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Newsweek Distorts the Bible and a Lot More
December 11th, 2008Over the past couple of days, my mind has not been on gay marriage; it has been on an operating systems project. But even with my reclusive studying habits this week, I still have caught wind off the recent controversy over the latest Newsweek cover story by Lisa Miller, which alleges that the Bible actually supports gay marriage. Now I acknowledge that NewsWeek has the right to print whatever it wants, but that right has never been conditioned on the quality of what they write, a fact which has become manifestly evident when I read the cover story. Read More
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Biddy Martin's Public Challenge
June 19th, 2008What began as a 231-word blog post criticizing outgoing provost Biddy Martin has escalated into war - well, at least a press release war in the Wisconsin legislature. Read More
Libel, The Chronicle, and The Sun
June 15th, 2008Burnt by hot coffee? Don't like what someone else what wrote about you? In America, we deal with these kinds of problems by sueing the pants off of the other party. However, while one woman sucessfully sued McDonalds because her coffee was too hot, a Cornell alumnus unsuccesfully sued Cornell University and its publication, the Cornell Chronicle, because it published an unflattering article about him. Read More
The Lines are Drawn
June 8th, 2008At first glance, you may think I am referring to the general election, now that Obama has officially clinched the nomination. But to be honest, the shorter Republican primary was too long, so by now I have had my fair share of election politics. However, given the historical significance of Obama's candidacy, I will make a brief remark since he became the first black candidate to win either the Republican or Democratic primary. Read More
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Clinton's New Bag of Tricks
May 30th, 2008Hillary has to bow out of the race...eventually. While I would initially set a timeline that ends shortly after the last primaries on June 3rd, I must quickly remind myself that this is Clinton. I probably would be better off trying to get Bush to set a withdrawal date for Iraq than trying to get Hillary to set a withdrawal date for her candidacy. Obama may be oh-so-close to the nomination now, but this may be as close as he will be for a while. Although he does not need many more delegates to clinch the nomination, Clinton probably will change the math (the real math, not the one in her mind) soon. Read More
The French Obsession
May 24th, 2008A description of French President Nicholas Sarkozy as dynamic would only touch the surface of his personality. While his defeat of Jacques Chirac finally gave me a reason to like the French, L'American (as he's called) has gone on to become a national obsession across the Atlantic Ocean according to The New York Times. The article leads with a psychiatrist identifying a new mental illness: obsessive Sarkosis. It gets even more interesting than that, and if I read this article without knowing who it was about, I would go for a mix of the Miley Cyrus and a crazy stalker obsession. And you thought Obamamania was bad. Read More
Obama Plays the (Other) Race Card
May 23rd, 2008Oppose illegal immigration? In that case, you may be responsible for xenophobia and hate crimes, according to Obama: "A certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia. There’s a reason why hate crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year. If you have people like Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh ginning things up, it’s not surprising that would happen." So much for all of Obama's talk to disagree agreeably. Read More
Appeasement: What Does This Mean?
May 15th, 2008President Bush made waves in the media today, comparing negotiating with "terrorists and radicals" to negotiating with Hitler. The media quickly reacted by declaring this a veiled swipe at Obama and other Democrats. To quote CNN at the time I wrote this blog, "President Bush launched a sharp but veiled attack Thursday on Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats, suggesting they favor 'appeasement' of terrorists..." Here are some of the highlights of what Bush said. "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along." "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.'" Read More
A Response to Arana's Arguments
May 14th, 2008With the excitement of the Democratic primary coming close to the end after Indiana and North Carolina and a break between finals on my part, I figure I owe Gabriel Arana a response after his last column viciously attacked a column I wrote on science, belief and LGBT issues. Now in my last blog on the Democratic primary, I noted that while the primary looked close since Obama and Clinton took one state each, a closer look revealed that all the signs pointed Obama's way. Likewise, while some of Arana's arguments sound compelling at first, an in depth look reveals that they do not hold up at all under closer scrutiny. Read More
Indiana, North Carolina, and Beyond: Numbers and Asterisks
May 7th, 2008Given the nature of this Democratic primary, it only makes sense that Obama would take one state and Clinton would take the other. However, Obama soundly defeated Clinton in North Carolina while Clinton narrowly won a nail-biter in Indiana, and North Carolina has more voters and delegates as well. I would even say that tonight symbolizes the race in general; although this has proved to be a very close battle, all the signs are pointing to Obama if one looks deeper. Read More