Brandeis University's Community Newspaper — Waltham, Mass.
With my 21st birthday looming, I have spent some time reflecting on where I am. I thought a bit about one issue I have with the news media, which is that they almost never cover positive stories, instead focusing on sensational and tragic events such as murders or kidnapping. Columnists are often guilty of this […]
Those of us who follow the news are familiar with The New York Times. Journalism students in particular are encouraged to read The Times every day, and it shows. Read through The Hoot’s entire Impressions section—heck, read the Justice’s Forum as well—and you can bet that many, if not most, of the writers who grace […]
There’s a good chance that as you are reading this article, you’ve got a ceramic coffee mug in your left (or right) hand. Or if you weren’t lucky enough to have received one of those coffee mugs with the funny sayings from a family member for the holidays (it really is the easiest gift to […]
As the battle of the budget in Congress wears on, I’m increasingly reminded of my hometown of Seekonk. Every year in Seekonk, the town was divided into two camps—parents with children in schools and the elderly. And every year, when it came time to draw up a budget, one of the two would find themselves […]
Hopefully, the recent tumult in Syria will cause the Obama administration to rethink its policy toward the country. For the last two years, Obama has been attempting to improve ties with and engage with the Syrian regime, along with Iran, diplomatically. In fact, the administration was so desperate to do so that it overrode Congress […]
Sex is sex is sex is sex you might say … but is it really? I remember in sex ed. in eighth grade, when our teacher told us that, despite what anyone might say, oral sex was still sex. That almost seems obvious but, in a lot of ways, it isn’t. This is especially because […]
Winter is usually the season associated with sickness, a time when sub-zero weather leads to runny noses and aching heads. Yet, this year, just as the days were beginning to get longer and the green grass was beginning to appear from beneath the layers of white snow, another slew of illness hit. As if trying […]
Three weeks ago, Brandeis Hillel’s exclusion of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) caused a stir in the American Jewish community. It highlighted the controversial ambiguity between religion, community and politics by raising the question: Does Judaism necessarily mean Zionism? The exclusion of a Jewish group from Hillel based on our political beliefs, namely, opposition to […]
You know when you go to the movies and there is the famed intro of, “Please, don’t spoil the movie by adding your own soundtrack?” Well there should be another one that goes something like, “Please, don’t spoil the bathroom by leaving remnants of your excreta.” What you do in the comfort of your own […]
In the last couple of weeks, numerous friends of mine have been flooding my Facebook news feed with statuses relating to Israel. Some posts are coherent, such as my cousin’s post: “In the last three days over 70 missiles were fired into Israel. A bomb was strapped to a phone booth at a Jerusalem bus […]
