Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONTEMAYOR: ADDICTION OR AFFLICTION, CHILI PEPPERS KEEP THINGS HOT COMING WEDNESDAY
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TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2009
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Is it bad that physics makes me want to jump out of a window — but calculate my final velocity right before I hit the ground?
Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege
Why can't you put the toilet paper roll on the right way??
Every time I have to tell someone I'm a math major, my hearts sinks just a little bit
At the Kansas Turnpike I just got a survey. Is it safe to fill out a survey while driving?
I don't have any pants left to the terrible dorm dryers shrinking them all like crazy.
--style with hardcore and overly aggressive instrumentals.
"Mortal Kombat" in the morning is a great way to start a Monday!
--style with hardcore and overly aggressive instrumentals.
Why don't I have a British accent? Everything in life would be perfect if I had a British accent.
--style with hardcore and overly aggressive instrumentals.
My roommate must be the dumbest girl on the face of the planet. How did she get into college?
Weeds? Like dandelions? I don't think I want to celebrate garden nuisances.
--style with hardcore and overly aggressive instrumentals.
--style with hardcore and overly aggressive instrumentals.
If Obama doesn't pick KU in March Madness 2010, I will single-handedly impeach
I wish I could just sit and eat ice cream all day.
--style with hardcore and overly aggressive instrumentals.
I love spending the night at the library. It's like a big sleepover with computers.
It's cute that you think you're actually going to graduate. P.S. I said I couldn't take your pastel shorts seriously, not your shirts.
--style with hardcore and overly aggressive instrumentals.
Take a deep breath and chill out. Amazing things will happen
--style with hardcore and overly aggressive instrumentals.
So I find it slightly ironic that pot lovers were up before dawn to chalk the sidewalks on campus
--style with hardcore and overly aggressive instrumentals.
Dear stomach: Why do you hate me?
I got broken up with this weekend, and we weren't even together.
--style with hardcore and overly aggressive instrumentals.
--style with hardcore and overly aggressive instrumentals.
I just lost the game.
MUSIC
BEN COLDHAM
Lil Wayne takes wrong turn with new excursion into rock
As you may or may not have heard, the prodigious rapper known as Lil Wayne has recently started to change his tune. His latest album, "Rebirth," which is due for release June 9, is officially being categorized and marketed as a rock album. That's right, a rock album. "Weezy," as fans affectionately call him, has already released the album's first single, "Prom Queen."
Before I begin my critique of Weezy's latest choice in artistic direction, I would like to avoid any possible confusion: I am not a hater. I am indeed a fan of Lil Wayne and have been for years. The man has been ghostwriting for veteran rappers on platinum singles since he was 15, and he has certainly paid his dues.
Lil Wayne's style of rhyme and sheer presence on the scene has been irrefutably one of the most influential in the hip-hop world throughout the past decade, and there is no doubt that he has played an integral role in the development of the hip-hop identity as it stands today. I have a great deal of respect for Lil Wayne both as a lyricist and as an icon.
That said, this is also precisely why I have a problem with the upcoming release of "Rebirth" — the man appears to be jeopardizing his place in hip-hop history as one of the best ever, and right in the middle of his prime. My concern lies with his adventurous attempt to infuse his own unmistakable lyrical
I have only been able to listen to three tracks from Birthir so far, and it just doesn't seem to fit. In fact, I am brave enough to say it is just plain terrible.
Granted, I have heard only three songs, and one would hope it might get better as the album progresses, but these are among the marquee tracks being promoted on the album. They include the aforementioned single "Prom Queen," as well as "Amazing Love" and "Ay Man," which features the popular producer Pharrell Williams.
All these tracks noticeably attempt to break down the barriers between the worlds of hip-hop and rock through their instrumental and lyrical structure, but it feels forced and unnatural. Weezy flat and uninspired over the heavy metal riffs, and when he sings it is undeniably just awful.
Lil Wayne is a rock star — there is no denying this. And I know that as an innovative and highly influential artist, Weezy has the right to pursue the creative materialization of any of his interpretations of a genre or hybrid of genres he so pleases. My argument is that he appears to
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be making the album for all the wrong reasons, as if he's doing it just to prove he can, and it shows in the music.
It seems Lil Wayne has fallen so far into the sex, drugs and rock'n' roll lifestyle that he has deemed it necessary to use much more aggressive and unconventional vehicle for his general and perennial message of "I'm so ill."
But although using rock as his new medium has given Weezy an opportunity to display his creativity, he is also running the risk of losing many of his devoted fans.
My hope, for the sake of Lil Wayne's career and hip-hop's well-being, is that "Rebirth" is only a sidebar in Weezy's creative life and that he will soon be back behind the mic delivering masterful verses over a hard-hitting, repetitive loop once again. Peace.
Coldham is a Chicago senior in journalism and English.
GUEST COLUMN
Go green to spend green Sustainability efforts cruising toward consumerism; environmentalists should rethink course of movement
BY LAUREN KEITH
I attended the Potter Lake Unplugged Sustainability Festival on Sunday, and I'm greatly appreciative of the students and organizations that made this event a huge success, including many of my close friends, fellow students and organizations I've been involved with in the past.
It seems impossible for students to think about what our lives will be like tomorrow or a month from now, let alone 50 or 75 years from now. Maybe it's this inability to see beyond breakfast that is preventing the student environmental movement from moving forward.
