Archives for January 2012

Occupy Wall Street began as a small movement, relying mostly on social media to spread both ideas and information — the modern day word-of-mouth. The movement gained momentum quickly and bore no signs of losing it. In just a matter of weeks, it became clear that the movement was not going to fade anytime soon. Major news coverage lasted for months, and as each new development … [Read more...] about Media stands blamed for the fall of Occupy

With four candidates out of the race and five candidates left, the GOP primary has already been a wild ride. If it’s any indicator of what the November elections will be like, we all had better brace ourselves. Four years ago, Tina Fey was seeing Russia from her house and Amy Poehler was rapping about the GOP’s Eskimo constituency on “Saturday Night Live,” providing the … [Read more...] about GOP race, social media and a third thing we can't remember

Who doesn’t love returning to Malibu at the start of each spring semester?  The bitter reality of an inevitably anti-climactic winter break barely has time to settle into a dull nausea before “syllabus week” renders students incapable of experiencing anything other than an acute dread of the academic torture to come in the following three months. The excitement of returning to … [Read more...] about Student offers advice to fellow peers

Living in paradise on the top of a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean — shamelessly allowing some elitism — there is a tendency to gravitate to the fun and recreation around us while losing motivation for the academic rigor available here at Pepperdine. After being barraged over break by curious folks at home (“how do you manage to study in such a beautiful place?”) I began to … [Read more...] about New year invites new attitude

Hey Israel (can I call you Izzy?), it’s been awhile since we last settled down and had a heart-to-heart chat about reality. How’ve you been? We’re ok, save for our $1 trillion plus national debt, economic fragility and overspending on military budgets (which is finally getting a trim courtesy of the Obama Administration). Listen, we need to talk about Iran. We (as in, certain … [Read more...] about Israel: Heed this friendly warning