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Inside Politics Daily
Faith-Based Politics? No -- 'What Happens in Church Stays in Church'
The Iraq War: Suddenly, It's Not So Bad After All
Chaos Theory - Rush Limbaugh Takes a Stand on Health Care- Democrats Fail to Reach Deal on Abortion for Health Care Reform
How Obama and Bush (Shocking as It Seems) Are Similar
As the Auto Industry Sputters, Is Car Culture Dying?
Suraya Pakzad and the Long, Tough Fight for Afghan Women
Maple Leaf Cool? Get Used to It, Please
Abuse Scandals Draw Uncomfortably Close to the Pope
Obama's So-Called Narrative Problem: There's More to That Story
A Same-Old GOP Budget: Rich Pay Less, Everyone Else Pays More
Karl Rove Has a Good Book in Him, but This One Isn't It
Shall Boys Live with Girls? Gender-Neutral Housing and the Evolution of Dorm Living
By Willy Hameline
I often hate my roommates. They're loud when I want there to be quiet. They're in the shower when I want to use it. They own ukuleles. They forget their keys and need to be let in. They say that, no, it's not OK for me to buy a ukulele because three is a perfect number of stringed Hawaiian instruments for one dorm room but four is too many and if I was so into ukuleles in the first place why do I always complain about their playing them? In short, my roommates exist, and while that often means we often find ourselves caught in the irritating but inevitable snags of communal living, we are ...
Where the Gay Marriage Debate Should End
By Willy Hameline
It is a wonderful feeling to have a say in something you really believe in. Earlier this month, atop the ballot in Maine, Question 1 gave voters like myself the chance to determine the fate of a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. Question 1 was a veto – a "Yes" vote would quash marriage equality, a "No" vote would uphold it. Maine's ballots are charmingly low-tech. Two broken arrows – one for yes, the other for no – point at the issues, and it's up to the voter to color in the one he favors. When all was said and done, a majority – 52.7 percent ...
Students Lost Maine Gay Marriage Battle, But Not the War
By Willy Hameline
When it was announced – lo, one year ago! – that Barack Obama had been elected president, students at colleges around the nation were ecstatic. Cold November weather be damned, young men and women here at Bowdoin took to the quad with screams of patriotism and pride that could electrify even the most politically apathetic. The overwhelmingly liberal student body had tasted success, and it was sweet. After last week's state elections in Maine, Bowdoin students were decidedly more tranquil. Question 1, a people's veto of a bill signed last May legalizing gay marriage, had passed with ...
5 Edgy Costumes for Discerning Trick-or-Treaters
By Willy Hameline
Ah, Halloween. It's the day when the barrier between the real world and the spirit world is at its thinnest. When we don costumes ridiculous or scary to act out our fears, subvert authority, or lose ourselves in escapist fantasy. It's the one day children can knock on strangers' doors demanding candy, and the one day we, the strangers, can offer it to them. Although ghost, pirate, witch, and Hannah Montana outfits will always be sartorial staples of Halloween, the topical costume adds the spark of current events to any Oct. 31st festivities -- especially on college campuses and among ...
CNN Doesn't Monitor the Battle -- It Tosses Grenades
By Willy Hameline
CNN has a tough job. The cable network offers 24 hours of news and analysis while walking the precarious tightrope of media objectivity. Although the right and left will forever lob charges of bias at CNN, the network nevertheless maintains some middle ground between the likes of 24-hour cable cousins Fox News and MSNBC in the spectrum of media partisanship. Whether struck by the opportunity for dispassionate analysis or bored by a lull in the political action, when CNN decided to fact check an SNL sketch on the successes of the Obama administration, the other media outlets pounced. Bill ...
As Goes Maine, So Go Health Care and Gay Marriage?
By Willy Hameline
There are many perks to going to college in Maine. The lobster. The breathtaking scenery. L.L. Bean. An appreciation for summer weather. Did I already mention the lobster? But the rumblings of social, political, and economic debate are boiling up among Mainers, and upcoming legislative battles in the state have the potential to burst from our quiet corner of the country like an icy Nor'easter. It's enough to make a college student from New York cast off the detached respect of an outsider and embrace the issues with the engagement of a native (albeit without the accent). ...
You're Watching: Barack Obama. Up Next: Barack Obama
By Willy Hameline
It's no secret that many of those displeased with the direction our country has taken since Barack Obama's swearing in eight months ago feel the federal government has gotten too big. As if the series of bailouts to banks and automakers weren't enough, the health care overhaul was yet another unacceptable encroachment of the government's long fingers into the pies many would rather keep private.It's also no secret, but apparently hard to swallow, that America is not the privatized bastion of small government that tea party protesters say they are trying to defend. The government is widely ...
Children of the Corn: Subsidies, Incentives and Health Reform
By Willy HamelineIn 1959, as the tensions of the Cold War seethed into their second decade, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev paid a visit to the United States. His stops included New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and, much to the head-scratching of the CIA, a little stop in between: Iowa (and yes, a 50th anniversary commemoration exists). Russia had stolen the formula for the atomic bomb. She could send satellites into space. But the one area where we the capitalists had her beat wasn't in a secret smuggled around in briefcases handcuffed to wrists but in a practice as old as civilization itself: agriculture. ...
How Obama Would Have Addressed College Students
By Willy HamelineSo Obama's speech to our nation's students on Tuesday didn't strike the socialist tone some had expected. The president: " . . . we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world -- and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. And none of it will matter unless all of you support my socialist scheme to choke all that is free-thinking and pure ...
Weighing the Afghanistan Troop Increase From the Dorm Room
By Willy Hameline
One afternoon in 11th grade, while flipping through a magazine, I came across an advertisement for the Marines. It touted the glory of being one of the few and the proud, but my eyes went straight to the offer at the bottom. If I filled out a form with my mailing address and phone number I would receive a free monocular with the Marines logo emblazoned on the side. A free monocular! With visions of night-vision dancing in my head, I scribbled my info and sent the card away. The monocular would not come for six months, but in just one week I received a different sort of present. Marine Sgt. ...
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