Opinion
United States First Amendment
United States First Amendment Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009
Compton: Public option resembles socialism
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Thank you Trojan Ecstasy.
--when coughing (though not with bare hands) and avoid touching their mouth and rose.
You know your homework is really boring when you have to call Free for All and leave a totally pointless message.
First swine flu, and now a flood. Are we being punished?
My girlfriend was just eaten by her snuggie.
I would like to say that not only does KU Info know about Free for All, KU Info loves Free for All, but when you call to ask for the number, enunciate.
To the dick in the Toyota Matrix who cut me off — I hope you die in a fire.
Everyone needs to check out usdebtclock.org if they care about our country at all.
--when coughing (though not with bare hands) and avoid touching their mouth and rose.
I hate it when people put their daily schedules as their status. Nobody cares about your schedule unless I'm stalking you!
--when coughing (though not with bare hands) and avoid touching their mouth and rose.
Emma "Hermione Granger"
Watson and I have a thing
together. That thing is a
restraining order.
--when coughing (though not with bare hands) and avoid touching their mouth and rose.
--when coughing (though not with bare hands) and avoid touching their mouth and rose.
I put $2.47 in my gas tank today, it was all I had.
More often than not you see a pretty girl with a less attractive guy. How often do you see an attractive guy with a less attractive girl? Way to be shallow guys!
--when coughing (though not with bare hands) and avoid touching their mouth and rose.
PAGE 5A
The trek from 14th and Tennessee to campus is the most excruciating three blocks of walking I have ever experienced. Hill yes!
--when coughing (though not with bare hands) and avoid touching their mouth and rose.
I found a dollar. I found a dollar. I found a dollar. Hey, hev. hev. hev!
Hey there little porch monkey. Its okay, I am bringing it back.
--when coughing (though not with bare hands) and avoid touching their mouth and rose.
Why is it that every time I get on the bus I look up at the top like lights and music are supposed to go off, and the bus driver is going to ask me questions for money just like in Cash Cab?
--when coughing (though not with bare hands) and avoid touching their mouth and rose.
Oh man, I am so hungry I could eat the dog.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Remain diligent to stop swine flu from spreading
As of 5 p.m.yesterday, administrators at the University reported 243 cases of suspected H1N1 flu among students. That number is up from 191 cases on Wednesday. Every student needs to do their part to help stem the further spread of the swine flu. It doesn't require much of the individual, but slowing down the spread of a virus requires constant vigilance on part of the entire community.
Any student who develops symptoms, particularly fever, should immediately stop going to classes until they have been tested for swine flu. Other symptoms to look for include coughing or a runny or stuffy nose. Especially common with the H1N1 strain are body aches and a fever of 100 degrees or more. Students should not go to the Watkins Health Center if they have symptoms. Instead, they should call the nurse's hotline at 785-864-9583.
Student Health Services recommends that students wash hands frequently with soap and water or an alcohol-based sanitizer cover their mouth
Students in the residence halls, where many of the cases have been reported, have already been advised to take these steps.
"I'm using a lot more hand sanitizer and vitamins," said Kristin Franzen, Overland Park freshman who is living in the residence halls for the first time.
The absolute best thing students can do is get the H1N1 vaccine, once it becomes available in October. "Definitely, definitely get the vaccine," said Mai Hester, marketing coordinator at Student Health Services. "The vaccine is the single best thing students can do to prevent the spread or contraction of swine flu."
Those students who live in close proximity to other students, such as a residence hall or apartment, need to take extra precautions to stay hygienic. Hester said students should clean frequently used surfaces such as doorknobs, kitchen counters and bathroom sinks.
Tyler Waugh/KANSAN
"Incoming freshmen who are learning to fix their meals on their own, not living under their parents roof, not even sleeping in their own bed, are under a
KANSAN'S
OPINION
Students in high stress situations also need to take these precautions seriously.
lot of stress," said Quinlan. She also warned that new college students who stay out late more often and begin experimenting with drugs and alcohol make it harder for the body's immune system to fight off the flu.
