Pop. Did you hear that? Pop. Pop. What the heck is that sound? Never mind that perpetual "pop" you might be hearing all across America.
I shouldn't be shocked by anything the United States government does anymore. Or the things it does, but doesn't tell me about. After all, I attend a university where the Board of Trustees routinely holds business dinners, and then tries to pass them off as social gatherings. A board that holds private committee meetings a day before the public meeting, and doesn't see anything wrong with keeping the public out. So why should I be surprised when my government starts removing public records from the U.S.
My life is so gay, and I couldn't be happier. Running a personal gauntlet of gayness during the last year, I've done about everything, from rocking way too much body glitter to prancing around Grand River Avenue at 2 a.m.
Writing opinion columns from a godless perspective in a country brimming with religious beliefs predictably results in misunderstandings. Since this is my last semester writing a regular column for The State News (I can almost hear the collective sighs of relief), I'll address the most common misconception.
For the past few weeks, I wanted to write a column about the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, or MCRI, and affirmative action, but lacked the time.
Frank Zappa once said, "I'm not black, but there's a whole lot of times I wish I could say I'm not white." I can't say I disagree with him. As a white female, I obviously cannot even begin to understand the perspective of a minority, but I can still blatantly see the dangers that exist within America's racial reality. Racial tension might not be at an all-time high, but it definitely isn't lacking in our culture and society.
Last week a friend of mine had to sit through one of the those dorm floor meetings about tolerance and racial tension on campus. My friend's hall mentor read aloud MSU's anti-discrimination policy, reminding the residents of the university's commitment to treating everyone fairly. What my friend noticed, but probably no one else did, is that her hall is inaccessible to people with physical disabilities.
Steve Sutton, in "Columnist promotes different racism form" (SN 3/22), illustrated what Americans have done time and time again — defended the right to be racist.
With debate raging in the U.S. Senate, I've taken it upon myself to come up with a fix for our nation's troubles with illegal immigrants.
I love to shoot people. Rain of bullets. Blood everywhere. The dull thud of a fallen body. Screaming in the background. It's pretty fun. But some people aren't as fond of video games as I am. I hear a lot about video games and how such satanic playthings are destroying our American youth. Despoiling our children's innocence. Making young people everywhere dangerous criminals ready to pounce. Advocates for decency overestimate the powers of virtual reality and make human beings sound incompetent and easily swayed by flashy things. The more I hear the ridiculous rhetoric — which just so happens to be the latest moral crusade — the more exasperated I become. Surely, welfare, child abuse, sexual assault and our faltering economy are more worthy of our politicians' time. In the wake of the "Hot Coffee" modification that unlocked graphic sex scenes in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Gov.
My goldfish died last week. Percy Jerome Notman, (December 2003 - March 2006) was given a respectable burial by sea — flushed down the porcelain throne.
When I took this job, which I had wanted for ages, I swore I would try to limit rants about silly things. I wanted to use my space here to talk about important things like affirmative action and voting. Besides one column where I vented about the things able-bodied people do that piss me off and one about stupid people at MSU, I think I've stuck to that goal. That was until my mother went around our house Saturday evening changing all of the clocks forward an hour, reminding me how much I hate daylight-saving time. Mind you, there are lots of things I hate, including homophobia, super politically correct people and opossums. Dirty little rodents. There are probably more things in this world that I dislike or that annoy me than things I do like.
The battle lines are drawn, the stage is set and every other tired cliché I can think of will not stop Michigan voters from deciding whether to end state-sanctioned affirmative action in November. The MCRI, or Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, is a ballot proposal aimed at ending "preferential treatment" by public bodies to anyone or anything for any reason.
Rape does not affect women alone. Rape affects us all. Although women are generally perceived as the survivors of rape and sexual assault, eradicating this violence should not fall solely on their shoulders.
By Mark Weisbrot Washington (KRT) — More than a million people in France have taken to the streets against their conservative government's attempts to change the country's labor law.
Weather, as a topic of conversation, is like a childhood blanket — comforting and dependable. Just when you fear you might not have anything to say, good ol' weather is right there to catch you before you fall. Some superfluous comment about the weather is bound to pop out of your mouth if you accidentally make eye contact with a stranger in an elevator.
No one likes getting called names, especially when those names are derogatory or offensive. But name calling, even though we're in college and should be above that, is not a crime.
I recently had a remarkable chance to observe humanity in all its base instincts. The trappings of civilization stripped away. Real "Lord of the Flies"-type stuff.
Some readers seemed distressed by my column on the well-established negative correlation between scientific education and belief in God, "Evolutionary theory, science needed to vaccinate irrational beliefs" (SN 2/16). Regrettably, fact checking was not their forte. In "Bice misinterprets studies in his column" (SN 3/17), Charlie Mack claimed that I mischaracterized a study by Rice University sociologist Elaine Ecklund when I wrote "Natural science faculty were less likely to believe in God than social scientists." Although this was a small point in my column, Mack argued that professors weren't asked direct questions on belief in God, but two questions regarding levels of "truth" in religions. However, Rice University's Office of News and Media Relations described the study as having 36 questions on religious beliefs and spiritual practices and, "Nearly 38 percent of natural scientists surveyed said they did not believe in God, but only 31 percent of the social scientists gave that response." I also contacted Ecklund by phone; she kindly confirmed that the study did, indeed, have direct questions on belief in God. Rudy Bernard's recent column, "Scientists don't need to dismiss religion to be credible, accurate" (SN 3/14), also deserves a response. Bernard wrote, "Even the group with the highest level of unbelief (biologists) still has a majority with belief." That's completely false. A majority of scientists surveyed were either atheist or agnostic.
I'm from Kalamazoo — the land where the Broncos rule and Tim Hortons simply doesn't exist. It also is the home of The Kalamazoo Promise that leaves a small dent in improving the state's education system. The Kalamazoo Promise is a revolutionary idea that lifts children from the Kalamazoo Public Schools and gives free college tuition to the students in the notoriously bad school district. Money is not just thrown into the hands of a few overachievers or a lucky group of students.