4A
Opinion
Friday, October 08,1999
Editorial
New commission may eliminate equity from University elections
The student body president's charges should be examined carefully before any changes are made to the student elections process
A task force on elections and referendums began a series of meetings last Tuesday, charged with answering questions about campaign spending limits, fines and the validity of referendums. This task force could lay the groundwork for reversing the recent progress made in the University of Kansas elections system. The student body should not allow this to happen.
Student Body President Korb Maxwell may think that it is necessary to address some of the problems he encountered as a candidate. But what appear to him to be problems in the University elections system are not deficiencies. In fact, they are important regulations meant to bring about fairness in the election system and empower the student body.
The primary charge of the task force is to investigate campaign spending limits. In last year's election, the election commission set spending limits at $1,500 per coalition. Maxwell thinks that the commission went beyond its authority in instituting this policy and that the Student Senate should handle these election issues.
Maxwell is wrong about the role the election commission should play. The commission's responsibility is to ensure fair elections, and it meets this duty by setting spending limits.
Limits on campaign spending establish a fairer playing field for any election. It is difficult for one candidate to compete for office when another candidate has dramatically more money to spend. Not many students can pull enough cash out their bank accounts to pay for thousands of filers, buttons and all the extras such as a psychedelic Volkswagen bus. If the election commission changed our political system, then it was a change for the better, an egalitarian change that the student body should support.
The president's task force also is considering the issue of fines. Fines are a good way to enforce campaign regulations and prevent candidates from breaking the same rules year after year. If we do anything, fines should be increased for repeat offenders.
And if changes are made to the current fine appeals process, independence of the appeals process is crucial. An appeals
process that is part of the political system will not work and is unacceptable.
Finally, the president is concerned that, in the future, invalid referendum questions may find their way onto our ballots. He seeks a system by which the Senate can check referendums for their truth and accuracy.
The task force on elections and referendums is concerned about financially illegitimate proposals, but there are existing checks against them. If a referendum were to pass this year for the University to pay every student $100,000 upon graduation, it wouldn't happen. The chancellor has the power to veto any fee-related proposal. However, if the Senate or president is allowed to edit student referendums or deny them a place on the ballot, students will lose their only independent form of
How can the Senate do this without crushing this form of participatory democracy? If they do not reflect the exact will of the students, referendums would be little more than Senate-sponsored bills that we already get. A student's only method to take action on campus would be to convince a senator to sponsor his or her idea.
Brett Watson for the editorial board
Perspective
Mail from Arkansas provides new view of catalog shopping
With all the floods, hurricanes and earthquakes happening lately, it's easy to forget that the apocalypse is upon us. Last weekend however, a stark reminder appeared in my mailbox.
I received a Firequest catalog.
I received a Firequest catalog.
Firequest is a mail order company specializing in all things just barely legal. We're talking booby trap materials, both extremely and non-lethal shot.
gun ammunition, grenade launchers and anything you might need to protect your home from a stealth helicopter-borne U.N. invasion force.
After I paged through the first half of it, I thought I had the evidence I needed to turn my roommate Cameron in to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Lucky for him though, just before I dialed the ATF, I saw that the catalog of doom was addressed to a previous resident. Cameroon avoids prison for another day.
Seth Hoffman
associate
opinion editor
opinion@kansan.com
Firequest offers 22 different types of alternative shotgun ammunition. For example, the Terminator is one of the most deadly types of ammunition you can purchase. Though it is "almost too lethal to advertise," Firequest does so prominently.
I was overwhelmed at the semi-legal merchandise I could order through the mail. One page of the catalog was filled with non-lethal 12-gauge shotgun ammunition, but the next four pages of the catalog were dedicated to extremely lethal 12-gauge shotgun ammunition.
percent lethality rate. If you replace "expands" with explodes and "objective" with FBI agent, you can see why this stuff makes me a little nervous.
"Upon impact, the slug expands to nearly 2 inches," causing a dozen little pellets to "spread through your objective like a cancerous disease." The catalog then claims that the slug has a 95
Other than the Terminator, Firequest also offers ammunition called the Door Duster, Screamer, Chain Mail, Flame Thrower and my personal favorite, the Macho Gaucho. Everything you need to fend off any conspiring government force encroaching onto your compound.
There's more than just ammunition, though. In the paperweights section of the catalog, there is a brass object that looks suspiciously like brass knuckles. "Hold down those unruly stacks of papers with these icons, and your coworkers might think twice before adding to your stack," the catalog says. These "replicas" are "full size" and "look and feel like the real thing." The next item in the catalog—lead-lined gloves, which apparently will not hold down your unruly stack of papers.
For the literary-minded of the separatist set, Firequest offers a full line of doit-yourself anarchy books. Firequest can supply would-be anarchists with a $14.99 book with instructions on how to make your own AR-15 assault rifle. Another book will show you how to modify your new home-built AR-15 into a fully automatic machine gun. As they say at Firequest, "The First and Second Amendments to the United States Constitution allow the dissemination and use of this knowledge." Thank goodness for that.
You may ask yourself, once I built this new weapon, who could I kill with it? That question and more are answered in another book sold by Firequest called *Justifiable Homicide: The*
Intelligent Use of Deadly Force. Now, to be sure, you can't judge a book by its cover, but the cover of this book shows a pistol blowing a hole through a black-masked intruder. Draw your own conclusion.
To be sure, I was fascinated by this catalog, so I called the company's headquarters, which, not surprisingly, is located in Arkansas.
