WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAHY KANSAS
PAGE 4
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351 or at kansan.com
Why are crocs so expensive
You know who I want to win the world series? An asteroid.
If like you are like in like pharmacy school like you should like learn to sound like professional!
When Bill Self says "don't expect much from the team at first," he really means "I'm more than excited about the players of this team, but I'm not allowed to tell you that." It's time to hunt for a new banner!
56x.
EDITOR'S NOTE: You've cracked the code for successful FFA submissions.
Haha. Aaron Carter at the Bottle-neck... I'll be there.
Well... I just witnessed 2 squirrels turn the hood of my truck into a furry sexcapade, so that that's.
The Schol Hall Land skunk is back...
Put away your umbrellas, it's barely a mist.
My roommate has mono. I feel like every time I enter my room I enter a germ-filled war zone.
Group: where in the world is rio adams, nicely played
Did you guys ever notice that Phog rhymes with Fog? Yeah, me too.
Me and my roommate are having a standoff to see who can go longest without eating before one of us folds and goes grocery shopping.
Halloween costumes would easily be ten times as slutty if it wasn't all cold in late October.
There's this guy at the gym who moans just a little too much while lifting.
Give me all your candy corn.
POLITICS
Whoever grades my econ tests must have a personal vendetta against me. That, or I'm just really dumb.
Why are seasonal treats so tasty? I just want pumpkin pie and egg nog all year round.
Can someone lend me their younger sibling so I can go trick-or-treating?
Is that creepy?
To everyone speaking audibly in the Watson quiet study area: can you not? Sincerely, headphoneless and trying to read.
Pettition for teachers to schedule no tests/homework on gamedays. And then a petition for every day to be gameday.
State refusal to expand Medicaid hurts Kansans
When the Affordable Care Act's constitutionality was upheld
When the Affordable Care Act's constitutionality was upheld by the Supreme Court in June 2012, supporters of the law rejoiced. What didn't get as much attention as the validation of the individual mandate was what the justices had to say about one of the law's "three legs," the massive expansion of Medicaid. For those who don't know, Medicaid is the government's insurance program for low-income Americans, which is administered through federal-state partnerships. The ACA expanded the program to make more Americans eligible and originally mandated that states accept the expansion, but the court ruled that states could opt out of the expansion.
As a result, more than 20 states have refused to expand Medicaid, including Kansas. It's been estimated that up to 8 million Americans will be left without health insurance coverage because
of the refusal of states to expand Medicaid. Even though the federal government will cover at least 90 percent of the cost, the extremely conservative state legislature refuses to even let the issue come up for a vote, and Governor Sam Brownback has been disturbingly mum on the issue. This abject failure of leadership will leave 150,000 Kansans in the "coverage gap" — those who would be covered by Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act because they don't make enough money to qualify for subsidies.
As one of those 150,000, it's hard to believe that the best interests of Kansas are in the minds of the legislature and governor. Come this winter, I will be 26 years old and my parents' insurance will no longer be required to cover me (I would have lost this coverage two years ago, but Obamacare mandates that insurance companies keep policyholders' children on their parents plan until age 26).
By Eric Schumacher
eschumacher@kansan.com
My yearly tax return from 2013 will not allow me to qualify for getting subsidies to purchase care on the exchanges. It's possible, of course, that I can find another way of purchasing insurance for 2014, like getting a job with strong benefits or enrolling in a graduate program that provides coverage with cost of attendance, but there's no guarantee.
So why have Kansas leaders (I use that term lightly) made the decision to leave over 100,000 working Kansans without the possibility of coverage? The answer, which has been apparent for well over a year, is political
posturing. Conservatives remain hostile to Obamaacare, and while some Republicans have offered their own solutions to the issue, many, including those in Topeka, have chosen to simply undercut and challenge the law at every opportunity, regardless of the impact of their decisions. To the governor and his allies in the legislature, this isn't about pursuing the best policy- it's about keeping up their street cred with the Tea Party and the far right.
Despite the misinformation and outright lies surrounding it, the Affordable Care Act will help millions of Americans attain more economic freedom by lowering costs and raising their quality of life through better health care access. As someone with an ongoing health condition that requires regular doctor visits, I know the importance and long term benefits of carrying insurance, even if it means paying into a health plan that I might not always use. Given
the opportunity, I would buy insurance.
While Gov. Brownback has spoken often and at length about improving the state's economy, it amounts to little more than lip service. By refusing to expand Medicaid like the majority of states, he is not only denying Kansans a shot at economic mobility, but also the security of health coverage and the right to decent health care access. Despite his insistence to the contrary, it is clear that everyday Kansans are not the governor's priority. The Republican legislature flippant dismissal of the Medicaid expansion makes them partners in this colossal absence of responsibility. This failure is the last in a long line of policies that are bad for the future of our state and it's more clear than ever that new leadership is needed.
Eric Schumacher is a senior majoring in political science and English from Topeka.
Oil sands development cuts down on coal use and costs
Oil sands development has reshaped the outlook of fossil fuels. Classified as a type of unconventional oil, oil sands are a naturally occurring mixture of minerals, water and bitumen - viscous oil that requires intensive treatment and refining. Imagine oil sands as thick molasses — nearly solid, but mixed with harsh chemicals and sand. The largest, most efficiently utilized deposits of oil sands occur in Alberta, Canada. Though oil sands extraction is more greenhouse gas intensive, this reason alone should not be a reason to shun the abundant resource.
