Editorials

• Enough on Global Warming: Opinion Editor Wishes for Something More

  Editorials March 25, 2010 at 10:08 am Comments are Disabled

  By William Curtis, Opinion Editor It boggles my mind how much information I have read on global warming, and having read about it from so many writers in past issues of Broadside, as well as this one, it has left me with one question: Is global warming the only item we have to discuss? While going through my e-mails just the other day, I stumbled upon a Letter to the Editor that piqued my interest. The letter was written by Jason Von-Kundra and can be found in this issue on page seven. When I read this piece, it made me realize that we really have been debating the existence of global warming for far too long. There are more important questions we should be asking ourselves. Is health care reform really going to happen, and if it does, will it benefit us all or make us hate the systems we put in place even more? Should Ken Cuccinelli continue to deny anti-discrimination laws for homosexuals in Virginia? And if you are ignorant and foolish enough to believe that global warming isn’t real, then you too are denying the facts and the evidence that is right in front of all of […]

   

• No Seats for the Obese? In Some Cases, Passengers Should Purchase Two Seats

  Editorials March 1, 2010 at 2:34 pm Comments are Disabled

  Justin Lalputan, Staff Writer Obesity is a problem that many Americans face today. However, the other day, I heard a story about famed director Kevin Smith, who is widely known for his role as Silent Bob in the Clerks films, being removed from a Southwest Airlines flight because he was too fat to fit into a seat. At first this astounded me; I never knew someone could actually be kicked off a flight due to body size. So I did more research on the story and learned that he was not ejected due only to his weight, but also because the flight was at capacity, he didn’t have the option to purchase an additional seat. I researched the matter further and discovered that this is not only a common problem for airlines, but also for movie theaters. It seems that larger airline passengers and moviegoers alike are sometimes required to buy an extra seat to accomodate their size. My first reaction was that this was ridiculous. How can someone be discriminated against just because of their size? On top of that, I’ve also read that, in some cases, people cannot help being obese, but that is another story entirely. Then […]

   

• A Student’s Lessons Learned: Finding Wisdom From Past Mistakes

  Editorials March 1, 2010 at 2:32 pm Comments are Disabled

  Stephanie Tran, Staff Writer It all started with the required reading book Walden Two written by psychologist B. F. Skinner. The book described an idyllic, utopian commune that flourishes in post-World War II America, in a community where the subject of History is not taught. When the founder, Frazier, is confronted with this fact, he replies that history has no use, because it is full of mistakes and human recording error. His conclusion is that there is nothing to learn from the past when one can study and modify behavior in the present and future. Nothing to learn from the past? As a wise person once said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Just a quick glance at the current economy, the Great Depression and a trip to Google indicates that the U.S., like other capitalistic countries, seems to follow a cycle of economic growth and decay, otherwise known as the 50-60 year-long Kondratiev Wave. While the person who coined the term, Nikolai Kondratiev, is often mocked for his theory, it still successfully predicted the Great Depression of the 1930s and seemed to describe the U.S. economy in November 2008. You could also look […]

   

• Rebuttal to Climategate Response: Bring It On: ‘Debate on the Hypocrisy of Anthropogenic Global Warming’

  Editorials March 1, 2010 at 2:30 pm Comments are Disabled

  Alan Moore, Staff Writer Apparently, there are still a minor few out there who drink the climate change alarmist Kool-Aid. While people like George Mason University Sustainability Assistant Colin Bennett and seemingly the entire Office of Sustainability would prefer to mudsling, I am happy to level some truth. I’m thrilled to report that support for this eco-radical farce is dwindling and that the lies are being exposed. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, recently came under attack by one of its former lead supporters, John Christy, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. “The temperature records,” Christy insists, “cannot be relied on as indicators of global change.” IPCC then asked Professor Ross McKitrick of the University of Guelph in Canada to formally review its latest report. “We concluded,” said McKitrick in his review, “with overwhelming statistical significance, that the IPCC’s climate data are contaminated with surface effects from industrialization and data quality problems. These add up to a large warming bias.” In other words, the IPCC scientists lied, much like Mr. Bennett has done. I understand why Mr. Bennett is upset that I called for his office to be eliminated. I also understand […]

   

• Burger King Economics: Attaching Dollar Signs to Everything Doesn’t Bode Well

  Editorials March 1, 2010 at 2:29 pm Comments are Disabled

  Brandon T. Minister, Staff Writer My brother-in-law once said to me, “What I love about economists is the way they can put a dollar figure on everything. They can say, ‘Sitting at one additional traffic light costs a driver $5.37.’” It is nice of him to tell me what he loves about my profession, especially since I’ve never once returned the favor with, “You know what I love about energy traders . . . ?” However, I can’t tell if he means he loves economists like he loves his wife, or if he just loves us like he loves watching Dumb and Dumber. Is what he loves about the cost-benefit analysis-laden world of economics the ridiculousness of it all? It’s true that economists try to attach a dollar figure to everything. The opinions of haughty arts majors aside, this is a helpful practice. Dollars are the universal common denominator, allowing us to compare two unlike things. If a shirt or a painting has no quantifiable value, I can never know how many paintings to give you as compensation for taking one of your shirts. When we turn them both into dollars, we can start trading. Most people don’t have a […]

