The Heights 11/17/11

eagles win opener

OBAMACARE

Eleven (11)

SPORTS

MARKETPLACE

scene

On Monday night, the men’s basketball team squeaked out a win over UNH, A10

Supreme Court to decide the constitutionality of 2010 healthcare bill, B6

Looking at 11 figures that made 2011 a year to remember, B1

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Vol. XCII, No. 44

Campus mourns death of Michael Racanelli, A&S ’14

By Taylour Kumpf News Editor

Michael Racanelli, a 20-year-old sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences from Brightwaters, N.Y., was found dead in his off-campus apartment on Foster Street in Brighton on Monday.

A cause of death has not yet been reported by the Medical Examiner’s Office. Boston Police have ruled out foul play.

In a letter to the Boston College community, Patrick Rombalski, vice president of Student Affairs, said, “Our thoughts and prayers go out to Michael’s family and his many friends.”

He offered condolences to Michael’s parents, Michael V. Racanelli, BC ’84, and Barbara Racanelli; brother Matthew, A&S ’15; sisters Lexie and Carly; and his cousins Anthony Racanelli, CSOM ’15, and Nicholas Racanelli,

BCTalks hosts inaugural series in Robsham

CSOM ’13, and his extended family.

“I know you and all members of our community join me in extending our thoughts and prayers to all members of the Racanelli family during this difficult time,” he said.

Rev. Jack Butler, S.J., vice president for University Mission and Ministry, said, “At BC, we are a family, and the death of one of ours is always painful and sad. However, the love and support found within our community is the very sign of God and the source of our comfort.”

Rombalski encouraged BC students to take advantage of various campus resources, including the offices of Counseling Services, Campus Ministry, and Residential Life. Members of the Student Affairs and Campus Ministry staff have reached out to

By Sara Doyle For The Heights

See Racanelli, A4

Activists continue efforts to quash Belfast subpoena University remains engaged in legal battle over records

By Daniel Tonkovich Heights Editor

Editor’s Note: This story is part of an ongoing series about the subpoena of the Belfast Project.

Irish activist groups are continuing their measures outside the court system to quash the subpoena of Boston College’s Belfast Project archives as the University continues its long legal battle to challenge the order.

Last week, a five-member delegation met with Owen Paterson, secretary of state of Northern Ireland, during a visit to New York. According to a report from the Irish Echo, the group discussed the ongoing controversy surrounding the issuance of the sealed subpoenas by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office on behalf of the Police Service of Northern Ireland

(PSNI) seeking to obtain confidential oral histories related to a period known as “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland that lasted from 1969-1998. The subpoenaed Belfast Project archives are under the custody of the Burns Library.

The delegation noted the possible political motivations behind the subpoenas, as well as the impact the forced release of the tapes could have on future oral history projects.

Delegates included Thomas J. Burke, Jr., national president of the Irish American Unity Conference; James Cullen of the Brehon Law Society; Ned McGinley, past national president of The Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish Catholic fraternal organization which seeks as part of its mission for a peaceful and just solution to the issues that divide Ireland; Domhnall O’Cathain, president of the Irish American Bar Association; and Stephen McCabe, past president of the Brehon Law Society of Nassau County and the Irish Parades Emergency Committee.

Burke and the Irish American Unity Conference have been active in their ap-

See Subpoena, A4

sang lee / heights staff

Conor Sullivan, LSOE ’13, served as emcee for the first BCTalks event on campus.

See BCTalks, A4

Forum addresses higher education issues

By Devon Sanford For The Heights

On Wednesday evening, the Boston College chapter of the American Association of University Professors (BCAAUP) held a faculty-student forum in Higgins Hall.

Students and faculty met to discuss important issues in higher education.

The attendees voiced their opinions on advising, rising tuition costs, and studentfaculty relations.

The BC chapter of AAUP was founded in 2010 with goals to support policies of the national AAUP, defend academic freedom and promote increased faculty governance at BC. On Wednesday evening, the BCAAUP discussed different educational issues happening throughout

the BC campus. The goal of the forum was to start a dialogue between faculty members and students.

Susan Michalczyk, BCAAUP president, opened the forum, introducing faculty members of the BCAAUP to students.

“This is our chance to speak openly, ask questions, hear from faculty and hold a dialogue between professors and students,” Michalczyk said.

After, students attending the forum introduced themselves and spoke about educational issues they have faced during their time at BC. Students discussed their concerns with the academic advising system, registration for classes, rising costs in tuition and the inability to communicate

See BCAAUP, A4

Graham Beck / heights staff

Prasannan Parthasarathi, member of the BCAAUP (above), spoke at the forum.

MBA programs in demand despite economic trends

Global Zero works to end proliferation

Strength of business offerings keeps students marketable

By Samantha Costanzo For The Heights

For such a small organization, Global Zero at Boston College (GZBC) has a monumental goal: to completely eliminate all nuclear weapons by the year 2030.

Thankfully, they’re not alone. GZBC is one of hundreds of Global Zero chapters in eight countries around the world working for the same thing. The group, which was officially recognized as a registered student organization at BC this year, hosted its first set of events this week.

“We just want people to know about it,” said Andy Hu, president of GZBC and A&S ’14, of the threats nuclear warheads pose. “There’s too little dialogue.”

The dialogue at BC started on Monday night in the Fulton Honors Library with a lecture titled “How Hiroshima and Nagasaki Transformed Japanese Society.” The event was co-sponsored by the Japan Club of Boston College and Asian Caucus and was to feature talks by Shigeko Sasamori, a survivor of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb, and Franziska Seraphim, an associate professor in the history department. However, Seraphim was unable to participate due to a personal emergency.

Sasamori talked about how her life had changed as a result of the bombings,

The academic passions of students came alive in Robsham this past Sunday and Monday as the inaugural BCTalks launched.

The lecture series provided a forum for students who had performed original research to share it with the greater BC community, outside the confines of classrooms and laboratories.

The 14 presentations spanning two evenings varied greatly in subject matter, from “What happened to Musical Theatre?” to “History of Computation.” The student speakers were also available for questions during intermission and after the show.

Following with the goals of Education for Students by Students (ESS), sponsor of the event in collaboration with UGBC, BCTalks is designed to allow students to learn from their peers and share their interests with a wide audience. The intent is to foster conversation about students’ academic interests in a social setting.

“We find a dichotomy on campus between people’s social lives and academic lives. We want to try to correct that,” said

By Daniel Tonkovich Heights Editor

Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a three-part series addressing the challenges and role of higher education in the post-recession economy.

kevin hou / heights editor

Shigeko Sasamori, Hiroshima nuclear bomb survivor (above), spoke against nuclear weapons. poignantly supporting Global Zero’s mission. She was only 13 when the bomb fell and remembers pointing out the Enola Gay as it flew overhead and dropped the bomb. Sasamori spent five days after the bombing desperately repeating her name and district in the hopes that someone would hear her and give her water. In 1955, Sasamori and 24 other Japanese women, nicknamed the “Hiroshima Maidens,” came to the United States to receive treatment for their bomb-related

injuries and illnesses. Struck by the “love and happiness” she found in the U.S., Sasamori moved to New York to begin training as a nurse.

“She firmly believes that this world will be a world not just free of nuclear weapons, but also free of warfare because she sees the love and spirit of people,” Hu said after Sasamori’s talk.

On Tuesday, GZBC hosted a panel

See Global Zero, A4

It appears as if the academic prognosticators at Boston College may have correctly predicted the role of graduate professional degree programs, at least for business students. For BC, its graduate business programs appeared to have weathered trends in higher education influenced by economic factors, largely due to size and focus.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, applications for two-year, full-time MBA programs for this past fall dropped an average of 9.9 percent from a year earlier, based on data from the Graduate Management Admission Council. According to the same survey, one-third of full-time MBA programs reported drops of more than 10 percent, which included 649 MBA and other business programs at 331 schools internationally. The decline marks

the third year in a row that applications have fallen. The trend has been contrary to the historical trends of increased interest in graduate school when the market soured.

The decline in applications can have a significant impact on the quality of admitted students and the stability of a program for any academic degree offering, but it can have an even greater impact on professional graduate degrees, such as business, where higher education institutions earn significant revenue and use student quality to attract renowned faculty.

BC’s full-time MBA program appears to be part of the two-thirds unaffected by the trend – something Warren Zola, CSOM assistant dean for graduate programs, attributes to the small size of the program.

“Full-time MBA enrollment continues to be robust,” Zola said. “Demand is consistent in comparison with previous years.

The desire for a graduate degree from the Carroll School still appears to be strong.

In large part, I believe due to not only the quality of the program, but also its size and intimate setting.

“The small, intimate size of our graduate programs has allowed us to adjust to changing times,” Zola said. “It has allowed us to have stability in our staff and relations with employers. It has also allowed us to capitalize on capturing faculty that would have been a challenge to attract during

See Higher Education, A4

TopTHREE

The Heights

Thursday, November 17, 2011

things to do on campus this week

..

1

Multi-Faith Thanksgiving Today Time: 12 p.m.

Location: Heights Room

Give thanks through prayer, song, and reflection. Attendees are encouraged to bring gifts of bread and other baked goods for needy families as part of a partnership with “Spread the Bread.” Donations will also be accepted and after the celebration a light buffet lunch will be served.

The Christian Church in Nazi Germany

2

Today Time: 3 p.m.

Location: O’Neill 247

Come listen to Rev. Kevin Spicer of Stonehill College talk about the relationship between the Catholic Church and the German state under National Socialism.

Cyberspace and Civic Space

3

Saturday Time: 12:30 p.m.

Location: Robsham Theater Stop by the eighth annual Mass Humanities fall symposium that explores the impact of the Internet on democracy.

the

University

In s w e N

New York may open financial aid to undocumented students

On Campus CSOM professor conducts study on monthly minimum credit card payments A study by Linda Salisbury, a professor in the Carroll School of Management, has found that credit card users typically pay less toward their debt if monthly bills contain information about the minimum amount required, according to a report by the Office of News and Public Affairs.

Lemon’s results, which are based on more than 500 surveys of US cardholders and an analysis of anonymous data from over 100,000 British cardholders from 11 different lenders, indicate that including this information can drop the amount an individual pays by up to 24 percent a month. Increasing the minimum required payment had a positive effect for most consumers, especially those who pay only the minimum each month, but that alone did not overcome the negative effect of indicating the minimum required payment. In addition, displaying long-term interest costs and payment timelines does not encourage increased payments. Disclosing future interest costs significantly increased the likelihood a cardholder would pay only the minimum required.

The New York State Board of Regents on Monday recommended the state open up college scholarship and financial aid programs to undocumented students, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The state currently allows such students to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges. John B. King Jr., the educational commissioner of New York, said it would be a net gain, because ultimately these students would benefit and contribute more to the economy. The regents have urged Congress to pass proposed federal legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented college students.

Local News Mass. Senate approves anti-discrimination bill in voice vote BOSTON (AP) - Transgender people would be protected from discrimination in Massachusetts under a bill that is close to becoming law after winning Senate passage on a voice vote without debate yesterday. The absence of debate in the Senate was in contrast to the House, where it passed, 95-58, and Democratic leaders moved Tuesday to limit debate, cutting off many of the amendments filed by opponents. The votes came after supporters of the bill agreed to drop public accommodations language that critics said would lead to a breakdown in privacy in single-gender facilities.

Boisi Center lecture addresses faith and fiction

By Samantha Costanzo For The Heights

Graham beck / Heights staff

Alan Jacobs (above) spoke about gaining spiritual guidance from fiction in a lecture sponsored by the Boisi Center. well as academic discussion on this subject, and we were enthusiastic about getting someone who could bridge what can sometimes be a divide between the groups.”

Jacobs said he realized the impact literature could have on a person’s spiritual life after speaking with his friend Frederick Buechner, an author and theologian, while Buechner was waiting to give a talk at a literature festival in Grand Rapids, Mich. Jacobs was struck by the number of people who approached Buechner to say his books were the reasons they were believers.

“They always said, ‘Your books,’

not ‘you,’” Jacobs said. “People treating [books] as if they have some sort of heft is a pretty new phenomenon.”

He spoke about the experiences of other writers, such as Simone Weil and C.S. Lewis, noting that in each case the author had no intention of having a religious revelation and only realized that they had indeed altered their perspective on religion afterwards.

“This is essential to the experience,” Jacobs said. “If you tell people to take spiritual nourishment, they’ll refuse to take their medicine.” The reason for this, he

Police Blotter

hypothesized, was that “we want to be delivered on our own terms,” without appearing vulnerable.

Wilt then explained her own experiences with the unlikely genres of science fiction, historical, and mystery novels. “Wherever that novel is set, there is a religious quest going on there,” she said, noting that she finds this to be especially true of science fiction and historical novels, where she tends to see religion and religious values defined in one usually ambiguous way or another.

In addition to stressing the importance of not ultimately

Friday, Nov. 11 3:24 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a student who reported an attempted breaking and entering of his off campus apartment. The student did not call the Boston Police to report the incident. The student was offered transport to the Boston Police Department to file a report but he declined and said that he would go on his own.

8:49 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a Northeastern student who was intoxicated and not allowed entry into Conte Forum.

The student was escorted from the area without incident.

“What will you be doing for the Notre Dame game?”

9:55 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a DATTCO bus which had several passengers fleeing from it with a large amount of smoke billowing from the rear. The hatch was opened and flames were visibly active on the engine. The officer and bus driver used a fire extinguisher which was successful in putting out the fire. The bus company arranged for a tow for the bus and a replacement bus for the passengers who were attending the BC hockey game from the University of New Haven in Conn. The passengers were sheltered in Corcoran Commons until the replacement bus arrived due to the cold temperature outside.

Saturday, Nov. 12 12:32 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a verbal altercation which appeared to be escalating into a physical confronta- tion between several parties at Corcoran

Commons. Three parties, one male and two females fled the area and three other males were detained. No physical contact was made by any of the parties involved and they were advised to go home for the night.

“Nothing.”

—Caroline Kane, A&S ’15

12:28 p.m. - A report was filed regarding the ejection of a student from Alumni Stadium for possession of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol was destroyed on scene at the command post. The student’s game ticket was confiscated and the party was escorted from the stadium for the remainder of the game with a verbal trespass warning.

1:47 p.m. - A report was filed regarding the apprehension of a student who ran onto the field while the BC vs. North Carolina State football game was in progress. The student was transported to the primary care facility via a BCPD police cruiser due to intoxication. Internal disciplinary action will result.

4:57 p.m. - A report was filed regarding assistance provided to Residential Life staff who were on duty in the Mod area. They encountered an intoxicated male who was urinating in public and who became disorderly when confronted about his actions.

BCPD identified the male as an affiliated party who was visiting from Canada. The male was issued a written trespass warning and was escorted from campus.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

seeking a religious experience, both speakers discussed the need for alternative routes to understanding religion. “There’s something more appealing about this side door,” Jacobs said. “You get access to some transcendental experience without hearing any commandments.”

Jacobs touched on the idea that works of modern art, especially paintings by Mark Rothko, hold a similar appeal because “there is no canon or rule to which it is measured.”

During the question and answer, Jacobs and Wilt were asked about which books personally influenced them to consider the connection between spirituality and literature. Jacobs said W. H. Auden’s essays struck him as being the first to “imaginatively engage with the 20th century,” while Wilt cited T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets.

“I sank into them and still have not come out,” she said.

Owens said that while the Boisi Center does not usually sponsor events like this, choosing instead to focus on trends, movements, and historical events rather than those pertaining to spirituality, the cross section of “a public interest with a potentially wide audience that comes in contact with a scholarly pursuit” interested the Center. n

Voices from the Dustbowl

11/11/11-11/12/11

“I’m going home for Thanksgiving.”

—Burke Ashenden, A&S ’15

49° Showers 31°

Friday

48° Sunny 34°

Saturday

55° Partly Cloudy 45°

“No clue. I’ll probably watch it.”

—Shawn Mendez,

62° Partly Cloudy 42°

Source: National Weather Service

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“I’ll be visiting family.”

—Taylor Fischer, CSON ’15

A&S ’15

Today

Sunday

featured story

Fiction, especially science fiction or mystery, is not usually the go-to source of spiritual guidance.

But Alan Jacobs, the Clyde S. Kilby chair of English at Wheaton College, said last night that not only are people doing just this, they are doing so without realizing it during his lecture titled, “Writers Save: How Poets and Novelists Came to Comfort the Faithful and Strengthen Doubters.”

“We want to receive spiritual instruction without admitting it because that turns it into drudgery,” he said.

The lecture, which was sponsored by the Boisi Center for Religion and Public Life, featured talks

by Jacobs and by Judith Wilt, the Newton College alumnae chair in Western Culture at Boston College. Both discussed the relatively new discovery that literature can provide readers with the religious experiences they cannot find in churches any longer.

“We thought it would be a conversation for seekers of all sorts,” said Erik Owens, associate director of the Boisi Center and coordinator of the event. “There’s room for personal reflection as

Four Day Weather Forecast

CORRECTIONS Please send corrections to editor@bcheights.com with ‘correction’ in the subject line.

The Heights

Thursday, November 17, 2011

A3

Setti Warren welcomes panel of ‘Money’ magazine editors to BC

Consider

This...

By Marc Francis For The Heights

“Transparency, honesty, and making smart, tough decisions— this is why the city of Newton is so financially successful,” said Newton Mayor Setti Warren as he welcomed students and local citizens to Money magazine’s “Take Charge Live!” event yesterday evening. Hosted in the Murray Room at Yawkey Center, Money magazine subscribers and Boston College students gathered to hear some of the magazine’s editors provide investment and money management tips.

“So I went out for a run, came back, and the stock market was down 160 points,” joked Craig Matters , managing editor of Money magazine. Matters and his team of editors voiced their personal opinions on the wild volatility of the market, as well as their advice on smart investing in the turbulent economy.

“If volatility is the basis of pulling out of investments, then no investments would exist .

Volatility is the price all investors have to pay,” said Paul Lim, senior editor at Money. Lim warned of the daring, persistent attitude one must possess when riding the crazy rollercoaster that is the stock market.

Matters described the world of stocks as “a ride that will make you nauseous but take you nowhere [in the short run].” The conversation transitioned into building portfolios, and how age plays a key role in determining one’s aggressiveness in the buying of stocks relative to bonds.

Lim recommended a 70-30 ratio of stocks to bonds upon reaching 40 years of age.

“Mone y magazine aims to help people take charge of their finances. We want the content of the magazine to exit and become part of the real world,” said Brendan Ripp, publisher of Money.

The “Take Charge!” event has been on the road for two years, giving advice and pronouncing

A BRIEFER HISTORY OF THE SUBPOENA ISSUE AT BOSTON COLLEGE:

daniel lee / heights staff

A panel of ‘Money’ magazine editors (above) spoke in the Murray Room last night. financial concerns across cities that have made it into the magazine’s “100 Best Places to Live” list. (Newton is considered one of the most “live-able” cities in the country.)

“Tonight, Money’s advice will hit key life triggers. It is important for people of all ages to recognize the planning that goes into things like buying a house, paying loans, and buying a car,” said Greg Bowerman, South Eastern executive director.

Both Bowerman and Ripp expressed their desire for the audience to depart the event knowing that their fiscal futures are their responsibilities. Despite the gloomy market conditions, there are still plans to

be made—people should never stop planning their futures.

Lim touched upon the significance of handling your own money.

“This is not the age where we remember the names of hedge-fund managers,” he said.

In modern times, the individual should “take charge” of his money and his life, and not rely on anyone else.

When asked about the importance of a college student being able to manage his finances, Ripp said, “The concept of early budgeting is vital.

Once the four years are over, you are on your own—paying your own bills and buying your own food all on a starter salary.” n

With the Boston College subpoena situation gaining momentum, it’s easy to get lost in the details and forget about how it all began. In light of the recent update on the case, and as more meetings and correspondence take place and form strategies to deflect the subpoena, let’s take a look back at how the whole thing started and where it leaves us now.

Seen as a significant threat to academic freedom, the subpoena case began in May when BC received a federal subpoena for some oral-history documents that are housed in the John J. Burns Library. The materials, which include both written documents and audio tapes, were compiled under the guidance of the Boston College Center for Irish Programs in its Belfast Project.

The Belfast Project was an oral history project that took place in the late 1990s

by Ed Moloney, an Irish journalist. The collection of the project amasses 30 to 50 oral histories that concern republicans and those who are loyal to the British monarchy.

The interviews that were conducted during the turbulent time known as The Troubles contained controversial political opinions; thus the interviewees were promised that the contents of the interviews would not be released until their deaths.

The promise sparked a legal battle that is felt on an international scale, from here at BC, to the United States Justice Department, to Britain.

Confidentiality was granted to the subjects who participated in the oral history project because they discussed personal involvement in criminal acts that took place during The Troubles, but the strength of the confidentiality agreement is being tested against a federal subpoena.

