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(06/01/08 9:50pm)
I am officially broke. I’m slightly below the Ramen-noodles-only-diet poverty line, and recently even living on a dollar a day sounds lavish in comparison. But I’m sure I’m not the only part-time waitress, part-time student who has been feeling the heat recently – most students I know are a bit strapped for cash. \nIn case you’ve somehow managed to avoid noticing, the going price of gas is at least an arm and a leg – which averages out to about $3.96 a gallon. On a good day, I can fill up my tank for the pretty little sum of $57, and I’ve seen others pay $60 or more. While the $4 mark is a record high in the United States and marks a 30 percent increase just this year, Europeans have been paying more than $4 a gallon for about 6 years, according to a study by AAA. Read: It’s only getting worse.\nIt’s not just the price of gas that’s soaring. While converting fry oil into biodiesel to power your car was once a cheap, eco-friendly solution, prices are on the rise for even the processed fry oil that restaurants once had to pay someone to haul away. An article Friday in The New York Times on the theft of such fry oil from restaurants put the price of “yellow grease” at 33 cents a pound, up from about 7.6 cents a pound in 2000, and thefts of oil from outside of restaurants are on the rise in more than 20 states.\nSo you can keep driving on gas for an average of $4 a gallon, or cruise around smelling like fried chicken all day for about $2.50 a gallon. There’s got to be a better option – and there is. Leg power. \nLiving in Bloomington means you can join an already thriving network of cyclists on the streets of a fairly bike-friendly city. But if you’re not ready for the spandex and speed there are cheap commuter-friendly options. For about two tanks of gas you can get a Huffy cruiser bike at Kmart and enjoy some fresh air on the way to work. \nFor about zero tanks of gas you can volunteer at the Bloomington Community Bike Project and earn a bike as you learn how to repair and maintain it. You could also buy a bike from the Bike Project if you still want to support a great local operation and the “earn a bike” program isn’t for you. \nIf you’re looking for a better workout or a spot on the “Cutters” Little 500 team, you could save 40 tanks of gas to buy a new Cannondale or talk to any of the local bike shops about which bike is best for you. There are many awesome shops in town ready to help.\nWhether you’re motivated by environmental concerns or your pocketbook, summer is a great time to switch from four wheels to two. And every time you chose a bike you’re helping Bloomington “break away” from its dependence on gas.
(04/17/08 2:14am)
If you’re tired of talking about “America’s Greatest College Weekend,” the ploys of the two remaining Democratic presidential primary candidates, or both, you’d better just skip this column. But if you’re still with me, let’s hearken back to last week. \nWhen I first overheard the rumor that Democratic golden boy Sen. Barack Obama was considering an unannounced campaign stop in Bloomington on the day of this year’s women’s Little 500 race, I was every bit of furious. Making the assumption that federal security would never permit him anywhere near the actual festivities at Bill Armstrong Stadium, the rest of the events seemed to read like the bad headlines they’d produce: “Sleazy campaign tactic lures drunk crowds from women’s race” or “Empty bleachers as Obama and Dave Matthews give away money on the far side of town.” I was just sure that rumors of an Obama appearance would draw masses to wait in hopes of catching a glimpse, rather than attend the already overlooked women’s race. I was just sure he’d be all the way on the far side of town. This year’s race was a big deal to me. It was my first Little 500, and I was riding in it. Even as a rookie team of only three riders, running on hope and Vitamin Water, I thought we had worked too hard to have our efforts eclipsed by the appearance of a pop-icon politician – not to mention the teams that are actually good and had been training for this for years.\nNeedless to say, when I looked up to see Obama right in front of me, striding onto the infield of Armstrong stadium, I nearly lost it. Well, depending on who you ask, I did lose it. Just like screaming fanatics who have gone before me, swooning the likes of Elvis and the Beatles, I was just another in the mass of screaming girls who swarmed the perimeter of the track, yelling and waving and loving it. Students have made Obama famous for reactions like this, but I thought I’d be able to muster a little more composure – I’m voting for Hillary Clinton. Obama must not keep up on his IDS opinion columnists (I normally dismiss him as hype riding on fancy rhetoric) because he still shook my hand. And now I can join the rest of campus and college students around the nation who frame pictures of themselves standing with Obama. Everyone loves exchanging an old-fashioned handshake with a rising politician. \nSo did his presence overshadow the race? Maybe. He does seem to be in every women’s race headline. But it did get a big crowd and national attention.\nBut did all the swooning change my mind? No. I always kind of liked him in the first place, but I just like Clinton more, and I’m sticking with her.\nStanding face to face, it is easier to relate, and after all, I, too, have recently entered a race riding on hope. Hope can get you in the race, but in the long run it still boils down to experience – ask Delta Gamma.
