Distractions: We're all mad here

If you’re reading this article, you’re most likely in the middle of a break from studying or putting off studying all together. If this is the case, here is the best way to feel better about not studying. We are going to do a Mad Lib. That’s right, a Mad Lib. Choose one of the two following Mad Libs. When you are done, you can send it to xw.distraction@stfx.ca where it will be read, appreciated and possibly published on this very page in the next issue. There is only one...

Distractions: A distracting Spongebob

A recent study posted in the journal Pediatrics claimed that four-year-olds who watch nine minutes of the fast-paced cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants display instant effects of impaired attention spans. Sixty children from the same social demographic were randomly assigned to either watch nine minutes of SpongeBob SquarePants or the slower paced Caillou. Those who watched SpongeBob scored lower on the attention span tests than those who watched Caillou, who virtually all got the same test results. When confronted with these findings, Nickelodeon spokesman David Bittler said that SpongeBob is a show...

X is alcohol-soaked dynamite

The dark side of frosh week

I have a confession to make: I am a frosh week unbeliever. In my first year, and in all the years I’ve been around since then, I’ve been unable to escape the sense that frosh week is much less about orientation to the new and scary world of living away from your parents and much more about indoctrination into a culture of divisiveness and drinking. Don’t get me wrong; a little bit of indoctrination is a good thing. Otherwise, how would I know, deep down in my soul, that getting...

For the Shamed

Denying the existance of rape culture increases silence and shame

Recently, Graham Templeton of The Peak newspaper (Simon Fraser University) wrote an opinion piece stating that he was offended by the very notion of a western rape culture, calling the premise sexist. Nothing in recent memory has set my blood boiling quite as effectively as his little piece of journalistic gold. Simply addressing his erroneous generalizations about what “feminists believe,” or his whitewashed definition of rape culture would fill a page, without even getting to the meat of the issue. His arguments lack insight or a nuanced understanding of the...

Fall television 2011: Sexist or subversive?

Like many TV fiends, I am eagerly anticipating the start of the fall television season but with some trepidation. Several of the shows being unveiled this season appear, at least on the surface, to be very sexist. In particular, Pan Am, Playboy Club, and Charlie’s Angels are being accused of objectifying women as well as offering a warmly nostalgic view of the way society treated women in the past. In Playboy Club, the most egregious offender, women spend a great deal of time scantily dressed in bunny outfits. Pan Am centres...

The summer from hell

How headshots, dirty hits, and the blood sport culture have come back to haunt the NHL

“Something horrible has happened to the national game,” said then Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff with a tone of dismay when the subject of headshots in the NHL came up on George Strombolopolous Tonight back in March. While Ignatieff is by no means an authority on the subject, his statement speaks volumes about the perverse trend that has permeated hockey in the past few years. As hockey players continue to grow in size and strength, those who suffer from the rough, physical nature of the game experience longer lasting consequences. Eric...

We still love each other

It is hard to believe that in one more week, our Tuesday nights will be devoid of lime green walls, buzzing lights and caffeine fueled editorial “writing”. Student newspapers are coldhearted mistresses who draw you in with the promise of affecting change, building up resumes, and creating something tangible every single week. Sure, she leaves you with ink stained fingers and a permanent hankering for a cheeseburger, but it sure is good while it lasts. It sounds melodramatic, but it gets like that here. But for those of you who...

Act first, study later

Let the stress rest; summer, a time to unclench and recover

Despite the diversity of thought, race, sexual orientation, and pretty much everything else in our population, we stand united by a single word. We check it off on government forms, use it to introduce ourselves, and more often than not employ it as a synonym for ‘misery.’ To a certain degree it speaks for our social standing, age, lifestyle, and general lack of money. Self-describing using this word inevitably brings probing and curiosity from old friends, well wishers, and otherwise friendly acquaintances. It generally defines who we are and what...

Accountability rules in Ottawa

We are seeing strange days on Parliament Hill right now. First there’s all the (still-)swirling speculation on a spring election, and (more) rumblings from the Liberal Party that they just won’t stand for Conservative shenanigans anymore. Then there are the two MPs and a senator involved in internal investigations for fraud or contempt of Parliament, and two staffers being investigated by the RCMP. It’s pretty easy to think that Canadian politics has never been more broken. I have a slightly different point of view. I take it as a potentially...

Poll March 18

http://www.snappoll.com/poll/363670.php

Lay it all out for me, could U?

Every year, the student body at StFX elects a students’ union president and vice president, and every year, we are promised many things, among which transparency is the most prevalent. On a campus such as ours, secrets are not often kept. With what seems like two degrees of separation between each student, rumours spread like wildfire, and it becomes pretty difficult to separate fact from fiction. This can be toxic for an organization that collects $553,992 from student fees and generates revenue of just under $2 million. The first thing...

Canadian publishers in crisis, want no foreign entry

Lifting ban on foreign investment for Canadian publishing would devastate local content

Rant of the week Looking back on my distant pre-university days of leisure reading, a few authors come to mind particularly fondly. Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, L.M. Montgomery, Yann Martel, and I must say I was quite fond of my Raincoast Books editions of the Harry Potter series too. So what do all of these household names have in common? Aside from general fabulousness, it’s either Canadian authorship or Canadian printing. As it turns out, the Canadian publishing industry may be facing some large changes in the imminent...

Keep your politics out of my uterus

Former Governor of Arkansas, rumored Republican Presidential candidate, and one of countless Fox News Channel bigots (I mean, television hosts) Mike Huckabee has had a helluva lot to say about what’s going on in Natalie Portman’s uterus as of late. He astutely observes: “…one of the things that’s troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, ‘Hey look, you know, we’re having children, we’re not married, but we’re having these children, and they’re doing just fine. I think it gives a distorted...

MPs miss votes in Ottawa for good reason

Balancing time between voting sessions and constituencies makes for better representation

On March 7, the Globe and Mail published a special report on what seemed like an urgent topic: MP participation in Parliamentary votes. The results, on first glance, were somewhat shocking. First of all, attendance records for MPs are sealed - no one knows, and no one is counting, how many sessions of Parliament our elected officials actually show up for. A secondary means of measuring attendance is counting each MP’s participation in voting in the House of Commons. According to this measure, many of our representatives aren’t representing very...

To dare to speak

Last Tuesday, the Globe and Mail published an article, written by Margaret Wente, that claims the 21st century “belongs to women”, and that “The war for women’s rights is over. And we won.” This purposefully ignorant argument hardly deserves a response. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be an uncommon opinion. The Chronicle Herald published an article on the same day that began with the phrase “[This 22 year old] grew up in the post-feminist era”. Shoot, maybe I should reconsider my career path. I don’t disagree with Wente’s statement...