Editorials

• Television Continues to Plummet in 2012

  Editorials January 30, 2012 at 9:29 pm Comments are Disabled

  There is something very important that needs to be discussed: television. Okay, so it’s not very important, but I’d say it’s at least moderately important. I mean, who doesn’t watch at least some TV? What we need to talk about is the fact that the quality of television in recent days has plummeted. For proof, let’s think about the most recent TV shows to make their debut. On CBS: first and foremost, “Rob,” featuring Rob Schneider. I am at a loss for words right now. Any show starring Rob Schneider is bound to be an utter disaster, much less one named after him and built entirely for him. Why was it necessary to create such a miserable excuse for a television show? As if “Rob” isn’t enough, another terrible show has recently been released: the “Napoleon Dynamite” animated series. Aired on Fox (shocker), the show is based on the 2004 movie. Now, the thing about this show is that it is written by Mike Scully – you know, that guy who wrote “The Simpsons” and “Everybody Loves Raymond.” So it actually has the potential to be good. Just kidding! Let’s get real; it is 100 percent repetitive, filled with bad […]

   

• Respect the Military Despite Differing Views

  Editorials January 30, 2012 at 9:27 pm Comments are Disabled

  When someone in the military does something irresponsible, it’s not a military problem; it’s a people problem. At the beginning of the month, there was a story reported in The New York Times about a video of four U.S. Marines urinating on the bloodied bodies of Taliban soldiers; literally everyone in the United States government, excluding Rick Perry, detests that action, and it’s something I think should be condemned not just on the account of human dignity, but for the sake of our country’s reputation. So there’s my opinion on that — the actual action committed by four isolated guys who in no way represent the entirety of the branches of the U.S. military, which leads into my second and more elaborate opinion: The second you bash the military or pretend that every American soldier would take pictures with or piss on dead bodies of the people they just killed, you become an idiot in my book. Walk into a class at West Point — every single one of those people will be willing to give their life to protect our country, yet you’ve got the nerve to label them all as hyper-nationalist jerks; yeah, that’s an opinion you should […]

   

• Comparing Obama to “Radical” Leader Will Not Work for Republicans in 2012

  Editorials January 30, 2012 at 9:24 pm Comments are Disabled

  Elections are revving into high gear as January comes to a close. The 2012 presidential election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 6, leaving candidates 281 days to step up to the plate and present a platform that will leave no room for discussion and immediately gain one of them the title of Commander in Chief. In our day and age, negative advertisements are common aspects of campaigning. However, recently Newt Gingrich has begun to take a new approach to this method. Saul David Alinsky was a far-left community organizer from Chicago. Despite his philosophical similarity to leaders such as Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, he was well liked by much of the United States, right and left. Therefore, I’m bewildered that Gingrich would attempt to create a negative tie between President Obama and Alinsky. It would be false to say that Obama’s views don’t resemble those of Alinsky. However, it would also be false to say that the resemblances they share constitute a bad thing. Alinsky’s main effort was to strengthen equality by organizing the poor and powerless in an attempt to articulate their grievances. He didn’t respect private property rights and he believed that everybody should be guaranteed […]

   

• President Obama Signs Away Our Civil Liberties

  Editorials January 30, 2012 at 9:19 pm Comments are Disabled

  Do you hear that? That is the sound of the president and Congress tearing apart the Constitution. While many of us were out celebrating the new year, President Obama was privately signing our civil liberties away. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 was masqueraded as a defense appropriations bill, but deep within its pages lay a short passage: Sections 1021 and 1022, which allowed for the indefinite detention of American citizens. Citizens can be detained out of suspicion of terrorist activities without charges being brought against them and certainly without due process, as stated clearly in the Constitution. President Barack Obama released an executive statement after signing the bill that read, “the fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it.” In other words, I want the power to detain American citizens, but I will probably never use it. The president may or may not use this provision. However, what is to stop future presidents from abusing it? Given the president’s three-year civil liberties track record, I simply have no faith that he will keep his word. In a matter of three years, Obama has managed to extend the Patriot […]

   

• Under Pressure

  Editorials October 24, 2011 at 7:52 pm Comments are Disabled

  I wear a lot of hats on campus. I’m a senior studying English and journalism. I’m president of our school’s chapter of Circle K International and I’m the opinion editor here at Broadside. I love everything I do, but the truth is sometimes I wonder if I’ve undertaken more than I can handle. I’m not here to start complaining about the weight of the world and all that stuff, trying to claim that my life is hard. I’m sure that my daily struggles and dealings pale in comparison to what many of you face on a daily basis. Bare with me though, if I don’t get all this out I might explode. I transferred to George Mason University in the fall of last year. Since that time I have been enrolled in classes every semester — including each of the summer ones. My class schedule is always packed and, as is the case with everyone else, all of my professors convene weekly to ensure that my assignments are always due within 24 hours of each other, and that they’re all exceptionally in-depth and long. I’ve been sitting right around a 3.0 GPA since the spring and I’m not happy with […]

