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  • Crazy like a Fox!

    As President Barack Obama forwards his political policies with little or nothing to show for it thus far, the bandwagon of hope and change is beginning to lose riders. The latests numbers for cable news ratings now show Fox News as the only TV news outlet to increase viewership since [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 2:54pm EST
    by kenfield

  • University Tuition Hike in California- (The fight is ours as well)

    Dear colleagues, friends, and casual observers, We currently live in a time of increasing economic hardships, as you well know.   We live in a time that sees tuition rising higher and higher, and higher.  We also live in a time that sees student disgust with this upward trend.  But sadly, we [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 10:54am EST
    by Jordan Jacobs, IDS Columnist

  • The EU gets a President

    The European Council voted today in a closed-door meeting to appoint the low-profile Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian Prime Minister, to the newly-created position of Permanent President of the European Council, passing over the heavyweight candidacy of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair that was heavily campaigned for by the [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 6:05pm EST
    by Zach Ammerman, IDS Columnist

  • I’m the Greatest F—-r Here

    You don’t have to look far today to find people talking in plain language how America is the greatest nation in the world. Whether it’s the correspondents on MSNBC, Newt Gingrich, Fox News, it’s basically reiterated every time you turn on the TV, and how Obama, by trying to be [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 9:16pm EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • When they ask you if it hurts, show ‘em your Poker Face.

    Number of comments: 2
    In yet another show of just how out of touch they are with the modern youth, MTV has shown how the Grammys will NOT nominate Lady Gaga for Best New Artist.  I mean, she all ready won the VMA award for the same,  because as MTV says - Few new artists [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 7:37pm EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • If you can’t beat em, make your own dictionary!

    Number of comments: 1
    In case you’ve lived on a secluded island for the last couple of years, in which case, Hello! And how can I get there?, you have probably heard of Conservapedia, brainemptyshell project of Andrew Schlafly, son of historically unimportant right wing non figure Phyllis Schlafly, a woman unaware of the [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 6:34pm EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Bowers Beware

    Once again, Mr. Obama is being faulted for bowing to a foreign leader.  Here is the video of our president briefly genuflecting to Emperor Akihito of Japan. Barack Obama bows to Japan’s Emperor Akihito All the president is doing is showing his respect for another culture’s traditions.  I happen to believe that [...]
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    Posted: November 15, 2009, 6:51pm EST
    by Josh Kraus, IDS Columnist

  • Hang’em High!

    The following is directly from a Facebook post Sarah Palin put up November 13 regarding the Obama Administration’s use of the American Justice System: “Horrible decision, absolutely horrible. It is devastating for so many of us to hear that the Obama Administration decided that the 9/11 terrorist mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, [...]
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    Posted: November 15, 2009, 2:33pm EST
    by Stephen Hammoor, IDS Columnist

  • My Videos of the Week

    There’s really only one video I’ve seen this week that’s worth repeating (besides Rep. Buyer’s amazing interview) - 1) Auto Tune the News But in honor of the recent IU conference on Black impact on Rock , I thought that it was worth mentioning the rapper from “the only place more dangerous [...]
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    Posted: November 14, 2009, 11:43pm EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Burn him!

    Apparently, in a manner befitting a democratic society, the “Teabagger” groups have decided to burn effigies of Virginia Representative Tom Pereillo and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Because nothing says democracy and freedom like burning effigies suggesting to murder democratically elected public officials. In a small session he had with some [...]
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    Posted: November 14, 2009, 12:24pm EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • A Boehner of a Comment

    As noted recently in the Washington Monthly, House Republican leader John Boehner has released as a statement bashing Attorney General Eric Holder’s attempt at prosecuting 9/11 mastermind Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed in NYC.  Stating that “The Obama Administration’s irresponsible decision to prosecute the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks in New York City [...]
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    Posted: November 14, 2009, 11:58am EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • University protests in Honduras

    Number of comments: 1
    As we sit in the comfortable confines of our humble abodes, let’s reflect, for just a quick minute, on the situation of fellow university students  in the country of Honduras. The film is called La joven revolución Hondureña (the young Honduran revolution), written by Johannes Wilm, who “went to Honduras to film the [...]
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    Posted: November 13, 2009, 12:13pm EST
    by jsjacobs

  • Greatest Inventions of the last 10 years

    As 2009 draws to a close, Newsweek has compiled a list of the top-ten most important innovations of the last ten years. Check them out online: http://2010.newsweek.com/top-10/unknown-in-1999-indispensable-now/chipotle.html Their list includes Wikipedia, YouTube and – my personal favorite – Chipotle. But, I think they left a couple out. Here are my addendums: 1) Facebook 2) [...]
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    Posted: November 12, 2009, 10:40pm EST
    by Erin Chapman, IDS Columnist

