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, NOVEMBER 30, 2010
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--any nation, any time.
--any nation, any time.
I love it when people don't check the weather in the morning. UNPREPARED IS HILARIOUS!
I took a shower for the second time today, and the water turned brown. I think I've been in the ceramics studio too long.
--any nation, any time.
Sometimes I wish I was from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, just so I could say that I was from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
--any nation, any time.
The Free For All could use some ELE. Everyone love everyone.
--any nation, any time.
TV taught me how to feel, now real life has no appeal
--any nation, any time.
Leslie Nielsen died! Who's going to play my grandpa now in the movie of my life?
--any nation, any time.
Even if you say it was just because we were drunk, I know you think it was more.
--any nation, any time.
If you don't have FB, how am I going to find you?
--any nation, any time.
Campus was really freaky during break. In a postapocalyptic last person-on-earth kinda way.
It's so much more economical to eat cereal in a cup, because then I can drink the milk after all the cereal is gone without spilling it all over myself.
--any nation, any time.
Can Facebook add a "That's what she said" button next to like.
--any nation, any time.
I don't know, what is more lame, the fact you posted 200 pictures of yourself on Facebook, or the fact I sat here and looked at all of them
--any nation, any time.
Relationships are too much work and I feel miserable.
--any nation, any time.
I'm going to college so I can stop eating Top Ramen and start drinking top shelf.
--any nation, any time.
Majoring in sugar momma with a minor in Johnson County girls
--any nation, any time.
My sugar momma is a greek and I'm a GDI. She bought me a puppy and a 360. It really is possible to get along. So move on.
--any nation, any time.
Ron Weasley will be mine someday.
--any nation, any time.
POLITICS
TV stardom doesn't qualify Palin for presidential responsibilities
Despite my attempts, this topic cannot be avoided for much longer.
The ratings from Sarah Palin's new TLC show prove that America is either still as enchanted with her as we were two years ago, or that we all just can't look away from an impending car crash. Either way, the possibility of her candidacy for the Oval Office in 2012 cannot be denied. It's time to have a brutally honest dialogue about this ex-politician/celebrity's ability to lead our country.
Specifically when it comes to foreign policy, Palin has not shown any signs that she has garnered any more knowledge about global topics than she had two years ago in her infamous interview with NBC's Katie Couric. I guess I should give her a break, it was only three years ago that she applied for her first passport.
And though she can still see Russia from her backyard, she has yet to engage herself in any substantial dialogue with Russian leaders — or any other foreign leaders for that matter. She has not put these last two years of political off time to gain the international experience voters expect of a presidential candidate.
BY MEGAN ADAMS madams@kansae.com
As recently as Wednesday she showcased her lack of knowledge in an interview on Glenn Beck's radio show in which she said, "We gotta stand with our North Korean allies." Just a verbal mistake? Most likely. But still we cannot forget how much time and energy the McCain team reportedly put into giving Palin a crash course in world history and events. She even writes in her tell-all memoir "Going Rogue" about how frustrated and embarrassed she was with these tutoring sessions
July of 2010 sums up what the Tea Partiers and Mama Grizzly herself had to say about the world beyond America during the midterms. Palin has a lot to criticize the Obama administration about — she calls his agenda one that "reeks of complacency and defeatism" — but offers no solutions herself.
America still has no clue what calls Palin would likely make in the Situation Room, or if she knows what the Situation Room is at all. It's time we start demanding the same level of experience and knowledge from her that we do to all presidential hopefuls. At the least it's worth having a conversation about, right after you watch her new show of course
CARTOON
Although she states in her commercials, I'd rather be out here bein' free than in some stuffy political office," it's looking more and more likely she'll trade in the Alaskan wilderness to campaign for the ultimate stuffy political office, the Oval Office.
Megan Adams is a junior in international studies and political science.
Really the only real indication she has given to the world that she has taken time since the VP run to do some deep thinking on international issues has been through Facebook. Her foreign policy manifesto titled, "Peace Through Strength and American Pride vs. 'Enemy-Centric' Policy" that she posted on Facebook in
NICHOLAS SAMBULAK
GUEST COLUMN
WikiLeaking chips away at security
WikiLeaks announced recently that it was under cyber attack. The Distributed Denial-of-Service has been popular in recent months; most notably, government websites in the U.S. and South Korea came under this type of attack in the 2009. U.S. cyber experts learned from that DDoS assault, and they may have put it to their own use yesterday (debating the ethics of such an attack is a worthwhile endeavor for another time). It would certainly not be surprising, as the nation seems uniquely under pressure from Assange and his team.
In a blog post yesterday, Blake Hounsell of Foreign Policy asked if WikiLeaks has gone too far. Hounsell admitted to being eager to see the documents but expressed doubt about undermining the ability of diplomats to do their jobs and WikiLeaks' dismissive stance on its role. The group argues that the world should have as many classified documents as possible—
Adding information to the public domain on important issues—this is a journalistic duty few would deny. Major publications will certainly be excited to see what WikiLeaks publishes this time. The New York Times has added a whole feature, "The War Logs," to analyze WikiLeaks' postings on the Iraq war. Yet this latest batch of documents concerns U.S. diplomatic affairs around the world, from confidential assessments by ambassadors about foreign leaders to the private communiqués from Washington to individual embassies. This latest broadside from WikiLeaks makes the journalistic position more troubling.
That's not really how it's working out. It's now increasingly hard to ignore an anti-American vendetta in Assange's efforts. Documents about U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan may have informed the public in meaningful ways—even if they apparently had nothing new for those living in the region. With the State Department's files, however, there will certainly be revelations, and many seem preliminarily more likely to embarrass and damage U.S. foreign policy than anything else. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been leading efforts to mitigate the upcoming onslaught by reaching out to world leaders before ambassadors' private observations of them come to light. Initiatives such as START—the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia—could be jeopardized.
