Opinion
the University Daily Kansan
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ERIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010
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--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
Good sir, can you educate me in the way of the Douglas? For what purpose? For all the maidens adore me.
Man, 'Sex on the Hill' was so much better freshman year. Where are all the pictures????!
You know, you wouldn't be late to your 8 a.m. class if you didn't fix your hair perfectly or cake on your makeup EVERY morning. It's 8 a.m!
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
I enjoy seeing people smile when they look at their phone. They just got a text from someone special!
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
I think 'Sex on the Hill' should put up a list of men and women who cheat so we can stay away from them. Editor's note: Someone did not read 'The Scarlet Letter' in high school.
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
I think 'Sex on the Hill' came too early. They should have waited to put out this year.
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
I didn't just trip.The ground bit me! I swear!
So why is everybody in hoodies when its 30 degrees out? Is being freezing cold the new trend?
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
Harry Potter sold out.
Yeah, u know u like it.
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
Me and my roommate just sprinkled Pixie Stick dust onto my other roommate. That's what you get for not sleeping in the bedroom!
I was sitting in Anschutz for so long today, that when I get up to leave, I forgot what level I was on.
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
KU is all about hooking up, or Harry Potter. Those are your options
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
A girl recently told me I was a bad influence. Really I like to think of myself as the 'fun' influence
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
SPORTING KANSAS CITY.
I should be studying. Instead I'm sitting naked, eating pie and watching 'Criminal Minds.'
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
I have the world's worst boyfriend.
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
Just solved the secret Kansan Code. It says "Be Sure to Drink Your Ovaltine."
--ongoing ethics issues,the ticket debacle at KU Athletics has sometimes had to compete for attention.
EDITORIAL
Indictments needed step toward justice
With the resignations on Mark Mangino, Lew Perkins and Perkins
Yesterday, however, it was in the spotlight.
Four former KU Athletics officials and the current head of ticket operations at KU Athletics were indicted on charges related to the ticket scandal that took thousands of tickets off the market at a value of somewhere between $3 to $5 million
Tom Blubaugh, Charlotte Blubaugh, Ben Kirtland, Rodney Jones and Kassie Liebsch were all indicted.
Liebsch was the director of ticket operations, but resigned Thursday before the indictment came out.
It is disturbing that an individual now charged with a federal crime
was until yesterday in a position of leadership in KU Athletics.
Defendants are innocent until proven guilty. We strongly believe this. Regardless of ultimate guilt or innocence, though, this scandal has already harmed the image of the University.
KU Athletics does not operate in a bubble. Its actions reflect back on the entire community. That can be a good thing — such as winning a national championship — or it can be a very bad thing.
The indictments are welcome.It's important that each of the individuals have his or her time in court.
Lately, it seems like there's been more bad than good.
toward putting the last year and a half behind us.
— Jonathan Shorman for The Kansan Editorial Board.
It's one more step
Share your thoughts
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little (785) 864-3131 chancellor@ku.edu 230 Strong Hall
CARTOON
Interim A.D. Sean Lester
(785) 864-3143
slesterku.edu
Director of Ticket Operations Kassie
Liebsch
(785) 864-3141
kassie@ku.edu
HEY, IN MY DEFENSE I DON'T KNOW THE TAX LAWS I JUST CHAIR THE COMMITTEE THAT MAKES THEM!
NICHOLAS SAMBULAK
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Risk of superbug from vaccination misrepresented
Monday's letter to the editor about vaccination unfairly represents the associated "risks."
It claims that the flu shot can cause the virus to mutate into a sort of "super-bug," and while it's true that strains of the flu virus are constantly mutating, it's a process that has nothing to do with "access" to strains from a vaccine as claimed in the letter and can occur just as well in someone who hasn't had a flu shot.
Bacteria can be expected to evolve a resistance to antibiotics. Hand sanitizer, anti-bacterial soap and sterilization of anything and
everything will lead to resistant strains, forcing us to constantly develop new hand sanitizers, soaps and sterilizing wipes. However, the flu vaccine has no part in that cycle.
The letter also suggests that the flu shot is only necessary for those who are particularly at risk, but when one able-bodied person gets immunized, they are reducing the chance that they will get the flue, but also the likelihood that they will transmit the virus to those without the shot.
The flu shot is a safe, preventative method for reducing the
impact of flu season, both for those who may experience the flu as only a mild inconvenience, and for those with a weakened immune system, for whom it can be a much more serious issue. Unfortunately, many people forego immunization each year due to needless worries such as the ones published in this letter to the editor, unfounded fears that we may be creating "bigger, badder viruses."
Tim Clark is a sophomore in physics in Lawrence.
GUEST COLUMN
Thanksgiving reminds Americans of history
Most people associate Turkey Day with the landing of the Puritan Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620. It is a great image to see Europeans and Indians working together and coming together over a large feast. It is a great image for the early history of what would eventually become the United States. Though it helps to forget that within a hundred years, most of the Indian peoples in the area had been destroyed.
Even though it's still almost a week away, Thanksgiving is a holiday of great importance to this nation and has a lot more history to it than people think. The day when Americans stuff their faces and get fat, at least more than they do on most days, is not just a holiday for eating. And it is not just a holiday for the pilgrims and Indians of Plymouth Rock. Both historically and traditionally, this holiday is one of the most meaningful.
grims or Indians. Instead, it was a holiday proposed by President Abe Lincoln to encourage the American people to give thanks and increase national morale. It was also in part to help the Americans celebrate the victories the Union Army had won that year, especially the battles fought at Gettysburg and Vicksburg.