(02/14/08 5:23pm)
As someone who has only experienced 20 years of being single, I have no more authority to write a typical Valentine’s Day column than I have interest in writing one. Suffice it to say, I will not be writing said hokey column.\nI’ll be instead, on this day of love, asking you to join me in mourning a fallen love: my dear sweet Polaroid Camera, the latest casualty to our disposable, pixilated, digital era. \nModern, technologically-savvy enthusiasts, fear not. Especially today, it will be easy for most of the coupled, happy, contemporary world to write me off as a bitter, anachronistic spinster-in-the-making who lives alone with a cat – or in my case a goldfish (A goldfish that died on Monday. Thanks for asking.)\nStill, I couldn’t quite milk 500 words on the death of my goldfish, and that’s why this column will be mourning my favorite iconic camera instead.\nPolaroid instant film will be unavailable after 2009; this could be our last Valentine’s Day together. \nAfter the news hit, instant film has been flying off the shelves, leading me to believe this may really be the end. What kind of world will it be if I can still buy new ribbon for my typewriter – a device admittedly much more eccentric than a Polaroid – but instant film is no more? \nPolaroids may not have a touch screen, but they have a good personality. They may no longer be the cutting edge of film technology but they have a lot more character than the pixilated images of the future. \nUnlike short-lived fads – car phones, Furbys and Members Only jackets – Polaroid cameras have a true following. I share my heartache with “an estimated 28 million enthusiasts around the world.” \nRecent digital technology has brought us some wonderfully invaluable things, like electronic music and Wikipedia. The Internet has even empowered millions of egotistic idiots like me to blog about anything– from everything to nothing at all. I like what digital technology does, though I can’t pretend to be particularly fond of using it – and it doesn’t seem to like me much either, so that seems fair enough. But digital photography is beginning to cross the line. \nThere is nothing special about a digital image. If your MacBook crashes, if you lose your memory card, if you right-click incorrectly or check the wrong box, you could lose that image forever – if it was ever really there to begin with. There isn’t anything real about digital images. Don’t tell me you get them printed out at CVS, I don’t buy that line. \nYou can’t flip through digital photo books on a coffee table. You can’t write funny things across the white-rimmed bottom with a sharpie. And odds are you will quickly forgot what desktop folder you even put them in. \nThe good news? Everything is going digital, so if you’re already tired of this column, find it online and drag it into that little wire trash can icon, so it can dissolve into a million digital scraps of coded whatever along with the disposable pictures that are replacing my celluloid hopes and dreams.
(01/31/08 4:00am)
The 2008 campaign season certainly isn’t the first time former President Bill Clinton has stirred up a little harsh public criticism and left his wife to bear the brunt of it. We were all there in 1995: the dress, the sexual relations, the impeachment – sound familiar? What about the following 13 years of “why didn’t she leave him?” Still, I can’t yet tell what’s worse – the very public extramarital affair, or the one-man campaign-killing machine that the former president has become. In December, a Fox News article quoted Bill as telling Hillary, “You know, you really should dump me and go back home to Chicago or go to New York and take one of those offers you’ve got and run for office.” If the results from South Carolina had been revealed to her back in those Yale Law days, perhaps Hillary would have taken him up on that offer. \nHow did this happen? Bill was campaigning alongside Hillary from the very beginning, and explaining, like he did in that same December article, how she had always set aside her own political ambitions for him, and this was his turn to do the same. But that was then. Somewhere along the way he seems to have started writing his own script. Either that or he suddenly lost his respect for his own legacy, along with the dignity of his wife’s campaign. And his comments aren’t being ignored.\nMajor party endorsements are dropping like flies. When Ted Kennedy followed Caroline Kennedy into Sen. Barack Obama’s camp, some analysts said he did so partially in response to inappropriate comments Bill Clinton had made about Obama.\nThere have been multiple columns in The New York Times and all over the internet questioning Bill’s rationale for these comments. Headlines like “Bill Clinton’s Temper Negatively Affects Hillary’s Campaign,” “Is the Right Right on the Clintons?” and “Is Bill Clinton Detrimental to Hillary’s Campaign?” have been circling like hawks for weeks.\nFormer Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle stated that the former president’s behavior is “not presidential; it’s not in keeping with the image of a former president, and I’m frankly surprised that he is taking this approach.” Daschle is just another big-name Dem backing Obama.\nAnd what’s worse, the disparity between how Hillary campaigns and how Bill has begun to run his mouth never seems to surface in all this nasty Clinton press. Bill’s comments are only fueling criticism from both parties that Bill and Hill are morphing into some sort of two-headed campaign monster, lending itself rather well to the famous “I’m-running-against-two-Clintons” sentiment Obama has been parading around with. Great. After so much momentum in New Hampshire, Bill sure did kill the mood.\nThis whole mess has even caused me to assume the role of campaign pessimist. If this whole campaign was bound to crash and burn, Hillary could have done a swell job at that all on her lonesome. It’s really quite a shame that Bill should go and mess this one up for her. And considering that this time it’s a campaign for commander in chief, I would much rather be cheated on.
(01/15/08 12:22am)
This isn’t going to shock you: I love Hillary Clinton. Always have, always will. Her name has a long-standing tradition of gracing my column. Today is no different. After my hiatus of editing-induced insanity, can you guess who I’ve been dying to defend? \nWhile I’ve recently been absent from the world of opinion columns, Hil has been the subject of some harsh scrutiny. It isn’t shocking that a presidential candidate would receive a few dirty jabs from time to time. And the mudslinging that goes on in the back rows of lecture halls — even in advanced political science classes — isn’t always as insightful as one would expect from students of their level. I’ve heard some very politically-savvy people deal some pretty low blows. However, I was recently surprised when I realized who those people sitting behind me and doing the most trash-talking about Hillary are: young, politically-inclined, mean-girl Democrats. \nDon’t get me wrong — I do often hear men criticize Hillary, but it’s a drastically different sort of criticism. They dislike her universal health care plan, or scrutinize her voting record as a senator, or criticize her stance on the war. But when women condemn Senator Clinton, it’s personal.\nSo why are her harshest critics those who would inevitably gain the most from a successful presidential administration run by an experienced woman? \nIt’s rooted in high school jealously. \nHere’s a common low-blow: “She should have left Bill.” This is the high-school equivalent of hating the girl who is dating the quarterback. Bill Clinton was the leader of the free world. He was charismatic and well-spoken and bound to, at some point, eye one of the cheerleaders. Still, they reconciled their differences and he’s supporting her. Get over it. \n“I just hate her.” (Some are easily translated.) She’s that girl who sets the curve in your favorite class, so you tell everyone you saw her cheating. She probably sat in the front row, obscenely prepared and asked questions that specifically showcased your own poor preparation. She probably brown-nosed every single teacher. She got into Wellesley while you went to community college. You should have done your homework.\nLet’s examine the unspoken objection to Hillary. It normally attaches itself in the unconscious eye rolling at the mention of her name. If Hillary wins the presidency in 2008, she also wins the title that has been coveted and hoped for by women across the political spectrum for decades: first woman president. You see, Hillary is not the first woman presidential candidate; she’s just the most experienced and most qualified. Women have been trying to score the title of commander in chief in vain since Victoria Woodhull ran in 1872.\nIf Hillary wins first, you can’t. If you’re an envious woman hopped up on political ambitions, a win for Hillary equals an automatic loss for the future campaign you’ve been secretly conjuring up. Translating this to high school terms means Hillary won class president because you missed the sign-up date. Better luck next time. \nI have heard one legitimate critique so far. She does look “tacky in red.”\nGood thing she leans towards blue.
