Bush is active during vacation too

As expected, Dan Post tells only half the story about President Bush's purportedly excessive vacationing. The 42 percent statistic Post cites was first made popular in a 2001 Washington Post story, and later made permanent through the unctuous excretions of Michael Moore in "Fahrenheit 9-11."

The problem of the 42 percent figure is its dishonesty, though any amount of half-truths or outright fabrications are rendered palatable to those whose only purpose is a swift regurgitation of lies intended to discredit the president. Had Post decided to share the truth about the figure, he could have informed readers that The Washington Post included weekends and time-in-transit for purposes of calculation.

Were we to employ that same high standard to judge the average ecology and anthropology student at the UA, we would find that he takes 203 vacation days per year. That's over 55 percent of the year spent at play. That leaves ample time to commit acts of drunken defacement in Germany or to celebrate 4-20 all day long in Amsterdam. Bravo.

But does Post really think that this president, or any president, spends his vacations simply "tool(ing) around his ranch for a few weeks"? Wouldn't such indolence take valuable time away from the nefarious plans to undermine the working class, steal the votes of black voters, subjugate the poor in developing countries, prepare for the future invasions of North Korea, Iran and Syria and in general chart a course toward Armageddon?

One has to wonder whether any president has ever been as equally maligned as both an evil genius (don't forget his Yale GPA was higher than Kerry's) and a mindless, Texas Beauregard who doesn't even read The New York Times?

Patrick McNamara
journalism senior

UA Healthcare an example to the world>

As a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota, I understand the need for comprehensive reproductive health care and I commend the University of Arizona and its Campus Health Center for its informative and non-judgmental discussion of sexuality education and for making family planning services easily accessible. These services help both women and men make informed, voluntary decisions regarding their sexual and reproductive health. The ability to make informed fertility decisions in turn helps slow the global population growth rate that threaten individuals' health care and quality of life as well as the health of the planet.

However, while the University of Arizona provides comprehensive information and services, this is not the reality for a great majority of the worlds population. Presently, millions of women worldwide lack access to the contraceptive information and services needed to exercise sexual and reproductive choice. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that over 150 million married women do not have access to effective contraceptive methods and services; this does not even account for unmarried women. Even across the United States, pharmacists are denying women access to birth control and emergency contraceptives. So while I applaud the University of Arizona s sexual and reproductive health programming, I believe that everyone has the right to this invaluable information and access to sexual and reproductive health services.

Rebecca M. Burch
University of Minnesota Alumna Population Connection Field Fellow

Porn ads offensive and damaging

I enjoy reading the print version of the Daily Wildcat because it gives me a break from my computer, and the advertisements let me know what is going on around town. Over the past year I've noticed that the number of advertisements for illicit entertainment, like strip and cabaret clubs, with their accompanying pornographic images, has increased to become the majority of ads run in the Wildcat. These ads are always degrading to the people who pose as models, nearly all of whom are women, and they are disgusting for readers to look at. I realize that your newspaper needs advertisements to make money, and these businesses are able to throw a lot of that needed cash your way. However, I can t believe that if you were to stop running these ads, other businesses wouldn't step in to fill the empty spots on the pages and in your accounts. The adult industry has absolutely nothing of value to provide UA students. Patronizing them on your pages not only causes most of your readers to be in continual cringe-mode, but it leads more students to become involved in the industry in one way or another, likely leading to emotional and relationship problems and sidetracking of schoolwork and graduation. Administrators, who are responsible for the success and usefulness of the Daily Wildcat to the university community, must step in to encourage the removal of adult industry ads from this paper, especially if they have the best interests of students in mind. Let s lead the way in removing inappropriate advertisements from the campus newspaper and see if our neighbors to the north, ASU, will follow.

Jani Radebaugh
Planetary Sciences postdoctoral researcher

The Arizona Summer Wildcat is an independent college newspaper. The UA administration is not liable for the content of the Wildcat, nor is the Wildcat subject to censorship from any outside entity.