The Edge of Reason

Find some of our former writers at The Underground

2009-05-27T09:19:00.005-05:00

Just a note to anyone checking this blog: Former Edge Editor & Publisher Zach Becker founded a new independent student newspaper at Missouri State University where he is attending graduate school. The Underground can be found online at www.msu-underground.com. Becker, as well as a few other former writers from The Edge, are contributing online content.

Amazing Science

2008-10-16T17:21:00.003-05:00

C.E. "Bud" Brann

Staff Writer

cebrann@ruraltel.net

Have you thought about the incredible feats performed by scientists and engineers? When we hear about landing a space probe on another planet we kind of say, "Ho hum, big deal."

If we think about the complexities of such a feat in everyday terms we become astounded.

Suppose you were a baseball pitcher with an amazing throwing arm, able to hurl a baseball for fifty miles. Suppose you took a microscopic baseball and went to the state fair and took a ride on the tilt a whirl. Further suppose a friend just happens to be in a town 50 miles away and just happens to also be riding a tilt a whirl at the same time as you. Now somehow, (don’t ask me how) you can see that a bee has landed on your friend and is about to sting him. Your tilt a whirl is going up and down and spinning rapidly as is the tilt a whirl your friend is riding. You hurl your microscopic baseball 50 miles and manage to knock the stinger right off the Bee.

It’s too unbelievable to even consider such a silly notion you are probably thinking, but in essence space scientists have been doing just such difficult feats for years.

Every time a space probe lands on another planet, like Mars, the feat accomplished is as difficult as the baseball pitch, only worse. We have become pretty blasé about such events, but think about it. The distance from the Earth to Mars isn’t constant, varying from 36 million to 250 million miles. So to make the baseball feat more realistically, your friend would not be just 50 miles away but his distance would vary from 50 to around 347 miles as your hurl your pitch.

The Earth is rotating on its axis once every 24 hours, Mars every 24 ½ hours. Both planets traveling around the sun in an elliptic orbital, both are not just rotating but also bouncing up and down. To top it off the entire solar system is whirling like that tilt a whirl. Finally every planet, the Sun, and anything and everything else in space have gravity which affects everything else in space.

Actually, my tilt a whirl example left out another problem which scientists face. In order to make the “bee” a more realistic scenario, you and your friend could not be riding tilt a whirls at the same time. Your friend would have to ride his years after you hurled your microscopic baseball. It takes years for a space shot to reach Mars from Earth.

Yet that Mars probes will land in a precise spot at the north pole of Mars just at the selected time for Mars spring thaw. And almost equally unbelievable is, that if Phoenix performs as well as the two previous probes, four years later it will still be operating having endured temperatures which range from minus 30 to minus 200 degrees F.

Computers made such incredible feats possible. (Of course a lot of other scientific breakthroughs were also required.)

To old timers (that would be me), even those like me who have degrees in science, such advances in science boggle the mind. When I was in college we did our math with slide rules. I’ll bet there are people out there who have no idea what a slide rule is. Through seven years of chemistry and physics in both undergraduate and graduate work I used a slide rule. It wasn’t until a few years later while working on an MBA that I first had the opportunity to use, even to see, a computer. That was at the University of Chicago and that computer filled a good sized room. To say I got to use it is even a bit of an exaggeration for I wasn’t allowed to touch it. I had to write my program, put it on key punch cards, get in a long line and eventually, after a long wait, hand it to a computer operator to actually run it. The small desk top computer I am writing this on is probably at least 1000 times more powerful than that room sized computer at the U of C.

Incidentally, getting back to space, the day I ran my very first computer program was the same day man first set foot on the moon. (My professor showed up and asked why on earth we weren’t all gathered around a TV watching such an incredible event. I guess he forgot the tremendous computer work load he had given us.)

Common sense solutions to the oil crisis

2008-07-05T17:05:00.004-05:00

Zach Becker
Editor
edgenewspaper@gmail.com

$4.00 a gallon. And going up and up and up....

Our country is in a vice grip at the hands of the oil industry, vulnerable to its every whim, the life of our economy squirming about, trying to stay afloat, choking ourselves out, yet unable to break free. Tighter and tighter it turns. Yet we cannot escape, for the very chains that bind us are also the rungs from which we have built this great nation. Have we weaved our own noose? Is there a way out?

Judging by the action (or inaction) of our friends in Washington D.C., the answer would appear to be no. Apparently, many in Washington would rather watch as the nation's economy craters than take any real action.

