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The University of Chicago’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1892

Chicago Maroon
The University of Chicago’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1892

Chicago Maroon
AWS Website Banner 11/4 – 12/4
The University of Chicago’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1892

Chicago Maroon
Stories and content by Matt Barnum

Corps Curriculum

By Matt Barnum / March 10, 2009
Over the course of the first year in TFA, through early mornings and frustrating days, with a few bright moments and positive encounters, one U of C grad would stick with the program’s mission despite considerable challenges. The other would quit.

Art attack

By Matt Barnum / February 6, 2009
Dean Art’s handing of Junwan Kong’s situation is indicative of a destructive mindset

Agree to agree

By Matt Barnum / October 4, 2008
The upcoming presidential election has been fraught with disagreement since its candidates first began their arduous paths to the White House. One is left wondering who, exactly, these extremist nut jobs are.

Despite promise, film estranged from originality

By Matt Barnum / May 30, 2008
After exhaustive research—five minutes on Google—I'm inclined to say that the movie was inspired by true events in the same way that, say, Iron Man was: The only references I could find to these supposed "true events" came from online buzz about the movie itself..

The self-esteem soap opera

By Matt Barnum / May 16, 2008
[img id=”80612″ align=”alignleft”] My room back home is littered with evidence of the self-esteem craze of the 1990s. My annual participatory baseball, basketball, and hockey trophies battle for space, with a couple of sportsmanship awards also lingering among the shiny plastic. Hanging pathetically on the sidelines of my shelves are the few genuinely earned awards—math...

The Court’s mistaken identity

By Matt Barnum / May 1, 2008
There is a constant tension in politics, as in many other areas of life, between process and results. Compromising the former often nets short-term gains in the latter but ends up wreaking havoc in the future. Nowhere is this more evident than in Supreme Court jurisprudence. The Court’s latest decision—Crawford v. Marion County Election Board,...

Abortion comes to life

By Matt Barnum / April 18, 2008
[img id=”80497″ align=”alignleft”] The most important social-political issue of the last 30 or more years has lain relatively dormant throughout this presidential campaign. While the Democratic candidates rush to defend a woman’s right to choose abortion at any time, the Republican candidates brandished their anti-abortion credentials and argued about who is “more” pro-life—but largely, it...

Rotten to the Core

By Matt Barnum / April 3, 2008
It’s easy to make an argument against the Core. I could talk about the importance of a self-directed education. I could point out how any curriculum overemphasizes the value systems of those who created it. I could claim that the Core wastes time that could be better spent studying one’s major or choosing one’s own...

More than a game

By Matt Barnum / March 4, 2008
[img id=”80406″ align=”alignleft”] Going to last Saturday’s men’s basketball game made me feel like a normal college student. The arena—OK, gym—was packed. The crowd was into it. And our Maroons won, earning a league title and a berth in the NCAA D-III tournament. It was a genuinely exciting time, and it revealed an important truth:...

All the wrong answers

By Matt Barnum / February 19, 2008
“What’s going on in America?” wondered Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn. In the wake of the Northern Illinois University (NIU) shootings, Zorn asked readers to respond to this question on his blog. 382 comments later, we are no closer to an answer. In Sunday’s print edition of the Tribune, Zorn ran several—presumably the best—of his...

A union divided: Organized labor strikes out

By Matt Barnum / February 5, 2008
I miss The Office. A lot. Thankfully, though, my favorite show will likely return soon, as the writers’ strike appears set to end this week. Likely, this will be heralded as a victory for fairness. To most, unions are the good guys, fighting for fair wages and just treatment. Opposing these principles are big, greedy...

Ross’s keynote remarks don’t do MLK Day justice

By Matt Barnum / January 25, 2008
Political partisanship in this country gets an unfair rap. Just about every election cycle—especially this one—candidates call for “bi partisan solutions,” an end to political bickering, and “unity.” (Of course, when politicians demand unity, they just want people to come over to their side, not actually meet half way.) In truth, our nation’s vigorous partisanship...

Cultural protectionism breeds unfair prejudices

By Matt Barnum / January 11, 2008
A little over a year ago, Facebook decided to expand beyond college and high school students. At the time, the planned change was met with stiff opposition from many users. The rationale, despite Facebook’s relatively stringent privacy settings, ranged from fear of curious parents to fear of creepy child molesters. Cooler heads prevailed, and now...

Inferiority complex is so U of C

By Matt Barnum / November 27, 2007
This Thanksgiving, the only thing my see-once-a-year relatives wanted to hear about was the University of Chicago. I tried to say something that neatly and cleverly summed up my U of C experience. Needless to say, I failed. What is there to say? “My classes are hard.” (Boring.) “People here are kind of weird.” (Too...

Republicans hearing populist echo

By Matt Barnum / November 9, 2007
In the 1964 presidential election, the Republican Party offered up, as conservative author Phyllis Schlafly put it, a choice, not an echo. This “choice,” Barry Goldwater, was roundly defeated—America chose Lyndon Johnson instead—but in defeat Goldwater effected a conservative change in the Republican Party. In 2008, Republicans are at a similar crossroads: They must once...

Obama inspires unique hope in youth

By Matt Barnum / October 26, 2007
The University of Chicago is ground zero for the semi–nation wide Barack Obama lovefest. Here at the U of C, the Hyde Park resident and former Law School professor is probably idolized above, I would venture to say, just about any living American. Students proudly sport “Obama ’08” buttons, speak of “Barack” as if they...