  • Speaking of Steve Buyer, smoking lettuce, and Auto – Tune

    Number of comments: 1
    In my previous post, I linked to an interview of Buyer from CBS, but I missed THIS link to an amazing video of him singing in session about smoking lettuce.  There’s also a cameo by Joe Biden. No further words could do this video justice. [...]
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    Posted: November 12, 2009, 9:24pm EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • And From Indiana’s Fourth District

    Steve Buyer was interviewed recently by CBS regarding a “charity” for college students here in Indiana that was running out of his office.  I’ve never seen someone not accused of a crime sweat and stammer as much as he does in the video. Unless it’s the liberal heat of the [...]
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    Posted: November 12, 2009, 9:14pm EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Education: it’s not just the money

    Even in this economy, it is important for us to remember that education is about people, not money. [...]
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    Posted: November 12, 2009, 9:31am EST
    by Joshua Held, IDS Columnist

  • AMA requests government review of marijuana “Schedule 1″ classification

    Here’s an update to my October 27th column about the War on Drugs, and the subtle, slow-to-come signs that the government is beginning to consider more seriously the medicinal uses of various “harmful substances”. The American Medical Association (AMA) has officially requested that the government review its classification for marijuana as [...]
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    Posted: November 12, 2009, 12:49am EST
    by Ben Smith

  • Breaking News – More Liberal Bias.

    Lou Dobbs has left CNN. As mentioned in the NYT article, CNN president Jonathan Klein had the audacity to ask Mr. Dobbs to vent his opinions on radio and anchor an objective newscast on television, or he could leave CNN. This is just another glaring example of the Liberal Media railroading a [...]
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    Posted: November 11, 2009, 11:20pm EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Activists Attempting to Raise Our Tuition for Corporate Gains

    Number of comments: 1
    The cost of college is out of control, rising three times faster than inflation, even during a recession, and yet despite the recession activist groups on campus are pushing for policies that are leading to huge profits for architects of the financial collapse like Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. The Sierra Club, [...]
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    Posted: November 11, 2009, 4:16pm EST
    by Mitchell Blatt

  • Dollar ReDe$ign

    The US economy is falling apart, global and domestic confidence in the US dollar is at a record low, and the value of our currency is plummeting. If the US economy was a company, what would we do? We’d do what tobacco giant Philip Morris did when it became Altria: [...]
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    Posted: November 10, 2009, 11:28pm EST
    by Zach Ammerman

  • Some figures.

    Number of comments: 1
    While I’m certainly no expert in economics, I still found these figures to be quite interesting: In the thirty years before 1980, median family income (adjusted for inflation) increased by 50.45%. Since 1980, around the time of the start of significant deregulation of modern finance, median family income has increased by only [...]
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    Posted: November 10, 2009, 9:32pm EST
    by Zach Ammerman

  • The fate of WoW in China…serious news here.

    A battle is waging now between two Chinese government agencies, the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) and the Ministry of Culture regarding the regulation of online gaming, particularly the widely popular World of Warcraft. The game literally has China divided over the issue of online media regulation. Here’s an [...]
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    Posted: November 09, 2009, 7:29pm EST
    by Ben Smith

  • And from Argentina, a Bill Hicks quote…

    News that I missed… The Buenos Aires Herald reported that the Argentinian Supreme court ruled that marijuana will no longer be treated as a criminal offense for users, stating that “…it is unconstitutional to punish marijuana consumers, if that action does not harm third parties. The decision would put an end to [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2009, 10:49pm EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Obesity and Choice

    An article on CNN came out, stating that “More than 100,000 cases of cancer each year are caused by excess body fat,” putting a quantifiable number on obesity cancer cases. Obesity, as we all know, is bad for you due to other major health problems like heart disease, diabetes, high blood [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2009, 3:48pm EST
    by ragoldbe

  • Generational Gap

    I’ve seen a disproportionate number of middle-aged persons on campus this weekend. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have anything against the older generation. I just don’t see them that much in Bloomington. We’re a college town, remember? Apparently, the influx of people over 40 is a result of an IU initiative: Parent’s [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2009, 1:40pm EST
    by Tyler Chernesky

  • Is Fox News Biased?

