SUPREME COURT CHIPS AWAY AT OBAMACARE
In a 5-4 ruling,
the U.S. Supreme Court held that closely-held private businesses cannot
be required to provide free contraception to employees: "Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion. The court's four liberal justices dissented.
"The court stressed that its ruling applies only to corporations that are under the control of just a few people in which there is no essential difference between the business and its owners.
"Alito also said the decision is limited to contraceptives under the health care law. 'Our decision should not be understood to hold that an insurance-coverage mandate must necessarily fall if it conflicts with an employer's religious beliefs,' Alito said."
The decision, then, is narrowly drawn and does not do away with the employer mandate that is at the heart of Obamacare. But it's a step in the right direction, particularly as this ruling recognizes that the fundamental right of religious freedom trumps government regulation.
SUPREMES ALSO HIT PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS
In another 5-4 Supreme Court decision, the SEIU and other public employee unions were barred from demanding dues payments from some non-union workers:
"In a ruling Monday, the high court held that Service Employees International Union cannot force people who care for loved ones to be union members and deduct dues from the government checks of those they care for. The practice has gone on for several years in a handful of states, creating a lucrative stream of cash for the powerful labor organization, which represents more than 2 million workers and takes in about $300 million per year."
In others words, it was a bad day for big labor, and a good day for the First Amendment's protection of free speech and free association.
THE IRS AS "POLITICAL HITMEN"
As
the IRS scandal continues to boil in Washington, DC, it's important to
remember that Lois Lerner and her fellow travelers inside the Obama
administration are not the first to use the agency as a tool for punishing political opponents. And politicians will be tempted to use the IRS in this manner as long as the agency has so much power over the American people: "The IRS has never been a safe tool in any administration's hands. It never will be, so long as it remains such a tempting weapon for whoever wields its excessive power.
"[Rep. Dave] Camp wants a special prosecutor to look into the IRS's behavior. But that behavior is inevitable, so long as a government body as dangerous as the IRS is allowed to exist."
So the answer would appear to be simple: abolish the IRS.
FORMER NSA DIRECTOR'S LUCRATIVE NEW JOB
Washington's
revolving door spins again, and it lands former National Security
Agency head Keith Alexander in a very cushy new job as a security consultant: "Joining a crowded field of cyber-consultants, the former National Security Agency chief is pitching his services for as much as $1 million a month. The audience is receptive: Under pressure from regulators, lawmakers and their customers, financial firms are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into barriers against digital assaults. "
As one tech website noted in a post titled "For Another Million, I'll Show You the Back Door We Put in Your Router," Alexander's hefty consulting fee is a:
"…small price to pay for the expertise of a guy who has arguably done more than anyone to undermine cyber security in the United States."
WE'RE NOT IN MAYBERRY ANYMORE
In the wake of a SWAT raid on the wrong house the resulted in the serious injury of a two year-old child, some conservatives are finally beginning to say "enough" with militarized, local police departments: "Much as the teachers' unions invariably attempt to justify their 'anything goes' contracts by pointing to the ends that they ostensibly serve ('Well you do want schools for the children or don't you? Sign here'), the increasingly muscular behavior of local police departments is often shrugged off as a by-product of the need to fight crime. This, if left unchecked, is a recipe for precisely the sort of carte blanche that conservatives claim to fear."
GIVE BLOOD, OR ELSE
While on the subject of local law enforcement, some of Oregon's finest
have decided to institute a "No Refusal Weekend," during which anyone
who refuses to submit to an alcohol breath test or other examination for
drunk driving will instead be forced to give a blood sample: "Police plan to work in coordination with prosecutors and judges to quickly obtain 'blood draw warrants' for drivers who refuse blood alcohol content testing.
"With the approval of a judge, anyone suspected of impaired driving who unlawfully refuses to provide a breath sample is subject to blood testing at the scene, a medical facility, or nearest jail facility, police said."
Such a high-handed, and probably unconstitutional, effort should send a group like the ACLU into the nearest courtroom to stop it, right? Not this time. ACLU executive director Dave Fidanque said:
"'This has long been a practice police have been permitted to do, but have rarely done in the past - quite frankly I think it's a good thing that police will be using more warrants.'"
OUR RACIST MILITARY
The political correctness nannies are feeling a bit cocky these days. They managed to strike a blow
against the Washington Redskins, because "Redskins" is a deeply
offensive, and racist, term that must be banned. And now they are
turning their ire against the U.S. military: "In the United States today, the names Apache, Comanche, Chinook, Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa apply not only to Indian tribes but also to military helicopters. Add in the Black Hawk, named for a leader of the Sauk tribe. Then there is the Tomahawk, a low-altitude missile, and a drone named for an Indian chief, Gray Eagle. Operation Geronimo was the end of Osama bin Laden.
"Why do we name our battles and weapons after people we have vanquished? For the same reason the Washington team is the Redskins and my hometown Red Sox go to Cleveland to play the Indians and to Atlanta to play the Braves: because the myth of the worthy native adversary is more palatable than the reality - the conquered tribes of this land were not rivals but victims, cheated and impossibly outgunned."
By this logic, every sports team, weapons system, and school mascot will be called "It." But only if that doesn't offend the other pronouns.
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