Outside Opinions

Is She the Farr Better Candidate?

April 17, 2012 by

In 2008 Steve Pappas lost the 3rd District Supervisor seat to Doreen Farr by a slim margin. Disgruntled by the two-to-one majority that the student population of UCSB and Isla Vista gave to Farr, Papp...
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Leverage Your Degree, Learn to Network

April 16, 2012 by and

As a UCSB student, you are going to graduate with a degree from an esteemed research university and will be able to get any job you want … or so you think. Many of us have all the qualifications nee...
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Putting Our Inner Hipster Aside, Coming to Terms With Bieber Fever

April 12, 2012 by

Have you ever woken up one morning and realized you’re the hipster? My friends talk about how they hate the self-involved hypocrisy of these types of folks. But every day I feel like more and more o...
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Banishing the No- Prefix Once and For All: Alternatives to Next Year’s Floatopia

April 10, 2012 by

Another year has gone by, and once again Floatopia was successfully banned. That’s three years now, which in my opinion is pretty damn depressing. As a third-year student, I got here just in time fo...
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There’s No Denying Invisible Children’s Success in Spreading the Word on Kony

April 9, 2012 by

As everyone has heard by now, the viral marketing campaign KONY 2012, made by the nonprofit company Invisible Children, has recently come under intense scrutiny in the media. Most coverage of the mass...
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“I’m just a normal guy. So don’t be scared.”

April 6, 2012 by

Hey man, why you looking so nervous?   I know you’re not used to seeing guys with skin like mine anywhere other than on ESPN or in the news for some crime. But don’t be scared, homie; I’m n...
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Combating UCSB’s Voter Suppression

April 5, 2012 by

It’s a pretty familiar refrain among college students: “It doesn’t matter if I vote or not. Our votes don’t make a difference; nobody cares if I vote.” The thing is, guys, you’re wrong abo...
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Addressing Homelessness

April 5, 2012 by

My team and I are in outreach on the streets and are deeply concerned about the number of homeless people, including families, entering into our parks, city dwellings, hospitals and beaches. More new ...
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Confessions of an American Homebody Abroad in Australia

March 8, 2012 by

I would classify myself as a homebody. When given the option, I will choose to watch a good movie and enjoy a glass (or bottle) of red wine over walking the dirty streets of Isla Vista to search for a...
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Christian Voice Needs No More Representation

March 6, 2012 by

I have a problem with the inclusion of a Consult a Christian column, but not because I want to suppress the Christian position in favor of championing atheist, Jewish, empiricist, Rastafarian, secular...
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“A True Friend Will Help You Bury the Body and Then Drive You to Mexico”

March 4, 2012 by

It isn’t difficult to make friends in Isla Vista, but this place is so much like a dream that it makes it hard to tell who your real friends are, as opposed to fake friends that only want to know yo...
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“Brain Dead Drug War Policy Saves People by Killing Them”

March 1, 2012 by

Only people ignorant of the true history of addictive drug use blame the drugs for the tragedies connected to drug addiction. Checking newspaper archives from 1880 to 1909 reveals the fact that no one...
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Steve Pappas v. Doreen Farr, Isla Vista, and the New Jim Crow

February 22, 2012 by

I’m writing this because in 2008 I lived in I.V. and most current students weren’t here. In 2008 Steve Pappas lost to Doreen Farr in the race for 3rd District supervisor by 2.27 percent. He lost t...
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Responses to Ask an Atheist: Interpreting the Bible as Gay-Friendly

February 22, 2012 by

Regardless of your views on the Bible, I think most readers would agree that without context, interpretation of any text loses most of its validity. I’d imagine that we all have experienced that awk...
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Responses to Ask an Atheist: Interpreting the Bible as Gay-Friendly

February 22, 2012 by

Here’s a gay-friendly interpretation of the Bible from a Christian: The Bible says that homosexual relations is a sin in the same way that heterosexual sexual relations is a sin outside of marriage....
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