the daily reveille - april 4, 2012
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News, Sports, Entertainment and OpinionTRANSCRIPT
An unoffi cial Your LSU support web-site arose Monday night and quickly spread via Facebook, but the Your LSU ticket mem-bers say they don’t know anything about it.
The Daily Reveille spoke to Your LSU’s Landon Hester and Kristina Lagasse and their campaign managers Joe Gipson and Hilary Soileau , as well as the former R.E.A.L. Campaign’s Joshua Hollins, who did not understand the website.
Your LSU vice presidential candidate Lagasse said she does not “understand the message or motive” of the site.
She and the Your LSU campaign man-agers said no one from the ticket was noti-fi ed about the website until it was already live.
“We were surprised when we saw it,” Gipson said. “That [banner] was taken with-out our permission. We have no involve-ment with that.”
Changelsusuperpac.com links to a vid-eo on Facebook titled “A Message from the Renegades. ” The video features the Hollins brothers , among other students, showing their support for Your LSU .
The website also contains use of Your LSU’s offi cial banner.
“The above image was copied without permission from YourLSU.com. If you have a problem with that … e-mail us: [email protected] ” is written below the banner.
The website has a link to donate money to the website, though “no, don’t really do-nate” is written below it.
Reveille� e Daily
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 • Volume 116, Issue 124www.lsureveille.com
Our View: SG campaign restrictions violate free speech rights, p. 8
National Spotlight: Isom appears on ‘Ellen,’ p. 5
Campus Events: ‘Guyland’ speaker talks male maturity and gender inequality, p. 3
Senate panel passes bill that could allow guns on campusThe possibility of fi rearms on
campus is closer to reality after a State Senate judiciary panel voted Tuesday during the regular session to change the Louisiana Constitution and eliminate gun prohibition .
The proposal, SB 303, could reach the Senate fl oor as early as next week for debate, according to
Jason Droddy, University director of external affairs.
“It could mean guns on cam-pus,” Droddy said.
He said the future of the bill won’t be clear until the end of the legislative session, but it has already acquired most of the 26 co-signatures needed to pass through the Senate.
He said the bill’s language wipes any restriction on guns and possibly all types of weapons.
Current Louisiana law recogniz-es the right to carry fi rearms but al-lows for laws that restrict where citi-zens can carry them, such as private businesses and school campuses.
The bill’s rewrite “provides that any denial, infringement and restric-tion of this right be subject to a stan-dard of strict scrutiny by a court in determining its constitutionality.”
The bill’s passage would make restrictions more diffi cult than
before, Droddy said. “The legal bar for a restriction is
very high,” he said. “You need com-pelling government interest. That means a very hard time with any re-strictions.”
The proposal passed 6-1 in the Senate committee, according to The Associated Press. The only sena-tor to vote against the bill was Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, a University graduate.
The Board of Regents gave a statement during the committee meeting highlighting the bill’s im-plication on university campuses, according to Meg Casper, Regents associate commissioner for public affairs.
“We’re certainly concerned,” Casper said.
Brian SibilleStaff Writer
Contact Brian Sibille at [email protected]
Unof� cial SG website shared over Facebook
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
ELECTIONS
Danielle KelleyStaff Writer
Contact Danielle Kelley at [email protected]
‘Titanic’ will go on
The Titanic is sinking again, but this time some of the audience mem-bers will be prepared.
Chris Allsup , history fresh-man , organized a Facebook event with fellow “Titanic” buffs to see the 1997 classic rereleased in 3-D , and the group is planning to bring life jackets in preparation for the big wreck.
“Our idea was to fashion some makeshift life jackets, write ‘Titanic’ on them and wear semi-formal attire underneath,” Allsup said. “The idea is to give the impression that we are passengers from the ship preparing to board life boats.”
Allsup is one of many fans of the 11-time Academy Award-win-ning epic who is eager to see the reformatted 3-D version of the fi lm, which premieres in theaters today .
The release date for “Titanic 3D ” was not set in motion by a fl oat-ing iceberg, but was set for this April in concordance with the centenary anniversary of the real Titanic’s de-mise. The RMS Titanic carried more than 1,500 passengers to their frigid, watery graves 100 years ago as of this April .
Josh NaquinEntertainment Writer
‘TITANIC,’ see page 11
A columnist says ‘Titanic’ director James Cameron is just in it for the money.
See page 8.photo courtesy of THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oscar-winning � lm creates buzz with 3-D release
Matthew Jacobs • Editor-in-ChiefChris Branch • Associate Managing EditorRyan Buxton • Associate Managing Editor
Bryan Stewart • Managing Editor, External MediaAndrea Gallo • News Editor
Morgan Searles • Deputy News Editor & Entertainment EditorKatherine Terrell • Sports Editor
Mark Clements • Deputy Sports EditorKirsten Romaguera • Production Editor
Clayton Crockett • Opinion EditorBrianna Paciorka • Photo EditorTyler Daniel • Multimedia EditorSteven Powell • Radio Director
Annabel Mellon • Advertising Sales Manager
� e Daily Reveille
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
The Daily Reveille holds accuracy and objectivity at the highest priority and wants to reassure the reporting and content of the paper meets these standards. This space is reserved to recog-nize and correct any mistakes which may have been printed in The Daily Reveille. If you would like something corrected or clari� ed please contact the editor at (225) 578-4811 or e-mail [email protected].
The Daily Reveille (USPS 145-800) is written, edited and produced solely by students of Louisiana State University. The Daily Reveille is an independent entity within the Manship School of Mass Com-munication. A single issue of The Daily Reveille is free. To purchase additional copies for 25 cents, please contact the Of� ce of Student Media in B-34 Hodges Hall. The Daily Reveille is published daily dur-ing the fall and spring semesters and semi-weekly during the sum-mer semester, except during holidays and � nal exams. Second-class copies postage paid at Baton Rouge, La., 70803. Annual weekly mailed subscriptions are $125, semester weekly mailed subscrip-tions are $75. Non-mailed student rates are $4 each regular semes-ter, $2 during the summer; one copy per person, additional copies 25 cents each. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Daily Reveille, B-39 Hodges Hall, LSU, Baton Rouge, La.,70803.
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INTERNATIONAL NATIONAL STATE/LOCAL
Nation & World Wednesday, April 4, 2012page 2
U.N. nuclear agency cautious concerning visit to North Korea
VIENNA (AP) — As international tensions rise over a planned North Korean rocket launch, the U.N. nuclear agency is taking a wait-and-see attitude on an offer from the North to allow agency experts back into the country, according to a letter shared Tuesday with The Associated Press.
In the March 30 letter, circu-lated internally among the Interna-tional Atomic Energy Agency’s 35 member-nations, IAEA head Yuki-ya Amano expressed thanks for the March 16 overture by North Korean Atomic Energy head Ri Je Son.
