to follow up on what David Justice said:

> No discrimination, just a failure to follow the existing rules.  Dr.
> Gardner messed up.  It happens -- blind or sighted.

ASG: Since the "existing rules" are arbitrary and capricious, and
more likely to trip the un-sighted than that sighted, there is a
valid question of reasonable accomodation.  The Senator has a
point.  Small-dollar awards should not be guarded with such picky
fences.  This is a policy point that the SBA and the NASA SBIR
programs handle better than the Education Department did.  The
mere point that the SBA has not gotten the Education Department
to be as reasonable as NASA means that the government as a whole
appears capricious to the grant-seeking public.

> Though perhaps for different reasons, I agree with J. G. that
> this topic should die a quick death.

ASG: If you seriously believed that you would have

        either a) saved your own inflammatory two-cents-worth for
        the bit bucket and let the thread die naturally

        or b) invited people to continue on the blind-issues list
        where this is exactly on topic.

-- Al Gilman