"Stressors always make the body more at risk for acquiring a disease," said Patty Quinlan, supervisor of nursing at Student Health Services.
Other students who should take special care to keep themselves from contracting the flu are smokers and those with a chronic disease such as diabetes or asthma. They
have a higher risk of complications with the flu.
The H1N1 virus is still rarely lethal, especially to young and healthy college students, so there is no need to start a panic. Just because you coughed last week does not mean you need to make an emergency trip to the hospital. However, making sure more students don't have to miss class, work or their family and friends is absolutely worth the effort to prevent further spread of the swine flu.
DO YOU THINK
YOU HAVE THE
SWINE FLU?
Clayton Ashley for the Kansan Editorial Board
CALL (785) 864-9583
EDITORIAL CARTOON
Man, I wish I was done with school I don't need to know this stuff, anyway.
I wish I was still in college. Think of all the things I never learned...
JAMES FARMER
FOOD
Vegetarians and vegans deserve more meal options on campus
Everyone's heard of the freshman 15. Juggling work, school and health can be difficult, even for returning students.
To its credit, the University has attempted to make the transition to school meals less hazardous. They're participating in the Better Bites program — although I wouldn't call a single entree with "under 600 calories" healthy, but at least they're trying — and have been trying to incorporate more organic and sustainable options into their menus.
When I returned to school last week, I took a moment to take stock of what campus dining services offer vegetarians similar to myself.
There are even sections on the University Web site to help people find organic items on campus, learn nutrition basics and follow the University's sustainability efforts.
I became a vegetarian last semester, but I wasn't on campus at the right times for meals to be an issue.
Brella's Sandwich Crafters has 10 specially meat sandwiches and
Information on food allergens and religious diet restrictions is also offered, but no such guides are available for vegetarians and vegans — commonly referred to as veg — and if they were, theyd be pretty slim.
wraps, one vegetarian wrap and no vegan options. Students can custom make their own, but the standard menu makes it obvious where the preference lies.
The largest percentage of the veg options are calorie-laden muffins and sweets. I understand that the blame lies partly with the restaurant chains that are contracted, but University employees have managed to put together well-stocked independent options such as the salad bars.
It's not a stretch to imagine a University-run hot-bar with multiple vegetarian-friendly options.
Admittedly, vegetarians and vegans make up a smaller percentage of the student-body, but minority status should not equal lesser treatment. Although food industry is a business, vegetarian food does not cater to vegetarians only.
The same is true for most other menus offered, from pizza to sushi.
Many meat-eaters have the occasional veg meal, so providing more veg options would not necessarily mean a smaller consumer base.
The Casbah Market and Nice Cafe on Massachusetts Street offer several organic vegan items and have been around for years. Although a bit farther away, India Paradise in Overland Park does very well for itself by offering not only an extensive array of vegan options, but a full meat menu as well.
The Kansas City area even has a vegetarian and vegan group that hosts potpucks and visits vegetarian-friendly restaurants. It currently has 562 members. That's a pretty big consumer base being ignored, and it has only been increasing with the popularity of books such as "Skinny Bitch" and the wider dissemination of health news to the public.
Some people go vegetarian or vegan for moral or religious reasons, others just don't like the taste of meat or the idea of eating another living creature. Some, including a friend of mine, have been prescribed a vegan diet for health reasons. Whatever the reasons, vegetarianism and veganism are legitimate and growing lifestyles.
I'm not arguing that the omnivores should be ignored, but vegetarian and vegan students should have equal consideration in the University's menu plans.
Lytton is a Kodiak, Ark. senior in creative writing.
HUMOR
A story of love in the time of Facebook
The following parable is a story about requited love. People don't write many of these. Unrequited love pays much better, as long as the love is requited at some point. This seems dishonest. Wouldn't that be more of a delayed requirement love story?
