What are people afraid of, when it comes to allowing same-sex marriages?

Pose this question to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and rarely will you get an answer. That's because there is no good answer. Fears that gay marriage equals moral decadence are unrealistic, close-minded and prejudiced. These fears are based in religious propaganda and fanaticism and get in the way of reasoned analysis. [Read article]

The best in last week's editorials from college campuses around the nation

Low wages every day at Wal-Mart

(U-WIRE) HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - On Feb. 10, Wal-Mart announced it will be shutting down its store in Jonquiere, Quebec, Canada, citing unreasonable demands made by the United Food and Commercial Worker's Union. In a news article on CNN.com, Wal-Mart spokesman Andrew Pelletier is quoted as saying, "The store in Jonquiere has been struggling for sometime economically, and in our view the union's demands failed to take into account the fragile condition of the store." [Read article]

Tattoos not about resisting authority

The article in Tuesday's paper that was on the subject of tattoos and piercings greatly intrigued me. However, as a person with a few tattoos and 11 piercings, I feel that all of the bases were not covered and was severely lacking in some areas. The article seemed to focus mainly on getting tattoos to revolt against some authority that has been enforced upon children, whether it be parental or societal. There are still some people out there who get tattoos for the right reasons. [Read article]

Piercing article presents inaccuracies

I was very disappointed after reading the "Pleasure and Pain" articles. While both articles appeared to be researched, there were a few critical mistakes that need to be cleared up. The first occurred in "Pleasure and Pain" in regard to the clitoral hood piercing being referred to as a piercing which goes through the clitoris. A clitoral hood piercing goes through the clitoral hood, which is the tiny bit of skin that covers and protects the clitoris. A piercing where the clitoris itself is pierced is called a clitoral piercing and is extremely rare as very few women are built for such a piercing. In addition, there are very few piercers skilled enough to successfully carry out such an advanced piercing. In the article "Body art tips: safety first, second, always," the writer advised those healing piercings to regularly wash the piercing with alcohol. Alcohol should never be used to clean a piercing. In addition, the author made it sound as if kleoids were a common healing problem. However, kleoids themselves are extremely rare. What most people believe to be kleoids, among other things, are hypertropic scars which are caused by trauma to the piercing, such as bumping the jewelry. These are easily dealt with and while removing the jewelry may stop them from getting bigger, it will not make them go away. Only diligent aftercare and properly fitting jewelry will solve that problem. Just because a piercing doesn't heal properly, doesn't mean it won't. The road to a healed piercing is usually a long and trying process, but a very rewarding one. Furthermore, the metals that should be used for a piercing are surgical stainless steel, titanium, niobium, or occasionally gold. I would direct anyone with piercings or anyone planning to get them to the Association of Professional Piercer's Web site - www.safepiercing.org - as well as BME - www.bmezine.com - in order to learn more about the types of piercings available, their risks, and healing recommendations. [Read article]