Everywhere we look, including at Sunday's Sustainability Festival, we see canvas bags, recycling and compact fluorescent light bulbs touted as the way to solve the climate crisis. We see the top 10 ways to go green and clichéd phrases about "going green to save green" in light of the economy. And, unfortunately, at the Sustainability Festival, we also saw disposable cups, bags and printed papers being handed out as well.
It's time that we start thinking differently about sustainability. Environmentalists have attempted
But I don't know whether this festival exemplified the changes that must be made for students and the University to be truly sustainable.
to go mainstream by tapping into the growing consumer movement.
If this is what the environmental movement has become, I can't call myself an environmentalist anymore. I'm tired of talking about light bulbs. I'm tired of giving people green tips so they can save green. I realize this is where many people enter the environmental conversation, but the concept of sustainability encompasses so much more than simply buying
new stuff. Sustainability requires a gearshift inside each of us to change the way we live and the way we think about our environment.
The climate crisis is a challenge humanity can hardly fathom, so we must rethink every aspect of what we're doing.
Earth Day is Wednesday, so I challenge you to take time to think about how we can live sustainably when the time comes that all of us already have canvas bags and energy-saving computers.
The Sustainability Festival, my fellow environmentally aware students and the numerous environmental organizations on campus are on the right track, but we must keep the conversation moving forward instead of stuck in our business-as-usual rut of consumption.
Keith is a Wichita junior in journalism and environmental studies.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
A single glass kills more easily than Camels do
A recent editorial, "Statewide smoking ban would benefit Kansans," encouraged the legislature to pass a statewide ban on smoking in public places. The government's attempts to tackle the public health degradation caused by tobacco use is noble, but its implementation has become authoritarian, hypocritical, and elitist.
The continued tax increases on cigarette smokers is reverse class warfare. It is a relentless attack on the poor: More than half of all American smokers make less than $36,000 a year. It is a regressive tax that takes heavily from the poor to fund health care while removing the tax responsibility from high-income individuals, as only 12 percent of individuals with an income of more than $90,000 are smokers (according to a U.S. News and World Report survey).
Anti-smoking measures also unfairly discriminate between smokers and alcohol users. For example, the state of Texas has a relatively high cigarette tax for a Southern state, in contrast to a relatively low level of taxation on alcoholic products. The taxation on a pack of Marlboro Reds alone is roughly $3, which, with a pre-tax price of roughly $3.50, is an 85 percent taxation. A six-pack of beer, such as Coors Light, averages about $6 with an .85 tax. That's a 15 percent tax on beer.
The dangers of cigarettes are
@ KANSAN.COM
placed heavily upon the user, not the bystander, whereas alcohol is the opposite. Close to 13,000 were killed in drunk driving accidents last year, and thousands more are maimed in accidents, families are broken by deaths, and a multitude of sexual crimes are aided by the effects of alcohol. No one has his or her family plowed down on the highway because someone smoked too much.
Read The Kansan's April 17 editorial in support of a statewide smoking ban at: http://www.kansan.com/stories/2009/apr/17/editorial_statewide/?opinion
The draconian laws against smokers need to be quelled or at least equally leveled upon the alcohol user, perhaps by methods such as introducing the S12 six-pack, closing bars on weekends to control peak hours and prevent drunk driving, limiting the quantity of liquor that can be purchased at one time, or imposing breathalyzer tests before you can put your car in drive. Once cigarettes are run off the earth, what substance will be run off next? Be careful in what you wish for, it may come true.
Brad Pillsbury is a freshman from Tyler, Texas
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Why I'm against the statewide smoking ban
The economic effects of a statewide smoking ban are obvious. Bars and taverns lose the business of smokers, which, in some cases, is enough to close down the establishment. According to the Department of Labor, the unemployment rate in Kansas for March 2009 was 6.5 percent, the highest in 26 years. Every business in Kansas needs customers more than ever now. A statewide smoking ban would only further handcuff bars and taverns across the state in their fight to stay above water during this recession.
It could be easily argued that when it comes to statewide smoking bans, typical 18- to 22-year-old college students are the ones most affected. Smoking is a habit often picked up during a person's college years. And while Lawrence's smoking ban has already been law for half a decade, I do not think a statewide smoking ban is what the state of Kansas needs right now.
More important than the economic effects are the health effects. The effects that smoking has on a smoker are proven. The effects of secondhand smoke, however, are extremely debatable. According to the Health News Digest, "The results do not support a causal relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco-related mortality, although they do not rule out a small effect. The association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and
On a personal note, I am a social smoker. On average, I smoke probably twice a month, I won't ever be picking up the habit of being a regular smoker. My solution is simple. If a bar owner chooses to accommodate smokers, that's his or her right. If a bar owner chooses to keep his establishment a nonsmoking place, that is equally his or her right.
One last defense against a smoking ban deals with a core American value: freedom. If a bar owner wants to cater to smokers in his or her privately owned establishment, what gives a state government the right to deny that bar owner? Smoking is legal. The government cannot force a bar to sell only American beer. The fact that the government can force bars and taverns to be non-smoking is just as easily out of line.
lung cancer may be considerably weaker than generally believed."
-Michael Spatz is a junior from Ellicott City, Md.
A few months ago, I saw an anti-smoking poster on campus. One of the ways it stated to avoid picking up the habit was to not associate with smokers. This disgusted me. It gave the impression that smokers are less than human and need to be completely isolated from non-smokers. Smoking bans have already hit my home state and my college town. I can only hope for significant resistance in the 29 states, Kansas included for now, that they haven't reached.
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