Recent Posts

• Mason takes on the Terrapins and Monarchs

  Sports April 5, 2010 at 1:26 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Yasin Jama, Staff Writer This week, the George Mason University baseball team hosts a series of key games beginning with one against the Maryland Terrapins on Tuesday at 3 p.m., followed by a three-game weekend series versus the Old Dominion Monarchs. The Patriots have been up and down in 2010. After last season’s appearance in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament and being ranked in the top 25, Mason had to replace some several key players, but that has not prevented the team from going downhill this season. On Wednesday, Mason put a tally in the win column by defeating the UMBC Golden Retrievers, 19-2. Senior shortstop Ryan Soares led Mason with five RBIs on three hits. Mason will need to continue its hot streak on offense if they want to continue their winning ways against the Terrapins and Monarchs. With a mediocre start to the season, Maryland sports an 11-15 record as of last Thursday. Maryland has not been known nationally for their baseball program, and they typically finish around .500, year in and year out. However, the Terrapins earned the victory on Wednesday against the Navy Midshipmen, 5-1. Maryland’s pitching was the difference in the victory. Junior […]

   

• Complete shutdown: Georgetown pitching blanks Mason in doubleheader

  Sports April 5, 2010 at 1:25 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Brian T. Chan, Sports Editor Senior starting pitcher Jennifer Connell completed the Georgetown Hoyas’ pitching masterpiece, blanking the George Mason University softball team 4-0 in the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader at the George Mason Softball Complex. The Hoyas mowed through Mason 12-0 in the first game. With the sweep, the Hoyas improved to 12-16, while Mason lost its third consecutive game to fall to 8-13 on the season. The Hoyas put on a hit clinic in the first game, totaling 12 runs and 15 hits, led by the team’s top four batters in the lineup. Senior second baseman Kelsie Hanson logged in three hits while senior shortstop Samantha Peters, sophomore pitcher Mackensey Carter and freshman catcher Shikara Lowe recorded two hits apiece. Georgetown jumped to a 5-0 lead before Mason could come to the plate. With two runners in scoring position in the first inning, Carter singled to right center to bring in both runners. After tacking on another run to extend the lead to 3-0, sophomore pinch hitter Jillian Webb knocked in two more runs with a single. That was all the Hoyas needed as Carter and junior pitcher Melissa Conners gave up a combined one hit […]

   

• Students go to bat for cricket: Team pushes for full-time club status

  Sports April 5, 2010 at 1:23 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Rashad Mulla, Broadside Correspondent In March, a George Mason University sports team was on the verge of securing a spot in the semifinals of a national tournament. But it is not a team anyone would suspect. Mason’s cricket team came only a point away from advancing past the preliminary round of the 2010 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship held in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., from March 17-21. Although they won their match against last year’s champion Montgomery (Md.) College, tournament rules awarded a point for eliminating all batsmen from the opposing team. With Montgomery College playing spoiler and switching to a defensive batting style, Mason came up just short. But while they did not win the 16-team tournament, the national spotlight was a significant step forward for the visibility of cricket on campus. “Cricket is in demand on campus,” said team manager Mohammad Kashif, a senior chemistry major. “Although Mason does not have the infrastructure for cricket, we can still make do with what we have.” With limited financial support, Kashif and his fellow cricket enthusiasts have organized multiple high-profiled matches during the past year. Kashif and Paul Bazzano, assistant director for intramurals and recreational sports, set up an […]

   

• Powell's Playbook: Racing with the Rednecks

  Sports April 5, 2010 at 1:21 pm Comments are Disabled

  By John Powell, Asst. Sports Editor I watched way too much Comedy Central on Saturday night, when this was written. I consider myself a southern boy and get a kick out everyone on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour (coming on April 24 to the Patriot Center, might I add). No jokes here, please. I did a Google search for “Larry the Cable Guy Baseball,” and was entertained by “Uncyclopedia” entries and YouTube videos. Honestly, everyone reading this column should be happy that I eventually stopped rooting for Kyle Busch in the Nashville 300 (he got third place, by the way, after getting his first win as a team owner in the truck series) to write this column for all my beloved readers. I put down my camouflage Atlanta Braves baseball cap, turned off NASCAR, tried not to move my arms much from my third farmer’s tan of the season and forced myself to think about college sports. My first thought was: “Wow, I had West Virginia in the championship game . . . and they lost in the Final Four. Well, now my bracket is officially dead.” My second thought was: “I bet if Larry the Cable Guy would have […]

   

• Always pitching to help: Becky Anderson: Senior contributes on and off the field

  Sports April 5, 2010 at 1:20 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Brian T. Chan, Sports Editor Senior Becky Anderson does not wear a mask or cape, but she is still a superhero in many respects. Whether pitching on the field for the George Mason University softball team or helping save homeless animals, Anderson exemplifies the key qualities of a student-athlete. Entering the 2010 season as one of the team’s two seniors, Anderson has played a smaller role on the pitching staff, paving the way for sophomore Miranda Cranford. Averaging 33 appearances in her first three years, Anderson has made six appearances as Mason nears the midway point of the season. While playing with a group of young pitchers, Anderson is on track for the best season of her collegiate career, sporting a 3-1 record with a 1.36 ERA. Through 36 innings, Anderson has been nearly unhittable, allowing opposing batters to hit just .167 off her. She recently demonstrated her dominance with her perfect game in Mason’s 5-0 win against the Morgan State Bears. Rhythmically sitting down batters one after another, Anderson had not attained the knowledge of her perfect game until the last inning of her masterpiece. “During the perfect game, I was just thinking that nobody has gotten hits, […]

