The ChronicleTHE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY

XXXDAY, MONTH XX, 2013 ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH YEAR, ISSUE XWWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM

Junior strives Junior strives to help Durham to help Durham

save, save, Page 2Page 2

Pastors protestPastors protestbegging begging ordinance, ordinance, Page 2Page 2

ONTHERECORD“The outcry over wealth disparity is simply a case of the

pauper being jealous of the prince...” —Jonathan Zhao in ‘The prince and the pauper.’ See column page 10

The ChronicleTHE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH YEAR, ISSUE 123WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM

Gators and pythons and bugs, oh my!Duke rallies to reach Sweet 16

Lemur Center head IDs 2 new species

US-world GRE score gap does not impact admissions

BRIANA SIRACUSE/ THE CHRONICLE

Local restaurant Bull City Burger and Brewery has offered a variety of more than 15 exotic meat burgers throughout the month of March, including bugs (left), python, ostrich and alligator.

by Jack MercolaTHE CHRONICLE

Only at Bull City Burger and Brewery will you find patrons eagerly munching on food ridden with bugs.

This March has marked the second annual Exotic Meat Month at BCBB,

and the quirky campaign has helped the restaurant see a notable spike in business, said BCBB owner Seth Gross. BCBB, which normally sells local pas-ture-raised beef burgers and veggie burgers, spends the month of March rotating through more than 15 un-

usual meats, all of which are specially prepared with sauces and toppings that complement the exotic patty. This year’s exotic meats include reindeer, python, llama and rocky mountain oysters—also

SEE BURGER ON PAGE 12

SEE GRE ON PAGE 5

SEE W. BASKETBALL ON PAGE 8

by TJ CieslaTHE CHRONICLE

Differences in standardized test scores do not add much to Duke’s graduate application process.

The Educational Testing System, creators of the GRE exam, reported in a recent study that United States citizens perform lower on quantita-tive reasoning sections of standard-ized tests than their non-U.S.-citizen counterparts—a mean of 149.5 against 155.6 on a scale of 130 to 170. The statistics also showed the opposite results for the verbal rea-soning section, with U.S. citizens outperforming citizens of almost all other countries. Duke graduate and professional school admissions not-ed, however, that GRE scores are not the most significant component of perspective students’ applications.

“There’s not a hard and fast rule,” said William Pardon, mathematics professor and director of graduate

by Andrew LuoTHE CHRONICLE

Using DNA analysis, a team of researchers that includes Anne Yo-der, director of the Lemur Center, has discovered two new species of mouse lemurs.

In a recent study, Yoder and other scientists from Madagascar and Ger-many identified the Anosy mouse lemur and Marohita mouse lemur as two distinct mouse lemur species. The two lemurs, which look almost physically identical, were found to be different species through the ge-netic analysis of skin samples. With this new finding, there are now 20 recognized mouse lemur spe-cies, making them the most diverse groups of lemurs.

Mouse lemurs are nocturnal le-murs native to Madagascar known as one of the smallest primates in the world. According to the study, the Marohita mouse lemurs observed in the study weighed from 64 to 85 grams, which is roughly 2.25 to 3

ounces—approximately the weight of a deck of cards.

“It is highly unusual to describe new species of primates in this age of global travel and consequent access to remote areas of the planet,” Yod-er, also a professor of biology, wrote in an email Tuesday. “That said, the number of described lemur species has more than tripled in the last 10 years.”

Yoder also cited the dramatic in-crease in the identification of lemur species, noting that there were only two recognized species of mouse le-murs in 1993 while there are 20 spe-cies today.

The study, which is the first to formally name and describe the mouse lemurs as separate species, uses DNA samples of lemurs col-lected by researchers during field trips to eastern Madagascar in 2003 and 2007.

The discovery of the new species

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

by Tim VisutipolTHE CHRONICLE

Down by 13 points at halftime, the Blue Devils’ faced their largest halftime deficit of the season.

But second-seeded Duke (32-2) rallied back, making stops and hitting shots to avoid an embarrassing upset by seventh-seeded Oklahoma State (22-11) 68-59 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. With the win, the Blue Devils advanced to the Sweet 16 to face Nebraska.

“For us to come in here, we almost had to play a perfect game to win. I thought we played pretty close to perfect in the first half,” Cowgirl head coach Jim Littell said. “This is one of the toughest places as far as the No. 2 seeds go, and we went toe-to-toe for about 35 minutes tonight.”

The Blue Devils looked lethargic at the start, turning the ball over on their first three trips down the floor. Duke turned the ball over 10 times during the half, with sophomore Elizabeth Williams committing

SEE LEMURS ON PAGE 5

Bull City Burger serves up second-annual Exotic Meat Month

CHRONICLE GRAPHIC BY CAROLINE RODRIGUEZ

Although the United States falls behind other countries in some GRE categories, Duke graduate school admissions officers say the scores do not have much impact.

2 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 THE CHRONICLE

Pastors protest Durham panhandling ordinance

LINDA YU/THE CHRONICLE

A group of protestors stand on the intersection of U.S. Route 15-501 and Mt. Moriah Road Monday fighting a Durham ordinance banning people from begging on major road medians.

SEE ORDINANCE ON PAGE 4

From bed and abroad, junior starts nonprofits

SEE BLASER ON PAGE 6

by Anna KoelschTHE CHRONICLE

Calling Steven Blaser driven would be an understatement.

The junior public policy and econom-ics major from Bedford, N.Y. has started two major initiatives at Duke in the past few years, showing no sign of slowing down. North Carolina Common Sense, which he started during the first semes-ter of his sophomore year, is a nonprofit with the aim of providing data visualiza-tions and increasing government trans-parency. Duke/Durham Saves, the latest project spearheaded by Blaser, is an ini-tiative with the goal of promoting savings and financial awareness at Duke and in Durham.

“I was in a lot of different groups my freshman year, all fantastic groups,” Bla-ser said. “I just like starting things bet-ter.”

He said he was drawn to starting North Carolina Common Sense after hearing about a similar initiative—California Common Sense—and feeling like it was a perfect combination of his interests in public policy, economics and statistics. He enlisted the help of other students and asked Ken Rogerson, director of under-graduate studies at the Sanford School of Public Policy, to serve as the nonprofit’s advisor in the short term. Rogerson cur-rently serves on the board of directors for North Carolina Common Sense.

After a surgery during the Spring of his sophomore year, Blaser was confined to a bed in the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club. During this time, he said, he did a lot of schoolwork and a lot of work to start North Carolina Common Sense.

“I had nothing else to do since I couldn’t get out of bed, so I got all of the initial legwork done,” Blaser said.

Meanwhile, another idea was brew-ing in Blaser’s head. After working for Summit Service, an accounting firm in Armonk, N.Y., he learned about the na-tional organization America Saves, which promotes saving and financial literacy. He was interested in taking the idea and building it locally in Durham.

After he had the initial idea for Duke/Durham Saves, Blaser reached out to John Caccavale, executive director of the Duke Financial Economics Center.

