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Monday, November 30, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Leftovers
Can you imagine what Thanksgiving would have been like without food?
what we can't fathom may become all too real for the 15 to 18 million people who receive government handouts of cheese, milk and rice each month.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced plans to cut the allocation of these food commodities in half during the coming year. The surplus food has been distributed to the poor since 1981, but plans to cut the allocation have been brewing since 1985 when Congress passed the Food Security Act.
The law was designed to cut excess production and surplus stocks. Under the law, the government is paying 14,000 dairy farmers to stop milk production by slaughtering stock. Also, the government is paying farmers to leave land idle to reduce surplus food production.
There is an obvious dichotomy here. The government pays millions of dollars to pay farmers not to produce food while millions of people go hungry.
Instead of spending the money to stop food production, the government should use the funds to distribute the surplus food to the poor. Besides feeding our people, the government would be enabling farmers to farm their land not only for profit but for a worthy cause.
The wealthiest country in the world can afford to feed its people. The food in question is not actually a surplus when there are hungry people in the country.
Listen up
In an attempt to gain listeners, KJHK-FM may lose listeners and may compromise its unique style.
The alternative radio station may become like the others. That could be a serious loss for students who don't like the others.
KJHK, KU's student radio station, has distinguished itself with its alternative music and radio shows. The radio station has not been influenced by top-forty radio stations, light radio stations or hard rock radio stations.
However, influence from the KJHK board has changed the future of the station. This fall's station staff members developed a new format that is supposed to increase listeners and make the station more professional. The board, which comprises students and faculty, recently approved the new format.
KJHK should be in tune with its listeners and should try to attract new ones. But while trying to gain listeners, the station may lose faithful listeners, who count on KJHK for their music needs.
A radio station could lose its character by joining the mainstream. The station would become one of the masses for the masses.
KJIH should try to accomplish its goals without compromising its style or its music. Otherwise, its identity could be lost.
Follow the leader
Kansans are tightening their belts — from Goodland to Lawrence. And now the leader of the state is following suit
Savvy Mike Hayden recently announced in preparing next year's budget that his office would freeze its funds at present levels. This means that the budget will remain $15,700 less than that of the previous administration.
And Hayden also said he would take a 3.8 percent salary cut.
Hayden's budget request asks for 24 employees; former Gov. John Carlin asked for 28.5 employees.
And Hayden also said he would take a 3.8 percent salary cut. Money gained by the governor's actions is just a tinkle of pennies in the state budget bucket. But it is a welcome gesture and perhaps a sign that Hayden is becoming more realistic in fiscal matters.
in the category of multibillion-dollar fiscal matters, Hayden said that although he still favored his highway plan that failed earlier this year, he would not push for it until the 1989 legislative session, presumably until other priorities are taken care of.
The road-building plan failed during a special session. Hayden said recently that he had talked to only one legislative leader who wanted to doggedly pursue it.
Gestures of budget-tightening and priority-setting indicate leadership by example by Hayden. Admirable.
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board.
News staff
Jennifer Benjamin ... Editor
Jul Warren ... Managing editor
John Benner ... News editor
Beth Copeland ... Editorial editor
Sally Streff ... Campus editor
Brian Kabeline ... Sports editor
Dan Riettlmann ... Photo editor
Bill Skeet ... Graphics editor
Tom Eblen ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Bonnie J. Hardy ... Business manager
Robert Hughes ... Advertising manager
Kelly Scherer ... Retail sales manager
Kurt Messermith ... Campus sales manager
Greg Knipp ... Production manager
David Dornett ... National sales manager
Angela Clark ... Classified manager
Ron Weems ... Director of marketing
Jeanne Hines ... Sales and marketing adviser
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Men say women cause misery
By now, most people know about the furor created by Harry Hyte, the sex researcher who wrote the controversial best-seller saying that most men are unhappy and that women are to blame.
Hyte was in town recently, and we got together to discuss his book, "Men and Love: Boy, Am I a Miserable Guy!"
Here are some excerpts from the interview I conducted with the author:
But what is it that makes men so unhappy about their relationships with women?
"What do critics know? Most of them are wimps, and wimps like being abused. So they're the 2 percent who are satisfied because it makes them happy to be treated like dirt."
Hyte, the thrust of the research in your book is that 98 percent of all adult heterosexual males are unhappy and unfulfilled in their relationships with women. Some critics find that statistic
"There are a lot of reasons. You want to start with me?"
But isn't that part of a relationship?
"Sure. But a guy gets up in the morning, goes to work, puts in a hard day for that paycheck, goes home in rush-hour traffic. He's tired. He just wants to have a drink, eat, maybe relax in front of the TV for a little while, get a good night's sleep. But does she let him do that? No, as soon as he head hits that pillow, he's giving him an elbow in the ribs. That's why so many men fake it."
Yes. What does your research show on that subject?
"Most of the men I interviewed said that the trouble with women is that all they think about is sex. They don't appreciate a man for his other qualities, how good a bowler he is, or that he's a decent guy who always carries jumper cables. It's like one of my subjects said: 'Women — they're only interested in one thing . . .'"
"My research shows that 82 percent of all men fake having an orgasm."
That's an astonishing figure.
"If you think that's astonishing, then let me give you another one. Do you know what the fourth highest cause of sudden death among men is in this society? I'll tell you it is: men suffering from cardiac arrest because they awake half the night trying to make the woman have an orgasm."
