Binghamton Review January 2013

TRUTH AND TWO STAPLES

JANUARY 2013

BINGHAMTON REVIEW

What is the S.A. up to?

Harbowl Preview and Prediction now that the fiscal cliff has been averted what’s next?

Binghamton Review

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

EDITOR@BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM

FOUNDED 1987 • VOLUME XXVII NUMBER 5 • JANUARY 2013 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jacob L. Hayutin Managing Editor Daniel D. Milyavsky Copy Desk Chief Larry P. Gerchikov Associate Editors Samuel P. Bondy Nicholas Fondacaro Editors Emeriti Aaron Ricks Mark Soriano Contributors Joshua May, Ben Sheridan, Joseph H. Catanzaro Patriarchs of the Review Louis W. Leonini Adam Shamah Friends of the Review Dr. Aldo S. Bernardo The Leonini Family Mr. Bob Soltis WA2VCS The Shamah Family The Grynheim Family The Menje Family The Leeds Family The Lombardi Family The Packer Family Mr. Michael O’Connell

From the Editor...

W

elcome back, returning students and all you new transfers that are likely forced to live in the most inconvenient housing possible. I personally have not left Binghamton for more than a few days at a time this winter and can say confidently you didn’t miss much, except a few snow storms followed by the better part of a week blessed by the sun.

President Barack H. Obama has been sworn in for a second term and delivered a bold inauguration speech expressing his strong liberal stance. An agreement in congress was made and the fiscal cliff averted. Bigger questions about the existence of a taller cliff in uncharted global debt space are being raised but not particularly addressed as usual. A decent portion of this issue is dedicated

to discussing our mounting debt burden and its leading causes.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton solidified her reputation as an honorable diplomat in the congressional Bengazi hearing most recently. Pundits from the Left praised her religiously, while she was hammered by the Right. She was only responsible for the brutal murder of four Americans, what’s the big deal?

The “Arab Spring” has taken a turn for the worse with France’s involvement in Mali. It seems that this so-called Spring continues to leak all over the Muslim world, and as tensions soar we can only hope for the best. B

Binghamton Review is printed by Our Press in Chenango Bridge, NY. We provide the truth; they provide the staples.

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.

Press Watch........................................4 By the Editors

Contents

What You Missed...............................5 By the Editors The S.A. Five things to Watch............6

By S.A. President Mark Soriano The Harbowl ....................................8

By Joseph H. Catanzaro Entitlement Reform.........................10

By Dan Milyavsky The Elephant in the Room...............12

By Jacob L. Hayutin Mali Mania......................................14

By Ben Sheridan Disincentives for the non compos mentis............................16

By Sam Bondy

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3

Inaguration Review By the Editors

For this Month’s addition of Press Watch we decided to exclusively cover President Obama’s second inaugural address.

Mark Soriano The President’s inaugural address is clearly indicative of Obama’s great concern about his place in history. The next four years will be a scramble by the President to secure a legacy that extends beyond simply surviving a recession, and he outlined exactly how he intends to create this legacy in his speech.

I, like most people, was impressed by the quality of the rhetoric and in awe of the President’s ability to communicate so forcibly. However, when I dug through to the substance of his remarks, the content does not shock me at all. Many conservatives were disturbed by what has been labeled a “progressive” inaugural address, but I can’t understand why anyone is surprised. President Obama is considerably more left-of-center

than most Americans, and has always been; he simply shelved the more liberal elements of his agenda during his first term because 1) the recession, financial crisis, and poorly orchestrated universal healthcare scheme put a strain on his political capital, 2) a divided Congress could not pass any liberal agenda items, and 3) he was courting independent voters in order to secure his reelection.

The President called for action on a number of issues, including climate change, marriage equality, immigration, education reform, research and development, and healthcare, among others. After four years of attempting (poorly) to fix the economy, the President finally wants to carve out a legacy for himself that extends beyond the forgettable and transient. As a conservative, I may not agree with every element of Obama’s agenda, but I did not expect him to spend twenty minutes at the podium during his inauguration denying or hiding his own political beliefs.

