Opinion

Opinion

FETZER: Truth or conspiracy?

By James Fetzer | October 24, 2013

As a long-time student of the death of JFK and a former visiting member of the University faculty in the department of philosophy, I was fairly astonished to watch Larry Sabato, Ph.D., a prominent member of your faculty, maintain to a national television audience that, even though the Warren Commission’s investigation was bungled, it correctly identified Lee Oswald as the “lone, demented gunman.”

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Opinion

BRIGHTWELL: Debt valley

By Elizabeth Brightwell | October 24, 2013

While students are concerned about their own debt and unemployment, but many don’t realize they should be even more concerned with the long-term national debt. The long-term national debt is the most important issue facing young people today because when combined with the economic challenges we already face, we are destined for a future more dire than our current situation.

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Opinion

Relearning the ABC

By Managing Board | October 24, 2013

The incident seems farcical: the slapstick of the agents spinning off the car’s windshield as Daly sped away; the ludicrousness of the ABC thinking it needed six armed agents to handle some sorority girls buying LaCroix and cookie dough.

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Opinion

ALJASSAR: Statistically speaking

By Nazar Aljassar | October 24, 2013

Statistics — the discipline of risk, variation and drawing conclusions from data — permeates our lives to a much greater extent than calculus. Making data-driven decisions and interpreting uncertainty are essential skills for every American. While calculus and statistics are not mutually exclusive, statistics deserves much more attention than it receives.

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Opinion

FOGEL: Betting on the game

By Jared Fogel | October 24, 2013

Many writers have already stated that buying Arian Foster stock may be risky or flat-out dumb because of the numerous risks involved. I am going to have to agree with them. Even though people invest in stupid things sometimes, it’s better, for now, to stay away from Arian Foster stock, simply because it is a bad investment.

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Opinion

BROWN: Scheduled spontaneity

By Forrest Brown | October 24, 2013

Computer science and English would seem to have little in common, but a logically constructed Java program actually can be constructed in a similar way to a persuasive or critical essay. Linguistics has enhanced my ability to trace the evolution of the English language. Understanding brain structure and chemistry has helped me improve my studying. Knowing psychological concepts has aided my analysis of characters’ thoughts and motivations in literature.

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Opinion

Departmental dissidents

By Managing Board | October 24, 2013

Now is a time of transition: a period when we can negotiate the terms for how partnerships between U.S. and Chinese institutions ought to work. The American universities, including the University of Virginia, that collaborate with Chinese schools should take a hard line on academic freedom.

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Opinion

CONNOLLY: Cruz control

By John Connolly | October 23, 2013

Without a doubt, you know him by now. Baby-faced, Canada-born, Texas-raised, Ivy-educated, Tea Party-backed Ted Cruz is the talk of the nation. His attempt to tie the Affordable Care Act to the U.S. debt ceiling captivated the U.S. and the world. His efforts, which included a long-winded, 21-hour filibuster on the Senate floor, led to a 16-day government shutdown, a multibillion dollar hit to the American economy and a fresh wave of populist vitriol aimed at Congress. And yet, incredible though it may seem, despite the havoc Cruz has created — not to mention the Civil War he has sparked within his own party — Cruz may profit politically from this fiasco.

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Opinion

BOGUE: Asparagus or Brussels sprouts?

By Russell Bogue | October 23, 2013

We must recognize that “preferring” a candidate is necessarily relative. Hypothetically — and, given the current state of politics, this is purely hypothetical — there could be a race in which both candidates were so equally adored by the population that no one could definitely say he preferred one to the other. Advocates of voter abstention, if they were philosophically consistent, would say that voters should refrain from voting if they simply didn’t prefer any of the candidates, whether the lack of preference is due to equal approval or equal abhorrence. Few people would condone this logic; instead, we recognize that voters must find some way to differentiate the candidates, and then vote for the one whom they support a tad more.

