The WarriorNiskayuna High School September 19, 2008 Volume 35, Issue 2

a student-run publication since 1974, now weekly

Inside this issue...

More changes at the high school!

“Burn After Reading” pleases audiences,page 6

Bush Doctrine is a failure,page 5

by Megan Sweeney

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Returning students to the high school will certainly have noticed a variety of changes from last year due to the construction. “We were very, very busy here over the summer.” said Mark Treanor, assistant principal. Throughout the summer, con-struction crews have been busy on a variety of projects.

Work continued on the new media center and the new C-hall wing. The media center should be completed by December or January. At that point, staff can start moving all of the books and computers into the new facility. It should be open for student use soon after. The new C-hall wing should be completed by the end of the year. If all goes according to plan, then it will be available for use during summer school. When the new wing is done, it will act as “swing space.” Classes will be moved to the new wing tempo-rarily so that the old classrooms can be renovated and converted to the new geothermal heating and cooling system.

This summer, the parking lots in the front and the back of the school were redesigned.This included a new student park-ing lot out front, a new music drop-off loop and a new teachers’ parking lot.

“With all the rainy weather this summer, it was close, but it was done just in time!” said Treanor.

Now, the school is in the pro-cess of making a new bus loop next to the old media center and the tennis courts.

“It really bothers me that con-struction won’t be done before we graduate, but the new park-ing lot is pretty snazzy!” said junior Jonni Aldrich. The sports fields are also being prepared in the front. These should be completed by October. When they are done, the fields will be

covered in sod and should hope-fully be available for use for the spring season.

During this week, work will begin on a new student court-yard at the front of the school, where the bus loop used to be. “It will be very nice when it’s done,” said Treanor. The front entrance will be moved to where the old print shop was. Now, they are

working on the foundation for the new front entrance.

Students and staff may have noticed that all of the ceilings have been removed in the hall-ways. This is to prepare for electrical work and piping to con-nect to the new boiler room. This summer, ceilings were removed and areas were isolated for abatement, to remove asbestos. The summer project was more roofing work.

“I’m just so proud of our kids and staff because we’ve had such a smooth opening. Even with all the work, we could still open on time,” said Treanor.

Despite the obvious improve-ments, many students aren’t particularly happy about the construction. “It’s a good thing, but it’s kind of a mess and makes it hard to get to classes,”

Girls swimming makes a splash!page 8

nisk.k12.ny.us

IT’S A JUNGLE OUT THERE: Construction continues at the high school. This year, the media center should be completed around January and the new C-hall by the end of the year.

said sophomore Faye Dohring. Junior Barbara Prescott added “Not only has the construction put a strain on our academic abilities, but it is crazy an-noying!”

Treanor said, “We’re at the point where things are start-ing to look better.” Although students may be disturbed by noise or inconvenience from construction, the majority of the work is away from the students. By the end of the year, some of the closed doors will come down, and the stu-dents should be pleased with the results. Freshmen this year are lucky, because they will share in all the results of the construction before they graduate.

“I love the tunnel!” said ju-nior Marcelle Tuttle.

The tunnel is still open, and students are encouraged to use it as much as possible to relieve the congestion near the New Cafeteria. “I’m excited to see what it (the tunnel) looks like when it’s done,” said freshman Colin Sweeney.

Students may notice that there are no longer stairs downstairs to the tunnel. The tunnel is still available for use, though, by going downstairs at the middle of F hall and through the art wing.

“We’re trying for minimal disruption of classes,” said Treanor. “I’m really happy about the progress!”

2 September 19, 2008 The WarriorNews

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Sen io r s p l ay mus i ca l l ocke r s

by anagha Tolpadi

newS

International Talk Like a Pirate Day, one of the finest pointless holidays ever invented, is today, Sept 19. This year, International Talk Like a Pirate Day falls on a Friday, so plan for an extended Talk Like a Pirate Day weekend! Today is the day when everyone can converse in the complicated but compelling jargon, often referred to as “pirate lingo.” Honestly, absurdity and silliness are the sole selling points of the celebration.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is probably the only holiday to come about as a result of a sports injury. Mark Summers and John Baur invented the holiday while playing a game of racquetball on June 6, 1995. One of them was injured, and he reacted to the pain by yelling, “Aaarrr!” Out of respect for the observance of D-Day, the two decided that the holiday would not be held on June 6. Summer’s elected to hold the holiday on Sept 19 because it was his ex-wife’s birthday.

Up till 2002, the holiday was simply an inside joke, but then, Baur and Summers sent a letter about the holiday to humour columnist Dave Barry, who liked the idea immensely. Barry began

to promote the day. After grow-ing media coverage, as a result of Barry’s column, the holiday is now celebrated internationally.

