Subway promotes a salmon sandwich in Oregon by advertising, “Another reason you’re lucky not to live in Kansas.” Hallmark releases a birthday card using a “CSI: Topeka” gag suggesting a corpse has been “bored to death.” And humorists everywhere exploit (and misreport) the State Board of Education’s evolution vote. It makes you wonder whether anything — including the state’s $4.5 million “As big as you think” branding campaign — can take the joke out of Kansas these days. In any event, state officials need to get creative about fighting back.
Not that this is the best means, but it was notable that Oklahoma just rounded up some of its celebrities (Johnny Bench, Barry Switzer, Bobby Murcer, Jimmy Webb) and put them on an “Oklahoma Rising” float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, featuring Kristen Chenoweth of NBC’s “The West Wing” singing the title song from “Oklahoma!” “People are starting to fall in love with Oklahoma,” Bench reportedly said. OK then.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Sedgwick County Democratic Party chairman Kelly Johnston visited The Eagle editorial office last week to talk about the party’s plan to rally outside Century II during the Dec. 1 appearance of former President George H.W. Bush.
Johnston wants locals to know the party is alive and well and hopes to make Wichita a Democratic stronghold again.
The speakers will talk about the failure of the Bush administration on several fronts. He stressed that “this is not an anti-President George Bush the 1st event,” or an anti-Chamber of Commerce event.
Still, that could be a hard perception to overcome. Many Wichitans likely will see the rally as precisely that — an attack on Bush Sr. — and that carries real risks for the Democrats. The elder Bush is not controversial and is known for disagreeing with his son’s Iraq policy.
It will be interesting to see how the Democrats stage this event, and how it is covered by media and perceived by locals.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Now that Michael Scanlon, former partner of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former aide to Tom DeLay, has pleaded guilty of conspiring to bribe a member of Congress, it could get really interesting. Is he going to start fingering lawmakers? Reportedly, the “Representative No. 1” identified in court papers is Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio. But Scanlon and Abramoff showered extravagant gifts on many more members of Congress, mostly Republican.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Paul English, a blogger and entrepreneur, has great tips on his Web site about how to quickly circumvent corporate automated telephone systems and talk to a real person. Typically, you ignore what the machine is telling you to do and enter certain numbers. This confuses the system, which kicks you to a customer service representative. NPR interviewed him this week and tried out his “steps to find a human.” They worked.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The Medicaid reforms recommended this week by a state legislative committee aren’t new ideas. Still, it makes sense to crack down on fraud and inefficiencies and encourage the use of home-based services, rather than more expensive nursing homes. These reforms, however, likely won’t be enough to halt the annual increases in state Medicaid costs, which are the biggest budget challenge facing the state.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
I recently drove past Beaumont on U.S. 400 out in the Flint Hills, and suddenly noticed dozens of wind generators on the horizon, a few miles to the south. They’re part of the controversial wind farm that has angered many residents of the area.
One argument is that the wind generators despoil the scenic beauty of the Flint Hills. I don’t agree. It’s a subjective response, in the eye of the beholder. These particular wind generators, to me, don’t dominate the landscape; I could have missed them if I didn’t happen to glance over. But they also reveal and gracefully work with a natural element of the Kansas landscape — wind — in a way that a transmission tower, say, doesn’t. Here’s one reader’s view:
“I think the wind farm at Beaumont is a thing of beauty. The turbines rising from the plains and turning in the wind are an evocation of Dutch windmills — a sight we all find pleasing. The value of energy production, coupled with their stark beauty, make these machines a powerful statement of man’s ability to harness his environment for good purposes.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Considering how low Vice President Dick Cheney’s approval ratings are right now, CNN might have been able to justify the black “X” that flashed over Cheney’s face during its airing of his Monday speech at the American Enterprise Institute as merely reflecting public opinion. But CNN says it was a “technical malfunction” that “we obviously regret,” though many right-wing bloggers aren’t buying that.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It’s disappointing that the Wichita WaterWalk riverfront development is making so little use of the Arkansas River.
The WaterWalk development should have engaged and featured the riverfront. But as a reader pointed out in a letter last weekend, the Gander Mountain building has no relation to the river whatsoever — the big box might as well be in Andover. What happened to the promised restaurant overlooking the river, the decks and the dock for boats?
