4A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
TUESDAY,OCTOBER1,2002
TALKTOUS
Jay Krall
editor
864-4854 or jkrall@kansan.com
Brooke Hesler and Kyle Ramsey
managing editors
864-4854 or bhester@kansan.com and
kramsey@kansan.com
Laurel Burchfield
readers' representative
864-4810 or lburchfield@kansan.com
Maggie Koerth and Amy Potter
opinion editors
864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Eric Kelting
retail sales manager
864-4358 or
advertising@kansan.com
Amber Agee business manager 864-4350 or advertising@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson
general manager and news adviser
864-7667 or mgibson@kansan.com
Matt Fisher
sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or mfisher@kanaan.com
Free for All
Free for All
Call 864-0500
All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansas editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
For more comments, go to www.kansan.com.
If you don't like the parking department, go write them a letter. If you think someone's cute, go tell them. If you don't want the U.S. to go to war, state your protest, but quit calling the Free for All to complain about everything.
--to the guy who made fun of me at the vending machine yesterday, hey, my Dasani can kick the crap out of your Aquafina, ok?
Yeah, I weigh 120 pounds, and the lady at the health fair told me I was fat. Um, how about we quit promoting anorexia?
to the guy who made fun of me at the vending machine yesterday, hey, my Dasani can kick the crap out of your Aquafina, ok?
--something. What's up with that?
something. What's up with that?
So our sorority just announced that we have a date party in a half-hour, so we're all scrambling around to find frickin' dates. This is awesome. Kappa Deltas rule!
I was wondering if somebody could let the girls up on my floor know that walking with a straight back and wearing shirts that actually fit is a whole hell of a lot more flattering than wearing the tight little ones you wear that accentuate your guts.
I'm making executive decisions to skip class and watch the entire Godfather trilogy, so have a nice day everyone else who is still in class.
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something. What's up with that?
My girlfriend got accepted for the women of KU calendar, and I'm not really sure how I should feel about that. Should I be happy for her, or should I be jealous?
Thanks to all the guys at Delta Chi for letting the Zetas take over their house and have the preference ceremony.
something. What's up with that?
We're here on the sixth floor of McCollum, and some guy just went down to this other guy's room and pead on his books. Man, it's out of control. It's insane, there's pee everywhere.
something. What's up with that?
Hello Tim. I fell in love with you the first time I saw you in the stadium. I know that we don't have the same faith in regard to God, but I hope you'll give me a second chance. The night with you was wonderful
something. What's up with that?
What's up with the powdered soap in the bathrooms? It looks like cocaine.
--something. What's up with that?
So the signs on Strong Hall say that it's open Sundays, but it's not. It's actually locked up for security purposes or
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I just wanted to, um, tell my boyfriend that, um, people don't just date for six years. Man, one of these days you're gonna have to ask me to marry you.
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Doesn't anyone in this town have some kegs? Where are the kegs at?
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I'm sitting on Jayhawk Boulevard, and I just saw someone get a ticket for reading a newspaper out the window.
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I'd like to congratulate Sarah Zafar on her article. She seems pretty good at taking the road less travelled and fighting the hard fight because she can kiss her own ass pretty well, and that's not a lot of other people can do.
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There are two guys down the hall from me who have two huge TVs, and they are always playing video games. I go to class, they're playing video games. I come back, and they're still playing video games.
When I go to bed, when I wake up in the morning, they're playing video games.
What is so important and fantastic about Halo?
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(yelling in background)Yes, no, I don't wanna call Free for All! No, I don't wanna call! What am I gonna say man?! I'm not calling Free for All! Dude, it's not gonna happen!
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I live at 18th and Maine, and fleas are totally overtaking my house. It's so incredible, I can't even live there. There's lice all over me, it's so disgusting. Just thought I'd let you know.
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I am absolutely in love with my TA. His name is... actually, I don't know his name. Is that bad?
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I would just like to say weed does not kill you, it only makes you stronger.
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I was at Hy-Vee, and they had Seagram's wine coolers for three dollars for a four pack, which equals 75 cents, which is cheaper than buying a pop on campus. Thought you'd like to know.
This is to the jerk who took my ID at the Granada. The Granasty! Why was I even thinking of going there?
This is for the person who lives in Hashinger Hall that doesn't like musical instruments played. I have one word for ya: earplugs.
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I just read in the Free for All today that a blond and brunette were caught stealing towels. I'd just like to note that we warned everyone about the drunken kleptos, so keep in mind the blond and brunette do steal stuff.
It's Sunday, and there's no Simpsons. Where are my Simpsons? This is my one reason for even wanting to exist on a Sunday evening. Bring back my Simpsons!
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ON THE KANSAN ON-LINE
kansan.com
Go to kansan.com and click on the opinion section to check out the weekly online poll. Click on forums to post to the discussion.
Opinion Forum
Do you have bugs in your apartment? How well has your landlord dealt with the problem?
Opinion Poll Has the University done enough to recruit and retain minority students?
Yes. Numbers are on the rise. KU has done a good job.
No. We still have comparatively few minority students.
I don't know.
