two students at BC, are gain-ing a research credit. Grant is a mechanical engineering major, and although Josh is pursuing a biology degree, he’s taking the course because it is “the only re-search opportunity on campus.”

A group of three engineering students are using the course and the help of the instructor to build a robot for a competition at the American Society of Electrical Engineers taking place June 27 in Vancouver, Canada.

Groups of students are ex-pected to build a robot that can travel a certain distance, differ-entiate colors on dowels, take only wooden sticks of a specific color, and then come back.

The Renegade Ripwww.therip.comVol. 83 ∙ No. 3 Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Bakersfield College

Project APPleseed, FeAtures, PAge 3 jimAno’s PizzA, reviews, PAge 7 HAyden Keene, sPotligHt, PAge 10

Messages from America

Robots found in BC classroom By Tyler McGinty

Reporter

Robots are at Bakersfield Col-lege and they’ve been here lon-ger than you think. The Levan Institute for Lifelong Learning has offered a robotics workshop for three years.

The robotics workshop is a class that lets students learn at their own pace and experiment with controlling and building robots. The course is open to anybody in the community, and although the class itself doesn’t give credit, there are opportuni-ties to use the course to gain an independent research credit.

Josh and Grant Whittenberg,

By Mateo M. MeleroReporter

There is a lady going around the Bakersfield College Campus with a book, and inside this book she’s asking people to write down a message for the troops. She has a humble, gentle manner about her when she approaches people, ask-ing sincerely if they would like to write down something for active American Military troops in the Middle East. She’s not concerned with political affiliation or opin-ions, just a desire to let the soldiers know that people are thinking about them. That woman’s name is Shirley Reeder, and she is the wife of a Vietnam Veteran, an ac-tive volunteer for The Boy Scouts of America and a patriot.

For the past three years, Reeder has been filling blank books with hand-written messages from peo-ple and sending it to active-duty military troops in Middle East.

“The first book went to a friend of mine’s son and he was shocked to see that someone from BC would be writing notes and took the effort to get all these peo-

ple, not only from BC, but from the Boy Scouts,” said Reeder. “It was uplifting for him to know that he got something from America.”

Inside the newest binding of what Reeder calls “Messages from America” is a multicolored collage made up of cautions, con-cerns, well wishes, and drawings inscribed by people from in and out of BC.

Reeder, ever passionate about her cause, said, “We need to give messages to the troops to let them know that we care for them, [and] that whether we go for the war, or whether we don’t, we need to let them know that we support them, no matter what.”

Speaking about the outcome of one of the books she has compiled, Reeder said, “One of these books will go to a former student here at Bakersfield College,” said Reeder. “His first name is Will ... and it will go to his platoon. He was an Eagle Scout for the Boy Scouts.”

As an active volunteer in the Boy Scouts of America, Reeder retires flags on occasion. It was on

Please see ROBOTS, Page 4

By Brian N. WillhiteReporter

Bakersfield College students who were at The Dome’s Ice Breakers rave party witnessed the shooting that oc-curred there on Feb. 19 that left one dead. They discussed what they saw and their reactions to the fatal shooting.

The shooting occurred at approxi-mately 1:30 a.m. after a fight between two groups of men spilled into the street

in front of The Dome, according to re-ports from the Bakersfield Police De-partment and eyewitnesses at the event.

The victim has been identified by the Kern County Coroner’s office as 27-year-old Jessie Valdez. He died around 2 a.m. after being transported to Kern Medical Center.

Sophomore Nathan Wilson who was outside during the incident witnessed a group of Hispanic males beating up on one guy and repeatedly kicking him in

the head. Afterward when the fight was over and the attackers walked away, he reported that a black SUV pulled up and grabbed the man left on the street then drove up to the assailants and fired five or six shots before speeding away.

Wilson was among a crowd of on-lookers that stood within The Dome’s gates watching the fight as it happened but then ran indoors with others just af-ter witnessing the shooting. He noted how no one interrupted the fight though

a couple of people, including a Dome security guard, tried to check on the in-jured man before his friends arrived.

Wilson felt that witnessing the shoot-ing was an experience that he won’t for-get and said “seeing that really puts your life into perspective.”

Amber Perkinson, a sophomore at BC, and her friend first noticed some-thing was wrong when they tried to exit the building to socialize outside the ven-ue when they were stopped by Dome

security who asked them and everyone else to remain indoors. She recalled that moments later the music stopped and the house lights came on with someone re-peatedly asking everyone to stay inside.

“When people started getting a little loud and confused and some started yelling about a shooting having oc-curred, I just grabbed my friend’s hand and yelled for a few others that we knew and we went to the top of the bleachers

Shooting at The Dome sends ripples across BC

Unit limitsmay come to early registration

By Mateo M. MeleroReporter

In hopes of providing a solu-tion to class availability, main-taining maximum classroom occupancy during semesters, and to combat the student reg-istration tactic known as “Class Shopping,” Bakersfield College Biology Professor Joe Saldivar has proposed that a 14-unit limit be stipulated during early-regis-tration.

According to Saldivar’s writ-ten proposal, there are 18,209 students enrolled for the current semester.

The proposal noted that, “6,509 students on a waitlist (un-duplicated) and 2,170 of these students are not even enrolled in any other course. Having a seat in any course is extremely cov-eted.”

Having gone to the BC Institu-tional Research and Planning of-fice, Saldivar said, “I asked them if this proposal would have been implemented, this particular se-mester, how many seats would have been available and they crunched the numbers and said generously there would have been about 900 seats available.”

If instituted, Saldivar’s propos-al will allow students to register to up to 14 units during the fall and spring semesters, while the priority window is open, and five units for the summer. Certain students, who have achieved aca-demic goals, would be unaffect-ed by the proposal if enforced.

In outlining the proposal, Sal-divar said, “lets assume April 15 is earlier registration. So stu-dents who are able to register early, they can register for up to

Please see SHOPPING, Page 4

Please see SHOOTING, Page 4

Above: Shirley Reeder signs “Messages from America” on Feb. 22.

Left: A scan of a page displays some of the messages to the troops.

Right: “Messages from America” is a collection of words and drawings Reeder sends overseas.

PHOTOS By ANNIE STOCKMAN / THE RIP

KAyLA BROADHAG / THE RIP

Joshua Wittenberg (left) and brother Grant Wittenberg program their robot Feb. 17.

Please see MESSAGES, Page 10

“The robot we have to try to build has to have the capability of seeing the colors, seeing the wall so it won’t crash into it, knowing when to go back and forth and whatnot, and then once it’s done, to come back to the end of the board,” said Carlos Avlarez.

The three students have di-vided the work among them-selves with Antonio Gonzalez, 22, developing the software or “brain” of the robot, Jesus Ortiz, 21, working on the arm that will grab the dowels, and Alvarez, 22, designing the body and frame for the robot.

The team had the idea last

Bakersfield College student sends autographs overseas to soldiers

FeaturesWednesday, March 2, 2011Page 2 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

By Sandra G. WardReporter

The cold damp weather was still not enough to deter Wild West enthusiasts and all visitors alike from celebrating another year of Kernville’s Whiskey Flat Days Festival held Feb. 18-21.

Each year the Kernville Cham-ber of Commerce hosts the event to commemorate the 154th anni-versary of the historical town of Whiskey Flat, a long since gone mountain mining town which later changed its name to Kern-ville.

During the four day celebra-tion, Kernville, along with the help of many volunteers, re-cre-ate the days of the old Wild West with costumes, stage coaches and Native American crafts and teepees resembling those of days long passed.

Visitors were able to take a step back in time as they watched re-enactments of smoking gun-fights and hold-ups outside the Whiskey Flat Saloon and Old West Mercantile Shoppe. There was horse shoeing, cowboy cooking, saddle making, shotgun weddings and storytelling of old cowboys, miners and outlaws.

Vending booths dominated much of the area selling jewelry, clothing, leather goods and au-thentic handmade Native Ameri-can arts and crafts.

Folks were invited to join some of the few contests being held throughout the days of the event, which included various costume, pie, jelly and jam contests.

Fine foods were made avail-able by Sausage King and by a number of coffee shops located in the area, Plenty of live musical entertainment provided by bands: Off Track, The Knox Prairie Ramblers and Jest Reason, who were just a few to perform dur-ing the days of the festival.

There were many activities for kids to participate in such as making crafts, face painting, bounce houses, obstacle courses and mechanical bull riding.

The more major attractions of the festival were the Whiskey Flat Wild West Daze Rodeo, the popular frog jumping contest, the Kern Valley Museum exhibits and antique shop and the activi-ties of the Cowboy and Mountain Man Encampments.

On Feb. 19, the Whiskey Flat days Parade kicked off with this year’s theme being, “Goin’ to the Dogs: Cowboy’s Best Friend.” The 2011 Grand Marshals of the parade were Kern County Ani-mal Control Officer Fred May and Kimberly Mullins manager of Animal Control. Mullins also advocated having your pets spayed and neutered.

The 2011 Honorary Whiskey Flat Mayor was announced on Feb. 20 and two candidates were elected to share the honorary title, “Mean River” Gene Hacker and “Whitewater” Lucian Whit-man.

Wild West Flat Days

Rave featured DJs and dancing at The Dome

NATHAN WiLSON / THE RiP

Aaron “DJ Tails” Preciado performs glow poi at the The Dome on Feb. 18.

By Nathan WilsonPhoto Editor

Bastian Heerhorst, also known as Fukkk Offf, from Hamburg, Germany and other DJs such as Aaron “DJ Tails” Preciado, Elvin Ony, Bakersfield College student Matthew ”DrSax” Kar-nowski and DJ pSychobabble performed at an electronic music event called ice Breakers at The Dome on Feb. 18.

The rave was put on by Ste-reo Type Productions and drew about 200 people.

There was different music be-ing played by each of the DJs including dubstep, progressive,

tech house, and electro. There were two stages where

the DJs were performing. One of the stages was inside the main building while the other one was inside Club iCE.

People could be seen dancing to the music on stage with the DJs and Stereo GoGo’s as well as on the dance floor, while oth-ers were giving glove light and Poi shows to people.

Stereo Type Productions next event, Magikally Delicious, will be held at El Patio Hall, 425 30th Street on March 26 from 8 p.m.-3 a.m.

Presale tickets are $5, $10 at the door and $15 after 10 p.m.

Above: Contestants in the fancy men division of the Whiskey Flat Days costume contest await the decision of the judges in Kernville on Feb. 20. The contest challenges entrants to recreate authentic costumes from Kernville’s past.

Left: James Hollyworth (left) and Nathan “Crazy Fox” Eddy wait for the results of their divisions in the costume contest.

Below: Bull rider Cori Smith and his bull part ways during the Wild West Daze Rodeo at Whiskey Flat Days in Kernville on Feb 20.

PHOTOS By GREGORy D. COOK THE RiP

FeaturesWednesday, March 2, 2011Page 3 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

By Chrystal ForttReporter

Even though fashion trends become popular, everyone should pay attention to what trend that we’ll regret later on. Croc shoes are the best example of re-grettable trends. The footwear became pretty popular when they first came out because they’re primarily made for the comfort, not the look. I thought Crocs were the worst shoes to ever be made until I found Nike’s Jordan Heels.

Jordan Heels are exactly what it’s called, tie-up Jordan basketball shoes with a two-inch heel, with different styles, colors, text and textures avail-able. Luckily, Jordan heels aren’t sold anywhere in town.

The only way to buy Jordan heels is online and the cheapest pair costs about $70. I’m not sure why anyone would pay that much for a pair of shoes that fail miserably at being fash-ionable and that will be known as a fashion mistake in time. Jordan heels are said to be really comfortable, but who cares if they’re comfortable if they don’t look good, heels are sup-pose to be sexy and they are not sexy.

I don’t know much about sports, but common sense tells me that no one should ever attempt to play basketball in them even though they’re “basket-ball” shoes. Not even the most fash-ionably crazy celebrity, Lady Gaga, would be caught dead in those shoes, though she does have a way of starting bad trends.

Lady Gaga wore many animal hats, from lobsters to a goat head made out of synthetic hair. I like her ballsy, out-landish fashion, but it’s always a hit or miss and the animal hats are definitely

a miss.I see quite a few people with

animal hats on campus. I blame Gaga for starting the silly trend going around, but I also blame the on-cam-pus clothing and accessory vendors for encouraging the wild trend.

