Opinion
The University Daily Kansan
Laura Roddy, Editor
Sarah Hale, Managing editor
Kristi Elliott, Managing editor
Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
Shauntte Blue, Business manager
Brad Bolayd, Retail sales manager
Matt Fisher, Sales and marketing adviser
Scott Valler, Technology coordinator
Thursday. May 4. 2000
Clav McCuliston / KANSAN
Editorials
Government's attempt to break up Microsoft's monopoly is overdue
In the week following the announcement that the government would seek a breakup of the Microsoft monopoly, Microsoft attempted to label the government plan as dangerous. Microsoft is in a fight for its enormous life, and this time it seems as if it might lose. Unfortunately for Bill Gates' billions, the Justice Department's move is appropriate and long overdue.
There does not seem to be much talk from Microsoft that it is completely innocent of the charges that it operates a monopoly. Instead, the brass at Microsoft focuses on the severity of the punishment and contends that it is too great a punishment for the charges leveled against them. The problem is that the government has forced a hand where fines and small regulations do nothing to hinder Microsoft's monopolistic powers. It
Microsoft's kingdom stifles much-needed competition; fines will not do the trick
has been fined in the past, and it is not hard to imagine why fines do not affect the now-second richest man in the world or one of the biggest companies in the world.
Dividing Microsoft into two companies drives at the heart of what the government sees as an unfair monopoly. One company would control Windows and one would manage essentially everything else. For years, Microsoft has been able to bundle software in an attempt to choke competition in other areas such as the Internet and word processing. In computing, compatibility is key and Microsoft has always
wielded its operating system like a spoiled kid. No one gets to play without making nice with the computing behemoth.
Microsoft claims that it is a unique company and that its beauty lies in its ability to push innovation through a synergistic line of computer products. While there is no doubt that this kind of setup allows for innovative Microsoft products, it also stifles much-needed competition. From Linux to Netscape, competing products are crowded out by Microsoft's self-serving innovation.
The breakup of Microsoft still would allow Bill Gates to hold on to countless billions. Two Microsoft companies would continue to compete vigorously in the home-computing market. They would have to compete on a level playing field, though. And this is what Bill Gates is afraid of.
Jeff Engstrom for the editorial board
Elian case razes Miami government
The politics of the Elian Gonzalez case have been as out of control as its media coverage. In the wake of the federal seizure of Elian, two high-ranking city officials, police chief William O'Brien and city manager Donald Warshaw, have been removed from their offices in Miami; Warshaw was fired and O'Brien quit. Symbolic situations like this case should not destroy a city's government
These two men have not vacated their offices because of gross incompetence or failure to serve their city. O'Brien's concern was to minimize violence and keep his officers out of harm's way during the seizure. Yet this highly visible, mostly symbolic situation has torn
Situation is political symbolism, but mayor didn't have the right to be informed of federal raid
apart the city's administration.
The real problem here is that political leaders, or in the case of Miami's mayor, political figureheads, should not pander so aggressively. Mayor Joe Carollo's stance was against federal law and it dangerously exacerbated a public crisis. His rhetoric was charged to rally the Cuban electorate of Little Havana.
when a federal operation like the Gonzalez seizure is going to take place. If O'Brien had agreed, it only would have increased the chances of violence.
A city manager's job is to run the daily administration of municipal affairs—not to be the political ax man for the mayor. Carrollo should not have expected his manager to fire the police chief, nor should he have the power to interrupt the city's administration in such a decisive way.
There's no reason why the mayor of Miami should expect to be informed
When it's all said and done, Elian is with his father, and the mayor never had any authority in the decision. It seems pitiful for such serious measures to be taken about nothing at all.
Kansan staff
Brett Watson for the editorial board
News editors
Seth Hoffman . . . Editorial
Nadia Mustafa . . . Editorial
Melody Ard . . . News/Special sections
Chris Fickett . . . News
Julie Wood . . . News
Juan H. Heath . . Online
Mike Miller . . Sports
Matt James . Association sports
Katie Hollar . Campus
Nathan Willis . Campus
Heather Woodward . Features
Chris Borniger . Jayplay
T.J. Johnson . Photo imaging
Christina Neff . Photo
Jason Pearce . Design, graphics
Clay McQuistion . Wire
Advertising managers
Becky LaBranch . . . Special sections
Krista Lindemann . . . Campus
Ryan Riggin . . . Regional
Jason Hannah . . . National
Will Baxter . . . Online sales
Patrick Rupe . . . Online creative
Seth Schwimmer . . . Marketing
Jenny Weaver . . . Creative layout
Matt Thomas . . Assistant creative
Kenna Crone . . Assistant creative
Trent Guyer . . Classifieds
Jon Schitt . . Zone
Thad Crane . . Zone
Cecily Curran . Zone
Christy Davies . Zone
Broaden your mind: Today's quote "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."
