MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2011
PAGE 5
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY GANSAN
opinion
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ESPN must be tripping. How could Kansas be ranked 13 and NC number one? This is beyond wrong.
I would like to personally thank all of the womes that are braving the cold and still wearing leggings. It's much appreciated.
When I say, "I'm drunk. Help me," don't be an asshole. Help me.
I instantly judge anyone waiting for the bus outside Naismith Hall. Walk! You people are the reason the buses run late, trying to cram onto an already full bus.
Win or lose at least I don't live in / Manhattan.
It's pathetic when 30 minutes to kick off the majority of people in the stadium are wearing purple.
When the KU football team's rush yards are equal to the other team's first downs, there is a problem.
I love how KU employs someone to hose downHash. Must be trying to get the #hipstersmellout
Not only is the K-State football team better than us, but so is its marching band.
Turner Gill, you are the weakest link, goodbye.
Just saw a dead cat on campus. People are taking this week's rivalry a little bit too seriously.
Someone tell Turner to throw in the power towel.
Oh yeah, well everybody likes to play with our balls! The only action your's get is on your own team - basketball
I miss reading all the offensive, unpublished FFA posts on Facebook.
OK just FYI, you aren't my back-up girl. You're more like number four or five.
thatatkwardmoment when our cheerleaders have to keep cheering to a student section full of purple.
To the male runners, if you are going to wear shorts that are shorter than Daisy Dukes, please make sure you do not wear pink polka dot underwear. You make all men want to cry.
Liberal arts students: Don't wish engineers any luck getting jobs when they graduate. Keep the luck for yourselves; you'll need all you can get.
I think my dog may be a horcrux.
That awkward moment when an uninvited guest of your roommate's comes back with a guy and starts hooking up with him on your chair.
I think you need fighter leggings. I can't really see every crease your ass makes.
Each student enrolled in more than five credit hours paid $425.95 this semester for campus fees. These fees pay for services that are often underutilized and unrecognized.
The guy I hooked up with and I have an unspoken agreement to take turns missing class so we don't have to face each other.
The Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center fee pays for services that appeal to many students. The $75.50 fee is essentially students' gym membership for an entire semester. The fee saves more than $100 every semester compared to similar gyms in Kansas.
Although students may feel as if the fees are a waste of money, University of Kansas is set up to provide benefits which students should use.
Students should take advantage of services
While students may feel
Jersey Shore is over. I am now taking suggestions on excuses to get drunk on Thursdays.
EDITORIAL
walking up the hill every day is enough exercise, the United States Surgeon General recommends at least 30 minutes of activity on most, but preferably all, days of the week. Students should make use of their mandatory student fee and exercise with the recreation center's various activities.
The Student Senate uses $15.50 from each student to fund student organizations, services and groups. Specifically, this fee helps fund the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, the Lied Center Series, the Graduate and Professional Association, and arts programs such as the University Dance Company and University Theatre.
Get help building invaluable personal skills by using the leadership center. Your fee also helps fund concerts and University-sponsored events like Donald Glover's comedy sketch. Although you still need to pay a small ticket price for major events at Lied Center, the greatly reduced price is in part due to the Senate fee.
Legal issues can be a problem for students. Powered by a $10 student fee, Campus legal services aren't only for students in legal trouble; attorneys also can give advice on landlord disputes, tax matters and other resources for legal questions.
Student fees also pay for the University's counseling services. The $12 fee gives students a
Other campus fees, such as $75.50 for regular and Saferide transportation and the wireless implementation fee of $5, are items students often take for granted. But it's important to know what fees really go to.
low-cost way to conduct psychiatric evaluations and visits
For students who are having trouble adjusting to college life, issues concentrating or family problems should use counseling services to address these concerns and find the best way to cope with stress.
Use the services you already pay for. There's no reason not to.
Vikaas Shanker for The Kansan Editorial Board
CAMPUS FEES
Student Health Fee - $107.80
CULTURE
Student Recreation and Fitness Center Fee — 75.50
Student Union fees — $58.00
Women's/Nonrevenue Intercollegiate SportsFee -- $40.00
Campus transportation fees – $75.50
Student Senate Activity Fee – $15.50
Legal Services for Students – $10.00
Educational Opportunity Fee – $5.75
Newspaper Readership Fee – $4.45
Child Care Facility Construction Fee – $4.00
Office of Multicultural Affairs Fee – $6.30
Student Media Fee – $2.30
Counseling and Psychological Services – $12.00
Campus Environmental Improvement Fee – $3.85
Wireless Implementation Fee – $5.00
It's time to say goodbye to Harry Potter
I realize this might make me as unpopular as Rita Skeeter from The Daily Prophet, but some things just have to be said: It's time for Pottermatau to run its course.
I don't want to knock the University's No. 1 ranked quidditch team. Quidditch certainly looks like an entertaining and exciting sport, with its physical and sometimes brutal contact combined with cross-country running and coed team members.
What's not to love? It's like rugby for nerds.
Where quidditch loses me is
when the devotion to "realism," for lack of a more accurate word, involves putting a decidedly non-magical broomstick between one's legs. The brooms serve no purpose. They're just for showman- ship and Harry Potter- ness.
