Opinion

Let me just start by saying that I love finals like a fat kid loves broccoli. I know everyone just wants them to be over with, but I want Taylor Swift's hairstylist for Christmas and we all know that ain't gonna happen. It's the time of the season to whine about impending doom for sure, but since you guys got tips on surviving next week on Tuesday, I thought I'd provide the inspiration.

The streets of San Francisco may become costly for drivers.

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority recently released a study concerning the implementation of a congestion pricing plan in high-traffic areas. If put into action, the plan would charge drivers a $3 fee for driving in and out of the city's congested areas during weekday peak-hours.

After hearing the word "terrorism" leave the mouths of presidential hopefuls exclusively and plentifully for a good few months, it looks like that "change" thing inherent to our system is steering us toward a new period of terror in the headlines, at least for the business quarter.

This column is a good-bye to Jdimytai Damour, the 34-year-old temporary Wal-Mart employee who was trampled to death this past Friday in Long Island.

Trampled to death! What the fuck! That's how Mufasa died! Trampled by wildebeests that didn't know any better. I suppose there's no real difference between the mindless animals in The Lion King and the stampede of people bum rushing a Wal-Mart at five in the morning. I know times are tough but, shit, you just killed a man! All to get the latest PlayStation for a bargain price. Picture this guy up at 5 a.m. to face the insanity and chaos that is middle America's dealing with the economic recession and he ends up paying with his life. Hah, how ironic.

Every year retailers across the country hold sales the Friday after Thanksgiving ("Black Friday") in order to usher in a new year of profitability.

This year was much the same, except for Jdimytai Damour, 34, a temporary worker at a Wal-Mart in Long Island who was trampled to death by rabid, greedy consumers.

In the wake of our current financial crisis, the American public's desire to finger the guilty party resembles a poorly played match of Milton Bradley's "Clue."

In 2004, the Bush Administration strengthened the Cuba embargo first put forth in 1963. The 2004 ban was focused on higher education: Study abroad trips shorter than 10 weeks were declared illegal because they did not provide opportunities for genuine academic study or exchange of ideas about democracy, according to a report from the U.S. State Department. A group of academics had challenged this ban, which was recently upheld by a federal appeals court.

Breaking free of the quarter's strong current, nearly at the surface, your lips can almost taste the freedom's fresh air. But before you can even take a half-breath, you are jerked back beneath the waves.

Thanksgiving Break was just a decoy.

One of my items under the proverbial "Things to do Before I Die" list is to get into a fight. And I mean a real good fight, maybe in a bar, with broken beer bottles, a "What the f*ck did you just call me?!", lots of punching and hopefully a few gashes on the arm. I want my fight to basically have everything that makes a fight awesome (except hair pulling, kiddy pools filled with chocolate pudding and bikinis, those are no-nos).

Maybe it's just my mom's sensibilities being passed on to me, but I'm a firm believer that not only is there a bit of good in everyone, but everyone is good at something. Nobody's stupid or useless.

Maybe that's the reason some recent McDonald's ads have gotten under my skin. If you watch TV regularly (or watched any football on Thanksgiving) you've probably seen the ads I'm talking about. There's one for men and one for women.

When it comes to giving thanks on Thanksgiving, most people I know focus on the big things in their lives.

While I cannot even begin to give enough thanks for all of the wonderful things I have in my life, I have decided that this Thanksgiving I will really try to pay attention to all the little things that make every day worth getting up for.

That's it. I can't go another week without asking. How the hell are we allowing this to happen? Slice by slice, the American pool of taxpayer cash is being doled out to billionaire boardroom sops while those of us not belonging to the wealthiest 1 percent watch gas prices baffled and count up our expenses with increasing worry.

It's getting to be like clockwork - another year, another wave of student fee increases. In these troubled economic times, this year's increase could be over $600 annually per student if the government doesn't close the funding gap.

This Thursday when we sit down to gorge ourselves with turkey feasts and our subsequent food comas conjure thoughts of happy-go-lucky natives breaking bread with jubilant Pilgrims, let's not kid ourselves. Just as modern German and Japanese textbooks downplay the Holocaust and the Rape of Nanking, the U.S. has altered its history through the Thanksgiving story to erase from our collective memories what really happened.