OPINION
THURSDAY. OCTOBER 9. 2008
7A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Looking around at the walls of a local high school classroom, I didn't pay anymore special attention to the posters of inspirational statements than could be expected, but less than 24 hours later I am recalling one sign in particular: "What would you try, if you knew you would not fail?"
Juicycampus.com grants anonymity to bullies
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The reason, Juicycampus. com. The ideal behind such a Web site is undoubtedly to grant anonymity to bullies. This is fuel for a fire that many a parent of high-schoolers have attempted to start under Congress to remove the legal rights for companies that grant such abilities to people who abuse the system. There is a line that must be drawn.
Freedom of speech is granted with the stipulation that you can be held accountable for the consequences of your own words. This right works because people have to
think about the personal risk of ruining relationships. Slander is still a crime. Freedom of speech does not absolve anyone from guilt of demeaning an innocent person. It exists for political rights, to be free to speak out about government, not to allow stupid people who obviously care too much about other peoples lives to ruin reputations of sorority girls who may or may not be a "whore."
To add to the problem, The Kansan publishes a cover story so that anyone on campus who hadn't yet heard about it will now be visiting the site. Well, personally I won't, and I encourage you to avoid the temptation as well.
I also encourage writing to your senator to hold these sites accountable for their crimes against innocent individuals.
Larissa Maranell is a junior from Eudora
CONTRIBUTED ART
— Nicholas Michael Sambaluka is a doctoral student in history
editorials around the nation
on visa-recapture bill
The result? Every year thousands of potential green cards vanish, like unused cell phone minutes.
Every year Congress authorizes a certain number of permanent-resident visas, or green cards, for immigrants to come in work in the United States or to rejoin their families. And every year bureaucratic delays prevent a certain portion of those visas from being claimed.
A House bill that could recapture an estimated 550,000 lost visas, sponsored by Representative Zoe Lofgen, a California
Teachers, nurses, engineers, researchers and other aspiring immigrants who follow the rules, file their paperwork, pay their fees and wait — and wait — get the chilly message that they are not wanted. Some of them feel great pressure to go illegally around the immigration system, instead of through it, as their wait to rejoin their loved ones becomes intolerable.
Democrat, has been moving slowly through the committee process despite the best efforts of members like Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, to sabotage it with ridiculously restrictive amendments. One would have granted green cards only to people younger than 40 with college degrees. Another would have eliminated an entire category of family visas, for siblings of citizens
It seems unlikely that a visa-recapture bill would make it through this year. But don't blame Congress's focus on the economic mess for that. Recapturing visas is a modest fix that should have been made a long time ago. The country needs to build a smoother path to legal entry and citizenship. The blame for its failure to do that lies squarely with the hard-liners who rage against illegal immigrants, but are strangely uninterested in helping people who "play by the rules" and wait in line."
— The New York Times Oct. 2 editorial
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Malcolm Gibson, general manager and news
FROM THE DRAWING BOARD
LIFE APPLICATIONS: MATH.
So here I am, phone resting next to my computer, vibrate function on. I'm not expecting a text message, nor am I expecting to send one. Even if I had unlimited text messaging, I wouldn't use it. What's the point?
PROBABILITY OF CHANGING THE CHANNEL
COMFORTABILITY
PROXIMITY OF REMOTE
The dumbing down of America: Part I
Writer's Note: What follows is part one of a four part series that deals with the theme of the dumbing down of America. Though the idea for this series came to me in the middle of the night, these articles have been brewing for a long time. It is only now that I have reached the breaking point. The anti-intellectualism and stupid comments have become too much to bear. You can only repeatedly punch a man in the face so many times before he decides to retaliate. This is the beginning of something bigger than just being angry. It's about turning H.L. Mencken's words that "no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public," upside down. It's about throwing it all away and then picking up the scraps of what looks good to form a new and improved America. By "new!" I don't mean that we continue to ignore the past for the sake of the future, but that we learn that simply because something is new does not make it superior.
This article is about standard 12 button keypad text messaging on a
1 x 1 $ \frac{1}{2} $ inch screen. Though I still find P.D.A and touch-screen textmessaging both ridiculous too, they are less ridiculous than the 12 button variety because they are more efficient to type into and typically feature much larger screens.
With cell phone text messaging it's not the will to connect that's bad. In fact, this is the most hopeful aspect of text messaging. However, this innate human desire could be better nourished with quality conversations instead of quick message fixes that only serve to make our relationships poorer.
The 12 button variety is the most absurd version of text messaging because it requires multiple keystrokes to enter most characters. This hassle leads people to bizarre abbreviations, intentional misspellings and shortened messages.
In response to the inefficiency of text messaging, a girl once told me that she had become very fast at it, so because of this she was no longer wasting her time. In other words, she had become faster at wasting her time, which meant she was no longer wasting her time.
