Bush & Co. parade “bad guys” to no avail

By Jesse Zink / October 24, 2004

Those of us still paying attention to the news coming out of Iraq (an increasingly and depressingly small number) have of late been assured by the Bush administration that the insurgency can be attributed almost entirely to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist with alleged ties to Osama bin Laden. Vice President Dick Cheney even mentioned...

Hunting the wrong type of game

By Barney Keller / October 24, 2004

Thanksgiving is closing in on us, bringing with it the image of those turkeys being hunted down and killed for our dinners. Now, I am all for this. I happen to like turkey. I have no qualms about those annoying sounding birds being butchered and then stuffed and sloshed with gravy. Especially when it is...

A memo from Mom

By Maroon Editorial Staff / October 17, 2004

It is now the end of third week, and the weather is starting to lean towards winter. School is officially in full swing and with midterms and snowstorms approaching, navigating the University of Chicago can be somewhat daunting. Though the Maroon does not pretend to be anyone’s parent, we think that some motherly advice could...

Bush lucks out and gets off easy in final presidential debate

By Anthony Cheng / October 17, 2004

President George W. Bush received a thrashing at the hands of the more experienced debater, Senator John Kerry, in the first presidential debate. And you could really tell it was a beating when the Republican spin-masters were calling it a “tie” afterwards. After the immediate boost Kerry got in the polls, Karl Rove & Co....

GOP is missing a successor to George W. Bush

By Justin Ellis / October 17, 2004

In 2002, according to White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, America watched the mid-term congressional elections “making history.” Even though the Republicans gained only six seats in the House and two seats in the Senate, the election supposedly heralded the conclusion of a major partisan realignment that started with the Reagan landslide of 1980. As...

Supreme Court should be key election issue

By Ryan Uricks / October 17, 2004

Over the course of the presidential campaign, many issues have been discussed. Iraq and the economy are at the forefront of the debate, while healthcare and education take the backseat on the campaign trail. Yet, there is one issue that has been skipped over this election year: the Supreme Court. To label the Supreme Court...

The myth of political crusader Ralph Nader

By Patrick Burke / October 17, 2004

In his uplifting, feel-good essay-for-the-whole-family entitled “The Myth of Sisyphus,” Albert Camus asserts the happiness of Sisyphus, a prominent figure in Greek mythology eternally doomed to push a boulder up a mound, only to see it roll down at the peak of its ascent. As Camus sees it, Sisyphus knows he is hopelessly mired in...

How can we avoid losing hope in the Middle East?

By Hollie Russon Gilman / October 17, 2004

You and your family are vacationing. You are sunbathing, eating, drinking—a typical vacation. Then, suddenly, something very odd occurs: an explosion. Thirty people are left dead and 100 wounded. Your vacation at the Taba Hilton in Egypt is suddenly cut short. The night is Thursday, October 7. Incidentally, this year October 7 is also the...

“Bon Courage!”

By Rebecca Phillips / October 12, 2004

September 8, 2004—PARIS—In French, there are two ways to wish someone “good luck.” If you say “bonne chance,” it implies that they need dumb luck, the kind determined by fortune and the gods or the chain of events that results from how hard someone squeezes a catsup bottle on the other side of the Earth....

European Union prudently “talks Turkey”

By Tara Kadioglu / October 12, 2004

Somewhere in the streets of Istanbul, an old man in tattered clothes smokes his nargile (hookah) while watching a young woman in a mini-skirt yap into her cell phone. He exudes peace and humility, and rarely travels farther than three or four blocks. She exudes activity and social status, and knows the best restaurants in...

O-week 2004 gave pleasant surprises

By Christian Mitchell / October 6, 2004

“Well, this isn’t what I was expecting…” I think I can safely say I was not the only one thinking along the lines of that phrase when I stopped to consider my Orientation Week experience here at the University of Chicago. All of us arrived with preconceived notions, conjectures based on the reputation of the...

Debate round one: Both show weakness

By Joel Lanceta / October 6, 2004

The most profound thought I had last week occurred to me while watching the first presidential debate: People should play drinking games while watching debates. I’ve already formulated my own set of rules for the next one: Take one drink whenever John Kerry mentions “Vietnam,” two drinks when President Bush stares blankly at the camera,...