I 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.
Just like the stomach, the human brain needs nourishment.
"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
Sometime 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.
When 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.
"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”
Pirates 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.
I 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.”
Tonight, 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.
On Feb. 19, beloved American author Nelle Harper Lee passed away peacefully in her sleep at the age of 89.
Grown 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.
I am not black, and I will never grasp the depth of the suffering, past and present, of the members of the African diaspora.
While 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.
There 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.
When I first saw the Politico breaking news alert informing me of the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia last week, I felt like someone punched me in the gut. For conservatives in the U.S., Scalia was more than an intellectual, consequential jurist and opera buff — Scalia was someone who championed the Constitution and our founding principles to their rightful extremes. The news of his death was tough for me.
While on a rooftop in Iowa at the wedding of one of my editors, I decided to get an Alligator tattoo.
What frustrates a student enough to deface university property? Organic chemistry, apparently.
After his large win in New Hampshire, America seems to be “feeling the Bern” like never before. Many, including Hillary Clinton, had never thought that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., could or would make it this far; and yet, here we are. Sanders is running a campaign espousing progressive policies that would ostensibly better this country, which has garnered largely positive reactions to his candidacy. However, good vibrations aside, it is important he receives valid criticism just as much as any other candidate in the race.
When I tell people I spent the summer in Tanzania learning Swahili, it usually elicits a degree of confusion. “Is that a click language?” “How does one learn Swahili?” “Why would you waste your time learning a language no one speaks?” “Who speaks Swahili?” “Is Swahili even a language?”
Solutions by The State News
