California’s coastline is under attack. Certain members of the U.S. Congress are attempting to remove key offshore drilling prohibitions and open our coast to oil exploration. Read more...

It’s often said that the best anthropological study of the United States by a European is Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1835 classic “Democracy in America.” Granted, the eminent French political thinker and historian probably didn’t spend an inordinate amount of time downing cheap vodka from Rite Aid, bumming around on the beach, blowing stupid amounts of cash in Las Vegas, and getting arrested in Tijuana, but I’ll try my best to follow his noble example and offer some insightful final thoughts on this great country that I have in many ways fallen in love with. Read more...

The University of California has over $131 million invested in companies doing business in Sudan, a country whose government is responsible for rape, disease, starvation and possible genocide. Read more...

The season where high school kids explore UCLA is back. I love to watch them, wide-eyed and hopeful. “Look,” they whisper, “college students.” “Look,” we think, “high school students.” In a way, they’re right to gawk. Read more...

Read more...

Internet porn is the drug of the new millennium, it’s the new ecstasy, and it’s only one click away. For some, it’s as addictive as heroin, leaving addicts and their loved ones with a list of sexual and psychological difficulties. Read more...

The other day I was enjoying a fish burrito at our campus Rubio’s (wait … is it Rubio’s or Baja Fresh? Or La Salsa? I can never remember) in Ackerman Union when all of a sudden my ears were assaulted by a cacophonous racket that all 200 televisions thoughtfully identified as a musical group called “My Chemical Romance.” After suffering through their song (which lasted almost two whole minutes), MTVU (the U stands for University) cut to a scene involving a “reporter” interviewing a student from some remote place like Kansas or Alabama about the new album by someone called “50 Cent” (who, incidentally, is having a bitter feud with someone called “The Game,” presumably over who has the most ridiculous name). Read more...