Though the hats aren’t like Gaga’s glam-sparkle lobster, they’re more like a stuffed toy owl with its head cut off and worn as a hat.

Though the trend is already here, an-imal hats were featured in New York’s fashion week for ready-to-wear Fall 2011 collections. Since animal hats have been featured in fashion week, the trend will probably become even more popular.

Animal hats are a fairly new bad trend but there are still old trends that have been around for a while. Probably the worst and oldest bad trends are terrible patterns that are mixed and matched together.

Walking around campus and town I occasionally see eye-piercing outfits of too many patterns or the same pattern for tops and bottoms.

Stripes and plaid are usually the ones to be used too many times in one out-fit, please don’t do this, it’s appalling fashion that will be regretted.Without a doubt basketball shoes with heels, wild animal hats and too many patterns will be some of the trends that we will look back on in 10 years, cringe, and say, “What were we thinking?”

By Gregory D. CookFeatures editor

Over the weekend of Feb. 26 – 27, Five Dogs Shooting Range played host to a shooting clinic with a deeper message than just hitting targets.

Project Appleseed is a program of the Revolutionary War Veter-ans Association with the goal of increasing awareness of how or-dinary citizens using basic shoot-

ing skills played important roles in securing our nation’s freedom in the Revolutionary War.

“We are an American heritage organization and we teach the tra-ditions of the American rifleman from the beginnings of our coun-try starting on April 19, 1775,” said Cameron Loessberg Jr., the shoot boss for the event. “We teach how our forefathers went out that day to fight tyranny.”The two-day program also included

instruction basic rifle handling. “We have a rifle marksmanship program where we teach rifle marksmanship to all walks of life,” said Loessberg. “We have people from 7 or 8 years old all the way up to 80 that come out to these.”

The rifle instruction is geared so that people who have never before shot a rifle can become proficient in basic rifle marks-manship. “We start at the begin-

ning,” said Loessberg. “The first thing we start off with is safety. Safety is priority one.”

At the end of the instruction, attendees are given the oppor-tunity to show what they have learned by shooting an Army qualifications test. “We teach all of the positions, standing, kneel-ing and prone,” Loessberg said. “And we shoot under the same time constraints they did back then.” People who pass the test

are given a special patch.Local resident Eric Wolfe at-

tended the event with his two children. “It’s a chance to study about American heritage and the skills that brought the coun-try to where it is today,” he said. “To learn the proper use of those skills is just great.”

The marksmanship training was mixed with educational teachings about the tactics and techniques used by Revolution-

ary War riflemen and demon-strations of the equipment they used.

“Ronald Regan once said ‘Our heritage is always just one gen-eration away from extinction,’” Loessberg told the attendees dur-ing one demonstration. “If we fail to pass it down to our chil-dren, it’s gone forever.”

For more information on Proj-ect Appleseed events visit Web site at www.appleseedinfo.org.

By Monica BolgerReporter

As African American History Month takes its final march through the last days of February, a Freedom Box-Traveling Trunk waits on display at the Bakersfield Museum of Art in honor of The Underground Railroad.

The Freedom Trunk remains show-cased through March 5 and holds au-thentic and replica pieces that were used during the period when fugitive slaves sought out their quest for freedom.

A pair of rusted metal shackles oc-

cupy the chest, along with two pairs of peasant clothing for a boy and a girl, cotton balls, locks of human hair, edu-cational books, and posters that give us an imaginative picture of what slaves endured during the 1800s when dis-crimination and racial segregation was at its highest.

Inhumane conditions, brutal punish-ments, long, hard labor and poor sources of food and shelter gave slaves the mo-tivation to escape to the promised land, also known as Canada.

The shackles were used to imprison slaves who wanted to escape.

They were locked around the wrists and ankles of most blacks, yet no mat-ter what the restraint was, slaves usually had no qualms in escaping to a safer and freer state.

Yet they were not successful every time and were often caught. The dis-played maps show travel routes that slaves took to escape – mostly under-ground tunnel paths, which created the familiar name known today as the Un-derground Railroad.

Above the Freedom Trunk hangs a se-ries of copied maps, showing routes that were most commonly used by slaves,

wanted posters that offered lump sums of money as rewards for catching them and a framed portrait in the center signed Frederick Douglass, one of the world’s most famous black men that was an anti-slavery and pro-African American rights activist.

Former second grade teacher Dona Rodriguez stood aside the trunk and was deeply touched after admiring its content and the surrounding material.

“I think what most people can’t un-derstand is to these people, you can take slavery away physically but not men-tally,” said Rodriguez.

Rodriguez is a generation and a half away from the era of black slavery and showed sincere emotion for the stories told by each artifact.

“I mean really, can you imagine what this must have been like,” said Rodri-guez.

Rodriguez is a retired teacher but still takes time to teach children on school tours on the importance of African American History.

The freedom trunk travels annually to different art museums all over the world in remembrance of the Underground Railroad.

Appleseed teaches heritage, marksmanship

MEGAN LUECkE / THE RIP

Revolutionary War Veterans Association shoot boss, Cameron Loessberg, demonstrates the gear used by riflemen in the Revolutionary War at Project Appleseed on Feb. 27.

MEGAN LUECkE / THE RIP

Attendees of Project Appleseed receive rifle marksmanship training at Five Dogs Shooting Range on Feb. 27. The course included lessons on the history of riflemen.

Keep Jordans on the court and animals in the zoo

BC student finds ways to cope with his adversity

By Amber T. TroupeReporter

As the middle child of seven brothers and two sisters, Anthony Rodriguez, a 22-year-old student at Bakersfield College, had a lot of challenges as a child. He was also born blind.

“You can call it visually impaired, but now that I’m older, I never let it get in the way,” Rodriguez states.

Rodriguez first attended BC in 2007 as a music major, but upon re-enrolling into college for the 2010 spring semester, he has since changed his major to physical educa-tion where he hopes to one day be-come a personal trainer.

“Yeah, I used to run track for Rid-geview High School, and I was a boxer,” he said.

Rodriguez is the recipient of two “Most Inspirational” awards. He has lived with this impairment his whole life but prides himself on being inde-pendent.

“I have my own income for my disabilities. I don’t take any type of medicine because I never needed or considered it. I just use my walking cane,” said Rodriguez.

He said that when he was younger he had a lot of help doing things. But since attending BC for his second se-mester, Rodriguez has never utilized the disabled services except Alternate Media, for lectures and studying.

He prefers to walk around by him-self with help from friends when needed. Ridgeview High School provided Rodriguez with all the nec-essary accommodations during his attendance. While at BC, Rodriguez said that he is just getting started meeting people and handling the feel of doing this stuff on his own. Al-though he is the only disabled mem-ber in his family, Rodriguez inspires his family and fellow friends.

He even received his high school

NATHAN WILSON / THE RIP

BC student Anthony Rodriguez drinks coffee with his friends inside the Campus Center Feb. 28.

Underground Railroad artifacts educate brutal conditions of slavery

diploma after two of his older brothers did not. He also motivates his impaired friends to attend college as well. Rodri-guez also makes his way to BC everyday using public transit without assistance.

His goals are to attend Cal State Ba-kersfield or the UC Santa Barbara upon his completion of BC.

“No matter what, you shouldn’t give up on your dreams. There shouldn’t be any reason to quit reaching your goals, what-ever they are,” said Rodriguez.

CHRYSTAL FORTT / THE RIP

Fashion Column

News Wednesday, March 2, 2011Page 4 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Bakersfield College Transfer CenterUniversity/College Representative Schedule

Spring 2011

MARCH

8th (Tuesday)** CSU Fresno, 9 a.m.-noon, Campus Center **

** National University, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Campus Center **9th (Wednesday)

** University of LaVerne, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Counseling Center **** New School of Architecture & Design,

9 a.m.-1 p.m., Campus Center and 1 p.m.-3 p.m., Counseling Center **

10th (Thursday) ** Fresno Pacific, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Counseling Center **

15th (Tuesday) ** DeVry, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Campus Center

21st (Monday)** National University, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Campus Center **

** UC Santa Barbara, 10 a.m.-noon/12:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m., Counseling Center **

22nd (Tuesday)** University of LaVerne 9:00-1:00 – Counseling Center **

29th (Tuesday)** DeVry, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Campus Center **

31st (Thursday)** University of LaVerne, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Counseling Center **

APRIL

11th (Monday)** CSU Fresno, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Campus Center **

12th (Tuesday) ** DeVry, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Campus Center **

13th (Wednesday) ** University of LaVerne, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Counseling Center **

14th (Thursday) ** National University, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Campus Center **

25th (Monday) ** UC Santa Barbara, 10 a.m.-noon/12:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.,

Counseling Center **26th (Tuesday)

** DeVry, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Campus Center **27th (Wednesday)

** Fresno Pacific, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Counseling Center **** National University, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Campus Center **

MAY

2nd (Monday)** University of LaVerne, 9 a.m .-1 p.m., Counseling Center **

5th (Thursday) ** National University, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Campus Center **

10th (Tuesday) ** DeVry, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Campus Center **

18th (Wednesday)** Fresno Pacific, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Counseling Center **

shooting: BC students recall experiences at the Dome’s rave

shopping: Putting an end to course hoarding

Robots: Transforming classroom educationsemester, although they didn’t start any development on it. Now they have a sketch of their robot, and are almost ready to start building it with the help of the industrial department and their rapid prototyper.

The last two students here are Donna Starr, a math teacher at BC and her 15-year-old son Tyler, a sophomore at Highland High School.

“I’ve been using the Lego Mindstorms for two years,”

Tyler said. “And I signed up for this class to learn more because the Mindstorms are like baby robots.”

Tyler has pursued robots as a hobby, and although it’s only his first semester in the class, he has already learned a lot more about programming robots.

“I’ve been able to make it move, I’ve been able to make

it make a sound, I’ve made it navigate with the little whiskers to avoid walls,” said Tyler. “I’ve got it to avoid shadows, and now I’m working on getting it to follow the flashlight.”

Ronald Siemens, the instruc-tor for the workshop, is very knowledgeable about the field, and is willing to tell people all about the advances that have been made. “Robots are flat out taking over,” said Siemens.

because I felt it was the safest place we could be in case people panicked and started stamped-ing,” Perkinson said.

She also stated that once po-lice arrived, everyone was told to stay indoors before finally be-ing let out after 2 a.m. Perkin-son said that once the authorities were there she felt safe, though she was upset that other patrons weren’t taking the situation seri-ously. According to her, numer-ous individuals were demanding that the music be turned back on to continue the party. She also said that though the incident was a frightening experience, she would attend another event at The Dome due to the quality of the security staff.

“Despite the events that un-folded, I would still go to another rave at The Dome and feel very safe,” Perkinson said.

Mathew Karnowski was an-other BC student at the show who was a DJ performing that

night. He heard about the in-cident later as he was working with the lighting backstage for another performer when some-one told him about the shooting.

“At first I thought it was a joke, but he wasn’t smiling. Next thing, the music turned off and everyone that had been outside in the smoking area was ushered inside the main arena by Dome management and security,” he said.

Once realizing that the shoot-ing was real, Karnowski, who was the designated driver for his friends, grabbed his group and immediately exited the venue through the Dome’s backstage door and drove his friends home before returning to pick up more people.

“When I came back for the second load of people, the police were already on the scene, and as I walked backstage I noticed they had started letting people safely out of the Dome to the parking lots,” he said and also comment-

ed on how calm everyone was at that point.

Karnowski hopes that people won’t judge the music scene as a breeding ground for violence but that it promotes “love, gen-erosity and a general positive at-titude” toward all attendees.

“I was concerned with this incident making the music look bad. This is something that could’ve happened anywhere in that area on any given night, but it unfortunately took place dur-ing our show. I’d hate for people to judge the music -- and the overall production -- based on what some few individual thugs thought was necessary,” he said.

According to police reports, the four men involved in the shooting were arrested on Feb. 20 by the Tulare County Sher-iff’s Department’s SWAT team. The accused have been identified as Rey Robert Avellanoza, 22, Semein Cruz, 18, Francisco Del-gado, 18, and Alejandro Amariz, 20, all of Earlimart.

14 units. Take whatever you can up to 14 units.”

Once registration opens for non-priority students, they will be given a 48-hour window to register for classes that will be closed to priority students.

“Now let’s assume that March 1 is then open registration. That allows those students who are not eligible for priority registra-tion – now they can take what-ever classes they want.

