Editorials

• A New Threat Against Home: Americans Now Have More to Worry About Than War

  Editorials October 6, 2009 at 1:56 pm Comments are Disabled

  Ryan Comer, English, (Broadside Contributor) America should be thankful: The last war that was fought between her shores echoed only the thundering of charging cavalry, the resounding boom of cannons, and the crackle of musket fire; a desired alternative to the churning of metal tanks, the devastation of thundering artillery, and the screaming of machine gun fire. For many people in the world, however, these sounds are as common to them as the sounds of rush hour are to you and I. Indeed, even the oldest generation of Europeans remembers the horrific devastation caused by World War II. However, America, when compared to the rest of the modern world, has been a safe haven. Pearl Harbor, one of the deadliest attacks by a foreign enemy on U.S. soil was, in a sense, isolated. Hawaii was still only a territory when the attack happened, and resting about 2500 miles from the mainland, it was a remote land to most Americans. However, in 2001, despite it’s history of safety, America’s status quo instantly changed a week after Labor Day. Americans were forced to swallow a grim dose of reality; a reality many countries across the Atlantic Ocean had already acclimated themselves to. […]

   

• Laziness: Just Another Word for Nothing Better to Do: How The Many Uses For Others Can Come in Handy

  Editorials October 1, 2009 at 3:06 pm Comments are Disabled

  Brandon Minster, Staff Writer My wife has no discernible mob ties, but I married her anyway. One characteristic she shares with New Jersey’s finest waste management executives though, is her ability to get other people to do her dirty work. Every mob boss knows not to whack anyone himself (are the kids still saying that these days?); that’s why you have deadbeat nephews. Anytime a rival gets rubbed out, you can be miles away with an airtight alibi. This is my wife’s guiding principle whenever she needs to make a phone call, especially to someone she’s never met. She just talks about how badly it’s needed and about the consequences of not doing it, until I make the call for her. While I’m on the phone, she’s often somewhere else, working on her airtight alibi. I wonder why she needs to maintain plausible deniability about these calls. The next time she asks me to call someone named Tony the Plumber and say, “The cannoli is in the pot,” maybe I should decline. Not having to do the things you have to do looked like fun to me, and I wanted in on the act, so we had kids. It’s extra […]

   

• Letter to the Editor

  Editorials October 1, 2009 at 3:05 pm Comments are Disabled

  Stephanie Tran, Global Affairs It’s often been said by administrators and student tour guides that George Mason University is so diverse, and that Mason has so many international students. There’s no doubt that this is true, but it’s also true that around campus, many international students, especially Asian ones, bunch up in groups, a little apart from other Mason students. Sure, Mason may be diverse, but are we all bridging gaps between other groups? Let’s rewind a bit. I’m talking from a strange, some would say “unique” position of being raised both as an American and an Asian (Vietnamese). Though in many ways I’m Americanized (e.g. Christmas and birthdays) and speak English, not Vietnamese, I also know more about Vietnamese culture (e.g. proper bows to elders) than some of my grandparents’ generation. This brings me to my topic: That invisible, but strong divide, between many of the Asians on this campus and other Mason students; one that I can see from both sides. This cultural line is what causes Asian students to talk to me first, or ask for my help. They look towards familiar-looking people who they think can help them regardless of whether I know them because they’re […]

   

• Global Warming: The Falsehood Coming to a Campus Near You: The Lies and Deceptions You May Have Been Told

  Editorials October 1, 2009 at 3:02 pm 5 comments

  Alan Moore, Broadside Contributor I have been a graduate student at George Mason University for only a few short weeks but I have already heard more about the “indisputable fact” that global warming is caused by man more times than I ever heard as an undergraduate, and I’m not even studying the natural sciences. It does not take someone majoring in the natural sciences to understand faulty research and it is irresponsible to ignore the growing objection to the reasoning behind theories on man-caused climate change. This global warming hysteria has infiltrated our campus and it is time to expose it for what it truly is: laughable, at best. The first issue that is always lobbied hard for by global warming proponents is the notion of the sea levels rising to unsustainable levels because the polar ice caps will melt. First, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes states that the rising sea levels may in fact be cyclical and there is no evidence that man contributes to these rising sea levels. Second, the melting of glaciers is countered by the formation of glaciers in other parts of the world, although you never read about it in the news. […]

   

• To All You Freshmen Out There: Words of Advice From a Student Who Has Walked the Walk

  Editorials September 22, 2009 at 3:03 pm Comments are Disabled

  Ethan Vaughan, Staff Writer College is a strange place in many ways and in many more ways a strange time. In college, you’re independent of your parents for the first time—but still completely dependent on them, because they’re the ones paying your tuition even if they’re not rooming with you in the dorm to keep tabs on what you’re eating, who you’re hanging out with and whether you’re doing your schoolwork. In college, the freedom you yearned for in high school is finally reached, only to result in some things that you never would have wanted. Many college students feel the sting of the Freshmen 15, or, for the truly exceptional, the Freshmen 50. Late nights, bad food and gallons of caffeine leave you either jittery or sleep deprived, or a weird combination of both. Yet for the cramped quarters, the substandard dining and the sometimes-startling conditions of the shared bathrooms, you’re somehow having the best time of your life. Except when you’re not. College is also supposed to be when people blossom into themselves and meet the friends who they’ll be close with the rest of their lives. When that doesn’t pan out the way you thought it would, […]

