NSAN
008
OPINION
5A
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 10,2008
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
JASONROGERS@FLICKR.COM
The list of ingredients is scarier than having flu
No, Katie Oberthaler has no excuse to have the flu (Dec. 8), but you have plenty of excuses not to get a flu shot.
Take a look at what's inside the vaccine. Formaldehyde is used as a preservative and to inactivate the virus. Aluminum, added to create an antibody response, is a neurotoxin that can cause Alzheimer's. Some of this year's vaccines contain thimerosal, which is 49 percent mercury.
These three chemicals, dangerous on their own, together become even stronger in raising the chances you'll have Alzheimer's. Not to mention the various autoimmune reactions that can occur, such as Guillain-Barré Syndrome, which is a paralytic autoimmune disease. I'll take the flu, rather than risking my lifetime in a wheelchair or losing my mind.
The nasal spray she mention in her column lists these side effects: coughing, runny nose, chills, muscle aches, fevers, and headaches. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The Global Advisory on Vaccine Safety reported that the nasal spray vaccine was found to cause Bell's palsy, or the paralysis of the facial nerve. Neither the needle nor the spray are effective ways of preventing the flu.
There are several things you can start doing right now to protect yourself from the flu, including avoiding sugar, getting enough rest, keeping stress to a minimum, exercising and washing your hands. Just by looking at this list, it's no wonder why college students get sick, but they really don't have an excuse. Adjusting your lifestyle can have numerous benefits, aside from preventing illness.
Christopher Voll is a freshman
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Why I decided not to shop at JoeCollege.com
With that, am I supposed to be impressed by all of the name dropping that he supposedly "does not want to be defined by"? Is this supposed to make me relate with him, and therefore feel sorry for him being rightfully sued?
I am writing in regards to the article published Dec. 8 about the Joe College T-shirt lawsuit.
Referring to Lew Perkins as an "asshole" seems completely unacceptable. Larry Sinks says that he feels as if the lawsuit has become personal. Making comments like that shows that he is the one making it personal. The University simply did not want trademarks to be knowingly stolen and have copyright laws broken.
I have personally listened to Perkins speak, and although he has met more influential people than Kid Rock, he does not brag about it and weave a web of celebrity friends.
Perkins has turned the athletic department around since coming to this University, and he has the best intentions not only for athletes but for all of the student body, as well. He is a soft-spoken, warm-hearted man who does not deserve to be called any names for simply standing up for not only the University's rights but for the students, as well.
Does Sinks realize that ESPN refuses to show our student section if the Muck Fizzou shirts are worn?
Better yet, does Sinks care about students getting scholarships that they have worked hard to receive?
Considering he has been quoted saying that he will still distribute shirts that are questionable in the trademarks, it appears he does not. You will not find me in that store stealing money from KU, ever.
Brittany Belford is a junior from Leavenworth.
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How Wal-Mart keeps sucking me back in
WAL★MART TAKING OVER THE WORLD.
Let's play a game. I'll describe a new store, and you try to guess what it is. I like 20 questions better, but it doesn't fit in my column space.
It's not too big, about 15,000 square feet. It specializes in natural and organic foods. In it, you'll find Seventh Generation's green cleaning products. It delivers fresh, ready-to-eat meals. Although it sounds very Lawrence, it's only in Arizona so far.
Any guesses?
But Wal-Mart is.
No, the Merc's not starting a new store in Arizona.
At the end of October, Wal-Mart opened four Marketside stores, which is a new retail concept and subsidiary of Wal-Mart.
It looks as though Marketplace wants nothing to do with Wal-Mart. Well, neither do I. But we share the same problem: Wal-Mart owns us.
The store looks nothing like the gargantuan warehouses that we know and sometimes resent. The logo is cute and friendly, showing a stack of veggies sitting beside the store name.
Unfair business practices, discrimination and killing small businesses are issues that some associate with Wal-Mart. The news-savvy may know stories of employees forced to work off the clock, corporate resistance to surveillance cameras in dangerous parking lots and strategically low wages to allow employees to earn government assistance. And yet, an estimated 90 percent of Americans shop at Wal-Mart at some time during the year.
The brains behind Wal-Mart are so good it scares me. I try to quit Wal-Mart, and an organic grocery store is opened. You may laugh now, but wait until you try to break the dependency. I bet a store opens
I wish I could say it's not me,
but it is.
that caters to your tastes with bargain-bin pricing, too.
In light of this new endeavor, I've decided to confront my addiction to Wal-Mart and ask: How bad is it?
