I’d like to say the news has been slow; in reality, the number of fucks I give has just been diminishing.
So here’s what’s been going on:
The Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Healthcare Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare”) on the grounds that the fine for those people who don’t have insurance—in other words, who don’t adhere to the individual mandate—is within Congress’ power to tax. The opposite ruling was reported by both Fox News and CNN because they didn’t read past page two before blowing their load.
Since then, Mitt Romney agreed with the Supreme Court’s ruling and is using that fact to say Obama has raised taxes on the middle class. His logic is actually sound in this one—since poor people are exempt from the individual mandate and rich people likely have insurance. I’m not sure whether he thinks the similar fee he implemented in Massachusetts also counts as a tax.
Where logic has seemingly been abandoned is people decrying the ruling as unfair since they’re being forced to pay for something they don’t want to. Two things:
- You’re already paying for the uninsured through increased premiums and higher taxes; when they go to the hospital, they still get treated even if they can’t pay. We all pick up the bill.
- If not wanting to pay for something is now the basis for where my (tax) money goes, we should be able to get rid of the war on drugs (against brown people here), the wars in the Middle East (against brown people over there), and the war on gays (against people who like it in the brown eye).
Speaking of idiots, the recent confirmation of a subatomic particle has put some religious nuts in a tizzy because of the particle’s nickname, the “God Particle.” Why is it called the God Particle? Is it because it shows some sort of divine intervention in the creation of the universe? Or some sort of spiritual influence in every piece of matter?
No. It’s because a guy who was writing a book about this elusive Higgs particle titled it “The God Particle.” And why did he do that? Because he originally wanted to call the book “The Goddamn Particle” since it was such a bitch to find, but his editor made him change it.
And speaking of religious dissonance, this photo has been going around showing the Mt. Timpanogos Temple being unscathed by the surrounding fire—showing God’s power and protection. Just a little problem with this: the perspective on this makes the danger of the spreading fire seem much more eminent than it really is. The temple is in American Fork; the fire is in Alpine, several miles away. Other than vegetation, the only building damaged was a barn in the woods—a barn that God, apparently, didn’t care about.
So there you have it: all the fucks I give.
We’ll see if I can gather up some more fucks in the next few days.