I offer you questions, not answers. Privacy is a complicated issue, with many problems dwelling at the collision of our various human values. We feel differently about our information being in the hands of others depending on who they are. Information in the hands of stalkers is creepy and possibly dangerous.
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
OFF THE BOARD: Smart people have never been so stupid
I work at a record store and we have a listening counter on the basement level: a broad semi-circular counter with a half-dozen control panels and headphones jutting out of it at two-foot intervals. Customers stand about shoulder-length apart, skimming through the liner notes of a potential purchase, bopping their heads rhythmically.
EDITORIAL: The 4Floors conundrum
When an issue is too divisive for our editorial board to reach a consensus on it, we feel that our readers are better served by two competing editorials that look at all sides of the debate. With that in mind, we tackle the party everyone loves to hate: 4Floors-should it stay or should it go? UNLEASH THE POTENTIAL McGill students are spoiled.
UNCOMMONLY THOUGHTFUL: Oral sex is great
Warning: The following column is written with a heterosexual audience in mind (which is something I wouldn’t normally do), but generally I think the queer community is much more open to the joys of oral sex and doesn’t need a talking to on the subject. Why has performing oral sex become a derogatory thing? Why do the media, music industry and porn (okay, bad example) make it out to be all about power for the person receiving it? I think it’s about power for the person giving oral sex.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: J-Board soars to new lows
Re: “Newburgh to face J-Board” (23.03.10) There are several doses of shame that are deserved in light of this appeal to the Student’s Society’s Judicial Board. Shame on you, the J-Board, for accepting this appeal well over a month after the General Assembly.
FRESH HELL: Losing your student ID
Being a student sucks sometimes. Crazy stress, daily intellectual calisthenics, and intense sleep deprivation are all part of the day-to-day routine. By now, you’re probably used to the stress – you may even enjoy it on some level. Still, many of you, like me, have likely been wishing for a lighter course load since you started learning fractions, or at least for a break from homework that didn’t coincide with getting a summer job.
EDITORIAL: The CRTC shouldn’t tangle with the Web
Back in 1999, in a rare and uncharacteristic display of good sense, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced: “Our message is clear. We are not regulating any portion of the Internet.” Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.
OFF THE BOARD: My first mugshot
As a recent martyr for student journalism, I can say that getting arrested sucks. I attended the 14th annual March Against Police Brutality on March 15 with two other Tribune photojournalists to get some shots of the inevitable violence and rioting that occurs during the event.
PIÑATA DIPLOMACY: Obama’s declining support
From the time I arrived on campus in August 2008 to the U.S. presidential election that November, I didn’t meet a single John McCain supporter. I don’t think this was because I had a disproportionately Obamaniacal group of friends. Nor was it because we viewed him as somehow the lesser of two evils – the tone of his supporters during the campaign was hardly reflective of that kind of aw-shucks-he’s-the-best-we-have mentality that you get with someone like Michael Ignatieff.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Crime and punishment
Re: “National Insecurity” by Brendan Steven (16.03.10) In his article “National Insecurity,” Brendan Steven irresponsibly conflates two serious issues: counter-terrorism practices and the lengthening of prison sentences in Canada. After a lament about the difficulties of conducting counter-terrorism operations in Canada, Steven cited Stephen Harper’s attempts to increase prison sentences for crime among “actions that make Canada safer.
