Archive for the ‘Militarization’ Category

War games start early in children’s TV War is portrayed to children everywhere today; whether it is Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, video games or television shows. With adult content, there are restrictions to when shows are played to hopefully keep children from watching them. War in television could lead to violent and [...]

Journalist Mark Boal worked with bomb squads in Iraq in 2004. He later published a piece in Playboy about Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver, a bomb disposal technician, and wrote the screenplay for The Hurt Locker, the movie that earned Best Picture at the 2010 Academy Awards. Boal’s background lent the script a degree of credibility, but [...]

The Role of Social Media in the Egyptian Protests By Mimi Niggel For the people of Tunisia, it started with word spreading online and in the streets worldwide of the people taking control of their government. It spread to Egypt with the mass demonstrations. After the successful overthrow of two pseudo-republics in the Middle East [...]

The world braces itself for new technological weapons By Shaza Elsheshtawy In July 2010 news broke out of a vicious, complex computer worm –Stuxnet—infecting staff computers at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant. Known as a cyber super weapon, the worm targeted Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, which are an integral piece of equipment in uranium enrichment, by causing [...]

How we choose apathy over awareness about international conflict By Kyle Allen When the average American young adult walks down the street, they have a peculiar nature about them. From their ears, long white wires dangle into a sweatshirt pocket or backpack, their face buried in a text message. The daily concerns and struggles America’s [...]

Just a few minutes’ walk from the College Avenue parking lot, I stumbled upon Mexeo, fit tightly in a building at the end of Dryden Road. A mix of modern ambient music and the fiery scents of Southwestern cuisine greet customers when they pass through the main door. The building itself is small—it reminded me [...]

By Alex Palombo After being single since 1967, Sgt. Simon Pepper has announced via his Twitter (@Sgt_Pepper) that he is tired of being a lonely heart and plans to create a profile on the popular dating site match.com. “Sometimes being on your own is a good thing, but enough is enough,” Pepper tweeted. “I need [...]

Sexual identities and the guise of equality in the military By Chris Zivalich The recent repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” was lauded by progressives, LGBTQ activists and even a good portion of soldiers and military personnel. After years of discharging those found guilty of violating the controversial policy, everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, [...]

The Film Liaison Office is a branch of the Department of Defense that serves as a link between the Pentagon and Hollywood. To ensure positive portrayal of the military in films, the Film Liaison Office works with producers to prescreen film in exchange for the use of miltary equipment as props. Though the office maintains [...]

Why overcoming our apathy about conflicts abroad is impossible By Shaun Poust In 1991, French thinker Jean Baudrillard published a collection of essays on the first Gulf War entitled The Gulf War Did Not Take Place. Baudrillard argues that what was called “the Gulf War” was not “war” according to any of the usual definitions [...]