Outside Opinions

February 22, 2012

Responses to Ask an Atheist: Interpreting the Bible as Gay-Friendly

By Adrian Gusland

Regardless of your views on the Bible, I think most readers would agree that without context, interpretation of any text loses most of its validity. I’d imagine that we all have experienced that awkward moment when our...

February 22, 2012

Responses to Ask an Atheist: Interpreting the Bible as Gay-Friendly

By Robby Vaughn

Here’s a gay-friendly interpretation of the Bible from a Christian: The Bible says that homosexual relations is a sin in the same way that heterosexual sexual relations is a sin outside of marriage. The famous verse us...

February 21, 2012

Legalization Could Help Put End to Rampant Overdose

By David Washington

After Whitney Houston’s sudden death last Saturday, Tony Bennett didn’t hesitate to publicly make the link to drugs that many suspected. At a Grammy pre-party, the 85-year-old addict in recovery stated: “First it w...

February 15, 2012

He Said: Next Valentine’s Day, Think in Terms of What Would Whitney Do?

By Anonymous

If you, like me, spend an inordinate amount of time agonizing over the fate of divahood in American pop culture, this weekend was pretty tough on you too. Whitney, this one’s for you. In honor of the great Mrs. Bobby B...

February 10, 2012

Response to Ask an Atheist: The Truth About Christianity

By Emily Badraun

In the article “Are Eastern religions a good alternative to Western ones?,” one of the authors, Brian Gallagher, made many assertions about Christianity that were inaccurate and misconstrued the teachings of Christia...

February 8, 2012

Help Give Every Child the Opportunity of an Education

By Lance Tackett

As a teacher at West Charlotte High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, I taught an incredibly talented, intelligent group of ninth graders. But when they entered my classroom on the first day of school, they were, on a...

February 6, 2012

Keep Cyclists Safe While They Keep Your Gas Prices Low

By Phyllis Sladek

I’d like to express my heartfelt thanks to Nicholas Winger, Nico Cervantes and the unidentified others who came to my aid when I crashed my bicycle during my (successful) attempt to avoid impact with a vehicle driven b...

February 6, 2012

The Wednesday Hump: Heternormativity at Its Finest

By Anonymous

I enjoy the crude humor and candid tone of the Wednesday Hump just as much as any Gaucho. However, what strikes me most about this column is its sense of exclusivity. It’s about one thing and one thing only: heterosexu...

February 1, 2012

UCSB Student Steps Off Bike as UCPD Steps Up Enforcement

By Christian Platt

Last Friday started off great. After waking up at 8 a.m. to no alarm on a clear, sunny day, I threw on some workout clothes, grabbed my bike and headed out the door toward the Rec Cen. A typical ride through I.V. with fe...

January 30, 2012

Regain Your Grip on Reality by Dropping the Digital Dependency

By Anonymous

Perception. It’s a hard word to define, especially from an individual standpoint. How one person perceives things is different from how another person does. The only fact about perception is that we all have our own vi...

January 26, 2012

Yes, UCSB, Your Government Is Listening To You

By Opinion Editor

Most college students are pretty unhappy with Congress right about now and rightfully so. With huge cuts to education and high unemployment especially among recent college graduates, the Republican majority in Congress i...

January 25, 2012

Politics: Like Reality Shows, You Signed Up For This

By Corie Anderson

I don’t consider myself to be an overly or outwardly judgmental person. However, there are certain occasions where I condone judging. The first is reality television. Whenever I find myself watching “The Bachelor” ...

January 25, 2012

Ask An Atheist Unfairly, Inappropriately Attacks Christianity

By Steven Begakis

Reading last Thursday’s “Ask an Atheist” column was saddening for me as a Christian who knows the writers of both columns and knows they are consciously writing lies about the Christian faith with the express inten...

January 25, 2012

Alcohol Consumption No Excuse for Excessive Violence

By Kelly Nassour

One night at a party in Isla Vista I came upon a scene in which some asshole was threatening a seemingly innocent girl and consequently pissing off the wrong people. Needless to say, he got punched in the face. While he ...

January 23, 2012

Commerical Assault of the UCen Disrupts Student Downtime

By Navid Ebrahimzadeh

You have an hour between classes. It’s a slightly awkward period of time and you’ve got a decision to make: You can either return home briefly, only to rush back to school, or stick around and find a way to occupy th...

January 20, 2012

Regain Your Life’s Focus by Living Outrageously

By Connor Hastings

This letter is going to be about a fictional character, who shall be given the arbitrary name of Aspen Shorelion. Young Aspen is a freshman at UCSB, and he’s feeling a bit lost. It so happens that he doesn’t know wha...