Opinion | Columns - The Independent Florida Alligator

OPINION | COLUMNS

Tragic Gitmo ruling threatens America

By BRANDON SACK | June 18, 2008

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Candidates sing same song on Iran

June 11, 2008

Brandon Sack, Guest Columnist

OPINION | COLUMNS

Failure to sign bomb treaty is hypocritical

By BRANDON SACK | June 4, 2008

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Health care deserves intelligent debate

May 28, 2008

BRANDON SACK, Guest Columnist

OPINION | COLUMNS

Tax cuts to blame for budget shortfalls

May 21, 2008

BRANDON SACK, Speaking Out

OPINION | COLUMNS

Brace yourselves, we’re in for a brain drain.

May 19, 2008

Elizabeth Hillaker, UF Alumnus

OPINION | COLUMNS

Alligator offers summer opportunities

By DEVIN CULCLASURE | May 12, 2008

With the first day of class behind me, it has finally sunk in: Summer is here.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Obama's war plan worrisome

By D. Morgan Potts | Apr. 22, 2008

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Polygamist raid warranted

By Greg Pivarnik | Apr. 22, 2008

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Barbaric, antiquated capital punishment must be abandoned

Apr. 22, 2008

Few issues represent so profound a moral conundrum and elicit so visceral an emotional response as capital punishment.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Compassion needed to overcome past

By GERALD LILES | Apr. 21, 2008

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Unrealistic cultural expectations of beauty unfair to women

By Claire Beach | Apr. 21, 2008

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Pope's U.S. visit a showcase of excess

By VINCENT MASSARO | Apr. 20, 2008

Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd, buy me some peanuts and -

OPINION | COLUMNS

College ends in realization, discovery

By CARLY HALLAM | Apr. 17, 2008

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Take advantage of UF while you can

Apr. 16, 2008

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Resources available on campus

By HEATHER LEHMKUHL | Apr. 15, 2008

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Mental illness stigma should be overcome

By ANA TURNER | Apr. 15, 2008

Although psychology and psychiatry are relatively new fields, the concept of mental illness is not. In the 5th century B.C., a man living with epilepsy was thought to be affected by the moon god.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Gators asked to remember those lost in Va. Tech tragedy

By JACQUELYN HORSTMANN | Apr. 15, 2008

We Remember.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Bill endorses religion in classrooms

Apr. 15, 2008

It has been more than 20 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against teaching creationism "science" in public schools, finding it a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Academia fragmented, not knowledge

By GERALD LILES | Apr. 14, 2008

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."