Brandeis University's Community Newspaper — Waltham, Mass.
President Obama’s health care reform is the law of the land. Yet in Massachusetts, birthplace of yet another national reform, the showdown between insurers and the insured is just beginning. Last month after the national Blue Cross Blue Shield group arguably reinvigorated Washington into passing health reform because of outrageous rate hikes, the commonwealth’s insurers, […]
Recently the subject of porn has come up in many of my discussions without provocation. Whether talking with friends at school, family friends at the Seder or new acquaintances at dinner parties, porn seems to be on everybody’s mind. As women, we both expect to find and dread finding porn on our boyfriends’ Internet browser […]
Conservatives and liberals seem to disagree on a huge variety of issues, to put it mildly. Indeed, partisan battles wage on endlessly in Washington and state governments across the country. At the heart of many of the differences between these political factions are what I would consider to be two competing conceptions of the idea […]
Perhaps this will sound a bit vindictive, but a part of me—a rather large part, actually—hopes that at least one Tea Partier was caught in the recent New England flooding. That’s right, I’m talking about you, Tea Partier. You with the American flags draped from your windows and the “Drill Baby, Drill” bumper stickers. You […]
As we approach the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, know this: If you care about saving the planet, you’re better off driving a Hummer than eating a cheeseburger. That’s the conclusion of “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” a 2006 report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (U.N.). The FAO estimated that […]
American politicians denounce partisanship almost as readily as they jump in front of cameras and kiss babies. They seem certain that partisanship is very sharp and is a bad thing. The fact that they agree on this point, however, does not make them right about it. Untold amounts of hot air have been vented against […]
Recently, I wrote an article titled “Giving Failing Schools an F.” I was very excited to receive my first response ever as a columnist from one Ned Crowley, titled “School Critique Falls Short.” I would like to thank Crowley for caring enough about this issue to actually write back. We columnists can get the impression […]
Do you think you could go a week without producing any waste while living here at Brandeis? Even if you’re an eco-superhero, the answer is probably not. A few weeks ago I decided that, for one week, I would carry all the waste that I produced (excluding toilet paper) with me for a class assignment […]
It happens every time I’m discussing the future with any of my more activist-minded friends. They’re excitedly telling me about how close they are to completing their Tofu and Arugula Studies major, and I’m listening and nodding politely, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. They make the predictable joke about how nonexistent their […]
It is a generally accepted notion among businesses that workers must be paid for all services rendered. Usually, that means paying employees fair wages. Usually. Aramark seems to be having trouble with this idea—in its own backyard, no less. The Philadelphia-based company stands accused of cheating 3,000 employees of several Philadelphia sports stadiums: Citizens Bank […]
