On Tuesday, North Carolina voters approved Amendment One, which strips unmarried couples of all legal recog­nition of their rela­tion­ships under State law. Billed as a simple gay marriage ban, the amendment actually goes much further, as Patrick at Popehat describes, and voids all other legal protec­tions unmarried couples, gay or straight, might seek for them­selves, including wills, adoptions, medical powers of attorney, and possibly even joint tenancy in realty. [Part 2 and Part 3 in the Popehat series on Amendment One] It also prohibits North Carolina from recog­nizing these non-​​​​marriage rela­tion­ships when they’re formed and governed by the laws of other [ . . . ]

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The following provi­sions of the Affordable Health Care for America Act take effect beginning January 1, 2011: Numerous and extensive changes to the Medicare rules, including payment cuts to providers and facil­ities. Pregnant women receiving Medicaid must not smoke or stop smoking by January 1, 2011, in order to remain Medicaid-​​​​eligible. Individuals may no longer use flexible spending accounts, health reim­bursement accounts, or health savings accounts to pay for over-​​​​the-​​​​counter medica­tions. Penalty for unqual­ified with­drawals from health savings accounts increases from %10 to %20. $2.5b tax (for 2011) on brand-​​​​name phar­ma­ceu­tical companies and importers, based on their relative market shares. Increases to [ . . . ]

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I have an opinion on the whole “Cordoba House” issue, but it isn’t well informed. I’d like it to be. Therefore, I’m requesting reading material or other evidence on, among other issues, the nature of Islam and of this project. I also want a trans­lation suggestion for the Koran (or however you care to spell it). Preferably a scholarly trans­lation which takes the time in extensive footnotes to explain its word choices, and was not trans­lated by anyone who might have motive to use trans­lation to obscure, margin­alize, or emphasize for certain effect. Take as granted that I have read most every­thing web-​​​​present Objectivists [ . . . ]

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The Supreme Court decided McDonald v. Chicago, the sequel to D.C. v. Heller, this morning. A majority held that the Second Amendment applies to state and local govern­ments and threw out Chicago’s ban on handguns. A plurality of four Justices (Alito, Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy) held that the Second Amendment is incor­po­rated by the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment, and avoided addressing the question of whether the Slaughterhouse Cases, which long ago castrated the other half of the 14th Amendment, the Privileges or Immunities Clause, should be recon­sidered. One Justice, Justice Thomas, wrote a separate opinion concurring in the judgment, but asserting [ . . . ]

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