OPINION
Page 4 | Monday, April 18, 2011
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ABOUT THE OPINION PAGE The Stater hopes to encourage lively debate about the issues of the day on the Opinion Page. Opinions on this page are the authors’ and not necessarily endorsed by the Stater or its editors. Readers are encouraged to participate through letters to the editor and guest columns. Submissions become property of the Stater and may be edited for mechanics, Associated Press style and length without notice. Letters should not exceed 350 words, and guest columns should not exceed 550 words.
DKS EDITORIAL BOARD Regina Garcia Cano Editor Kelly Byer Managing editor Rabab Al-Sharif Opinion editor
Laura Lofgren Features/A.L.L. editor Lydia Coutré Assigning editor Lance Lysowski Assistant sports editor
FAMOUS QUOTE
our
SUMMARY: The 2012 presidential election approaches, but the potential candidates leave us hoping for more.
VIEW
Slim pickings for Republican candidates
W
ith the 2012 presidential election a little more than a year away, possible Republican candidates are starting to come out of the woodwork. But potential candidates, including Donald Trump and Sarah Palin, have people wishing for any other option. Just imagine it: Trump 2012 bumper stickers. Although he hasn’t officially announced his run for presidency, there has been much talk about the possibility. Recently, Trump has blamed Barack Obama for rising oil prices and raised doubts over his birthplace. Trump even said he has gone to such lengths as having investigators in Hawaii look into Obama’s birthplace. He appears to
be on the same page of citizenship conspiracy as Arizona, where the legislature recently passed a “birther bill” to require Obama to prove he was born in Hawaii before appearing on the ballot again. The bill has yet to be signed by Gov. Jan Brewer. Trump might have a select group of supporters, but can this businessman who has never held office really run a nation? The idea of his candidacy is almost as big of a joke as his hair. What’s worse is that another potential candidate, who also happens to have a reality TV show, agrees with Trump’s investigation of Obama. Sarah Palin, who made headlines for her gaffes during the 2008 presidential election, has also hinted
at a run in 2012. While these two are certainly the most attention grabbing, the remaining candidates don’t show much promise either. Also among the front-runners with Palin are Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, who both ran in 2008 without success. If the presidential election was tomorrow, incumbent Obama would likely win hands-down. At this rate, unless a Republican candidate rides in on a proverbial white horse, the outlook for Obama’s re-election is looking good. The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board whose members are listed to the left.
DREW SHENEMAN’S VIEW
“Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.” — Zhuangzi
DID YOU KNOW? On this day in 1906, at 5:13 a.m., an earthquake estimated at close to 8.0 on the Richter scale strikes San Francisco, California, killing hundreds of people as it topples numerous buildings. The quake was caused by a slip of the San Andreas Fault over a segment about 275 miles long. — History.com
Major League beatdown This year ’s MLB season is already off to a very controversial start. On April 9th, at a matchup between the Colorado Rockies and the Pittsburgh Pirates, police clubbed a drunken fan with a nightstick and shot him with a taser. A video of the event has surfaced. The video shows the fan being escorted out of Pittsburgh’s PNC Park by police. A fellow fan attempts to highfive the intoxicated man before he is removed from the park, but a PNC Park worker blocks the high-five. Big mistake; you never block a high-five. The intoxicated man shoves the worker which leads police to tase him. The taser does nothing. This is one time that Pittsburgh baseball comes out on top of Philadelphia baseball. After the taser proved to be ineffective, the man took multiple nightstick shots to the jugular. The man was wearing an American flag shirt during all of this. His shirt along with his inhuman strength and the “USA” chants from the crowd prove only one thing: The man was Captain America. This incident was calm compared to many others so far this season. Not everyone was as lucky as Captain America though. A PNC Park worker was found dead two miles from the stadium the night after this game. Bryan Stow, a Giants fan, is currently in a medically induced coma after two Dodgers fans attacked him on Opening Day. The entire league has showed great support for Stow and his family through this struggle, but it doesn’t change the obvious problem here. Major League Baseball is slowly becoming crime infested. For a sport that includes stealing bases and robbing home runs, one would think
Dylan Lusk the only crime would be irony and terrible jokes. But these situations seem to be getting worse each year. The biggest problems used to be streakers and female fertility drugs. These crimes are completely unjustified. Rivalries are meant to stay on the field. I absolutely loathe every team other than my home team, but I don’t go busting skulls when I see someone wearing a rival team’s hat. Not just because it’s completely unreasonable, but it wouldn’t even make sense when half of the people wearing a baseball hat do it because the team’s colors match their shoes. It’s a sad day when Americans can’t enjoy the national pastime (and yes, it is the national pastime) without getting drunk and kicking some teeth in. If this kind of behavior keeps up, the only upside to baseball season will be the drunks getting out of the house and beating up someone other than their wives. It will take some time before this country realizes what behavior like this does. And there will always be some idiots getting drunk and causing problems for everyone. This is a problem that people need to use some common sense to fix. Save the crime for the NFL locker room. Dylan Lusk is a sophomore electronic media production major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at dlusk2@kent.edu.
