THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2009
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAIRY KANSAN • 5A
Hackers seeking thrill OPINION THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Free for All
THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 20,2003
free for All callers have 20 seconds to check about any topic they wish. Kansan officers reserve the right to omit comments. Standulous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
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I have to say it's a sad day in America when we allow things such as lowest reductions to occur. A sad day ahead.
New should call it the Up Ster, not the North Star. It's not north, it's up.
There's a thing called checks and balances in a democracy. President Bush isn't hampering the economy, president Bush isn't raising gas prices, president Bush isn't waging war on Iran. The United States government is doing all of these. That's right, even all states democratic senators your mommy and nobody elected have a part in all of them. Why don't you put them on a sign that you do your little peace marches?
did diverse? Yeah, that's why
it's all Greek.
图
--would the good Samaritan who found
differences in Wesco Hall please
a request to the history office? Thanks.
What the sex column last week, "Sex
that loved ones is better." That's great.
What's the headline for next week?
Work with wheels transport things
frozen?"
四
I love just reading Cosmo and noticed
him on very own sex columnist,
Leighann Bainum, is being featured. Way
12:00 pm!
I'd never called in about the biscuit
milk. I think you're crazy. They're by far
the easiest container ever made, the
slow they pop. How can you handle
面
Is the pre-war idiot in the Free for All
announced our victory in the
Revolutionary War as the reason to
attack frog, your analogy works against
war in the Revolutionary War, the
militia's greatest superpower launched a
 massive attack against a small,
organized, virtually defenseless
military simply because they didn't do
what the superpower told them to.
ound familiar?
23
for the protest priorities guy in the Free Air. You may have noticed there were most protest marches that weekend, one against the war and one against anti-terror laws. While we are about to work on a pointless war, there's also other serving 17 years in prison for making more than just having sex. These are both important issues, and are capable of multitasking.
国
Darren Joe Millionaire remind anyone
hours of Gaston from Beauty and the
Guest? I'm just waiting for him to sing,
"One one drinks like Gaston, no one
drinks like Gaston."
Misunderstand impairs your judgment. But internal impairs your judgment even though it's legal. Let's do the math.
MATURE
Kristi Henderson
editor
4854 or khenderson@kansan.com
Janna Goopfart and Justin Henning
managing editors
(514) 485-4 or jgoffert@kanan.com and
jhanning@kanan.com
Leah Shaffer
readers 'representative'
261.4281 or lashffer@kansas.com
avanda Sears and Lindsay Hanson
opinion editors
854.1924 or opinion@kansan.com
Eric Kelting
business manager
864-4384 or adales@kansan.com
Sarah Jantz
initial sales manager
904.4358 or adsales@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson
internal manager and news adviser
204.7807 or mgibson@kansan.com
Matt Fisher
sales and marketing adviser
854 7666 or mfisher@kansan.com
STINSON'S VIEW If you're fishing
Zach Stinson for The University Daily Kansan
PERSPECTIVE
Kansas: Fund education instead of incarceration
As Gov. Kathleen Sebelius takes office, state governments across the country face the largest budget crunch in 50 years. According to The Topeka Capital Journal, the projected shortfall in Kansas is about $750 million. Amid the panic that arises out of such a crisis, concerned citizens look to where the ax will fall, where spending is needed most and where funding can be cut.
Education is often a hot topic in this debate, but any reasoned analysis shows it should be the last item on the chopping block. Most major studies on poverty and quality of life have shown that the higher level of education people receive, the more likely they are to work in steady jobs, bolster the local economy and make these sorts of budget crises a rarity.
Steve Ducey
union@hansan.com
One excellent choice is the over inflated corrections budget. From 1973 to 1993, nationwide state corrections spending increased 1,200 percent while higher education spending increased 419 percent. No justified argument exists for such a disparity in state spending priorities. Money needs to be placed back into education, not incarceration
In light of these facts, education funding should not be cut, and could realistically demand a much larger share of the budget than it currently receives. The only question remaining is where, in such a dire economic situation, are these funds going to be found?
COMMENTARY
Even prison supervisors find the mas
Upon returning to a world of dismal opportunities, it is no wonder that a large portion of recently released non-violent
sive prison population, which now totals more than 2 million people, grossly unnecessary. A recent survey found that 92 percent of wardens thought alternatives to incarceration needed to be used and even went as far as to say that half of their inmates could be released without endangering public safety.
Imprisonment teaches a nonviolent offender (of which the majority of prisoners today are) little, except how to be a better criminal. It does nothing to teach the person how to be a better citizen, who can work in a legitimate job and contribute to society in positive ways. Prison forces the individual to be removed from society for years only to be readmitted into a competitive job market where he or she is denied meaningful work or education thanks to a criminal record.
criminals become repeat offenders and wind up right back in prison. These people are doing their country no good by being continually locked behind bars, networking with other criminals and being denied alternatives that could actually help them to get out and stay out.
