MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2012
PAGE 5A
opinion
FREE FOR ALL
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351
You are now aware of your tongue.
Yourewelcome
Really there's signs above the water fountains that say no spitting tobacco? Who are we, K-State?
If I only had one hour to live, I'd spend it in my math lab because it feels like an eternity.
You can never know how many chairs are in your room at any time.
The Free For All editor has texted me back before. That must mean I'm popular. Editor's note: You must have been dreaming
I wonder if my Friday class realizes that the only reason I'm in nice clothes is because it's the same clothes I was wearing at the bar the night before.
The Hill's negotiating with the squirrels. We don't care about naval strength, we have the best sniper positions on campus. The Halls are neutral. #almostready
I started writing my notes in all caps to make them more legible. Unfortunately I now read them in Samuel L Jackson's voice instead of a confused Morgan Freeman.
At KU we have the Union building. At Mizzou they have a Confederacy.
My boyfriend and I are having a conversation about our sex life at IHOP over a plate of pancakes. Perfect.
Stephenson Hall would rather secede than referee this fight. We declare war on the north side of 14th Street.
That moment when your doormate is thawing her frozen food with her ass.
Sometimes I like to butter my rump and pretend I'm toast.
The squirrels have successfully turned the students against each other in the dormitory battle. Kudos to them.
Don't you hate it when a sentence doesn't end like you think it platypus.
That awkward moment when your stuffed animal would rather sleep with your roommate.
Somebody should start a Harry Potter club on campus... Seriously like right now.
Editor's note: Have you ever heard of the Quidditch team?
All of the Greeks gathered in the death star(martini room) and decided to continue hating GDI-jedis, although we don't join any dorm, we will do battle against the jedis.
So apparently if you kick a guy's ass at beer pong, he won't hook up with you... Forever a virgin.
I would for sure vote for Mittens Romney.
No questions asked.
My boyfriend has an hour break between classes and to kill time he's playing his Gameboy in Wescoe. #EngineerBoyfriend- Problems
I know I go to KU when I see people chasing each other down campus with chainsaws and don't think twice about it.
Catching a glimpse of Miss Taylor Swift
Like every American, I'm susceptible to the cult of personality. So when I heard last Wednesday that Taylor Swift was on campus, the thrill of catching a glimpse of a celebrity positively elated me. The thought came that perhaps I might even get her to autograph my copy of "Catcher in the Rye" (KU Bookstore price $72.99).
And so I sprinted in my bathrobe and slippers down Jayhawk Boulevard. Even though I read a very un-Wednesday like mirth in the faces of my fellow students, my search for the bejeweled pop-star was in vain.
Periodic Taylor Swift appariions cast our university into disarray and frenzy unseen since the fall of Saigon in 1975. Sightings of the elusive and aptly-named Miss Swift, are believed with
the child-like credulity and hope of UFO searching FBI agents (I want to believe Taylor exists, Scully). However, the spotters invariably turn out to be fringe nut jobs soaked with gin.
Like most Americans, I love Taylor Swift, not only because of her soul-touching songs, but her "aw shucks" humility as well. It reminds me of me if I were a girl who wildly succeeded at something she loved to do. She has achieved a status which puts her on the same pedestal as her less famous/talented forebear, Jonathan Swift. My fellow men think my admiration for TS betrayes effeminacy. Before they start revoking my man card, allow me the following apologia: In a court of law, you could never prove that I liked TS for her music (God bless the Fifth Amendment). Although I have all her albums only because they fell out of a truck, I can still enjoy them. Even if I casually hum or sing a few of her songs in their entirety, that only means I have a very capacious memory. And if her songs touch my heart, it only proves that chivalry is far from expired.
I can split wood and consume raw meat with the best of them. I know of no rule in the sacred tome of Man Law that says a man cannot like a woman singer. Quite the contrary is the truth of men. Abraham Lincoln was a devoted fan of the Dixie Chicks, Winston Churchill loved Jewel (for more than just her music), and in his speeches, Malcolm X
made countless allusions to Sarah McLachlan.
When I first listened to "Fifteen" at the age of twenty, I was enchanted to meet Taylor Swift. How her lyrics would have spoken to my angst, feckless self, five years prior! Her lyrics teach us about respect for others as well as ourselves. Truly, it takes more strength to act on the songs of TS than to derisively dismiss them.
