Opinion - The Daily Cardinal

OPINION

Doyle views Wisconsin with overly rosy glasses

By Ben Turpin | Feb. 4, 2010

To hear Gov. Doyle describing the ""state"" of our state, one has to wonder why he decided not to seek re-election in 2010. An outsider would never have known that his popularity as governor has been slipping for some time, even within his own party. Aside from a few comments about the difficult economic times we're immersed in, Doyle made things sound simply whimsical. But in reality, Doyle's speech bent the truth on some issues and simply sidestepped others altogether.

OPINION

Grad school not in doomsday scenario

By The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board | Feb. 2, 2010

The academic staff ad hoc committee recently released a report analyzing the current state of UW-Madison's graduate school and the Administration's restructuring proposal. Written by seven members of a world-class research institution, the report's conclusion was fitting: Show us more evidence.

OPINION

Campus in need of eating disorder support

By Letter to the Editor | Feb. 2, 2010

While reading Melissa Grau's article, it was quite clear to me that she has never sought treatment from University Health Services for an eating disorder. Anyone who has actually taken the courageous step of seeking help, would certainly not be praising UHS for their ""outstanding caregiving and counselling."" One would hope that the most fatal mental illness would receive such a response; however, that is not the case at UHS.

OPINION

Health-care coverage lacking for students

By Elliot Morris and By Kathy Dittrich | Feb. 2, 2010

Two days after the Massachusetts special election put health care on the back burner in Washington (that's assuming it was even on the front burner), Governor Jim Doyle announced a non-state funded health-care plan for adults without dependants. The BadgerCare Basic program would cost enrolled Wisconsin residents $130 per month and is designed to benefit those 20,000 people currently on the BadgerCare Plus waiting list.

OPINION

DLS speaker deserves to be heard

By Jamie Stark and Matt Payne | Feb. 2, 2010

""While I disagree with what you have to say, I will defend to the death your right to say it."" Through death and a French accent, Voltaire's support of the freedom of speech rings quite pertinently today at UW-Madison.

OPINION

Hirsi Ali lecture will only breed fear

By Rashid Dar | Feb. 2, 2010

""When I was asked for my opinion, I explained that Islam was like a mental cage. At first, when you open the door, the caged bird stays inside: it is frightened. It has internalized its imprisonment. It takes time for the bird to escape, even after someone has opened the doors to its cage.""

OPINION

Let's embrace America's spirit of independence

By Cole Wenzel | Jan. 31, 2010

Lacking my iPod that I had left behind the last time I was home, I was much more perceptive of my surroundings on my walk home from work on a typically frigid January evening this past week. This heightened level of auditory and visual awareness took my mind away from its normal daydream instead to the attention of a woman. She was pushing a high stack of blue soda containers via cart on the sidewalk outside of the Equinox. Seeing that she was struggling to push the top-heavy cart over a raised slab of concrete, I asked her if I could be of any assistance. Her reply was one of self-determination.

OPINION

Beware the pitfalls of fast-track applications

By Qi Gu | Jan. 31, 2010

Still remember the stressful days of college application? Your piggy bank was never full enough for the application fees, $50 here and $60 there. Next came the tortuous months when every frantic reach for the mail box ended with you empty-handed. Thanks to fast-track college application, all these pains could fade out of a high school senior's life, but that might not be an entirely positive development.

OPINION

More tenacity needed in climate change debate

By Ariel Shapiro and Stephen Collins and Danny Spitzberg | Jan. 29, 2010

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., told Americans last week to ""get angry"" about climate and clean energy legislation.

OPINION

University's prestige comes worth the price

By By Mark Bennett | Jan. 29, 2010

Any person who knows me relatively well might tend to describe me, among many things, as occasionally frugal. So as a frequent penny pincher, I too am surprised to find myself endorsing tuition increases.

OPINION

Unified vision needed to affect climate change

By Anthony Cefali | Jan. 27, 2010

The past year has not been easy on President Obama. I've often wondered why he wanted the job in the first place, and how he can carry himself with such poise despite being mired in so many promises that he cannot hope to fulfill during his presidency. During the Copenhagen climate talks, President Obama made another lofty promise, one meant to inspire other countries to rise up to the challenge of our changing global environment. With or without the approval of the Senate, Obama made a verbal agreement that the U.S. would drop carbon emissions 17 percent below what they were in 2005 by the end of this decade, something that will be difficult to do without imposing a radical gradient that is steep enough to change the American lifestyle. The climate talks came and went, and Obama was essentially left with the burden of leading us into a more environmentally friendly decade.