American elected a liberal Democrat as president, this was his inauguration, and he did exactly what everyone should have expected him to do.

Josh May The predictable platitudes and political posturing aside, Obama delivered one particular line that enraged me more than any other.

The president has a habit of saying things that merely annoy or frustrate me (“You didn’t build that!” being a prime example), but on

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occasion he has surpassed the simple vexing and gone instead into areas that are truly contemptible. The line in the inaugural address to which I refer came when he admonished Americans for “mistak[ing] absolutism for principle.”

If principle is not absolute, what, then, is it? Thomas Jefferson, a far more honorable president than we now possess, had great clarity on the issue: “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” By scorning those who believe very deeply in an invariable and universal moral Truth, Obama has shown himself to be the standard-bearer for the philosophy of moral relativism, erasing the crucial line between style and principle. It was not “style” that won and maintained our freedom, Mr. President. It was strict- no, absoluteadherence to principle.

This line surely ranks among the top three most contemptible and despicable sentences ever uttered by our sitting president, in the same category as calling four dead Americans in Benghazi a “bump in the road” and promising the cutthroat Russian dictatorship “more flexibility” after the election. I utterly condemn him for his arrogance and I regard his views on principled morality with nothing short of loathing. B

JANUARY 2013

What You Missed By the Editors *Reception to the response to the Letter to the Editor was very positive.

Please, keep sending the letters! The stupider they are, the greater the potential for a humorous response! * We somewhat dodged the fiscal cliff. All tax rates were extended for those making less than $450,000 a year. After House Republicans failed to show support for Speaker John Boehner, he lost any negotiating power with Obama, and the deal was worked out between Republican Senate Minority Leader (what a mouthful of a title!) Mitch McConnell and Joe Biden. The Democrats basically got everything they wanted.

Good job, GOP. *Paul Krugman and other leading liberals decided that the best way to avoid the debt ceiling would be to mint a trillion dollar coin. Jon Stewart, despite his knee-jerk sympathy for the Left, couldn’t help but lampoon this idea, causing Krugman to call him “lazy.” Stewart responded in stride.

Always nice to see the Daily Show making fun of both sides.

right now. He also mentioned how the State Dept could afford spending $100,000 to bring three comedians to an event in India called “Make Chi not War,” but couldn’t spend the money necessary to keep our personnel in Libya safe from death by Islamists.

of the teller windows.” Fantastic. So HSBC gets off with a slap on the wrist for money laundering for these people, but if someone like you or me was arrested for simple possession, they’d throw the book at us. Gotta love the government.

*The House Republicans passed an extension of the debt ceiling into May, which seems their preferred time for that debate. They would rather have the debate over the sequester and over the budget first, apparently.

*It seems that there is no end in sight to the construction plaguing campus.

*Famed British bank HSBC settled with the US Justice Dept over some severe money laundering charges. Lanny Breuer, the attorney prosecuting the case, said that drug cartels would “deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in a single day, into a single account, using boxes designed to fit the precise dimensions

*We’ve had more students come forward and contribute to the Review!

This is always welcome! After all, we’re certainly better than the other choices out there. *cough*PipeDream*cough* *Unfortunately, Pipe Dream hasn’t really been publishing during Winter Break, so we can’t Press Watch them.

This saddens us greatly, as they are simply a joy to write. Worry not, however... Press Watch will return in our next issue! B

*Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finally testified on the incident that killed four Americans in Benghazi.

Senator Rand Paul, berated the former Senator and First Lady, telling her that she was responsible for the worst tragedy since 9/11 and that her mistake “cost people their lives.”

He said that if he were President, he would have fired her. Well, if Rand Paul were President, the United States would be much better off than it is

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5

Student Association

The SA in 2013: Five Things to Watch President of the S.A. Mark Soriano

2012 was an exciting year for the Student Association; the previous Executive Board kick-started the incorporation of the SA, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Lewis Black entertained audiences, while SAPB brought two huge concerts to campus.

