Opinion

Rush Limbaugh is on the air. Still. And people listen to him. This might not be such a bad thing, except that the people who listen to him are the same people leading the Republican Party. Despite rousing defeats in two election cycles, a humiliating vice-presidential candidate, the elderly and infirm constitution of its voters, a disastrous eight years in power and a social policy stuck somewhere on the wrong side of 1954, the party sticks to its guns.

On Jan. 31, Sacramento announced its solution to save $1.3 billion by next June: furloughs. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest plan is to force 238,000 state employees to take an extra two unpaid days off each month.

Graduate Student Community Needs to Wakeup; Christian Scientist Shares Concern for Prayer Healing

Online schools are drastically different from the schools that we know. When Steve, an imaginary student at an online school goes to class, he wears pajamas, chomps on Cheetos and smells a tad funky. He does not bother his classmates with his odor because they are scattered around the world. All of his classes, tests and study sessions can take place wherever he maintains his wireless connection. From the bathroom to Starbucks, his learning locations and opportunities are endless. One entrepreneur wants to apply this system of education to a worldwide level and wants to make it free.

A man is approached by four plain-clothed officers on the streets of New York City and is told to stop what he is doing and to put his hands up. The officers briefly question this young man, who is 23-years-old and a recent immigrant to America. The young man is confused and reaches for his wallet to show his identification. As soon as the young man makes this move, one of the officers shouts "Gun!" and the officers quickly fire 41 fatal shots into his body.

Amir-Abdel Malik Ali, with a smile of pride on his face, recounted the story of a Hamas militant from the Gaza offensive to a crowd at the flagpoles on Jan. 29. "There was a story of one brother brought into a Gaza hospital who said, ‘Patch me up, I have to go back out,' " Ali shouted to his listeners. Someone proceeded to ask Ali, "How can you be smiling? Look at all the suffering that's going on; look at what the people are going through." Ali responded, "If they have people that died in their families, they're martyrs and they should be happy ... I want to die the death of a martyr." However, would Ali be so jubilant about Gazans being "martyred" if it was his mother or father who died in the recent offensive in Gaza?

Anyone who has opened a newspaper, turned on the TV or even been in contact with human life forms in the last few months knows the downside of the current financial crisis. Millions of jobs have been lost, California has been forced to put thousands of workers on furlough and mortgage defaults have left entire cul-de-sacs in foreclosure. However, if we are to believe the cliché that every cloud has a silver lining, then what is the upside of this recession? Here is a list...

Broke bankers; "refugee run" at Davos; black the new black, survey says; Blagojevich grasps at straws.

Illinois impeaches Blago; Neo-Nazis clean up highway in Kansas; Navy trains Flipper to hunt scuba-diving terrorists; all House Republicans vote against stimulus package (which passes anyways).

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President Barack Obama gave his first interview since he's taken office to Al-Arabiya, a Saudi news network on Jan. 26. There is no doubt that the move was both impressive and constructive. The old face of imperialism, which characterized the Bush administration, has left some hope for change in our relations with the Arab world. President Obama has kept some notable promises since he has taken oath, namely closing down the infamous Guantanamo Bay and meeting with the war cabinet to discuss the withdrawal of troops in Iraq by May 2010. He has made it clear that he'll hold the age-old mantra of "Peace in the Middle East" to his name.

A day in Israel starts just like any day in America: The sun rises, you eat breakfast, say "good morning" to your family and sit down at the table. However, the only real difference is the occasional missile that might strike your house, or your neighbor's house, at any given minute. But here, trivial things like rocket launchings do not affect us. CNN does not cover it; media reports include the new president's first dance and a man talking to a squirrel, but not the constant rocket attacks barraging Israel.