Seventh Generation is a company that makes green cleaning products and prides itself on environmental responsibility. In a blog post, CEO Jeffrey Hollder wrote that his company created an index to rate 10 mass retailers on social and environmental performance. Fifteen categories factored into the rating, including each retailer's average hourly wage, the percentage of employees covered by health insurance, carbon and waste reduction goals and commitment to green building.
"To our great surprise, we found that Wal-Mart scored at or near the top in most categories," Hollender wrote.
But what about the lawsuit for discrimination against women employees? It's the largest workplace-bias lawsuit in history, according to Wal-Mart Watch, an investigation and advocacy group that challenged Wal-Mart in 2005 to increase transparency. And how will it reach zero waste if its new stores will use more energy than its energy-saving measures will save?
Wal-Mart has a massive influence in the world, meaning it is in a powerful position environmentally. I can't help but think if it continues working toward significant change, it could have a greater influence than all the eco-friendly columns in the world.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Affordable organics sound like a siren song to me, but I still have more than 20 questions about Wal-Mart and its new offspring.
It looks good, and yet, it's Wal-Mart. The dark underbelly of the company is as vast as its environmental potential.
English is an Overland Park junior in journalism and economics.
What we didn't learn after September 11
Often, when a foreign entity acts contrary to the wishes of the United States, government officials will declare that entity is a source of instability in the region. This official rhetoric labels them impediments to peace.
In reality, they're more often than not impediments to the supposed U.S.-led global order. If our focus on elements of destabilization around the globe were really about peace, then we would have forces on the ground in the West Bank, confronting the extremist settler movement, which affects the lives of Palestinians and Israelis, and exacerbates the instability of the Middle East and the world.
This past September witnessed the advent of the settler movement turning on the Israeli population. An Israeli professor critical of the settler movement was greeted with a pipe bomb in his home.
It has long been known that Israeli settlers often terrorize the civilian population of Palestine, burning olive groves, vandalizing property, among other things.
out the West Bank town of Hebron. True to form, after having been forced to abide by the law, they tore through the city, terrorizing residents and vandalizing property. What is noticeably absent from the news accounts in the American media is that these events occurred on Palestinian territory.
After the removal of a group of these settlers from the so-called "House of Contention," the following week witnessed the rampaging of settlers and their allies through
Israeli settlement of the West Bank is the greatest impediment to peace, and the refusal to halt construction is the clearest sign of Israel's true intention; the eventual annexation of the entire West Bank.
American universities are embedded with a system of organizations that tacitly support the settlement endeavor. "Birthright" programs explicitly aim to foster a "personal attachment" with the land, hoping such an attachment would lead to immigration, and yet another soldier in the demographic wars of the occupied territories.
The settlers, whose fanatical claim that God has given them the right to steal land at the expense of the livelihood — and lives — of those they have stolen it from him led to a 60-year occupation and an astounding loss of life. This sort of behavior is not tolerated by fanatic Muslim extremists, so why is it OK for extremist Jews?
The settlement movement is a terrorist movement. Because of a conviction that God has given them the land, they are tightening their grip on the land with the support of Israel and the United States.
We shouldn't underestimate people who believe a mandate from God supersedes the lives of innocent people — any American who paid attention on Sept. 11 should be able to tell you that.
Anderson is a Perry junior in creative writing.
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You have a badittude.
I'm slightly disappointed my hot chocolate isn't hot enough to scald my tonque
Why do I have to take classes to graduate that I'm never going to need once I do?
I just put my Pop Tarts in the microwave.
--original.
My roommate and I relieved our end-of-semester stress by pulling our pants up as high as they go, tucking in our shirts and straight jamming to MGMT
I have a dental appointment tomorrow.
--original.
--original.
Looking for comments about
Bonus points for the X-Men reference
It's ironic when people go out and smoke during the fire drills at Oliver.
--original.
I got a big ego.
Boom boom boom.I want you in my room.
--original.
--original.
I thought I saw the cute bus driver, but I thought he might be a figment of my imagination.
I practice my model walk on campus. So if you see someone looking fierce on Wescoe beach, it's probably me.
--original.
Call me crazy,but I love the cold weather.
I have been up working all night on an experiment,
and I have determined that Spongebob macaroni and cheese is better than the original.
It's Easter every day in my frat.
Did you have sex last night?
Because all of the silverware is missing
--please?
OK, Jayplay. Where do you get your cover models? I actually have tattoos and do pin-up modeling. Text me next time
To my suitmate: These past few days when I have been ditching you have been the best days ever. I'm so glad we aren't talking or else I might have had to put up with you
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KANSAN.COM
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