Even if you're the consummate hippie, walking or biking everywhere, you've probably felt the squeeze of skyrocketing oil prices. The price of electricity, food and practically every consumer product imaginable has increased due to the historic spike in oil prices.
Late last week, The Guardian newspaper of London reported a leaked study from the World Bank that concluded that biofuels are responsible for driving up worldwide food costs by 75 percent â€" just a smidgen higher than the Bush administration's figure of 2 percent to 3 percent.
As the state of Florida and America move past the presidential election in November, beyond an ailing economy on the brink of a recession and headlong into the future, the country lies on the cusp of a crisis garnering little attention.
For the past two weeks, I was down in Argentina on vacation. This has kept me far away from my usual regimen of American politics and news. But while there, I found that Argentina's national political scene is almost as hard to stay away from as the red wine and grilled beef.
Last week, the Supreme Court turned its back on the American people. In a 5-4 ruling, the court held that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have the right to habeas corpus. In English, this means that prisoners are allowed to hear the evidence against them, and President Bush is prohibited from declaring anyone an "enemy combatant" and detaining them indefinitely without charge.
Last week, over 100 countries met in Dublin, Ireland, to sign an agreement banning the use of cluster bombs, weapons invented by the Soviet Union during World War II. Cluster bombs are large single bombs that release a number of "bomblets" over a vast area and are usually intended for anti-personnel use.
BRANDON SACK, Guest Columnist
Elizabeth Hillaker, UF Alumnus
With the first day of class behind me, it has finally sunk in: Summer is here.
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.
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.
Few issues represent so profound a moral conundrum and elicit so visceral an emotional response as capital punishment.
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.
You've seen them at the Plaza of the Americas: Student Government-sponsored billboards, in an effort to boost self-esteem, encouraging women to love their bodies, claiming that "diets don't work" and assuring everyone that confident women who don't worry about looking like supermodels are sexier than those who do.
Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd, buy me some peanuts and -
I've got new priorities. I'm holding onto old ways of life. The science of love is phony. The illness of Senioritis is real. I think men should be more respected by advertisers. I think women should be more respected in general. I like lifestyle changes to be small but significant. I like Moe's portions to be small but filling. I'm saying "bring it on" to the future and "back off" to Facebook. I don't like Gainesville all the time, but the sadness of leaving makes me break into rhyme.
The time has come. I have started marking my calendar with the dates and locations of my final exams. I am making finishing touches on end-of-the-semester projects. I have called my mom to double-check my moving date, and I have begun assessing how much shoe-shopping money I will make from selling my textbooks.
College life has many benefits: new friends, new experiences, and no curfew. But it also brings stress that's related to grades, bills, time management, dating, parent conflicts and homesickness.
Solutions by The State News
