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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
FRIDAY MARCH 30, 2012
FREE FOR ALL
opinion
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351
My professor's advice for Monday night's inevitable celebration: Keep your shoes and don't date rape.
Everyone's gone from looking the same in leggings to looking the same in pastel shorts.
I miss Danny Manning already.
Bill Self should use executive power to override the chancellor.
Campus is gorgeous, bring on the allergy meds!
I heard Withey is throwing a block party on Bourbon Street. One that will rival Mass Street.
Is it illegal if a Jayhawk jay walks?
Getting on Pinterest when you're starving; worst mistake ever!
Now I know why we get money off our bill in the Scholarship Halls: They pass the savings of never mowing on to us.
On a scale from Twilight to Harry Potter, how good is The Hunger Games?
Saw the headline, "Thousands attend Mass where Pope spoke out," and my first thought was, "The Pope was on Mass Street?" I'm a Jayhawk.
Listen professor, this is a great lecture and all and I'm gonna let you finish, but that line on the board that you forgot to erase is killing my OCD. Please fix it.
Housing does not run like a machine. It's more like squirrels, everyone runs around and eventually something might get done.
If KU doesn't win the national championship I'm blaming my anthropology professor for opening an umbrella inside!
I just know that I'm going to be hit by a stray Frisbee. Thanks warm weather.
The new library printers are the spawns of Satan himself.
After reading my professor's handwritten notes, I feel like I could decode hieroglyphics.
Everybody sign the petition so we can get out of class Tuesday. I have a paper due that day.
To the guy at the rec playing basketball in sweatpants and no shirt. You look ridiculous.
Penguin love triangle? I love psych 120!
Just heard the new student tour guide describe safe ride as, "If you are somewhere and don't feel safe, you can call them." Right...
Why is it that the bathrooms in JRP always smell like poopy diapers? We're here to learn how to teach kids, not smel like them.
We will go to class on Tuesday if the basketball team does.
it's ok squirrel. You can eat the leftover pizza on the ground. Don't mind me, I'm just walking on by.
Court must set limits for Constitution
GOVERNMENT
this week the United States Supreme Court heard
oral arguments over the constitutionality of President Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known as "ObamaCare"). From a policy perspective, the decision is certainly important because of its impact on healthcare, the economy, and our national debt. It will not shock any of you to learn that I think ObamaCare is one of the most egregious pieces of legislation in recent history. But the Supreme Court's decision is about something even more important than healthcare policy that can be summed up in one simple question. If ObamaCare is constitutional, then what is it?
At issue is ObamaCare's individual mandate, which requires every American to have health insurance by 2014 or pay a hefty fine to the federal government. The Administration is primarily relying on Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution (known as
the interstate commerce clause), which gives the federal government the power to regulate commerce "among the several States." The rationale is that since healthcare spending constitutes roughly 1/6 of our economy and since uninsured people have an effect on healthcare the mandate is justified under the interstate commerce power.
The federal individual mandate is a great distance from the system of government envisioned by our Founding Fathers. The Framers of our Constitution created a system of dual sovereignty where the state and federal governments share power. James Madison explained in Federalist 45 that the powers delegated to the federal government are "few and defined" while the powers reserved for state governments are "numerous and indefinite."
The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, mandates that "[t]he powers not
delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." This was purposely done in order to address concerns that the new federal government would become too powerful and erode state sovereignty.
The commerce clause was included in the Constitution to address a central inadequacy of the Articles of Confederation, which was the lack of authority to prevent states from enacting laws that were harmful to interstate commerce. But over time as the economy became more complex and the size and scope of the federal government increased,
the scope of the commerce clause increased as well. It wasn't until the 1990s that the Supreme Court began to recognize modern limits on the commerce power.
That is the real issue with the individual mandate—limits. The most important question supporters of ObamaCare have yet to answer is the so-called broccoli question. That is: If we accept that the individual mandate is constitutional because of its effect on healthcare and thus interstate commerce, then what is to stop the federal government from requiring everyone to eat three servings of vegetables every day or pay a fine?
billions of dollars every year. The link to interstate commerce is just as strong as it is with the individual mandate, yet no one reasonably believes the government should be allowed to fine us for not eating correctly. At least not yet.
It might sound ridiculous at first, but think about it. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Stanford Hospital estimates that obesity-related conditions cost over $150 billion and cause 300,000 premature deaths annually. Forcing people to eat right could save countless lives and hundreds of
The point is that there is virtually no end to the federal government's power if it can force you to buy a product solely because you reside in the United States. This is extremely troubling for a federal government that was meant to only possess enumerated powers. We have already strayed from the Founders' intent and created an oversized, intrusive, and wasteful federal government. We cannot afford for it to get any worse.
Even if you don't share my affinity for Federalism, the Constitution, or limited government, I bet some of you hate broccoli just as much as I do.
Christian Corrigan is a third year law student from Wichita.
MOVIES
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A hamburger made from ground beef containing what is derivively referred to as "pink slime," or what the meat industry calls "lean, finely textured beef," is ready for tasting Thursday, March 15 in Concord, N.H. Under a change announced Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, districts that get food through the government's school lunch program will be allowed to say no to ground beef containing the ammonia-treated filler and choose filler-free meat instead.
