In Culiacan, Mexico —a hub of the Mexican narc-trade — Jose Espinoza produces works of art for many of the areas wealthiest, and most notorious, citizens. From The Birth of Venus in the domed ceiling over a Jacuzzi to twenty-foot-tall portraits of flamenco dancers to exquisite religious imagery surrounding the graves of drug-trade casualties, his works add a classical beauty to the mansions and mausoleums begotten by the local trade in heroin and marijuana.
Let’s get this out of the way: Some of my favorite musicians died before they were 35 – some musicians that I’m going to highlight in this column. Kurt Cobain pretty much ran my musical life back in elementary school; I would listen to every band he ever namedropped. “In Utero” is my immediate answer when anyone asks me what my favorite album of all-time is.
“Three strikes” is not just associated with the sport of baseball. “Three strikes laws” are also statutes enacted by state governments. They require state courts to hand down a mandatory and extended period of incarceration to people who have been convicted of a serious offense on three or more separate occasions. In California, the three strikes law, enacted in 1994, makes the punishment for committing the third strike a 25 years to life sentence in jail.
Things are getting serious, folks. The recession is ending for some on Wall Street, but people are still losing their homes. The University system in California is on the brink of collapse. There are wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and sectarian violence the world over. Here in the US, the government seems unable to either spend its way out of recession or raise taxes to pay for it all.
The island nation of Tuvalu is just one of many in the South Pacific. There’s nothing terribly unusual about it, except that its annual GDP (gross domestic product, or the final value of all goods and services produced within a country’s borders) is less than Kobe Bryant’s $20 million yearly paycheck.
I was surprised to read in the last issue of the New University a headline that read, “UC Irvine Muslim Student Union Under Investigation.” The article claimed that the MSU was to be investigated – by the FBI no less – for fundraising for Hamas. Call me forgetful, but I don’t recall ever getting that memo. The ludicrousness of this accusation was explained when my eyes fell on a single name – the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).
The very first article I ever wrote for the New University was about how Fox News purports crazy ideas and mistruths. I love when things come full circle.
It seems as if University of California President, Mark Yudof, has finally found some support. After coming under harsh criticism for months on end for his proposed increase in tuition and recent faculty lay-offs, Yudof found comfort at Sunnyside High School in Fresno, California. Yudof addressed the student body about his new plan to help Californian students pay for college.
When you get on an airplane, where does the biggest threat come from? From the mumbling, abnormally stiff gentleman to your right who requests seat belt extensions? Perhaps it comes from the bearded fellow with the exotic name. Maybe it comes from a crying infant who threatens your sleep, or a flight attendant whom you nagged incessantly and now wants to poison your food! Actually, the biggest problem with air travel can sometimes be the pilots themselves.
