Opinions
|
Commentary: Vladimir Putin -- to get the best women? Reflection: Blacksburg; One Year Later While the rest of the world went about a usual Monday morning drinking coffee, reading the paper, heading to work… Blacksburg, Va., was frozen. It was April 16, 2007. I admittedly slept through my 9:30 class but was awakened by screaming sirens as dozens of ambulances sped past my residence hall. In wonder, I drifted back to sleep not realizing the magnitude of what was happening outside the confines of my tiny room. Commentary: Girls Battling for Top Bimbo Spot Hold on to your top spots while you can, Facebook and Myspace! There’s a new website that’s growing popularity in the UK and if you don’t watch out, soon it will be the new craze in the U.S. Introducing the new website, “Miss Bimbo,” the virtual fashion game created by London’s 23-year-old web designer, Nicolas Jacquart. Users of the website, who according to CNN.com are predominantly females between the ages of 7 and 17, compete to see who can be the best bimbo. (Just to provide a quick definition for clarification, a bimbo is pretty much a dumb hot chick.) Users of the website compete with one another to become the best bimbo by getting the hottest bodies, cutest guys, and sexiest clothes. Are you processing all of this? Young females are competing to become the best BIMBO! Beyond teaching these young girls to accept and identify with such a demeaning title, these girls are being taught, once again, that beauty is the main standard that they must live up to. Commentary: The Separation of Sport and State? Have you ever played a pickup football game with a person who is far too competitive? Someone that sprints vigorously for fumbles, trash talks after every play, hums the Sportscenter theme every time a big play occurs? As you stand with your hands behind your head, gasping for air, you stare at that student thinking, “It’s just a game, calm down.” “It’s just a game” is something that everyone has heard that is involved in sports. It doesn’t matter; it’s just a fun thing to do. When the grand scheme of things comes into play, sports have no involvement in social or political issues. During September 11th, the ESPN college football Gameday crew mentioned, “it’s just a game, we need to mourn, and focus on other things right now.” I figured if anyone knew the impact of sports in politics and social matters, it would be ESPN. People need to realize the importance of sports in society. Reel Planet Tragedy in the Digital Age: Virginia Tech, One Year Later In April 2007, Virginia Tech was racked with an event so monstrous, so incomprehensible, that one of the only things many Hokies could do was turn on their cameras and point them towards the nightmare. Capturing the sounds and the images in the moment allowed everyone to piece together the experiences of the day. The major news networks were salivating over pieces of footage from digital cameras and cell phones. We are at a point in society where the technology truly allows anyone to create a story. So many tragedies have become more relevant because of the presence of an amateur with a camera. On Sept. 11, 2001, citizens were there, recording the events while trying to make sense of the horror. Oh, Say Can You See… Kim Jong Gershwin? The prestigious New York Philharmonic is playing the U.S. National Anthem, flanked on the performance hall stage by the American flag with concert goers standing in observance. But wait, what is that on the other side of the stage? The North Korean flag? Yes. Now in the notorious North Korean city of Pyongyang, one can watch the finest American musicians in the East Pyongyang Grand Theater. That is, of course, if the United States government gives you special permission to be there in the first place. Commentary: “The East Carolina Nautical Trade Liberators” The Syracuse Orangemen. The Carthage College Redmen. The Arkansas State Indians. The Central Michigan Chippewas. The North Dakota Fighting Sioux. The University of Utah Utes. These are six schools that have been placed on the Tolerance.org “18 to Watch” list. It is understandable that many of these college mascots may be considered “insensitive” to some members of the Native American community and there is a concerted effort by the NCAA to challenge schools to promote more tolerant nicknames. For example, NCAA President Myles Brand labeled Chief Illiniwek of the University of Illinois as one of the “hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national orgin mascots.” However, not all of the Native American tribes feel that way. In fact, Florida State received approval to keep their name from the Seminole tribe, who receive scholarship money from the University. Opinion: Learning the Hard Way -VT Fails To Address Truth Regarding Legal Firearms Jonathan Swift said “There's none so blind as they that won't see.” So many people walk around their whole lives with their eyes wide shut. The highest paid, most powerful voices here at Virginia Tech are effectively blind to what is going on outside of Burruss Hall. As the Hokie Nation quickly approaches the anniversary of the shootings of April 16, nothing has changed. False reforms were buried in committees of oblivion and the university painted a pretty picture for the media by placing access to dormitories on the honor system. All in all, there is no evidence suggesting a higher state of safety, and if nothing else, then those who may seek to cause harm have only grown smarter. |