Their solution? "Drive less and use less fuel." If only it were so simple. Oil drives every sector of our economy. While encouraging Americans to cut out unnecessary driving and use public transportation is a good step, it is certainly no solution to this petrol problem we have.

Here is a solution: DRILL FOR MORE OIL. Open the spigots in Alaska. Heat up that oil-rich shale. Scour our coastal waters.

Black gold. Texas Tea. That's what we need. Estimates show we have more than enough oil reserves right here in America for years to come, but it's all off limits due to a bunch of over-the-hill tree huggers on Capital Hill.

I'm not saying we should go out destroy a coral reef or kill polar bears in our search for oil. However, with reasonable environmental restrictions in place, we should start digging like crazy until we get these oil prices under control.

If things continue as is, we may be headed for another great depression. If that happens, and we can't afford to drive to work and we can't afford to feed our children, are we really going to thank our legislators for selling us out in order to save the Alaskan wilderness?

Now, if we were to get the oil prices under control, we certainly couldn't go back to our old ways. We need to take big steps to make sure this never happens again. Increase fuel-efficiency standards. Diversify our energy portfolio (with clean energy like wind, solar and nuclear power). And most of all, search for new fuels to power our economy.

The answer is right there... DIG FOR MORE OIL. We were shortsighted before, but this simple solution could buy us the time we need to diversify our energy use and free us from the vice grip in which we're currently ensnared.

This and That

2008-07-04T11:39:00.000-05:00

This and That

C.E. "Bud" Brann

Staff Writer

cebrann@ruraltel.net

Another sure sign of old age

Thirty or forty years ago had I been out of contact with my friends for a few days little would have been thought about it. They would assume I had gone out of town for a few days, or was involved in some activity which would have kept me to busy to make contact. Today, they assume I must be dead or dying.

My computer was down for several days last week. Emails sent to me elicited no response from me. First the normal e-mails were sent. They were quickly followed by e-mails saying “Bud, are you there, are you okay?" Next were friends contacting each other. “Have you heard from Bud?" “Is there something wrong with him?" Finally, my phone rang. (You remember phones, the old fashioned way to communicate?) When I answered, the first words I heard were, “Are you okay?" Yup, I was as okay as most people my age and condition, but my computer wasn’t.

Thoughts on the 2^nd Amendment decision.

Recently I wrote an article on the 2^nd amendment, and now the Supreme Court has ruled on the issue with a decision favorable to American freedom. It should have been, but wasn’t, a surprise the decision wasn’t unanimous, winning on a five to four majority. Apparently four of the Justices have never read the words of the founding fathers on the subject. This once again proves that some Supreme Court judges are more interested in activism than law.

Nor was it any sort of surprise that those most vociferously opposed to the decision, such as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, Chicago Mayor Richard M, Daley and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg all have squads of armed body guards to protect them. Hey, they need protecting, you don’t.

Neither was it a surprise that The District of Colombia, whose draconian gun laws were the cause of the courts decision has the most repressive anti gun laws in the nation and one of the highest murder rates. (In D.C., it is, or was, illegal to take a gun from one room to another in your own home.) Nor was it a surprise that the police chief of D.C. has essentially said “screw” the Supreme Court, we will do what we please or that the above mentioned mayors have already set about actions to get around the Supreme Court ruling. The issue isn’t over. Already both sides are preparing to take action, one side to stifle your constitutional right and the other side to defend it.

Oddly, those mayors and other anti gun folks have never bothered to check the facts, most notably that those with a concealed handgun license commit but a small fraction of the crimes of the citizens in general.

The Kansas violent crime rate is 389.4 per 100,000 population or 0.389 percent. For those 14,000 Kansans who hold concealed carry licenses, there have been only 2 licenses suspended for violent behavior, 1 for assault and 1 for spousal abuse, a rate of 0.014 pecent per 100,000, if I did the math correctly. So much for the “blood in the streets” prediction of the “Brady Bunch” of anti gun people.

Modern medicine

On a highly personal noteb my uncle who turned 93 last December had open heart surgery Tuesday and is doing very well. It wasn’t very long ago that someone that age would have just been expected to lie down and die. Such surgery would not even have been contemplated at that age.

The Internet

One of the newspapers for which I write has dropped the printed version totally to go strictly “on-line.” I initially questioned the wisdom of that decision until “The Edge” publisher, Zach Becker, informed me the online version was already getting more “hits” per week than the printed version reached in a month and it’s a lot cheaper.