2013 promises to be another great year for Binghamton students, and here are a few previews of what the SA has planned.

New Constitution: One of the most exciting conversations that will take place this semester will be surrounding the development of a new SA constitution.

Juniors and seniors may remember the last time the SA attempted to review our constitution in 2011; that e-board mistakenly pushed a flawed document on an unprepared student body, which voted against accepting the document.

This time things are different. The new constitution that should be on the ballot this March will be a document crafted over the course of many months after hours of deliberation, compromise, and input from a variety of sources. Led

by David Blair, the Student Assembly Constitutional Review Committee has taken an in-depth look at what is wrong with the current SA constitution, with an aim of reforming the document to make students more involved in their government. The committee is open to all students, and meetings take place weekly.

The committee is considering

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a number of changes to improve the effectiveness of the SA. Assembly committees will be improved, the multicultural community will be further incorporated into SA governance, the Judicial Board will be strengthened, and community governments will receive a greater voice, among other changes.

Assuming that the document passes in the Assembly, the new constitution will go up for a student vote on the ballot this spring during Executive Board elections.

Before this happens, I will lead a large-scale effort to explain the changes to the campus in the hope that we can finally get a studentfriendly constitution.

Incorporation: Started in the spring of 2012, the SA incorporation process will pick up steam and hopefully be completed this semester.

Vice President for Finance Eric Larson and I have worked with our counterparts in the administration to hammer out a workable strategy for incorporating the Student Association.

2013 will be the year, then, that students finally understand once and for all what incorporation means to them. The SA, unlike the overwhelming majority of student governments across the country, is completely independent from the University.

We are funded and run entirely by students, but this opens us up to considerable liability due to our size and the range of activities covered by the SA. Incorporation will take this liability off individual students, allowing the Student Association as an organization to provide a legal shield for all our student leaders and club members.

In our negotiations with campus administrators, VPF Larson and I have been trying to position the SA into a better relationship with the University that will preserve our autonomy while allowing us to better protect and serve students.

Watch out for more announcements about incorporation as the semester progresses.

Paws/B-Involved Merger: Last semester I worked with Vice President of Student Affairs Brian Rose to begin the process of merging the SA’s Paws website with the University’s B-Involved service.

Anyone who has ever been involved in a student group has likely heard complaints about Paws, while applicants to become an RA have likely been frustrated with B-Involved’s lack of SA group information.

This semester the University and SA will launch our new joint website, combining the best aspects of both services.

Students will now be able to access one website for all their student affairs related tasks: everything from filling out a voucher to printing a co-curricular transcript can be done on one easy to use program.

This merger represents what I hope will be the beginning of a closer relationship between the Student Association and the University. While the SA cherishes our independence and autonomy, we understand that the best way to serve students is to work together with administrators and campus officials.

Executive Board Elections: The current SA Executive Board is composed of five seniors and one junior, meaning that at most only one of us can return to serve on the board next year.

As election season opens, be prepared for candidates vying for your attention to prove their ability to take on the responsibility of an SA e-board position.

Like last year, the elections will be fully electronic, and possibly even online, allowing for a faster and more convenient process. What won’t change is the passion and commitment the candidates will show throughout the next few months. Make sure you remember to spend some time walking between the Lecture Hall and New Union the days of the election to get some free candy from eager candidates.

Keep in mind the importance of these elections; the students you elect

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Student Association

will be operating the SA for the next year, controlling hundreds of thousands of dollars of student activity money.

Be sure to get informed about the candidates by attending your Community’s Sweeps event, and make a wise decision on Election Day. Events, New and Old: As always, our students groups will put on another great semester’s worth of programs. Make the most of these events; your peers spend weeks planning and organizing these opportunities to have fun and get involved (shameless plug: make sure to head out to CIW’s annual Casinoin-the-Woods night).

