Opinion THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 2010
WWW.KANSAN.COM
FREE FOR ALL
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
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A sudden and untimely death befell my cellular telephone this morning
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
I hung out with Jack last night, but not with Jose, Jim or Morgan.
Nailing random people with water balloons as you drive by is surprisingly therapeutic.
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
My boobs are effin' amazing
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
We're gonna need some proof.
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
Why do I attract creepers?
Do I send off some sort of
vibe?
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
You know your roommate is a redneck when he sleep talks about NASCAR
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
I know that you know I
know. You know?
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
Oh Peeps, so many fond memories.
I just beheaded an entire package of Peeps. I'll back for their tasty stale corpses tomorrow
Homework, I wish you were a prostitute, so I could hire someone else to do you.
Who ever thinks Mrs. Es is good clearly has no taste buds and likes eating garbage.
PAGE 7A
Know what's glorious? A delicious cheeseburger.
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
I just lol'ed.
I need a synonym for "bitchy."
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
Irritable. Crabby. Brooding.
Crotchety.
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
I will NOT attend your Facebook event.
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
If you look at me like that every night, you will not find it hard to steal my heart!
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
Soon I'm gonna be sucking down pina coladas in a hot tub with six girls named Amber and Tiffany.
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
I am not drunk! Hell froze over!
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
You are literally too stupid to
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
Allergies are murder.
--that point I see no reason to really have a job since a good chunk of my check would go to just paying my parking fines," said Bartkoski.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Fine hurts downtown employees
Lawrence has begun reenforcing a $50 habitual violator offense fine for those who acquire five or more parking tickets within a month. While this ordinance has reasonable merit, downtown businesses need to try and find ways to better help employees with parking grievances.
The ordinance was passed in 1996, but up until March, the $50 additional fine was not enforced. Citations for expired-meter violations are $3 and if you fail to pay the ticket within five days, it will result in a fine of $15. Once someone receives five or more tickets within a 30-day period, the habitual court will be issued.
While those who frequent the downtown area should be responsible for paying for parking and pay for tickets if they do receive one, this additional fine negatively affects people who work downtown and do not have time to pay the meter while at work.
Millie Bartkoski, a sophomore from Basehor, is an employee of Noodles & Company, 8 W. Eighth St., and knows how tickets can build up.
"1 get a parking ticket every time I have an afternoon shift. By
Because of the lack of long-term parking meters, it is assumed that employees have enough time while on the job to run out and feed the meter, but that is just not the case. Businesses need to start allowing their employers time within a shift to go out and pay the meter. Even though this new ordinance largely affects employees, some businesses downtown are showing their disapproval of the fine.
Safety also becomes an issue. Parking in the garages gives downtown employees an option other than parking meters, but walking to a car in a parking garage after dark can be dangerous.
In the city commissioner's meeting on March 30, Britches Clothing Co., 843 Massachusetts St., owner Jeremy Furse presented a petition with more than 700 signatures and 100 businesses that asked for the $50 habitual fine to be abolished. In his statement, Furse called the ordinance, "punitive and detrimental to the businesses located in the downtown area"
The group this ordinance imposes on is downtown employees. Most consumers who visit downtown Lawrence are aware of the two-hour meters and they have time to monitor their parking spots. They should be responsible for their cars and watch their meters. Busy employees do not have that same luxury.
While this ordinance does provide revenue for the city in a time of budget cuts,employers need to be more sympathetic and reasonable when it comes to allowing their employees time to feed the meter.
- Stefanie Penn for the Kansan Editorial Board
Expired meter
violation: $3
Failing to pay within
five days: $15
Receiving five or
more tickets in 30-
day period: $50
BREAKING DOWN
THE FINES
EDITORIAL CARTOON
NICHOLAS SAMBALUN
POLITICS
Most popular major? Money-making
The Great recession has spawned unemployment figures not seen in 30 years. The cases of families facing foreclosure continue to mount. Despite discussion of a developing recovery, economists who sounded unheeded alarms before the spectacular crash warn we aren't out of the woods yet. Nonetheless, the task of learning from the fatal flaws of the past economic system falls to our generation — the chance not only to recover, but to truly thrive is in our hands.
Unfortunately, we don't have too many positive examples to follow. Thus far, few members of the political class have gleaned much useful wisdom from the crisis. The New York Times recently juxtaposed statements of a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the supposed peak of the turmoil with their views today. Noticeably absent from the comments is the sense that the recession provided an opening for robust regulatory reform.
Even President Obama has said policymakers shouldn't "begrudge" the masters of the universe for their swashbuckling wages.
Underscoring their eagerness to resume business as usual, firms that were bailed out have largely ignored the executive compensation reforms proposed by "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg, according to The Washington Post.
Once again, big government touted as the problem.
The Observer
wizards dream up new financial products – beyond the obscure collateralized debt obligations and structured investment vehicles – things will get humming. As they return to the Wild West, the barons of finance once again stock up on $1,400 trash cans.
For many, recovery will mean returning to what economist Thorstein Veblen called conspicuous consumption. As Wall Street
BY LUKE BRINKER
Or is it possible that the do-drums of the national economy have prompted a fundamental rethinking of social values? Purveyors of optimism look to our generation, the Millennials.
One might surmise that a generation largely supportive of government as a countervailing force to business would be less impressed with firms reaping gargantuan profits and hedge funders raking in billions in annual compensation.