For those of you who fail to see how something so absurd can be considered a holiday, chew on this: the holiday has its own anthem (“Talk Like a Pirate Day,” written by Tom Smith), ringtones, T-shirts, a theme song, a pirate convention, an official video game (“Pirates of the Offical Sea”), a how-to guide and two spokespi-rates (Ol’Chumbucket and Cap’n Slappy.) The holiday also has three books, “Pirattitude! So You Wanna Be a Pirate? Here’s How,” “A Li’l Pirate’s ABSeas,” and a recent release, “The Pirate’s Life: Unleashing Your Inner Bucca-near.” Also, in the Nintendo DS version of “Sims 2,” the char-acters celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day through a special quest, which involves a pirate quiz, and in the online game, Neopets, “Neoboards,” fil-ters automatically change words like “see” to “spy” and “n00b” to “landlubber”

C a p ’ n S l a p p y a n d Ol’Chumbucket have declared 2008, The Year o’ th’ Philanthrop-ic Pirate. Fans are encouraged to use their parties to raise money for a laudable cause or “plunder for philanthropy.” Organizations

or rowing and ne’er instead of never)

*Ne’er conjugate your verbs! (for example: say “I be,” rather than “I am”).

*Growl and scowl often. Pirates do not use cultured tongue. Rather, they tend to mutter and growl.

*Ne’er speak in anything but the present tense.

*Gesture with your hands fre-quently. Remember that pirates spend most of their time on the deck of a ship, where the ocean, wind, waves and birds make it difficult to hear.

*Runwordstogether.*Start your sentences with

“Arrr, me hearty.” Everything else will come much easier.

Lastly, there is one point that must be made incredibly clear. Real pirates have always been terrible people, and they will be continue to be thus. They live their lives by pilfering, plunder-ing, looting, kidnapping, cheat-ing, raping, and burning cities. International Talk Like a Pirate Day is not at all suggesting that genuine pirates should be emulated. Rather, Captain Jack Sparrow from Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and other similar pirates should be imitated on this distinctive, wonderful holiday.

that have used International Talk Like a Pirate Day, in order to raise money in the past, include the Marie Curie Cancer Team in the United Kingdom and Doctors Without Borders.

Another recent addition is Team Pirate’s new Myspace page. For some time, Cap’n Slappy was on Facebook. However, his page was deleted, as Facebook decided that he is “not a real person.”

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is very important to the Pas-tafarians, those who follow the teachings of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, who consider pirates to be the original divine beings and the original Pastafarians.

The pirate grunt “Aaarrr” first appeared in the Disney film “Treasure Island,” which was based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.

“International pirate day is aaarrright with me!” said junior Nikki Horgen. Junior Kelly Jen-nings agreed, “Pirates are pretty cool because you can’t ‘ninja’ music for free off the internets,”

Hints to talking like a pirate:*Double up on all your adjec-

tives (for example: say a great, grand ship, rather than a big ship).

*Drop all your “g’s” and “v’s.” (for example: say rowin’ instead

by Robbie lillquiST newS

Some of the things that people hold most dear are often taken for granted. Say, hypo-thetically, that one is stranded in the desert with no source of water. Now in Niskayuna High School, one could simply stroll down to the water fountain and drink to your heart’s content, so long as the person waiting behind does not become impolite. However, when lost in a barren world of sand, one realizes how precious water really is, now that it is gone.

Earlier this year, the seniors at Niskayuna High School found themselves in a comparable situation: their lockers from the previous three years were taken away. Not only were they taken away, but they were not replaced

Yes, the whole desert-water cliché is an exaggeration. No matter how many umbrellas, books and coats a student has, being without

a locker is not the same as being without water in a desert. However, it was a shock to many twelfth-graders to return and have nowhere to put their belongings.

Assistant Principal Rebecca Gleason said that according to a survey done last school year, many juniors, current seniors, did not use their lockers. Those lockers were essentially wasted space in this crowded school. Also, the summer construction removed some of the lockers. It is doubtful that too many 2008 graduates used their lockers last year, so the leaving class alone could not provide enough lockers for this year’s freshman class. There were also some security considerations, so it was safest to start over and give freshman, sophomores and juniors new lockers and new combinations. In addition, last year’s locker system was not recorded into a spreadsheet or similar system, so it was deemed easier to

start over with this year’s new Power School management system.

About 180 seniors—roughly half of the Class of ’09—have since applied for new lockers. There are still empty lockers left, so if you are a senior without a locker and would like one, there is still time to apply.

