OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5A
FRIDAY OCTOBER 24, 2008
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2008
FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Finally,homecoming is more inclusive now
In high school,homecoming is about class competitions, theme days and selecting a king and queen who are the top choices of the students. Everyone is involved.
be nearly impossible to make everyone feel involved.
Every year, the Homecoming Steering Committee faces this task. According to vice president David Wilcox, its goal is to make the average student notice Homecoming Week.
At the University, not so much. There's chalk on sidewalks, a parade on Saturday, a sense that only greeks participate in the events and nothing that engages
Of course, college isn't high school. About 30,000 students attend the University. It would
the entire student body. The week just doesn't feel special.
And although that goal may not be achieved for everyone, this year, the committee has done a better job of reaching out to students and coming up with new events to involve them.
These events included the Jayhawk Renaissance Festival on Wednesday and the Homecoming BBQ, which was scheduled for Thursday. Everyone who attended the Renaissance Festival got a
prize, and the BBQ was supposed to feature free live music and free food.
OUR
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Any student could've gone. Not just greeks or members of organizations.
The Committee took a more proactive approach in getting the message out about Homecoming Week. It set up a table on Wesco Beach two weeks ago and also
sent detailed e-mails at the beginning of the school year to every student organization reminding them of Homecoming Week.
Unlike past years
St. Lawrence Campus Center competed in events for the first time, and the All Scholarship Hall Council is more involved than in past years.
these e-mails stressed that any organization could participate in some of the competitive events but not all if financial limitations wouldn't allow. The strategy worked.
The Committee's plan wasn't perfect. There's still plenty of apathy toward Homecoming, and there always will be. But more students and different groups are involved. That's a start.
Mark Dent for the editorial board
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
What advice the pundits can glean from 'Seinfeld
Some financial news pundits must not watch "Seinfeld" The pundits have come to the revelation that everything they ever professed about the economy was wrong and that market is behaving in the exact opposite to the way it should be.
Jim Cramer, CNBC's personal Howard Beale, was on "The Colbert Report" and explained that it wasn't predatory lending and an overall lack of regulation it was ... wait for it ... too much regulation!
Yet a number of them have come back from wherever pundits go when they're not pundit-ing, presumably some rip in the fabric of space time, to put their latest spin as to what the cause of the housing crises and subsequent stock market turmoil really was.
This was echoed by an opinion piece in The University Daily Kansan titled "How Over Regulation Has Ruined Wall Street" (Oct. 21). The piece explains that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and the Community Reinvestment Act were really responsible and not corporate greed.
Fannie and Freddie are not without blame, but let's look at the root cause of the crisis: those who did the original lending of the subprime mortgages. Private sector mortgage service companies, like Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc., made 50 percent of these loans. Banks made another 30 percent.
These companies were not subject to any government regulation, including CRA. According to a report by a private legal firm, institutions that were covered by CRA were half as likely to resell these loans to other parties.
Fannie and Freddie generated virtually none of the $1.5 trillion in subprime mortgages. The CRA did not require banks to fail to verify that their clients had a legitimate source of income or not make sure they had made payments in the pas
Maybe then they'll be able to help us get out of the financial crisis. Either that or they will wind up working for the Yankees.
These pundits should remember Jerry's advice, "If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right."
- Adam Meredith is senior from Lenexa.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Alex Doherty, Jenny Hirta, Lauren Keith, Patrick de Rainey, Raye Seagay and Ian Stanford.
LIFE APPLICATIONS: PORTMANTEAU.
TYLER DOEHRING
Why insignificant news trumps the real news
The first issue featured hard-hitting articles like "How area ruler can save the world," a movie review of "Apocalypse Now," some famous quotes and a short poem I wrote about writing. We didn't settle though. OK, we initially did settle out of laziness, but after the fourth issue we decided to start improving the paper.
In fact, we really had no idea what we were doing. We enjoyed reading the satirical newspaper The Onion and figured we could do the same, or something similar at least. The first few issues weren't great by any means.
Although we began with overhauling the design, the focus later became the content. The assumption became that no issue was perfect and because of this we never took ourselves too seriously.
It was in October 2002 that the first issue of the The Graffiti Review came out. A friend of mine and I had decided to start up a monthly paper in response to the badly edited, trite and often pointless articles in the school newspaper. However, this is not to say that our paper was the greatest piece of literature since War and Peace.
But worse than taking up two-thirds of the front page was seeing the tiny box at the bottom of the front page that read, "Dow Jones loses 450 points / The loss is the worst since the Sept. 11 aftermath."
After quickly dismissing the school shooting idea, I decided it was more likely that someone had instead set off a bomb. But then I learned of the tragedy that had struck campus: a bicyclist flying into the back windshield of a car.
bicycle story. There are slow days, but this was not one of them.
The first time came when I saw the nearly 9-by-6-inch picture of a student bleeding on the front page. Because of the gigantic size of the picture, the near two-thirds of the page the story took up and the serious nature of this paper, I thought that someone had gone on another rampage.