One might argue that Assange has no vendetta against the United States and that he only publishes these U.S.-focused documents because they are what is available to his group. Consider Assange's own words, however: "The material that we are about to release covers essentially every major issue in every country in the world." So, ignoring the Assange arrogance factor, we have confidential U.S. government documents on every major issue in the world. Am I the only person who doesn't believe that no matter what misdeeds the United States would want covered up, those issues also include important ones in which U.S. secrecy is beneficial to the public good?
1
The State Department has taken the position that these documents
were obtained illegally and will risk the lives of various individuals. Assange responded by offering to negotiate on individual redactions, a possible compromise with which the U.S.government refused to participate. Even assuming that this offer of partial redactions meets the concern of individuals' immediate safety, it does not address the broader possibility of ambassadors' efforts being undermined in worthwhile efforts.
WikiLeaks' founder seems to believe that any secrecy or confidentiality by a government, or at least the U.S. government, is inherently suspect. Yet secrecy is not always sinister. The unfortunate by-product of this release is that, as WikiLeaks publishes by massive salvo, not by individual scoop, the United States will suffer politically in areas we cannot yet predict.
Like the rest of the journalistic field, I am usually excited by the prospect of breaking news that holds governments and large corporations accountable for their actions. As an American, however, I cannot help but feel uneasy at WikiLeaks' actions. Whether by circumstance or by design, Assange seems to be harming my country's ability to operate.
We can hope that the release of these documents encourages government accountability and contributes to the public discourse. Then Assange's latest efforts will have yielded a positive contribution for the global community. I'm now increasingly suspicious that this will not be the case.
From UWIRE. Alexander R.
Konrad for Harvard Crimson at
Harvard University.
RELATIONSHIPS Don't forget about friends and family when dating someone new
Six months ago, I wrote in my last column of the semester about the importance of high standards in relationships. At the time, I was single and settled with the fact that those high standards I set were highly unlikely to be met during my college career. I was "Perfectly Lonely," as John Mayer would say. I actually felt sorry for people I thought were wasting college years in a relationship.
Ironically, looking back now, one of my favorite sayings was "We have our entire lives to stay in and cuddle, why waste it now?"
In the mean time, I lived the life I wanted. With this independent-woman mentality, I was ready to conquer the world. I worked out hard to best sculpt my body for the single bar scene. I worked harder at school and on my columns. I found that the more I achieved academically, the more confident I became. I spent my down time in the company of my best friends, whose sarcastic attitudes, dry humor and comforting voices always filled all the empty holes of loneliness that any man could.
But low and behold, days after I wrote that article, I met someone who changed everything. I warned him shortly after we started talking that I was going to be trouble and it was best for him to not get involved. I told him my heart had built a solid defense because of years of misfortune and his chances of ever getting past those defenses were less likely than the Royals winning the World Series.
And, true to my word, I put him through near hell the next few months. I did things I wasn't proud of to test his truthful tongue. I must have said the words "heard that before" more than a million times to him.
But the truth is that I didn't know whom I was dealing with. I didn't want to. Before him, I usually fell for assholes, like most girls my age. Men who provided temporary excitement always won my heart faster then the ones who could provide long-term satisfaction.
Anyway, a few months later, fall came. The Royals, again, didn't make it to the playoffs. But I started to find this boy's consistency, willingness, and dedication in winning my affection to be quite attractive. Yes, I beat my bad habit of falling for assholes.
Three months later, we are still together. But lately I've started to nag at him more than I should. I find myself blaming him for my own shortcomings. I find myself replacing the time I used to fill with my friends, my schoolwork and my writing with time with him.
Being the obnoxiously investigative person I am, I refused to let this itch go without scratching it. I researched what the hell was wrong with me. According
Texts in the City
BY MANDY MATNEY
mmatney@kansas
Equally interesting, Brizendine found that the classic symptoms of early love are similar to the initial effects as cocaine, Ecstasy, morphine, heroin and OxyContin.
to Louann Brizendine's book "The Female Brain," the female brain during the "falling in love" stage of the relationship that takes place in the first few months becomes illogical to the throes of new romance. According to Brizendene, this brain stage shares brain circuits with states of obsession, mania and intoxication.
After reading this, it makes sense now why I haven't felt the need to do the things that used to fulfill me. I haven't written as much as I used to. I haven't felt the need to exercise or go out drinking with my friends like I used to. I guess it is because I found an easier way to trigger those rewards circuits in my brain, as lame as it sounds.
But at the end of the day, I've found that we need versatility to keep us happy. I told my boyfriend about my struggles of missing my single self and we agreed in order for our relationship to last long term, we need to demand high expectations of each other. We acknowledged that our time apart from each other is equally as important as our time together.
And after writing this especially, from this point forward, I promise to dedicate more time with my friends than I have been
I've never been a girl to forget where I came from and who helped shaped me. The truth is that I would have never had the high standards that led me to my boyfriend without the support of my family and best friends. It is time to start acknowledging that more.
And most importantly, I need to hold myself accountable for not holding myself up to the same expectations as I did when I was single.
The truth is that comfortable love isn't always a good thing. Successful relationships require demanding the best of each other without settling for mediocre comfort. It's crucial that we hold ourselves and our partners to demand the best of each other. Like my mom always has told me, "Your relationship should better each other, not worsen."
Matney is a junior from Shawnee in journalism.
Chatterbox
Responses to the news of the week on Kansan.com
"Current congressional leaders have made it very clear that they do not consider an increase in the retirement age or a decrease in benefits to be a viable solution. We cannot fix the social security problem with taxes. It simply will not raise enough revenue."
—"Connerm" in response to "Believe it or not, taxes benefit everyone" on Nov. 19.
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