Haiti sees jump in cholera cases as island nation enters rainy season
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti is seeing a jump in the num-ber of cholera cases as the Carib-bean nation heads into the annual rainy season, a United Nations hu-manitarian agency said Tuesday.
The U.N.’s Offi ce for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a monthly bulletin that the new cholera cases were found in the western and northern parts of the country and that Haitian health offi cials recorded 77 new cases a day for the whole country in early March, when the rains began.
Tornadoes and damage but no initial injuries reported in Texas
Unidenti� ed body found in Red River, autopsy is inconclusive
BATCHELOR, La. (AP) — Pointe Coupee Parish sheriff’s detectives are trying to determine the identity of a woman whose nude body was found fl oating Sunday in the Red River close to its intersection with Old River.
Sheriff’s Capt. Steve Juge tells The Advocate that authorities recovered the body and sent it to Lafayette for an autopsy shortly af-ter a tugboat captain discovered the body fl oating in the water around 4 p.m.
Juge said detectives have not yet determined how long the body was in the water before its discov-ery, and Monday’s autopsy fi nd-ings proved inconclusive.
WeatherTODAY
6782
Isolated T-storms
86 60
THURSDAY
City Council juggles interests of French Quarter bar owners, residents
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans City Council members are fi nding it a diffi cult to balance the in-terests of residents and bar owners in the historic French Quarter.
A council committee on Tues-day reviewed a proposed plan to tone down the music blasting from bars so it doesn’t disturb the neighbors.
The measure would govern the placement of loudspeakers in bars and other businesses in the Quarter.
photos courtesy of THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
[Top Right] Phoebe the dog is held by her owner’s father after the pooch was rescued by of� cials from under a destroyed home after a storm moved through Arlington, Texas. [Left] A tree fell on a truck in Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday. [Bottom Right] Homes in Kennedale, Texas, lay destroyed by a tornado.
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Tiger Feed sports blog re� ects on March Madness.
Check out “The Full Monty” on LMFAO entertainment blog for a spring break guide.
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
AUSTIN BENNETT / The Daily Reveille
A green anole lizard shows off Tuesday on a tree branch on campus. Submit your photo of the day to [email protected].
Yesterday was National NinjaAwareness Day, and I wasn’t even aware.Well played, Ninja, well played.
NOW HIRING CALL (225)578-6090
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DALLAS (AP) — Tornadoes tore through the Dallas area Tuesday, peeling roofs off homes, tossing big-rig trucks into the air and leaving fl attened tractor trailers strewn along highways and parking lots.
The National Weather Service confi rmed at least two separate “large and extremely dangerous” tornadoes. Several other develop-ing twisters were reported as a band of violent storms crept through the metropolitan area, destroying
mobile homes and forcing hundreds of fl ight cancellations at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
There were no immediate re-ports of injuries.
Some may say it’s a man’s world, but Michael Kimmel visited the University’s Union Theatre on Tuesday to talk about “Guyland” and his book of the same name.
About 350 students and com-munity members attended to hear Kimmel, a researcher and writer on masculinity, animatedly discuss a man’s journey into adulthood and evidence that gender inequality continues into today’s world. His talk centered on his book, which was based on interviews with more than 400 young men in the Guyland phase.
Kimmel defines Guyland as a new developmental stage for men ages 16 to 26 in which they transi-tion from boys to men.
The Guyland population con-sists of about 22 million mostly white, middle-class men, Kim-mel said. He said males in this de-mographic are typically confused and afraid to make commitments — whether they’re relationship or job-related. Guyland revelers desire postponing adulthood and celebrat-ing video games, sports and deper-sonalized sexual relationships.
Guyland emerged because there are historical markers of adult-hood — complete an education, get married, get a job and move out of one’s parents’ home — and now, it’s taking young men longer to achieve these adult goals, Kimmel said.
Demographics, the economy, changes in parenting styles and changes in women’s lives are con-tributing factors, he said.
“This new stage is lasting a full decade,” he said. “This is not going away.”
Men in the Guyland phase of their lives often feel the need to prove their masculinity, but only have other males their age to prove it to, Kimmel said.
“How you walk, how you talk, how you move are constantly po-liced by other young men,” he said as he demonstrated gestures that would be considered acceptable ver-sus those considered “sissy,” though only minor differences existed.
Kimmel said young men try to invent ways in which they can test
and prove themselves to other men. This is often evident in fraternity hazing, he said.
The reason young men engage in these head-scratching activities all boils down to the three-word guy code: “bros before hoes,” Kimmel said.
This bond often leads young men to feel superior to women because the female counter-code “chicks before dicks” just doesn’t cut it, he said. Young men often feel like they’re victims of reverse dis-crimination, which can lead them to resent gender equality, he said.
He said women are forced to choose between two personas — “babe or bitch” — and he offered several examples of gender inequal-ity continuing to exist in today’s culture.
Fraternities are permitted to serve alcohol in the house, while sororities are prohibited. Hookup culture also oozes gender inequal-ity, as he said his interviews with young people revealed women are more concerned with bringing plea-sure to their male partners than to themselves.
Kimmel invited a question-and-answer session at the close of his talk, and one audience member asked what people should do to quell inequality between genders.
“We should challenge the in-stitution that promotes this gender inequality,” Kimmel responded.
Being avid fishermen, a father-and-son University alumni duo saw a problem with their fishing lines and tried to fix it by creating the Rod-
Hugger.Curtis Col-
son Jr. is a 1981 architecture grad-uate, and his son Curtis Colson III is a 2002 micro-biology graduate. Growing up in Mississippi, both enjoyed fishing but often encoun-tered tangled fish-ing lines.
“ T h e r e ’ s gotta be a better way,” Colson Jr. said of the tangled lines.
He visited several outdoors stores looking for a product that would stop the entangle-ment, but nothing worked. Colson Jr. then experimented with different ma-terials to create a product that would hold the line and prevent it from slip-ping out and wrapping around the other lines.
He decided to use Velcro to wrap around the lines, but by itself, the Velcro would slip off, he said. He then went through different materials looking for a non-slip material to put on the backing of the Velcro, includ-ing his son’s scuba-diving suit.
In 1998, once Colson Jr. de-signed a non-slip material specific to the Rod-Hugger’s purpose and had it patented, he went with it to the International Convention of Al-lied Sportfishing Trades and entered it in a contest. Colson Jr. said he was surprised when the Rod-Hug-ger won Best in Show, beating out
better-funded products.He said the North American
Fishing Club contacted him soon af-ter, wanting to run tests on the prod-uct. When the club finished testing the product about eight weeks later, Colson Jr. said they told him the Rod-Hugger had received the high-est rating they had ever given at the time.
“We got 94 percent approval on the product,” Colson Jr. said. “[The Rod-Hugger] does exactly what it says it will do. It’s simple; it’s smooth.”
Colson Jr. and his son entered the Rod-Hugger in Walmart’s Get on the Shelf contest, which ended Tues-day evening. The contest allowed people to submit products not sold by Walmart, and the public voted on their favorite products through text messaging and Facebook, accord-ing to the contest’s frequently asked questions page.
