West promotes disease, corruption and genocide

The level of complete ignorance and disregard for factual historical accounts exhibited by opinions editor Shane Dale in his editorial, "Discover what's so great about America," is, put kindly, absolutely horrific. Perhaps he would have been better off promoting a "rah-rah, flag-waiving, feel-good book," instead of the completely biased and ill-researched piece of propaganda he chose to thrust upon the Arizona Daily Wildcat's unfortunate readers. At least the "rah-rah" pieces have the decency to ignore the past crimes of state as opposed to trying to justify them. [Read article]

Is UA's Writing Skills Improvement Program racist in nature? Or is it a necessary tool for disadvantaged students? According to its Web site, students are eligible for free tutoring through WSIP, " · if they are of an ethnic minority (American Indian, Asian or Pacific Islander, African American, or Hispanic), or if they are receiving any of the following categories of financial assistance: Federal Perkins Loans, Pell Grants, Supplemental Opportunity Grants, Stafford Loans and Work Study Assistance as well as State Student Incentive Grants." WSIP has recently amended its mission statement to allow students who do not meet this criteria to receive help on an individual basis if there is "space available" and "he/she has been referred by a professor." Regardless, some still contend that it is wrong for a state-funded program to be able to provide or deny its services based on race and ethnicity. Others say that programs such as these are vitally important and exist for the sole purpose of leveling past inequalities; that to not provide such a service would be discriminatory. The positive results are undeniable: "The average WSIP participant's semester English course grades before and after tutoring evidenced a difference of 1.37 grade points," the WSIP boasts on its Web site. [Read article]

Those of you loyal readers who had the pleasure of working or attending school at UA during the summer may have read, or at least witnessed the backlash to, a certain column written by my right-wing comrade in radicalism and illustrious editor, Shane Dale. The column, entitled "A dose of Western European hypocrisy" is a tour de force in the skewed logic of conservatism, which I will address here in general terms to avoid losing my job. It is this conservative logic which seeks to explain the world's disdain for America as a combination of simple factors ÷ greed, jealousy, and naivetˇ ÷ and paradoxically diagnoses Western European nations as envious of our freedom and yet too supportive of individual liberties. [Read article]