“I said, ‘Look, this would be a really cool idea and I think we could pursue it,’” Blaser said. “And [Caccavale] said,

‘Great, when do we start?’” Blaser has been preparing for the

February launch of Duke/Durham Saves since last summer, working on it through his Fall semester studying abroad in Ma-drid.

The organization, which is already partnered with two Durham credit unions—Self-Help Credit Union and Duke Federal Credit Union—aims to lower the barriers to entry for people getting savings accounts. Blaser said he and other students involved in Duke/Durham Saves are hoping to recruit more students, as well as reach out to members of the Durham community to sign up. He is also hoping to co-teach a house course in the Fall on personal finance, as part of an umbrella strategy of improving finan-cial literacy at Duke.

As a college student, one of Blaser’s biggest hurdles initially was proving his credibility. Early on, he said it was diffi-cult to get people to answer the phone or take him seriously, but he said it was easier once he got the ball rolling and had faculty like Caccavale and Rogerson supporting him.

“It’s nothing personal—it’s the nature

by Linda YuTHE CHRONICLE

Local Durham residents and several Duke Divinity School students gathered at the intersection of U.S. Route 15-501 and Mt. Moriah Road Monday to pro-test a Dec. 17 change to Durham ordi-nances that outlawed begging on the medians of major roads.

In the past, the city of Durham al-lowed begging on medians as long as panhandlers wore reflective hazard vests and registered with the city. The new ordinance bans sitting, standing or walking on medians as well as being on an access ramp, requiring instead that panhandlers stand on a sidewalk on a one-way street or the lane closest to the edge of a roadway and at least 100 feet from a bridge. Donations can only be accepted from the passenger side of a vehicle. Many local panhandlers have been ticketed and fined since the ordi-nance went into effect.

Open Table Ministries and several lo-cal pastors organized the recent protest. The protest purposefully took place in an area where protestors are not al-lowed to even receive a permit for gath-ering, said fourth-year Divinity School student Emily Knight.

“In every possible way we are protest-ing the ordinance,” Knight said.

Knight was one of several Duke Di-vinity students who participated in the protest, while other protestors ranged from local senior citizens to children as young as four years old. Some pro-testors wore reflective vests and stood on the medians to directly violate the ordinance while others remained on the grassy slope next to the highway.

All participants carried signs written on cardboard mimicking the handmade signs typically carried by panhandlers. Some of the signs were shakily drawn by a small six-year-old girl named Sarah, who ran through the grass on the side of the road during the protest.

Local residents Jean and Bob Kruhm heard about the protest during a meet-ing at the Watts Street Baptist Church and came out to support it. Bob said that neither he nor Jean had realized how the new ordinance made it difficult to for the poor to get by in Durham.

Jean said that she objected to the way the ordinance was passed without any investigation. Knight also felt that the ordinance was passed without con-sidering or creating alternatives for the people who are most affected by the change.

“My problem with the ordinance is that it takes a marginalized population and quite literally forces them off the street, making them invisible,” Knight said. “That is wrong.”

Within thirty minutes of the protest, the police arrived. Instead of ticketing the protestors, they handed out white fliers detailing the stipulations of the new ordinance.

One of the officers, who declined to give his name, explained that they had been called in because a person in the area had called the police reporting the protest. The other officers refused to comment.

Second-year Divinity School student Adam Baker heard about the protest through friends, and he estimated that

JESSIE LU/THE CHRONICLE

Junior Steven Blaser has started two major initia-tives since coming to Duke: North Carolina Com-mon Sense and Duke/Durham Saves.

THE CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 | 3

In this provocative panel discussion, energy philosopher Alex Epstein and nuclear engineer Thomas Eiden (both from the Center for Industrial Progress) give uncompromising moral and scientific arguments for the unfettered and unlimited development of the oil and nuclear power industries. They argue that so-called “alternative” energies are the path to darkness. Come see if they can convince you. Or if you can convince them that they’re wrong. There will be ample time for questions and (respectful) disagreements. Alex Epstein (Duke ’02) is President of the Center for Industrial Progress and an expert in energy and industrial policy. His writings on energy have been published in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Investor’s Business Daily. He is leading free-market energy debater, having debated Bill McKibben, Greenpeace, Occupy Wall Street, and other environmentalist groups. Thomas Eiden is a nuclear engineer and a Researcher at the Center for Industrial Progress. He has conducted research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Argonne National Laboratory. When not researching, Eiden is a passionate activist not only for nuclear power but also fossil fuels and all other forms of reliable, affordable energy.

Oil + Nuclear = Life“Alternative” Energy = Death

PANEL DISCUSSIONwithEnergy PhilosopherAlex EpsteinandNuclear EngineerThomas Eiden

TODAY, March 275:00pm Old Chem 116

‘Let the Great World Spin’ picked for summer reading

Parties struggle with same-sex marriage shift

by Dan BalzTHE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — Amid the legal arguments at Tuesday’s Supreme Court hearing on same-sex marriage, there loomed a social science question: How well do children turn out when they are raised by gay parents?

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is widely considered the swing vote, called the topic “uncharted waters.” Conservative Justice Samuel Alito Jr. wryly asked, “You want us to step in and render a decision based on an assessment of the effects of this institu-tion which is newer than cellphones or the Internet?”

Indeed, gay marriage is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. It has only been legal since 2004, when Massa-chusetts began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Eight more states and Washington have legalized same-sex nup-tials since then, but it is has been banned in 35 states.

Researchers have been delving into the effects of same-sex parenting only since the 1980s and 1990s. Most of the studies involve relatively small samples because of the rar-ity of such families.

Still, there is a growing consensus among experts that the sexual orientation of par-ents is not a major determinant in how well children fare in school, on cognitive tests and in terms of their emotional develop-ment. What matters more, researchers found, is the quality of parenting and the family’s economic well-being.

“I can tell you we’re never going to get the perfect science, but what you have right now is good-enough science,” said Benja-min Siegel, a professor of pediatrics at Bos-ton University School of Medicine. “The data we have right now are good enough to know what’s good for kids.”

Siegel co-authored a report issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics last week when it came out in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. The group looked at dozens of studies conducted over 30 years and concluded that legalizing same-sex marriage would strengthen families and benefit children.

The best study, Siegel said, is the Na-tional Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study, which began in 1986 with 154 lesbian mothers who conceived children through artificial insemination. A recent look at 78 offspring found that the children did fine—better, even, than children in a similar study involving more diverse families.

Many opponents of same-sex marriage argue that the academy’s conclusions are premature. They point to some recent stud-ies, including one from Mark Regnerus, a sociology professor from the University of Texas at Austin. Regnerus, who could not be reached for this article, found that adults who reported being raised by a person who had a homosexual experience were more likely to be on welfare or experience sexual abuse.

Regnerus has been the subject of intense

SEE MARRIAGE ON PAGE 12

by Carleigh StiehmTHE CHRONICLE

The Class of 2017 will read Colum Mc-Cann’s novel “Let the Great World Spin,” as its official summer reading book.

The novel was chosen by a selection com-mittee comprising faculty, staff and under-graduate students. The committee is work-ing to arrange a campus visit from McCann in the Fall.

