Arizona News

Below are some of my favorite recent tidbits about my new home-state:

• The state of Arizona passed a bill making it illegal for someone to intentionally create a half-human-half-animal hybrid.  Phew.  Glad someone finally took on the elephant in the room.
• It is legal to enter a bar with a concealed handgun if you have a permit.
• The governor bowed to pressure from small-government folks and did away with camera enforcement of speed limits on highways even though data showed a 19% decrease in traffic fatalities since the cameras’ inception.
• As of July 31, 2010, the governor’s defense fund of SB 1070 has raised over $1.5 million in private donations to help the state offset the cost of its legal battle with the federal government over the bill.  And in unrelated news, you now have to pay the state to have your child attend full-day public kindergarten.
• In January, 2010, a state senator named Jack Harper submitted a bill that would give faculty members on university campuses the right carry guns because if a terrorist wanted to attack a university, there would, obviously, need to be someone there to defend the people.
• Governor Jan Brewer took offense that the State Department noted, in a report to the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, it was protecting human rights by challenging SB 1070.  Brewer called it “downright offensive” that the federal government would involve a state’s law in its report.  You know, because states are not part of the United States.
• Governor Brewer gave an inspiring opening to her only gubernatorial debate.  Click here for a glimpse into the intellectual mastermind in charge of running Arizona.  It’s a comforting reminder to Miss Teen South Carolina that there’s a bright future ahead of her.
• Thanks to some chicanery by Steve May, a Republican running for state office, there are now viable third party options for voters here in the Grand Canyon State.
• Ruth McClung, a Republican running from Congress here in Tucson, includes opposition to “the cruel treatment of animals” (scroll about 2/3 down the page) in her stance on promoting life and family.  That’s great.  I mean, I need someone to go to Washington for me and stand up to all those bastards who don’t give their dogs wet food.