Opinion | Columns - The Independent Florida Alligator

OPINION | COLUMNS

Cover Florida won’t cover Floridians

By BRANDON SACK | July 30, 2008

There are 3.7 million Floridians without health insurance. That means if you are under the age of 65, there's about a 1 in 4 chance that a serious illness would drive you into bankruptcy. But fear not - Gov. Charlie Crist has a plan. He calls it Cover Florida, and with it, he hopes to reduce the number of uninsured by offering them affordable premiums.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Mainstream media fuels Obamamania

July 28, 2008

If your experience has been anything like mine, you've been surrounded by Obamamania for the better part of the past several months. It's not related, as much as you might expect, to spending most of the day on a college campus, where support for the master orator is pervasive and contagious. Rather, like most Americans, I've been bombarded with thinly veiled propaganda from the mainstream media in support of the hope-monger for longer than I care to remember.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Deregulation led to economic hangover

By BRANDON SACK | July 23, 2008

The fact that most of us don't hold a mortgage, work a full-time job or have kids to support makes it pretty easy to ignore the current economic crisis. It doesn't help that for all but a few of us, economics is more boring than an episode of "Book TV" on C-SPAN 3 featuring an interview with Alan Greenspan.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Program illustrates local mismanagement

July 21, 2008

s long as they avoid the monument to capitalism that is Butler Plaza, many denizens of Alachua County are able to convince themselves that the county is their own little bohemian paradise, an enlightened splotch of blue in an otherwise hopelessly red part of the state. Along with the ivory-tower idealism leaching out from UF, this attitude has resulted in a certain political party controlling local government practically unopposed for decades. Throw in a huge tax base that doesn't vote and doesn't care (that's you, students), and you have a recipe for disaster.

OPINION | COLUMNS

UF investments need transparency

By BRANDON SACK | July 16, 2008

If you're a UF student, there's a good chance you support the formation of a committee to advise Bernie and Co. on how to invest our $1.2 billion endowment in a socially responsible manner.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Liberals have it wrong on energy policy

July 14, 2008

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Inefficient biofuels need closer look

By BRANDON SACK | July 9, 2008

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Bill seeks to revive public service

July 7, 2008

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

U.S. could learn much from Argentina

By BRANDON SACK | July 2, 2008

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.

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.