The reason that law officials in the United Kingdom are seeking out the materials is to further their investigations into murders and kidnappings that took place during Northern Ireland’s governing troubles. They believe that the contents of the interviews will help them gather information that pertains to the abduction and murder of Jean McConville, who was suspected for being an informer to British loyalists, in 1972.

While no one has been charged with McConville’s murder, the IRA had admitted

to being involved in the murder, and their interviews that are included in the Belfast Project are deeply sought out by British authorities.

Fast forward to August of this year, when a second wave of subpoenas for all of the interviews of IRA members that were included in the Belfast Project reached the University. BC made a motion to quash access to the materials.

Moloney and others believe that the subpoenas are politically motivated and based on unproved assertions. BC plans to honor the confidentiality agreements promised to the interviewees. However, prosecutors are making the case that the University did not have the authority to make that promise in the first place.

The problems with the prosecution’s claim are the following: -British law officials are only seeking interviews from the side of the republican militants, though paramilitary members from both sides are included in the project.

Essentially, the loyalist paramilitaries are not being called into question, leaving many to suggest that there are underlying political motives.

-The overall goal of Britain’s investigation remains largely unclear. British law enforcement has not outlined how they plan to carry out prosecution on a 40-year-old murder case, but because some of the facts have been released after the death of some of those involved, there is no suggestion that any arrests will take place. In this case it has been suggested that the subpoena process is being used by the Justice Department to embarrass the antagonists of the British government in Northern Ireland.

Moving to the present, more and more groups have massed to make a motion to quash the subpoena for good. Some of these groups include: the American Association of University Professors and the American Historical Association.

With strength in the numbers, the groups hope that their stand against the subpoena will make a strong case for having the actions of the subpoena dropped, but only time will tell.

-Anna Patrick n

Two juniors found startup website, Panel discusses the topic of LeapTask, to cater to BC students satire as a viable news source

By Adriana Mariella

By Tanner Edwards

Assoc. News Editor

Heights Staff

Two Boston College students, Matthe w LeB el, A&S ’13 and Chase Mcaleese, CSOM ’13, have co-founded a startup website called LeapTask.com.

The website, which “allows every student to have an on-demand personal assistant,” according to a recent statement, is a completely new service for BC. Students who log onto the site can post an item or a task that they want or need, and for a college student friendly price, a LeapTask assistant will deliver the item or finish the task. Pricing, which ranges from $5 to $25, covers simple on-campus tasks like delivering food from Lower Dining Hall to any student dorm, or larger tasks like delivering food from the supermarket or getting a ride to Logan Airport.

LeapTask assistants, who are available from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. on weekdays and 24 hours a day on Friday and Saturday, are dispatched once the request is posted on LeapTask. This is what the co-founders said sets the website apart from similar sites like Zaarly and TaskRabbit. On those sites, posters don’t know if their task request will be answered, while on LeapTask, posters receive a text message confirmation that an assistant has been sent to do his or her task. To ensure that tasks are completed safely

Higgins Hall played host to a trio of media and communication experts Tuesday night, who discussed “Satire as Informing” in a panel discussion sponsored by Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) of Boston College. In an evening of serious consideration, and some lighthearted fun at the expense of American political and media leaders, panelists bantered about the success of political satire, its benefits and pitfalls, and what it all says about American society.

The evening’s three panelists were posed a series of questions by the students in AID and, later, the broader audience. They kicked off the discussion by examining the meteoric rise in popularity of satirical news sources like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and The Onion.

“A guy like John Stewart is an aggregator—he watches shows so you don’t have to,” said John Carroll, professor in the mass communication department at Boston University. He noted that Stewart and contemporaries gain popularity by acting as collectors, centralizers, and synthesizers of news in entertaining ways.

“The popularity [of satirical news] is in direct relation to the lack of larger debate,” said Amber Day, a professor in the English and cultural studies department at Bryant University. Amongst mainstream media, she said, “there is an inability to figure out how to say a person’s full of s—.”

“A lot of what makes satire funny is supporting what we already believe,” said Tom Bodett, a media commentator and regular on NPR’s Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! In discussing the power of satire in society, the panelists seemed to agree that satirical news had the potential to inform and spur action while entertaining, especially when supplemented with more serious news sources.

“Being a citizen in a democracy is about much more than pulling a lever on Election Day,” Day said, in reference to the thoughtful conversation and new terms of debate satire can engender.

“Today is probably the heyday of satire,” Bodett said. “Our inauthentic politics almost requires it.”

“John Stewart would be the first to say, ‘Don’t just watch my show,’” Carroll said. “Satire is one part of an overall media diet.”

The panelists metered their praise of satirical news as thought-provoking and potentially change-inducing with fears that satire has a darker possibility of creating a jaded, disaffected country.

“I do worry about the negative effects—we can diminish the office itself at times,” Bodett said. “If all we’re doing is laughing at our leaders,

Photo courtesy of chase mcaleese

Chase Mcaleese, CSOM ’13, (left) and Matthew LeBel, A&S ’13, (right) founded a website, LeapTask, which is solely for the use of BC students. and professionally, all LeapTask assistants are BC students who have undergone extensive training.

Mcaleese stressed the importance of the site as a way to make the areas surrounding BC more accessible to students without cars.

Mcaleese and LeBel said that students who sign up for LeapTask before Nov. 31 will receive a $5 account credit, which covers an oncampus task. To register, students must visit the site and simply enter their BC e-mail address. n

annie budnick / heights staff

A member of the panel (above) speaking at the AID-sponsored event on Tuesday night in Higgins. it begs for a new kind of leader,” he added.

Carroll spoke to the blurring of “hard” journalism and entertainment as hazardous, too. “One of the dangers is being too entertaining,” he said, speaking of a desire for all news to be packaged as entertainment when much of current events require serious examination.

The panelists also expressed concern that satire, for all its fun, might be helping to erode the negotiating grounds of democracy by feeding partisan hackery.

“Understanding the other side as being full of complete idiots dehumanizes them and breaks down debate and any hope of compromise,” Bodett said.

“It’s all about ideology and not about reality,” Carroll said.

Ultimately, the panelists were hopeful that satire could inspire more thoughtful, critical review of politicians and mainstream media that would forge leaders who could transcend choreographed politics, inauthentic talking points, and partisan bickering. They saw satirical news’ popularity as a reflection of this desire amongst the American public.

“There is a higher standard and we want somebody to rise up and meet it,” Day said.

“There’s no end to good people in public office in this country,” Bodett said, adding he hoped they’d come to power more frequently “at the top.” n

The Heights

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Activists continue fight to quash BC subpoena Subpoena, from A1 peals to government officials in both the U.S. and Northern Ireland to quash the subpoena. The organization has also issued pleas for intervention to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. McCabe was part of a delegation in October that met with officials in Senator John Kerry’s office.

After the recent meeting with Patterson, his office said he would consider the concerns raised by the group regarding the subpoena. Efforts to contact delegation members and Patterson’s office for further comment were unsuccessful.

Many Irish-American advocacy organizations in the U.S. continue to take active roles through political channels to quash the subpoena while BC and Ed Moloney, an Irish journalist who directed the Belfast Project, and Anthony McIntyre, a former IRA member who interviewed Republicans for the project, challenge the order through the legal system – each on different grounds. BC maintains that a release of the types would violate an agreement made with the interviewed to not release the tapes until their deaths and that a release of the archives could damage the fragile peace process in Northern Ireland.

The Moloney and McIntyre challenge argues that the use of the tapes for any prosecution of actions committed during “the Troubles” is a direct violation of the

1998 Belfast Agreement. The Agreement assures that offenses occurring prior to the 1998 agreement would not be reopened for trial.

For the advocacy groups, the sealed subpoena appears politically motivated, and should the tapes be released, result in possible damage the peace process.

“Does [the U.S. Attorney General’s office] want to be doing the bidding and favors for a police department in Ireland that is more known for corruption and lawlessness than it is known for law enforcement,” said Michael Cummings, board member of the national board of the Irish American Unity Conference, in a recent interview on the “Adrian Flannelly Show” on Irish Radio Network USA in reference to the subpoena issued by the PSNI. “That awareness is why we have been doing meetings and callings with people like Senator Kerry’s office ...

Responding to the subpoena is possibly undermining the [peace] process.”

“Our role is to keep our elected officials informed and in the know about what is happening in Northern Ireland because it is not always how it appears,” said John Foley, a Boston attorney who was also a member of the delegation that briefed Kerry officials, during the same Flannelly interview. “This is an anonymous subpoena. No names are attached. I think it is more likely another PSNI stunt and witch hunt and [the U.S. Attorney’s Office is] being used as foils for the powers that be inside PSNI.” n

sang lee / heights staff

Alex Goldowsky, A&S ’12; Yuriy Pavlish, A&S ’12; and Brian Tracz, A&S ’12 gave lectures as part of the first annual BCTalks event.

BCTalks highlights academic passions BCTalks, from A1 Lisa Piccirillo, A&S ’13, who founded BCTalks with fellow junior Conor Sullivan, LSOE ’13. “We have all these undergraduates doing incredible research. We want to provide a platform for these students to share their knowledge of these topics.”

Along with a team, Piccirillo and Sullivan selected applicants to the series along with consultation from faculty, with knowledge in the subject areas before be-

ing sent to ESS for the final decision.

“They have all demonstrated extensive research in areas of interest to them, and either completed undergraduate research projects or thesis papers,” Picarillo said.

Similar to the online lecture series TED Talks, all the BCTalks lectures will be published online on the first day of the spring semester at bctalks.org to be available to students to view and use as a database to draw inspiration for areas of further research. Boston College Televi-

sion filmed the 14 lectures.

“What we’d really like to do is take the lectures like TED does and make a group database for BC students,” Piccirillo said.

With this year’s BC Talks behind them, organizers are looking forward to turning the lectures into a semester offering.

“We were very pleased overall,” said Sullivan. “All of the talks were impressive and we want to do it again to continuously show all that BC students have to offer.” n

Strength of undergrad progams leads to success for MBA students Higher Education, from A1 normal times, adding to the strength of program.”

BC drew 719 applications and accepted 236 for its full-time, two-year MBA program. One hundred and six students matriculated for the most recent year according to data from U.S. News & World Report. The number is consistent with previous years.

BC is experiencing a decline in applications with its part-time, evening MBA offering, however.

“There has been a decline in application for our part-time MBA program offering,” Zola said. “I think a major factor is economic. Employers have tightened their tuition remission programs substantially.”

Specialized masters programs, however, also remain largely unaffected nationally and at BC. Masters degrees such as in finance and accounting have appealed to graduates looking to boost their credentials. For individuals pursuing careers in accounting, enrollment in master degree

programs in accounting have remained strong because of the 150-credit hour requirement to qualify for the CPA examination.

The prospect of the job market and outlook for employment after graduation has also affected MBA program enrollment.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, companies are shifting their hiring strategies, filling their ranks with more undergraduates instead of focusing efforts on recruiting MBAs. A number of companies in finance, consulting and consumer products are bypassing MBA candidates when recruiting new employees for management-track positions.

Companies like Booz and Co., Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo have been beefing up their undergraduate hiring. Numerous companies in finance, consulting, and consumer products have been bypassing MBA candidates when recruiting new employees for management-track positions, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Some companies are eliminating or

restructuring positions originally desired for MBAs. To compensate for the change, they have been hiring less-experienced candidates for lower-level positions with the expectation they will work up the ranks.

Employers have admired undergraduates for their quantitative skills and ability to learn quickly. Undergraduates with strong technical and financial skills excel in fields like sales and trading – jobs that don’t necessarily require the broad strategic outlook that is often associated with MBA graduates.

“MBA graduates are able to offer not only quantitative skills, but also business insights developed through experience,” Zola said. “They are smart, savvy, and mature. Not to mention, MBA courses have a level of complexity that requires strategic thinking, a feature that adds to the curriculum and the development of our students.”

BC’s MBA programs have also been able withstand recent shifts in MBA job recruitment that have favored business school undergrads over MBA graduates.

man said. “These are robust, well-established programs with large national companies that provide numerous learning opportunities.”

The most notable reason, however, for the current focus on hiring business undergraduates, as opposed to MBAs, is due to the University’s relations with corporate recruiters. With a comparatively small business graduate program, the University has remained focused on undergraduate education, resulting in developed relations with recruiters that focus a considerable amount of recruiting on undergraduates.

“The employers with whom we have developed relations for most of our recruiting hire undergraduates,” said Amy Donegan, associate director of undergraduate career advising for CSOM. “Because the quality of our undergraduates is so strong due to the focus of the University on the undergraduate education, we have increased the number of employers recruiting undergraduates at BC. We have attracted new employers to our campus recruiting because the BC brand is so strong and that is because of the quality of the undergraduates.” n

BCAAUP hosts facultystudent forum on education

Global Zero works to end proliferation

BCAAUP, from A1 with faculty members.

“I’m really interested to hear the faculty perspective on educational problems,” said one BC student. “I want to talk about the rising costs of tuition and find out where the money is going.”

“I have a lot of issues with the administration,” said another BC senior. “I’m here to get an understanding about how much time professors, faculty, and administrators can afford for students and how much

Global Zero, from A1 discussion about the cost of nuclear weapons. The discussion was co-sponsored by the BC organizations Americans for an Informed Democracy and the Political Science Association and moderated by Charles Derber, professor in the sociology department. Its three panelists were Bruce Blair, co-founder of Global Zero; Joseph Cirincione, president of the global security group Ploughshares Fund; and Aron Bernstein, professor emeritus of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“The world has been living on past investments in nuclear weapons,” Blair said. “We cannot modernize that force without basically bankrupting the defense budget.”

He said that there’s no reason to modernize anyway. “We [at Global Zero] have the support of the U.S. military,” he said.

Cirincione addressed the opportunity cost of nuclear weapons. “The nuclear budget is a big fat honeypot [worth] $700 billion in the next 10 years,” he said.

Given the current state of the economy, a cut of any amount in that “honeypot” would result in more money available for programs for the elderly, student loans, and fighting climate change.

Bernstein offered the audience encouragement and advice at the end of the talks. “Look for a place where you an elect a person into Congress, and when they get there, support them,” he said. “Give them suggestions and ideas.”

Global Zero acknowledges that total disarmament is going to be a struggle, especially if the U.S. and Russia keep their arsenals strong. Other countries, such as Pakistan, are leery of disarming because they believe that the threat of nuclear weapons is their only defense against much powerful nations. But this fledgling RSO still hopes to make a difference.

“The young people of the U.S. are finding a new voice,” Derber said. n

“We have not really seen a huge shift,” said Marilyn Eckelman, director of graduate management career strategies for CSOM. “Postings are up. Opportunities have increased yearly for our graduated, especially since 2009. They are looking for lateral hires, focusing on what you did prior to graduate school.”

Eckelman noted, however, that the market is in favor of recruiters.

“This is a shoppers market favoring recruiters,” Eckleman said. “They have been increasingly looking at our resume book and approaching students that meet their desired skills, abilities, and background.

With recruiting staffs cut significantly since the recession, using our resume book has become a very efficient method of screening candidates for desired qualities. The days of the resume drop are back.”

Eckelman has noticed increased recruitment of MBA graduates in leadership training programs after graduation to further hone their management skills.

“Employers are starting to highlight leadership development programs,” Eckel-

With the rising cost of tuition and the structure of the administrational power, faculty members worry that BC is losing students.

graham beck / heights staff

Students and faculty met on Wednesday to discuss issues including advising and registration.

attention is really given to students.”

The faculty members of BCAAUP voiced their opinions on the education system as well. With the rising cost of tuition and the structure of the administrational power, faculty members worry that BC is losing students who cannot afford the school’s tuition. The faculty also discussed their lack of control within the education system. Many advisers are given 20 to 30 students per semester. Because of this large number, professors are unable

to make a personal connection with the students they advise.

“The faculty needs to be more involved,” said Harold Peterson, associate professor in the economics department. “Advising has been a high priority here, and we have been working on it. I think there are some models that work, like the Cornerstone Program. In the Cornerstone Program I get to know students and they get to know me. So if we are going to be pushing [for more programs] we need to be pushing for the things that work.”

Students discussed their personal experiences with the BC education system.

Many felt that there are serious flaws in the academic advising system and with class registration. Others said that they have been unable to build a strong relationship with their advisors or other professors because there are just too many students per class or per advisor.

“It becomes a rat-race,” said one student.

“Students are forced to compete for the attention of professors.”

Other students felt overwhelmed with the core and are unsure where to turn to for advising help.

“I don’t know what classes to chose and I don’t have a close relationship with any professors,” said one BC freshman.

As one of the faculty members suggested going to the Academic Advising Center for help an upperclassmen laughed, and said, “I didn’t even know we had an advising center.” n

Racanelli memorial to be held today on Long Island Racanelli, from A1 Racanelli’s roommates, friends and fellow lacrosse players. They also visited residence halls the evening of Nov. 14 to be available for students. Services for Racanelli will be held in his hometown on Long Island. His wake will be held today, Nov. 17, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. and Friday, Nov. 18, from 2 to 4:30 p.m., and 7 to 9:30 p.m. at the Fredrick J. Chapey & Sons Funeral Home, located at 200

East Islip, N.Y. Racanelli’s funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 10 a.m. at St. Patrick’s Church, Bay Shore, Long Island, N.Y. The University will provide transportation for students who would like to attend Racanelli’s wake today. Buses will be available in front of St. Ignatius Church today at 11:30 a.m. If students plan on attending, they are asked to email askvpsa@bc.edu with their name

to confirm their reservation by 10 a.m. today. Lunch and dinner will be provided on the bus.

If students are unable to attend, expressions of sympathy can be sent to the Racanelli Family at 255 Lakeview Ave. West, Brightwaters, Long Island, N.Y. Editor’s note: The University officially lists Racanelli A&S ’14 because he missed class due to illness. n

Racanelli’s funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 10:00 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Church, Bay Shore, Long Island, N.Y.

The Heights

Thursday, November 17, 2011

CLASSIFIEDS A5

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Help Wanted PAID BUSINESS INTERNSHIP Sales and marketing internship.

Wages $15-$18 / hr. Deadline to apply Dec. 6. Call College Works at 800-930-7348 for More Information.

On campus and interested in placing a classified ad? E-mail classifieds@bcheights.com and ask about our on-campus discount!

“Here lies the final Marketplace.

It was the best of sections, it was the worst of sections.”

Directions: The Sudoku is played over a 9x9 grid. In each row there are 9 slots, some of which are empty and need to be filled.

Each row, column and 3x3 box should contain the numbers 1 to 9. You must follow these rules: · Number can appear only once in each row · Number can appear only once in each column · Number can appear only once in each 3x3 box · The number should appear only once on row, column or area.

The Heights

A6

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Editorials

A lucrative silver lining New evidence indicates the faltering economy may actually benefit CSOM undergraduates Rahm Emanuel is now famous for saying that no good crisis should go to waste. Boston College students should keep this advice in mind as the anemic

This trend is especially beneficial for students in CSOM, as the University’s MBA program, which has been admirably immune to recent nationwide drops in applicants, is comparatively small. economy changes employer behavior in business industries in favor of undergraduate students. According to The Wall Street Journal, companies in finance, consulting, and consumer products like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America have increasingly been bypassing MBA students when recruiting new employees for management-track

positions. With a precipitous drop in those lucky enough to have a job, the traditional pool of potential MBA candidates has shrunk, causing companies to search for talented undergraduates who companies feel can benefit from experience and rise up the corporate chain.

This trend is especially beneficial for students in CSOM, as the University ’s MBA program, which has been admirably immune to recent nationwide drops in applicants, is comparatively small. The program’s size is significant because this allows the University to focus more of its energy on improving what BusinessWeek ranks the 16th best undergraduate business program as of 2011. As Amy Donegan, associate director of undergraduate career advising for CSOM points out, “We have attracted new employers to our campus recruiting because the BC brand is so strong and that is because of the quality of the undergraduates.”

For business students debating whether to pay thousands of dollars more for a graduate degree or enter straight into the job market, the current business climate, coupled with the strength of BC’s undergraduate program, favors the latter.

When the past should remain the past The United States is unnecessarily antagonizing the reconciliation process in Northern Ireland As the subpoena for the Belfast Project oral histories continues to be played out in the court system, Irish public interest groups have been using political measures to discredit

The impact the release would have on oral history projects and the ongoing peace process is a reality that all government officials should recognize. the subpoena of the archives. Their lobbying efforts have largely involved bringing the subpoena to the attention of officials in both the United States and Northern Ireland while informing them of the possible effect the release could have on the reconciliation process in Northern Ireland. The potential

impact of the release would have on oral history projects and the ongoing peace process is a reality that all government officials should recognize.

The Belfast Agreement of 1998, which the U.S. worked to facilitate, assured that offenses that occurred during “the Troubles” would not be reopened for trial. It acknowledged that violent actions were taken by members of both sides during the turbulent period and sought to put the differences and atrocities of the past aside in the interest of peace and reconciliation.

