Brandeis University's Community Newspaper — Waltham, Mass.
A whole lot of nothing occurred when the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced last week that it was resetting its “Doomsday Clock” to six minutes before midnight, a minute further from Doomsday. The value of the Clock’s measurements, it turns out, depends upon how well the Clock is calibrated. The news media’s output these last […]
Out of all the conflicts that plague our country, few have been as divisive or heated as that over gay marriage. The relatively simple idea that those with identical genders should have the right to marry in the eyes of the state has drawn praise and condemnation across the country. In fact, one would be […]
While there are many important things to talk about this month—sluggish economic growth, the Senate healthcare bill and the climate change summit in Copenhagen, to name a few—there is one particular headline that ought to be discussed before it ends up buried under an avalanche of larger news stories. Another part of the country has […]
Bret Matthew’s article in The Hoot (Hypocrisy, thy name is Republican, Oct.23, 2009) was biased and uninformed, so I’m clarifying what was written with the truth. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the $787 billion “stimulus bill,” was proposed by Congress on Jan. 26 and signed into law less than a month […]
Next week most students will travel home to celebrate Thanksgiving Day with their families, others will just enjoy the free time with friends and yet some others won’t even remember what they did for Thanksgiving. Nevertheless, this is a tradition deeply rooted in American society. It all began in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, when the […]
For those of you who hail from Washington D.C., I have something for you to think about as you head home for the Thanksgiving and winter breaks: The Catholic Church is blackmailing your city. And I bet you’ll never guess what they’re fighting over. The D.C. Council—the district’s legislative branch—is considering a bill that would […]
There is an Israeli song called “Zeh Haya Beiti” (“This was once my home”). It’s about the pain felt when Israelis were forced out of their homes in Gush Katif—a bloc of 17 Israeli settlements in the southern part of the Gaza Strip—in 2005 when Israel completely terminated its occupation there. “This was once my […]
In light of the upcoming climate conference in Copenhagen, where the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Control will create a plan to prevent global warming and climate change, it is imperative that the United States works to create a plan that can reduce worldwide carbon emissions in terms that are internationally aware. As a […]
Lost somewhere in the recession, I’m sure, is an accountant named Gregory. Greg pulls down about sixty thousand dollars a year, a fair sum. His wife, let’s call her Marie, is a teacher–she earns about fifty thousand dollars a year. Together, they live in a suburban home with their two college-bound children, Mark and Samantha. […]
In response to the editorial entitled “What is a debate when no one listens?” published in the last issue of The Brandeis Hoot, it is necessary to emphasize that the forum was not, in fact, a debate. From the opening statement made by Daniel Terris, the director of the Center for Ethics, Justice and Public […]