   

• Western Powers Would Do Well to Examine the Past

  Editorials October 24, 2011 at 7:52 pm Comments are Disabled

  Muammar Gaddafi is no more. And that’s all well and good; now Libya has one of its many barriers to democracy out of the way. It’s certainly a step forward for Libya, but I have to restrict myself from celebrating. There’s a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that reads: “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” And with that quote in mind, I’m sure we can all remember Osama bin Laden’s death and the gross overreaction in front of the White House that followed. These leaders were thugs and, possibly, the world is a better place without them, but how does that give you the right to celebrate their death? Better yet, do you know why I’m contesting that right? Let’s go further into the discussion by recalling the single most influential cause of violence in the Arab world: colonialism. The British and the French colonized the Middle East — at least what has been determined to be the Middle East — and created false unity by drawing states’ […]

   

• U.S. House of Representatives passes the “Protect Life Act.”

  Editorials October 24, 2011 at 7:51 pm 1 comment

  Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Protect Life Act.” By doing so, they limited the subsidies that health care previously provided for abortion costs. The religious, personal health and economic aspects of the bill are now facing each other head on. The House showed an overwhelming support for the bill, while Obama and others, concerned with job opportunity and women’s health, took a solid stand against it. House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi publicly expressed her disgust with the passage of the bill. “[House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer] made a point and I want to emphasize it. Under this bill, when the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor and health care providers do not have to intervene if this bill is passed. It’s just appalling.” Had she not sounded slightly deranged, her point could have attracted more positive attention and concern from her audience. However, regardless of the ridicule Pelosi’s extreme depiction in her strongly worded sentiment received, her concern is valid. The “Protect Life Act” inhibits health-care providers from assisting a woman with a health risk — that could be resolved by the termination […]

   

• When One is Worth More Than a Million

  Editorials October 24, 2011 at 7:50 pm Comments are Disabled

  The death of Apple billionaire Steve Jobs earlier this month garnered attention from people all around the world. Millions mourned his passing and paid respect to his life’s work, calling him an inspiration and genius to technology and innovation. A similar thing happens with most celebrities and others in the spotlight — Michael Jackson, anyone? When someone of public recognition dies, the media is all over it, and continues the coverage well after his death because he is “important.” Granted, most of the time it’s well deserved coverage. These members of the spotlight have made enormous contributions to society through things like the arts, technology and leadership. If this is the case, however, then why do other prominent figures of society seem to be left out of this “death coverage?” When a Supreme Court justice dies, you don’t see reporters in a frenzy over the details of his death, or similarly with the passing of government leaders, Nobel Prize winners, etc. Something is out of balance. Even if these types of public figures were covered more after their death, problematic issues would still exist. According to the Population Reference Bureau’s 2010 World Population Data Sheet, about 156,000 people die each […]

   

• The Death of a Dictator is Not a Victory for America

  Editorials October 24, 2011 at 7:49 pm Comments are Disabled

  “In this case, America spent $2 billion total and didn’t lose a single life. This is more of the prescription for how to deal with the world as we go forward than it has been in the past.” Vice President Joe Biden spoke these words soon after the death of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was confirmed last week. If you listen close enough, you can almost hear the slow beat of the war drums as you read Biden’s victory call. You need not be clairvoyant to see these words as fanciful language for more perpetual war. The newspaper headlines will ring out in triumph over the death of a human being in a far off land instead of focusing on the death and starvation of Americans at home or the impending debt crisis threatening to destroy Social Security and Medicare. So when Biden says, “America didn’t lose a single life”, he is absolutely right. But his inability to acknowledge another life as being just as valuable as one that happens to be born an American is simply intolerable. There is no doubt Gaddafi was an evil dictator, but regardless of his own lack of respect for human life, he was […]

   

• Steve Jobs, Occupy Wall Street, and the Virtues of Capitalism

  Editorials October 24, 2011 at 7:40 pm Comments are Disabled

  This past week, America lost one of the most prolific entrepreneurs of our time. A rarity is the person whose life was not in some way transformed by the creative ingenuity, keen business acumen and computer engineering genius of Steve Jobs. To quote President Obama, “The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.” Jobs is the embodiment of the American dream. He started a small company in his parents’ garage and, within a decade, transformed it into a multibillion-dollar corporation with thousands of employees. Steve Jobs wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he was born with a brilliant mind and a disposition toward hard work. Steve Jobs sought to channel these talents into a successful business and, in so doing, changed the way we live and, to again quote the president, “the way each of us sees the world.” But Jobs embodies much more than the American dream. He embodies the virtues of the economic system that makes the American dream possible. This economic system is currently being affronted by growing […]