Opinion

The 17th century political revolutionary Guy Fawkes once said, "The desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy." Despite the fact that British historians may tell you that another notable quote from Guy Fawkes would be, "Hey, let's blow up Parliament," I believe his wisdom regarding desperate situations should not be overlooked.

Even today, in 21st century Davis, we can see how desperate situations force people to make rash and, at many times, foolish decisions. Perhaps the best example of this process can currently be seen within our own Davis Joint Unified School District. For anyone who has read my past columns, the desperate situation facing the DJUSD is clear -$4 million in cuts to next year's budget. In past weeks, this seemingly bleak situation has forced the district's school board to penny-pinch, and choose between several options that will each prove detrimental to the district's overall performance.

But for the class of 2008, there is nothing gloomier than searching for jobs in a wobbling economy plagued by a rising unemployment rate. For more than 1 million graduating college students across the country who will join the labor force this year, the job prospects are ominous. It's like looking for a stone in murky waters.

Although there has been no official acknowledgment from the Bush Administration that the world's most powerful economy has already slipped into a recession, the evidence of it is becoming increasingly obvious. According to the latest U.S. Department of Labor statistics, unemployment rose from 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent last March. For five months in a row now, the private sector has lost a monthly average of 80,000 jobs.

I'm writing this horizontally, which is to say, I'm lying on my bed, typing with the laptop on its side. It's Sunday.

My hangovers always isolate in the stomach. No headaches, just horned animals, knocking their heads together and scraping their hooves against my stomach lining. Sometimes the collision is especially violent, and that's when I stop typing to stare at the wall, waiting for it to pass.

Remember when the world was a better place? I don't, but I wasn't alive during the 1950s. I've heard that back then things were great! Women finally won the right to wear pants. There was a soda shop on every corner. The only threat to society was bongo-wielding beatnik Maynard G. Krebs from the Dobie Gillis show. Well, him and communists. You know, because that whole Cold War thing was going on. The Soviet Union and Cuba just would not get off of America's ass. But since no one ever dropped the bomb, things were pretty peachy keen.

In fact, things were so peachy keen in the 1950s that UC Davis served as a symbol for good old fashioned community spirit. According to Davis Wiki, the school started a tradition called "Hi Aggie Spirit." Here's how it worked: If you were on campus and you encountered someone you didn't know, you were encouraged to say "Hi, Aggie!" Your new "Aggie" friend would respond by saying "Hi, Aggie!" back to you.

Like most of Davis, I grew up in straight-edge suburbia with only the vague notion that drugs certainly existed but definitely wouldn't be found in my home town. So when I had the opportunity last weekend to sit down with a distinguished gentleman with a penchant for psychedelics, I was understandably intrigued. While I want to make it clear that I don't particularly recommend drug use, I think a little exposure goes a long way.

How do you even get mushrooms? You didn't pick 'em, did you?

Oh God no. Really, you'd be surprised how easy it is to get drugs. Of course, living in Santa Cruz helps. This one time I needed to buy some weed so I just walked up to a couple dudes with jackets. I asked one if he was holding, and he just pointed to his buddy. "No, but he is." That's Santa Cruz.

State Representative Lois Wolk (D-Davis) has introduced legislation regarding oil spills for inland waters. It comes just months after a cargo ship spilled 53,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay after colliding into the Bay Bridge.

Although it's commendable that these bills are being proposed and hopefully being passed, they should be put forward before the spills actually take place. This inland oil spill problem has been a constant dilemma. While marine damage gets the majority of the attention, inland oil spills currently make up 75 percent of all spills. So it comes as a shock that this bill was not proposed sooner; inland spills have been an ongoing issue for many years, even before the Costco Busan accident.

The 94th Annual Picnic Day is just around the corner, and the Davis community is sitting at the edge of its proverbial seat. For those unfamiliar with the event, Picnic Day is a campuswide open house that aims to bring together various groups in a celebration of the richness and diversity of student life.

But why do people choose to partake in Picnic Day? This answer may vary depending on who you ask.

To the faculty and administration, Picnic Day is an opportunity to interact with the students and browse various academic departments to see what they have accomplished. It is also a chance for them to outreach to the community and show what UC Davis has to offer.

ast month, Rob Olson argued that I had missed the mark in my account of conservatism's history. He stated that, "[conservatives] in the past defended the elite," whereas today, they "defend certain principles which apply equally to all."

