Opinion | Columns

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Nudity should be embraced, not taboo

By DARREN D'ALTORIO | Aug. 4, 2009

Sunday nights, trash nights, before I roll the garbage out to the curb, I strip off all my clothes and leave them in a little pile on the bench by the front door. Naked, I approach the street with the garbage can, which smashes the grass under its weight. It's one of the busiest streets in Akron, Ohio, during the day. But come 2 a.m., traffic is sparse. After the can is in position on the curb, I don't hurry back to my pile of clothes. Instead, I pace the dew-soaked grass, and I let the night air touch all the parts of my body it normally can't.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Contractor tied to deaths

Aug. 3, 2009

KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary that/s now the Army/s largest contractor, is a threat to the safety of our servicemen and servicewomen.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

U.S. culture defies environmentalism

Aug. 3, 2009

Glee for green has been a long time coming in this country. What started out as an almost underground burlap sack movement has sprung into a multibillion-dollar enterprise and an entire culture, even generation, of planet-conscientious actions.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Better to tax services than the rich

By JOHNATHAN LOTT | July 29, 2009

Brian Miller/s column in Thursday/s Alligator showed his complete ignorance of basic economics and federal revenue code.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Plan will diminish health care

By BEN CAMENKER | July 29, 2009

Universal health care.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Columnist reflects on political gaffes

July 27, 2009

I miss President George W. Bush, "Dubya" as I affectionately called him. I don't miss his policies or politics, but the material he and his administration gave me as a commentator.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Pill will not ensure immortality

By BEN JONES | July 27, 2009

Want to live longer? As it turns out, we may have the answer. A report in the July 10 issue of Science showed a dramatic difference between the lifespan of two different sets of Rhesus monkeys in a 20-year study. The results were so shocking that scientists already began seeking additional funding for another 20 years of research.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Community colleges need support

By The Michigan Daily | July 22, 2009

Community colleges are colleges, too.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Sales tax unfairly burdens Americans

By BRIAN MILLER | July 22, 2009

One hundred years ago on July 17, 1909, Sen. William E. Borah (R-Idaho) wrote, " The income tax is the fairest and most equitable of the taxes. It is the one tax which approaches us in the hour of prosperity and departs in the hour of adversity. Certainly, it will be conceded by all that the great expense of government is in the protection of property and wealth. There is no possible argument founded in law or in morals why these protected interests should not bear their proportionate burden of government."

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

America lacks vision after moonwalk

July 20, 2009

Walter Cronkite died Friday evening. He was 92. I think it/s fitting that the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonwalk Monday is so close to Cronkite/s death. Out of all the clips of Cronkite/s broadcasts shown over the past few days, the veteran journalist seems least inhibited during the now famed broadcast of the lunar landing. Cronkite had even remarked that the Apollo 11 landing was the high point in his career because he was certain it would be the most important event of his lifetime. Unfortunately, it seems he was correct.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Moments of clarity make dreams fun

By ERIC CHIANESE | July 20, 2009

Dreams are probably one of my favorite things in the world. And, boy, have I had some doozies.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Student Body president questions Machen’s meddling

By Jordan Johnson | July 15, 2009

This fall many UF students will take the hour-and-a-half trek up to Jacksonville for the yearly tradition of the UF-Georgia football game. But if President Machen has his way, students will find a very different situation awaiting them in Jacksonville.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Alligator editorial fails to justify Sotomayor support with facts

By Benjamin Camenker | July 15, 2009

Tuesday's editorial regarding Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was filled with much of the same "empathy" we expect Sotomayor to rule with, but little fact.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Politics without Palin lacks hilarity

By ERIC CHIANESE | July 13, 2009

So I refuse to be the only one who doesn/t give my two cents about this Palin resignation.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Web site scams students unaware of free credit report law

July 13, 2009

FreeCreditReport.com, the credit-reporting service owned by Experian, recently released its latest TV commercial in its ubiquitous "guy sings about his bad credit" ad campaign, which raises an important question: How the hell are these ads still on TV?

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Population issues must be addressed

By THORAYA OBAID | July 13, 2009

None of the crises we face today - whether it is the food crisis, the water crisis, the financial crisis or the crisis of climate change - can be managed unless greater attention is paid to population issues.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Celebrity proves a distraction to voters

By ED MCPHEE | July 8, 2009

Al Franken is a funny guy. He is also intelligent and seems to understand the needs of his constituents. And Franken seems earnest in his desire to be a U.S. Senator. But despite all this, he should not have run for the position.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

College degrees mean little without ambition to back them

By LIZ CARLSTON | July 8, 2009

Most people who go to college do so not because they enjoy sitting in stuffy lecture halls while listening to monotone-voiced professors, but so they can carve out a better place for themselves in the world when they graduate. Or at least, that's what most expect.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

War-weary Americans turn to tabloids

July 6, 2009

Sometime last week in between the earth-shattering news that Michael Jackson, the OxiClean pitchman and Farrah Fawcett had all actually died within the same cosmic time frame, two significant news items went largely unnoticed.

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OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Web site offers tips for lazy folks

By ERIC CHIANESE | July 6, 2009

So if any of you are like me, you're probably an incredibly lazy person. And I don't mean ordinary, run-of the-mill lazy - I mean you elevate it to an art form. There's nothing wrong with laziness, by the way, so don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Laziness - the desire to exert the least possible effort - has given rise to our most wonderful human ingenuities. If someone hadn't been too lazy to walk, we probably wouldn't have cars. If someone hadn't been too lazy to try and make a genuine connection with a woman, we probably wouldn't have such brilliant pick up lines as "Was your dad a baker, because your buns are out of this world!" The bottom line is that laziness keeps us sharp. Because of it we are ever-vigilant for the next thing that will make our lives easier and, in our own twisted way, richer.