READER COMMENTS Response to KSU students arrested in fake ID scheme TO THE KENT STATER REPORTERS, YOU ARE ALL DISGUSTING, LOOK AT THE INTERNENT AND SEE ALL FAKE IDS COMING FROM CHINA AND GOING TO ALL THE COLLEGES, YOU GUYS DIDN’T HAVE TO MAKE A BIG ISSUE OF THIS, I’M SURE 3/4 OF KENT STUDENTS AND OTHER COLLEGE STUDENTS HAVE FAKE IDS, THIS WAS A STUPID COLLEGE KID MISTAKE, YOU ALL WERE THAT AGE AT ONCE, I THINK THESE STUDENTS HAVE BEEN PUNISHED ENOUGH FOR ALL THE PUBLICITY AND IF THEY WERE NOT IN THE DU IT WOULD NOT BE ALL OVER THE NEWS, ALL THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE WRITTEN TERRIBLE THINGS YOUR TIME WILL COME WHEN YOU MAKE A MISTAKE IN YOUR LIFE NEITHER OF THESE STUDENTS HAVE A CRIMINAL RECORD, SO WHAT ARE YOU ALL TALKING ABOUT, THEIR BOTH VERY HARD WORKERS AND GOOD STUDENTS, SO STOP HARRASSING THEM!!!! AND KENT STATER YOUR MAKING YOUR SCHOOL LOOK BAD, STOP IT — COLLEGE, April 16, 2011
Immortality: a possibility? Gone are the days when people have to die, at least according to futurist Ray Kurzweil. In the new documentary “Transcendent Man,” the famed scientist makes bold claims about technology in the years to come. The 68 year old predicts by 2045 medical advances will allow people to radically extend their lifespan through the integration of electronic, artificial substances into the human body. This kind of statement is the thing jokes are made of. To think that immortality won’t just be for vampires and Larry King is unbelievable. However, according to Kurzweil (who accurately predicted the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the Internet) this outlandish notion will, without a doubt, come to fruition. The basis of this claim lies in the rapid development of technology. In “Transcendent Man,” Kurzweil says every two years technology gets twice as small and twice as fast for half the price. This kind of exponential growth has driven society and the products we have used for years. Compare today’s cell phones or video game graphics with those of 10 years ago to see the dramatic progress. He says the exponential incline of our technology will get extremely steep pretty soon, altering our lives more quickly than any other generation in the history of the world. That certainly is exciting. Only recently have I finally gotten used to using a
Mike Crissman computer on multiple monitors, like dragging a movie I want to watch from my laptop over to a TV screen. This other stuff? Just mind blowing. We are definitely living in the future, or at least what has been depicted in futuristic films. Kurzweil is a big proponent of nanotechnology and transhumanism, which is basically the merging of humans and machines. He sees it gaining traction in the near future as technology becomes smaller and more powerful. Imagine artificial materials inside a human body able to stop — and reverse — the process of aging. Kurzweil can. Using technology to replace the deficiencies in our bodies, natural or unnatural, is something he predicts will soon become commonplace. Tiny molecular nano-bots will merge with the biology of our bodies to not only enhance our health, but our mental capacity as well.
