TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2012 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN PAGE 5 opinion FREE FOR ALL Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351 Editor's note: From now on, hashtags will no longer be part of Kansan style. All hashtags will be edited out of FFA submissions. I've never enjoyed being publicly disgraced so much at lottery. We have more students at lottery for Mizzou than Mizzou has for actual games Played Apples to Apples last night. I don't remember the category, but Darth Vader won. Ladies: it's called the Boom Boom Room for a reason. Dance, or get out. None of my classes this semester are taught in English. They are taught in French, Java, or math. Shouldn't Facebook and Twitter count as studying sociology? Why are there locked aisles in the Anschutz stacks? Is it porn? Does anyone else get the urge to burst into hysterical laughter when a student tells their biology professor that evolution is a "left-wing conspiracy?" Today KU students booed other KU students in the fieldhouse. Hopefully that doesn't happen again. KU has tons of stunning girls...too bad I have no classes with them. I just teared up at the thought of my own funeral. Does that make me arrogant? We don't really do the whole "West Side Story" bit. It's more like "Gangs of New York." You know Oliver Hall food is bad when half your floor gets food poisoning from the hash browns. If you're going to fail CHEM 188, please drop out now and stop embarrassing the professors and students here Am I the only one who sees the squirrels on campus and suddenly gets the intense urge to have one as a pet? Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm pretty sure the basketball player you were behind didn't notice you or your toilet paper. Sometimes in Chem lab, I vigorously perturb the system and pretend I'm a stir plate. We live in a world where losing your phone is more dramatic than losing your virginity. Thanks, bus driver, for letting me sneak my coffee onto the bus. I will always love you. If KHK is run by monkeys, those monkeys have damn good taste in music. Nothing like a gloomy day at Anshutz, and then a dragon comes and disrupts the peace. I like my men how I like my cream: whipped and in the kitchen. Sometimes I gather all my blankets and wrap them around me, wiggling around my room like a caterpillar. The Jedi's have breached Budig. SOCIETY Flying flags at half-staff special honor Although Whitney Houston was a great singer, she doesn't deserve having flags at half-staff On October 30,2010 former Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson ordered that flags across the state of Kansas must be flown at half-staff in honor of Army Specialist Thomas Adam Moffitt of Wichita. He was 21. On February 18, 2012 New Jersey Governor Chris Christie ordered that flags across the state of New that if it is decreed for every small moment it loses its significance and importance as a high honor. A Texas woman Phyllis McGeath's son, Phillip McGeath, was killed in action "Houston did not give her life for this country and she does not deserve to have the same recognition as those who did." be lowered to half-staff in honor of singer Whitney Houston. She was 48. The original, symbolic meaning of flying a flag at half-staff is a sign for grief and mourning from our nation. The problem with this important gesture is while serving in the Marines a month ago, and his former state of Arizona ordered for flags to be lowered to half-staff. He was 25. "That honor meant a lot to me," Phyllis McGeath told CBS Dallas/Fort Worth news. McGeath says, "Houston is not deserving of that same honor." "Nothing against Ms. Houston because she was a beautiful singer, and I was a fan for years," McGeath said. “[But] It was like putting them on the same level.” When I heard that the state of Kansas was honoring my brother's willingness to serve his country and to pay the ultimate sacrifice it made me proud of my state and of my country. The fact that the entire state of Kansas was mourning with my family was a humbling feeling that meant a lot to me. However, with Houston receiving that same honor demotes that significance and honor. She did not serve on the front lines. She did not experience what Phillip McGeath and my brother experienced. Houston was an incredible singer, but how can these two things even be close to comparison? Houston did not give her life for this country, and she does not deserve to have the same recognition as those who did. We have to separate emotion from action. Houston emotionally touched the lives of many throughout her career, but she didn't risk or sacrifice her life with action in a time of war. And, for that reason I don't think she deserves the honor of having our American flag fly at half-staff. To all of our troops who have served our country,who have fought in a time of war on the front lines,who have been wounded in combat,and those who have given their lives for our freedom, you are my heroes. You were willing to put your country before your safety. When you fall, we, as a nation, are all your brothers and sisters. For that, you deserve the highest honor. You deserve to have the symbolic gesture of the American flag be flown at half-staff. This symbolic reference states that we, as a nation, mourn your loss - that we, as a nation, stand together and honor you for unselfishly giving your lives to ensure our safety as a country. For that, I thank you. For that, you deserve an honor that the rest of us do not. INTERNATIONAL Moffitt is a