Friday, October 22, 2004
OMGLOLWTF!!!
This has to be the stupidest Op-Ed I've read in, like, a long time. "Urs Cipolat is an interdisciplinary studies field lecturer at UC Berkeley." That explains a lot.
I'll put the Lord of the Rings comparison on hold, as that's the best and I'll save it for last.
A closer look at the two opinion polls reveals an interesting fact. While the lecturer survey emphasized that the two labs are the cradle of the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal, the professor survey did not. Instead, it stressed science-related aspects of UC’s collaboration with the labs. The term “nuclear weapons” cannot be found in the professor survey, while it is used frequently in the lecturer survey.
Well, lecturers don't usually do research, so they're pretty free to stand on absurd ideologies and say "No, don't do research." Professors usually do research, so they actually have to worry about that.
First, UC is a university. Its central mission is educating people in the humanist tradition, not destroying them. UC can no longer allow itself to be co-opted into being complicit in the creation of weapons of mass destruction.
The humanist tradition, eh? Not everyone is a liberal arts major, you know. Some of us actually have to invent such things as newspapers and computers to allow you to spout your complaints.
Second, nuclear weapons are weapons of mass murder. They cannot discriminate between combatants and civilians. They kill indiscriminately—men, women and children. That’s why their use and threat to use, under international law, is prohibited. By allowing many of the 16,000 UC employees at the labs to maintain the existing and develop new “usable” nuclear weapons, UC is violating international law.
This person's pretty creative, first using LotR as an analogy, and then inventing something called "international law."
Third, all weapons of mass destruction activities are immoral.
Ohh, okay. That's a convincing argument.
UC and its employees at the labs are running the risk of facing criminal prosecution in foreign countries if they do not stop their WMD related work.
No, they don't, because foreign countries don't have the power to criminally prosecute our citizens.
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