Legislation a bad deal for environmentalists

The Center for Biological Diversity supports conservation of Arizona's State Lands, but the proposal Tim Belshe laid a load about in his March 4 column is clearly unacceptable from environmental, economic and public-interest perspectives. He should read this radical State Lands proposal.

This bad State Lands deal was developed in closed-door sessions between sprawl developers, the cattlemens' association and a couple of "environmentalists" who lack broad support. [Read article]

All those Republicans are right: Gay marriage should be illegal. But why stop there? Straight marriage should be illegal, too.

It makes sense, really.

As our country debates this marriage business, part of the confusion seems to be that some people think the legal, secular form of marriage that is performed by the state is somehow religious.

See, right-wingers are right when they say that "marriage" (the word, anyway) has its roots in religion. To most, it is still more about religion than about state. Of course, no one is proposing that the Catholic Church allow same-sex marriage. After all, when the government made it easy for couples to divorce, the pope didn't follow suit. [Read article]

Now that John Kerry has wrapped up the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, the George W. Bush re-election campaign is ready to start up for real. In the next few months, we will be witness to millions of dollars' worth of attacks, manipulations and artificial portrayals of Americana. Very little in the world of political campaigning adheres to rules of morality and civility, but that doesn't mean that campaign advertisements can't rile up some anger and resentment in the voter population. [Read article]

Leave hiring, firing to individual departments

A bill currently bouncing about in the Arizona House of Representatives that would immediately fire university employees convicted of various felonies is unnecessary and strips employees of their due process rights. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, would immediately terminate all faculty convicted of murder, kidnapping, sexual exploitation of children, stalking and sexual offenses. [Read article]