According to a 2004 article from The New York Times, "The United States has started to lose its worldwide dominance in critical areas of science and innovation." Our Republican-dominated government hasn't exactly leapt into action.
In most conversation, death is an understandably avoided topic. This is especially true for college-age people who seem to have so many years ahead of them.
Closed-door meetings among police, craftily worded public statements from the university president and apprehensive silence from the East Lansing City Council - this is what our community leaders have given to us after nearly three weeks. The latest decision by law enforcement officials to keep their discussions about the April 2-3 disturbances quiet is the straw that broke the back of my belief in the civic process.
Imagine a society where a specific group of people were denied a basic provision necessary for improved quality of life.
OK, I know. Martha Stewart was sent to prison a long time ago; actually, she only served five months.
"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it." That was columnist Ellen Goodman's observation on the disconnect between working and living in modern America.
I was sitting uncomfortably on my seat Saturday at Munn Ice Arena watching a charity hockey game thinking, "Man, the NHL has been succumbed to this because of the current lockout." Former MSU standouts such as Shawn Horcoff, the various Millers, Jason Woolley and Bryan Smolinski were back at the spot of their college glory days.
This year is MSU's sesquicentennial - that's a fancy name for "150 years of land-grant sugary goodness." What better chance for the university to show off its deep commitment to diversity, its strong political activism to protect student interests and its clear and open communication with all members of this university. Laughing yet at the sarcasm?
The political and commercial spheres are two arenas of human social relations in which the more people who are involved, the more organized and accepted insanity is involved.
As promised last week, I am sharing the stories of those who said storm troopers, er, police, mistreated them during the April 2-3 disturbances.
Imagine 1.5 million vacant acres of lush, green land. Imagine this open space, rich with beauty, being roamed by herds of brown caribou.
I've been saying it for years: The No Child Left Behind Act is hurting our schools, not helping them.
Ahhh, the weather is beautiful. The sun is shining and the grass is greener. So what did I do, you might ask?
Sexuality is like skin color - it's something you can't change (unless you're Michael Jackson), so accept it.
Much criticism has been leveled at East Lansing police (and the other police agencies assisting them) for the deployment of tear gas on April 2 while dealing with large crowds occupying the streets near the Ann Street Plaza and in the Cedar Village area following the Spartans' loss to North Carolina.
So I'm sitting in the bar the other evening, enjoying a smart cocktail with an old associate I hadn't seen in some time.
Life without a familiar computer is no cakewalk. I learned that lesson the hard way recently, after a small brush fire in my PC fried my motherboard, hard drive and possibly my flux capacitor. Unless it was homework time on my roommate's computer, I was forced to end my compulsive away-message-checking ways and find a new hobby.
I woke up Monday morning and in my groggy state, tried to remember what I scheduled to do that day. Class?
As I sit down to think and write about Saturday night's events, the familiar lines of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song "Who'll Stop the Rain?" keep replaying in my mind. Frontman John Fogerty's line, "Clouds of mystery pourin'/Confusion on the ground," typify the experiences of soldiers who went to war in Vietnam and faced enemies they couldn't find and gases they didn't understand.
What does the new Jetta have in common with the new Spartan Stadium? They both have a great history and show it with improvement on what they do best. Like our stadium, the time had come for the Jetta to update and modernize.