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John Roach

Minneapolis, MN
Commenter for
4 years 3 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 03/25/10 at 11:07 pm in response to Paulsen warns medical device makers could leave if new tax not lifted

...and the hyperbole continues unabated.

When the mandate is fully effective in 2016 if you do not have insurance and are below the Federal tax-filing threshold, you are exempt. You do not have to buy and there is no penalty.

If you are not exempt and you do not buy insurance, in 2016 you will pay a surcharge of $695 or 2.5 percent of income, whichever is higher, up to a maximum of $2085 for a family. If you don't pay...........nothing happens. The law specifically prohibits...

Posted on 03/24/10 at 09:59 am in response to In dueling media sessions, GOP and DFL legislators debate constitutionality of new health care reform law

re:"...Roberts is a strong stare decisis kind of guy"....

Justice Stevens disagrees with you:

"The Court today rejects a century of history when it treats the distinction between corporate and individual campaign spending as an invidious novelty born of Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce , 494 U. S. 652 (1990) . Relying largely on individual dissenting opinions, the majority blazes through our precedents, overruling or disavowing a body of case law including FEC v....

Posted on 03/23/10 at 05:43 pm in response to In dueling media sessions, GOP and DFL legislators debate constitutionality of new health care reform law

Ah, yes. The good old 10th amendment.

If the GOP successfully gets this in front of the radical right Justices, it's possible that this could be struck down on those grounds.

The problem is that in order to do so, the Court would have to completely disregard stare decisis with respect to the historical interpretation of article 1, section 8 over the last hundred years. The result of that would be the invalidation of the legal basis for Social Security and Medicare as well....

Posted on 03/22/10 at 12:22 pm in response to Health reform passes -- and launches new political battles by Minnesota lawmakers

I always enjoy Mr. Swift's hyperbole. Using his reasoning, it is also a "crime " to rent rather than make a mortgage payment. The tax paid on what would otherwise be mortgage interest is the "penalty". And it is even enforced by the same jackbooted IRS thugs that will collect the health care "fines"!

Perhaps Mr. Swift should consider joining Rush Limbaugh, who has announced his intention to flee the oppression of accessible health care by moving to Costa Rica. Before he makes his...

Posted on 03/18/10 at 02:57 pm in response to Understanding Earth's geological age and evolution linked

Herman Cummings? Are you the guy who bills himself like this:

"At this point, proper introductions are in order. My name is Herman Cummings. I am the foremost terrestrial authority on the book of Genesis. Until you can disprove that claim, accept it as fact."

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com...

Posted on 03/18/10 at 11:23 am in response to Understanding Earth's geological age and evolution linked

It is interesting that so many high school graduates would fail to understand the geological timelines that underpin most of modern science. It explains a lot about many currently "controversial" issues.

I would, however, like to point out that the NCSE is just a single, not very well known 501(c)(3) organization with no museum and only a bimonthly newsletter, and that comparing their funding to that of the "Creation Museums" isn't really germane. A funding comparison to some of the...

Posted on 03/18/10 at 10:57 am in response to Washington Post: Al Franken was a jerk, now he's funny and cool

The referenced article seems more like a hatchet job than anything else. One example:

It recounts Franken's denial of more time on the Senate floor for Joe Lieberman as if Franken just did it to be irritating. It recounts John McCain's public retreat to the fainting couch over such a thing---but fails to point out that Franken was acting on the express directions of Harry Reid, that the same thing had already happened earlier that day with a different presider, and that McCain himself...

Posted on 03/19/10 at 10:54 pm in response to St. Paul's Summit Beer sees better times brewing in 2010

Minnesota is fortunate to have some fine craft breweries. If the state's liquor laws were less antique, the Cities would probably have a brewery scene much like Portland, Oregon.

That would be even nicer.

Posted on 03/17/10 at 04:45 pm in response to As Climate Change debate wages on, scientists turn to Hollywood for help

"Thousands of other scientists"?

Really? Who are they? Where do they work? What are their qualifications?

The Daily Mail did not interview Dr. Jones. They merely "interpreted" a few bits of his BBC interview for their own purposes. Here are some bits of his actual interview that you can "interpret" for yourself:

BBC: "How confident are you that warming has taken place and that humans are mainly responsible?"

Jones: "I'm 100% confident that the climate has warmed....

Posted on 03/15/10 at 08:04 pm in response to Latest conservative talk-circuit rumor: Obama wants to ban fishing

Perhaps a little more deconstruction is in order here.

The EspnOutdoors article that cued the GOP Wurlitzer based its fears on the shutdown of the spring black bear hunt in Ontario in 1996. The World Wildlife Fund and the International Fund for Animal Welfare presented unsolicited position papers to the Ontario government 15 years ago, and also presented unsolicited papers to the Interagency Ocean policy Task Force last year.

Therefore, the US government will do the same thing...