Once that window is closed, registration opens to all stu-dents, and according to Saldi-var, “Now on March 3 would be true open registration – it’s a free-for-all.”

Stemming from an experi-ence at the end of the fall 2010 season, Saldivar said, “It re-ally hit me last semester, earlier part of December, during finals week.

“At this time registration was going on, and I was bom-barded with e-mails and phone calls from students saying that not only could they not get into classes, they couldn’t even get on the waitlist.

“So then I’m taking a look at this dichotomy of empty seats and people trying to get into classes, and I already under-stood that this is going to hap-

pen next semester.”In talking with students, Sal-

divar became aware of the shop-ping technique and how students would register for classes be-yond their intended completion amount.

“These students are then drop-ping these classes maybe two to three weeks into the semester and what that does, is now there are empty seats, in which just a couple of weeks earlier, there where students clamoring to try to get into these courses,” ac-cording to Saldivar.

BC counselor Kathleen Ro-sellini said, “We see a lot of this happening, where students are just signing up for all these units and then you can see, they drop them.”

“Talking with students they’ll say, ‘Yeah, I took on too much’ or ‘Yeah, I shouldn’t of signed up for all those units,’ and what influences them, I think it var-ies,” said Rosellini. “The other students that take more than 14 units are those students that Dr. Saldivar is talking about ... they’re just shopping.”

Cornelio Rodriguez, BC Aca-demic Senate president said in regards to students dropping courses during the semester, “we want to respect the fact that we know life happens and we

know that some students don’t do it on purpose.

We know that financial im-pacts, work schedules, other demands that are put upon the students, force them to drop a class. They don’t do it just be-cause.

“We can say that we want stu-dents to be successful and we make the college accessible, so we bring them in, and now there is a statewide move to do more in terms of helping students fin-ish. Not just get them in, but fin-ish,” said Rodriguez.

“The proposal that Dr. Saldi-var presented is really an effort to help our students succeed and to help our students focus,” said Rodriguez.

According to Rosellini, “The ones that take a lot of units and do well aren’t going to be im-pacted.

President scholars are not go-ing to be impacted.”

Having been approved by the BC Academic Senate, the pro-posal will now be presented to the Kern Community College District Chancellor’s Cabinet.

Having talked with the Ad-missions and Records Depart-ment, Saldivar said, “We’re going to push to hopefully have this ready for December and Fall registration.”

Continued from Page 1

KAYLA BROADHAg / THE RIP

An example of a robot programmed by students in the Levan Institute Feb. 17.

Continued from Page 1

Continued from Page 1

CampusWednesday March 2, 2011Page 5 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

By Keith KaczmarekReporter

Recently, there have been bakopost.com fliers around campus advertising the free Web site as a place for BC students to buy and sell text-books. The site, only three weeks old, has even had an item in the Bakersfield Cali-fornian.

Reyna Olaguez, the co-cre-ator of the site, explained the reason for creating another place to buy textbooks in a world with eBay and Craig-slist.

“One of the main things to push us was finding out that BC students sell books outside and we wanted to do outreach there,” she said. “It’s really a site for you.”

She then related a story about a friend who had sat for six hours in front of the Cam-pus Center trying to sell three books, but with no success.

“It was something that was needed and my husband had the skills,” Olaguez said.

Her husband, Hector Guti-errez, is also a Cal State Ba-kersfield graduate. Olaguez, on the other hand, has a bachelor’s degree in political science from CSUB and is working on a master’s in Pub-lic Administration there.

When asked how the site is different from sites like eBay

or Craigslist, she said: “It’s different. You have to wait for your item [with eBay]. We are more community-orient-ed and local. [It is] not only to buy and look for textbooks, but for job opportunities.”

Reviewing the site, you can see the local focus, as it only carries Bakersfield listings.

The site itself not only has textbooks for BC and CSUB, but listings for job opportuni-ties and the sale of other items ranging from things as unique as an ultra-light aircraft to things as mundane as crates for your dog. The site also has a section for local rooms for rent and other housing ar-rangements.

When asked about her plans for promoting the site, Olaguez said, “We did print out some bookmarks and we were at CSUB and we are planning to go to BC and do a promotion campaign and we are planning to give out bako-post pins.”

Olaguez also mentioned a desire to get more local busi-nesses involved in posting job opportunities and internships for local students. The site, being only a few weeks old, has less then 20 job listings at the time of this article, but Olaguez hopes this will grow as students and businesses start to hear about the free site.

CSUB lecture discusses Zen cartoons

Zen cartoons will be the topic

of a public lecture by Richard Collins, Professor of English, founding dean of the school of Arts and Humanities at Cal State Bakersfield and published poet. The lecture will be at 7 p.m. on March 15 in the Seminar Room and is a free event.

BECA premiers ‘chair project’ during First Friday

BECA and Metro Galleries will be doing First Friday at the Downtown Arts District and this month will be the premier of the “chair project,” an event where chairs designed by local artists will be displayed. The event will take place on March 4 at 5 p.m. in the area of 19th and Eye Street.

BC Performing Arts to present ‘A Flea in Her Ear’

Bakersfield College Perform-ing Arts is presenting “A Flea in Her Ear”, a George Feydeau farce by Davis Ives. Shows will be at the BC Indoor Theatre, March 9-12 at 8 p.m. and March 12-13 at 2 p.m. Tickets available at the door or at the BC Ticket Office.

Flashback football game for high school alumni

Alumni Football USA is pro-viding a full contact football event played with high school rules where former players are matched up with their top rivals. Only the first 40 players to sign up will be given spots on the roster and spots fill up quickly. All games will be played in March and the site is determined once teams are formed. Alumni Football USA has raised over $120,000 for high school football programs. Sign-ups and details are at alumnifootballusa.com or contact Coach Hargrave at 888-562-0645. The fee is $95.

BC gameroom closed until further notice

The gameroom located in the cafeteria has been closed due to students violating the no food and drink policy. The room will most likely stay closed until se-curity cameras are installed, ac-cording to SGA.

Safe Space ally training on campus for anyone interested

Safe Space is holding a Safe Space training seminar to edu-cate students and LGBTQ allies about providing a supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered, and ques-tioning students on campus. The seminar will take place on March 2 in the Election Board Room from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Contact the SGA to learn more.

BC graduation deadlines rapidly approaching

The last day to apply for grad-uation is April 4. To begin the filing process, make an appoint-ment with the counseling center.

By Brian N. WillhiteReporter

Providing knowledge and leadership opportunities for the next generation was the focus at the Future Leaders Confer-ence held at Bakersfield Col-lege. The youth-oriented event was held in the Forum and was hosted by the Student Govern-ment Association.

The conference featured a line-up of community leaders and activists who encouraged the high school and college students in attendance to think about their futures and how they can be a leader in their lives.

Starting off the program was Bakersfield City Mayor Har-vey Hall who advocated being a volunteer and community activist as a great way to earn leadership experience. He stressed that giving back to the community should be a char-acter-building and rewarding experience that one can grow from.

Before closing his speech, Hall offered a few words to those in attendance who wish

to begin volunteering, “find it in your heart everyday to find something to give back.”

The program also featured speakers John Hefner and Jack Brigham from the Center for Kern Political Excellence, which is a program of the BC Foundation. The non-partisan organization helps students find internship, volunteer and schol-arship opportunities through lo-cal political institutions. They discussed ways that students can get involved with local government and noted some previous participants that suc-cessfully went through the pro-gram including state senator Michael Rubio and Bakersfield City Council members Rudy Salas and Russell Johnson.

Once a year CKPE also takes a trip to Sacramento to visit the state capital. The trip is open to any participants and will in-clude up to 100 students.

Another focus of the event was to educate students on the importance of financial stability in their lives. Representatives from F.I.S.H., which stands for Financial Independence Starts Here and is an organization

By James LiceaCopy Editor

A lecture was held at Cal State Bakersfield’s Dore Theater that had special guest speaker An-drei Codrescu, an author, poet, screenwriter, and National Pub-lic Radio commentator. The event was put on by Cal State Bakersfield’s Kegley Institute of Ethics, which is currently cele-brating its 25th anniversary. The lecture was co-sponsored by San Joaquin Community Hospital and the Norman Levan Center at Bakersfield College.

The topic of the lecture was a discussion about “Whose Global Village is it?” Codrescu stated the global village was a theory brought up in the past, which has since become more pertinent.

His lecture brought up topics including: advancements in tech-nology and how they’re affecting us and our culture, the positives and negatives of this “medium,” as he refers to it, along with the state of the world we live in and how it’s changing.

Codrescu made clear early in his lecture that he was not going to debate over whose Global Vil-lage it actually was.

The term Global Village was coined by a man named Marshal McLuhan, a philosopher who predicted a form of information would dominate our culture and “turn us into mindless slaves,” as Codrescu put it.

Codrescu went on to say that some people saw the potential of a Global Village in the Internet, when it was originally brought about. Information available so effortlessly, was said by many to be the ultimate power and was thought to bring about a “Cyber

Utopia.” “The only barrier to universal

harmony, as we saw it some years back, was ignorance of each other’s culture, mores, customs and skills,” Codrescu explained. “When everyone could partici-pate in everyone else’s wisdom, borders would fall away on their own and the narrow, nationalis-tic tribal impulses that led to war would just vanish.”

There are also others, Codres-cu explained, called Luddites, who saw this new found technol-ogy to be evil and believed that it enslaved humans to machines. There were many cases in his-tory that they felt proved this to be true, the Industrial Revolution being one example.

Luddites also believed the ad-vancement in technology was taking peoples time. Electronic products cost a great deal of money decades ago and time had to be dedicated to use them.

Codrescu explained that dur-ing the ’90s, too much time was spent trying to understand ma-chines turned into obtainable electronics that took no time to comprehend. Instead of having too little time, people started having a tremendous amount of time; work was faster paced making everyone a lot busier.

The truth, he said, is that time is the same as it’s always been, but our perception of it is altered. What free time people used to possess, between careers or oc-cupations, is now shared on the Internet, on facebook.

Codrescu stated that, “Human activity now consists of down-loading and uploading, our senti-mental and intellectual life takes place in public.”

Along with our time being

shared, health watchers, Co-drescu said, are connecting the Internet to various health issues. “Studies that link the Internet to everything from: blindness, obesity, carpel tunnel syndrome and plain old absence from hu-man company are appearing all the time.”

Despite these two theories, Codrescu spoke of the recent sit-uation in Egypt where websites like facebook and Twitter helped bring about a change in their government. What really made a change, he said, was when the government counteracted and turned off the Internet.

Groups that were originally brought together by facebook had to go into the streets and band together to protest. This was a change, because the main form of protest today, Codrescu explained, is forwarding e-mails. Our generation has experienced three wars that had no actual pro-tests, because everyone was too afraid of retaliation by the gov-ernment. Instead they forwarded e-mails to protest the war.

The situation, he explained, could have easily gone a differ-ent direction. “A few months earlier, in Iran, when the tyrant drowned the green revolution in blood, they used internet post-ings to make a neat file of people to arrest and torture afterward.”

He concluded his lecture with explaining a few of his personal experiences with technology and how our society has become so accustomed to relying on it for the most trivial tasks.

After the lecture, Codrescu an-swered questions from the audi-ence, followed by a book signing set up by Russo’s Books, which took place after the lecture.

By Keith KaczmarekReporter

Club Week was a little tame this week, with only four clubs presenting tables for students, as well as a table for the US Army.

The Geology Club hosted a table with various minerals and rocks and sold tie-died shirts for fundraising purposes. Jesse Richardson, presi-dent, said that the club existed to raise awareness for natural resources and enjoy the outdoors. She would like Bakersfield College students to know that “we welcome everyone and we are very so-cially active and have lots of events,” mentioning activities like their award-winning float for BC Homecoming and various hiking and field trips.

They have a Facebook group called Bakersfield College Geology Club and welcome students to connect with them there.

The Veterans Club presented a table selling flags and wristbands for fundraising and provid-ing literature for vets. When asked about what they would like BC students to know about them, vice president Brad Crowley said, “we exist and we’d like to reach out to vets of BC that didn’t know that we are here.” He also mentioned the club’s efforts to get a Veterans Center on campus, citing the huge number of vets on campus. They

have a facebook page for Bakersfield College Veterans Club.

The Theatre Club’s table had several members recruiting for the new semester and member Alex Ramirez said, “we are really open to incorporate other people” and “we are really trying to get more students involved.” He related past club events like performing for children’s groups and retire-ment communities and the club’s overall goal of improving the acting skills of its members. Stu-dents wishing to join the club should speak to the BC acting teacher Kim Chin or show up for meet-ings every Thursday at 4 p.m. in SAM 107.