Colson III said they heard about the contest through the local news. To enter the contest, they had to make a YouTube video, submit the
video’s link and provide a name and address.
The top 10 products will go to a second round that begins April 11, Colson III said.
“If we get in the [top 10], I’ll be very happy,” Colson Jr. said.
At the end of the contest, the top three contestants will be offered a chance for their products to be sold on Walmart’s website and given marketing support. The grand prize-winning product will have the oppor-tunity to be sold in Walmart’s stores, according to the website.
“What they’re doing is offering their know-how, their tools,” Colson III said.
Colson Jr. likes to call the Rod-Hugger “reusable duct tape” because he said it functions like duct tape, but can be used for years. He joked that the only issue with his product is that it lasts for a long time. He has used his own for five years, he said.
The Daily Reveille page 3Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Monday: $14.99 All You Can Eat Wings and $3 Specialty DrinksTuesday: $3 Margaritas and Mexican Beers....Kids Eat FreeWed: $4.50 34oz Mother Plucker Mugs....Live Trivia at 8pm
Thursday: $12.99 All You Can Eat Boneless Wings... $4.50 34oz MotherPlucker Mugs and $5.50 Patron Margaritas.
Sunday: $3 Specialty Shots, Specialty Drinks and Margaritas.Everyday: $4 Goose, Crown, Jack and Patron. $3 Jager.
African American Cultural Center Robing Ceremonysign up & purchase your kente cloth today! $25
Office of Multicultural Affairs (student union 335) or AACC (Hatcher Hall 316)
DO YOU HAVE AN OCCURRENCE?Call Becky at the Student
Media Office578-6090, 9AM- 5PM or
E-mail: [email protected]
Contact Shannon Roberts at [email protected]
Colson Jr.
INNOVATION
Alumni pair enter Walmart contestFather, son created fishing rod fixShannon RobertsContributing Writer
CAMPUS EVENTS
Masculinity expert discusses ‘Guyland’
TAYLOR BALKOM / The Daily Reveille
Michael Kimmel discusses masculinity Tuesday night at the Union Theatre.
Colson III
Contact Emily Herrington at [email protected]
Emily HerringtonStaff Writer
� e Daily Reveillepage 4 Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Spring cleaning isn’t just a time to organize closets. The Smoking-Words team considers spring a time to clean the environment of ciga-rettes and all their negative effects.
The SmokingWords team host-ed a guest speaker Tuesday evening in the Journalism Building who dis-cussed the consequences smoking has on health and the environment.
Daniel Harrington , assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the LSU Health and Sci-ence Center in New Orleans , con-ducted air-quality studies in Alex-andria after the city implemented a smoking ban in the bar and gaming area and found a sweeping improve-ment in the air quality.
“Tobacco is one of the most well-documented health hazards,” Harrington said. “If you don’t have exposure, the risk isn’t there.”
Harrington’s research found that
the air quality in Alexandria after the smoking ban was 36 times cleaner.
Harrington said if an establish-ment has a smoke-free policy, the majority of the people won’t smoke.
“What’s the negative?” he asked the audience.
The Louisiana Smoke-Free Air Act , established in 2006 , prohibits smoking in most public places and workplaces, according to the Loui-siana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living .
North Gate Tavern , a popular student hangout located on West Chimes Street , remains a smoke-free establishment despite the bar’s ex-emption from the Louisiana Smoke-Free Air Act because of its status as a standalone bar .
North Gate Tavern’s owner Dusty Cooper said she decided im-plementing a smoke-free policy was important when she noticed most customers appreciated the cleaner atmosphere.
“We are really proud to say that
we are one of the only bars here in Baton Rouge that is smoke free,” Cooper said.
The SmokingWords team also attempted to gain more student sup-port for a tobacco-free campus Tues-day by cleaning up the cigarette butts in the Quad.
The team collected two gallon-sized Ziploc bags and another half-gallon bag’s worth of cigarette butts in one hour near Middleton Library.
SmokingWords members had a banner available for students to sign in support of a tobacco-free campus. These signatures will add to the 160 signatures collected at the Wellness Fair in March.
Erin Bernard , mass communi-cation senior , said she hopes their ef-fort will raise awareness that smok-ing is not just an air-quality problem, but also a littering problem.
Chikita Williams, of 2080 Lobdell Drive, Baton Rouge, was arrested March 26 for issuing worthless checks at the LSU Book-store.
LSU Police Department spokesman Capt. Cory Lalonde said during the month of March , the 28-year-old wrote three separate checks at the University bookstore from a closed checking account. Lalonde said Williams returned some of merchandise bought in the transactions, but $100 of merchan-dise remains unaccounted for.
She was arrested and issued a misdemeanor.
Woman arrested for bad checks
Man stays in Union after forbidden
A 23-year-old man unaffi liat-ed with the University was arrested March 27 for one count of felony theft.
Lalonde said LSUPD received a report of a stolen iPhone from the LSU University Recreation Center on March 26 . Investigators
Joseph Boyle of 755 Napoleon St., Baton Rouge, was arrested March 28 for remaining after being forbidden from the Student Union.
Lalonde said offi cers were dispatched to the Student Union in response to an abandoned bag in the hallway. Offi cers found an ID belonging to 62-year-old Boyle.
Lalonde said offi cers learned Boyle was previously banned from campus. Boyle returned to campus to recover his property and was placed under arrest.
At this time, Lalonde said of-fi cers searched Boyle and found a hypodermic needle and a glass tube used for smoking crack cocaine.
Thomas Odessa Dixon of 385 Camp St., Centerville, Miss., was arrested for possession of narcotics on campus.
On March 31 at approximately 4:30 p.m., an anonymous tip in-formed offi cers at Alex Box Sta-dium that a subject was seen crush-ing pills into powder and snorting it. Lalonde said offi cers identifi ed Dixon as the subject.
Lalonde said the 20-year-old admitted to snorting the powder in the bathroom of the stadium. After being placed under arrest, offi cers found Xanax in Dixon’s posses-sion.
He was arrested and booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish prison.
Man arrested for iPhone theft
Man arrested for possession of Xanax
He was arrested and booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish prison.
Contact � e Daily Reveille’s news sta� at [email protected]
CAMPUS CRIME BRIEFS
HEALTH
SmokingWords talks air qualityJacy BaggettContributing Writer
identifi ed Adrian Mark Steib of 43026 Cypress Bend, Gonzales , as a suspect. Lalonde said Steib admitted to the theft, and offi cers recovered the phone.
He was arrested and booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish prison.
Contact Jacy Baggett at [email protected]
Faithful Ellen DeGeneres fans on campus got a treat Tuesday when LSU senior soccer goalkeeper Mo Isom strode on stage during “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
Isom discussed her attempts to join the LSU football team, yet it was never mentioned that she didn’t make the cut this spring.
