OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Our various technologies prohibit introspection
Mar. 13, 2016We live lives without half-lives.
Opinion | Columns
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Why UF Law is still worth it
Mar. 13, 2016Two weeks ago, the UF Levin College of Law hosted its first Double Gator Reception, an event in which professors, administrators, alumni and potential law students could meet and mingle.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: The differences between Sanders and Clinton on incarceration
Mar. 13, 2016The U.S. has the second-highest prison population rate, according to the Institute for Criminal Policy Research and the World Prison Brief. While the U.S. touts itself as the “home of the free,” this seems contradictory to American values. Mass incarceration is a lose-lose problem: Those who are needlessly incarcerated lose the ability to integrate easily into society and the taxpayers are footing the bill for something that ultimately does not make us any safer. According to the University of Chicago Crime Lab, the costs for housing an inmate can be around $30,000 a year, but this does not take into account the social costs of high rates of incarceration.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Internalized misogyny: common comments and why they’re bad
Mar. 10, 2016We’re all guilty of it. Even a diehard feminist like myself has the occasional “ugh, get a load of her” moment when confronted with a scantily clad girl at a party. Internalized misogyny is the act of women elevating the status of men through demeaning the value of other women. At its most overt, internalized misogyny manifests as women openly tearing down other women. However, a far more subtle manifestation exists in the remarks women make day to day. It’s so subtle we may not even realize what we’re doing. In this column, I’m going to identify three very common internally misogynistic remarks I’ve heard — and made! — and explain the damage they do to feminism.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Exit stage right, exit stage left
Mar. 10, 2016Recent polls indicate the U.K. is leaning closer toward exiting the European Union, and June 23, Britons may decide to do just that via national referendum. The odds seem to be against this. Britons overall have a long history of being supportive toward remaining part of the Union, but with the most recent Telegraph poll, indicating about 49 percent of Britons favor leaving, the U.K.’s status in Europe — and by extension, the world — appears tenuous.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: America's voting age should be raised
Mar. 9, 2016"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” —Winston Churchill
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Books to counter anti-abortionists
Mar. 8, 2016I was going to take time in this column to wow my potential reader with the concept of the “Library Bar”: a holy sanctuary of alcoholic beverages and dog-eared, good-smelling books, which would have been gloriously fun to write about.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Read a damn book and feed your mind
Mar. 8, 2016Just like the stomach, the human brain needs nourishment.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: English is not the American national language
Mar. 8, 2016"You want to be in America, A) You’d better be here legally or you’re out of here; B) When you’re here, let’s speak American.” — Sarah Palin
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: How hard is it to recycle a bottle?
Mar. 7, 2016Sometime in elementary school or one summer day while visiting a zoo and being shown a cute and cuddly endangered animal, children have been taught how they can do their part to save the environment for the past two decades. All they have to do is throw trash in the correct containers. Unfortunately, it seems many forget this important lesson somewhere down the road.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Spring Break trips can offer so much more
Mar. 7, 2016When I first mentioned my trip to El Salvador to friends, family and acquaintances, the overwhelming majority of responses followed a certain pattern. First came the raised eyebrows, then the inevitable question: “Is it a mission trip?” After my subsequent response that, no, I wasn’t about to build a church or spread the “good word,” came the warnings. I’ll catch the Zika virus. I’ll be kidnapped and held for ransom. I’ll get food poisoning. They ranged in degree of severity and types of consequences, but they all stemmed from a pervasive fear of “less-developed” countries despite supposed good intentions.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Faux-personalism breeds a new populism
Mar. 6, 2016"This perfect recycling tended to present itself, in the narcosis of the event, as a model for the rest: like American political life itself, and like the printed and transmitted images on which that life depended, this was a world with no half-life.” —Joan Didion, “Political Fictions”
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Internet piracy has consequences
Feb. 25, 2016Pirates have been around for more than 2,000 years. From the olive coasts of ancient Greece to the years of Viking dominance from A.D. 500 to A.D. 1050 and far beyond the classic bearded fellows of the Caribbean in the 18th century, the act of piracy is not new. Items of significant value will always have a market; it’s just that not everyone in the market will want to pay.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: The opportunity to catch up over Spring Break
Feb. 25, 2016I remember a conversation I had with a friend at the beginning of this semester. “I feel like before we know it, it’ll be time for midterms, and I’ll be behind,” she told me. I’ve always been suspicious and terrified of secretly being an optimist, but now, I’m almost certain I am. After she said that, I immediately thought to myself, “Nah, no way.”
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: The 2016 presidential election is bad reality TV
Feb. 24, 2016Tonight, the next Republican debate will be held in Texas, marking the first time semi-rational candidates will be outnumbered by their knuckle-dragging counterparts. Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, and an ever more ideologically unrecognizable Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., will be on the stage with a real estate mogul, an unhinged brain surgeon and a Canadian constitutional lawyer. While this may sound like the setup to a bad joke, it is actually the alarming state of American politics.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Remembering author Harper Lee
Feb. 23, 2016On Feb. 19, beloved American author Nelle Harper Lee passed away peacefully in her sleep at the age of 89.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Dunk a basketball - every boy's dream
Feb. 23, 2016Grown men can say it has always been their dream to end up with the jobs they have today, but they would be lying. For anyone who has ever picked up a basketball growing up, they can attest to the fact that they eagerly waited for the day they’d be able to slam a rubber ball into a metal hoop situated 10 feet off the ground professionally. Unfortunately, for many of us, that day never comes.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Spelling black liberation with a capital 'B'
Feb. 23, 2016I am not black, and I will never grasp the depth of the suffering, past and present, of the members of the African diaspora.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Faith out, separate church and state
Feb. 22, 2016While barbarity and violence are hard for the human race to shake (after all, why stop what you’re good at?), there are some outdated habits we can nip in the bud in the spirit of progress. True, the long and arduous fight to abandon nose-picking is one that requires society’s undivided attention, but I’m referring to the reaffirmation of the U.S. Constitution’s most important tenant: the separation of church and state. It’s time we ignore faith when taking part in the selection of the leader of the free world.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Column: Not so 'free' speech after all, BDS movement
Feb. 22, 2016There is a growing trend in Israel and the West at large to criminalize and enact opposition against protest activity, such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeted at the practices of the Israeli government. Prejudices regarding BDS aside, we must focus on the issue at hand: the chipping away of free speech for the purposes of “security” or allegiance to the Israeli government.