    Overwhelmingly no! At least, that is, according to a new poll by NPR.  In fact, with nearly 1.8 million votes saying no currently, compared to only 200k voting yes, clearly they are not biased, if even NPR listeners say no. Well, except that it turns out that conservatives sent out [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2009, 11:36am EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Video(s) of the week

    In case you happened to miss them,  these have to be two of the best things I’ve seen this week. One: Cartman singing a much less terrible version, somehow guitar hero made, of poker face to a montage of Stan fighting whalers. Two: The Box parody – Funny or Die. [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 10:33am EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Nuclear War, New York.

    I just saw this video for the first time, really well done, and interesting.  Unless I just see the picture wrong, it also looks like there are banners of Lee Harvey Oswald during a soviet parade as well, not sure when or why (well I could guess maybe why). [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 9:50am EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Interesting Info on some Organic Food

    I’ve never been the biggest purveyor of organic food, mainly because I pay all my own expenses dollar to dollar, so I can’t always justify the higher prices for myself,  particularly the Odwalla 4 dollar little drinks (which this shows as being owned by coke anyway) that never tasted that [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 9:09am EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Campus Stonework

    Earlier this week, I wrote to advocate the placement of artistic stone work on the New Housing 2010, also known as the replacement Ashton. In that column, I talked about the multitude of stonework exhibited on this campus, and the tradition it represents. I wanted to point out a great photo [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 2:36am EST
    by brownjoh

  • Glenn Beckery

    Just when one would imagine that the comedy pinata, Glenn Beck, had been busted, John Stewart makes a few insightful connections. 11/3 Project [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 1:00am EST
    by schammoo

  • More Artificially Inflated Home Values, More Record Extentions of Entitlements

    If we’re in the midst of an economic crisis caused largely by artificially inflated home values, our Congress thinks the solution is to continue artificially inflating home values. They just extended (again) a tax credit that pays people $8,000 to buy a house. You even get $6,500 if you already own [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 5:38pm EST
    by Mitchell Blatt

  • Laughter, the Best Medicine

    Number of comments: 2
    It seems right after our local fight here in Bloomington for the atheists to have the right to say that they too can be good, even without god, that now the city of New York finds itself in the same situation. And who better to remind the citizens of New [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 1:13am EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Et tu, Cliff Clavin?

    Number of comments: 2
    Salon had a great piece on Michelle Bachmann and the wingnut teabag teaparty group protest over the health bill on Thursday.  I’ll leave the obvious jokes here to others, and point out the main thing that caught me off guard - “C-list Hollywood celebrities (Jon Voigt, John “Cliff Clavin” Ratzenberger) made [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 1:05am EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • How Not to Win an Election…

    Number of comments: 6
    Well, gay marriage has now lost in all 31 states that it has been popularly voted on, and this is how one gay activist in Maine is responding… In a defiant speech to several hundred lingering supporters, No on 1 campaign manager Jesse Connolly pledged that his side “will not quit [...]
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    Posted: November 05, 2009, 8:57pm EST
    by Mitchell Blatt

  • Remember when?

    Number of comments: 4
    Writing my column about President Barack Obama’s first year I was looking for some articles about his stop in Bloomington before the Indiana presidential primary. I stumbled across this YouTube video: I remember attending that rally. Everyone in Assembly Hall was pretty excited. The person sitting next to me was so [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2009, 10:07pm EST
    by Nathan Dixon

  • Maine: pot is more important than equal rights

    Number of comments: 4
    The citizens of Maine voted yesterday by 20 percentage points to effectively legalize marijuana. Unfortunately, they also apparently thought that smoking pot was more important than allowing gay people to be able to have the same marriage rights as the rest of the state because they repealed the states already-approved [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2009, 3:22pm EST
    by Zach Ammerman

  • Italy Convicts 23 Americans for Rendition

    An Italian court convicted 23 American intelligence officials of kidnapping in broad daylight a 23 year-old Muslim man that they suspected (incorrectly) of terrorism from the streets of Milan and subsequently sending him to Egyptian authorities (a country known to torture prisoners), where he was then (surprise) tortured. Unfortunately, this is [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2009, 3:14pm EST
    by Zach Ammerman

  • Breaking News: Glenn Beck Still Alive

    Number of comments: 1
    news from wisconsin: Glenn Beck not burned alive. [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2009, 12:47pm EST
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • The Boys’ Club

    Number of comments: 3
    Women are sorely underrepresented in positions of power and authority around the world. Among the member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the median percentage of females members of parliament (MPs) is only 23%. This is especially shocking considering that the OECD is composed of thirty of [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 4:49pm EST
    by Zach Ammerman

