SARS a virus, not a bacteria; face masks may help prevent it

I would just like to correct comments about SARS made in a letter in the Friday Wildcat. The letter stated that facemasks would not work for preventing SARS because the bacteria was 3 microns in size. SARS is not caused by a bacterium. It is caused by a virus (a coronavirus) that is actually much smaller than 3 microns and would not even be visible with a light microscope. [Read article]

As a result of what has surely been one of the most frivolous pieces of legislation to pass Gov. Janet Napolitano's desk, UA employees can now be fired for surfing the Internet for pornography.

It seems that Napolitano and the state Legislature have jumped on an opportunity to play the part of anti-pornography crusaders.

In politics, after all, who wants to be known as pro-porn?

Such legislation would be appropriate if porn viewing was a serious problem or if there was no preexisting rule in place to deter it, but neither is the case. [Read article]

Deny it if it makes you feel better, but the truth is, racism is still alive and kicking in the land of the free. What's even sadder is that nothing is being done to eliminate it. Oh sure, we've got affirmative action, but that's just a Band-Aid, covering up the problem so that mainstream America can feel good about all of the progress we've made since the civil rights movement.

If we really want to combat racism, then we're going to have to start with education. [Read article]

The land now called Iraq is no stranger to conquest. By some reckonings, the world's first empires arose on these fertile lands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and since then, dozens of conquerors ÷ from the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Mongols to the Turks and, most recently, the British ÷ have left their marks on Iraq's long history.

Given this long list of foreign masters, it is easy to understand the skepticism many Iraqi people display when they hear the generals and politicians of the United States ÷ their latest conquerors ÷ claim their only goal is a quick transition to a better, freer Iraq. In a land whose legacy of tyrants and despots was already thousands of years old when the United States was just a gleam in Thomas Jefferson's eye, actions speak much louder than words. And on that count, the United States has done little to reassure Iraqis of its motives. [Read article]