Jamell Willey, president of the African-Ameri-can Student Union, said that his club’s main goal was the betterment of the self and fundraising to help incoming students. He said that people should join the club “if you are interested in mak-ing a change for yourself and stepping out into the shining light, ” also mentioning the club’s fo-cus on the next generation and various projects planned on campus. They meet Wednesday at 3 p.m. at the Campus Center.

Sgt. Ron Griswold was one of the U.S. Army members manning their table, and he wanted BC students to know that “we are a valued asset in helping them decide their future, whether it’s the Army or not.”

Web site offers more choices to buy books

City leaders speak to students at FLC

MEGAN LUECKE / THE RIP

Jack Hernandez gives a speech at the Future Leader’s Conference at BC on Feb. 26. The conference was held in the Forum and was hosted by Student Government Association.

through the United Way of Kern County, discussed programs that are designed to help students to save money through an In-dividual Account Program, or IDA. The initiative is a matched money incentive program for low-income students and allows them to receive $2 for every $1 saved, up to $2,000 for a total of $6,000 for approved expenses.

F.I.S.H representative Jim Wheeler spoke about the IDA and how it works. Students in-terested would need to sign up for the program then fill out an

application to determine eli-gibility, then write a couple of essays and include two refer-ences – preferably ones who have a vested interest in helping the individual with their finan-cial independence. The money saved must be used for any of three associated expenses: buy-ing a new home, starting a small business or college tuition and related expenses, though it does not include the option to pay off student loans.

Wendy Wayne, another repre-sentative from F.I.S.H., offered

stories of experiences and words of wisdom for the students at the conference. She encouraged ev-eryone to not only strive to be a leader in his or her community, but to be globally conscious as well through recycling and re-source conservation. She also encouraged students to “pay it forward,” or to think selflessly and to “believe in yourself, even if others don’t.”

To learn more about any of the programs or how to get involved, contact the SGA on campus for further direction.

Codrescu discusses ‘Global Village’ with community at CSUB lecture

BRANDON BARRAZA / THE RIP

Andrei Coderscu lectured, “whose ‘Global Village’ is it?” at CSUB’s Dore Theater on Feb. 22. After the lecture, Codrescu signed books and answered questions for the crowd.

BC clubs display their goods

News Briefs

OpiniOns Wednesday, March 2, 2011Page 6 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Winner of the 2003 and 2008 JACC Pacesetter Award

The Renegade Rip is produced by Bakersfield College journalism classes, printed by Bakersfield Envelope & Printing Co. Inc., and circulated on Wednesdays during the fall and spring semesters.

The newspaper is published under the auspices of the Kern Community College District Board of Trustees, but sole responsibility for its content rests with student editors.

The Rip is a member of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges and the California Newspaper Publishers Association.

Editorial Board Staff

Write The RipLetters should not exceed 300 words, must be

accompanied by a signature and the letter writer’s identity must be verified.

The Rip reserves the right to edit letters, however, writers will be given the opportunity to revise lengthy or unacceptable submissions.

If an organization submits a letter as a group, it must be signed by only one person, either the leader of the organization or the letter writer. Pen names are not allowed and anonymous letters will not be published.

How to reach us-Address: Bakersfield College,

1801 Panorama Drive, Bakersfield, CA 93305-Phone: (661) 395-4324-Web site: www.therip.com-Email: ripmail@bakersfieldcollege.eduAdviser ......................................................Danny Edwards

Editor in Chief..........................Michael WaffordOpinions Editor..............................Julian MooreSports Editor................................ .....Zak S. CowanCopy Editor ...........................................James LiceaOnline Editor................................Annie StockmanFeatures Editor............................Gregory D. CookPhoto Editor....................................Nathan Wilson

Reporters: Monica Bolger, Martin Chang, Andrea Delanty, Chrystal Fortt, Kevin Foster, Tawny Jamison, Keith Kaczmarek, Tyler McGinty, Mateo M. Melero, Michael Morrow, Esteban Ramirez, Cristal Rodriguez, James Timothy, Amber T. Troupe, Brian N. Willhite, Sandra Ward, Brandon Whited

Photographers: Brandon Barraza, Kayla Broadhag, Joe Cota, Ryan George, Megan Luecke

The Renegade Rip

’Gade Feedback “Who should Justin Bieber make his next collaboration with? Why?”

Compiled by:Rip Staff

Editor’s note: ’Gade Feedback is a feature that asks students their opinion on various topics.

Santiago Lazarit,undeclared:“Miley Cyrus because they are around the same age.”

Taiyon Jackson,undeclared:“Lil Wayne because he’ll make Bieber bigger because he’s hotter.”

Shelby Hannah,art:“The Backstreet Boys because I don’t like either of them. Be’ Be’ be gone.”

Brian Aguilar,radiology:“Alvin and the Chipmunks because they can harmonize well with their high-pitched voices.”

Ivan Silva,English and psychology:“Lindsay Lohan because she can’t sing.”

Staff Editorial

Athletics too much of a tradition to lose

There have recently been rumors around cam-pus among students and professors that the athletic departments of all California community colleges could be in for some major cuts when the state budget is passed sometime this summer. Some are even saying that athletics could be wiped out all together at the community college level.

This, my friends, would be a huge mistake.Athletics have always been a big part of aca-

demic institutions, and Bakersfield College is no different. There have been numerous professional athletes that have come out of BC including Colby Lewis, a MLB pitcher and winner of game three of the 2010 World Series, and Frank Gifford, an NFL Hall of Famer.

All of this success and tradition has become the biggest symbol our school has, and no one should even think twice about taking it away.

Although BC’s mission is, and should be, first and foremost to educate people, being part of a school body is so much more than that. It’s about unity, honor and pride, and our athletics depart-ment helps our student body achieve that by show-ing what BC students are capable of if they work hard.

It is absurd for there to be any cuts to educa-tion, not just athletics, to try and save California’s economy. Higher education is the best way to get our economy going, and California’s community colleges are more important now than ever.

Chancellor of Community Colleges Jack Scott recently made a statement on the budget situation in Sacramento and how important community col-leges are to California.

“California’s economy is highly dependent upon an educated workforce and it’s the taxpayer who is short changed when colleges and universities turn away students,” Scott stated. “If just two percent more of California’s population earned associate degrees and one percent more earned bachelor’s degrees, the state’s economy would grow by $20 billion. Those educated workers would generate state and local taxes of $1.2 billion a year and 174,000 new jobs would be created in Califor-nia.”

Commends to Jack Scott, but we as students, professors and coaches need to stand up against tuition being raised, classes being cut and athletics diminished.

All of this will not only hurt our economy, but it will also affect our traditions.

Who’s to say that after they take out the athletics department, they won’t cut all the community col-lege journalism programs? What about every the-atre program? Would we then stand up against it?

Let’s hope so.All of these separate programs not only help

educate students, but they also help students pro-duce a sense of togetherness with their fellow col-leagues.

Athletics are as important to our school as ev-ery other department on campus, and can teach students about health, teamwork, and integrity. When athletes compete against one another they are showing what we as human beings can do if we are steadfast in accomplishing our goals, and to take their outlet away would be all too wrong.

By James TimothyReporter

Canada has quite a few imports to our country. There’s hockey, maple syrup, Kids In The Hall, and this guy named Jeff, a friend of my roommate who occasionally appears in my liv-ing room to sleep on my couch for several days, play Call Of Duty and challenge our dog Frye for the title of dirtiest organism in the house. All are generally harmless, but I’m leav-ing one important import out. Can you guess who he is?

He’s got hair so perfect it’s like a dove’s wing, every time he opens his mouth all twelve-year-old girls within fifteen miles im-mediately explode into seizure-like fits of epic proportions, and he’s made more money than I’ll ever see before he’s even hit puberty. Justin Bieber is the fresh face in a long line of harmless, bubblegum pop singing teen idols that Hollywood has placed on the altar of tweendom. Before ‘N Sync and Backstreet Boys there was New Kids On The Block (who inexplicably had the nerve to name their suburban-white bread hit album “Hangin’ Tough”). Before New Kids On The Block, there was

Michael Jackson, and then there was David Cassidy, and the list goes on. It’s an unmistakable pattern and the template produces results.

The results are usually in the form of a seething, faceless mass of screeching preteen girls, crying and ululating and hoping desperately that their messiah will walk by so that they can demonstrate their devo-tion by brutally ripping his hair out by the roots, or clawing off a ragged patch of skin for a souvenir to bring home. It’s terrifying really, if I had the option, I would rather face down a couple of murderers in state prison with nothing but a toothbrush than a rabid herd of bloodthirsty tweens. But I digress. In the past couple of days I’ve been reading a bit more about Justin Bieber than I care to ad-mit. The phenomenon surrounding this boy is astounding.

I was impressed to learn that he actually writes (or co-writes) the majority of his songs, which sets him in a category different than your Britney Spears or your Miley Cyrus, whose songs are typically written by a combination of chain smoking for-ty-year-old male producers with soul patches and a nuclear-powered su-percomputer built with the sole pur-

pose of cleverly arranging the words baby, love, and yeah in the most au-dibly charming layout imaginable.

Something about him is different. Setting aside the lunatic fans, there

is the opposite side of the spectrum. Some people want this kid to die. Spend more than five minutes on YouTube and you’ll ultimately come across a heated debate between “Be-liebers” (no, I didn’t make that term up) and an opposing force of those types of guys who can’t get a date and instead spend most of their time on the internet criticizing movies and creating fake Facebook pages that make fun of victims of hate crimes.

You have to wonder what it is about Justin Bieber that actually inspires the impulse to spearhead a successful campaign to push “Jus-tin Bieber Syphillis” to the top of Google Trends. In addition, count-less rumors have been spread on-line saying that Bieber has joined a cult, or that his Mother was offered $50,000 to pose in Playboy.

Even his music videos have been hacked to direct users to websites containing adult multimedia or to fake pop-up news articles report-ing his death. I wonder if it’s Bie-ber’s lack of breasts that may be

dooming him to suffer constant defamation at the hands of ferocious Internet posters that never bothered to attack Spears or Aguilera back in the day. Is he really that threat-ening? Are they secretly attracted to him? I’m unable to ascertain the basis behind this vilification. Celebrity is a gift and a stigma that I’ll never be upset to not have. Bie-ber is another cute kid in the long line of teen and preteen idols that stage moms and scrupulous produc-ers have thrown to the wolves. He’s harmless, but his fame has risen him to that point where he is fair game for whoever wants to devote their af-fection to him, or whoever wants to set his mailbox on fire.

As a culture so in love with the the-atrical and the artificial, we welcome the disposable heroes so that we can watch them from afar, criticize them, and live vicariously through them.

Bieber, in my opinion, is not among the worst of the teen idols, for one thing at least he writes his own music. That’s to be admired in a profession where everything is provided to the star. But someday he’ll be gone and another will take his place. Or maybe not, I mean… He’s so dreamy.

By Amber T. TroupeReporter

Fashion is an ever-changing industry, with some fads that stay around up to date, while others drop away only to re-emerge years later during a newer gen-eration.

Well right now the new look for men and young boys as well as women seems to be skinny jeans. I understand that ev-eryone has their own opinions and choice of what to wear but I thought skinny jeans served a purpose. I thought they were made for skateboarders to make it easy to maneuver board tricks.

In the case of women and skinny jeans, if it is the appropriately sized figured woman then it looks good and on men it’s passable. But if they are overweight

or what society considers being obese, then it is not appealing at all.

This is one fad that has gotten out of hand, everybody is not qualified to coast around in skinny jeans. When I tried out a pair, I felt like I was being stuffed in-side saran-wrap like jeans, I automati-cally thought of an overstuffed hot dog and felt like the oxygen was no longer reaching my brain.

Some of these tight pant wearing youths, I truly feel it is ridiculous when you see a couple that are both wearing these circulation-cutting pants, holding hands sporting long hair. If you’re be-hind them, it looks like two women hold-ing hands. If that is the look your going for then awesome, but if not then maybe you males should rethink your apparel decisions.

By Gregory D. CookFeatures editor

Half a world away, history is rapidly unfolding as we sleep. Newscasters and headlines de-scribe these events as revolutions, and we, as Americans, instinc-tively celebrate revolutions. Af-ter all, that is how we won our own freedom, why shouldn’t we support others who want to throw off the yokes of their oppression? But do Americans really fully re-alize the consequences of what is happening and how it might af-fect our lives here?

