JuicyCampus.com is a website focusing on gossip, rumors, and rants related to colleges and universities in the United States, according to its Wikipedia page.

The site describes itself, somewhat high-mindedly, as an enabler of “online anonymous free speech on college campuses” and “as a place for both entertainment and free expression.” Through various services such as offering access to anonymous IP servers, it allows users to post messages and comments anonymously and supposedly without possibility of identification. Readers can also vote on which posts they find “juciest” or
most provocative. There is no registration process — anyone may post and anyone may read the posts. Set up in August 2007, the site now contains message boards relating to around 60 U.S. colleges and universities, and growing. As its crows on its website “We are SOOO popular!”.

The JuicyCampus founder and main proprietor, 2005 Duke University alum Matt Ivester, claims he conceived of the forum as a place where students could gossip without fear of
consequence from peers or administrators, but he never expected the site’s content to turn so nasty.

“It’s a gossip site and we never said that it’s not. I guess we didn’t realize how mean some people can be.” Mr. Ivester intones piously in an interview with the Yale Daily News.

JuicyCampus, doubtless owing to its vast commercial potential, is now owned by Lime Blue, a Nevada state limited liability company. Read the rest of this entry »

Death and resurrection are basic themes of the Catholic Lenten observance. The oblation of Christ on the Cross is the central image.

How then do we perceive death ? Hegel says that death can be interpreted as a mere natural fact, pertaining to man as organic matter, or death can be seen as the telos of life, the distinguishing feature of all human existence. In Hegel’s words:

If death appears as an essential as well a biological fact, ontological as well as empirical, life is transcended even though the transcendence may not assume any religious form. Man’s empirical existence, his material and contingent life, is then defined in terms of and redeemed by something other than itself: he is said to live in two fundamentally different and even conflicting dimensions, and his “true” existence involves a series of sacrifices in his empirical existence which culminate in the supreme sacrifice – death.

In other words, we choose, as followers of Christ, to give meaning to death. Death becomes a transcendent and transformative experience, as we are redeemed by the Redeemer. In a broad sense, we need to “die” to ourselves (our worldly desires, ambitions, values etc.) , before we can be reborn in Christ. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s Inquirer headline reads “Court Acquits GMA ally”. Former Occidental Mindoro Congressman Jose Villarosa, husband of current Occidental Mindoro Congresswoman Amelita “Girlie” Villarosa, a key ally of President Arroyo, was acquitted yesterday of the cold-blooded murder of brothers Michael and Paul Quintos. The Quintos boys were the sons of Villarosa’s political rival, ex-representative Ricardo Quintos. They were killed during the height of a land and political dispute between the two families in 1997. In March 2006, Villarosa, along with his co-accused, was sentenced to death for the murders.

The conviction was issued by Judge Ma. Theresa Yadao of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, based on the testimony of a single witness, gunman Eduardo Hermoso. Villarosa was the alleged mastermind of the murders. As reported by the Inquirer:

Saying the mere confession of the gunman implicating Villarosa as one of those who planned the killing of brothers Paul and Michael Quintos was not enough, the Court of Appeals overturned his and three others’ murder conviction handed down by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court in 2006.
Estelito Mendoza, Villarosa’s counsel, said the acquittal of the four men was immediately executory.

In acquitting Villarosa, the appellate court said circumstances failed to show “an unbroken chain which leads one to fairly and reasonably conclude that accused-appellant Villarosa planned or authored the crimes.”

“If a person is acquitted after trial, his presumption of innocence becomes conclusive because of the principle of double jeopardy … Those who are acquitted are completely free,” Mendoza told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview.

The appellate court’s fifth division, in a decision penned by Justice Noel Tijam and dated March 18, ordered the release of Villarosa and “Mamburao 6” farmers Ruben Balaguer, Gelito Bautista and Mario Tobias.

The other members of the fifth division are Martin Villarama and Sesinando Villon.

Prison authorities officially released Villarosa from custody Wednesday afternoon, said Supt. Ramon Reyes, the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) officer in charge.
The appellate court upheld the conviction of three other farmers, including that of Eduardo Hermoso whose confession had implicated the ex-lawmaker in the planning of the killings.

Villarosa’s acquittal raises a number of questions. Did politics play a part in the reversal of Villarosa’s conviction ? The Inquirer take on the case seems to say it does. Villarosa’s wife, the House Deputy Speaker and Secretary of President Arroyo’s political party KAMPI, was instrumental in shielding Arroyo from the many allegations of corruption in recent months. She even admitted that party funds were given out in cash, from P50,000.00 to P500,000.00, to local government officials about the time that Arroyo was fighting moves to impeach her from office. That Villarosa is an Arroyo loyalist is admitted and speculation is rife that she had been lobbying, successfully it now seems, to have her husband acquitted. Read the rest of this entry »