OPINION
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COLUMNS
Ending relationships has its positives
Feb. 1, 2010Breakups aren’t fun. In fact, as far as things in relationships go, they pretty much suck.
Opinion | Columns
OPINION
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COLUMNS
America’s drinking problem serves as way to escape reality
By Eric Tegethoff | Feb. 1, 2010Every 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
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COLUMNS
Apple’s release of iPad a letdown
By Ryan Spencer | Jan. 31, 2010There 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
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COLUMNS
Politicians support parties, not voters
By PAUL MURTY | Jan. 28, 2010As 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
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COLUMNS
U.S. should pay attention to educational instability in Afghanistan
By Joshua Lee | Jan. 27, 2010Too often during times of chaos and conflict, children are marginalized victims and face extreme suffering and life-threatening problems.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Baby boomers caught with pants down
Jan. 27, 2010There 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
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COLUMNS
Religion must evolve with audience
By Ryan Spencer | Jan. 26, 2010The 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
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COLUMNS
Town hall forum to discuss Reitz Union plans
By Jordan Johnson | Jan. 26, 2010As 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
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COLUMNS
Conan offered comforting consistency
Jan. 25, 2010Conan 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
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COLUMNS
Dove church, health bill parallel
By Will Pennman | Jan. 25, 2010Religion can be fairly divided into two parts: what you believe, and how you tell other people what you believe.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Supreme Court decision has grim implications for Americans
By JAMES CHAPIN | Jan. 21, 2010Some 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
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COLUMNS
America should rid itself of gun use
By PAUL MURTY | Jan. 21, 201030,364 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
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COLUMNS
‘Avatar’ parallels Republican Party
Jan. 20, 2010Read 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
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COLUMNS
Student’s arrest brings to light America’s flawed priorities
By Will Penman | Jan. 20, 2010About 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
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COLUMNS
TV lessons lessen with time
By Eric Tegethoff | Jan. 20, 2010No offense to my parents, but I was raised by television.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
France is misrepresented as having ‘clean’nuclear programs
By Linda Gunter | Jan. 19, 2010It 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
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COLUMNS
UF should not require health insurance
By CYNTHIA DESPRES | Jan. 19, 2010After 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.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Robertson’s words hurt the cause
By Paul Runnestrand | Jan. 18, 2010If you listen to geologists, they will tell you the reason the massive earthquake occurred in Haiti last week had to do with seismic activity, fault lines and tectonic plates. At first glance, it’s a believable explanation. But the Rev. Pat Robertson proposes another answer that deserves consideration. Not consideration of its validity but rather consideration as to why in the world he would say such a thing.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Infidelity should not be normalized
Jan. 18, 2010My colleagues at the Alligator, Amelia Harnish and Jared Misner, wrote a defense — or at least a justification — of infidelity in their Jan. 14 Avenue column at www.bit.ly/secretscrewing.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
If we ignore them, they’ll go away
By PAUL MURTY | Jan. 14, 2010People of UF: In my first official column as the Friday columnist for the largest student-run newspaper in the country, I want to touch on a very important issue on campus — the provoking and condemning preachers. This isn’t a blanket statement for all preachers on campus, but only those who are hatefully insulting for the purpose of garnering attention.
