By Colin Lucas
My brother, Pat, spent New Year’s Day with his Marine unit picking up improvised explosive devices off the banks of the Euphrates River.
I, however, and most of the rest of America’s domestically-bound eighteen to twenty-one year-olds spent that day picking our noses waiting.
We are waiting because that is our political prerogative. That is our purpose within the democracy which we have been told is the greatest such polity on earth. That is our constitutionally ordained right. But we have not always waited.
When Marines were being ordered to burn villages in Vietnam the kids back home were tye-dying the streets of Washington with massive peace protests that sent chills up the spine of Capitol Hill. When Martin Luther King, Jr., preached his dreams to America, he was preaching to the youth because he knew them to be the only ones with enough passion and audacity to mobilize the kind of change that was needed.
By Lauren Foley
In recent years, “café societies” have become more and more prevalent. Our local coffeehouses have become the headquarters for harried mothers, the working rush hour crowd, and tired, cranky students eager for a caffeine pick-me-up.
In the United States, we have the infamous Starbucks, which bends over backwards to appear as quaint as your corner mom and pop coffee shop while dishing out five dollar cups of coffee and selling three-day-old pastries for about the same price.
By Mac Smith
1. Internet Cables - It has been reported that 5 international undersea Internet cables have been cut since January 23rd, affecting some 83 million users from Egypt to Malaysia. Many people believe that this will have a very negative impact on business transactions, but I just want know who I’m gonna sue when I can’t play Halo 3.
By Max C. Bookman
“Attempts of foreign interference within Russia are not only immoral, but also illegal.”
-Outgoing Russian President
Vladimir Putin in a farewell address on Friday, accusing Western powers of demanding international election monitors in the upcoming March 2 presidential election. Putin, who has spent an alarming tenure aggressively centralizing his power, will not disappear from the political landscape; his handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, is expected to name Putin Prime Minister. Hooray for post-Soviet democracy!
By Elyse Stiner
Why is it that the public does not pay as much attention to the Supreme Court as it does to other branches of government? As we know the legislative, executive, and judicial branches are designed to function through checks and balances. Funny thing is, when push comes to shove, the decisions of the Court have no checks. The balance part is debatable.
By Peter Casasa-Blouin
I’ve finally decided I want to be in California. I may have known before I knew, but for a long time I was living in Cali vicariously through music. Underground hip-hop in the Bay Area has a refreshing nature that enables a listener to be rolling at a club or sitting down at a cipher and philosophizing. That multiplicity that gives the Bay its vitality has been articulated yet again by a group of twenty year olds in Oakland, California.
Couldn’t catch a name?
Submit your love anonymously to
thewatertowernews.com/iwantyousobad
You were cute, and I thought that together we could be like Daphnis and Chloe. But now, I’ve discovered your Gnostic Gospels…and you look like Frankenstein to me. You’re actually a fradulent jerk. You belong in the Malebolge (Circle 8, bolgia 3).
When: Every day
Where: Living and Learning
I saw: A Man
I am: A Woman
Read on for more…
By Alex Townsend
To anyone who studies culture it becomes obvious pretty quickly that things are popular in cycles. Something that was all the rage decades ago can make a sudden inexplicable resurgence. It’s happened with bellbottom pants, innumerable music styles, and even Richard Nixon. They all were popular at one time and then years later, when everyone should have forgotten them, they became president.
But what about things that were never intended for fun in the first place? What about pastimes that seem like they should be ridiculously boring and are, at best, associated with wholesome, grandmotherly types? What about knitting?
By Peter Salerno
Super Tuesday was one of the most exciting days of the year for political junkies like myself. In a twenty-four hour period you get to watch half of the nation vote for a candidate whom they hope will end up representing the Republican or Democratic party in the campaign for the presidency.
Thousands of delegates are at stake and millions of votes are cast. This Super Tuesday was better than most; it featured a Democratic race in which neither candidate could pull away with a convincing lead, and a Republican race in which one man distanced himself from the rest while another made a name for the small guy.
By Alexander Hemmer
I’ve been convinced for a long time now that the names of the departments and agencies in the government are in need of a major overhaul. The paradoxes are everywhere.
The Justice Department? “Justice” hardly comes to mind when I think of former Attorney General
Alberto Gonzalez trying to cover up U.S. torture programs or the unconstitutional and illegal detainment of the “terrorists” at Guantanamo.
Homeland Security? More like Homeland Surveillance.
Department of Defense? I might be missing something here, but our military has been doing a hell of a lot more “offense” these days than anything else.
By Charles Winkleman
“Get ‘em, keep ‘em, and let ‘em do their thing.” This was the hope of economic professor
Ross Thomson last week for the academic faculty’s role in UVM during the coming years. Last week
United Academics held a news conference discussing the many problems they hope
Fogel will address during the coming contract negotiations. The sad part is that they asked for many of the same things several years ago and were already promised them.
Created by Anya Brodrick, Illustration by Alexander Whitehead
This section deconstructs the styles of today. The tripartite nature of the section demonstrates the intersection of image-word-mathematics.
7:30 am: Wakes up and completes three cycles of Surya Namaskara (that’s the sun salutation to the rest of us).
8:22 am: Eats some [homemade] bread with roommates while roasting some garlic, boosts the immune system!
9:00 am: Decides to blow off first class to petition in front of library. This week it’s forcing the dining halls to serve only fair-trade, free-trade, organic, sustainable coffee.
By Mac Smith
Ladies and Gentleman, Valentine’s Day Season is in full swing for another year. It’s time to show your significant other just how much you truly care.
Fortunately for us, Corporate America has provided various consumer products to show our feelings. Each gift has a different and special meaning. Be that as it may, these gifts also have the power of saying things you may not have intended as they cross gender lines. It’s up to you to pick the right one, and to ensure that nothing gets lost in translation.
By Lea McLellan
Dear Diary,
Holy wow!
Can you believe there’re only two days left until the most romantic, awesomest, greatest day out of all the 365 days of the year?! Well start believing it Diary, because Thursday is Valentine’s Day! I don’t know how it crept up on us so fast. I mean, it was only two days after Christmas when all the grocery stores started putting out all the cute teddies, heart shaped chocolate boxes, and dyed pink everything.
1. Study
2. Knit
3. Revel in all the time I have to myself
4. Glare
5. Eat discounted chocolate
6. Be cynical about Disney movies
7. Glower at the masses
8. Be indifferent to the masses
9. Reorganize bookshelf by levels of sappiness
10. Call friends desperately
11. Resent friends for being happy
12. Try to adopt Buddha-like love of world and everything in it
13. Go to sleep, still wearing general scowl
14. Fail to sleep while listening to incessant thumping on walls
15. Spend rest of night surfing porn sites
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