Despite the agreement, the U.S. Attorney General’s office acted upon the records request made by Northern Ireland’s police services by issuing a subpoena. The office acted without regard for the agreement. Many basic questions, including the origination of the subpoena in Northern Ireland, were left unanswered as the subpoena was sealed. Considering the facts of the case, the U.S. and Northern Ireland officials appealed to by the activist groups should heed their concerns.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “I have closed my book of fading harmonies, (The shadows fell across me in the park) And my soul was sad with violins and trees, And I was sick for dark, When suddenly it hastened by me, bringing Thousands of lights, a haunting breeze, And a night of streets and singing ....”

From City Night, by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940), an American author

The Heights The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 Michael Caprio, Editor-in-Chief Daniel Ottaunick, General Manager DJ Adams, Managing Editor

Robin Miller / Heights Illustration

Letters to the Editor As University mourns, students struggle to come to terms “You have to live in the middle of this contradiction. You have to live in this zone where both [situations] can be true, and it’s very, very, very difficult. “ Sam Richards, a sociology professor at Penn State University, recently imparted these words upon a class of confused and disconsolate students (Penn State journalist Lori Shontz was permitted to sit in on the lesson). For these young men and women, the contradiction is between what they believed and trusted about the ethically grounded institution that meant everything to them, and what they now know and refuse to believe about a morally bankrupt school that allegedly conspired to cover up the horrifying behavior of one of its employees. Submitting to one either means mourning over the disillusionment with a place and group of people millions thought they knew and could trust, or straight up ignoring reality, screening facts to hold onto a quickly receding past where things actually made sense.

After all, tragedy can quickly make your world nonsensical. It can take the reality you once knew, and smash it hard with a big lead pipe. It can crush your hopes, your beliefs, and if devastating enough, your own will. It begets many emotions- fear, grief, outrage, misery.

Perhaps the most debilitating blow it can deliver is despair. Despair is inescapable, second by second misery. Deceased author David Foster Wallace described it as “wanting to die in order to escape (an) unbearable feeling.”

We will never know exactly what Mike Racanelli was feeling in the days and hours before he passed away on Monday. I do not know how despair played into it. I do know, as we all know, that his death is a true tragedy and has left a monstrous void in the lives of thousands.

It was, in the moments after hearing, literally unbelievable. Your mind cannot resolve the information presented as fact with the world you have deconstructed into truths about the people you know and the places they inhabit. You are emotionally and psychologically stunned. After that, it’s just a race to see which feeling can get there first.

For me, it was confusion, and one greedy question in particular: Why? I just wanted an answer for the morsel of solace that I hoped it could bring. Why did such a gregarious and gracious young man’s time here come to such a sudden end?

Why would my friend, the friend to so many of my friends and countless others, be moving on without us? The demand for answers came from a crippling helplessness that surrounds the aftermath of heartbreak like this and paralyzes those left in its wake to wonder. We want to know why because we want to know what we could have done to prevent it from happening.

“Dude never complained about anything,” remarked one of our friends in the hours after. “Literally, I didn’t know what classes he took because he would never bitch about them. I never heard him complain about anything.”

It’s a sad truth, perhaps the only truth that we will never precisely know how others feel.

Emotion is not quantifiable. It is relative, and it is concealable. The disappointed hurt those loyal fans in Happy Valley feel cannot be compared and contrasted with the constant, vicious pain that everyone who knew and adored Mike is feeling. And the compassionate, loving man many knew as Rac, the kid whose charm and charisma attracted all who met him, cannot be reconciled with the internally suffering man who we now count among our dearly departed.

The Heights welcomes Letters to the Editor not exceeding 200 words and column submissions that do not exceed 700 words for its op/ed pages.

The Heights reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity, accuracy, and to prevent libel. The Heights also reserves the right to write headlines and choose illustrations to accompany pieces submitted

Contributer: Daniel Friedman, Maggie Burdge, Mary Rose Fissinger, Austin Tedesco, Tim Jablonski

Tim Jablonski A&S ’13

to the newspaper.

Submissions must be signed and should include the author’s connection to Boston College, address, and phone number. Letters and columns can be submitted online at www.bcheights.com, by e-mail to editor@bcheights.com, in person, or by mail to Editor, The Heights, 113 McElroy Commons, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467.

Business and Operations

Editorial Clara Kim, Copy Editor Taylour Kumpf, News Editor Paul Sulzer, Sports Editor Kristopher Robinson, Features Editor Darren Ranck, Arts & Review Editor David Cote, Marketplace Editor Ana Lopez, Opinions Editor Dan Tonkovich, Special Projects Editor Alex Trautwig, Photo Editor Lindsay Grossman, Layout Editor

This is the contradiction that we, as a community, are going to have to live with. It is not one we want to accept and will be very difficult to deal with. Asserting itself as the sobering realization that we didn’t know everything we thought we did about this wonderful and eternally positive young man, it pains us so terribly because we want to believe in the worst way that Mike would never leave us like this.

Yet, we must not attempt to skirt around the truth and push it perpetually out of our minds. The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard referred to this course of action as “despair from a lack of finitude”- a desire to not believe leads to a construction of fantasy that transports an individual away from the hard, finite reality he or she doesn’t want to face. Doing this will help no one heal. Pretending it didn’t exist would be a disservice to Mike and the visceral turmoil he struggled with. This is the reality of one person’s life. And we must honor him by believing it.

So, we are indebted to cope.

We will celebrate the far-too-short life that Mike had and the light he shone on the lives others. We will pray for his family and friends, hope for them, and provide support to help carry them through their indescribable grief. And we will mourn Michael; mourn that his life ended in this manner; mourn that we were unable to prevent it from happening; but mostly mourn that he is no longer with us, a now untethered soul who a few days and a lifetime ago was such an illuminating part of our lives.

We will miss him more than he ever would have known. I just wish I could have told him how much.

Mollie Kolosky, Graphics Editor David Riemer, Online Manager Therese Tully, Assoc. Copy Editor Katherine Doyle, Asst. Copy Editor Adriana Mariella, Assoc. News Editor Molly LaPoint, Asst. News Editor Greg Joyce, Assoc. Sports Editor Chris Marino, Asst. Sports Editor Brooke Schneider, Asst. Features Editor Brennan Carley, Assoc. Arts & Review Editor

Charlotte Parish, Asst. Arts & Review Editor Matt Palazzolo, Asst. Marketplace Editor Kevin Hou, Asst. Photo Editor Woogeon Kim, Asst. Layout Editor Alex Manta, Asst. Graphics Editor Dara Fang, Asst. Online Manager Elise Taylor, Editorial Assistant Katherine McClurg, Executive Assistant

Jamie Ciocon, Business Manager Christina Quinn, Advertising Manager Zachary Halpern, Outreach Coordinator Cecilia Provvedini, Systems Manager James Gu, Local Sales Manager Amy Hachigan, Asst. Ads Manager Seth Fitchelberg, Business Assistant

The Heights

Thursday, November 17, 2011

A7

Opinions

Cheating yourself

Thumbs Up Freshman Phenomenon – There’s an old saying that the French can take anything and make it slow and inefficient, while Germans can take anything and turn it into an efficient machine. Luckily for BC, freshman Patrick Heckmann, a German, continues to prove that saying true with his standout performance in the first game of the season. With 19 points and eight rebounds, here’s a kid that could be making basketball fans extremely happy for the next four years.

Arab Fall – Everything is seemingly spinning out of control with 18 of the 22 member nations of the Arab League voting recently to back new sanctions against Syria in addition to suspending it from the League.

Motives aside, this action should ignite at least some hope for the thousands of protestors fighting against a tyrannical dictator in the person of Bashar Assad. It might also be worth mentioning to the indignant occupiers across the country that unlike those in Syria, in America you may face derision for opinions, but at least derision is not bullets.

Patriot Reign – The Patriots victory over the Jets this Sunday was sweetened further with the news that the NFL is investigating New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan for shouting an expletive that rhymes with “puck” at a fan going into halftime. Even better, Patriot’s head coach Bill Belichek’s comment telling the Jet’s team to suck his – surely you know what – will receive no penalty from the league as it was deemed to have been said in private conversation. Here’s to the hooded one.

Thumbs Down Costly Campus – According to a new report released by Coldwell Banker, Chestnut Hill is the seventh most expensive college town in America, beating out places like Seattle, San Jose, and Annapolis.

Granted the study bases its findings off average home prices of three bedroom, two bathroom houses, which only affects the 17 percent or so of off-campus students. But as the University generally only provides three years of housing, this is an issue most BC students will have to face at some point in their four years here. At least tuition prices have been declining – oh wait, they’ve actually done the opposite...

Crickets – Perhaps only TU/TD has noticed, but in the reading room at O’Neill every ten minutes or so a strange buzzing noise, eerily similar to that of a cricket, comes on. For those who don’t use headphones at the library and can’t bear those rubbery earplugs, distraction and irritation set in quickly. As if it’s not enough that this midterm season seems to be dragging on for eternity, students now have crickets to contend with at a supposedly quiet location.

Iran and the bomb – It is difficult to decide which part of this whole fiasco deserves the biggest thumbs down. Is it the uselessness of the United Nations coming out with a report confirming that Iran has secretly been at work on a nuclearweapons program – something the rest of the world has confidently known for years now? Or is it the same old new proposals from our government and the UN, like sanctions, that haven’t worked in the past? Or is it the simple fact that the president of a country that could have a nuclear bomb in the next year has been quoted as saying, “The Sept. 11 incident was a big fabrication as a pretext for the campaign against terrorism and a prelude for staging an invasion against Afghanistan.” No need for a clever closing on this one – the facts speak for themselves.

Cain’s Prolonged Pain – As if the sexual harassment allegations weren’t bad enough, the jovial, soon to be ex-frontrunner of the Republican presidential candidates had his own Rick Perry moment this week in Iowa. Asked a question on whether he agreed with President Barack Obama’s Libya policy, the pizza man fumbled, stumbled, and fumbled some more.

Perhaps Cain forgot that presidents are responsible for foreign, as well as domestic policy. In any event, for those who revel in watching public humiliation, check the action out on YouTube.

Dineen Boyle In the seventh grade, a student in my class stole a jar of worms. The worms were intended for a dissection and as a result of the theft, all field trips were cancelled for the remainder of the year.

This was especially upsetting considering that we had just turned in permission slips to see Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone and field trips were the only occasion that my mother let me eat Lunchables. Despite my disappointment, I searched for the positive in the situation.

I assured myself, “At least now I won’t have to touch worm guts.” Wrong. New worms were purchased and although the dissection was back on, the field trip was not.

I wondered how the worm thief could be so selfish. For what purpose would someone need a jar of worms? Why won’t the culprit just come forward?

Why can’t I eat pizza Lunchables whenever I want? Why does a salty cracker topped with cold marinara sauce and processed cheese taste so delicious? Is withholding Harry Potter a humane punishment? Does this Aeropostale hoodie make me look cool? My seventh grade brain quickly digressed.

In all seriousness, the lasting impression that I took away from the incident was an awareness of how the actions of one or a few people could negatively

impact a much larger group. Unfortunately, I was recently reacquainted with this reality.

Last week, I walked into class eager for midterm exams to be handed back.

When the professor entered the classroom, it was clear that he was unhappy.

He explained that a student had notified him that he or she witnessed students illegally collaborate on the exam. Consequently, the grades for the entire class would be either entirely discounted, or count for a fraction of their original weight.

I was distraught and incredibly disappointed. I had spent the week and a half prior to the exam incessantly studying the material. I sacrificed time with my friends and family so that come time for the exam, I would feel confident in what I had learned. It was extremely frustrating that the laziness of a select few had betrayed the trust of their professor and undermined the hard work of their classmates.

Perhaps I am naive, but it is difficult for me to understand the rationale behind cheating on a college exam. In addition to being morally unconscionable, the risks far outweigh the potential for return on investment. Receiving a B+ instead of a B is not at all worth risking expulsion from college. I can think of few things worse than having to call my parents to tell them that I was kicked out of school as a result of academic dishonesty.

As students at Boston College, we pay $54,528 in tuition per year. We should get our money’s worth. This means learning the material and receiving fair grades for honest work. Although as a society, we resist cliches, we must admit

that often they succeed in getting at fundamental, time-tested truths. At risk of sounding cliche, I subscribe to the belief that in cheating, we only cheat ourselves.

If you are someone who cuts academic corners, I urge you to reconsider.

Plagiarizing, sneaking a peak at your cell phone, or glancing at a classmate’s paper to copy an answer may seem insignificant at the time, but ask yourself this: If we do not have integrity, what do we have?

BC is an incredibly competitive environment. It is so easy to become overwhelmed by pressure and resort to shortcuts. When I graduate from BC this spring, I will take pride in knowing that through blood, sweat, and more O’Neill Library vending machine dinners than I care to admit, I earned my degree honestly.

William Shakespeare once wrote, “No legacy is so rich as honesty.” While I agree, I feel that his quote serves to glamorize honesty, when honesty itself is innately unglamorous. Honesty is quiet.

It is consistently doing the right thing when no one is looking, when you are aware that you will never be commended for it.

If we leave this place thinking that the ends justify any and all means, then we have failed to see the much larger picture. Always choose honesty. Choose it for the professor who trusts you. Choose it for your classmate who is really looking forward to eating a Lunchable. Most of all, choose it for yourself.

Dineen Boyle is a staff columnist for The Heights. She welcomes comments at opinions@bcheights.com.

Confessions of a shopaholic

Pooja Shah With Thanksgiving around the corner, I figured the best way to thank myself for all the sleepless nights I’ve recently suffered was with a shopping spree. OK, fine, I admit there’s more to my spontaneous self-gifting.

When it comes to frivolously spending money on clothing, accessories, and shoes, I am a shopaholic.

But I’m not alone to hold this title. I’m positive that at least half of females (probably even more) on this campus could proudly acknowledge their natural desire with having the newest pair of Lucky Brand jeans or that trendy black leather jacket featured on the cover of Cosmopolitan. But, the question is why do girls like to shop so much?

Shopping has always been an immediate therapeutic solution for women. Whether it’s a broken heart, bad exam grade, or just a general case of the blues, making even the smallest purchase is probably the best “pick-me-up” after a crummy week.

Similarly, the thrill of it is what lures so many to engage in this activity. The excitement of being up-to-date with the latest trends and styles enables girls to constantly submit to a culture so influenced by fashion. While guys typically spend afternoons huddled around a television sipping beers and eating chicken wings, girls find delight in the hunt of shopping that is their version of social and recreational behavior. Not only is it the ultimate bonding time (what’s better than spending a day at the mall with your closest friends?) it has evolved into a necessity. In fact, many can even

state that being an active shopper is a crucial requirement to continue being part of a competitive social environment. There appears to be a spirit of rivalry existent in shopping as women subtly or unsubtly try to upgrade their appearance with items of high quality and prestige. While guys rave over who has the most expensive car, girls are highly motivated to show their social status through designer labels and expensive purchases. Although the act of shopping is inclusive with one’s peers, the expenditures are entirely exclusive.

Psychologists would even argue that shopping often serves as a temporary solution to improving low self-esteem because an individual might make un-

necessary purchases to repair bruised egos or alleviate internal pains. This type of buying is referred to as “retail therapy,” or the art of browsing stores and making immediate transactions as to mitigate emotional or mental stresses.

With that said, it comes as no surprise that society often deems women as materialistic individuals who are infamous for conspicuous consumption. Shopping doesn’t always have to be bad, but excessive shopping causes women to be viewed as supporters of a consumer economy. Their interests in acquiring high-status goods and compulsive spending constantly fuel

Bazoomie Wagon | BY BEN VADNAL

business and encourage materialism.

Although statistically it may be true that female buyers increase consumerism, it is not entirely their fault.

I’m not simply saying this because I’m female myself, but rather because I do think that mainstream culture plays a huge role in shaping our decisions. Media outlets target women with products that could potentially improve their appearances, might be beneficial to their health, etc. In fact, advertising and marketing use tactics such as these to portray pervasive depiction of women who will pay large sums of money for their external images. There is a developing myth that women are unable to spend money rationally because they lack the ability to distinguish between excessive and acceptable spending. But the problem is that media blurs this line. The real issue is that consumers are manipulated to constantly crave more goods, which are directly profitable to the economy.

The conflict is not that consumption is wrong.

The dilemma lies in how much one is consuming.

When does shopping stop being fun and turn into extravagance? To answer this we do not need to reject consumption, but rather limit it. Maxing out your credit card or going on occasional shopping sprees isn’t necessarily “wrong,” but it is important to keep in mind why we are buying something. It is crucial to detach our emotions from overly consuming because it could ultimately become addicting. The idea is to exert self-control over all your purchases, not get rid of them completely. Therefore, before buying that cute cardigan you saw hanging from a shop window, remind yourself why you want it—do you truly want it or has media forced you to think you do?

Pooja Shah is a staff columnist for The Heights. She welcomes comments at opinions@bcheights.com.

Make fun, not war Tim O’Connor Last week, Activision/Blizzard smashed an entertainment industry record with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Within 24 hours of the game’s launch, the publisher sold 6.5 million copies of the game, garnering an estimated $400 million in revenue. MW3 dethroned the previous record-holder, last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops, by roughly $40 million . Want to guess who held the record before Black Ops? I’ll give you a hint: it starts with “Call” and ends with “Warfare 2.”

Since the inception of the franchise in 2003, the Call of Duty series has sold over 110 million games, placing it comfortably in the top 10 video game franchises of all time. Talk about war profiteering. Fans and critics herald it as the gold standard for the first-person shooter genre, which, to be straightforward, means a game where you look through the eyes of a character and shoot things with guns. In this case, “things” generally refers to other people.

Not other characters in the game, but actual players, who you compete with online. The Call of Duty games are renowned for its multiplayer component, which allows up to 18 players from anywhere in the world to duke it out in dense jungles, corrupt urban favelas, or pretty much any locale you could find in a Tom Clancy novel.

With that in mind, the reasons behind the series’ financial success suddenly becomes clear. Take a target demographic of 18 to 25-year-old males, let them anonymously talk trash while playing soldier over the Internet, and throw in a bunch of statistics, measurements, and unlockable features that let you show off just how much better than your friends you actually are. In terms of appealing to that raw, adrenalinepumping, testosterone-boosting competitive spirit, Call of Duty falls somewhere between football and bare-knuckle bar fights. And there’s nothing wrong with that, really. Competition is a natural impulse. It’s been around since the dawn of the species, and it isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

For some, it manifests in sports. Others take it to the boardroom or stock market. It’s in all of us.

What is a bit disturbing, though, is how we’ve let that competitive spirit manifest in a virtual representation of very real wars. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming actual violence on violent video games, as now-disbarred attorney Jack Thompson attempted to do in 2003, when he claimed his 16-year-old client committed murder as a result of his obsession with the game Grand Theft Auto 3. Rather, I wonder why we have to resort to intense, photorealistic depictions of every-day violence as a way to satisfy our animalistic kicks.

Plenty of games, like the almost-aspopular Halo, offer the same fundamental experience as Call of Duty (i.e. shooting other people), but distinguish themselves with a science fiction or fantasy setting, What makes CoD more successful? Why does wrapping the entire thing up in a “realistic” package seem to resonate with consumers in a way that other games don’t? Why is it more satisfying to shoot your friend who lives across campus with a (virtual) M16 assault rifle, rather than the imaginary Halo equivalent?

The possible answers are too numerous to list. It is, of course, plausible that Call of Duty is simply a better-designed game, but I somehow doubt Freud would stop there. Perhaps taking out aggression in a simulation of real-world violence is simply more fulfilling. Maybe it’s a coping mechanism. Not many of us are directly impacted by the wars in the Middle East, but they certainly haunt the periphery of our lives. Packaging up a complex and terrible conflict into a bite-sized, $60 morsel of stress relief helps resolve the nuances and complexity of the perpetual state of war that most of us have grown up under.

Personally, I think we can do a whole lot better when it comes to our entertainment. The technology and resources we have access to empower a freshman computer art student to put Star Wars to shame.

YouTube lets anyone with a camera phone become a filmmaker. We have the ability to bring virtually any story we can dream up to life; our popular entertainment is bound only by the limits of our imagination. As a nation, we’ve always defined ourselves by the stories we tell, from the rugged pioneers who journeyed west to the astronauts who braved the cold depths of space. Our generation must choose the story that it will live by. We’ve been told, by many, that it is a story of perpetual threat from zealots who will stop at nothing to destroy us. We’ve been told that unless we destroy them first, our way of life will certainly end. This is the story we tell with Call of Duty.

Forget that. It’s boring. Let’s come up with something a bit more fun.

Tim O’Connor is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at opinions@bcheights.com.

The Heights

A8

Thursday, November 17, 2011

BOSTON COLLEGE AT NOTRE DAME When BC runs the ball Last week Andre Williams’ name came up in BC’s game of runningback roulette; the sophomore was rewarded with 18 carries, his most in a month and a half. Tahj Kimble and Deuce Finch will take carries, too, while Josh Bordner may get some runs in the Wildcat after 13 carries over the last two weeks. But Notre Dame has shown the ability to stop run-focused attacks.

