As I said before, I think that the problems with the Affordable Care Act are technical and therefore soluble. It is already the law and is not going to be repealed. While it is true that the implementation of the ACA has problems, some of them serious, The Daily Show wonders why those opposed to it feel the need to exaggerate and even flat-out lie about them. [Read more…]
Without too much fuss or national publicity, on Tuesday the Illinois state legislature approved a bill that legalizes same-sex marriage and the governor has said he will sign it, with such marriages beginning next June. [Read more…]
A high school cross country runner Codie Thacker refused to take part in a regional championship and forfeited her chances at winning because the number that had been randomly assigned to her was the dreaded 666, known to Christian cognoscenti as the Number of the Beast, where the Beast is Satan, aka Beelzebub, aka Lucifer, aka a whole lot of other names. [Read more…]
The ‘good news, bad news’ set up is often used in jokes. But apart from humor, I bet that almost all of us have at some point been asked by someone the above question when they were about to tell us something. I hate being asked it and would much prefer the person just tell me in whatever order they like. [Read more…]
Last week a surprising rumor began to be floated that pope Francis may appoint some women as cardinals of the church. This rumor was quickly batted down by the Vatican but before they did my puzzled reaction was ” How can a church that bars women from being priests have them as cardinals?”
It turns out that while women cannot be deacons, priest, or bishops there is no prohibition against women cardinals. [Read more…]
Scotusblog provided a timeline of the Greece prayer case, along with links to all the filings and Friends of the Court briefs that were submitted. (For more see here and here.) In September, in preparation for this case, Scotusblog also had an online symposium on it and invited several people with differing views to submit opinions, which I briefly summarize below. Note that these were written before the oral arguments yesterday. [Read more…]
Did you know that men and women are being treated equally when it comes to setting premiums for the health care plans under the Affordable Care Act? Yes, that is the awful injustice being perpetrated on us that has some members of the right wing in an uproar.
Stephen Colbert understands their pain. [Read more…]
The steady movement of the Republican party towards total dominance by the crazies is undoubtedly going to hurt them in elections. Some argue that this is a good thing because it will make them marginalized. While this will undoubtedly make it easier for Democrats to win elections, especially at the Congressional and presidential level, it could well be a bad thing for progressive causes in general because of the general law that politics abhors a vacuum and that candidates will seek to fill as much space on the spectrum of viewpoints as they are allowed to get away with. [Read more…]
Lyle Denniston gives a good summary of the oral arguments presented today at the US Supreme Court in the Greece prayer case. (You read the transcript of the proceedings here.) The upshot seemed to be that the judges were skeptical of the reasoning in the precedent-setting 1983 Marsh v. Chambers case that historical practice could be used to justify ceremonial prayers at government meetings. That reasoning had led to some confusion in interpretation by the lower courts, which may be why the US Supreme Court took up this case, hoping to arrive at a clearer ruling. [Read more…]
Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa is introducing legislation that seeks to strengthen Social Security benefits while increasing revenues for it. His Strengthening Social Security Act of 2013 has the following features: [Read more…]