The building doesn’t even have a view of the river — its back is turned to the water. What a missed opportunity, especially for an outdoors retailer.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
This question came from an Opinion Line contributor:
Does Kansas Education Commissioner Bob Corkins remind anyone else of Beldar from the Coneheads of “Saturday Night Live,” or is it just me?
Posted by Melissa Cooley
It’s understandable that some religious conservatives are upset with the new religion course at the University of Kansas subtitled “Intelligent Design, Creationisms and other Religious Mythologies.” The term “mythologies” makes it sound as if believing in God as creator is akin to believing in Zeus or the giant turtle god. But as KU provost David Shulenburger explained in a Lawrence Journal-World article, “mythology” is an academic term referring to the common use of stories or rituals, and doesn’t necessarily mean that a story is untrue.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Another reason why Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., needs to do a thorough and honest job with his “phase two” report on the use of prewar intelligence information: German intelligence officials repeatedly warned the Bush administration not to trust Curveball, the code-named Iraqi defector who was the chief source of inaccurate claims that Iraq had a biological weapons arsenal, the Los Angeles Times reported. But not only did the Bush administration still use this information, without any qualifications, when making its public case for war, it exaggerated and mischaracterized Curveball’s claims, making the possible Iraqi threat seem more dire, the Germans said.
Is this true? Roberts needs to investigate this charge and, as he has promised, let the chips fall where they may.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The following spoof headlines come from the Web site borowitzreport.com:
BUSH ISSUES OFFICIAL LIST OF THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR; Not Talking to Cindy Sheehan High on List
REPUBLICANS DEMAND VOTE ON DROWNING OF KITTENS; Latest Attempt to Embarrass House Democrats
MARTHA STEWART BEGS TO RETURN TO PRISON; Desperate Bid to Boost Sagging Stock Price
THEORY OF DUMB DESIGN MAY EXPLAIN PAT ROBERTSON; Televangelist’s Brain, Mouth Elude Other Theories, Experts Say
FORMER PRESIDENTS BUSH, CLINTON ON EMERGENCY MISSION TO WHITE HOUSE; Latest Relief Mission for Globe-trotting Ex-Chiefs
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It’s good that the U.S. Department of Education is going to allow some states to track the educational progress of individual students as part of the No Child Left Behind mandate. It never made sense that the NCLB tests compared different groups of kids from one grade year to the next (such as comparing this year’s fourth-graders to last year’s fourth-graders). Still, the requirement that every student — including those with learning disabilities and who are learning English as a second language — must be proficient in reading and math remains statistically impossible, regardless of how it is measured.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The Wall Street Journal had a front-page article Wednesday about the growing number of suburban Americans being attacked by wild turkeys. Their fighting spirit is nothing new — it’s one reason Ben Franklin wanted the wild turkey, not the bald eagle, as the national symbol.
Franklin wrote his daughter disparaging the bald eagle as a thief and “rank Coward.” The turkey, by comparison, he argued, was a “much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America. . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”
Clearly, turkeys deserve more respect — maybe that’s why they’re so angry?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
WaterWalk’s case for tearing down the Wichita Boathouse took a big hit with an Eagle report this week that the corporate headquarters it is trying to lure is partly owned by one of WaterWalk’s partners, Jack DeBoer. Is WaterWalk really saying that the only way its own partner will move his Value Place headquarters to WaterWalk is if he gets property that was never intended to be part of WaterWalk? If so, what does that say about the rest of the project?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Jonathan Gurwitz, a columnist with the San Antonio Express-News, has a commentary in today’s Eagle about a movement to internationalize the oversight of the Internet. The effort is a bit more legitimate than he concedes, but most Americans likely share his reaction: The people who gave us the oil-for-food program want to run the Internet?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Kansas House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, announced today that he was dropping out of the governor’s race because he wanted to devote his time to the upcoming legislative session. But the reality is that Mays’ candidacy failed to get much traction and the electoral writing was on the wall. Still, Mays is sharp and more practical than he was often portrayed, and I’ll miss his presence in campaign debates. His departure also raises the question: If Kansas is such a conservative state, how come it can’t field a viable conservative candidate for governor?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Emporia biologist John Richard Schrock argues in a commentary in today’s Eagle that scientists were wrong to boycott the Kansas State Board of Education hearings on evolution earlier this year. Although I supported that boycott, I now wonder if Schrock isn’t right.