The demonstrations in North Africa and the Middle East are something the world has never

seen. Never before have so many people, in so many different countries been swept up in such a powerful outcry for change. In the last few weeks, nine coun-tries have seen major protests from their citizens. At the time of this writing, two governments have been ousted, and a third, Libya, is teetering on the brink of collapse.

It is easy for us to view these events, in countries that many of us could not point at on a map, with a certain level of detach-ment, but what we are seeing on CNN today will be studied by our children in their history classes tomorrow. This unprece-dented level of change can’t help

but have a profound impact on the future not only of the region, but the entire world.

When we look at a map of Northern Africa, we see that the governments of three out of the five countries that make up the southern coast of the Mediter-ranean Sea have had their gov-ernments overthrown leaving the area in a very chaotic state. Nearly one third of the world’s merchant shipping passes through the Mediterranean, and two-thirds of all of Europe’s oil comes through the Suez Canal in Egypt. Chaos is bad for business unless your business is piracy. It is in the world’s best interest to restore order and control quickly

to the region, or we could see history repeat itself in the form of a new Barbary Coast.

And of course, there’s the oil. We may be living in the Infor-mation Age, but if you cut the world, it still bleeds oil, and the economic consequences of these revolutions should not be taken lightly. Tunisia, Libya and Egypt are major oil producers with Lib-ya producing over a quarter of the region’s exported oil, some 18 percent of the world’s supply.

While the United States re-lies on a relatively small portion of that oil, we consume some 80,000 barrels of Libyan oil ev-ery day; China and Europe im-port most of it. When that supply

is disrupted, as it was last week, the price of all oil skyrockets, and we find ourselves paying more at the gas pumps. Should this turn into a long-term interruption, the effects on the economies of the world could be devastating.

While it is only natural to cheer for the millions of peoples that are taking to the streets of their countries, risking everything to overthrow their oppressive gov-ernments, and make no mistake, they have been oppressed. And they, like all people, deserve their freedom. That is the fundamental ideal of our nation.

But we should remember that unlike our American Revolu-tion, these revolutions have very

few visible goals beyond casting aside their current governments. The masses of people taking to the street simply want their op-pression to end, but then what? If our time in Iraq has taught us even one small lesson, it should be that in the absence of power, chaos reigns supreme.

The North African region has historically been a highly charged hotbed of very passionate politi-cal and religious idealism, and the dangers of control of such a geographically vital area falling into the hands of extremists, or remaining uncontrolled for any extended period of time is some-thing the rest of the world can just not afford.

Bieber fever hype has no significance

Skinny-jean look not so appealing

Middle Eastern situation is an important history lesson in the making

PHOTOS BY KAYLA BROADHAG / THE RIP

The fad has both men and women wearing similar jeans.

Reviews Wednesday, March 2, 2011Page 7 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

BC Brains

Correct answer: Cytosine, Guanine, Adenine, and Thymine.

“What are the base molecules that form to create DNA?”

Editor’s note: BC Brains is a feature that asks students a question to test their knowledge of all things trivial.

Terrance Taylor,welding: “Gender and chromosomes.”

Justin Pool, history: “Glyamine, adenine, thymine and cytosine.”

Jamall Willey, real estate: “Thing one, two, three and four.”

John Villanueva, art and photography: “I know that a double helix form the actual base of it.”

Teal Moe, music: “Thymine, guananine, the ‘A’ one and the ‘C’ one.”

Compiled by: Rip Staff

By Michael MorrowReporter

Jimano’s Pizzeria is a slice of Chicago greatness. The reason why is the owner of Jimano’s wanted the best possible pizza and found himself loving Chica-go-style pizza. From the pizza, to the ribs and sandwiches, Ji-mano’s is the king of the town.

The piz-zeria, locat-ed on 9510 Hageman Rd. Suite A, of-fers pizza by the slice or whole pies

with many options. There are several choices on toppings and several choices on crusts, from thin to double dough and deep dish to stuffed pizza. Toppings range from all kinds of veg-etables to all kinds of meat, in-cluding Italian beef and Italian

Food review

By Cristal RodriguezReporter

Bieber fever has been in the air for a really long time, and doesn’t seem to go anywhere.

I would say about half the world’s popula-tion is obsessed with Justin Bieber, although it seems like an exaggeration, it’s not.

Bieber’s new movie “Never Say Never” was a total business success making 51.2 mil-lion so far at the box office.

I do not see the point of his movie. Every-one who is a true fan of Bieber should already know how his career started, YouTube, and

who signed him, Usher, so this movie, in my eyes, was a total waste of mon-ey.

I think they should have made this movie a two hour long concert film because the sing-ing and dancing were the only new thing this film showed, then again, I don’t think I would have lasted. Aside from his lame movie, Bieber also released a teaser album on Valentines Day titled

“Never Say Never- The Remixes” for all his lovely valentines that throw away their ten dollars.

I thought this was going to be the worst thing my ears ever listened to but I was wrong,

honestly this album was all right, thanks to the artists he worked with.

Chris Brown, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, and of course, Usher were the artists that were featured on this CD. This album only had sev-en songs and thankfully he only had one by himself, the other was with Jaden Smith.

What I have to say for this album is that his voice goes everywhere for every song. I understand he’s going through puberty but he could have went over his CD before releasing it and fixed a few things.

His voice to me is not all that, and I know that all these little girls who chanted in the movie theater “Bieber, Bieber, Bieber” are only into him because he is a cutie.

Boys, on the other hand, I have no idea and the only thing I can come up with is that they would love to have Disney channel star Sel-ena Gomez as their girlfriend.

He is no Michael Jackson, Prince or any-one of the outstanding legends or performers the music industry has seen. He’s just a teen who has the kids obsessed with him because of his sweet songs and his looks.

“Never Say Never” the movie was seen with the majority of the audience being kids and teens.

Plain and simple, Bieber is no mega star, soon to be legend or Grammy deserving art-ist. He’s just a kid entertainer with a boring movie and an okay album.

I respect him for all his hard work and ded-ication but that’s it. So please stop with the “Bieber Fever” because he’s not a big deal.

alBum review

movie review

By Martin ChangReporter

“Bulletstorm,” available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, is a game which is not perfect and has many areas that could be improved upon. But despite these problems, the game is very fun.

“Bulletstorm” tells the story of revenge gone wrong. Grayson Hunt, or Gray, is seeking revenge from his former boss General Victor Sarrano. As a hired kill-er, Sarrano tricked him and his

team, known as “Dead Echo,” into killing in-nocents. His friend Ishi Sato, the only person

left in his crew, had to become part robot in order to survive. The robot part of him is evil and threatens to take over his body.

They are aided by Trishka No-vak who is only helping them to get off the planet alive and take revenge on Sarrano for her own reasons. Her origin is mysteri-ous, and you learn about her

throughout the story. The game has been promoted

as a gleeful piece of excess, but it takes a bit of time to get there. The game immediately turned me off, by playing the opening of the story a bit too seriously. It was jarring to have Gray say funny lines filled with four let-ters words, then see Ishi almost die. But by the middle of the game, I was invested in the story and found it thrilling and enter-taining.

It also takes too long to get to the fun part of the gameplay. Be-fore the leash and skillshots are introduced the shooting action is ordinary and too repetitive.

One of the defining character-istics of “Bulletstorm” is its in your face sense of humor. Every character has some dirty outland-ish quip to say about the action.

Once I got used to the crazy dialogue I found it funny, but still annoying at times.

Between the skillshots system and the weapons given to you, it gives many ways to kill your enemies. The skillshots system gives you points for killing your enemies in creative crazy ways, like throw multiple enemies into

By James LiceaCopy Editor

Radiohead’s new album “The King of Limbs” is the first album the band has produced in four years. The album was indepen-dently released and is currently only available to be purchased by mp3. A disc will be available for purchase on March 28.

The album is eight tracks long and each song sounds exactly like the first minute of the first track: “Bloom.” While the song “Bloom” isn’t too bad, almost identical sounds dragging on for the duration of such a short album is too much for me to handle.

In their recent albums, the band has taken a different ap-proach, trading in what was once a guitar sound for the sound of an electronic keyboard, creat-ing different roles for each band

member. The lyric

content to each track had no real hook or cho-rus that stood out to me.

From what I understood of the lyrics, none of the songs had any literal meaning, they’re all sym-bolic of something that goes be-yond my comprehension.

To me, this is nothing but meaningless poetry, not even done in a clever manner.

I tried listening to each track several times to find one that stood out to me; one to pick as my favorite from the rest. It was too hard. Each track had two similar characteristics that turned me off: the morbid, falsetto sound of the lead singer, Thom Yorke’s voice and the slow, electronic beat in the background that reminded me of a slow paced techno song.

Bands have made gloomy songs in the past that were me-lodic and the tone of most of Ra-diohead’s earlier albums was just that. They were very depressing, but at the same time they were catchy.

“The King of Limbs,” travels to an entirely new type of de-pressing, with no catchy lyrics to be found. The type of feeling it did give me was mind-numbing-ly dreary in the worst way pos-sible. Every time I listened to it, I literally fell asleep.

What stands out the most in my memories of Radiohead is songs off their early albums. This is the kind of music I have come to love and expect from them, everything else disappoints me.

The band taking a different di-rection is great for them as well as die hard Radiohead fans, who I’m sure love their new album. It does nothing for me.

COURTESY OF EPIC GAMES

The main character Grayson Hunt fights a creature named Hekaton in “Bulletstorm.”

Storyline holds up pacing of ‘Bulletstorm’

Jimano’s pizza tops in town

ANNIE STOCKMAN / THE RIP

Jimano’s stuffed pizza The Beast is layer upon layer of cheese and toppings covered with dough and pizza sauce.

Justin Bieber movie and CD fail to live up to the hype

COURTESY OF COLLIDER.COM

“Never Say Never” chronicles Justin Bieber’s rise to fame.

Limbless Radiohead

spiked walls. Often you can do a combination of these things.

The weapons given to you are fantastic, from the grenade powered flail gun, to the four-barreled shotgun the Bonedust-er.

The feeling of seeing the body parts fly after you had killed them in mind-bending ways is sublime and brings a perverse joy that I found made a strong

impression. You have to be a specific person to find this fun, but if this sounds like a ride you want to take, it is a great ride.

It gives the game variety and you approach each group of en-emies with sense of adventure, a feeling of “how can I kill them this time?”

The graphics are a frustrating mixed bag. The environments are at times beautiful. But the

character models are plastic and during cut scenes, this takes away from the drama. The game is also buggy with enemies clip-ping and one moment where you can get stuck.

Despite all its problems, I recommend “Bulletstorm.” The combat is just too much fun not to recommend. If you can get into its in your face style, it is worth it for the fun gameplay.

Game review

alBum review

sausage, which is a hard topping to find in town.

As far as original house piz-zas, Jimano’s makes most lo-cal favorites and some you may have never heard of. They offer, Hawaiian, Supreme, Vegetarian, BLT and a Meat Maniac, but also offer an Italian Beef Crowd Pleaser, Taste of Mexico and The Beast.

The Italian Beef Crowd Pleas-er has Italian beef, sweet peppers or jalapenos. Taste of Mexico is covered with ground beef, to-matoes, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, onions, black olives and jalapenos. The Beast is stuffed with Italian sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, ground beef, bacon, mushrooms, onions, green peppers and black and green olives.

Prices range from $15.65 to $31.95 depending on the type of pizza and size.

Being from Chicago, I’ve al-

ways thought Chicago has the best pizza and Jimano’s clearly makes that case. The sandwiches range from $6 to $8.25 and vary in style from Italian beef and Italian sausage to BBQ beef or chicken parmigiana.

If you don’t want pizza or a sandwich, Jimano’s offers Chi-cago-style hot dogs, ribs (full or half slab), chicken wings, pasta and salads. Garden Salads start at $4.99 and other chicken or su-preme salads are $7.99.

There are four choices of pasta to choose from. Meat ravioli, cheese tortellini, mostaccioli and spaghetti topped with a “made from scratch” marinara sauce. The chicken wings come with 10 or 20 wings in hot and spicy, mild or BBQ.

