Opinion | Columns - The Independent Florida Alligator

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: ‘Religious liberty’ and the need for dialogue

Apr. 13, 2016

These past few weeks have seen an almost unprecedented movement in state governments across the country attacking LGBTQ+ rights in one way or another. The failed Georgia and successfully passed North Carolina and Mississippi religious liberty bills have caused widespread debate and condemnation across the country. It isn’t new; the respective “bathroom” and “wedding cake” wars have been playing out in state and local governments for the past couple years and have been evermore present since the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision last summer.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Florida versus Gov. Rick Scott - shouting back

Apr. 13, 2016

"Floridians have been encouraged to believe that government could take care of us. But government always takes more than it gives back.” —Rick Scott, in his 2011 State of the State address.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: My satire fell flat - anybody got a spare?

Apr. 12, 2016

Satire’s funny, right? Well, it can be. Cool, let’s talk about that then. Satire provides commentary through irony — sarcasm, in most cases. And, as I’ve spouted at least twice, irony or “subversion of expectation” is the root of all comedy. Saying one thing and meaning another. Presenting one perception and juxtaposing it with the truth. How much more pretentiously can I describe it? There will always be bigger words in the dictionary; you may as well aim low in that regard.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: 'Deflategate' and draft picks: Football fanaticism can be taken too far

Apr. 12, 2016

In a lawsuit filed last Tuesday, a small group of New England Patriots fans — not the same patriots from 250 years ago — demanded the NFL return the Patriots’ first-round draft pick. The draft pick was taken from the team by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell before last season in response to the questionably deflated footballs used by the New England team in the 2015 playoffs.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: American foreign policy begets further terrorism

Apr. 11, 2016

The young couple from Mississippi detained by federal authorities in August has, among other charges, pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support for the Kim Kardashian of radical Islamic militancy: the Islamic State. The aspiring American jihadists shocked and captured the attention of Americans throughout the country.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Technology, sex and communication - the modern burden of lightness

Apr. 11, 2016

"Everything that is good is light, what is divine runs on delicate feet: first principle of my aesthetic,” declares Nietzsche in “The Case of Wagner.” Paul Valery claims in his notebooks that “(t)he preparation of a work consists of laboriously granting oneself the liberty of executing it lightly.” In his “Six Memos for the New Millennium,” Italo Calvino calls for lightness to combat “the slow petrification” of the world caused by “the inexorable stare of Medusa.”

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Rick Scott's Gainesville Starbucks altercation is an embarrassment

Apr. 10, 2016

If civility isn’t dead in 2016, it’s pretty close to being put in the ground.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: A few fun facts about insomnia

Apr. 7, 2016

Personal health: the news topic that makes readers go, “Oh, I should start paying attention to that soon,” before moving on to read whatever Ann Coulter recently said about Hispanic people. But unlike Ms. Coulter, disregarding uncomfortable health conditions does not make them go away.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Diary - forgotten form of expression?

Apr. 7, 2016

I went home recently for the weekend and had a grand time visiting hometown haunts and stuffing my face with home-cooked food. As a college student ready to throw herself into the throes of finals week, there is nothing like a visit home to provide a perfect relaxation boost — as well as a motivation boost. When family members start tentatively asking about grades, and you remember how hard they might have worked to afford to give you this stellar college education and the ability to go for your dreams, I personally rediscover a great motivating force to settling down in the library for a long haul of studying.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: The new-new left winged types of people

Apr. 7, 2016

Two weeks ago, noted hacker and white nationalist Andrew Auernheimer decided to access printers across the U.S. and churn out fliers with the following message:

OPINION | COLUMNS

Guest Column: Urge Student Senate to confirm qualified nominees

Apr. 6, 2016

When I became Student Body president, I wanted to make sure that diversity was more than just a checkmark. Because I want to chip away at the racism, classism and discrimination that exists in Student Government — issues that will continue to plague SG going forward.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: In defense of the super delegate system

Apr. 6, 2016

The 2016 primaries have brought an almost endless stream of surprises. Former “outsider” candidates have outlasted most of their well-funded, well-known opponents. As this primary season continually looks like it will be razor-thin, it is clear the most important thing is delegates.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Cuban MLB team could change things

Apr. 6, 2016

Before he was 15 years old, Jose Fernandez was arrested three times for attempting to flee Cuba. Today, he is an MLB All-Star pitcher for the Miami Marlins.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Good Life students shouldn't visit Harn

Apr. 5, 2016

In many ways, art could be considered the most important subject. Art expresses ideas and thoughts where words cannot, which is why it transcends any language and stands as its own form of communication. Children learn to draw and use Play-Doh before they can write because art stands at the center of creativity. So it is important UF have an art museum where students can find a source of inspiration when words simply don’t suffice. It’s called the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: A problem with the NBA and media

Apr. 5, 2016

It is rare to find topics regarding morality and societal values in the news.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Boys gone wild - white male privilege and Greek life

Apr. 5, 2016

Many want to write off Donald Trump as an aberration, a joke — what America isn’t. But I think The Donald’s success thus far within our "free market" and absurd election process,is a testimony to America’s values: deep-seated racism and misogyny. His popular support and misplaced recognition by erstwhile serious media outlets also evidences there are, indeed, many Americans who are little Donalds themselves.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Reread an old book, learn something about yourself

Apr. 4, 2016

In the season-one finale of “Master of None,” Aziz Ansari’s character, Dev, stands in the middle of a bookstore clutching a copy of “The Bell Jar.” Faced with a seemingly unending variety of life choices, each taking him on a drastically different path, Dev has exhausted every source of advice and looks to the Sylvia Plath novel as a last-ditch effort. Ansari’s voice can be heard reading some of Plath’s most painfully poignant lines: “I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America.”

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: How cheap are inexpensive jokes?

Apr. 4, 2016

Readers, I’d like you to know I was followed just yesterday by members of the #StopMichael movement. I could feel them lurking behind me for 10 minutes before I turned back to see the entirety of The Really Independent Florida Crocodile editorial staff. They satirized the daylights out of me. No dead horse went unbeaten that day.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Guest Column: Meatless Mondays - one small step

Apr. 4, 2016

Over the last decade, phrases like “go green” and “reduce your carbon footprint” have become firmly embedded in our lexicon, just as Earth Day has become an annual celebration. As an environmental advocate, this couldn’t make me happier. I’ve been inspired to see people switch to efficient light bulbs, recycle and use canvas shopping bags instead of paper or plastic. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they recycle on a regular basis compared to a quarter of Americans in the 1990s.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: France's invisible protests, defending paradise

Apr. 3, 2016

They shut down the school Thursday. They shut it down the Thursday before, too, and the Thursday before that. They stack desks and chairs in front of the doors — canary yellow paint and pine, legs rounded like children’s handwriting. They scrawl signs in green and red and blue, in jaunty all-caps of acrylic. They tape a sign that says “Life’s an apple, the labor law’s a worm.” I think, “Life’s an apple,” and nudge the chairs from the handle.