THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 5A
TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011
opinion
Is it bad that I'm looking forward to Thursday's first round Big 12 tournament game, because it means the first time that I will be watching a game in class on my laptop?
Don't judge me for playing ghost with your Snuggie. The thing has ghostly arms!
This is an "A" and "B" conversation so "C" your way out, before "D" jumps over "E" and "Fs" you up like a "G."
WELL he's technically not my boyfriend, but I call him that in my head. It sounds better than "the guy whose bed I sleep in but isn't my significant other."Yeah.
Okay. I'm going to do it. I'm going to talk to you on Tuesday. Please don't shoot me down.
Had a great weekend hanging out with Billy Bong Thorton.
Do not hashtag in the FFA. Please and thank you.
I will hashtag where ever I wish.
idowhitwant.
If a cop stops me and says "papers, and I say "scissors" do I win?
FINALLY GOING ON A DATE AFTER
FOUR YEARS OF HELL!
Everyone on FFA needs to get a flashlight and some morals... if that makes sense
I trust Bill Self like I trust Dumbledore.
No,Phil Collins,I can't stop loving YOU.
Oh Mylanta, you are my woman.
If my T.A. can look at recipes online, I can be on Facebook.
I had a dream I had an iPhone... Still trying to figure out if it was a good dream or a bad dream?
Chocolate+cool whip+girlfriend= awesome night.
Am I the only one who sees the resemblance between Phog Allen and Mr. Feeney?
I like you but your boyfriend is kind of dragging us down.
For some reason all the guys I had crushes on in high school are giving me their numbers now and wanting me to call them. Four years later. I don't understand
Welp, he admitted to being an idiot Better forgive him...
I really hate that feature of the iPhone that still allows people to call me.
My girlfriend just introduced me to no-bake cookies. Does she not realize that Spring Break is two weeks away?
NFL should get rid of the quarterback
At the end of every football season, the NFL Competition Committee looks at its current set of rules and entertains possible tweaks. I believe this offseason they should get rid of the quarterback position, and after the NFL heeds my suggestion, the college game should follow suit.
Think about this: We all here at the University loved Todd Reesing, but didn't we love Kerry Meier more, especially after he switched to receiver? That's rhetorical. We all know it was about Kerry's hair.
All quarterbacks are completely inept, as evidenced by their inability to keep the damn ball in their team's hands - or even their own hands.
Jimmy Clausen, quarterback for the Carolina Panthers, threw nine interceptions and fumbled seven times in only 13 games this season. He only averaged 5.2 yards per
BY JAROD KILGORE jkilgore@kansan.com
pass, an astoundingly low number. Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal "I really like the letter 'A'" Charles averaged 6.4 yards per carry, a yard more per attempt than Clausen. Five running backs in the NFL this season averaged as much or more than 5.2 yards per attempt, and guess how many interceptions they threw... freaking zero.
I may just be using the stats of
a rookie quarterback on the worst team in the NFL to make my point look truer. Here's another example: Ben Roethlisberger is considered a "big game" quarterback, but he has a career postseason résumé of 19 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. He is awful the first three quarters of games, but then, he summons the inner strength needed in the fourth to not take no for an answer. (Something he is sometimes too good at.)
Bears, threw 26 interceptions, or 1.6 per game. Thomas Jones, a different running back for the Chiefs, recently went 862 touches without a turnover (43 straight games).
Any coach that has an affinity for clichés – all of them – will tell you that the turnover battle is the most important detail of the game, even more so than how much my team paid the refs versus how much your team paid the refs.
Who turns the ball over the most? Quarterbacks, by far. Last year, Jay Cutler, quarterback of the Chicago
Peyton Manning lost last year's Super Bowl to the Saints when he threw a late game interception, which was returned for a touchdown. You know who doesn't throw interceptions? Everyone else on the damn team.
Quarterbacks also fumble more often than any other position. Cutler is often heard mumbling to himself,
"Why are all my teammates so far away? Do I smell?"
No, Jay Cutler never does anything wrong. They smell!
Jarod Kilgore is a junior majoring in film & media studies from Lenexa.
ECONOMICS
Big businesses downtown not a big deal for small businesses
The word "corporation" isn't always a dirty word.
A corporation is an entity that must make money over time to survive. Corporations form the bedrock of our economy and hence our relative prosperity.
