A friend of mine showed me an article a while ago that he’d come across. “Disgusting,” he said. “This is why we need to address rape culture.” I glanced at the headline, which pretty much speaks for itself: “School Principal Discouraged Teen Girl from Reporting Sexual Assault Because It Would Ruin Attacker’s Basketball Career.” Skimming the article, I had deja vu.

My four years at Wash. U. have been a period of numerous ups and downs, self-inflicted and otherwise. The University has changed since my arrival; the oozing abscess that was Eliot Hall has been demolished, a new pink castle rising in its place, and the South 40 has been transformed from an unnavigable construction zone into a whimsical St. Louis Disneyland-lite.

At any given point during the day, someone might be watching you. In a straight-up “1984” way. Not just that hottie in Whispers Cafe, but some random person drinking Mountain Dew as his glazed eyes take in every movement of your nubile limbs. I mean, the gazer could just as easily be a Selena Gomez look-alike, but how likely is that?

What’s wrong with a homelessness-themed party? Apparently nothing, if we’re to believe Indiana University’s Kappa Delta chapter. According to Jezebel, an online, feminist news source, party-goers wore shredded clothing and signs with pithy pleas for money, such as “Why lie? It’s for BOOZE…” and “Give me a nickel and I’ll tickle your pickle.

We will probably never understand the Boston Marathon bomber’s motivation. The person or group responsible for the horrific bombings that killed three people and injured over 150 more will eventually be caught and will be asked the inevitable question: Why? Was it a political act? Was it a protest? Or was it the work of a pure sociopath?

Country singer Brad Paisley recently released a new song in collaboration with LL Cool J called “Accidental Racist.” It immediately sparked a firestorm, with left-wing blogs and websites decrying it as an appalling reinforcement of 21st-century racism—or something to that effect.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about the uproar over the shortage of Macklemore tickets and asked why this was the only thing Wash. U. was capable of getting mad about. Despite an incredibly intelligent and passionate student body, Wash. U. seemed to me to be incapable of organizing and uniting.

According to a new poll announced under the fairly self-explanatory banner in the Huffington Post, “Christianity as state religion supported by one-third of Americans, poll finds,” a comfortable chunk of Americans really hate the Constitution. Given that separation of church and state is supposedly a given in America, should we the people be alarmed?

Local politics rarely receive the kind of attention that their national counterparts do, but they frequently have a more immediate, noticeable effect on the lives of voters.

Unless you’ve been living at Fontbonne for the last week, you’re probably aware of the Macklemore-snowstorm-Congress of the South 40 controversy that consumed Wash. U. last weekend. A prediction of heavy snowfall forced CS40 to move WUStock indoors to the Pageant and to limit the total number of tickets to 2,000.