Opinion - The Daily Cardinal

OPINION

Sanctions on Iran working

By by Zac Pestine | Oct. 14, 2012

The back and forth dialogue regarding the Iranian nuclear threat between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama has been dragging on for quite some time. On one side, Israel faces an existential threat if Iran successfully develops nuclear arms. This fear has led Prime Minister Netanyahu to call for red lines that Iran cannot cross without facing military rebuttal by the United States, Europe and Israel. But President Obama and the international community have been loath to set these lines before nonviolent sanctions on the Iranian economy have been completely exhausted. Though Iran is determined to press on with its nuclear program, it is evident that these sanctions are proving effective in crippling the Iranian economy.

OPINION

Letter: Free enterprise should dictate the economy

By By: Zachary Walters | Oct. 11, 2012

How can we compare apples to oranges? Yes, they may both be fruit, but other than that they do not share anything in common. One is red, and the other is orange. Also, they taste completely different. In the same manner, we can compare President Obama and Governor Romney. They are both presidential candidates, but other than that they are polar opposites. Their stark differences are especially illustrated through their policies on the economy.

OPINION

Union battles get Walker’s attention

By By: Jacob Lestock | Oct. 11, 2012

Following an extremely controversial year of politics revolving around unions’ collective bargaining rights, a much more public battle of union rights has erupted in America’s beloved professional sports leagues. As many already know, a few weeks ago the NFL finally came to an agreement on union negotiations for the referees. What was originally a lockout based on the refs’ pension plans quickly snowballed into a widespread pro-union call to action as fans across the country, ironically including our union-busting governor, showed their support for the locked-out officials. To everyone’s relief, the “real” refs were brought back following one of the most controversial calls of the season that led many Wisconsinites to officially disown former Badger Russell Wilson.

OPINION

Johnson’s policies offer real change

By Jake Witz and By: Steven Nemcek | Oct. 11, 2012

Last week I wrote an article bashing President Barack Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney, and I characterized them as center-right fascists with so much policy overlap as to be almost farcical. Almost. I promised I would write about an alternative candidate, one who is also on the ballot in 47 states, with the exception of Oklahoma, Michigan and Pennsylvania. In those last three states, challenges are currently in place to put him on the ballot. This man’s name is Gary Johnson. In my mind, he is the only qualified candidate running for the office of the presidency, and he is certainly the most rational.

CAMPUS NEWS

Letter: Student input at forum could help university’s diversity struggles

By By: Justin Bloesch | Oct. 10, 2012

This Friday, Oct. 12, the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be hosting its biannual Diversity Forum. The Diversity Forum is a place for students, staff, faculty and administration to discuss the challenges that UW-Madison faces regarding race, religion, sexuality, gender identity and social class. All students are welcome to attend, and student input is crucial for helping determine UW policy for diversity in the coming years.

CAMPUS NEWS

Obama’s racial comments should not be condoned

By By: Steven Nemcek | Oct. 10, 2012

While 30,000 individuals saw fit to flood Bascom Hill last Thursday to see Presidnet Barack Obama, there were a number of staff and students that weren’t so enamored. The Daily Cardinal ran an article earlier this week discussing Professor Mayer’s and Professor Downs’ opposition to the visit; namely, political events taking place on school grounds were prohibited by the university’s own policies (an argument which Vice Chancellor for University Relations Vince Sweeney thought fit to completely sweep under the rug), classes were cancelled for which students had already paid and professors were forced to take a vacation day during the event. In addition, the requirement that students provide their phone numbers to the campaign to receive a ticket was controversial.

OPINION

Cutting funding for public television and radio is pointless

By By: Evan Favill | Oct. 10, 2012

I never thought I’d see the day when “Sesame Street” became the center point of American political discourse, but thanks to the controversy spurred by Mitt Romney over federal funding for National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Station, I now get to experience Big Bird being the star of a major Obama campaign advertisement. First, let me say that while this ad somewhat misses the point and strikes me as fairly immature—not to mention is unfair to the copyright holders of “Sesame Street”—it raises an interesting point when you consider the role public broadcasting has in America. It is a medium that should not be maligned and ignored if America wishes to gain standing in the world of education and self-motivated learning.

CAMPUS NEWS

Diversity requirements need changing

By The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board | Oct. 10, 2012

Last week, the Associated Students of Madison Diversity committee met to discuss possible changes to the ethnic studies requirement in the UW-Madison undergraduate curriculum. The ASM Diversity Committee hopes to pressure administrators to expand the requirement and make classes more relevant to students, and this editorial board agrees that changes are desperately needed.

OPINION

Abortion protests gut check passers-by with abrasive displays

By by Noah Phillips | Oct. 8, 2012

Last week, in the days leading up to President Obama’s visit, Library Mall played host to a group of traveling protesters known as The Genocide Awareness Project. With their colossal, sickening images of aborted fetuses, their stay was marked not so much by controversy (at least in my circles) as by umbrage, disgust and deep loathing. In this article I don’t want to address the message behind this display (that abortion is unethical). Instead I want to pick apart their shock tactic and elaborate my gut feelings of contempt for these people.

OPINION

Help America by voting

By By: Mitch Taylor | Oct. 8, 2012

Once or twice during our perfectly normal Thursday last week, the students of the University of Wisconsin-Madison were told about the importance of voting. This is a message that becomes rather old each election season, and I swear if one more person asks me if I’m registered to vote, I’m moving to the Himalayas and becoming a hermit. Despite the prevalence of this message, voter turnout for citizens under the age of 25 rarely exceeds 50 percent and even dipped to a dismal 20 percent in the 2010 elections.