The Warrior congratulates Brian Chow, Daniel Claridge, Tyler Hardy, Sara Koste, Daniel Kwiatkowski, Michael Shanahan, Kevin Whitaker and April Zhang for placing as semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

3September 19, 2008The Warrior News

by alexiS KiM

newS

On Friday September 12, Ni-skayuna Inter-Community Ser-vice (NICS) hosted the annual Courtyard Dance. NICS is a club that focuses on helping the com-munity through volunteering. NICS believes that rather than giving monetary donations, they should physically help make our community a better place. NICS hosts the Courtyard Dance every year to commemorate the school year and give students a chance to catch up after a long summer.

Due to construction and weather, this year the dance was not in the actual courtyard. It has not been there since 2004. And now the dance will never be in a courtyard because of the new school plan, although NICS plans on continuing to call the dance “Courtyard” because

of the memory of the exciting back-to-school dance that all freshman look forward to. The dance is thrown every year to fund NICS club for the upcom-ing year.

This years dance took place from 8:00-11:00pm and only cost $5 to attend. There was a variety of music ranging from techno to 50 Cent provided by the DJ, junior Charlie Heim. Courtyard had the makings to be a great dance; the only problem was the lack of attendees, due to the football game, field hockey game, and boy’s soccer game. There was also a camping trip with all those associated with the new exchange students and the performance taking place at Samuel’s coffee house by the student band Number One Dad. Many students had conflicts and were unable to come so athletes were allowed to enter

the dance after their games. NICS president, April Zhang and Ariel Nathan, tried to change the dance to Saturday but because of the short notice it was not possible. Although there were not a lot of people at the dance, the students that attended seemed to enjoy themselves, especially the underclassmen. Julia Kosineski, a junior who attended the dance, said, “I wish more freshman went be-cause I remember how much fun my freshman courtyard dance was. Hopefully they all will go to homecoming because they need to know how fun high school dances really are!” Others commented that there was a very diverse group of students at the dance. Senior Lauren Bomeisl mentioned, “Entering the gym and seeing my peers break it down to the fresh beats the DJ played warmed my heart like a

by lauRen niedbalec

newS

Along with a new crowd of freshman class, the high school is also welcoming a new program this year: the Freshman Semi-nar. This program is designed to bridge the gap between middle school and high school health education.

In middle school, students take a health class every year whereas health is only required to be taken for one semester in the high school. This means that students could potentially end taking middle school health in eighth grade, and then not take health ever again until the last semester of their senior year. This is a very long time to go without a class that works to increase a student’s well-being. The fresh-man seminar works to shorten this break and help students make a healthier transition from the middle school to the high school.

Teachers Jennifer Deeb, Casey Horner, Maureen Trefethen, and

Lonnie Wilson developed the Freshman Seminar Curriculum to help address some of the risk factors from the Communities that Care Survey that the former eighth-graders took last year as well as the new risks that have been discovered through the health surveys given out to high school students during selected gym classes. It also promotes Protective Factors to create awareness in the school and community. The Freshman Seminar aims to be meaningful to the freshman during their high school careers and to con-nect these incoming students to the school, community, and to health-advocacy groups.

Most freshman will be tak-ing the Freshman Seminar first quarter this year and only those who have no time to fit the health course into their schedule will be able to get out of taking this class.The Seminar itself all begins with the National Youth Risk behavior survey and other various sur-veys. It is similar to the survey

that is given to upperclassmen when they take Human Ecology in the high school, but is more designed to focus on the specific issues that incoming freshman face, such as cyber-bullying and internet use. After all of the questions are answered anony-mously, and the surveys are reviewed, seminar participants will select an issue about which they feel especially passionate. The students will then search out like-minded classmates that are interested in the same issues and then the groups will research their health issue to-gether with trips to the media center. In their search, they will be able to contact others that also advocate for or against the chosen issue. Finally, at the end of the ten weeks, the freshmen will present their group advocacy effort at a Parent/Community night. At the end of the course the students will receive a pass or fail for the class. In the pro-cess, the students will educate themselves, their classmates,

and their community about their chosen issue.

The Freshman Seminar pro-gram won’t just apply to the par-ticipants during their freshman year only. During the Parent/Community night, the students will also develop personal con-tracts regarding their health is-sue. The contracts will be saved throughout the freshmen’s stu-dent careers, and when they do enter high school Human Ecology later on, they can determine if they were successful with their primary goals.

Freshman, Alex Neidbalec, said “The freshman seminar helps freshman make the right choices before its too late. The freshman seminar is not just another health class that talks about the difference between right and wrong, it allows stu-dents to advocate their chosen issue in the community.” The health teachers look forward to meeting and working with all of the freshmen this year.

Another look at a health class

hot bowl of honey.” At the dance, SADD sold wa-

ter and handed out key chains and bracelets to encourage good decision-making. Kelsey Mai-uccoro, treasurer of Students Against Destructive Decision-making, said, “I had hoped there had been a better turn out so I could have generated more money for my club. We were expecting a night for profit, and ended up with a night full of tears”.