How to submit letters and guest columns
Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name address and telephone number plus class and hometown if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
- Oscar Wilde
Guest columns: Should be double-
spaced typed with fewer than 700 words.
The writer must be willing to be
photographed for the column to run.
All letters and guest columns should be e-mailed to opinion@kansan.com or submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stuaffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Nadia Mustafa or Seth Hoffman at 864-4924.
If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924
Bullfighting in Spain better than Chiefs game
Climbing over cranky women and glaring, cigar-smoking men to get to my designated concrete slab in the rafters of the Plaza de Toros, I knew that no matter what my reaction to my first live bullfight, I was not moving.
Perspective
Should I be horrified, there were no aisles down which to run nor a huge mega-screen to distract me from the ring. I was stuck in my leg-cramping spot between a blood-hungry granny and a wrought-iron fence that separated me from the band that played at the beginning and end of each fight. In front of me was the wide back of a woman who would not budge and behind me a row of rowdy male 60-somethings sending cigar smoke and seedy laughter my way.
Emily Hughey columnist
Despite my study of Spanish language and culture since the 7th grade and the bullfight videos Senhora Cardenas showed throughout high school, I think I half-expected it to be like a pro-football game — Spanish style. Thousands of avid fans, high intensity, maybe some beer and a little bit of blood.
However, no one painted his or her body in the colors of the home team, but instead donned expensive suits, silk scarves and party shoes — even in the sunny nosebleed section where I sat. Instead of standing and screaming wildly for the duration of each fight, the voice on the loudspeaker called for complete silence save the occasional "ole" when the torero, or bull fighter, made a daring pass with the bull.
The crowd's concentration reflected the intensity of the sport. The sheer fact that the animals are raised for five years in meticulous conditions so they can be valiantly killed at the hands of a national hero is enough to sober any foreigner. Toreros and fans are so serious about the quality of fighting bulls that they dispose of those that don't meet the standards. One such bull, of the six scheduled that day, had a bad leg. After doing a somersault, it had to be escorted out of the ring by a small herd of cattle. In exchange, an alternate, spunkier bull was released into the ring to fight.
Although there was no beer in the stands like at Chiefs games, cigar smoke drifted from almost every male mouth and has been doing so since the advent of the sport. However, I saw a vendor tossing bags of almonds into the crowd after three of the six bulls had been killed, a halftime of sorts
during which the band played.
Although I've never been head-to-head on a football field, there was more blood in the bullfight than I wanted to believe. At the entrance of the horseback-bound *picadores* who provided the bull's first jab, my stomach dropped. Before long, a bright red shen spilled from the bull's thick neck as it romped around the ring, chasing the flailing the *capas*, or capes, of each *matador*. But it was neither bull's nor horses' blood alone.
It was the blood of unlucky torero. Morantes de la Puebla, released by the last bull's two-horned thrust to his human thigh and stomach. Tossing him 360 degrees around one horn, into the air and on to the ground, the bull stamped around his wounded assassin until the pink and yellow capes of others came to de la Puebla's rescue. Paramedics rushed the matador out of the ring and a new fighter stepped in as though nothing happened. The crowd's silence lasted barely a minute before they were calling ole to the new matador that entered the ring.
I was shocked by the insensitivity with which the crowd dealt with this young hero's grave injury. It just wasn't like the way a football stadium goes silent when the star quarterback lies still on his back after a bad sack. Until he walks, the crowd suspends in sheer terror. Not so in the Plaza de Toros, Incredulous, I asked Javier, the clarinet player beside me, what the deal was to the streaks of blood in the dirt as the dead bull was hauled out of the ring by a team of horses. He explained that danger was eminent in the bull ring and that no one knew it better than the *matador*. When something tragic occurs, it's part of the culture to move on with the purpose of the fight — to kill the bull — instead of allowing it to suffer while the *torore* is cared for. There is an equal amount of respect for the bull as for the torore, and the world does not stop when the bull dies, nor does it for a wounded *matador*.
