MONDAY,FEBRUARY 10,2003
OPINION
4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2003
TALKTOUS
Kristi Henderson
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if you're still following George Bush and
you speak English, you should watch
one hour of Ari Fleischer and "The
Running Man" with Arnold
Schwerzenegger to get a drift of what's
going on.
--third crucial criterion: The student had to "truthfully and forthrightly affirm a scientific answer" to the question. "How do you think the human species originated?"
What I need to do is invent a magnet that's got a special ion in it so that when I run it through my bag of weed, it'll pick up all the seeds so I don't have to sit here and pick through it for an hour.
Me and my friends would like to applaud the efforts of the UDK comic illustrator Brian Godinez, or as we commonly refer to him, the Go-dinger.
B
Michael Jackson: 80 percent whack job,20 percent 10-year-old boy.
Hey Steve Ducey, considering it's 2003 and we have a new moron in office, there any chance we could quit the whole Clinton-Lewinsky business?
third crucial criterion: The student had to "truthfully and forthrightly affirm a scientific answer" to the question. "How do you think the human species originated?"
It's weird, you can't jerk off a week before you go to the sperm bank, and that sucks because I've got nothing to do with my spare time.
This is to the guy who was giving $100 for the logical explanation about his roommate's poop on the inside of the toilet seat. I just want to say that poop is a solttery substance; and if poop is shot at 10-15 miles per hour, there is a high possibility that it could splatter on the inside of the toilet seat.
Not many people know this, but the KU Card Center is the seventh gateway to hell.
Gloria Steinem's going to be here on Monday, and we all know that the Phelps are probably going to be protesting outside the Lied Center. Let's all hope that the Karlsen doesn't give them another front page article.
Enough about graffiti already
This is to the guy I saw walking across the street in front of Bailey who smashed his face into the stop sign. Dude, you made my day.
I was just wondering, how cold does it have to be for your lungs to freeze?
Girls who wear lots of mascara on their eyelashes look like they have tarantula legs coming out of their eyelids.
If something happened to the smart-ass who made that comment about the kids in Hash, the campus IQ average would go up a couple of notches.
Amanda Sears is so hot. *EOE - DIE*
图
BENSON'S VIEW
JOE PORN STAR
This man claims he's slingin summer sausage, but he's barely even holstering a Vienna sausage. What will 25 beautiful women do when they find out this man is leading a 12-inch lie?
Monday at 8 p.m., only on FOX
Wes Benson for The University Daily Kansan
SUBMITTING LETTERS AND GUEST COLUMNS
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PERSPECTIVE
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COMMENTARY
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Rachel Robson opinion@hansan.com
I won't sign my name to something I don't believe. Neither would Gallieo. Neither will Michael Dini, Texas Tech biology professor. So far, I'm the only one who hasn't gotten into trouble for such integrity.
Dini refuses to write letters of recommendation for students he believes unqualified for careers in biology. For this principled policy, Dini has become the target of an Ashcroft Justice Department inquiry.
This investigation is bad for free speech and worse for students who hope to obtain meaningful letters of recommendation from their own professors.
Dini's troubles began when a student in his introductory biology class logged onto the course Web site, Micah Spradling wanted to score a reference letter from Dini to help him get accepted to an undergraduate program in orthotics and prosthetics at another Texas college. But upon viewing Dini's Web site, Spradling despaired that his desire was hopeless. Dini's page outlined three criteria for students seeking his recommendation. First, the student had to have earned an "A" in at least one of Dini's courses. Second, Dini had to know the student fairly well, through meetings during office hours or enrollment in a small class. The
Spradling knew what virtually all scientists — including Dini — affirm is the scientific answer to that question. Human beings, like all other life occupying planet Earth, are the products of billions of years of evolution.
But Spradling's religious views conflicted with that scientific answer. So, unwilling to say something he doesn't believe, Spradling dropped the course a few days into the semester. He never spoke to Dini, thus disqualifying himself from winning a letter on the first two criteria as well as on the third. Nor did he file a complaint with university administrators. Spradling, instead, went straight to the Liberty Legal Institute, which
went straight to the Justice Department.
"This case has nothing to do with evolution," said Hiram Sasser, a member of Spradling's team of Liberty Legal Institute attorneys. Supposedly, it has to do with discrimination. Religious discrimination is illegal, Sasser said, and that's why the justice department is involved. "Nobody should be required to adopt a particular belief," Sasser said.
Dini, recipient of several teaching awards and a former Catholic monk, doesn't require anyone to profess any belief. Creationist students can attend his classes and earn good grades without making any disingenuous statements. Dini is only unwilling to recommend students who reject the central tenet in biology for careers as biologists. That's not discrimination. That's common sense.
