A Trip Down Memory Lane and Open Thread

 

"Take it All" - Badfinger

DXM's comment on the Brooks post made me go back and see what I had written about the "kill billers" back in 2009.

I stand by every word. 

As I recall though, it was a time of much angry angst within the ranks, something which I understood fully,. but strongly felt we could not indulge and I took a few shots as a result.  Admittedly, I fired a few shots back myself.  Quite a few it woud seem. (Back when Matt Yglesias and I were comrades in arms.) 

Good times. 

What else is going on?  It is 103 here at 5:00 PM and just ridiculously stifling. 

 

Comments

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

It hit 95 at 7:00 -- felt like 100, and is 90.3 as of 9:35. After yesterday's work and the heat, not even Antonin the Great, Texas Republicans, or other frauds vould get me to the computer -- yet. Nice mindless stuff -- even watched a movie based on a Mary Roberts Rinehart story -- is my limit, that and baseball. Hope to drop back later.

[beckya57]

Come to the Pacific NW, guys. It's 70 degrees here! We've been asking when summer's going to arrive; we've had a bunch of days that have had (record) lows in the 40's overnight. Per the forecast, it looks like the answer is next week, with highs in the mid- to high-70's. Not that I'm gloating, or anything...Speaking of gloating, some of us were high-fiving each other at the hospital yesterday. Since we work for the Army we already are in the hellhole of socialized medicine (actually looks pretty good to me), but we're all aware of the mess in the civilian world. I consult to one of the peds fellowships, and one of the fellows was talking about a patient with multiple needs, whose family will be leaving the Army soon. My comment was, "Good for her that the ACA was upheld this morning!," since without the ACA this kid would probably never get decent coverage. Of course this makes it even more critical that we don't get President Romney. By the way, do you guys see now why the right-wing will fight any Obama SC appointees to replace the current right-wing judges to the death? They'll filibuster forever. They won't give a damn that the NY Times will say nasty things about them, they'll just have 24/7 coverage on Fox News and their other media lackeys about how the Obama appointee would round up everybody to put in death camps, and a lot of people will believe it. If Obama is re-elected and Scalia or Kennedy dies or has to retire, we'll have a full-blown constitutional crisis. I'd lay a lot of money on it.

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

becky: I was arguing that as soon as I saw the Disaster of 2010 building -- and that was one of the main reasons why I saw it as such. Meanwhile, *ahem* "someone" kept arhuing, as late as earlier that year, that Republicans would never filibuster that public a nomination.

This is one reason why it was so good that the DSCC is spoending more money on the Heitkamp Campaign. (That's something the Kaine crew wouldn't have done.)

This is why it is so important that we don't merely watch, but support the many Senate candidates. Stabenow, Casey, Brown all have two digit leads, and while the Nelson-Mack race looks close, Mack is really weak and should be no trouble. I really can't believe Warren won't pull away from Brown by the end of summer. It's the Heitkamps, the Shelley Berkeleys and Richard Carmonas, that really need the attention and support. All of them are really strong candidates -- Carmona especially, he's getting the reputation as a 'rock star' candidate -- and all of them are already even with their colorless and pretty dull opponents.

And yes, we have to root on the Joe Donnellys and the Claire McCaskills -- even after Donnelly voted for the contempt citation against Holder, And even Bob Kerrey -- remember everybodu figured his opponent would probably be Bruning and nobody knows much about Deb Fischer, the surprise winner -- wouldn't be as far out of it as he seemed. (He's still the big question mark, with McCaskill second, but we could still do what we did in 2006 and 2008 and not lose a single seat.)

We still put purselves too far in the whole, but we can have a pretty strong majority if we put some work into it.

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

That should be 'earlier this year' and 'arguing.' The heat -- and the lowering of lights to stay cooler -- make my usual typing and writing even more erratic.

[KN]

Hello cogitamusers, I have been 'away'.

