Opinion

Using new powers recently granted by Congress, the Food and Drug Administration implemented a ban on all flavored cigarettes on Sept. 22. FDA officials touted the ban as a way to lower the number of teen smokers and suggested that flavored cigarettes were luring kids into a "lifetime addiction."

Discouraging kids and teens from smoking is always a great goal, but there are problems with this particular approach.

The debate over the last few years about allowing a Target store to open in Davis has been particularly illustrative of what makes Davis a great college town.

While the dispute was contentious and sometimes ugly, the fact that it even existed is something Davisites should be proud of. It's rare, and almost unheard of, for a small town to show opposition to a sales tax cash cow like Target setting up shop within its boundaries.

Every Thursday afternoon, I return home from a mentally taxing hour-plus of political philosophy (Marx, anyone?), cozy up in my bed with my laptop, click on my bookmarked link to Hulu and watch the most recent episode of Glee. With this routine, I can get through even the darkest of weeks. Glee, no doubt the greatest thing on TV in recent memory, is the light at the end of my proverbial tunnel.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed at the continual piling-up of environmental problems in the world today? Or have you ever dreamt of just waking up one day to find headlines that read, "World leaders realize they can't negotiate with Earth, pass climate change legislation unanimously"?

Oh, what a glorious day that would be.

In a letter to the campus community, Chancellor Katehi and Provost Lavernia declared that we should work collectively "to address today's major budget cuts, which come as a consequence of the state's decade-long disinvestment in higher education." I disagree with them about the main cause of the fiscal crisis, and I think there is a better, more immediate target for constructive change that would balance the UC budget.

Gavin Newsom wrote a lot of really, really nice things in support of college students throughout California in his letter to the editor on Thursday. Here's the CliffsNotes version:

Jennifer Beeman, the former director of the UC Davis Campus Violence Prevention Program, severely inflated the number of reportedforcible sex offenses found on campus. This finding is both troublesome and detrimental to UC Davis' image, and we believe further investigation into the motivation behind her behavior is necessary.

The road from community college to university is a bumpy one, as many transfer students experience firsthand. Some may feel a greater challenge in adjusting to a new school, while others realize the actual process of getting there is full of hurdles.

Requirements for a major at a community college can vary drastically from requirements at a CSU or UC. Many students find themselves with several classes or units that do not transfer over or do not qualify for the same major. Students can be put back quarters, semesters, even years.

One of the most consistent messages from UC administrators since the budget crisis intensified has been the concept of "shared pain."

It's a good idea - students, faculty, administrators, even union members should all have to bear some of the burden of budget cuts. But it's an idea that can be taken too far, as it unquestionably has been with the furloughs that are being forced on Unitrans.

Physics professor Markus Luty said it best when he addressed students and faculty at Thursday's walkout rally.

"The problems [associated with budget cuts] did not start this year," he said. "Since the early 1980s, higher education funding has been cut by more than any other major sector of the state budget. It is the only sector that had a reduction in real per capita revenues between 1984 and 2004 … State support was cut by 25 percent this year."

Now here's a guy who really put some thought into this.

Man, this could get ugly. What kind of business cuts its budget nearly in half from one year to the next? Easy. One that's staring Chapter 11 square in the face. Bankruptcy, boys and girls. That's pretty much where this newspaper was heading not too long ago.

Circulation is down. You'll probably never see another color page in here again. (Unless, of course, you're an advertiser and you purchase a color ad, in which case, I love you.) Workers getting their pay cut by ridiculous percentages. Some getting their pay whacked out of the budget entirely. Even the water cooler had to go.

For my last column, I made a compilation of column ideas that didn't make the cut. In other words, they weren't good enough for their own feature-length column.

A girl's worst insult

Girls are insulted by many, many things, but the insult I would like to focus on is "slut." According to Urban Dictionary, "slut," means a dirty, nasty promiscuous woman that no one would even touch.

The columnist is a story of contradiction. At once he must act as the interlocutor of opined reason and customized analysis, yet by the sheer necessity for argument, he must take a stand. At times, these demands conflict; for a columnist, thus, the attainment of a perfect balance is a lasting achievement. Writing is about eloquence magnified by personal ambition. In the beginning, the columnist sees privilege. Like a child, he's afforded space and time to write whatever he desires. He is hence impressionable, wondrous, admiring the instant subject-connection he has established.

I was determined not to write a raging cheesefest of a final column, but in the interest of bidding you fine people adieu, some failbloggage may have gone down. The least I can do is promise that you will not be exposed to any inspirational Eleanor Roosevelt quotes. Only time will tell if I'll look back on this column with pride or disgust. The years will age and perhaps even mature me a little, but my intuition tells me that when I'm old and decrepit, that pervy ex-Catholic schoolgirl who grew up listening to Howard Stern over the breakfast table will continue to live on.

California State Senator Leland Yee thinks UC has a problem. The regents are out of control, he says, and their behavior is so bad it's time for the legislature to take over.

Last week Yee and several other co-sponsors proposed a constitutional amendment that would remove the near-absolute autonomy UC has enjoyed for its entire history and instead give control to California lawmakers. While we generally support efforts to make the UC regents and the university as a whole more accountable, this approach is foolish and should be rejected.