A boy and a girl met and fell in love at a party one night when one of the boy's friends vomited near the girl. Let's call the boy John and the girl Julie. John's friend's name isn't important, just his vomit. We'll call the vomit "Handel."
John's interjection did not stop the Harold from coming, but it did have an effect on Julie. Revulsion left her face, and it became moony. She had been longing for a young man capable of this kind of chivalry for years.
John and Julie introduced themselves as they moved to a spot away from the Harold. They told each other hilarious public Harolding stories about their friends and, once they were more comfortable with each other, told their own embarrassing Harold stories.
When John's friend started Haroldling all over the carpet next to Julie, she squealed and grimaced. John is an unusually perceptive young man and noticed Julie's disgust as his friend heaved up streams of Harold.
John said to his friend, "Dude,
not cool."
John and Julie made out that night, once they had run out of Harold stories. John didn't even try to get to second base — that's how Julie knew he liked her. John knew he liked Julie because he was able to kiss her without being grossed out by the lone, pinkish chunk of his friend's Harold stuck to Julie's shoe that she was unaware of, but which he couldn't stop thinking about.
After what seemed to be a socially appropriate amount
of time (11 days), but felt like an agonizing eternity for John and Julie, the couple made their love digitally official. They did this by changing their romantic affiliations to "In a Relationship" on Facebook.
Soon, John and Julie's friends were constantly being confronted with pictures of the two making out in various settings. In all of these photos, only one of Julie's arms was engaged in the kissing embrace, while the other extended into the foreground, her hand out of frame. This led everybody to the conclusion that she was the
Their friends also had to try making sense of cryptic life-status updates. "John wishes this morning could have lasted for forever" "lilie is just ... floating." Everybody wanted to Harold when they saw these.
After what seemed like a lifetime of nauseating self-promoted romance — which actually only lasted three weeks — John and Julie went from "In A Relationship" to "It's Complicated". It seems they each made out with someone else at a party. This happened at separate parties, but, as if directed by fate, they both cheated on the other.
The moral of this story: The application of a well timed "Dude, not cool" has more power than we can fully comprehend. Perhaps it could have saved John and Julie if their friends had spoken up.
Unglesbee is an Overland Park senior in creative writing and economics.
FROM CALIFORNIA
STEVE CARRILLO
San Diego State U.
The Daily Aztec
Confronting our ignorance
People fear the words "I don't know." We fear uttering these words when asked for answers. Instead of admitting the unthinkable we curve and dance around logic to make sure we still look smart with whatever answer we end up formulating. We elect people to run our nations who are experts at this artistically-friendly form of truth bending.
Science and technology are partly to blame for our relentless know-it-all mentalities. We run this planet, how could we not know something? But science is also what encourages us to be skeptical of what human culture constructs, which is exactly what I'm saying we need to do more of.
An increasingly required act for students is to be skeptical. Don't get frustrated and believe what is easy to believe. Slippery slopes are easy to coast on — the only problem is that they only spiral down and it's a long way back to the top.
If we let ourselves fall into these tightly departmentalized ideals of
how everyone should be categorized, or how information should be interpreted, or how people should go about being tolerant of each other then truth is going to fly right on past us, and we will never have noticed. Who knows, maybe instead of tolerating each other we could actually like each other someday.
I am not going to specifically say everything I think people are ignorant of because we all have our different degradations. We all have the answers we cling to because a reasonable answer is unknown. We make nicely packaged answers instead. We each have our own misconceptions either instilled in us from our upbringing or from a conclusion we came to on our own that lies challengingly in our heads, logicless. They just sit there drenched in fallacy.
No longer should we march to our desks, jobs or graves apathetically. If something has ever seemed just not quite right or settling, then maybe it's time to interrogate it and dig your knife into the problem. See ignorance for what it really is.
UWire
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