OPINION

Give students a break on tickets

By The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board | Jan. 27, 2010

Last Tuesday, UW Associate Athletic Director John Jentz told the Athletic Department's Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee that, in order to supplement $60 million in lost revenue, ticket prices for Wisconsin sporting events could increase in the next year. This is bad news for all Badger fans as the sports they love will become more expensive at a time when, given the economic downturn, many cannot afford it. But raising the cost of tickets on students, a group that shells out more than any other, is even more heinous. Raising the cost of tickets for students will have a large, detrimental effect on fans for comparatively little positive impact on the Athletic Department's budget.

OPINION

Let the bars be

By Ben Turpin | Jan. 27, 2010

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, may have summed it up best when he said, ""I believe it's a solution in search of a problem."" Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has revised his proposal that would prohibit bar owners and their employees from drinking while they serve alcohol so that it doesn't include entertainers (who are technically independent contractors) or those involved in sampling for quality purposes. However, said sampling would likely be limited to an indeterminate number of drinks per shift. Still, at least one revision was essential for this proposed ordinance if it was going appear plausible at all. But the question still remains: Why did Cieslewicz and Ald. Michael Schumacher, District 18 propose this ordinance in the first place?

OPINION

Reduce risk of stalking through awareness

By Sapir Sasson | Jan. 27, 2010

Does this sound familiar? For a while now, someone you know has been calling you repeatedly and inquiring about your whereabouts. Sometimes, the caller hangs up immediately after you answer the phone. You are receiving unwanted e-mails, letters and gifts. You even suspect that your e-mail and Facebook accounts are being monitored. In other words, you are being stalked.

OPINION

Fight corporations in the Constitution

By Kathy Dittrich | Jan. 25, 2010

Voter advocacy and campaign finance reform advocates are up in arms over last Thursday's Supreme Court decision that overturned legislation prohibiting corporations, unions and other special interest groups from spending their money to advocate for a specific candidate. Since the Court's controversial 5-4 ruling, talk radio waves have been abuzz with claims that the decision overturns century old restrictions on corporations, special interest groups and unions in political campaigns.

OPINION

Students should stop fretting about body image, focus on health

By Melissa Grau | Jan. 25, 2010

Apparently, ears can be sexy. I was under the ignorant impression that so long as your ears did not evoke childhood memories of Dumbo's flight, stick out from your neck, or you know, weren't there, ears were unimportant to overall attractiveness. I know, you must be thinking, ""What rock have I been living under?"" According to Heidi Montag, one of the reality celebs that make headlines by creating a ""situation,"" she did not have sexy ears until she went under the knife for 10 simultaneous procedures to perfect her body. The procedures included a neck liposuction, breast augmentation revision and a brow lift, the but for Montag, they do not seem to be enough. For now, it's the new year, new her, but she claims that surgery will still be necessary down the road.

OPINION

SPILL helps deal with mental health issues

By By Qi Gu | Jan. 24, 2010

Anything bugging you recently? Perhaps it's too early to ask that question since we're just one week into the new semester. But even minor stressors may disrupt a well-kept daily schedule and cast a shadow over your bright mood in the long run. Meeting a professional counselor just seems like making a mountain out of a mole hill. Friends, on the other hand, are already too busy riding in the fast lane of college life. That is how SPILL, an e-mail-based peer listening group, came to fill the void. Although SPILL does not provide any forms of counseling services, it offers a novel approach to the mental health of college students.

OPINION

Time to come clean on the different types of renewable energy

By By Aditya Pidaparthy | Jan. 22, 2010

Today's guest column is a response to the Green Room article ""Take a clean look at nuclear energy"" by Rachel Slaybaugh.

OPINION

Brown's win a sign of shifting momentum

By Matt Payne and Haleigh Amant | Jan. 22, 2010

The election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts Tuesday night sent tremors through the political world. A wake up call was sent to the Washington establishment that Americans were, at the very least, concerned about the direction the country was heading. A Republican was able to pull off the unthinkable by taking on the Massachusetts Democratic machine and turning a seat that was once held by none other than Ted Kennedy into a seat that sustained the filibuster and blocked any hope of health-care reform. In a state where Democrats enjoy a three-to-one advantage in terms of voter registration, how could such a high profile Democrat lose when so much was on the line?

OPINION

Labs must adhere to ethical standards

By Abby Becker and The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board | Jan. 20, 2010

After New Year's it was revealed that Federal animal welfare inspectors who visited UW in December found twenty violations on campus. Violations included dogs that did not receive adequate veterinary care despite vomiting and failing to produce urine and unsanitary operating rooms. Amidst an uproar over the ethics of animal research and an argument about whether or not UW should be participating in animal research, focus has drifted from what really plagues the UW animal research programs, namely a lack of oversight.