(11/29/07 5:00am)
A catfight in the rain, a belt-and-baby-oil beat-down in a bathroom and a saxophonist on the run from money-collecting goons -- everything you could want in a Christmas movie, and "This Christmas" has all that and more. \nBacked by a talented ensemble cast that will also satisfy everyone's eye-candy desires, "This Christmas" features a handful of plotlines playing out during the Whitfield family's holiday gathering. The matriarch with six children Ma'Dere (Loretta Devine) is delighted when her entire family manages to come together for several days of Christmas activities. \nPeople-pleaser Lisa (Regina King) tries to get the rest of the kids to sell their shares of the family dry-cleaning business while her husband jets off to have an affair. Workaholic Kelli (Sharon Leal) is successful but without a man and college gal Mel (Lauren London) is home from her seventh year of school with another new degree and another new boyfriend. Claude (Columbus Short) is on leave from the Marines but is hiding something, just like his brothers Quentin (Idris Elba) -- a jazz musician running from a $25,000 debt -- and "Baby" (Chris Brown), who has a secret dream that he must hide while he still lives under his mother's roof. \nAlthough they might seem confusing, the different stories play out nicely, with enough attention to each to satisfy but not so much as to let the movie get bogged down in any one story line. However, if character development and a slow unravel is what you're looking for, move on. \n"This Christmas" was exactly what I expected to be, a fun movie with decent acting and great holiday music. When the credits roll, you're left with a neatly resolved package that's wrapped up tighter than a present beneath the tree. And even though you might feel a little silly watching the entire cast do a Soul Train dance line (for the second time during the movie), it reminds you not to take everything so seriously and just sit back and enjoy.
(11/02/07 7:26pm)
The District 5 race for The Bloomington City Council is pretty cut and dried.\nDemocratic candidate Isabel Piedmont is well-educated – she graduated from Oberlin College and received a master’s degree from Boston University. She is also well-spoken, laying out her agenda in organized, clearly thought-out responses in an online interview with the Herald-Times. She has demonstrated her experience and is clearly more than qualified for the City Council position she seeks.\nHer Republican challenger, Alicia Graves, a 25-year-old Ivy Tech Community College student, is notably less experienced and less articulate in developing a clear sense of her agenda. Graves, a self-proclaimed “advocate for safety,” throws around concerns over the well-being of Bloomington’s children but doesn’t really offer any solutions or plans to combat the failures she sees in the current Council. One of her strongest convictions seems to be that Bloomington’s sidewalks are in disrepair – true but trivial.\nDon’t get me wrong, Graves is politically inexperienced – aside from founding Ivy Tech College Republicans she’s been absent from the political arena – but Bloomington City Council would be an appropriate place for a political start, were it not for the overwhelming qualifications of her opponent.\nIf Graves loses it will have less to do with her own plans and more to do with the superiority of Peidmont’s. \nBorn and raised in Bloomington, she comes to the table brimming with goals to enhance Bloomington’s environment and economy. She is well-versed in the sustainability issues she means to address in the local community. Piedmont has a plan. Through proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase funding for green space, draw tourism, revitalize older neighborhoods with incentives for homeowners and expand recycling pick up, Piedmont knows exactly what she plans to accomplish and how. Her goals are realistic and exciting, putting forth an impressive platform. Piedmont should easily win.
(09/19/07 5:54pm)
You can only watch so much C-SPAN. You can only read so much of the Wall Street Journal with your morning coffee. And while this last one may seem to run contrary to every other column I’ve written, sometimes you can only take so much politics. \n Every so often I come down with a case of apathy and for a short stint become “politically challenged.” Normally, I do my best to press on regardless, in lagging spirits and blatant denial. However, this time it seems impossible to ignore.\n For someone who usually supplements an existence by savoring and scrutinizing every available word of public affairs – from State of the Union addresses to Supreme Court opinions – I currently feel the pain (or rather the remarkable numbness) of the ever-increasing apathetic, disinterested and blissfully ignorant majority.\n I acknowledged my problem Sunday morning as I flipped through local news, CNN, C-SPAN and even Fox news – normally my go-to station for laughs and low brow entertainment. I found myself watching “What Perez Says” on VH1, a look at the Video Music Awards with the self proclaimed “Queen of all media,” Internet blogger and go-to guy for gossip, Perez Hilton. More importantly, it was a rerun, and though I was uninterested the first time, I found myself watching it again. (Please note that I didn’t know the VMAs existed until I saw a blurb on my CNN.com news feed about Kid Rock fighting Tommy Lee.) \n I couldn’t change the channel. Even with 100-some other stations, my other options seemed too bleak; this was mindless and easy. I couldn’t even bring myself to fake interest in legislative procedure, current events or world affairs.\n Suddenly, it made sense: the low voter turnout rates, the reason 11 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds can’t find the U.S. on a map, the justification for how a majority of people (at least the second time) voted for President Bush. Not caring is just so much easier. Don’t think I’ve pinpointed the disconnect – had I been able to do so I would have actually turned the TV off – I’m even more confused than before. My state of contented disinterest certainly wasn’t from a lack of trying. \n Southern California’s burning, OJ Simpson’s breaking into hotel rooms and the field of presidential hopefuls campaigning the hell out of their rivals only continues to grow (mudslinging all the way). Meanwhile, I am content to watch a rerun of an VH1 program that actually has little to do with music. \n Maybe we were destined to lose interest and burn out. How long can we expect ourselves to focus knowing that, despite a new version of the iPod appearing every 10 seconds, governmental struggles, global warming and the gay marriage debate will all still be there to deal with tomorrow?\n And speaking of tomorrow, I hope there is another rerun of the Perez Hilton action so you can get in on some of that yourself. After all, there are only so many pointless columns to read about political apathy.
