Opinion: In today’s pages: Road trips, wild horses, and water
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Freedom House’s Sherif Mansour notes Egypt’s crackdown on Facebook:
Right now, the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is considering blocking Facebook, the social networking website that has become a popular hangout for twentysomethings worldwide and a favorite venue for Egypt’s disaffected youth. The reason: In April, one group of young citizens mobilized 80,000 supporters to protest rising food prices. Facebook networking played a crucial role in broadening support and turnout for an April 6 textile workers’ strike and protest. The Egyptian government, which has governed for 25 years under emergency law and doesn’t allow more than five people to gather unregistered, hit back hard, jailing young dissidents and torturing Ahmed Maher, a young activist who tried, unsuccessfully, to organize a second demonstration in early May.
Columnist Gregory Rodriguez wonders what gas prices will do to that great American tradition, the road trip. Author Deanne Stillman says that failure to enforce a decades-old law is harming the country’s wild horses. And Balloon Wholesalers Internation President Terri Adishian asks why Sacramento is regulating helium balloons when it has better things to do.
The editorial board continues its ‘Great Thirst’ series, saying it’s time for all Californians to share the burden of conserving water, and reports on a chilling new global warming forecast.
On the letters page, readers discuss the dirth of conservatives in academia. Pasadena’s Michael McLendon, an assistant professor at Cal State Los Angeles, says, ‘That most professors are registered Democrats is no indication they are prone to group-think or dedicated to reproducing ‘Obama-ism.’’
*Art by Tom Toles