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In the news
Mar. 30th, 2004 08:55 amGoodbye, Alistair Cooke. You will always be the voice of Masterpiece Theater for me.
Yesterday the MA legislature voted (barely) against gay marriage and for civil unions that will have the same rights as marriage. While I know that many people want gay marriage legal, it's something to consider how far the fallback position has come; now it's civil unions with all the rights of marriage. Which is a pretty amazing change in and of itself.
Tangentially related: this week's story Strange Horizons, The Grammarian's Five Daughters (Eleanor Arnason) (thanks to Queue for the pointer).
I hadn't realized that Congress passed a law that people who have been convicted on drug charges would not be eligible for student aid. Apparently the intent was for current students, but it wasn't written clearly, and schools have been conservative, and applying it to students with prior records. In either case, I don't understand why drug convictions are so horrible that they were singled out for this law. Isn't any felony a horrible-enough thing that committing one would lose you financial aid? And is being busted for owning a bag of pot so vile that the government should withdraw any financial help? It doesn't make sense to me.
Yesterday the MA legislature voted (barely) against gay marriage and for civil unions that will have the same rights as marriage. While I know that many people want gay marriage legal, it's something to consider how far the fallback position has come; now it's civil unions with all the rights of marriage. Which is a pretty amazing change in and of itself.
Tangentially related: this week's story Strange Horizons, The Grammarian's Five Daughters (Eleanor Arnason) (thanks to Queue for the pointer).
I hadn't realized that Congress passed a law that people who have been convicted on drug charges would not be eligible for student aid. Apparently the intent was for current students, but it wasn't written clearly, and schools have been conservative, and applying it to students with prior records. In either case, I don't understand why drug convictions are so horrible that they were singled out for this law. Isn't any felony a horrible-enough thing that committing one would lose you financial aid? And is being busted for owning a bag of pot so vile that the government should withdraw any financial help? It doesn't make sense to me.