The ACA decision is certainly interesting. I think the court might have realized that they are not quite as imperious as they once thought, but maybe it was something else. In any event, the rest of the world looks upon the US and says to themselves, duh, are they really that stupid that they think having for profit dealers between them and their doctors is better than having a simple single payer system? Boy howdy are those folks brainwashed or what?

Although this is a major step forward for the US it does not change my overall view of things in any substantive way. There is the pending election which for all appearances is still somewhat in the balance. At least it is to the advantage of the megamedia to protray it that way and hence to have its own influence. Even supposing they are innocent of any partisan bias, depicting a horse race garners them benefits. But I do not thing they are non-partisan. After all, they are corporations too my friends.

One more observation. It is supremely typical that the car theif and arsonist Issa is leading a witch hunt against the AG Holder, for something never done. What is worse than that is the submissive bluedogs who rolled over so willingly to support this trumpt up witch hunt.

On balance, until the majority and those who adhere to a general acceptance of the rule of law undertake to prosecute the crimnial actions of the previous administration and the criminal actions of their puppetmasters, namely the banks, justice will be and remain a false token.

On one hand we have the claims of false equivalence, such as both parties do it. That is blatently absurd. On the other hand we have the extreme projection that the so called left, is deceptive and lies about reality.

The world watches with trepidation and concern because they know that the global economy depends upon the US to a certain extent. But be assured, they - that is the rest of the world - are doing everything they can to decouple from the US economy.

I think my nightmares are tame compared to what the reality will be.

[Mandos]

The ACA decision is certainly interesting. I think the court might have realized that they are not quite as imperious as they once thought, but maybe it was something else. In any event, the rest of the world looks upon the US and says to themselves, duh, are they really that stupid that they think having for profit dealers between them and their doctors is better than having a simple single payer system? Boy howdy are those folks brainwashed or what?

Well, yes and no. I think single-payer is best, but other developed countries use other means to get universal coverage. Merits can be debated back and forth but they're all better than what the USA has.

The ACA is basically the German system without the gesetzliche Krankenkassen (statutory sickness funds, of which there are hundreds in addition to the private tier)---the "public options".

Of course, that makes all the difference, since the bulk of the German population are enrolled in the gesetzliche Krankenkassen.

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

I don't expect to be talking too much today. It hit 90 at 11:00 and has already reached a rounded-off 91 by 11:30. Something tells me this blog will 'tilt to the left (coast)' for a few more days.

But I can at least do a 'hopscotching the (blog) world for headlines' series of posts, starting with TFN Insider.

We discussed the Louisiana voucher system briefly, and some of the schools that will be getting state money, totally without being required to educate anyone in anything but 'Christianity' but TFN discovers that it was Scotsman.com that, very approproately, found one part of the ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) text that should go far to making the equation, USA = Un-Scientific Assholes. What is it? No, that one you gotta click through on -- and I wish you'd have your video camera pointed at your expression as you do so.

[Joe S]

Just to be clear, although the ACA was the best the Obama Administration could do given the American electorate and the Democratic Party, Financial Reform coupled with the no-strings-attached bank bailouts were weak tea, are weak tea (the regulations still aren't written- and may never be written), and will remain weak tea as long as Tim Geithner is Treasury Secretary. The Administration deserves every bit of criticism it takes from the Left for the Financial Reform Bill and the bail outs. So you still deserve criticism for your rather uncritical support of the Administration in that regard, Sir C.

[nancy]

Well Jim. Your Scotsman link went immediately to the twitter where I expect it to be understood as a headline from The Onion. This is getting to be truly embarrassing -- 'top read' story in Edinburgh today.

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

To the tw***er? How the fuck did that happen, I ignore, as totally as possible, that thing.

Anyway, yes it is embarrassing, but checking farther -- turns out this has been mentioned as early as 2009 -- finds even worse stuff. CenLamar one of the better LA-centered blogs -- as with many Deep Red States, the progressive blogosphere flourishes in opposition -- says:

As others have already pointed out, the most prestigious private schools in Louisiana all declined to participate in the voucher program, schools like St. Thomas More, Jesuit, Newman, and Alexandria Country Day. By all indications, Governor Jindal’s program cannot and will not provide children in struggling public schools the ability to attend stellar private institutions; it will merely provide struggling, religious schools the ability to access far more tuition dollars than they could otherwise ever receive, draining money from public institutions so that churches on the radical religious right can expand their influence and their infrastructure.