The segment began with a clip of Isom on a field, talking about her dream to land a spot on the football team, as well as shots of campus monuments.
“When I realized I could kick the skin off a football, I decided to try. The guys took me under their wing right away,” said Isom, who
will re-audition for a spot on the team this fall. “It’s so much fun. It’s a whole other level of intensity.”
Isom told DeGeneres she want-ed to join the team because she was raised to love football as a child.
“I grew up in a football cul-ture,” she said. “I’ve always loved sports; my dad was a football play-er. I’ve always been competitive and athletic.”
Isom said she enjoys trying to “pull off the impossible,” but it took her a while to learn the new skill.
“It’s very different from kick-ing a soccer ball,” she said. “It’s completely different mechanics.”
Isom said she received positive responses from the team’s coaching staff and players, and they were “too excited” to get involved right away.
“I hope a lot of young women are listening to this right now,” DeGeneres said. “You don’t want this to seem like a publicity stunt; you really, really want to make this team.”
Isom’s segment ended with shots of her kicking field goals on a studio lot. She gave the audience a final piece of advice before the show came to an end.
“The only thing more danger-ous than allowing others to put limitations on what you can achieve is allowing yourself to believe them,” she said. “Go where your passion is.”
“Swung on and hit to right field. That’s way back there, way back there! Home run! Tigers win! Tigers win! War-ren Morris hits a two-run, home run and the Tigers are the national champs! I don’t believe it!”
With these words, LSU radio broadcaster Jim Hawthorne captured the moment the Tigers claimed the 1996 College World Series champion-ship — the Tigers’ third national championship in six years.
T h r e e - a n d - a - h a l f seconds is all the time it took Miami Hurricanes
All-American freshman closer Robbie Morrison’s breaking ball to clear the right-field fence in the most dramatic moment in College World Series his-tory.
Never before and never since has a college championship game been decided on the final pitch. LSU junior second base-man Warren Morris hit the historic home run, bound-ed around the bases and touched home amid his frenzied teammates.
But not captured in Hawthorne’s broadcast is how the nine-hole hitter ended up at the plate with a runner on third base, two outs and the Tigers’ season hanging in the balance.
MORRIS’ CAREER UPS AND DOWNS
Morris arrived at LSU in 1993 as a walk-on with an academic scholarship from Alexandria.
Buried on the depth chart by All-American second baseman Todd Walker, Morris redshirted and took to soaking up as much information and as many ground balls as pos-sible.
“That was probably the best thing that hap-pened to me,” Morris said. “I got to get stronger, bet-ter and see what big-time college baseball is about. It also gave me some con-fidence that even though these guys are good, I can compete with them.”
Then-LSU coach Skip Bertman said when watch-ing tape of Morris and Walker’s swings, coaches couldn’t tell the two apart.
“You could have put him into a shadow,” Bert-man said. “What that showed me was that War-ren took all kinds of advice from Todd, who he knew he would succeed.”
When the Minnesota Twins drafted Walker with the eighth overall pick of the 1994 MLB Draft, Mor-ris took his place at second base and thrived.
Morris hit a team-leading .369 and hit eight home runs in 1995.
The following season, Morris hurt his wrist while batting against Tulane and missed 39 games after
SportsWednesday, April 4, 2012 page 5
SOFTBALL
Mo Isom appears on ‘Ellen’
Tigers to take on Nicholls StateAlbert BurfordSports Contributor
Rachel WarrenStaff Writer
Contact Rachel Warren at [email protected]
NICHOLLS, see page 7MORRIS, see page 7
photo courtesy of WARNER BROS
LSU senior soccer player Mo Isom kicks field goals Tuesday during her appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to discuss her tryouts for the football team.
Morris Better
With a pivotal road trip to No. 2 Alabama looming this weekend, the LSU softball team (26-8, 9-1 Southeastern Conference) must survive a contest with Nicholls State tonight before shifting its fo-cus to the Crimson Tide.
Nicholls State (8-21, 4-4 Southland Conference) visits Ti-ger Park after a 1-0 win on Sunday against Texas State, who was fa-vored to win the Southland Confer-ence.
The No. 24 Tigers last faced the Colonels on March 7 in Thibodaux, where LSU routed Nicholls for a 10-2 victory.
The teams’ first encounter this season ended in five innings and was highlighted by back-to-back home runs with two outs from se-nior left fielder Ashley Langoni and freshman shortstop Dylan Supak.
Langoni finished that game with three RBIs and two runs, while Supak added two RBIs and two runs of her own. Junior catcher Lauren Houston tacked on two more RBIs.
Junior pitcher Rachele Fico racked up six strikeouts, while sophomore pitcher Meghan Patter-son secured the win with a perfect, two-strikeout seventh inning.
LSU coach Beth Torina said keeping the Tigers focused on Nicholls the week before Alabama has been difficult.
“Even in my own head, it’s dif-ficult to focus when we have such a big weekend coming up,” Torina
Man behind legendary ’96 home run had rollercoaster career at LSU
photos courtesy of THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
[Top] Former LSU second baseman Warren Morris hits the game-winning home run June 8, 1996, in the bottom of the ninth inning at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb. [Above] Morris hugs a teammate following the victory against Miami in the College World Series. [Right] Morris celebrates the victory while rounding the bases.
Scott BransonSports Contributor
The Kentucky Wildcats closed out one season of college basketball Monday night with a national cham-pionship, but they proved titles are usually won during the sport’s other season: recruiting.
Recruiting will take on an added prominence at LSU during this off-season.
With three seniors exiting the program and five scholarships avail-able, this year’s haul could define the Tigers’ long-term hardwood hopes.
To date, it’s been a mixed bag for LSU and coach Trent Johnson es-pecially within the state.
LSU infamously lost out on Louisiana’s two-time Gatorade Play-er of the Year, 6-foot-8 Riverside forward Ricardo Gathers, who has verbally committed to Baylor.
Gathers implied Johnson and his staff were lazy in their pursuit, which Johnson dismissed as “comi-cal.”
“Anyone that knows me knows that I’m about basketball,” Johnson said in February. “I take recruiting seriously because it’s about these kids. The work is for them.”
But Johnson has landed fellow Class 2A four-star shooting guard Malik Morgan, whom several scouts believe may be the state’s real star.
Morgan, a sleek 6-foot-4 shoot-er, led John Curtis to the Louisiana 2A title last month.
But with the senior departures, Johnson said LSU is far from fin-ished in this season’s recruiting class.
“We want to sign two, maybe three more guys in this latter period,” he said last month. “Losing seniors is always a concern, but bringing in tal-ented players is also a lifeblood for any program.”
The Tigers’ recruiting focus begins on the post. While Johnson
won’t comment directly on any spe-cific player, he acknowledged last month in a season wrap-up that LSU needs interior replacements.
It’s considered a long shot, but LSU is in the running for 6-foot-10 center Norvel Pelle, the No. 1 cen-ter in the Class of 2011 who had to attend a southern California prep school after not making adequate grades.