I find that hard to believe.
“Happens all the time. Take some average guy, all worn out from trying and trying, and he looks at the clock and says, ‘Holy cow, I’ve got to be up in the chest.’ The victim of female lust.”
You're saying that women drive men to an early grave through sex?
"Are you kidding? Haven't you read any of the stories that show that men die a lot earlier than women."
Women have other lethal methods?
"Sure. You ever watch women eat in a restaurant? What do they order?" A little chicken salad. A little tuna salad. Or just a regular salad, and hold the dressing."
That's a sensible diet.
"Yea. But when they get home, what do they cook for the unsuspecting stuff? Pot roast with gravy. Fried chicken. Pork chops. They shoot 'em up with chlorhexidine. Clog up those arteries. Takes a little longer, but it's as effective as arsenic, and it's legal. Then she tells him: "You're gaining strength. You can take up jogging." So he runs three laps around the block and, wham, another good man gone."
You make it sound like a homicidal plot
Women?
"I can only tell you what my research shows. Such as, 84 percent of men think that women are too crude." Were you?
"Yes, these men say that they are often embarrassed in public places or at social gatherings when women use the F-word. As one man told me: 'Mom never used the F-word.' Then there are the 81 percent of men who say they are the victims of emotional violence."
"The silent deep-freeze treatment. He tries to communicate, to relate, to make emotional contact. But what does she do? She gives him the cold stare. and he doesn't even know why. It might be that he forget it was Sweetest Day, or he had a drink after work and missed his regular train. So for days, it's the deep freeze. And that leads to nervousness, hypertension. His blood pressure goes up, his stomach burns, he hyperventilates. And then, wham..."
Yes, I know. Another good man gone.
You mean the kind of phallic envy Freud talked about?
Jar envy.
"No. I mean jar envy."
"Yes, they resent that men are stronger and can open a stuck jar when they can't. It's not the man's fault — nature just made us that way. But it still makes women mad. That's why so many of them are going to health clubs and pumping iron. It's not because they want better figures. They want to open jars without us."
This is all very interesting. But the critics question the scientific validity of your methodology. They suspect that your data may have been gathered from a narrow base.
"Nonsense. I interviewed legions of men "
"Where else? At my Legion post."
At odds
It's not enough that KU planners keep chimping away at the landscape with new buildings, such as the science library southwest of Wescoe, now they are considering a proposal to expand the Wescoe Cafeteria — of course at the same time renovation of food services goes on at the Kansas Union.
If that proposal is approved, will it include permanently eliminating the parking south of the terrace? Many of us forked over a hefty 70% for blue stickers, which we "earn" after age and years of service at KU total 60, to park there and were subsequently kicked out when construction on the science library started and the access road was closed to private vehicles.
I don't have a Ph.D. in economics or logic, but when the University has students who are unable to enroll in classes because departments can't get sufficient classrooms and when our department has anywhere from three to six junior faculty members per office, each teaching from one to four classes a semester, it seems to me that priority should be given to additional classroom and office space.
I don't understand why there never seems to be a shortage of money for new buildings and parking garages or for expanding existing
buildings when state employees are paid below national average salaries, get below average pay increases and get one promised benefit after another taken away.
By the same token, I don't understand why I read in the paper one day that state revenues greatly exceeded expectations and the next day the governor says Kansas will not receive any portion of the windfall taxes because the state's financial situation is as pitiful as the nation's.
Or why the health insurance premiums state employees must pay beginning Jan. 1 will not go to health care providers but into the state coffer. Why not call this creative assessment the discriminatory income tax that it really is?
Why in the world do our elected officials keep telling us the emperor has new clothes and why in the world do we believe it? Are we really that sure that we can also keep electing these boxes to public office.
Anyway, I can hardly wait until next summer when I will be glowing in the dark because of toxic waste in the dumpsters; shelling out two day's pay not to park near where I work; sweating when the air conditioning in Wesco goes out; panicking with twelve other sweaty bodies when the elevators break down; pondering an investment with my $1/2 percent raise while the rest of the nation's work force can expect only a 4½ percent pay increase; paying more for less health coverage; ageing 150 hours of compensation time for which I won't get paid; trying to accommodate students for continuous enrollment short of using the johns for classrooms; begging for money to hire more teachers; pleading for additional office space; and
listening to the jackhammers, cement mixers, bellowing workmen, hammering, banging and screeching at not one but possibly two construction projects outside my office.
Here's a great idea for the class of '91: Convert the Potter Lake area to landfill. You could, if you start right now, erect a huge privy with waste products of your choice. You can call it pop sculpture — that fits right in with the emperor's-new clothes syndrome. Then you can plant your shovels along the yellow brick roads to the state capitol and fulfill the governor's dream for highway improvement. Ad astra per aspera.
Forward my mail to Menninger's, please.
Barbara M. Paris, administrative officer 1, department
of English
Information requested
There has been escalating racial tension in Malaysia recently. At least 63 people have been arrested, among them opposition party leaders. Major newspapers have been directed to cease publication because the government feels threatened by them.
The Kansan receives news reports about this via the news services it subscribes to, but does not normally publish them. Since there are more Malaysians than any other foreign student group, please do publish them, especially in this grave hour of our country.
Ian Chai, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, senior
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed