The Cost of America’s War on Drugs
On Monday, April 23, Radley Balko delivered a lecture on “the collateral damage of America’s 100 year war on drugs”. Balko is a senior writer and investigative reporter for The Huffington Post. He previously served as a policy analyst for the Cato Institute and a senior editor at Reason magazine. Vanderbilt’s chapter of Young Americans [...]
#WeAreVanderbiltToo (Round 2) Events
The white crosses are back. As the Board of Trust meets again this week, the religious organizations of Vanderbilt Solidarity—along with Vanderbilt Catholic and the Thomas More Society—have made plans to make their voices heard. These thirteen student organizations have open acknowledged that they anticipate being considered unregistered organizations in the fall. The Board of [...]
Healthcare: The Case for Reform
As someone who firmly believes that we live in the best country in the world, I still feel, quite simply, that our health care system is a joke. We are the only first world country that does not provide any sort of universal health care, which in my opinion means we are not fulfilling our [...]
A Look Back on an Incredible Year
What an adventure. Looking back over the past eight months at the Torch, it’s hard to believe how much has happened and filled these pages. When this school year began back in August, Rick Perry had just declared his candidacy, and Michele Bachmann won the Ames Iowa Straw Poll. Boy, have things changed. It’s been [...]
YAL@VU Hosts 4/20 Bake Sale
To protest the War on Drugs and raise awareness of its failures, Young Americans for Liberty, the official libertarian student organization at Vanderbilt, will be hosting a “4/20 Bake Sale” on Rand Wall from 11am to 2pm on Friday, April 20th. As President of the YAL chapter at Vanderbilt, I want to explain some of [...]
North Korea Tests Missiles, U.S. Halts Aid
On Friday, April 13, North Korea attempted to launch a long-range rocket to commemorate what would have been Kim Il Sung’s centennialbirthday. The rocket failed just a minute after takeoff and plunged down into the Pacific Ocean. For Kim Jong Un, who recently took over as Supreme Leader of North Korea after his father’s death, [...]
Oops!
Ah the life of a President- not really being able to say what you want to say. A few weeks ago President Obama came under fire for not realizing his mic was on and saying what he really wanted to say. The gaffe happened while talking to Russian President, “Give me space. This is my [...]
Rick Santorum Exits Race
With Rick Santorum suspending his Presidential campaign, Mitt Romney has sealed the deal. Party leaders from around the country including Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, and Florida Governor Rick Scott endorsed Romney following Santorum’s announcement. Santorum’s decision comes on the heels of his three-year-old daughter’s hospitalization. It was also becoming increasingly clear [...]
IMPACT symposium 2012
Every year the Vanderbilt University Speakers Committee, a committee of the Vanderbilt Programming Board, organizes and hosts the IMPACT symposium, a multi-day event in which important speakers from across the United States discuss and debate current events and controversial topics. This year’s symposium takes place March 19-21 and will host five different speakers discussing the [...]
TNCR Convention: Young Conservatives are reclaiming Tennessee
On Saturday, February 25th, over 100 College Republicans from across the state converged at the Capitol for the Tennessee College Republicans (TNCR) Convention—the same annual gathering which, just last year, was held in a science classroom with only 20 attendees. There was an undertone of hope and enthusiasm to everything that occurred that day, and [...]