  • Military Aid to Egypt

    While in Marrakesh, Morrocco today, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged $100 million in aid to the greater Muslim community to “boost ties” with the Muslim world, with a large portion of that undoubtedly going to Egypt, which has been ruled by a domestically unpopular autocratic regime for decades. [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 4:38pm EST
    by Zach Ammerman

  • There is an afterlife! (For your profile)

    Number of comments: 1
    This week Time magazine ran a story answering one of the great existential questions of our age: What will happen to my facebook profile after I die? As far as mortality questions go, the answer is relatively straightforward: It will live on – that is if your surviving friends and family [...]
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    Posted: November 02, 2009, 5:59pm EST
    by Erin Chapman, IDS Columnist

  • Close Call in Darfur

    This article provides an interesting account of a short-term crisis situation occurring between the US military and the Sudanese forces in Darfur. A plane (originally just intending to pick up a soldier so that he could be with his sick wife) was surrounded, the State Dep’t gave orders to the American [...]
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    Posted: November 02, 2009, 1:53am EST
    by Sarah Wilensky, IDS Columnist

  • Take Five

    This is a friendly note to keep on searching the internets for interesting and original blogs that will keep your mind off of the grind and wind of exams coming up, not to mention family time. Here’s a sprouting one with both meaty commentary and a few surprises to keep [...]
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    Posted: November 02, 2009, 1:31am EST
    by schammoo

  • ZZZzzzzzssss Please

    Okay we’ve heard it a million times: we college students don’t get enough sleep. Now there is even more research coming out that when we pass on sleep we are doing ourselves long-term harm. A new study suggests that not only does sleeping improve memory, it actually helps people to [...]
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    Posted: November 01, 2009, 9:53pm EST
    by Erin Chapman, IDS Columnist

  • Please don’t Tweet the Deets

    I’m REALLY not sure why I still read Slate, but I think this article may have finally been that nail to stop me reading it.  In case you’re a better person than I and won’t/don’t read the link, I can summarize it very easily for you. Mickey Kaus, writer for [...]
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    Posted: October 28, 2009, 5:22pm EDT
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • World, meet hypocrisy.

    Michelle Malkin, the voice of calm restraint and logic, has apparently taken offense to David Axelrod speaking to Katie Couric about his epileptic daughter. How dare he! The audacity to both be a fan of public health care, be diligent in your passion for this, and still worry about your [...]
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    Posted: October 26, 2009, 7:32pm EDT
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Music Lovers, never fear!

    Creed is Here! Thank god!  They’re back! That’s right! The folks who brought you such classic third generation washed out crap as “With Arms Wide Open” “Higher” and so forth… have come back. And good to know it took less than a week for Slate to post an article reminding [...]
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    Posted: October 22, 2009, 7:59pm EDT
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • US Politics: Nothing to Write Home About

    Number of comments: 1
    WARNING: The ideas advocated in this post have absolutely no chance of occurring. The United States has the oldest continually-operating constitution in the world. When first hearing this fact many Americans react with smug pride. That’s stupid; our political system is nothing to write home about. The reason why nations so [...]
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    Posted: October 19, 2009, 6:17pm EDT
    by Zach Ammerman

  • Zimbabwe

    There is perhaps no other country in Africa that had more hope or promise for the future than Zimbabwe. And, like most of Africa, Zimbabwe has tragically had its hopes and dreams absolutely obliterated due to complete abject mismanagement of the economy by a despot ruler intent on clinging to [...]
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    Posted: October 19, 2009, 1:54pm EDT
    by Zach Ammerman

  • Glenn Beck: Playing Dress Up Now

    Number of comments: 2
    There’s not much I can say about this clip, having not seen the full episode. But there’s something particualrly strange about this Glenn Beck clip. If this woman speaking at 7:38 is a real doctor, why does her coat say “Richard”? Glenn Beck: 10/06/2009 [...]
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    Posted: October 18, 2009, 5:28pm EDT
    by Chad Quandt

  • What’s the Point of Pegging Entitlements to Inflation?