(08/23/07 12:18am)
In May, I couldn’t leave Bloomington fast enough. I aimed my car north-northwest and gunned it. Four-and-a-half hours of pedal-to-the-metal and I never once looked back. Spring semester had been stressful and seemed to last at least a whole year and a half. Besides, I had a really cool summer job lined up. What could be more fun and less stressful than spending a summer as a camp counselor in Maine? \nIt’s almost funny how much I didn’t know about the way my summer would play out. I guess the appropriate questions to ask yourself before signing up for a summer job didn’t look as inviting or couldn’t fit on a banner at the career fair. What will living with twenty-some 14-year-old girls do for my self-esteem? How will I live with no C-SPAN or New York Times, limited internet access and restricted cell phone use for two months?\nOverall, camp was an experience I wouldn’t trade. Some of the time I was really enjoying myself, but my favorite part was boarding my return flight. Boston to D.C. bound for Chicago O’Hare. I couldn’t wait to get home. But, more importantly, I couldn’t wait to get back to Bloomington. Camp was stressful. Besides, I had a really cool house lined up. \nWhen it came to finding a place to live this year, the choice seemed obvious. Bloomington is brimming with charming old houses that have more character than generic town houses or dull, high-rise apartment buildings. They have high ceilings, old hard-wood floors and big limestone porches. \nThe particular charming house, which happened to also fit into the price range for my three future roommates and me, also had empty kegs stacked on the back patio and piles of old beer bottles littering the small front yard. Convinced it only needed a little work and the kind of TLC for which the four male occupants did not have the time or decorating skills, we signed the lease. Our landlord agreed that some minor repairs would be needed, and with that, we set out to buy kitchen appliances and plan our new decor. \nA moving van, $200-worth of paint and four-and-a-half hours south-southeast later, I was meeting my new Welcome Week roommates: a construction crew. Who knew minor repairs would mean a reconstructed section of the house, an extra half-bath and four days with a sheet nailed over the door frame as a makeshift bathroom door? The beer cans were gone from the front lawn, but in their place were sawhorses, drywall sheets, stray pieces of trim and our new bathroom sink. It’s a different kind of mess, and falling asleep to the hum of a power saw isn’t yet growing on me. \nI thought I would return well-rested and collected to a manicured lawn and polished hardwood floors. But from the mess to the stress to the bustling streets of downtown, I returned to the same Bloomington I left, memories and mishaps intact. Still, any other welcome wouldn’t have been as fitting. It’s good to be back.
(05/24/07 4:00am)
Gretchen Wilson -- the self-professed "Redneck Woman" of country music -- gives us nothing but what we've come to expect of her on her newly released third album: songs about Silverados, whiskey, trailer park livin' and cheatin'. \nThe only problem is that we've heard it all before -- on her previous two albums.\nOne of the Boys, the follow-up to All Jacked Up and Wilson's tremendously successful debut, Redneck Woman, delivers more of the same from the talented singer. \nThough it starts off well with typical Gretchen ballads about not changing herself for anyone and giving up fighting to go to bed, it's all downhill from there. \nThe songs on this album sound like the songs on the last album, slightly reworded and with different tunes and melodies. She covers the same subjects -- having fun drinking, being tempted to cheat, sorrowful drinking, wanting a down-home boy and all the responsibilities that come with being a wife and mother -- without really adding anything new.\nThe album closes with "To Tell You the Truth," one of its better offerings about wanting but being unable to come clean after cheating. The song is brutally honest, and anyone who has ever been in a similar situation will easily be able to relate to it.\nIf Wilson's aim was to remake her last album, though, she has forgotten her token Billie Holiday cover, which she did so well last time. \nNow that she has clearly established herself on the country music scene as the beer-drinking, change-for-no-one, down-home girl, perhaps Wilson should find some new material for her next album.
(05/20/07 11:45pm)
As if incoming freshman aren’t bombarded with enough “advice,” I’ve decided throw my own suggestions into the mix. Not that my advice is better than or even just as good as the advice you’ve heard before. It’s just what worked for me.\nNix your expectations. We all have preconceived notions of college life before we arrive on campus. It’s not that Bloomington won’t live up to your wildest expectations – it will often surpass them. But preparing yourself by watching a marathon of all the college movies you can rent, from Van Wilder to Revenge of the Nerds, can build too much pressure. Don’t anticipate the fall too much; for now, just enjoy the summer. Otherwise, you risk psyching yourself out. Spend your time e-mailing your roommate and color coordinating. OK, maybe not. But do contact the person you will be living with, especially if you go the “potluck” route. Accidentally having two microwaves is not as cool as it sounds.\nGet involved. This may sound like the most generic advice possible, but it’s good advice. Everyone is going to tell you how many great clubs, intramural sports teams, and activities IU has. Your first instinct will be to stop listening. Still, after you attend CultureFest your first weekend here and receive free food from a sampling of the campus groups, you’ll be more interested. Don’t miss the Student Activities Fair. You’ll be able to get more information about almost every group on campus and begin to see which ones you may like to join. Remember that IU has a highly-regarded student paper and student radio station, and both will be looking for new students to add to their staffs. Don’t be afraid to get involved in something even if you’re not really sure what it involves. Union Board, for example, doesn’t have the most familiar title, but it’s the largest student programming body on campus and plans everything from concerts to lectures.\nRush. I know what you might be thinking, but hear me out. Indiana has a wonderful Greek community. Even if you’ve never thought about joining a sorority or fraternity before, or you have specifically thought about not joining one, you might be surprised. Greek life isn’t right for everyone, so even if you don’t end up joining a house, rushing will have been a great experience. You’ll meet a lot of people and come through the rush process with a better understanding of what Greek life on campus is really about. Members of Greek houses often deal with the butt end of a lot of “Animal House” stereotypes, but check out the houses for yourself.\nStudy. Last time I checked, this is technically why we come here. Though there are many extracurricular activities where you should try out, going to lectures and taking notes will be helpful come test time. Attending lecture is only half the battle; getting out of bed is the harder part. If all else fails, all-nighters are key, and Bloomington has plenty of 24-hour food stores to help you supplement your studies.\nFinally, don’t forget to enjoy yourself! It will all go very fast!