The question I asked of both readers and myself was, "What was wrong with the last issue?"
So the audience tuned out, or the ones who tuned in became so angry that next time they wished they'd never started reading.
We tried not to take ourselves too seriously, and if we accomplished anything, we accomplished this. The problem with taking yourself too seriously is that you run the risk of parodying yourself, which is why The Onion and programs like "The Daily Show" even exist. Unfortunately, two stories in this paper in the last month have been the type of stuff such outfits routinely make fun of.
Say it ain't so, Kansan, say it ain't so!
Had the box instead read. "Gorilla steals sandwich from Jimmy Johns." I could understand devoting so much space to the
It wasn't easy seeing this paper stoop to the level of the big news networks.
The problem was that they were above the fold with giant pictures and took up most of the front page. The narrow focus worked against them and became like a journal entry or an in-class essay.
If this had just happened once,
I wouldn't be writing this. And
then came another story that took
up most of the front page with
another massive picture — this
time about snow cones.
I know this is a college paper, so no one is expecting perfection or professional quality from it, but this time around the stories were fine.
Mangiaracina is a Lenexa senior in journalism.
I'm still disturbed that anyone would try all of Tad's Tropical Sno flavors not once, but twice.
In the process they become esoteric and irrelevant to anyone not directly affected.
However, more disturbing is the prospect that something, anything, of more importance happened on that day and was marginalized in favor of this story.
If a tree falls in a forest, we make porn about it?
FEMME FIRE
CAITLINTHORNBRUGH
I try to do my part for the environment. I recycle, try not to drive my car if I can help it and buy local when possible.
However, I was recently introduced to a new way to save the planet: epor porn. A Web site called Fuck for Forest is exactly what it sounds like — people doing dirty deeds to clean up the environment. Now, truly, everything has become about sex.
Before entering the Web site, there is a disclaimer that says, "If you are underage or offended by truth of love," this probably isn't for you.
I clicked and was shown a picture of a naked woman on her knees, her hands clasped in a praying position. The background was, surprise surprise, a forest.
If you can get past the disturbing picture, you see the opportunity to become a member. You donate $15, which all goes to "saving the forests" and get one month of access to videos and photographs.
leering over the woman and the forest. Apparently her naked body was going to stop deforestation.
I'm guessing the 'save the forest' part was the huge chainsaw
I am very proudly not a member, but I'm guessing the photos are more naked women surrounded by leaves and trees.
Members can also view "recycled porn," which is donated by users.
In a world where every second 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography, this seems to be a valid way to earn money for the environment.
Although the intention is good, if a major environmental group won't even accept your donations, this is not the best way to be saving the planet.
But the erotic overpowers the ecological. The World Wildlife Federation in the Netherlands and Norway rejected a donation from FFE
Calling it "eco" porn doesn't
Grist magazine published an article in 2004 that said the founders of the site claimed that the project had raised $50,000 so far. This was, in large part, thanks to the fact the couple had sex on stage at a concert. Am I the only one who thinks sex should stay in the bedroom? Or at least on the hill or in the stacks.
change the fact that it's just porn in front of a forest.
There is porn for everyone. FFF features a link to "veg porn" featuring "titillating tofu eaters"
I have heard the arguments about porn being liberating and about how it's the models' choice to participate.
Whether you like porn or not, naked women is not the best way to save the environment.
This does not change the fact that it's objectifying. Every second $3,075.64 is spent on pornography, so I guess I'm in the minority.
Instead, donate your $15 to an environmental activist group that has kept its integrity.
Thornbrugh is a Lenexa junior in creative writing.
FREE FOR ALL
To contribute to Free for All, call 785-864-0500.
Did you know that if you pour regular Coke on grass nothing happens, but if you pour Diet Coke on grass it kills it?
Why does the sandwich shop in The Underground have plastic wrap over their clock?
Uniform thought is the biggest character ever created on TV
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Every time I see a couple walking and holding hands tightly on a beautiful fall day, I think to myself, "They really need somebody to play red rover with them."
To the insane person screaming at E's; Please go home.
I'm Free For All, and I approve this message.
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I'm all right, I'm just fine,and you're a tool.
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I pissed myself, and an old man is trying to touch me.
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I tell my roommates that I'm straight so they won't be afraid to walk around topless in front of me.
I really fear for the people who can read your article and keep a straight face.
Ever since I started pledging my tobacco use has gone through the roof.
There are so many nice tits on campus. It is so hard to stare at all of them, but damn I am
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I saw my friend almost get hit by a car yesterday, and I laughed. Is it wrong that I don't feel bad about that?
Why is ResNet so stupid?
I think we could all use a little global warming right now. Jeez, I wish Al Gore would have been right about something.
It is raining outside, and it totally sucks for homecoming week. Really? Come on Mother Nature, you suck.
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We have got to do something about Jaywalking. I just saw a woman with two kids cross 23rd Street in the pouring rain when the crosswalk was only a block away.
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I just wanted to say:"No thank you." The first 12 New Testaments were good enough for