…the only reason this conflict arose was a New Deal-era tax loophole that gave birth to our peculiar employer-based health care system. The main lesson of Hobby Lobby is that this system has to go.
Yes. Of course, ObamaCare should never have happened, either, for the same reason.
A bunch of reasons to have one.
I’m not particularly persuaded by the carbon footprint thing, though.
Yes, the Republicans should pass a bill to allow it.
…and how to make it better.
Shockingly to union supporters, a union can’t force someone taking care of her disabled son to pay union dues for the privilege.
And there’s another blow to ObamaCare’s attempt to run our lives:
The 5-4 decision is a significant victory for those challenging the constitutionality of the President Obama’s health care law. And it strengthens the argument that for-profit entities, like individuals and churches, have religious rights.
So you don’t lose your religious freedom because you make a profit.
Huh.
[Update mid afternoon]
The funniest thing on Twitter today, amidst all the illogic, hatred and hysteria, is the number of people who think that @SCOTUSblog is actually SCOTUS’s blog (and Twitter feed) and attacking them. The @SCOTUSblog folks are having a lot of fun with it.
There is no end of examples.
Sadly, it’s dumb because we’ve dumbed down the electorate.
Did their diet prevent dental caries?
More heresy, via Dr. Eades.
So I heard about this story on the news this morning, and it sounded a little junk sciency:
“What’s exciting about this is it takes that to another place,” said Toni Pollin, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who led the 2008 work. “Just as you’d expect from something that prevents coronary artery buildup, there is strong evidence that having [a gene mutation] reduces the risk of having a heart attack.”
Kathiresan and colleagues benefited from the revolution in genome technology, sequencing 18,666 genes in each of 3,734 people in their search for genes that appeared to be linked to triglycerides. Rare mutations in the APOC3 gene stood out.
Once they understood where to look, they searched for four mutations in that gene in more than 110,000 people. They found that people with any one of the mutations — about 1 in 150 people — were 40 percent less likely to have heart disease and had lower levels of triglycerides.
There is no doubt in my mind that that there is a genetic basis for heart-disease risk, but I am not seeing anything in this study that would indicate that trying to reduce triglycerides per se (as statins attempt to lower cholesterol) are doing anything but treating a symptom, and possibly a harmless one. The mutation reduces both triglycerides and heart risk, but doesn’t mean that high triglycerides increase heart risk per se, or that lowering them artificially will reduce it.
But for what it’s worth, since I went partially paleo, my triglycerides have become almost immeasurable.