In February I will be coordinating a Town Hall Forum of campus administrators and student leaders to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing our campus. Be sure to attend, if not for the thrilling chance to learn about your university, then at least for the piles

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of free food.

SAPB will put on a great Spring Fling and concert this semester, along with numerous other shows, programs, and events. While I can’t say yet who will be performing at Spring Fling, I can promise you won’t be disappointed.

As graduation approaches, seniors may be treated to the first of what will hopefully become an annual send-off currently being discussed by the SA, Senior and Junior class councils, and Alumni Association. Keep a lookout for more details as the semester progresses.

Who Knows?: With a full semester ahead of us, anything can happen. Binghamton may announce the formation of a football team; we all might be shocked by an early (or at least timely) end to winter weather; the Student Assembly may vote to change Binghamton’s mascot to a storm cloud;

The New York Times may write a positive story about our university; Vice President for Academic Affairs Aaron Ricks may even put on a trivia event. Your representatives in the SA are working hard to provide the greatest possible experience for you this semester, and all we ask is that you stay involved and excited for what we come up with. B ***Mark Soriano is President of the Student Association, and formerly an editor and writer for Binghamton Review. He can be contacted at president@binghamtonsa.org or in the SA Office in the New Union.***

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Harbowl

Superbowl Preview Joseph H. Catanzaro, President of Sports Debate Club: As Superbowl Sunday draws near, the patience of football fans across the nation will be put to the test as “Harbaugh Mania” is in full swing. The “Harbowl” will feature brothers Jim, of the San Francisco 49ers, and John, of the Baltimore Ravens, battling it out on football’s biggest stage. While the brothers from Toledo, Ohio will be the most talked about story line, they are not the only major storyline heading into the season’s final game.

Younger brother Jim’s 49ers came into the season as a favorite to represent the NFC in this year’s Super Bowl, and rightly so. While the 49ers got off to a hot start to begin the season, their week 10 game against the St. Louis Rams turned out to be the defining point of their year.

With former first round pick

quarterback Alex Smith going down with a concussion in the first half, back-up Colin Kaepernick was inserted to replace him and has not looked back since. They locked up the number two seed in the NFC, behind Kaepernick’s rare ability to run for big gains to compliment his strong and accurate arm. After getting a bye in the first round, the 49ers were able to dispose of the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round and overcame a 17-point deficit in the NFC Championship game to secure their spot in the Super Bowl. In order for the 49ers to walk away from New Orleans with the Lombardi Trophy, they will need to establish the option with Kaepernick early. By allowing for Kaepernick and running back Frank Gore to establish a ground game, the veteran members of the Ravens defense will be worn

down, opening up throwing options, such as Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree, down the field. San Francisco’s defense, led by Aldon Smith and Patrick Willis, was the fourth best run defense during the regular season and they will need every bit of that dominance in order to contain the dynamic running back duo of Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce. It is crucial for the 49ers to get ahead early and force the Ravens to put the ball in the hands of Joe Flacco and not Ray Rice. If there is any area of concern for the 49ers it is their lack of consistency in their kicking game. David Akers has struggled recently, which is a major concern heading into the game. If this game comes down to the foot of Akers, things may not end well for San Francisco.

For brother John, the Ravens season was anything but smooth sailing. The Ravens stumbled into the playoffs losing four of their final five games. A week 14 loss to the Washington Redskins led to the firing of offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, replaced by Jim Caldwell. A risky move by Coach Harbaugh may turn out to be the one that saved the Ravens as the Caldwell run offense has racked up huge numbers thus far in the postseason. The Ravens entered the playoffs playing inspired football after the announcement that their leader, Ray Lewis, would be calling it quits after this season. Using this emotional advantage, the Ravens were able

Harbowl

to defeat the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos before extracting revenge on the New England Patriots in route to the Super Bowl. Establishing the run game against the excellent run defense of the 49ers will be no easy task for Rice and Piece but must be done. As seen in the NFC championship game, the 49ers can be exposed on big plays downfield. If the run game is established, look for Joe Flacco to be hooking up with Torrey Smith and Jacoby Jones on play actions pass downfield. Anquan Boldin and Dennis Pitta could be major factors across the middle if they are able to get separation from the www.binghamtonreview.com

49ers linebackers. On the defense side of the ball, the Ravens must simply contain Kaepernick and Gore. While Kaepernick does have a strong arm, if the Ravens defense can force him to make throws inside of the pocket, the inexperienced quarterback may be mistake prone against the veteran Raven defense. The Ravens will be emotional for Lewis’s final game, but they must keep that in check or they will be exposed.

Prediction: Ray Lewis rides off into the sunset a champion.

Flacco is able to exploit the big plays down the field and the

inexperience of Kaepernick shows itself late in the game. Ravens 24 49ers 17. B

Prediction: Ravens: 24 49ers: 17 9

Entitlement Reform

Entitlement Reform:

The Only Way to Save Ourselves from an eventual Greek-style Debt Crisis Dan Milyavsky

Tired of class warfare? Prepare for some intergenerataional warfare.

I was recently discussing politics with my parents (it’s better than being forced to hear their endless criticisms and complaints about me). We were talking about the fiscal cliff, and I was talking about how Republicans had given up their demand that cuts in Social Security’s rate of increase be a part of the deal. My dad, who is a staunch conservative and actually follows politics quite closely, had apparently never heard before that Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare. He was livid. “Why should they cut Social Security, which hard working like me actually paid for, while they leave welfare and absurd union salaries and benefits alone?” he demanded to know. I tried to

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explain to him that while his point was legitimate, union salaries and benefits are almost entirely a state budgetary concern, and not a federal one. I tried to explain to him that the average Medicare beneficiary receives triple the amount in benefits than they paid in Medicare taxes over their lifetime. This didn’t work.

So, since I couldn’t convince my own parents, I know that this argument is a tough one to work, especially when Democrats will stop at nothing in their disgusting Medicare tactics and when lobbies like AARP will demonize any sort of net entitlement cut. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying. Entitlements are the real driving factor in our long term debt problem. While

Paul Ryan may be a coward for refusing to cut things like farm subsidies in his budget, he is brave for enacting some sort of entitlement reform, even though his budget, despite all the talk of it being draconian, does not balance (tax revenues do not meet total federal spending) until 2040.

Let’s take a look at some numbers (sorry, folks. Most of the humor goes into What You Missed and Press Watch.)

Social Security and Medicare, costing well over $1 trillion dollars annually (that’s a 1 with twelve zeroes after it), constitute over 35% of federal spending.

Mandatory spending (money that is spent automatically, according to current law) as a

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Entitlement Reform

whole constitutes about 65%.

When you factor out defense spending, that leaves only about a sixth of total government spending that is left eligible for cuts. Our deficit is about 40% of total spending. That means that if we cut the entire domestic discretionary budget (no more national parks, farm subsidies, FDA, TSA, DEA, Smithsonian, Homeland Security, etc.) we would still be borrowing 23 cents out of every dollar we spend. Obviously, defense cuts, and more important, entitlement cuts need to be on the table.

In case you think this is just some loony right-wing

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propaganda, let me quote from the Social Security Administration’s own website: “Both Medicare and Social Security cannot sustain projected long-run program costs under currently scheduled financing, and legislative modifications are necessary to avoid disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers. Lawmakers should not delay addressing the long-run financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare. If they take action sooner rather than later, more options and more time will be available to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare.”

This is coming straight from the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees, who are the people responsible for evaluating the actuarial health of these programs. And yet, even modest entitlement reforms like Paul Ryan’s, which doesn’t even touch Social Security, will continue to be demagogued – that is, until, hopefully, one day, the public wakes up from its delusional fantasy and realizes that our entitlement programs are unsustainable in their current form, and if they are not reformed, they will bankrupt us, and as a result, cease to exist anyway. B

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The Elephant in the Room

The Elephant in the Room Jacob L. Hayutin

No, I am not referring to your one Republican friend who avoids speaking his mind because he doesn’t want to listen to his ignorant friends complain. Today and for the last ten years, the elephant in every room filled with politicking is our unprecedented global credit market debt. Since releasing our currencies from the fetters of the gold standard in 1971, the most influential central banks have allowed debt to accumulate at progressive rates compared to GDP. Since 1993 the world’s total credit market debt has compounded at an annual growth rate of almost 11%. So, what does this mean in terms of the purchasing power of my money?

