A Freudian failure

It probably wasn't worth it, but for anyone listening closely to President Bush's immigration speech Monday, it was hard to miss his quickly corrected use of the word "illegals" to describe Mexican immigrants. In a strictly literal sense, he's correct; the men, women and children who leave the destitution of Mexico for a better life in the land that purports to accept the poor, the yearning and the huddled masses tend to be doing so illegally. Even so, the word "illegals" is a pejorative term, and combined with Bush's swaggering Texas twang, he succeeds admirably in presenting the U.S. as a bastion of hostility and ethnocentrism (because, apparently, we weren't doing that well enough before). For this snide slip of the tongue, President Bush gets a Fail.

The Midas touch

College students might be perpetually cash-strapped, but don't expect the more entrepreneurial among us to take it lying down. Pre-business freshman Gabrielle Miller unveiled her own line of cosmetic products on Nov. 18, and UA alumni Jeff Kaiserman and Steven Ochoa have drawn thousands with their impossibly cool Frost: A Gelato Shoppe in northern Tucson. Poverty, or some variant thereof, might be the trend du jour for graduating students, but for bucking the trend (and for blessing us with shimmery pink makeup and confectionary cuisine) these UA entrepreneurs get a Pass.

A plague on both your houses

Sure, competition among Arizona's three state universities can be a good thing. Who hasn't enjoyed the sight of Arizona State University's "A" bedecked in red and blue, or watched with some sick satisfaction as the UA football team efficiently dismantled Northern Arizona University's befuddled crew? This is the stuff of collegiate lore, but ASU and NAU seem to have taken matters a bit further. In last week's Territorial Cup football game, ASU players seemed to be gunning for unnecessary hits, and in recent weeks, billboards advertising NAU have begun to sprout up around the Tucson area. Granted, our athletes can dominate on and off the gridiron, and there's little question that the UA is by most measures a better university than NAU, but this is more a matter of respect. For taking cheap shots and encroaching on our turf, our neighbors to the north get a Fail.

How capitalism stole Christmas

It's almost received wisdom that the holidays have become less about good will, peace on earth or even the birth of one Jesus Christ, and more about crowded malls, endless sales and rabid consumption. So it goes; the economy is on the upswing, and experts are predicting another year of record sales. But at what cost? The holiday break, at least in theory, is a time for friends, family and reflection, but the relentless pressure to spend and wrap does a disservice to us all. For driving bleary-eyed holiday shoppers mad (and distraught families further apart), our bloated consumer culture gets a Fail.

Opinions Board

Opinions are determined by the Wildcat opinions board and written by one of its members. They are Lori Foley, Ryan Johnson, Damion LeeNatali, Mike Morefield, Katie Paulson and Tim Runestad.