senior in English and philosophy from Wichita. Don't blame oil companies for rising gas prices Prices of crude oil are increasing because of events around the world, not because of big oil The average price of gasoline at the pump across the U.S. last week was about $3.47 per gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration. Seems high, right? Think back to July 2008, when the average price of gasoline reached an all-time high of more than $4.10. That was an expensive time for a summer road trip. Both of these figures support the popular yet accurate perception that gasoline has been getting more and more expensive lately. It's also true that major international oil companies, such as Chevron and ExxonMobil, have been making record profits over the past several years. In fact during the quarter that included the record July 2008 gasoline prices, ExxonMobil earned $15.3 billion, the highest quarterly profit in American history. So, it must follow that big oil companies are responsible for the high price of gasoline, right? This is not the case. In reality, the price you pay when you fill up your car has nothing to do with Big Oil and everything to do with a symphony of events occurring around the planet. But before examining those, it is important to understand the process that a gallon of gasoline goes through before it reaches your gas tank. First, crude oil lying miles under the surface of the earth has to be found and pumped to the surface. This is an incredibly complex task that usually occurs in some of the most inhospitable regions of planet. A single well can cost billions of dollars. Next, the crude oil has to be transported to a refinery to be processed into products that can be used, such as gasoline, diesel and ingredients for plastics. Finally, it is sold and transported to retail gas stations across the country. According to the US Department of Energy, the current price you pay for a gallon of gas includes several costs, specifically crude oil (about 70 percent of the total), refining (10 percent), distributing and marketing for retail stations (5 percent) and government taxes (15 percent). Given this, it is clear that the price of crude oil is the single largest factor affecting the price of gasoline. So, changing gasoline prices really reflect changing crude oil prices. Crude oil is a commodity, meaning that it is traded at a single price in a global marketplace. It also means that events happening around the world drive changes in its price. Like any market, crude oil is subject to the laws of supply and demand. Generally speaking, the global supply of crude oil is roughly equal to global demand. As a result, supply disruptions as small as a single refinery fire can have a discernible impact on the price of gasoline. That's why events such as tensions with Iran, a war in Libya or any other trouble with oil producing nations can cause the price you pay for gasoline to increase dramatically. But supply disruptions are only half of the equation. Increased demand also causes prices to rise and the vast majority of new demand is being created outside the United States. Consider this: according to the UN, the US consumes roughly 25 percent world's oil but makes up only 5 percent of the world's population. Simultaneously, there are more than two billion people in India and China who don't consume like we do, but are desperately trying to catch up. They want two cars, lots of things and a big house to put it all in, just like us. Imagine the increased demand for oil when there are two billion more cars on the road. As more events threaten a global supply of crude oil and demand continues to increase at incredible rates due to growth in developing countries, its clear that high gas prices are here to stay for some time unless serious energy conservation efforts occur. According to Energy Independence, more than 80 percent of the' "Simply, it costs a lot of money to drill for oil and that requires large profits for sustained investment." world's oil reserves are controlled by foreign states, not major oil companies. This fact, combined with a tight global crude oil supply-demand balance, illustrates why gas prices cannot be manipulated by oil companies, which are subject to the same whims of the global market that we are. The reason oil companies make so much money when crude oil prices are high stems from the fact that they physically own some of the crude oil that they produce, meaning they receive higher payments when the global crude price increases. However, producing oil is an incredibly expensive business that is occurring on an unfathomably large scale. As a result, all of these record profits are invested right back into exploring for and producing more oil. Simply, it costs a lot of money to drill for oil and that requires large profits for sustained investment. In the past, politicians and the public alike have called for higher taxes and increased restrictions on oil companies. In reality, a policy change like this would actually make gasoline more expensive, as oil companies would have less money to invest in finding new oil, reducing the amount they can supply and raising the price of crude oil. Going forward, we desperately need to reduce the amount of oil we consume, as there just isn't enough to go around. But let's not make the problem worse by imposing punitive measures on an industry that is vital to our economic growth. Loving is a senior in chemical engineering and economics from McPherson. 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