Honor Roll Assembly Rolls Back
By Jessica Kadle
Staff Writer

As most students at Mount Vernon know, Fairfax County is deep in debt, which inevitably means that schools like ours have had to cut back. One of the multiple changes that the school has had to make in order to deal with these issues is a change to the Honor Roll Assembly. In previous years Mount Vernon has held its ceremony in the morning with breakfast food like muffins and doughnuts and parents were invited to join their children in the celebration of their academic achievement. The students and parents would sit in the field house and listen to the guest speakers.

However, this year was the first annual Honor Roll Pep Rally with slight changes. Instead of just the honorees, the whole school attends including parents. The honor roll students come in like the athletes involved in MVHS sports do by grade point average. As always, the straight A students are honored individually, then each student goes to sit in the area with their class and parents. The students play Academic games and everyone gets involved as they cheer for their class, just as they would in a sports pep rally...

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Bowl Controversy System
By Andrew Sable
Sports Editor

Here I am, it's early December, so that means that it is time for me to complain about college football's BCS system. Once again, the BCS has caused another wave of controversy that has topped the drama of years past. We have 7 teams that have accumulated 1 loss and one undefeated non-BCS team in the top 8. So who is your number 1 and 2?

Florida and Oklahoma won the lottery and were selected to play in the BCS Championship game. That means that there are five other one loss BCS teams that were just as deserving as the Gators and the Sooners. And don't forget that one team that went undefeated.

The Texas Longhorns have one of the strongest arguments against the BCS system. They beat Oklahoma on a neutral field 45-35. Yes, their only loss came to Texas Tech, the team who Oklahoma rolled over, but if Texas Tech quarterback If Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell's miracle wasn't answered in a game against the Longhorns, they would be undefeated...

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Cries for Far Cry 2?
By Max Rudat
Staff Writer

There are three main elements of Far Cry 2: The hot desert of Africa, Rusty weapons, and a lot of realism. Now take that and try to kill somebody. One of the tasks in the first person action game was to kill a special person. Why? Nobody really knows. The important thing – you get diamonds. Now the person is marked on your map. He is walking in a little village in the middle of many heavily armed guards. So how are you going to kill him? Take the sniper rifle and try to take him out from a far? Or take the machine gun and run into them? Or take the machete? Be silent at night or try to do it in the glaring sunshine? As you see – there are a lot of weapons and a lot of possibilities, which is the great thing about Far Cry 2! 

The plot is simple and that is just how I like it. Far Cry 2 takes place in a fictional area in central Africa, where a civil war between two warlords has been tearing apart the land for years. The main character is a mercenary and he is assigned to kill "The Jackal", a powerful weapon dealer and there is a lot of money for you if you kill him. To get to him, the protagonist has to make friends with the two warlords and take care of jobs they give him. So now you are supposed to fight through Africa, doing the dirty work of these two men.

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Entertain an Education
By Chelsea Anderson
Opinions Editor

I find it ironic and slightly disturbing that athletes get paid so much money to support their expensive, sweet and flashy way of life and yet they are not necessary. People are so quick to pay so much money to be entertained. I am fully aware of the fact that people idolize many athletes. We all also love to watch TV, listen to iPods, and play video games; however that is not crucial to life. We are all extremely confused about what it is that brings us success just like our favorite sports stars. But me, I actually look up to teachers. Yes teachers, you know those people that we need to get and education from! Unfortunately, they do not have that same luxurious lifestyle, but why?

Teachers don’t and probably won’t ever have the same lavish standard of living and high pay like athletes. It is all about supply and demand. The crazy fact is the average individual would rather spend more money on being entertained than getting an education. Just think about it; think about how much you spend on textbooks versus how much you spend on sport jerseys, camera’s, iPods, etc. A high school book for an English class is no more than $15 but a football jersey starts at about $80 and can get up to $150. Christmas is on its way and teens are asking for sports apparel...

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