   

• There's Room on My Enemies List: Understanding a Not-So-Understanding World

  Editorials September 22, 2009 at 3:02 pm Comments are Disabled

  Brandon Minster, Staff Writer I’ve made a few enemies in my life. I don’t keep a Nixonian list of them, but I could probably fill a half-sheet of paper. Most are former schoolmates or coworkers that I rubbed the wrong way. For instance, at one job I had an assignment that required me to work closely with a man I’ll call “James” (because that’s his name). We traveled together once a month. Every trip we’d reach a moment when I thought, “I wish he’d stop talking,” and with every trip that moment came earlier. Eventually I told him as much, and shortly afterwards our relationship became irreparably damaged when I said his favorite college basketball team received too-favorable a seeding in the NCAA tournament. Our last interaction was when he brought in root beer and ice cream, sent an e-mail to everyone else inviting them to his desk for floats, and sent an e-mail to me telling me why I wasn’t invited. James would definitely be on the half-sheet. Church enemies are a little trickier, because most churches advise against being a jerk to people, but that doesn’t mean church enemies don’t exist; they just turn to subterfuge. I used […]

   

• Kanye West’s Big Ego: An Artist’s Ultimate Party Foul at this Year’s VMA’s

  Editorials September 22, 2009 at 3:01 pm Comments are Disabled

  Sebastian Flores, Broadside Correspondent Kanye West is definitely looking back and saying . . . oops, my bad. The Video Music Awards are an awards show on MTV dedicated to recognizing the best music videos of the year.  The awards span from specifics like Best Rock, Pop and R&B video, to the more general, Best Video of the Year.  The VMAs are known to spark controversy and unforgettable moments like when Britney Spears and Madonna locked lips on stage in 2003. This year’s VMAs were no exception.  The adorable country star, Taylor Swift received the first of the evening for Best Female Video of the Year, a great honor for the young star beating out favorite nominees like Kelly Clarkson, Lady Ga Ga and Beyonce—but someone wasn’t very happy about that. During Swift’s acceptance speech for her first “Moon Man,” a bitter West rushed to the stage, stole the microphone from Swift’s little hands and arrogantly said, “Congratulations, Taylor, I’ll let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!”  Heartbroken, Swift was escorted off stage leaving everyone stunned, trying to replay in their minds what had just happened. West, the perfectionist at award show controversy, […]

   

• A Personal Reflection: What Freedom Means to Me

  Editorials September 14, 2009 at 11:56 am Comments are Disabled

  Ethan Vaughan,  Staff Writer Coming out is different for everyone. For me, it happened this summer, and the worst part of the experience was anticipating what those around me were going to think. I allowed my fears to grow so out of control that by the time I finally sat my parents down to have the talk, I was surprised at how mild their reaction was. When they said they didn’t care what I was, and that they loved me, and that above everything else they wanted me to be happy, it caught me off guard. I’d prepared myself for an epic, hours-long conversation, but found that after five minutes there was nothing more to be said. They accepted me. That was it. I came away with a feeling of profound gratitude, built upon the realization that others before me, and many even today, faced real battles just to be who they were. We who enjoy the rights that others fought and died for are blessed, and we should remember it. When things are difficult, I try to. I am so thankful that I was born when I was; in 1988 rather than in 1968 or 1948. I am thankful […]

   

• If You Listen, They Will Stay: The Voiced Frustrations Against Ignorance

  Editorials September 14, 2009 at 11:55 am Comments are Disabled

  William Curtis, Opinion Editor We’ve all seen them. Preaching the words of ignorance, intolerance and hatred, despite their own beliefs that they’re speaking the truth to every college in the nation. Simply give a man a soapbox and he becomes that all-encompassing voice of reason, right? Wrong. I’ve been at George Mason University now for roughly five years, and ever since my freshman year, I’ve witnessed these insane extremists preach that women only belong in the kitchen, that gays are going to be the destruction of the world, and that well, if you masturbate, God is going to kill more than just a kitten. But what gives these preachers of pestilence the authority to tell us what is right and wrong? Did God really imbue these moronic mundane miscreants with the knowledge and necessity to go and sermonize to the masses of every college in the United States? For what purpose? I mean, I can understand wanting to teach students the importance of the belief in God, and that some of the things we do are wrong. I get that. But I am a firm believer that telling someone that they are going to Hell just because they are Arabic […]

   

• Letter to the Editor

  Editorials September 14, 2009 at 11:55 am Comments are Disabled

  Emma Nay, Communication I am letting you know ahead of time that I am a Libertarian, which is pretty much in the middle of the political spectrum. Honestly, I’m not so sure how I feel about health care reform. In “Healthcare Reform: Is Change Really Worth Losing a Finger?”, the author states, “You begin to think how something so simple as health care could cause so many people to become so enraged.” My question is, how is health care simple? Healthcare can easily make someone angry. If it is going to affect me and my family, yes, health care reform can be extremely scary. The author also states how people put up a red flag to anything that relates to socialism. In America, do you know how long it takes for a person to get an MRI? Somewhere between a couple of hours and a couple of days depending on how many appointments there are at the office. In Canada, a country with socialized healthcare, the average person can get an MRI in up to three months. If they’re extremely lucky, they can get an MRI in a couple of weeks. “If you take a look at medicine in European countries […]