Lawrence man faces federal prosecution for stolen handgun

The problem is that the gun owner was apparently so irresponsible as to allow his gun to be stolen. Now, if the criminal managed to somehow open the owner's gun safe, then, I agree, no problem. But if the gun was easily accessible then the irresponsible owner's ability to get another gun should be limited.

May 1, 2013 at 12:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Lawrence man faces federal prosecution for stolen handgun

Tougher gun laws would reduce this sort of thing. You can't flood the country with guns and then argue that people need to be armed to protect themselves from criminals with guns - "we need more guns because there are too many guns" is simply illogical.

Gun-nuts note that Chicago's tough gun laws haven't stopped gun violence there, but the problem isn't with Chicago its with the sea of uncontrolled guns that surround it. Tough gun laws in Europe and Japan have clearly worked. Reduce the number of people with guns and there will be fewer criminals with guns - who would criminals steal their guns from if there are fewer irresponsible "law-abiding" gun-nuts?

April 30, 2013 at 8:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

A or A-minus? KU students want a straight answer

Really, Sycho, now you claim to know how all instructors grade their tests and papers? Essay exams and papers can both be qualitatively or quantitatively graded. The only thing required to assign a quantitative grade to an essay exam or paper is a point-based rubric. There is no insurmountable "structural problem" with bethlang1998's suggestion.

April 15, 2013 at 9:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

A or A-minus? KU students want a straight answer

If you think that the low significance (in your opinion) of a case will get it tossed, then you clearly either haven't been to law school or have never been in court. Parties determine significance, not courts - and low significance cases are usually settled, not thrown out.

April 15, 2013 at 10:09 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

A or A-minus? KU students want a straight answer

My guess is that you didn't go to law school at all. Perhaps taking the wrong sections from the wrong instructors left you with a GPA too low to get in.

First, the fact that each had a different instructor is completely irrelevent. That's like saying different clerks at the DMV can have different standards for issuing licenses - and its okay because they're different clerks.

Second, I have no idea what their intent is, but I do know that arbitrarily differential outcomes is indicative (though, admittedly, not dispositive) of an equal protection violation. I also know that that there is no rational basis for treating students in different sections of the same class differently.

April 15, 2013 at 10:05 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

A or A-minus? KU students want a straight answer

You clearly haven't taken classes at a university lately. Tuition is ridiculously high, and grades mean more now than ever before - as discussed in the article, students' futures are literally at stake. At the very least, students should expect consistency and fairness, not arbitrary variation depending on which instructor they have or which section they're in.

April 15, 2013 at 9:50 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

A or A-minus? KU students want a straight answer

I also think there's an equal protection problem. A professor at a public school is an agent of the government. Can you imagine what things would be like if every public employee could create their own evaluation scheme? For example, we would never allow employees of the Social Security Administration to set different qualifying standards for receiving benefits.

Obviously, academic freedom is important and means something, I just don't think it means different standards for otherwise identically situated people - that's the definition of a violation of the right to equal treatment.

April 15, 2013 at 9:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

A or A-minus? KU students want a straight answer

Instructors who teach different sections of the same course should have enough professionalism to coordinate these sorts of things. Academic freedom is important, but so is consistency, and this sort of arbitrary inconsistency undermines people's respect for the entire system. After all, if grades and GPAs are so arbitrarily determined from one section or instructor to another, then, people will ask, how important can they really be?

April 15, 2013 at 7:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Letter: Jayhawk woes

And in other news, the North Koreans may be preparing to launch a nuclear missile.

Seriously, you wrote a letter to the editor over a basketball game? Of all the things you could have wrote about, that was at the top of your list?

April 10, 2013 at 9:38 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

KU chancellor writes that possible state budget cuts would mean loss of at least 38 faculty jobs

It disturbs me that the response is to eliminate faculty and not administrative positions, eliminate services that are not essential to the teaching mission, or cut back on the flower budget for landscaping. Other area schools are making similar mistakes, especially replacing full-time faculty with cheap adjuncts while creating more and more administrative positions.

Academia will soon look like your average corporation: A bloated executive class overseeing under-compensated, over-worked assembly line workers.

April 10, 2013 at 7:48 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )