Opinion

Recession? Turndown? Complete collapse? What should we call the current state of our economy? If it's not a depression, it sure is depressing. Chalmers Johnson, founder of the Japan Policy Research Institute and a former CIA analyst, has been saying for years that the United States has little to no national industry. The only thing that the U.S. currently has to offer the world, he claims, is war and the machines to make it. By that rubric, our current economic depression might not be as bad as we think. Since the bottom dropped out of the U.S. economy in October, every branch of the U.S. armed services has reported windfall recruitment surges. The economy is getting so bad, it seems, that the hells of Iraq and Afghanistan seem better than the purgatory of unemployment. It is boom times indeed for the wagers of war.

The debate on abortion can never yield a winner. Giving people the right to have an abortion never feels like a victory since it allows for the snuffing out of potential lives. Taking away the right to abortion is even less appealing because we attack rights pertaining to reproduction, a gift bestowed by evolution. Taking away the right to abortion also forces children into already overcrowded families and into the arms of parents who may do considerably more harm than good. Our new president is taking the best possible steps in terms of both his policies and the manner in which he is treating the issue.

Broke bankers; "refugee run" at Davos; black the new black, survey says; Blagojevich grasps at straws.

Illinois impeaches Blago; Neo-Nazis clean up highway in Kansas; Navy trains Flipper to hunt scuba-diving terrorists; all House Republicans vote against stimulus package (which passes anyways).

Almuni Warns that UC Board of Regents Proposal Harms Us All; Green That's Too Extreme: Failing to Understand Your Audience; Relationship Educator Finds Divorce Article Touching

President Barack Obama gave his first interview since he's taken office to Al-Arabiya, a Saudi news network on Jan. 26. There is no doubt that the move was both impressive and constructive. The old face of imperialism, which characterized the Bush administration, has left some hope for change in our relations with the Arab world. President Obama has kept some notable promises since he has taken oath, namely closing down the infamous Guantanamo Bay and meeting with the war cabinet to discuss the withdrawal of troops in Iraq by May 2010. He has made it clear that he'll hold the age-old mantra of "Peace in the Middle East" to his name.

A day in Israel starts just like any day in America: The sun rises, you eat breakfast, say "good morning" to your family and sit down at the table. However, the only real difference is the occasional missile that might strike your house, or your neighbor's house, at any given minute. But here, trivial things like rocket launchings do not affect us. CNN does not cover it; media reports include the new president's first dance and a man talking to a squirrel, but not the constant rocket attacks barraging Israel.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently released a sobering new study that found climate change and human damage to the global environment to be essentially irreversible.

Last week President Barack Obama directed regulators to move forward on approving applications made by California and 13 other states to set strict auto emission and fuel standards.

Comedian: Writer Doesn't Get the Value of "Comedy Juice College Night"

Oh, it has been an interesting seven years at the top, hasn't it? However, seven years is not a direct reference to the Bush administration's two terms in power, but to Fox News' reign as the number one cable news channel — a title that has absolutely everything to do with the outgoing president and the coverage he received by the so-called "fair and balanced" network. It seems as if Sept. 11 was the push that Fox News needed to get its slimy head completely out of the womb and into the ass of Bush Jr. Ever since, the two entities have enjoyed an effortless, co-dependent and totally platonic romance that went something like this...

The world witnessed twin milestones last year. Barack Obama was elected the first African-American president in the history of the United States and, for the first time, over one-half of the world's population lived in the city.