Although it was shocking and sometimes painful to watch the sequence of events, I made myself take it all in. The trumpets, the whistles, the cigar smoke, the blood. Although not quite like the football game I'd almost wanted to envision, the bullfight ended up being even better. As sickening as it was at points, I ended up seeing not brutality, but a deep reverence for the strength and courage of the bull and its killer.
It even made me wonder what the cigar-smoking "aficionados" would have to say about a profootball game?
Hughey is an Overland Park junior in journalism and Spanish. She is studying in Seville, Spain, this semester.
Politicians who held pipes should not hold offices
On May 19, 1940, Winston Churchill, the newly installed prime minister of England, addressed a fearful nation on the radio. On that night, he somberly delivered the news that Hitler's German army had just invaded Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and France, winning a devastating victory and beginning World War II in earnest.
He also pledged that regardless of the cost of life, liberty and property, regardless of the horrors that war would surely bring, he never would surrender to the Nazi war machine under any circumstances. He kent that promise.
through the Battle of Britain — England's darkest hour and also her finest. This speech would have been memorable for its content alone, but there was something else unique about it. Churchill was as drunk as a state trooper that night, slurring his words so badly that a listener might think that he was speaking German, which he certainly would have been a few years later if FDR hadn't saved his inebriated bacon.
Matt Murphy guest columnist opinion@kansas.com
The point is, even though Churchill is regarded as the greatest prime minister in Britain's history, and perhaps the greatest man of the 20th century, he was a dirty drunk, and he should never have been able to find work in government. Sadly, his story, as well as those of Ted Kennedy and Boris Yeltsin, show how easy it is for an enterprising drug abuser to gain power in this world. And these are just the drunks.
George Washington was known to have grown hemp on his farm in amounts that would land him a lifelong prison term today. And although hemp was an important industrial product back then, Washington's letters show that he painstakingly separated the male and female plants; pointless if you're growing industrial hemp, but necessary in preparing marijuana.
And then there is Oliver Wendell Holmes, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and one of the greatest legal minds in America's history. He was an ether addict for most of his life. One day, after an ether-huffing session, he came up with what he considered an amazing insight into the nature of the world and wrote, "Above all, there is the smell of terpentine."
Now, I ask you, do you really want a man who gets high and writes poetry about organic solvents holding an office as powerful as chief justice? I certainly don't. And yet we have a sitting president who has admitted to smoking pot, and the leading candidate to be our next president was a cokehead! Something has to be done, or in a few years our country will be overrun by an army of junky Congressmen who use their illegal campaign contributions to score smack from Marion Barry. In fact, this could already be happening. How do we know that our representatives aren't already passing more than legislation at their "Joint Sessions?"
The only way we can avoid this coming revolution, aside from declaring Ronald Reagan emperor, would be to require anyone who is elected or appointed to the federal government to pass a drug test. After all, drug tests have been used in sports for years, and they are becoming ubiquitous in the business world as well. Even a few high schools have begun randomly testing their students, bravely ignoring their First Amendment rights in the name of the War on Drugs. So if we, the people, have to be drug-free to attend high school, take dictation, or catch a football, why should the most powerful people in the world be free to pass a crack pipe in cabinet meetings if they want?
Luckily, things seem to be changing. As the recent flap about the president and Monica Lewinsky proves, people are finally beginning to judge their public servants not by their character, accomplishments or sheer ability to do the job, but by their personal habits. A random drug test of all Congressmen and federal judges should be the perfect way to continue this trend.
The modern miracle of drug screening should ensure that there never again will be a George Washington, Oliver Wendell Holmes or Winston Churchill.
Murphy is a Leawood junior in anthropology.
Feedback
Punishment doesn't fit football players' crime
In reference to the May 3 front page article, the Athletic Department's "response" to the alleged sexual assault of a woman soccer player confirms
what most of us already know: that rules of conduct apply in the arena and not off. There are not enough stairs or pushups or sprites in the world to make up for terrorizing a woman and sexually assaulting her. Apparently, Terry Allen believes otherwise, which, in my mind, makes him
as culpable as if he sexually assaulted the woman himself. I wonder what Allen would do if his players raped a woman? Take away their dessert at the training table?
4
Carol Holstead Associate professor of journalism
---