THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2011
PAGE 5A
opinion
Last time KU got a day off school it was because we won the national championship. KSU gets a day off school because they lost so badly to us. Rock Chalk!
apps.facebook.com/dailykansan
Okay, so looking out my window, everything looks fine. Did KSU get magically hit by a storm already? Or are they just a bunch of scaredy cats?
Were not alcoholics. We're athletes.
My roommates think they are getting away with being d-bags (have fun driving to class with no air in your tires).
Are you going to AfterDark? Wayne Simien is!
I ice-skated down my driveway this morning — that is reason enough to cancel classes, come on KU!
I'm really cold and my nipples are getting hard!!!
I'm really warm and my penis is getting big!!
KSU would need a day off after the ass beating they took this weekend.
Girls, we'd much rather like a NO rather than you ignoring us if we ask you out. Just a pointer.
Good to know. And a tip from us:
Stop asking "How you doin" or
"Where you at." They're obvious and
annoying. Get some game.
It amazes me that people get so worked up over 6" of snow and a little ice. Bunch of winter weather amateurs here at KU, I guess.
Taco Bell beef is only 35 percent beef. How is this news? Everyone knows it's not beef!
As long as they still have 99-cent burritos I don't really care how much beef is in it.
I'm so glad I'm not a Jonas Brother.
Boyfriend. Please. Just put out already. Thanks.
Snowpocolypse. Now.
Guys can withhold sex? Actually, no, my question is, "Guys withhold sex?"
Snowmageddon.
I see you coming Snow Storm #3...
and I raise you a case of beer and a bottle of vodka.
Random chemical reactions in the brain are nothing to get worked up over.
I'm looking for pictures from the KSU game, specifically pictures of the great inflatable penis.
Weather.com forecasts a "wintery mix" for tomorrow. This is a blizzard, not an effing salad.
I propose bench pads in Bailey — who the hell wants to set on a freezing piece of concrete?
What's up with that?
For the record, I'm not a Bieber fan.
When I search his name and see words like "3D" "belieber," "biopic" and "more acting plans;" I "bieb" myself confused and sad, as I assume many of us would.
What's up with Justin Bieber's (3-D) biographical movie?
Why? We ask weakly. Why is this happening? We might be tempted to blame the subject himself and hate him a little, or a lot, for the tremendous gap we perceive between the aesthetic quality of his music/age/appearance and his invasive popularity.
But that is misguided.
Yes, his whole phenomenon is obnoxious. Remember, though, Bieber is fresh out of childhood. He probably has little control over his image and career trajectory. He is just a pawn in the entertainment industry—a rich, irritating pawn. He's got something that people like, so he and his team of brand managers are exploiting the hell out of it.
And that's capitalism, kids. Much like the pointless products advertised on late-night infomercials, Bieber continues to exist only because people continue
BY ALI FREE afree@kansan.com
to buy. The movie is being made because many people will see it.
In other words, it's not him. It's us.
When America stops caring, so will his managers. And who knows—perhaps the movie is the last big gasp, a sort of autotuned swan song, of yet another tween sensation's career.
Free is a sophomore in women's studies from Blue Springs, Mo.
Sitting down to write an anti-Justin-Bieber argument, a horrible realization came over me. In order to write about
The movie is portrayed in a manor that desperately mimics Michael Jackson's
this abomination of a theatrical production, I would actually have to watch it, or at least the brain-wrenching, soul-devouring two-minute trailer.
portrayed in a manor that desperately mimics Michael Jackson's "This Is It,"with the bad epic-movie announcer and all. They mention very proudly that Justin sold out Madison Square Garden in 22 minutes, which is impressive. Granted he caters to the easiest demographic there is: pathetic, confused teenage girls, along with the struggling college girl who just can't let the days of Backstreet Boys and N'Sync go.
I will say, the release date couldn't be better, Valentine's weekend. All of the single girls who aren't old enough to drink away their Valentines Day like the rest of us have to go somewhere right?
BY SHAUNA BLACKMON
slackmon@kansan.com
The title of the movie, "Never Say Never," is supposed to reflect Justin's go-get-em attitude, even when the world kept trying to bring him down. Good morale overall. Next time you want to spend millions of dollars making an uplifting, follow-your-dreams movie though, try following someone who despite the odds survives an alien abduction, cancer or being hit by a semi four times in a row.
Blackmon is a senior in journalism from Olathe.
INTERNATIONAL
Arab people need help and support for change of power
Will the tidal wave of protests in the Arab world wipe the region's most automatic regimes?
In the weeks since the self-immolation of Mohammad Bouazizi, touched off mass demonstrations and prompted the ouster of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, numerous commentators have been posing that provocative question.
And no wonder. While WikiLeaks cables released last year indicated mounting unease with the out-of-touch Ben Ali and his family, few predicted that the president of 23 years faced imminent overthrow.
