn’t going to cost America lives or jobs in the long-run, so hopefully we will come to some ‘don’t fucking do that shit again’ agreement with him and all of the major news outlets pretty soon and move on with our lives.

Also, if you didn’t get a huge kick out of our cover the first time around, this would be the perfect time to take another look.

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Where in the World is Brian Williams?

editor@binghamtonreview.com

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MOST LETHAL SNIPER IN HISTORY

The Most Lethal Sniper in History Written By Mark Tverskoy

Clint Eastwood is commonly referenced to as an immense talent in the film industry of the United States.

With recognizable roles in films such as Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Clint Eastwood earns his credibility as an actor. Eastwood’s career as a director is even more successful awarding him all four of his Oscar wins. Thus it is no surprise that his latest film, American Sniper, has been earning top box office numbers, has been nominated for six Oscars and has even stirred up controversy.

The film depicts the life of Chris Kyle, or as he’s better known “the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history”. With one hundred and sixty confirmed kills out of two hundred and twenty-five probable kills, Chris Kyle is a true American hero who single handedly saved the lives of numerous combat soldiers in the Iraq war. For his efforts Kyle received two Silver Star Medals, five Bronze Star Medals, one Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medal, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals as well as numerous

other unit and personal awards. Kyle served four tours in Iraq between 2001-2009. On February 2nd 2013, Kyle was tragically murdered by a fellow former veteran who Kyle was trying to help overcome the struggles of adjusting to life away from the battle field.

While the life of Chris Kyle may have ended tragically, the film American Sniper does an amazing job celebrating the life of Kyle with excellent acting from main star Bradley Cooper.

Cooper was heavily involved in the role both emotionally and physically as he gained nearly forty pounds of muscle to truly feel like Kyle. In an interview with NPR, Cooper was asked about the weight gain and had the following to say, “It wasn’t at all like a costume. It was like ... this sort of transformative experience to me because there was no going home from it. It was a gradual change that then became my daily life until I started to shed him after we stopped shooting, which actually didn’t happen for three or four weeks.

And I remember waking up one morning and knowing that he was gone and I just knew it. He was just gone from me. ... I could just feel it — that he wasn’t there.”

Such involved acting, as well as immense directing from Eastwood provided the feel of a true American hero struggling not only with war but with the transition back into civilian life. While it’s true the film may glorify the U.S. a bit too much, it does not overshadow the true meaning; our soldiers are constantly struggling to keep us safe, they sacrifice their entire lives for the wellbeing of our country as a whole and we must provide them with our un-

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derstanding and support.

Even though the film had such a positive message, leftist celebrities such as Michael Moore and Seth Rogen criticized the film for over glorifying the life of Chris Kyle and ultimately called Kyle a coward for being a sniper. Moore has been quoted via his twitter as saying “My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot the back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders r worse”. While it was difficult to depict precisely Moore was trying to say due to his elementary vocabulary and lack of grammar, his message is clear; snipers are cowards.

Meanwhile Seth Rogen had the following to say, “American Sniper kind of reminds me of the movie that’s showing in the third act of Inglorious Bastards”. Rogen is referring to a film which involves merciless killing of various people. What Rogen may not have realized is that American Sniper is based solely on personal accounts and the autobiography of Chris Kyle. Furthermore the family and friends of Chris Kyle were involved in the film creation process and gave their seals of approval. Rogen later apologized.

Even with the controversy surrounding American Sniper, the film is an excellent display of cinematic talent and great story telling. It is receiving tons of praise and has already received critical acclaim.

American Sniper is on par with other acclaimed military action-thrillers like Black Hawk Down or The Hurt Locker. If suspenseful action or dramatic insight into the mental burdens put on modern servicemen and women is what you crave, then definitely catch this amazing film in the theaters.

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DEFLATE-GETOVERIT

Deflate-getoverit Written By Sean Glendon

The Super Bowl was beautiful this year, and not just because of the game. The lead up was phenomenal, mostly because it exemplified everything wrong with the media.

Super Bowl XLIX had two huge media stories: the sensationalization of Deflategate/Ballghazi and the epic duel between Marshawn Lynch and the media. After the Patriots absolutely dominated the Colts in the AFC Championship game, tests determined that 11 out of 12 footballs that New England used were underinflated: thus Deflategate was born and the media had dubbed another minute scandal after the classic Watergate scandal of the 1970s. Seriously, how lazy are reporters that whenever a story occurs, they use the formulate [blank] +gate = headline. In the recent past, we’ve had Nipplegate, Closetgate, Gamergate, Bridgegate, Bountygate, Sodaate, Spygate (also involving the Patriots) and Weinergate to name a few.

