OPINION
7A
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2008
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Using Plan B would end an embryo's life
I would like to alert you to the verbal acrobatics accomplished by Planned Parenthood when they stated that Plan B was not an abortifacient since it "prevents pregnancy" instead of terminating the pre-born child, the embryo ("Plan B use increases on campus", Nov. 7). Planned Parenthood has redefined pregnancy to be "the moment when the embryo implants in the uterus" instead of the moment of conception. Thus for 10 days, there is a preborn child in the woman, yet she is not pregnant.
Plan B works in three ways!
two of which are preventing ovulation and preventing fertilization. Through the use of hormones, Plan B can also prevent the implantation of the embryo into the uterus, as stated in a recent study in 2007 by Dortors Mikolajczyk and Stanford and stated by the American Medical Association House of Delegates.
Andrew Schaeperkoetter is a senior from St. Louis.
Terminating the life of an innocent human being at any age since conception can never be justified, and as such Plan B cannot either. I hope and pray that everyone will soon appreciate the wonder and greatest blessing that is a child.
RECENT COMMENTS
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Psychologically, the safest, healthiest, and most mature way to put off pregnancy is to respect a woman's body and natural cycles. See www.ccli.org if you are interested. It's called Natural Family Planning.
- excerpted from a comment by jgarrison
The "natural family planning" method as you put it, does not protect against STDs like AIDS and herpes. "Natural Family Planning" is not 99 percent effective. While a woman's natural cycles are predictable, they are not always constant. Contraceptives like condoms can provide protection against dangerous STDs, and prevent unwanted pregnancies.
I'm all for respecting a woman's body — by allowing her to have the choice to have sex when she chooses to.
editorials around the state
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Nothing left to cut from state budget
And when Gov. Kathleen Sebelius asked state agencies recently to cut more deeply than anticipated in the current budget year — 3 percent, rather than the 1 to 2 percent she requested last June — she might have added: "This is not a drill."
The many constituencies and special interests hoping for some special legislative attention and largesse next year might want to start working on Plan B.
The state budget is always the biggest issue for the Kansas Legislature, but the budgetary challenges for the 2009 Legislature loom larger than usual.
But even those cuts, worth an estimated $60 million, will not be enough to bridge the state's revenues and responsibilities
The problem is that the state's economic forecasters emerged from their work last week grimly predicting that Kansas could receive $211.4 million less in tax revenues in the current budget year and face a nearly $137 million budget hole. By June 2010, the shortfall could be as big as $1 billion.
Sebelius doesn't want to
have to cut public schools or social services — 51 and 24 percent, respectively, of the states $6.4 billion general fund budget — but doing no harm to these big-ticket areas will deepen the pain everywhere else.
Tax increases, always a tool of last resort in Topeka, won't be any easier to get through the Legislature next year, given how the foundering national economy is affecting Kansas businesses and families. And unlike at the federal level, budget deficits aren't a constitutional option.
So "everything is on the table, no question about it." Sebelius said.
In any case, the newly elected and re-elected state senators and representatives will be earning their meager pay next year in making the numbers work. State Budget Director Duane Goosen might want to check on whether there's anything left over in his bag of budget tricks from the early part of the decade.
And if indeed Sebelius is tapped for a Cabinet post in the Obama-Biden administration, she will have picked a prime time to get out.
- The Wichita Eagle Nov. 7 editorial
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Why it's time to break up with your Diet Coke
In my psychology class, the professor asked us to make believe for a moment. We didn't get to become sorcerers and sumo-wrestlers like we imagined when we were kids, but instead he asked us to imagine that we had been cheated on. Just one more unwelcome reminder that life was simpler then. I guess
He only cheated once. It was all he needed to decide that he would never cheat again.
Now, the professor said, raise your hand if you prefer to never find out about the cheating.
If you have raised your hand, I advise you to step reading.
Think about it.
I'm not about to expose your snookums, but it may be something you love just as much (or more): Diet Coke.
Back in the days when make-believe involved magic powers, I took nutrition labels at face value. I thought they listed ingredients in case people wanted to make it themselves. I also concluded that because Diet Coke contained 0 percent of my daily value of everything except sodium, drinking it must be the same as drinking salt water.
But a glance down at the recipe — I mean, list of ingredients — would have rejected my theory. It reads: carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate (to protect taste), natural flavors, citric acid and caffeine, ordered from most prevalent to least.
Notice above that it uses more
Aspartame, also called Nutrasweet, is as controversial as Sarah Palin (and as artificially sweet!) Industry-funded studies find aspartame to be safe, but the majority of independent studies link it to side effects of severe depression, fatigue, anxiety and weight gain. Weight gain would be an ironic side effect of Diet Coke, but I'm more worried that I'm drinking a chemical cocktail.
of the "taste protecting" chemical than the natural flavors that make up that taste.