The novel is about the impact that Philippe Petit’s 1974 tightrope walk across between the two buildings of the World Trade Center complex had on the lives of several New Yorkers who witnessed the event. The fictional novel conveys the effect Petit’s walk had throughout the protagonists’ lives.

“I actually just heard about the book a few weeks prior,” said incoming freshman Anna Bensley from Grand Rapids, Mich. “The title captivated me instantly. To delve further into the plot of this novel, I am able to find even more connections to the enduring experi-ence of enrolling at Duke University.”

Incoming freshmen will have the oppor-tunity to discuss the novel during orientation week activities.

Junior Valentine Esposito, a member of the summer reading selection committee and co-chair of the First-Year Advisory Coun-cil, said that the book was chosen because it has a storyline to which every incoming fresh-man can relate.

“The book ties together the lives of several very different characters,” Esposito said. “It is a really interesting parallel to when you first come to Duke and you meet so many differ-

ent types of people, and you dive into experi-ences that every freshman has, and it really ties everyone together.”

She added that the book was a favorite within the committee because it was “beauti-fully written.”

Sophomore Madison Moyle, a member

SEE READING ON PAGE 5

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

Duke announced Tuesday that the Class of 2017 summer reading book will be Colum McCann’s “Let the Great World Spin”

4 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 THE CHRONICLE

Tibetan Creole

Haitian Creole (Kreyòl ayisyen) often called simply Creole or Kreyòl, is a language based largely on 18th Century French, some African languages, as well as languages such as Arawak, English, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, and Taino. It is spoken in Haiti, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominican Republic, France, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Ivory Coast, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, parts of the United States, and Venezuela.

Register Now:

CREOLE 101: Elementary Creole I (FL), MTThF 10:15 - 11:15, (offered by Duke)

Tibetan is a collection of dialects spoken by more than 8 million people across China, India, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan. Most Tibetic languages are written in an Indic script that helps unify the Tibetan-language area.

Register Now:

TIBETAN 101: Elementary Tibetan I (FL), MTWRF 9:00 - 9:50 (offered by UVA)

Duke/University of Virginia Consortium Duke/University of Virginia Consortium

Duke/University of Virginia Consortium Duke and the University of Virginia are partnering to offer courses in languages not often taught in Western academic curriculum. Classes will be taught to students on both campuses through telepresence classrooms, and the courses will also count towards students’ foreign language degree requirement at both universities.

ANDREW HARRER/THE WASHINGTON POST

Opponents of same-sex marriage hold signs while demonstrating outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Tuesday.

Protesters push to stop same-sex marriage ORDINANCE from page 2

there were 10 to 15 other Divinity stu-dents at the protest.

“A number of [Divinity School stu-dents] have actually driven by and honked and waved, and some of us are out on the medians as well,” he said.

He noted that as a Divinity school stu-dent, he felt that he is trained to be aware of the reality of need in his community.

“[We are trained] to not just speak about ministry as an idea or a theory but to see it as something that people live out on a daily basis,” he said. “[Standing here for the protest] is a minor deal compared to what people stand out and do on a reg-ular basis as part of their regular lives.”

He said the protest has changed how he views the homeless.

“I’m definitely the sort of person who would have just driven by people stand-ing on medians before and not made eye contact—more out of a sense of guilt or not knowing what I can do that’s effective in some way,” he said.

In the future, though, Baker said that he would approach panhandlers with a new perspective.

“If I don’t have anything to give them, I will at the very least make eye contact with them and smile and acknowledge them as a person—because that’s what they are—rather than consider them to be an annoyance or somebody to be ig-nored because they make me feel uncom-fortable,” he said.

Bob Kruhm had also never contribut-ed before, but he said that he does now because he felt that people should treat panhandlers with dignity in tough times.

Robert Simpson, a pastor at Resurrec-tion Methodist church, became involved with the protest through his work with

Open Table ministries providing meals for the homeless weekly.

“I just hope that people of Durham can be aware of [the ordinance] and that it is our responsibility as people of God to help out everybody,” he said.

He attributed his new perceptions of the homeless to his involvement with Open Table.

“Before, I would give help at a dis-tance, but now I’m meeting them and ac-tually seeing them face-to-face—you can’t be the same when you see them face-to-face,” he said. “It’s really life changing.”

LINDA YU/THE CHRONICLE

A man stands on the median of a Durham protest-ing a recent city ordinance that bans individuals from begging on major streets.

THE CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 | 5

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READING from page 3

GRE from page 1

studies. “We try to look for the best students. Period.”

Pardon said the difference in standardized testing scores is re-lated to the difference in the under-graduate education systems around the world. Those who are seeking doctorate level mathematics de-grees abroad will exclusively take mathematics courses rather than the liberal arts education found at American schools such as Duke, he noted. Because of these systemic dif-ferences, there are other factors that take much precedence over testing

scores in graduate admissions deci-sions.

“What makes the difference is letters of recommendations,” Par-don said.

Letters of recommendation can pose a distinct advantage for domes-tic applicants, he added. Letters of recommendation from domestic applicants often feature more analy-sis of the applicants’ strengths and weaknesses as opposed to letters from international applicants which tend to be more generic in form.

Similar trends are found in admissions to the School of Law, which uses the LSAT in admission decisions. William Hoye, associate

dean of admissions and student af-fairs for the Law School, noted that although there are a lower number of international than domestic stu-dents enrolled in the Juris Doctor degree program, the discrepancy in enrollment is not due to a dif-ference in standardized test scores of the applicant groups. There simply is a smaller pool of interna-tional applicants, he said, and there is little difference in overall quality between domestic and international applicants.

“In fact, we are more understand-ing of a low LSAT score if English is [the applicant’s] second language,” Hoye said.

International students are more heavily enrolled in the Master of Laws program, a degree that focuses on explaining the United States law and judicial systems to existing law-yers, which is often pursued by for-eign lawyers studying international law.

Both international and domestic students accepted into the graduate programs emphasized the impor-tance of teacher recommendations and personal experience over stan-dardized test scores.

The difference in scores on the verbal reasoning skill section may come from cultural distinctions, noted senior Caitlin Esoda, who was

recently admitted to the Ph.D. pro-gram in cell biology at Duke.

“[The GRE] would be difficult without English as a first language,” Esoda said. “If I could not under-stand the test, I would do worse.”

Hoye said all Duke graduate pro-grams seek a diverse student body, despite disparities in test scores be-tween domestic and international students.

“We care about enrolling a di-verse class—not just in the tradition-al ways, but also [a diversity of] point of view,” Hoye said. “International students possess qualities that can persuade us [to accept them], but so can domestic students.”

also sheds light on the issue of deforestation in Madagascar, which is an ongoing threat for native lemur species, said Chris Smith, educa-tion specialist at the Duke Lemur Center.

The Lemur Center is developing educa-tional programs in northeast Madagascar, Smith noted. The programs are designed to bring local youths to national parks, so they can learn more about the animals.

