Opinion

It’s not your parent’s church anymore. No no no. The Inquisitions haven’t been around for a while. They don’t Crusade anymore (except on college campuses, since, ya know, the Crusades were such a pleasant time in history. Why not name a club after it?). And, unfortunately for Dan Brown, there is no more mortification of the flesh. In the last decade or so, it’s been clear that there has been a slow change in the Catholic church to become a more liberal, accepting church. Or, at least that’s what they want you to think.

In 2009, President Obama overturned a policy enacted by the Bush administration that put limits on stem cell research. With the lift of several restrictions and a change in political climate, scientists felt that a breakthrough in treatments using stem cells was inevitable. Fast-forward three years. Here we are in 2012; any monumental achievement? No. Unfortunately, a dearth of economic investments in this field of science are to blame for the lack of discoveries made with stem cell research in the United States.

Should affirmative action continue to be a valid criterion for the college admission process? Is it acceptable to disregard the merits of one in order to give another a chance at advancement?

In February 2011, President Barack Obama announced that March would forever be Women’s History Month. In that speech, Obama said, “We must carry forward the work of the women who came before us and ensure our daughters have no limits on their dreams, no obstacles to their achievements, and no remaining ceilings to shatter.”

I was told by at least a dozen people to “make sure that Kony gets in the paper.” OK. Here it is.

The ever-charming Rick Santorum told the press a few days ago that John F. Kennedy makes him want to vomit. Well, it wasn’t JFK as much as it was his beliefs in the separation of church and state. While Santorum hates the late Catholic as much as anyone in Cuba does, what strikes me as odd is the way Santorum addresses the issue of church and state.

Last week, over 500 Russians civilians and activists were detained by riot police, while peacefully protesting in Pushkin Square in Moscow. And wouldn’t you know, Vladimir Putin had something to do with it.

Super Tuesday has come and gone, to little fanfare. In past elections, this was the decisive point in the presidential campaigns where the eventual nominee was decided, but as with the Democratic presidential contest in 2008, it did not end this year’s Republican nomination contest.

If Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, says that the iPad will one day outsell traditional personal computers, then it must be true, right?

If someone offered you $1,500 to separate someone’s shoulder, tear a ligament in their knee or give them a concussion, what would you do?

I was at Trader Joe’s the other day with my roommate, stocking up on our favorite Reduced Guilt Macaroni and Cheese (only 270 calories for cheesy goodness!), when an elderly man eyed us piling a fair number of the frozen meals into our cart. He leaned over to us, confused as to why we seemed to be preparing for some tragic noodle-depraved circumstance.

A new law is in the works, stirred up by the health conscious, intent on ridding America of a very serious problem: obesity. The Food and Drug Administration has left open a discussion involving a whole new system of labeling requirements for food products. There are a few options as of now for how this new labeling system should operate.