Opinion

A couple of weeks ago, sex specialist Dr. Laura Berman told millions of mothers across the nation on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to buy vibrators for their 14 to 16 year-old daughters. Vibrators? Seriously? Why are we trying to make kids grow up so fast? What happened to the days when all you had to worry about in high school was being in the house before the streetlights came on? Or who you were "going out" with that week, even though you actually didn't go anywhere and when you did, you were hopefully supervised or had strict restrictions? What is even more shocking is that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Plan B, also known as the morning after pill, for 17-year-olds without parental permission or a prescription.

In the past, many ASUCI proposals seem to have been tailor-made to benefit only specific groups, but this year ASUCI made huge strides with its UC Irvine Stimulus Package Referendum proposal. The referendum was amazingly inclusive, offering to financially assist groups ranging from multicultural programs to the Greek system to student media. Yet, ask any of your fellow Anteaters if the proposal passed and the most honest answer they will be able to give you is, "I don't know." Likewise, the same could be said for four out of five executive positions, which are also currently undecided.

Orange County is home to some of the worst charities in the nation. How can a charity be bad, you ask, with wide-eyed innocence? The answer is based on the amount charities actually spend on their respective causes relative to how much funding they actually raise. The Association for Police and Sheriffs in Fullerton managed to spend only 4 percent of its funds while the Association for Fire Fighters and Paramedics in Santa Ana spends a mind-blowing 2 percent of its support on the actual cause, according to Charity Navigator, the nation's largest evaluator of charities.

UC Irvine generally does a great job of welcoming students. Lately, however, as I've followed those springtime campus tours around, I've noticed one thing that is wrong. Cheerful and otherwise well-prepared docents offer a problematic picture to potential Anteaters and their parents. Last week, a jolly tour guide stood under a tree and assured everybody that Academic Senate faculty members teach all classes at UCI.

In 2007, in the decision of Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the court ordered the agency to determine whether heat-trapping gasses harmed the environment and/or public health. The agency's findings were unanimous in determining that heat-trapping gases caused incredible harm to both the environment and to public health.

ASUCI Executive Vice Presidential Candidate Responds; Reader Argues that Candidates Have the Wrong Focus; Past Lawsuit Renders Election Spending Caps Unlawful; AGS President Criticizes Apathy, Not Spending Caps

David Denby, the resident film critic at the New Yorker, has been, for several months now, making the rounds on National Public Radio and other media outlets to schill his book, "Snark: It's Mean, It's Personal and It's Ruining Our Conversation." The subject of Denby's book, in case it isn't clear enough, is snark.

"We say that this fake regime [Israel] cannot logically continue to live. Open the doors [of Europe] and let the Jews go back to their own countries."

Four months after President Barack Obama signaled his intention to close down the military camp at Guantanamo Bay, a confidential Red Cross report was published that described in gruesome detail the horrors that took place there and at other black sites abroad. Water boarding, forced standing, beatings with collars, confinement in a box, prolonged nudity and food deprivation are just some of the egregious crimes that took place at these sites. These are the unfathomed events that Red Cross doctors helped administer. These are the measures that former Vice President Dick Cheney justified and deemed necessary to protect the country. However, these actions are downright unacceptable.

While searching for a birthday gift for my (now 9-year-old) sister two months ago, I went straight to the clothing store Limited Too's Web site because I loved shopping there when I was younger and thought it would be a great location to find cute Capri pants, witty graphic tees and trendy cut denim. To my surprise, the store has changed quite drastically from when I used to shop there in the mid-to-late 1990s.

When considering running for an executive position in ASUCI, there are a few standard questions you need to ask yourself: Do I have the experience? Do I have the time? And can I do the job? Unfortunately, here at UC Irvine, another question candidates must ask themselves is, "Can I afford it?"

Studies have shown that we humans take only 100 milliseconds to make up our minds about a stranger. Personality, talent, intelligence and all the other traits that make us unique individuals are lost. We judge people on nothing more than the arrangement of their features. No matter how many times we are told not to "judge a book by its cover," beginning with the saccharine children's programs we have grown up with, we remain stubbornly shallow.