Browsing: Points of View

It may sound shocking to say that I’m thankful for the “1 percent.” But I am. One of many wise things I learned from my parents is to always be thankful for the blessings you have, because you never know when they will be taken away.

It’s easy to succumb to the temptation of demonizing rich people simply because they have more money, better seats for the football game and nicer cars. We are all guilty of it at some point.

The media does it when they talk about Mitt Romney as a “vampire capitalist,” while claiming his millions in charitable donations were “ungenerous” because they mostly went to the Mormon church.

The Occupy movement does it when they implore us to “eat the rich.”

The biker: capable of achieving speeds of 20-plus mph, capable of going from max speed to pain in less than one second, susceptible to blunt force trauma.

The pedestrian: capable of achieving top speeds of 12 to 15 mph, incapable of looking 360 degrees simultaneously, incapable of hearing inaudible bikes, incapable of taking flight or teleporting, capable of going from max speed to pain in less than one second, susceptible to blunt force trauma.

Just last week, Americans went out in droves and exercised their right to vote.

While many people were pleased that Barack Obama was re-elected for his second term in office, others were less than ecstatic and expressed their disappointment.

And by “expressed their disappointment,” I mean debasing the President by using racial slurs.

I am not here to tell you God’s will.

The temptation to do so is powerful, in light of the news out of a hospital in the United Kingdom: Malala has received a miracle.

You remember Malala Yousafzai, of course.

I think almost every reader will agree with me when they say they hated reading Facebook after the election results. Gloating, name-calling, and absurd statements about “moving to Canada” seemed to take over everyone’s mind for a few days.

There has been a lot of grumbling as of late.

Grumbling from a lot of people about Baylor football. From fans and commentators, from students and alumni even, nobody seems too pleased with the performance of our football team.

And why should they be?

Thank goodness that’s over.

The presidential campaign of 2012 did not in fact last long enough to be measured in geologic time, but poll-scarred and ad-weary voters can, perhaps, be forgiven for feeling as if it did.

Barack Obama and his supporters will be, understandably, jubilant that his lease on that Pennsylvania Avenue mansion has been extended for four more years. But Tuesday night’s vote is also noteworthy for a reason only tangentially related to the fortunes of the incumbent president.

Well, I sure got that one wrong.

Four years ago, on the eve of the last presidential election, I wrote in this space of how the country has spent much of the last three decades “re-litigating” the 1960s, arguing over the changes wrought in that decade.

Late last week, I contacted the “Political Science Young Guns,” a self-described nickname for three young professors in the political science department at Baylor.

“And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.” — Richard Mourdock, GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Life is sacred.

Both Republican challenger Mitt Romney and incumbent president Barack Obama agree the deficit needs to be addressed, but it is Romney and not Obama who has repeatedly failed to prove himself as someone who is serious about tackling the issue.

Some facets of Romney’s tax reformation plan include cutting taxes by 20 percent across the board, considerably reducing marginal tax rates, repealing the inheritance tax, and reaffirming the low tax rates on capital gains.

According to the Tax Policy Center, Romney’s plan would cost $4.8 trillion over ten years.

Everyone wants to be right.

As Election Day draws nearer, political campaigns and commentators begin talking more and more about recent poll data, attempting to interpret the results to indicate their candidate is winning. As a result, favorable poll numbers are often exaggerated and unfavorable results are “explained away”.

The “Freshman 15” is the least of our worries, fellow classmates.

Sure, we may pack on some extra weight our freshman year. But that’s not the main problem at hand — that’s easily reversible.

The real problem is thinking we’re invincible to all the health implications that arise from eating whatever we want, when we want. And here’s the truth: We’re not. I hate to say it, but four years of not taking care of our bodies can’t possibly end well.

PETA, known for its outlandish protests in an effort to protect animals from abuse, have returned to attack video games over the past year and a half, and it’s growing to an uncontrollable level.

Around this time last semester, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals launched a smear campaign against Nintendo and its trademark franchise, Mario Bros. With the release of “Super Mario 3D Land,” the animal rights group erected a website in response to the release, with a game of its own: “Mario Kills Tanooki” is a flash game that PETA created where you play as a skinned Tanooki (racoon-dog) chasing after a carnivorous Mario flying with the help of the Tanooki tail.

