Opinion

BASICs. It stands for “Brothers And Sisters In Christ.” This is what Sophie, the church retreat organizer, tells us during the meeting for Bible study leaders. Earlier last week, she e-mailed me to ask if I would lead the sophomore men’s small group. I agreed. The goal was to make the guys in the small group feel comfortable opening up about spiritual struggles their non-Christian friends wouldn’t understand. The e-mail said, “Our vision is that they will begin to trust and pray for one another, and most importantly, love one another.”

The California Aggie has formally retracted Tiffany Lew’s Jan. 22 column, “The Rise of the Girly Men.” No further action will be taken against Lew. The views in this opinion column do not represent the views of the California Aggie or its staff.

Sexual assault is a serious problem made more serious by the fact that most people do not recognize how it is reinforced by our society. Yes, you are taught at work and at school, and maybe at your place of spiritual worship, that it is reprehensible and punishable by law.

Filing for federal student aid just got a whole lot easier. The U.S. Department of Education recently announced that the online version of the Application for Federal Student Aid will be 17 screens shorter and will have 22 fewer questions.

When someone tells me they “hooked up” with Bobby Ray Smith IV on Saturday, they might as well have told me they like David Bowie in Portuguese because I have no effin’ idea what that means. It’s the most vague, useless term of late to plague the English language. And it’s all over this place.

If you had to describe Davis to someone who has never been here, you might say something like, \

Happy hump day, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your three-day weekend and are back to the books.

I’m generally a pretty easygoing person. I wouldn’t consider myself particularly impatient. I tend to go with the flow in most cases. I attribute my laidback attitude to my desire to avoid confrontation at all costs. I never know the right thing to say in a heated face-to-face interaction, and more likely than not, I will just end up cowering away in shame. So why let it escalate that far, right?

In his January State of the State address, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed legislation that would both require a minimum budget allocation of 10 percent for higher education and a ceiling of 7 percent on prison spending.

Last week, the Davis City Council voted to waive the overnight persons number cap on cold weather shelter facilities. The city set a capacity of the Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter at 25 individuals, although it was increased to 30 during the extreme cold weather period.

It’s the bathroom, the restroom, the water closet, the loo, the john and the lavatory. (But they only call it the lavatory on airplanes. Believe you me, I’ll tamper with whatever the fuck I want to … including the free tampons they offer.)

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake. Thousands dead. One huge reality check for the rest of the world.