    Federal minimum wage laws have sometimes been criticized because it hasn’t been tied to inflation, thus not forcing companies to increase their minimum wages at the rate of prices. Tying it to inflation would give minimum-wage workers higher pay generally, as prices typically rise more quickly than Congress has increased the [...]
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    Posted: October 15, 2009, 4:36pm EDT
    by Mitchell Blatt

  • Mad woman spends money

    The police effectively shut down a Burlington Coat Factory when a woman who claimed to have won the lottery offered to pay for everyones merchandise.  It’s not known if the woman actually won any lottery but she did start writing out checks for people’s rent.  The woman claimed the she [...]
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    Posted: October 15, 2009, 1:20am EDT
    by danfleis

  • New Abortion About Addiction More than Abortion

    While checking my e-mail I just ran across everyone’s favorite news source, AOL, detailing an article about a self-described “abortion addict” and her new book recounting her experiences. Irene Vilar’s book Impossible Motherhood discusses her own addiction to abortion, citing 15 procedures in 16 years.  This is bad for a number [...]
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    Posted: October 14, 2009, 6:38pm EDT
    by ragoldbe

  • Sedition, by any other name….

    September 29th, John Perry, former editor of Newsmax, one of the myriad of right wing sites such as world net daily dedicated to the proliferation of their view of the world wrote ” There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America’s military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the “Obama [...]
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    Posted: October 14, 2009, 6:33pm EDT
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Richard Dawkins Giving a Speech on Evolution is a Non-Controversial Event That Doesn’t Question God

    Number of comments: 1
    Richard Dawkins coming to campus is pretty interesting considering he’s a controversial celebrity atheist–otherwise known as a “fascist” to Bill O’Reilly–but the topic he’s going to be speaking on doesn’t appear to bring with it much controversy. His speech is billed by the Secular Alliance at IU as a speech on [...]
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    Posted: October 12, 2009, 12:28pm EDT
    by Mitchell Blatt

  • Terrorism Alert: Republicans Planning Terrorist Attacks Over the Nobel Peace Price

    Number of comments: 2
    DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse issued this urgent statement yesterday: “The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists – the Taliban and Hamas this morning – in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize.” – Politico This follows Barbara Boxer’s warning that, “The head of the Republican [...]
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    Posted: October 10, 2009, 9:54am EDT
    by Mitchell Blatt

  • With the First Stimulus Not Having Worked, the Democrats Are Planning Another One

    We just spent $787 billion to “stimulate” the economy earlier this year, and that $787 billion has worked out so poorly that the Democrats are planning to spend billions more on a second stimulus. After the success of the first stimulus, we should definitely trust them to spend billions more on [...]
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    Posted: October 08, 2009, 10:14pm EDT
    by Mitchell Blatt

  • An Online Quiz That’s Acutally Worth Your Time?

    It’s only a matter of time before the swine flu reaches IU in force. And now, thanks to the miracle that is modern technology, students will have a way to diagnose themselves – without having to step foot in the Health Center. We can visit the H1N1 Response Center – a [...]
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    Posted: October 08, 2009, 12:00am EDT
    by Tyler Chernesky

  • Sean Hannity: Not a Real Christian Conservative

    Number of comments: 1
    Crossposted on my blog. Proclaimed “conservative Christian” Sean Hannity was exposed as anything but by Michael Moore during his interview with Moore on his show. Moore caught Hannity for not going to church, but more importantly, he exposed the fact that Hannity doesn’t actually believe in Jesus’ teachings: Moore: “Do you love your [...]
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    Posted: October 07, 2009, 11:04pm EDT
    by Mitchell Blatt

  • The grasshopper and the ant

    Every good Republican has heard the age-old grasshopper and ant story. You know, the one where the ant works hard all summer while the grasshopper lays by the pool and drinks Bud Light – or whatever it is that lazy grasshoppers do during the summer. Then, when winter comes, the [...]
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    Posted: October 07, 2009, 4:28pm EDT
    by Ashley Ames, IDS columnist

  • Stop Greedy Insurance Execs From Denying Claims! Support Big Government Denying Claims!

    Number of comments: 1
    Tired of big insurance denying medical claims? Obama has got the perfect solution for you: big government denying your claims! According to the American Medical Association, Medicare was the resounding leader in claims denied, beating Aetna by a score of 6.85% to 6.80%. Most of the insurers fells between 2 percent and [...]
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    Posted: October 06, 2009, 8:19am EDT
    by Mitchell Blatt

  • The Pansy President

    Number of comments: 1
    Let’s review: The Democrats won the 2006 and 2008 elections in a landslide. They got 60% majorities in both houses of Congress and a popular Democrat (with the name Barack Hussein Obama, no less) in the White House. You’d think that a year into all of this we’d be well on our [...]
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    Posted: October 04, 2009, 9:04pm EDT
    by Zach Ammerman

  • What’s in a name?

