More from this week's Gazette

In addition to my letter, this week's Oklahoma Gazette also contains a (very lengthy) letter by Terri Miller criticizing the "Clouds Over America" conference that was the subject of the "It's a conspiracy" article in the Feb 4th issue.

While the Gazette does not post letters online, it does post much of the rest of the paper on its website, including the weekly op-eds. This week, Kurt Hochenauer discusses SB320, state Senator Randy Brogdon's "Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act" which failed to pass the Senate Education Committee on Monday. This bill was a carbon copy of a bill that was passed and signed by Governor Jindal in Louisiana last year. This has led to the state being boycotted by scientific groups.

Defeating this bill took much effort from Oklahomans - including me - who value science undiluted by religion. Unfortunately Sally Kern's "Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act" was re-introduced this year and is making its way through the state House of Representatives. Senate president pro tempore Glenn Coffee has been quoted in the Tulsa World as saying he won't allow the bill to get through the Senate, but as we've seen before, nothing is guaranteed.

Chris Smith has written a column which makes some good points regarding government regulation of smoking and the hypocrisy of a bill expanding such regulation coming from a Republican state senator, David Myers. The Gazette's website doesn't allow right-clicking, so I'll just confine myself to one quote which sums up Smith's argument quite nicely, I think:

"Why is the party of free markets, private commerce and individual freedoms proposing this bill?"