Bush is proposing an enormous $3.1 trillion budget for 2009. The Pentagon is to receive 7.5 percent more funding while 47 programs are to be cut from the Education Department.

The motivation for these changes comes from the pressures of the onset of recession in the U.S. economy. While outfitting the Iraq War brought the United States out of the early 2000s recession, the arms economy is not an end-all solution to economic crises. Expanding arms production employs more workers, which reduces job competition, which raises the average wage, which objectively slows down the rate of profit.

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Cults of personality worry me in ways that I cannot possibly express in words (though obviously I am going to try). The recent death of Heath Ledger has I’m sure given Hollywood something to cry and moan about for the next decade, as they always do when one of their own bites it before 30.

There are too many people out there who have this ridiculous “live fast and die young” mentality, and anyone who fits the description is immediately elevated to hero status simply because they died before they completely outgrew adolescence.

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Have you ever noticed those pictures on Facebook? You know, the ones of the people you’ve known since grade school? The ones you went to high school with and you don’t talk to anymore. The ones you do. And the people who you don’t like, and they don’t like you either, but you add them anyway because you need to build up your “friends” list.

Yes, we all know you’re guilty of it, just about everyone is. But have you noticed what so many of these people have in common? It’s those pictures. People partying, drinking, barely dressed… ring a bell yet?

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I always found it strange how people were able to stay in bad relationships...until I got myself into one. It’s extremely hard to just walk away from something that you’ve invested so much into financially and especially emotionally. The problem is that some people just don’t see the warning signs in time, or they do and they either fear being alone or they fear that they won’t find somebody better.

Relationships usually tend to become a lot like bear traps: Once you’re in, you’re kind of stuck. Personally, I blame my personal romantic failings on both myself and the stuff that I’ve been spoon fed ever since I was little – the stuff about how there is that one person out there who will complete you, and nothing will ever be able to touch you again.

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United for a Fair Economy recently put out a report entitled “Foreclosed: State of the Dream 2008,” in the face of a U.S. economic recession that could delve as deep as the Great Depression. Not too long ago, Hurricane Katrina revealed a prejudice of our country, and we were forced to confront that prejudice in the images of the media and the inadequate rescue efforts and unfulfilled promises of our government. The Subprime loan scandal being revealed just three years later is surfacing consequences and proofs of discrimination far worse and more damaging.

As the federal government stood aside, the Subprime mortgage industry grew from a $35 billion to a $665 billion-a-year business from the mid 1990s until now. Statistics of the “State of the Dream” report show in cold proof that the largest recipients of the subprime loan are African-American and Latino individuals and communities. People of color are more than three times more likely to have subprime loans than white people.

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Last semester the student government, which calls itself the “Student Association” decided to cut funding for the Women’s Resource Center and LGBT Resource Center, as well as completely defund the LINKS Peer Mentoring Center.

The attitude and actions of the “Student Association” in no way makes them seem as if they are in “association” with the students. Rather than acting for and with the students, they are abusing their power and going against the constituents they represent. For the sake of accuracy, I will refer to them throughout this article as the “Student Aristocracy”.

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Abortion

To the Editor,

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