Two points of which I was vaguely aware but hadn’t given much thought was the internet's ability to search topics and provide feed back. For example, hundreds, probably thousands of organizations and groups routinely search for topics of special interest to them. They search using key words and phrases. Nothing surprising about that, of course, as we all do that. But, when it comes to online newspapers, this assures much broader readership. For example, my above mentioned article on the 2^nd Amendment was automatically “found” by all sorts of groups both for and against gun control. I found my article mentioned and linked to several pro gun forums including the Kansas and Michigan pro gun forums and at least one such national forum. Thus, in addition to the hundreds of “hits” on my article through connecting to “The Edge” directly, it received thousands of “hits” via other internet sources.

In addition to the benefit such groups have through instant searching of topics of interest; the feedback to the newspaper is far more enlightening. In the printed version, about the only feedback comes from letters to the editor, or occasionally an e-mail to the writer if such is included with an article. An online service available to publications provides information on daily “hits” per article, where the hit originated, by country, state and town and who originated the hit. In the printed version, unless a letter to the editor mentions a specific article you don’t know which articles are most widely read. On the internet, you know by seeing which article got the most hits.

Independence Day, the Fourth of July

I write this July 3d. I’m curious as to how you, your family and friends, and your community celebrate the 4^th. Here in Hays, there is a long tradition which we enjoy every year. At old Fort Hays, free hot dogs, chips, and soft drinks are served to all. During the meal there is entertainment, usually just one person performing. After serving the food, the local band sets up and plays for about an hour, often emphasizing John Phillips Sousa’s stirring marches with a patriotic theme. In the evening, there is a large fireworks display. You may have to park a mile or two away if you want to get close, although we discovered a relatively deserted road where the fireworks are clearly visible. Many people take the occasion to tour the old Fort buildings, an annual visit.

There is also a celebration called Wild West Fest, which has a carnival and music, often with very well known bands. The last one I saw was Charlie Daniels and what a 4^th of July performance he provided. It was fantastic.

Before I moved to Hays, the day was usually committed to a family picnic and evening fireworks and of course shooting off our own fireworks. So, how will/did you spend the holiday?

I realize that as you read this, it will be well after the 4^th of July. But I suggest that should not be the only day on which we reflect on the founding of our nation, and the great founding fathers that set in motion the events which led to some of the most magnificent words ever set to paper, as well as the founding of the United States.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

A bit of cloth

2008-07-04T11:35:00.004-05:00

A bit of cloth

C.E. "Bud" Brann

Staff Writer

cebrann@ruraltel.net

People who support burning the American flag say it’s no big deal; it is just a “bit of cloth”. If it is just “a bit of cloth”, what is the point of burning it? You might just as well burn your old underpants, mightn’t you?

Of course it’s more than a bit of cloth. It’s a symbol. If it were not a symbol, not more than a bit of cloth, no one would be interested in burning it.

It is a symbol of victory, and a symbol of defeat. When Marines faced a hail of bullets to raise that “bit of cloth” on Mt. Suribachi in Iwo Jima, it told the world of pride, bravery, effort, loss, blood, sweat, and tears…… and it told of victory.

When it was lowered in Viet Nam, it told the world of defeat and shame. The first act at a new embassy is to raise that “bit of cloth” and the last act when leaving an embassy is to lower that “bit of cloth.”

When America’s gold medal Olympic athletes wrap that bit of cloth around their shoulders as they take a victory lap, or when they stand at attention on the podium as their flag is raised, often with tears of pride in their eyes, it is not just a bit of cloth. It is a symbol of their pride in their country and in their achievement, just as are the flags of gold medal winners from every other country.

It is that bit of cloth which can cause thousands of noisy people at a football game, baseball game, or any other sporting event to suddenly become quiet, stand on their feet, and place their hand over their heart. I doubt if raising your old underwear on a stick would elicit that response. (Well I suppose if it were Pam Anderson’s under pants it might get some men to react that way.)

America is not a perfect country. It never has been and never will be. But millions of people from all over the world have come to the United States because they see that “bit of cloth” as a symbol for their hopes and desires, for a better future for themselves and for their children..

A “bit of cloth? No way!

The Statue of Liberty is not a “bit of metal”. It is a symbol, a symbol of hope for all “the poor and huddled masses yearning to be free.”