   

• California dreamin’: Junior seeks to move westward after college

  Sports April 5, 2010 at 1:18 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Fernanda Bartels, Staff Writer Today, junior Lindsay Gray is in the pages of Broadside. Tomorrow, she will make headlines in Hollywood. Casted as one of the top players on the George Mason University women’s tennis team, Gray is an English major with a concentration in non-fiction writing, with a communication minor. Mason is the first stop on Gray’s journey to the world of entertainment. After graduation, the second stop will be California. “I want to move out to L.A,” said Gray. “It’s always been a dream of mine since I was little to be out in Hollywood. In the back of my mind, I want to be famous, but I understand that it is a really hard profession. It’s so competitive.” Gray is heading to California for the summer, where she will be interning for the second time with Dick Clark Productions. “I feel like getting out there, getting my feet wet,” said Gray. “Interning at Dick Clark Productions sort of gets me in the door a little bit, and [helps in] getting to know what they look for.” California dreams aside, Gray keeps herself busy during the school year with tennis, academics and extracurricular activities. Gray is the […]

   

• The legality of guns on campus: ‘How is our campus safer by taking away our constitutionally protected right to defend ourselves?'

  Editorials April 5, 2010 at 1:14 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Alan Moore, Staff Writer Currently, the Supreme Court is considering McDonald v. Chicago which could determine once and for all if state and local governments have the right to restrict and control gun ownership. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment guarantees that an individual has the fundamental right to bear arms in the District of Columbia v. Heller case. If this current gun rights case is overruled, then it is likely that all laws and ordinances prohibiting handguns in states and localities will be nullified. As this landmark case is being considered, it seems prudent to examine the policy on guns at George Mason University. According to University Policy Number 1120, Section 3-A, “The possession of any weapon on campus by any member of the faculty, staff or student body, with the exception of law enforcement officials as cited in the policy portion of this procedure, is prohibited.” The policy first defines weapons as “pistols and revolvers.” The hypocrisy of this policy must be recognized and the regulation repealed. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, you must be 21 to purchase a handgun and/or handgun ammunition. You are not permitted to purchase a firearm if you […]

   

• The smooth operator: Obama employs the art of persuasion

  Editorials April 5, 2010 at 1:12 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Johnetta Saygbe, Broadside Correspondent Everyone in this country uses the art of persuasion; politicians, however, have perfected this art. Politicians innately possess, or have been taught, the ability to present themselves and their platform in a way that is the most pleasing to their audience. While the mode of presentation varies, all persuasive arguments begin at a single point: the speaker must identify an audience and its needs, and then create an environment where the audience feels comfortable with the speaker, which dismisses any skepticism of the argument being presented. On Friday, March 19, 2010, the speaker was the president of the United States, Barack Obama. The audience was the George Mason University community. The topic discussed was change in current health care policies. In order to establish the aforementioned comfort level, President Obama refused to acknowledge the obvious hierarchy that existed between him and his audience. Upon ascending the stage, he immediately removed his suit jacket. His desire to be more comfortable, relinquishing his arms from the restricting threads of a jacket, also brought the audience to an ease. President Obama had the same confidence that most Americans only encounter in reporting. As he stood on that elevated […]

   

• Finding someone to blame: Identifying the ‘nth level cause’ of climate change

  Editorials April 5, 2010 at 1:10 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Bradon T. Minister, Staff Writer Who was the first human to discover cause-and-effect relationships, and how quickly did his peers kill him for his heresy? Until this mysterious human — let’s call him Roger Cavemanson — came along, every action in the world was clearly the work of a capricious god, or possibly a group of such gods. Cavemanson was the first to propose otherwise. For his troubles, he was rewarded with an early grave in a bog. Since then, cause-and-effect has become more fashionable. Five hundred years ago, a bunch of northern Italians laid the foundation for our modern decadent society by basing all learning on the principle. Now, instead of looking for the primary cause of an event, we now look for the nth-level cause — as long as that nth-level cause is something we hate. Thus, someone is not overweight because he happened to consume more calories than he burned, he’s overweight because of Wal-Mart pricing or McDonald’s management politics. The further away we can push the cause, the more peace of mind we have. If I don’t earn enough money and it’s all my fault, I could feel bad about that. If I can instead […]

   

• New age cyberbullying: Next generation of torment or total nonsense?

  Editorials April 5, 2010 at 1:07 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Justin Lalputan, Staff Writer There have been many fabulous technological advancements in the last two decades. We have iPods, personal computers and have made fantastic use of the Internet. However, along with these improvements, there are a few inevitable downsides. One such is the practice known as cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is when one person bullies another over the Internet. This can be done through any format: instant messaging, message boards or even online video games. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of cyberbullying occurs between students in middle and high school. This practice has been the cause of numerous incidents in which students have been traumatized or have even caused physical harm to themselves. “Cyberbullies” post mean, derogatory comments about other individuals or spread malicious rumors with the intention of making others feel bad. Cyberbullying gets more serious when people start posting pictures and videos of others on the Internet. I feel that when this happens, the offense can no longer be considered simple cyberbullying — it becomes harassment, which is a different matter altogether. Personally, I cannot believe that this is a problem in today’s society. I can understand why, if it is intense enough, regular bullying can make students […]