Left Said Tackles Divestment

April 26, 2013 by

Some will remember the commotion a few weeks back surrounding a resolution proposed to our student government that would have the university divest from American companies who profit from internationa...
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[Left Said] Reaching Across the Aisle: Bipartisanship in Today’s Politics

April 16, 2013 by

Aristotle famously called man a political animal, and much has been said about what he meant when describing man as such. It could be that man is political simply because he is social. His existence r...
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Left Said: Love of Liberty Clashes With Love of “Traditional” Families

April 2, 2013 by

It simply goes without saying that in a liberal democracy, two individuals of the opposite sex have a political right to marry one another before the state. The conversation on “marriage equality”...
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When “Chikin” Gets Political; Resist Bigoted Chikin

February 26, 2013 by

Passively, I gazed up at the menu, awaiting my turn to confess my order to the cashier. Minutes beforehand, my companion and I laughed about the thought of two staunch leftists shamelessly patronizing...
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Left Said: America’s Drone Warring With Impunity

February 19, 2013 by

For all the talk of drones and extra-judicial killing this past week, I’d like to offer the following as an exercise considering arguments that you might not hear from the Department of Justice or t...
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Colonialism Isn’t Dead Yet (Well, Not in Mali)

February 5, 2013 by

For those who have followed the situation, and even for those who haven’t, the story being told about Mali will be both convincing and familiar. It goes like this: In a part of the world known for i...
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[Left Said] President Obama: Master of Rhetoric and the Status Quo

January 29, 2013 by

Last week President Obama gave liberals the speech they wanted to hear: His rhetoric was lofty, historically conscious and unabashedly progressive. Now that the goose bumps have settled, however, we w...
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[Left Said] US Immigration Policy: Drawing the Line Between Who Gets In and Who Doesn’t

January 22, 2013 by

  Irony comes cheap in the United States. Amid the reactionary uproar defending the Second Amendment, many voices of the right avidly pointed out that no small number of what we have come to know...
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Expensive Upkeep: Why Keeping UCSB Postcard Perfect Comes at a Price for Gauchos

January 16, 2013 by

Hard to miss after three weeks away from campus is the great expanse of sky newly unobstructed after the removal of a number of trees from the perimeter of the library. Soon to replace them and presen...
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(Left Said) Abortion: When Does Life Begin And Who Decides That? Why This Debate Matters

January 15, 2013 by

I’ll start by saying that I personally feel that abortion, when resorted to for the wrong reasons, is an immoral and selfish practice. In my own case, as is true for many people, the popular rationa...
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Left Said: The Right To Bear Arms: Are America’s Gun Laws To Blame for Recent Gun Violence?

January 8, 2013 by

As the rapper Kool A.D. says, it’s hard to answer the question of guns. Firearms, while deeply ingrained in America’s collective consciousness, are deadly, and in the style of self-fulfilling prop...
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Left Said: New Wave of Violence Deepens Old Wounds (Thoughts on the Latest Attacks in the Israel-Palestine Conflict)

November 20, 2012 by

The New York Times on Sunday broadcast a video attempting to present an evenhanded explanation of the latest violence to befall the Gaza Strip. The narrator lays out the situation in tones befitting s...
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Left Said: The ‘B’ Word: Balancing America’s Budget

November 13, 2012 by

No more than a few days after the election and America’s political system already seems intent on hurtling itself toward oblivion, this time by way of the ‘fiscal cliff.’ For those who tuned out...
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Left Said: The 2012 Presidential Election: Endorsements, Predictions, and of Course, Why You Should Get to the Polls

November 6, 2012 by

  As all of us know that in order to win the presidency a candidate does not have to win a majority of the popular vote. Just ask Al Gore. Nope, thanks to the Electoral College, that old-timey in...
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The Affirmative Action Debate: Leveling the Playing Field For Future Generations

October 30, 2012 by

Left Said: Each of us can attest to the absurdity of college applications. We spend four years pursuing the highest possible GPA, taking Advanced Placement classes, playing sports, joining clubs, volu...
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