As he argues, the boycott left the field to ID proponents and fed their claims that mainstream scientists couldn’t defend the theory — a ludicrous charge, but some Kansans believed it. Scientists, says Schrock, didn’t just appear arrogant — “we were arrogant.”
Scientists must be much more aggressive in explaining and defending evolution and basic scientific principles to the public. By sitting back, they’ve allowed ID proponents to score points in the court of public opinion.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Maybe it’s time to give the distrust of Kansas Education Commissioner Bob Corkins a holiday break. Here’s a good place to start: the criticism of some questions being asked by his transition team of employees in the State Department of Education. Given that Corkins’ only experience with education was as a lobbyist for conservative reforms, of course his team wants to sound out state employees on school vouchers, charter schools and other pet issues. Employees should answer as candidly as they can, and surely Corkins will recognize the folly of trying to remake the department in his own ideological image: While he’s off promoting his agenda, somebody will have to keep doing the real work of the department.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The world isn’t winning the fight against AIDS, according to a new United Nations report. Despite increased education efforts and greater availability of antiretroviral drugs, the number of people infected with the virus that causes AIDS keeps increasing — now totaling 40 million.
Some of the disturbing statistics, as reported by The Washington Post:
Of the more than 3 million people who have died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2005, more than 500,000 were children.
Three-quarters of those who died of AIDS-related illnesses lived in sub-Saharan Africa, as do two-thirds of the nearly 5 million people estimated to have become infected in 2005.
There were a few bright spots, such as slight decreases in infection rates in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Burkina Faso. But overall, the news is discouraging.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It’s a bit disconcerting to already hear Christmas music playing in some area stores and hotels, and see Christmas merchandising in full swing. Some homeowners have Christmas lights up.
Ahem. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet!
President Franklin Roosevelt tried to appease retailers in 1939 by officially moving Thanksgiving one week earlier — from the last Thursday in November to the next to last — to allow more time for Christmas shopping.
But many Americans resisted the change. Roosevelt’s opponents derided the holiday as “Franksgiving.” In 1941, Roosevelt and Congress officially established the holiday as the fourth Thursday in November.
Apparently that’s still not early enough for some retailers.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The year isn’t over, but it is great news that Wichita’s crime rate is down 7 percent from the same period last year. Rapes, robberies and thefts have dropped. And so have homicides, which totaled 13 at the end of October, compared with 32 for all of 2004. Crime levels fluctuate, so it is difficult to know exactly why our rate has declined. But Wichita police officers certainly deserve our thanks for their daily hard work of keeping our city safe.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It may have been an effort to pre-empt the U.S. Supreme Court, but at least alleged dirty bomber Jose Padilla at last has been formally charged — and not with plotting to attack America, interestingly, but with conspiring to murder, maim and kidnap people overseas. Americans can argue all day about whether foreign enemy combatants are entitled to rights in U.S. courts. But Padilla is a U.S. citizen, and the legal limbo in which he’s been trapped for three years has been unacceptable. If the case is legitimate, it should be able to hold up in civilian court, no exemption from the Constitution required.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Pope Benedict XVI said earlier this month that the universe was made by an “intelligent project.” So does that mean intelligent design or its arguments should be taught in science class? No, says the director of the Vatican Observatory. “Intelligent design isn’t science even though it pretends to be,” the Rev. George Coyne (in photo) said last week. “If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science.” Exactly.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Time magazine’s Joe Klein makes a good point in this column about all the passionate discussions of whether President Bush intentionally misled the country into invading Iraq: “They are a waste of time. Two questions need to be addressed: Will an American withdrawal from Iraq create more or less stability in the Middle East? Will a withdrawal increase or decrease the threat of another terrorist attack at home? It does not matter whether you believe the war was right or wrong. If the answers to those questions are less stability and an empowered al-Qaeda, we’d better think twice about slipping down this dangerous path.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