Ray Dalio, founder of one of the top hedge funds in the world, explains the basic workings of our financial system in his essay

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How the Economic Machine Works.

Unlike the standard top down approaches to understanding macroeconomics, he begins from the smallest transaction up. At the most basic level transactions are made via three kinds of assets: cash, credit and financial. When a transaction is made with cash, the exchange is final. When credit is used, your signature on the creditcard slip is essentially a promise to pay at a later date. The word credit comes from the Latin root credere meaning trust. Finally, financial assets make up the most complicated transactions in the machine, which often appear more like gambling than business.

However, financial gambling isn’t all bad and neither is credit, especially in moderation. In excess, unjustified credere in the marketplace is what led to the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007.

Whether you blame the overly optimistic borrowers or lenders is irrelevant; their trust was overvalued.

Let’s say an individual making $100,000 can borrow $10,000.

That means he could actually spend $110,000 every year for ten years, pumping an extra $100,000 into the economy before he owed as much as he makes. Ideally he would want to cut his spending to $90,000 for as many years as he spent the extra $10,000 before insolvency.

This process of progressive

borrowing in the long-term cycle of an economy is called leveraging, analogous to mechanical levers. If we think about the entire economy as a conglomeration of millions of individual transactions we can see how problematic certain levers can become in such a large system. In a bull economy leveraging is good but like all good things, always in moderation.

Since the establishment of the Bretton Wood system, credit can be created out of thin air, making leveraging immeasurably easier.

Consequently, money printing is easier. As a result, our economic credere has become progressively abstruse. Arbitrary ceilings are continually broken as we launch into uncharted territories in debt space, but the truth of the matter is we don’t really know how far we can go before we have a crisis similar to Latin American in the 1980’s.

No matter what the circumstances, austerity is never a politically correct answer and neither is allowing nefarious banks and other institutions to file for bankruptcy. Short-term suffering for long-term solvency may be financially eudaimonic but it is apolitical. Optimism wins votes no matter how poor the circumstances. That’s why axiomatic notions such as “too big to fail” come to be and why JANUARY 2013

The Elephant in the Room

HSBC’s most recent money laundering merely resulted in a customary slap on the wrist.

So, we occupy wall street when optimism fails to reach fruition but do nothing when the Fed continues to consort intentionally nefarious banks.

Furthermore, no one media outlet has entertained the idea that maybe if Fannie and Freddie filed for Chapter 11 the economy may have recovered more quickly despite the immediate downturn.

The truth of the matter is that our economy is in the process of a deleveraging and no one wants to bear its burden. So, we continue to tax, redistribute, lever and print.

In the last ten years, the global credit market debt has risen from eighty trillion to two hundred trillion dollars amounting to 340% of global GDP. This is the largest peacetime debt accumulation in world history.

If our debt is growing at almost 11% compound annually, our population only at 1.2% and our real GDP at 3.8%, it is obvious that it cannot be repaid in our lifetime. That would be analogous to our $100,000 earner progressively spending in $10,000 annually until he reached $340,000 without paying anything off. Without a social conversion to radical Buddhist material minimalism, we will not be able to pay our debts.

According to Dalio, proper deleveraging requires four delicately orchestrated

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instruments: 1. Transfer of wealth from the least productive to the most productive 2. Austerity 3. Writing down debts and 4.

Money printing. Our current administration is a big fan of step four. Based on his second inaugural address if Obama can find a way to pursue QE2K before the end of his presidency he will.

Steps two and three are being largely ignored because of their tough short-term consequences.

