Drusilla ,'Conversations with Dead People'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
I've often wondered which US these people live in, who can choose any doctor on earth with nobody else deciding which ones are allowed, and never have a wait for anything, and can get any procedure, and don't have any form of bureaucracy involved in the whole process from end to end.
The one where you're a Senator or Supreme Court Justice.
Happy Birthday Hec!
Weird dream last night about attending a Stargate camp that was kind of like a big multi-team paintball game/LARP through a convention center, with cast members having to swap out and be on each team for a given bit like at those meet n' greet events.
If you want to counter the latest Republican talking points on the SCOTUS ruling:
Why The Individual Mandate Is Not A ‘Massive Tax Hike’ On The Middle Class
I can't believe it's been 10 years since Firefly!
Oh Dana. World, back the fuck off of the Buffistas and families.
Happy Birthday, Hec.
Today's news has gone back and forth between SCOTUS and the fires.
Two new fires are being reported and there is an investigation into the cause of the fire near Colorado Springs. OH, and almost all fireworks shows have been cancelled. Gonna be a somber 4th of July. Yesterday's list, updated...
High Park Fire is 15 miles west of Fort Collins - 87,284 acres with only 6575 percent containment, expects to be fully contained this weekend. At least 257 homes destroyed. One confirmed fatality. Evacuations lifted. Probably cause – lightning strike.
Flagstaff Fire is a mile and a half from Boulder - 300 acres with zero30 percent containment. No information on structures.
Little Sand Fire is 13 miles northwest of Pagosa Springs - 22,44023,400 acres with only 31 percent containment. No structures burned or threatened.
Treasure Fire is five miles northeast of Leadville - 320407 acres with only 1025 percent containment. No stuctures burned.
Waldo County Fire near Colorado Springs - 15,51718,500 acres with only 5 percent containment. More than 32,000 people evacuated, no solid count on number of homes burned so far homes lost number in the hundreds. FBI and ATF are looking into probably cause.
Weber Fire in Montezuma County just six miles south of Mancos - 9,1559168 acres with 30 percent containment. More than 100 homes were evacuated. No homes have been damaged in this fire.
Pine Ridge Fire – 700 acres – Started by lightning
Woodland Heights Fire – 27 acres – 22 homes destroyed
More good news for Democrats and Obama via an opinion poll:
In regards to national security, nearly two-thirds (65%) of Americans think Barack Obama would be better suited than fellow presidential candidate Mitt Romney to handle an alien invasion. In fact, more than two in three (68%) women say that Obama would be more adept at dealing with an alien invasion than Romney, vs. 61 percent of men. And more younger citizens, ages 18 to 64 years, than those aged 65+ (68% vs. 50%) think Romney would not be as well-suited as Obama to handle an alien invasion.
A letter to Sullivan:
There's something quite odd in my view about the Scalia opinion in the back. It's not a Scalia rant by and large; in fact it reads at the outset rather majestically, like he's delivering the opinion of the court. Even more strangely, it refers repeatedly to the "Ginsburg dissent," but Ginsburg is in the majority on most issues. What's all this about? Were the tables turned midway? Did Roberts first sign on to Scalia's opinion and then bail on him? Is that what Ginsburg was ribbing Scalia over in her ACS remarks? I suspect there is an amazing an untold backroom story behind this decision. It may be a while before we learn it. But the sense I have is that Scalia had the votes to take a sledgehammer to ACA, and then lost Roberts. Was it Scalia's overreaching and his overheated rhetoric that did him in? This may make an excellent Supreme Court mystery. But it points in the end to the complicated and rather ornery personality of Nino Scalia as a real burden for the court's conservatives.
Dana, so sorry. I'm glad he planned to go to the funeral anyway.
Someone needs to make one of those sarcastic Willy Wonka things about moving to Canada because of Obamacare.
Oh no, Dana, I'm sorry.
Just checking in -- am so RELIEVED that ACA stays.
Most eye-rolling reaction I've seen was a guy on Facebook going on about how UNIONS and MUSLIMS are exempted from the mandate.