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Saturday, June 06, 2026

Opinion

Florida Alligator
Opinion

Letter to the Editor: Swamp Party pleased with Senate slate

Feb. 5, 2015

My name is Ricky Salabarria, and I currently serve as the Swamp Party spokesman. I am very excited to announce that our party’s slate for the Spring 2015 Student Government Elections has been released. After three days of qualifying, slating and interviewing, Swamp Party is confident that we have selected the 50 most qualified and capable students to serve in the Student Senate and bring our university the experience it deserves. 

Florida Alligator
Opinion

The growing problem of male body image

Feb. 5, 2015

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.

Florida Alligator
Opinion

In education debate, Catholic schools win

Feb. 4, 2015

Debates revolving around education are always contentious. This issue, unlike other high-profile issues of our time, induces strong emotional responses. For some reason, parents’ choices are solely limited to either pro-school choice, pro-teacher, pro-public schools or pro-charter schools. What this narrow and emotional debate leaves out is the role that religious schools, Catholic schools in particular, play in our society.

Florida Alligator
Opinion

Meninism: a movement of misogyny and contradiction that sets back women’s rights

Feb. 3, 2015

As issues concerning feminism become increasingly popular and hotly debated, a faction of its opponents attempt to match that growth and diminish feminism’s lasting effect. The men’s rights movement — or meninists, as they so cutely call themselves — represents the loudest organized voices against feminism, bemoaning a neglect of men they believe remains unaddressed. At best, this movement is a redundant protest of issues that feminism already seeks to address. At worst, meninists are making a misogynistic mockery of true activism and misguidedly placing blame. 

Florida Alligator
Opinion

Experimenting with the effectiveness of dreamcatchers

Feb. 3, 2015

I ate some salad, double-checked my alarm — set for every three hours — closed my eyes and tried to worry about upcoming exams. I wasn’t asking for a next-day headache; I wanted to prove dream catchers couldn’t stop bad dreams.

Florida Alligator
Opinion

Hip-Hop: the Grammy’s black sheep

Feb. 2, 2015

As the Staples Center sets up to host the 57th Grammy Awards, the public continues to tear down the show for its nominations in the rap categories. The criticism primarily stems from the decision to include Iggy Azalea’s “The New Classic” as a nominee for Best Rap Album. Iggy Azalea has been accused of profiting off the gentrification of hip-hop culture by a number of hip-hop-based media outlets. She has replied to most accusations hurled her way with social media.

Florida Alligator
Opinion

Bears shouldn’t be punished for problems with Fla. development

Feb. 2, 2015

In the midst of public safety concerns and complaints, Florida’s ban on black bear hunting might be lifted for the first time in two decades. Several reported bear attacks and an increase in bear sightings have prompted the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission to introduce the possibility of a bear-hunting season. The commission will begin discussing the issue Wednesday.

Florida Alligator
Opinion

Making the first time more comfortable

Jan. 29, 2015

It’s Friday night and you’re at Midtown. A few drinks already in your system, you lock eyes with someone across the bar. Talking leads to dancing, which leads to making out, which leads to inviting them back to your place.

Florida Alligator
Opinion

Google Fiber is the Internet provider of the future

Jan. 29, 2015

Generally, the announcement that a new Internet service and cable provider is moving into your hometown isn’t big news, but when that provider is Google, people get excited. Why would anyone do a happy dance over the tech giant creating a new Internet service in your city?

Florida Alligator
Opinion

Republican Presidential Hopefuls are Worrying

Jan. 28, 2015

Last weekend, Republican Party presidential hopefuls flocked to Rep. Steve King’s Iowa Freedom Summit — if there’s “freedom” in the name, it has to be right, good and conservative — to court the first-in-the-nation caucus state. I found many aspects of this forum, as well as some positions of the GOP hopefuls in general, worrying.

Florida Alligator
Opinion

Abstraction: Explaining science layer by layer

Jan. 27, 2015

I was eating lunch last week and heard, “It weighs 8 grams.” My eardrum sent a text to the memory library, forcing an intern to check Catalog Random. The intern hunted the shelves, returning to the master librarian red-faced and wheezing. “Weight is 8 grams times 9.8 m/s2,” the intern gasped, “but how do we explain?” To illuminate complex ideas, I look to a computer science concept called abstraction.

Florida Alligator
Opinion

Undocumented immigrants deserve licenses

Jan. 27, 2015

Any time I hear news regarding immigration policy in Arizona, I hold my breath. First, they passed a bill allowing police officers to demand documentation from people who prompt “reasonable suspicion” of being in the country illegally. Then, they banned Latino literature and ethnic studies from the classroom because it supposedly fosters racial resentment — as if banning an entire culture from the classroom doesn’t kindle any resentment. Thursday, however, I exhaled a sigh of relief while reading about Arizona in The New York Times. U.S. District Judge David Campbell issued a permanent injunction requiring the state to issue driver’s licenses to immigrants who have been deferred from deportation under President Obama’s DREAM Act.

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