Michael Dean

April 26, 2013

Left Said Tackles Divestment

By Michael Dean

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 internationally recognized human...

April 16, 2013

[Left Said] Reaching Across the Aisle: Bipartisanship in Today’s Politics

By Michael Dean

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 requires the presence...

April 2, 2013

Left Said: Love of Liberty Clashes With Love of “Traditional” Families

By Michael Dean

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” ends there, though ...

February 26, 2013

When “Chikin” Gets Political; Resist Bigoted Chikin

By Michael Dean

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 a restaurant that e...

February 19, 2013

Left Said: America’s Drone Warring With Impunity

By Michael Dean

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 the U.S. Senate or ev...

February 5, 2013

Colonialism Isn’t Dead Yet (Well, Not in Mali)

By Michael Dean

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 instability, terroris...

January 29, 2013

[Left Said] President Obama: Master of Rhetoric and the Status Quo

By Michael Dean

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 will have to wait and...

January 22, 2013

[Left Said] US Immigration Policy: Drawing the Line Between Who Gets In and Who Doesn’t

By Michael Dean

  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 as totalitarian sta...

January 16, 2013

Expensive Upkeep: Why Keeping UCSB Postcard Perfect Comes at a Price for Gauchos

By Michael Dean

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 presently queued along the...

January 15, 2013

(Left Said) Abortion: When Does Life Begin And Who Decides That? Why This Debate Matters

By Michael Dean

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 rational for abortion is in...

January 8, 2013

Left Said: The Right To Bear Arms: Are America’s Gun Laws To Blame for Recent Gun Violence?

By Michael Dean

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 prophecy, they beget tra...

November 20, 2012

Left Said: New Wave of Violence Deepens Old Wounds (Thoughts on the Latest Attacks in the Israel-Palestine Conflict)

By Michael Dean

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 such tragedy, taking ...

November 13, 2012

Left Said: The ‘B’ Word: Balancing America’s Budget

By Michael Dean

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 after Obama’s vic...

November 6, 2012

Left Said: The 2012 Presidential Election: Endorsements, Predictions, and of Course, Why You Should Get to the Polls

By Michael Dean

  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 institution created to...

October 30, 2012

The Affirmative Action Debate: Leveling the Playing Field For Future Generations

By Michael Dean

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, volunteering and of cour...

October 16, 2012

Left Said: Guns and Drone Strikes: How Obama Is Not Passive

By Michael Dean

During presidential campaigns we often forget that, despite acting to the contrary, America is not the center of the world. As a superpower — I would argue imperial power — the U.S. values the lives of Westerners ove...