COMMENTARY

D.C. gun ban not unconstitutional

This past week, residents of the District of Columbia began to line up to apply for permits to carry handguns. It has been a few weeks since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the D.C. handgun ban was unconstitutional, and finally, the debate over the operative clause of the Second Amendment has yielded policy results. I still wonder, however, if the majority opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia correctly interprets the 221-year-old amendment.

COMMENTARY

No one entitled to land in Israel

Most major conflicts arise in this world because two or more groups of people believe that they are entitled to the same property. Wars are started over what group of people is entitled to a country, or what country is entitled to what property.

COMMENTARY

Trip to Middle East shows Obama willing to learn

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has been taking some heat for his lack of knowledge in foreign affairs — but this past weekend he might have proved that he is willing to learn.

COMMENTARY

Eliminate useless social customs

Our society is based on a lot of customs and traditions. While some of them have real utility, many of them are now defunct rituals and formalities that do more harm than good. Just like the evolution of life on this planet, some human behavior also must be phased out to suit changing times.

COMMENTARY

Illegal textbook downloads appealing to students

As fall semester draws closer with each passing day, so does the burden of scraping up money for textbooks. For those who can’t afford steeply priced textbooks, many of them turn to alternatives such as shopping online, pairing up with a classmate to share a book or refrain from buying books at all.

COMMENTARY

Drilling for oil slows innovation

I’m the type of person who thrives under pressure. In fact, there are a lot of things I just can’t get done unless I’m on a tight deadline or there’s some impending doom looming over my shoulder that requires me to act quickly. I sat down Monday night, for example, to start writing a paper due Wednesday for my sociology class.

COMMENTARY

Winter's column thought-provoking, stirs responses

What a joy it was to open The State News of July 11. We got some good old opinion material to sink our teeth into with, Consider planet when having kids (SN 7/11). Drew Robert Winter decided to take on the age-old establishment of “birthin’ babies.”

COMMENTARY

Simon's e-mail offers little insight on tuition raise

When students opened their MSU e-mail accounts on Monday evening, they were greeted with an e-mail from President Lou Anna K. Simon. Unfortunately, the e-mail wasn’t a chain letter and it wasn’t sent to ask students how their summer was going.

COMMENTARY

eBay not responsible for counterfeit products

How many times have you purchased an item online and realized that it was only a cheap version of the real thing? This seems to be a common occurrence on some peer-to-peer shopping Web sites, and numerous companies have set out to end the trend of phony products.

COMMENTARY

Animals deserve equal care when it comes to suffering

Mitch Goldsmith

July 15, 2008

Meghan Swinkey’s characterization of animal rights organizations and activists, expressed in her letter to the editor (Extreme animal rights group not good fellowship sponsor, SN 7/7), is a perfect example of the fear mongering and scare tactics that constantly plague any dialogue when individuals attempt to legitimately discuss the needs of animals.

COMMENTARY

Obama cartoon not very funny

Keiara Tenant

July 15, 2008

If a cartoon — satirical or not — is supposed to make you laugh, why weren’t more people laughing at the sight of this week’s cover of The New Yorker magazine? The magazine hit store shelves Monday and portrays presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen.

COMMENTARY

Education needed to make bike transport safer

What could possibly be so charming about a clunky, gray, 50-pound bicycle? The Vélib’ — a bicycle named for a combination of the French words for bike and freedom — has become an immensely popular mode of transportation throughout Paris. In its first year, the company saw 27.5 million trips taken by Parisian riders, with an average 120,000 trips each day.

COMMENTARY

Having children not selfish act

Drew Robert Winter’s column Consider planet when having kids (SN 7/11) is immensely shortsighted, viewing children in immediate environmental and financial terms without considering the broader picture.

COMMENTARY

Misleading signs on campus need updates for clarity

I recently got a parking ticket for parking in a staff parking lot. I was parked there because the gates were raised. In any other city and during the fall and spring semesters on the MSU campus, raised gates mean the parking lot is no longer reserved.

COMMENTARY

Shifting focus to Afghanistan not the solution

The most bitter topic of discussion for the past five years might be the Iraq war. As if it weren’t bad enough, the taste may become even more unbearable after the Bush administration recently announced that they are considering withdrawing additional combat forces from Iraq in September and reassigning them to Afghanistan in order to meet the need for additional troops in the country.

COMMENTARY

Some leaders not worthy of title

Leadership. I used to roll my eyes when I heard that word, as it usually came from the mouth of an overly-enthusiastic friend who had just read one of thousands of those books on the topic. Motivated by some good intentions of doing better in their job and life, they feel empowered by the self-help books and are more eager in their proselytizing than an Amway salesman.

COMMENTARY

Consider planet when having kids

Drew Robert Winter

July 10, 2008

Kids, kids, kids. They’re everywhere. More than 73.7 million in the United States in 2006. We call children our future, our little bundles of joy. But is our cultural obsession with our own children really helping us as a society?

COMMENTARY

Stem cell research decision goes beyond religion

Wouldn’t it be great if some of the most debilitating diseases could be cured at the touch of a button? Unfortunately that’s not possible, so some special interest groups are pushing to lift Michigan’s ban on stem cell research so that dream can become somewhat attainable. Voters will have the opportunity to approve the proposal to allow stem cell research come November.

COMMENTARY

Politically correct ideas can stifle us

For all of its intentions to the contrary, the phrase “politically correct” has stirred quite a bit of ill feeling for itself. This is a complex matter with many strong emotions attached to it, and it is certainly too broad to discuss in 700 words, but I would like to set down some general thoughts on this postmodern phenomenon.

COMMENTARY

Common Ground interferes with Lansing City Market

The imposition of the Common Ground Music Festival on the Lansing City Market’s vendors and customers is uncompensated and barely acknowledged. More than 60 percent of on-site parking and access to the market has been overtaken by festival personnel and barricades.