Slightly less than a year after all the fuss about the elimination of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the US military officially commemorated Gay Pride month which is currently going on, although the most senior service chiefs did not attend., which is being interpreted as a sign of lingering discomfort among the old guard. [Read more…]
On Monday, the US Supreme Court struck down most of the provisions of the Arizona law SB 1070. As NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports, the sections that were struck down were “provisions that made it a state crime for illegal immigrants to seek or engage in work or to fail to carry documents proving they are in the country legally. Also struck down was the provision that authorized state and local law enforcement officers to arrest anyone based solely on the suspicion that the individual is in the country illegally.” [Read more…]
At the risk of this blog becoming all Mormon underwear all the time, I want to make a final (?) comment on this topic based on something BrianX posted in response to my earlier post on Mormon’s Secret. He mentioned a site Recovery from Mormonism that serves those who are, as the site says, “Questioning their faith in the Mormon Church and for those who need support as they transition their lives to a normal life.” [Read more…]
The speculation on how the US Supreme Court will rule on the Affordable Care Act has risen to fever pitch, since the last day of the court’s term is Thursday. Numerous analysts have looked at the various possible outcomes, tried to predict which one will prevail given the court’s composition, and weighed the political, legal, and health care system consequences of each. [Read more…]
Via Machines Like Us, I learned of this article that points out that the cost of the tax exemptions granted to religion groups could work out to as much as $71 billion per year. Both articles were based on a study by Ryan T. Cragun, Stephanie Yeager, and Desmond Vega at the University of Tampa that was published in Free Inquiry, put out by the Council of Secular Humanism, so the exact figure may be challenged by those who claim that it is not an impartial source. [Read more…]
Those of us who have argued that the measures taken by the US in the fight in the bogus ‘war on terror’ are harmful to fundamental rights are sometimes accused of being too complacent. We are charged with erroneously thinking that the chances of the US being subjected to a terrorist attack is small and not realizing that it is only these draconian measures that have kept us safe so far. Take away the drones, the torture, the indefinite detentions without trial, the secret surveillance of all our communications, the excessive airport security, and the US would be subject to another attack. Or so we are told. [Read more…]
… it is revealed that the US and Israel were behind the latest Flame computer malware (along with the earlier Stuxnet malware) that was used to wage cyber warfare against Iran. [Read more…]
Recently Mitt Romney said: “I need to get 50.1 percent or more” to win.
No, he doesn’t. What he means of course is that he needs just one vote more than 50%, which is not at all the same thing since 50.1% can translate to a winning margin of 200,000 votes in a presidential election. [Read more…]