COMMENTARY
Third parties needed
In recent years, third-party presidential candidates have received an undeserved bad rap in the United States of America.
COMMENTARY
Act could give more students chance at studying overseas
The United States is failing to take full advantage of a valuable tool that should be used to enhance our standing in the world and improve our national security — college-level study abroad programs that open doors to all. Only a small percentage of U.S.
COMMENTARY
No longer in limbo
The contest for the world's most outrageously inane religion is quite competitive. The relative newcomer, Scientology, is a persistent front-runner, but recent events demonstrate that the Roman Catholic Church isn't settling for second place. In abandoning the concept of limbo last month, the pope reversed centuries of Roman Catholic teaching, rejected a belief held since medieval times and demonstrated the absurdly irrational nature of religious debate. Familiarity with essential points of Christian faith is required to understand the "infallible" Catholic Church's long struggle with the concept of limbo. I discovered a remarkably concise definition of Christianity online and slightly modified it.
COMMENTARY
Movies with meaning
With all the buzz surrounding the blockbuster hit "Spider-man 3," many people could easily be misled into viewing it as another nerdy fantasy about some weakling wearing overly-tight pants.
COMMENTARY
Unequal portrayal
As the 2008 presidential election approaches, political stories are dominating the news. This election stands apart from those in the past with a truly diverse group of candidates.
COMMENTARY
Conflicting emotions
It's the end of the semester. It is almost over. Just a week left of finals or a few projects to wrap up. Many of us will be running out of here.
COMMENTARY
Broken news outlets
The phrase "Breaking news" doesn't even have meaning anymore. It's like the boy who cried wolf. It seems like every time I turn on the news, it says "Breaking news" across the bottom of the screen.
COMMENTARY
Vocal transitions
Whether it was Don Imus' slur of "nappy-headed hos" or former Sen. George Allen's reference to an Indian man as a "macaca," a slip of the tongue in recent times has never been more controversial.
COMMENTARY
Generation united
As a youngster, I followed politics and news more than most my age. My first Breaking News Alert was a yellow sticky note my mom placed on my bathroom sink when the '92 election results came in. But as we witnessed last week, there are some events that touch us all.
COMMENTARY
Fighting to catch up
Washington — The rites of spring bring warmer weather, baseball and the time when women's annual earnings finally catch up to what men earned last year. Because full-time working women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar men earn, it takes them nearly 16 months to earn what men make in a year for doing the same work. For minority women, the wage gap is even larger, so black women don't catch up to white men until late May, and Hispanic women don't catch up until mid-September. Equal Pay Day is observed today.
COMMENTARY
Exasperated outrage
Years ago, when I was too young to appreciate it, I saw Sidney Lumet's 1976 classic "Network," and it had an impact on me. I saw Howard Beale, the rumpled, disaffected, disgruntled network news anchor, as a hero — someone who had finally sifted through enough of the world's crap and was tired of pretending everything was all right. He was "mad as hell" and he wasn't going to take it anymore.
COMMENTARY
Education makeover
How many of your professors know your name? It's a simple question that, for most students, elicits a number much smaller than the number of classes on their schedule.
COMMENTARY
The taboo struggle
They were scared of me. In my fake pearl necklace and high heels, I was suddenly a threat. After I let it slip at a recent job interview that I was a (gasp!) feminist, my prospective male bosses were shaking in their loafers.
COMMENTARY
Poison at the root
It may not have surprised some of you when we learned that MSU's Young Americans for Freedom was about to be listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, a civil rights organization dedicated to tracking the activity of such groups across the nation. We have all seen the hateful and bigoted rhetoric MSU's YAF spews forth on a daily basis.
COMMENTARY
Becoming a reality at the gas pump
It's hard to say which is scarier — apocalyptic global warming scenarios or the economic impact of some of the proposals designed to prevent them. A recent European Environment Agency, or EEA, study reported that greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles continue to rise due to increased driving, despite heavy fuel taxes that boost prices there above $6 per gallon.
COMMENTARY
Just within reach
The movement is underway. The gay community is coming out and demanding what we deserve — equal rights and treatment in society.
NEWS
Ungodly goodness
Can we be good without belief in god(s)? This question often crops up when discussing religion and is frequently offered as a pragmatic argument against nonbelief. The thinking seems to be that even if good evidence for the existence of god(s) is lacking, which it most certainly is, belief in the proverbial "eye in the sky" is a useful delusion because without such belief, nothing would prevent people from behaving immorally.
COMMENTARY
Shifting the blame
If there are two words that will serve as the epitaph for not just the Iraq war that has ruined the reputation and economy of the nation, but also for the administration that set those events into motion, those words are "war czar." Yes, that's right, everyone's favorite "decider" has evidently decided he's done making decisions when it comes to Iraq and Afghanistan. In President Bush's place, he has created a new post that would oversee all major decisions dealing with the war.
COMMENTARY
Counteractive steps
If there is one overarching theme of all social studies classes, it's the idea that the study of history serves as a guide for the future.
COMMENTARY
Leasing nightmare
The dorms are a lot like your parents. They provide food and shelter, wash your clothes and monitor your guests.