If Yale’s is a bellwether campus, the prospects for reducing excessive collegiate drinking nationwide are dubious. A heavyweight committee reviewing the school’s student alcohol policy — in the words of a Yale publication — “advocates no major changes in a policy that emphasizes student safety over punishment.” The committee’s chairman, Yale College Dean Peter Salovey, says, “We’re not going to advocate prohibition. Fear of punishment should not be an impediment to seeking help.” The publication adds: “In practice . . . , administrators spend little time policing routine underage (campus) alcohol use.” Question: Can it be long before college administrations across the country are sued for aiding and abetting?
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Nobody — neither conservatives nor liberals born-again to fiscal sanity — likes federal deficits. Nor is there anything new about them. During the past 40 years, the federal deficit has averaged 2.3 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). And the projected deficit for fiscal 2006 — for which those born-agains, even the ones in Congress who approved them, are blasting President Bush: precisely 2.3 percent of GDP.
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And speaking of Congress:
(1) The Senate has voted 65-34 in favor of a House-approved measure making it a federal crime to help a minor girl travel for an abortion from a state with parental notification laws to a state without them. That’s the Senate, even the Senate. President Bush will sign it.
(2) The Senate also has voted to authorize offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but to an extent less than authorized by the House. Perhaps the decisive persuasion was provided by Cuba’s decision, partnering with China et al., to drill 60 miles off the coast of Florida.
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Oh, and regarding Democratic Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana — accused of taking bribes (apparently videotaped taking them) and stashing the money in his freezer: A federal judge has ruled it was OK for the FBI — in warranted searches two months ago — to have raided his congressional office for additional evidence, though an appellate court has ruled Jefferson may review the material removed. Many sanctimonious legislators expressed outrage at the audacity of the FBI entering their marbled halls. In finding the May searches legal and properly authorized, the judge ruled not even lofty congresspersons live beyond the law’s reach.