But Hallmark images and Indian Wars aside, the actual history of the holiday is even more interesting and much more modern than people think.
The holiday for giving thanks continued throughout the war and beyond, as people celebrated the return of the soldiers and the victory of the Union. As the years and decades went by, the holiday became more popular, especially when advertisements started to link Turkey Day to the pilgrims and the earlier days of the nation, something that the holiday originally had nothing to do with
The tradition started, not in 1620, but in 1863 right in the middle of the American Civil War. And it had nothing to do with Pil-
Now a days, Thanksgiving seems to be becoming the forgotten holiday, with stores and malls, and even radio stations, skipping it entirely, going from celebrating Halloween and straight through to
The holiday changed very little after that, with the exception of a date change implemented by President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930's to try and stimulate the economy, but besides that Thanksgiving remained much the same.
Christmas.
Some say it's because the holiday is not politically correct. There are even protests against it by Indian Rights groups who feel that Thanksgiving, along with holidays like Columbus Day, mark the beginning of the end of Indian culture and way of life. Others say it is not as popular because it cannot be commercialized. All you buy is food, that's it. No presents, no costumes, nothing that advertisers can really push, so they ignore it
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This simply isn't right. Thanksgiving is important because it does focus on America's past. And not just Pilgrims and Indians, but the hard days of the Civil War and the Great Depression. No other major holiday focuses that much on our own national history.
And we should love it more because it cannot be commercialized. It really is the holiday that brings family and friends together for a big dinner. Nothing superficial, just a fun time with good food. What's more American than that?
From UWIRE. Brian Warrick for The BG News at Bowling Green State University.
POLITICS
Lame-duck Congress contains opportunities
America is in a funk. This year's midterms served more a punching bag for voters than a referendum on politicians.
The poll revealed that 41 percent approved of Republican policies, while 37 percent disapproved. Worse, only 22 percent thought the relationship between Democrats and Republicans would improve in the next term.
According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, voters are less enthused and more skeptical about this year's midterm results than in 2006, when Democrats took control of the house, and 1994, when Republicans took control of the house.
The funk's bad.
So bad, many people didn't even care enough to vote.
In Lawrence, voter turnout was down by 20 to 60 percent in precincts closest to the University, which consists mostly of student housing.
There was no "Rock Chalking" the vote.
The doldrums of a slow recovery and the fear of an ever-rising deficit-mushroom-cloud have curbed America's resolve, replacing national ambition with national angst.
Quite a change from the last election cycle.
Two years ago, I went to the inauguration of Barack Obama. More than a million Americans descended on the nation's capital with hope, however naively, that a new day had arrived in Washington politics.
The moment that hit me the hardest, the moment I will always carry with me, didn't happen during the swearing-in ceremony, however. It came two days before, during the "We Are One" concert.
Right before John Mellencamp sang one of my favorite songs,
"Pink Houses," Joe Biden took the stage and said, "Work is more than a paycheck. It's about dignity. It's about respect. It's about whether you can look your child in the eye and say 'Honey, it's going to be all right.'"
Standing on historic ground, I thought about how America had triumphed over greater obstacles, how America survived a revolution, civil war and the civil rights era—times that truly threatened America's solvency. And at that moment, standing before the memorial of the Great Emancipator, I firmly believed our country would be OK despite the economic uncertainty that lay ahead.
Starting the Conversation
BY D.M. SCOTT
dscott@kansan.com
Two years later. I still do
I also understand how Allen Greenspan's recent warning about a possible bond market crisis might send some of those same people off the edge.
Two years later, I still do. I have always aborbed the fear card Republicans so often like to play. But I can understand how the ballooning deficit and the recently outlined proposal made by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform would have some people on edge
Sovereign debt crisis, anyone?
Little good comes from fear and it's time to snap out of the funk.
As a nation, our greatest achievements come when we believe and work toward ideas that are bigger than ourselves. And our prosperity and resolve have always stemmed from the collective backbone of the middle class.
Once again, the middle class will be called upon, only this time, as the beast of burden for a balanced budget.
Some of the proposals made by the bipartisan debt commission include increasing the retirement age, eliminating tax credits for families and raising the federal gasoline tax by.15 cents.
Quick recap. The middle class will pay for the wars that they sent their children to fight in, they will pay for the greed of Wall Street barons with their jobs and houses and they will make the greatest sacrifices in order to balance the budget.
I believe in the middle class. I know it will rise to the occasion and make the sacrifices needed to secure America's future.
It's not right, but it's OK because middle-class America has the resolve to do so. As the song goes, "Cause the simple man, baby, pays for the thrills, the bills, the pills that kill."
It just needs to get its swagger back.
I only ask that the lame-duck Congress do that right thing and repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. It's time the rich pay their way, too.
Scott is a junior from Overland Park in journalism.
Chatterbox Responses to the news of the week
Responses to the news of the week on Kansan.com
"A conservative ideology itself, however, is intrinsically greedy. If these people believed in their small government as much as they claim to, how come they always cut social programs for the middle class but never military budgets or the subsidies that go to their respective states? What do you expect from a party that calls Reagan the "father of conservation" when he sent the country into horrendous debt? And we're back to Reagan; full circle." —"xz007" in response to "Believe it or not, taxes benefit everyone" on Nov. 18.
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Length: 300 words
The submission should include the author's name, grade and hometown. Find our full letter to the editor policy online at kansan.com/letters.
Alex Garrison, editor 864-4810 or agarrison@kansan.com
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD Members of the Kanas Editorial Board are Alex Garrison, Ngerik Erin Brown, David Kernon, Jonathan Sharon and Bracey