Hotel for Hyde Park

By Maroon Editorial Staff / October 24, 2006

Think back to your junior or senior year of high school. You’ve just arrived in Chicago to visit your dream university. But you had to stay at an expensive hotel downtown, and you unassumingly hopped on the Green Line when trying to get down to Hyde Park so that, upon your arrival, you are greeted...

Let’s learn to take each other seriously

By Ryan McCarl / October 24, 2006

The “golden rule” of theory testing, according to international relations scholar Joseph Grieco, is to be hard on your own approach and easy on alternatives. No academic paper—in any discipline—can make an impact on or contribute to a serious debate unless it grapples with the best arguments that can be used against it. That is...

Draft K-Fed for Summer Breeze…Popozao!

By Tim Murphy / October 24, 2006

Picture a quiet May evening on the quad. Squirrels frolic in the freshly sodded grass, as squirrels are wont to do, and the harmonious din of crickets emanates from the botany pond. Maybe a lone student sits outside of Cobb, soaking in summer’s gentle promise while contemplating his Comp Sci lab. Now picture Kevin Federline....

Give the drop policy a W

By Maroon Editorial Staff / October 20, 2006

It’s fourth week and everyone is trapped. The chance to drop that one class you had doubts about has passed. As you find yourself completely lost when you start studying for that upcoming midterm, you know there’s nothing you can do about it, unless you’re willing to accept the dreaded W on your transcript. But...

On chemical plant security

By Andrew Hammond / October 20, 2006

In the five years following September 11, our Congress has not passed a single piece of legislation to protect the 15,000 chemical plants in the United States. More than 100 of these plants could, if attacked, endanger the lives of more than a million people. Investigative reporting by Carl Prine at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has...

Patrick’s politics of hope give a breath of fresh air

By Tim Murphy / October 20, 2006

Rhetoric has the ability to incense and to befuddle, to cause people to flee to Canada, to build a fence around Mexico, or to decimate a foreign land out of fear. In rural Georgia, a congressional candidate finishes off his attack ads by mocking his opponent’s support of Spanish-speaking citizens: “Muchas gracias, Jim Marshall,” intones...

Apple Computers: the power of creativity and intelligence

By Ryan Vass / October 20, 2006

For everyone who knows me now this may come as a shock, but I was a bit of a nerd when I was in high school. Specifically, there was an eminently forgettable period of my high school career in which I became obsessed with computers. This was not manifest in the traditional ways—an insatiable craving...

Attack ads are important sources of information

By Barney Keller / October 20, 2006

You’ve probably heard it. It is on TV day after day, and its shrill voice pierces the quiet autumn night. What is that sound, you ask? It’s a politician, whining about campaign attack ads. “Stop going negative!” he screams. “I just want to stick to the issues!” he cries. “I just want to stay positive!”...

Upping the ante

By Maroon Editorial Staff / October 17, 2006

Online gambling has been banished. Well, it has always been illegal, but lately the federal government has gone into overdrive trying to put an end to it. The final nail in the coffin might have been hammered in on September 30, when Congress passed a bill that forces credit card companies and banks to stop...

U.S., China share interest in peaceful future

By Calvin / October 17, 2006

With President Hu Jintao’s recent visit to the United States, the question of U.S. foreign policy toward China has again been brought to the table. The two countries are inextricably linked through trade, yet considerable tensions exist on issues such as the trade deficit and the lack of transparency in China’s defense budget. In our...

Darkhorse cantidate for ’08: Jimmy Carter

By Joe Katz / October 17, 2006

Last week’s announcement by former Virginia governor Mark Warner that he would not seek the presidency in 2008 has greatly altered traffic patterns on the road to the White House. More than a year away from New Hampshire, Warner had already begun to look like the standard-bearer for the anti-Hillary contingent in the Democratic Party....

Time to wake up

By Maroon Editorial Staff / October 13, 2006

At 4:40 a.m. this Wednesday, the Shoreland fire alarm went off. The alert was unplanned, the result of a system malfunction. This came after Shoreland administrators had conducted a planned fire drill at 9 p.m. Tuesday night. During Tuesday’s drill, the alarm blared, students evacuated the building, and resident heads checked to make sure that...