Opinion

“Sunny day, everything’s A-OK…” Who among us can hear these optimistic words without being transported back to a simpler time? A time of learning the alphabet, counting along to catchy tune, loving milk and cookie, and the monsters that devour them? For 40 years, the average childhood has been tinted with the rosy hues of “Sesame Street.”

The very first article I ever wrote for the New University was about how Fox News purports crazy ideas and mistruths. I love when things come full circle.

I was surprised to read in the last issue of the New University a headline that read, “UC Irvine Muslim Student Union Under Investigation.” The article claimed that the MSU was to be investigated – by the FBI no less – for fundraising for Hamas. Call me forgetful, but I don’t recall ever getting that memo. The ludicrousness of this accusation was explained when my eyes fell on a single name – the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).

The island nation of Tuvalu is just one of many in the South Pacific. There’s nothing terribly unusual about it, except that its annual GDP (gross domestic product, or the final value of all goods and services produced within a country’s borders) is less than Kobe Bryant’s $20 million yearly paycheck.

Things are getting serious, folks. The recession is ending for some on Wall Street, but people are still losing their homes. The University system in California is on the brink of collapse. There are wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and sectarian violence the world over. Here in the US, the government seems unable to either spend its way out of recession or raise taxes to pay for it all.

“Three strikes” is not just associated with the sport of baseball. “Three strikes laws” are also statutes enacted by state governments. They require state courts to hand down a mandatory and extended period of incarceration to people who have been convicted of a serious offense on three or more separate occasions. In California, the three strikes law, enacted in 1994, makes the punishment for committing the third strike a 25 years to life sentence in jail.

When you get on an airplane, where does the biggest threat come from? From the mumbling, abnormally stiff gentleman to your right who requests seat belt extensions? Perhaps it comes from the bearded fellow with the exotic name. Maybe it comes from a crying infant who threatens your sleep, or a flight attendant whom you nagged incessantly and now wants to poison your food! Actually, the biggest problem with air travel can sometimes be the pilots themselves.

It seems as if University of California President, Mark Yudof, has finally found some support. After coming under harsh criticism for months on end for his proposed increase in tuition and recent faculty lay-offs, Yudof found comfort at Sunnyside High School in Fresno, California. Yudof addressed the student body about his new plan to help Californian students pay for college.

MEDIA: Neil Thakor challenges a new FTC regulation that attempts to stop conflicts of interests on blogs.

FOOD: Adrian Wong discusses the habitat destruction, pollution and death involved in meat consumption.

EQUALITY: Jon Wong recounts the cross-generational progress shown in LGBT marches in Washington DC.

WALL STREET: Brock Cutler discusses the bonuses and the false earnings of America’s biggest payout.