Advantage:

When BC passes the ball The coaching staff has pulled in the reins on Chase Rettig, who has averaged fewer than 15 attempts over his last three games. None of his receivers have caught more than six passes over that stretch, including just two completions of over 15 yards. If the Eagles want to upset the Fighting Irish, they will need to air it out more. Look for BC to use lowrisk ways to spread the ball around — think screens and slants.

Advantage:

When Notre Dame runs the ball Senior running back Jonas Gray has had double-digit carries over his last three games, including a 136-yard performance last week against Maryland. BC’s D-line, especially edge rushers Max Holloway and Kasim Edebali, will need to stay disciplined in order to prevent the run game from gashing BC and allowing Notre Dame to set up its passing game.

Advantage: Ruben R. Ramirez / ap photo

When Notre Dame passes the ball Tommy Rees has averaged 33 attempts per game while maintaining a 67.2 completion percentage. Rees spreads the ball around, as four different receivers have over 30 catches. The main focus is wideout Michael Floyd. The future first-round draft pick will command a double team from the BC secondary.

Advantage:

Special teams Nate Freese hasn’t connected on a field goal in over a month, attempting three in the last five games. There’s little reason to expect head coach Frank Spaziani to trot him out for much more than a chip shot in windy South Bend. Irish kicker David Ruffer is only 7-for-11 on the season, but showed serious range last week by nailing a 52-yarder.

Advantage:

Coaching and intangibles A misty forecast shouldn’t affect either teams game plans too much; the Eagles will presumably still run their conservative offense while Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly will strive for close balance between his ground and pass games, barring serious rain. The willingness of Spaziani to take serious risks with the ball will be key.

Advantage:

Notre Dame’s Cierre Wood (center) will couple with Jonas Gray to form a running back duo that the BC rush defense will need to contain Saturday.

Football Notebook: Irish duo runs rampant so we need to just come at them.”

By Steven Principi Heights Staff

Boston College will have to deal with the twoheaded monster in the Notre Dame backfield this weekend if it is to have any chance of winning.

The Irish have two backs with a legitimate chance at breaking 1,000 yards this season in Cierre Wood and Jonas Gray. Both are averaging well over five yards per carry and have combined for 20 rushing touchdowns. The Eagles may be up against the best one-two punch in the nation and certainly the best that they have seen this season.

“They’re dangerous,” linebacker Luke Kuechly said. “Cierre Wood has some speed and Gray is a big, bruising back. He’s got that downhill running style but at the same time he can move his feet.

We’ve got to try to do what we always do. We need to keep them in front of us, plug our gaps, and prevent them from circling the defense.”

Defensive end Max Holloway echoed Kuechly’s words and added that stopping the run game would be directly related to disrupting the offensive-line play of the Irish.

“The Notre Dame offensive line is really physical,” Holloway said. “We’re going to have to match their physicality and their intensity. We’ve seen them really bring it to other defensive lines,

Swigert distracts defenses Coming off a week in which he caught just one pass for four yards, wide receiver Bobby Swigert could easily be down on himself. After starting the season as a favorite target of Chase Rettig, his production has dropped off in recent weeks, especially on third downs, as a result of increased coverage. However, he has not lost faith in his ability to make plays. In fact, he believes that the added attention he has received lately has lead to more opportunities for fellow receivers Colin Larmond, Jr. and Alex Amidon.

“I get a lot more bracket coverage now than earlier in the season,” Swigert said. “I usually have a guy on the inside and the outside of me.

But it actually opens up a lot for everyone on the outside, so I don’t mind it. It’s kind of easy to recognize, so when Chase sees it, he knows that he’ll have a one-on-one match-up on the outside. It’s pretty much the same basic defense on first and second down, but teams have really started to catch on for third downs.”

A familiar face Before becoming the head coach of Notre Dame, Brian Kelly held the same position at

Cincinnati and recruited BC star Luke Kuechly.

While Kuechly eventually decided against his hometown school, Kelly pursued him for a long time and made quite an impression on the linebacker. “[Cincinnati] was definitely on my radar,” Kuechly said. “I think they were the first team that offered me a scholarship. But I wanted to get out of Cincinnati and expand my horizon a little bit. UC is really about 15 or 20 minutes away from my house, and I played on their field a few times when I was growing up. I just wanted to see what else was going on in a place like Boston that was a bit farther away from Cincinnati.”

Kelly spoke earlier in the week about creating a game plan to try and slow down the AllAmerican linebacker he once tried to recruit, especially after his fourth quarter effort against NC State last weekend. The main way he hopes to do this is with his offensive line, which Kuechly admits is among the best he has seen.

“They’ve got some players over there,” Kuechly said. “Their offensive line is good. It’s a rare combination over there. Those guys are big, they’re physical, and they can move. We haven’t seen any big guys who can move at that pace, so we need to do a good job getting our hands on them before they get their hands on us.” n

Football looking for upset in Holy War Football, from A10

Photo courtesy of ESPN3

Ed Kelly led his team to the ACC title game, which helped BC receive the No. 4 seed overall.

Eagles get first-round bye Men’s Soccer, from A10 importance of focusing on what the Eagles can control, rather than guessing which team they could potentially play.

“At the end of the day, you’re glad to have an opportunity to play, and we just have to focus on each team,” he said. “I know that sounds kind of corny, but it really is the truth. You start to think about all of the brackets. Maybe it’s UCLA. Maybe it’s this person or that person. It doesn’t mean anything at the end of the day.”

Kelly believes that his team’s strength comes, in large part, from its group unity.

The Eagles work well with one another, an important aspect of their game that will be needed in the season’s final push.

“They’re a very focused group and a very tight group,” he said. “They are that kind of team, compared to having several very good individuals. They’re a real team, and that is obviously a major part of the locker room, all of the team stuff that

goes on and makes them strong. So, when things go bad, they still stick together, and they’ve grown from the time we lost to Maryland, 4-0. We changed some technical things, but they also grew up, and they also didn’t want to leave it like that, so they worked hard. The strongest thing about this team is the chemistry of the group.”

The Eagles will know tonight which team they will be matched up against in this weekend’s contest. They will have the opportunity to host either Colgate (11-4-6) or Rutgers (9-6-3). Despite the uncertainty that comes with not knowing the team’s opponent until late tonight, Kelly believes BC’s ability to focus puts it in a strong place to start the tournament.

“We just have to play each game, let the cards fall where they may,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s tough to try to figure it all out.

It’s all about taking care of what you’re in control of.” n

were decided by a touchdown or less.

Despite two consecutive losses by the Eagles in ’09 and ’10, the series is still extremely tight, as BC holds nine victories, compared to 11 for the Irish.

Heading to South Bend to play in front of 80,000 beyond-passionate fans is an experience like no other in college football and provides an extra incentive and challenge for BC this weekend.

“Everyone says [playing at Notre Dame] gives you a special feeling, so I’m looking forward to that feeling,” sophomore wide receiver Bobby Swigert said. “It might be the only time I ever get to play there in my life, so I’m definitely going to cherish it, and hopefully we can get a win. That would make it even better.”

In 11 meetings, BC is 6-5 at Notre Dame Stadium. This is an impressive feat, considering that Notre Dame is 461-118-13 all-time at home. For the

Eagles to even their record in South Bend, they will need to learn from the contest just a year ago, in which Notre Dame dominated from the start.

“You can’t get too overly hyped during the week because, if you’re too emotional in the week, you’re going to lose it during the game,” junior linebacker Luke Kuechly said. “That’s what happened to us last year. We came out, maybe, overly emotional or overhyped, and it took us a while to get settled down. When we got settled down, we ended up being all right.“ While the Eagles look to channel their emotions, they will also need to perform at the peak of their physical abilities to keep pace with the Fighting Irish.

“Notre Dame is one of the best teams I’ve seen on film this year,” Swigert said.

“Watching them defensively, at least, they’re solid pretty much everywhere.

Their highly touted recruits are really coming into their own because they

have a great coach and a great system working. They’re very balanced and that helps them be a well-run football team.”

On the offensive end, senior wide receiver Michael Floyd will lead the Irish.

He is a dynamic player, currently ranking third in both receiving yards and touchdown catches among all FBS wide receivers. On the other side of the ball is junior linebacker Manti Te’o, who has often been compared to Luke Kuechly.

He leads a unit currently ranked 36th in the country in total defense.

In a game filled with so much passion and tradition, it may be simplicity above all else that leads the Eagles to an upset victory.

“People would be lying if they said it was just another game,” Kuechly said.

“But going in, you’ve got to treat it the way you treat every other week. Once the game starts, it’s football. Personally, when the game starts, it’s everything within the lines.” n

Women’s soccer travels to California Women’s Soccer, from A10 in a neutral-site game. Road trips are a hurdle many teams must overcome and, even though BC has had difficulty away from home, Foley is assured given the close-knit nature of this year’s squad.

“We’re a very good road team,” Foley said. “We have really good chemistry. As a team, we’re OK with being on the road because we get a chance to connect and develop a positive team atmosphere on the plane or on the bus. The group really enjoys each other’s company, so we enjoy being on the road.”

The Eagles are prepared for a tough match-up with the Golden Bears, who improved greatly as the season progressed. With an experienced defense and solid passing game, Cal matches up well with BC. “Berkley got significantly better as

the season went on,” Foley said. “They have two great centerbacks that are really seasoned and experienced, and they are a team that likes to possess the ball. They lost to Santa Clara 3-0, then came back to beat them in the tournament, so they’re a team that’s progressively getting better.

It’s going to be a fantastic match.”

In the NCAA tournament, any team can win on any day. To ensure they come out victorious, the Eagles have been tweaking a few areas of their game in practice during the past couple of weeks.

After struggling to find the back of the net for much of league play, they were finally able to see results of their hard work against Marist.

“We worked hard the last couple of weeks on defending set pieces and executing better offensively,” Foley said. “Kristie [Mewis] has been working on her own set pieces, and she scored a beautiful goal on

a free kick on Sunday. I was pleased with the improvements in that area, and I’m feeling really good about our team.”

Without the guarantee of a next game in the NCAA tournament, the Eagles’ seniors are playing like there is no tomorrow and don’t want the season to end until they win it all. The Golden Bears are the sole obstacle that stands in BC’s way of reaching the Sweet 16 again. With their sights set high, the Eagles are taking one small step at a time on the road to accomplishing big things.

“Everyone’s feeling confident,” Foley said. “The senior class has taken one step further each year they’ve been at BC, making the Sweet 16 their freshman year, the Elite Eight their sophomore year, and the Final Four last year. They’re all very focused on taking another step forward to leave their legacy as the first BC team to win a national title.” n

The Heights

Editors’ Picks

Thursday, November 17, 2011 The Week Ahead

Standings

Football travels to Notre Dame for the Holy War, as does men’s hockey for a Friday night match-up. Women’s soccer plays Cal in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Men’s basketball visits Holy Cross. The New York Giants host the Philadelphia Eagles.

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Recap from Last

Chris Marino

33-17

Heights staff

33-17

Greg Joyce

32-18

Paul Sulzer

27--23

Game of the Week Football

Football won against NC State. Men’s hockey dropped an ugly game to BU. Women’s soccer easily defeated Marist in the NCAA tournament. Men’s soccer beat Duke in the ACC tournament to advance to the championship. Rex Ryan and the Jets lost to the Patriots.

Guest Editor: DJ Adams

Notre Dame

Managing Editor

“Saving the best for last.”

Paul Sulzer Sports Editor

This Week’s Games Football: BC at No. 24 Notre Dame

Greg Joyce Assoc. Sports Editor

Chris Marino Asst. Sports Editor

DJ Adams

Managing Editor

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Men’s Hockey: No. 3 BC at No. 4 Notre Dame

BC

BC

Notre Dame

BC

Women’s Soccer: No. 21 BC at California

BC

BC

BC

BC

Men’s Basketball: BC at Holy Cross

BC

Holy Cross

BC

BC

Eagles

Eagles

Giants

Giants

NFL: Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants

vs.

Boston College

The 2011 edition of the Holy War is in South Bend, Ind., as Boston College will try to upset Notre Dame on its Senior Day. Though a bowl game is out of the question for the Eagles, they can play the role of the spoiler for the Irish’s season.

Notre Dame has won seven of its last eight games, boasting a record of 7-3 as the No. 24 team in the nation. BC will need to bring a stout defensive effort to South Bend and find a way to move the offense down the field with Chase Rettig and Josh Bordner both taking snaps.

Saturday, 4 p.m.

York decides to switch up lines for Holy War on ice Men’s Hockey, from A10

nick rellas / heights staff

Line changes will force Tommy Atkinson (28) to compete for his spot for the struggling Eagles after a disappointing 5-0 loss against BU.

will spark some offense.

“We’re switching up the lines a little bit this week,” York said. “Pat Mullane is going to go with Paul Carey and Barry Almeida.

Destry Straight is going to switch with Pat and be on a line with Johnny Gaudreau and Steven Whitney. And we’re also going to have a pretty good battle for a spot on the fourth line between Tommy Atkinson and Quinn Smith. We haven’t had a chance to see Quinn in a game yet but he’s closed the gap quite a bit. Cam Spiro’s involved in that, too, so that’s something we’ll have to decide as the week goes on.”

On the defensive side, the Eagles are still without junior Patrick Wey. His absence has been felt. With Tommy Cross and Brian Dumoulin playing as much as they are and without a solid option at sixth defenseman, there is some concern in the BC locker room about how to handle the blue liners in coming weeks. York spoke a bit about these worries but also mentioned

something positive to come out of the injury to Wey. “In back-to-back games, the defensemen’s minutes are something we’re very concerned with,” York said. “In this particular game we’ll have some time to recover since we don’t play the next night.

And Issac MacLeod has really stepped up. He’s played really well since Pat went down, and that’s been one of the positives of that injury. He’s had to get more ice time and he’s playing a lot better.”

York has been using Brooks Dyroff on defense since Wey went down, even though he is listed as a forward. However, Dyroff did not see the ice against BU even though he did dress for the game. York spoke about the sixth defenseman issue and reaffirmed his trust in Dyroff going forward.

“He’s still our best option out there for our sixth defenseman,” the coach said. “He didn’t get a chance out there against BU. But he’s there if he’s needed. He is willing to do whatever we ask.” n

Eagles overcome sloppy start win season opener Men’s Basketball, from A10 a glimpse of that.”

BC closed the first half on a 7-0 run that included a ridiculously contorted half-court buzzer-beater by Heckmann. In the second half, Heckmann received help from fellow freshmen Ryan Anderson and Dennis Clifford.

Anderson notched a double-double in his debut with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

He proved his dynamic scoring ability, showing off his three-point range, impressive ball handling, and ability to get to the rim. Clifford proved to be a dangerous scoring threat down low and a reliable rebounder. His turnaround shot over his left shoulder on the block looked great and he, along with Anderson, skied for rebounds over and over again.

The BC defense was constantly changing up its looks against UNH. “We’re not going to be a great execution team at this point,” Donahue said. “So

we’re going to have to try to win games in different ways.”

The Eagles flipped between half-court man-to-man, an extended 1-3-1 zone, and a full-court 1-2-2 zone that fell back into a man defense. Some late rotations and positioning in both zones led to open looks, which Donahue chalked up to poor communication that will get better as the season goes on. The zones, as well as the man, left BC out of rebounding position on the defensive end multiple times, giving up 16 offensive boards to UNH. Donahue knows that this team is a work in progress, but his guys gave him good reason to feel confident about their future.

“I’m going to be mentally prepared to realize this isn’t going to look pretty,” Donahue said. “It’s just not, and it’s unfair of me to assume that. It doesn’t mean we’re not going to go out and work three hours tomorrow and try to get better at every part of execution. We will get better.” n

Scarlet Knights are too much to handle for BC Donahue teaching a lesson we can all learn

alex trautwig / heights editor

As he leads the men’s basketball team this year, Donahue believes that learning from failure will put his team in position to succed in the future.

By Austin Tedesco For The Heights

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights were too much for the Boston College women’s basketball team last 74 Rutgers night, defeating the Boston College 58 Eagles 74-58 in Piscataway, N.J. BC was out of sync almost the whole game, and Rutgers took advantage.

Rutgers opened the game in a full-court, 12-2 diamond press that gave the Eagles trouble.

Boston College had 21 turnovers, leading to 27 points for the Scarlet Knights. After they extended their lead, they dropped out of the press, but BC still had problems scoring. Katie Zenevich, Tessah Holt, and Kristen Doherty all scored in double digits. But getting off 13 fewer shots than Rutgers and struggling to finish close to the basket kept the Eagles out of reach.

The Scarlet Knights had an easy time against BC’s 2-3 zone. They moved the ball around quickly and consistently found highpercentage shots. Rutgers also had 46 points in the paint and 20 points in transition. Although the Eagles played hard, Rutgers was given far too many easy looks Wednesday night.

Guards Kerri Shields, Shayra Brown, and Alyssa Fressle proved to be ineffective when facing the tough Rutgers defense. The trio went a combined 3-of-24 from the field as well as 2-of-10 from the three-point line.

Shields has struggled this season, going 2-12 against Fairleigh Dickinson last week. She hasn’t been able to find her stroke from three and has had trouble scoring from other spots on the floor.

After falling behind by 19 points early in the second half, the Eagles found a spark defensively and made a run. They held the Scarlet Knights to 2-of-11 shooting over a seven-minute span, cutting Rutgers’ lead to five. Once the Eagles came within striking distance sparked by good play from Holt and Doherty, Rutgers switched back to the press it had dropped out of after taking a commanding early lead. BC started missing shots and turning the ball over again, allowing the Scarlet Knights to extend their lead and finish off the Eagles.

BC’s front court didn’t look bad, providing efficient scoring and decent defense. For the Eagles to be more successful, they are going to need Shields and the rest of the guards to start taking higher quality shots and knocking them down. n

Lessons, from A10 ing into this season is simple: There are going to be failures. The Eagles are not going to win every game, and not every game is going to be pretty, win or lose.

Donahue realizes that.

Most importantly, he isn’t just preaching this message to the media. He has also transferred this approach to his players.

When I talked to four of the freshmen two weeks ago, Donahue’s influence on them was clear. They all said they knew it was going to be a turbulent season. But it’s how they take the negatives and turn them into positives that truly matters.

Donahue understands that, in order for his players to have this patience, he must have it first himself. It’s easy to get frustrated trying to coach such a young team, but if he lets the players’ mistakes get to him, that won’t make anything better. It starts from the top, and Donahue knows it.

“Most important is my patience, to be quite honest,” he said during the preseason. “If I lose that and don’t have that understanding, then they’ll sense it. And that’s when the confidence wanes, and the

team starts to doubt itself, and that’s the last thing you want with the young group.”

Spoken like a true leader.

The first four minutes of Monday night’s season opener was a textbook example of how to rebound from failures.

The amount of turnovers and air balls thrown up may have been startling to some. But they needed to happen. How is a team this young supposed to succeed without failing first? Didn’t Kanye West teach us all a lesson when he astutely explained that what doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger?

During our preseason interview with Donahue, something that he said really stood out to me, as far as my expectations for this year’s basketball squad, as well as a more general lesson to live by.

“For us to achieve great things, I honestly believe we’re going to have to fail,” Donahue told us. “Now the key part is how do you handle that? Are you patient?

Are you understanding? Did you learn from that and react in a positive way and got better because of that?”

These questions are ones that are important for all of us to ask ourselves.

In order to live out the big dreams we

all want to have, we might have to fail.

And that’s OK. Sure, it’s nice to be successful on your first try, but out there in the real world, it’s usually unrealistic. A big thing that holds a lot of people back is the fear of falling short — the idea that, for once, you might not be the best at everything you do. It’s a scary thought, especially for BC students. We are here today, after all, because of the successes we had in high school.

The idea of failure can ground us. It can keep us from taking chances, from putting ourselves on the line. But failure is necessary for success. Because when failure comes our way, the most successful ones learn and get better from it.

This basketball season is going to be an exciting one. Exciting in the sense that we don’t know what to expect. There will be flashes of a great team, and others of an unsuccessful team. Most importantly, this season will teach players and fans lessons bigger than the game of basketball itself.

And that is why we love sports.

Greg Joyce is the Associate Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.

SPORTS The Heights

Thursday, November 17, 2011

A10

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Heckmann drives BC win

A lesson for all of us to live by

After an ugly start, Eagles settle down

By Austin Tedesco For The Heights

“I figured coming into this game the first couple minutes we’re going to be a little ugly,” guard Boston College 67 John Cahill said New Hampshire 64 on Monday night after Boston College’s 67-64 win over New Hampshire in Conte Forum to open the season.

It wasn’t just the first couple minutes, it was the first 16. And it wasn’t just a little ugly, it was really ugly. The Eagles displayed their youth and inexperience against the Wildcats throughout most of the first half. Instead of running head coach Steve Donahue’s motion offense until a good shot opened up, BC consistently took contested jumpers off isolation plays early in the shot clock that didn’t fall. They opened the game 3-of-14 from the field.