“We are working on environmental edu-cation so that the students can actually see what is happening,” Smith said. “Hopefully, this will build an awareness of what’s being lost.”

Smith added that the Lemur Center is also working on using freshwater fish farms as an alternative to bushmeat hunting, the practice of killing lemurs for food. The goal is to use fish as a sustainable protein source instead of hunting wild lemurs, which has been docu-mented ever since the first long-term lemur studies began in the 1960s.

The discovery of the new species may also play a role in medical research such as the study of Alzheimer’s disease, said Erin Eh-mke, research manager at the Lemur Center. The center is currently home to the largest

colony of grey mouse lemurs in North Amer-ica, a close relative of the two newly identified species.

The study was published in the March 26 is-sue of International Journal of Primatology.

of the Duke Summer Reading committee, said that the novel will provide for in-depth discussion in FAC groups because it pres-ents the reader with a wide variety of larger themes.

Other finalists for the summer reading book included “Behind the Beautiful For-evers” by Katherine Boo, “Little Princes” by Conor Grennan, “Crashing Through” by Robert Kurson and “Purge” by Sofi Ok-sanen.

“‘Let the World Spin’ was hands down my favorite choice,” Moyle said.

The novel for the Class of 2016 was Ann Patchett’s “State of Wonder.”

Moyle said that compared to previous years’ summer reading, “Let the World Spin” brings “a greater breadth of discussion.” She added that the themes highlighted in the novel are fear, hope, love and loss.

Incoming freshmen will receive copies from a special printing of the novel in July.

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

An international team of researchers, including one from the Duke Lemur Center, recently identified two new species of mouse lemurs.

LEMURS from page 1

6 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 THE CHRONICLE

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MAY 22–JUNE 28 | JULY 2–AUGUST 9 | MAY 22–AUGUST 9

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School of Arts and Sciences | School of Engineering

EMMA LOEWE/THE CHRONICLE

Visiting artist Mat Curran paints an art installation on the Arts Annex. Members of the community are invited to participate in creating the mural throughout the week.

Get the pictureof the situation,” Blaser said. “As long as you can take enough ego blows, you’ll get something accomplished.”

Blaser said he works three days ahead and has devel-oped a variety of time management techniques to bal-ance the two organizations, his academics, a social life and the other projects he has toyed with launching.

These projects include some ideas for mobile appli-cations and other online ideas, he said. But the majority of his energy right now is dedicated to North Carolina Common Sense and Duke/Durham Saves.

“These are my big babies,” he said smiling. Caccavale said Blaser’s drive is impressive, and that

Blaser is fearless when presenting projects in front of very senior people at Duke and in Durham.

“Most students get about 25 percent of the way on their project and then it falls apart,” Caccavale said. “He’s so focused—he was sending emails, working and talking to people while abroad with the goal of getting it launched in February. There are few students who would be able to get that done.”

Rogerson said Blaser thinks that everything is pos-sible and acts as if it is, but emphasized that he does all of his work with a strong sense of humility.

Now that Blaser is dedicating a larger proportion of his time to Duke/Durham Saves, sophomore Michael Schreiner has taken a larger role in North Carolina Common Sense. Schreiner, a sports associate for The Chronicle and one of Blaser’s fraternity brothers in Pi Kappa Phi, is the director of daily operations for North Carolina Common Sense.

Schreiner stressed how hard of a worker Blaser is, es-timating that Blaser puts as much work and time into two or three projects that the average student can only dedicate to one.

“He doesn’t sleep as much as he should,” Schreiner said with a laugh.

BLASER from page 2

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FOOTBALL

Williams, Varner get a second chance at the prosby Andrew Beaton

THE CHRONICLE

Johnny Williams’ faith led him back to football.

“God was my coach,” he said.Donovan Varner returned to

the game when he realized how much he missed it.

“I just found a passion for it again,” he said.

A year removed from the end of their Duke football careers and graduation, both players received a second chance. The duo was among seven Blue Devils working out in front of 21 NFL scouts at Duke football’s Pro Day Monday.

“I didn’t want them to come in here and not be in shape, but it was very evident that they worked hard,” Duke head coach David Cut-cliffe said. “They wanted another shot and neither was as healthy as they needed to be in their senior workouts, so it gives them a chance to show their stuff.”

Williams had been working on his graphic design career in Atlanta, a venture he began at Duke with former Blue Devil and current St. Louis Ram defensive back Matt Daniels called “Middle Child,” saying the middle child is often overlooked and doesn’t get a lot of attention. Williams origi-nally focused on creating designs

and caricatures for friends and a handful of NFL players, and in the past year expanded to doing commercial graphic design. His most recent client was Bankers Life and Casualty, designing a mural for their branch in Mobile, Ala., Williams’ hometown.

But when he returned home a few months ago it was also to be-gin training for another chance at playing professional football. Wil-liams began his career at Duke as a wide receiver, starting 15 games in his first two seasons before transitioning to the defensive side

of the ball as an upperclassman. He started eight games at defen-sive back as a senior but missed three of the team’s contests with a leg injury.

In Mobile, he began conduct-ing two-a-day workouts, one by himself and one with Darrell “Lec-tron” Williams, an All-SEC fresh-man running back in 1989 whose career was derailed by injures. With Lectron, Johnny Williams stuck with his instincts and decid-ed to train as a wide receiver.

“It’s my love, and it’s what God told me I needed to do,” he said.

Johnny Williams also worked at “QB Country,” a camp in Mo-bile run by David Morris, a for-mer Ole Miss quarterback under Cutcliffe, who was the head coach for the Rebels from 1998-2004. Williams had the opportunity to both train and coach there, say-ing he learned from his mistakes by working with high school and college athletes at the facility.

Williams worked with Lectron on speed and physical training while Morris was able to prepare him more in the field, teaching him the routes he would have to run in front of scouts on Pro Day.

Williams’ intangibles, however, are what set him apart, Morris said.

“The quality that gets most over-looked is heart. Most guys who play at the Division I level have the athlet-ic ability, but it’s the guys who have the biggest heart and want-to that end up excelling,” Morris said. “He has the heart right now, the will-to, want-to and the work ethic. Physical-ly he’s good enough to play some-where. It’s just a matter of where.”

Williams was ultimately pleased with the attention he received after auditioning for scouts Monday.

“My agent [Stan Gay] called, and he said a lot of scouts called him and said, ‘Johnny Williams, who is he?’” Williams said.

Like Williams, Varner wasn’t fully healthy at least year’s Pro Day. The 5-foot-9 wide receiver finished his Duke career with the program’s record for receptions, only to have it broken by his high school and college teammate Conner Vernon.

Discouraged after not getting selected in last year’s NFL Draft and not receiving a training camp invite, Varner returned home to Miami.

“I got down and out about that,” he said. “I gave up on football.”

While at home he returned to his high school, Gulliver Prep, where he began coaching the wide receivers. There he redis-covered his passion for the game and started training once again in December.

He kept close tabs on Vernon and the team throughout the sea-son, saying he called Vernon be-fore every game and was thrilled to see the team reach the Belk Bowl, the Blue Devils’ first bowl appear-ance since the 1994 season.