Believe it or not, that’s not the most pernicious thing about Governor Jindal’s voucher program, a program that has already been embraced as a national model by Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney. After all, what do I mean when I say “radical religious right”?

The most pernicious and most troubling thing about Governor Jindal’s program is that it unabashedly and blatantly incentivizes and underwrites schools that subscribe to and endorse the most corrosive, most ignorant, and most ridiculous educational curricula imaginable in 21st century America. Eternity Christian Academy and Cenla Christian Academy, for example, both follow curricula created by either Bob Jones or Advanced Christian Education (ACE), curricula that advances, among other things, a belief in the Loch Ness monster, a total rejection of evolution and a total acceptance of New Earth creationism, and the easily-refuted and thoroughly-debunked story of a Japanese fisherman who caught a dinosaur. And that’s just a sampling of what these schools teach in science classrooms. Their history curricula is just as absurd.

How bad? I'll be taking a whole comment to give some quotes from a rachel Tabatchnick article -- and i wish i had the book she mentions -- but I'll end this with one question. Even without the History and Social Studies details, you have, by now, a good idea of what these schools -- and homeschoolers -- teach. One of our Californians stressed that someone who is home-schooled or at a 'Christian Academy' still has to pass comprehensive grade-level tests.

How? How do you -- fairly -- test students who have received this level of mis-information? Do you test them 'on the texts' and reward ignorance and the ability to parrot it? Or do you ask reasonable questions and expect the students will work through the fog they have been immersed in? (And if you do, and the students know that to pass the test, they have to -- in their minds, assuming they believe what's in their textbooks -- simply lie, what does that say to them? Pre-law, maybe, where you present the case you need to whether you bel;ieve it or not?)

[nancy]

It went to the twitter because I put it there. Just as I've contacted Typepad with it a number of times which got commenting back up and running rather quickly.

Sorry to disappoint.

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

Rachel Tabatchnick is one of the key people at TalkToAction. Unlike Fred Clarkson, who is in a permanent state of panic and hyperbole, she -- like Bruce Wilson who works with her -- is a solid writer. If either of them sound hyperbolic, it usually turns out to be justified. This article is a survey of the textbooks produced by the main Christian textbook publishers, Bob Jones, A-Beka, and Accelerated Christian Education -- the one that is making the news in Scotland. I could just quote the entire article, or beg you to click through, but you know me, I have to give some classic examples. (As Tabatchnick states "The following textbook quotes about social issues, science, history, government, economics, and religion, are taken from Dr. Paterson's documentation or directly from my own collection of textbooks from the three publishers." The Dr. Patterson is Dr. Frances Patterson, who wrote Democracy and Intolerance: Christian School Curricula, School Choice, and Public Policy summarizing her extensive study of the curricula of the three most widely-used Protestant fundamentalist textbook publishers in the nation.)

Let's start with the expected:

The term liberal is associated throughout all three series with moral decline. For example, under the subtitle "A Liberal Supreme Court," an A Beka eighth-grade text reads, "the Supreme Court made several liberal decisions in the 1970s, indicating the moral decline of the nation as a whole."1 Another A Beka text states, "Modern liberalism has had many tragic consequences - war, tyranny, and despair - for mankind."2

An A Beka government text describes Roe v. Wade. "Ignoring 3,500 years of Judeo-Christian civilization, religion, morality, and law, the Burger Court held that an unborn child is was not a living person but rather the "property" of the mother (much like slaves were considered property in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford)."

Then there's

Predating today's "tenther" movement, the texts consistently accuse the federal government of exceeding its constitutional authority as described in the Tenth Amendment and taking powers that belong to the states. The Fourteenth Amendment, passed during Reconstruction to give citizenship to African Americans, is criticized as taking away state's rights.

