What is art? "Art is the most passionate orgy within man's grasp," said Jean Dubuffet. Artist Edgar Degas concurred: "Art isn't something you marry. It's something you rape." Regardless of how one conceptualizes art, one word that rarely defines it is profitability. Indeed, the UA's arts programs are once again making headlines because of funding woes.

The Arizona Daily Wildcat reported last week that UApresents, is dangerously underfunded. Lack of theater ticket sales has left UApresents scrambling for money and barely staying afloat with a recent $50,000 anonymous private donation. The crisis is common. UA arts programs - including dance, music, performing arts and visual arts - chronically suffer from money shortages. But for all the programs bring, it's time for UA administrators to commit to a level of funding that will permanently sustain such programs. [Read article]

Eugene Martinez, who recently received the 700th heart transplant performed at University Medical Center, was very lucky to get a heart transplant. Because of a shortage of transplantable organs, more than half of the people who need a transplant in the United States die before they get one. More than 87,000 Americans are now on the national transplant waiting list, and another 40,000 will join the list this year. [Read article]

Social Security debate needs more context, less conjecture

Since 1938, conservatives have been predicting that Social Security will bankrupt the nation. The primary motivation for privatization has been the idea that Social Security is "in a crisis?" The Social Security tax produces more income than the program pays out. In fact, it's running a hefty surplus.

By law, Social Security deposits surplus money in Treasury securities. Its trust fund holds more than $1.5 trillion. By 2018, politicians predict that Social Security will run a deficit, when security funds will have to be sold. Therefore, the only "crisis" would come if these funds dried up. There have been several points in America's past where the system ran a deficit, and it always overcame this by selling back a minimum amount of securities. [Read article]