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Changing The Shirt

By The Observer · Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011

Did you know that it takes 40,000 liters of water to produce the cotton needed for a single t-shirt, that current industry practices will waste hundreds more during the production process, a process that involves carcinogenic chemicals and dyes, one often carried in outsourced factories employing children for less than $2 a day? Obviously, intelligent ways of fabricating clothing are going to be an important part of building a sustainable society, yet few people are aware of the real costs of their clothes. Case in point: The Shirt, which sells to over 160,000 fans each year.

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Treatise on marshmallows

By The Observer · Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011

It's over, just like that. We 2,000 seniors have walked into Notre Dame Stadium 26 times as students and, after this weekend, will never do so again. Those 27 Saturdays will go down as the greatest 27 Saturdays of our lives.

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Underneath Halloween costumes

By The Observer · Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011

The purpose of this column is to help create an atmosphere where critically engaging our culture becomes the norm. When we are intentional about this, we are able to clearly delineate those behaviors that fit us and those which do not.

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This is tough love

By The Observer · Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011

Sometimes I do feel as if Jesus is saying to us patiently, but emphatically, "Pay. Attention. To. Me." I believe that this week, between two Sundays of very straightforward gospel readings, is one of those times.

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Extraterrestrial intelligence

By The Observer · Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011

Normally I wouldn't succumb to the pressures of expressing my opinion through a Viewpoint article. However, this topic is of great importance for both Catholics and atheists, Republicans and Democrats and all who find themselves living on this planet. The subject I would like to address concerns the search extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

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Perry's fourth-grade logic

By The Observer · Monday, Nov. 14, 2011

How can a politician attempt to recover from a misspeak in a presidential debate that has incurred the joyous reception by so many comedians that the word "oops" will soon be replaced with "pulled a Perry?" Simple: The politician must himself become a comedian.

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#TwitterDoesn'tMakeYouStupid

By The Observer · Monday, Nov. 14, 2011

One sleepless night a few weeks ago, I found myself checking my iPhone every 20 minutes, searching for articles on Twitter that could captivate me while I waited for my brain to turn off. As I thumbed through Twitter, I stumbled across an "Economist" article that pissed me off and made me laugh at the same time.

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Unjust punishment

By The Observer · Monday, Nov. 14, 2011

Over the summer, while talking with a current student at Liberty University, I was appalled by the horror stories he told me about the oppression and lack of free speech on his campus. As he described the multiple fines he incurred for using even the most mundane of curse words, I found myself wondering why anyone would attend a school like that. After last week's Miss ND competition and the ensuing consequences for one of the participants, I realized that we all attend a university very much "like" that.

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Brutality evident on campus

By The Observer · Monday, Nov. 14, 2011

As we approach the 42nd anniversary of Notre Dame's suppression of non-violent campus protestations of the Vietnam War, my thoughts are occupied by the recent reports of police violence inflicted upon our fellow citizens engaging in demonstrations of protest and civil disobedience across the country. In Oakland, police exploded tear gas canisters upon citizen-Samaritans attempting to aid a man shot by troopers storming an "Occupy" encampment. The encampments in Portland and New York have likewise been raided, invaded by agents of institutional violence armed with military-grade assault weaponry and armored in Kevlar ensembles of faceless monstrosity. The cudgel of police force has even impacted the academic community. Last week, "The San Francisco Chronicle" reported that UC-Berkeley's campus police, in the course of tearing down student-organized "Occupy" encampments, attacked resisters who had linked hands to prevent the dismantling.

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Jumbotron confessions

By The Observer · Monday, Nov. 14, 2011

I know that writing this will put me at odds with the majority of the student body, Brian Kelly and just about everyone under the age of 35, but I've got to be honest: I hate jumbotrons. I can't stand them. And I'm thankful for every home game that passes without the looming shadow of yet another gigantic screen darkening Notre Dame Stadium.

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Alma Mater props

By The Observer · Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011

Thank you Michael Floyd, Jonas Gray and Dayne Crist for staying for the Alma Mater after the Maryland game and encouraging your fellow teammates to stay as well. You won our hearts and respect. We appreciate your loyalty to Notre Dame at home and away. Even though most of the student body couldn't be at the game, you stayed to support the students, alumni and band members who could attend — love thee Notre Dame!

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Hidden charms

By The Observer · Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011

On Friday, Nov. 4, The Observer ran an editorial about campus-community relations. The key takeaway was that they are not very good and could — and should — be much better.

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Where's the inclusion?

By The Observer · Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011

So, I'm a little confused. I've always begrudgingly accepted Notre Dame's failure to amend the non-discrimination clause to include sexual orientation as an unfortunate consequence of it being a private, Catholic university. The justification for declining to make this change is ostensibly fear that courts might not understand the Catholic distinction between sexual orientation and sexual conduct.

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Christie doing plenty

By The Observer · Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011

Contrary to yesterday's Letter to the Editor "Christie isn't helping," (Nov. 14) the governor is targeting his educational reforms at the waste, inefficiency and failures within New Jersey's public education system.

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Alma Mater fail

By The Observer · Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011

Being an alumnus of both Maryland and Notre Dame, as well as a resident of the D.C. area, Saturday's game had been circled on the family calendar for over a year. As a Maryland alumnus, I was disappointed that the Terps were not able to be more competitive and suggested to my wife and daughter, both Notre Dame alums, that we leave a bit early to avoid the notorious FedEx field traffic. Both told me that we could not leave before the Notre Dame crowd and team sang the Alma Mater.

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