    There are a lot of powerful names being thrown around in our society everyday – but what do they all mean? Let’s have Merriam-Webster break them down for us. Democracy: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a [...]
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    Posted: October 02, 2009, 12:04pm EDT
    by Douglas Hungerford, IDS Columnist

  • Millionaire Capitalistic Filmmaker Calls His Profession “Evil”

    After Creating Films That Grossed Over $300 Million, Michael Moore Says “Capitalism Did Nothing For Me.” UPDATE Michael Moore’s recent interviews show he has some fundamental misunderstandings about what is capitalism, as his sixth documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story hits theatres. Most importantly, he denies the fact that people engaging in the voluntary [...]
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    Posted: October 01, 2009, 9:55pm EDT
    by Mitchell Blatt

  • God wants to catch up on last 1000 years, says he “sort of dozed off.”

    (Obviously, the following is satire) God, in an extremely rare public appearance, admitted Tuesday morning that He hadn’t been consciously present during the past 1000 years. “I know a lot of people assumed I was up there, listening and guiding and all, but I was actually in somewhat of an extended nap,” [...]
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    Posted: September 30, 2009, 4:02pm EDT
    by Josh Kraus, IDS Columnist

  • Misunderstanding Iran

    Number of comments: 4
    Let’s start with some little-known facts: An Iran armed with a nuclear weapon would be bad, but not nearly as bad as most Americans think. It is likely that there is something fishy going on with Iran’s nuclear program, but there is absolutely no proof of this that we know of. There is [...]
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    Posted: September 29, 2009, 4:03pm EDT
    by zammerma

  • Palin’ Around With Sarcasm

    Number of comments: 2
    Hi America! It didn’t take a trip to the real Chinatown for me to realize that our future is now deeply linked to Asia’s success. I found this out all on my own after realizing that my home is so close to Russia, which is close to China, which means that [...]
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    Posted: September 27, 2009, 8:41pm EDT
    by schammoo

  • Thank God for the Crazy Dictators

    Number of comments: 1
    It’s probably just because I’m incredibly nerdy, but I’m positively tickled pink that we still have a few wackjobs running the governments of countries like Libya and Iran (as long as we don’t have one running our country any more), at least for comedic purposes. During the annual UN General [...]
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    Posted: September 24, 2009, 5:23pm EDT
    by zammerma

  • A Bigger House? How about letting everyone vote first.

    A New York Times article from last week proposed the idea of increasing the number of members in the House of Representatives to alleviate the disproportional level of representation given to different electoral districts around the country (for example, the approximately one million people living in the Las Vegas area [...]
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    Posted: September 24, 2009, 4:52pm EDT
    by zammerma

  • Facts, Schmacts

    Upon viewing this footage of the 9/12  protests, I was reminded of the adage -”it is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt”. These protests also highlight the dangers of a misinformed public, effectively tricked [...]
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    Posted: September 24, 2009, 3:20pm EDT
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • Shapping our future

    If you have not yet seen or read Obama’s address to congress about health care (or perhaps you better know it as the Joe Wilson “You Lie!” scandal) then please, do yourself a favor and look it over – beginning to end. Obama’s Health Care Address to Congress Until this afternoon, I [...]
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    Posted: September 20, 2009, 3:31pm EDT
    by Douglas Hungerford, IDS Columnist

  • It’s a Mad Man’s world

    I wanted to avoid redundancy in this blog, as Ashley had just written about Glenn Beck,  and this didn’t start out as a post about him but when I walked out to the mailbox today, who should be staring back at me from the cover of Time magazine but the  [...]
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    Posted: September 19, 2009, 8:57pm EDT
    by Matt Straw, IDS Columnist

  • The Best Healthcare System?

    Number of comments: 3
    Ashley Ames notes in her latest post, that There are a lot of things that can be argued about health care. That America has the best system is not one of them. A lot of people from Canada who leave their country for American healthcare when they get a tumor might [...]
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    Posted: September 18, 2009, 10:24pm EDT
    by Mitchell Blatt

  • Improvements in American health care

    There are a lot of things that can be argued about health care. That America has the best system is not one of them. Just like the many Americans who think they love their coverage until they actually need it, Glenn Beck seems to go through the process in reverse. [...]
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    Posted: September 17, 2009, 8:57pm EDT
    by Ashley Ames, IDS columnist

  • College aid update

    The Journal Gazette, a local newspaper serving Fort Wayne, recently ran this piece about the drop in per-student college aid. It was forecast that the amount of aid would necessarily go down for at least the next couple years, but now we’re getting some of the exact numbers. The Gazette had [...]
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    Posted: July 25, 2009, 1:07pm EDT
    by DJ