"The whole idea of a letter of recommendation is discriminatory," said Steffan Anderson, former Oral Roberts professor and current KU medical student.
That's a good thing. Letters of recommendation allow employers or graduate programs to distinguish among many academically similar students and determine which ones should get the few positions offered. "You don't have a right to a letter." Anderson emphasized.
Although Spradling's lawyers claim to agree with that statement, the investigation of Dini they instigated implies otherwise. No matter how the inquiry is resolved, other professors may fear a similar fate. If they want to avoid legal trouble, cautious teachers might cease giving references entirely, or only write utterly meaningless letters that could never be used against them. Lacking informative nominations, graduate schools would be forced to break ties among promising applicants on the basis of trivial differences in grades and test scores. That would be disastrous.
Dini's case is already a disaster for academic free speech. It could coerce professors into giving false testimonials to avoid irritating litigious and undeserving students.
When Galileo discovered Jupiter's moons, he was denounced as a blasphemer and threatened with torture. Galileo ultimately caved in to authorities and signed a confession he didn't believe. I hope his co-religionist Dr. Dini doesn't follow suit. And I hope I never get into as much trouble as these two have for following my conscience.
Robson is a Baldwin City graduate student in pathology at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
PERSPECTIVE
Falsified reality dating shows don't reflect rockier, less enticing times in relationships
COMMENTARY
It's like Monday night football — for girls. ABC's The Bachelorette, the latest in the wildfire chain of reality television shows, is drawing more attention than any other before it. While early reality shows such as Survivor strived to tear people down to near death, the focus now has turned to making them fall in love.
Ashley Smith opinion@hansan.com
Giving the original series The Bachelor a twist, switching the gender in control of selecting a companion, has proved highly enticing. But as America watches seemingly perfect romances unfold, a compelling pattern has revealed that these fabrications are not as magical as they are portrayed.
In an interview with TV Guide, this season's bachelorette, Trista Rehn, says the original bachelor, Alex Michel, began contacting her as soon as the show stopped filming. He beckonned with Rehn, telling he he had "made a mistake" in picking the other woman, Amanda Marsh. Although he was living with Marsh at the time, he relentlessly courted Rehn, sending her letters and
So before you fall too hard, zoom in.
making repeated phone calls. Because she still had some feelings for him, this led to a secretive long-distance relationship between the two for a short period of time. The moment the correspondence was discovered, Marsh was on the next flight out. Not quite a Cinderella story.
In the series' second go-around, bachelor Aaron Buerge chose Helene Eksterowicz out of the line-up. Buerge even took it a step further than the original series by proposing. However, upon returning to real life, the two found themselves rarely seeing each other. While Eksterowicz returned to her job on the East Coast, Buerge returned to his home in Missouri. According to Eksterowicz's interview with In Touch, an
entertainment magazine, Buerge was too busy "media whoring" in efforts to bank on his newfound fame for the two to have any sort of relationship. As the break-up was recently made official, it was revealed that this was actually Buerge's second engagement to fail.
But there is now a professional in the driver's seat. Not only does Rehn have an advantage in finding true love on the show because of her previous experience on the other side, her larger benefit lies in her gender. Women, according to studies from Scientific American magazine, choose partners for more contemplative reasons than men do, and therefore will have more potential to discover lasting relationships.
Never once did she mention his physical flaw. Rehn has constantly reiterated that she is keeping such meaningful qualities in mind during the process.
For example, many viewers were surprised to see Rehn not eliminate a slightly overweight bachelor until a final round. When questioned on what made him attractive to her, she said, "He makes me laugh. That's one thing I've always wanted in a husband."
Bachelors of the past had a slightly different tactic. Both listed physical attraction as one of the most important features they were seeking in a potential mate. Their priorities were made more clear as they cut women early, citing this as their reason.
Ladies, be prepared, because if you're looking for lifelong love, you may have to be the one to take charge. With the outcome thus far, certainly don't count on ABC to help you out.
Although many would love to see Rehn buck the trend and have her picture-perfect fairy tale played out, the pattern of her predecessors makes it look highly unlikely. Simply, people cannot fall in love in a matter of weeks surrounded by the eyes of millions of viewers. Reality isn't free of work and full of paid luxury vacations. To the disappointment of many faithful fans, the falsified atmosphere of the show simply doesn't allow for the creation of love that can actually survive a not-so-rosy setting — the real world.
Smith is a Tulsa, Okla., freshman in premedicine and psychology.