Sarah Palin is great

Sarah Palin is the bestest vice presidential pick ever. She is so beautiful and sexy and smart and other thingies. Plus she has way more foreign experience than that no-talent member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Barack Obama.

Reasons why she is the bestest include:

For 10 years, she was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a third-party whose stated goal was for Alaska to secede from the United States. Good deal, who needs those moose-eating commies anyway? Give ’em to Canada.

She’s absolutely anti-abortion for rape and incest victims. I agree with her that we aren’t inbred enough.

She favors bringing God back into the schools through school prayer, re-introduction of creationism, and abstinence-only sex-education. Good for her, rational empiricism is overrated.

She opposes people being allowed to smoke pot like she used to. Nothing like hogging all the weed for yourself.

These reasons, among many others (we all know polar bears are not endangered, and that wolves are the greatest threat ever, meant to be exterminated by helicopter), are why she would be the bestest vice president ever.

Michael Salcedosenior, computer science

Centennial Campus dining needs expansion

As a Computer Engineering student, I spend much of my time on Centennial Campus. Unfortunately, my lunch options are both limited and unaffordable during my stay on Centennial Campus.

I commend Port City Java for opening their location in Engineering Building II and expanding their selection of food items. However, the prices at both Port City Java and The Periodic Table are significantly higher than most prices on main campus. At Port City Java, a small sandwich with some chips and a drink costs about $6.00. With a lunch equivalency of only $4.80, that is $1.20 that I must pay out-of-pocket. Over time, this out-of-pocket expense amounts to a significant chunk out of my checking account.

This is ridiculous. If I pay over $1000 for the “unlimited” meal plan, I should be able to enjoy as many meals as I need without having to shell out additional cash. The solution is simple – dining needs to work on providing a variety of affordable options on Centennial Campus that are conducive to student’s meal plans. Even though Centennial Campus is developing, students still take classes there and need to eat. As more and more students move to Centennial Campus, dining must be able to adequately serve their meal needs affordably. Otherwise, Centennial Campus will be an unpleasant place to be.

Adam Philyawjunior, computer engineering

In response to Benton Sawrey’s column

While your analysis of Sarah Palin shows your ability to work in the right-wing pundit class by parroting the talking points of the McCain camp, it is hard to view it as rational analysis of her readiness to lead.

We could buy into your somewhat faulty logic and say that Palin does have more experience at an executive level while Obama merely has “a plan,” as you put it (hardly a new turn of phrase, by the way). I would certainly rather have someone with a plan to do something than someone with no plan but some vague idea of executive experience. Certainly a plan formulated with the help of advisers and experts is better than no plan along with some “executive” experience … as governor of one of the least populace states in the union. Wasn’t Republican hero Ronald Reagan famous for the smart people he surrounded himself with? She has said herself that she “hasn’t really thought about Iraq.” That kind of “experience,” the kind where one does not think about important issues at hand, is not the kind that would lead to a successful presidency. One need only to look at the past 8 years and the reasoning that led us to Iraq, or the thoughtlessness which led to disaster in New Orleans, to understand this.

Never mind that Obama’s experience is at the national level, that his campaign’s budget is triple what Palin’s annual city budget was as mayor (I’ll steal some talking points of my own). And never mind that her executive experience is closer to 1.5 years than the 2 you round up to, and that before that she was simply a mayor of a town of what, 10,000? Not to mention that by your own qualifications, Mr. McCain is not fit to lead having no “executive” experience of his own to speak of other than some committee chairs or maybe his leadership in the Army nearly half a century ago. Not to mention that as a senator in Illinois Obama likely represented nearly as many people as Palin does as governor of Alaska. If visiting ANWR makes one qualified to make a decision about drilling there, then I’m an expert on wave energy thanks to my multiple trips to the beach. (I’m not going to get into the bountiless evidence that drilling in ANWR would do nothing to alleviate gas prices or contribute significantly to our energy crisis.)

Ms. Palin, while certainly more qualified than some are giving her credit, is hardly qualified to lead this country. She has shown an inability to handle the stresses and intricacies of government management by her ability to become embroiled in a scandal after a mere 18 months in office.

Good luck making this sale, although I’m not sure who you’re going to convince other than yourself and your soon to be co-right wing mouthpieces.

Evan Rogersgraduate student, landscape architecture