   

• Twitter to the Rescue!: Social Networking Sites Create New Adventures for Amateur Journalists

  Editorials March 1, 2010 at 2:27 pm Comments are Disabled

  Evan Benton, Staff Writer On February 12, 2010, two Metro cars on a six-car train jumped the rail. While there were no serious injuries, over 300 passengers were left stranded, and once again the thousands of people using the D.C. Metro system every day were left wondering: What the hell is going on here? There are many reasons to be alarmed. This is the third such incident since mid-June of last year, when the area experienced the deadliest Metro crash in history: a collision of two trains resulted in nine deaths and over 76 injuries. Since then, two Metro employees were crushed by a runaway utility vehicle on the tracks on January 27th; and now there’s this. Granted, cars jumping the rail is better than cars colliding, and in this case an “automated derailer” threw the trains off the tracks before they could collide with each other. Really? An automatic derailer system? I wasn’t aware that the threat of train collision was so ominous and frequent that a derailer system was even necessary. What’s worse is the fact that actual news stations didn’t pick up the incident until 15 hours after the derailment, leaving the populace ignorant to the event […]

   

• Spirituality As I See It: A Walk Through GMU Campus is a Personal Pilgrimage

  Editorials March 1, 2010 at 2:25 pm Comments are Disabled

  Vincent Ali, Broadside Correspondent Every day I walk the paths of George Mason University waiting for someone to hand me a flier explaining why I should follow their path to God and leave my heathen lifestyle behind without a second thought. I politely listen to them, giving them a chance to convince me. However many times I am approached, their aim is always the same. A five-minute conversation to convince me to change my ways is not an effective method to change the beliefs I have had for the past 23 years. How can you possibly fathom the idea that I will change my life after five minutes? It blows my freaking mind. Half of the time it feels like these preachers just want more people to join their following. They see it as a way to strengthen their faith, even though they assure me that they are just trying to spread the word. It is kind of selfish when I look at it that way. Most of my experiences with religion and spirituality have been pretty generic. Someone comes up to me saying that they have the cure to all of life’s problems — all you have to do […]

   

• American Media Today: Where Did The News Go?

  Editorials February 22, 2010 at 2:28 pm Comments are Disabled

  Justin Lalputan, Staff Writer The American media has changed from what it used to be. The American media used to play a watchdog role, being there for the people and giving the people access to information that they wouldn’t otherwise have. From what I see in today’s media, there is almost nothing that resembles that. First, I have to address the fact that media is changing. Newspapers used to be the main source of news — people would pick them up and actually subscribe to them — but now, newspapers are dying. Sure, newspapers like The Washington Post and The New York Times will always stay in business, but they are cultural icons. Most other smaller newspapers are shutting down. However, this doesn’t mean that the role of the media has to change. With the advent of the Internet, the popularity of TV media and their integration in our society, the media should be even closer to the people and people should be well-informed about current issues. Sadly, this is not the case. I turn on the TV and, the majority of the time, I am greeted with biased news, not even in an editorial section, but in the actual […]

   

• Of Friends and Health Care Reform: My Money Is Your Money, Is The Entire Country’s Money

  Editorials February 22, 2010 at 2:26 pm Comments are Disabled

  Brandon T. Minister, Staff Writer Some of my friendships make sense; my friends and I do or like the same things. Others, though, make less sense. Still, regardless of our differences, I value these friends. No matter how far apart we are on many issues, I think the world of them. Yet these friends don’t always feel the same way. I lost one friend by questioning President Obama’s qualification for the Nobel Prize. I might have lost another with a Facebook status update. I innocently posted a link to an article in The Atlantic by Megan McArdle. The article points out that mortality statistics don’t seem to support the idea that there are Americans currently dying for want of health care coverage. Immediately a friend of mine posted an emotional comment in response. This is my friend who, despite my overlooking her volunteering with ACORN, can’t overlook my listening to Rush Limbaugh. I could backtrack, begging her forgiveness, but I decided instead to respond to the issue at hand: Should some people’s high health insurance costs require others to pay the bills? I knew I stood to lose another friend, but I figured I was better off finding out how […]

   

• Our Formative Years: What Makes A College Student?

  Editorials February 22, 2010 at 2:23 pm Comments are Disabled

  Stephanie Tran, Staff Writer If you take a moment to pause during your daily rush to class, you’ll notice more than a few tours of potential students with green George Mason University tour bags on their backs, with anxious and inquiring parents following closely behind them. With only a semester and barely a month of college living under my belt, I find that it’s still rather easy to spot these high school hopefuls as they plod around the campus. I wondered about the reason for this and, after mulling it over for some time, I finally found the answer in several of my high school friends and high school teachers who I popped in on during winter break. The word “mature” and “college girl” were tossed around so frequently during these visits that I eventually concluded that I exuded what I like to call “the college glow.” From what I gathered from the reactions of these friends and teachers, this glow includes a maturity that is gained from college. I seem to have acquired a weathered and experienced visage and the quiet dignity of one who has survived her first semester of college. The interesting thing to note is that […]