Next:

Concerning slavery in America, an A Beka text states, "A few slave holders were undeniably cruel. Examples of slaves beaten to death were not common, neither were they unknown. The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well.

The evangelizing of slaves and Native Americans is emphasized in a chapter dedicated to mission work in the A Beka text. It states, "To help them endure the difficulties of slavery, God gave Christian slaves the ability to combine the African heritage of song with the dignity of Christian praise. Through the Negro spiritual, the slaves developed the patience to wait on the Lord and discovered that the truest freedom is from the bondage of sin. By first giving them their spiritual freedom, God prepared the slaves for their coming physical freedom."

And (?) a good word for a 'famous American Institution.'

A Bob Jones history text states that the Klu Klux Klan fed on "racism and bigotry" but then states that "the Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross to target bootleggers, wife beaters and immoral movies." (Which is technically true for the Second Klan, one reason why it was successful far beyond the South until its founders became enmeshed in sex and money scandals.)

Moving forward in time...

Under the subtitle "Socialist Propaganda" in an A Beka text, the Great Depression is described as having been exaggerated so that Franklin Delano Roosevelt could pass New Deal legislation. The text states, "Perhaps the best known work of propaganda to come from the Depression was John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. [...] Other forms of propaganda included rumors of mortgage foreclosures, mass evictions, and hunger riots and exaggerated statistics representing the number of unemployed and homeless people in America."

Ironically, the same A Beka text claims that the New Deal prolonged the Depression. The purpose of the Taft-Hartley Act, which began to unravel New Deal legislation, is described as "to remove certain labor abuses and to curb the growing power of labor unions over individuals and employers."

Commentary on the Vietnam War states that it divided the country into the "hawks who supported the fight against Communism, and doves, who were soft on Communism."

Skipping forward a bit we can glance at some ideas about science. And gee, whoodathunk that:

A quiz in the teacher's guide for the A Beka eighth grade text Matter and Motion asks, "Why did superstition take the place of science during the Middle Ages?" The answer key tells us, "People did not have the Bible to guide them in their beliefs. Many looked back to the false ideas of Aristotle."23 The next question is, "Why did modern science begin so suddenly in the 1500s?" The answer given is, "As people returned to the authority of the Scriptures during the Protestant Reformation (1517), they started learning the truth about God and His creation."

(If you wonder if this is a slap at Catholicsm, wait for it...)

Meanwhile ""Bible-believing Christians cannot accept any evolutionary interpretation. Dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the earth at the same time and may have even lived side by side within the past few thousand years."

But now we reach the question of all those 'false religions out there. And I'll just lump the quotes together with breaks with ellipsis:

The teacher's edition of an A Beka geography text describes "Modern Africa's Needs" as follows. "Africa is a continent with many needs. It is still in need of the gospel. Many people have gone there as missionaries but the continent is so vast, and spirit worship and the Muslim religion so strong, that only a small percentage of Africans claim to be Christians. [...] Only about ten percent of Africans can read and write. In some areas the mission schools have been shut down by Communists who have taken over the government..."30

These statements are not factual and were not in 2004, when this text was published.

[...]

One of the more horrific episodes in American history, the Cherokee "Trail of Tears," is apparently mitigated by the fact that "God used the Trail of Tears to bring many Indians to Christ," according to an A Beka text.

[...]

Although the texts repeatedly use the term "Judeo-Christian," Jews are also considered to be in need of conversion. An ACE text states, "Not realizing that he is already come, Orthodox Jews continue to look for their Messiah. As the end time prophesied in the Bible draws near, many Jews are now turning to Jesus Christ and accepting him as Messiah." 34 A Bob Jones text states, "Today the Jews of Israel and those living in other countries need to learn that they must have Christ's righteousness through faith."

[...]