The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are not just “bits of paper.” A marriage license, a diploma, a deed for your home are not just bits of paper. They are symbols, symbols which have meaning. Symbols of love, achievement, ownership. Symbols of hard work, sacrifice, yearning, hope, and pride.

The tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Viet Nam wall, and for that matter the Blarney Stone, are not just “bits of stone”. They too are symbols. Symbols of love and respect; or symbols of loss, symbols of gain, and symbols of hope.

Standing by the Viet Nam wall, one sees many tears. The only reason your old underpants might bring a tear to the eye could be because of the smell.

Having said all that, you might assume I am a super patriot who supports an amendment to the constitution to prevent burning of the flag. I’m not and I do not. Just as we raise and wave the flag to indicate our pride, those who disagree with the actions of the government have the right, or should have the right, to use that same symbol as an example of their shame, their disagreement with government actions. I have yet to see a flag burner with whom I agreed, but one of the symbols for which our flag stands is freedom of speech and freedom of expression. They have the right to burn the flag, just as I have the right to tell them how I feel about their silly and childish means of protest. I would no more take that right from them, than I would allow them to take away my right to disagree with them.

Should President Bush be arrested for desecrating the flag by autographing it, as he has done? Should athletes, and entertainers, and Mr. and Mrs. American be arrested for wearing clothing representing our flag? Should the flag be painted on the side of race cars?

More importantly, doesn’t our government have more important things to do than interfere with people’s right of expression?

We are up to our ears in debt and sinking deeper by the hour. We are hated by much of the world. Our health care is a shambles; our old folks are being ill cared for. (Particularly a concern of mine as I am one.) We are in a war with Islamic terrorists. We appear to be mired in a war in Iraqi and possibly Afghanistan with no end in sight. We are threatened by Iran and North Korea.

Doesn’t our government have more important things to do then interfere with people’s right to expression, to interfere with the happiness of gay people, to thrust their personal religious belief on everyone else?

There was a time when it was conservatives who believed in rugged individualism, individual rights and freedoms and small government. It was, conservatives said, liberals who supported big government, group think, and interference with the many, in favor of the few. Now, in those respects there isn’t a nickels worth of difference between right and left. Both do the same, just from opposite sides of the coin.

We need to once again develop common goals, to learn to cooperate, not “out shout” each other, and see who can do the best job of interfering with others rights, just because we disapprove of them.

Before we can do this, we need to do something to keep our politicians from, every election year, trotting out old useless issues which do nothing but inflame passions. We need to demand that election rhetoric stick to important issues. Frankly I am sick of the Republicans trotting out the abortion issue every election and the Democrats trotting out racism every election. A pox on both your houses. Tell us how to defeat Islamic terrorism, tell us how to solve our health care crisis, the Social Security crisis. Tell us what you will do to solve the budget deficit. Simply griping that the other side is doing it all wrong doesn’t help. Tell us what you will do, not what the other guys is doing wrong.

People have the right to burn the American flag. We might wish they were wrapped in it at the time. Then maybe, just maybe, it would be your responsibility, as well as your right, to piss on them to put out the fire.

Now let’s get on with the business of the country.

Ex-FHSU professor files lawsuit against Fort Hays State, Brungardt

2007-12-10T22:57:00.000-06:00

http://www.theonlineedge.net/12-07-07/31212070701.html

Zach Becker

Editor

Michael Kearns, a former professor of leadership studies at Fort Hays State University, has filed a lawsuit against both the university and Dr. Curt Brungardt, Voss Distinguished Professor of Leadership Studies and director of the Center for Civic Leadership.

The lawsuit, filed in the district court of Ellis County this September, alleges that around September 12, 2005, Kearns was subjected to an “outrageous, malicious, willful and intentional emotional tirade” in which Brungardt “bitterly criticized and publicly ridiculed (Kearns)” and “inflicted severe and debilitating mental injuries” that left Kearns “physically disabled and damaged and unable to work.”

The lawsuit states that Kearns, a retired U.S. Air Force officer, was vulnerable to these mental injuries due to a long-standing military service-related medical condition.

However, Brungardt’s version on the situation paints a different story.

“We had an argument in a meeting,” Brungardt said. “He was talking about changing our curriculum and I said absolutely not – I said, after only being here a month or two, wait til you’ve been here a year or two… After the argument… we continued to work together and there were no issues. Disagreements in business meetings occur all the time. I saw nothing from him that illustrated him being disturbed. He wasn’t emotionally distraught at all until he got a letter denying him support of tenure.”