Things looked bleak.

“They’re a great group of kids that work extremely hard,” Donahue said. “There’s a lot of skill there, but no real flow to the offense. There’s not a real sense of where

Greg Joyce The 2011-2012 men’s basketball team is living out an idea that we should all hear: sometimes, it’s OK to fail. Led by its fearless leader Steve Donahue, Boston College is prepared for a season of ups and downs. And that is an exciting thing to be around.

Everybody has been talking about this young team, stacked with nine freshmen and two graduate students. It’s hard to imagine the Eagles winning more than 15 games (although I’m still holding out a little bit of hope…. ), but maybe, just for this season, it’s not just about the wins and losses.

It’s clear that Donahue has prepared himself for struggles this year, but that realization is going to go a long way toward the long-term success of the team.

Many coaches would enter this season denying that it is a “rebuilding year” and tell you that they are expecting their team to succeed. But that would just be silly.

The mentality that Donahue is bring-

Patrick Heckmann got to the bucket at will on Monday night, finishing with 19 points in the win.

Patrick Heckmann

19 points, eight rebounds

Ryan Anderson

13 points, 10 rebounds

Dennis Clifford

10 points, seven rebounds

Hockey shifts lines vs. Irish

Football

Underdog BC undeterred

By Steven Principi Heights Staff

Coming off its worst performance of the season in a 5-0 drubbing against Boston University, the No. 3 Boston College men’s hockey team looks to rebound against the No. 4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish tomorrow in South Bend, Ind., at 7:30 p.m.

While the Eagles have been struggling of late with losses in two of their last three games, the Fighting Irish have not lost since Oct. 15, a span of eight games.

Head coach Jerry York spoke at length about the challenges presented by Notre Dame and how good the Fighting Irish are.

“They’re a good club,” York said. “They were in the Final Four last year, and they returned most of their players from last year’s team, so we’ve had a chance to watch them a little bit. They resemble some of the teams in Hockey East, but they are still a unique team.

It should be a game with two real rivals going at it.

BU has been our chief rival since we’ve been playing them for so long, but Notre Dame is definitely a rival to Boston College in all sports.”

One point of concern that York mentioned was the decrease in scoring numbers in the last several games.

After being held to two or fewer goals just once in the first nine games, the Eagles have failed to score more than two in any of the three previous games. They are also coming off their first shut out of the season, and there is obviously some room for concern. York is not content to watch his team struggle and has made some changes in his line combinations that he hopes

See Men’s Hockey, A9

See Men’s Basketball, A9

Freshman stat book

alex trautwig / heights editor

See Lessons, A9

to go next because we’re not sure who’s going to do that.”

Donahue called a timeout with a little over three minutes left in the half, and from that point on, the Eagles began to relax and execute.

“We had that little run before halftime which gave us much more confidence,” guard Patrick Heckmann said. “It gave us more energy. We knew we were going to have ups and downs, but we did a good job staying in there.”

Heckmann was one of the main reasons for BC’s success on Monday. He tallied 19 points, eight rebounds, and two steals. The team looked to him to handle the ball, set up the offense, be a playmaker, and guard UNH’s best player, Alvin Abreu.

“Pat’s a guy we have a lot of faith in,” Cahill said. “He’s really comfortable when he has the ball in his hands. We know he’s going to make good decisions. He’s a tough match-up for guys. He can pretty much do it all. He’s going to be a tough match-up for a while in this league, and tonight was

By David Groman For The Heights

graham beck / heights staff

Alison Foley believes that playing away from home in the second round of the NCAA tournament will not be an issue.

Assertive Eagles head to Palo Alto

By Raychel Kruper Heights Staff

Confidence is key for the Boston College women’s soccer team as it moves forward into the second round of the NCAA tournament against Cal on the Stanford Campus in Palo Alto tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. The winner advances to face top-seeded Cardinal or South Carolina on Sunday.

It seems the team’s swagger has peaked at an ideal point in the season. Coming off of a dominant performance in a 6-1 victory over the Marist Red

Foxes in the first round, BC’s bravado is running high.

“We really asserted ourselves in the first half against Marist,” head coach Alison Foley said. “Being up 3-0 in the first half of the NCAA game at halftime builds some confidence. We’re definitely feeling really good after that win.”

While last year’s path to the College Cup ran through Newton, the Eagles are already on the road, flying to the West Coast to take on the Golden Bears

Even during a season filled with disappointment, students and fans alike will be buzzing come Saturday as Boston College takes on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in South Bend, Ind. (4 p.m., NBC).

“The Holy War—there’s nothing bigger on the BC schedule” junior defensive end Max Holloway said. “Players and coaches, we all get amped up for this week especially.

As a player, it’s a privilege to go over and play in their place. You feel the tradition and you want nothing more than to beat those guys.”

The 21st match-up between the only two Catholic-affiliated teams in the FBS, dubbed “The Holy War,” looks to have a slightly different character, however, than in years past. As a rivalry historically filled with close-fought games between bowl-bound teams, the Eagles opened as a 24.5-point underdog against the Irish.

Prior to a 31-13 BC loss last year in Chestnut Hill, no more than 13 points separated the teams in the previous nine match-ups. Out of those nine games, six

See Football, A8

See Women’s Soccer, A8

Men’s soccer

High seed allows Eagles to rest Men’s soccer earns No. 4 overall NCAA tourney seed

By Chris Marino Asst. Sports Editor

alex trautwig / heights editor

Diego Medina-Mendez and the Eagles are excited by the No. 4 overall seed, which gives them a first-round bye.

i nside S ports this issue

Rutgers downs Eagles

The No. 8 Boston College men’s soccer team (146-0) will begin NCAA tournament play next Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. in Newton. On Monday, the Eagles were awarded the nation’s fourth overall seed.

They will play the winner of Colgate and Rutgers after receiving a first-round bye.

Head coach Ed Kelly said his team is eagerly anticipating this opportunity after not expecting such a high seed heading into the weekend. The announcement came after a strong performance by the Eagles in the ACC tournament. Despite losing to No. 3 North Carolina in the championship match, the team picked up two quality wins against perennial powerhouses No. 6 Maryland and Duke.

“I was a little surprised and very happy that we did get this seed, because there were some great teams that got left out, such as Maryland,” he said.

“I thought we might have ended up at eight, but the win against Maryland probably sealed it for us. Then, playing against North Carolina again helped.”

Kelly is excited for his team’s positioning in the playoffs, but he is cautious not to rest on his team’s

Women’s basketball gets blown out by the No. 15 Scarlet Knights.........................A9

Football Notebook

laurels.

“On paper, it’s very important,” he said of the fourth seed. “However, we had the No. 1 seed in the country in 2007, and we lost in the first game. We’re trying to avoid letting that happen again this year, but obviously that’s what people play for. Everyone tries to get home-field advantage all the way to the Final Four. It’s much better to be at home than to be on the road.”

The team began its ACC tournament run against Maryland, winning 2-1. The Terps had embarrassed the Eagles, 4-0, in BC’s first ACC game. The Eagles were able to get the upset when it mattered most, though. Maryland, due to this latest loss, received a No. 2 seed in the Eagles’ branch of the bracket. If both teams win out, they will meet in the Elite Eight.

“It’d be a fun match-up,” he said. “[Maryland head coach Sasho Cirovsky] and I talked yesterday and discussed our games from the past and what our games were like. And we both laughed at what a great match-up that would be, if we ended up playing against each other again. “ Regardless of the opponent, Kelly realizes the

The BC run defense will need to contain Notre Dame’s running back duo................................A8

See Men’s Soccer, A8

Editors’ Picks..............................A9 Game of the Week............................A9

scene and heard

oscar drama

with eddie murphy out, how will the show cope page b2 fashion

stress clothes

how to dress down but still remain stylish page b4

tASTE DEBATE

TEAM EDWARD?

DEBATING THE NEW AGE ARGUMENT OF TEAM EDWARD OR TEAM JACOB page B4

Thursday, noveMBER 17, 2011

darren ranck

arts & review editor

Mollie kollosky \ heights editor

The Heights

B2

The Scene: A family thing

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Scene and Heard

BY: Joe Allen

Darren Ranck After two years of penning columns for the Scene, I can only describe my feelings as pensive as I sit down to write this final piece. Whether I channeled Annie Barrett or Dave Karger from Entertainment Weekly or Matt Taibbi from Rolling Stone, I feel thankful that I got to explore one of my greatest passions – pop culture.

It’s certainly a stacked category, but I had the distinct pleasure of sharing my own taste and deciphering how audiences react to it or why audiences enjoy it. I was given the challenge and the honor to place entertainment in the context of our lives.

That sounds awfully dramatic, but I realize it plays an undeniable part in our discussions and how we relate to one another. I suppose I’ve always known that to some degree because my family fostered that sensibility within me. My family, composed of my four siblings and parents, educated me on what makes pop culture exciting.

First, and perhaps most importantly, my two older sisters introduced me to the joys of vintage film viewing.

As children of the ’80s, they showed me whether directly or indirectly some of the best movies a young person can enjoy. How many current students can identify the movie in which the phrase, “I’m right on top of that, Rose!” was uttered? I’ll guess not many. It came from Christina Applegate’s breakthrough Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. Am I proud to know that?

Not necessarily. I surely am better for it, though. They showed me more notable and iconic movies, though, like E.T., Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and so many more. They call each other Margot in direct reference to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (“Why is there water on the floor, Todd?” “I don’t know, Margot.”).

They taught me that being culturally literate was fun. They would never give themselves that much credit, but I give that to them.

My younger brothers-twins no lesstaught me lessons, too, believe it or not. I always aspired to inspire them, but in many ways, they inspire me.

Both of them are genius musicians.

My brother John, a self taught guitarist and music mixer, is no joke. When he plays music, he gets right to its core.

More often than not, he keeps his original tracks to himself, but I know whatever he writes is bound to be genius. He wrote a rap using the back track of “Do Wa Diddy” with lyrics inspired by the 50th anniversary of our family friends. That takes talent. My brother Brian is a taste connoisseur after my own heart. With a penchant for girl-group beats and introspective strumming, he imbibes this stuff more readily than I do. He starts a television show one day and buys every season until he completes it. He studies it and patterns his own joking personality after it. He is at the forefront of taste.

My younger brothers take creative risks, not only in what they produce, but in what they absorb. From them, I learned that being in touch with pop culture requires a sense of adventure.

Of course, there’s my mom. As I’ve written before, my mom inspired my ravenous taste for television. The other day, she and I were discussing this season of The X Factor. After hanging up, a friend commented, “You and your mom talk about these contestants like they’re actual people.” I think my mom and I would have the same response: “Well yeah.” Whether she knows it or not, my mom created the proverbial water cooler at our kitchen table. She taught me, among countless things, that entertainment can inspire conversation and facilitate relationships.

My father would admit that he’s not the most learned pop culturist. He has always been open to everything, though. He watched The Office. He listened to Kanye. He may not have enjoyed it, but he gave it a chance. I learned to be open-minded from him.

My family gave me the qualities to serve this publication well. In my writings, I may have attempted to emulate my favorite entertainment writers, but really I find I wrote what values my family instilled in me. Whether that makes us wonderful or crazy, it makes us who we are. I’m glad I could share this experience with them in this way.

Thanks for joining in on the experience, kids.

Darren Ranck is the Arts & Review editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

1. DRE’S “BEATS,” NO ‘DETOX’

2. EARLY OSCAR DRAMA

Anyone hoping to hear Dr. Dre’s long-awaited follow-up to 2001 in the near future will be disappointed again. Since 1999, the hip hop/rap legend has perpetually delayed the release of Detox to focus on producing, most notably for Eminem. But after many promises and two new singles, Dre had convinced fans of a 2011 release for Detox. However, Dr. Dre put the album on hold indefinitely to further establish his headphone line and to spend more time with his family. Well, at least we can still ask for a pair of those pulsating “Beats” this Christmas.

And the award for Best Pre-Oscars Implosion goes to Brett Ratner! The Academy (and everyone else) seriously underestimated the confidence of a man whose greatest life achievement is the Rush Hour series. Ratner has worked tirelessly to convince interviewers of his sexual encounters with Olivia Munn, his superhuman sperm count, and his homophobic-tinged hatred of rehearsing. Ratner subsequently apologized and quit his Oscars job, causing collaborator Eddie Murphy to back out of his commitment as host.

3. ‘COMMUNITY’ BENCHED Britta is no longer “the worst.” This past Monday, NBC announced its midseason lineup, and Community wasn’t on it.

Before every manic fan (me included) could start sharpening pitchforks, NBC affirmed that all 22 episodes of season three would be produced. The air dates for the remaining episodes, along with the show’s chances of a fourth-season renewal, remain a mystery. NBC could very likely pick the show up for another season, considering its low ratings across the board and its past renewals of other cult shows like Parks and Recreation and Chuck. Hopefully, this ongoing story doesn’t become Community’s darkest timeline.

4. ‘Django’ Cast GROWING 5. STERN’S GOT ‘TALENT?’ The spectacle of casting a new Tarantino film continues as Borat’s Sacha Baron Cohen is given a minor role in the upcoming Django Unchained. Each new addition to this 1800s American South-set homage to Spaghetti Westerns has surely elicited fist pumps from every Tarantino-phile. I admit that I broke into an unearned victory dance upon hearing the main cast list: Jamie Foxx as the vengeful slave Django, Leonardo DiCaprio as the antagonist Calvin Candie, Samuel L. Jackson as Candie’s cunning house slave, and Christoph Waltz as a German bounty hunter helping Django. The growing supporting cast only adds to the anticipation.

In other NBC news, the network is currently courting Sirius XM Radio giant Howard Stern to replace Piers Morgan as a judge on America’s Got Talent. NBC’s considerations to accommodate Stern reek of desperation, such as moving the talent show to New York and writing a $15 million annual paycheck for the “shock jock.” Of course, NBC’s abysmal fall ratings this year warrant some anxiety and a desire to shake things up.

That said, Howard Stern could be a risky choice for a talent show. Any clothed female contestants could be ruled out immediately.

TV Corner

@disneyd23 (disney’s d23 fanclub)

“Breaking News: New Animated short ‘Tangled ever after’ to premier in front of ‘beauty and the beast in 3-D.’” @ellenbarkin (ellen barkin, actress, ‘another happy day’)

photo courtesy of go.ogle

A talented trio composed of Zach Galifianakis, Jason Schwartzman, and Ted Danson brings their all to the quirky HBO comedy.

‘Bored to Death’ does anything but bore Dan Siering Emerging from the mind of New York creative writer Jonathan Ames, HBO’s hit comedy series Bored to Death has been attracting a wide audience for three seasons with its offbeat comedy and relentless intellectual quips. The show stars Jason Schwartzman, Zack Galifianakis, and Ted Danson, three well-established actors who find time in their busy schedules to join forces and create perhaps the sharpest comedic trio on television.

Beginning in 2009, the show centers around Jonathan Ames (Schwartzman), a struggling Brooklyn novelist who devises the magnificent idea of moonlighting as an unlicensed private detective. Taking out an ad on Craigslist, Ames looks to smash through his writer’s block by harvesting some inspiration from his nighttime crime fighting. Ames’ two best friends and occasional investigative partners are Ray Hueston (Galifianakis), a graphic comic book author with a complex and depressive psyche, and George Christopher (Danson), a womanizing newspaper editor who shifts between being Jonathan’s boss and his nightlife confidant.

Almost immediately after posting his ad, Ames receives a quirky array of tasks from a wide range of Brooklyn characters. The novice detective is almost always unsuccessful in professionally completing his job. At times, this is due to his excessive consumption of white wine and marijuana. Beyond that, he is either distracted by the sponta-

neous requests from his two companions or blown off track by his own persistent curiosity. Regardless, the plotline in each 26-minute episode is as unpredictable as it is entertaining.

Judging by a shared name, it seems the show’s main character is an emulation of the show’s creator. Jonathan Ames is one of the most complex characters ever set at the center of a comedy television series.

Aside from curing his creative stagnation, the original motivation for Ames to plunge into the rugged Brooklyn underworld is to lure back his ex-girlfriend, played by Juno’s Olivia Thirlby. However, it soon becomes obvious that Ames’ intentions range beyond romantic and creative means. While on the job, Ames incessantly attempts to pry into the psyche of his subjects, while simultaneously trying to flesh out his own personal problems. These overly intimate topics send the show into an off-beat yet fully amusing echelon of comedic dialogue.

Schwartzman emits his trademark innocence and childhood inquisitiveness as the show’s main character. Despite his distinct private investigator trench coat, Schwartzman depicts Ames as if he is a sheltered toddler first discovering the pitfalls of society. He is talented but clearly oblivious. The film’s two supporting characters are just as hysterically complicated as their companion. Galifianakis plays a role drastically different from his well-known character in The Hangover. Ray, creatively struggling almost as much as Ames, finds himself in a miserable relationship that is dominated by his prim girlfriend Leah. Galifianakis takes

a lot from his off-beat standup comedy that originally made him famous, rattling off original opinions of society and ludicrous comments about his place in the world.

Danson, the most senior member of the tandem, undoubtedly creates the most interesting character on the show in George Christopher. Christopher, who incessantly alludes to an extensive sexual, booze-ridden youth, is a self-proclaimed “class-liberal.” He is a man who is still holding on to the glory days of the ’60s and ’70s, hanging around comparative youngsters Jonathan and Ray to regenerate his dwindling vigor. Strongly grasping his status as a timeless bachelor, Christopher is a character that any college guy desires to be when he reaches his 60s.

Perhaps, he is a tad delusional, but his radiating confidence is extremely enviable.

Retaining over 90 percent of its viewers from season to season, Bored to Death has amassed a loyal following over the years.

The show’s popularity can also be attributed to its endless cameos from several Hollywood big-hitters, including recurring appearances by Kristen Wiig and Patton Oswalt. Ending its third season in just a few weeks, Bored to Death shows no signs of halting its relentless assault on the conventional television comedy. The show is in fact a living, breathing contradiction, as bored would be the last on the list of feelings invoked by this hip and youthful series.

Dan Siering is a columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

“Tim on Southwest Air just told me that the x-ray machine at security sees you naked ... OMG I need a wax” @adampally (Adam pally, actor, ‘happy endings’)

“i didn’t see ‘jack and jill’ tonight, but i stared at a loogie of mine floating in a puddle for like 15 seconds, so i’m all set.” @jennyslate25 (jenny slate, Comedian, ‘marcel the shell’)

“So if i ate like 20 brownies would i go to jail? or would my pants just go to jail? do they serve brownies in jail? #happybdayspacejam” Submit your favorite tweets of the week for consideration at artseditors11@gmail.com.

The Heights

Thursday, November 17, 2011

icons in

2011 Alexander McQueen Exhibit at the Met Summer in New York went from sizzling to glamorously cool as the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened an exhibit honoring the works of Alexander McQueen. The innovative designer, known for his beautifully complex designs, passed away nearly a year ago, and the exhibit served as a commemoration piece. From sketches to realized dresses, the exhibit drew amazing reviews and massive crowds. Anyone who entered the Met could expect a wait of at least three hours.

Bossypants On the cover of Tina Fey’s Bossypants, Fey models the wears of a tramp a la Charlie Chaplin, wryly shrugging her face into a smirk as she rests her head on a plump, hairy hand. This is a book to judge by its cover. Fey mixes humor with poignant reflection as she explores her early days in comedy, the development of her classic Sarah Palin impersonation, and the trials of new motherhood, among other chapters of her life. Anyone who has seen Fey perform knows she’s funny, but not until this book could we truly credit how much she has empowered her fellow female comedian. If the phrase “Blerg” wasn’t enough, I think everyone can appreciate Fey a little more now.

Parks & Recreation Although it started out rocky in its first season, Parks & Recreation hit its peak by season threeand became the most enjoyable comedy on television. Amy Poehler leads a cast of hilariously talented individuals as Leslie Knope, political crusader for the town of Pawnee, Ind. Many were quick to credit this show as a “female-led Office,” but this year it came into its own as one of the funniest and most appealing comedies on television. Who can compete with acerbic Ron Swanson or uber hip Tom Haverford? What sets Parks & Recreation apart, though, is its heart. Leslie has nothing but love for Pawnee, and you can’t help but root for her and her team. Already off to a good start this season, there’s only more to root for this year.

The Cast of Bridesmaids Finding six women comfortable with vomiting and defecating in a bridal store is no easy feat, but Bridesmaids did it. The cast of Bridesmaids created a new space for women in raunchy comedy. Led by Kristen Wiig, these women proved they could get down and dirty with the guys. While Melissa McCarthy stole the show with her weird and wonderful character, hopefully this cast paves the way for more inappropriate tricks among the girls.

Friday Night Lights Finale One of the best drama series in years came to its conclusion this year and offered one of the most wonderful series finales ever. With the right mix of certainty and vagueness, audiences said goodbye to the town of Dillon, Tex. and the Taylor family.

