Jun

'08

The TGIF referendum will be another costly program with little oversight.

Soon, the cost of being a student at UCLA will increase yet again. Despite recent protests about the rising cost of tuition at the university, students indicated their willingness to pay more in student fees each quarter when they passed a referendum, known as The Green Initiative Fund (or TGIF), which established an additional student fee of $4 per quarter. TGIF will raise about $200,000 each year for student initiated environmental projects which are intended to decrease the negative long term impact of the UCLA campus on the environment through programs which will be, at least in part, self-sustaining. On the surface, the plan seems to have a noble goal and to highly value wide student participation. Apparently, the UCLA student body agreed- 75 percent of those who voted in the recent election voted for TGIF.

However, as with most increases in student fees which are managed by a minimally responsible bureaucracy subject the influence of student interest groups, many are skeptical of the claim that the funds raised by TGIF will be used in such a way as to maximize benefits for UCLA students. Read more

Jun

'08

On June 3rd Californians will have the opportunity to reverse one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in the tribunal’s over 200-year history. The Bruin Standard hopes that its readers will seize that opportunity and vote yes on Proposition 98. In 2004, the Supreme Court ruled in Kelo v. City of New Haven that governments may constitutionally take people’s homes, against their will, and give the land to other private entities in the name of “economic development.” The decision also announced that courts were to take a hands-off approach to government takings and defer to legislative judgment on what takings are necessary. By doing so, the court in Kelo abdicated its constitutionally mandated role to defend our constitutional property rights against legislative abuse.

The consequences of Kelo have been predicable. Powerful interest groups and private entities with lobbyists and political influence have been able to manipulate government into providing them through force what they could not obtain through negotiation and voluntary exchange. The victims of this now court-sanctioned practice are the poor, minorities and others without a voice in the political arena. All property has become subject to the whims of city councils and urban planners. It is no longer treated not as a individual right fundamental to human dignity and freedom but as plaything for government to give, take away, and assign as it sees fit based on political rather than economic or moral considerations. Read more

Jun

'08

Chicken Little is at it again. Climate change has become a centerpiece of today’s social consciousness, and has demanded the immediate attention of the industrialized world. Countless meetings, summits, and poolside discussions have been held in an effort to save our world from this impending catastrophe. But maybe you shouldn’t trade your car in for a rickshaw just yet.

Global warming refers primarily to a process which has ostensibly governed the warming of the Earth of about 0.6 degrees Celsius during the 20th century. Its cause lies with the “Greenhouse Effect,” where the absorption and emission of atmospheric gases warm the planet’s lower atmosphere and surface (thanks Wikipedia). This crucial process has allowed the Earth to sustain life, as without it our world would be around 33 degrees (C) colder and uninhabitable. And the apparent consensus is that we are causing it to increase. Read more

Jun

'08

Bye.

Hey look, it’s June. How the hell did that happen?

Before I go graduate, I want to share some of my opinions which never made it into an issue this year. This way I leave you with something to remember me by – the rants of an idiot. Read more

Jun

'08

It always feels good to know that we’re helping to save the environment by buying energy-efficient and clean products. That is why we should not buy hybrid cars.

Hybrids obviously use electricity in place of large amounts of polluting fossil fuels, but to judge the car by its fuel usage alone leaves out the cost in resources to make a maintain a hybrid car. One of the main problems with hybrid cars today is the nickel in their batteries. Read more

Jun

'08

Having studied abroad in Ireland for the duration of this year, I’ve come to appreciate the good-natured and humorous attitudes held by our other neighbors across the pond. Everyone has a story to share, a joke to tell, and a drink to finish. My friends are constantly pulling my leg, a social behavior that helps to form the well-knit communities the Irish are known for. The Irish call this “taking the piss,” which is slang for joking, as in “He’s taking the piss out of you” (he’s only joking) or “Are you taking the piss!?” (Are you fucking serious!?).