Jimano’s also has plenty of extras, which include fries, fried mushrooms, onion rings, moz-zarella sticks, jalapeno poppers, garlic, garlic cheese and pizza

bread.The toppings also don’t end

with just pizza and sandwiches. You can make any combination of food items with any type of topping available at a cheap price. And as if the food alone wasn’t enough, Jimano’s has eating challenges. The Beast is a chal-lenge that requires one person to finish a 12-inch by two-inch thick stuffed pizza covered in mari-nara sauce, while the Beauty is a one-on-one with a three-pound brownie topped with 12 scoops of ice cream, whip cream and chocolate syrup. The victorious eaters win a free Beauty or Beast and get an “I tamed The Beast” shirt. Only three people have taken down the beast and none have accomplished the beauty.

Overall, Jimano’s has some of the best food in town, but there’s nothing like that hometown feel I get from the city and there is nothing like real Chicago foods.

By Esteban RamirezReporter

On Feb. 18, Bakersfield College’s track

and field team had a meet here at BC with College of the Sequoias and College of the Canyons.

Even though the weather conditions were terrible, Canyons had a great day and took most of the events, but BC took a lot of events also and got a good contribution from Darien Moore who competed in the shot put, discus throw and the hammer throw.

BC also took the high jump thanks in part to George Robbins, who got up to 6 feet 8 inches in the event.

“I expected to win but I was surprised how well I did because there was some tough competition out there,” Robbins said.

Robbins also thought his focus was laid back so it took the pressure off to perform at his best.

In the 800-meter run Ryan Taylor, a soph-omore, took it with a come-from-behind victory with a time of 2:06.47. When asked about his comeback victory Taylor said, “It’s my running style to pace myself and take the lead at the end.” He also said he felt that that was his best 800 all year but felt that there was a lot more room for improve-ment.

The closest race of the day was in the men’s 100-meter dash, which was decided by nine-hundredths of a second with Can-yon’s Davis Osmund able to hold off BC’s Adam Clayton. Clayton was really frustrat-ed with losing such a close race and the fact that the starter gun messed up at first. “I re-ally thought I was going to win, but the gun messing up really affected me,” he said.

Coach David Frickel said about his team’s performance, “We did okay, I’m starting to see some real improvement from the throw-ers. I saw some improvement from Amanda Mosby. I also thought Darien Moore and Sarena Underwood had a good meet.”

He thought that everyone did a good job dealing with the weather.

“I think we still need to get better in shape but I think the new people are starting to get adjusted to the tougher competition from the

[Community College] level,” said Frickel. From this point on, BC will be in a lot

more meets with schools from their confer-ence.

The team will compete at Antelope Val-ley College on March 4 against Saddleback College, College of the Canyons and San Bernardino College.

SportS Wednesday, March 2, 2011Page 8 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

By Kevin FosterReporter

After starting the season off

with a 6-2 record, the Bakers-field College softball team has lost three straight games.

This doesn’t bother coach Sandi Taylor and her players in the least.

“We still have a bunch of games left to play, I’m not really worried about a little three-game losing streak, we just need to stop leaving run-ners on base and stop with the errors, and get back to play-ing our game,” Taylor said.

“There is no such thing as a losing streak in my mind, I just play every game to the best of my ability regardless of the result,” said freshman catcher Kara Frankhouser.

The first defeat was a road loss to Santa Barbara City College (3-1) on Feb. 17 by a score of 2-1.

BC got their lone run when Julie Estep scored on a double by Brandi Church.

The second loss came against Oxnard College (7-9) on Feb. 22 by a score of 5-3.

In the game against Ox-nard, the Renegades were struggling at the plate with only two hits and no runs un-til the seventh inning.

In the seventh inning BC got five straight hits to mount a comeback to make the game 5-3. The comeback was short lived as Kaitlin Toerner grounded out to end the game with a runner on second.

Oxnard pitcher Michelle Getman had five strikeouts and retired the side in three of the seven innings.

“I guess I was just in the zone tonight, [Bakersfield College] was really good to-night but it was the pitching coach that gave me the good pitches to throw,” Getman said.

BC was scheduled to com-pete in the BC Classic over the weekend of Feb. 25-27.

The classic was postponed due to traveling restrictions with the weather and would have been a seven-team tour-nament.

The teams in the classic would have included last year state champion Cypress, last year runner up Mt. San An-tonio College, Sierra, South-

By Tyler McGintyReporter

Denisa Hromadkova, 18, came to America and spent her senior year of high school at Frontier High School as an exchange stu-dent from Slovakia. She decided to stay here in order to go to col-lege and try for a tennis scholar-ship, and now plays tennis for Bakersfield College.

Hromadkova came here as a part of a foreign exchange stu-dent program, and although she isn’t part of the program any-more, she still stays with her host family. “Exchange students usually stay for a year,” Hromad-kova said.

As part of the foreign exchange student program Hromdakova participated in, you don’t get to pick the exact area you want to go to, just the country. Hromadk-ova wanted to go to America, and she wound up in Bakersfield.

Hromadkova found Bakers-field vastly different from Slova-kia, especially her high school. “My high school [in Slovakia] had 1,000 students in the whole school,” says Hromadkova. “We didn’t have set schedules like you guys.” Additionally, in Slovakia, most of the teenagers just took the bus but “in Bakersfield you need a car to get anywhere.”

Also, high schools in Slovakia don’t have school sports pro-grams, and Hromadkova didn’t play tennis for a couple years because of it.

“We have to do our sports like in our free time, we have to pay for it and everything and I

think it’s better because you try more,” said Hromadkova. “Here, it’s practically for free and usu-ally people start playing in high school and I’ve been playing since I was 7 and I think it’s bet-ter.”

Hromadkova started playing tennis when her dad heard about a new coach and asked her if she wanted to learn. “I was play-ing volleyball, but I like tennis more.”

Hromadkova stayed in Amer-ica to play tennis at college, and was supposed to go to Cal State Bakersfield, but she had prob-lems with her scholarship, so she ended up going to BC where she studies biology.

“I don’t want to move back to Slovakia, maybe somewhere in Europe,” Hromadkova said about moving back home. “I miss my family and friends, but I visit them.”

Her tennis coach, Gene Lun-dquist, always speaks very highly of her ability. During the match against Ventura on Feb. 24, she won the last singles match, bringing the game to a tie in what Lundquist called “the most thrilling match of the sea-son so far. So I have to give her a lot of credit. She was up against a tough opponent.”

Hromadkova pulled her hip muscle over the weekend after the match against Ventura, and she may not be able to play in the next game against Glendale Community College.

“I’m going to try to play, but I don’t know if I can finish the match.”

By Tyler McGintyReporter

Both men’s and women’s Ba-kersfield College tennis teams started their seasons with tough matches against Ventura County Community College. Although both teams lost, they didn’t go down without a fight against Ventura, who was ranked num-ber one in the preseason.

The men’s team lost their match 9-0, which is surprising considering they won all of their preseason matches.

“We may have been a hair in awe of them because they’re in our league and we know they won the state last year,” said coach Rob Slaybaugh. “Even though we didn’t win a match, the kids responded really well in singles, because two of the matches went three sets, and a few of the matches were really competitive.”

The women’s team did well against Ventura in singles, with each team winning three match-es.

However, after BC won the first doubles match, Ventura won the last two games of the match, making the final score 5-4.

“It was a close match,” said assistant coach Richard Faidley. “A lot closer than I thought I ex-pected it to be.

“I thought Ventura would be a lot stronger.”

Although Ventura won two out of three doubles matches, the matches were still very close.

“At first we were really down. We were down 4-1 at one time, and the girls came back to almost winning the match, but they lost that one 8-6, so it was a close set for number two doubles,” said Faidley.

The final doubles match for the women’s team had a line call made by one of the BC players overruled.

“It was a pivotal point in a piv-otal match,” said Faidley. “That didn’t lose the match for us, but I think it was our girls’ attitudes after the point was overruled, they got upset and didn’t play as focused as they should have been.”

Even after their defeat, Faidley still remains confident.

“It was a very close match. I think next time we play them, we’re going to beat them.”

BC will have a home match on March 4 against LA Pierce.

Slovakian athlete finds home at BC

JOSEPH COTA / THE RIP

Kaitlin Toerner slides safe in the third inning on the Feb. 25 9-5 loss against Sierra College.

GREGORy D. COOK / THE RIP

Dominique Cervantes lands in the pit as he competes in the men’s long jump at the Bakersfield College Triangular Meet at BC on Feb. 19.

After winning six of eight, women lose three

BC track team lands hard

KAyLA BROADHAG / THE RIP

Denisa Hromadkova quickly returns the ball to the opposing team Fresno City College on Feb. 2.

Tennis teams start slow

western, Cuesta, COC and BC.Of the 12 games scheduled the

only one that took place was a 9-5 win for Sierra College (4-4) over BC.

Sierra pitcher Ashley McMa-hon surrendered eight hits while striking out six batters.

“I had a great defense behind me to help when I let batters on, and Sheyanne [Sierra’s catcher] was very vocal and helped me through the jams,” McMahon said.

The bright side for the Ren-egades is the play of Frankhous-er.

Frankhouser has a team high .500 batting average for the Ren-egades, and has the team’s only home run. Frankhouser is fourth in the Western State Conference blue division in batting average.

“I do? That’s news to me I re-ally didn’t know,” Frankhouser said in regard to her leading the team in batting average.

“I don’t really pay attention to personal stats, softball is a team

sport,” Frankhouser added.BC will be on the road for a

three-team event in Lancaster against Saddleback and Ante-lope Valley on March 5, and on

the road in Valencia for a dou-ble-header against Canyons on March 10.

BC will return home against Glendale on March 15.

SportSWednesday, March 2, 2011Page 9 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Column

Don’t cry, dry your eyeOpen Mike | A column on the every-day happenings in the world of sports

Michael Morrow

The NBA trade deadline has come and gone with many changes about the league. Your team more than likely has stayed the same or made insignificant trades. You see other teams on the East Coast plug-ging in this piece for that piece and so on and so forth, and you think, “Hey, why didn’t we make that deal to land Melo?” You also start to let your mind think, “all those East Coast teams are loading up on players. Why would the league allow this? The league needs parity.”

Truth is, you should quit the bitching and complaining. Your only real gripe is because your team didn’t think to load up on top talents first.

The Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, New York Knicks and, to an extent, the New Jersey Nets, have sought the help of the best available players on the market to try to bring a championship to their respective cities. So far Boston has one title in three years, while the rest of the elites are in their first year of championship battle royale.

Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce have battled and won in 2008, fought through injuries in 2009 and returned, but failed, in the 2010 NBA Finals.

Miami’s big three are struggling with top competition down the stretch, while the Knicks are finding out what to do with the newly acquired Carmelo An-thony, Chauncey Billups and Amar’e Stoudemire.

Meanwhile, my two favorite teams, the Chicago Bulls (because I’m from there) and the Los Angeles Lakers (be-cause I was born here) have stayed the same. Not a move at all. Both were in talks with the Denver Nuggets for An-thony, but the talks were only third tier options for the Nuggets as they had higher offers from the Nets and even-tual winners the Knicks.

The Lakers, who have played in three Finals series in a row after the Pau Gas-ol trade, don’t necessarily have a big three, and still managed to win two of the last three championships.

The Bulls on the other hand, have made the playoffs in the eighth seed on back-to-back years and were booted in the first round. But with the addition of Carlos Boozer, they are everyone’s sleeper pick to actually win the East and get to the Finals. Again, they don’t have a big three.

People try to compare Kobe Bryant, Gasol plus one (usually Andrew Bynum or Lamar Odom) and Derrick Rose, Boozer plus one (Joakim Noah) to the Heat’s All-Star trio or to Boston’s All-Star quartet and to me, that’s insanity.

Being a fan, I saw the opportunity for both of my teams to improve and trade for Melo or for the Lakers to improve at point guard and trade for Deron Wil-liams who, shockingly, the Utah Jazz decided to trade away on deadline day. I was upset for a moment, but I collected myself and thought, who just won the last two titles? The Lakers. As they are constructed now.

Who are people predicting to win the East in a year that has the East as strong as they’ve ever been? The Bulls. With only the moves they made going into the season.

So, no reason for me to complain. But other fans I’ve been hearing from are ridiculous.

I hear complaints that the league isn’t monitoring player and opposing team interactions, teams owners are spend-ing too much to get high-end players, and that the league is no good without parity.

Well, when your team is the team winning the title five-out-of-nine years, you don’t complain about the parity anymore. You just complain about the other four years. Get over it. Fans can never be satisfied. If you don’t like an owner for his spending habits, you don’t have to purchase their products. Simple.

When Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and General Manager Jerry Krause didn’t re-sign head coach Phil Jackson (which led to a second Michael Jordan retirement) and dismantled a six-time championship team, I told myself, I won’t deal with anything Chicago Bulls until ownership decides to do some-thing about Krause and this horrible team they were building. And I seri-ously did. You have the right to do the same, but if not, don’t complain about it later, because no one wants to hear about it.

By Michael MorrowReporter

The Bakersfield College men’s basketball team en-tered into their last two games on a three-game win streak and were looking to build on some late success in a down season. The challenge for the Renegades was facing the top team in the Western State Confer-ence, the Santa Monica College Corsairs, then on the road at the Glendale College Vaqueros.

The Renegades lost both of the games, 96-81 against Santa Monica and 76-57 at Glendale. BC finished the season 10-17 overall and 4-8 in the WSC south af-ter going 23-6 and finishing the conference in second place last season.

This season ends for the Renegades, without as much as a first round playoff game. Much unlike last season, where BC was given a first round bye, but lost in the second round to Southwestern College.

On offense this season, the Renegades averaged 75 points per game while defensively allowing oppo-nents to score 83 per game.

Head coach Rich Hughes explained that one of the reasons for their lowered scoring output is the team not being as good of a shooting team as in past years.

“Last year, ours was about 86-87, which was actu-ally one of our lower years. We weren’t a very good scoring team this year. We were the worst three-point shooting percentage team in the conference and the worst [field-goal] shooting team overall too.

“So, if you don’t put the ball in the hole, it makes it difficult to win games,” said Hughes.

“We knew going into the season that this was prob-ably going to be one of our worst perimeter shooting teams that we’ve had and the stats confirm that at the end of the year.

“We ran the same offense and got a lot of the same looks we just didn’t knock down shots. We did shoot better in conference than we did overall and that was a positive for us. It helped keep us in games down the stretch. Sometimes it just comes down to making shots, and we didn’t make shots.”

The Renegades shot 28 percent from three-point range while shooting 43 percent from the field and 66 percent from the line.

One of the bright spots for the Renegades was for-ward Cooper Damron. Damron, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, was named to the all-WSC men’s team. Damron aver-aged 15 points and six rebounds in conference and 12 points and five rebounds overall.

Freshman guard Marshall Lange, earned honorable mention all-WSC averaging 11 points and 5 assists in WSC competition.

Hughes gave praise to Damron and talked about what the other sophomores did for BC.

“Coop was consistent and he actually played his best basketball in conference. He was pretty much a unanimous selection by the coaches because he had good games against everybody, so he earned it,” said Hughes.

“Bart [Dandridge] and Stevie [Howard] were im-portant parts of our team the last two years. Bart al-ways worked his tail off on the defensive end and toward the end of conference he started to really shoot the ball the way he’s capable of shooting. When we went on the three game win streak, a lot of that had to do with him shooting well as well as a lot of other guys starting to shoot better.

“Stevie never said much, but he always played hard, always competed for us. He got hurt in the second-to-last game and he didn’t get a chance to show what he could really do on sophomore night and he didn’t get to play in his last game, it was just a tough way for him to go out.”

BC’s roster may have a large turnover. Last season the Renegades had half of their team as returning play-ers, but in they decided to move on for other reasons.

Hughes also mentioned Lange getting an honorable mention, the hopes for next season with Lange return-ing and some of the freshmen coming back.

“I thought his stats in conference were second best on our team and coaches sometimes don’t judge by the stats when selecting an all-conference team, but

they obviously felt the numbers were good enough to put him up there,” said Hughes.

“We’re going to conduct our player meetings and sit down with everyone and see where their heads are at and what they’re thinking of doing and go from there. A lot of it will depend on their commitment to playing spring and summer and getting better, because obvi-ously we didn’t win a lot of games.”

Hughes spoke about the current recruiting class he is working with and what he is expecting.

“There are quite a few guys who went somewhere else and it didn’t work out academically or athleti-cally, whatever the case may be, and there are prob-

ably three or four guys like that here at BC right now. We’re just hoping they can stick it out and the biggest thing will be committing to coming out in the spring and in the summer and going hard every single day to make this team,” Hughes said. “There are about four or five local seniors that I think could contribute for us. We just have to get them locked in and coming to BC next year.

“The world of JC is just a different beast, because you could reload every year because it’s only a two-year program. So we’re looking and hopefully we get these guys to commit and get us back to winning some games.”

GREGORY D. COOK / THE RIP

Renegade guard Stevie Howard goes up for a shot and collides with Corsairs guard AJ Harris during Bakersfield College’s game against Santa Monica College at BC on Feb. 16.

By Julian MooreOpinions Editor

The Bakersfield College baseball team won its home tournament by beating all three opponents. They out-scored all opponents 24-11 and their most notable win came in a 5-4 walk-off hit from outfielder Jon Suda against Cypress College. Cypress was ranked sixth in the state in a preseason poll.

They are currently 7-5 and wrapping up the first part of their season before starting conference play.

In the win against Cypress on Feb. 21, redshirt sophomore Marcos Reyna was on the mound for Bakersfield College in his second appearance of the season. He got off to a quick start retiring the hitters in order.

The Renegades scored one run in the second and two runs in the third off a two-run double from Ben Straka.

BC looked to be in control of the game with steady pitching before a tough top-half of the fifth inning put them behind.

Cypress sent eight batters to the plate in the fifth and scored four runs off three hits and they were aided by two errors from the BC defense.

Reyna was pulled in the sev-enth for closer Chris Rodriguez. Neither team would get close to scoring again until the Renegades came up to bat in the ninth.

Riley Showers led off the ninth with a walk before stealing second on a low

and outside ball to right fielder Jon Suda.

Suda then took a 1-1 pitch that dropped in right field for the game win-ning RBI.

After the game head coach Tim Pain-ton was extremely pleased with the Renegades ability to pull out the win.

“Well the win was a very big win. Cypress is traditionally one of the top teams in the state,” he said. “They’ve been playing extremely well and to win it in the bottom of the ninth the way we did was a great win.

“It helps us down the road as well by just learning to continue to play the game. It’s a big win,” he said.

Suda said after the game that he felt his first at-bat of the game gave him the confidence to keep going.

“I just knew I needed to get a ball into the outfield and they were playing no doubles so I knew if I got that, that run scores no matter what,” he said.

Painton said he and Suda were dis-cussing the situation and any other that could have come up.

“We were just talking about situa-tions and how their pitcher has pitched people and those types of things,” he said.

“Everybody knew the situation we were in and Showers’ at-bat was as big as Suda’s, to get on and be able to steal a bag and give us the opportunity to be able to score a run,” he said.

Starter Reyna picked up a no deci-sion on seven innings giving up seven

hits and three earned runs while strik-ing out seven batters.

“Coming into the game I didn’t feel like I had much on my fastball but after getting on the bump I felt like a com-pletely different person,” he said.

“Well I know Cypress is a really good team and my dad gave me a lot of info on them so I knew I had to throw a lot of off-speed pitches early in the game in order to keep them off balance,” he said.

“Getting the no decision wasn’t a big deal, I went through this all through high school and freshman year here but it’s a good feeling knowing the team won instead of just me,” he said.

Reyna went on to speak about the in-jury he obtained last season and how it is affecting him this year.

“It feels good coming back but I’m still kind of scared of letting loose, I just know I’m a much better pitcher now that I’ve developed a cutter this year and I’m spotting up a lot more that I did my freshman year,” he said.

Painton said about his starter, “He was very good, the runs that they scored were not all his doing.

“We had a defensive lapse in one in-ning today and those runs are directly related to our inability to take care of the baseball. He commanded his fast-ball, threw his breaking ball for strikes and really did a very good job of keep-ing an outstanding offense in check,” he said.

The Renegades came into their home

tournament after a frustrating 4-0 road loss to Merced on Feb. 15.

Bakersfield College could only gath-er four hits while pitcher Bryan Max-well went seven innings, giving up nine hits and all four runs in the loss.

They opened the tournament with a 9-5 win against Reedley College on Feb. 17 with Joe Nielson on the mound. Nielson went 5.2 innings giving up four runs in the win.

Second baseman Daniel Rueger and left fielder Mike Spingola both had two RBI in the win, with Spingola going 4-for-4.

Former Renegade Nico Payan, who now plays for Reedley, went 0-for-2 in the game before a pinch-hitter was brought in for him. In the second game of the tournament, BC’s offense put up 10 runs in a 10-2 win over San Diego Mesa on Feb. 19.

David Pennington led all hitter with three RBI off two hits and Ben Straka added two as well. Left-handed pitcher Taylor Aikenhead picked up the win to improve to 2-0.

After the tournament, the Ren-egades lost to Allan Hancock College 6-1. Maxwell started the road game and went seven innings picking up his fourth loss of the season.

The Renegades will begin opening up conference play on the road as they travel on March 5 to Woodland Hills to take on L.A. Pierce then West L.A. on March 8 before playing at home against College of the Canyons on March 10.

3-0 sweep in tournament leads baseball to 7-5 record

Losing season finally over for BC

Spotlight Wednesday, March 2, 2011Page 10 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Messages: Shirley Reeder was inspired to send hometown messages to troops in 2008one such occasion that Reeder was inspired, and further moti-vated, to collect messages.

“The Boy Scouts are the other ones, other than the military, to retire United States flags. We do that when they are faded and torn, and we retire them by burn-ing them,” said Reeder.

In 2008, Reeder was retiring flags with the Boy Scouts when she would come across someone who would change her life.

“The very last person that I had was an 8 year-old boy who came up to me, and he held a flag and asked me if I would respect the flag and burn it with him, and I said ‘yes.’”

As they retired the flag, the boy asked Reeder if his father was proud of him and “looking down on him,” said Reeder. “I’m sure he is,” she said. It occurred

Continued from Page 1 to Reeder in that moment that the flag was a flag from Iraq and that the boy’s father had died there.

“He said his father was mili-tary from Iraq. So we burned the flag, we saluted the flag, and as we held hands really tight, tears coming from our eyes, we walked back.

“He saluted and he called his father’s name out.”

Upon arriving home from the ceremony, Reeder discovered that she had taken something home unintentionally.

“I got home and took my shoe off, and when I took my shoe there was this imprint, something burning on my foot.

“So I took my sock off and on my skin was, underneath my sock, was a star from one of the flags. Which flag it came from, I do not know.”

As Reeder tells this part of

this story she begins to tear, say-ing, “That inspired me more and more to do something for the troops.”

Reeder holds a deep passion for what she does and who it supports.

Involved as a member of the BC Veterans Club, Reeder also extends her passion to students on and off campus.“There is a lot of veterans here at the college, a lot of people don’t know that, and this is our way of helping them cope with coming back and the emotional ordeal that goes with that,” said Reeder.

Reeder can be found at BC, usually with her book in hand. Anyone is welcomed to sign the book, and will be sent to soldiers once filled.

“ I don’t care what it is. Any message. Even happy faces,” said Reeder.

By Martin ChangReporter

Hayden Keene, a second se-mester student at Bakersfield College, has been creating art since he “could pick up a pencil.” He is currently taking sculpture as a class.

Keene’s mom is a painter and he believes that is where he got his talent for art. He started out drawing self-portraits and pic-tures of his family as a child. He said of these early drawings, “the hands are too big because you try to fit all the fingers in.” He also sculpted small projects such as Christmas ornaments and knick-knack birthday presents.

Keene finds sculpture to have a tangibility that he does not find in drawing. “I like sculpting a lot more. It’s like a drawing from a different perspective. A picture is always a flat piece and you only have one side of it. It’s a lot more tangible when it’s an actual three-dimensional object in front of you,” said Keene.

Keene also finds that mistakes can be easier to correct in sculp-ture. He said, “If your drawing and you’ve been working on it for half an hour, and you mess up on it with a pen mark. You’re out of luck. But it seems in sculpt-ing there is a lot more you can

do with it.” Sculpture can have its own set

of drawbacks. Keene describes one case where he lost time on a piece. “We were making vases and were making them out of a bowl at first and when I took my piece out of the bowl the bot-tom actual collapsed. So I had to start the bottom over and I lost a couple hours work, that was defi-nitely frustrating.”