While there’s much to miss from the show, life feels a little less stable without Eric and Tammy Taylor. Their’s is a romance for the ages, and sums up what people love so much about the show – family, whether it’s in the community or right at home. For those not familiar with the show, I urge you to say “Howdy” to it on DVD.

B3

The date Nov. 11, 2011 earned the nickname Corduroy Day because of the linear pattern of 11-11-11. Does it necessarily make sense? No, but it’s whimsical, innovative, and some brusque fun. Those three words not only define the concept of Corduroy Day, but the year 2011 itself. This year presented audiences with some of the most inventive and addictive pop culture caveats yet. We rushed to iTunes to purchase a heart-wrenching piano ballad over the latest club beat. We watched an actor known as a heartthrob capture love and sorrow wordlessly with the upturned corner of his mouth. We stormed a cultural haven in New York to view some of the most architecturallyintricate dresses ever designed. The year 2011 was nothing if not unexpected. To honor the year, we consider the movies, music, television, and pop culture items that showed off how daring and wonderful 2011 truly was.

Spotify While music sharing software is as common as pigeons in a park, Spotify is an eye-catching peacock.

With a music library in the tens of thousands, Spotify offers virtually any album at your keyboard. The program is supported by a few ads after every five or so songs, offering a free listening experience. Music sharing has been common for awhile now, but the introduction of Spotify never made it feel easier.

Ryan Gosling It almost seems criminal for one guy to have good looks and incredible talent but, as proven in Drive, Ryan Gosling can get away with murder. Gosling released three commercially and critically popular films this past year, Crazy Stupid Love, Drive, and The Ides of March. What do a romantic ensemble comedy, a film noir pastiche, and a politically charged betrayal drama have in common? Gosling excels in each one. He’s a Hollywood rarity – he embodies the look of a matinee idol but delivers the performance of a seasoned thespian.

While Crazy Stupid Love allowed him to show off comedic chops, his best performance of the year came in Drive. For a film with very little dialogue, Gosling infuses every moment with soul. He gives not only his character voice, but the entire film. You can’t take your eyes off of him. That’s what makes his career exciting.

Adele It’s hard to say how this torch singer became the biggest selling artist of 2011. Her sound bears influences from R&B, soul, girl group, and other vintage stylings, sounds that result in hit records but not necessarily hit albums. Adele’s 21 shatters that expectation, however, selling more than 4.3 million albums so far. With 21, Adele strikes a universal chord with audiences as she pours her very soul into every track. Inspired by a recent break up, Adele laughs last as America embraces her revenge. Tracks like “Rolling In the Deep” and “Someone Like You” have succeeded because of their emotional accessibility. Adele brings honesty, whether through her anger, shame, desperation, or elatedness, and turns it into one of the most cohesive and brilliant albums in years. Adele may have been around for a few years, but 21 will be remembered as the album that jettisoned her to superstardom.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver Bon Iver’s eponymous follow-up album earns a mention as the sleeper album of 2011. Unlike most chart-topping albums, Bon Iver relinquishes popular mixing technology and ground-shaking bass for beautifully constructed and introspective pieces. With songs written by front man Justin Vernon, the album created a mood of its own. Every song evoked a sense of cool shock mixed with the warmth of a dream. Perhaps Vernon was influenced

by Wisconsin, the state in which the group recorded the album, but there’s s ome thing unnaturally organic and haunting about Bon Iver. As far as the music scene go es , it’s an album with a listenership that can only grow as audiences delve into the hypnotic sound.

The Throne Call them arrogant, call them brilliant, call them whatever, Jay-Z and Kanye West started a media blitz when they joined forces to form The Throne. Arguably considered the two best rap artists in the industry, Jay and ‘Ye got the buzz going early with “Otis,” a song that sampled Otis Redding’s “Trya Little Tenderness.” From there, they took the industry by storm and set the stage for a sure to be iconic tour. While both of these artists succeed on their own, there’s no denying the duo that is The Throne could extend their reign for years.

The Book of Mormon A Broadway musical written by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker about modernday Mormonism in Africa can only spell one thing. Would you guess success? The Book of Mormon became the hottest ticket on the Great White Way. In a world of jukebox musicals and movie adaptations, Book of Mormon’s original story makes it particularly innovative in this age. Raucously funny, the show also reflects upon the importance of religion and friendship. It’s nearly impossible to get a ticket for the next year, but don’t worry. There will be plenty of time to go.

The Heights

B4

Thursday, November 17, 2011

an independent frame of mind

Fashion Forward

Just embrace your inner laziness

Unleash your inner latenight rapper

Pre-holiday midterm season excuses apathetic fashion

Therese Tully Stressed out chic. That’s what I am calling my ensemble today. I just don’t care this week. Even just pulling on yoga pants and a sweatshirt feels like too much effort. I have lived in the library and am ready to call it quits. I want it to be Thanksgiving, and I want to be home in my own house, eating my own home-cooked food, showering without flip flops, and sleeping in my own bed. It’s officially time.

Though I know I often stress how important it is to craft each outfit — taking time and care to coordinate each element because this is where people gather their first opinions of us, and these judgments are often lasting — sometimes you just simply need a break. Maybe I am just making excuses, but it’s exhausting being as fabulous as we are. There are some days where you just need to commit to not caring, and not let yourself feel bad about it. Embrace it, in fact. This is not about trying to make your lounge clothes chic (though this can be done). This is about surrendering total control. And what better time to surrender this control than when you are at the end of your rope?

I know I sure am. With the semester’s midterms over, I was lulled into a sense of false security.

Thoughts like, “This is going to be an easy week,” floated through my misinformed mind. And now, as I sit down and examine the days that stand between me and lots of pumpkin pie at home, I am horrified. Actually, it was a bit hard to get out of bed this morning because it all seemed so daunting. So what did I do? I wore yoga pants to class. Yup, you heard me. I did it, and I didn’t even care.

I did not pair these yoga pants with a cute and feminine sweatshirt, or at least do my hair. No way.

There was not an accessory in sight. Well actually, I wore a baseball hat all day. Frightening, I know, but I don’t regret it one bit. It’s true, you never know who you will meet, or what kind of opportunities will present themselves, so it is always better to be prepared and look your best. But I have decided that if I am going to meet a potential employer this week, I am going to look like a slob, and they can just deal with that.

Hopefully, after a little bit of rest and relaxation back home in good old New Jersey I will return to Boston College with the motivation to go out in public not looking like a dude. I will not wear last night’s makeup and the sweatpants I slept in to McElroy on

Saturday morning to breakfast. I will not wear yoga pants and sneakers to class, because I am so not fooling anyone, I look exhausted, not like I just worked out. And I will not go to the library thinking I am invisible and that no one can see me under my baseball hat and pajamas, because even the study rooms on the fifth floor of O’Neill can’t conceal me.

Since there is no place to hide on a college campus, as we are surrounded by our friends, peers, and professors at all times, it is better to simply embrace the grunge look and pray no one judges you too harshly.

We are all granted a very limited number of slob days in a year, and I am simply cashing mine in now. So if you see me eating my breakfast in the Rat in an outfit that hardly screams, “I love fashion, in fact I write a column about it!” please just ignore me, I promise this phase will pass quickly. After Thanksgiving maybe I will have the strength to put together an outfit that is accessorized with more than under-eye bags and a gallon of coffee.

And for those standing in solidarity with me this last week here on campus before the holiday, I feel for you. I promise not to judge your athlete sweatsuit, your sneakers and white socks, your Uggs, and any oversized ensemble you may throw together.

Those of you who are still insisting on tucking said sweatpants into the aforementioned white socks, you are not forgiven, and never will be.

Brennan Carley

Therese Tully is a Heights Editor. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

Courtesy of google

In Case You Missed it by Brennan Carley

‘sATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’

‘MISFITS’

‘SOUTH PARK’

On this weekend’s episode, Emma Stone guest hosted and demonstrated her willingness to handle anything thrown her way. Although the writing was unusually weak (not to mention the fact that Stone’s monologue was essentially stolen from her by Andy Samberg), a couple of skits rose above the rest. In one, Stone played a gruff looking woman attending her coworker’s bridal shower and as a twist, she brings a bevy of horribly inappropriate gifts.

Late in the show, a skit featured practically the whole cast crying in tune with Adele’s “Someone Like You,” a bizarre but laughable moment. The piece-du-resistance, however, came when Stone gamely took part in a skit called “Let’s Make Technology Hump.”

This is one of the best-written and acted shows on television right now, but you’d never know it based on media coverage. It runs on the BBC (check out the first two seasons currently on Hulu) and tells the story of a motley bunch of young adults doing community service in a fictional borough of London, who happen to pick up superpowers along the way. At the end of the second season, each character was able to swap his or her respective power for a new one, and now must deal with the consequences of their actions. It is a show that achieves a perfect mix of comedy (due largely in part to the comedic timing of the chav-accented Lauren Socha) and heartbreak.

South Park tackled the story of the first Thanksgiving, skewing the History Channel and all of the dreck the network has chosen to show in recent years. The most funny moment came when Miles Standish himself came plummeting to earth from a planet known as Plimoth, one in which a race of people (the pilgrims) finds itself perpetually at war with the Indians of the planet Indi. When Standish is struck by a van driven

by Natalie Portman, it becomes easy to see that genius show-runners Trey Parker and Matt Stone are also pouncing on the plot of this summer’s blockbuster Thor, and the comparisons only continue (and spiral out of control) from there.

Taste debate: eDWARD AND BELLA?

Pro

tAYLOR cAVALLO

For the heights

Team Edward or Team Jacob? It is an age-old question that has been around since the dawn of time … or at least since the popularity of the Twilight saga caught fire, plaguing the minds of women everywhere. After contemplating long and hard, one should come to the realization that there is only one answer: Edward. The entire Twilight saga is based on the love between Bella and Edward, and Jacob’s presence is merely an after thought, a conflict to be introduced to their romance to emphasize just how strong it is. Bella has the chance to run off with Jacob numerous times, but she refuses, and in fact, slaps him after he kisses her. The Twilight saga is the story of Bella and Edwards’s love. Bella without Edward is like Juliet without Romeo, and instead of Romeo she’s with Paris … or a werewolf.

Edward Cullen has everything a girl could want in a man: a strong jaw line, topaz eyes, manners reminiscent of an older generation, and an Aston Martin. Edward has a fiery personality that shows its face any time Bella is in danger: The protective side of this beautiful “monster” only makes him more appealing. He is willing to bear his unbearable desperation and longing for her to preserve her from becoming a vampire for as long as she can; a sign of his incredible kindness and self-sacrificing nature. One cannot be too quick to overlook that messy, bronze hair either. Oh, and that body.

con

Kelsey Damassa

fOR THE heights

I don’t know about you, but Edward Cullen’s pallor does not strike me as particularly sensual. In fact, whenever he creepily drifts into view I feel compelled to feed him iron-rich foods in an effort to combat the, what appears to be, underlying blood disease. Oh wait, he doesn’t have any blood. He is essentially an ice cube sporting a pair of Ray Bans.

Cuddle up with that moody frozen-delight for a little too long and your physical and emotional wellbeing will, in all probability, start looking like that of the ill-fated protagonist in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire.”

Plus, Edward is roughly 100 years Bella’s senior—if you are going to rob the cradle to such a concerning degree, you could at least wear an expression other than disgust upon your gaunt, glittering face.

The guy is an utter drag. He drives a Volvo.

Then we have Jacob Black—tanned, toned, flirty, and fun. Not to mention, he has a pulse. He drives a motorcycle that he built with his own super cute, warm-blooded hands, and runs with a pack of attractive wolf-boys for all of your friends to date. While Edward retains a host of profound control issues, insisting Bella sit quietly in the passenger seat of his soccer mom car as he manipulates her life, Jacob engages in emotionally heated conversations with Bella, expressing his opinions while never verbally assaulting her with classic Edward clamors of, “You can’t!” or “I’ll stop you!”

Edward needs to chill out with the obsessive I-watch-you-whenyou-sleep type tendencies, and heat up with the body temperature.

I have a confession, but you have to promise not to laugh — when I get really tired late at night, especially when I’m in the middle of writing papers, I turn into a rapper.

I know this is going to be hard to digest, so I’ll give you a minute to mull it over.

I’ve spent much of this week writing a fine arts term paper that’s supposed to be 10 pages long (come on, that’s just too long for a core class), so my nights have been lasting a lot later than I usually prefer them. I’ve noticed that almost as soon as the clock strikes midnight, my music choices get drastically more hood.

There’s certainly a glut of great underground rap floating around this month. For instance, there’s the rapper Azealia Banks, a 20-year-old girl from New York City whose song “212” is undeniably hilarious and well- written. Hearkening from LaGuardia High School, a performing arts school that has produced some truly famous graduates, Banks has quickly gained the attention of countless listeners (Madonna herself was caught dancing to it this weekend at a NYC event), including the Village Voice, whose interview with her was an illuminating read.

In every way “212” is a radically different step for anyone in the rap world.

Banks raps over a thumping club beat, delivering impressive and subtly droll lyrics like “cause I remember you when you were / the young new face but you do like to / slumber don’t you?” She switches between a cutesy, singsong vocal to some very striking singing, then back to smug and guttural howls.

She brazenly flaunts her sexuality throughout the song and never shies away from swearing like a sailor. She has embraced Tumblr as a medium to release music and interact with fans, dropping the almost entirely acoustic “Grand Scam (Lyrical Exercise)” this weekend. Her astounding fast-talk flow consumes the beat.

Banks has drawn comparisons to Minaj because of her affinity towards wacky voices, but hers is much more than an act because he clearly knows and appreciates music. She frequently tweets about listening to artists like Lil’ B and A.S.A.P Rocky, all up-andcomers in the game who have been equally as lauded as she. In an interview, Banks professed to turn to rap as a means of getting famous. Her first mixtape, Broke with Expensive Taste, is set to drop in December and should prove whether or not she is worthy of the hype.

On a radically different end of the spectrum is Kreayshawn, a tiny white girl rapper from Oakland who rapidly ascended to hipster stardom with her gleefully trashy “Gucci Gucci.” Many wrote the pint-sized rapstress off as a one-hit wonder, but fans who knew her from her previous work (including the delightful and irreverent Kittys x Choppas) knew otherwise. After a months-long hiatus, Kreayshawn returned last week for a booming collaboration with Joel and Benji Madden, “Firetruck.” It is a sassy departure for the rapper, more dance than rap, and just enough of her signature flow to whet fans appetites. Now that she has been signed to a major label, Kreayshawn should prove an interesting force to watch in the next year, especially considering the storm she kicked up with just one song.

These two women are just part of an indie wave that has been taking rap by storm in recent months. Drake himself has embraced the indie on his new album, Take Care, inviting Jamie xx (of the British group The xx) to produce the title track (itself a remake of Gil-Scott Heron’s “I’ll Take Care of You”). Rihanna also called upon Jamie xx on her new album, Talk that Talk.

On “Drunk on Love,” Rihanna sings over the almost entirely instrumental track “Intro,” a somber song originally

by The xx.

Artists like the aforementioned are bursting past the boundaries that have long since restrained rappers. It’ll be exciting to watch their progress in the months ahead.

Brennan Carley is the Assoc. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

The Heights

Thursday, November 17, 2011

B5

Drake looks to enter elite hip-hop class with ‘Take Care’

Chart Toppers

By Austin Tedesco

1 We Found Love Rihanna 2 Sexy and I Know It LMFAO 3 If This Was a Movie Taylor Swift 4 Without You David Guetta 5 Ours Taylor Swift 6 Someone Like You Adele 7 Good Feeling Flo Rida 8 It Will Rain Bruno Mars 9 Moves Like Jagger Maroon 5 10 Pumped Up Kicks Foster the People

For the Heights

Shaquille O’Neal said a young Kobe Bryant once told him, “I’m going to be the number 1 scorer for the Lakers, I’m going to win five or six championships, and I’m going to be the best player in the game.”

I picture Drake repeating the same sentiment to Lil Wayne and Birdman when he handed over the first copy of Take Care.

Something along the lines of, “I’m going to outsell everyone, I’m going to rack up Album of the Year awards, and I’m going to be the best artist in the game.”

Drizzy and pre-championship Kobe are incredibly similar.

They’re both insanely arrogant, extremely hard working, vocally disliked, and polarizing. They’re also some of the best at what they do, even at such a young age. In his last season before winning a title, Kobe averaged 20 points a game and cemented his place as a premier guard in the NBA. The next year he won his first title and sparked a Laker dynasty. Take Care marks Drake’s last “prechampionship” album. He proves that he’s on the cusp of the elite, only one step away from joining those ranks.

In no way is Drake a lyrical genius, but he doesn’t need to be.

Unlike Childish Gambino who

drops a dope line and accentuates the last word so you pay attention to it, Drake flows through verses focusing more on the whole rather than any one part. After you listen to Weezy’s “A Milli,” the only thing your mind is left wondering is what in the world a goon really is to a goblin. When Drake’s “Shot For Me” is over, he’s made you feel something.

No rhyme stays in your head but he perfectly captures that postbreakup mindset of, “Hey, I’m too good for you, I know it, but I still miss you sometimes.”

Another reason Drake is so effective is the production surrounding his delivery. Most of the beats on Take Care were made by 40, Drake’s long-time friend and producer. The familiarity 40 has with Drake allows his voice to glide effortlessly and suck the listener in, causing inevitable head bobbing. It’s why tracks like “Headlines” and “Under Ground Kings” with over the top arrogance and bravado still work. 40 makes it easy to just join Drake for the ride because it’s way too much fun.

The only real problem with Take Care is that the two best verses don’t come from Drake.

Kendrick Lamar and Andre 3000 steal this album from Drizzy.

On “Buried Alive” Kendrick spits a poignantly complex verse about dealing with fame. While

Take Care Drake produced by Cash Money released Nov. 15, 2011 Our rating B+ courtesy of google.com

On his sophomore album, the Toronto-based rapper mulls over the aftereffects of his success with some good songs.

Drake pushes Aubrey Graham to the side on Take Care, Kendrick bears his soul beautifully.

He looks at fame as something Drake has all figured out and he is so tempted to chase it. Since dropping Section.80, Kendrick has been considered the best up-and-comer in the game and the perfect foil to Drake’s music.

While some consider Drake a sellout, Kendrick is pure hiphop. “Buried Alive” does a great job portraying the struggle of holding onto that hip-hop purity after seeing the life Drake is liv-

ing. It shows how the lyrics on Take Care are more of a perfectly calculated act by Aubrey than the honesty it sounds like.

After a mediocre four minutes from Drake and Weezy, Andre 3000 closes out “The Real Her” with a serious contender for verse of the year. In his best Stankonia-era Outkast form, Andre murders Drake on his own track. Andre’s verse has better delivery, flow, and lyricism than anything from Drake on Take Care. In the middle of the verse, Andre raps, “Now the both of us

are colorblind cause the other side looks greener, which leaves your turf in the Boise State can’t see her play or the team.” It’s a stunning rhyme and his verse is filled with them.

After listening to Take Care my final thoughts were, “Damn, I miss Outkast so much” and “When is Kendrick’s next release?” If Drake wants to take the next step and begin his championship dynasty as a rapper, he’s going to need to start outperforming his competition instead of just improving his own game. n

Singles

Top Albums

1 Blue Slide Park Mac Miller 2 Christmas Michael Buble 3 Now 40 Various Artists 4 Breaking Dawn Soundtrack Various Artists 5 21 Adele

Source: Billboard.com

With ‘Camp,’ Childish Gambino solidifies his place in the rap game

By Brennan Carley

Assoc. Arts & Review Editor All may be fair in love and war, but Childish Gambino’s new album takes no prisoners in its fantastically -merciless lyrical acuity, itself a sharply driven wit that comes with a seriously hard edge.

Whereas other artists stuff their work with pop culture references that seem both out of place and unwelcome, Donald Glover credibly delivers lines like “made the beat and murdered it / Casey Anthony.” As a former writer for 30 Rock, Glover delivers slingshots stuffed with punch lines that don’t just resonate; they

clang around for a while until the listener finally gets the message.

Critics will draw comparisons between Camp and Drake’s new album, Take Care, but apart from some similarly indie-styling and sampling, the two couldn’t be any more different. Whereas Drake has become a brooding shadow of his former self,

Camp childish Gambino produced by Glass Note released Nov. 15, 2011 Our rating A

courtesy of google.com

‘Camp’ is one of the most promising debut rap albums in a long time, with witty but profound rhymes and beats.

Glover knows how to temper his emotions, offering up an array of feelings that make him seem more genuinely human. Whereas Drake is achingly defensive and overly turbulent, Glover is brutally honest but inherently likeable.

Glover cribs abundantly from other artists, but unlike some, incorporates rather than mimics his predecessors. He raps about being from and leaving the slums of the Bronx as a young child but never whines about his early upbringing.

