Legislating myself into oblivion

Legislation exam starts in a few minutes. I think I'll do OK, but am a little disconcerted by the "closed book" thing. All of our exams up till now have been open book, so it's been a long time since I've had to memorize lists and patterns.

Whatever. Closed book, open book, who cares, as long as I'm done :)

freedom! horrible, horrible freedom!

I think I may have just aced that Legislation exam. I'll have to see if my prof thinks so too ;)

Even if I didn't do well, I still love this class. I'm taking the upper year legislation and drafting courses no matter what my marks are like, but it would be really nice if on top of a good time, I also got good marks :)

The exam was pretty neat. ( call me lawnerd )

So. Finish lj entry, off to lunch, then the A. Dean about redoing Property. Then home!!!

I'm so looking forward to being home full time again. I know I'll probably be tearing out my hair in a couple of days, but right now I'm just remembering last summer and all the stuff I did with the boys, and looking forward to doing other stuff that they weren't old enough to do last year, and... it seems like heaven. A loud, stressful, tiring, but ultimately rewarding, heaven :)


Items in the news:

Air India Flight 182 is in the news again. I can't believe it - the thing went down in 1985, and they're in court in 2004?? Good lord.

I still remember it. I didn't know any of the people on the plane, but lots of kids in my choir were friends with some kids who were going to visit their families in India. It was very, very big news - 329 people died, most of them Indian-Canadians. The guys who are on trial for it are actually charged with 331 deaths on the same day - from the flight, and from a bomb that went off in Tokyo's Narita airport and killed two baggage handlers.


And the Senate passed a bill to include sexual orientation in the list of things you can't spread hate literature about. 59-11, with 3 abstentions.

I'm glad to see the bill go through even though it was sponsored by Svend Robinson. I was afraid everything connected to him would now be denigrated, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Good thing, because I don't much like the guy but I do admire (most of) his work. He's been in politics forever and has been at the forefront of a lot of stuff I approve of, like right to die legislation, anti-homophobia, etc etc. It would be a shame to see all of that tainted now.

Later Edit: A. Dean said yes! We'll see what my Property mark is like, but unless I surf a curve bigger than any in Hawaii, I think I'll be doing the rewrite in July.

there's never a lack of things to snark at

(link from kaylarudbek):

Here's the thing. There are thoughtful, intelligent people out there who do not support the idea of gay marriage or civil unions. I know they're out there; I've even had very interesting and informative exchanges with a few of them on the subject. And while they did not convince me, I could certainly respect their opinions - especially since they seemed quite willing to respect mine.

Apparently, none of them were involved in the drafting of this official justification for a bill outlawing gay marriage or civil unions in the state of Virginia:

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?041+ful+HB751

which has to be one of the most bizarre bits of legal writing I've seen in a while. Some direct "quotes":

Whereas, if "same sex" unions are a civil right, then legal sanctions and coercion will be imposed against persons and institutions opposed to homosexual behavior or same sex unions.

Whereas, is that a complete grammatical sentence? Whereas, doesn't the whereas have to be followed by something other than a period?

churches whose teachings does not accept homosexual behavior as moral will lose their tax exempt status;

So will legislators whose editors does not proofread their official blurbs.

employers will be ineligible for government contracts unless they will hire and provide benefits to the "married homosexuals" and their "spouses" and "partners;"

They "will"? Oh "goody"!

Columnist George Will reports (Dec. 7., 2003) that Governor "Dean said that in terms of legal rights there is no practical difference between same-sex civil unions and marriages. Matthews: "So why are we quibbling over a name?" Dean: "Because marriage is very important to a lot of people who are pretty religious."

And this is part of a preamble because... whereas?

and homosexual groups helped organize a $100,000 law suit against a private religious school which refused to allow a homosexual 17 year old male student permission to bring his homosexual boyfriend to the school prom as his date;

Because it would have been wrong for him to bring his heterosexual boyfriend to his homosexual prom as a homosexual date. Are we getting a little thrill out of writing "homosexual"? I know I am. It's a fun word to write. Here, I'll write it again: homosexual. And now in different colours: homosexual. Homosexual. And of course, homosexual!