If printing money is inflationary while austerity and writing off debt are deflationary then we clearly have unbalanced policy.

In order for your dollar to retain its value, the Fed is going to have to orchestrate a miraculous combination of all four or just

hope the rest of the world does worse. Ostensibly the Fed has assumed a Hobbesian jungle mentality: you don’t have to be faster than the tiger, just one of your friends. Although, I wonder if the debt elephant will trample us all regardless.

Be that as it may, It is disturbing to see our nation’s most influential public servants continue to set such a poor example. We need to be looking to vote into power representatives who will sacrifice their short-term goals of being reelected in order to ensure we bear the burden of our debts via steps two and three before my paycheck is slashed by inflation, on top of all the new taxes. B

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Mali

Mali Mania Ben Sheridan

‘This operation will last as long as necessary’

On January 11th, French forces assembled in Bamako, the capital of Mali, on a mission to halt southward advancing forces of anti-government rebels. The intervention was expedited when Islamist forces gained significant momentum after taking over the strategic town of Konna; now France finds its military gearing up for a battle in the Sahel nine months ahead of schedule.

Less than a week later, the crisis spread into Algeria when hundreds of hostages were taken at an oil production site.

Amongst the captives were international workers—the successful taking of which has been a mainstay of terrorist funding in the region. That episode ended when Algerian Special Forces overran the terrorists. Many innocent lives were taken, but major media outlets have reported as low as twenty, and high as 45.

The French military will remain in Mali indefinitely to squander the rebel

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advance towards the capital and now must also focus on maintaining the conflict within the country’s borders. The four main groups the French will fight demand an amalgamation of conflicting interests; they are the Islamist group Ansar al-Dine, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghred, Mujao, an Islamist group in control of the eastern city of Gao, and the MNLA, Tuareg separatists.

In exchange for supporting the Tuareg’s political autonomy within Mali postbellum, the French can ask for their help in eradicating al-Qaeda and its Islamist allies. This strategy best protects both countries long-term stability and the chance for regional development after the conflict.

Azawad The Tuareg are indigenous to the Sahara Desert. They remain politically motivated by their aspiration for

recognition of Azawad, their nationstate. In Mali, the UNHCR describes the Tuareg as “politically, economically, and culturally.” The Tuareg have been treated as second-class citizens and are not unfounded in their grievances against the Malian government.

After decades of efforts, 2012 became the year that the MNLA, the strongest Tuareg militia, declared independence in Azawad. The victory was short-lived, though, as the MNLA were thrown from power by their previously perceived allies Ansar al-Dine, AQIM, and Mujao.

When the civil war in Libya was wrapping up in late 2011, mujahideen, who had not been allowed in the new Benghazi, fled. Many crossed the porous border separating Algeria and Libya, ultimately finding their way into Mali.

Law and order continued to break down in north Mali; Islamist groups, reinforced by militants from Libya, helped to consolidate their control under the AQIM. In a matter of months, the successful Tuareg national movement of Azawad had become, for lack of a better term, hijacked. Once allies united against the Malian government, AQIM now exerted its command over all north Mali, except for having accepted a more marginal role in Gao, another Islamist bastion.

Now with more established control, the Islamists in northern Mali have created a cozy enclave and have prepared for the oncoming intervention. Before becoming bogged down in an intractable military misread, the French military ought to wise up and determine the existing possibility of forming an alliance with those already on the ground in Mali. Can the Tuareg forces be utilized to combat the Islamists?

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Mali

Americans of my parents’ generation should take caution to the harrowing decree of French President Francois Hollande. Unlike the intervention in Libya, for which France and Britain enjoyed near unanimous support from its NATO allies, the international assistance for France in Mali has been limited strictly to transportation and intelligence support. This might be all the French receive, in December US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, was frank in her initial assessment of France’s intervention plan in Mali, calling it “crap.”