Glover also dwells on crushes and romantic mistakes he’s made, intensely personal moments that never turn cliched. Here too, Glover integrates a good deal of fairly non-typical rap backing music, including singsong backing vocals.

When Camp is at its best, it recalls old school ‘80s hip-hop like Grandmaster Flash and Biz Markie.

One could plausibly travel back to Washington Square Park in 1986 and hear songs like “Fire Fly” blasting from boomboxes all around, lyrics like, “I used to get more laughs when I got laughed at / ‘Oh you’ve got a mixtape?

That’s fantastic’,” buzzing foggily from the speakers.

It’s interesting to ponder who is

influencing who when it comes to Glover’s connection to the indie world that, with shows like 2 Broke Girls and artists like Lana Del Rey, our culture has thrust in front of the masses as if trotting out a show-pony who can dance. While Glover may play up his hipster attitude with his thick, blackrimmed glasses and cardigans from Band of Outsiders, his persona is believable and engrained in each of his songs. When he name checks Terry Gross (host of NPR’s Fresh Air) and Carmen Sandiego, Glover demonstrates a willingness to acknowledge his-not-so inner geek while aligning himself with a huge mass of fans.

Similarly, Glover shows a keen intuition for music as a whole in his incorporation of some truly daring samples and noises that sound like they were tailor-made for the rapper’s usage. “Heartbeat,” Camp’s most likely song to reach pop radio with its heavily synthesized beats, flips electronic music on its head. While David Guetta no longer cares about correlating his beats with his guest artists, Glover embraces his music and delivers abundantly enjoyable cohesion.

At times, whether intentional or not, Glover delves into some realworld race relations material that

explores a very different aspect of identity. “Only black kid at a Sufjan concert,” he raps on “Fire Fly,” later mentioning that “these black kids want something new I swear it / something they wanna say but couldn’t ‘cause they embarrassed.” On a dark and strangely melancholic number called “Hold You Down,” Glover spits lines like “you’re not racist ’cause The Wire’s in your Netflix queue.” They arrive as mysteriously comic lessons.

Other songs like “Backpacker” and “All the Shine” pack an emotional punch, but where Glover really shows his talent is during the last several minutes of the final track, “That Power.” To end Camp with a spoken word outro is a daring move, but one that Glover aces. Here, he details the story of telling a girl he liked her on the bus back from summer camp, and how the ensuing story taught him to put all of himself in the public eye for everyone to see. “I learnt cut out the middleman / make it all for everybody / always. / Everybody can’t turn around and tell everybody / everybody already knows / I told them,” he says calmly, as if there was never any other way of thinking about it. With Camp’s release, everybody who doesn’t already will certainly know. n

Lacking live instrumentals, modern concerts have a new, fake feel Matt Mazzari Hugh Laurie once performed a BBC comedy sketch with Steven Fry in which he declared, “I’ve written a savage, savage, angry song about jars that become separated from their lids.”

What followed was possibly one of the most deeply impassioned song ever written about jars and their lids ever heard. Rollicking on his upright piano and wailing fervently, the future Doctor House delivered a message so unrelentingly single-minded that it becomes absolutely necessary for the sake of stopping him that he be thrown into prison.

Laurie’s intention in singing the song about jars is probably more satirical than metaphorical. Nevertheless, the seemingly innocuous melody is actually quite applicable to today’s music medium. A jar without a lid is useless because it isn’t able to preserve anything, which is a jar’s primary function. Just so, a musician who doesn’t play music has no purpose. Without legitimate knowledge of an instrument, people are only able to create sound, and sound and music are not equivalent. Therefore, a musician who doesn’t have the capacity to invest his self in the writing, reading, and playing of his

music is utterly useless.

So, where is the lid?

A video was recently released of Katy Perry attempting to play the flute onstage. When Perry took her mouth away from the flute, it suspiciously continued. As it turns out, Katy Perry does not know how to play, or even pretend-play, a wind instrument. And if you found that surprising, I have more terrible news: The moon is, in fact, not made of edible cheese.

I hate to pile it on, but it gets worse.

The rising trends of computer-generated beats and synth loops have virtually eliminated the need for a musical presence at a live concert.

Just last year when rapper Kid Cudi’s synthesizers went down at his Boston College performance, the show ground to a screeching halt. Some technical difficulties are understandable, but if you show up to your own live concert and have to explain that your “music isn’t working,” you aren’t having a bad concert. You’re just a bad musician.

Believe it or not, there was a time before ours in which musicians not only played their instruments, but were determined to excel at them. The pressure to compete and experiment for bands in the ’60s and ’70s marked a high point in history. Even the same raw-talented vocalists who helped define a new

musical age were fully expected to play: for example, lead singer Roger Daltrey of The Who built his first guitar and learned to play it himself. The musical initiative these gurus of the studio and stage demonstrated characterizes an incredible and unchallenged immersion into the medium.

But wait! Lady Gaga once performed a concert where her synthesizers gave out, and she heroically leapt to her grand piano and played the rest of the show organically. Surely if a modern pop icon such as Lady Gaga is so fantastically classically trained, then the drop-off was not so steep after all, right?

Wrong. Lady Gaga is one of the highest selling musicians in America; her last album sold 1.108 million copies in its first week. Do you honestly find it impressive that a musician making hundreds of millions of dollars from sales of her music is capable of playing music? Are we really at a point where hanging up the sequined dress for 10 minutes to sit and play an instrument constitutes musical genius? When you’re a classically-trained pianist and the greatest depth you’re willing to plunge to in your songwriting is club music with shock value, then you are squandering your potential. I don’t care how many sexual inhibitions this

woman is renouncing, the fact remains that if she only wanted to be groundbreaking for her wardrobe then she was beat out by Madonna by 25 years. She may be a jar with a lid, and that’s something, but what’s inside the jar is simply not worth the effort of opening it.

Modern music is missing a critical component: prioritization. People used to go to live shows to see some of the hardest working people in the art do what they did best. That was what gave

it purpose. Nowadays, we get a lady in a skimpy outfit pretending to play flute.

If the musicians of today aren’t even willing to play real instruments for us, why do we bother listening? Why do we keep buying it? Why keep the jar if it doesn’t have the lid?

Matt Mazzari is a columnist for The Heights.

He welcomes comments at arts@bcheights. com.

Courtesy of google.com

Modern artists lack the skill set and depth that defined valuable previous generations.

Radio singles by Krysia Wazny Chiddy Bang “Ray Charles”

Death Cab for Cutie “Underneath the Sycamore – Dillon Francis Remix”

The Rolling Stones “No Spare Parts” This new single, the first from Chiddy Bang’s upcoming album, Breakfast, combines the dynamism that is Ray Charles with the group’s own inherent sense of variety. Blending some impressive rapping into a smooth but popping chorus, Chiddy Bang sacrifices nothing to create an instant classic. Soon, you’ll be dying to put your “black shades on” and strut your stuff to this tune.

This previously unreleased track was unveiled for the public this week as a precursor to the Rolling Stones’ release of a Some Girls box set. The song twangs in all the right ways, and probable touchups prove that Jagger may still have some moves of his own. The single will give the diehard Stone fans something to nibble on while they wait for the box set.

The soothingly repetitive sound that makes Death Cab so attractive is completely transfigured in this single remix. The lyrics are there, but otherwise it’s dub step all the way.

This track can hardly claim to be a remix of a song it borrows from minimally and completely distorts. Bringing Death Cab into a club scene seems like an odd choice, and nothing confirms that suspicion more strongly than this song.

marketplace The Heights

Thursday, November 17, 2011

B6

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Politics Oscar Ramiro OrtegaHernandez was arrested on Wednesday in Pennsylvania following his alleged shooting at the White House. Two bullets were found on the south side of the White House.

Congress has one week to reach a deal for the congressional deficit reduction super committee before its statutory deadline. The panel is bipartisan with six representatives from each party.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has jumped to the top of many GOP polls, but faces allegations about his supposed relationship with mortgage behemoth Freddie Mac.

Economics The Canadian oil corporation Enbridge Inc. agreed to pay $1.15 billion for ConocoPhilips’ 50 percent stake in the Seaway Crude Pipeline System that moves oil from the Gulf Coast to Oklahoma.

Morgan Stanley paid the Securities and Exchange Commission $3.3 million to settle charges concerning its investment-management unit charging a fund and investors for advisory sources.

Netflix emailed its users yesterday about a class action lawsuit against the company. Netflix struck an agreement with WalMart in 2005 where WalMart dropped its mail-order DVD service.

Science & technology Facebook reported Wednesday that it has halted most of the spam attacks.

Users over the past week have been flooded with graphic images of porn and violence.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim sold 3.5 million copies in its first two days in stores. The single player role playing adventure game was released on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Barnes and Noble’s Nook tablet was released on Wednesday. The tablet was released one day early and is on sale for $249. It hopes to compete with Amazon’s Kindle.

in numbers

20 people killed in a bus crash in China’s Gansu province. The bus reportedly got in a head on collision with a truck.

3 French humanitarian workers freed this week. The three were kidnapped in Yemen.

Who really deserves each of our votes?

2010 bill on healthcare challenged ‘Obamacare’ sent to Supreme Court

By Isaac Park Heights Staff

On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the 2010 health care overhaul law in what could be a landmark case that defines not only President Barack Obama’s term, but also the constitutional limits of federal power in the 21st century.

Arguments are likely to be heard in March with a decision in late June, when the 2012 presidential campaign will be in full swing.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law in March 2010 amid fierce partisan debate. The federal statute seeks to extend insurance to more than 30 million people, primarily by expanding Medicaid and providing federal subsidies to help lower and middle-income Americans buy private coverage.

The most disputed piece of the law is the so-called “individual mandate,” which requires citizens to purchase health insurance or face a penalty through taxes. The United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, was the only one to strike down the mandate, saying Congress overstepped its authority and could not be justified by the Constitutional power to “regulate commerce” or “to lay and collect taxes.”

While the appeals court only focused on the individual mandate, the justices agreed to consider whether the rest of the act should go down with it as well. A ruling on whether the Constitution gives Congress the power to require all Americans to purchase health care will be a defining decision for the John G. Roberts, Jr. court.

Underlining the importance of the case, the court scheduled five and a half hours for arguments instead of the usual one hour.

A business group and 26 states that object

David Cote

to the legislation filed the case in question.

Another challenger to the law, as well as the Obama administration, will also make appeals at the Supreme Court.

The White House affirmed its confidence in the law’s constitutionality shortly after the Court announced it would hear the case.

“We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and are confident the Supreme Court will agree,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director.

Florida’s attorney general Pam Bondi, who represented the state as lead plaintiff, voiced her approval of the Court’s actions.

“Throughout this case,” Bondi said, “we have urged swift judicial resolution because of the unprecedented threat that the

See Politics, B8

Politically Speaking

Debt committee must produce

Michael Allen Entrusted with making recommendations on how to cut $1.2 trillion by Nov. 23, the critical deliberations of the so-called “super committee” have been shrouded in secrecy. What is more, the leaked reports that have come from members of the committee have noted how the members are not making any significant progress toward a compromise. When Congress crafted this deal to create the “super committee,” they forgot that a major part of the reason for their abysmal public approval is because of the lack of transparency.

From the outset of the current Congress, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) promised, “The days of quickly ramming massive bills

through Congress - such as the stimulus that didn’t work - are over. Under the new rules the house will post all bills online at least three calendar days before a vote, giving lawmakers the public and the media a chance to read each proposal and understand its impact.”

While for the most part the house Republicans have adhered to this promise, they are failing during perhaps the most important piece of legislation during the 112th session of Congress.

There is even a bill - the Deficit Committee Transparency Act - that would require transparency from the committee, but members of congress have shown little interest in mandating this kind of transparency.

This lack of transparency has forced the media and the American people to rely on leaked reports from the super committee members. Last Wednesday, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) reportedly made a statement that the republicans on the committee were willing to make

See Debt Committee, B8

Thanassis Stavrakis / ap photo

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, above, delivered a speech to the Greek parliament on Nov. 16.

Greece installs new PM amid protests and economic crisis

By Arjun Gajulapalli

of cocaine seized in a coastal town near Queensland, Australia.

For The Heights

in quotes

“

Americans have spent nearly $60 billion funding TSA and they are no safer today than before 9/11.

”

– Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), describing the TSA on its 10th anniversary.

We have a lot of security, and the security worked.

”

– Secret Service Offical, describing an apparent shooting outside the White House on Friday.

See Healthcare, B9

Steven senre / ap photo

Obama signed Obamacare into law last year. The bill has recently been challenged in court.

300 pounds

“

individual mandate poses to the liberty of Americans simply because they live in this country.”

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) agreed. “This misguided law represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional expansion of the federal government into the daily lives of every American,” he said.

Still, proponents of the law say that the Democratic-controlled Congress acted within its bounds as drawn out by the Constitution, which grants the federal government to regulate interstate commerce and to pass laws “necessary and proper” to create a functioning government.

As we move toward graduation and the job market, the economy is and will continue to be of primary importance in each of our futures. It is imperative for each of us to research and become well informed on the problems our nation is facing, and will continue to face over the course of our lifetime. From there, we can each make our own decision on who to vote for, what jobs to choose, and how we can each strengthen our country individually.

Without a doubt, the debt crisis will go down in history books as the defining problem for the United States in the first two decades of the 21st century.

The primary cause for the economic collapse that we are dealing with now was not the growth of multinational corporations and major banks, as many argue. Rather, it was foolish economic bailouts, poor fiscal management, and over spending perpetrated by almost every iteration of the U.S. government in the last 50 years. Can you imagine that?

If a company posted 50 plus years of massive budget deficits, they would undoubtedly be in trouble. Why shouldn’t the government work the same way?

Alexander Hamilton and many of the Founding Fathers wrote in large support of having a national debt. Hamilton’s argument was that by having a stable national debt, the U.S. could make continual payments, guaranteeing its credit, strengthening international confidence

carolyn kaster / ap photo

Bipartisan members of the debt supercommittee, above, held a press conference earlier this month.

i nside Marke tp l a c e

this issue

Politico of the week

On Nov. 10, Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou formally resigned.

The change follows Papandreou’s attempt at a referendum vote on the current austerity conditions. The suggestion was quickly denounced by the opposition and the European Union (EU).

Since 2009, Greece has been mired in an ugly debt crisis which has led to multibillion euro loans by the EU and protests against austerity cuts. The man selected to succeed Papandreou is Lucas Papademos, an economist who once served as the vice president of the European Central Bank. Papademos has had no experience in Greek politics, but is widely seen as a worthy successor to Papandreou and could be the savior in Greece’s debt crisis.

In one poll held in Greece, 72.9 percent believed that Papademos was the correct choice to replace Papandreou. However,

This week Politico of the Week will explore the life and career of President Barack Obama........................................................ B9

Papademos will only remain in power for 100 days as early elections will be held on Feb. 19 under a new deal between rival parties in Greece’s parliament. The removal of Papandreou was also one of the provisions in this deal.

The new power-sharing deal includes the formation of a coalition between the three major parties in the Greek parliament, which include Papandreou’s Socialist Pasok Party, the conservative New Democracy Party, and the right-wing Laos Party. The new coalition forms a huge majority, comprising 253 seats out of 300.

Another provision includes changes in the Greek cabinet in which some members from the New Democracy and Laos would replace members of Papandreou’s old cabinet. Surprisingly, Papademos did not replace the finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, despite his handling of the debt crisis.

See Greece, B9

Forecast on Washington............................B8 Finance at a Glance.........................B9

The Heights

Thursday, November 17, 2011

B7

Technologically Speaking

Google launches initiative to help veterans transition to civilian life

Paul Witko As the calendar turned to Veterans’ Day, Google reminded everyone that the purpose of Veterans’ Day goes well beyond a day off and a long weekend. This past Friday, Google launched a new service in hopes of helping our country’s service men and women.

In a post through the company’s social network Google+, Chief Legal Officer David Drummond announced the release of Google for Veterans and Families along with a Google Veterans YouTube channel. This new service is spearheaded by Mike Reeves, a former Army Ranger who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and is now a Google employee.

Google for Veterans will provide those who have served in the military with tools for

helping transition back to civilian life and for keeping in contact with others in service and family members back home.

The YouTube channel will serve as a medium for communication between veterans and their families. The channel even has a video from First Lady Michelle Obama, who introduces the service and encourages other companies to follow suit. In the Google for Veterans website itself, Google will utilize many of its existing tools including Google Docs, Maps, Calendar, and Gmail. With these tools at their disposal, veterans can easily accomplish tasks like creating resumes or tracking investments. On Veterans’ Day, Google stock went up around 2 percent and that rise continued as the week began.

In a collegiate culture that places a large focus on getting a job and hitting the ground running, we often lose sight of how difficult it is for others, especially veterans, to find their way as they enter back into society. Here at Boston College, we are almost spoon-fed tools and advice about getting jobs,

internships, and settling into the professional world. Yes, the BC experience goes far beyond preparation for the business world, but we are given a lot of help in that department. What is often lost is how much of a luxury these resources really are. I never realized how difficult it can be for a veteran to acclimate oneself back into society. No one is there to hold their hand. There is no Career Center or EagleLink.

Quite frankly, these are the people who probably deserve those things the most. It says a great deal about Google as a company to offer this kind of service at no charge to the men and women who have served our country. According to an interview with ABC News, veteran Mike Reeves said, “When I came back I felt I didn’t have any support group. I didn’t know what to do. I had nothing. There were plenty of times I could have given up.” Reeves went on to discuss in the interview that he had great knowledge of every weapons system available but he could not put information like that on a

resume. It is tough for veterans who have never been to college to write a relevant resume that outlines skills that are pertinent to the professional world.

It is refreshing to see a company like Google take a step back from a narrow-minded profit centered approach. A move like this will go a long way towards the future growth of the company. Sure, the results will not be tangible in the short run, as a new non-profit service will require extra funds.

But such an ethical decision will pay huge dividends in the long run. Personally, I would be much more likely to invest in a company that does something for the greater good rather than one that does not. The integrity and character of Google as a company is very evident in Google for Veterans.

The question now is if we will see other companies take similar initiatives. A pioneer like Google will set a great example for other companies to follow. Companies like Twitter and Facebook certainly have the power to keep veterans connected with their families and

others could help them with settling into the professional world. I am glad that we finally see a company such as Google in the news for doing the right thing, not some sort of fraud or scandal. I do not come from a military family by any means,

but I am hopeful and confident that Google for Veterans will help our country’s finest.

Paul Witko is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at marketplace@ bcheights.com.

photo courtesy of google

Google recently launched Google for Veterans to help those returning from duty.

Political Insights

Catholic bishops must focus on issues of economics and social justice

Zachary Halpern The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met on Monday in Baltimore and their conversation warrants significant attention, especially from students at a Jesuit Catholic University. The conference discussed a range of issues concerning the church and politics, but according to The New York Times there was a particular emphasis on what the Bishops deemed “religious liberty.” The Bishops are frustrated that the Justice Department is refusing to fight for the Defense of Marriage Act, an act that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. But they are arguably more irritated with the Obama administration because they were recently denied a grant to them for providing anti-human trafficking services because they refused to refer victims to facilities that provide contraceptives or abortions. But there was one issue, perhaps the most salient in the United States today that the Bishops were noticeably quiet on—the economy.

In the past, the Church has been a strong voice for the un-

derprivileged and an advocate for economic justice. David Gibson of The Washington Post reminded readers this week that, “Twenty-five years ago, as the U.S. faced an economic crisis and a fierce debate over cutting taxes for the wealthy and limiting benefits for the poor, Catholic bishops issued a landmark statement on social justice that became the touchstone for religious opposition to “trickle down” economics.”

In that year, 1986, the bishops issued a letter titled “Economic Justice for All.” But where are they this year? Where was that bold statement this time around? Why didn’t they voice their support for eliminating tax loopholes that only serve to benefit transnational corporations and wealthy executives?

To be fair, this year the Bishops have been lobbying the congressional super committee. They told The Washington Post that they have incessantly lobbied congress and pressured them not to let the budget cuts fall “on the backs of the poor.”

But a more public statement is necessary. By creating a public campaign on economic issues as they have already done on moral issues, more pressure would be placed on the super committee to do their job and do it fairly. Today, people are disgusted with the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor. Even persistent well-educated Americans can’t

find work and the government seems more dysfunctional than ever. Congress seems more interested in participating in partisan bickering than they do in making the necessary long-term financial decisions required to put get us back on track. With the super committee on the brink of failure, this is precisely the time when American Bishops should provide the leadership necessary to encourage lawmakers to put country before party and their constituents before their own re-election. This is not a time for the Bishops to be waging a public culture war. It is not the recognition of marriage between two men or two women or the always contentious issue of abortion that is the primary concern for most Americans right now, rather it’s how they can adjust their work skills to best fit our new rapidly changing global economy. Americans are simply worried about being competitive enough to provide for their family or pay off their college loans.

