kateturner
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Gaming is about more than cheap thrills
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Nerd culture is almost inescapable today. The spread of gaming, precipitated by television and films has come suddenly and shockingly, so it’s worth a little reflection. There’s nothing wrong with the spread of gaming to a larger and more diverse audience. There was controversy not long ago over Fake Gamer Girls, a rather transparent hissy-fit…
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The War on Terror can’t be Won
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With the French intervening in Mali, it’s an odd coincidence that the infamous ‘surrender monkeys’ putting boots on the ground to fight violent Islamist groups. This kind of intervention is a typical part of the international War on Terror. Radical Islamist groups have seized much of Mali’s north in an explicit attempt to implement Sharia…
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Libertarianism: a political solution
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It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the old left-right arrangement of political parties is coming undone. The United States has essentially rejected third-party candidates, but the Republican party is breaking down. The Tea Party badly split the right wing along religious and fiscal priority lines. And presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s lukewarm pandering has only alienated the…
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Gun legislation not a guaranteed solution
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In the Newtown, CT shooting, Adam Lanza used three firearms to kill 27 people including himself. His XM-15 rifle has received the majority of the media’s attention and reignited the American gun debate. For years, the defining cause of the modern gun control movement has been the restriction of assault weapons, a class to which…
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Conspiracy culture has dangerous implications
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I remember sitting in the computer lab in my final year of high school, when a pair of lower-year girls entered the lab. To my horror, they were both quite ignorant. They were discussing the war in Iraq, when one proclaimed that the war was ‘for profit,’ and the American government had deliberately carried out…
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Democratic elections not always fair
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Remember the 2004 film Alien vs. Predator? If you don’t it’s okay. It was pretty terrible, but the tagline, “Whoever wins…we lose,” has timeless political relevance. It’s been fashionably cynical throughout the campaign to dismiss both American presidential candidates as the same, or to say that both are bad, but one is marginally better. But,…
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Free speech threatened
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Not long ago, U.S. pastor Terry Jones was turned away from the Canadian border. Jones gained worldwide infamy in 2010 for publicly burning the Qur’an and his actions fuelled worldwide protests, counter-protests and imitators. Jones’ actions are comparable to the anti-Islam film The Innocence of Muslims, which similarly provoked global anti-American sentiment. Both were shocking…
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The Tie That Binds WLU Since 1926
Serving the Waterloo campus, The Cord seeks to provide students with relevant, up to date stories. We’re always interested in having more volunteer writers, photographers and graphic designers.