According to Brungardt, Kearns was denied tenure support at Fort Hays State by a 2-1 vote in early or mid November 2005, with Brungardt, the chair of the leadership tenure committee, one of the people voting against Kearns.

“After that occurred, I never saw him again,” Brungardt said. “He quit attending class, he quit coming to the office … I never saw him again.”

Kearns’ lawsuit alleges that Brungardt and other faculty at Fort Hays State intentionally used their prior knowledge of Kearns’ military service-related cardiovascular condition against him from that alleged September incident in 2005 through mid-December 2005.

According to the lawsuit, Kearns broke out in hives after the alleged September 2005 incident, as well as suffered “substantial emotional distress and mental anguish due to the event, including anxiety, post-traumatic stress, sleeplessness, depression and other mental and emotional problems.”

While Brungardt doesn’t deny that Kearns suffered some type of medical problem, he says that the medical issues did not occur after the argument at the previously-mentioned meeting, but rather after Kearns received the letter denying him a tenure track position.

“That’s the problem with his lie is that he’s partly correct,” Brungardt said. “He did have I think those (medical problems), but it occurred after he got the letter, not in an argument him and I had. And there are many cases where we worked together day in and day out afterwards.”

The lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $75,000 for “mental, emotional and physical damages, injuries, pain, suffering and mental anguish, disability, lost income, (and) medical/psychiatric expenses…”

Kearns is a military veteran and was injured in the line of duty in 1990. After rehabilitation, however, Kearns passed a physical in 1997 and returned to flying and skydiving.

Kearns taught at Fort Hays State during the fall 2005 semester before submitting his resignation at the end of that semester. Kearns’ lawsuit states that he is still suffering medical problems from the alleged September 2005 incident.

Brungardt expressed the opinion that Kearns’ lawsuit is an attempt to get back at him for voting to deny his tenure track position.

“I am the senior faculty in the department for tenure so I chaired that committee ... so who’s he going to blame,” Brungardt said. “Ever since that (tenure track rejection) letter went out, he’s come out with more things that aren’t even close to being the truth… He’s been mad at me and at Fort Hays State.

“This is the price I pay for doing leadership, for strongly believing he was not the right person for our department and for our university. And I was one of two people who voted against him. If I had to do it over again, I’d do the exact same thing.”

Caleb Boone, attorney for Kearns, declined comment on this story except to release the following statement: “The Plaintiff, Michael Kearns, believes in good faith in the merits of his claim. Mr. Kearns has filed his claim to recover just and fair compensation for injuries which he has suffered. He intends to pursue it to a successful conclusion.”

For Further Reference:

About Michael Kearns

About Curt Brungardt

Click here to view a PDF file of the lawsuit

FHSU to UWK

2007-09-08T19:08:00.000-05:00

Recently, I've heard word of a potential name change being considered for Fort Hays State University. A proposal looks to change the name to the University of Western Kansas. It seems the idea is already stirring up quite a few people, with good reason. A name is very important to a university and it shouldn't be tampered with unless vital.

And while I have grown fond of the name over the years, and, as a recent graduate of FHSU, it would be strange to see it change, I must say, looking at the options logically without letting emotion get in the way, I think this might be a smart move by the university should they decide to do it.

Obviously , most people who are at the school now, or have graduated here in the past, would not want to change the name. Those people are worried about things like tradition and pride and other "ra ra" type things. But that stuff doesn't matter to future students.

This decision is about the future of the school, not the past.

Current students have made their decision already, and, while they may not be happy, aren't going to transfer to a different school on a detail like a name. The only negative effect it might have is to lower donations by alumni who are mad at the decision to change the name. But even resentment over that change would even out over time.

Changing the name is meant to appeal to future students, those who may not have heard of FHSU at all until looking for schools online.

Would those new people be more drawn to a school with the moniker FHSU or UWK? (May I also add that by addressing the school as UWK - not WKU - it changes the connotation completely, as it would eliminate confusion to a tie with KU.)

Fort Hays State University (and "FHSU") just sounds very strange when you are not used to saying it. It is obscure sounding and more likely a turnoff than a turn on for potential students. University of Western Kansas (UWK), on the other hand, sounds more prestigious. It sounds like a big-time university, not some military fort. The name change would also have a subliminal effect on those hiring graduates due to the same reasons.