Go to the Wikipedia page ‘List of scandals with “-gate” suffix’ and see the absurdity of this. You’d think after 40 years maybe this would get old or something? Earn your fucking paycheck and report creatively, media personalities. I could understand this being a story, considering that footballs not being inflated to the correct regulated levels could have an impact on the quarterbacks, receivers and other players. However, the Patriots won by 38. With a margin of victory this extreme, the only justifiable instance of sensationalizing this story would be if Bill Belichick went to Andrew Luck’s house with a spiked baseball bat and ensured he couldn’t play… and this whole instance was caught on tape.

Yes, the balls were deflated, and yes, this may have been intentional… but the Patriots won by 45, which is editor@binghamtonreview.com

almost unheard of for the playoffs.

The Patriots are cheaters, probably, maybe? But until there is proof that this has been happening on a consistent basis, and was intentional, this isn’t a big deal. However, the media went absolutely crazy with this story. This was on every station, almost 24/7 leading up to the big game. With so much insanity in the world these days, is this really what should be leading the headlines? I almost understand it being a big story on ESPN, but even then it’s a bit of a stretch. But leading NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, CNN, and so on? Get out of here. That was the first media is-

Go to the Wikipedia page ‘List of scandals with “-gate” suffix’ and see the absurdity of this. You’d think after 40 years maybe this would get old or something? sue, which is pretty straightforward negligent journalism. The second incident involved Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch and his lack of desire to communicate with the media.

Side note: not giving Beast Mode (possibly the best running back in the league) the ball and having Russell Wilson throw an interception will go down as one of the worst play calls in the history of professional sports.

But, back to the media and the NFL or whoever is to blame. Marshawn Lynch doesn’t like talking to the media. He blames social anxiety, but another theory is that he doesn’t enjoy being asked the same cliche questions. How many times can you

answer “What do you have to do to win out there?” or “How do you think you guys did out there today?” without going insane? Either way, Marshawn Lynch has had problems in the past involving the media and not wanting to talk. He has been fined $100,000 for his refusal to talk to the media, yet that hasn’t resolved the issue. If a player is willing to forgo that amount of money to avoid talking to the press, clearly this is no small issue. Whatever the case, the NFL has a policy that forces players to speak to the media. So the week leading up to the Super Bowl was filled with the media asking Marshawn Lynch cliche questions, and him responding with whatever catchphrase he chose for the day.

Clearly, there was gridlock with both parties wasting their time and leaving frustrated. In a league full of animated characters that love the media, why force a player to speak? The Seahawks have Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson, two very talkative but stylistically different players. Seeing this play out made it clear that the policy of forcing players to talk to the media is a policy that should be talked about in the offseason, especially since Commissioner Roger Goodell can turn down interviews as he pleases and still manage to make over $40 million per year without putting his body at risk. While the Super Bowl was one hell of a sports spectacle, it also helped to demonstrate how flawed the institutions that are the NFL and modern media can be.

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LIBERTARIANS’ RON PAUL DILEMMA

Libertarians’ Ron Paul Dilemma Written By Daniel Milyavsky

It’s no secret that Ron Paul’s presidential candidacies in 2008 and 2012 were integral to the development of today’s libertarian movement, called somewhat pretentiously, but not altogether inaccurately, the “liberty movement” by some. I fancy myself a sort of intellectual, so I prefer to cite Milton Friedman, who’s argument were logical to the core and filled with nuance, as my main inspiration. Still, however, Ron Paul was my gateway drug into the world of libertarian ideas. I still remember watching a YouTube video entitled, “Ron Paul’s Message to OBAMA!,” where he said, “Change means nothing. It’s just a word. And it’s a cliche. To repeat it, it has no meaning. You have to say, what are you going to change? And I would argue; you offer no change! You have the same foreign policy. You want more troops in Afghanistan. We’re not talking about only going to war

with a declaration. You don’t want to deal with the monetary financial crisis in this country. You want to keep, you know the system together, for the benefit of the banks, and the corporations, and the politicians…

And what kind of change do you have on social policy? Do you care about sick people using marijuana?

Have you come out for that? And I would just hit him hard, he doesn’t want change, he wants the status quo!”

Now, this is pretty thrilling stuff to hear from a presidential candidate, especially for a 16 year old just starting to learn about politics. I didn’t vote for Ron Paul in 2012 (or for anyone else in the primary, for that matter) though, since his main two issues were the Federal Reserve and foreign policy, two issues that I don’t fully sympathize with him on, especially when it comes to his rhet-

oric about how literally every single problem abroad is the result of US foreign policy. But still, he injected a healthy boost of actual small government beliefs into a Republican Party that used small government rhetoric and then legislated big government policies.