That, of course, is the infelicitous phrase Mitt Romney used in last week’s second presidential debate when he was asked how he would address paycheck inequity between the sexes. Romney responded with a homily about how, as the newly elected governor of Massachusetts in 2002, he became concerned that the only job applications that crossed his desk seemed to be from men.

By Danny Huizinga You may have heard the statement, “A women makes 77 cents for every dollar a man makes.”…

Who would’ve thought that stealing a pile of newspapers would be a bad thing?

Some people would say, “Hey, you’ve got a hankering for learning about the world!”

Others would say, “You’ve got a problem.”

What is real may not be real, so how do we know what’s real?

Some people think of neuroscientists as scientists who sit in a laboratory and just poke and prod brains all the time, but I feel like sometimes people forget the more humanities driven aspect of the major.

Baylor’s neuroscience program is part of the neuroscience and psychology department. The classes we take as neuroscience majors are cross-listed as psychology classes and psychology majors are required to take at least one of those classes as part of their major.

“Truth crushed to earth will rise again.” _ Martin Luther King Jr. (quoting William Cullen Bryant)

Sometimes, oceans are not enough.

Humor, in my opinion, is one of the best medicines around, especially for a college student. It can be a stress reliever, bring people together or lightly poke fun at certain situations or stereotypes.

Tumblr accounts are compilations of GIFs, a format for image files, using scenarios from movies and TV shows in a blog setting.

Recently mentioned in the debates were the “Bush Tax Cuts,” a set of laws passed in 2001 and 2003 that lowered marginal tax rates for almost all taxpayers. Although the laws were set to expire in 2010, President Obama renewed them until 2012. Now the debate begins a third time as Democrats and Republicans again argue about the cuts’ proposed expiration.

Tax policy has been a focal point in this election, with both candidates claiming their proposals “strengthen the middle class”. Much of the debate last Wednesday involved criticisms of the opponent’s tax policy.

I’ve lost loved ones, but I’ve never had to go through what the Ledet family is facing right now.

A plane crash over the weekend took the lives of Leonard Ledet, 60, his 62-year-old brother, Gregory Ledet, and his sons, Mason Ledet and Paul Ledet.

They were on their way to the Texas A&M game against Ole Miss.

Let me just say that love and agreeing are two totally different aspects of life. I may disagree with my family on occasion, but I don’t love them any less.

Some people would argue that because I disagree with someone that means I don’t support that person—some would go so far as to say I’ve expressed dislike of the person because of my disagreement.

A friend of mine posted a Facebook status about halfway through the presidential debate on Wednesday saying, “This debate is a waste of time.”

She’s wrong.

I would like to thank the editors of the Lariat for publishing on Sept. 27 an editorial on public breast-feeding, because they have drawn attention to an issue that is of profound cultural significance, and have had the courage to hold a position on it that is so manifestly unchristian.

Many of us come from hometowns filled with exciting nightlife, big cities or rolling hills. Some of us have even come from abroad—or states so different you feel like you might as well have been abroad.

We have made our long journeys from many different places, all with the common goal of arriving at Baylor — and Waco.

The United Nations General Assembly in New York is giving many international issues more prominence in the media than they normally receive.

Many of these issues are not issues immediately relevant to the average college student.

“When it’s completed in a few months, Solyndra expects to hire 1,000 workers to manufacture solar panels and sell them across America and around the world,” President Barack Obama declared at the Solyndra plant in Fremont, Calif. That was in May 2010, over a year after the Department of Energy guaranteed a $535 million loan to the company, promising a bright future and more jobs for Americans.

Dear old-fashioned, outdated, face-to-face communication: We are no longer in need of your service, but thanks anyways – we have Facebook.

Cell phones, social media sites and computers – to name a few – seem to be replacing authentic, face-to-face communication. I remember the days where sitting at the dinner table each night consisted of conversational replies other than, “Oh, sorry mom, what? I didn’t hear you, I was texting my friends back,” or, “Hold that thought while I post how much fun we’re having on Instagram.”