Opinion

Caught in the glare of flashy headlines, it seems that in the last few months the Irvine 11 case has been swept up in a whirlwind of sensationalism. Glamorized rhetoric either deifies the Irvine 11 or demonizes them, with little substance actually dedicated to any underlying issues.

Late last month the city council of West Hollywood passed a bill that made the sale of fur in their local businesses illegal. As usual in today’s day and age, what should have been a local stride for progress has turned into a maelstrom of opinion pieces and scathing articles in publications statewide.

It sounded promising, the loud drum rhythm outside my office window. The first day of class and already the protests against tuition hikes were beginning! At least that’s what I fantasized. Of course, the drums did not represent an opening salvo of a full-blown protest movement against the huge raise in tuition once again imposed on UC students as they begin a new year. It was just a student organization looking to attract passers-by to its table along Ring Road.

Nearly 10 years after the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, it is now trite to say the conflict is attributable to Pakistan. Besides the widespread corruption in the Afghan government, the other main problem that is also widely reported is the Pakistan government’s double game of attacking the Afghan insurgency while allowing them support bases in Pakistan to which the insurgents can go to rest, rearm and train.

Could it be possible that our parents were not entirely right when they told us that video games were pointless and did nothing more than turn our brain to mush? According to an exciting new development in the field of molecular biology, the answer to that question just might be “yes.”

Recently, the Palestinian Authority promised to request a bid for statehood from the United Nations, which would mean the U.N. would officially recognize Palestine as an independent state. The proposal recently sparked a debate throughout the world as to whether declaring Palestine an independent nation is a victory for the Arab world, or a slap in the face toward Israel.

Thanks to North Carolina, we are caught in the marriage debate crossfire, yet again. On one side, people are trying to preserve the sanctity of marriage. On the other, people believe that same-sex couples should have equal marriage rights. Both provide valid (and some not-so-valid) points. Both are adamant that they are 100 percent correct. Both annoy me when they put flyers on my car windshield. Neither will back down. Clearly, there is only one solution to this age-old debate: to ban heterosexual marriage.

Global warming is not a question nor is it a debate in terms of existence. Carbon dioxide levels have skyrocketed in an age that where the multitasking human being is burning a mind-boggling amount of fossil fuel per day than ever before.

Two weeks ago, the U.S. Census Bureau released an alarming report regarding the economic well-being of Americans. According to the release, 15.1 percent of people in the world’s largest economy with one of the highest per-capita income rates in the world are below the poverty line. Before jumping to alarmist conclusions, let’s look into the details of how the 15.1 percent number was built, its implications, and finally examine education as a way of addressing the issue.

“Really? No NBA season? No Lakers games?” Those were the first thoughts that went through my head this summer when the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement expired and the owners locked out the players. That was July 1. The NFL lockout was still going on, but that ended on July 25. That alleviated my fears; “Ok, if the NFL can make a deal, so can the NBA.”

The problem with Facebook is that it updates so often. The corporate creative team believes they are doing users a service by streamlining the Facebook experience but what they have not stopped to realize is how attached people truly are to Facebook and when something becomes intrinsic to your daily routine even the slightest change can make users go mad.

Free coupons, apparel and entertainment are frequently thrust upon us as UC Irvine students, for which we should be grateful. But at what point do we stray from parsimonious and move toward downright cheap?