His coach recently said Pelle is considering LSU, and Johnson’s rampant West Coast and California connections could give the Tigers an outside shot at landing the coveted post phenom.
UNLV, San Diego State and UCONN are also pursuing Pelle, who decommitted from St. John’s in November.
Also high on LSU’s list is 6-foot-6 junior college forward Sha-von Coleman.
A Thibodeaux native, Coleman recently completed his second sea-son at Howard College in West Tex-as, where he averaged 14.5 points and 6.5 rebounds a game, making him the No. 8 JUCO recruit in the country.
Coleman would likely be an im-mediate starter and an instant boon to an LSU perimeter that shot 32 per-cent behind the arc last season.
He’s also expressed a keen in-terest in his home state’s flagship program, along with Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Iowa and Southern Mis-sissippi.
“If you’re from Louisiana, when you were a kid everybody dreams about playing for your home school,” Coleman told Scout.com in March. “LSU recruited me in high school, but not as hard as they are now.”
LSU’s other primary target has a distinctly international family feel.
Shane Hammink is the son of former LSU star Geert Hammink
and one of the top 15 recruits in Eu-rope, according to Rivals.com.
A 6-foot-6 small forward who is expected to grow a few more inches, Hammink plays at the prestigious Canarias Basketball Academy in Spain and is a lanky defensive force.
He was born in Baton Rouge in 1994 and is considering LSU’s
official offer, along with Florida, Iowa and Miami.
But getting all three promising prospects isn’t probable, and LSU may have to look at another late signee, much like Anthony Hickey’s unsung commitment last spring.
Prime candidates for that in-clude Pennsylvania power forward
Barnett Harris and academically plagued shooting guard Nate Guy.
Signing Day arrives on April 11, and with it comes a likely glimpse into the Tigers’ future.
The LSU baseball team’s bats came alive Wednesday night, pound-ed out 15 hits in a 10-2 victory over Louisiana College (10-15) to win its sixth game in a row to improve to 23-6 on the season.
LSU coach Paul Mainieri used a lineup composed primarily of reserve players in advance of the team’s trip to Gainsville, Fla., to face No. 2 Florida for a three-game series beginning Thursday.
“You give them a chance to play, and they get the opportunity to show whether or not you can count on them or not,” Mainieri said. “I thought some guys showed well, other guys were fair and some other guys didn’t show well at all.”
Louisiana College lead-off bat-ter Cole Bagbey sent LSU freshman pitcher Cody Glenn’s first pitch of the night through the left side for a single.
Glenn balked three pitches later to advance Bagbey to second base.
The Wildcats followed with two ground outs, the second of which scored Bagbey from third base to give Louisiana College an early 1-0 lead.
LSU junior second baseman Casey Yocom provided the Tigers’ first hit of the contest in the second inning on a single through the left side. Yocom advanced to third base on two wild pitches and later scored on a sacrifice fly from freshman third baseman Evan Powell.
Louisiana College senior pitch-er Greg Uzee entered in the third in-ning, and the Tigers met him with three runs on three consecutive hits before the Wildcats could record an out.
LSU added another run in the frame, totaling four runs on six hits to push its lead to 5-1 through three innings.
After the Wildcats closed its deficit to three in the top of the fourth, the Tigers answered back in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI ground out from sophomore designated hitter Jackson Slaid,
giving the Tigers a 6-2 lead.With runners at first and second
in the bottom of the fifth, LSU fresh-man center fielder Jared Foster hit a ground ball just inside third base to score senior catcher Jordy Snikeris.
Junior right fielder Alex Ed-ward followed the run with a hard grounder deep in the hole to short-stop. The throw to first was in time, but dropped by the first baseman, al-lowing senior second baseman Beau Didier to score from third.
Freshman catcher Tyler Moore, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs on the night, capped off the Tigers’ fifth inning with a two-RBI single to right field, busting it open, 10-2.
LSU used seven pitchers who combined to allow four hits, while striking out seven and issuing five walks. Junior pitcher Brent Bonvil-lain earned his first win of the sea-son.
Snikeris got his second start be-hind the plate and delivered with a career-high three hits, while scoring a run and adding an RBI.
“I was really seeing the ball
well,” Snikeris said. “I’ve been working in the cages a lot, especially not having too many opportunities early in the season. You’ve really got to take advantage of the opportuni-ties you get, and I think I did a pretty good job.”
Mainieri said he started Snikeris partly because he wanted a veteran behind the plate to manage the bevy of LSU pitchers.
“Jordy caught a great game,” Mainieri said. “I wanted him to catch tonight because I knew we were going to pitch a lot of young pitchers. I wanted a veteran leader back there, and I thought he did a really nice job.”
The Daily Reveillepage 6 Wednesday, April 4, 2012
BASEBALL
BRIANNA PACIORKA / The Daily Reveille
LSU junior outfielder Arby Fields safely slides under Louisiana College infielders to steal second base Tuesday at Alex Box Stadium. The Tigers won, 10-2.
Contact Scott Branson at [email protected]
Contact Chris Abshire at [email protected]
Scott BransonSports Contributor
Chris AbshireSports Writer
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Tigers top Louisiana College, 10-2
LSU looks at height, depth in recruting 2012 class
� e Daily ReveilleWednesday, April 4, 2012 page 7
“A man who stops advertisingto save money,
is like a man who stops the clock to save time.”
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said. “But we’re trying to only talk about Nicholls today.”
Senior right fi elder Ashley Applegate said a win against the Colonels could lead to success when the Ti-gers face the Tide on Friday.
“Playing well on Wednesday will al-low us to continue to carry the momentum that we need into our series next weekend at Alabama,” she said.
Momentum isn’t running short for LSU, as the Tigers have won their last 11 games.
Torina said Nicholls’ senior third baseman Ashley Ray has been a particular point of interest when scouting the Colonels.
Ray played a season at No. 8 Louisiana-Lafayette, a team that
has lost only one game so far this season, be-fore transferring to Nicholls.
“She’s always a tough out for us,” To-rina said. “We want to make sure we’re not facing her with run-ners on base and we’re getting people out in front of her.”
Torina said if LSU allows players to get on base before Ray steps to the plate, Ray
“will make it a ball game.”In the fi rst meeting between
the Tigers and Colonels this season, Ray hit two-for-two , accounting for half of Nicholls’ offense with two of the Colonels’ four hits and one of their two RBIs. She also scored a run.
Senior shortstop Juliana San-tos said it’s important to play well against other in-state teams.
“Nicholls, McNeese and Southeastern — they always come with their ‘A’ game,” she said. “They always play tough, and they always play us very well.”
NICHOLLS, from page 5
Contact Albert Burford at [email protected]
doctors struggled to diagnose the injury.
“I knew something was wrong right then,” Morris said. “I didn’t hear a pop or anything like that, but I couldn’t squeeze my hand, and it didn’t feel right.”