Paterson dedicates an entire chapter of her book to examples of anti-Roman Catholic bias, which is taught to students beginning around the fifth grade. Catholicism is described with terms such as distorted, false, and error. A Bob Jones high school text states, "The seed of error that took root during the fourth and fifth centuries blossomed into the Roman Catholic Church - a perversion of biblical Christianity."

[...]

[And finally -- and believe me, I skipped more than I included -- ]

The worldview of these textbook publishers impact areas that you might not suspect, including choosing phonics over whole language reading instruction and rejecting the teaching of set theory in mathematics, both on religious grounds. The A Beka publishers advertise the math curriculum as, "A Beka Book provides attractive, legible, workable traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory."

Again, one simple question.

How do you test students who have learned from textbooks such as these?

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

Oh, thought you meant the link went to a twitter feed. I know how you used us to get it up. I don't deny it has its uses -- like a car does, but I'll do without either, thank you.

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

'Used it to get us up,' it's still 85.7 here. Even leaving the top light on to see the keys is painful.

[nancy]

Jim -- It's simply a way of disseminating information, via link if you choose, instantly, to a number of people.

Don't be so boomerish. You'll extend our bad reputations. And I'll take it over Facebook any day. ;^)

Now I'll attend to your depressing textbook surveys. With one eye covered. Good lord. Hey, in Idaho, they want to do all of this teaching on-line.

[nancy]

Prup -- Oh boy. ♩'Hot time, summer in the city...'

So sorry. Always the time to be grateful for running cool water and showers at will.

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

Time: 2:15
Temp: 79.7

Grrrrrrr.

[low-tech cyclist]

With Friday night's storm having not only put well over a million people in the DC area without power but also having interrupted phone service, it took me until nearly 6pm yesterday to catch up with all my local relatives and make sure everyone was OK.

We only lost power for a few seconds, just long enough to have to reset all the clocks. Amazingly, given the ferocity of the storm, there were no trees or major limbs down in our yard, and I only saw one tree down in our neighborhood. We didn't realize there were massive power outages elsewhere until my wife checked in on Facebook sometime in the late morning.

Other than my mother (thank goodness - she's 85), everyone else in the family except us lost power, and we offered our guest room to everyone. I'm still surprised we had no takers, but the others are on the west side of the area, on a curve running from Rockville through Falls Church into Alexandria, and we're in northern Calvert County, so it's a bit of a hike.

I was particularly worried about my 87 year old father in an independent-living community in Bailey's Crossroads. Their high-rise lost power, and local water pressure apparently isn't strong enough to get water to his floor, but my stepmom said the temperature in their unit is only 78°, the facility has generator power for the elevators and the dining hall downstairs, and is trucking up water to the upper-floor residents, so they're staying put for now. My stepmom's only 75, and if she felt there was any risk to Dad's health, she'd move heaven and earth to keep him safe, so I'm confident that they're OK for now, and they know they have a bed waiting for them if things become untenable there over the coming days.

Given the sheer number of outages, they're talking 5-7 days before everyone's power is restored. And the heat is supposed to stay in the mid to upper 90s all week.

[Sir Charles]

I am thrilled to say we got our power back on late yesterday afternoon. I was so beat last night that I fell asleep early and have been away from the internets since. Hanging out at a public pool now trying to stay cool. It remains brutal here. Will check in later.

[beckya57]

Glad to hear it, Sir C. All you weather sufferers are welcome up in hear in the Pacific NW anytime (highs in the 60's to low 70's).

[beckya57]

Ooops: "welcome up HERE." By the way, go over to the LGM site and read Dave Brockington's post on attitudes towards the ACA--very interesting--and click on his link for the Kaiser ACA quiz. I'll bet all of you do much better than most people do (not to boast or anything, but I got a perfect 10/10, which they said meant I understood the law better than 99.6% of Americans. That's actually quite discouraging.)

[kathy a.]