After months of training, Varn-er said he was happy with his per-formance at Pro Day. Although official times were not available, he said the times on his 40-yard dash were between 4.43 and 4.49 seconds, which are above average

SEE 2ND CHANCE ON PAGE 8

BASEBALL

The Blue Devils’ Marvel freshman righty

CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Johnny Williams auditioned for NFL scouts Monday, a year after graduating Duke.

by Lopa RahmanTHE CHRONICLE

Selected in the 2012 MLB draft, James Marvel had the opportunity to sign with the Minnesota Twins following his illustrious career at Campolindo High School. But the Duke experience was too promising for the freshman right-hander to pass up.

“My goal had always been to play Major League Base-ball, and I’m very grateful I had an opportunity to do that out of high school,” he said. “But for me it was an easy deci-sion to come to Duke to have a college experience, get a good education and continue to develop as a player.”

The Morago, Calif. native, who narrowed his college list down to Duke and Stanford, ultimately chose to join the Blue Devils because of the environment, people and op-portunity to get away from home.

“When you talk about having great baseball and great academics, I knew I couldn’t go wrong with either choice,” he said. “But ultimately I just fell in love with Duke.”

The freshman standout has never looked back and now has a 2-2 record with a 4.33 ERA in five starts this season.

Marvel was drafted in the 37th-round by the Twins and 1,120th overall. But rated the No. 74 baseball recruit in the nation according to ESPN.com, Marvel likely would have gone much higher if a team believed it could sign him, an unlikely proposition given his commitment to Duke. The Twins also selected Marvel’s high school teammate and battery mate, catcher Jared Lei.

“I’m very happy with my decision. I enjoy being here every day,” he said. “On top of all of that, I met friends and teammates here who I know I’ll be close with for life.”

Marvel is not the only one who is very happy with his decision to forego professional baseball for a spot on the Blue Devils’ roster. First-year head coach Chris Pollard had

high praise for Marvel and his contributions to the team.“[The new coaching staff] is the beneficiary of [former

head coach Sean McNally and his staff] recruiting James,” Pollard said. “We’re very fortunate that they did.”

But Marvel’s transition to Division I baseball from high school wasn’t an easy one. He struggled at first, picking up losses to Campbell and Penn. He surrendered five runs on five hits to the Camels and allowed three runs on six hits to the Quakers.

“I started the year off not how I had hoped,” he said. “I struggled, specifically with getting into a good rhythm and commanding all of my pitches. On the flip side, there were some little things that I was doing well, so it was all about

finding the right way to put it all together.”Marvel put it all together after Penn shut out Duke 6-0. He

rebounded with strong performances against N.C. Central and Charlotte, which the Blue Devils defeated 6-3 and 3-0, respectively. He struck out three batters and issued two walks against the Eagles and threw seven scoreless innings against the 49ers, who entered the game hitting over .300 as a team.

“James has gotten better with each start,” Pollard said. “His last two starts have been very, very good. He was very effective against Charlotte and kept them off-balance.”

Pollard attributed Marvel’s success to the development of his fastball command, his better feel for throwing his change-up to right-handed hitters and his ability to fill up the strike zone with a mix of three pitches: his fastball, change-up and breaking ball.

“He has really started to throw his change-up in the zone as well as to both right-handed and left-handed hit-ters, which is not something that a lot of young pitchers are able to do,” Pollard said. “The combination of those things has really sped up his maturation on the mound.”

Marvel was quick to credit his teammates’ for their ef-fort in the Blue Devils’ recent wins.

“The defense behind me has been unbelievable, and it really makes my job easier when I can pitch with confi-dence in the strike zone and know that when the ball gets put into play they’re going to make the play behind me,” he said. “I have a great amount of trust in them, which has been huge.”

And Marvel’s coaches and teammates have just as much trust in his abilities on the mound. He pitches again as Duke (12-13) takes on North Carolina A&T Wednesday evening in Greensboro, N.C.

“He will continue to do the same thing he’s been doing and attack with a three-pitch mix,” Pollard said.

CHRIS DIECKHAUS/CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Duke freshman James Marvel could have gone pro out of high school but chose to delay his professional career in order to attend Duke.

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>> THE BLUE ZONE Duke associate head coach Chris Collins interviewed for the head coaching position at Northwestern. Read the latest on his chances. sports.chronicleblogs.com

8 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 THE CHRONICLE

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for a wide receiver.Varner said he was thankful for the op-

portunity to showcase his talents again, stating a willingness to play professionally anywhere, whether it’s in the NFL or else-where.

“They didn’t have to give me the chance to come back out here,” Varner said. “It’s a touching moment and a blessing.”

Neither Varner nor Williams has a guar-antee of playing professional football. And after a year removed from the game, it ap-pears to be more of a long shot.

But their careers at Duke and decision to give it one more go spoke volumes about their character to Cutcliffe.

“Whether they make it in pro football

2ND CHANCE from page 7

or not—I hope they do, I hope they have chance or shot at it—they’re going to be successful because of the hard work they’ve done here academically and the type of young men they’ve become,” Cutcliffe said.

CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Varner graduated as Duke’s all-time receptions leader.

five of them.Williams, though, said her opponents did not do anything

out of the ordinary to stop her.“I was way too careless with the ball,” she said. The Cowgirls converted these extra possessions into easy

baskets, hitting 46.7 percent of their shots and recording 10 points off turnovers in the period.

The Blue Devils, on the other hand, shot only 30.0 percent in the half, going into the locker room down 34-21.

“It was just a weird first half,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “As a coach, there are things you are very upset about —layups, for example, transition defense. But I elected to not go there. I dropped the first half and [said], ‘This is what it is. This is what we’re going to do.’”

Duke made much-needed adjustments in the second half, finally beginning to play like the favorites. McCallie said her team just started to have fun and play as a team.

“We pressed a little and think about things too much sometimes, and forget to play together, which occurred a bit in the first half,” McCallie said. “The second half was a differ-ent story. Everybody was on the same page, pulling the same direction. It was just a fascinating thing to observe, to watch, to be a part of.”

W. BASKETBALL from page 1

After Oklahoma State scored the first two points of the second half to extend the lead to 15—the largest deficit Duke faced all season at Cameron Indoor Stadium—the Blue Devils went on a 12-0 run, bringing the game within three.

“I don’t think it is necessarily anything we did wrong, we just ran out of gas tonight,” Littell said. “We have been playing basically five people for the last two-and-a-half months. Playing a caliber team like Duke, depth becomes an issue, and that was a big issue tonight.”

Junior Chloe Wells, who missed last season’s tournament due to suspension, relished her “opportunity of a lifetime” to play in this tournament and was a thorn in the Cowgirls’ of-fensive flow.

At one point, Wells was involved in 11 consecutive points for the Blue Devils and finished the night with 13 points, two assists and a steal.

“Chloe [had] a game-changing performance in many ways,” McCallie said. “Chloe was the engine to making it go.”

The Blue Devils turned the tables in the second half, forc-ing the Cowgirls into 16 turnovers. Duke capitalized on their mistakes, scoring 17 points off the extra possessions.