Doctors originally prescribed rest and time off from swinging the bat, but when the pain contin-ued, Bertman tried to contact an-other doctor.
“I called them, and naturally I couldn’t get them, but I left a number,” Bertman said.
The same day, the doctor called Bertman back and diag-nosed Morris’ injury as a broken hamate bone. Tasked with choos-ing between surgery or playing through the pain, Morris decided to have the surgery, just 16 days before the NCAA Regionals.
“Everybody is able to recov-er from surgery and get back to playing again at different levels,” Morris said. “I felt like if anybody could heal fast and get back in there, I could do it.”
Morris played a limited role in the days leading up to the championship game, still healing from the surgery.
“The fi rst game I played was about 28 days after the surgery,” Morris said. “I couldn’t swing, but I was fortunate to be back as soon as I was.”
In batting practice prior to the championship matchup with Mi-ami, Bertman remembers Morris
telling him he fi nally felt 100 per-cent healthy, just in time for the season fi nale.
Later that day, with the Tigers trailing the Hurricanes 6-5 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Morris found himself star-ing down the pitcher on the big-gest stage in college baseball.
“The last thing on my mind was hitting a home run,” Morris said.
Nevertheless, Morris depos-ited the fi rst pitch in the right-fi eld bleachers.
“When I turned toward sec-ond base and saw Miami’s whole infi eld on the ground like some-body just opened fi re on them, that’s when it really registered that we just won the World Series,” Morris said.
Bertman said the path Mor-ris took to end up at-bat with a chance to win the World Series is as remarkable as the home run itself.
“If that doctor didn’t get back to me that day, and Warren doesn’t make the decision to have surgery that day, we didn’t win that thing.” Bertman said.
MORRIS SEES SUCCESS AFTER COLLEGE
Days after his game-winning home run, Morris traveled to Mil-lington, Tenn., to participate in the Olympic Trials.
Morris made the U.S. Olympic team — coached by Bertman — won a bronze medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics in
Atlanta, Ga., and soon after signed a major league contract as the fi fth round draft pick of the Texas Rangers.
The Rangers traded Morris to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1998, who named him its opening-day starter at second base for the 1999 season.
“You have to pinch yourself that fi rst day,” Morris said. “Now you’re fi elding a ground ball and it’s Tony Gwynn that just hit it or Chipper Jones or Barry Bonds.”
Morris saw time with the Pi-rates, Twins and Detroit Tigers be-fore fi nishing his baseball career in 2005.
The Alexandria native re-turned home, where he now lives with his wife, 7-year-old twin daughters and his youngest daugh-ter who is nearly 2 years old.
Morris is now the assistant vice president and investment executive at Red River Bank in nearby Ball, La.
Morris said he can now give back to those who supported him throughout his playing career.
“People come to me with problems, needs, buying a new house or starting a new business, and I’m able to help them fi nd a solution,” Morris said. “It’s good to be back home.”
MORRIS, from page 5
Contact Scott Branson at [email protected]
Next up for the Tigers:
Who: No. 24 LSU (26-8, 9-1 SEC) vs. Nicholls State (8-21,4-4 Southland Conference)When: Today at 6 p.m. Where: Tiger Park
College is often deemed prac-tice for “the real world.”
Engineering students construct designs, English students compose short stories, chemistry students swirl solutions in beakers. We at The Daily Reveille publish articles to in-form our campus, serve as a platform for discussion and hold our policy-makers accountable, whether they hail from the state Capitol, the Board of Regents, the LSU System Office, the University’s administration or Student Government.
SG claims to function the same
way that an actual government entity would — it has executive, legislative and judicial branches, the president can issue executive orders, the Sen-ate uses parliamentary procedure and the University Court issues rulings, many of which spark controversy.
Members of SG often gripe about why people don’t take them seriously, why their voter turnout is low and why people don’t appreciate their hard work. The UCourt’s most recent ruling answers that question.
After a few SG election code violations, the most prominent of which found Your LSU using the SG logo on a Facebook page, UCourt
ruled Your LSU could no longer campaign during the runoffs, held Monday and Tuesday.
“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citi-zens to confess by word or act their faith therein,” ruled former Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson in 1943.
Injunctions, which mandate that some form of expression be halted, are exceedingly rare at the Supreme Court level.
But by forcing the Your LSU ticket to stop campaigning, the SG UCourt essentially issued an injunc-tion preventing them from express-ing their right to free speech in a pub-lic arena. What damage could have come from Your LSU campaigning that would have been great enough to force them to stop doing so?
Would the ticket’s use of the SG logo inflict pain upon every member of the student body? Would it cause mass chaos and anarchy at the Uni-versity?
Yes, the Your LSU ticket broke the rules. Its members deserve to be punished, but not to the extent of
surpassing the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which weighs a bit heavier than the SG constitu-tion.
If SG members want students to take them seriously, perhaps they should consider playing by the same rules as the politicians of the United States and ensuring the right to free speech is extended to every student on campus, whether or not they agree with the message or the way in which it’s delivered.
The RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912.
It sank again in theaters in 1997. And today, it sinks yet again — in 3-D.
As James Cameron’s Oscar-winning epic “Titanic,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Billy Zane, embarks upon a sec-ond silver-screen cruise, my heart, for one, won’t be going on.
“Titanic 3D” ultimately is what it is: sweeping, succulent, smoochy. It’s Cameron, along with Billy Zane, at his best.
Which, of course, is filmmaking at its worst.
To put it plainly, Cameron’s a loathsome asshole.
There’s a certain hard-hearted cruelty about Cameron, something inhuman, something “Alien.” An alter ego Cameron is someone ever-faithful recurring collaborators call “Mij,” or “Jim” backwards.
But one shouldn’t mistake
Cameron’s layer-cake personality for depth.
It’s been said that people are icebergs, that much of their bulk is submerged — Cameron is, too, I suppose.
He’s more an ice cube, though.Cameron is the quintessential
big-budget filmmaker, for all intents and purposes. His movies — for they are certainly not merely “films” — are among the most expensive ever made.
“Terminator 2: Judgement Day” was the first $100-million-budget movie. “Titanic,” the 1997 voy-age, was the first movie to navigate $200-million waters.
Cameron’s most recent offering “Avatar” exceeded even that, costing $237 million.
But Cameron’s Hollywood legend is his hustler’s penchant for delivering titanic returns on titanic cinematic investments. Astonish-ingly, the gross box-office receipts of “Avatar” totaled almost $2.8 billion, a record-breaking performance that might never be eclipsed.
What’s more is that it was Cameron’s “Titanic,” gross-ing more than $1.8 billion, that
“Avatar” leapfrogged.With the superpower of special
effects, Cameron is the superhero of cinematic capitalism, something of a filmmaking Green Lantern.
His superhero symbol: $.And why not? The man’s a
walking dollar sign.According to legend, when
Cameron pitched a sequel to Ridley Scott’s “Alien” to Twentieth Century Fox, he casually soft-pedaled to the room’s drawing board and scrawled: “Alien$.”
