CTA crisis requires real reform

By Marshall Knudson / October 18, 2007

My inbox smiled over the summer—listhost warfare took a welcome ceasefire, and I took a breath of relief for a while. Then, a new trickle of troubling messages started to pop up in its place. “Dear CTA Customer,” each message was headed, unfolding unceremoniously into a disquieting portrait of mass transit, with each message gloomier...

Allow room for ROTC

By Maroon Editorial Staff / October 16, 2007

Being an elite institution should not be synonymous with being elitist. But that is exactly how the University is sometimes perceived, and the University policy that prevents the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) from training on campus only fuels this perception. The University kicked the ROTC off campus during the Vietnam War to protest the...

Stop taking Ann Coulter seriously.

By Alec Brandon / October 16, 2007

By now everyone under the sun has been subjected to commentary and analysis of Ann Coulter’s latest faux pas. Cable news channels have been devoting hours to her. The Anti-Defamation League has released numerous press statements. Traditional media outlets have joined the maelstrom too: The Los Angeles Times attempted to rouse its readers to action...

Certainty is a luxury none of us has

By Ryan McCarl / October 16, 2007

What is God, and does It exist? What is the meaning and purpose of human life? What is the ultimate source of morality? These are unanswerable questions; you can put ten of the smartest people in the world in a room and ask them to answer them, and you might well receive ten different responses....

Racing to conclusions

By Maroon Editorial Staff / October 12, 2007

The City of Chicago has a tradition of honoring great Chicagoans with street names, statues, and other memorabilia. If Fourth Ward Alderman Toni Preckwinkle has her way, the late U of C professor Saul Bellow, one of the most revered writers in American literature, will be denied any such honor because Preckwinkle deems some of...

Young, restless, and woefully awkward

By Zack Hill / October 12, 2007

Finished with their ill-advised, drug-fueled “O-Mances” (O-Week romances), first-years are troubled once again by a question that has long plagued University of Chicago students. They naïvely thought they had solved it in high school, yet it now rears its ugly head. For many people here, it becomes The Question, and for many U of C...

Read my lips: Stop raising taxes

By Matt Barnum / October 12, 2007

The last few days have not brought good news for greedy, tax-haters like me. On Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley proposed a $293-million tax increase, one of the highest in the city’s history. Meanwhile, Democrats in the House of Representatives are set to introduce a $1-trillion tax bill. The case for high (or at least...

Blackwater, military don’t mix

By James Conway / October 12, 2007

When someone responds to civilian deaths he indirectly caused, he really shouldn’t say “People make mistakes; they do stupid things sometimes.” Unfortunately for his company and more unfortunately for the American people, that is exactly what Blackwater CEO Erik Prince did last week during his sworn testimony before Congress concerning the reckless actions of his...

One-stop shopping

By Maroon Editorial Staff / October 8, 2007

A smart consumer would never make a multi-thousand-dollar investment solely on the basis of a short product description. Unfortunately, under the current course selection format, students are asked to do exactly that when picking classes each quarter. A system where professors are compelled to post syllabi online before class bidding begins would allow students to...

Don’t confuse success with selling out

By Ethan Stanislawski / October 8, 2007

Thirty years after the birth of punk, it’s about time we admit that the concept of selling out is as dead as the Eight Track. Punk, especially its offshoot indie rock, has had strong anti-establishment ties ever since Joey Ramone first said “I don’t wanna.” Indie rock in particular took that sentiment to extremes. It...

Dawkins’s militant atheism delusional

By Kyle Lee / October 8, 2007

As both a conservative Roman Catholic and a science major in the College, I reacted to Richard Dawkins’s lecture at the International House this past Thursday initially with outrage and anger. Those feelings, however, quickly morphed into mere frustration and disappointment after giving the man some thought. I have read his book The God Delusion,...

Why Republicans should ♥ Huckabee in ’08

By Tim Murphy / October 5, 2007

At first glance, GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee seems like the prototypical fringe candidate with absolutely no shot at the nomination. The former governor of Arkansas has lost 110 pounds since 2003, when his doctor told him he would die within the decade if he didn’t make serious lifestyle changes, and many of his campaign...