Who's to say Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh, Libya's Muammar el-Qaddafi or even Jordan's King Abdullah aren't next?
Call it the domino theory of Arab democratization. Once discontented citizens of an authoritarian nation see that it's possible to get rid of the most entrenched of incumbents, they'll take to the streets and hold their leaders' feet to the fire.
The outbreak of rallies last week against Mubarak seemed to bolster this view. While many Egyptians have long resented their president's usurpation of power and suffocation of dissent, which lead to large demonstrations against his American-supported, 30-year-old regime, it's hard to argue that the latest protests would have happened without Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution.
Tunisian activists emboldened Egyptians across the political spectrum - from the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood to secular opposition leader Mohammad El-Bardei. Aided by Facebook and Twitter - the same social networking sites crucial to organizing Tunisian protestors - Mubarak's opponents are showing they've had it with censorship, imprisonment and secrecy.
BY LUKE BRINKER
lbrinker@kansan.com
After all, activists aren't the only ones drawing lessons from Tunisia. Autocratic rulers took note: change must be made. But for Mubarak and other Arab autocrats, change will likely mean beefed-up crackdowns,
So what distinguishes uprisings in Egypt and Yemen from Iran's Green Revolution of 2009, which offered hopes for a change of power only to see those hopes dashed by brutal repression?
house arrests and other Orwellian "security measures."
To be sure, cosmetic concessions will be made: witness Mubarak's decision to replace members of his Cabinet. His new ministers will still be accountable to a president whose core conviction is that he must remain in power. And if Mubarak were genuinely committed to addressing his people's concerns, would he be putting leaders like El-Baradei under house arrest?
Research by political scientists like the University's Ronald Francisco shows that popular movements are often met with government backlash. Rare is the democracy movement that succeeds. Even those that do - like Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979 - often descend into the same patterns of authoritarianism against which they arose.
When demonstrators took to China's Tiananmen Square in 1989, many thought the protest portended the coming collapse of the Communist power structure. The march of history has not been kind to that kind of democratic triumphalism.
The Arab people — with their very legitimate grievances — deserve our solidarity and support. But just as Tiananmen demonstrators and the Iranian Greens failed to topple autocracies, declarations of a new dawn are premature.
George W. Bush launched a war in Iraq on the pretext of bringing democracy to the Arab world. While violence there has ebbed, it's still mired in conflict. And just as Saddam's fall didn't create a domino effect, neither will Ben Ali's.
Brinker is a sophomore from Topeka in history.
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REALLY GAY ADVICE...FOR REALLY STRAIGHT GUYS
O kay, pay attention here. If you do not want people to think you're gay, the last
Straight men: Don't appear so disgusted with homosexuality
think you're gay, the last thing you want to do is tell everyone how much you hate gay people or make habitual faces or grunts when a person talks about anal.
Allow me to reveal the logic behind this conditional.
An experiment conducted at the University of Georgia involved a survey of 64 college-aged men, all of whom identified as heterosexual and only having heterosexual desires and experiences. The survey asked a series of questions tailored to help researchers divide the group into two camps: homophobic or non-homophobic.
The subjects were then put in a room, one at a time, to view both homosexual and heterosexual erotic films. Before the viewing, researchers fixed gauges up to the subjects' penises in order to measure arousal levels.
In the group deemed homophobic, tests found that there were a substantial number of high arousal levels during the homoerotic clips, while the nonhomophobic group showed little to no arousal to the same clips.
The research concluded that, typically, men who act homophobic are really fighting a battle within themselves and perhaps struggling with their own sexual identities.
Thus, if you are the guy at the party making it grossly clear that you enjoy poon-tang—or whatever you people call it—and absolutely despise gay sex, you might be sending just the opposite message, according to empirical evidence.
So, how should straight guys act when gav men are present?
I am not trying to deter anyone from cracking a good gay joke, quite the contrary. I have a brother who is a year older than me, and his beer-
BY JAMES CASTLE jcastle@kansan.com
This might seem offensive to some, but this particular group of friends uses a strict dialogue of trash-talking as a bonding tool, so, in calling me a "two-beer queer" or asking me if I would "ever give Ryan Reynolds a blumpkin," they are actually making me feel as if I'm a part of the group and the conversation, while I am in their company.
guzzling, KU-athletics-loving friends are constantly throwing jokes at me about "reach-arounds" or asking me if I brought my mitt (because I'm the catcher, apparently).
Laughing about our identities and our friends' identities can be a fun experience, just as long as the people who are being made fun of are aware that it is just that. Of course, I can't speak for all gay men, but I think it's reasonable to assume most of them won't be easily offended by a few jokes, provided the proper tone and facial expressions are used.
In short, just use your common sense when making a joke at the expense of a persons' sexuality or other identity. And try to avoid using hateful language and being too theatrical when expressing your disgust with sex between men. That will just demonstrate you're a pathetic closet-case.
James Castle is a junior from Stilwell in political science & human sexuality.
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