LTC and SC -- glad you've got power, and you and yours are OK.

much sympathy to all suffering that heat in the east (and elsewhere).

becky, i also got 10 of 10. simple enough questions -- but there has been a lot of loud scary lying out there.

it is appalling but not surprising that states with the highest number of uninsured are less supportive of ACA, as LGN reported.

florida has already announced that it is not expanding medicaid, and also that it will not comply with the law at all -- so it is intentionally creating a crisis. the supremacy clause says they have to, so it will be interesting to see how that shakes out. (i would not expect enforcement action before the november election. things don't kick in until 2014.)

[nancy]

Sir C -- There's a dramatic photo of uprooted trees in Cleveland Park that's all over the net today. Isn't that close to you? And some of us learned a new word today: derecho . Having grown up in the midwest, I don't recall ever experiencing anything like that kind of storm, which is supposedly not uncommon.

Glad you are all safe and with power. The high-rise without water pressure sounds a bit worrisome though, along with the heat. Hope you guys get a break in it soon.

Becky, I got a 9 because they use the word "fine" instead of "penalty". I guess they're the same thing, but not to my mind.

[nancy]

Jim, here's more by Katha Pollitt on Creationism, the science gap and dumbing down the classroom.

I expect 'Nessie' to be next up in our rewriting-the-Texas textbooks saga. Oh, and a full-sized replica of Noah's Ark is planned to be added at The Creation Museum. Yay. A little interaction I bet. Turnstiles to get on board. Long lines.

[Corvus]

I am sorry to hear that all you guys have gone without power in this heat. That truly sucks. I have power out here in the midwest, but my AC unit has been crapped out for the last few weeks, so I am in kinda the same boat. But then, the heat out here is more in the nineties, and my apartment has been holding at eighty (I can still get the unit to pump uncooled air from the basement). So not as bad.

[Sir Charles]

nancy,

Cleveland Park (now home of David Brooks) is two miles due south of me. It's a lovely neighborhood and I spend a lot of time there.

Anyway, I drove there this morning to check on the house of a friend of mind who abandoned ship to find air conditioning -- he has a sick two year old and a wife who is seven months pregnant. It is normally a five minute drive, but I had to detour three different times due to fallen trees closing streets, including one end of his street. That tree took half a telephone pole down as well -- mighty impressive.

On the way home we saw a tree one block from us -- a good 60-70 foot tall tree that had just been uprooted completely and blown over. (One of the dangers in DC is that trees planted between the sidewalk and the street are often allowed to grow to great heights, but remain shallowly rooted. We had a microburst here a couple of years ago and it took one down about a hundred yards from my us, which was quite an impressive sound.)

We've had three consecutive days in the triple digits, which is pretty impressive.

Evidently they are saying that this is the third worst power outage in Virginia history. Not sure about DC and Maryland, but at one point they were saying there were over a million customers without power, which is a pretty stunning number.

I think tomorrow's rush hour here is going to be nightmarish. There are traffic lights not functioning all over the Maryland suburbs. The only saving grace is that it is 4th of July week so traffic will likely be lighter than normal.

[low-tech cyclist]

The power in my father's high-rise came back on this morning, and the water pressure returned with it, so they're good. One of my sisters has power; the other doesn't, last I heard. She can probably stay with friends closer by whose power is back up, rather than coming all the way out here.

SC - yep, the morning commute should be interesting.

[nancy]

ltc -- good news about the high-rise. it's the elderly one worries about. they tend not to hop in front of the opened fire-hydrant or backyard garden-hose.

[KN]

Sorry to hear about the heat wave and bad weather.

Nothing really to see here, just stuff happens. Like when was the last time a derechoe swooped over D.C.? Maybe never?

I like things hot. It slows you down a bit. You make fewer mistakes.

Cold causes an urgency that you have to be wary of.

[Crissa]

The number of people I've had to explain the ACA to this week has been astounding. 'It won't help me, I'm X' and I have to say, 'oh, it helps with X, see?' and a few were quite dead set against it not helping them.

Such as the fellow with Asperger's who said that health insurance companies would charge him more for having this. Even after I linked him to the ACA FAQ, he said it wasn't a pre-existing condition and therefore he was still screwed. Argh.

