By Chris Martin
http://www.ted.com/talks/allison_hunt_gets_a_new_hip.html
This is a funny story about how a woman resorted to volunteering in a hospital to move to the front of the line for hip replacement surgery.

By Daniel Simpson
“If It Walks Like A Duck…”
On the afternoon of November 5th, mere hours after the Fort Hood shootings, major media outlets were already scrambling to downplay Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s Muslim faith. ABC’s Martha Raddatz declared: “As for the suspect, Nidal Hasan…I wish his name was Smith.” Newsweek’s Evan Thomas said: “I cringe that he ‘s a Muslim, I think he’s probably just a nut case.” The media immediately embraced the “politically correct” view that Hasan was not an Islamic terrorist, but rather a pitiable man who snapped …

By Lingfeng Li
Whoever said that Sarah Palin’s star was on the decline?
Apparently 1500 people showed up to Palin’s first book tour stop in Michigan — at 7 a.m. [Free Press]  The book is also #1 on Amazon right now, though admittedly at a 50% discount.
The New York Times also has a renewed interest in Palin.  Check out yet another article on her Election 2008 wardrobe.

By Lingfeng Li
White House Communications Anita Dunn’s (who is stepping down at the end of the month) recent attacks on Fox News for being the “communications arm of the Republican Party” have only helped fuel more conversation about mass media and its liberal/conservative slants.
Well, here is a report that claims Fox News is indeed fair and balanced.  Apparently, Fox is harsh on Obama during the election season last year, but the controversial network treated McCain with almost equal numbers of negative comments.  And now that Obama has been in power …

By Vikram Srinivasan
Just as tents can collapse from being too small, they can also fall apart from being too big.
That’s a lesson the GOP should remember as it confronts the issue of what role moderates should play in rebuilding a “big tent” party. Answering that question will depend heavilys on what we mean by “moderate.”
As a conservative, I’m of the view that there should be a large role in the party for moderates. But only for one variety: the principled kind.
When a political party has shrunken to the small size …

By Sabrina McCutchan
Visitors who spend more than five minutes walking around Duke University are sure to encounter evidence of the campus’s commitment to the environment. Buildings have motion-sensor triggers for their lighting systems to preserve energy. Where there’s a trash bin, there are usually several recycle bins nearby. The buses that run between campuses have stickers on their sides declaring their commitment to use low-grade, high-efficiency fuel. And then, of course, there’s the Smart Home.
Spend ten minutes walking around Duke University, however, and a few other things come to light, …

By Justin Robinette
It was reported Wednesday that the Board of Trustees will soon be presented “a proposal…asking for $75,000 to study the feasibility of a 150-bed addition to [Keohane] quad” by “several top administrators.” The article cited Dean and Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Steve Nowicki, and asserts that “adding residence space” and potential dining options to Keohane Quad will be funded in the following manner (Follow this logic!): “Duke would likely borrow money to construct the dorm and repay it over time using housing revenue, Nowicki said. If the …

By Justin Robinette
I get renewed amusement every year our campus erupts in reference to anything unpleasant which appears on the East Campus bridge.  Each time, participants always include a) the Honor Council, b) any given angry race or sex-oriented advocacy group, and c) any given administrator with the power of email blast, most recently Dr. Airall.  Unfortunately, the vandal himself is almost entirely ignored in favor of condemning, rather, the symbolic nature of the message itself.  The vandal is also somehow conflated each time not with a random criminal act …

By Sabrina McCutchan
Over the course of the past few years a trend has been forming with regards to expressed international opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This trend manifested itself visibly during the last major bout of fighting in the Gaza Strip, from December of 2008 through January of this year, and has curiously undergone little to no rigorous scrutiny.
Headlines from January first to January 30 in major newspapers worldwide read “Israel denies killing fleeing Gazans,” “Sue Israel for Genocide,” and “Rights groups review Gaza conflict for war crimes;
International initiatives focusing …

By Lingfeng Li
I often encounter more liberally-minded peers keen to attack my own political views, even if they don’t fully understand what these views are.  When I talk about how the country cannot afford the kind of spending President Obama has undertaken, I am quickly asked “why is it that we could afford the war on Iraq?”  The truth is, we couldn’t.  I didn’t support the war on Iraq either.  In fact, when the United States first declared war on Iraq, I wanted to skip my middle school classes and …