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The Scribe - 2010 Opinion Columns
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January 2010

Byron

Truth Bombs

Do not (ever) give Pat Robertson any money

The recent earthquake in Haiti has left the country in devastation, to the point where the great city of Port au Prince is no longer recognizable, and many of its citizens remain stranded among the wreckage of their former homes, undoubtedly praying for rescue. Untold numbers of dead lie beneath the ravaged landscape. This is the kind of event that leaves everyone speechless, reeling from the unimaginable cruelty of fate and the fearsome power of nature. The pronounced suffering has sent aftershocks through the consciences of the world, leaving people eager to help despite their shaken faith.

Cold snap!

I understand why those living through “The Great British White Out” would question global warming theory. Weather is intimate to everyone, and while slipping around on a freezing road during a shortage of road salt, it would be easy to ask “Just exactly when is it going to warm up?”

February 2010

Take Down

Underwear bombers and Guantanamo

From the beginning of this administration, people have been comparing Obama to Bush in about every way possible. One important, if not the most important, comparative issue would be national security. 

This Week’s Challenge

Brown, healthcare and Democratic arrogance

As we all know, President Obama and his administration have been so relentless on passing healthcare legislation that they have coerced the bill through the Senate at lightning speed. Of course, this has outraged the majority of Americans who have been so vehemently against rushing such a sloppily drafted bill into law (according to Gallup and Rasmussen polls).

byron

Truth Bombs

The Nazi Mile

The Denver unit of the National Socialist Movement – also known as America’s Nazi Party when its members are being honest with themselves – has recently volunteered to maintain a mile of Colorado State Highway 85 as part of the Department of Transportation’s Adopt-a-Highway program. They even have their own sign.

Tim

The Lucid Line

Kidneys for sale!

Over 100,000 people in the U.S. are currently in line for organs; 85,000 of them for kidneys. As things stand now, nearly 60,000 of them will die waiting for either rare, generous relatives; recently killed and decently matching donors; or thousands of Americans who somehow find it in their hearts to risk the complications and lost wages of undergoing a painful surgery to save the life of some stranger across the country, completely free of charge. 

stephen

This Week's Challenge

Obama's budget: Spending our way to financial nirvana

Well folks, it’s the gift that just keeps on giving (and I’m not referencing the one your sex education teacher went over either). No, this one would be that little something which we (as United States citizens) have in the last year become so akin to calling the U.S. Treasury Department.

Byron

Truth Bombs

Whole body airport scanners: Invasive or nakedly patriotic

In a typically overblown and misguided response to the thwarted Christmas Day terror attack, wherein Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab smuggled explosives stashed in his underwear onboard an international flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, America has once more forsaken liberty for the illusion of security.

Biscotti, anyone?

Oh, how lovely; it seems I’ve been invited to a tea party. I say, and just as I’d begun to fancy a spot of Darjeeling! Wait a minute, why are your several thousand guests marching with swastikas? Egad, that child is brandishing a pistol! Everyone, please, stop shouting! Your conduct is not befitting of a tea partygoer of my stature and I shall take my leave at once. That was the worst tea party I’ve ever attended. Unless I’m mistaken, I’d say that this was, in fact, a political rally populated by slack-jawed sub-literates uniting in myopic fear and not a tea party at all! They didn’t even offer me a biscotti!

1 comment

Stephen

An alternative to bickering

As every student who hasn’t had their head stuck in the freezer since September knows, the “National Tea Party Movement” is quickly becoming a serious entity in the political arena. The fact is that millions of    Americans no longer trust the pledges and commitments of either political party (Democrat or Republican).

Brock

Many Hats

Budget woes will test extremist Springs’ learning abilities

Colorado Springs has never been a gentle blending of many voices, but instead a bizarre backwater of extremism. From day one, General Palmer decided to separate his newly formed Fountain Colony, or Colorado Springs, from the existing Colorado City with its bars and brothels.

March 2010

tim

The Lucid Line

Supreme Court Gitmo decision reveals Obama’s political cowardice

In what  is swiftly becoming  a characteristic behavior, on March 1, President Barack Obama, via a Supreme Court victory, successfully danced around yet another pressing national issue to avoid confrontation before midterm elections.

Stephen

This Week’s Challenge

The argument that shouldn’t be

Given the highly controversial nature of this matter, I’m going to start off by saying that I have no quarrels or conflict with the homosexual community. Having friends and even some family who lead a homosexual lifestyle, my official stance on the issue of homosexuality and gay marriage is this: Do what you have to do, do what you want to do, no one on this earth has the right to say that gay marriage or the state of being gay is wrong.

1 comment

Veronica

Take Down

The grass is always greener on the other side

As of late, Democrats seem to be extremely disturbed whenever they lose a seat in Congress. Early this year there were ten Democratic retirements out of the House (compared to the fourteen Republicans), and two retiring Senate Democrats (compared to six Republicans).

