My eyes have always been super sensitive to the drug used to dilate them, and it was almost midnight before I could see normally again. I now know that apparent veli are rarely malignant. I’m still quite frustrated that I have to deal with yet another malady that will consume large bunches of time that I could put to productive use.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:26 (average 4:18). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: Bernie Sanders failed to impress major media outlets over the weekend as he barely managed to win seventy per cent of the vote in three western primaries.
The major cable networks briefly mentioned Sanders’s vote tallies in Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii but noted that he ran out of steam well shy of eighty per cent.
“There’s no point in sugarcoating it,” one analyst put it. “Rough night for Sanders.”
According to one cable executive, Sanders needs to “put up some big numbers fast” if he expects the networks to continue giving his campaign airtime.
“It’s going to be harder and harder to justify covering him while he’s stuck down in the seventy-per-cent range,” the executive said.
Did Andy nail this one or what?
From Huffington Post (H/T Daily KOS: The Supreme Court has taken four big whacks at the Affordable Care Act in as many years. But the conservative justices still don’t seem to understand how it works.
During oral arguments this week in Zubik v. Burwell — a set of seven challenges to Obamacare’s contraceptive-coverage mandate on behalf of religious nonprofits — Chief Justice John Roberts and his colleagues on the court’s conservative wing gave the impression that they don’t really grasp what the ACA’s health insurance exchanges do, or indeed how the market for health insurance itself even functions.
In a nutshell, Zubik hinges on the question of whether it’s a “substantial burden” for religious nonprofits to be required to fill out a form noting their objections to providing contraception under the law. The Little Sisters of the Poor and a smattering of religious nonprofits from across the country argue that it does — that, in fact, it essentially makes them complicit in providing coverage for services they view as sinful. The federal government, which provided this accommodation, obviously disagrees.
During a back-and-forth in the courtroom about women whose employers don’t cover contraception, and the subsequent lengths they must go to get it, Roberts suggested that it’s not actually a big deal if women in such situations have to get their birth control covered some other way. Justices Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito appeared to share the same belief.
“They’re on the exchanges, right?” Roberts said, implying that women without access to contraception from their religious employers can just sign up to receive it through the federal insurance exchanges instead.
For Justice Sonia Sotomayor, this seemed to be the last straw.
“They’re not on the exchanges,” she said. “That’s a falsehood.”
Injustices ReichRoberts, Scalito, KKKennedy, and TEABAG (who, as usual, said nothing) knew the truth. Pretending not to gives them an excuse to ignore the Constitution and discriminate against women. Kudos to Justice Sotomayor for calling them on it and getting the truth on the record.
From NY Times: The Justice Department said on Monday that it had found a way to unlock an iPhone without help from Apple, allowing the agency to withdraw its legal effort to compel the tech company to assist in a mass-shooting investigation.
The decision to drop the case — which involved demanding Apple’s help to open an iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, a gunman in the December shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., that killed 14 people — ends a legal standoff between the government and the world’s most valuable public company. The case had become increasingly contentious as Apple refused to help the authorities, inciting a debate about whether privacy or security was more important.
When the government hacked the phone, privacy rights lost. Nevertheless, those organizations claiming to have won the debate, and requesting donations, based on that victory, are still lying. Please give them nothing, inform others, and ask others to give organizations, who lie to get money, nothing. More and more left wing organizations are adopting unethical Republican fund raising tactics. Even though many are worthy causes, the worst thing we can do with our dollars is teach them to act like Republicans. People who act like Republicans to defeat Republicans become Republicans.
Cartoon:
