Scott Sowers

Vice President Joe Biden has a problem with thinking before speaking--he doesn't ever do it. At the Healthcare summit on Thursday, C-SPAN cameras picked up the gaffe-prone VP telling someone that his job is easy because he doesn't have to do anything. Honestly, I think I'll sleep better at night knowing he doesn't actually do anything.

Video and transcript below:

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Governor Mitch Daniels has always been adamant that he will not run for another political office, but according to The Washington Post Daniels is no longer ruling out a possible 2012 bid for the Presidency.

Two months ago, in an interview in his state capitol office, Daniels said explicitly he was not interested in running for president and dismissed speculation that he might be a candidate. That has now changed. During an interview at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association here over the weekend, Daniels said he has now been persuaded to keep open the door to a possible candidacy.

Daniels said he has had a number of conversations in recent months--"none initiated by me"--where the question of a 2012 campaign came up. "Just to get them off my back, I agreed to a number of people that I will now stay open to the idea," he said.

If true, this is big news for Republicans. Read More »

Recently, I was searching through the micro-film collection in the Hicks Undergraduate Library here at Purdue and came across a rather unexpected collection. It seems that the library has been archiving the black and white edition of PLAYBOY Magazine on micro-film since 1995.

Although I'm not offended by the collection and it isn't display, I do have a few questions. First of all, why is Purdue collecting porn on microfilm? Is it being used for Purdue classes such as Gender Issues or Human Sexuality? Surely it's not being used by anatomy classes. Read More »

This past weekend, I was preparing for the start of my second-to-last semester in Accounting at Purdue University by reading the class syllabi that my professors had posted on the nets and interwebs. The purpose of this preparation was two-fold: I needed to know what text books to purchase and, more importantly, I needed to know what classes I would be taking and in which classrooms they would be located.

I scheduled my classes for the current semester in October of last year, so I did not remember which classes I would be taking. I was somewhat surprised to discover that I would be taking Management 504: Tax Accounting, a required course for my degree. My first reaction to this discovery was, “What a waste of my time!”

Now this was not the first time I’ve had such a reaction to a class I’ve learned I would have to take to fulfill my degree requirements. Such a response is not atypical for classes which I believe to be completely useless in terms of future benefit (e.g., philosophy, sociology, and other fluffy general electives). My response this time, however, was not due to any belief that a Personal Tax Accounting course is completely useless—sadly, it’s far too useful—but rather that a Personal Tax Accounting course should be completely useless. Read More »