Sergeant Matthis Chiroux, a 24-year-old army veteran who has served in Afghanistan, Japan, Germany and the Philippines, recently refused to be deployed to Iraq, citing his belief that the conflict is an "illegal war."
Get out the teriyaki sauce because I am ready to marinate a lame duck. I must apologize; I could not resist making a pun about a duck. Once again, the George W. Bush administration is partaking in ludicrous shenanigans that will tarnish its already filthy reputation.
Have you ever had a crabby old person in your life who tried to make you feel guilty by telling you Great Depression anecdotes like "I used to walk 15 miles in the snow to go to school!" and "Back in my day, we didn't have color TVs with the ‘Mary-o' Brothers—we mined for coal in our spare time, and we liked it!"? Well, according to a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute, it may be time to dig deep and prepare for lean times like Gramps oh-so-bravely did.
Have you heard? The Democratic Party has split into two: the Clintonites and the Barackers. The Clintonites consist mostly of people without a college education, Catholics, white women, regular church attendees, union members and those "blue-collar workers" with whom she loves to drink beer. The Barackers are those who curse Hillary Clinton for sticking Barack Obama in two parallel universes: first, in the final primaries against Clinton, and then in the battleground states against John McCain. Meanwhile, the Republicans have proven how smart they are by keeping with tradition.
Since we had a woman-biased article on "male domination" in last week's New University ["The Problem with Iron Men," May 19, 2008"] I thought I should offer an alternative perspective. The article one-sidedly claimed that men in general sexualize and objectify women. The article made it seem like "white males" have all the power, and I could not disagree more. Women's suffrage has come a long way from the sexist ideas of the past. And yes, it's awful that there are still some men who rape, beat, oppress and objectify women. Thankfully, those men are not the majority. Nobody likes those guys.
The May 15 California Supreme Court ruling was a victory for same-sex couples all over the nation. This case marks one more step in the fight for civil rights in our country. Chief Justice Ronald George wrote the court's decision in Lockyer v. City and County of San Francisco.
