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== Staff == |
== Staff == |
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'''Aaron B. Solem''': Aaron B. Solem is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the ''Minnesota Republic''. |
'''Aaron B. Solem''': Aaron B. Solem is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the ''Minnesota Republic''. |
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'''Tom Meyer''': Tom Meyer is a self proclaimed "all-knowing conservative scholar." In his first column, he debunked accusations that "conservatives are heartless monsters" and insisted George Bush cared about black people. Some of his more compelling arguments includeed "[Conservatives] are just as dependent upon the [the environment] as the dendrophiliacs on the left" and "Kayne West is just a blowhard idiot." Furthermore, his debut column included five punctuation errors, four petty insults, and atrocious word choice. However, Meyer claims he will attempt to answer future questions "in, at least, a marginally coherent manner." |
'''Tom Meyer''': Tom Meyer is a self proclaimed "all-knowing conservative scholar." In his first column, he debunked accusations that "conservatives are heartless monsters" and insisted George Bush cared about black people. Some of his more compelling arguments includeed "[Conservatives] are just as dependent upon the [the environment] as the dendrophiliacs on the left" and "Kayne West is just a blowhard idiot." Furthermore, his debut column included five punctuation errors, four petty insults, and atrocious word choice. However, Meyer claims he will attempt to answer future questions "in, at least, a marginally coherent manner." |
Revision as of 08:35, 26 February 2006
Overview
The Minnesota Republic was conceived in 2005 by University of Minnesota senior Aaron B. Solem as a "conservative alternative" to the two other University of Minnesota student publications The Minnesota Daily and The Wake. In actuality, it is merely a reactionary publication reflecting the views of a very small percentage of students at the University of Minnesota.
The inaugural issue was released in February of 2006.
Content
The Minnesota Republic is described as a "conservative alternative" to other campus newspapers. Although few would disagree that The Minnesota Republic is right-of-center, many would insist it is in fact a reactionary publication.
Ideology and Diversity
The Minnesota Republic's opening comments on diversity were made by Carlson School of Management professor Ian Maitland. Due to the conservatives' admitted status as a minority on the University of Minnesota campus, the Minnesota Republic breaks the mold of conservatism in support of free speech. However, readers are quickly reminded of the frightening reality of extremism when they encounter Professor Ian Maitland's testimony on the "bogus theory that the quality of education is correlated with diversity." He continues to describe how the University of Minnesota's Systemwide Task Force on Diversity should cease its efforts from trying to attract different cultures to the University and draw women into otherwise male-dominated fields. Instead, he argues, the task force should focus on bringing "intellectual diversity" to the university, which is a clever disguise for his goals of bringing more Republican professors and students to the university. He makes little effort to hide the actual meaning of his statements:
"What viewpoints are underrepresented on campus? That is an open secret--at least when it comes to faculty. The missing professors on campus are Republicans, evangelical Christians, pro-lifers, etc."
His entire article is based on a logical system of parallelism. In other words, he attempts to defeat an opposing argument by explaining where a different but similar argument fails. Knowing that he could not possibly defeat the argument of giving people of all cultures an equal chance in education, he instead argues that diversity does not help the quality of education in the classroom. First he gives the fairly agreeable statement that having a few students of different cultures in a classroom does not affect the level of education. Then he attempts to use the ideological momentum from this statement to conclude that diversity is unnecessary, neglecting the fact that there is diversity in our population, so a corresponding diversity in the classroom should be considered the norm, not the exception.
Because the Minnesota Republic has had and will continue to have problems with funding professed in the article "A Brief History of Alternative Newspapers at the U", this perspective on diversity will likely be present in the Minnesota Republic throughout its existence.
Comics
The Minnesota Republic includes a comic section, which currently displays comics obtained from CoxAndForkum. Although The Republic currently does not produce their own comics, they are seeking "artsy-types." The following four comics were published in the February 2006 issue:
Question a Conservative
It appears that Tom Meyer will be in charge of a Q&A column in The Republic entitled "Question a Conservative." In the inaugural issue he asks himself two questions, then proceeds to answer the very same two questions.
