Britney Spears is fat. She has a huge stomach that sticks out and it’s really disgusting.” These very words were uttered by a 10-year-old girl I tutored. Absurd sociocultural standards of thinness and beauty like this are causing severe eating disorders in 10 percent of college students. As my pupil and I flipped through People […]
Author Archives: Mike Hansen
Kennewick Man’s remains reek of government cover-up
A 9,000-year-old Caucasoid skeleton was uncovered near Kennewick, Washington in 1996. What an amazing find; we should learn more about it, right? Not so fast. A cover-up is under way, in every sense possible. Four days after the stunning preliminary radiocarbon results of “Kennewick Man,” the Army Corps of Engineers halted all studies and took […]
War on terrorism weakening al-Qaeda
Fresh from their humiliating election defeat, Democrat party leaders have concocted what they believe to be an ingenious new strategy: criticize the U.S.-led war on terrorism. You can’t help but feel sorry for Democrats these days. Out of sync with the American people and completely removed from reality, the Democrats are shooting themselves in the […]
Rankings can counteract GPA inflation
At private universities across the country, grade inflation is rampant. Average GPAs at private schools like Stanford range from 3.4 to 3.6, while at public institutions, such as UCLA, Berkeley and UNC, the averages range from 3.0 to 3.2. UCLA needs to bring back class rankings to preserve the value of our hard-earned grades. Class […]
Got ways to stop .commercial takeover?
The California Milk Processor Board is looking for a town willing to rename itself “Got Milk?” What’s going on here? A phenomenon called “ad creep” is sweeping the nation; IBM has hired graffiti artists to launch a guerrilla marketing campaign on the sidewalks of Chicago. The Oakland Coliseum became the Network Associates Coliseum. Our public […]
Measure JJ would threaten, not help workers
The government should adopt a $50 per hour minimum wage so that everybody makes $100,000 a year. This is the absurd logic behind Santa Monica’s Measure JJ, on the ballot Nov. 5, which would raise Santa Monica’s minimum wage to $13.50. The minimum wage would affect all medium and large businesses in the coastal zone […]
Service should be required at UCs
Every act of community service is selfish. But since the results of community service matter more than its motivations, the UC should enact a community service requirement as a condition to graduate. With my experience tutoring children in Watts through Project Literacy, I have found that, regardless of the personal motivations of the tutor, the […]