All jokes aside, despite all the things I love about the Irish culture, there’s an issue out here that I feel should be publicly addressed. In the midst of all my many nights of copious drink, I’ve come to notice there’s a big problem with the restroom facilities throughout the country. I can deal with the extreme stench of urine, and the lack of paper towels, but Irish plumbing is a water conservationist’s worst nightmare—each flush must use at LEAST four gallons of water. Read more

Jun

'08

Most of us in the UCLA community agree that global warming is real, so I’m not going to waste too much time explaining that, but for those skeptics out there, consider these facts. According to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, worldwide, the average temperature has risen 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. Additionally, several studies on climate change report that the last 20 years of the 1900s were the hottest in 400 years and possibly for several thousand years. Even more recently, according to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the hottest dozen years since 1850 have included 11 of the past 12 years. While the science is conclusive regarding the rise in world temperature, there is still some skepticism as to the reason why. However, just 4 days ago, the White House released two reports on climate change that basically echo the findings of the IPCC. That’s right, the Bush Administration has finally concluded that “most of the recent global warming is very likely due to human generated increases in greenhouse gas concentrations.” (“Scientific Assessment of the Effects of Global Change on the United States” May 29, 2008) Read more

Jun

'08

France: the country of food and wine and free time. So they figured out that unspecified amounts of butter in any dish is delicious, big deal. Obvious right? Well how about their transition to nuclear energy? Is it equally obvious to choose a form of energy that is efficient, clean, safe, and possibly our answer to carbon emissions? France now owes 76% of their electricity to nuclear energy, compared to our 20%. Oh the embarrassment.

Nuclear energy comes from the process of nuclear fission, the splitting of the nucleus of a large atom, usually uranium-235 or plutonium-239, into two smaller atoms and energy that is absorbed by water in the form of heat. From then on, the conversion of energy is simple, using the techniques of a steam engine to power turbines, which in turn generate electricity. The nuclear reaction is carefully controlled with negative feedback systems, and fuel that is sufficiently concentrated so that a nuclear explosion cannot take place, as it would in nuclear missiles. The very nature of this a process is extremely efficient, due to the small amount of fuel input as compared to the large energy output. Since 1990, output has increased 40% due to technological innovations. Read more

Jun

'08

Two minutes! Two minutes is all I ask!” A questionable choice of phrasing coming from a lanky guy sitting behind a sign emblazoned with the word “porn.” I notice the sneer on the face of a passerby as he trudges down Bruin Walk, ignoring the appeal. “Stop!” I mentally urge him, “I want to hear about your porn addiction!”

Whether you are an avid porn connoisseur (bandwidth-hogging asshole) or you blush at the Viagra promotions in your email, you can appreciate Grant Jenks’ and Jared Warner’s fearlessness. For the past several months, the two fourth-year students and admitted recovering porn addicts have engaged students on the matter and candidly shared their own battles with the vice. It has become their ministry. Read more

Jun

'08

Ben Stein’s (“Bueller?… Bueller?”) documentary takes a look at how American schools revoke  any theory of creation beyond Darwinism.

America has always stood for freedom, and for defending freedom. Americans have always believed in the free exchange of ideas, that the truth is most rigorously discovered after examining a given issue from both sides. Yet in this country there is at least one realm in which dissent is forbidden and dissenters banished. It’s not the Army; it’s not the CIA. It is within the science departments of our universities. In “Expelled” (a new documentary directed by Nathan Frankowski and written by Kevin Miller) we are shown that Darwinism is a hostile dogma in American science departments and that those who dare to doubt that theory’s veracity are immediately and firmly silenced. Read more

Jun

'08

ARIES
LIBERAL: Congratulations! You’re graduating.You’ll spend the next 10-15 years of your life paying off your debts. By the way, you still owe me five bucks.
CONSERVATIVE: Congratulations! You’re graduating. You’ll spend the next 10-15 years of your life collecting other people’s debts. By the way, I’m working on those five bucks. Once my foodstamp application goes through I’ll have more disposable income.

TAURUS
LIBERAL: You’ll look back at your time at UCLA and wish you could stay forever smoking pot and talking out of your ass about EVERYTHING.
CONSERVATIVE: You’ll look back at your time here and be glad that you can use your public education to rail against the evils of public education and other tax funded institutions. Read more

Jun

'08

The Bruin Standard applauds Professor Eugene Victor Wolfenstein for a job well done. Each issue The Bruin Standard shames a professor who can’t teach without attempting to indoctrinate his students or dwell on his own speculations (instead of the material which he is supposed to teach). In contrast, Professor Wolfenstein brilliantly presents material without unnecessary discussion of his opinions on current events. Read more

Jun

'08

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