OPINION

NCAA Athletes should be paid their due

By Jon Spike and by Michael Brost | Oct. 8, 2012

Last year, Joe Nocera—an opinion columnist for the New York Times—wrote an enlightening series of articles on the extractive practices and rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, of which the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a member.

OPINION

New police safety fees jeopardize the right to free speech

By by Kate Krebs | Oct. 7, 2012

The Madison Police Department has enacted new rules surrounding public protesting and high-volume gatherings in the city. They ask that events requesting additional police involvement to maintain safety pay a fee of $31.79 per officer, with a two hour minimum, and $15 extra per squad car. Any overtime is charged at one and a half times the officers’ pay rate plus benefits.

CAMPUS NEWS

UW should release details of obama rally

By The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board | Oct. 7, 2012

When the Obama administration announced last week President Barack Obama would be speaking on campus, many students waited to hear from their professors about the status of their Thursday classes.

OPINION

The First Amendment pushes America forward

By By Nikki Stout | Oct. 4, 2012

The First Amendment is one of those rare things that the general population feels quite strongly about, the sound of such a feeling being a unified, “YES!” Maybe because it validates our personal freedoms, maybe because it allows us the courage to voice an unpopular position, or maybe because it’s the key ideal as to why we are allowed to be who we are. Whatever personal reason one may have for their love of free speech, religion, press, protest and petition, generally speaking, it’s a nationally accepted good. Beyond obvious reasons as to why we’re crazy about our most important constitutional rights, such as, well, not being thrown in jail for disliking the president, the First Amendment allows us the elasticity to individualize, yet maintains the strength to unite us through its power.

CAMPUS NEWS

SLAC needs to provide solutions instead of whining

By By: Nick Fritz | Oct. 4, 2012

Most student organizations here at UW-Madison provide a great service for the students and community. Yes, there are some student orgs like the Slappy Skateboard Club or the Wisconsin Lawn Sports Club that were created for fun, but they don’t bother anyone. Unless, of course, as a child, the neighbor boy beat you with a croquet mallet and now you are emotionally scarred because of it. In that case WLSC may upset you to some degree.

CAMPUS NEWS

Gender studies should be required

By By: Jacob Riederer | Oct. 4, 2012

We live in a world where people of different genders, sexual orientations and gender identities interact on a daily basis. Thus, gender and its components are a large and important part of our daily lives. Currently at UW-Madison, however, courses in gender studies are not required for all majors and many students graduate without taking a single gender studies class. This is surprising for an institution that prides itself on offering a well-rounded and diverse educational experience for all. As a result, I believe if UW wants to provide a truly balanced and adequate educational experience, then it must institute a gender studies requirement for all students.

CAMPUS NEWS

Annoying people on State Street aren’t as bad as you think

By By: Morgan Haefner | Oct. 3, 2012

Okay, I know, we all dislike them. Yes, I’m registered to vote. No, I will not sign up to be saved by the grace of God. Better yet, here’s my silent pass-by. You can’t grab my attention if I’m hiding behind this bulky scarf.

OPINION

Social media could help end bullying

By By: Jon Shapiro | Oct. 3, 2012

School seminars are devoted to preventing bullying, as is extensive news coverage and several educational films. Still, it persists in spite of all of the condemnation it receives. UW-Madison recently conducted a study in which researchers taught a computer to scan the social networking site Twitter to identify bullying-related tweets. About 15,000 of them were tied to bullying. As seen in many cases today, though bullying used to be a face-to-face encounter, it is now digitized and depersonalized. The thing that keeps most people from bullying, the reason why they don’t terrorize and taunt others at will, is an inability to face their victims. Social networking takes this barrier completely away from the situation and allows for bullying to take place from behind a curtain.

OPINION

U.S. should follow Canada’s lead and get rid of the pointless penny

By By: Evan Favill | Oct. 2, 2012

Who among us remembers heading down to the grocery store and picking up a postcard for a penny? No? A stick of gum? There’s just not too much out there that can be bought with those little scraps of copper-plated zinc lying around taking up space in your spare change jar. Personally, I keep them handy for when I want to buy a cup of coffee and my total’s just a wee bit north of a nice round number. But let’s face it, there’s very little that screams “Convenience!” in your ear when you load up your coin purse and/or pockets with a bunch of pennies. That goes for any kind of coin really, but I find carrying around five nickels is much more preferable then 25 pennies. So really, there’s nothing particularly useful that can be done with pennies on their own without hurting your back lugging them around in a duffel bag, besides spitefully paying a parking ticket. The way I see it, the time has come to do away with this outmoded chunk of metal and upgrade to a better business model.

OPINION

Obama and Romney are too close for comfort

By By: Steven Nemcek | Oct. 2, 2012

The website politicalcompass.org has mapped out the 2012 presidential candidates on its grid based on all elements of their policy, and the results should horrify anyone who bothers to look. On the organization’s graph of political positions, they have a scale of the political “left” and the political “right” on the x-axis and authoritarian and libertarian on the y-axis. On the graph, the points representing Obama and Romney nearly overlap, which should send a strong message to voters; whatever happens this election cycle, nothing is going to change. The policies advocated for by the executive of the United States, for all practical purposes, will be nearly identical. Also, because both candidates represent right-of-center authoritarian viewpoints, with Romney being a smidgen more right and more authoritarian than Obama, civil rights activists, libertarians and other espousers of freedom should be worried.