While I was in high school, a friend of mine said to me, “Cars are pretty damn dangerous.” It didn’t require any special powers of observation to see this, and so I replied, “They are, indeed.” Sensing that I wasn’t looking at it in the same way, my friend continued “Think about it, we’ve made it necessary that we use these two-ton steel blocks, and move them at speeds that consistently result in death or injury” (Car accidents cause approximately 30,000 deaths in the U.S. each year). He was right, but it wasn’t anything driver’s ed hadn’t taught me already. I knew/know the risk of driving, and try to follow the rules of the road to avoid aforementioned death or injury.
Author Archives: Zachary Antoyan
Posted inOpinion
Economic special interest groups defeat the purpose
I’ve always thought that part of the idea behind a democracy was that we work together to build a better society.
Posted inOpinion
The Syrian aid paradox
It has been two years and 17 days. Two extremely grueling and violent years, spent in an attempt to oust a family that has kept hold of Syria for more than four decades.
Posted inOpinion
Privacy is dead: time to make a choice
Zachary Antoyan is a political science junior and Mustang Daily liberal columnist. We are all interconnected. And I don’t mean this in the way of the six degrees of separation kind. Instead, I mean that if I wanted to find out about a man whose name is Smitty Werbinjagermanjensen, I could easily do so. I […]
Posted inOpinion
Your worst nightmare
Zachary Antoyan is a political science junior and Mustang Daily liberal columnist. It’s almost finals week, and as the stress increases, so does the need for some escapism. So let’s talk about Batman. Pointy mask things, effective utility belt and an unnecessarily deep voice, Batman has been an icon for DC Comics since his inception […]
Posted inOpinion
Why Uncle Sam, what big eyes you have!
Zachary Antoyan is a political science junior and Mustang Daily liberal columnist. Our popular culture holds that if the President of the United States ever needed to launch nuclear weapons, there is a shiny, big red button he or she has to press. This button, invariably, is inside of a bullet-proof briefcase handcuffed to someone’s […]
Posted inOpinion
Crowd funding: A new direction for democracy
Zachary Antoyan is a political science junior and Mustang Daily liberal columnist. Strap in, I’m about to make taxes awesome. Functionally, we pay taxes to fund our government and its works. Federal, state and municipal taxes provide the necessary sum of money to each level of government for whatever shenanigans it is involved in. What […]
Posted inColumns
Building on unstable ground
Zachary Antoyan is a political science junior and Mustang Daily liberal columnist. Since we know that the rules to the game that is the economy change constantly, that some people don’t even play by these rules (hint: China) and that the market is as unpredictable as the pesto at VG’s, how the hell is the […]
Posted inOpinion
Physics, Calvinball and the not-so-strict laws of economics
Zachary Antoyan is a political science junior and Mustang Daily liberal columnist. For the most part, everyone I know accepts the laws of physics as truth. There was this one kid on my street a while ago who thought he could fly, but after several caped-jumping-from-high-places attempts and a broken leg, these notions were quickly […]
Posted inOpinion
How Americans’ fervor hurts whole country
Zachary Antoyan is a political science junior and Mustang Daily liberal columnist. I’m not the only one who thinks Robert E. Kennedy Library would be a kick-ass place to hole up during the (obviously impending) zombie apocalypse, right? I mean, maybe you wouldn’t be able to stay there for very long, but at least […]
Posted inOpinion
We can government! (Spoiler: No, we can’t)
Zachary Antoyan is a political science junior and Mustang Daily liberal columnist. The other day, my roommate referred to editorial pieces as, “bitch and moan” columns. In all honesty, I can’t refute that, so in the spirit of complaining I’m gonna talk about this awesome thing called stagnation. Stagnation is a magical event that happens […]