The "situations and expenses I don't know about" that Cary mentioned? They're called fees. I don't know if California schools are the same way, but I tried to sign up for some classes at a New York community college, and the fees were what killed me. The cost per credit was low - but then you add on the mandatory enrollment fee and the mandatory application fee and the mandatory sitting down fee and the mandatory standing up fee - and you're talking hundreds of dollars a semester in fees. That "cost per unit" may be deceptive and not really cover the whole cost of going to school. (I hope CA doesn't play the fee game like so many other states, but I'm not hopeful.)

On the other hand, Zahra had a good point - being a student usually means health coverage, including mental health coverage. It may not be great coverage, but it's something. If you are working, and you fall into the gaping hole between "qualifies for free or low cost programs" and "can afford to actually pay for a therapist", you're pretty much screwed. Despite the blissful "get therapy" comments from Cary (and Dear Abby, and every other advice columnist who never tried to get therapy in a big city when you're mostly broke), it's not that easy, especially if you don't want to go bankrupt in the process. I went through my meager savings account in just a couple of months, trying to see a therapist, and then went into debt before I gave up. Looking back, I would have been better off with money in the bank. I signed up for low-cost therapy, and as far as I know, I'm still on the waiting list 6 years later. Especially in a high cost city with a lot of dangerously screwed up people, someone with non-life-threatening depression is a very low priority for these programs. If you can get decent health coverage by going to school, it's worth it, and it might help you. (However, before you commit to anything, make sure you're really covered, and you can get decent care.)

Unless you absolutely love Los Angeles, I'll echo someone else's comment about moving somewhere cheaper. I didn't realize how much my depression had to do with constantly struggling financially, until I moved away from New York. For someone who's already prone to anxiety and depression, the constant financial anxiety of living in an expensive city can just make things worse. Some people thrive on city life, and it's worth the sacrifice to them, but consider what's important to you.

Are judges so hamstrung by "mandatory sentencing requirements" that they can't just give offenders appropriate sentences? That seems to be the impulse behind a lot of these sex offender oddities - "we can't keep them in jail, so let's do X."

I don't want to overreact to relatively minor sex offences (my local paper referred to a 16 year old as "scarred for life" after a guy exposed himself to her for 2 seconds - that's a bit over the top), but if someone has exposed himself to small children TEN times, shouldn't he get more than a sixty day sentence? Shouldn't a tenth offence get a more serious jail term than a first offence?

I'm adopted, and I find these "baby drop" systems troubling. They serve a purpose, I suppose, but I would be happier if more effort were made to make adoption a better solution, for everyone involved, rather than giving up and allowing babies to be dropped off anoymously.

I don't think people who aren't adopted know how difficult it is to have no medical history. None, nada, zip. I'm at the age when I have to start thinking about mammograms and colonoscopies and other preventative tests. The first question the doctor always asks is, what's your medical history. And I have to say "I have no idea." It's easy to say "get all the preventative tests, just to be safe" but it's not that easy - some hereditary breast cancer shows up decades before mammograms are even recommended for most women - and I think more and more medical problems will end up being tied to genetics and family history.

There's also a hard-to-explain feeling, of not knowing your history. I got to see a picture of my birthmother, and there was something about it, even though we didn't have any further contact. People who grew up hearing "you have your father's eyes" or "you have your Great Uncle Morty's ears" can't really understand, I don't think. It's not that I don't love my adoptive family - they're my Mom and Dad, and I love them completely - but I'm glad I had the opportunity to have one tiny piece of my genetic history too. Once a woman gives up her child to one of these drop-off sites, there will be no way to trace it later - whether the mother wants to or not - even if there's a medical emergency or some other reason to do so.

I'm sure the answer to my objection will be "would you rather have been aborted" or "would you rather have been in an orphanage?" Maybe this is better than abortion - but aren't there other alternatives than one or the other? It seems like no one is considering the future of these children, and wondering what is best for them.

Rape has also been widespread in the current conflict in Darfur (along with mass killings) and it seems that the only response has been to wring our hands and say "oh, how awful". There's not an easy solution, unfortunately, but if widespread rape and murder of civilians was really the criteria for invasion, Darfur would be a better candidate than Iraq.