THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15,2005
ner Press
PAGE 5A
WWW.KANSAN.COM
GOOD TO GO
Would you like cake or death?
Let's talk about comedy. Everybody likes to laugh. My favorite comedian—and I don't think I'm alone here—is Eddie Izzard.
Izzard's stand-up routines are filled with political satire, self-referential humor and ridiculous scenarios. One of my favorite Izzard skits involves a simple choice. He offers audience members a choice between cake or death. This is a simple choice, right?
The wit of this situation centers on its simplicity. No one would choose to die when he could instead substitute a piece of cake. But, as Izzard points out, even with such an obvious decision, the average person will falter, and sometimes change his mind.
RYAN GOOD
opinion@kansan.com
We've all seen this in our lives. I'd bet that many of us made the wrong pick in what should've been an obvious decision.
How many of us has gone home with someone when we drank too much? How many of us have played Mario Kart all night instead of studying for a test? How many of us have gone to Taco Bell when we should have gone to the gym? How many of us voted for Bush?
The fact is that making poor and/or ill-informed decisions is part of life. More specifically, it's part of the college experience. Who out there wants to graduate by playing it safe for
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"Izzard's stand-up routines are filled with political satire, self-referential humor and ridiculous scenarios. He offers audience members a choice between cake or death."
four years?
Now, obviously, I am not advocating that all students at the University should throw their inhibitions to the wind and do as they please no matter what the consequences. That's called being irresponsible, and it's a dumb thing to do.
So what am I advocating?
Let's go back to Eddie Izzard.
During that same skit, when presented with the above choice, he chooses the chicken.
This open willingness to not fall into the trap of conformity is what I want to emphasize.
Sadly, much of our society is
based on either- or dichotomies. We live in a yes-no, right-wrong, left-right world.
If I described myself as a right-handed liberal male, you would instantly be able to classify the people who are like and unlike me. But what does this sort of base classification really tell you?
In the end, there is no inherent wrong with either-or labels. When they become the only way we can see the world, however, we lose something.
Limiting ourselves to such a small range of possibilities does nothing to enhance our lives. For example, President Bush has told the rest of the world that "you are either with us or against us." Look where that has gotten us.
Ultimately, it comes down to the way we see the world.
There is nothing fatal about playing it safe and always picking the easy route. But, if you want to truly live life with all the ups and downs of the human experience, you can't.
For those of you who answered yes to one of the questions I posed earlier, bravo.
To the rest of you, the next time someone asks you if you want cake or death, choose the chicken and see what happens. If you don't, then you'll never know. And there's nothing funny about that.
♦ Ryan Good is something
Seth Bundy/KANSAN
Kansan ignores mature response
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
CRAPTACULAR!
My "roommate," to use the Kansan's preferred terminology, wrote a letter to the editor two days after the incident. He called and left messages for the editor in chief, and received no response. I wrote a media ethics professor, who passed my comments on to the Jayplay editor; I also received no response from the Kansan. After a week had gone by, we distributed filers around campus to generate some awareness of the situation, and still the Kansan was silent.
It wasn't until somebody wrote on the Kansan's windows with shoe polish that the paper finally acknowledged the issue. My partner's letter to the editor was printed more than a week after he sent it. If it hadn't been for the shoe polish, would the Kansan ever have printed his letter?
In last Monday's article about the graffiti on the windows of Stauffer-Flint, the J-School's associate dean said, "The adult thing to do is to confront the situation and not go painting windows, which is the immature thing to do." He's right; writing on windows with shoe polish is a childish prank. But he must not be aware that I and others responded in mature ways to the Jayplay story that upset many of us in the LGBT community.
I was not involved in the shoe polish incident, nor am I defending the actions of those who were, but I believe sometimes a minority group has to resort to "immature" measures when every other attempt to confront a
situation is ignored.
