The Context of Radical Islam

May 13, 2013 | Rohit Islamic radicalism is one of those issues that the American media always completely fails to properly analyze.  Recall back to the aftermath of 9/11 - the airwaves were cluttered with talk about "why do they hate us?" and the "clash of civilizations" and other polarizing, binary rhetoric. I actually Read More

6 Million Ways to Strengthen America

May 12, 2013 | Jason Chen What I've come to love most about my time in Berkeley is the vibrancy of the local business community. Out with your Olive Gardens, your Cheesecake Factories, and your Coldstones; give me Gypsy's, Jupiter, and Ici. Beyond the occasional Subway or American Apparel (does anyone actually buy things from Read More

What Four Years At Berkeley Teaches You

May 2, 2013 | Nam Le | 2 Comments It still feels weird to type, but in a few short weeks, I will no longer be at Berkeley. I'm not sure what I've learned in my time here, but I am going to share with you what I think I know, right before graduation takes me. What follows is not intended to be the be all, end all guide to everything Read More

Doing It for the Story

April 15, 2013 | Michelle Robertson Saturday morning brunch: confession hour over runny dining hall eggs and stale cups of coffee. Stories range from the ridiculous (running through Kroeber Fountain in a onesie) to the pathetic (singlehandedly eating two baskets of onion rings at Late Night), but no matter how mundane the previous night's Read More

Ending Inequality In The NFL

April 13, 2013 | Nam Le Make no mistake - and this is neither a hyperbole nor overstatement - if Brendon Ayanbadejo's recent comments are to be believed, then we are on the verge of breaking the biggest sports story of our generation.  "I think [NFL players coming out] will happen sooner than you think," Ayanbadejo told Read More

Please, Don’t Frack My Mother!

April 11, 2013 | Hanna Morris http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfymhAEe-TM “You can do anything that you want to do…just please, don’t frack my mother!” This lyrical ballad written by Sean Lennon and featuring notable celebrities ranging from Joseph Gordon-Levitt to Yoko Ono to Adrian Grenier, has generated a rather hostile Read More

How Debate Destroys Communication: Six Principles of Effective Argumentation

April 11, 2013 | Grant Suk “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’” Read More

Rage Against the Japanese

April 7, 2013 | Sarah Tang If you keep up with foreign politics like a good Berkeley student does, you may have heard about the China's renewed animosity towards Japan sparked by a territorial dispute over a group of small rocky islands near Taiwan that the Chinese call Diaoyu and the Japanese call Senkaku. The contention Read More