WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2011
PAGE 5A
opinion
Send your FFA submissions to freeforall@kansan.com
FREE FOR ALL
WTH HAPPENED TO THE FFA FACE
BOOK APP!!!!
Dear Kansas,
Give us the UDK Free For All app back then maybe you'd get more than one submission.
Sincerely,
Disappointed Student
PS: Not really digging the new layout.
Nor the logo.
The classrooms in Strong Hall are hotter than seven hells and three suns.
Dear students,
Please learn how to drive.
Love, townies
P. S. This new method of submitting FFAs sucks.
Don't you hate it when you're waiting in line and the fat guy in front of you pulls your head down to his ass and rips a new one in your face? Yeah, I do too.
A freshman approached me on campus asking if White Owl was Gwyrdier or Huffepole. Howards couldn't handle White Owl swag. `$%# more freshman.`
You only got one free for all Tuesday because the new format sucks. Bring back the old facebook format!
This girl sitting in front of me looks like the girl who gave my first blowjob... nah she would never have a phone that nice
WE ONLY RECIEVED NINE FFA. IF YOU WANT MORE THEN SEND US SOME!
EDITORIAL
Email us your comments at freeforall@kansan.com or call us at (785) 864-0852. And don't worry, your comments will always stay anonymous.
Calendar change brings the Monday blues
Even though the struggles of getting back into the swing of a new semester can be challenging and rather daunting, it has always been a comfort to know that here at Kansas, the week begins at a relaxed pace. The enjoyment of knowing that other certain Kansas universities began their academic school year on a dreadful Monday was heartwarming. However, this fall we have joined our fellow institutions in their custom of starting classes on a Monday.
During the motion for the change, University Senate President John Stratton said that Kansas did a comparison and discovered that they had a
few more class days than other institutions and their goal was to equalize their academic calendar with others regent institutions in the state. In order to keep the balance of 73 days during the Fall and Spring semester, there was talk of getting rid of stop day — the day before finals — but the student representatives on the Calendar Committee rightfully voted against it.
Class commencing on a Thursday has been a longstanding tradition that assists new students on becoming better acclimated to all that Kansas has to offer at a steady rate. But now, instead of gradually getting into the swing of things,
we have been thrown into the cold shower of realization that summer is in fact, over.
Senior Mike Schwaller, of Omaha, Neb., says it's challenging to prepare himself for a full-week of school coming off summer vacation.
"It is just hard to get involved the first week of class because you are not ready for it and extending the first week for three more days means missing three more days of class information because you're not mentally prepared," he said.
We also tend to forget that our professors are also affected by this change. Some professors complain that this new schedule messes with consis-
tenency of a set schedule that was established many semesters prior and others don't feel it has affected the way they approach classes.
While some may say that starting class on a Monday is just plain mean, others probably detest the tease of having two days before the weekend. Either way, it can't be argued that it's always nice to have three days to move-in, take in several Hawk Week events, and soak up all that Jayhawk pride before two simple, syllabus-filled days of class.
Stefanie Penn for The Kansan Editorial Board
WHAT ISSUES SHOULD WE TAKE A STAND ON THIS SEMESTER?
Send your thoughts to vshanker@ kansan.com to let the Editorial Board know.
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
Policy issue slip-ups
Vice President Joe Biden hasn't even hit the trail to stump for the Democratic ticket yet, but the 2012 presidential campaign has already seen its fair share of stumbles, slips and screw-ups.
The media fixated on Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) when she erroneously boasted that she shared a hometown (Waterloo, Iowa) with Western star and conservative icon John Wayne. Actually, it was serial rapist and murderer John Wayne Gacy who was a Waterloo native. Wayne hailed from Winterset, Iowa.
This came on the heels of Bachmann's March speech in Concord, N.H., where she said the Revolutionary War got its start. Flubbing this bit of history – the war actually started in Lexington and Concord, Mass. – is somewhat mystifying, given the tea party's purported reverence for the Founding Fathers, but like the congresswoman's Waterloo blunder, it's unclear what it portends for how a President Bachmann would handle unemployment, climate change, education policy, and international affairs. You know, the things a president actually does.
By Luke Brinker
lbrinker@kansan.com
Of course, these and similar Bachmann gaffes - like her mixing up of Elvis Presley's birth and death dates last week – fit into an existing narrative about the congresswoman. She's seen as an intellectual lightweight, a proud Know-Nothing – a "flake," to borrow Fox News host Chris Wallace's infamous word. But while the media focus on trivial errors may make for Beltway entertainment, it's unclear what it all signifies.
Moreover, Bachmann's stances on substantive issues - her emphatic rejection of the scientific consensus on climate change, her bizarre belief that you can pray the gay away, and the economic illiteracy she displayed during the politically-engineered debt ceiling debacle - raise far more serious questions about her mental acuity than her ability to accurately recall an actor's place of birth.