“Our turnovers really led to their momentum,” Cowgirl guard Tiffany Bias said. “We weren’t taking care of the ball. That 1-2-2 press that they put on us kind of riled us a little bit, and we didn’t adjust to it well.”

Duke took the lead off a Tricia Liston 3-pointer, capping a personal 6-0 run. The Blue Devils did not let the game go again, with Williams and junior Haley Peters both hitting key shots to maintain the lead.

Perfect free throw shooting as the game drew to a close iced the win, giving Duke a chance to advance to Norfolk.

“It’s just a fun time of year,” McCallie said. “It’s about just playing together and enjoying that opportunity to play togeth-er for as long as we possibly can.”

SOPHIA DURAND/THE CHRONICLE

Chloe Wells was the “engine” in Duke’s comeback win against OKST.

THE CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 | 9

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“The rich are getting richer at the expense of the poor” is oft stated in casual discourse. There is a general sentiment that wealth in-

equity is a signifi cant issue affecting American society. In fact, there has even been a recent viral video on You-Tube called “Wealth Inequality in America” that has garnered over 5 million views. Unfortunately, real-ity does not support this vision of unjust inequality. Our free enter-prise system makes America the wealthiest country in the world, and that system must endure if we hope to continue being a prosper-ous and free people.

The aforementioned video is entertaining but nonetheless logically unsound and perniciously misleading. The fi rst point made is that the actual distribution of wealth in the U.S. is remarkably different from what the average person thinks it should be. So what? Is it surprising that the ideals of hoi polloi aren’t refl ected by reality? No, and they ought not be. The average person has absolutely no idea what sort of economic system promotes his or her in-dividual interest and the collective interest of the nation. At one time, people supported Marxist economics because of its similar allure. It didn’t play out well in actuality, as we all know. Similarly, the idea that each quintile of society should ac-crue roughly the same wealth, although popular, is an absurd and backward idea.

Second, the video makes the case that the rich have become disproportionately wealthier over time. Again, so what? This is simply an example of Pareto’s principle that a small mi-nority generates the majority of production. As such, they receive the majority of the wealth cre-ated. The key point to understand is that both the rich and the poor have become wealthier over time. According to data from the U.S. Cen-sus Bureau, from 1967 to 2009 the real mean household income of the top quintile increased by 71 percent. Over the same period, the real mean household income in the bottom quin-tile increased by 25 percent. So yes, the rich are richer, but so are the poor. The difference in the percentage of growth can be attributed to changing economic landscape for technology and globalization. Those who are in the top quintile are probably better-prepared to adapt to and take advantage of these trends. Further-more, the video ignores the fact that there is constant economic fl ux in our dynamic econo-my. The people in each quintile change both inter and intra generationally. Thus, as long as

there is economic mobility—as long as even the poorest are getting richer—it shouldn’t matter that the richer are getting wealthier at a higher rate. Just as Adam Smith once remarked that

the poorest European peasant was better off than the richest African king, likewise, even the poorest Americans are better off than the majority of the rest of the world and certainly better off than they were 50 years ago.

Finally, the video makes numer-ous logically fallacious, specious statements. Just as an example, it shows that the average CEO makes 380 times the adjusted wage of the average worker. It then sarcastically

asks, “Do you really believe that the CEO is work-ing 380 times harder than his average employee?” The implication is that CEOs do not deserve to be paid what they’re paid. First, wages are not predi-cated upon how hard you work in the sense of how much effort you exert. The singular relevant vari-able is how much output you generate. If I were the chairman of Apple, I would certainly trade 380 average laborers for Steve Jobs in a heartbeat. While we’re on this note, the philosophical notion of desert is frequently fl ung around. For some rea-son, people have a concept that they are deserv-ing or entitled to certain things. In the words of Milton Friedman, “A society that aims for equality before liberty will end up with neither. … What ultimately happens when you aim at equality is that A and B decide what C shall do for D.” It’s painfully obvious why centrally enforced equality should be avoided.

The political philosophy underlying wealth inequalities is known as the fi eld of distributive justice. It is the study of what system a society should use to justly allocate its resources. While this is a wildly complex fi eld, a key idea is the en-titlement theory as espoused by Robert Nozick. Basically, results that arise from just means are necessarily and suffi ciently just. Thus, even if the 1 percent possesses 24 percent of the country’s wealth as the video claims, as long as the relevant individual transactions were voluntary, it is a just outcome. I encourage you to read Nozick’s “An-archy, State and Utopia” for more information.

The outcry over wealth disparity is simply a case of the pauper being jealous of the prince. It really is rather unbecoming and unfi tting for anyone educated to champion such a cause. Inequality is simply a necessary product of a free society.

Jonathan Zhao is a Trinity freshman. His column usually runs every other Thursday.

commentaries10 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 THE CHRONICLE

The C

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editorial

The prince and the pauper

Cover gender reassignmentThe Duke community

should embrace Duke Stu-dent Government’s March 20 resolution to add sex reas-signment surgery to the list of procedures covered by stu-dent and em-ployee health i n s u r a n c e . Sexual reassignment surgery is far from just a cosmetic procedure—students whose gender identities mismatch the sex they were assigned at birth must battle with this identity issue, which can deeply disrupt the agency of transgender individuals.

Of course, the decision to undergo surgery is a highly personal one with some trans-gender people preferring hor-mone therapy, no treatment or only “top surgery”—breast augmentation or reduction—

over sex reassignment. But for those students and em-ployees who require gender reassignment surgery—the surgical procedure that al-ters a person’s sex organs—

Duke can do the right thing here and cover

such procedures with the stu-dent health care plan at little cost to itself.

Normally, the moral argu-ment for covering a procedure under health insurance is that the treatment must demon-strate that there will be a fair distribution of moral benefi ts and burdens amongst insur-ance holders. But in this case, the consideration is almost irrelevant. The incidence of gender reassignment surgery in the general population is extremely low, and even lower

among college students. The rarity of the procedure means that its cost to insurance pro-viders of a large pool of cus-tomers will be trivial.

We are aware of no objec-tions to Duke’s current policy, which covers mental health care, hormone therapy and breast reduction and aug-mentation. The proposal is a sensible extension of the cur-rent policy, especially because it will be deeply meaningful to its benefi ciaries, some of whom may be estranged from their parents as a result of be-ing transgender and, there-fore, don’t receive benefi ts from their parents’ health insurance. This is also a huge issue for Duke employees, who receive a choice of four insur-ance plans, none of which cover sex reassignment sur-

gery. With the University as the second largest private em-ployer in the state, it has the opportunity to extend these crucial health benefi ts to not only students but all those who help the University and health system function.

We appreciate the con-cern that insurance should not cover any procedures that are done purely for cosmetic reasons. Cosmetic procedures are often motivated by vanity, but many elective procedures undo a fundamental impedi-ment to their benefi ciary’s ability to lead a life. The Amer-ican Medical Association and other major professional orga-nizations have deemed gender reassignment as not cosmetic, but medically necessary. Be-cause we can distinguish in this way between conditions

that fundamentally impede the ability to lead a life and those that do not, we can pre-clude the possibility of a “slip-pery slope,” in which cosmetic procedures must be covered by student health insurance.

