Opinion | Columns - The Independent Florida Alligator

OPINION | COLUMNS

Modern Tea Party is deeply flawed

By PAUL MURTY | Feb. 4, 2010

I don’t understand the Tea Party. I’ll admit that I’ve spent the past day trying to research what they want on the Internet, and the only thing I can come up with is they just don’t want to pay taxes. I can understand the frustration. I hate when I go to Publix to buy a newspaper and I have to pay an extra 6 or 7 cents in sales tax. But that’s mostly because I just don’t feel like getting that much change.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Tebow ad is stealing Super Bowl limelight

Feb. 3, 2010

Starring in a controversial anti-abortion commercial bankrolled by a fundamentalist Christian group, Tim Tebow headlines the first-ever “issue ad” aired on Super Bowl Sunday and has effectively hijacked the pre-Super Bowl hype machine.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Study abroad offers valuable experience

By Joshua Lee | Feb. 2, 2010

Last Wednesday, I stopped by the UF Study Abroad fair outside of the Reitz Union to discover what options are open to me for getting out of Gainesville and my pitiful dorm room.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Ending relationships has its positives

Feb. 1, 2010

Breakups aren’t fun. In fact, as far as things in relationships go, they pretty much suck.

OPINION | COLUMNS

America’s drinking problem serves as way to escape reality

By Eric Tegethoff | Feb. 1, 2010

Every foreign tourist who comes to America must think we are walking advertisements for the latest low-calorie Budweiser. America has a drinking problem and a culture that once scoffed at the idea of moderation.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Apple’s release of iPad a letdown

By Ryan Spencer | Jan. 31, 2010

There was a torrent of publicity surrounding Apple’s unveiling of its iPad last week. I watched a video of Steve Jobs presenting it, and needless to say, I wasn’t impressed. Here’s a quick rundown of what transpired:

OPINION | COLUMNS

Politicians support parties, not voters

By PAUL MURTY | Jan. 28, 2010

As long as I can remember, we have had terrible political divisions in our country. The only time Democrats and Republicans seem able to work together are in times of crisis, like after the attacks of Sept. 11 or Pearl Harbor. The politics of our country, specifically of Congress, are inherently wrong and against what Americans want.

OPINION | COLUMNS

U.S. should pay attention to educational instability in Afghanistan

By Joshua Lee | Jan. 27, 2010

Too often during times of chaos and conflict, children are marginalized victims and face extreme suffering and life-threatening problems.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Baby boomers caught with pants down

Jan. 27, 2010

There are many avenues President Obama could have traversed with his first State of the Union speech, and I suppose that he can be forgiven for wanting to stick with whatever it is his teleprompter told him to say Wednesday night. I probably would have paid attention if he were wearing a T-shirt with three wolves on it.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Religion must evolve with audience

By Ryan Spencer | Jan. 26, 2010

The whirlwind that is “Avatar” made it over to the Vatican earlier this month in a private screening before its release in Italy. They were not enthused with the movie, and I am not surprised with their reaction.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Town hall forum to discuss Reitz Union plans

By Jordan Johnson | Jan. 26, 2010

As we begin discussions on how to effectively address the issues that face the Reitz Union, Student Government and the Alligator have teamed up to host a town hall forum. The purpose of this town hall forum will be to provide students an opportunity to learn about the significant issues facing our Union and engage each other in a constructive conversation.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Conan offered comforting consistency

Jan. 25, 2010

Conan O’Brien’s final episode as the host of “The Tonight Show” aired last Friday, and damn it, I’m feeling a little sad over it.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Dove church, health bill parallel

By Will Pennman | Jan. 25, 2010

Religion can be fairly divided into two parts: what you believe, and how you tell other people what you believe.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Supreme Court decision has grim implications for Americans

By JAMES CHAPIN | Jan. 21, 2010

Some people believe that Tuesday’s Republican victory in Massachusetts, which may have cut the throat of health care reform, was big news. I beg to differ. The big news came out of a large room holding nine small people and a few witnesses on Thursday afternoon. It was doomsday for the individual in American politics. The Supreme Court decided on Thursday that corporations and unions are no longer beholden to the rules that had limited their spending on federal elections. Remember that date. Because the gargantuan coffers of those corporations and unions are now open very, very wide, and the words “shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech” have led to some very murky consequences. Justice John Paul Stevens read a long, lonely dissent from the bench. He called the decision “a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have ... fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the time of Theodore Roosevelt.”

OPINION | COLUMNS

America should rid itself of gun use

By PAUL MURTY | Jan. 21, 2010

30,364 vs. 210. Obviously, 30,364 is a much greater number than 210. Sadly, the former amount represents the number of gun-related deaths, including homicides, suicides and accidental deaths, in the United States in 2005. According to a blog post from the New England Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, 210 is an extrapolated figure that represents the number of gun-related deaths in the United Kingdom if its population was equal to the United States. In reality, there are only 42 gun-related deaths per year in the U.K., according to the blog.

OPINION | COLUMNS

‘Avatar’ parallels Republican Party

Jan. 20, 2010

Read as a straightforward attack on capitalism in a blue-green hue, many conservatives have angrily vented across all media platforms belittling “Avatar” as yet another Hollywood-leftist-socialist-homosexual-pantheistic-anthrophobic diatribe.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Student’s arrest brings to light America’s flawed priorities

By Will Penman | Jan. 20, 2010

About two weeks ago, Haisong Jiang, a graduate student from China studying biosciences at Rutgers, saw his girlfriend off at the Newark Liberty International Airport.

OPINION | COLUMNS

TV lessons lessen with time

By Eric Tegethoff | Jan. 20, 2010

No offense to my parents, but I was raised by television.

OPINION | COLUMNS

France is misrepresented as having ‘clean’nuclear programs

By Linda Gunter | Jan. 19, 2010

It is perhaps no accident that the nuclear power industry chose a French word, “renaissance,” to promote its alleged comeback. Attached to this misapplied moniker are a series of fallacious suggestions that nuclear energy is “clean,” “safe” and even “renewable.” And, in keeping with its French flavor, a key argument in the industry’s propaganda arsenal is that the U.S. should follow the “successful” example of the French nuclear program.

OPINION | COLUMNS

UF should not require health insurance

By CYNTHIA DESPRES | Jan. 19, 2010

After my father lost his job in November 2008, my family’s health insurance coverage lapsed. Although he found work — and, consequently, coverage for himself — in April, the rest of the family can’t join until March 2010. So, for the only year my mother and I have ever been without insurance, we have tiptoed through our lives, avoiding what health risks we could.