“Aliens” was subsequently re-leased in 1986, suffice it to say.
But no Superman is without his weakness.
Cameron’s kryptonite: $.For the re-releasing of
“Titanic,” Cameron has been pre-dictably criticized.
“Look, there’s always going to be people that can piss in the soup of anything good,” he said at the film’s red-carpet premiere in London. “But frankly, I think that remembering Titanic, remembering the history — that’s what the film was there for. That’s why I made it, you know.”
Sure, Jim — or is it “Mij”?Cameron’s argument holds no
water, unlike the subject of his mov-ie.
Though his words may have once floated, they immediately sank when he commissioned the re-re-lease of “Titanic,” his dollar-signed eyes on a bountiful prize: The re-release coincides, of course, with the disaster’s 100th anniversary.
“I think the film is a good focus-ing agent for [the disaster] at a time when we should be remembering the
wreck and its message, the disaster and its message for all of us,” he said.
The message: $.Ultimately, Cameron is cap-
taining a sinking ship, but he won’t humbly go down with it. There’s not a cell of virtue in the man’s body.
Like his “Titanic” character Rose, Cameron “will never let go.”
Of the almighty dollar, that is.
Phil Sweeney is a 25-year-old English senior from New Or-leans. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_PhilSweeney.
The Daily Reveille
Opinionpage 8 Wednesday, April 4, 2012
The Daily ReveilleThe Daily Reveille (USPS 145-800) is written, edited and produced solely by students of Louisiana State University. The Daily Reveille is an independent entity within the Manship School of Mass Communication. Signed opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, paper or University. Letters submitted for publication should be sent via e-mail to [email protected] or delivered to B-26 Hodges Hall. They must be 400 words or less. Letters must have a contact phone number so the opinion editor can verify the author. The phone number won’t be printed. The Daily Reveille reserves the right to edit letters and guest columns for space consider-ation without changing the original intent. The Daily Reveille also reserves the right to reject any letter without noti-fication of the author. Writers must include their full names and phone numbers. The Daily Reveille’s editor-in-chief, hired every semester by the Louisiana State University Media Board, has final authority on all editorial decisions.
Editorial Policies & Procedures Quote of the Day“If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail
above everyone else’s success.”
James CameronCanadian film director
Aug. 16, 1954 — present
Editorial BoardMatthew Jacobs
Chris BranchRyan Buxton
Bryan StewartAndrea Gallo
Clayton Crockett
Editor-in-Chief
Associate Managing Editor
Associate Managing Editor
Managing Editor, External Media
News Editor
Opinion Editor
SHIZUO KAMBAYASHI / The Associated Press
Director James Cameron poses for cameras March 30 during a news conference in Tokyo to promote his 3-D version of “Titanic.”
‘Titanic 3-D’ goes down with Cameron’s greed
THEPHILIBUSTERPhil SweeneyColumnist
Contact Phil Sweeney at [email protected]
OUR VIEW
Contact The Daily Reveille’s Editorial Board at [email protected]
The Daily Reveille Editorial Board
Oppressive Student Government campaign ban goes too far
Sunkagain
Who the f--- is in charge of New York City’s public schools?
It’s understandable to censor a sentence like the previous one, but what about children’s stan-dardized tests?
The Department of Edu-cation has taken political cor-rectness to an entirely new and absurd level — references to “dinosaurs”, “birthdays” and “Halloween” will not be seen on NYC’s standardized tests.
Alluding to these topics has been deemed potentially offen-sive to children belonging to cer-tain groups. For example, a ref-erence to dinosaurs would upset any idiot who is dumb enough not to believe in dinosaurs.
We have fossils. Dinosaurs were here and they’re awesome. Accept it.
Mentioning birthdays could be offensive to Jehovah’s Wit-nesses, who do not celebrate them. Birthdays will now be re-ferred to as the day your father accepted stretch marks as a fact of life.
References to wealth and poverty are outlawed because they could make children jealous and more likely to rob and physi-cally assault their fellow class-mates.
The Department of
Education insists this is not censorship, but rather a regular change in language undertaken by the publisher.
Regardless of who is respon-sible, I think we can all agree this is overkill.
Public institutions are of-ten too politically correct, and concern about offending a small minority has suddenly made non-offensive words offensive.
A reference to a birthday has never been a middle finger to Jehovah’s Witnesses. It’s just something about 99.9 percent of us celebrate, so we talk about it.
Halloween is the same story. Anyone who is even the slightest bit fun celebrates Halloween, and 99.9 percent of Americans like to have fun.
Quoting “Jurassic Park” was never meant to offend anybody
dumb enough not to believe in dinosaurs. It’s a great movie, and about 99.9 percent of Americans have seen it.
Fact check me, I dare you. Everything is 99.9 percent.
Tests were never offensive. In the past, they may have rec-ognized differences in culture by alluding to Christmas, Kwanzaa, Halloween or birthdays.
Tests may have included
questions regarding one indi-vidual having more money than another, but this was never to of-fend the poor or alienate the rich. It was done to teach kids how to add and subtract.
We are actively trying to make our society as uniform as possible by masking our differ-ences instead of celebrating them.
In the real world, people are different. In the real world, people celebrate Christmas, Hal-loween, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Easter, birthdays and many other holidays.
So why do we avoid teaching our youth about topics they will undoubtedly face as adults? Are we educating kids more by not teaching them about important aspects of American culture?
Any parents who would be offended by a reference to any one of these topics need to have a long, hard look at themselves. Hiding cultures from America’s children when they are young could cause them to be distrustful of those cultures as adults.
We are all unique — why should we hide it?
Parker Cramer is a 21-year-old political science junior from Houston. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_pcramer.
Fight or flight.If someone attacks you, what
do you do? If you’re unarmed, flight
seems to be the most logical way to save yourself. But if you are armed, sometimes fighting back may provide you with the best chance for a positive outcome.
And the laws in many states back this logic. Such a law, com-monly known as “Stand Your Ground,” most recently made headlines in the Trayvon Martin case.
Florida law allows people to use deadly force against an as-sailant if they feel their lives have been threatened.
Louisiana has nearly the ex-act same law, allowing residents to kill an attacker if they believe there may be great bodily harm or risk of death.
For the most part, both of these laws have basically been around forever — and they make sense, too. When it comes to life and death, legally being able to
defend yourself is a right every-one should have.
Unfortunately, recent “Stand Your Ground” cases highlight problems with the law.
The most recent Louisiana incident occurred Jan. 2 in Race-land.
Jamonta Miles, a 15-year-old eighth-grader, and seven friends who were all members of a gang, set out into a neighborhood to confront an enemy with whom they had an argument on Face-book, according to The Associ-ated Press.
Instead of finding their Face-book adversary, the group of teens, armed with a handgun, wound up assaulting people at random, The Times-Picayune reported.
