Opinion
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.
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 2010
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--all time.
Of ALL TIME
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--all time.
Of ALL TIME
To the neighbor playing the loud guitar: Guess what?! I can hear you and I have reported you to management.
All my friends are breaking up. Perfect time to get a girlfriend.
--all time.
Of ALL TIME
Oh "Saved by the Bell," how you have failed all of us.
--all time.
Of ALL TIME
If I had to narrow down my interests to two things, I would probably say facial hair and prehistoric beasts.
--all time.
Of ALL TIME
"Space Jam" is the greatest movie of ALL TIME. Editor's note: I'm going to let you finish, but "Dark Knight" was one of the best movies of
--they look.
I just saw my first Ugg boots and shorts combo of the season. I am starting a new charity fund to buy some of the girls on campus mirrors so they can see how ridiculous
--episode.
--episode.
I like you,but you're crazy
You should know by now that if we knew anything about having a successful love life, we wouldn't be posting on FFA
You know the world is coming to an end since the Chiefs have been on fire
--episode.
The rolly chairs in the Watson group study center are the most comfortable things my butt has ever graced.
--episode.
I've tried for the last three months to deactivate my Facebook. It won't let me ... I feel like I'm in a South Park
--round.
KFC closes at 9:30? Colonel Sanders must be rolling over in his grave.
--round.
To the girls honking at me on my way to the library today:
Thanks, I think my overloaded backpack and untamed beard are sexy too.
--round.
Dear downstairs neighbors, don't you dare throw mac and cheese on our bike. IT'S WAR!
--round.
What do you do when you're riding a horse and you look behind you to see a zebra and giraffe chasing you? Get your drunk ass off the merry-go-
--many students reconsider the value pursuing a bachelor's degree — even as that degree is more essential than ever to thrive in a sink-or-swim job market. Among students who drop out, mounting loan balances are prime culprits.
GOVERNMENT
The root of the problem
With Washington engulfed in debate over whether to extend
Bush-era tax cuts, issues of class are again at the forefront of the national conversation.
The disagreement centers on whether those cuts should be extended for all Americans, including families with incomes over $250,000. Republicans and a sizable number of Democrats are adamant about the need for across-the-board extensions. President Obama, on the other hand, favors extending the cuts for middle class families.
Lingering not far beneath the surface of the controversy is the issue of income inequality. An economist at the University of California-Berkeley recently calculated that the top one percent of American income earners hold 20 percent of the nation's wealth. Those who question the need for tax cuts for the wealthy seize on such figures, noting that historically, concentrated wealth has been linked to economic downturns.
While the outcome of the tax debate will have enormous implications for income inequality, there hasn't been as much focus on the most glaring area of class disparity: higher education.
The Kansas Board of Regents recently unveiled a proposal to expand financial aid by $10 million, including $6 million recouped from university sales taxes and $4 million sponsored by
Politics on Campus
BY LUKE BRINKER
lbrinker@kansan.com
Kansas universities and athletics departments. With Kansas lagging behind all other Big 12 states in financial assistance to students, the plan is worthy of support.
The backdrop to the Regents' proposal is a staggering increase in the cost of a university education. While the University guarantees students a flat rate of tuition for four years, each entering class faces consistently higher tuition and fees. Tuition skyrocketed more than 200 percent in the past decade.
One area that hasn't seen nearly as much growth is family income. Calculations from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Coalition on Human Needs find that, in inflation-adjusted dollars, the median income for a Kansas household was $50,852. The figure declined to $49,119 by 2008.
With college costs consuming an ever-larger proportion of families' budgets, debt levels are rising astronomically. And that's for students who end up making it to campus. As more families are priced out of higher education,
This has disconcerting economic,political,and social ramifications.If upward mobility — pulling oneself up by the bootstraps — is to be a reality,then college education can't become the exclusive province of the comfortable.The GI Bill of the postwar years created a dynamic middle class and played a major role in fostering a decades-long economic boom.Moreover,the Greatest Generation was among the most civically engaged.
Education increases one's sense of a stake in public affairs. Allowing the university experience to slip further out of reach will inevitably result in the alienation of a growing segment of the American populace.
Most important, though, is the impact that the current stratification has on students. Denying them the ability to interact with people from diverse racial, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds keeps their worlds unnecessarily small. It's high time policymakers work to ensure that doesn't happen — and the Board of Regents' proposal is an excellent start.
Luke Brinker is a sophomore from Topeka in history.
CARTOON
GUEST COLUMN
MARIAM SAIFAN
Gift may prove Zuckerberq's an OK guy
Seven billion dollars - seriously? I could have had that much dough if I had created Facebook? If that's the case, someone get me a DeLorean. I'm going back to 2003 to hang out with Mark Zuckerberg, former Harvard student and founder of Facebook, the popular social networking site.
How popular? Recent estimates put the number of Facebook users around 550 million, which means the advertising department is probably poppin' bottles as we speak. Zuckerberg's personal worth is estimated at around $6.9 billion, making him number 35 on Forbes list of wealthiest individuals, above much older billionaires like Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch, and the youngest billionaire in the United States.
Enough with the fantasy; what
What could you buy with almost $7 billion? Start with my car, a Toyota Yaris, for example; you could purchase a veritable armada – 437,000 of them. Not really a Toyota person? Have a taste for luxury? No worries. You could drive home a cool 25,000 Lamborghini, or basically enough to drive a different Lamborghini every day for the next 68 years. Or perhaps you have an inkling for extra-planetary travel. At $1.7 billion a pop, you could commandeer yourself four space shuttles.
