Opinions - The Independent Florida Alligator

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Our brothers' keepers - terrorism in Iraq and the media

Mar. 7, 2016

From Feb. 28 to Feb. 29, during UF’s first weekend of Spring Break, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the massacre of 118 Iraqis through targeted suicide bombings in Baghdad. In fact, this past February alone, the Islamic State left 410 Iraqi civilians dead and 1,050 injured. While the attacks in Baghdad should remind us all of the tragedy in Paris last November, they are receiving substantially less attention.

OPINION | 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 | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Delegates, superdelegates have you like, 'huh?'

Mar. 6, 2016

The 2016 election is everywhere and spreading fast — faster than Zika or even Kendrick Lamar’s new, surprise album “Untitled Unmastered.” It’s there on your news feed when you go to bed and is provided to you by your local newspaper — hey, what’s up? — when you wake up. From every which way, it’s an adrenaline shot of nothing but primaries, caucuses, debates and He Who Must Not Be Named.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Internet piracy has consequences

Feb. 25, 2016

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.

OPINION | DARTS LAURELS

Darts & Laurels: 02/26/2016

Feb. 25, 2016

Bear with us, fellow Gators: one more day. One more long, uncomfortably-balmy-considering-it’s-almost-March Friday afternoon, and we’ll all be free — at least for the next week.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: The opportunity to catch up over Spring Break

Feb. 25, 2016

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.”

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Don't get a pet unless you can care for it

Feb. 24, 2016

As college students, we deprive ourselves of a long list of things. Typically this list includes sleep, food and money, but there’s that one thing that especially seems to be missing, especially when we’re still getting accustomed to being away from home: a pet.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: The 2016 presidential election is bad reality TV

Feb. 24, 2016

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Dunk a basketball - every boy's dream

Feb. 23, 2016

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Remembering author Harper Lee

Feb. 23, 2016

On Feb. 19, beloved American author Nelle Harper Lee passed away peacefully in her sleep at the age of 89.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Spelling black liberation with a capital 'B'

Feb. 23, 2016

I am not black, and I will never grasp the depth of the suffering, past and present, of the members of the African diaspora.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Common sense, not partisanship, can prevail

Feb. 23, 2016

When we talk about Florida politics, we usually do so in language expressing exasperation and disbelief. There is, after all, plenty to be angry about these days: Statewide, the ongoing battle over whether to allow fracking in Florida has intensified in recent days, and here in Gainesville, we’re contending with how to best correct overbilling and mismanagement on the part of Gainesville Regional Utilities and the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Faith out, separate church and state

Feb. 22, 2016

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.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Not so 'free' speech after all, BDS movement

Feb. 22, 2016

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.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Traveling during the school year is a must

Feb. 21, 2016

As college students, it’s easy to become myopic in our priorities: When we’re contending with 15-credit-hour semesters, involvement in various extracurricular endeavors and looming exams while trying to maintain our sanity and questionably healthy bodies, it can become easy to forget that we need to LIVE from time to time. When operating in this fashion, “no” can become a very easy word to throw around. “No,” as in, “No, as much as I love you and value your friendship, I can’t make it out to that conference where you’ll be delivering a speech, as I have to schedule the next two weeks worth of Facebook posts for *insert student organization of choice here.*” Or “no,” as in, “I know it’s your birthday weekend and you’ll be throwing a decadent ‘Broad City’-themed party in your own honor, but no, I can’t make it to Orlando on account of, well, my accounting exam five days afterward.”

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Scattered thoughts about Scalia, Cruz, checks and balances

Feb. 21, 2016

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.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

A special edition of Darts & Laurels: 02/19/2016

Feb. 18, 2016

Today, in lieu of the traditional Friday Darts & Laurels, we at the Alligator would like to share an editorial we planned to run Monday. But in light of a recent article, Darts & Laurels seemed a more appropriate platform.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Guest Column: To the Alligator's 1105 W. University Ave. building, with love and memories

Feb. 18, 2016

While on a rooftop in Iowa at the wedding of one of my editors, I decided to get an Alligator tattoo.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Suz Webz is indeed president

Feb. 18, 2016

Today we have a new president.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Column: Graffiti, orgo and weed-out class theory

Feb. 18, 2016

What frustrates a student enough to deface university property? Organic chemistry, apparently.