Opinion | Columns - The Independent Florida Alligator

OPINION | COLUMNS

Polygamist raid warranted

By Greg Pivarnik | Apr. 22, 2008

The separation of church and state does not apply to religions that advocate sexual abuse and violence toward underage women. The Child Protective Services (CPS) made the correct decision to remove 416 minors from a polygamist compound in Eldorado, Texas, earlier this month. Any arguments that attempt to defend the people at the compound, including anyone who advocates returning the children to their parents based on religious rights implied in the First Amendment, misunderstands the role the government has to protect its citizens from physical harm.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Barbaric, antiquated capital punishment must be abandoned

Apr. 22, 2008

Few issues represent so profound a moral conundrum and elicit so visceral an emotional response as capital punishment.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Compassion needed to overcome past

By GERALD LILES | Apr. 21, 2008

Nature takes wood in one of two ways: either fire burns it or water rots it away. If that wood forms the walls of a building, the way it happens can make all the difference in the world.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Unrealistic cultural expectations of beauty unfair to women

By Claire Beach | Apr. 21, 2008

You've seen them at the Plaza of the Americas: Student Government-sponsored billboards, in an effort to boost self-esteem, encouraging women to love their bodies, claiming that "diets don't work" and assuring everyone that confident women who don't worry about looking like supermodels are sexier than those who do.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Pope's U.S. visit a showcase of excess

By VINCENT MASSARO | Apr. 20, 2008

Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd, buy me some peanuts and -

OPINION | COLUMNS

College ends in realization, discovery

By CARLY HALLAM | Apr. 17, 2008

I've got new priorities. I'm holding onto old ways of life. The science of love is phony. The illness of Senioritis is real. I think men should be more respected by advertisers. I think women should be more respected in general. I like lifestyle changes to be small but significant. I like Moe's portions to be small but filling. I'm saying "bring it on" to the future and "back off" to Facebook. I don't like Gainesville all the time, but the sadness of leaving makes me break into rhyme.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Take advantage of UF while you can

Apr. 16, 2008

The time has come. I have started marking my calendar with the dates and locations of my final exams. I am making finishing touches on end-of-the-semester projects. I have called my mom to double-check my moving date, and I have begun assessing how much shoe-shopping money I will make from selling my textbooks.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Resources available on campus

By HEATHER LEHMKUHL | Apr. 15, 2008

College life has many benefits: new friends, new experiences, and no curfew. But it also brings stress that's related to grades, bills, time management, dating, parent conflicts and homesickness.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Mental illness stigma should be overcome

By ANA TURNER | Apr. 15, 2008

Although psychology and psychiatry are relatively new fields, the concept of mental illness is not. In the 5th century B.C., a man living with epilepsy was thought to be affected by the moon god.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Gators asked to remember those lost in Va. Tech tragedy

By JACQUELYN HORSTMANN | Apr. 15, 2008

We Remember.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Bill endorses religion in classrooms

Apr. 15, 2008

It has been more than 20 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against teaching creationism "science" in public schools, finding it a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Academia fragmented, not knowledge

By GERALD LILES | Apr. 14, 2008

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

OPINION | COLUMNS

Parents should regulate their children's online activities

By Kevin Dion | Apr. 14, 2008

In Thursday's Alligator, Rebecca Ganzak wrote in her column that she feels there needs to be regulations governing the "appropriateness" of content available on the Internet. I feel that the actions proposed in Thursday's column are the wrong ones to take.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Stadium Club too exclusive for area

By VINCENT MASSARO | Apr. 13, 2008

I try to avoid whining in my column, but sometimes I can't help it. Actually, I whine most of the time. OK, all I do is whine.

OPINION | COLUMNS

A farewell poem to a college town

By CARLY HALLAM | Apr. 10, 2008

I may never again live in an all-college town

OPINION | COLUMNS

Internet needs some form of regulation

Apr. 9, 2008

I have seen the promotions, watched videos and listened to several computer-savvy friends explain to me why the Internet should be a free and uncensored flow of entertainment and information. I used to agree.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Media falsely name McCain 'maverick'

By JOSHUA FREDERICKSON | Apr. 8, 2008

Members of the mainstream media in this country have been engaged in a nauseating love affair with Sen. John McCain ever since his failed presidential campaign in 2000. During that campaign, the Arizona senator swept the press off of their collective feet with his brash "straight talk," his disarming charm and his self-deprecating sense of humor. Many so-called "journalists" labeled him a "maverick" because he occasionally refused to toe the line of his intellectually and morally bankrupt party. However, this, in and of itself, does not a maverick make. Simply repeating something over and over again does not mean that it's true.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Army must be integrated to stop bias against homosexuals

By WILLIAM QUINN | Apr. 8, 2008

Imagine that a resident assistant walking through a dorm at night hears a noise that sounds suspicious, so he or she knocks on the door. He eventually gains access to the room and realizes that he has interrupted a sex act between two male students. He reports the incident to the administration. The president oversees an investigation into the sexual identity of the two students. The investigation infuriates other homosexual students, so several of them walk into the president's office and claim to be homosexuals. After learning that all the students are in fact homosexuals, the university expels all of them.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Homeless need help from community

By GERALD LILES | Apr. 7, 2008

"You know how proud you were when your wife had that baby girl?" Frank asked.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Economic stimulus package won't work

By Paul Heath | Apr. 6, 2008

It looks like the Fed's money presses have some long nights ahead as taxpayers could begin receiving their government stimulus package checks as early as June, according to an Associated Press report. But President Bush and his economic team have made it very clear that everyone's piggy banks should be left on their shelves.