To understand how much $6.9 billion is, I will put this number in perspective.
That's right, forget about what you might do with all his money. Zuckerberg is giving $100 million to the Newark School District, and surprisingly, not everyone is supportive. Some view this move, which was made public Friday during Zuckerberg's appearance on "Oprah," as a public stunt to soften a public image that will no doubt be called into question in the coming months.
I'm interested in is reality, and in particular the donation of $100 million to a school district in Newark, New Jersey.
"The Social Network," an upcoming movie about the founding of Facebook, does not exactly portray Zuckerberg as a very nice guy. As a result, some believe that Zuckerberg has tried to launch a preemptive battle to buffer his public image. This notion is bolstered by the fact that that the usually frugal and low-key Zuckerberg
After all, $100 million is a lot of money. However, again, let us put this in perspective; $100 million, which is more than what 99.9 percent of all humans would earn in several lifetimes, is only 1.4 percent of Zuckerberg's net worth. A drop in the bucket, right?
- the man who can afford 25,000 Lamborghini, drives an Acura - is clearly spending like he never has before, even if it is for charity.
Wrong. Rarely in history have we seen such large donations given directly in such a public forum.
Looking at the largest donations ever granted, seven of the top 10 were granted directly from the owner to his or her own charity. This, although certainly honorable, is more of a cop-out in many regards, as the donors are more often than not merely shifting their money to another branch of their control.
So, are we to believe that Zuckerberg's donation is inconsequential? No. Only two other donations of $100 million or more have been made in the United States this year, even though at least 34 people have even more money to give than Zuckerberg. In a Sept. 24 article of The New York Times, Patrick M. Rooney, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, called the donation "exceptional" and "mind-boggling," especially given that Zuckerberg is only 26 years old.
Writing off Zuckerberg's donation as a publicity ploy is unfair. It's still $100 million, regardless of whether you're Bill Gates or a starving college student. If the money is funding education, we should all be on board. Forget PR and image; Mark Zuckerberg should be commended. Let's hope those Newark kids put the money to good use.
— From Uwire. Brett Haupt for The Arizona Daily Wildcat at The University of Arizona
ACTIVISM
Native American women deserve equal protection
On July 29 of this year, the Tribal Law and Order Act was signed into law. The impetus for the law was the disturbingly high number of rape victims among Native American women.
Human Rights for All
In 2007, Amnesty International issued a report that included shocking statistics about sexual assault among these communities: Native American women are rape victims 2.5 times more often than other women in the U.S. In fact, more than one-third of Native American women will be victims of rape. And, as Amnesty International director recently wrote in an article regarding the necessity of addressing this issue, "women from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in the Dakotas told us that they couldn't think of a single woman who hadn't been sexually assaulted."
These facts are chilling. For a long time now, our country has failed these women. What's more, the inadequate protection and fulfillment of their rights has not even been acknowledged on a large public scale until recently. Even now, with the passage of the bill, the media coverage was less than deserved.
As citizens of the United States, it is within their rights to be protected under the law; this means providing adequate medical examinations and doctor consultations for victims, investigations into sexual assault cases, and prosecuting perpetrators.
Unfortunately, a lot of these cases have been slipping through the cracks, allowing more and more Native American
BY KELLY COSBY
kcosby@kansan.com
women to be victimized.
women to be victimized. The Tribal Law and Order Act is the first step in addressing many of these problems.
The law is designed to increase communication and cooperation among tribal, local state, and federal governments to provide more accountability for dealing with crimes and other issues. This includes a more comprehensively organized way to share criminal data and history among the levels of government.
In addition, the law also provides for more empowerment of tribal governments in keeping their communities safe.
Of course, passing the law does not mean the problems are over. It will take a lot of bureaucratic cooperation and strategic implementation to make sure the objectives are met in a timely manner. And it is important to note that logistically, the law is not perfect. But, it is a step in the right direction. It shows that the administration is beginning to take these types of rights violations seriously and wants to do something about them.
Cosby is a junior from Overland Park in political science and English.
Chatterbox
"People are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. NO ONE wants to live off a few hundred bucks a week. I am one of those unemployed Americans. My husband and I have worked and lived with in our means our whole adult lives. We both lost our jobs and went through all our savings and 401K. Do you honestly think we want to sit back and just collect. Our life as we knew it is slipping away, oh by the way we are both in our fifties, and out of the thousand resumes (that's right thousands). I got two interviews in the last two years. Whats that line, "Until you have walked in my shoes."
—"Carik49" in response to "Unemployment extensions important to help families" on Sept. 24.
"Regan got us huge deficits with his irresponsible military spending. Teabaggers vote republican. That's all I need to see to know they're a tool of Glennazi Beck."
"It bothers me deeply when friends of mine toss that word around like it's nothing. Even more than inaccuracy, I am afraid that light usage of such loaded words desensitizes us to the actual meaning and severity of this type of trauma. People may get on our case for being hypersensitive or no fun or unable to take a joke or whatever else they've told us we are, but what you say is true--it IS disrespectful and it DOES minimize the experience. I appreciate you speaking out on this important topic."
HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
— "Kujajahawk" in response to "Voter anger better aimed at economic policy" on Sept. 21.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
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