Last Week's Poll
Out of 257 votes, 59 percent thought America should not go to war with Iraq, 35 percent thought war was necessary and 7 percent didn't know what should be done.
PERSPECTIVES
Online resource can keep you safe from sexual predators
There are 31 sexual predators on the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's Web site for Lawrence. One of them is my neighbor.
One of them is my neighbor
Visiting with some neighbors one night, I heard in conversation that a certain neighbor was listed as a sexual predator. He likes to expose himself in public.
Shocked. I checked the Web site, www.accesskansas.org/apps/kbi.search. There was my neighbor - a man about my father's age, a man I liked, respected and trusted - name, address, charges and photo.
I ask myself whether I would have moved into this apartment complex if I had checked the Web site before I signed the lease. I think I would have chosen an apartment in the other building.
I park as close to my apartment as I possibly can,not out of laziness,but out of concern for my safety.
I am now more aware of the people around me when I go outside and of the habits that I practice that could make me unsafe.
I close my blinds a little earlier now, before it gets dark.
I used to routinely leave my door unlocked while I took my dog down a flight of stairs to go to the bathroom, or when I ran across the street to check my mail. I don't anymore.
COMMENTARY
Audrey Snyder
opinton@kansan.com
I should have done these things anyway, but the concept of safety has hit closer to home lately.
While my neighbor is listed only for "lewd and lascivious behavior," other offenders are listed for more serious offenses: sexual exploitation of a child, indecent liberties with a child, sexual battery and rape.
Protect yourself. Check out the KBI's Web site.
Search for Lawrence or any other city in Kansas, or by zip code, county or name of the offender. Find your home-town.
town. If you're not from Kansas, check out your home state, many states have listings. Links to state sites are at http://www.sexualoffenders.com/sexoffenders.htm.
If your home state doesn't have a list, petition your state legislature to form a public list.
The Supreme Court has upheld the
constitutionality of these kinds of lists because they protect the public from known sex offenders. It is your right to know whether a sex offender lives near you.
Check the Web site before you sign a lease on a new apartment and figure out whether you really want to live there or you want to request a different building.
No matter who lives near you, lock your doors at all times. Close your blinds a little before dark. Be cautious of your neighbors and practice common sense.
Be aware of your surroundings and of unfamiliar people in your neighborhood. It may seem silly to tell adults these things, but it's too easy to be careless. I know.
Protect the people you love
Protect the people you love Tell your family members and friends about the Web sites for their cities and about any sexual offenders in their neighborhoods.
Tell your neighbors to protect themselves.
This is not about gossiping about your neighbors-this is about safety.
Find out if you live near anyone who has committed a sex offense, who is likely to do it again.
It could save your life
Snyder is a Shawnee senior in political science.
Beware, in these times of modern media, sound bites back
Sound bites are truly American. Only in America could debates take, as their starting point, quotes that are all too often out of context, and downright misleading.
One fan of the sound bite that everyone should know is The Fox News Channel.
Fox swaggers through the cable news channel lineup draped in the American flag capitalizing on the sound bite's massive potential.
sive potential.
As a number of political columnists have recently reported, Brit Hume played on Sept. 24 a clip of Al Gore recently indicating that during the Gulf War he "felt betrayed by the first Bush administration's hasty departure from the battlefield."
This was contrasted against comments he made as a Senator in 1991 when "[t]here was throughout the war a clear consensus that the United States should not include the conquest of Iraq among its objectives."
GUEST COMMENTARY
Interestingly enough, two days later on Hannity and Colmes, another Fox News program, the entire Gore quote was given. The revised version read that Gore "felt betrayed by the first Bush administration's hasty departure from the battlefield, even as Saddam began to renew his persecution of the Kurds in the north and the Shi'ites in the south, groups that we had, after all, encouraged to rise up against Saddam." The more extensive quotation reveals Gore's comments as a criticism of
Greg Holmquist
opinion@hansan.com
the senior Bush's decision to abandon Kurds and Shi'ites, not a criticism of his decision to leave Saddam in power.
Fox's problems seems more like the mistakes of an understaffed and desperate high school newspaper than those of a 24-hour news channel, but then again, who is to blame when sound bites rule the day?
The University Daily Kansan is no exception. It can range from resentment over labeling Sept. 11 'demonstrators' as 'protestors,' to grumblings about misquotations. Either way no one is immune.
The phenomenon unfortunately permeates, to varying degrees, every aspect of the media in America.
A.
Sound bites do make for good entertainment.
Despite their entertainment value, complacency is the wrong response.
For comedy, turn to George W. Bush or former Vice President Dan Quayle. And who can forget clips of former President Clinton asking for a definition of the word "is," or denying having had a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
It is inevitable that in the absence of the complete story someone will fill in the details.
Bias is aggravated by myopia and sound bites have a tendency to focus on the immediate details more than the big picture. They suffer from a predisposition to hyperbole and walk through political minefields with blinders on all sides.
It makes for fascinating politics but at the expense of actual progress.
So next time you hear a sound bite, get your entertainment out of it, but remember to take those short blurbs of speech with a grain of salt.
Holmquist is a Topeka junior in psychology and business.