I will not lose hope that, one day, I will catch a glimpse of the elusive, Jackie O-esque Taylor Swift. Though I will probably never meet her, I want to thank Taylor Swift, because although she wasn't there to guide me through my tumultuous second decade, at least she's here for my third and presumably fourth and fifth.
Daniel Obermeier is a junior in history from Olathe.
Democrats use class warfare to gain votes
The left will use politics of jealousy to win re-election
This year, Democrats will rely on class warfare in order to hold on to the White House. Up to this point, using George W. Bush and Congressional Republicans as scapegoats has kept the Obama Administration afoast, but fewer Americans are accepting these trite excuses. They are beginning to realize that great speeches, soaring rhetoric, and catchy campaign slogans do not guarantee results.
No one will deny that the President inherited a tough situation, but for two years his administration had huge majorities in Congress, yet his only major legislative accomplishment is an unpopular and possibly unconstitutional health care bill that he would barely mention in last month's State of the Union Address. Meanwhile-
the unemployment rate has gone up from 7.6 percent in January 2009 to 8.3 percent in January 2012 and the national debt has increased from $10.6
one of the most liberal states in the country. The likely GOP nominee is also enormously wealthy from his time at the private equity firm Bain Capital. Gov. Romney plays perfectly into the reelection strategy of an administration that has embraced the Occupy movement, touted the "Buffet Rule," and decried fiscal conservatism as "you're on your own economics."
Romney will be demonized
Enter Mitt Romney: a Harvard educated and articulate Republican businessman who governed
"However, our path to prosperity is not through class warfare and more government.
trillion to over $15 trillion since he took office.
The President's only real success has been in national security with the elimination of Osama Bin Laden. But even that is problematic for a President who campaigned vehemently against the Bush Administration's terror policies, especially since the President's own CIA Director admitted publicly that those controversial interrogation tactics ultimately led us to Bin Laden. While the President is certainly not weak on national security, he cannot base his reelection on the issue.
as a wealthy corporate tycoon who heartlessly fires working class people in order to turn a profit. However.
something much deeper and darker than simply setting the 99 percent against the 1 percent for the purposes of a campaign. It's about inspiring resentment between all socioeconomic classes: the 90% percent vs. the 10 percent, the 75 percent vs. the 25 percent and the 50 percent vs. the 50 percent.
this strategy represents something much deep.
It's about getting people to believe their success has to come at someone else's expense. In economic terms, they want people to believe prosperity is a zero-sum game.
It is only natural for us to envy those who have more than we do. What makes capitalism work and America great is that we take that envy and use it as motivation for
our own success. It drives us to find our comparative advantage and use it to create value in society.
Unfortunately, the left wants to turn that envy into jealousy in order to garner support for the redistribution of wealth. The endgame is that people believe they can't succeed without the government and they elect politicians who promise to remedy every economic inequality that exists. The result is more government jobs, programs, and entitlements.
Margaret Thatcher noted that the problem with these policies is that you eventually run out of other people's money to spend. Just look at what has happened in Greece, a modern European welfare state that is in default because its debt rose to 126 percent of its GDP.
As of December 2011 America's public debt is already an alarming 60 percent of its GDP. However, a report by the CATO Institute tabulates that future unfunded liabilities for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will actually total over $59 trillion, more than 412 percent of our GDP. Think the 1 percent can save us? Considering Forbes Magazine estimates that America's 400 billionaires have total assets worth only about $1.3 trillion, I don't think so. Unlike Greece, there will be no one left to bail us out.
The politics of jealousy are easy these days, particularly as millions across the country are suffering through a prolonged economic recovery. However, our path to prosperity is not through class warfare and more government. It is through truly free-markets and real reform to entitlements, the tax code, and government spending.
Christian Corrigan is a third year law student from Wichita.
HAVE AN OPINION?
Have something you want to say about a column, news story, or campus issue? Submit a letter to the editor. Submissions should be no more than 300 words in length and should contain the author's name, major, and hometown. All submissions should be sent to kansanoodesk@gmail.com
The insincerity of Valentine's Day
Since it's Valentine's Day week, you're probably tired of hearing anyone discuss the topic of love, relationships, romance, etc. In fact, hearing the word "love" one more time this week might provoke some sort of negative reaction from you like a grimace, or say, projectile vomiting.