But I use quidditch as an example. My real issue is with Pottermania in general. I hate to break it to the millions of adoring boys and girls dreaming of one day taking the Hogwarts Express to school, but the books themselves aren't even that good.
I was 17 years old when the first Potter book came out, making me a decidedly older than the average Potter reader. I had already read scores, if not hundreds, of fantasy fiction books by then. Benefit
from my wisdom.
I read the Harry Potter series. I enjoyed it, especially later books. It's just not great writing. No, it's not as bad as Stephanie Meyers' "Twilight" series, but the characters are one-dimensional and uninspired. The titular hero of the story, Harry, isn't even that likeable. He's a whiny complainer and a reluctant hero that never actually stops being reluctant until the last 20 pages of the series.
The most sympathetic character is Hermione, but how can we like and relate to a character
that is always perfect?
I grew up a huge Lord of the Rings fan, but you won't see me speaking Elvish, even though J.R.R. Tolkien created an entire language. Some people do, though. Those people are weird. The same goes for Star Trek's speakers of Klingon.
So, I implore you: Move on. Potter was a fine series to read as a young adult, but it's time to graduate.
Bennett is a senior in journalism from Bendena.
CARTOON
NOT TO GO ALL "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" BUT WE'RE LEAVING IRAQ BY DEC 31 BECAUSE WE DEEM IT A MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
BY NICK SAMBALUK
©UDK Opinion when they invite your ex to come hangout ... Awkward
R_Twitty
What are some roommate mannerisms you can't stand? Follow us on Twitter @UDK_Opinion. Tweet us your opinions, and we just might publish them.
the gingefactor
the gingerfactor @UDK_Opinion If you own a kegerator...CLEAN IT. Beer is nasty when it molds.
Baldwin023
@UOK. Opinion terrible smelling
feet has to be the worst thing.
Oh and shedding. #gross
@UKK Opinion I can tell you that passive aggressive sticky notes are not the ideal way to address roommate problems
chrysodis
@UDK. Opinion stepping out of the shower before drying off and making puddles of water all over the bathroom!
BrandonWoodard
POLITICS
Lack of experience hurts Herman Cain
Herman Cain, the businessman and motivational speaker currently running second to Mitt Romney in polls for the Republican presidential nomination, prides himself on his lack of political pride.
"I'm not a politician," Cain told CNN host Piers Morgan in an interview last week.
It's tempting to point out that Cain appeals to many of the same voters who four years ago argued that then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-III.) was too politically unseasoned to assume the duties of commander in chief. But to the conservative mind, Cain's case is quite different. He may not even have gotten past a 2004 primary for U.S. Senate in Georgia, but his experience as a businessman gives him the practical problem-solving experience that's needed to revive America's sagging fortunes. What good is a long political track record when the current lot of politicians has performed so miserably?
Of course, it wouldn't exactly be comforting to hear the pilot of a transcontinental flight announce before takeoff that after years of watching poor piloting from his perspective as a passenger, hed decided to take matters into his own hands. Moreover, despite Washington's shameful inability to take action on proposals for job creation, it's unfair to malign the political class as fundamentally incapable of addressing problems.
Cain would reply that he either opposes these policies entirely or disagrees with how they were implemented (as in the case of the bank bailout). But that such landmark pieces of legislation were able to become law in a politically polarized environment suggests that even loathed "career politicians" can get things done.
Say what you will about the policies themselves, but since 2008 alone, Congress has passed a financial rescue package (on a bipartisan vote) to avert another Great Depression, an inadequate but substantial stimulus package, health care reform, financial regulatory reform, the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, and, just this month, three free trade agreements.
But could a businessman do better? Perhaps, but not if he treats governing as no different from principles of private management. Cain and Romney both claim that we need to
run the government more like a business, ignoring that government is not run for a profit. And the level of cutbacks — in personnel and programs — implied in the Cain-Romney view would critically weaken the government's ability to support a thriving economy, upon which American businesses depend.
Cain's supporters arm themselves with talking points to respond to each of these objections, but what they can't credibly contend is that the pitfalls of political greenness haven't already manifested themselves in their candidate's performance. Take Cain's platitudinous defense of his 9-9-9 tax reform proposal. When confronted with specifics, he claimed that lower class families wouldn't pay higher tax rates under the plan. But last week, he suddenly altered the proposal to acknowledge that under the original version, poorer families would indeed have faced higher tax bills. Perhaps a more experienced candidate would not have had his tax policy drawn up by an accountant at a Wells Fargo branch in Ohio.
In the surest sign that Cain will eventually flame out, he told Fox host John Stossel last week that he was opposed to abortion rights under any circumstances. When asked about cases of rape, Cain responded, as any pro-choicer would, that the decision was up to the woman. While his rival Romney may not have any core convictions on the abortion issue, he at least knows how to argue his (current) anti-choice position.
Based on his campaign theatrics so far, I'm sure that Cain's upcoming Fox News show will be entertaining. We'll never know what a Cain White House would look like.
brinker is a senior major from Topeka in history. Follow him on Twitter @LukeBrinker.
Brinker is a senior
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Kelly Stroda, Joel Peterson, Jonathan Shorman, Vikas Shanker, Mandy Matney and Stafian Flemm.
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