Death of Shia leader leaves party in limbo


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Thousands of mourners lined the streets Saturday morning to pay their respects to Shia leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who died last week from lung cancer. Although he never chose to take an active political role within the central government, his role as leader of the major Shia group the United Iraqi Alliance, his influence and […]

Swine flu less dangerous than shoddy coverage


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Back when I was 10 years old, I took a nasty spill on my bike and felt a searing pain in my arm. Now I’m not a doctor, but I correctly diagnosed myself with a broken bone; I was right back then, so I figure I’m on about the level of a licensed physician by […]

LAPD plays unfair in game of tag


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One time in the fourth grade, a couple of my friends decided it would be funny to pour water all over a bus seat before the return leg of a three-hour class field trip. If everything went according to plan, an unsuspecting victim would sit down in said seat and react to the unfortunate discovery […]

After three years, space politicization continues


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Rare is a thing so unknowable as to provide infinite wonder. In a simpler age, the night sky might have been such a thing. It sure isn’t now. Last Monday marked the three-year anniversary of one of the saddest days in recent memory: Pluto’s demotion to dwarf-planet status. Years of watching Ms. Frizzle and her […]

Kenyan census is not a cure-all


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The term “ethnic violence” is used so often in relation to African tribal disputes that it is easy to forget to ask exactly what that term means. For Rwandans, it meant that relations between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes became so bad that genocide followed. The same can be said today for tribes in the […]

Cankles: the biggest threat since swine flu


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There were a lot of things to worry about this summer, for the anxiety-prone. A recessed economy, a miserable job market, the persistent recurrence of swine flu cases and the death of our nation’s most beloved crazy person made lounging on the global warming-heated beach almost stressful. As though worrying about whether the cabana boy […]

Reality TV viewers perpetuate broken ideals


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We, the public, demand a lot from our Hollywood stars. We’ve certainly had our way with the buxom blonde songstresses and ditzy heiresses, and we’ve preyed unremittingly on the clean-cut, sexually-curious boy banders, A-list couples in hiding and, of course, the young, physically abusive R&B entertainers. But somewhere on this path of unreasonable privacy invasion, […]