What a day so far...

Lots of things have caught my attention today...and it's only 1:45pm. First off, I received an e-mail from Mankato State University informing me that I had not been accepted into the school counseling graduate program. I was pretty shocked at this considering my academic resume was extremely strong. So it looks like I'll be back in Bismarck taking classes through Minot State (at BSC) to earn my license in Social Work. That way I can stay in school and more importantly stay on my mom's insurance. This also allows me to keep my great job with HIT, Inc.

Second, I needed to find out, for application purposes, when I took the ACT. It was like four or five years ago so I need to call and have somebody recover the info for me. I called the main ACT headquarters and they were going to charge $17 just to look up the information. I decided to just call MHS and see if somebody could do it there. A minute later I had my info and $17 still in my pocket.

Third, our Population class toured the EERC Hydrogen facility on UND's campus today. It was interesting and informative. One of the main researchers spoke out against attacks against the coal industry and even showed some skepticism about CO2 causing climate change, citing the fact that the date suggests the Pacific Ocean is cooling, not warming.

Fourth, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the state law keeping marriage between one and man one woman was unconstitutional because it leaves out gay couples. It's a sad ruling that really isn't based on legal arguments, but instead emotional ones. There were many reasons given in the opinion about why a marriage between members of the same sex should be legally accepted. Two really stood out as ridiculous attempts at legal scholarship. The first insisted that "sexual orientation is 'central to personal identity' and 'highly resistance to change.'" I completely agree with this belief. However what does that have to do with marriage? When two members of the opposite sex wed do they have to prove their heterosexuality? Of course not. Plain and simple, sexual orientation has nothing to do with the legal issues surrounding marriage. A "ban" on same sex marriage really isn't a ban at all. It instead upholds the principle that marriage is between people of the opposite sex (regardless of their sexual orientation.)The second reason given that irritated me was that "gays and lesbians lack political power as evidenced by their failure to convince a legislature to redefine marriage." Therefore the courts need to step in and do the hard work for them. This is absolutely ridiculous. Why even have a process to amend the constitution then? Isn't that the point of a republic, that citizens persuade one another to accept a certain view point? So I guess the court now finds it necessary to grant "rights" to individuals because those very "individuals" didn't do a good enough job of convincing their fellow citizens. What a joke...

Fifth, I just heard on the radio that the National Weather Service is projecting the Red to crest again at about 41 to 42 feet in mid to late April. This is terrible news for two reasons: obviously it would put Fargo citizens in danger. Second, it seriously threatens the Elton John and Billy Joel concert scheduled for May 2nd. A little selfish of me to be thinking about that...yes. But it's Elton...and therefore I am allowed.