Opinions

Even though I’m entering my fourth year here at Luther, I must say it’s just hitting me now how cool it is to attend a liberal, relatively forward-thinking school. It’s a far cry from my conservative high school in the middle of Hickville, USA, let me tell you that.

My fellow Norse,

With less than 30 days before the upcoming election, it is nearly impossible to escape the hype of the event. Perhaps you’ve already picked your favorite candidates, but have you ever wondered how other Luther students will vote on Nov. 4?

Obama-mania has its perks, but beware of serious pitfalls.

“I don’t know anything about Democrats or Republicans, I just like Obama.” I heard this said on campus. It seems harmless and nonchalant. That is, harmless if you don’t follow politics, or don’t analyze the political situation in this country with any sense of history or appreciation for an informed republic.

As a Luther College Republican, I know I am in the minority. I’m not disputing that fact whatsoever. I knew that this was one of the most liberal colleges when I made the decision to come here and also when I recently joined the Luther College Republicans student group.

The issue that I want to discuss this week is experience. Throughout the primaries and into the general election there has been this constant drum beat of who’s more experienced who isn’t Blah, blah, blah. But Senator John McCain (R- Ariz.), the “experienced” candidate, has given up the high ground on this issue by choosing Governor Sarah Palin (R- AK) as his running mate.

A tie is a situation where there is no real way to distinguish the winner from the loser. Oftentimes, ties can be likened to a boxing match in which neither side is able to deliver the big punch that wins the bout. The recent debates have had their share of sparring, but neither side really landed any great punches.

We are writing to alert the Luther community of several incidents that have happened over the past few months. Each of these incidents has an overtone that is unwelcoming and should concern us.

Since the start of this race for the presidency over nineteen months ago, one key issue has remained in the headlines. Because of this, many people have become desensitized to this important subject, and while bringing it up once again does not seem like the most logical way of re-energizing a populace on that subject, the state of America’s health care coverage is far from satisfactory and needs to be discussed and improved.

Okay, I admit it. Fungi have a bad reputation.

Fungus is the athlete’s foot you try to avoid picking up in the Regents Center shower. Fungus exudes the ripe, rank smell that clues you in that your roommate has left her running clothes in the same unwashed pile at the bottom of her closet for three days.

It is my strong belief that sidewalks are communist. They are, in my opinion, the ultimate act of conformity and it irks me that society just expects that one would take the sidewalk over alternate routes. It’s a free country (last time I checked) and I’m going to walk wherever the heck I want! Sidewalks don’t have artificial intelligence. They don’t know exactly where I have to go, nor are they going to lead me directly to my destination regardless of my starting point. And unless there are hidden benefits to their existence that I have yet to discover, sidewalks are worthless — except on rainy days.

If you ask people who have encountered different cultures, “What is the most interesting aspect of your experiences?” they will tell you how they discovered their own culture. They, for the first time, noticed things about themselves.

The past couple of months I have been thinking to myself: if the present administration were to be in power for any longer, homosexuals will have more and more rights stripped away from them. I personally believe that if the McCain/Palin ticket wins this election, then homosexuals will be doomed.

Upon reading Sam Wiles’ article I must admit I was left perplexed and intrigued. This was due to his use of arguments and words that had been cunningly fashioned to sound like they mean something, something important and compelling, but which upon careful analysis can be exposed as mere bull. With that said, I must say this article is in no way an attack on Mr. Wiles, his character or his intellect (both of which I hold in high esteem). Rather, it is an analysis of the faulty logic employed by Mr. Wiles in his article “Missing the Mark on the Markswoman”.

Change. It’s a word that has been a regular topic from the mouths of presidential candidates the past two years and especially at their national conventions this past month. By far, the main candidate associated with this word is Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).