(05/13/07 10:48pm)
Being the most indecisive person I know, it’s no wonder I’ve changed my major four or five times within the two semesters I’ve been at IU, and may change again. Blame it on being a freshman, but after considering SPEA, journalism and various others, I recently decided just to study something I enjoy. \nIt was that resolve, however mad, that led me to the history department when browsing the class listings for the fall semester.\nI was eager to be greeted by an abundance of interesting classes on topics such as the Civil War, Vietnam, World War II, or my personal favorite, Revolutionary America, but I found myself sorely disappointed to instead see listings such as “Issues in United States History: American Sexual Histories” and “Women, Men & Society in Modern Europe.” \nWhile it’s understandable that not all courses can be offered every semester, I can’t help but wonder if the conspicuously absent classes are indicative of a greater trend in academia. Where has all the military history gone?\nAccording to David A. Bell’s article in The New Republic, “Military History Bites the Dust,” modern academics in prominent U.S. universities have begun neglecting military history as modern intellectual thought has shifted to mirror Enlightenment-era thinking that dismissed war as “primitive, irrational and alien to modern civilization.”\nEven today the opinions of historians and social scientists struggle to reflect a valid account of history. Bell admits that “historians routinely write and teach about many phenomena they detest.” The conscious decision by individual instructors to disregard those historical events that are no longer considered intellectually compelling is a dangerous trend. What is it they say about forgetting your history? You’re doomed to something…\nGiven the inherently volatile nature of human relations, it is impossible to escape studying war, even if we personally find it repelling. Since the inception of man, war has been the most constant and most influential phenomenon in history and therefore must not be circumvented in favor of friendlier subjects.\nToo many universities have evaded offering courses focusing on such specific topics. Only two of Harvard’s 85 spring history courses focus on war, and they have no specialist in military history on their world-renowned staff, which certainly puts IU’s solitary course in military history (which is a NELC course if you’re curious) into perspective.\nSo what has military history done to deserve this kind of neglect? Surely it cannot be a lack of relevance. Bell points out that the current U.S. involvement in Iraq is “the fifth major U.S. deployment since 1990.” Let us not forget that Iraq is not the only place in the world facing conflict and unrest. Despite the utopist pursuits of the intellectual community, we are certainly not living in a harmonious society that is above conflict and strife.\nSo although humanity may hope to make war a thing of the past, the study of war should never be, because it directly affects our understanding of the present.
(04/27/07 4:00am)
Though it’s nowhere near the appropriate time for me to officially announce which of the many fine potential presidential candidates I’ll endorse in 2008, there is one among the field that I continually support: Hillary Rodham Clinton. She’s cutthroat. She’s driven. She’s been my girl from day one. Hillary even outranks Nancy Pelosi and Ruth Bader Ginsburg when it comes to my personal holy political trinity. Idolatry, I know, but these three ladies are as fierce and as deserving of admiration. \nDetractors, say what you will, but the woman’s got a plan. If you ask me, she’s been campaigning since infancy. From Park Ridge to Wellesley, from Yale Law to Arkansas, and from the White House to the Senate, I wouldn’t have dared to doubt her strategy thus far. That is, however, until she cracked out the southern drawl. I can appreciate that when vying for the Democratic nomination Hillary needs to pull out all the stops, but that’s no excuse to stop enunciating.\nI’ll admit it, Hillary is losing early poll points to Barack Obama, who, even amidst allegations surrounding a political tie to a low-income housing scandal involving Antoin Rezko, can still boast an ever increasing grass roots enthusiasm and a thus far untouchable pop icon status. She’s clearly losing the previously held edge over her closest opponent, particularly when it comes to the black vote. Since this was once a stronghold for Hillary, its almost a given she would try to bridge the support gap by reaching out to leaders in that particular demographic.\nBut did you actually hear the speech she gave last week in New York before the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network? Two words: southern accent.\nIt seems that somewhere between Arkansas and Washington, Hill’s speech skills have stumbled upon a slightly Southern stress. Don’t be fooled – she was raised in Northwestern Chicago, attended a private East Coast college, an Ivy League law school, and is currently a senator representing New York. Hillary Rodham Clinton has built her reputation as a professional, first in law, then in politics. The woman knows how to speak.\nUnfortunately, people are beginning to catch on. Even mensnewsdaily.com called her out on the “singsong Southern drawl she employs before selected audiences.” Very accurately pegging her speech to Sharpton’s NAN, she slurred “When Ah walk into the Oval Office in 2009, Ah’m afraid Ah’m going to lift up the rug and Ah’m going to see so much stuff under there.” Eesh.\nSo let’s recap. Strategic speeches, restructuring your campaign to combat the threat of an opponent gaining steam or targeting a specific demographic that’s slipping in the polls: good. \nPlaying the good-ole-girl-from-Arkansas-with-a-Southern-drawl-card: bad – very, very bad. One of my favorite things about Hillary is that she supported her husband without taking a backseat to his ambitions and never abandoned her career objectives. Let us hope she doesn’t start now by taking backseat to his accent. Save the Southern stuff for Arkansas, Senator!
