2009-01-21
news blips
• The White House weblog. The White House's new website will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.
WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration's online programs will put citizens first. Initial new media efforts will center around three priorities: Communcation, Transparency and Participation
The White House would also like to hear from you -- what sort of things would you find valuable from WhiteHouse.gov? If you have an idea, check out the White House website and focus on the future.
• New Jersey says that Civil Unions are "separate and unequal" from marriage. The New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission unanimously concluded that the alternative status is simply not as good. Rather, the report asserts, because the civil union alternative "invites and encourages unequal treatment of same-sex couples and their children," the legislature and governor should change the law to permit same-sex couples to marry. Moreover, the Commission implored the state to act "expeditiously because any delay in marriage equality will harm all the people of New Jersey."
There are two ways in which same-sex couples still will not be equal, even if a state authorizes full marriage rights.
• Hubble telescope images of a planetary nebulae. Only some 10,000 light years from earth, viewable from the Southern hemisphere, in the constellation Pyxis. This spectacular structure contains the outer layers of a sun-like star that were sent off into interstellar space during the star's final stages of life. These glowing gaseous shrouds were shed by the star after it ran out of fuel to sustain the nuclear reactions in its core. Our own sun will undergo a similar process, but not for another 5 billion years or so.
¶ 00:37 
• The White House weblog. The White House's new website will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration's online programs will put citizens first. Initial new media efforts will center around three priorities: Communcation, Transparency and Participation
The White House would also like to hear from you -- what sort of things would you find valuable from WhiteHouse.gov? If you have an idea, check out the White House website and focus on the future.
• New Jersey says that Civil Unions are "separate and unequal" from marriage. The New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission unanimously concluded that the alternative status is simply not as good. Rather, the report asserts, because the civil union alternative "invites and encourages unequal treatment of same-sex couples and their children," the legislature and governor should change the law to permit same-sex couples to marry. Moreover, the Commission implored the state to act "expeditiously because any delay in marriage equality will harm all the people of New Jersey."There are two ways in which same-sex couples still will not be equal, even if a state authorizes full marriage rights.
1ST: because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), same-sex unions are not recognized under federal law, meaning that couples must file separate federal tax returns, and that entering into a civil union with a non-citizen does not affect the latter's immigration status, nor provide any other federally-conferred benefit..
2ND: most states have passed statutes or constitutional amendments prohibiting the recognition by the state of same-sex marriage, even if validly celebrated elsewhere
• Hubble telescope images of a planetary nebulae. Only some 10,000 light years from earth, viewable from the Southern hemisphere, in the constellation Pyxis. This spectacular structure contains the outer layers of a sun-like star that were sent off into interstellar space during the star's final stages of life. These glowing gaseous shrouds were shed by the star after it ran out of fuel to sustain the nuclear reactions in its core. Our own sun will undergo a similar process, but not for another 5 billion years or so.
¶ 00:37