It hurts not just my body, but Mother Earth as well. In America, we throw away enough aluminum in three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet. Of course all those cans of Diet Coke take energy to produce, but it's only part of the energy wasteland that is the soft-drink industry. The manufacturing process uses massive amounts of water.
Coca-Cola's water inefficiency is an issue the company addressed at the end of October when it announced a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund to adopt more sustainable business practices.
It takes about 2.5 liters of water to produce each liter of Coke in the bottling plant alone.
To its credit, Coca-Cola is not a stranger to green initiatives In January, it announced that it would
Cue Debbie-Downer music:
Diet Coke comes at a cost far higher than what you pay at the register.
I can understand both sides of the cheating-spouse dilemma, but Diet Coke never deserved my trust in the first place.
English is an Overland Park junior in journalism and economics.
These are steps in the right direction, but the size of the company almost ensures a mammoth carbon footprint. According to Fortune magazine, Coca-Cola expects its water use to increase in the next few years because of growth in sales. And as for the vending machines, 100,000 down, 9.9 million to go.
replace 100,000 of its vending machines with compressed carbon dioxide beverage coolers, which are 1,000 times more energy efficient than standard systems.
TALK BACK TO THE KANSAN OP DESK
Thoughts about Prop 8 from across the country
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Mesa Press.
San Diego Mesa College
One of the most controversial issues that Californians faced this election season was Proposition 8, a ban on gay marriage.
God's plan for marriage was for a man and a woman to be joined as one and multiply. I understand that not everyone holds the religious views I do, especially because this nation has turned its back on God.
It's not a complicated issue, and it seems like the people who preach fairness and tolerance for gays do just the opposite when they lash out at religious groups for not agreeing with them.
I don't hate homosexuals. I simply believe that their lifestyle isn't a part of God's plan, and I don't think it's fair for gay couples to get the same treatment as heterosexual couples. Proposition 8 will not take away their rights to be gay and practice that in their daily lives, but it will reserve "married" as a title for heterosexual couples only.
would you not also believe premarital sex is a sin? What about getting drunk? Should drunks and people having sex before marriage be barred from holy matrimony?
Daily Mississippian University of Mississippi
When a state defines marriage it grants special treatment to married people. Therefore, how fair is it to disallow other groups the same treatment?
I find it ironic that Christians want to outlaw same-sex marriage because it is a sin, yet divorce among Christians is higher than that among non-Christians.
To distinguish between sins is, to me, a sin in itself. If you do believe homosexuality is a sin.
Badger Herald, University of Wisconsin
I dare these "defenders of marriage" to recall that, not very long ago, a person could be imprisoned for marrying someone of a different race. It seems ridiculous now, doesn't it? Tuesday's legislation, however, is hardly a deviation from the days of Jim Crow.
and maintain the fragile and vital lessons of equality developed in the civil rights movement, to maintain our promise of the equality of all citizens under the law, then Proposition 8 needs to be struck down. Get a grip, California.
If we have any desire to uphold
What do you think about Prop 8? Talk back to the opinion desk by sending a message to opinion @kansan. com. Submissions will be published in a coming issue. Limit responses to 200 words.
To contribute to Free for All, visit Kansan.com or call 785-864-0500.
To the person who stole my license plate: I called the cops. You are going down.
--i just spent last night talking to someone i shouldnt have...
Todd Reesing needs throw the damn ball.
--i just spent last night talking to someone i shouldnt have...
--i just spent last night talking to someone i shouldnt have...
--i just spent last night talking to someone i shouldnt have...
My favorite swear word is goshbedarnit.
I've got a skunk boxing me out of getting in my car that is parked right next to the
--i just spent last night talking to someone i shouldnt have...
--i just spent last night talking to someone i shouldnt have...
Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.
I love clean poops.
--i just spent last night talking to someone i shouldnt have...
I'm in econ right now. Blah he's so boring.
--the rain
Don't threaten me with a good time.
--the rain
It ain't no thing but a chicken wing.
--the rain
--the rain
Did you know that when you defeat the Darklord, you can beat Free for All?
How many sexual favors does it take to get on Free for All?
--the rain
My dark side, my shadow, my lower companion is now in the back room blowing up balloons for kids' parties.
--the rain
--the rain
Is it Friday yet?
It sucks being me right now and forever.
--the rain
To the car that had the bumper sticker saying "UFOs are real, the Air Force doesn't exist," I'm lacing your car and an A-10 is coming to bring
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As the economy gets crappier and crappier, I become happier and happier.
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It seems like every day people get stupider. And yes, I realize the irony of that statement
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I thought I was the only one who watched Tila Tequila.
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Good morning!
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Why are you letting someone determine what kind of shoes you wear when it snows?
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I don't want to be lonely
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