[Crissa]

Gee, hope you guys are okay.

We've got personal gear to save us if there was power out in a heat-wave - we go to Burning Man each year - but not everyone is so lucky. We were darned cold in that wind-storm that knocked out the power for nearly a week last fall, and we don't have secondary heating sources.

So sympathies to those who don't have the appropriate backup to environmental controls.

[scott]

Oh, I don't mind admitting that something is better than nothing and that ACA does a lot of worthwhile things; I wouldn't have celebrated its demise and was glad it was sustained for many reasons. I guess I just get frustrated that we have a proven model out there for solving health care that all the other industrialized countries have used successfully (taking over from the private market with either single payer or the regulated utility concept), and yet sometimes we seem as far away from getting there as we were 4 years ago. IF ACA is the beginning of a process that leads to that goal, I'm thrilled but less so if it's the end goal that we tell ourselves we have to be satisfied with.

[Paula B]

If it helps, Crissa, tell the naysayers that those of us in Massachusetts who were already insured have seen minimal change in our insurance rates since Romneycare began 5 or 6 years ago. Some hospitals are suffering, however, and the state is about ready to roll out a new pricing model, one that's sure to kick up some dust. At the same time, I don't hear anything about the insurance companies going broke.

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

Can I drag a discussion from the other thread over to here. That's the question as to why Roberts switched, after the initial vote -- almost certainly 5-4 against the ACA -- and, rather than concurring, joined the opposition to make a new majority.

This is by no means unprecedented. The initial vote and assigning of the opinion is not final, and I think it was Alphaeus Thomas Mason who tells the story of a decision that was originally something like 6-3 one way, and once the decision and dissents started circulating, so many people switched that it came out 8-1 the other way.

But this must have been unprecedented in its lateness, or Scalia can add 'laziness' to his other growing faults. Usually a justice in this situation goes through and makes the necessary corrections if the decision changes, but Scalia left -- see the Brad DeLong reference I made in the other thread -- at least nine references to Ginsburg's 'dissent' rather than 'concurrence' that he failed to go back and correct. In fact, to quote DeLong:

Nine times Scalia refers to Ginsburg's opinion on the mandate not as a concurrence--agreeing with the result, but for different reasons--but as a "dissent". An opinion that reaches the same result but by a different road is not a dissent. And there was not "a" dissent. There were three: Thomas's, Ginsburg's, and Scalia's. When there are three dissents--two other dissents--to refer to one of them as "the" dissent is, at the least sloppy.

Is this deliberate--that Scalia wants us to know that his opinion was originally written to be the opinion of the Court? Or is this simply sloppy draftsmanship--chronic laziness at revision?

It seems more likely that Roberts' switch was made at the last minute and there just wasn't time for Antonin to get the "Great Brain' focused on such a minor thing as poorfreadong.

(There was a great cartoon on the SCOTUS decision and Roberts' switch last weekend I just spent 10 minutes trying to find. If I describe it as the 'volleyball cartoon' anyone who saw it will know what i meant, but I couldn't find where it was linked to. Anyone able to help me?)

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

Before I get off on SCOTUStuff, let me send my condolences and a virtual cold shower to Sir Charles and the other Washingtonians. After checking the Weather Channel for me, I checked Washington. It's bad here, touching the low 90s almost every day this week, but Washington's gonna be brutal, 98-97-97-98-100 before it starts droppinfg to 93 and then below 90. Sir Charles, take care of yourself, the Lady Charles, and Stanley.

And one general suggestion, at least for city dwellers who live near high schools -- I suppose for cuburbanites who are near them as well. Download the "Weatherbug" widget. Weatherbug gets its information from a network of mostly school-centered weather stations, and if you are near one, the readings and predictions are more accurate than Weather.com. Our local station is at Em's old High School 4 blocks away, and I've seen its accurate readings differ from Weather.com by 4-5 degrees. The bug is free, but they do pester you to buy the premium version -- just ignore it, and ignore the 'pick a sponsor to keep us free' screen that pops up occasionally.