It makes sense that health insurance cover sex reassign-ment surgery, as well as other surgeries that are identifi ed as vital to the well-being of transgender people. Current-ly, 36 colleges and universi-ties currently cover sex reas-signment surgery, including Harvard University, Stanford University and the University of California system. Enact-ing DSG’s proposal can put Duke ahead of the curve and, more importantly, affi rm the identity and health needs of transgender students in the present and future.

”“ onlinecomment

I look forward to this writer’s next piece about the cur-rently active all-female society at Duke, about which one could make all the same critiques ...

—Guest user commenting on the column “Trasked with secrecy.”See more at www.dukechronicle.com.

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jonathan zhaofree markets, free people

commentariesTHE CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 | 11

“Inshallah.” Muslims all over the world use the Arabic phrase, usually translated as “God willing,” referring to any future oc-currence, recognizing that tomorrow isn’t promised and that

most of the conditions in our lives are out of our hands. The phrase even found its way into the Spanish language in the form of “ojalá,” with a similar sense of hope for something coming to pass. In Eng-lish, the Latin phrase “deo volente” expresses the same thought, although it has largely fallen out of usage since the early 20th century.

Colloquially, the phrase is clos-er to “don’t count on it.” Be wary of an “inshallah” in response to questions like “We still on for cof-fee tomorrow?” or “Can we go to Disney World for the holidays?” or “Are you going to get that column in before the deadline?” When it comes to dealing with uncertainty, there’s a thin line between hope and fatalism, between patience and resignation.

As I prepare to graduate (“inshallah”), I’ve given more thought to the role of God in my time as a Duke student. In 2007, I ma-triculated into the Pratt School of Engineering with ambitions of creating sustainable solutions for the developing world. I’ve since transferred to Trinity as a classical studies major. I’ve taken leaves of absence related to serious bouts of depression and debated wheth-er I actually wanted to return to Duke much less continue with life. I’ve ventured from my adopted home in Durham to Mecca, Jeru-salem, Istanbul, Asheville, Cairo and Freetown. Writing, once an occasional hobby, has become my greatest passion. I’ve lost count of the deadlines I’ve missed and the people I’ve slighted. I’ve fallen in and out of love.

Throughout this, however, God has been a constant. Whether I’ve felt ecstatic, curious, despondent, lonely or angry, my respons-es have found their root in my connection or lack thereof to the Divine, to purpose and meaning, mercy and justice.

As a Muslim in the United States, the role of religion and spiri-tuality has often taken a front seat in my life, whether I wanted it to or not. Being Muslim is often more about identity than it is about devotion or spirituality. And the Muslim identity is a politicized, racialized and cultural identity as much as it is a religious one. By virtue of this identity, I worry about government surveillance, racial prejudice, exclusion from spaces and personal safety. My columns are often subject to Islamophobic commentary, even when Islam or religion aren’t even mentioned.

It’s curious how my Muslim identity intersects with other as-pects of my life. Consider my beard. Depending on context, it can take on signifi cances from Muslim Brother or bear cub, Rick Ross or Sam Beam, Fidel Castro or Aristotle. Am I performing my Muslim devotion or asserting my masculinity? Challenging West-ern standards of beauty or taking my study of Greek philosophers way too seriously? Am I lazy or do I just like toying with people’s expectations? Something as simple as some hair on my face pro-duces so many existential questions. Sometimes making sense of the world and God’s will leads me toward follicle digressions on identity politics.

Often, my identity as a student takes on the greatest signifi -cance in my life. I’ve taken “Eruditio et Religio” to heart even if it’s a chapel and not a mosque that’s the centerpiece of our campus. Education isn’t just intellectual engagement inside and outside the classroom but also development of moral character. This Univer-sity’s production of future investment bankers, rape apologists and defenders of inhumane foreign policy sometimes makes me doubt what kind of education we’re providing, but I’ve learned to trust less in the power of institutions—there’s no reason to expect any institution to be immune from patriarchy, heteronormativity, clas-sism and racism just because it happens to be fi lled with students or worshippers.

Maybe my belief in God is a delusion I’ve created to comfort myself that whatever abuses of power I see in the world, there’s a greater, more benevolent arbiter of power that’s really in control. Maybe my belief in God is a recognition that whatever power rela-tions do exist are based on commonly accepted, and therefore un-avoidable, illusions of who or what is powerful in the fi rst place.

Muslims all over the world use “Alhamdulillah” (“praise be to God”) as another common phrase to express gratitude to the Divine. “Praise be to God” is a phatic expression like “I’m fi ne, thank you,” in English—not really conveying how you’re doing but instead used for the performance of polite social interaction. Sometimes, though, calling out and praising God is the reaction of a believer in the face of any situation—good news or a calamity, a lull in conversation or during a quiet moment of contemplation. As I face uncertainty and confusion about what I’ve accomplished during my time at Duke and look forward at the world I’m heading toward, these simple phrases offer some peace.

Ahmad Jitan is a Trinity senior and the president of Duke Students for Justice in Palestine. His column runs every other Wednesday. You can fol-low Ahmad on Twitter @AhmadJitan.

Inshallah

In his most recent State of the Union address, Presi-dent Barack Obama advocated for an increase in the minimum wage. “Let’s declare that, in the wealthiest

nation on Earth, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty,” he said, “and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour.” In the aftermath of that address, debate has bounced back and forth on the effects that such a policy might have, and supporters of both sides have fl ocked to make their opinions on the matter heard.

In an editorial published in The New York Times, for example, Paul Krugman lent his support to President Obama’s proposal. “There are strong reasons to believe,” the No-bel Prize-winning economist wrote last month, “that the kind of minimum wage increase the president is propos-ing would have overwhelmingly positive effects.” As evi-dence for his position, Krugman cited the rise in produc-tivity that the United States has seen over the past several decades. “In real terms the minimum wage is substan-tially lower than it was in the 1960s. Meanwhile, worker productivity has doubled. Isn’t it time for a raise?”

Krugman is not alone. In a recent Senate Commit-tee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) reiterated the claim that increases in productivity justify a policy of increas-ing the minimum wage. “If we started in 1960 and we said that as productivity goes up, that is as workers are producing more, then the minimum wage is going to go up the same … then the minimum wage today would be about $22 an hour,” Warren explained during the hear-ing last week. “So my question is … with a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, what happened to the other $14.75? It sure didn’t go the worker.”

(First of all, neither Krugman nor Warren is actually arguing for such an expansive increase in the minimum wage. Both are simply trying to make a point, and actu-ally support a modest increase of about $2-3 an hour. In order to understand what they actually are arguing, how-ever, a closer look at the data they provide is in order.)

