Tuesday, April 21, 2026

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Commentary

COMMENTARY

Student-E.L. residents left with few sober entertainment options

Editor's note: All characters and events in this column are entirely fictional. So I was carrying a brown baggie full of dog poop in one hand and a lighter in the other, creepin' onto my neighbor's porch after dusk a few nights ago, when he burst through his front door. "Hold it right there, young fella," he rasped.

COMMENTARY

Remembrance

It's a little-known fact, but we employees of The State News work on Sundays. That is because the newspaper comes out on Monday and because MSU holds class on Mondays.

COMMENTARY

Thriller trial

Back in the days when circuit courts actually involved traveling judges and lawyers who followed a circuit from courthouse to courthouse, trials were a community event.

COMMENTARY

Comments taken out of context

As an uncompromising advocate for LBGT rights, I was deeply distressed by the distortion of my words and the position of the Jewish community in your article "Intersection of Identities" (SN 5/17). I had spoken unequivocally to your reporter about the unqualified endorsement by Reconstructionist and Reform Jewish institutions for welcoming LBGT persons, ordaining and employing them as rabbis and advocating for their rights to marry.

COMMENTARY

All those in favor of war should enlist

Bryant Miller, in his letter to the editor "Bush not only one at fault for Iraq war" (SN 5/23) points out that almost everyone believed before the invasion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

COMMENTARY

SN article lacking in strong research

Some points about the State News article regarding human response to pheromones "New research suggests sexual orientation decided by biology" (SN 5/24): The only description of the study you provided was "(It) found that, in gay men and straight women, male pheromones elicited a stronger response than female pheromones." Finding that a person exhibits a reaction to male pheromones does not imply a genetic origin to homosexuality as your article claimed.

COMMENTARY

Stem science

Stem cell research has the potential for great scientific gains, as well as the potential to generate outrage for tampering with human life. On Tuesday, the U.S.

COMMENTARY

20th birthday marks big step into adulthood, anticipation of 21st

Daniel Thai
May 26, 2005

Men in their 40s - with their comb-overs flapping in the wind as they drive their freshly waxed Mustang convertibles - have midlife crises. Students in their teens - with their messy hair hidden under baseball caps as they stumble to class in their pajama pants - have quarter-life crises. OK, well, maybe I'm the only one having a quarter-life crisis, but it's part of the stigma that comes with turning the dreaded age of 20. I turned 20 on Sunday, and people greeted me with the token "Happy birthday!" and congratulated me.

COMMENTARY

Goal of guilt

The latest event in the slow-but-sure push of a pro-life agenda into the lives of women in our state took place Tuesday at the Capitol. The Michigan House voted 69-37 to make it a legal requirement for medical clinics that conduct abortions to offer the option of seeing an ultrasound of the fetus to women who are considering having an abortion.

COMMENTARY

Bush's reasons for war 'discredited'

I wanted to address Bryant Miller's letter to the editor, "Bush not only one at fault for Iraq War" (SN 5/23). Let's take a look at the forgotten, minimally publicized Iraq War, and then I will address your letter.

COMMENTARY

Wine to go

After three months of debate, what is quite possibly the most obvious bill to have been passed through the Legislature in years has finally been signed by the governor. Last week Gov.

COMMENTARY

Costly control

The city of East Lansing's riot police expenditures figure of $190,389 for the April 2-3 disturbances is grossly out of line with the $5,775 in damage caused by crowds.

COMMENTARY

Area groups offer religion for LBGT

Thank you for your story on local religious organizations that are open to all, including people who are lesbian, bisexual, gay or transgender "Intersection of Identities" (SN 5/17). It includes a good selection of open and affirming congregations in East Lansing, but there are welcoming religious organizations that are not on your list. Our local Quaker Meeting (the Red Cedar Friends Meeting) is a diverse group.

COMMENTARY

Budget bust

Tuesday's East Lansing City Council meeting resulted in a number of financial cuts and the passage of the 2005-06 fiscal year budget. Among the areas affected by the cuts include the police department, the East Lansing Public Library and the city's finance department. Funding for buying library books was cut by $50,000, but the burden was lessened when council members opted to add $33,200 to the library fund from other parts of the budget.

COMMENTARY

Bush not only one at fault for Iraq war

I would like to take this time to thank Herb Parlato for his political rhetoric letter to the editor "Bush hypocritical in Newsweek mistake" (SN 5/19). "President Bush and his PR group" did such a good job convincing us Iraq had weapons that President Clinton bombed Iraq for the same reason years before Bush even became president.