(04/13/07 4:00am)
I won’t even pretend to be particularly well versed in all angles of current events, aside from various trivial political happenings. News tends to bombard us quickly and in vast, seemingly endless quantities. While I realize that, as the future leaders of the free world, busy college students are most likely somewhat preoccupied and tend to draw the line at glancing over the big important headlines, issues such as “Who is the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby?” or “Snoop Dogg facing up to four years of time in a state prison.” Every once in a while though, some little thing on the front page of the New York Times deserves our attention. \nLike, “No longer waiting for rain, an arid west takes action,” which appeared on the front page last Wednesday with a large picture of the current predicament of Nevada’s Lake Mead, 80 feet below normal with a pier hanging suspended over dry ground. The article goes on to explain similar grim projections for the capacity of the Colorado River. By some estimations it could be within the next five years that this trademark of the American West may no longer be able to meet the demand from the seven states that depend on it, without even factoring in the expansion and extreme growth of such Western cities like Las Vegas. \nHaving recently spent some time camping along side and periodically jumping in the frigid waters of the Colorado, this struck me as particularly disturbing. Rising global temperatures have increased evaporation and encouraged early melting, meaning that the future of the river, which is comprised of mountain snowmelt, is uncertain. Not to mention the fate of the expanding number of people who are dependant on it as a primary water source. \nThe real tragedy here not only lies in the environmental burden of excess population growth or in the toll of rising temperatures that are driving the need for water, but in the sad historical context. The flooding of Glen Canyon to create Lake Powell which feeds into Lake Mead was one of the most compromising moments for conservationists, right up there with the damming of Hetch Hetchy. \nThe two lakes, whose water supplies are now being fought over by Nevada and Utah are travesties themselves, having been built over sandstone. What water doesn’t evaporate or seep into the sandstone layers in Lake Powell travels to Lake Mead. The lake’s Hoover Dam is so often a symbol of American triumph over the West. The problem is that these reservoirs and man-made lakes are no where near a permanent solution, which leads me to believe that the West was never really won. The sandstone cannot hold the water and the Colorado will soon cease to deliver and adequate supply of it. It seems the current water systems are nothing more than a temporary solution, laden with painful environmental degradation. Perhaps people will never accept the limits of man’s control over nature, especially at the cost of abandoning western areas that were never meant to sustain human populations, but when the issue is water, can we continue to ignore it?
(03/30/07 4:00am)
As far back as I can remember, flipping through the channels around this time of year always yields some sort of TV show chronicling the fanatical college students that flock to Florida beaches in hordes to drink, dance and bare it all on spring break. Some of the events are staged, filmed and broadcast in constant repetition with the help of MTV; others are brought to you by the good people from various corporate sponsors. One thing is for sure, no one is letting the college market take a vacation. While this sounds like all sorts of fun, I was far too exhausted for a good time of this caliber.\nTherefore, my spring break was possibly the furthest you can get from mirroring the white sand and the “brought-to-you-by-our-friends-at (insert sponsor here)-” wet-T-shirt contests of a MTV episode – and not just because of the 1,800-something miles that separate Panama City from where I spent the majority of my time – Moab, Utah. \nI decided to join 12 of IUs finest ladies and gents for a western-bound road trip. Our destination: camping and climbing in the vast flats and deserts of the great state of Utah. Sure there were apprehensions about trading my cell phone, Internet connection and busy schedule for hiking boots, particularly when it came to leaving my favorite pastimes: caffeine and politics. But, at least in Utah no one was going to try to sell me anything. We saw nearly no advertising for the duration of our time, aside, of course, from a flier under our windshield wiper once that was part of an unsuccessful campaign to attract tourists to Mormonism. Beside the fact that backpackers and climbers flaunt more North Face than the Ballantine Hall stairwell, in the backcountry, we successfully escaped product placement, even if it meant not showering for 10 days.\nStill, product promotion has had a long love affair with spring-break excursions. According to a Washington Post article, “An Ocean of Promotion,” corporate sponsors have been courting college students on vacation as far back as 1964 when “the Ford Caravan of Music arrived, sponsoring ‘folk and jazz wingdings.’” \nThis year’s corporate sponsors included Neutrogena, Geico, Trojan and even the U.S. Army. There were free oxygen bars, massages, skin-care products, Sobe and hats, you name it, corporations were giving it away. Heck, just by signing up for a credit card you could get a free T-shirt!\nIt’s not that I’m entirely opposed to a good time. I’m just opposed to having that good time at the expense of our generation’s reputation, or more accurately, the furthering of our status as a dollar sign. Is our allegiance really so easily bought with free Vitamin Water and Venus Breeze razors? \nIt comes down to weighing the little things in life, like determining what’s worth more: your dignity or a whole case of energy drinks, getting a free T-shirt or securing a responsible financial status. Don’t get me wrong, I love consumerism, freebies, tasteful product placement and effective public relations campaigns. It’s only the American way. But college students are bombarded with media messages, sales pitches and corporate branding night and day. I think we deserve a vacation, if only for one week.