And Rob is right - conservatives of the past did indeed defend the elite. But to do so, they used certain ideas; ideas which sound awfully familiar to the ones they use today.

But you don't have to take my word for it…

Senator Barack Obama's recent remarks about the predicament of the "bitter" working-class, in many respects, provoked a political firestorm. Some accused him of "condescension," while others called him "elitist." In retrospect, as he admitted, his characterization of this demographic probably wasn't the most incisive. But the reaction to his words speaks more about the nation's state of fragility than about the candidate's fallibilities.

Uncomfortably, this backlash epitomizes the state our national discourse has fallen to. The question that must be asked, thus, is why has the discourse become so philistine and juvenile?

Letter: University disregarding Jewish students

One would think that after UC Davis upset 11 percent of its incoming freshmen in 2006 by having move-in day on Rosh Hashanah, one of the two Jewish Holy Days, they'd know better the next time around.

Low and behold, the following Move-In Day in 2007 fell on Yom Kippur, the other Holy Day on the Jewish calendar. Once again, Jewish students missed an important holiday normally spent with family.

Picnic Day, arguably the most important and exciting day of the school year for students, faculty, alumni, friends, and family, is on the first night of Passover. Picnic Day's theme this year is a "kaleidoscope of voices." This kaleidoscope of voices must be broken, because a significant minority group will be underrepresented on Saturday. I know my voice won't be there. How can Jewish holidays continue to be neglected? Shame on Student Housing, shame on the Picnic Day Board, and shame on this university that takes great pride in its diversity.

The central pillar of liberalism is a quest for equality in every form. This is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness.

At the root of the vast majority of liberal beliefs is an opposition to those with greater power. In nearly any political or societal situation, liberalism takes the side of the "oppressed," the "dispossessed" or the "disenfranchised."

In foreign policy, America is perceived as being more powerful than other nations, and thus we are assumed to be the bad guy or the aggressor. With the environment, mankind is seen as the destructive overlord of nature, needing to be reined in by regulation, limitation and education. In issues of race, class and gender, the side that is perceived to be weaker is invariably favored: Latinos and blacks, the poor and the downtrodden, women and those "undecided" as to their sex.

Being in college, our metaphorical springboard into a vocational world with options, the following question is all too pertinent for each of us: What is my calling? "Vocation," which comes from Latinvocare, meaning "to call," is a word that we don't hear too often nowadays. In American culture it has been deemed equivalent and synonymous with words and phrases such as "career" or "successful life." Certainly Americans assume too much.

In a discussion about priesthood, a student of mine asked a series of questions like, "Do priests get paid? How much? Where do they live? Do they have houses?" All of them were questions a person might ask about a doctor, an offshore fisherman or a firefighter. The questions went on like this until I had said, "Priesthood is not a career. It is a vocation. It is a lifelong commitment to service in a community that is not taken up for its pay but for the job itself."

Sometimes, it's helpful to go back to the things you once loved, just to see how they're doing. A couple weeks ago, I found myself browsing the Internet in search of Tamagotchis, which I had been mildly obsessed with in the fourth grade.

I found myself at this Tamagotchi fansite, which led to the discovery of a very odd Internet locale: the Tamagotchi Graveyard.

As the name suggests, this is a place for people to put their virtual pets to rest and mourn for them. Bizarrely enough, all these entries were recent (as in there were entries posted the very day I checked the website) and there were over 2,000 of them.

You know, I'm really over this whole friend zone idea strictly being a boys-only club. All these movies, songs and blog entries that paint girls as shallow cockteasers with a penchant to oversight their male friends over gorgeous yet asshole guys are completely inaccurate. They fail to mention that we like them to be mind-numbingly rich too.

Honestly, what's with this "nice guys finish last" shenanigan I'm hearing about, as if guys were never guilty of committing the same crime? Some say that most guys simply aren't. Apparently, due to some ridiculous notion roaming out there, a girl can get any guy she wants (given that she's within a relatively appropriate spectrum of attractiveness) - especially if he's a friend of hers.

A guy who has female friends will basically whip his penis out for any of them per request, depending on when the little lady wants it. It's a common myth that's been numerously elaborated from Chris Rock and Woody Allen, to the ever-intricate "ladder theory." Well I'm here to say nay! If girls can bonk whomever they want, then my unsuccessful love life means that I'm some sort of exceptional boner murderer. Girls fall into the friend zone all the time, so here's what you can look out for: