Opinion

Opinion

Thumbs Up ... Thumbs Down ...

January 29

Thumbs Up To... AU's snow removal - Thanks to the diligent and hardworking staff who helped dramatically reduce the number of us who fell unceremoniously on our butts. Eagle staff experience with busting up ice proves that it is no cakewalk. It takes hard work, time and effort.

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Opinion

AU's Web site stays stuck in the past

By Carl Seip | January 29

I'll be graduating in a few months. But before I leave, I thought it'd be interesting to be a prospective student again - to relive my own introduction to AU in the modern day. The natural starting point was american.edu. I'm from Seattle, and the AU Web site was integral in my application process since I was unable to visit east coast schools before I applied.

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Opinion

Trapped in a tunnel

January 29

For the vast majority of the nearly 2 million people who crowded the National Mall for President Obama's Inauguration, the event was memorable for the powerful speeches, performances and imagery that accompanied our nation's 44th peaceful transition of power.

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Opinion

Obama faces torturous questions

By Joe Wenner | January 26

Through all the debacles associated with the previous administration, there was always that puzzling 25 percent of Americans who insisted Bush was a decent head of state. But with Barack Obama inaugurated as president, the remaining 75 percent, including myself, are expecting a significant shift in substance and policy.

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Opinion

Buy online to pressure bookstore

January 26

Every student and professor at AU has a personal horror story about the campus bookstore. Some students complain about waiting hours for their pre-ordered package to be found. Others complain about finding their orders completely cancelled after weeks of waiting for an important book.

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Opinion

Letter to the editor: RAD for men coordinator lays down challenge to Eagle staff

By Sgt. Dale Booth | January 26

I am writing this article to clear up a few misconceptions that were perpetuated in last week's "Staff Editorial: Male RAD class needs retooling." RAD Systems, and the RAD for men program, was founded and developed by Larry Nadeau. Nadeau holds a 3rd degree Black Belt from the International Hapkido Karate Association (IHKA) and among many other things, is a nationally recognized police defensive tactics instructor.

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Opinion

President needs to pick his battles

By Jong Eun Lee | January 26

President Barack Obama faces immense expectations from those in and out of the country, all of whom are waiting for spectacular solutions to the world's problems. However, Obama is hardly the only political leader in history who was elected with high expectations.

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Opinion

Letter to the editor: Israel abroad article misrepresents facts

By Sara E. Dumont | January 26

The article in Thursday's Eagle regarding AU students studying abroad in Israel offers information that is quite misleading due to omissions your reporter chose to make from my e-mail correspondence with him yesterday. Because I am sure The Eagle wishes to fulfill its obligation to provide complete and accurate information to the AU community, I am here sending you the complete text of the sections of my e-mail to your reporter regarding the safety and security information supplied to our students: "We do provide extensive information and advice regarding health and safety to all our students studying abroad, in writing, on our website, and in personal advising and pre-departure orientation sessions .

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Opinion

Letter to the editor: Republican Party needs to offer country choice

By Katelyn Hurley | January 26

While listening to President Obama's inaugural address the other day, I quickly googled former President Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address with the intention of comparing the two. President Obama has said in the past that he looks up to Reagan, primarily for taking the road less traveled.

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Opinion

Letter to the editor: Past political cartoon is "infuriatingly close-minded"

By Kate E. Matthews | January 22

The cartoon in last week's edition of an Israeli family cowering under missile-heads labeled "Hamas" and "Global Anti-Semitism" is infuriatingly close-minded and stubborn. I understand political cartoons are meant to be divisive and show the single-sided stories of a bitter or oppressed populace (Republicans denounce Democrats, Dems blame the GOP, the Liberal Left reprimands the Christian Right, the U.

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Opinion

Obama offers pragmatic change

By Charlie Szold | January 22

Much has been made of the connection between Abraham Lincoln, the esteemed 16th president, and Barack Obama, our new and popular 44th. In a show of both physical and transcendent connection, the new president even swore his oath on the same bible as did Lincoln 148 years and 28 presidents before.

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Opinion

Male RAD class needs retooling

January 22

Public Safety will begin offering a male counterpart to the Rape Aggression Defense class starting next week, after several AU students showed interest in a male equivalent. The class, called Resisting Aggression with Defense, focuses on teaching males to walk away from confrontation rather than resort to violence.

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Opinion

U.S. needs to move past '08 campaign

By Jimm Phillips | January 22

Political pundits have offered up a myriad of reasons for newly inaugurated President Barack Obama's victory in November's election - the economic crisis, plummeting public support for George W. Bush, concerns about the Republican ticket and so on. While I'm sure any number of factors played a role in the Obama-Biden ticket's victory, it's undeniable that the ticket's campaign staff deserve some of the credit for executing a highly effective campaign marketing strategy.

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Opinion

Obama's centrism doesn't suit base

By Jacob Shelly | January 15

On a frigid December night in Des Moines, Iowa, - seven days before the first caucus - the Democratic race was tight and Barack Obama was playing his strongest card: preaching a new, post-partisan brand of politics. Obama echoed themes that made him famous, lamenting "our broken and divided politics" and promising the possibility of "a new kind of politics," one that replaced ideology with common sense.

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Opinion

GOP needs to step out of echo chamber

By Alex Knepper | January 15

If the Republican Party is to rebuild, it's going to have to drag its core supporters kicking and screaming out of the echo chamber. Movement partisans - members of the apocryphal and ever shrinking "base" - increasingly are too often not involved in politics to support a particular set of convictions.

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Opinion

Pay-per-grade

January 15

Students have long griped, usually around finals time, that their teachers, schools and parents should compensate them for getting high marks. Before college, some lucky students could exact extra TV time, candy or some after school privileges. College students today are doing even better, collecting cold, hard cash for their efforts.

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Opinion

Letter to the editor: JAMS policy on booze in the dorms is consistently wrong

By Ali-Hassan Ayub | January 15

It's been a little less than two years since I graduated from AU. Regrettably, JAMS/Public Safety still can't get seem to get it right. I couldn't help but notice that one ''Officer McNair" was giving a lecture about how AU is a dry campus in the interests of preventing alcohol-related deaths.

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