Abortion protesters descending upon Library Mall. Tim Tebow tackling his skeletal mother during the Super Bowl. Whether you're comfortable with it or not, the abortion issue is not going away. Never mind how many straddle the confused, moderate middle, the two opposing beliefs are too polarized to give up the fight.
When coming to UW-Madison, freshmen and transfer students look for new freedoms, new friends, networking and new opportunities. Unfortunately, many students are not prepared for the huge climate adjustment. And the reality hits much harder than the brutal Wisconsin winters. Minority students, including but not limited to people of color and international students, walk into a sea of white in more ways than one. Even majority students who come from very diverse cities are unprepared for Madison's campus climate. ""Campus climate"" carries various connotations on the UW-Madison campus, because the atmosphere is perceived differently between majority and minority groups.
We here at The Daily Cardinal are not big fans of eminent domain. On a case by case basis, some exceptions may seem reasonable for the public good. But the idea of the government seizing private property against citizens' will is quite frightening, particularly if the private citizens feel taken advantage of.
[In response to Kathy Dittrich's Feb. 15 article ""Hypocrisy shines in Shorewood Hills]
When I first moved to Madison four years ago, all the upperclassmen I knew would consistently tell me that State Street just wasn't what it used to be when they were freshmen. The UW alums I've met all say the same thing. State Street just isn't the same.
There are admittedly many problems facing student tenants in Madison, ranging from dirty apartments with barely functioning refrigerators, to poor responses to maintenance calls, to the ubiquitous wrongful withholding of deposits for unsubstantiated reasons.
Due to the protests, the growing number of people involved, and the controversial convention last week, the so-called Tea Party movement is getting more and more difficult to ignore. But who are these people and what do they really stand for? In a late January survey, 40 percent of respondents said that they either had not heard of the movement or did not know enough about it to form an opinion. Granted, this poll was conducted before the recent National Tea Party Convention, but that event did not really provide any more definitive information about this group than was already available.
Now that this year's rental rush is, for the most part, over, it's important to begin reflecting on your current living situation. Things probably aren't as rosy as you thought they would be when you decided to sign the lease on your apartment or house.
After reading Mr. Payne's editorial, I couldn't help but laugh, in disgust.
Last week the Dane County Board of Supervisors took up its old habit of sticking its nose where it doesn't belong. When voting to endorse the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in 2007, the Dane County Board showed they couldn't care less about wasting time on issues in which they have absolutely no role. Now they have decided to pry into UW-Madison primate research. Twenty supervisors, including the board's District 5 student representative Wyndham Manning, are questioning the ability of the university's All Campus Animal Care and Use Committee to objectively supervise the university's research efforts.
For a couple of months controversy has been stirring over a proposed housing development just west of campus in the Village of Shorewood Hills. Shorewood Hills is a community of approximately 630 mostly single-family homes that border the west shore of Lake Mendota. It's no secret in Madison that Shorewood Hills is full of wealthy liberals, whose homes lie on perfectly manicured lawns along streets named after Ivy League institutions.
Last week, Metro bus driver John Nelson became a household name in Madison for his 2009 paycheck of $159,258. It's twice the median income of a Madison household plus a nice used car. While arguments over whether Nelson deserves all this are pointless, the number does dig up some deep issues in the Metro Transit System.
As we wrap up our week of op-eds dedicated to science education in America, it feels like we should have some grandiose assessment to make about the state of science. Some sort of condemnation or proclamation should be issued, something that tells us exactly where we are and where we should go in the future.
The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates' Oversight Committee held its final meeting last week, deliberating which 114 proposals to suggest Chancellor Biddy Martin fund. On its face, the meeting's intelligent discussion and probing analyses would have satisfied the standards expected of a group proposing to spend $6.2 million in our tuition. Unfortunately, it happened to be preceded by at least four other closed-door sessions that have shrouded the entire process in secrecy and suspicion. UW officials eventually announced they were opening the Committee's final meeting after intense pressures, but instead of admitting wrongdoing, they agreed to open the meetings ""in the spirit of transparency and openness."" How thoughtful.
Earlier this week, fellow Daily Cardinal opinion writer Anthony Cefali posed a question: ""How do we inspire our science program to shoot for the moon, or at least our own modern equivalent?"" Well, we think we have an answer.
President Barack Obama has plenty of controversial work before him. He is attempting to finish two expensive wars, pass health insurance reform and end ""don't ask, don't tell."" In a country with a devastatingly powerful moderate majority, Obama must pick and choose his political battles, pushing for some liberal issues and coasting through with other moderate proposals.
As we take a week to reflect on science education in America, I'd like to take a look back at my fondest memories of my personal science education.
With all the discussion of Charles Darwin's bicentennial over the last year, we kept hearing about the conflict between evolution and religion. It sometimes seems that the entire question of whether religion is reasonable turns on whether evolution happened, and the entire question of whether to accept that evolution happened depends on whether one wants to reject the existence of God. In these polarized discussions, it is worth asking why, if he believed evolution happened, wasn't Darwin an atheist?
Late last week, scientists at CERN announced they would be turning the Large Hadron Collider back on. The world's largest physics experiment broke down shortly after its first test runs in 2008 and has only been tested once since then. Unfortunately, the LHC will operate at half power for the next two years before being turned off yet again for another year's worth of repairs.
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