The Food and Drug Administration’s approval of GHB - more commonly known as the “date-rape drug” - to treat narcolepsy is a big step in the wrong direction. GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate, is a drug known to trigger unconsciousness and cause short-term memory loss, which has led to its notorious reputation as a tool to take advantage of women at parties.
Sexual harassment is no laughing matter in an educational environment - regardless of where that education is taking place. Two male Eastern Michigan University students and a professor’s assistant are accused of sexually harassing six female students while on a 1999 study- abroad trip to South Africa. Although the male students were suspended nearly two years ago, the women, who have since graduated, are suing the school for violating Title IX, the 30-year-old civil rights law prohibiting gender discrimination at schools that receive any federal funding.
Since summer classes started at MSU, I’ve been going to the Lake Lansing park at least three times a week.
I have a confession to make: I listen to Rush Limbaugh. Yes, he is loud. Yes, he is obnoxious. Yes, he makes a factual or historical error almost every time a long, convoluted rant emanates from his mouth into the microphone. However, political discourse is interesting, and even if I have to yell or issue a retort to the inanimate boombox sitting on the shelf, I would rather argue with Rush than listen to inane disc jockeys break the limits of vulgarity in between the three songs their station manages to force alongside the commercials each hour. And now, each time I am involved in a discussion about school vouchers, the first person I think about is always Rush “talent-on-loan-from-God” Limbaugh. Please, help me. With it’s recent 5-4 decision upholding a Cleveland school voucher program, the U.S.
Since State News Opinion Editor Drew Harmon, who first endorsed the Healthy Michigan Initiative in an editorial, “Missed Merit,” (SN 7/18), then later admitted that he was in fact, a smoker in his column, “Smokers know it’s bad, leave us in peace,” (SN /18), I will concede, in this spirit of candor, that I am the proud recipient of the sum of $2,500 on account of my passing the 1999 MEAP test.
One of the things I find most maddening about the whole cigarette tax issue is the fact that almost no one is decrying the blatant unfairness of it.
I would like to respond to Drew Harmon column’s “Smokers know it’s bad, leave me in peace” (SN 7/18). While I definitely agree with the whole concept that consistency is needed in our social policies (unhealthy food, unsafe sex or drinking), if it affects other people in a public sense, it is our business. Living in a free society that is confined by laws and politics, we do have the right to take risks without asking other people’s permission, but only if it does not involve having others pay for your actions.
No one would leave a chocolate bar sitting in their car on a hot day, yet nearly every summer there are reports of children who die because they’re left alone in a vehicle. A Detroit mother is on trial for involuntary manslaughter after her children died in her car.
Every week it’s another company, another financial problem, another screw up from the folks up top.
Just recently, I stepped outside for a cigarette break. As I lit up, a woman walking into the building decided to make a comment. “Trying to help the deficit?
Kudos to researchers in the MSU-WATER program, or Watershed Action Through Education and Research. The four-year, $1.4 million program designed to develop a watershed management program for the Red Cedar River, is an important effort to undertake, and it is only fitting that it originated at MSU. With the Red Cedar River as one of the foremost landmarks of MSU’s campus, it is important for the university to lead the charge to clean up the historic body of water whose banks it calls home.
Student leaders from across Michigan are preparing to join a battle against a November ballot initiative.
I’ve written several columns categorizing the different types of drunken, stumbling students who litter the MSU campus at night and sometimes during the day - but I’ve always done so with a cynical and angry pen.
Sometimes I lay in the bed at night and constantly chant to myself, “I really need to change my life.” Over and over the statement dances around my head.
Women often are flushed with indignation about public bathrooms. There just aren’t enough places to answer nature’s call. For years, men have enjoyed the in-and-out nature of their bathrooms and biology, but women, generally, need more time and space.
Few people today probably think the 1897 Michigan law against cursing in front of women and children was worth being enforced.
As I am not a woman, I cannot be totally sure of the impact an abortion can have on someone. Whether it is emotional, mental or physical, I’m sure there must be some level of effect on the woman having the procedure. And as if this and the procedure itself aren’t traumatizing enough, she also must go up against the pro-life activists. These activists block entrances, hound and shout at patrons - basically doing everything in their power short of physically assaulting women to get them to change their minds.
I’m sure everyone is sick of reading columns on the Pledge of Allegiance by now, so today I’m going to talk about something else that has ties to religion - ethics. I know that sounds like a boring subject, but given recent headlines showcasing shady accounting practices, and now a lawsuit, against Vice President Dick Cheney and the oil company he ran for five years, I think it’s worth some discussion. President George W.
Kristofer Karol, in his column “Being patriotic means more than buying a flag; public displays infuriating,” (SN 7/11), raises an excellent point about “false” patriots.
Mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes haven’t solved the drug problem we face. It’s time Michigan began to use a more balanced system to reform drug users. Many times, incarceration has been the only option for these drug-related crimes, and treatment is not given enough consideration, possibly sending people to prison when rehabilitation would be much better suited to their case.