[craigimass]

Nah, the nursing field is catching up real quickly.......

As to college admissions, I'm afraid that is a subject which is probably too complicated to consider on a sailing BB. There are all kinds of colleges, many of them private, many of them public.

Most colleges give away VAST amounts of "welfare" in the form of helping to pay tuition, giving away job to help the students make money, etc.

I suppose we COULD argue that the rich student should have as much access to the help and to the jobs as the poor student.

In most field of human endeavor, the perfect is the enemy of the good. In a society where for many generations women were clearly told (by society, their parents, and even employers) to stay out of certain occupations, there is certainly nothing wrong with helping them along to achieve their goals.

Personally, I support vast numbers of ADDITIONAL people entering the fields of science and engineering - and am not going to squabble about how each college or university does their admissions.

Funny, Obama is talking about this live at Georgetown (increasing college graduation rates to the highest in the world)......as we speak.

Bottom line is this seems like one more subject where the "right" likes to try and divide people.....the subjects where they do so seem endless.

As to Stem Cell, being as some of the most important advances in medical and science history have come out of the NIH and it's partners, it will be a BIG DEAL to allow for the same federal funding which the other sciences enjoy to be applicable.

These are not moral issues. They are moral imperatives. Now, you might argue that exactly what we do with our knowledge has moral and ethical issues - like:
Guns don't kill people, people do.
Nukes are OK, as long as you don't use them.

Etc. etc.....

Medicine, science and engineering are a VAST part of the future of our economy and world.....in fact, MOST OF IT.

Anyone who supports the USA falling further behind in those matters is, IMHO, not being a champion of our possibilities. If we don't do it, we'll simply be buying the technology from somewhere else.