Fort Hays State is more and more becoming a big-time university. It is time it got a name that gives justice to the quality of education it provides.

In closing, while the name change would perhaps have negative effects in the short term (both in costs to change it and student/alumni disapproval), those negative effects would be more than offset by the long-term financial benefits through increased enrollment and prestige for the school that such a name change would certainly bring about.

There is a reason we are not still called Western Branch of the Kansas Normal School (or the other four names FHSU once had). And I bet each time it changed there was plenty of opposition. But those changes have been for the better. Now it is time to change the name of this school on the plains one more time.

Bring on the University of Western Kansas.

2007-08-28T10:19:00.001-05:00

If a picture paints a thousand words—wait, that sounds too much like a Bread song. Everyone knows by now that a picture is worth a thousand words, but do people ever wonder about the power of the word? Letters are little more than loops and lines, and words are little more than combinations of letters, yet we can express the most profound thoughts and ideas using these symbols, and others know exactly what we mean.

As a bit of a bookworm, the importance of the word has never been lost on me. My reading began before I could even read when my parents read to me at home, and later at school before the classrooms were air conditioned, and the best way to stay cool was to sit still and listen to the teacher read. Something clicked in those early days and I’ve been reading since.

Imagine my chagrin, then, when I learned that some people want to ban certain books. I’ve since come to learn that essentially every good book has been challenged at some point or rather. Of late, there are of course Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code. Both are among the best-sellers of all-time, yet small sects of society wish to deny everyone the basic right of reading them for enjoyment.

A bookless society is not an original idea. Ray Bradbury banged out Fahrenheit 451 over nine days in a library basement in the early 1950s. That book tells of a society where firemen are called not to put out fires, but to burn books. Instead of reading, residents sit in living rooms with wall-sized television screens and participate in the shows. The result? A brain-dead, conformist society that does as it’s told without asking questions. Not everyone can afford screens that large in 2007, but with so much “reality” programming and advertisements everywhere, Bradbury didn’t miss by much.

In Bradbury’s book, a curious neighbor dies, and the main character is told that asking questions leads to unhappiness, and that the girl is better off dead. Enter Aldous Huxley’s 1932 book Brave New World. The characters in that book have everything they need to be happy. Or do they? As infants, they are placed in a room with books and flowers, then shocked and scared as to be conditioned to fear both as adults. They are brainwashed in their sleep. Desire does not exist because they can have whomever they want whenever they want. And finally, should this not be enough, they have a miracle drug to ease the mind. Not one of Huxley’s characters ever swallowed a Prozac, but they sure gobbled up that soma!

While both of those books hit on the importance of art and literature for a deeper happiness, George Orwell’s 1984 takes it a step further. In that story, the language of the society is being rewritten by the Big Brother government to eliminate emotional expression. No longer can something be great, or super, or fantastic! Instead, it can be good, or doubleplusgood. Not quite the same, and the point is clear: words are more than simple communication. They are expression!

Finally, Kurt Vonnegut’s short story Harrison Bergeron tells of an egalitarian society where everyone is handicapped to the “lowest common denominator.” The intellectuals are subject to loud tones in a headset to prevent deep thought. Beautiful people are forced to cover themselves. The strong must carry extra weight to slow them down. While the story is profound enough, the low-budget movie of the same title has an even better dilemma: music is banned because it invokes passion, and impassioned people do crazy things. He who cannot play the piano may kill he who can in a fit of jealous rage!

All of these brilliant ideas expressed with a mere collection of black shapes on white paper. Ironically, it is often these types of books first on the ban lists, making them all the more clairvoyant. While I’ve never been so outraged by a word, and felt so self-righteous in my anger to want to deny it to everyone else, I am forced to wonder if that conditioning experiment in Brave New World was really fiction at all.

-Mike Courson

24

2007-08-10T13:45:00.001-05:00

I'm a Netflix subscriber and I rented the first disc of the TV series 24. I had heard about it some before from other people, but I must say it is really good. Excellent drama and action and production values are very high for a television series. I guess the secret agent thing hasn't been done to death.

Jenny (my fiancee) and I have been watching it and can't get enough. We went through the first disc in less than a day. I've frantically moved the series to the top of my list, so hopefully the next disc will come in soon.