One of their victims, 21-year-old Byron Thomas, fought back, firing 9mm rounds in the gang’s SUV as they drove away. One bullet struck Miles in the head and killed him.
Despite the fact Miles was driving away, detectives con-cluded Thomas’ actions were out of self-defense, and he wasn’t ar-rested.
Another similar incident occurred in Baton Rouge on
Jan. 28, 2011. Late that night, Keith Brown allegedly kicked in the door to Baton Rouge resident Richard Alexander’s home.
Alexander grabbed a hand-gun and chased Brown out of his home. As Brown ran down the driveway, Alexander shot and killed him.
Though Alexander told po-lice he thought Brown had a weapon — Brown allegedly reached for his waistband — Al-exander was arrested for man-slaughter.
It turns out Brown did not have a gun after all.
In this case, the “Stand Your Ground” law apparently no lon-ger applied since the shooting oc-curred outside the home.
Where is the line drawn? Does it only apply if the assailant has a gun?
These two Louisiana cases are extremely similar. Both in-volved instances where a person could have felt his or her life threatened, yet there was a differ-ent outcome in each.
But if the facts were correct, I think both victims probably felt their lives were in danger.
While Louisiana cases point out one flaw, the Trayvon Martin
case sheds a whole new light on it.
On February 26, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, a neighbor-hood watchdog, thought 15-year-old Trayvon Martin looked suspi-cious as he walked through his Florida neighborhood, so Zim-merman called the police.
According to police reports and phone calls, Zimmerman was asked not to follow Martin and to wait until police arrived.
Zimmerman followed Mar-tin anyway.
When Martin, who was on the phone with his girlfriend, realized a strange man was fol-lowing him, Martin’s girlfriend testified to police he was scared and didn’t know what to do, so he started walking faster.
At some point during the chase, it appears Martin may have turned to defend himself. But really, who wouldn’t? He had a strange guy chasing him.
Conflicting witness reports leave us skeptical as to whether Zimmerman or Martin started the fight, but it ended with Martin be-ing shot in the chest.
Zimmerman has yet to be arrested. But he should.
If “Stand Your Ground” laws
don’t apply to someone who had his or her door kicked down, I have no idea how it can be justi-fied for someone who essentially scared someone into a fight.
Moreover, whether or not you start a fight, if you myste-riously start chasing someone while you’re carrying a gun and decide to kill them because they try to fight you, and then you claim self-defense, you deserve to go to jail for a long time.
Zimmerman didn’t stand his ground — Martin did, and it ap-pears he was murdered for it.
In most cases, “Stand Your Ground” laws are able to justify killings, but the Trayvon Martin case and recent Louisiana cases point out that the law may also hurt the law-abiding while pro-tecting killers.
Chris Grillot is a 21-year-old English and mass com-munication senior from New Orleans. Follow him on Twitter at @TDR_cgrillot.
The Daily Reveille
OpinionWednesday, April 4, 2012 page 9
NYC public schools over-censor standardized tests
THEC-SECTIONChris GrillotColumnist
Contact Chris Grillot at [email protected]
‘Stand Your Ground’ is good in theory, still fatally flawed
SCUM OFTHE GIRTHParker CramerColumnist
Contact Parker Cramer at [email protected]
ROLAND PARKER / The Daily Reveille
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Allsup described “Titanic” as his “borderline obsession” because of the relevance the movie holds to him personally and historically. Allsup said the movie sparked his interest in travel, boats and his eventual major discipline, history.
“The Titanic sinking was a piv-otal moment in history where class tension was high and man became a victim of the cult of technology in a major way,” Allsup said.
Historical merit is just one rea-son Susie LeJeune, English senior, is a fan of James Cameron’s $1.8 billion-grossing blockbuster.
“Titanic has suspense, ro-mance, action and history,” LeJeune said. “A little bit of everything.”
LeJeune helped Allsup co-ordinate the life jacket-wearing group of moviegoers and said she is thrilled to see the film in theaters.
“I was little when the movie first came out, so I think it’s really cool that I get to see it in theaters for the first time,” LeJeune said.
LeJeune is not the only “Ti-tanic” fan anxious for the movie’s rerelease in theaters. According to local Rave Motion Pictures man-ager James Jordan, the theater sold an excess of 60 tickets in advance for today’s inaugural screenings of “Titanic 3D.”
LeJeune said another reason for the movie’s high anticipation may be the plot’s renewed sense of plausibility, brought on by a recent commercial ship sinking.
On Jan. 14, the Costa
Concordia cruise ship capsized after running ashore on the Italian coast. The tragic event proved to be an eerie reminder that an event similar to the Titanic sinking can still occur, even in today’s state of heightened technological prowess, LeJeune said.
Amy Beecher, kinesiology ju-nior, said she plans to see the 3-D movie in theaters for sentimental reasons. Beecher said she has seen the movie more than 20 times, and it still takes her on an emotional roller coaster.
“It’s the first movie I ever saw and really understood to be very sad,” Beecher said. “I cry every time.”
Beecher said buzz over “Titan-ic 3D” has extended to people out-side the antiquated, romantic realm of the film’s fandom. She said she has overheard chatter among male students as to their thoughts on the movie’s most alluring quality — 3-D breasts.
Beecher is referring to the famous scene in which Leonardo DiCaprio sketches Kate Winslet wearing nothing but a blue dia-mond necklace.
Allsup and LeJeune’s group may have chosen to mirror life-boat survivors’ attire rather than that of Rose, Kate Winslet’s char-acter, but that doesn’t diminish the group’s admiration of the curly-haired star.
“Rose is caught in the mid-dle,” Allsup said. “She’s a rebel because she is willing to forsake a snobby, upper-class life in favor of a chance at love.”
The Daily Reveille page 11Wednesday, April 4, 2012
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‘TITANIC,’ from page 1
“Titanic” movie facts:• The studio wanted to cast Matthew McConaughey as Jack’s character, but James Cameron was adamant about casting Leonardo DiCaprio.
• The companies that crafted decor for the actual Titanic did much of the movie’s decor construction.
• The ocean that extras jumped into was about three feet deep.
• When Jack and Rose meet on the grand staircase at the movie’s end, the clock displays the time when the actual ship sank.
• Director James Cameron sketched Kate Winslet in the drawing scene and his hands, not Leonardo DiCaprio’s, are the ones in the film.
• During the “flying” scene when Jack and Rose kiss, the sunset behind them is real.
• Every female actress on set wore a corset, even the extras.
• It took 27 takes before the first spitting scene looked the right way.
• On the final night of shooting in Nova Scotia, pranksters mixed PCP into the clam chowder the cast and crew ate, leaving 80 people ill. Many were
hospitalized with hallucinations.
photo courtesy of THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this film image released by Paramount Pictures, the luxury ship is seen sinking in the 3-D version of James Cameron’s romantic epic “Titanic.”
� e Daily Reveillepage 12 Wednesday, April 4, 2012