Some Things Money Can’t Buy…

Presidential Campaign: $1.2 Billion
Mont Blanc Pen: $200
Courier Service: $15
Watching the Dem’s blow a gasket over your veto: PRICELESS

Support our troops and the war. Bring them home, when the job is done.

-Hamilton

Myspace a political Machine????

Browsing my myspace account, redundant yes I know, I came across something disturbing. There are a number of politicians who have myspace accounts, this should come as no shock to you. But now it is more than just having a myspace account for these political vultures of the 18 – 32 voter, now you, the potential voter are forced to see their faces by simply signing in to myspace.

This might be a great thing for the candidates but will this open up a new can of worms for the reform of the presidential election code? If I recall correctly in the days of yore candidates such as Abraham Lincoln refused to take any money for their campaigns, and good old honesty Abe in the end had taken a dollar to stay the night in a hotel and paid it back. However, the candidates today might as well but their K Street backers next to them on this homepage of disgust. Or better yet their K Street backers should be in their top eight and that should limit the number of special interest groups that one could have. Amazing I do believe we have stumbled upon something here and for the most part everything is already in place.

 Please Remember don’t Myspace and Vote.

~Madison

When the Hybirds come a Rockin’

This is truly why one should not be allowed to view anything on the internet that comes their way. And how is it that Ron Jermey became a spokes person for Toyota?

Through the cracks…

 

In the madness that has been the last few days, America must mourn the lost of one of it’s greatest Mr. Kurt Vonnegut. The atrocities that this man had seen and later depicted in his novels and plays should be a guiding light for all who seek war, not peace as a option. One must take a moment to reflect the loss of such an influential person to American Culture.

 God Speed

~Madison

Where the Sidewalk Ends?

Where the Sidewalk Ends?

With the recent closures of Mt. Vernon and West Main one must ask themselves why the City of Houston had seen it fit to repave these roads three weeks prior to their closure.  If one is not aware of what the University last planned year, where they set to a quire these roads in order to expand the walk ways and help us, the student, avoid baseballs and other sporting objects from hitting our cars. So where does the responsibility lie?

Hannah Ardent would say that this is a true situation put forth by the rule by no one. One would look at this and say that the local government is solely doing what is best for its citizenry and nothing else. By supplying working roads rather than the shady roads currently supplied by the city government these city workers would be doing us a favor.

However, this is not the case; these roads have been under ill-repair for quite some time and are now, moments before their becoming a private road turned into workable and maneuverable streets. One must question such services as 311 and one’s local city council members as to why these streets and the tax revenue thereof were spent on such a frivolous endeavor; was it from poor communications, lack of oversight or pure incompetence of government? One may never know, but as it turns out the University of St. Thomas now has more property and has acquired property once owned by the city.

For those of us who have attended the University for many of years one will remember what had happened to Mt. Vernon and the parking lot in front of Crooker and how now currently these are common areas to the university and not open to the public so to say. One must as a tax paying citizen ask why the City of Houston best saw it fit to redo these streets moments before they were turned over to the University? One must seek the oversight Committee and ask why these funds were spent. One must ask why the city was not notified that the university was currently in the process of purchasing these properties. If these questions were ever to be answered one must truly ponder what other incompetence’s are occurring across the city!

~Madison

The Face of a Killer?

As the nation reels from the tragedy at Virginia Tech, I cannot help but wonder, what made this guy do it? The whole thing has me really concerned about the state of things in the country. This incident is so unreal because the guys is, for the most part, normal. He was 23, so teenage angst cannot be blamed. No violent video games to use as a scapegoat. The press is trying to dig up something about his violent writings and the fact that he was on antidepressants for a while, but the fact still remains that this guy could have been any number of people we know. How often do you see a quiet person in your class and think, “My god, this guy is going to go crazy one day.” If you are anything like me, probably never.

What could drive a 23-year-old college kid to execute 33 people? We all have bad days, and even bad weeks, but the majority of people are not this selfish. There is nothing in the world that could justify, or even lessen what this kid did. And to make matters worse, he shot himself like a coward, so he would not have to face the world. Now all 33 families who are mourning their losses have nothing more than the grainy image above to focus their anger toward. Sick.

This makes me wonder, what would happen if UST faced a similar situation. Can you imagine a lunatic shooting people in Robertson or the Academic Mall? How would we be notified, what would the University do? I for one believe students, faculty, and staff should come together and address the issue. Now I am sure some of you are reading this saying, “It will never happen to UST.” I am sure those at Virginia Tech said the same thing.

-Hamilton

MySpace page got you worried?