The only complaint I have thus far is about the guy who plays the man running for president (looked it up, his name is Dennis Haisbert). It's not that he does a bad job (he's a good actor) it is just that thus far all I can think about is him talking about Allstate insurance. I guess it shows that (a) I watch the commercials and remember them and (b) sometimes selling yourself out to hock a product can undermine your acting ventures. Oh well, I'm sure he's getting paid well.

But, anyway, I'd recommend anyone who hasn't seen it to check out 24 at the earliest opportunity.

Brownback's campaign interfering with senate duties

2007-08-08T18:48:00.000-05:00

Is Senator Brownback in? No, he's here or there campaigning to be
president. Oh, I thought he was supposed to be serving the people of Kansas
as a United States Senator. I hope we're not paying him to campaign...

The 2008 presidential election is already unlike any before it. Debates
began over a year and a half before the election, and campaigning has been
going on for at least two years. The prices of these campaigns are setting
new records by reaching into the tens of millions.

For certain candidates, your Obamas and Clintons on the left side, and,
well I don't know who on the right side, the campaigning can by justified.
These are the candidates leading in the polls. These are the candidates with
the sound byte each night on the evening news. For others, however, the
campaigns were over before they began, and each day the facade continues, it
is we the people who pay the price.

In Brownback's case, his campaigning has pulled him away from his
senatorial duties. Granted, Brownback is the religious right's candidate,
and they do have a disturbingly large say in American politics. However, one
needs more than a few votes to pull down this highest office in the world.
While Brownback was away from his paid job, he missed the vote on the ever
important minimum wage vote. Of course, he would have voted against it like
he had in the past, but at least then we could have called him on it. He
also missed a vote to give aid one of his consitituent towns in Greensburg.
How better to serve the people who got you there, huh? I would complain
more, but maybe his absence is a good thing...

Brownback's case can be multiplied many times over with these silly
campaigns. Governors, senators, and congressmen have all been pulled away
from the jobs we are paying them to do. It would be disappointing albeit
understandable if they had a chance, but all but few candidates on either
side really do. And what happens next election? The one after that? Will we
soon have continual campaigning, merely electing these people so that they
can use their position as a pedastal for the presidency? Let's hope not. Get
back to serving those who pay your salary.

-Mike Courson

Welcome to the blog

2007-08-06T22:04:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone:

I've never written a blog before. I've done plenty of columns for the newspaper over the years, but never a blog. I guess the delivery method is different, but the medium is the same. From Gutenberg's printing press to Al Gore's Internet, may the written word never go out of style.

Perhaps I'm behind the times already with this blog stuff. I do read a few from time to time, but not regularly. They are interesting, but I've got enough going on with running a newspaper and working at Dillons. I guess it is just hard coming up with content for a bi-weekly newspaper, let alone a daily (or more) blog. With the unlimited space the Internet provides, I'm free to ramble more, though, so that's a good thing, right? But I guess attention spans are even less online than they are in print (I just made that up, but it sounds logical). So I'll try to keep this stuff fairly to the point, if there is one. Today, I don't really have one, other than just to try this thing out and introduce you to it. I usually am more cohesive in my writing. I tried a free-writing exercise this summer during a class in Stress Management. This post is bringing back memories of that.

I tried going with a more "sophisticated" blog, but dang, WordPress was about the most complicated thing I've ever seen to install. Writing is writing, I suppose, so for now I'll try the much simpler "Blogger." Perhaps later someone else can figure it out for me and I can move this thing to the more complicated software. But alas, for another day.

Yes, so back to the point at hand. This blog will be published on The Online Edge website. I figure I can update this from time to time between issues of the paper to keep our website more interesting. I may just ramble, like today, or I may have a point. I guess I'll see how I'm feeling at the time. I wonder if anyone will read it? Hopefully, you will. And comment on it, too. That is one of the features I'm really looking forward to with the blog format. The ability to comment on it freely and immediately really sets this off from print (I've probably gotten a total of 5 letters to the editor in over 2 years printing The Edge). Feel free to agree or disagree with me, but please don't leave spam. No one likes that stuff. It sucks, big-time.

In other news, I'm officially a graduate of Fort Hays State. I now have a bachelor's in psychology. Yes, after finishing some classes this summer, I went to the registrars office today and they'll be sending me the degree in the mail soon (but not before they charged me another $30. Honestly, I've already spent 3 years and thousands of dollars going to school there, couldn't they at least give you the degree for free? One more chance to sock it to ya, I guess). I'll probably write more about that in the next paper on the 20th.

Well, to the two or three of you reading this, until next time!

-Zach Becker