Corporations also sign most of our paychecks. Even if the average Joe works in a government or an educational institution, tax dollars from corporations and individuals help pay the bills.
For the most part, corporations make everything we eat, every garment we wear, every medication we take and every phone call we make.
When Borders in downtown Lawrence announced that it would close in the end of April, many of my friends commented on how sad they were to see it go.
Funny, one friend in particular was just as mad when it came to Lawrence as when it closed.
Even local bookstore owners were sad to see it go. The owner of the Raven Book Store was quoted as saying that she would miss the boxy corporation. Why in a town that thrives on small business would people be sad to see it go?
Because corporations matter in Lawrence, they provide jobs and stability. Even though Borders is closing, they provided nearly a decade of stability to downtown Lawrence. When you walk down Massachusetts Street some of the most popular stores are chains.
BY EVAN GATES
egates@kansan.com
What would Mass. Street be without Starbucks, Gap, Urban
Outfitters or Noodles and Co.?
Counters of Noodles and Co. Corporations are not always detrimental to a small town. For instance, Noodles and Co. works closely with KU organizations to help raise money for charity, something a lot of small businesses cannot afford.
What would Lawrence be without Target? I don't know a single college student who doesn't love Target.
So why is the word "corporation" dirty?
Because we only hear about them when they fail. The banking crisis, the Enron scandal, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, those are the corporations that come to mind. In reality, many big businesses do a lot of good in their communities.
Borders leaving is not a win for small business in Lawrence. They provided jobs and competition and many times carried things that smaller stores simply cannot afford to carry. So you see corporation doesn't have to be a dirty word, it can be quite beneficial.
Evan Gates is a sophomore in political science from Wichita.
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CARTOON
ADDAFI'S SUNGLASSES PROTECTED HIS EYES FROM THE WORLD'S GLARE.
Nicholas Sambaluk
POLITICS
Our generation knows Fred Phelps and his Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church all too well. The church began its protest activities in 1991 at Gage Park in Topeka in an effort to crack down on perceived rampant homosexual activity. The group even circulated a flier titled "Gage Park: Sodomite Rats Nest."
Many of us are personally aware of Phelps' influence on communities. For those KU students who participated in the 2009 counter-protest at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, contributed to the 2010 "No Hate" campaign in the Eudora school district or joined similar efforts across Kansas to strike back against the hateful church, the recent news from the Supreme Court struck a nerve.
Ruling good for the First Amendment, bad for Kansas
Our great state of Kansas is making headlines again, and it's more bad press.
BY MEGAN ADAMS madams@kansan.com
Albert Snyder, the father of late Marine Lance Cpl. Matthews
A. Snyder, brought the Westboro Baptist Church to court for causing emotional distress when they protested his son's funeral. The church has made it common practice to protest military funerals to share its message that American soldiers are dying as God's punishment for the United States' tolerance of homosexuals. Fred Phelps and his crew carried picket signs with "America is Doomed," and "God Hates Fags" at Snyder's funeral.
The Supreme Court ruled last week in an 8-to-1 decision that protesting at military funerals was
indeed constitutional, no matter the painful emotions inflicted on the family. Snyder v. Phelps is a landmark case for First Amendment rights, and one we will be hearing about for years to come.
In his decision, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, "Any distress occasioned by Westboro's picketing turned on the content and viewpoint of the message conveyed rather than any interference with the funeral itself." The church's activities are legal as long as they comply with the law and remain the required 1,000 feet away from the site of the funeral.
Many have criticized the decision. It's sick to think that the highest court in the land has given the OK to such a detestable activity. Many argue there should be a limit to free speech when it causes extremely emotional pain to those who are already experiencing a loss.
In his dissenting opinion Justice Alito writes, "Our profound national
commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case."
For the Supreme Court to begin making decisions based on the emotional consequences of protests that are compliant with the law would signal an abandonment of our commitment to the First Amendment. As the Court has ruled previously, the content of one's free speech should never be restricted as long as it does not directly harm another.
What the church is doing is repugnant - no one is debating that - but prohibiting their activity puts us on a slippery slope.
This case reminds us that the Constitution protects the right of free speech for every American, no matter how disgusting and wrong the message. Proof once again that democracy is a double-edged sword.
Adams is a junior in international studies and political science from Overland Park.
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