Even though I certainly did not always agree with his opinions and stance, with the death of Johannes Rau a significant part of NRW political history comes to an end.
After all, the man shaped a large part of my conscious engagement with politics - most of that time as the Minister President of NRW. He will definitely be missed - even if he was sometimes a rather conservative hardliner, and his sermons were annoying on more than one occasion. Somehow, he still belonged to NRW.
PythonForMaemo - Python for Maemo - Using Python on the Nokia 770 Tablet (the shipping confirmation arrived today, hopefully the device will arrive soon).
twill: a simple scripting language for Web browsing - a Python scriptable Web client. Interesting for automated page requests and for specialized robots. Possibly also for testing web applications.
implementing equal rights for homosexuals:
Gay civil servants with a registered partnership do not receive a supplement like married couples. This was decided by the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig. The registered partnership is not a marriage, but an independent marital status, the judges decided. The legislator can favor marriage over other communities in terms of remuneration. This does not violate the principle of equality nor the anti-discrimination prohibition under European law. (Case No.: BVerwG 2 C 43.04).
Rarely have I read such a far-fetched justification. We simply define everything as we please, which saves the state money and to hell with the equal rights of homosexuals. Discrimination does not only occur when one group is treated worse than others, but also when one group is treated better than others. It is absurd that the legislator may favor a heterosexual marriage over a homosexual marriage - and exactly the reason why the registered partnership is not a full equivalent to marriage, even if some politicians claim otherwise.