(03/09/07 5:00am)
For those of you who were out last Friday night with plans that didn’t involve watching C-SPAN’s coverage of the Conservative Political Action Conference, let me fill you in. You missed numerous panels on public policy and 24 speakers who addressed political issues as they applied to the cornerstone beliefs of conservatism. \n“That capitalism is the only economic system of our time that is compatible with political liberty” and the idea that the “Constitution is designed to guarantee the free exercise of the inherent rights of the individual,” were just some of the beliefs exemplified by the choice of speakers at the conference, the most notable being: Vice President Dick Cheney, John Bolton, `08 presidential hopefuls Rudy Giuliani, Duncan Hunter, Sam Brownback, Mitt Romney and the radical rights very own life sized Barbie, political commentator Ann Coulter. \nWait a second; Ann Coulter could actually hold her vile tongue for one day to speak in alignment with the American Conservative Unions statement of principles? Oh that’s right, she used her time to endorse Mitt Romney and unleash a hate-filled rant in which she indirectly referred to John Edwards with a vulgar slur that stinks strongly of homophobia. Being the “godless” liberal that I am, one might expect I’d use this opportunity to incorporate her quote or throw a little bit of hate speech and some more old fashion jest her way. Quite contrarily, I will refrain, having been raised in the well meaning, wholesome, middle American conservative values system that Coulter should have been trying to uphold rather than jeopardizing through association with her wild ploys to sell books.\nIt comes as no surprise that Coulter would say anything to generate publicity; she is of course “known for comments that can be both provocative and outrageous.” As ACU chairman David A. Keene acknowledged in a statement in which he also made it clear that, “ACU and CPAC do not condone or endorse the use of hate speech.” You see, Coulter’s little joke generated more outrage from the conservative Americans whom Coulter seems to think she’s speaking on behalf of. On Saturday three of the Republican frontrunners for ’08 denounced the commentator, fearing they would be linked with the anti-gay expletive. According to the Times she responded in an e-mail message that “it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards ...” \nWhat troubles me is not only that Edwards has already exceeded his goal of raising more than $100,000 in “Coulter Cash” campaign funds to combat the “politics of bigotry,” I worry about how this will effect the already tarnished image of true conservatism. Who will release a press statement on behalf of the everyday conservative values voter to explain to concerned Democrats everywhere that they are not actually aligned with hateful radicals like Coulter? The big name candidates will have enough trouble, even with their resources and public relations staff, to shake the Republican homophobic stigma only furthered by Coulter’s comments. Who will handle public opinion when it turns on the everyday well-meaning conservative?
(02/23/07 5:00am)
I'm not suggesting I should ever dispense fashion advice – clearly I have none to offer (especially on a campus already up to its visible panty line with Uggs). However, after reading the Washington Post’s article “Goodbye to Girlhood” it strikes me that personal fashion statements are not only propagating scantily-clad campus trends. They are also rapidly seeping over into the real world to pollute the standards of a younger generation and possibly threaten the future of our traditional societal structure.\nThe article depicts young girls obsessing over their body images after being bombarded with media saturated in sexualized images of women. So what do fifth graders obsessed with magazine articles titled “Get a Fierce Body Fast” and a new wave of eating disorder patients that are as young as 5 or 6 years old have to do with the fashion statements of college students? Everything. \nLike it or not, college students are role models, and what’s more important than preaching about respect and holding only the highest standards is an examination of our economical position as a highly catered to demographic. What we deem acceptable becomes trend-setting gold, and like any business would, television, magazines, Internet sites and clothing designers cater to our tastes as much as possible, unknowingly creating a cycle that overwhelms girls as young as 5 years old with our sexual tastes. It leaves them with heightened rates of eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression, already “three of the most common mental health problems of girls and women.”\nIt’s about respect, but, before you even dare to think I’m a feminist, perish the thought! I’m more deeply concerned with how this cycle of women objectifying themselves affects boys and young men. If this system is raising girls to equate a so-called quality guy with one whose only criteria for interest in them revolves around low-cut jeans and “eye candy” panties, then our society is breeding men who aren’t even worth the spandex tights worn to attract their kind. \nThough as college women, we have no shortage of wonderful role models for ourselves, (the first woman president of Harvard, the first woman Speaker of the House, the first woman as a serious contender for the presidency, and for the sake of bipartisanism, a powerful woman secretary of state) but do men? \nIf K-Fed and Justin Timberlake suggest anything to young boys it’s that sculpted abs are serious criteria for determining a man’s worth in society and to women.\nSadly, this system creates pseudo-men who could never handle, much less provide for such women who wield power as well as command respect. And while surely prominent women leaders had their share of past fashion disasters, I highly doubt that the miniskirt/thong combination was ever considered when courting the kind of “provider” that has been pivotal in America’s traditional family system.\nSo when it’s time to replace those over-worn spandex (it’s last season anyway) ask yourself what its worth. Is it worth creating a system where women only command attention as sexual images and men sink to the low standards we hold them to? Think again.
(02/08/07 11:41pm)
When considering all of the media circuses that have paraded around our nation's front pages and news stations recently, there is certainly no shortage of stories so sensationalized that they approach the point of stimulating a gag reflex. The general public has been over-saturated with more than its fair share of ongoing sensational coverage: the Monica Lewinski scandal, the 2000 election, which quickly became the Florida recount, and then led into the "hanging chad" fiasco, a full year of Sept. 11, the continual beating of the dead horse that is the war on terror, Hurricane Katrina -- the list is nearly endless. \nThough it may be hard for one singular event to live up to worst-above-all-others-status, I fear we are on the doorstep of a mass media extravaganza already so shamelessly sensationalized that it may deserve the honor of being abhorred above the rest. Yup, like everyone else in the nation, I already can't stop talking about the 2008 election. \nWhere do I see potential for this to surpass any previously sensationalized campaigns and debacles? Everywhere!\nDon't get me wrong. This in no way reflects my feelings about the individual presidential hopefuls. Barack Obama, John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton aren't just some of my favorite people in the Senate; they're tied with Russ Feingold for being my favorite people in the world! But let's get this straight: If anyone should be shoving Hillary Clinton down other people's throats, it should be me. It's almost nauseating, even to the biggest supporter, when C-SPAN seems to be continually rerunning her wonderful-the-first-time-around Iowa speech, not to mention the agony of reading another in the endless line of The New Republic Online's front page stories that are almost as unflattering to the senator as the large pictures of her gracing various publications. \nWhen you can't even escape the Democratic contenders in the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, who can you turn to? Like every other media outlet they added to the `08 craze in January with the featured editorial "The Democratic Field: It's Hillary versus everybody else."\nThough I value reading about Obama's emerging rock star status, and stories like the New York Times's "McCain Calls New Advisers 'Good People,'" I hardly feel like sifting through dozens of identical stories to read, no offense Senators, the real news. There is enough coverage surrounding the well known few. Factor in the rest of the playing field: Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Tom Vilsack, Sam Brownback, Chris Dodd and Joseph Biden, and this seems to be leading to an overload epidemic!\nWith almost two years between now and elections, I question whether all publicity is good publicity for those who have already announced their candidacies, or if the annoyance of sifting through the overabundance of coverage and vote-for-me-tactics in search of actual news will have an increasingly negative effect on their campaigns. With our country currently facing turmoil, and our media outlets more than content to focus their attention ahead to `08; I question where Americans will draw the line. Where does a campaign become a circus?
