Issue 4
Winter Road Trips: What to expect, what to prepare for, and how to avoid the problems many drivers have.
Kristoffer Martin
Undergraduate/English
Oh the dreaded four letter word is almost upon us again, you know it, I know it, we all know it; snow! Ok, ok, so we Wisconsinites know snow, but that very assumption can make driving a hazard. There are hundreds of car accidents each year across the Midwest, be it a few blocks from home, or on the long road trip back home for Thanksgiving. So with that said I thought I’d give my top 10 suggestions for drivers during this winter, and that means you students out there. (Did you know one in four winter accidents are actually a college age student? National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Survey of Accidents 2004 showed that one in four accidents were with college age drivers or younger. That was out of 248 accidents from November 2004-February 2005, some 75 accidents were of college student drivers.)
The Climate Census
Sara Adams
Undergraduate/Political Science
As if your professors didn’t give you enough busy work, not too long ago you were asked to spend 40 minutes taking a survey asking questions the University already believes they know the answer to. It’s also costing the University $10,000 to conduct the Campus Climate Survey, according to Teresa O'Halloran, Assistant to the Chancellor for Affirmative Action.
Many of the goals of the Campus Climate survey seem laudable enough, such as assessing harassment and wheelchair access to buildings. I have to admit that I’ve always thought the biggest problem with our campus “climate” was that it was too damn boring, but if people want to make sure our campus isn’t turning into New York City at night, I have no problem with that. Although you have to wonder if there are cheaper ways of figuring these things out.
Healthcare Fiasco
Mark Morgan
Undergraduate/Political Science
With the recent and long lasting controversy over Congress’s proposed healthcare reform bill, the debate over interstate insurance sales has once again risen to the forefront. Although the direct implications of this debate upon the healthcare bill are obvious, it is the larger implications that have arisen that truly matter, and should serve to refocus the conservative movement back upon its founding principles.
Pages From the Musical Journal Issue 8
Ted Waldibilig
Undergraduate/English
Company Flow Funcrusher Plus
June 2008
I don't know how in the world El-P remembers all of his lyrics. He has more words in one song than most musicians have in a record. And that's part of Funcrusher's appeal. Two weeks ago, I reviewed Deltron 3030's self-titled debut and mentioned it would take months to pick it apart; Funcrusher Plus itself would take an indefinite amount of time to crack. The sparse, lo-fi productions fit the dark lyrical content appropriately. The album is about uncertainty in the future; at the time, it was heralded in the underground as a completely different twist in the genre. It was groundbreaking in that it extended the vocabulary and grammar of hip hop. I couldn't be convinced that Company Flow didn't influence Deltron 3030 in some way.
30 American Senators: Profits > Rape
Paydon Miller
Undergraduate/Political Science and Journalism
I’m not going to break any ground with this article. I won’t be turning any heads with my pissed off diatribes. I won’t be changing anyone’s mind at all. Mostly because I assume the majority of Flip Side readers are against rape.
This week an amendment to a bill that would make it illegal for Halliburton and other contractors to ban people raped by coworkers from suing for damages was introduced into the United States Senate. You read that correctly. Right now, overseas female contractors of any kind often cannot seek financial restitution if they are raped.
Author, Senator Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot Franken, introduced this amendment after a story surfaced about contractor Jamie Leigh Jones, who was gang-raped by multiple male coworkers and was told by her employer that she could not seek any settlement.
Sheets of Egyptian Cardboard
Amber Reed
Undergraduate/Creative Writing
I haven’t formed an opinion on the topic of this article, which I’m sure will come as a shock to anyone who’s ever taken the time to read the first three sentences of anything I’ve ever written. Anyway, because I write for The Flip Side, I felt the need to look for something controversial and outrageous to make people go, “OMG, I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE SAID THAT!%##!D!!” and write about it this week. In my pursuits, I stumbled upon something that has ties to a previous article of mine. Though I’m not sure how it happened, this is what I found.