Krugman’s argument is based on data from the U.S. Department of Labor that show an increase in real GDP per hour worked over the past several decades. Warren’s data, similarly, comes from a remarkably sparse Center for Economic and Policy Research report that compares stagnant real minimum wages with increasing total pro-ductivity over the same time period. In arguing that this data unquestionably justifi es an increase in the mini-mum wage, then, Paul Krugman and Elizabeth Warren are implicitly committing the fallacy of division.

The fallacy of division occurs when something that is true of a thing is reasoned to be true of all of the differ-ent parts of that thing. In this case, Krugman and Warren are implicitly arguing that an increase in the productivity of the entire American labor force suggests an identical increase in the productivity of just those workers earning the minimum wage. They are using the total increase in productivity on the part of all workers as a proxy to justify

raising incomes for just some of those workers. No mat-ter your moral stance on this issue, their interpretations of the data that they cite are dubious at best. A less-than-

controversial example may help to dem-onstrate why this is the case.

Over the course of the 2009-2010 sea-son, the Miami Heat scored an average of 96.5 points per basketball game. In the following 2010-2011 season, however, the Heat upped their scoring to an average of 102.1 points per game, representing an increase in total productivity of 5.8 percent. If we look only at this increase in total productivity as a basis for wage increases, then, we would have to con-

clude that Dwayne Wade and his teammates should have earned an extra 5.8 percent as a result of their increased total productivity during the 2010-2011 season.

But wait a minute. Does this increase in total produc-tivity necessarily imply an increase in the marginal pro-ductivity of each player on the team? In order to fi nd out, we can take a closer look at just Wade’s numbers.

During the 2009-2010 season, Dwayne Wade aver-aged 36.3 minutes, 26.6 points and 6.5 assists per game. Over the course of the 2010-2011 season, however, Wade played more minutes per game (37.1) but scored fewer points (25.5) and had fewer assists (4.6), meaning that—despite the team’s overall 5.8 percent increase in total productivity—Wade’s marginal productivity actually fell from one season to the next. In fact, of the seven players who remained with the Heat from the fi rst season to the second, a total of fi ve exhibited decreases in marginal productivity (in terms of average points scored per av-erage minutes played) during that time. (It should be noted here that my measurements are crude, that this is intended as nothing more than a playful analogy, and that there are dozens of different ways to gauge the pro-ductivity of a basketball player.)

All of this, of course, suggests that something other than an increase in the marginal productivity of the ex-isting players is probably responsible for the Heat’s total productivity increase. (Most would probably point to the addition of Chris Bosh and LeBron James in 2010 as the primary reason for the spike in productivity.) It can still be argued that Wade and his teammates deserve bumps in their salaries nonetheless, but to do so by implying in-creased personal production from the increase in overall production would be a serious misreading of the data.

In the end, the minimum wage is a highly complex is-sue, and the case for it cannot be made or broken on the basis of two bad readings of economic data. There are any number of alternative moral, social, economic, statis-tical and political arguments that can be put forward ei-ther in favor of or against increasing the minimum wage, which is all the more reason to leave murky economic data and hasty statistical analyses out of it.

Chris Bassil, Trinity ’12, is currently working in Boston, Mass. His column runs every Wednesday. You can follow Chris on Twitter @HamsterdamEcon.

Krugman, Warren and the minimum wage

chris bassilhuman action

ahmad jitanindecent family man

12 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2013 THE CHRONICLE

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criticism from mainstream researchers and pro-gay marriage activists. But opponents of same-sex marriage say his work should pro-vide a note of caution on an issue that has yet to be studied in adequate depth.

“What the social science makes clear, and it has for several decades, is that children tend to do best when they’re raised by their married biological parents,” said Jennifer Marshall, director of domestic policy stud-ies for the conservative Heritage Institute. “In the case of same-sex households, there is not yet evidence that [children] are going to be the same. There’s every reason to believe that different family structures will have dif-

ferent outcomes.”Susan Brown, a professor of sociology at

Bowling Green State University in Ohio who studies family structures, said it is true that de-cades of research show that children turn out slightly better when they are raised by their bi-ological parents compared with those reared by single parents or in “step” households.

But children raised in committed same-sex couple-led households do not appear to do statistically worse, she said.

“One thing we’re finding that’s very im-portant for children is stability in their family life,” Brown said. “To the extent that mar-riage is a vehicle through which children can achieve stability, it only follows that marriage is something that would be beneficial to chil-dren.”

ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS

A supporter of same-sex marriage, left, argues with opponents outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Tuesday.

A clash of protestors

known as bull testicles. “There are a whole lot of people

out there—whether it’s for bragging rights, or they really love a certain ex-otic meat—who want to eat each burg-er,” Gross said. “A lot of people come and say, ‘I came here to try something weird, but it tasted really good, and now I’m a fan.’”

Part of BCBB’s mission focuses on supplying pasture-raised beef, said BCBB Restaurant Manager Scott Sum-rall, adding that the restaurant im-ported most of its exotic meats from American pastures. Although their beef is local, not all of the meats could be found in the Triangle area—the alli-gator is from Florida, and the bugs for the “bug burger” come from an organ-ic bug farm. All of the meat was raised in the United States, as BCBB removed Kangaroo—an item that got mostly negative reviews from last year’s Exotic Meat Month—from this year’s lineup.

Only one type of exotic burger is sold at a time, Gross said. Between 70 and 80 burgers of a certain meat are prepared and sold, and the next meat in line is only offered until all of the previous patties are plated. The meats range from tamer options like bison and buffalo to the wilder selection of reindeer and python.

“[Exotic Meat Month] is also about education. We are trying to raise a lev-el of awareness—what is weird to us is normal elsewhere,” Gross noted.

“Exotic” may border on “weird” in the bug burger, which is topped by a host of cooked scorpions, larvae, crickets, moz-zarella cheese and chile piquin.

“I ordered the bug burger mostly for the story afterwards,” said Joe Fein-berg, a diner who purchased the bug burger last Thursday. “I half expected for there to be bugs cooked into the meat, but when it was brought to me, they were right on top, staring back at me. They didn’t have a taste really—more of a texture. I had to forget they were there to finish the burger, and the ketchup helped a lot.”

Sumrall said the bug burger gar-nered mixed reactions, noting that some people were turned off by the photograph of the burger that the res-taurant posted on its Facebook page.

Carrboro resident Wilson Sayre said the alligator burger, which was topped with a bell pepper, creole sauce and bibb lettuce, provided a more familiar flavor.

“It tastes like a turkey burger,” she said.

BCBB is no stranger to quirkiness in both its operations and campaigns. Gross’ business card, for example, calls him the “Grandé Burger Flipper & Beer Taster.” BCBB has teamed up with the local business Dogstar Tattoos in a campaign that allows customers to get 26 percent off all of their purchases for life if they get a permanent tattoo that includes one of the restaurant’s logos.

It is distinctions like these and Ex-otic Meat Month that give BCBB more space in the press and, therefore, more customers, which ultimately allows the restaurant to better serve the commu-nity and local farmers, Sumrall said.

Sumrall also noted that there will be a special meat on of the final day of the month that is not yet listed on the menu, though he would not divulge what the meat will be.

MARRIAGE from page 3BURGER from page 1