For one assignment, Keene chose to sculpt a gluttonous tea-pot. “She [the teacher] gave us all words, and my word was en-vious. I had trouble coming up with how a teapot could convey envious feeling. So I decided I’m going to make a very fat teapot. Then the teacups are going to be starving people and their mouth is going to be the mouth of the tea cup.”

On how he gets these ideas Keene says, “It’s mostly brain-storming. One idea will lead to another. It can be the shape of a tree. Everyone’s look at the shape of a tree and seen a face.”

Keene is currently majoring in psychology. Keene is choos-ing this as a major because hu-man nature fascinates him. He also says that he “has a knack for it.” He said, “Friends, and some-times complete strangers will come up to me and talk about

By Chrystal ForttReporter

In the SAM building during theater rehearsal, Bakersfield College’s theater students are buzzing with excitement and en-ergy as they wait to rehearse one of the biggest farces ever writ-ten.

“I’m known for doing a lot of the intense, political, social, sat-ire type shows … very serious stuff and so I said I need a farce in my life,” said director Kim Chin.

“A Flea In Her Ear” is a play that has a huge misunderstand-ing of many love affairs.

“People think of French farces, this is number one,” said Chin.

Victor Chandebise is a rich businessman who has a misun-derstanding with his cheating wife, Raymonde Chandebise, and consequently brings every-one around them into the mess.

Raymonde has an affair with Chandebise’s friend and busi-ness partner, Romain Tournel.

She has a naive meaning of love affair when Tournel thinks it means something less innocent.

Mandi Sopher, who plays Ray-monde, said, “I definitely get the idea that she [Raymonde] wants

Director takes a new approach for upcoming show

to be in some kind of novel be-cause she’s in love with the idea of having a lover.”

She said, “but to her that means to flirt and hold hands and cast longing glances across the room, she doesn’t understand that means you guys are sleeping together.”

Once Raymonde believes that Victor is having an affair, she no longer wants to have a lover and plans an anonymous rendezvous

to catch her husband in the act of cheating.

Raymonde asks her friend, Lucienne Homenides De Histan-gua, to write the letter so Victor would not recognize the hand-writing.

Lucienne’s husband, Don Carlos Homenides De Histan-gua, recognizes his wife’s handwriting as Victor pa-rades around with the letter. The last act of the show is when

the madness happens, everyone is afraid of Homenides because he wants to kill Victor and Lu-cienne.

As characters are hiding from Homenides they are also strug-gling to communicate with Vic-tor or Poche because they look exactly alike.

All characters think Victor is Poche and Poche is Victor.

Justin Pool plays both char-acters, Victor Chandebise and Poche.

“They both swap and they look like Poche is wearing Vic-tor’s stuff and Victor is wearing Poche’s things, and that’s where it gets kinda tricky,” said Pool.

The play has many other love affairs and miscommunications among each other with witty jokes.

“It’s just insane, fun, wacky, hilarious cast, all over the place, with many plots,” said Pool.

gREgORY d. COOK / THE RIp

From left: Jotae Fraser, Justin Pool and Sean Hill rehearse a scene from the play “A Flea in Her Ear” on Feb. 25.

their problems. I usually have pretty good advice and a pretty good understanding of how peo-ple act and why they act like that, so it seemed like a good field to go into.”

Keene finds life at BC better than life in high school. He said, “I actually enjoy the classes. You get to pick your own schedule. Teachers actually care because you’re paying for the classes. people actually want to be here. You don’t go to classes with peo-ple who think they are too cool for 10th grade.”

Keene is taking 16 units this semester. Yet he still finds time to work on his art. “ I enjoy doing art, as opposed to sitting

around watching TV. It’s what I do. It’s my hobby. It’s what I do when I want to wind down. Some people go to the gym and punch out any stress, or some people play instruments to get their emotions out and I like to make art. I’m not ever going to stop having imagination. You’ll never stop seeing things that in-spire you to make something.

“It’s what I enjoy doing. It’s my outlet. It’s definitely a pas-sion I don’t ever see not doing it. Creating things is a part of who I am. I would never stop doing it regardless of what my job was.”

Keene plans on going to UCLA to get a four-year degree in psychology.

pHOTOS BY KAYLA BROAdHAg / THE RIp

Hayden Keene, a student in the sculpture class at BC, smoothes out the clay of his piece Feb. 16. Keene’s creation is inspired by the word “envy” created in the Fine Arts building.

“A Flea in Her Ear”

BC Indoor Theatre Show Times: March 9,10,11, at 12

at 8 p.m. and March 12 and 13 at 2 p.m.

$5.50 general Admission$3.50 Students, seniors, staff, and

militaryTickets available at the BC ticket

office.

Hayden Keene finds fulfillment in sculpture art

gREgORY d. COOK / THE RIp

Mandi Sopher, (left) and Sean Hill rehearse their lines.

STUDENT GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS SCHEDULECandidates forumMarch 2, 5 p.m. Campus CenterMarch 3, 5 p.m. at Delano in DST 102Election daysMarch 8, 9 a.m., through March 9, 6 p.m. Vote online at: http://eballot4.votenet.com/bfc

Advertisement Wednesday, March 2, 2011Page 11 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

BC students ** Vote online ** March 8-9

Vote and be entered in a drawing that offers an iPad, an iPod Shuffle and 20 $100 book vouchers

CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT

TawntannishaThompson

RoyceNickerson

GilbertHernandez

ChristineWaterhouse

Richard Villanueva Joshua Diaz

CANDIDATES FOR VICE PRESIDENT

CANDIDATES FOR TREASURER

CANDIDATES FOR GENERAL COUNSEL

CANDIDATES FOR ACTIVITIES LIAISON

CANDIDATE FOR LEGISLATIVE

LIAISON

CANDIDATE FOR SECRETARY

Sean HillDerrick Kenner

Theresa Hall Brittany Brim

Bonnie Wilson

Toccara Byrd

As the Activities Liaison for SGA, I’ve en-joyed my job and getting acquainted with and interacting with the student body. My experi-ence this past year has made me want to have a larger leadership role within the school. I have had the opportunity to lead such activities as Homecoming, Delano Campus Health Fair, and the MAPS student mentoring program. Being involved in SGA as well as outside activities, I’ve been able to look at SGA’s performance from other vantage points. As president, I’d continue to improve SGA’s representation of the student body and continue to provide more programs and services to students.

I am a person of virtue and integrity. If elected, I will do my best to maintain the good name of the Student Government Association. I will not be swayed into corruption; I will not tolerate corrup-tion within the SGA. I will stand for all the stu-dents, when they cannot stand. I will represent all the students without being prompted. I will fulfill my duties to a satisfactory level; however, I plan to surpass “Satisfactory,” and the limit it implies. If you elect me to be President I will never fail to represent you.

Let me serve you.

Experience & Qualifications: United States Navy two years

active dutyWounded Heroes Fund (Event

Volunteer Coordinator) DAV Member (Disabled

American Veterans)Retired Coach for DRB (Der-

by Revolution of Bakersfield)MAPS Mentor at Bakersfield

CollegePresident of Bakersfield Col-

lege Veterans Club National Alliance on Mental

Illness Kern County Advocate for Frontline Veterans & Family

I’m the following things:1. Exemplary character2. Enthusiastic3. Confident4. Analytical and Problem

Solving Skills5. Positive Attitude6. Determination7. Strong Work Ethic8. Initiative and Motivational9. Interpersonal Skills

My name is Toccara Byrd and I’m presently the Secretary for SGA. I have enjoyed my job and getting acquainted and interact-ing with the student body and organizations. I previously held office of treasurer for the African American Student Union, which I truly enjoyed. Then I ventured my way to senator of the SGA where I was appointed to the of-fice of Secretary. I think it’s time for me to move on so that I can better serve the student body. That’s why I would like to ask for your vote for my candidacy for Secretary for the school year.

I’m Gilbert Hernandez. I am running for Vice President of SGA. This is my second semester serving as a senator. I sit on various standing com-mittees here at Bakersfield College. I have committed my time to learn procedures that will help me with the office of Vice President. I am cur-rently the Renegade Pantry Operations Manager and an active member of MAPS (stu-dent mentor). I look forward to serving the student body, which I am a part of, and as-suring that there’s progress that will benefit us all. Please provide me the opportunity to serve as your Vice President.

Hi my name is Christine Wa-terhouse. I am running for the Vice President I have experi-ence in the meeting forum. I was part of the parent policy council for the head start pro-gram in 1996 to 1999 end of school year. I have held the vice chair position for two of the four years I was with head start. I was head chairwoman for both of my daughter centers. I believe that my out spoken personal-ity can help the students of B.C. achieve their goals and become more independent people.

My name is Joshua Diaz, and I am applying for the po-sition of the Student Govern-ment Association Treasurer. Serving as a Senator of the SGA for the past semester, I have heard all kinds of voices and opinions of my fellow stu-dents. As Treasurer, I believe that I would be able to help better and in a bigger way. My main priority is to utilize the student’s funds to their maxi-mum efficiency. This is also a great opportunity for me to effectively finance student interest clubs and allot more funds for the renovation of our campus.

My name is Richard Villan-ueva and I am currently a sena-tor with the student government at Bakersfield College. I see our student government head-ing in a direction that is positive and, I would like to see it con-tinue. I know that it is a lot of work and that this position will require me to keep records of financial transactions, prepar-ing budgets and much more. During this term I hope to have the opportunity to serve my fel-low classmates as well as leave B.C. a better place than when I got here.

Sean Hill is the current General Counsel for the Stu-dent Government Association. He has a good understanding of the rules and guidelines of how the student government is run. His goal is to help with the betterment of the Student Government and student rela-tionship.

I’m Derrick Kenner, and I am running for General Counsel for the year 2011-2012. I have been a BC student for two years. I am currently serving my student body as a Senator. I have strong leadership and teamwork skills with high tenacity to ensure that the job gets done accurately and efficiently. Our students deserve the best when it comes to rep-resentation which is why I am willing to answer the bell. I promise to adhere to the bylaws and hold my peers accountable as well. I promise to do what I say I will do. Thank you!

I’m Theresa Hall. I’m cur-rently a senator for the SGA, and a MAPS mentor; I also serve on the Communications Commit-tee. Being a senator I have found that I love working with the stu-dent body and want to be more involved. I’m an outgoing, mo-tivated, and reliable person, and I will bring this and my school spirit to all our schools func-tions. I’ve seen how the Activi-ties Board runs and what the job entails. I have helped with event planning and helped the current Activities Liaison with last se-mester’s Homecoming, as well as working on the upcoming Spring Fling.

I am running for the activity liaison for SGA at Bakersfield College, because I want to take charge of the student organiza-tion clubs on campus, & I could be responsible for putting to-gether for the activities includ-ing homecoming, spring fling, & all other things. I can also be in charge of the advisors meet-ing, & the ICC meetings every other Friday’s. I could make the difference to run for the SGA activity liaison.

Vote online at:http://eballot4.votenet.com/bfc

Voting opens at 9 a.m. March 8 ** Voting closes at 6 p.m. March 9

On this page, can-didates for Student Government Association office have provided statements.The state-

ments appear almost ex-actly as they were on their applications to run for of-fice.Photos and

statements were provid-ed by SGA.

** WIN PRIZES WIN PRIZES **

EyEs of thE RipWednesday, March 2, 2011Page 12 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

BC sports take to the land, air

GreGory D. cook / The rip

Competitors in the 110-meter hurdle event take the first hurdle at a Bakersfield College Triangular Meet on Feb. 19.

GreGory D. cook / The rip

Porterville College second baseman Nate Crocker tags out Moorpark College catcher Ryan Cobb during a tournament at Bakersfield College on Feb. 19.

GreGory D. cook / The rip

Bakersfield College’s Amanda Smith competes in the shot put during the Bakersfield College Triangular on Feb. 19.

GreGory D. cook / The rip

Bakersfield College point guard Marshall Lange goes up for a finger-roll in a game against Santa Monica College at BC on Feb. 16.

Left: Bakersfield College’s Annissa Carendar throws a pitch in the first inning of the team’s 9-5 loss against Sierra College at Bakersfield College on Feb. 18.

Right: Nyleisha James clears the bar in the ladies high-jump event at the Bakersfield College Triangular with College of the Canyons and College of the Sequoias on Feb. 19.

GreGory D. cook / The rip

It was a busy couple of weeks for Bakersfield College sports department as the campus hosted a track and field meet, baseball tournament, softball games and the basketball teams played their last home games of the season.

joseph coTa / The rip