Opinion

Last weekend, my cousin Ali came to stay with me. While I'd like to think her visit was prompted exclusively by a desire to hang out with the coolest cousin ever, I think the impetus might also have included checking out Davis as an option when she applies to college.

After attending the maelstrom of logically fallacious arguments that was last Thursday's ASUCD Senate meeting, I'm going to treat everyone to a segment I like to call "Really?!? With Richard." Really, people? An aspect of technology behind the voting website stops working for three-and-a-half hours and this makes for an "unfair" election? If nobody could vote for any candidate for the same period of time, all the candidates were subject to the same conditions. Voters who were unable to vote during that time frame had an additional three-and-a-half hours the next morning.

Super Senior,

A guy I met recently asked me out on a date a few weeks ago. I had a great time, but he refuses to get physically close. He hasn't kissed me and even seems nervous if our arms accidentally touch. I can make the first move, but I don't know how and I don't want to; call me old fashioned. He asked me out again this week, what should I do?

ASUCD elections, though a marginal interest for over 70 percent of nonvoting students, produced relatively radical results this year.Progressive independent candidates were elected to executive office while TGIF, which by all logic should have been favored without reservation, was voted overwhelmingly against.

Something very important happened on Tuesday, but it went largely unnoticed.

On the same day that we learned housing prices fell at a record pace last quarter; that the Department of Health and Human Services reported health care costs will top $8,000 per person in 2009; that Barack Obama made Bobby Jindal look like a third grader who fell off the short bus; Hilda Solis, a pro-union advocate of environmental justice and minority and women's rights was confirmed as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor.

In Rick Perlstein's 2007 essay "What's the Matter with College?" he laments the death of college as a catalyst for radical social change. For him, the increasing pre-professional bureaucratization of college deprives students of the creative intellectual impetus they need to renew national culture and idealism.

Word vomit (n.) - originated in Paramount's Mean Girls, which everyone has seen whether they admit it or not. It is the act of uttering words that have floated around in your head countless times but that you would never actually dream of saying.

Social networking website Facebook recently tried to change the End User License Agreement that must be accepted by anyone who wants to have an account on the website.

It's probably due to the fact that my roommate Shlarissa has gotten me hooked on the show "Intervention," but I've been thinking a lot about how easy it is to fall into bad habits.

Barack Obama is the second president in a row frequently compared to a monkey. It'd be accurate to say most people have seen the images of former President George Bush being compared to a variety of primates.

Whenever anyone gets behind the wheel of a car there are a number of things that need to be taken care of first. A prospective driver needs to be found competent to control a vehicle that can potentially inflict severe damage on others.

Fifty years of economic sanctions and political ostracism has made North Korea a starving bulldog, snarling and rarely biting, but nonetheless dangerous. The United States' stubborn policy of non-engagement needs to change. North Korea poses a threat not only to the United States, but also to global stability and the U.S. is in the best position to help create a long term solution to the longstanding Korean question.

Ah, the commitment-phobe. Seems like every girl is getting herself one these days. Not only is dating hard enough in this world, but there are guys out there who are afraid of the dreaded "label."

During last week's ASUCD elections, several candidates clung to the tired mantra of "bridging the gap between students and their Association." For years now, this has been a favorite tactic of those desperately seeking the sense of self-approval that, apparently, only an ASUCD elected position can bring.

It's finally over. At least for now.

After 18 months of negotiations, service workers and the University of California have come to an agreement regarding workers' pay.