The first question Meyer asked himself was, "Is it true that conservatives are heartless monsters bent on paving the rainforest and bathing in endless pools of oil?" Rather than respond to serious criticism regarding President George W. Bush's handling of environmental issues, he instead mentions how he favors environmental conservation as opposed to preservation. He also makes a number of sarcastic remarks and refers to liberals as "dendrophiles."
The second question Meyer asked himself was "Why doesn't George Bush care about black people?" Again, rather than respond to serious criticism regarding the response to Hurricane Katrina, Meyer instead simply points out how President Bush has appointed two Secrataries of State with "ample melanin" and has donated money to help fight AIDS in Africa.
Give War a Chance
In this column, Spencer D. Miller argues that war is generally the only way to solve international conflicts. He cites The American Revolution, World War II and The Civil War to back up his claims.
Staff
Aaron B. Solem: Aaron B. Solem is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Minnesota Republic.
Tom Meyer: Tom Meyer is a self proclaimed "all-knowing conservative scholar." In his first column, he debunked accusations that "conservatives are heartless monsters" and insisted George Bush cared about black people. Some of his more compelling arguments includeed "[Conservatives] are just as dependent upon the [the environment] as the dendrophiliacs on the left" and "Kayne West is just a blowhard idiot." Furthermore, his debut column included five punctuation errors, four petty insults, and atrocious word choice. However, Meyer claims he will attempt to answer future questions "in, at least, a marginally coherent manner."
Funding
Quality
Many would argue that The Minnesota Republic does not adhere to a basic standard of professionalism. The initial issue was hindered by poor punctuation, including a lack of hyphens in compound adjectives. However, The Republic is still looking for editors, and perhaps the paper will achieve a higher level of quality in the forseeable future.
Documented Errors:
...The Need for Fees Reform
- Hyphen usage
- "... a road map for new and long time under funded groups."
- Comma usage
- "... at what point does The Wake or someday, The Minnesota Republic, become the Daily?"
...The Alito Nomination
... Coleman and the ANWR Vote
Bloggers discussion comes to U.
Allen Speaks at Coleman Fundraiser
A Brief History of Alternative Newspapers at the U
Smoking Ban Fallout
Give War a Chance
Diversity taskforce needs overhaul
- Capitalization Errors
- In the title, "taskforce" should be capitalized.
- In the title, "needs" should be capitalized.
- In the title, "overhaul" should be capitalized.
- Missing noun
- "... cannot present both Karl Marx's and John Stuart Mill's in the best possible light, ..."
- General punctuation
- "(That is through June of 2004 and counts only contributions of $200 or more)."
Alumni Column
Why I agree with Hillary Clinton and the Democrats
- Capitalization
- In the title, "agree" should be capitalized.
- "internet" should be capitalized, as it is a proper noun.
Question a Conservative
- Improper Comma Usage:
- ...in, at least, a marginally coherent manner...
- ...now go back to your bong hippie.
- Contrary to popular belief conservatives...
- Other Punctuation Errors
- In short, no, now... (should be two sentences)
- lets (missing apostrophe)
- Word Choice
- Kayne West is just a blowhard idiot.
Fallacy of the Month
- Improper Comma Usage
- ..I see people discussing, and debating...
- In a nutshell an...
- However they can be...
- If not why would...
- Other Punctuation Errors
- favored by the crazed protesting mobs, however they can be... (two independent clauses joined by a comma)
- Capitalization
- Ad hominem is not a proper noun, and thus should not be capitalized.
- Ad hominem was incorrectly capitalized eleven times.
- Ad hominem is not a proper noun, and thus should not be capitalized.
- Patent Nonsense
- it is used more as a rhetorically statement.
- Bush did not want to find evidence in pre-war intelligence, reasonable people on both sides of the isle felt there were.
Quotes
- "When it comes to facing the true evils of human existence, peace and diplomacy are rarely effective"
- -Spencer D. Miller
- "Professors, if they are worth their salt, aren't ideological parrots (except maybe in academic ghettos like Women's Studies)"
- -Ian Maitland, Professor in the Carlson School of Management
- "Kayne West is just a blowhard idiot"
- -Tom Meyer
- "Go back to your bong hippie." [sic]
- -Tom Meyer