COMMENTARY

Like father

Kids do the darnedest things. Apparently, if they see their parents buying liquor and alcohol, when given a chance to go imaginary grocery shopping, they'll come back with a pack of Marlboros and some Colt 45. At least this is what a recently released study conducted by Dartmouth Medical College in New Hampshire says. The study found adolescent children whose parents drink and smoke were more likely to have children who emulate these behaviors. According to the study, children were 3.9 times as likely to buy cigarettes if their parents smoked and three times as likely to choose wine or beer if their parents drank alcohol at least once a month. Using dolls in a role-playing game with children 2 to 6 years old, the kids were asked to take the dolls shopping because there was no food in the dollhouse.

COMMENTARY

Traffic trap

Like it or not, it's against the law to drive without wearing a seat belt. And on Sept. 12, Sept.

COMMENTARY

FBI snooping has long history at MSU

It is a disgusting revelation that the FBI is spending time investigating activist groups rather than chasing actual threats to national security.

COMMENTARY

Bush incompetence bad for disaster aid

In 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked a major hurricane strike on New Orleans as "among the three likeliest most catastrophic disasters facing this country," directly behind a terrorist strike on New York City. So what was done after that assessment?

COMMENTARY

Conserving gas will help hurricane relief

As the southern states affected by Hurricane Katrina begin to try to recover from the disaster, the MSU community should take the government's advice and conserve energy.

COMMENTARY

Global warming not creator of Katrina

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, certain interest groups have decided not to wait in order to allow people to absorb the impact of this natural disaster. Instead, environmental groups are out screaming that global warming is responsible for this tragedy, from leftist political parties in Germany to know-it-all liberals such as Robert F.

COMMENTARY

Media silence after Schiavo case signals hiding of control structure

The cameras have gone, the newspaper articles have stopped and the debacle that was the Terri Schiavo right-to-death case has ended.

COMMENTARY

Paper praised for printing FBI story

On the front page of The State News for Aug. 30 was the story "Local terrorist activity suspected" (SN 8/30). I want to thank The State News for having the courage to print this story. It helps us all to know that police abuse happens under our very noses.

COMMENTARY

Aging senior finds university, students change faster than him

I turned 23 today. That's right, as 17 and 18-year-olds clock another year and search for the biggest, craziest party, and as 21-year-olds drown themselves in alcohol, I'm bursting the East Lansing bubble - the one that keeps young kids and old people out of our college lifestyle. I'm skewing the average age on campus. I'm searching for familiar faces and spending a lot of time reliving memories from the past. I'm trying to keep up with the latest styles, but refuse to spend any money on new clothes.

COMMENTARY

Police succeed with Welcome Week plan

I would like to commend the East Lansing Police Department concerning its actions on Friday during Welcome Week.

COMMENTARY

Blame game

Something is wrong with homeland security. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, residents of New Orleans and surrounding areas have lost practically everything.

COMMENTARY

SN article incites fear in community

As a member of the activist group Direct Action, which was slandered in The State News on Tuesday, "Local terrorist activity suspected" (SN 8/30), I am deeply disturbed by the terrible journalism that went into the article. The State News completely missed the point of the story. The FBI is using counterterrorism powers given to them since the Sept.

COMMENTARY

Student requests investigation into FBI activities

In response to the article "Local terrorist activity suspected" (SN 8/30), the contents of and response by the FBI to the American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act request show that the FBI is now infringing on the sprits of people to question our government's political and military decisions. For a government agency to even dangle an association of the dangerous words of "terrorist" to nonviolent peace, animal rights and affirmative action organizations is reprehensible.

COMMENTARY

Gas prices irrelevant in hurricane tragedy

Tuesday's State News articles about the devastating events in New Orleans were devastating to me. The two articles slightly addressed one of the worst, if not the worst, storm in the last century, and these articles selfishly talked mostly about gas prices hiking 30 cents overnight.

COMMENTARY

Minority justice

Is anyone concerned with the potential political battle surrounding the vacancies in the Supreme Court? We should be. Though low on the media's radar because of Hurricane Katrina coverage, the death of Chief Justice William H.

COMMENTARY

Absence of tickets will reduce fan base

In some ways I understand why the athletic ticket office decided to eliminate the use of vouchers. This way you have no ticket to lose but, more importantly, you have no ticket to sell. I think we all know that some students buy tickets to attend a couple of big games, but also to make profit.

COMMENTARY

MSU lacks good advice about drinking for incoming freshmen

Until Welcome Week, I forgot everything from my freshman orientation. It was only last year, too.

COMMENTARY

Columnist's writing promotes hatred

I am appalled at the audacity John Bice shows in his latest column concerning Christianity ("Both testaments preach discrimination, promote inequality" SN 8/31). I consider myself respectful of other ideas, even when I might disagree.

COMMENTARY

U.S. deserves help with disaster relief

After seeing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and witnessing the city of New Orleans almost washed from existence, we must unite together as we always do during a national crisis and rebuild. It upsets me, and many people I know, when other countries have national disasters or terrorist attacks that "we," the United States, are always trying to help.

COMMENTARY

Counter-sale of birth control imperative

The Federal Drug Administration's decision to postpone approval for the over-the-counter sale of the emergency contraceptive Plan B makes little sense. The State News editorial, which agreed with the FDA ("Backup plan" SN 8/30), is nonsensical.