Richard Jesse Markel

Contact | 19 articles


I am not Captain Beatty

I find it curious that people would want to burn Qurans, whether they agree with Islam, disagree with it, or are simply hateful in light of Sept. 11. Whatever the reason, to me the decision to burn a Quran is wrong. It also is curiously ironic.

| Forum Editor

Our University could be safer

Washington University can set in place practically whatever policies it wants. That much is not up for debate. They banned guns, so for now let’s get over it. The question comes down to whether the school has taken measures that are effective in protecting students and whether its policies are illogical if not harmfully vague.

| Forum Editor

Decapitation: coming to a city near you!

In the Mexican state of Durango, six decapitated bodies were found in a cave. Two of the missing heads were found decaying close by, the other four missing. Monterrey, just over 100 miles from the border, found itself dealing with fifty-one bodies this past July.

| Forum Editor

Held presses and lowered voices: What we lose during our summers

For just about any college student, summer is known and loved for its total lack of class and homework (summer students aside). However with the break comes a downside – […]

| Forum editor

How not to protest: with guns

Monday’s Washington Post ran an article about an “open carry” demonstration whereby dozens of protestors gathered on the Virginia side of the Potomac River with a variety of loaded and unloaded weaponry to protest what they view as violations of the United States Constitution. Interestingly enough, their grievances have nothing to do with the Second Amendment or gun rights whatsoever.

| Forum Editor

Unlimited nights and weekends; or, how much is too much?

A U.S. Patent and Trademark Office official with zero foresight is rumored to have once said, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” In retrospect, that statement is pretty ludicrous. It does, however, bring up an interesting question: How much is too much stuff?

| Forum Editor

Conservatism and choice

So you just don’t want to pay for stuff for other people? That’s your hang-up with the health bill?” I’ve gotten this question many times. Many who do not share my political persuasions and don’t really understand them simply see universal health care as being, in my eyes, just something else I don’t want to be taxed for.

| Forum Editor

Health care reform financially self-defeating

Liberals in Congress and their citizen base are celebrating the passage of a landmark health care reform bill that they claim will make insurance affordable for Americans. If that is what the bill were to do, it would be less of an anathema. In reality, the cost of health care will not come down, but rather skyrocket.

| Staff Columnist

Staff editorials need help messing with Texas

Student Life’s March 24 staff editorial, “Condemning the new state of Texas textbooks,” seemed to misrepresent the changes to textbooks, and thus curriculums, in Texas public schools. Lacking a lot of detail and misrepresenting some aspects of the story, the editorial comes off as critical but uninformed. The real story needs to be broken down a bit further before criticism of the changes can be warranted.

| Staff Columnist

Conservative Reality and the Self-Made Man

A week ago, in the opinion pages of Student Life, Daniel Fishman did what millions of Americans do every day: he completely misunderstood conservatism. I’d further postulate that he has an exceptionally dismal outlook on society as a whole. In his editorial, he put up the image of the isolationist “self-made man” as a conservative ideal that is inherently impossible.

| Staff Columnist

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