COLUMNS

9/8/2015, 3:41pm

Stop preaching abstinence only

By Micaela Stevenson

In highly religious cultures throughout the United States, it is a practice in some school districts to only teach abstinence, regarding sexual health and education.

9/8/2015, 3:33pm

The NFL is a leech on society

By Corson Nikkel

It’s football season again and, for me, that means it’s the time of year when I pick the football team I follow in order to appease my modern-gladiatorial-game-watching friends.

9/8/2015, 3:30pm

What did Donald Trump say about John McCain?

By C.A. Joseph Peters

“Word and emotion together are the most powerful force known to mankind,” said Republican pollster Frank Luntz—perhaps best known for pushing the use of the terms “death tax” and “climate change” instead of “estate tax” and “global warming”. Luntz, like Michael Moore, Tim Sebastian and Sean Hannity, falls neatly under my definition of a propagandist—one to whom the possibility that they could be wrong is completely alien and who propagates their gluttony of confidence via mass media.

8/16/2015, 3:19pm

Sanders and Trump are competing populists

By C.A. Joseph Peters

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are not opposites, but rather they are competing populists. Candidates who, as libertarian Glenn Reynolds writes, “have come forward to claim the orphaned vote.” To paraphrase Marine Le Pen, president of the largest third-party in France, modern political struggles are no longer between left and right but between globalist and anti-globalist.

6/28/2015, 10:52am

Separate no more

By Jacques Vorves

History was made on Friday, when the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-to-4 vote that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage.

6/21/2015, 10:59am

Media needs to stop sensationalizing mass shootings

By Jacques Vorves

Wednesday night at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, nine people were shot and killed by domestic right-wing terrorist and white supremacist Dylann Roof—a horrible and terrifying act of pure hate and violence brought down upon the black community— and, while I absolutely and wholeheartedly share the feelings of disgust and sadness felt by many following this event, it’s time that we stop neurotically fixating our attention on these mass shootings, because it is unhealthy and creates the right atmosphere for further extremism to come slithering out of the mist and rear its ugly head. Certainly, we cannot ignore these senseless acts of viciousness—nor should we avoid the much needed conversation on normalized racism and the fanaticism that stems from it in this country—but we need to have a dramatic shift in the way we deal with and report on occurrences like the shooting in Charleston, because, under the current system, we glorify acts of absurd violence and produce an environment of vicariousness, as, to most Americans, this tragic event is nothing more than a conversation piece. Yes, it must be said that this was an absolute heartbreak and it should be reported on and discussed—especially in this case with the very poignant issues of racism facing the nation—but we should never allow stories like these to rise to the level of absurdity that they often do.

6/21/2015, 10:56am

Government ruins capitalism

By Corson Nikkel

Capitalism is an ideology and, like many ideologies, it requires multiple factors that only exist in a textbook to ensure it works 100 percent of the time with 100 percent efficiency.

6/14/2015, 10:52am

Democracy and capitalism are incompatible

By Jacques Vorves

When I think of democracy, I do not think of the pure incarnation of the political system wherein the majority rule, but rather the philosophical term in which all people, no matter their differences, are considered equal and possess all of the same rights.

6/14/2015, 10:47am

Accepting authority for authority's sake is dangerous

By Corson Nikkel

Authority in the United States is given too much room for error and interpretation. Allowing authority figures, paid for by the American tax dollars, too much leniency is like two parents telling a child not to open the cookie jar, but then leave him unattended for a week.