Don't get me wrong; I'm a romantic. In fact, I've read many a romance novel, and felt the pain of and joys within literary relationships. I made noises at a pitch that cannot be heard by humans when my high school calculus teacher, when speaking of his wife, said, actually sighing, that she was "Just...wonderful." And every Tuesday night, I shamelessly cheer on Glee's Kurt and Blaine, aka, the most adorable couple to ever grace the small screen.
You see, this notion of what Valentine's Day is supposed to be has been manufactured and ejected out. According to Hallmark, Kay Jewelers, and romantic comedies, Valentine's Day is a day where a man woos a woman,
However, I'm a realist as well, and let's be real—a lot of the gestures brought about by Valentine's Day can be simply insincere.
buys her jewelry, chocolate, and flowers for which in return, since the efforts to buy her love and affection are so obviously attractive, the woman returns his desire with gasps and delight after which they then proceed to live happily ever
Don't rent out an airplane and write my name across the sky while juggling with flaming, hearts all while bellowing an 80's love ballad accompanied by a boom box ala John Cusak. But
limited to one day a year. If the love between you and another person is real, genuine, and the kind that would make me squeal about the adorableness of it all if I saw you together, well, then that should be shown every day. And if you're attempting to go the extra mile, it should be done with the thought of the other person's personality.
I'm not going to lie; if I was sharing a Valentines' Day with another person, I might want a show of recognition of the event (which I would likewise show back). But I wouldn't want my significant other to feel as though they had to make an exhibition of how much they loved me.
I could talk about how romantic love isn't reserved for heterosexual couples, or how we sell the idea of a "Romance Checklist," or how women are seen as passive in relationships—I could talk about a lot of things. But what I want to hone in on is this great insincerity surrounding Valentine's Day, a sort of false façade to try to present a weak imitation of love.
after. Off-screen, the man is fist-bumping his bros about getting laid later that night, and the woman is relishing in her offerings of flora, glucose, and sparkly things.
"The actual beautiful thing about true romance, love — that feeling that poets and pop-stars alike have tried to eternalize — is that every relationship is different, so, it makes sense that every love is different."
Now that I've made myself sound as pessimistic as possible, the point is that Valentine's Day and romance in general have been molded to be seen in a very specific light by society.
Love isn't and shouldn't be
wanted to watch Harry Potter, picked me up the new book I'd been eyeing, and made me a good cup of coffee, then I'd be pretty happy.
my idea of romance, but that's what personally works for me. The actual beautiful thing about true romance, love — that feeling that poets and pop-stars alike have tried to eternalize — is that every relationship is different, so, it makes sense that every love is different.
Maybe you happen to be a botanist and a connoisseur of cocoa, so flowers and chocolate are a genuinely thoughtful gift. Or, perhaps, you happen to be a Potter-Head, and if someone were to tell you they had planned a Harry Potter movie marathon weekend, you'd kiss them right there. Whatever gesture of romance would mean the most, your loved one will probably know best.
Katherine Gwynn is a freshman in English from Olathe.
HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Send letters to kansanopdesk@gmail.com.
Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the e-mail subject line.
LETTER GUIDELINES
Length: 300 words
The submission should include the author's name, grade and hometown Find our full letter to the editor policy online at kansas.com/letters.
Length: 300 words
lan Cummings, editor
864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
Lisa Curran, managing editor 864-4810 or lcurran@kansan.com
Garrett Lent, business manager
8438-4358 or glenn@aansan.com
Korab Eland, sales manager
8437-4477 or elenan@aansan.com
Alexis Knutsen, opinion editor 864-4924 or aknutsen@kansan.com
CONTACT US
10
Malcolm Gibson, general manager and news adviser
864-7676 or mgibson@kansan.com
Jon Schilt, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or jschilt@kansan.com
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
THE EDITORIAL BOARD Members of the Kansas Editorial Board are Ian Cummings, Lisa Curran, Alexis Knutsen, Angela Hawkins and Ryan Schlesener.