When OSU alumni and Buckeye fans came to soak up the glory of a new team, a new coach, and a newly-renovated stadium, animal activists were on hand to remind them that a university is more than just sports. OSU’s reputation rides on the value of its teaching and research. Right now, OSU is tarnishing that reputation by endorsing Podell’s cats-on-speed experiment which has been condemned by academics and AIDS activists, as well as advocates for animals. POET asked alumni to support the Buckeyes with cheers and enthusiasm, but to withhold their buck$ until this cruel and unnecessary research is shut down.

On May 1, 2001 cat #OOIOZ3, involved in the experiment, was “Found Dead.” Details have yet to be released. As we have said many times before this project will NOT help cats nor will it help people. Please continue to speak out for the cats.

AUSTIN -- Hail and farewell, o Enron! What a flameout. The Establishment media, sucking its collective thumb with unwonted solemnity, is treating us to meditations on two themes: "How the mighty have fallen," and, "Who would have thunk it?" Pardon me while I snort, in lieu of ruder noises, and offer two themes of my own: "What took so long?" and, "Anyone with an ounce of common sense."

If you want to know what this story is about, pretend Bill Clinton is still president. Pretend Clinton's long-time, all-time biggest campaign contributor, a guy for whom Clinton has carried water for over the years, a guy with unparalleled "access," a shaper of policy, a man with a veto on regulatory appointments affecting his business, with connections at every level of the administration, a political fixer beyond the wildest dreams of James Riady -- imagine that this guy's worldwide empire has tumbled into bankruptcy in just three months amid cascading reports of lies, monumental accounting errors, evasions, iffy financial statements, insider deals, a board of directors rife with conflicts of interest, top executives

"Arafat is guilty of everything here." Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared on television Monday night. "Arafat has made his strategic choices: a strategy of terrorism." In sync with these fierce words, Israeli forces launched attacks close to the Palestinian leader's house and destroyed his helicopters, an onslaught that the U.S. government conspicuously failed to condemn.

So, in the wake of the last suicide bomb attacks launched by Hamas, the sky is now the limit for Israeli reprisals: the killing of Arafat, and, not so far down the road, possible forced expulsion of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank. In other words, the substitution of untrammeled military repression by Israel's forces and a deaf ear from the United States to all Palestinian calls for fair dealing. Write "FINIS" to all efforts across the past 35 years to secure a just settlement in Israel and some measure of satisfaction for Palestinian aspirations.

But, to be honest about it, is that not exactly what Israelis like Ariel Sharon have wanted all along? Can anyone claim with a straight

And now, a news dispatch from the Media Twilight Zone...

WASHINGTON -- There were unconfirmed reports yesterday that the United States is not the center of the world.

The White House had no immediate comment on the reports, which set off a firestorm of controversy in the nation's capital.

Speaking on background, a high-ranking official at the State Department discounted the possibility that the reports would turn out to be true. "If that were the case," he said, "don't you think we would have known about it a long time ago?"

On Capitol Hill, leaders of both parties were quick to rebut the assertion. "That certain news organizations would run with such a poorly sourced and obviously slanted story tells us that the liberal media are still up to their old tricks, despite the current crisis," a GOP lawmaker fumed. A prominent Democrat, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said that classified briefings to congressional intelligence panels had disproved such claims long ago.

Scholars at leading think tanks were more restrained, and some said

It had seemed to me that one absolutely certain fact, beyond all dispute or question, is that the terror attacks of Sept. 11 had no silver lining, no unexpectedly beneficial fallout. It was, is and will be a terrible business with endlessly terrible consequences. It killed thousands, and impelled a punitive expedition that will almost certainly procreate further martial forays. The war party is agitating for an onslaught on Iraq, maybe on North Korea. Here in America, the backwash of Sept. 11 has shriveled civil liberties and political dissent, and we will spend the rest of our lives trying to recapture lost ground.

But no. The editor of the Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel, (whose periodical has promoted the notion of a "just war" in Afghanistan) has now coauthored a column with Joel Rogers of the University of Wisconsin/ Madison, published in the Los Angeles Times on Nov. 25, proposing the following:

"If anything, the war on terrorism creates an opening for progressives, not closure -- indeed, it presents the opportunity of a lifetime ... War's mobilization of the populace against a shared threat also