Senior Lauren Bomeisl said at the conclusion of the eve-ning, “The dance didn’t have a chance to be anything close to what it has been in the past. All upperclassmen-including those who may have outgrown high school dances-should plan on getting their groove shoes in gear and dress to impress for we owe it to the youngins to show ‘em how it’s done.”

Courtyard Dance poorly attended

EDITORIAL POLICIES

Letters to the editor are welcome from all members of the school community, and can be delivered toWarrior staff or sent via

email to: thewarrioropinion@gmail.com. The Warrior reserves the right to edit letters for grammar, length, and content.

Signed opinion articles express the opinions of their creators. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus of the paper’s edito-rial board, consisting of the Opinion section and the Editor-in-

Chief.

The op-ed pages are a forum for students’ opinions and ideas.

The WarriorNiskayuna High School, 1626 Balltown Road, Niskayuna, NY, 12309

http://www.nisk.k12.ny.us/nhs/warrior

For a one-year subscription to The Warrior, please send a check for $25.00 to: The Warrior, c/o Niskayuna High School, 1626 Balltown Road, Niskayuna, NY 12309.

4 September 19, 2008 The WarriorOpinion

Editor-in-Chief:Daniel ClaridgeJulie Slotnick

News:Lauren Niedbalec, EditorAnagha Tolpadi, EditorHina Tai, Asst.

Opinion:Kaela Bamberger, EditorSam Dharia, EditorLucas Lobe, Asst.

Entertainment:Craig Dudek, EditorChris Murphy, EditorMarcelle Tuttle, Asst.

Sports:Kevin Kurtzner, EditorRachele Marra, EditorCorey Guilmette, Asst.

Magazine:Sarah Barry, EditorDinesh Kommareddy, EditorDan Stone, EditorRoshal Patel, Asst.

Additional Staff:Archith Murali, Copy EditorKatie Shea, Copy EditorBrian Vedder, Business ManagerChris Rivadeneira, Advertising ManagerAmy Yao, Web ManagerNina Santiago, Distribution ManagerEmily Bartell, Graphics EditorAdvisors: James Edgar Russell McDowell

Sarah Pa l in : Epic Fa i l in’by lucaS lobe

opinion

After eight years of one of the worst presidencies this country has seen under President Bush, four more years of the same look more and more possible every day. With the upcom-ing election, many people, Democrats and Republicans alike, are organizing their own parties, both anxious for November to come around when the next President will be elected. No matter who wins the upcoming four years, it will be a historic presidential ticket. On the Democratic side, there is Barack Obama, a black man whose father was born and raised in Kenya. Never in our history has a black man been on a presidential ticket, and only once in history has a woman been on a ticket. This year, however, we have another woman who joins her as a vice presidential nominee. Although not nearly qualified enough, Sarah Palin continues to gain support from social conservatives and swing voters as her name becomes more and more known around the globe. When asked to be vice president with Mccain, she said “I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me! What is it exactly that the VP does every day?” During the primaries to determine who would be the presidential nominee for the two respective sides, the Republican’s primary argument against Barack Obama, was his

complete lack of experience. He started his career by becoming a community organizer in the under belly of Chicago. From there, he became a state legisla-tor, and in 2005, became a U.S. Senator from Illinois. During the Republican National Con-vention, Giuliani laughed when he said the only experience Obama had was that of being a community organizer. If you are a loyal Daily Show viewer, however, you would have noticed that during one of the moments of Zen was McCain explaining on the news why this country needed more commu-nity organizers. Since Sarah Palin is com-pletely under-qualified to be a vice president, the Republican’s argument is destroyed. Pa-lin’s experience includes being mayor of a town of 7500 people, and then becoming a governor for less than two years, then straight to running on the presidential ticket along with John McCain. After she was announced the running mate with Mccain, she refused to have any inter-views with the press. The only reason for this has to be her complete lack of knowledge of international relations. The Re-publicans are so blind with ar-rogance and stupidity that they declare her worthy of handling international relation problems due to Alaska’s location near Russia. Yes, its true, the people in power of the world’s lead-ing country said being close to