Even after all of this, the Kansan still has not apologized or made any attempt to correct its error. The Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics states that journalists should "tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience boldly, even when it is unpopular to do so." Referring to committed life partners as "roommates" violates this important principle. I feel that the Kansan's editors should let us know that they are working to educate their staff so this sort of thing does not happen again. That would be the adult thing to do.
Sean Ringey
2004 Lawrence graduate
TALK TO US
Jonathan Kealing, managing editor 864-4854 or jkealing@kansan.com
You may still think we should just sit back and let the world take its course for a while and appease everyone we can, but I must disagree. Take a look at the recent events in France.
Once a group becomes violent, it takes more than hope and candle light vigils to stop them.
Austin Caster, editor
864-4854 or acaster@kansan.com
Sarah Connelly, business manager
864-4014 or adddirector@kansan.com
The French people just received a two-week lesson in handling unruly mobs.
Matthew Sevclik, opinion editor
864-4924 or msevclk@kansan.com
I will agree that Saddam Hussein never approached the unthinkable evil that Hitler did, but now we can be assured he never will.
let go. Another dictator was responsible for the murder of hundreds of Kurds during the 1980s, and McLeod thinks the war in Iraq to remove him from power is a joke and a lie.
Joshua Bickel, managing editor 864-4854 or jbickel@kansan.com
SUBMISSIONS
John Morgan, sales director
864-4462 or adddirector@kansan.com
Brian Depperschmidt is a Wichita freshman.
Macdon Gibson, general manager, new aduser
884-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
Jennifer Weaver, sales and marketing adviser
Malcolm Gibson, general manager, news
A dictator with strong military backing who was senselessly murdering thousands of people was not something to
One claim that cannot be denied is that the U.S. Department of Energy removed 1.77 tons of enriched uranium from a research facility in Iraq in June of 2004.
Finally, it is ironic that McLeod should bring up World War II and say it was fought to keep us safe. I could not agree with her more.
104-7666 or jweaver@kansan.com
There are many claims that the military did recover weapons of mass destruction.
McLeod's column full of factual inconsistencies
884-7667 of mglosson@kansen.com
General questions should be directed to the editor at editor at kansan.com
LETTER GUIDELINES
The Kansan welcomes letters to the editors and guest columns submitted by students, faculty and alumni.
The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length, or reject all submissions.
For any questions, call Austin Caster at 864-4810 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com.
McLeod later said, "there never were any weapons of mass destruction."
Maximum Length: 200 word limit
Include: Author's name and telephone number; class, hometown (student); position (faculty member); phone number (will not be published)
GUEST COLUMN GUIDELINES
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
**Maximum Length:** 850 word limit
**Include:** Author's name; class, home-
town (student); position (faculty
member); phone number (will not be
published)
**Also:** The Kansan will not print guest
Congratulations, Betsy McLeod, you have succeeded in drumming up your readers' awareness of a series of fallacies.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Also: The Kansan will not print guest columns that attack another columnist;
In her Nov. 9 article, "Students' ignorance of current events will come full circle," McLeod wrote an article about students' ignorance of current events. Betsy needs to re-examine some things she wrote about.
McLeod wrote "Lewis 'Scooter' Libby was indicted for lying to the American people about matters of international security."
cannot be worried about White House staff compromising their identities, the indictment had no ties to the information the White House gave the American people about the impending war in Iraq.
Elias Ford, Vanting Wang, Joel Simone, Dan Hoyt, Anne Wellem, Julie Pielar, Nathan McGinnis, Josh Goettling, Sara Garlick, Travis Brown, Julian Portillo, David Archer
SUBMIT TO
Kansas newcomer
111 Stauffer-Flint Hall
1435 Jayton Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 60045
(786) 864-4810 opinion@kansan.com
Actually, Libby was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, making a false statement and perjury, for allegations that he lied to FBI agents and a grand jury about how he learned about and spoke to reporters about a CIA agent.
Although these are serious allegations, and federal agents
Free All for
Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed.
Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded. Instant message the Free for All at *ukdfreeforall*.
Just another instance of a UDK mess up:
Monday's Cryptoquel clue was definitely wrong.
The emo girl that sits by me in art history is allergic to combing her hair.
I want to have Wilbur Nethers' baby.
R. I.P., Eddie, the wrestling world will miss you buddy
What did we learn today? Never give calcium to gypsies.
Liter is French for give me some cola.
in you rearrange the letters in Vin Diesel,
it辉 his creishe: "I end lives."
When Vin Diesel goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.
I might be white, but my rhymes is tight!
Did I ever tell you about the time alcohol saved my life? Gosh, where do I begin?
I couldn't figure out why the AIM Free For All would never work for me. Then I just noticed that I entered you on my buddy list as "UKDfreeForAll." Too bad I forgot all of the random crap I said in the past.
Either way, the world has truly suffered on this day.
forgot all of the random crap I said in the past.
Editor's note: The world has truly suffered on this day.
So what if me and my roommate would rather watch Roseanne and play Mario Party than go out drinking on a Saturday?
Hey stop using Free for All to be creepy and stalk people you think are hot. That's what facebook.com is for!
So, I was at the Fort Hays State game and someone had a sign that said the 2005 recruiting class was a product of intelligent design.
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But we can't all fit in the buldozer!
Oh my dosh!
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I always wonder why my dorm's parking lot is cleared out by 3.30 on Friday afternoon from people going home. Wouldn't people stick around for what college is really all about? Oh wait, I live in Templin.
The North Templin Liberation Front sucks. I don't know a single person in Templin who doesn't want to liberate their faces.
rhombus House! Grove Street is calling you out.
Chuck Norris built a time machine and went back in time to stop the JFK assassination. As Oswald shot, Chuck met all three bullets with his beard, deflecting them. JFK's head exploded out of shear amazement.
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Kiki, I'm so glad we're hetero life mates.
My friend and I decided the stacks at Watson were really creepy, but then we went outside and she hit a squirrel with a nut so that made everything better.
Ryan Colaiani likes to watch Sex and the City in his boxers wearing gloves.
I wasn't aware there was a monster truck rally in Lawrence! Oh wait, there's not. You just have a huge truck because your penis is tiny.
I likes them riblets. Mmm. Riblets.
Damn, Matt Kleinman looks like the Wendy's girl with that red hair.
Game day can kiss my ass. I paid for my tuition and my parking permit, I park there I want.
Underwear parties are the new toga parties.
In response to the R.A. article printed, the R.A. job is a lot harder than what they put in the paper. Also, three programs a semester? Try doing three per a month!
To the KU parking department: I already paid $150 for a parking permit. Why do I have to pay ten more dollars for a lot that's supposed to be free after four? I'm so mad right now!
Wow, Betsy McLead, for you not being interested in something or not caring about it, you sure have a strong opinion.
I hate the parking department here.
John Kerry lost the election.
Take the bumper sticker off your car.
I've been watching the game for a whole minute and please get Vinson out of there.
That guy screaming like a total woman in the front row of the FL Hays State game needs to cut it out.
Yeah, I'm in the peb band and I just want to say, Lew Perkins, you suck because you make us sit out.
To the guy in the front row, you scream like a girl and you're an embarrassment to our school.
I heard last night on KJHK that they were discussing the Kansan article about homophobia, and boy did those calls make a good case against you guys!
Sweatpants tucked inside furry boots are worse than popped collars.
I said be careful. His bow tie is really a camera.
So, when the door says, "No smoking within 20 feet," they mean 20 feet. Not two.
Free for All, you're crazy man, you're crazy.
I like you, but you're crazy.
The girl who said she would sleep with anyone for a piece of cheesecake is probably fat, and no one wants to sleep with her.
I love the new Allen Fieldhouse, but I miss the dancing nachos.
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