Stephen

Dueling Opinions

A patriotic reminder

Colorado State Senator Dave Schultheis (Rep., Colo. Springs) is pushing forward state legislation to allow individuals the option to express religion in Colorado school districts. This proposed “Public School Religious Bill of Rights” would (in theory) be split into two bills, one to accommodate parents and students, and the other for teachers and school employees.

2 comments

Byron

Dueling Opinions

Religious Bill of Wrongs

Oh, Colorado State Senator Dave Schultheis, you’re such a reliable source for apoplectic rage. Whether insulting mothers with HIV or comparing President Obama to 9/11 hijackers over Twitter, Schultheis functions ideally as an ignorance delivery system. America needs ignorance delivery systems, and when Schultheis forgets his primary function and attempts legislation, it can be nerve-wracking.

Byron

Truth Bombs

Scott Brown makes a GOP FAIL-ibuster

Last Monday, a fantasy scenario for all the bipartisan-curious politicos of this fine land played out in the Senate.

tim

The Lucid Line

Hippies, meet the Natural Gas Industry

Economist Bruce Yandle proposed in 1983 that most economic regulation can be explained with a simple anecdote called “Bootleggers and Baptists.” Many laugh his story off for its striking simplicity, but recent actions in Colorado’s legislature suggest that Mr. Yandle’s simple theory may have been quite accurate.

April 2010

Stephen

Dueling Opinions: Nuclear Disarmament

Knowledge and weapons

Since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in 1945, the United States has developed an entire arsenal of nuclear weapons even more powerful than the original atom bomb. They are stored in various missile silos throughout much of the upper Midwest, and have the capability to reach and do irreparable harm to other nations in the event of their deployment.

Byron

Dueling Opinions: Nuclear Disarmament

Still enough to obliterate

 On April 8th at the Prague Castle in the Czech Republic, President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev both signed the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, pledging to reduce our cache of nukes to 1,550. That’s still enough remaining weapons to obliterate the world beyond recognition, but the treaty is nonetheless significant considering the bitter rivalry between the leaders’ respective homelands.

1 comment

stephen

This Week’s Challenge

Healthcare not over ‘til the justices sing

I was on Facebook a few weeks ago when a friend of mine who works for a certain Democratic Colorado congressman posted on her status: “We did it!” It quickly became clear to me that she was talking about the House of Representatives passing healthcare reform. Of course, being the informed, opinionated and intelligent  citizen that I am, I promptly posted a comment directly under hers stating something to the affect that the Easter Bunny is real.

 

Byron

Dueling Opinions

MMJ: Gateway Legalization?

Concerns over legalizing cannabis have been part of American political discourse since long before the launch of the war on drugs. The tone of the debate has reached a fever pitch since 2008, when Attorney General Holder vowed to end DEA raids on medical marijuana (MMJ) dispensaries, resulting in a boom in the legal weed economy.

veronica

Dueling Opinions

Marijuana and the Dutch

Pot, Mary Jane, weed, kush, blunt, Joint, bombers, doobie.

Marijuana.

7 comments

Stephen

This Week’s Challenge

Social Security: The biggest Ponzi Scheme ever?

What is a Ponzi scheme? Most of us can recall a certain Bernie Madoff who, after about 4 decades, cheated thousands of wealthy investors out of what ultimately amounted to billions of dollars. He did this by using a Ponzi scheme which ultimately landed him a 100 year+ prison sentence.

Byron

Truth Bombs

Hutarees to the rescue: What’s with all the militias, man?

The Hutaree, an anti-government Christian militia group with roots in the Midwest, were indicted on charges of seditious conspiracy and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction as well as teaching and demonstrating the use of explosive materials after the FBI raided outposts in Michigan and Indiana.

kay

Chelsea’s Law: An attempt to deconstruct the ‘prison outside of prison’

On March 2, 2010 the body of Chelsea King was found near the shoreline of a lake in San Diego. The blue-eyed, strawberry blond seventeen-year-old went for a run on Feb. 25 and never returned home. She was raped and murdered.

randy

Dueling Opinions: Health Care Reform

About the ‘socialism’

I could sit here and recite figures and statistics to show how we have one of the worst healthcare systems in the industrialized world, that we pay more for it than any other industrialized nation, and that insurance companies don’t care about us.

 

veronica

Dueling Opinions: Health Care Reform

Say goodbye to freedom

Who wouldn’t want to make everybody healthy and happy? Those selfish, rotten, healthcare opposing conservatives! All the Obama administration wants is sunshine, flowers, bunnies and healthy people to enjoy this Obamatopia!

May 2010

veronica

Take Down

Concealed carry on campus is necessary

“The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.” Adolph Hitler, April 11, 1942.

Byron

Truth Bombs

Goodwin Liu V. Republican obstructionism

Goodwin Liu, a Berkley Law professor who boasts a unanimous rating of “well-qualified” from the American Bar Association, was recently nominated for a seat on the Federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by President Obama.