So many questions, so few answers

Written by Bob Woelk Tuesday, 08 February 2011 15:39

Questions. Questions. Questions.

Did anyone else find the reactions of the two people sitting behind President Obama more interesting than the speech itself? Was it irony or coincidence that the vice president was sitting to the president’s right and the speaker of the house was sitting to his left? How long would the speech have actually been without the interruptions for applause?

What the heck does the phrase “winning the future” mean exactly? Since when are we in competition with the future? Or is it for the future?

Where do college athletes get the money for all those tattoos? How much would it cost to adorn one’s body as heavily as those belonging to the Morris twins, who play for Kansas?

How about that Jordy Nelson? Were it not for a few dropped passes, might we have seen a small-town Kansas boy earn Super Bowl MVP honors?

What good does it do a high school or college basketball player to sport a guard for his or her teeth if it is always outside the player’s mouth? Instead, should a coach just hand out pacifiers to all players who want them?

Is not the Discovery Channel the most male-friendly, non-sports-based TV station on the air? Does anyone else hope those guys digging for gold find just enough to pay off their debts but not enough to make it seem like we all should quit our jobs and go tear up Alaska? How much are they getting paid for doing the TV show?

Why would some Haitians welcome Jean-Claud “Baby Doc” Duvalier back to their country after he and his father spent years imprisoning and torturing political opponents? Are the youth of Haiti so desperate to see any kind of stability in their earthquake-ravaged nation that they are completely blind to history?

Do voters in democratic countries also have selective memories at times?

Why do women who have been abused by their husbands often allow their spouses back into their homes repeatedly?

Will the world come to an end now that two long-standing streaks have been broken: the KU men’s basketball team lost a game at home and Unified School District 410 took two days off due to weather? (These are events that students at both schools could have sworn would never happen, especially in the same winter.)

Can you hear the laughter emanating from school officials in the upper Midwest and the Northeast at Wichita schools’ having taken five weather days this year, three of which were due to extreme cold?

Seriously, Wichita, three days off last week from one storm?

Is anyone out there even considering scaling back defense spending in the United States to pare down the national debt or the deficit? Do Americans know we spent $663 billion on the military in 2009, compared to China, the No. 2 nation, which allotted a paltry $98 billion?

How many U.S. citizens are aware that the current national debt is $14 trillion and counting?

Is allowing college students to take guns into buildings on campus a good idea? Would that include frat houses, which are notorious for partying?

Can a reader tell what a columnist is really thinking based on the questions he or she is asking?