Russia was enough interna-tional relations experience to become vice president - and since McCain has thousands of pages worth of medical history and is 72 years old, probably president as well. She uses her gender as a major backup if asked anything too hard, or is criticized at all. She declares that what the media is saying about her to be sexist, even though Clinton didn’t even use that argument when she was running for the nomination. The only reason the Repub-licans chose her is her view on abortion and her apparent appeal to many hill-billy Ameri-cans who like to hunt. Her view on global warming is that the jury is out on whether hu-man beings have played a role. She wants to destroy national parks in Alaska by drilling for oil. It was despicable, with glaciers melting, and ozone layers disappearing, to listen to the crowd at the Republican National Convention. “Drill, baby, drill” was its chant after Palin gave her riveting speech which aroused the whole nation to join her in destroying the world! Roe v. Wade, the Su-preme Court case about abor-tion, would be overturned and in no case could a woman get an abortion if Mccain sat in the White House. The other argu-ment the Republicans gave for why Obama shouldn’t be presi-dent is because during a debate against Clinton, he didn’t wear an American flag pin on his

suit. Yes, that’s right, Repub-licans are so petty, cheap, and stupid that they would give this as a primary argument. Palin and her husband were part of an organization for Alaska to sucede from the United States, a much more patriotic choice we have here on the Republican side. Furthermore, she knows almost nothing about how to run a government. She went into the governer job in Alaska with a balanced budget. At this point the state has a $13 Million deficit. On top of being a state with some of the most taxes per person, she has used state money to take “stay at home vacations.” She took federal funds for the “Bridge to Nowhere,” saw the criticsm and then decriede the project, keep-ing the money. In conclusion, I ask of all of you students at our great Nis-kayuna High School, if you are able to vote, vote for Obama. If you aren’t able to vote, beg your parents to save the world and vote for Obama, so that when we realize it’s too late, our generation doesn’t have to deal with the problems the Repub-licans are creating. If Barack Obama is elected to be the next President of the United States of America, all of the problems that George Bush created, or added on to, can hopefully be fixed. He will help end the whole oil crisis, attempt to stop the war in Iraq, and in general make people happier.

5September 19, 2008The Warrior Opinion

ALL OPINIONS expressed on the op-ed pages represent the individual viewpoints of their authors. The content does not necessarily represent the views of The Warrior, the high school, the school district, or the Board of Education.

by annie SchwendleR

opinion

Students today have so much to do, so give us less homework. Here’s why:

10. Pick any one of the over 40 extra-curricular activities or sports that our High School is so very pleased to offer us. Better yet, pick two. Or 13. In fulfilling the duties of being an active member of any of these organizations, one generally must set aside time to meet and work with other members.

9. Think about all the musical instruments out there, and now ponder the lessons required to master them. Contrary to popular belief, most people aren’t able to perfect Haydn’s infamously un-orthodox “Surprise” Symphony

on second part violin as well as first part cello after one session of sight-reading. Those of us who are not musical geniuses need to learn these things.

8. The instructors of said musi-cal lessons are far more enamored of their students if they spend time outside of their class rehearsing. This concept of practicing some-thing other than vocabulary words and definitions or the writing of a lab report may seem foreign to many people, but those who wish to succeed in the study of music set aside far more time for it than common knowledge implies.

7. Human nature is that of a consumer, and it is preferable for us to reserve at least five minutes to intake nutrients every day. This concept also applies to the ever-

popular inquiry as to whether we would like to see a teacher during our lunch break.

6. There are those of us who enjoy sleeping. Studies show that a teenager functions best when they obtain eight hours of deep sleep each night. This does not mean that they can stay awake until one reading and analyz-ing Othello between calculus problems on Thursday night and “catch up” on sleep on the week-ends. It means every night.

5. As crazy as it may sound, the teachers and administra-tors aren’t the only beings in the school who enjoy having a steady income. Some students have hours to work as well.

4. There are ten mods in a day, and most of us have filled a fair

Stop giving so much homework!few of those blocks with other classes. Occasionally, students have more than one teacher as-sign them homework.

3. Students would simply like to have lives outside of school.

2. Occasionally one comes across a student with a certain knack for a more obscure trade, or an artistic tendency that they further in their own free time. These are called hobbies, and they do still exist amongst the teenage population of America. Personally, I like to fill empty periods in my life by writing ar-ticles for the Warrior;even though I could count the number of students and teachers that will read them from beginning to end on one hand.

1. Some of us are just lazy.

The Bush Doctrine is a failed policyby SaM dhaRia

opinion

Governmental promises of security may sound nice at first, but eventually they degenerate into something even worse than we had thought. The constant quest to save people leads to violating civil rights. The “Bush Doctrine” states that the US can use preemptive force against nations which it perceives as a threat, a dangerous idea if implemented.

The constant quest for safety actually leads the government to take actions that end up harming more people. Daniel Callahan of the Institute of Society and Ethics made a compelling point saying, “There seems to be no imaginable evil which some group is not willing to inflict on another for sake of survival, no rights, liberties or dignities which it is not ready to suppress… it is capable, if not treated sanely, of wiping out all other values. Survival can become an obsession and a disease, provoking a destructive singlemindedness that will stop at nothing…if the price of survival is human degradation, then there is no moral reason why an effort should be made to ensure that survival.” The current “Bush Doctrine” does exactly that. The government has already reached a dangerous point within the confines of Guantanamo Bay. In the “prison” thousands of inmates are held without trial and many are being tortured. The Bush administration calls it “enhanced interrogation,” the UN

calls it torture. In fact, there are probably hundreds of innocent people in the detention center. In December of 2006, they released 33 innocent people.

If anything, the Bush Doctrine is what causes a lot of terrorism anyway. Most terror-ists claim that they are angry over America’s renewed status as the “World Police”. Philoso-pher and political scientist Slavoj Zizek ex-plains, “American intervention will contribute to the emergence of what America fears most: a large, united anti-American Muslim front… how could this not generate universal hatred in reaction? One can already imagine thou-sands of young people dreaming of becoming suicide bombers, and how that will force the US government to impose a permanent high alert emergency state.” Our intervention has created nothing but backlash and the violence it tries to stop.

Furthermore, this unilateral action will be unsustainable as a government paradigm. Great military powers in the world system suffer from imperial overstretch of resources. Excessive spending on troops, navies, and weapons systems that saps investment from the civilian sector and contributes to the gradual erosion of economic competitiveness, soon as first rate powers lose money and tax revenues decline from increasingly inefficient economies stop the ability to use military force abroad. Ancient Rome suffered the exact same problem. They tried to control too much of the world around them and eventually just

fell apart. We are already feeling these effects Charles Maynes of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has noted, “the United States has very few other units available for peacekeeping duty. If America is to strive to be the world’s hegemen, in other words, not only will the US defense effort have to be radically restructured, but the costs will mount exponentially unless we are willing to cut existing sections of our military, a point on which the new hegemonists are largely silent. The US commitment in Bosnia provides a glimpse into the future. The burden of US involvement, initially estimated at 1.5 billion, surpassed 7 billion in April 1998.” But more importantly, unilateralism destroys all nego-tiating power of the United States. Allies and other countries feel excluded in international decision making which leads to lack of trust and cooperation. Going at it alone ignores other countries interests and creates a bar-rier against the U.S. having credibility and prestige in an international arena.

Our next president must not follow the Bush Doctrine, but I hope that his advisors at least know what it is. Hopefully they will see that it is unsafe, unsustainable, and unproductive. The safety of the world depends on it.

6 September 19, 2008 The WarriorEntertainment

by John Scala

enTeRTainMenT

After watching the Coen Brothers’ critically acclaimed film, “No Country For Old Men,” I wondered if there was a point to the movie. After watching the Coen Brothers’ latest film, “Burn After Reading,” I understood that these movies don’t really have any points at all. Then again, in the end every story doesn’t need a point. In real life things don’t just work out nicely, conclusions are often messy and things don’t always work out in a way that ties up every loose end and leaves everyone with a decisive future. Things in life are uncertain.

That being said, without its pointlessness, “Burn After Read-ing” would not have been as effective a farce. The film mocks the exploits of several unrelated people in Washington D.C. who

“Burn After Reading”succeedsget caught up in a whirlwind of insanity., There really is so much involved in this movie that it is im-ppossible to summarize it with the respect it deserves, but to sum-marize really quickly, Chad Black and Linda Luitze (played by Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand respectively) find a C.D. contain-ing the memoir of ex-C.I.A. agent Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) whose wife Kate (Tilda Swinton) copied off his computer along with his financial information so she could get the money when she divorced him so she could live with Henry Pfarrer (George Clooney) with whom she is having an affair (See why I said this could get complicated). When Black and Luitze mistake Cox’s memoirs for secret C.I.A. information, they try to blackmail him. This is where things start to get crazy and no one really knows what’s going on.

This is the funny part so I’ll let you enjoy that for yourself.

Of course the style of the Coen Brothers is definitely present in the film; there is plenty of dark humor and a peculiar element that is not outside the realm of reality but somehow still in the realm of imagination: specifically a device built by Pfarrer that would not be tasteful to discuss in detail. I suppose the term, “It’s all fun and games until someone gets their brain blown out…then it’s hilarious” would apply well to this film (even though I can’t think of anything else it could apply to.)Then again, it takes a real gift to make a movie funny even when people are getting killed and it’s even more impressive when the killing is funny. It makes you feel guilty after that laugh has escaped you. That’s what I found great about this movie; it was able to

elicit that real emotion, like when you laugh after seeing someone fall, but then you feel bad when you realize their leg is broken.

My only real complaint with this movie was the pace. It got to a bit of a slow start while it was establishing the characters and setting up subplots, and we all get annoyed by that, however overall I think it paid off. The acting was great, which is to be expected from such a good cast; even Brad Pitt, who has never impressed me, was excellent as the happy idiot. To me the most standout performance in the film was John Malkovich who was exceptional. I’d say that “Burn After Reading” is worth seeing and worth the ten dollars for a movie ticket, unless you’re one of those people who likes conclusive endings that neatly tie up all those loose ends, just like in real life.

