My Takeaway from SCOTUS’ Buffer Zones Decision

By Rima Regas

Various pundits, by now, have weighed in on today’s Supreme Court decision striking down Massachusetts’ buffer zone law for abortion clinics. To be sure, I don’t disagree that this decision will make it much harder for already vulnerable women to get the care they seek. To be sure, this is a blow to women. There is no doubt, were we talking about a buffer zone at clinics where men receive erectile dysfunction treatment, not only would buffer zones be just dandy, but walls would be mandated, for extra protection and privacy.

This unanimous decision implies that when there is a choice between women’s right to privacy or the right of a stranger to tell you about their beliefs, whether you are interested in hearing them or not, you have no right to choose to avoid it. Continue reading My Takeaway from SCOTUS’ Buffer Zones Decision

So Much for Obamacare Not Working – NYTimes

Paul Krugman

Have you been following the news about Obamacare? The Affordable Care Act has receded from the front page, but information about how it’s going keeps coming in — and almost all the news is good. Indeed, health reform has been on a roll ever since March, when it became clear that enrollment would surpass expectations despite the teething problems of the federal website.

What’s interesting about this success story is that it has been accompanied at every step by cries of impending disaster. At this point, by my reckoning, the enemies of health reform are 0 for 6. That is, they made at least six distinct predictions about how Obamacare would fail — every one of which turned out to be wrong. Continue reading So Much for Obamacare Not Working – NYTimes

How VNS Therapy for Epilepsy Works| Cyberonics

There are Epilepsy patients for whom medications are not an option. For those patients, alternatives to pharmaceuticals include the Ketogenic Diet. A subset of those for whom the Ketogenic diet offers at least some measurable relief, the addition of a VNS implant can mean effective control of epileptic seizures.


How #VNS Therapy works

VNS is short for vagus nerve stimulation — that is, stimulation of the nerve responsible for relaying messages between the brain and certain parts of the body. Continue reading How VNS Therapy for Epilepsy Works| Cyberonics

More than three quarters of conservatives say the poor “have it easy” | Washington Post

By Christopher Ingraham

The Pew Research Center is out with part two of its huge survey of American politics. The first part, released a couple weeks ago, focused on political polarization. For this round, Pew’s researchers have created a political typology which “sorts voters into cohesive groups based on their attitudes and values.” There’s plenty to say about this – and you can see where you fall in Pew’s typology quiz here! – but for now I want to focus on the chart above, particularly the left half. Continue reading More than three quarters of conservatives say the poor “have it easy” | Washington Post

Gail Collins: Mississippi Goes for the Money | NYTimes

Gail Collins

How Did Brett Favre Help Thad Cochran in His Senate Race?

Mississippi has sent us a message. I believe it boils down to: We Want Our Stuff.

Big election night! As you no doubt have heard, Senator Thad Cochran, a Republican who specializes in sending billions of dollars in federal pork back into his state, defeated a Tea Party challenger who ran against government spending. Continue reading Gail Collins: Mississippi Goes for the Money | NYTimes

Fifty years after Freedom Summer, Mississippi education remains separate and unequal | Rethink Mississippi

By Jake McGraw

  • Fifty years after Freedom Summer, Mississippi education remains separate and unequal
Myrtle School, Union County, 1956 (courtesy of Bill and Rita Bender)

Fifty years ago this month, Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act outlawing segregation in all public facilities. The Brown v. Board of Education decision desegregating public schools was already a decade old. Nevertheless, nearly all of Mississippi’s schools still operated under the pretense of “separate but equal.”

It was obvious to anyone who cared to look that Mississippi was more interested in separation than equality. White schools had the appearance of modernity, even if they often lacked the quality of more affluent states. Black schools, meanwhile, were often rustic and ramshackle. One-room schoolhouses had not yet gone extinct in some areas. The state spent 50 percent more on white education than black education, while districts supplemented white school funding with an average of four dollars for every dollar spent on black schools. Disparities in some districts reached 80 to one. Continue reading Fifty years after Freedom Summer, Mississippi education remains separate and unequal | Rethink Mississippi