A strict environmentalist would see oil sands extraction, from surface mining to the use of water to separate out the bitumen, as a step in the wrong direction. That is to say, any step not in the direction of a renewable, greenhouse gas free resource is a step that shouldn't be taken. Such a view isn't representative of every sustainability ally, particularly the realistic ones, but often leading "nonprofit" opinions, including "top rated" charities such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), will take an extreme perspective.
Here's an example: Obama once claimed that he will only move forward with the Keystone XL pipeline一a pipeline that
True, oil sands production hurts the local environment and the global climate change outlook. But to do something about it, individuals, groups and even nations cannot take a single issue voter approach. It's much too narrow-minded. They cannot take an "all oil sands production must be stopped ... all investment dollars should be spent on solar panels" mentality.
transports oil sands production to Gulf Coast refineries — if it does not increase net greenhouse gas emissions. That's an odd criterion: the very existence of humans, breathing in oxygen and out carbon dioxide, increases net greenhouse gas emissions. Why does a single pipeline get so much attention, especially when thousands of miles of oil pipelines (including the first two phases of the original Keystone pipeline) crisscross America? The answer you find may vary, but the bottom line is that Obama has to cater to some of his strongest supporters, and they happen to have single-issue voter mentalities when it comes to the energy future.
Here's another: The Sierra Club recently celebrated the shutting down of a coal plant, the 150th shutdown. For each coal plant that it targets and eventually retires, the Sierra Club celebrates. But upon closer examination, the rapid rise in production of natural gas because of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has been the proximate cause of coal's dismal outlook (See: Natural Gas Switching). It's fair to say that natural gas, significantly cleaner burning than coal, is far more responsible for the decrease in U.S. coal consumption than the Sierra Club. Yet, the Sierra Club takes a strong stance against any hydraulic fracturing. According to the Sierra
Club, hydraulic fracturing is "violent process that contaminates drinking water, pollutes the air, and causes earthquakes." In fact, the Sierra Club boldly claims: "If driller can't extract natural gas without destroying landscapes and endangering the health of families, then we should not drill for natural gas."
That's oddly hypocritical. As they celebrate coal plant retirements, they attack the natural gas revolution — the cause of the enormous decreases in U.S. coal consumption. I'm not going to go into a defense of hydraulic fracturing, but the inability to recognize the positive climate impact that natural gas is having (by reducing coal consumption) while celebrating coal plants shutting down is baffling.
In response, the energy industry must repeatedly defend itself from these "single-issue" attacks, themselves also becoming narrow-minded and single-issue focused. Where are the moderates on these issues? This lack of common ground is hindering the rise of a coalition that can really evaluate the benefits and costs of fossil fuels and pragmatically move toward a cleaner energy future.
I hope to be one of those moderates. Oil sands are a critical part of the global resource basket and, though high in carbon and other dangerous compounds, are demanded by a market of consumers: us. For now, oil sands are here to stay, and making sure they remain valued while exploring other alternatives without taking extreme points of view is a must.
Chris Ouyang is a senior studying petroleum engineering and economics from Overland Park.
SELF HELP
Personal writing can improve mental health
It's perfectly okay to be sad. Everyone gets sad sometimes, right? But is it normal to break down at school and at home? Is it normal to be sad all the time? That was the question I faced, halfway through my eighth grade school year.
It had nothing to do with my friends or family, my teachers or classmates. I just simply wasn't happy. No, it wasn't puberty. And no, it wasn't just the fact that I was a teenager trying to fit in. I had a strong support system, and without my parents I don't know what I would have done. It was no one's fault.
I denied being sad for a reason.
I felt weak. I felt like an outlier. I felt as though no one understood me, and the way I looked at it, I didn't want to make my problem theirs. I didn't want them to be upset, and I didn't want them to get involved. I thought if they got involved, it would make me even weaker.
The one thing I did know was that I loved to write. I wrote all kinds of poetry and I journaled. I wrote to stay sane. It was the one thing that stayed uniform, no matter how much my attitude or behavior didn't.
My English class was where most of this writing took place, and my teacher was just about the only person I trusted to read my writing. Writing was the only thing that calmed me down and helped me understand what I was going through. She allowed us to free write some class days, and those were the days that kept me going.
But as the year went on, my depression worsened. And people took notice. My parents would often sit down and talk to me, ask me how school was, ask me how my friends were. They were concerned and by April they set up an appointment with a
therapist, who I only visited a few times. The visits went by quickly, but it was nice to have someone to talk to.
Fast forward to the second semester of my sophomore year. School had been stressing me out, and my depression was slowly building. I had stopped writing simply because I wasn't making time to. I was holding onto the edge and barely making it through my classes.
So I wrote. And I haven't stopped. I've written more and more consistently, and it became a part of my daily life. I write.
That's just what I do. It keeps me calm and it keeps me focused.
And you should write. It doesn't matter what it is and doesn't matter if it makes no sense. You don't have to do anything with it. After you're done, get rid of it. Delete it. Destroy it. But it will help if your thoughts are out of your head and you're able to see them. If it feels like no one understands, try to understand it better yourself. It will help you explain what you're feeling, even if you're the only one to see it.
I took a class that semester called Writer's Workshop. I could write whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and I didn't even have to share it with the class. It brought back painful middle school memories, but it also brought back the one thing that could help me overcome it.
GJ Melia is a freshman majoring in journalism from Prairie Village.
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