Now, I have three pictures with Ron Paul. I got to meet him in his congressional office in 2012, where he just sat down with about twelve of us young people and had a conversation with us for 45 minutes. He’s a super nice guy. I bet he was a really caring doctor.

But he does have problem with owning up to his mistakes. For those of you who may not know, in the 90’s, Ron Paul published a series of newsletters, the most prominent being the Ron Paul Freedom Report.

These newsletters frequently used deplorable racist language, such as, “If you have ever been robbed by a black teenaged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be.” Ron Paul has denied writing these newsletters, and the rumor in libertarian circles is that they were written by Lew Rockwell, with help perhaps from Jeffrey Tucker. Unlike Ron Paul, these two people are just straight up mediocrities, and the latter’s status as a celebrtarian is certainly irksome, but that’s a different topic altogether. Regardless of whether Ron Paul wrote these articles, he at the very least should have been aware of their existence.

He should show a lot more contrition for publishing them than he has thus far.

Ron Paul gets so annoyed by questions about these newsletters that he once conspicuously walked off of a CNN interview after the

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topic of the newsletters came up. He has unfortunately seemed to have passed on this thin skin to his son Rand, who becomes similarly annoyed every time he is asked about his plagiarism scandal.

Ron Paul’s statements since leaving office have been particularly troublesome. At the 2015 International Students for Liberty Conference, which I attended, Ron Paul was asked about his support for Russia’s imperialistic actions in Ukraine, and his misleading statements about the revolution in Ukraine being a Western coup. Ron Paul dismissed the question, saying, “I’m not pro-Putin, I’m pro-facts.” Ugh. Everyone is pro-facts; that’s supposed to be a line only annoying liberals use.

The truth is, Ron Paul’s statements on Russian military aggression into Ukraine all read like they were writ-

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ten by a Kremlin propagandist; indeed, Ron Paul is a favorite of Russia Today, also known as RT, the Moscow-funded propaganda channel.

Libertarians should be more willing to call out Ron Paul for this shoddy behavior. I’m still certainly glad he exists; without him, the libertarian movement would not be where it is today. Perhaps I would discover the wonder of Milton Friedman’s YouTube videos anyway, but who knows? But at this point the libertarian movement should be mature enough to draw distinctions. I’m a big fan of Rand Paul, and I hope he does a better job of maintaining intellectual honesty than he’s been doing recently. He’s still the only candidate openly opposed to the drug war, the only candidate who I know deep down in his heart wants to get rid of farm subsidies and re-

form Medicare and Social Security, the only candidate who’s appropriately skeptical of sending our troops in harm’s way.But the libertarian movement is not represented by a single person. Our ideas have a long and distinguished history. Frederic Bastiat, who’s excerpts we printed in our last issue, wrote presciently about the threat of statism way back in the 19th century. The classical liberal ideals of John Locke and Adam Smith are even older. In a sense, libertarianism is a uniquely American movement, and no other country really has anything like it. Hell, even in this century, with Calvin Coolidge, we’ve had presidents who were pretty much libertarian. Libertarianism as a movement is significantly more powerful and influential than it was a mere decade ago. Let’s keep it that way, and keep ourselves honest and modest.

My THIRD Ron Paul pic. Go to our website and look at past issues to find others! editor@binghamtonreview.com

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VACCINE A DAY

A Vaccine a Day...

BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM

Written By Dan Kersten

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a British surgeon and medical researcher published an article in The Lancet. In it, Wakefield claimed that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine was linked to cases of colitis - an inflammation of the large intestine - and autism spectrum disorders. In the immediate aftermath, parents panicked and vaccine rates dropped dramatically.

Investigations into Wakefield uncovered that he had not reported several conflicts of interest, violated many ethical codes, and his data could not be replicated. As a result, in 2010, Wakefield had his medical license revoked and The Lancet retracted his entire paper.

Worldwide, the paper is now regarded as a hoax - and a deadly one.

Diseases like measles have made a comeback, most recently in the Disneyland epidemic in January 2015.

The role of vaccination is to not only protect ourselves, but to protect others; importantly, those who cannot get the vaccine for legitimate health or religious reasons. Those unvaccinated can expose the ineligible people to the disease and, sadly, death.

Even after being disproven years

ago, approximately nine percent of children were not vaccinated in the United States in 2013. There have been calls for the government to make vaccination involuntary, which is incredibly unconstitutional. People have the right to stand against vaccines. Therefore, I, too, have the right to call them morons.