“Monk”moves to the bookstoreby JaSon KaSMan

enTeRTainMenT

I can tell you are depressed, just by the fact that you’re reading this article. Your shoulders are hunched, and there are bags under your eyes from your tears. No doubt, the pain you are feeling comes from a lack of the channel “USA’s” hit “Monk.” Fact: Psychologists prescribe specific medications for Monk-Withdrawal. Symptoms of Monk-Withdrawal of course include straightening items on your desk, and carrying around large boxes of wipes (so that you can shake hands with someone and not have to worry about your hand falling off). But in real-ity, psychiatrists prescribe no such thing. I was lying. But now all they have to do is hand out this article.

Every summer, fans of the show tune in Fridays at nine, to watch their favorite ob-sessive compulsive detective solve the most impossible cases. If someone were murdered with a penny, “Monk” would notice that it was made in the Pennsylvania Mint in 1972, a year where there was a terrible mistake on the first two hundred pennies printed (Abe’s beard was too short... he looked ter-rible) meaning this person must be some kind of coin collector, or in contact with a coin collector... meaning it could only be one person! And then, low and behold, it is. Believe me, this is amazing.

But every year, with the start of school, we’re suddenly struck with an immense longing for Adrian Monk. The only remedy (besides getting the season on DVD), is to read the books! That’s right, Lee Gold-

berg has written six novels based on the series, and they’re better than one could imagine.

I know what you’re thinking, a book based on a TV show? Sounds terrible. But it’s got all the things you love about Monk, and more. Monks little quirks are written wonderfully, and the characters are por-trayed just as they are in the television

series. Plus, the series is written from the point of view of Natalie, Monk’s Assistant, so viewers are going to get a completely different perspective.

If you’ve never seen the show (which is a very sad thought indeed), the books are a great way to get into the series. Goldberg introduces the characters perfectly, in a welcoming fashion to newcomers, and not boring to regular viewers. However, I would recommend that you don’t start with the first one “Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse.” In my opinion, it’s a little too mushy when Natalie falls in love with this fireman. As your first choice, go for “Mr. Monk in Outer Space.”

In this book a man gets murdered by a man who is dressed as a science fiction character, (which is fantastically similar to Star Trek) who is named Monk, and he needs help from his agoraphobic brother Ambrose who happens to be a die hard fan. The combination of Monk and Ambrose makes for a hysterical and engaging read.

Monk fans should know that this show sells itself. It’s different, it’s exciting, and wildly hysterical. So why are you still read-ing this article? When you heard that there were books, you should have dramatically thrown this to the ground and run to the nearest book store or libra-gym. Go now! Before they’re all taken!

www.tvcrazy.com

7September 19, 2008The Warrior Sports

Sw immer s s t a r t o f f s o l i dby KeRRy aRcheR

SpoRTS

Swimming was in the spot-light throughout the month of August thanks to the un-believable Michael Phelps. His performance this year in Beijng was an inspiration to Americans of all ages, and sprinter Dara Torres was espe-cially important to middle-aged women who will forever see her as a role model. America was able to witness the energy and excitement involved in the sport of swimming after watch-ing almost any of the Olympic swimming events.

No event was more exciting than the men’s 400-meter free-style relay where Jason Lezak swam the greatest anchor leg in relay history, or Phelps’ 100- meter butterfly race where he won the race by just one one-hundredth of a second.

Dara Torres’s upset in the 50-meter freestyle was devast-ing, and all of American felt her devastion. She paid for Phelp’s win, losing by just one one-hundredth of a second.

Good sportsmanship was evident in the Water Cube this year, especially in Torres’s ac-tions just before a preliminary

race in the 50-meter free-style. Knowing that one of her competitors had ripped her bathing suit, Torres held up the race until the woman could get to her position be-hind the block.

Although the excitement from the Water Cube has come to an end, the excite-ment is just beginning to heat up at the Niskayuna High School pool.

The girls’ varsity swimming and diving team is just get-ting started and anticipates a very exciting and fast season. Led by team captains Kerry Archer and Lauren Cardinal, the team is off to a great start with eight new members.

On September 6, the team competed in the Hudson Val-ley Invitational against 12 other teams at Newburgh Free Academy. Niskayuna placed third overall.

Freshman Leanne Archer said, “The results of this meet surprised all of us. We all had a great meet; many of us swam personal best times. Being able to watch two teammates qualify for the state meet at our first meet of the season was very exiting.”

Sophomore Emily Whitaker

and junior Laura Manor both qualified for the New York state swimming championship meet with their impressive times at Newburgh.

Whitaker qualified in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:58.56 seconds while Manor qualified in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:14.59.