One logical alternative is education. Not only does educating a person have a higher return for society than imprisoning them, the cost to do so is remarkably lower. The estimated cost to imprison one person for one year, $25,000, is the same amount of money needed to educate 40 people for one year.
By taking the half of our prison population that wardens themselves feel to be no danger to society and placing them in institutions of learning rather than the "school of hard knocks." we will save our beleaguered budget, bundles of money, and in the process create a much more humane and helpful alternative to our counter-productive system of incarceration, one with legitimate positive returns for society.
Contact Sebelius, your state representative or get involved with KU Students for Sensible Drug Policy to alleviate a portion of the budget crisis by changing Kansas' misguided and costly policies on rehabilitating non-violent criminals.
Ducey is an Overland Park sophomore in philosophy and a member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
PERSPECTIVE
Superiority can become violent
We have all done it at some time. We pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. But when the pats keep multiplying it can be detrimental. Having too high self-esteem can actually keep you from being your best.
As children we were nurtured and taught that we had worth. This is healthy, but as the praises go upward, so do our noses. And researchers, such as Brad Bushman of Iowa State University and Roy Baumeister of Case Western Reserve University, have said that high self-esteem is not showing higher performance, but it is showing up in cases of dangerous activities.
COMMENTARY
Baumeister's research shows that murder, rape, domestic abuse and terrorism are activities often used by people with high self-esteem. The authors say "people turn aggressive when they receive feedback that contradicts their favorable views (of themselves). More to the point, it is mainly the people who refuse to lower their self-appraisals who become violent."
Elizabeth Moss opinion@kansan.com
History proves this theory correct in several instances. Consider the Nazis and their view of superiority. The Ku Klux Klan attacked people who did not fit white supremacy. They mostly
attacked blacks and those who were willing to defend a racially diverse society.
In recent memory, one of the three sureties about Osama bin Laden is that he has a high self-esteem. (The other two are a lot of nerve and a tombstone or soon-to-be tombstone.) His mission's self-worth is so high that he is willing to send terror upon one of the most prominent countries in the world.
There are hidden moral consequences of a high self-esteem, but there are also moral downfalls to a low self-esteem.
When people have low self-esteem, they need the opinions of others in order to make decisions and justify actions. This brings in a plethora of viewpoints for a proposal that can help to make a solid conclusion. But if people have
In fact, negative emotions toward ourselves can cause us to abuse our own bodies. Take anorexia or bulimia, for example. They're partially caused by little selfworth.
such low self-esteem that they cannot come with their own sense of right and wrong, they also have a problem.
Another misconception about self esteem and sense of mission is that they are connected. A person can have a high self-esteem or low self-esteem and still have a high sense of purpose or wish to perform to a high standard.
So next time the pats on the back grow more and more frequent, remember Baumeister and his colleagues. They concluded in their studies, "The societal pursuit of high self-esteem for everyone may literally end up doing considerable harm."
So when taking on the semester, I suggest watching the level of your selfesteem. Is it too high? Is it too low? Perhaps it is in the middle.
I think we would all agree that it is OK to have a favorable view of ourselves. We just need to allow conflicting views to flow in and out as well.
Moss is a Carmel, Ind., sophomore in journalism.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Democratic Republic
A comment on the Matthew Dunavan commentary (Kansan, Feb. 17). America is a democratic republic, not a democracy. There is a difference. A democracy is a form of government to which the supreme power is vested in and exercised directly by the people or by their representatives elected under a free electoral system. A democratic republic is a state in which the supreme power is with the citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen by them. It takes away from a valid argument when it is clear the author is clueless and was not paying attention in civics class, despite the teacher's best effort to instill in the author useful knowledge.
James Glackin, Lawrence 2000 graduate
Balance weighted opinions
My biggest complaint about The University Daily Kansan is that there is rarely balance in the opinion section. Most of the time there is only one article about a topic, and it is almost always to the left. All I want is both sides of an issue. You want to publish an anti-war article, fine, but there should also be a pro-war article.
Every time the paper only prints the left side, it puts the Kansan that much closer to bias. The times that the Kansan does print both sides builds its credibility.
Russell Warren, Lawrence senior
Cheers to coach Washington
I am writing to thank Ryan Greene for his recent column "Washington deserves more respect for career's work" (Kansan, Feb. 11). He indicated that in his three years at the University of Kansas, he had not paid much attention to coach Washington and her teams. Now he has found a woman who should be respected. Thank you, Ryan. I hope your fellow students will give coach Washington and her basketball players similar attention.
I have known coach Washington and her teams since 1979 when I arrived as an assistant professor on this campus. The conditions for women athletes were so bad that I immediately collected money for Lynette Woodard's graduation present and for many women seniors after her. Women did not receive senior rings, had low attendance and no academic help. Coach Washington was first in line to change all that. If for no other reason than her achievements in ensuring women's equity, at least as it is today, she has earned more respect than any other coach on campus. Wake up, student body! Come to see what real class is, before it is too late. Your next chance will be 1:05 p.m. Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse.
Renate R. Mai-Dalton, associate professor of business and director of the Multicultural Scholars Program
.