The California Ruling is Nothing to Sneeze At

I had a professor who used that expression frequently in class in the fall.

June weddings:

In about 27 days Californians will be able to marry (my post from Friday) the person they love. But for how long?

I am confident that Californians will vote in November to defeat the proposed constitutional amendment to take right of marriage away from same sex couples who are married over the next few months. Officials are working to verify the signatures that opponents have gathered, and they have to have about 700,000 valid signatures to get the measure on the ballot. About 1.1 million signatures were turned in, and most people on both sides of the issue think this will be enough signatures to get the required number to place the proposal on the ballot.

Over the weekend I went to every California newspaper web site I could find and every one of them supported the court's decision.

Closer to home:

Today will be an active day in the state legislature. Or not. They could bog themselves down and not pass any legislation (in which case a special session would have to be called to address the education budget).

Issues that might be voted on, though, include the statewide smoking ban*, removing sales taxes from groceries, immigration, hate crimes, pac to pac transfers and more. It would be an interesting day to be in the Senate chambers, but, ah, we get our midterm back this afternoon and so I will be sitting in class instead.

*No one will be surprised that I support the statewide smoking ban. In the news today is a report in the Los Angeles Times that bans on smoking in restaurants actually deter children from taking up the habit. A study was published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescents that in towns where smoking was not restricted, 9.6 % of youth became established smokers over the four year study period, while in towns where smoking bans were enacted, 7.9 % became smokers.

This is a greater effect than that of raising taxes on tobacco products or media campaigns according to the study author.

In other health news male trees spreading their DNA (just like human males) is the cause of many problems in the spring, as common practices of city planners and gardeners contribute to our allergies. More male trees are planted to avoid messy female trees dropping their fruit (like acorns) according to a story in the news today.

More males means more pollen, and more pollen means more runny noses and sneezing.

Speaking of sneezing, has this ever happened to you?



And most people think this is a fake sneeze, but the song is good if you like Green Day. Billy Joe sneezes right in the middle of "Hitchin a Ride". Hmmm, Ok I get it.