Opinion

February 8, 2012

Unplugging: Good for the Planet, Good for Your Wallet

By Lauren Barnum

“You look better with the lights off” — admittedly, the catchy chorus of this terrible pop song is not the most lyrically tasteful, but it may be sending just the message I’m trying to deliver. While some may arg...

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 8, 2012

“I’m Rooting for Peyton Manning”

By Elizabeth Brooks

Watching the Super Bowl for girls is like watching the WNBA … for anyone. We hate it, we really do. But we’d never tell you that. In fact, we spend our entire Super Bowl Sunday attempting to show you how much we like...

February 7, 2012

A Regular Sleep Schedule Solidifies Your Chances of Success

By Kevin Ferguson

Let’s be real. Everybody loves sleep. That isn’t our problem. Our problem is the difficulty of having a structurally sound and solid sleeping pattern. Sleep is a vital ingredient to winning at college, and just like ...

February 7, 2012

Why You Should Trust the Cops Over the Door-to-Door Salesman

By Mark Signa

It’s a natural instinct to trust people. And I don’t mean the Kaa staring into Mowgli with those googly eyes singing, “Trusssst in me … ” kind of trust. Frankly, as a kid, that just freaked me out. I’m talkin...

February 6, 2012

Theft: An Epidemic Rampant in Isla Vista

By Michael S., Carl P.

The Isla Vista Beachfront at sunset is tantalizing, but do not be fooled! When the sun goes down, the trouble begins. When your mother said “nothing good happens after 12 A.M.” she was right! Have you ever had anythi...

February 6, 2012

Roommateships with BFFs

By Maya Salmon

Valentine’s Day isn’t just for romantic relationships. Community Housing Office (CHO) is going to take this time to address some of those other wonderful relationships in your life- your friends! Does Best Friend = B...

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 6, 2012

Why the iPhone Will Never Carry That ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ Stamp

By Riley Schenck

Two weeks ago, the New York Times published a report entitled “How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work,” detailing how Apple went from manufacturing most of its products in the United States in 2002 to today, where virt...

February 1, 2012

Are Eastern religions a good alternative to Western ones?

By Brian Gallagher, Connor Oakes, Zoltan Mester

If you ask Rick Santorum he’d say no, because Christianity is the only true way a human should live — there is no “good alternative” to the truth. And if you ask a devout Buddhist which is better, Eastern or West...

February 1, 2012

“I’m Not a Slut, I Swear” and Other Bedroom Mantras

By Elizabeth Brooks

“Shit Girls Say” started an epidemic. I just watched “Shit People Say About Shit People Say Videos” for a solid minute and 39 seconds; yeah, it’s gotten to that point. But you know what they don’t have? A “...

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...

February 1, 2012

What Does Go On Beneath Storke Tower?

By Jana Barrett, Jenna Ryan

The Opinion page is a place of controversial thought and discourse. It is rarely the moderate thinker or the complacent observer who chooses to write in, as demonstrated by the Jan. 11 letter to the editor that led to th...

January 30, 2012

Obama’s State of the Union Ignores State of Disarray

By Jeffrey Robin

Last Tuesday, President Barack Obama — in one of his few acknowledgements that he still has an obligation to obey the Constitution — delivered his 3rd State of the Union address before both houses of Congress. Entitl...

January 30, 2012

Presidential Address Calls for Equality, Accountability

By Geoffrey Bell

The President’s State of the Union address was a laudable effort to get the country back on track by outlining agreeable and necessary policy proposals for the following year and resetting the agenda and language with ...