Archive for September, 2011

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  ‘Moneyball:’ A Fresh Take on a Trite Genre

  Sports September 26, 2011 at 8:16 pm Comments are Disabled

  Sports movies have become cliché over the past 25 years with stories of underdog players or teams coming together to win the big game. In this fall’s sports movie representative, Moneyball, the cookie-cutter plotline is not the case. However, the adversity that the characters must face is still prominent. The story revolves around Oakland Athletics general manager, Billy Beane, played in the film by Brad Pitt. Beane has faced his fair share of difficult, life-changing decisions throughout his life and the film does a great job showing the thought process that he had to go through in making them. As a teenager, Beane was a top baseball prospect and was offered a hefty, first round contract by the New York Mets while also pondering a joint football-baseball scholarship to Stanford University. After much deliberation, Beane took the Mets offer and started his career in Major League Baseball. Though his playing career would be short-lived and filled with disappointment, Beane worked his way up through the ranks to eventually become general manager of the Oakland A’s, with the lowest salary in baseball. In order to be competitive, he must find a way to acquire top talent for a bargain. In the […]

   

• Dreary Weekend Ends With Injury, Women’s Soccer Loss

  Sports September 26, 2011 at 8:15 pm Comments are Disabled

  WILLIAMSBURG, Va.-Over the weekend, the George Mason men’s and women’s soccer teams opened conference play on a strong note. On a dreary Friday night, the weather held long enough for the Patriot women (at that time, 3-3-3, 0-0-1) to take Old Dominion (at that time, 3-4-2, 0-0-1) down a peg with a 4-4 tie. The Monarchs dominated in the first half with possession, but could not get on a scoring run until late in the first half. Senior midfielder Alyssa Anderson cleaned up a shot from junior forward Tiana Kallenberger to even the match at 1-1, but Old Dominion went on to score two goals in the last four minutes of the half to take a 3-1 lead into halftime. “We weren’t able to train in the rain so that was kind of an issue for us,” Head Coach Diane Drake said. “They were a much stronger team physically and athletically than we were told. I think our girls came in a little bit flatter than they should’ve.” Second half scoring was sparse for more than 25 minutes before Kallenberger streaked on the right side and played a cross on the face of the goal to junior midfielder Mary Kate […]

   

• MLB Rookies Make Noise in September

  Sports September 26, 2011 at 8:14 pm Comments are Disabled

  Isn’t it great when baseball season starts? It finally feels like the long, cold winter is beginning to thaw when pitchers and catchers report; and by the time the 30 teams take the field for the first games of the year, I feel a profound jubilance that reinvigorates me like nothing else in the world. That’s what makes this time of the year so difficult — school is in full swing and I’m working all week so I can’t follow America’s national pastime in the way I feel it deserves. This is the absolute cream of the season, especially this year when the wild card races are so close. As it stands now, Tampa Bay, Boston and Los Angeles are neck and neck for the American League wildcard while Atlanta and St. Louis are at the top of the heap in the National League race. San Francisco, who won the Fall Classic last year, is four games out with an anemic offense and little hope. So it goes. In addition to the wild card races, September means prospects are starting to get called up to the show for their first cup of coffee. Let’s start with Jesus Montero of the […]

   
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  Women’s Volleyball Tops VCU Rams 3-1

  Sports September 26, 2011 at 8:13 pm Comments are Disabled

  The George Mason University women’s volleyball team earned their first conference win of the season Friday against the VCU Rams (4-11) in an exciting 3–1 victory. The team was looking confident following a double win at the Thunder Invitational last weekend in Huntington, W.Va. Coach Pat Kendrick commented on what they gathered from the invitational: “I felt we were starting to get our act together in terms of how we wanted to be on the floor … kind of the overall attitude we needed as a team when we ran into difficult times or when things weren’t going well, and so I thought it was a good point for us to start the conference schedule having had that tournament last weekend.” Aside from the intra-conference rivalry between the two teams, there is deeper history that goes back to the 2009 CAA championship when third-seeded Mason defeated first-seeded VCU. Coaches and players, especially upperclassmen, were aware of this going into the game. “We ended the invitational well so we used that to our advantage,” said senior outside hitter Noelle Fanella, who made an impressive 13 digs and scored the final point in the last set. During the second set of the […]

   

• A Response To “Obama’s Jobs Act Will Not Save Us”

  Editorials September 26, 2011 at 8:11 pm Comments are Disabled

  While I respect Mr. Moore’s objections to the American Jobs Act, I believe he is off the mark on his analysis. He repeats the common claims of many on the right that are factually inaccurate. He starts by saying that all it would take to fix the economy would be to cut government spending, lower taxes and reduce regulation. Quite frankly, this policy would lead us further to the brink of economic collapse. I will break my reply into three paragraphs, debunking each fiction as I go along. First I will start with government spending. Government overspending is a big problem; anyone who looks at the national debt and deficit knows this. However, a hacksaw attempt to cut the deficit will cripple this country and throw it into what we all feared in 2008: a depression. There are specific cuts that can be made to continue ensuring sound investments in our future while cutting a great deal of waste. Across-the-board cuts will only lead to jobs being destroyed in this economy. The fact of the matter is that the Stimulus Bill passed in 2009 saved 2.4 million local and state government jobs. This is based on the average salary of […]

   

• Who Can Save Us?

