Take a look around and you will notice that spring has finally graced us with its presence. The skies are clearing, the temperatures are rising, the rabbits are humping and, my personal favorite, girls are starting to wear less and less. This is truly my favorite season.

I don’t know what it is, but there is something about spring quarter that puts me in a genuinely good mood. I think that it must have something to do with the fact that summer is rapidly approaching. The thought of a three-month break from school just gives me that warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

Since I’m in such a good mood, I don’t really have one big issue to rant and rave about in this soapbox. I know that all of you are disappointed, since you love it when I get pissed off and write pages about random stuff. To you, I apologize.

I do, however, have a few small things that have been bugging me for the past few days. So, here comes a series of mini-rants that will hopefully tide y’all over until I get really pissed off about something in the future.

First off, I have to say a few words about our president, Dubya. Wow, has he done a bang-up job as pres-o-dent so far, or what? I am truly impressed. Not only has he made up enough words to comprise a new dictionary, but he has also bombed Iraq and managed to anger the Chinese, the one real threat to America.

All of that aside, I have a suggestion for our new president. Dubya, for the love of all that is good and holy, please get some sleep! When Clinton displayed the luggage under his eyes, it was like, “”I stayed up all night working hard for you, the American people.”” The bags under Dubya’s eyes only tell me one thing: “”I was up all night snortin’ coke, drinkin’ a 40 of O.E. and makin’ words up!””

Along those lines, I wonder how Dubya feels about being the first president in history to have a Comedy Central sitcom dedicated to making fun of him. That must suck.

I also have to say that my heart truly goes out to the American pilots in China right now. They are being used by the Chinese to test the waters with our new president. They were just doing their job when Chinese aircraft were stupid enough to get in their way and take them down. They did everything they were supposed to except for torching the plane. I only hope that Bush can rise above his third-grade reading level and negotiate the pilots’ return quickly and smoothly.

On the home front, I am truly disturbed by the recent incidents of school violence. Maybe it’s just me, but I cannot even fathom what was going through the minds of these kids as they strolled through the halls and shot at people. I’ll grant them that kids can be cruel with the things that they say, but why shoot innocent people? What good does that do?

Personally, I was glad to see the attitudes of some of the students from Granite Hills High School. Some who were interviewed did not say that they were sad and distraught over the incident. Instead they lamented feelings of anger that someone would do something like that at their school. I think that it is about time that the students realize that this shouldn’t be tolerated and keep each other in check. If they hear about the possibility of a shooting, they should react swiftly and harshly to discourage it, instead of egging the person on as was the case in the Santana shooting.

The media should take the alarming incidents of school violence that have been springing up with a dangerous frequency as a wake-up call. If they continue to glamorize these events by stretching them out and reporting on every aspect of the shootings, then these kids will continue to get ideas to go on killing sprees. Do you really think that it’s necessary to interview one of the victim’s fourth cousins? This is an exaggeration, but it’s not far from the truth. I agree that the media has a responsibility to report these things, but at the same time, they shouldn’t glamorize it. Simply reporting the facts and moving on would suffice. If anything, they are just making things harder for the students who are trying to put the incidents behind them.