  • Robert McNamara dies

    Number of comments: 1
    It’s somewhat upsetting to me that this hasn’t gotten nearly the coverage that the death of Michael Jackson or the affair of Gov. Sanford has gotten. I’m not sure what criteria should be used to determine whose obituaries ought to be covered in the press – whose are newsworthy. Whether [...]
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    Posted: July 11, 2009, 11:58am EDT
    by DJ

  • DOMA update

    A few weeks ago we had a staff ed that criticized the Obama administration for not taking an active lead on repealing DOMA. Since the economy has completely taken up the media limelight he hasn’t had much political pressure, aside from gay rights groups, to push for change (change that [...]
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    Posted: July 11, 2009, 11:40am EDT
    by DJ

  • The public option

    An argument for and an argument against the public option. [...]
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    Posted: June 28, 2009, 5:07pm EDT
    by DJ

  • The moral boundaries of Capitalism

    For anyone keeping up on the topic of internet censorship, this probably came as no surprise. A while ago, the Chinese Communist Party mandated that any computer sold within the Mainland as of July 1 come with pre-installed censorship software that the Chinese Communist Party says would protect youth from [...]
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    Posted: June 24, 2009, 1:13am EDT
    by Jacob Levin

  • 2009, or 1979?

    This is an addendum to my column that ran today, updating the events that have transpired since I wrote it on Tuesday. Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must be beginning to wonder exactly what year it is. An anonymous Youtube user has posted a video showing a fragment of [...]
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    Posted: June 18, 2009, 7:19pm EDT
    by DJ

  • Credit Card Legislation

    One of our staff eds this week talked about the F.D.A. being given regulatory control over tobacco products. I, personally, saw it as well as the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 to be measures meant to protect the consumer; and so added a blurb about it in the staff ed (a perk you get [...]
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    Posted: June 17, 2009, 2:36pm EDT
    by DJ

  • Why This Time Feels Different

    Number of comments: 1
    Ben Stein had an interesting column last week in Yahoo! Finance, called Why This Time Feels Different. He talked about why this recession feels more pronounced than others. While “feels” is a bit difficult to measure I could see his point. Although this recession is often called the worst economic downturn since the [...]
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    Posted: June 10, 2009, 4:38pm EDT
    by dfunkhou

  • Cows of the Future

    The New York Times had a piece last week about changing the diet of cows to reduce their methane emissions. According to the article, the UN believes that livestock is one of the most serious threats to our global climate. By switching to this new diet a Vermont farm saw [...]
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    Posted: June 06, 2009, 12:09pm EDT
    by dfunkhou

  • Being Democrat is not allowed at college

    Liberty University, a private university founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell, recently banned a student Democrat club, claiming that “the Democratic party violated the university’s principles, because it supports abortion, socialism and the agenda of gay, bisexual and transgender people.” Although Liberty University is a private institution and therefore should be allowed [...]
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    Posted: May 27, 2009, 1:19am EDT
    by dfunkhou

  • Cry, the beloved California

    The Economist recently reported that because on May 19th its citizens rejected the proposed tax hikes and budget cuts, the state of California is now facing a budget deficit of $21.3 billion. (Just fyi, Cali is expected to bring in $82 billion in revenue this year.) California might be the state [...]
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    Posted: May 25, 2009, 7:26pm EDT
    by dfunkhou

  • 76% of Americans don’t know what cap-and-trade is

    Number of comments: 1
    According to the Rasmussen Reports, a public opinion polling firm, only 24% of Americans know what cap-and-trade is. Their piece, published last week, said, The gap between Capitol Hill and Main Street is huge when it comes to the so-called “cap-and-trade” legislation being considered in Congress. So wide, in fact, that [...]
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    Posted: May 17, 2009, 5:57pm EDT
    by dfunkhou

  • Graduation, a time to celebrate the four, five (or six?) years of non-stop celebrating

    “Area Man First In His Family To Coast Through College.” Once again, the Onion’s satire seems to be spot on. But seriously, congratulations graduates of 2009! [...]
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    Posted: May 16, 2009, 2:52pm EDT
    by dfunkhou

  • While IU’s entrepreneurship research strong, the state’s entrepreneurship prospects dwindle

    Last week IU’s Kelley School of Business was given the crown of best in entrepreneurship research. Meanwhile, in a somewhat ironic - but not contradictory - article from the Indianapolis Business Journal, it was reported that the state of Indiana is struggling with entrepreneurship. The IBJ’s explanation was that the [...]
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    Posted: May 16, 2009, 2:45pm EDT
    by dfunkhou