Lapel-gate

By Matt Barnum / October 17, 2007
Most people probably haven't heard of the quasi-controversy involving Barack Obama and the American f

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...

Memo to General Peter Pace: Get down from the moral high ground

By Matt Barnum / October 2, 2007
Why does Peter Pace think anyone cares what he thinks about homosexuality? General Pace, the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, first made headlines last March when he said, “I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that [the U.S. military] should not condone immoral acts… I do not believe the United States...

A good cause does not make a good person

By Matt Barnum / September 19, 2007
At the beginning of my first Sosc class last year, our professor had each of us say one thing that came to mind when we heard the word “liberal” or “conservative.” My half of the class was given “liberal,” and I—not a fan—had a few choice words in mind. But after dismissing the initial rush...

Big Apple’s $18-million pitching prize rotten to the core

By Matt Barnum / May 8, 2007
I hate Roger Clemens. His recent announcement that he’ll return (surprise, surprise) to baseball—this time as a New York Yankee—has only cemented my disdain for him. For three consecutive years, Clemens has gone through a similar dance: “retirement,” hemming and hawing about “retiring,” claiming that he’s “99-percent retired,” and then eventually, inevitably, and with much...

Let’s have moderation in pursuit of justice

By Matt Barnum / May 1, 2007
Not much happens in my hometown of Cary, a largely white, upper–middle class suburb that is about an hour northwest of Chicago. However, Cary recently gained national attention when Allen Lee, a senior at Cary-Grove High School—where I graduated from last year—was charged with disorderly conduct for things written in a “free writing” essay. The...

On rights, freedom, and being pro-abortion

By Matt Barnum / April 6, 2007
A troubling line of political and legal thinking on abortion is starting to gain traction in not only the Democratic Party, but the Republican one as well. Rudy Giuliani, the current Republican frontrunner for the presidential nomination—which, by the way, is like saying that the Pittsburgh Pirates are the current frontrunners to win the World...

Al Gore’s convenient lifestyle

By Matt Barnum / March 30, 2007
I have a confession to make: While watching the Oscars—and after initially snickering at Al Gore’s massive frame (at first I thought Gore’s head had been attached to Rosie O’Donnell’s body)—I was actually kind of moved by Gore’s plea for lower energy consumption. An odd feeling came over me (was it liberal guilt?) during Melissa...

Point—Counterpoint: The perpetual delusion of a desperate Cubs fan

By Matt Barnum / March 6, 2007
Next year is here. For nearly 100 seasons now, the Cubs fan’s lament has been, “There’s always next year.” But perhaps, for real this time, 2007 is our year. No question, the Cubs will need a few breaks to break out in 2007. They’re counting on first baseman Derrek Lee to return from injury in...

We need another Barry Goldwater

By Matt Barnum / March 2, 2007
The Wallflowers were right: “There’s got to be something better than in the middle.” In today’s politics, “ideologue” is a dirty word most often applied by liberal groups to condemn “right-wing ideologues.” But is there anything wrong with being an ideologue or having a strong, consistent set of beliefs? More and more, the answer seems...

Whoever put the “liberal” in “libertarian?”

By Matt Barnum / February 16, 2007
Wouldn’t it be nice if life were as simple as Facebook? You could have all the friends you wanted by just sending anyone a friend request, even if you didn’t really know the person. Communication would be simple; plus, you could intercept others’ correspondences through the handy “wall-to-wall” feature—and you could “poke” someone anytime you...

Questioning Constitutional assumptions

By Matt Barnum / February 6, 2007
I will always remember my second-grade teacher—the strict but fair Mrs. Rehmer—giving my class our very first description of American government. She explained to us the “checks and balances” among the “three separate yet coequal branches of government.” Although I eventually learned much more about the Constitution than this crude description, I always took Mrs....

The upside of being an anti-choice extremist

By Matt Barnum / January 30, 2007
Last Monday was the 34th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. Although it was met with the typical response from both sides—pro-lifers had “The March for Life” while Planned Parenthood cleverly encouraged its members to “donate $34 for the 34th anniversary”—it seemed like everyone was simply going through the motions. The media barely reported...

Why does tolerance stop at the church door for so many?

By Matt Barnum / January 19, 2007
They are all around us. It may be the person who sits next to you in Hum class. It could be your friendly acquaintance from across the hall. It might even be your RA or RH. Or maybe it’s your favorite Maroon columnist. Perhaps you don’t know what I’m talking about, but if you, like...

The Democrats’ silver bullet: Minimum wage hike for all

By Matt Barnum / January 9, 2007
Is this really the best they can do? The Democrats’ silver bullet for America’s problems is…drum roll…raising the minimum wage! Nancy Pelosi has vowed to put minimum wage legislation to a vote in the “first 100 hours” of Congress. To compound the problem (isn’t this bi-partisanship cute?), President Bush has already agreed to sign the...

Make the health care system safe for doctors to practice

By Matt Barnum / November 17, 2006
For those of you who don’t know, John Edwards, 2004 vice presidential nominee and presidential candidate, can talk to babies—while they are still in their mothers’ wombs. While arguing for damages against a doctor who did not perform a C-section on a child who turned out to have cerebral palsy, Edwards seemed to be projecting...

Remember Blair Hull? Barack Obama does.

By Matt Barnum / November 14, 2006
Like life, politics can turn on a moment. Blair Hull will not be remembered by many; if anything, he will be a footnote in history. In 2004, Hull decided to seek the Democratic nomination for Illinois’s open Senate seat, vacated by Peter Fitzgerald. Hull, who funded himself with $28 million, had a significant lead early...
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