Tim Baumann

It’s Oscars season and the nominations are out. A few of our writers weigh in on their picks for several of the categories up for grabs.

The Furman Paladin Newspaper says goodbye to an Editor-in-Chief.

The Cultural Life Program needs to be changed. That’s not a new idea, no matter who you’re asking. You can hear people wondering about CLP status in the DH and club meetings alike. This section has made a habit of critiquing CLPs over the years. At the start of this school year, the administration changed the way that CLPs are handled and submitted.

It’s that optimistic time of year when the pitchers and catchers report for spring training. Baseball season is returning quickly, and with it comes high expectations, a love of the pastoral, and well-deserved nostalgia.

It wasn’t too long ago now that the Stop Online Piracy Act was brought to national attention. The bill’s ostensible purpose was to criminalize the pirating of copyrighted material, especially film and musical property. However, SOPA was widely interpreted as giving too much power to the government to shut down or remove content from the Internet.

Ten days have passed since Election Day 2011: 353 more will do so until we reach Election Day 2012. It may feel like a long time now, but trust me. When the races heat up, it’ll be absolutely interminable. You’ll forgive me if I don’t vote on that day.

At first glance, The Ides of March looks like another one of those plays-turned-films that will come to the Academy Awards, pick up an Oscar or two, be nominated for a few more, and then be swept into film trivia history. In spite of its already questionable legacy, there’s a great deal to be learned from the film.

We’re told that the university appreciates things like “diversity,” “freedom of inquiry,” and the “freedom to look for truth wherever it is to be found.” But we’re also a university that “has sought to remain faithful to its Judeo-Christian heritage,” looked to hire professors evincing a “life of faith” and “sympathetic awareness of Furman’s traditions and purposes.” The statement that “Furman is a learning community where faith is cherished but not coerced” says it all.

One of the greatest manipulators of public opinion in American history proved his uncanny skill to do so with a single speech in late 1969. President Richard Nixon was not the first person to use the phrase “silent majority,” but his usage of it in that speech brought national attention to its implications.

Politicians find a “crisis,” using weasel words and legislative power to exert control over schools, despite the fact that the politicians have never been educators (all the while pressuring the educators to be led by the blind). The press follows the government’s lead slavishly. This should be ringing some bells.