Over the past couple of weeks, we have dedicated copious editorial real estate to defending President Bernie Machen's proposed $47 million budget cuts as a necessary response to the Florida Legislature's abysmal failure to fully fund the state's university system. It now appears that we have been duped.
BRANDON SACK, Guest Columnist
The boys and girls of summer are hitting their (home run) strides, and we at the Department of Darts and Laurels couldn't be more pumped. The Gators softball team has earned its first-ever Women's College World Series birth, the upstart Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays are the surprising leaders of their respective divisions in the big leagues, and we're keeping our fingers crossed for the Gators baseball team as it looks to put a hurting on FSU in the Tallahassee Regional this weekend for the chance to steal their way into the College World Series.
LaShanta Harris, Gainesville resident
Philip Sandifer, Ph.D. candidate, English
Many observers of this year's historic race for the Democratic presidential nomination have been wondering out loud why Sen. Hillary Clinton hasn't dropped out of the race yet. Sen. Barack Obama has won more states and more pledged delegates, and now he has secured the endorsement of more superdelegates than Clinton.
Is it just us, or are these nascent summer days disappearing more quickly than Hillary Clinton's chances of being the Democratic nominee for president?
Elizabeth Hillaker, UF Alumnus
Last week, the California Supreme Court handed down a historic ruling regarding one of the most divisive issues of our time: gay marriage.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, summer has finally arrived. The Legislature has concluded one of the most painful and pointless sessions in recent memory, Major League Baseball is in full swing, the Sunshine State's signature sweltering temperatures are starting to return, and for many of us here in the Gator Nation, it's back-to-school as a new semester presents us with new opportunities to engage in one of our favorite pastimes: procrastination. As we venture into summer '08, however, we at the Department of Darts and Laurels won't waste any time presenting to you, our loyal readers, a hot and fresh, first-of-the-summer-edition of…
Norman Chang, 4LS
With the first day of class behind me, it has finally sunk in: Summer is here.
As the spring term was winding down here at UF and at other institutions of higher learning around the state, so too was the 2008 legislative session in Tallahassee. Last week, the Florida Legislature closed shop after three months of supposedly working toward solutions to the many serious problems facing our state.
Well, it's finally here. Our calendars may say it's Wednesday, but right about now it sure feels like a Friday. This being the last issue of the spring semester and the last day of classes - though everyone seems to be too busy headed to the library for "exams" and "term papers" - we've decided to lighten it up a bit. C'mon, you know you're not really going to use both of those reading days, anyway. So grab a lounge chair by the pool, pop open a cold one and start thinking about summer. It's with bittersweet nostalgia that we here at the Darts & Laurels department compose our semester-ending edition of Darts & Laurels.
The Alligator's sports editor, Mike McCall, and I were talking about our long-term career goals recently, and we have come to simple terms about what would validate our lives' work.
Few issues represent so profound a moral conundrum and elicit so visceral an emotional response as capital punishment.
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.
Obama is selling himself as the president to settle the peace, not continue the war. Yet some of the senator's recent comments suggest he has far less of an interest in peace than in popularity. In an Associated Press interview from July 2007, Obama suggested that even the likelihood of genocide was insufficient grounds for retaining an American presence in Iraq. "If that's the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now - where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife - which we haven't done." Obama is implying America should bear as much responsibility for the security of citizens in a country we do not occupy as one we do. That is, none at all.
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.
Solutions by The State News