"Hello, Firequest, this is Joseph, how can I help you?"
“Hi, Joseph. I'm considering purchasing a grenade launcher, but I'm not sure which one's right for me,” I said.
"Hmm. That's a big decision," he said. "What sort of gun do you have?"
"I have to own a gun? Maybe I'll get some of those brass knuckle replica paper weights."
"Those are one of our big sellers," Joseph said.
"Joseph, do you really think people use them for paperweights?"
He laughed for a little too long and said, "I don't ask any questions."
"Why does the catalog say they can't be sent to Denver?"
"They're illegal there. Don't ask me why."
"That's the government for you," I said. "They won't even let law-abiding citizens hold papers on their desk in the manner they choose."
"It's a crime, man, so you gonna order some?" Joseph said.
I decided against giving Joseph any of my credit card information and hung up. For Firequest to make any money from me, they'll have to pry my credit card from my cold, dead fingers.
Writer's note: For reasons relating to my fear of home-built weapons, please do not forward this column to any address in Arkansas.
Hoffman is a Lenexa senior in journalism.
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"Everything that can be invented has been invented." —Charles Duell, commissioner of U.S. Patent Office, 1899
Lydia
Taylor
columnist
opinion@kansan.com
Y2K hype gives no reason to stockpile bottled water
1 At least, that's what some people tell me. The world as we know it will spontaneously end at 12 a.m., Jan. 1, 2000. At that moment, all of the computers we have created, formed in the image of our own minds, will turn on us. And, theoretically, eat us.
it's not too long until we as a society are going to get wallpapers upside the head.
It's a fatal flaw in our filmstrip vision of the future. It's a Bill Gates conspiracy. It's the new Titanic, the 1990s symbol of man's
hubris (so smug we are in our continual progress, in our earth-shaking technologies). Or maybe it's just a plot by the French to sell more bottled water.
We're in the process of being suffocated by Y2K hype, and, I have to say, I haven't quite subscribed to it. Yet.
I'm not going to stockpile bottle water or invest in grain. I'm not going to flee to the hills
or comforty asimee creature are you?
I appreciate your concern, I really do. And
I am bracing myself to be deluged by the
bottles of water (can you be deluged by
BOTTLED water?) that you dear worried
souls no doubt will send me (seeing as how
I am so well-respected in this community).
Either way, doesn't it make for a great story?
in anticipation of the event. I probably won't get around to withdrawing all my money from the bank and buying gold or silver or Beanie Babies (the currency of the future).
"Ack!" some of you may gasp. "What kind of foolhardy asinine creature are you?"
And if the world remains, we will be together, knowing that we exhausted one night, not knowing what daylight would bring.
But I'll be fine. I've lasted this long, haven't I? If the world survives past Jan. 1, so much the better. If it doesn't, I expect to see some incredibly awesome fireworks. I'll take whatever comes. That's really all I can do.
The point is, we won't know until we get there. We will be together in the desert, faced with the possibility that the world has been annihilated, and we are among the handful of survivors. And we will be content with that possibility.
Taylor is a Wichita junior in anthropology.
Maybe it's the music I listen to, or maybe it's the fact that lately I've spent way too much time driving down rain-pummeled streets at 2 a.m., but I find myself occupied with apocalyptic thoughts. I don't think that the world will end on New Year's Day. Sure, I am willing to consider that it might. Who knows? But it brings up a question which everyone should ponder: where are you going to be on New Year's Eve?
I plan to drag some friends on a road trip through the American Southwest. On New Year's Eve, we will drive out into the desert, 10 or 15 miles from some town or other. With us we will take several bottles of champagne and maybe a couple of guitars.
In the morning, we will wake up, get in the car and drive to whatever town is nearby. We won't know what will meet us in that town. We may march in bravely, only to be met with a town full of people who are sleeping off millennial hangovers, safe in their beds, the world unharmed in the hip-pocket of technology. Or we may walk right into utter chaos.
We will camp in the desert, build a bonfire, spend the night drinking and talking, singing and laughing. We will swathe ourselves with intelligent conversation. And then we will go to sleep in the dead night calm.
Feedback
Art, like religion should be separate from government
I must contend that the October 4th editorial regarding Rudy Giuliani's threats toward the Brooklyn Museum of Art is at best, laughable.
Art, as you may wish to call it, will survive regardless of government funding. Funding for the arts is not a function of government as laid out in the Constitution and for good reason.
Why should government officials disperse our tax dollars to the artists of their choice? Are we not allowing the government to favor art expressions as it deems proper? Are we not permitting government to mettle with artistic flavor? When social welfare recipients, cities or states accept federal funding, they must abide by
certain restrictions, so why should art be treated any differently? Government separates itself from religion, yet it flourishes, so again, why should art be treated differently?
The debate is much larger than this exhibit. The country needs to reexamine why we are funding artists and galleries that are skilled in grant writing, rather than simply defending the freedom of expression.
al laws and agencies and executive orders. Take the time to write an educated, researched editorial that delves below the surface of an issue.
Of all the civil liberties that are being compromised these days, I can't believe you, the editorial board, would waste ink on art funding infringements. The 2nd Amendment, possibly the most important freedom for maintaining our civil rights, is attacked on a daily basis. The 10th Amendment, which was written to prevent an overly powerful federal government has been buried under the multitude of feder-
Scott Shumard Sterling, Ill., graduate student