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Friday, September 20, 2024

Opinion | Columns

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Legalizing marijuana is still a challenge for the Sunshine State

Colorado has had recreational marijuana legalized for one year now, and its effects are still hard to determine. Many questions still remain: Did it bring in expected tax revenue? Were there any devastating unexpected consequences? Should other states follow suit and legalize pot? Many in Florida are looking into Colorado’s experiment to find support for legalizing marijuana, but the evidence may not be totally available yet.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Idiots threaten the United States’ safety and future

For a country that urges young people to get educated in order to get ahead, we’re quickly becoming a nation of idiots. Perhaps the Mike Judge film “Idiocracy” accurately predicted a future America in which everyone is a dunce, where any idiot who time travels to the future is automatically the smartest man in the country. Whatever the cause, our collective idiocy could undo all that our country has accomplished, and that should terrify everyone out of their pants. Sure, we can pride ourselves on American exceptionalism or believe that a 230-year-old constitution will save the day, but something is amiss in the U.S., and we need an urgent course correction.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Straight outta Bahston: Mark Wahlberg, the Oscars and American greatness

As a culture, Americans have long been fixated on the idea of being “the best.” As any cultural anthropologist could tell you, this phenomenon is the natural by-product of being “the best” country the world has ever seen. Naturally, our esteemed privilege has often led us to debate who or what is “the best” in their respective fields. “The best” president. “The best” college football team. “The best” Kardashian. “The best” flavor of Doritos to go with your Mountain Dew. “The best” instance of Rob Schneider yelling “You can do it!” in an Adam Sandler film. It is these debates, rational and nuanced as they are, that have helped to keep American civil discourse the respected, revered institution that it is.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Improvement in UF SG: a how-to guide

For those who missed out, last week I wrote a column detailing our Student Government representatives’ lack of visibility. In an attempt to highlight the disparities in SG presence during election time as compared to that of the rest of the year, I mentioned that Swamp Party has a recurring pattern of abandoning their social media platforms after elections. Thankfully, Blake Murphy, SG director of external affairs, wrote a letter to the editor informing me of an election code that prohibits political parties from making posts outside of election cycles. Murphy also brought attention to another YouTube account, one of three unverified ones, that releases “SG TV” episodes. He went on to mention that SG hosts dozens of events because visibility and transparency are their priorities. 


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

GOP: There’s nothing ‘beautiful’ about rape

A Republican state lawmaker insulted women and sexual assault survivors nationwide Thursday when he spoke about rape exemptions in a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. During West Virginia’s House Health Committee meeting, delegate Brian Kurcaba argued that rape and incest victims shouldn’t be exempt from the ban because even pregnancy from rape has a silver lining.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

President Obama’s speech calls for religious tolerance

Each U.S. president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has attended the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual event started in 1953. President Barack Obama is no different in this instance, and he gave a speech at the breakfast last week. This speech marked Obama’s seventh attendance at the breakfast, and while the speech was uplifting in its hopeful message, it also raised a few eyebrows and has resulted in a lot of backlash from conservative politicians and organizations.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

New single-sex restroom bill in Florida House is discriminatory

In the Florida House last week, a bill was manufactured by Republican Frank Artiles that gives a whole new meaning to discrimination. HB 583, entitled “Single-Sex Public Facilities,” would make it so a person must use a public facility that aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth. 


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

How much difference will advances in science make?

Life is full of unexpected happenings, and many people have been quoted at the end of their lives about the things they regret not doing. Wouldn’t you love to know how much life we have left? It’s amazing — or terrifying, depending on where you stand — that science is actually getting close to being able to determine how long each of us will live. 


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Don’t kick out those semi-welcome guests

On “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” comedian J.B. Smoove plays Leon Black, the brother of Loretta Black, a woman who ends up moving in with Larry David in Los Angeles after being displaced from New Orleans by a hurricane. Despite already having a home in L.A. — not to mention not even being formally invited into Larry’s house — Leon moves in, and quickly becomes a key player in Larry’s antics. When Loretta finally moves out, Larry gestures to Leon, “I guess this means you’ll be…” obviously meaning to ask him to leave as well. When Leon quickly replies that he’ll be “Going upstairs to eat this f****** Chinese food,” pausing to take a sip of soda, “in my f****** room,” Larry can’t even muster the energy to debate the point.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Bruce Jenner’s gender isn't our business

I was at the grocery store on Tuesday waiting to pay for my buy-one-get-one Cheez-Its when some magazine headlines caught my eye. The cash register line was a little long, so I had some time to look around at the multiple magazines covering the same subject: Bruce Jenner.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

The growing problem of male body image

Last year, I overheard a conversation between two men at the gym. “Yeah, if I didn’t have class I’d lift for two hours in the morning, do cardio at lunch and then do two hours of core at night.” I turned around, curious to see what kind of person would ever want to do that. What I saw didn’t seem to be a person at all, so much as a rippling ball of hypervascularized muscle. His arms were so huge that they hung limply like a T. rex’s, and his legs seemed to buckle under his frame. If I didn’t have my glasses on, I probably would have mistaken him for The Thing.


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