  • G20 Wrap-up

    While doing my laundry and recovering from a Saturday night I watched CNN for an hour and a half this morning, trying to find out how Obama’s time in London went. Besides talking about handshakes and iPods I can’t really remember anything else. But, there was more to his trip [...]
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    Posted: April 05, 2009, 5:05pm EDT
    by dfunkhou

  • Links, 4/2/09

    “Doggone it, I’m still in this Senate Race” — the Minnesota Coleman/Franken recount is STILL undecided. Franken’s up by 225 votes; the whole lot of it is about to crash on Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s desk. Less intuitive implications of this could have lasting effects on Pawlenty’s potential gubernatorial reelection chances, [...]
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    Posted: April 02, 2009, 1:36pm EDT
    by Jennifer Miller

  • April Fools Links

    OBAMA IS IN TALKS WITH RUSSIA. SOUND MATT DRUDGE. …actually that’s not an April Fools’ joke. Sometimes I just can’t resist screenshot-ing the Drudge Report. The theme of the day is “civility,” folks. Anyway, Russian President Medvedev has invited Obama to the country to discuss offensive and defensive arms; Obama accepted [...]
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    Posted: April 01, 2009, 11:38am EDT
    by Jennifer Miller

  • LINKS - autocrats, French tantrums, country-lovers, and PG-rated NCAA goings-on

    A growing chorus is questioning Barack Obama’s seemingly disparate policy on Wall Street versus the auto industry. The “Wall St. v. Detroit” tension was highlighted yesterday with the encouraged stepping down of now-former GM CEO Rick Wagoner, as well as the pushed coupling of Chrysler with Italian automaker Fiat in [...]
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    Posted: March 31, 2009, 7:02am EDT
    by Jennifer Miller

  • Fiscal Policy

    PBS had a really good Frontline episode air tonight that talked about our long-term fiscal policy. I especially like the mention of PAYGO (pay-as-you-go). It carries with it a funny correlation - the only recent years the U.S. had a budget surplus were those with PAYGO. Before it, deficits. After [...]
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    Posted: March 24, 2009, 9:44pm EDT
    by dfunkhou

  • A call for new pro-gun leadership

    Number of comments: 7
    I’ve been fairly upfront in the past about my distaste for extremist gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association as well as my personal interpretation of the 2nd amendment as a collective, not individual, right. At the same time, I’m willing to agree on some middle ground where, regardless [...]
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    Posted: March 12, 2009, 3:17am EDT
    by Indira Dammu

  • The case of Republican women

    Number of comments: 1
    So this is one of the few times I’ll openly admit to liking a Republican but when it’s the case, it can’t be helped. I kid, of course! They’re plenty of great conservatives out there (especially my parents) and one of my favorites is Meghan McCain, daughter of Sen. John [...]
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    Posted: March 11, 2009, 4:04am EDT
    by Indira Dammu

  • Bill to Create a Financial Products Consumer Safety Agency

    A few weeks ago I wrote a column about Elizabeth Warren’s address to Congress on the rise of predatory lending practices and the need for government to protect the consumer. Senators Durbin and Schumer must have taken her speech to heart, proposing to create a Financial Products Safety Commission. [...]
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    Posted: March 10, 2009, 10:04pm EDT
    by dfunkhou

  • Republicans go urban!

    Number of comments: 4
    A few weeks ago, in an interview with the Washington Times, newly-minted RNC chairman Michael Steele discussed his plans for remaking the Republican Party’s image, particularly in order to appeal to the “youth” vote. We need messengers to really capture that region - young, Hispanic, black, a cross section … We [...]
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    Posted: March 09, 2009, 12:27am EDT
    by Indira Dammu

  • The future of the Republican Party…

    Number of comments: 10
    …is a 13-year old kid named Jonathan Krohn. Krohn, author of “Define Conservatism,” was in the news recently due to his short appearance at the just-concluded Conservative Political Action Conference. Krohn’s ideological hero, is wait for it…Bill Bennett, who as you may recall had some serious issues with gambling while [...]
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    Posted: March 05, 2009, 2:00am EST
    by Indira Dammu

  • One big gay family

    Number of comments: 4
    My column this week is all about the hateful legacy of James Dobson, founder of the equally pernicious Focus on the Family, a far-right Christian organization. Dobson stepped down as the Chairman of the group recently and it remains to be seen what the future of the group will be. Anway, [...]
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    Posted: March 03, 2009, 11:41am EST
    by Indira Dammu
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