'Slime-y' beef patties worry U.S. food companies, schools
Pink Slime. Sounds and looks like radioactive waste from a sci-fi movie but it's actually an ingredient in up to 70 percent of American ground beef. There has been much controversy about it in the news recently and rightly so, if you haven't seen pictures yet I recommend a quick Google search so you have a sense of what I am talking about here.
Alas, this product is something the Food and Drug Administration has categorized as GRAS (generally recognized
What the beef industry calls "lean finely textured beef" has been coined "pink slime" by a critical public. So what exactly is it? The trimmings and connective tissue of cows that has been treated with ammonium hydroxide. The beef companies need to treat this "meat" with chemical to kill possible infection causing bacteria like E. Coli because according to Senator Robert Mentendez in a letter to the Secretary of the USDA, "The leftover scraps come from parts of the cow with high exposure to fecal matter". This same product, when left untreated by chemicals, is basically what's used in dog food. Are you craving a hamburger yet?
as safe; comforting right?). Even though this product is legally deemed safe, major food and grocery chains like McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Costco, and most recently Safeway and Kroger have vowed to remove the product from their meals and shelves. This is good news to any Dillon's shoppers out there because Kroger Co. (the parent company of Dillon's) initially claimed it would not stop selling this product in its ground beef.
These companies responded quickly to the fear of customer backlash but don't go running out to buy your ground beef just yet, the grocery stores will probably try to sell through their remaining stocks of slime-filled beef before halting its sale.
Now how will you be able to tell what ground beef products contain these "trimmings"? You won't. It's not required to be labeled so what says "100% fresh ground beef" could actually
mean "mostly fresh ground beef but also with connective tissue and ammonium." So my advice to avoid ingesting this questionable quasi-feed product is to stay away from ground beef unless it's from organic, local sources; but since a study has recently linked red meat to early mortality, I would just avoid it entirely.
To me, the most disturbing part of this whole fiasco is that the USDA plans to purchase 7 million pounds of pink slime from its producer, Beef Products Inc. for use in the national school lunch program, to be served unknowingly to children across the country in public schools. The New York City School District just announced they will choose not to serve it in their schools and I recommend other school districts follow suit. In a society where we enjoy the luxury of endless options for what to eat, we should not settle for questionable and unhealthy food being delivered to us in the grocery stores or in children's school lunches.
Pred is a junior in political science and peace and conflict studies from Kansas City.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Lawrence. my entire life, I am certainly one of the biggest, die-hard Jayhawk basketball fans you will meet. Also, growing up in Lawrence and having a parent that has worked at the University of Kansas, I have observed that KU athletics receives much more attention and monetary value than academics ever has. As I'm sure everyone has heard by now, classes will not be cancelled if we win the national championship. The chancellor stated, "our first mission as a university is to foster academic success and that is accomplished in part by setting high expectations for our students. A national title would be worthy of celebration, but we are confident those celebrations can take place without disrupting KU's academic mission."
While I agree that academics should come first, I do not believe that KU has followed through on this "first mission" repeatedly, and I find it disappointing that in a time where not only the entire student body, but pretty much the entire town, has united and felt a common camaraderie to safely celebrate, the chancellor has chosen to now enforce this mission.
When we hired Turner Gill, we paid him millions. Then, after just two seasons, we fired Turner Gill, and we paid him millions. I realize this money is through the athletics department, but this is a ridiculous sum of money that is being given to a collegiate football coach when the smallest fraction of that pay-out could have helped several students studying at the university. KU has also been talking about giving student athletes a stipend to assist them. While I
realize student athletes spend an insane amount of time balancing training and keeping up grades, do you know how many non-student athletes there are that are working 40 hours a week while being enrolled full-time just to get by and they receive absolutely nothing? In addition, on game days, football or basketball parking is stripped not only from the paying students, but from the paying faculty as well.
As many students don't care about sporting events, they aren't able to go up to campus and park anywhere near a library where they may need to study for an upcoming exam. Faculty can't park near their buildings to do academic work. In fact, on KU basketball game nights, faculty have had to let their students out of class early because students and faculty have been ticked for not moving their cars. We are paying for those parking passes, which are already over-sold, and yet, the University chooses to tell us that we must move our cars or pay a fine when we are in classes that we are also paying for. While some have successfully appealed these tickets, why should we have to even receive or appeal them in the first place when we are on campus learning? These few of many actions don't seem to support the University's so-called first mission to "foster academic success."
If the Chancellor wants to enforce the first mission of academic focus, it needs to be enforced throughout the entire year in every aspect, not all of a sudden when our student body is feeling the most united.
Amanda Kong is a Senior studying Human Biology from Lawrence.
SATURDAY, MARCH 31
NCAA Final Four
New Orleans
Kansas vs. Ohio State
Tip off: 7:47 p.m.
Final Four watch party Allen Fieldhouse Game televised on video board at Allen Fieldhouse. Doors open 6 p.m. Saturday, Fieldhouse to close immediately following game.
MONDAY, APRIL 2
NCAA National Championship
New Orleans
Tip off 8 p.m.
TUESDAY, APRIL 3 Classes continue as scheduled.
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Schlesinger.