Kurzweil and numerous other scientists foresee the day when humans have electronics implanted into their bodies to increase their intelligence. People will have a database of information at their disposal. It’s like Google being downloaded by your brain. The line between humans and machines will blur as we begin incorporating more technology with ourselves. Too bad George Lucas thought of this over 30 years ago with “Star Wars.” It sounds like we might become a world of Darth Vaders. My only worry is I’m going to go in looking like Hayden Christensen and come out looking like the old, withered, pale potato-of-a-man Anakin becomes when he takes off the mask in “Return of the Jedi.” I just want to be Han Solo. Reversing the process of aging will undoubtedly become something atheists eagerly pursue. I’m sure the prospect of immortality on Earth is comforting to the minority who don’t believe in life after death. It will probably be a religion in itself. This is a difficult, yet thrilling subject to talk about. Although living beyond 100 is almost unthinkable, our technological advances are undeniable. Mike Crissman is a sophomore newspaper journalism major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at mcrissm2@kent.edu.
Agricultural subsidies tax our health As we wrap up tax season with federal spending under scrutiny, Americans should consider this: Congress continues to spend billions of federal dollars on food policies that contribute to bad health. This boondoggle is worse than a bridge to nowhere — it’s a publicly funded superhighway carrying the entire country into a dismal future filled with diet-related medical problems and soaring health care costs. The figures are staggering. In recent history, the federal government has spent about $16 billion per year on agricultural subsidies. Of subsidies that go toward food production, the majority support the kind of unhealthful food that the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends we eat less of to protect our health. As a doctor and nutrition researcher, I believe the best way to resolve that contradiction is to put unhealthy agricultural subsidies on the federal chopping block. The contrast between federal dietary advice and federal subsidies is stark. The government’s own recently released Dietary Guidelines document advises Americans to cut back on cholesterol and saturated fat. Yet agricultural subsidies continue to favor fatty meats, dairy products and sugar. Industrial hog producers, for example, enjoyed a savings of 15 percent in operations
Neal Barnard Guest Columnist costs between 1997 and 2005 because federal funds were subsidizing the grains fed to pigs. Direct and indirect subsidies to dairy producers totaled $4.8 billion between 1995 and 2009, even as consumption of high-fat cheese products reached new heights. This means that companies responsible for producing the most unhealthful food are doing so with the help of taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, healthful foods — fruits and vegetables — receive less than 1 percent of subsidies. That’s disturbing, given that the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines say eating more healthful plant-based foods and less saturated fat and cholesterol helps prevent heart problems and other life-threatening medical conditions. As the Dietary Guidelines point out, “Vegetarian-style eating patterns have been associated with improved health outcomes — lower levels of obesity, a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, and lower total mortality.” More than 60 percent of all deaths in the United States are caused by diseases linked to unhealthy diets, including heart disease, cancer and strokes. Poor diets are also linked to epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes. But poor health isn’t the only negative
outcome of the current system. Being sick is expensive. The medical costs of chronic health problems run in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually. The annual medical cost of obesity reached $147 billion in 2008. The Medicare and Medicaid spending for obesity-related conditions now totals $61 billion per year. If current trends continue, 86 percent of adults will be overweight or obese by 2030. Cardiovascular disease costs the nation about $189 billion a year, and by 2030, the annual medical costs for cardiovascular disease are projected to triple to $818 billion. A large portion of these costs could be saved by cultivating healthier diets to prevent many cases of these diseases from happening in the first place. Paying taxes is never pleasant, but it’s especially galling when you realize that the taxpayer-funded food system is literally making us sick. It’s time for Congress to fix this problem and address our country’s epidemics of obesity and other health problems. Let’s put agricultural subsidies on a diet. Neal Barnard is president of the vegan advocacy group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 5100 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20016; website: www.pcrm.org.