In the end, taxes can't and shouldn't be used to influence behavior. A revenue system must be neutral and indiscriminate. Besides encroaching upon our rights to privacy, and besides the extra burden imposed on the poor, these taxes in many ways create more problems than they solve.

The next time you spot one of these social terrorists, simply ignore them. You'll be amazed at how quickly they lose control, and how quickly you can get back to worrying about real problems8212;like what the Legislature is going to do about the budget deficit.

Noel and the other nonbelievers are going to have a hard time trying to overturn Roe v. Wade if they don't have a hospitable planet to do it from.

All students are facing a rise in tuition and faculty and departments are facing budget cuts. It just might be time to decrease student group funding.

With the litany of people signing off on projects, a con man should not have been able to defraud the U. The media has echoed that this type of scam is easy enough for a child to pull off. It appears that the vendor codes from the U, which were swiped by the scammers, are known by a circle of people, thereby limiting the promise of secrecy.

The fact that church officials are annually meeting directly with lawmakers puts the LDS Church's so-called "political neutrality" in question. There is nowhere else in the country where an annual powwow between lawmakers and a church body takes place, and these meetings seem to have more in common with an Iranian theocracy than a U.S. government that emphasizes church-state separation.

Smoking should be a no-brainer decision, particularly when a child with developing lungs is present. But the government shouldn't be responsible for policing citizens' behavior around their children. They should be able to police themselves.

The only reason I defend 24 Hour Fitness is because I'm a complete and utter fitness guru and I picked my gym wisely based on their membership perks. Gold's Gym, on the other hand, I can't speak much for. I've heard awful things.

Many teens are going to have sex regardless of what they are taught in high school. Either we can ignore this and hope that an underpaid high school teacher can instill "good morals" in teens, or we can be progressive and teach them how to grow into responsible college students and adults.

I would like to propose that a small section of the Utah State Capitol grounds and a similar area on the grounds of the Salt Lake City-County Building be set aside as a memorial to Harvey Milk (1930-1978, the assassinated first openly gay person to hold public office in California).