By Aaron McGuire
One year ago, the dining plan contract fee increased $70 — from $19.50 to $90. This came at the end of a long, protracted dispute between DSG and Campus Services. The fee increase was suggested for the purpose of reducing the Duke Dining deficit, which had then ballooned to $2.2 million. Finally, after the administration allegedly agreed to adhere to a list of stipulations, the fee increase was agreed upon. The most important stipulation was that the increase was to exist for only one year.
Unfortunately, that’s not happening. …

By Aaron McGuire

Jay Cost is one of my favorite writers. He’s a professor of political science, and writes about politics in a manner more akin to V.O. Key than Jim Geraghty or Eleanor Clift (or any of that crowd, really). This week, he wrote an exquisite piece highlighting the popular conception that Obama has “let us down” and noted how that shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s a very good piece, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Hope you do too.

By Aaron McGuire
There are a lot of different definitions of the word “conservative.” I agree with some of them. I disagree with many more. In this writer’s view, though, real conservatism is a philosophy best encapsulated in two key words. Responsibility and restraint.
Conservatism means a government that takes its responsibility to preserve the individual liberties of its citizens as a sacred vow, not an empty promise. A government that understands that, truly, its own value is in the freedom it gives its citizens.
Conservatism means a government committed to fiscal restraint, …