  Editorials September 26, 2011 at 8:10 pm Comments are Disabled

  Unless you are a political junkie, you probably aren’t too concerned with the daily minutiae of the 2012 presidential race. GOP debates seem to appear on television nightly and Barack Obama never stopped campaigning after he started in 2007. Begrudgingly, it may be time to get on board with someone. However, with a dozen or so legitimate candidates for president, how do you decide whom to support? There are a number of issues and policies that might help you narrow your selection. Judging the merits of each candidate based on these variables could be useful to your selection process. First, Social Security and Medicare. To see how much trouble Social Security is in, you only need to look at the statements you receive from the Social Security Administration (yes, you do get them) to know it will become insolvent in our lifetimes. Medicare is in even worse shape. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Medicare fund for hospital care will be depleted by 2017; Social Security should run until 2037. Confronting these programs is considered political poison. Any time a solution or reform is offered the opposition launches an all-out attack, claiming seniors will be thrown on the streets […]

   

• Our Foreign Policy Will Be Our Undoing

  Editorials September 26, 2011 at 8:09 pm Comments are Disabled

  Since September 11, 2001, U.S. foreign policy has seen trillions of dollars flow into multiple wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya, and the occasional bombing endeavor in countries such as Yemen and Somalia. It seems nowadays that no matter what party is elected to office, they immediately write a blank check for the military-industrial complex and advocate more foreign military intervention. What was left of the anti-war movement after Bush left office blew away like dust in the wind and, not surprisingly, Obama’s refreshing anti-war rhetoric and non-interventionist promises fruited into more military spending and unjustified murder. When asked what the motivations of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were, Republicans give the “they hate us for our freedoms” talking point. And Democrats? Well they don’t seem to even have opinion on that one. In the Sept.12 CNN Republican presidential debate, only one person, Congressman Ron Paul, stood out from the rest when explaining the motivations of Osama bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks. He spoke amidst a barrage of boos and cheers explaining bin Laden clearly stated that the U.S. was attacked because we had bases on their holy lands in Saudi Arabia and were too involved in Middle […]

   

• Bullying Is A Cancer—A Dirty, Filthy Cancer

  Editorials September 26, 2011 at 8:09 pm Comments are Disabled

  How can anyone in this world justify berating, belittling and threatening others for the choices they make, especially where their sexuality is concerned? Bullying is an epidemic, a plague on society, and it’s time we did more than give people false hope. One year ago, headlines across the country were filled with what seemed like a different name every week. Tyler Clementi, Billy Lucas, Harrison Chase Brown and Seth Walsh were all victims of extreme bullying that eventually lead to their suicides. The “It Gets Better Project” is a campaign that was created in the wake of their deaths to let those struggling with sexual identity around the world know that it gets better. But for one 14-year-old boy who told the world that it gets better, it turned out to be a lie. Jamey Rodemeyer made a video for the “It Gets Better Project” where he told the world about anonymous messages people had left on his Formspring account such as “I wouldn’t care if you died. No one would. So just do it 🙂 it would make everyone WAY more happier.” Despite the comment, Rodemeyer went on to tell everyone, “…it does get better because when I came […]

   

• Injustice for One Is Injustice for All

  Lifestyle September 26, 2011 at 8:08 pm Comments are Disabled

  Imagine the tears of anger, sadness, disappointment and resentment that streamed down the faces of countless innocent victims before their imminent date with death. Some may have held strong, solemn faces, ready with open arms for their departure. Others may have continued to hope, convincing themselves it simply wasn’t their time and by some miraculous event they would avoid dining on that last meal. Most had to face the harsh reality that there would be no miracle. No one, not a single person, was coming to save them. They were bound to their fate the moment handcuffs grazed their wrists. Let’s face it: Our justice system is flawed. Trials begin and end with the hopes of upholding the so-called “ingeniousness” of America’s courts, but we’re OK with admitting that we slip up a few times. Hey, no one’s perfect, right? We have been brainwashed with the notion that bad guys get put behind bars and good guys get set free. For too long have we wallowed in fear of admitting that maybe, just maybe, the justice system is more flawed than we had thought, and that innocent people have died far too often for crimes they did not commit. The […]

   

• Sexuality: Why Do We Care?

  Editorials September 26, 2011 at 8:07 pm Comments are Disabled

  On Tuesday, the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was put in the trash bin of bad policies where it belonged. I — along with many other people, liberal and conservative —consider Bill Clinton a pretty smart guy, but what the hell was he thinking when he introduced this nonsensical legislation? I can only fathom that, at its introduction, it was actually progress. It did, after all, take the question of sexuality out of soldiers’ paperwork. That’s also assuming that progress dictates you lie to both yourself and your sergeant, which isn’t exactly good military policy. I took part in a photo campaign this time last year called the NOH8 Campaign, which was a grassroots response led by celebrity photographer Adam Bouska against Proposition 8 in California, an initiative that reversed the state’s policy on marriage equality. The campaign also held a strong opposition to DADT, on which there was set to be a vote in the Senate the day after the photo shoot. And obviously we all expected that it would be overturned but, shockingly, it wasn’t. A few weeks after the congressional decision and the president’s refusal to write it off in an executive order, I sent a […]