In a recently released survey of Millennials' attitudes, the Pew Research Center found an age group less reflexively opposed to affirmative government - the notion that the public sector can be a force for good, helping alleviate social ills and rein in the excesses of free markets.
If only. The study found Millennials to be no less likely than other age groups to attach significant importance to working in a "high paying" career. Even among
those who don't see wealth as a noble end in itself, there is no reason to believe we won't witness a shift in values.
The mass protest movements of the 1960s were animated by the fervent idealism of college students who advocated a more conscientious society and a "peretrating mode of living," as Wellesley College graduate Hillary Rodham put it in her 1969 commencement speech.
Many of those activists, however, could later be found running investment banks and griping about the capital gains tax. It seemed that buying into the corporate culture was simply a sign of maturity, on par with getting a mortgage or buying a Cadillac.
If such small-minded reversions to the greed-is-good, more-is-better mindset are to be headed off, action must start with the Millennials – and what better place to teach the necessary lessons than universities?
In a widely discussed 2009 essay, Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust lamented the rise of the "market model" in higher education. Universities no longer offer "depth and breadth of vision." Instead they are expected to demonstrate their utility in leading to a fat navcheck
That's not too surprising, given the inexorably increasing cost of education - yet another reason to rethink national priorities.
In the case of national recovery, Father probably doesn't know best.
Brinker is a freshman from Topeka in history and political science.
POLITICS
Arrogance makes bad politics
One of the most attractive attributes of the 2008 Obama campaign was the idea that, if Obama was elected, the U.S. would finally be able to improve relations with other countries.
Obama rode on the swelling support of this issue by taking his campaign to Europe. There, he promised a renewal in American-European relationships.
The hope and the change were certainly present, but once again, we have learned that results paint a very different picture. Earlier this month, the liberal-learning polling group Democracy Corps came out with a poll that showed by a 10-point margin — 51 percent to 41 percent — that Americans think the U.S.'s international standing has dropped during the first 13 months of the Obama presidency.
Two years ago, the election provided Obama with the platform to call the U.S. unpopular in order to gain popular support. And now, America's relationships seem worse than they were before he took office — especially with our allies.
As one of his presidential acts, Obama sent a bust of Winston Churchill, which had been a gift to the White House, back to the U.K. Much fuss was made about this symbolic gesture, and rightfully so. A headline in the British newspaper The Telegraph read, "Barack Obama has sent Sir Winston Churchill packing and pulse rates soaring among anxious British diploms."
Then, just last week, a report from the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee suggested that the U.S. and Britain should no longer refer to themselves as sharing a "special relationship."
The Right Idea
Recently, Obama humiliated Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, one of our most important allies. First, Obama refused to pose for pictures with the Prime Minister, then, after failing to get the Prime Minister to sign an
BY CHET COMPTON
agreement, Obama walked out on the meeting and left Netanyaahu alone for dinner.
One Israeli newspaper called the meeting "a hazing in stages," poisoned by a great deal of mistrust. Another said the Prime Minister had received "the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea."
This wasn't the first time Obama has snubbed an allied leader. It is said that Obama slighted French President Nicolas Sarkozy by failing to accept an invitation to lunch after a D-Day ceremony last June.
Relations with our most important economic ally, China, have also taken a hit. Last month, Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Foreign Minister, said relations between the two nations had been "seriously disrupted." He pointed the blame for the troubled relationship directly at Washington's policymakers.
Perhaps it's no wonder that Americans believe the U.S. is losing its world standing under this administration. The people recognize the importance of our alliances and want our leaders to focus on keeping them strong.
It seems as though the only foreign leaders praising Obama are Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. Cuba's Castro called the passage of health care law "a miracle" and Venezuelan dictator Chavez cheered Obama's nationalization of General Motors.
Replacing a sense of entitlement and an attitude of arrogance with respect and common decency in diplomatic affairs.
Compton is a senior from Wichita in history and political science.
Requiring study abroad would help KU, state and country
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
What if every undergraduate student at the University, as a part of their degree, studied abroad for a summer or semester?
The University likes to boast that over a quarter of undergrads study abroad (11th among public universities in 2008): Each person adding a life-changing, resume building, career inspiring experience and great friends they might not otherwise encounter in their time as Jayhawks.
Having people go abroad does even more. For our country, it allows the citizens of other nations to relate to us — good, tolerant, hard-working and hopeful, yet fallible, like anyone else — whatever their feelings about our political leaders may be. For our state, it creates workers who have a better understanding of participating in a global economy.
I've gone on two amazing trips; for Italian in Florence, Italy, last June and for Travel Writing in Costa Rica during the first half of January; This July I will do the Pre-law Institute in Cambridge, England. Clearly, I believe in the advantageous nature of taking my education out into the world.
Requiring every KU student to study abroad would take time and need to meet two objectives: one, making the cost for a summer or semester no more expensive, if not less, than living and taking classes during the same period in Lawrence, and two, not slowing a student's timeline for graduation.
This is an enormous undertaking financially (especially considering the current climate) and administratively for the University - unprecedented by any school of comparable size. It is just the kind of outside-the-box education, however, that not only attracts students, but also would make graduates some of the best in the United States.
Chancellor Gray-Little, what do you think?
Tyler Holmes is a junior from Overland Park, Kansas.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Stephen Montemayor, Brianna Pflannelen, Jennifer Torline, Lainre Cunningham, Vicky Lau, Emily McCoy, Kate Larabee, Stephanie Penn, James Castle, Michael Holtz, Caitlin Thornbrough and Ann Hawnd姆.