Some interesting things the Colorado legislature has been up to recently:

The legislature is trying to push a bill through that would require “In God We Trust” to be mounted on every government building, including public schools. It even allows people to sue the government if they should somehow fail to do this. Perhaps an even more interesting question than the constitutionality of this bill is simply this: Why? Why is this even being debated? How is it relevant to anything that’s going on in the state or the country? Are we trying to reaffirm our values in this time of imminent war? Last time I checked, our values included being able to believe in whatever you want.

Next up on the morality-legislation agenda: gay adoption. Two weeks ago, the legislature killed a bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to adopt children. In an amazing feat of logic, those responsible for the bill’s death concluded that giving two unmarried people legal guardianship of a child somehow made them essentially married. Funny, it doesn’t seem to be that way when unmarried straight couples adopt children. “I think children need a mother and a father,” said Rep. Dave Schulteis (R-Colorado Springs). So are we going to outlaw single parenting as well? The real losers here are not gays. Adopted kids can not enjoy the same benifits as un-adopted kids. Last Wednesday, the Senate approved a pilot voucher program for kids in failing schools. Sounds great, but let’s think about this: Johnny goes to a failing school. The school is failing because it is in a low-income area. To alleviate this disadvantage, we will take his portion of the money that was going to his school and give it to him, leaving him with a portion of the money he would need to go to a private school. So, now his parents need to come up with even more money to send him to a private school, while the school he left is in the same terrible condition. Looks like a winning formula.

Tell you what, it all sure makes me feel good to be a resident of Colorado.