Yet, there are ways for the government to encourage vaccination. A great example is using the public school system, which have the right to deny admission to voluntarily unvaccinated children.

As someone who wants to enter the field of medicine, the vaccine

...basing this decision off of a famous celebrity, like Jenny McCarthy, or some random person’s blog and not accepted medical research is irresponsible and unforgivable.

er a dead child than one with an autistic spectrum disorder; disorders that are not necessarily incapacitating. In fact, a person with an autistic spectrum disorder can live a full and wonderful life.

Medical professionals are trained to not subject patients to treatments that are incredibly risky. Vaccines have been used for decades and have had overwhelmingly positive results for humanity. This fear of vaccines, the idea that they can lead to autistic spectrum disorders, is completely unfounded. I encourage everyone to read the latest science on vaccines from a peer-reviewed journal, not a blog or a celebrity’s Facebook page.

People may have the constitutional protections to believe what that vaccines cause autism or other diseases, but this does not mean that they are right.

debacle can be quite angering. Anti-vaccine advocates tend to be educated and have the financial means to have their children vaccinated.

There should be no excuse for not vaccinating an eligible child. Furthermore, basing this decision off of a famous celebrity, like Jenny McCarthy, or some random person’s blog and not accepted medical research is irresponsible and unforgivable.

From my vantage point, anti-vaxer parents are willing to subject their child to the much greater possibility of harm from a preventable sickness than the smaller (but actually non-existent!) chance that the child develops a mental disability. It seems as if these parents would rath-

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BINGHAMTON REVIEW

March 2015

BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM

CUBA EMBARGONE

Cuba Embargone Written By Jordan Raitses

Cuba has been our fiercest enemy in the ongoing Cold War against the damned Soviet menace (not that it ended 30 years ago or anything). The brutal war-hardened savages of this peaceful Latin American country have long cast a menacing shadow across the mere 100-mile-strait between Us and Them. Breaking our resolve with their infamous cigars and an abundance of doctors, the Cubans [read: Red Menace] gave us no choice but to place an embargo on all trade with their country. To this day, they have fought back with a decaying infrastructure as their major source of GDP transitions to tourism and resource export. If only the savages would capitulate and return to sweet sweet capitalism, we would maybe stop housing our prisoners of war (especially the ones we torture) on their shores. However, Obama—the pansy-hearted liberal that he is—has indicated that we may be giving up! This is America, home of the Brave and land of the Free!

In all seriousness, this is a great international relations move (for once) for our President. The Cuban people are under an oppressive dictatorship that doesn’t get enough coverage in the United States because it is largely invisible to us. This island of statist rule is almost entirely cordoned off from the average American person and thus there is no outrage, just a light simmering from escaped Cubans and Canadian tourists who wandered off their resorts.

Human rights organizations have long criticized Cuba’s government, calling it out for what it is: a neo-Leninist dictatorship. Cuba has over 200 work camps—that’s right, work camps—and approximately 170 poeditor@binghamtonreview.com

litical prisoners, with more facing harassment and intimidation outside of official jail time. The press is hit worst of all, as Cuba is only surpassed by China in number of imprisoned journalists. Let that sink in for a moment: China, with a pop-

storing international relations with Cuba may seem like giving up— that is an idiotic way of looking at it: these people need our trade and maybe, just maybe an international spotlight on human rights violations that may lead to some change.

China, with a population of about 1.3 billion, is the only country with more imprisoned journalists than the island nation of Cuba. ulation of about 1.3 billion, is the only country with more imprisoned journalists than the island nation of Cuba. It is no surprise that there are over 400,000 have migrated to the United States since the ‘80s.

Of course, we have yet to address the economic woes of the Cuban people. It is a shining example of communism and socialism in full effect.

The state controls the economy— badly—and the people suffer for it.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba has had a shortage of basically everything (especially industrial materials). As a result, Cuba is actually a leader in organic farming techniques due to their lacking the capability to produce pesticides… so I guess there’s that. Since the ‘90s, Cuba has developed at a stunted pace (certainly not helped by the American trade embargo), but recent increases in tourism and a relaxation of government regulations have finally given the Cuban people a breath of hope.

FACT: Cuba is currently home to over 44,000 revolutionaries, like this one, all of whom are ready and willing to appear on your stupid T-shirt for their country.

Or was that the number of trained doctors they send to Venezuela for oil...?

Tl;dr: the Cuban people have it rough, but it’s getting better.

While Obama’s motion towards reBinghamtonreview.com

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