Great news for all of you who were worried about getting busted for all of the incriminating evidence you put up on your MySpace account. A court in Indianapolis ruled that anything expressed on MySpace is an exercise in Free Speech. According to the article on Yahoo News,

“A judge violated a juvenile’s free-speech rights when he placed her on probation for posting an expletive-laden entry on MySpace criticizing a school principal, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled.”

Apparently the girl, who they refer to only as A.B., made derogatory comments about her school’s piercing policies. The state claimed that her comments were obscene and placed her on nine months probation as a minor. Well, A.B. appealed and the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled, “the comments were protected and that the juvenile court had unconstitutionally restricted her right of free expression.”

So what does that mean for students across the board? Well, in this blogger’s opinion, this is the first in what will be a large legal battle surrounding the increasing use of social networking sites like MySpace or FaceBook. Already, schools are patrolling these sites to try and catch underage drinkers and other cases of insubordination (even our own institution has done this to some degree). If the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the student, there is a good chance that other students can use this case as precedent for protection from disciplinary action regarding these sites.

However, this will not protect those of you who will be entering the job market soon. Nothing prohibits you from walking into a job interview and saying what you would like to your employer. The same goes for your MySpace site, but the difference is you probably would not volunteer your avid drug use to your next employer. Obviously, your Myspace should not volunteer that either.

Nevertheless, as students we must keep in mind our rights and understand when they are violated. Writing about your professor (or in this bloggers case, your school) in a manner that may not be particularly smiled upon, is protected by the Constitution. This is the same principle our rag of a newspaper the Cauldron likes to cite every time they print some sensationalized bit of scandal. However, what they forget is that a private school newspaper, which is funded by the institution, can be censored at any time by its beneficiary. Looks like the Cauldron should go MySpace.

-Hamilton

Celtic Pride!!!

Well St. Thomas is at it again and the administration wants sports on campus. Now before you think that I am going to completely tear this subject apart let’s look and see how successful our current sporting endeavors are going this year. First things first our own Lady Celt Volleyball, let’s see, they won some, they lost some but most importantly they brought in a whole whopping 15 fans and their parents and that was with the hot dogs. Not saying that Volleyball isn’t a head turner but at-least they have the drive and determination to have a full team unlike the heroes of our beloved Rugby team.

For those who aren’t in the know our rugby had to forfeit the majority of their games due to a lack of interest of young men who want to hurl themselves against other men. Now rumor has it that they will be back bigger and stronger than last year but that all really depends on how well they train in our wonderful gym but if they use each-other as dead-weight to bench the sky is the limit. Now not that I have come by this information first hand but I heard our intramural Baseball team actually did quite well but who would really know because most of their information seems to come by word of mouth anyway.

It seems strange that the University would head down this path once again, the last time they did it they managed to do two things. One they merely bankrupted the University and secondly they produced the Undertaker from the ever-popular WWE or is it WWF, don’t know, don’t care. But now they seem to be adding a bit of pzazz to it all, we the student body get to choose our Mascot and if you have seen what I have seen you would be asking yourself, “how hard is it again to transfer out of here?” From the Knight in shinning armor to the cliche of the four-leaf clover, and yes a four-leaf clover as a Mascot is something really fierce, I know; we the students get to decide. I say we leave our sports where they are Clubs and start funneling the money to departments that need it and not going out and soliciting our donors for a $100,000.00 wooden gym floor. If our students wanted to go to a college where sports not academics reigned supreme we would have gone to Notre Dame and cheered for the day when they get to “Beat Army!”

Let’s go win one for the Gipper!

~Madison

“It’s MC Rove…”

 

Our old friend Karl Rove has been the subject of quite a bit of media attention lately.  According to nbc4.com, during his latest trip around a Washington University, “Rove was on the campus to talk to the College Republicans, but when he got outside more than a dozen students began throwing things at him and at his car, an American University spokesperson said.”  The students then proceeded to lie down in front of his car, and had to be carried away so that he could leave.

 While this may seem odd to some, it makes perfect sense to me.  Rove has built quite the following with the young people after his hip-hop performance at a media dinner.  If you have not seen this lyrical marvel, please click below:

Now.  It is safe to say that after his true Wanye Brady style gangsta rap, the students pelting him were not doing so in protest.  No, ladies and gentlemen, they were actually throwing gifts at him.  Roses, underwear, “bling” chains, and various other tokens of appreciation.  They could not contain themselves when they saw the hottest rapper since Eminem.

If you ask me, more politicians should start rapping.  It connects them with the young people.   Cheney tried “bustinga cap” in somebody on his hunting trip, but it did not go over with the same fervor as MC Rove.  No, to make that true connection, you really have to lay it all on the line.

-Hamilton