John Gehring, the Catholic Outreach Coordinator at Faith in Public Life, correctly points out that the Bishops desperately need to reorient their focus.

He told The New York Times, “The bishops speak in hushed tones when it comes to poverty and economic justice issues, and use a big megaphone when it comes to abortion and religious liberty issues.” Accord-

ing to the U.S. Census Bureau the poverty rate has steadily increased since 2007 from 12.5 percent to an astonishing 15.1 percent in 2010. These issues of economic justice are real and in many cases the worst they have been in decades.

Such economic and inequity issues need to be raised and the Catholic Bishops should be focusing their energy on creating awareness and facilitating the discussion for solutions to these difficult problems. It’s

important to recognize the political influence of the Church.

They have an extraordinary level of access.

Just this week Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, the president of the Bishop’s Conference, met with President Barack Obama to discuss political issues concerning the Catholic Church. Such access should not be wasted on combating GLBTQ rights or trying to limit a women’s right to choose, it should be focused

on pressuring Republicans and Democrats to work together to address social safety nets and a more fair tax structure.

With this weekend’s Holy War at Notre Dame approaching, there is no need for the Bishops to be waging another Holy War on moral issues. Their focus, at least for now, needs to be first and foremost on the economy.

Zachary Halpern is a Heights editor. He welcomes comments at marketplace@bcheights.com.

patrick semansky / ap photo

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, above.

Though BoA cancels card fees, other costs increase Banks look to make up lost profit through a variety of different charges

By Brandon Stone Heights Staff

photo courtesy of google

Protesters have encouraged the public to switch from BoA to small credit unions.

On Nov. 1, Bank of America announced it would cancel a proposed $5 monthly fee for all its debit card customers. The proposed fee had been enormously unpopular, inciting public protests and outcries from angry Bank of America customers.

When the fee was announced to have been cancelled, many hailed it as a victory for the people.

What many have failed to notice is that the proposed debit card fee was just one example among many of a recent trend of banks quietly raising costs for their customers.

Earlier this year, Bank of America raised the cost of its basic MyAccess online checking account by $3 a month. That particular increase in fees, however, was not greeted with the same public opposition as was the debit card fee.

Bank of America is not alone, though, in instituting new fees.

Starting in December, TD Bank will begin charging $15 to wire cash from an international account into a domestic one. This

past February, Chase raised the cost of its standard checking account to $12 a month, a charge that was imposed on many customers who had previously paid no such fee. Not to be outdone, Citigroup raised the cost of its own basic checking account by $2, up to $10 a month.

None of these recently imposed fees have drawn the same level of resistance as did Bank of America’s proposed debit card fee. Many seem to take this is as an indication that the series of protests surrounding the $5 per month debit card fee represented the exception, not the rule.

The flurry of recently-imposed fees and hiked charges from banks has come in large part because the banks are trying to make up lost profits. The banks collectively will lose an estimated $12 billion in income as a result of new legislation that mandated the reduction of pricey overdraft charges and debit card swipe fees. Additionally, the banks are having difficulty finding choice places to invest or lend the deposits they do hold because of unfavorable market conditions, a real-

ity which further decreases the banks’ estimated profits.

Banks expect to profit off all retail checking accounts they offer, through a combination of lending or investing the deposited money, and fees charged to the depositor. However, because of new regulations, including those on overdraft charges and debit card swipe fees, revenue gained from those fees is expected to drop by as much as 50 percent. Additionally, poor market

It requires roughly between $200 and $300 per year for a bank to maintain a customer’s checking account. conditions in recent years means that banks earn less income on the deposits themselves.

It requires roughly between $200 and $300 per year for a bank to maintain a customer’s checking account. Such costs are incurred by everything from the staffing of branches to the upkeep of online service. Analysts estimate that banks need to see an additional $15 to $20 in revenue per depositor in order

to earn what they did in past years. The recent upsurge in fees on bank customers can thus be attributed by the banks’ desires to return to their old levels of profits.

Customers are also experiencing lowering interest rates that are paid to them from the banks for their savings. The average interest rate for deposits has fallen to 0.74 percent from 0.8 percent during the first six months of this year. Most consumers are unlikely notice such a small drop in interest rate, but it saves the banks an estimated $1.5 billion per month industry-wide.

Banks are able to make a higher profit from the accounts of depositors who deposit more money, which has resulted in a recent increase in the minimum balance many banks are requiring depositors to maintain in their accounts. If the minimum balance is not met, even more fees are incurred. Banks seem to be predicting that most of their customers will not respond to the increased fees in the manner of Bank of America customers after the proposed monthly debit card fee. Richard K. Davis, U.S. Bancorp’s CEO, told investors on a recent conference call: “We’ll see if our customers complain and move, or just complain.” n

The Heights

B8

Thursday, November 17, 2011

David Cote

Matt Palazzolo

Therese Tully

Daniel Sologuren

Nick Doffek

Should waterboarding be considered torture?

Yes. It is torture. No argument.

On a scale of 1 to Nicki Minaj music, it’s not that torturous.

Absolutely. Waterboarding is torture, no question.

The utility of water boarding should not be considered in the moral cost of intelligence gathering.

It looks like torture and sounds like torture. I think its torture.

Should judges rule in favor of Occupy protesters in New York City?

No. I’m all for protests but they don’t have a right to stay in the park overnight, for two months.

Yes, unemployment offices have been so quiet and peaceful lately.

No, the Occupy protestors are not above the law.

They need to conduct themselves appropriately.

The judges should make their ruling according to the law.

They have a constitutional right to protest. They should be allowed to stay.

Did Rick Perry’s ‘Oops’ cost him his chance at the Republican nomination?

Barring extreme changes, he won’t get it. Not sure he would have before though.

No, he’s a Tea Party favorite, a popular governor, and....

I think so, with the way media works today, there is no room for mistakes.

Probably. It looks like Newt Gingrich is taking his place.

Absolutely. There are too many parallels to Bush at this point.

Do you think the deficit supercommittee will find a solution by next Wednesday?

Though there isn’t really such a thing as a “solution,” they’ll have some sort of compromise.

No, it’s within four years of a presidential election, so Congress can’t compromise.

A problem this huge can’t be fixed this quickly ... so no way.

Yes. Sane legislation needs to be passed and pointing fingers and playing the blame game is wasting our time and taxpayer money.

I have faith that there will be a fair, bipartisan solution to this issue by next week.

Marketplace Editor

Asst. Marketplace Editor

Assoc. Copy Editor

President, College Republicans

President, College Democrats

The growth of defeatist, apathetic politics threatens our democracy From Politics, B6 in its economy, and propelling the country to economic success. This theory is sound. If you have a credit card and use it even once, you are technically in debt. But, if you pay your bill at the end of the month, you are no longer in debt. If you do this every month for 20 years, you’ll have a great credit rating. The problem with the U.S. debt is that it is not stable.

It has been exploding at a rate that is so out of control it’s difficult to comprehend. “Cuts” proposed by both Democrats and Republicans are absolutely absurd, and don’t even approach a true solution to the crisis facing our economy.

As a way of simplifying the debt, imagine the U.S. govern-

ment is represented by a simple American family. This would be that family’s budget: $21,700 total income, but $38,200 spending. This leaves $16,500 of debt on the credit card. But, the family has been doing this for so long that they already have $142,710 of debt on their card! Then, in a dire act of self-sacrifice, the family cuts a whole $385 from their budget.

How noble. Now the budget should be totally fine. Just kidding. The family is still $16,115 in debt for the year.

As the 2012 presidential election approaches rapidly, we as a generation need to assess our political and economic views, abandon useless partisan backgrounds, and vote for the candidate each of us believes will be the best leader for our country. The most disconcert-

ing truth is that thousands of people who turned out to vote for President Barack Obama in 2008 will turn out to vote for him again in 2012, many without truly assessing the success of his presidency.

According to an article titled “How Will the Occupy Wall Street Protesters Vote,” “Owen, 20, says he’s not happy, but [he’s] still planning to vote for Obama.… Samantha, 18, had a similar response: ‘I’m going to vote for [Obama] because there is no other option. I trust him.’”

You trust him? The man who blatantly ignored his campaign promises. No other option? I wasn’t aware we lived in a country where the ballot only has one check box. While these are certainly only two examples of the hundreds of thousands of people who will

Debt committee needs compromise From Debt Committee, B6 a concession to raise tax revenues by $500 billion over 10 years as a part of a tax reform that would lock in lower tax rates in return for giving up deductions. This proposal, which on paper fits perfectly with the Democrats stated goals, was rejected. In comparison to the spirit of compromise that the Republicans on the committee are taking, the Democrats, led

by President Barack Obama have ruled out any changes to Medicare, Medicaid, or ObamaCare (with its 3.8 percentage point payroll tax increase). The inability to compromise on such an important issue clearly illustrates who the real ideologues are.

Recently Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) said, “We’ve got to be willing to probably make some folks mad on both ends of the political extreme, and you’ll know this super committee is getting close if you hear folks

on both ends of the political extreme scream the loudest, because that will show there’s actually movement being made.”

Unfortunately, what is happening is that the White House is promising a veto of any bill that touches programs that desperately need to be addressed, programs that carry trillions in long-term obligations that the United States federal government may not be able to keep.

The recommendations of the super committee are to be announced on Nov. 23, only six days away. If after these recommendations are made public and it looks like Congress may not pass the bill, rating agencies (specifically Standard and Poor’s) will begin downgrading municipal debt as they did the federal government’s in August 2011. The likelihood of multiple rating downgrades of numerous U.S. cities and counties is very high, and could lead to explosive levels of municipal bankruptcies. If this were to happen, reports suggest these

defaulted municipalities and states will come clamoring for federal funds just to stay afloat.

The days of TARP may look like the boom of the sixties after the Fed has annihilated the dollar in an attempt to plug thousands of holes in the sinking ship.

The bold rhetoric from the Democrats on the super committee fails to recognize just how necessary a compromise is in this situation. Beholden to their newly minted populous campaign against millionaires and billionaires, the Democrats will attempt to blame the super committee’s failure on the Republicans, and return to mandate status power in Washington. What the public needs to realize is that the reason this mess hasn’t gone away yet, is because of Democrats having absolute power for those two years.

Michael Allen is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at marketplace@ bcheights.com.

j scott applewhite / ap photo

Senator John Kerry (D-MA), leaves the chamber where the supercommitee has been meeting for several weeks.

vote in the next presidential election, this mood seems to pervade our generation. The idea that Obama is the lesser of two evils, that you’d rather pick the devil you know than the one you don’t, are the exact attitudes that are preventing our country from achieving true change.

If we as American people truly want change, and I believe many of us do, there is only one candidate who should get our vote: Ron Paul. Paul, branded by the media as a fringe candidate and ignored by the majority of people as unelectable, certainly may be both of these things. But he represents a position with which young Americans of both parties should be able to identify: limited, constitutional government, political inde-

pendence from lobbyists and corporations, personal liberty, and pro-American, pacifist foreign policy.

Unlike Obama, who left troops abroad and started another military conflict, Paul has promised to bring back all American troops from abroad.

Unlike Obama, who has extended spending and raised the debt ceiling at the expense of the health of our economy, Paul has pledged to massively cut spending from areas where the U.S. obviously overspends, like the defense budget. Unlike Obama, who extended the Patriot Act passed under Bush and continues to fight the useless and harmful war on drugs, Paul has promised to return Americans the civil liberties they were granted in the Constitution. Why should we trust

The World in Ink

his promises more than any other candidate? Because he’s been re-elected 11 times, and because he has the most consistent, honest voting record of any current U.S. congressman.

While I am not naive enough to believe that Paul has a chance of beating Obama or whoever the Republican nominee is, that isn’t a reason for a person who supports his policies not to vote for him.

Even if he loses, every vote he receives would be showing our politicians and the world that a significant portion of this country wants change—real, tangible change, not the kind you find on a bumpersticker.

David Cote is the Marketplace Editor for The Heights. He welcomes comments at marketplace@ bcheights.com.

By Adriana Mariella, Heights Editor

The Heights

Thursday, November 17, 2011

B9

President Barack Obama

By Matt Palazzolo

Asst. Marketplace Editor

Alex Manta / Heights graphic

Barack Hussein Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother was born in Wichita, Kansas and his father was born in Kenya. He enrolled in Occidental College in 1979 and later transferred to Columbia University in 1981. After graduating, Obama spent three years as director of the Developing Communites Project, a Catholic community organization. In 1988, he attended Harvard Law School, becoming an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of the first year and president of the journal at the end of his second year. After graduating from law school he accepted a position at the University of Chicago, where he taught constitutional law for twelve years.

Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, but lost the Democratic primary for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000 to the incumbent, Bobby Rush. In July 2004, he gave a widely praised keynote speech at a Democratic Convention in Boston. He built

off of this increased national profile in his successful 2004 run for the U.S. Senate, easily beating his Republican opponent with 70 percent of the vote.

As a U.S. Senator, Obama sponsored several pieces of bipartisan legislation. Along with Republican Senators Tom Coburn and John McCain, Obama sponsored the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which established a watchdog website for federal spending. He also passed tort reform in the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005.

In February 2007, Obama formally announced his candidacy for the presidency.

His main opponent for the Democratic nomination was Hillary Clinton, but in June she conceded and endorsed Obama. He selected Joe Biden as his running mate, and easily won the presidential election in 2008. As president, Obama has fulfilled some of his campaign promises, such as passing sweeping health care legislation. However, he has had several notable setbacks, such as his failure to close Guantanamo Bay. n

Finance at a Glance

Tumultous summer, but stocks will pick up during the winter season

Alexander Dripchak All good things must come to an end. In addition to all good things, so too must my column come to an end. With this in mind, I felt it important to take this time to dwell upon some overall maxims in the stock market world, recap what I have been ranting about for nearly a year, and provide you with some of my own insights into where we are headed, which stocks to buy, and which to bury.

First off, as condescending and demeaning as it seems to say, we are in fact so young.

While you may conjure up images of grandparents practically screaming this at you, don’t. As college-aged students, it is important not to sweat the tumults of the market. Tumultuous markets are for day-traders, not long-

term investors who have over 40 years until retirement. With this in mind, I would advise all of you to pick companies who are innovative and are able to bring products to the market successfully. Case and point, Apple. I myself fell victim to not heeding to the advice I am proposing here. At $130/share I asked myself, how much higher can this go? They have already jumped nearly 50 percent during a time when the rest of the market saw a 3-5 percent correction. Much to my chagrin, I stood there while the stock continued to climb to a price eclipsing the $400 mark at one point.

You may ask yourself, just how many Apples are out there? Well, the orchard is more diversified with successstories than you may initially think. It is understood that Apple has a unique hold on the market share of some of the coolest technology, and they have literally forced other major companies out of their space, like Hewlett-Packard.

But there are other ways of bringing innovative and cre-

ative ideas to market; it does not have to be limited within the confines of technology (even if that is how we all seem to be programmed today). One example is Las Vegas Sands (LVS). The stock was greatly overpriced at $20 dollars/share never mind its peak of $56/ share. As the most effective presence in a booming gaming area, LVS showed that the near-monopolization of the Macau market was more than just beneficial.

On the flip side, there are companies who are leaders in innovation who are inept at bringing things to market.

For example, Philips Electronics has been the little-known leader in revolutionary innovations. Sony and Philips Electronics brought the compact disc (CD) to market in the early 1980s. However, if I ask you today who you associate with the compact disc, Sony or Philips, I’m sure nearly all of you would say Sony.

As far as maxims are concerned, the saying “Sell in May and stay away” has to take precedence. As I have mentioned

earlier this year, we saw ups and downs in the market that were not some 50 or 60 points, but 300-400 point swings from day-to-day or sometimes even intraday rebounds of 300 points. Summers tend to be volatile as lighter volume, oil worries, and other factors tend to inundate investors in the summer months. While saying this, I feel it is important to make one alteration to this statement, sell at the end of May and stay away. I say this because as of the past 25 years, the month of May has seen an increase of 2.1 percent.

Next, I would have to encourage you to use market downturns as opportunities to buy. Instead of running around panicking about the current state of the market and the reports that are coming in, use this time to do research on companies. Begin by evaluating which sectors are going to be hit hardest and use this research to your advantage for stocks that have proven track records of solid earnings growth, good marketing strategies, and are leaders in their

respective industries. The key is to look beyond the present, and try and map out where the market will be when you need liquidity, whether that be four months, four years, or four decades. Another almost common sense point would be to watch what individuals at the company you are inspecting are doing. As simple as it may seem, it is easy to get lost within earnings reports and expert recommendations.

Sometimes it is helpful to look at insider activity as well as to look for any strange trends in the overall employment of the company. The best example in today’s world is that of Goldman Sachs and the unusually high amount of people retiring. This is a matter to investigate and keep tabs on if you are an investor and/or potential buyer.

As I close out this column, I found it only fitting to leave you with a few stocks to buy and a few to bury. First off, let’s get the dogs of the market out of the way. Research in Motion (RIMM), Morgan Stanley (MS), and Nokia

(NOK) are three of the biggest stocks to stay away from.

Research in Motion came out with terrible reports after the first quarter and caused RIMM to drastically reduce guidance.

RIMM has dropped from 72 to a current level of $19/share in just over the past year. As cheap as the company may seem, this stock along with Nokia is in a long-term decline as it fails to interest consumers with its less innovative and technically-suspect phones and tablets.

To quickly wrap up the good stocks, I will have to leave you with just some names and require you to do your homework on them. My picks for the future are Caterpillar (CAT), Intel (INTC), Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and I don’t know how I could avoid Apple (AAPL). It has been my pleasure writing to you for these past two semesters.

Happy hunting and good luck!

Alexander Dripchak is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at marketplace@ bcheights.com.

Healthcare meets the Supreme Court From Healthcare, B6

Petros Giannakouris / ap photo

Greek protesters, above, have been calling for changes in leadership amid widespread economic struggles.

Protesters spark change in Greece From Greece, B6 Despite the new power-sharing deal that will give the parties more say in the affairs of Greece, the coalition will have to work towards securing an eight billion euro loan from the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

However, the new coalition poses problems-as journalist Nick Malkoutzis puts it, “lack of smiles and back patting” after the coalition victory.

Malkoutzis added that the coalition “realized that they have to work with each other” and “PM Papademos will have a task to keep some of these guys in check but hopefully three months will be too little time for them to run amok.” Antonis Samaras, leader of the New Democracy party, said that his party will not vote on any austerity measures demanded by the EU unless they lend more money.

On Nov. 14, Papademos delivered his first speech as prime minister, calling for unity amid Greece’s debt crisis. Despite calls for Greece to leave the eurozone,

the financial body of the EU, Papademos insists that Greece will stay in the eurozone. Papademos said that staying in the eurozone was Greece’s only choice and admitted that “the crisis and the current policy have worsened recession and unemployment.”

“The crisis and the current policy have worsened recession and unemployment.”

-George Papandreou Prime Minister of Greece Papademos added that “the new government of co-operation and I … undertake the responsibility at this critical moment because the country’s participation of the eurozone is at stake.” Papademos’ speech seemed to restore confidence in Greeks in their government. In addition, Papademos guaranteed that Greece will

provide written guarantees that it will comply with the EU austerity measures, saying that “this is our obligation before other nations for the solidarity they show us.”

However, the talks for Greece leaving the eurozone have been increasing despite Papademos’ succession. There are worries for the aftermath if Greece switches to a new currency, the drachma.

Peter Dixon, and economist at Commerzbank, said that “the new currency would fall through the floor and inflation would go through the roof.”

Dixon also added that “living standards would be hit hard … it seems like an attractive option but the short term costs are massive.” Yet remaining in the eurozone leads to constant lending from stronger countries like Germany and France.

Kabir Chibber, a BBC business reporter, argues that Greece would have to follow the lead of Argentina when they were suffering from a terrible debt crisis back in 2001. Greece would have to persuade creditors to accept a debt swap that reduces the value of their bond holdings. n

While supporters say that this naturally applies to health care, which accounts for 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, opponents say that the power was never meant to require individuals to purchase a single product.

What the justices will do is just as uncertain. While Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer have consistently agreed with an expansive view of the commerce clause, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan have

not yet considered a case that offered a substantial test.

On the conservative side, Justice Clarence Thomas is the only member who has consistently voted for a limited view of the clause, while Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy have a more mixed record on the issue. Roberts and Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. have not publicized their views.

Conservative groups have called on Kagan to sit out the case because she worked for the Obama administration as solicitor general. Liberal groups have said Thomas faces a conflict of

interest because his wife has been active in groups opposed to the law.

Even as legal battles will continue well into next year, various aspects of the law have already been enacted and enforced. Those include requirements that insurance plans keep young adults on their parents’ policies until age 26 and other parts that cover a range of preventative services such as birth control. Many insurers are also barred from excluding children with pre-existing conditions, a prohibition that will to be extended to all Americans in 2014. n

photo courtesy of google

The John G. Roberts, Jr. court, above, will hear arguments for Obamacare in what will be a landmark case.

B10

The Heights

Thursday, November 17, 2011