Recent history sends a chilling reminder of another critical moment when opposing political ideologies challenged France’s grip on a former colony. In 1954, French forces were

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pinned down in Dien Bien Phu and ultimately appealed for American intervention. This began a chain of events that led up to the destructive Vietnam War. For Americans, a strategy tantamount to indefinite occupation is troubling after a decade of military adventurism bore immense human and economic cost.

The intervention in Mali could have destabilizing consequences for the entire globe, and it must been taken equally seriously inside Africa.

ECOWAS, a group of West African states, is planning on sending a modest sized force to Mali, but Algeria, Mali’s powerful neighbor to the east, must take on a larger role in the wake of the deadly terrorist attack on the oil production site at In Amenas.

Engaging the disenfranchised

Tuareg provides an appealing military option in the short term to an international expeditionary force and a viable political solution after AQIM is eradicated. There is, in fact, a crisis of Tuareg political representation that needs to be addressed in north Mali. In the meantime, by offering to refocus its counter-terrorism efforts from Yemen and Somalia to Mali, the US can influence the early success of the mission, maintain its credibility as the driving force in NATO, and avoid deepening its financial commitments to the region. B

15

Disincentives for the non compos mentis Sam Bondy

“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

The Second Amendment to the constitution has come under close scrutiny after recent shootings in places like Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut.

This amendment was designed to give citizens the ability to defend themselves and eventually overpower a government that has become tyrannical. There are numerous examples in history where a government has in fact done this. This right ensures that people can ultimately control and tame their government when necessary—a power which may not be useful today, tomorrow or even in 50 years, but one day it could be.

Unfortunately, there are unwanted consequences to the general public owning firearms.

These ramifications are an expensive cost to maintaining this capacity, but ultimately, a necessary one.

However, there are some restrictions that can be put into place in order to limit some people from having access to these weapons. On January 15th, 2013, Governor Cuomo signed the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act or SAFE Act. Some of the provisions include reducing magazine capacity from 10 to 7, a stricter definition of assault weapons, new mental health policies and more. Governor Cuomo rushed the state legislature to pass this Bill and therefore New York became the first state to include many of these new restrictions. Because the Bill

was passed into Law without debate, I think insufficient consideration was given, primarily having to do with the mentally ill.

The new law requires therapists to report to the authorities if they think their patient “is likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to self or others” as part of the gun regulation process.

The bill stipulates that this report could lead to the removal of said patient’s guns and gun permit, and if they do not have these things, they would be added to a criminal check database. “Dr. Steven Dubovsky, chairman of the psychiatry department at the University of Buffalo, called the new requirement meaningless. ‘It’s pure political posturing,’” meaning that it was a rash decision in place simply to comfort the public. This law creates a massive disincentive for patients to divulge information to their therapists and seek treatment altogether. This could also cause people with homicidal or suicidal thoughts to avoid getting help and subsequently would make them more likely to act on their impulses.

Another worry is that police officers may avoid seeking psychological treatment altogether.

For if they voice their mind and a therapist deems them unsuitable to have a gun, they would lose

their jobs.

Before the bill was passed, mental health professionals had several options in dealing with these unstable people, according to NPR, a patient’s medication can be changed to reduce the risk of danger or the intended victim of the patient can be warned. Another solution is that the patient’s family could be asked to lock up any guns in their home and/or monitor the patient for any strange behavior themselves.

This new law discourages patients from speaking freely and may be counterproductive.

Historically, the patient confidentially privilege has not applied where the therapist believed the patient was about to commit a crime. Now, this lack of discretion has been extended to past and present actions, effectively eviscerating the privilege and expectation of privacy.

Governor Cuomo has rushed to get this Bill through, but at what cost? These Acts need to be well thought out and not simply put into place to appease the public. Although we do have a gun problem, there are many possible solutions that can be sanctioned that are sensible and without such inherent defects. I would urge that the governments at both the state and federal levels consider these issues more carefully so that the new gun regulations are well drafted and effective. To publicly announce to both people with and without mental illnesses that they cannot trust their therapists to keep their confidences seems a major mistake.B