“The team had a great start to the season; even with a few mess ups the team had an overall fantastic meet. Our sectionals team should be pretty strong and our relays are looking awesome,” Manor noted.

The team’s 400-yard free-style relay, made up of fresh-man Emma Terwilliger, senior McKenna Murphy, Whitaker, and Manor, placed first over-all.

The 200-yard freestyle relay, made up of freshman Leanne Archer, senior Kerry Archer, Murphy, and Whitaker was able to place second overall.

The team’s coach, Michael Stone, the aquatics direc-tor for Niskayuna, was also very optimistic about the rest of the season, “Guilderland and Shaker will be very close

meets this year but the girls have been working hard and I think they are ready for the challenge. We have a much stronger team than last year and I think the results will prove it.”

Come watch the excitement this coming weekend when the team hosts an invitational meet at the high school pool. Hope to see you there!

PREPARATION: The Varity girls enjoy some down time as they wait for Coach Stone to give them instructions for the next set in their practice.

photo credit / Rachele Marra

photo credit / Rachele MarraTAKING A BREAK: Sophomores Emily Whitaker and Laura Manor take a break from a tough set during an afterschool practice. The team has been training hard for the upcoming invitational meet that will be held at the high school.

The Warrior would like to apologize for the mistake made in last week’s article on the Mohawks hockey team.

Returning seniors to the hockey team this winter season will include: Michael Casey, Ryan Grant, Greg DuCharme, Chris Farah, Mike Tennenboym, and Ben Phillips.

8 September 19, 2008 The WarriorSports

Setting for success

Nis

ky

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or

eb

oa

rd Football

9/12 @ LaSalle L 12-28

Boys’ Volleyball

9/9 @ ShakerW 3-0

9/12 vs. SaratogaW 3-0

Boys’ Soccer

9/8 @ Saratoga L 1-2

9/10 @ BethlehemL 0-1 Girls’ Soccer

9/9 @ Saratoga L 1-2

9/11 vs. BethlehemL 0-3

@ Oneonta Hall of Fame Tournament

9/13 vs. Kearney L 1-2

9/14 vs. John Jay L 1-2

by JoSh callahan

SpoRTS

As the fall sports season picks up speed, the Boys’ JV Volleyball team is already beginning to heat up. Recently, the team attended a preseason tourna-ment at Colonie High School in order to practice in a valuable competition setting.

This experience helped the com-peting teams, which included Burnt Hills, Shenendehowa and Colonie in addition to Colonie, to recognize both their strengths and weaknesses. This will definitely help all of the teams as they enter into the 2008 playing season. With this information, the Niskayuna team was able to profit immensely by fixing any problems they faced in the preseason as well as improving upon their best attributes. Nisky fared well in the preseason tournament, winning all of its matches.

This gave the team a great boost of confidence going into the fall season. The JV Volleyball team expects to excel in the upcoming matches and season.

When asked to comment about the preseason results and this year’s overall outlook, team captain, Sophmore Andrew Fenaroli said, “We played great. I think that we’re the team to beat this year!”

Since games are being played three times a week on average, the JV team has only two days per week to practice. Therefore, the team must buckle down and work on the most importants areas of play.

Approaches, hitting, serving and other plays are modified when needed and re-peated numerous times. This gives the team and coach feel that during matches, when it really matters, everything will run smoothly and without mistakes.

So far, this has been the case. The JV team is 3-0 with wins against Colonie, Columbia and Guilderland. They defeated Colonie in the best of three series with scores of 23-25, 25-16, 25-12 at Nisk-ayuna High School.

The following two matches were much more intense, as they both went into the third game tied, each with one win and one loss. Nisky pulled off a close match versus Colombia with a third game score of 30-28 and took down Guilderland 25-22. The toughest opponents for Nis-kayuna this year will be Burnt Hills and

Shenendehowa.The team has already exhibited a high

level of talent this year. Chris Bianchi, an eighth grade science teacher at Van Antwerp Middle School, has been coach-ing Niskayuna volleyball for eight years and has high hopes for this year’s team. “This is the deepest our program has ever been.”

The team continues to progress because the team is always looking for something to improve. The boys plan to keep win-ning and hopefully remain undefeated. If performance stays the way it has been so far, going undefeated will not be an unlikely outcome.

The team is also hoping that it will be able to win the end of season tournament. Bianchi commented, “I think we have a great chance to run the table at the Subur-ban Council Championship Tournament. The sky’s the limit, as far as talent and capabilities with this group.”

A few of the upcoming matches include what is expected to be an intense match-up against Mohonasen on September 19 and a rematch versus Columbia on September 26. Both of these will be played on the home court.

As with any sport, support from the fans is much appreciated. The JV Vol-leyball team hopes to see you at the next home match!

photo credit / Dan Claridge

Practice: Freshman Ken Omiya prepares for a set.