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Opinion

YAHANDA: Adjusting the settings

By Alex Yahanda | October 23, 2013

Earlier this week, a video of a brutal human decapitation surfaced on Facebook.

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Opinion

KABIR: Raising the bar

By Fariha Kabir | October 23, 2013

A possible approach to improving the U.S. education system is to have strong pre-school programs available. One of the main ways to decrease the achievement gap between students of different socioeconomic statuses and to ensure all students are at the same basic education level when they enter kindergarten is to have pre-school programs widely available and accessible. This would in turn ensure all students are at a certain performance level.

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Opinion

WHISNANT: Not a bad choice

By Gray Whisnant | October 22, 2013

For some liberals disappointed with their candidate, voting against Cuccinelli is their only excuse for checking McAuliffe’s name at the ballot box, whereas others have determined to sit out the election to voice their disgust. It’s easy to see why Democrats in a state Barack Obama carried twice might expect a more inspirational candidate than McAuliffe. But many activists and media figures are overlooking that there are very good affirmative reasons to support a McAuliffe candidacy besides his being a warm body that does not belong to Ken Cuccinelli.

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Opinion

An uneasy alliance

By Managing Board | October 22, 2013

Last Thursday an employee in Concordia College’s admissions office removed all copies of the school’s student newspaper from the college’s campus center. The day before, The Concordian had published a front-page story about students drinking alcohol before campus events.

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Opinion

KELLY: Mightier than the drone

By Conor Kelly | October 22, 2013

Education can and should play a larger role in the United States’ engagement in the Middle East.

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Opinion

KNAYSI: Food for thoughtfulness

By George Knaysi | October 22, 2013

The result of these larger influences is a student culture that promotes a skewed perception of what constitutes good mental health. We hold up certain “principles” for well-being that are almost as unhelpful as they are shallow. Who hasn’t seen some “inspirational” meme online which states a vague, common-sense notion like “love yourself”?

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Opinion

Blindness and insight

By Managing Board | October 22, 2013

The GW Hatchet, George Washington University’s independent student newspaper, scored a scoop Monday. It brought to light that the D.C.-based university had been misrepresenting its admissions policy for years. GW had regularly claimed that it did not factor financial need into admissions. But in fact, the university places hundreds of applicants on the waitlist each year because they cannot pay GW’s tuition.

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Opinion

BERNSTEIN: What’s in a name

By Dani Bernstein | October 21, 2013

Coming from the Northeast, I still have a lot to adjust to when it comes to Southern culture. I can handle drinking sweet tea and saying “NOVA,” but I was thoroughly unprepared and offended when I learned of the existence of the Jefferson Davis Highway. Davis is undeserving — to say the least — of this kind of memorialization. This highway needs to be renamed immediately.

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Opinion

Trusting in the arts

By Managing Board | October 21, 2013

Though the University has framed the Arts Trust as a way to support new artistic programs, the trust is as concerned with sustainability as it is with innovation. Without funding, programs do not maintain their levels of quality. They languish. The trust offers a safety net in a climate of budget shortfalls and increased skepticism toward the arts.

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Opinion

BERGER: A major problem

By Meredith Berger | October 21, 2013

Do you know your passion? If it is not what is written on your major declaration form, perhaps you should take the time to reconsider.

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Opinion

SPINKS: Leave Miley alone

By Ashley Spinks | October 20, 2013

We need to stop treating celebrities as spectacles and start treating them with the human decency that they deserve. Some may argue that celebrities “sign up for” this abuse in some way. The constant stream of criticism, objectification and judgment is seen as an acceptable byproduct of fame. We need to reflect on how ridiculous that assertion is, though. Nobody should expect emotional abuse. People never forfeit their right to be treated with some amount of respect. A person’s occupation does not determine how much kindness, empathy or understanding we should show them. The horror stories of talented musicians, actors and artists being pushed to the brink of sanity because of a heartless public are too numerous to reiterate here.