Let’s Get Ready To RUMBLE! Welcome to the wonderful world of political boxing. This week we’ll be looking at two presidential hopefuls in what is bound to be an exciting round of meaningless verbal attacks, idiotic staged media events, and creative, yet wacky accusations as these two go head-to-head in a dog-eat-dog battle for that Oval office. In this corner, weighing in at 170 pounds we have Senator Barack Obama – wide eyed, bushy tailed, and ready to fight tooth and nail. And in the other corner, weighing in at – wait, should we tell her weight? Anyway, there’s Senator Hillary Clinton ready to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” in order to re-gain that master bedroom in the White House she’s missed ever so much. Commentarty: A Stain Too Deep To Be Green-Washed MTV pushing their environmental programming is like every idiot skater kid wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt. He knows no more about tenets of Marxist philosophy than he does about astrophysics, but it doesn’t stop him from suckling at the diluted cultural teat of the revolutionary icon to fuel his adolescent rebellion. Commentary: Pain, Pride and the Search for Something Positive One year ago today. On April 16, 2008, those four words are all you have to say anyone in the Virginia Tech community. There is an implied understanding that comes with them. Everyone knows the anniversary this date represents. But, unlike other anniversaries, a celebration is not going to accompany this one. Instead, it is marked by a candlelight vigil. It is marked by the memory of 32 lives inexplicably and abruptly taken by one malevolent man in a quintessential college town seemingly incapable of serving as the backdrop of mass murder. Geezer Gazing at White House Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean announced Thursday that DNC focus groups mention Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s age as a concern without anyone prompting them about the subject, citing health issues and old-fashioned ideas as a potential problem. Insert Dean Scream here. Though Dean and his cohorts at the DNC seem overly smug about these results, they sure have a point. Much like the professor who writes his hypothesis after he’s found what he was looking for, Dean is just reporting what the average American has known and what every other citizen was thinking since McCain gained momentum in the Republican primaries. Of course, what we were all thinking was: WTF? (“Why this fogey?” of course…) Opinion: ‘Guide on the Side’ Instead of ‘Sage on the Stage’ Laptop. Check. Microwave. Check. DVD player. Check. Books. Check. Education … When a student walks across the stage, shakes the hand of the dean, and moves the tassel from the right to the left, he or she is signifying the completion of a degree, saying to the world, “I am educated and know more about [insert major here] than others who do not have this degree.” But where did this knowledge come from? Bubbling-in answers on a Scantron sheet, hoping the “stuff and dump” method would pay off again? Opinion: How to Receive Ultimate Economic Stimulus Package Reach into your wallet. Check the balance of your checking account. Do you like what you see? How easy is it to pay off the bills or buy a house (and keep it) nowadays? Chances are, you aren’t feeling very optimistic about the economy right now. Recessions do seem to have that effect on people. Most of us have grown up hearing that America is the richest and most powerful country in the world. So where is all that money? Well, most of it is over in a desert, 6,200 miles away from where King George Bush II sits on his throne. The folks over at NationalPriorities.org track where your money goes, and a few interactive tools reveal plenty about where we could easily find more money for our struggling economy. Commentary: Would You Like Your Whole Order With That? You know the feeling. We’ve all been there. The alarm clock refused to quit waking you up this morning, no matter how many times you hit the snooze button. Rushing to work, you decide to skip breakfast, thinking, I’ll eat a healthful lunch. Lunchtime rolls around, and your desk is piled high with work. Your stomach growls, and those mints on the edge of your desk begin to look as though they are small, breath-freshening cheeseburgers, begging to be eaten. Deciding to sacrifice lunch for the satisfaction of a clean desk at the end of the day, you gnaw on mints and the occasional fingernail. Opinion: Up A Creek Without An Ore The Hokies entered spring practice having to fill many voids left by the departure of the winningest senior class in Virginia Tech history. Add running back to the mix now. |