(01/26/07 1:01am)
After 365 days of unrealized promises, wasted time and flagrant abuse at the hands of a do-nothing congress, a war-weary American public gathered in anticipation of another attempt to, in 50 minutes, dress up our political reality in pretty prose.\nThis was the State of the Union as it arrived Tuesday, a year and what has proved to be a political lifetime since the divided-down-the-middle 2006 address.\nThe underlying desperation on the president's face as he delivered the last tattered bits of his original agenda, the one he set out to shove down the throats of post-Sept. 11 America years before, said more of the state of our union than anything that could have been dolled up with diplomatic sugarcoating. Not even the most eloquent line borrowed from the best presidential speech writer could have distracted Americans.\nClearly his safe speech could not convince Congress, and after watching his approval ratings slide off the charts (a mere 28 percent of people approve of him, according to CBS), it remains to be seen whether Bush has even convinced himself. The reality of these circumstances couldn't be hidden behind the splendor that paraded around the chambers Tuesday night. \nYears into the Bush presidency it seems that the actual state of our union reflects the state of our president, whose last hope in salvaging his legacy lies with compromise and hinges on progress within the Democratic-controlled Congress. \nIn 2007, American is a nation weakened, divided and confused by a quagmire of a war that it's losing. The president, already plagued by lame-duck status, is becoming increasingly irrelevant, even among his own party.\nHe has essentially been left standing alone, pleading just to keep his last increasingly uneasy and diminishing supporters. Even among Republicans it is evident he is buying time in a direr attempt to redeem himself and salvage what remains of his dwindling political clout.\nAfter midterm elections, in which the president became perhaps more of a hindrance to his own party than a policy leader, Bush is now facing a tough new Democratic majority that was elected almost solely to oppose his plan in Iraq.\nAs a reflection of the country's disapproval of his handling of the war (64 percent of people disapprove of the way he's handling his job, also according to CBS), and after years of ineffective foreign policy, Bush decided to abandon his "stay the course" mantra. And even though his own party was left noticeably fatigued by public opinion's overwhelming cry for troop withdrawal, he proposed sending more American troops.\nReality had finally caught up with the president as he delivered a speech that, calling the war in Iraq the "defining struggle of our time," eventually described a worst-case scenario. An "emboldened enemy," consequences that are "grievous and far-reaching," an entire region drawn into the conflict -- this hypothetical scenario he described runs a close parallel to reality.\nWith our nation facing circumstances that even the president thought nightmarish, it seems hope for our union is resting on the Democratic Congress -- and a better ballot choice in '08.
(01/12/07 12:45am)
"For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling." Surely Nancy Pelosi's words on Jan. 4, spoken as she was formally elected speaker of the House for the 110th Congress, will be written in the history books and continue to echo long into our great country's future. As the first woman in American history to hold the gavel as speaker of the House of Representatives, Pelosi's position is as good as it gets. Third in the succession of power after only the president and the vice president, no woman has ever been at a position of equal power in America's government. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, though well known women in the political arena, aren't even in the same league as this, a crowning achievement for women after more than 200 years of struggling to achieve equality in a male-dominated society. This achievement was finally realized through women's-suffrage movements and other campaigns for equality. This country has long remained decades behind European, South American and even some Middle Eastern countries in electing women to positions of real authority. \nAre we witnessing a changing of the tides for American women regarding the positions they can hope to obtain, or is Pelosi's historical gain nothing more than a product of luck and circumstance? Perhaps this is only the beginning for women who seek higher positions in our government, economy and society. Maybe it is truly a new era in politics, among other things, where, as Pelosi said, "the sky is the limit." Other prominent women in leadership positions certainly seem to think so. Clinton, if she does indeed declare her candidacy for the 2008 presidential election, will not be the first woman with her eyes set on the American presidency (the presidential election has seen women candidates since 1872 when Victoria Chaflin Woodhull ran for The Equal Rights Party in a number of states), but Clinton will be the first woman to have a serious chance at obtaining the office. \nWith a huge financial advantage, not to mention the name recognition that comes with being a former first lady and the most famous person that would ever run for the office, should Clinton choose to compete for the Democratic bid she will be a very serious contender to actually win the presidency. Though the nation was clearly not ready in 1872, the 2008 elections will fall after almost two years of House leadership under Pelosi, which could have a hand in determining the outcome of Clinton's campaign. \nWith Pelosi's "aggressive legislative agenda" and powerful first-100-hours campaign that began with a debate over whether or not to carry out the Sept. 11 commission recommendations, it already seems we can expect exceptional progress and major changes in Congress as Democrats begin to clean up the House under Pelosi's leadership. With the hopes of so many young girls riding on the success of the 110th Congress, may the daughters of 2007 say: "Today Congress. Tomorrow the presidency"