“That picture looks nothing like me!”

Published March 11, 2010 by Peter Goffin

I went to get my graduation picture taken a few weeks ago. It was a long time in the offing. I bought a new white… Continue Reading ›

Jumping through hoops for invention

Published March 11, 2010 by unknown

Joy Santiago
During the 45-minute wait for the bus the other week Monday, in a ridiculous late-winter snowstorm, I came up with a great idea for… Continue Reading ›

It’s like Northern Woodstock

Published March 11, 2010 by unknown

Eric Williams
Groovy, man. Every year, in the last weekend of July, the teddy bears gather for their picnic, on the Island of Guelph Lake. Yes… Continue Reading ›

Don’t restrict right to criticize

Published March 11, 2010 by unknown

Riaz Sayani-Mulji
Another Israeli Apartheid Week, the fourth one at McMaster, is in the books. Leaving aside the argument of whether the actions taken by the… Continue Reading ›

Be aware of dangerous fad diets

Published March 11, 2010 by unknown

Nazihah Bakhtyar
In a society where obesity and unhealthy food choices are becoming an epidemic, on the other side of the spectrum is an obsession to… Continue Reading ›

Use twitter the right way or not at all

Published March 11, 2010 by unknown

Rohan Nair
I brought Twitter to the MSU. It was last year during Vishal Tiwari’s presidential campaign, in which I implemented Twitter into Vishal’s website so… Continue Reading ›

30 million fans and one lonely student

Published March 4, 2010 by Peter Goffin

I can’t win. The biggest hockey game in eight years and I had a yet-unbegun proposal due the next day. And of course I wasn’t going to miss the game to work on it. But nor was I going to head to the bar or a friend’s house, like every single other sentient Canadian. No, I wasn’t going to do any of that to watch the national team play the Americans for the ultimate in international sports acclaim. What I was going to do was sit in my basement apartment and watch the game alone so that I could work immediately before and immediately after it. He shoots, he scores.

Forget the podium, try owning some pride

Published March 4, 2010 by Peter Goffin

Kevin Elliott

OPINION

Do we as Canadians even understand our own patriotism, yet alone our own country? A recent nationwide poll revealed that over half of respondents voted the 2010 Vancouver Olympics as the defining moment in Canada’s history.

In defence of the military’s recruitment methods

Published February 25, 2010 by Peter Goffin

Dave Pridham

OPINION

In the Feb. 11 edition of The Silhouette, Peter Goffin argued that recent military recruitment commercials encourage criminals [sic] to join the Canadian Forces (CF). He also suggested that CF members are “stunted” or “deficient” in some way. As a former soldier, I would like to respond to these claims.

Mr. Goffin pointed out three separate cases of CF members who were charged with or convicted of violent crimes in 2005, 2008, and the recent case of Colonel Williams. He then argued that violent imagery in current CF recruiting campaigns is partially to blame for attracting such violent personalities to the military. But the new recruitment ads only began in late 2006, and the soldiers involved in these crimes would have enrolled in the military years earlier. For example, Colonel Williams joined the CF in the late 1980s. It therefore seems fair to say that the three-year-old recruitment campaign did not draw these people to the armed forces.

Why is everyone nailin’ Palin?

Published February 25, 2010 by Peter Goffin

John Galt

OPINION

It’s been quite easy for politicos the world over to dismiss Sarah Palin as a backwoods joke hellbent on embarrassing the nation each time she opens her mouth: her inability to name a newspaper she reads, her claim that she can see Russia from her door, her folksy way of speaking. But are the experts making a big mistake in writing Palin off as a joke? You betcha.