Mangiaracina is a Lenexa senior in journalism.
The small screen size makes meaningful communication more difficult. On my phone, the screen is $ 1 \times 1\frac{1}{2} $ inches. This means that if you attempted to read this sentence on my cell phone, you would have to scroll down in order to read it all. Increasing the size of the screen would reduce this problem, but this would make the phone less convenient, which is the whole reason people send text messages on phones in the first place.
Likewise, regardless of how fast you are, because of the immense effort required to send a simple message, people usually don't talk about anything meaningful.
However, this is not to say that there is no place for text messaging on cell phones. There is, but in rare instances.
In emergency situations, text messaging is more efficient and
Unfortunately, in most instances text messaging is just a waste of time. It serves as a means to communicate for the sake of communicating. My former sociology teacher was right when he said that as communication technology advances, people just talk more about less. Nowhere is this more evident than with text messaging—especially when you could use the phone for the reason it was invented—to talk to people.
more useful than calling people to warn them about potential danger. It's also far more efficient to send one text message to thousands of phones than to call each person individually to warn them. A text message would also be more effective than sending out a mass e-mail because its far more likely that people will be carrying a phone than checking their e-mail at a computer, or even on a phone.
For people who are either deaf or hard of hearing, text messaging could also help them. In the movie Babel one of the main characters finds herself isolated from society but is able to connect with her deaf friends via text messaging. This doesn't solve her loneliness, but it does temporarily lessen it.
Breast cancer doesn't affect just women
Men are not only fighting for their mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives, but are fighting this disease themselves. Men get breast cancer too, and not it's not just for men who have "man boobs." In 2008, the National Cancer Institute estimated there were 182,460 new breast cancer cases in women in the United States and 1,990 new
October is breast cancer awareness month, and for most people this means a celebration and remembrance for the women who have fought and who are fighting this disease. However, what is not so easily remembered is that this isn't just a fight for the people with two X chromosomes.
male cases. Though the numbers are staggeringly different, this does not mean we can ignore the fact that this exists.
The average time between first symptom and diagnosis for male breast cancer patients is 19 months, according to breastcancer.org. This is partically because men don't know they can get breast cancer. In 2007 the Journal of Cancer found that men with small tumors or tumors that had not yet spread to the lymph nodes had a shorter survival time than their female counterparts. Men are less likely to survive early cancer, and the early cancer isn't being detected. Not only that, but if men survive breast cancer they are 16 percent more likely do develop a second cancer of a different kind.
can't prevent getting older. Instead maintaining a healthy wait and limiting alcohol consumption keeps estrogen levels nomral in men lowering their risk for breast cancer. So the ultimate display of masculinity for a college student—chugging beers for as long as possible as often as possible can ultimately lead to breast cancer.
The risk factors for male breast cancer include a numerous different things, but the preventative ones should be focused on. Risk increase as age increases, but
Supporting men who have breast cancer doesn't mean we have to take away from the celebration of women. You should still participate in activities such as "Bras Across the Kaw" and the "Save Second Base" campaign going on at Salon Hawk. While doing this though, be aware that even people who don't wear bras can get breast cancer.
Thornbrugh is a Lenexa junior in creative writing.
To contribute to Free for All, visit Kansan.com or call 785-864-0500.
Drinking game during debates: Take a shot each time someone says "fundamental."
Where is "Pockeestahn?"
(Editors note: Middle East.)
"Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran?" I want to hear this song. Do you think we could McCain to sing it for us?
Instead of studying for my ethics midterm, I decided I'd count how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop. I'm at 591.
--way.
Now McCain's hero is Roosevelt? Last debate he said it was Reagan!
--way.
Should I really take my friend's advice and be more slutty? Are guys really so into slutty girls that I have to change myself in order to get someone to notice me?
Do not become a slut, don't change who you are for other people, if you remain true then they'll come to you.
Skinny jeans on skinny guys are cute. Skinny jeans on chubby boys are not cute. You have made yourselves into male muffin-tops.
--way.
Revenge isn't always so sweet. Gentler approaches to problems are better. It's honesty and integrity all the
Kara eats broccoli with toe wax. Claire eats gumballs with jelly. Victoria eats pudding with dustbunnies.
--in the family
McCain makes being sleepy an easy process... he should stop debating
--in the family
I can't wait to get high tonight.
I called my mom and told her I was posted in FFA for running into my bunk bed and she said she did the exact same thing last night except with the bedroom door. Runs in the family.
--in the family
You were the sweetest, kind,
most caring boyfriend I ever
had. I just couldn't get over
how bad in bed you were.
--you..
It makes me laugh that all the liberals here attack Republicans and think they somehow have an impact in a state that votes Red.
--you..
I have Boardwalk in McDonalds' Monopoly. If someone has Park Ave., I'm willing to split the million with
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