Finals are next week, and with their arrival, The Daily Campus shuts down for the semester. So I have one last chance to comment on the year that was.
Despite how much we want to deny this fact, we did not, in fact, destroy the Republican machine with the recent election. For over 10 years, the Republican party has dominated Congress, and for the past six has held the presidency. Because 30 Congressmen and 15 Senators were voted out does not mean the party is defeated. What we did to this machine was weakly swing a hammer at it and we hardly made a difference. We could have easily picked up a heavier object and smashed the thing to bits, but the Democrats ran on a non-existent platform. What about education reform? Fixing the deficit? Health care? No, instead we had a fight over whether we were losing in Iraq.
Speaking of Iraq, Robert Gates, the President's choice to succeed Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, said Tuesday that the U.S. was indeed losing the war in Iraq. I never thought I would hear that from anyone associated with the Bush Administration. Then again, it was reported that Bush told one Iraqi leader we were not happy with their slow progress. We may not have destroyed the Republican machine, but we have caused a sea change in the president's course in Iraq. He's now supporting phased withdrawal and is willing to set an estimated goal for Iraq to begin to be able to police itself (June, 2007). The question is how much of this is just political rhetoric and how much of it is honest?
Two people have been shot over Sony's PlayStation 3 - one in line at a Wal-Mart near my hometown, the other in his apartment by the cops when they came to seize the PlayStations he had stolen. It turns out the guy who got shot in Putnam was unemployed and had no health insurance but was going to get three PS3s and ended up with another one thanks to Wal-Mart. Now he owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills that he can't afford. He should probably look into getting a job at some point so maybe next time something like this happens he will be too busy working to get shot in a line for a game system. Can you imagine him trying to talk to someone he just met? "Hey, what do you do for a living?" "Oh, I'm unemployed, but I have a side business getting shot waiting for game systems."
The Daily Campus reported on how UConn's tuition increases are smaller than at other universities around the country. For some reason or another, no one bothered to comment that we already charge $16,500 or so in tuition and board and all while the average across the nation was something like $4,000 less. It's not much of a deal to have a slightly lower increase rate if we already have a much higher tuition. Here's another thought - we have a $2.2 billion grant from the state according to UConn's website, so why don't we hire more professors and teach more classes with that money? If we could offer more classes, we wouldn't have so many students staying five or more years and then we wouldn't experience housing crunches.
Another thought on the housing crunch - stop admitting so many new students. This year it was reported over a dozen freshmen were put in places we normally wouldn't see them. That's a sign we admit to many people into the school each year.
Has anyone else looked into the place that is supposed to become a convenience store in the Student Union? It's a plain concrete room with lights but last time I checked there was no drywall or tile laid or counters set up or any electrical work done besides the lights. Also of interest - I have never seen anyone working in there. I thought we were supposed to have this all done by now.
If I hear one more person quote Borat for no reason, I'm punching them in the throat, be they male or female.
I also officially declare the Nintendo Wii fun.
Oh, sweet zombie Jesus! CNN has a story on about a girl who gave up on dieting and exercising to lose weight and went straight to liposuction. She claims to have gotten the idea from TV makeover shows. Her parents fully supported it and the doctors had no protests to performing it. I can't wait untill she's 16 and she has to go through it again because she's too lazy to work to keep her weight down.
I love this time of the year because of the snow and how quiet it makes everything, but I hate this time of the year because my knees hurt more in the cold. I planned to combat the cold this year by buying a pair of sweatpants for when I run in the morning, but the Co-op doesn't divide anything by sex and I ended up buying a pair of women's sweatpants. If anyone wants them, contact me.
Someone threw rocks at my door a week ago. We found out who it was, but the question remains - why did throwing rocks appear as a viable option to you?
Looking back at this semester, I didn't do everything I wanted to and some of the opportunities slipped through my fingers. That doesn't piss me off nearly as much as the $35 I have had to pay since last semester. It just appears on my fee bill, and the Bursar's office tells me one reason for it being there and tell my parents another three. Figure it out already. Anyway, I'm done for the semester, I'll be back in January to write columns about stuff you could not care less about and won't read.
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