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With a focus on education and rehabilitation, recidivism and incarceration rates will fall.

Altering the course of mass incarceration

Hank Green, a famous blogger and vlogger on Youtube, once stated regarding incarceration, “We send people to prison to be punished, and to prevent them from doing bad things again, and to deter others from breaking the law. Punishment, corrections and deterrence.” Each aspect of this three-fold system must be effective and all aspects must work in unison to create an efficient institution against crime. This does not necessarily mean that each aspect must be equal in how it is emphasized, leading to the question of which should be emphasized and how we go about doing so to provide the maximum level of utility to society.

Letter to the Editor: Cancer treatments can be overly costly

In a recent, much noted article, more than 100 prominent oncologists complained that the high cost of new cancer drugs — in excess of $100,000 per treatment — makes them unaffordable for patients. They suggest the imposition of “fair” prices.

Let our student leaders pave the way in personal growth

To label Wisconsin as anything other than a party school is considered a slight to most Badgers. A year after taking my nervous first steps onto this campus, I’m still trying to wrap my head around how, in all my hours of research and determination on what university would be my home for the next four years, I skipped over this glaring detail. I got caught up in the trees of fantastic programs such as student research, Badger athletic programs, and the Wisconsin Idea, that I failed to notice the actual forest of student life on campus. Within this year, I continue to struggle reconciling my perceived image of Wisconsin and what it actually wound up being like, as well as reconciling scholastics and the heavy social aspect on here on campus.

Cambridge townsfolk gather in welcoming Syrian and other Middle Eastern refugees, to show their disapproval toward the British government's response to the current refugee crisis.

Syria's refugees seeking hope in Europe

The crisis of Syrian migrants is one of the hottest potatoes in the media bucket today throughout the world. We wonder and worry about this particular phenomenon–what could be the outcome of this exodus? What forced these civilians to roam so far? Is there anything we can do for them? How should we handle the situation?

police

Law enforcement efforts to regulate illicit drug use in this country are ultimately misguided.

Arguments against drug legalization fail

The so-called “War on Drugs” has been a failure ever since it was implemented. Criminalizing the possession and distribution of drugs is contrary to fundamental individual rights, like the right to exercise control over one’s own body and the right to voluntarily trade with others. Additionally, imprisoning people for the use, possession or sale of an illicit drug negatively impacts their life and hampers their freedom. A punishment as severe as imprisonment should be reserved for crimes that have a victim and are clearly immoral—theft, rape, murder and so on. Prohibition of drugs (and alcohol in the 1920s) attempts to purify society and proactively stop drug-related crime before it happens; however, it actually entrenches a black market in which violence is inherently associated with, and does nothing to address, a societal health issue.

Cars headed west down University Avenue at the intersection of Park Street and University Avenue under long exposure, taken from the pedestrian footbridge.

The case for traveling in your twenties

I may be not much of a spiritual person, but one of the most profound experiences of my life was behind the wheel of a 1999 Toyota Highlander on the road from Madison to Florida for spring break. In a 24-hour period, I spent half that time behind the wheel, and the rest talking to my fellow passengers, bickering with other members of our collegiate caravan or attempting to get some uncomfortable sleep. We made the return trip about five days later, with similar distributions of fitful rest and bloodshot-eyed driving.

Letter to the editor: “Deez Nuts” uses satire to expose issues in the electoral system

As you may have heard, a fifteen year old in Iowa is running for president under the pseudonym “Deez Nuts”. While he is not able to legally become president of the United States, the candidate is doing better than most independent candidates in recent memory and is showing an eight percent favorability rating in his home state of Iowa. While many find Deez Nuts to be a mockery of the electoral process, I personally believe that Deez Nuts is good for America. I believe this because I have a sense of humor, and because Deez Nuts exemplifies the dilapidated and pitiable state of America’s primary election system.

Considering sexual assault: an odyssey

All I wanted was a bunch of cheap tacos. That’s why I went to Chaser’s that night. Not to get drunk, not even to have fun, just for mildly good, cheap food. And up until right before I walked out I was successful in that endeavor. But then he did it. Some guy who I will never know, never be able to confront, never be able to pick out of a crowd, grabbed my girlfriend’s butt. I became immediately anxious, confused and enraged, unsure of where my emotions were or where they were taking me. I looked to her and yelled, “Who did this?” The bar, however, was too crowded for even her to identify the man who had violated her. Probably prompted by the look of shock on my face, she leaned in and said, over the noise, “this kind of stuff happens all the time.”

Birkenstock sandals: timeless or terrible?

As long as fashion trends have existed, there have been movements that took hold of the general public that are looked back upon with embarrassed laughter. Those who never partook in things like bell-bottoms and Ed Hardy smugly affirmed their biases against them when they fell from grace, and everyone moved on with their lives. Today, that stupid fashion trend is Birkenstock sandals, and I will be the one calling them for what they are—ugly, childish and highly overrated, to say the least. Let me take you on a journey where I describe what’s wrong with these overhyped crimes against humanity.

Band

Members of the brass section of the Wisconsin Band play at the Varsity Band Concert last spring at the Kohl Center.

Letter to the Editor: How we forgot about the arts

Ever since the majority of us were little, our parents and elementary school teachers would fill our minds with the phrase “everybody is important As we grew into functioning teenagers and acquired aspirations of our own, these three words were lost as reality became more prevalent in our lives. Students of all ages can attest that there are definitive cliques that are often determined by natural talent. These athletic, academic and artistic groups often compete for a sense of fulfillment and purpose in society.

Letter to the Editor: Clinton is still feeling the effects of her email scandal

Given 100 guesses as the year began on how Hillary Clinton might transform her second presidential campaign from coronation into catastrophe, a furtive home-brew email network would not have been one of them. The shadowy operation is unsettling on its own. The former secretary of state put herself in the center of a deadly minefield each time she used her secret email account to conduct official business.

The notorious 'dad bod': revisited

Nothing manages to draw as many chuckles as it does frowns as the infamous ‘dad bod.’ Quietly entering the lexicon of college students everywhere last year, it is used to describe a blanket body-type that bridges the gap between the guy with a beer gut who discovered the gym a few months back. The idea of the dad bod is a fun topic of debate at parties, and it seems like I hear a new reason to love it or hate it every time the term comes up. Now that the steam behind a new member of the repertoire of college slang has died down, I felt the time was ripe to finally take a critical look at this phenomenon.

Political correctness should be championed, not attacked

Think back to the last time somebody said or did something that got under your skin. Whether they did it intentionally or unintentionally, it happened, and it got your blood boiling. Now, I want you to imagine that, no matter how scathing or hurtful whatever that person said or did to you, it’s no longer okay for you to be upset by it. You can have a straw to suck it up. This is the reality people who don’t goose-step to the beat of the conservative drum must face, and it needs to change.

Jim and Emily

Jim Dayton and Emily Gerber comprise the management team.

Sift and winnow on your UW journey

After all the AP exams taken, cover letters written and applications filled out, you’ve finally made it here to the University of Wisconsin. Welcome!