He's aloof! He's robotic! - while the policy angle to Romney's comment was generally ignored.
Talking heads further descended into fluff in their reaction to former Gov. Mitt Romney's (R-Mass.) statement to protesters at the Iowa State Fair in Ames that "corporations are people, my friend." As with Bachmann, Romney's gaffe supposedly confirmed long-held beliefs about the GOP frontrunner's personality -
The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, for instance, used the incident to make the earth-shattering revelation that Romney is rich and often standoffish. Corporationgate gave her a convenient means of packaging that meme into column form.
Few analysts bothered to examine the political implications underlying Romney's comment. Corporate personhood - a notion at the center of the Supreme Court's ruling in the 2010 Citizens United case - holds that corporations are legally entitled to the same rights as people. How, exactly, do corporations engage in "free speech?" By contributing funds to pliant politicians, of course.
It's a radical idea at odds with the framers' constitutional vision and the views of the vast majority of Americans (including Republicans). But why talk about policy issues with direct bearing on the kind of country we live in when it's so much more fun to dabble in armchair psychology?
—Luke Brinker is a senior from Topeka majoring in history. Follow him on Twitter @LukeBrinker.
KANSAN.COM WEEKLY POLL
What's your favorite Hawk Week event?
Rock Chalk Block Party (formerly Union Fest)
- Night on the Hill: DJ Earworm
- SUA Carnival
Cosmic Bowling
Health and Recreation Fest
Tradition's Night
— Go to Kansan.com to cast your vote
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
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might publish them.
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vicpitch
@UDK Opinion Beyond
ecstatic about the News Around
the World section today!
©UDK Opinion Love the orange on the opinion page. The bright color helped wake me up in the morning!
tclossin
TECHNOLOGY
As you continue to advance yourself intellectually in college, it's likely that either your Facebook posts will become more controversial or you may start commenting on more controversial posts, in part to practice and demonstrate your verbal and analytical skills, perhaps (i.e. you think you're cool).
Counter Facebook haters with knowlegable responses
Because so many of us spend much of our time interacting through these modes of social media, it's important to keep others in mind, their views and their feelings, even outside the classroom and from behind the mask of your keyboard and Facebook identity.
The other day I posted something about gay rights on my wall; I don't remember what it was, and it's not important. Of course, some ignorant member of my overtly conservative family made a comment, some friends got passive-aggressive and critical and another friend didn't know what the eff he was talking about. Sound familiar? Here's how you should handle a similar mess:
Most etiquette or stress management books might tell you to make an attempt to understand your family member's vastly different point-of-view, to put yourself in her shoes
for a minute. Don't. She is grossly uneducated and needs to be put in her place. Tell that bigot to keep her nose off your wall. No one cares if she's at Thanksgiving this year, anyway.
Do not try to see the grain of truth in your critical/passive-aggressive friend's attack on your position regarding whatever issue or humbly agree with him in an attempt to take the "high road". To piss him off, deliberately get off topic and correct some minor mechanical or grammatical error on his post or his word choice. Show everyone how much better you are at basic English than him.
Your stupid friend doesn't need to be appreciated for taking the time to express his thoughts to everyone in a public venue. Do not let his idiocy go unnoticed. Award him no merit.
Let him (and everyone else in the discussion) know that he has seriously misunderstood every point made, how little impact he has had and how he destroyed any opportunity for advancing ideas. Instead of saying, "Good idea!" and politely "liking" his comment to affirm the crap he just wrote, send him a list of relevant literature that he probably
can't understand and say, "Don't come back until you've read every word."
When you respond with insults and attack the person, instead of her logic, it's obvious you've won the argument. Now everyone knows how bright, articulate and mature you are. Everyone on Facebook will want to invite you to parties so that you can share all that goes on in your gigantic brain. Sex partners will flock to you and employers will seek you out. You'll be the Chris Crocker of Lawrence.
Remember: You are always right, and there is never a situation where friends and family are more important than being right in these super important discussions on Facebook.
—Castle is a senior from Stilwell in political science and human sexuality
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Kalty Strode, editor
864-841 or kxtedoubah@ansan.com
Joel Peterson, managing editor
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Jonathan Shorman, managing editor
864-841 or jojshorman@ansan.com
Clayton Ashley, managing editor
864-410-10 or cashew@kanan.com
Manju Matney, opinion editor
864-424 or vikas@kanan.com
Vikaas Shanker, editorial editor
864-424 or vaikas@kanan.com
CONTACT US
Garrett Lent, business manager
864-4358 or grent@kansan.com
Stephanie Green, sales manager
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Malcim Golion general, manager and news adviser
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Kelly Strode,
Joel Petterson, Jonathan Shannon, Vikas Shanker, Mandy Matney and Steven Penn.