siderea: (Default)
If you live in the BosWash Corridor, especially in NYC-to-Boston, you need to be paying attention to the weather. We have an honest to gosh Nor'easter blizzard predicted for the next 3 days, with heavy wet snow and extremely high winds – the model predicts the damn thing will have an eye – which of course is highly predictive of power outages due to downed lines.

Plug things what need it into electricity while ya got it.

Whiteout conditions expected. The NWS's recommendation for travel is: don't. Followed by recommendations for how to try not to die if you do: "If you must travel, have a winter survival kit with you. If you get stranded, stay with your vehicle."

I would add to that: if you get stranded in your car by snow and need to run the engine for heat, you must also periodically clear the build-up of snow blocking the tailpipe, or the exhaust will back up into the passenger compartment of the car and gas you to death.

As always, for similar reasons do not try to use any form of fire to heat your house if the regular heat goes out, unless you have installed the necessary hardware into the structure of your house, i.e. chimneys, fireplaces, and wood stoves, and they have been sufficiently recently serviced and you know how to operate them safely. The number one killer in blizzards is not the cold, it's the carbon monoxide from people doing dumb shit with hibachis.

NWS says DC to get 2 to 4 inches, NYC/BOS to get 1 to 2 feet. Ryan Hall Y'all reports some models saying up to 5 inches in DC and up to three feet in NYC and BOS.

2026 Feb 21 (5 hrs ago): Ryan Hall Y'all on YT: "The Next 48 Hours Will Be Absolutely WILD...". See particularly from 3:30 re winds.

If somehow you don't already have a preferred regular source of NWS weather alerts – my phone threw up one compliments of Google, and I didn't even know it was authorized to do that – you can see your personal NWS alerts at https://forecast.weather.gov/zipcity.php , just enter your zipcode. Also you should get yourself an app or something.
siderea: (Default)
A friend here in Massachusetts just told me he got the new booster formulation today at a CVS. It's now available here.
siderea: (Default)
Hey, all: anybody in the greater Boston area been admitted to the hospital while insured in the last few years, and still have your bills or EOBs around? Or an adult family member you have the paperwork on? (No minors please.)

I am looking for two very specific numbers.

Somewhere in there is a line item for something like "Hospital facility fee" or "Hospital service" or "Inpatient hospital stay". There should be several numbers on that line item. One will be called the "billed" and one will be the "allowed". Those are the two numbers I want, and what year that hospital stay was in. I don't care about what you paid or your copay or any of that, and I don't care about the total amount all the other fees associated with that hospitalization cost. I just want this one line item, its billed and its allowed, and the year it happened.

It might also be nice to know which hospital and which insurer, but that's not really important; likewise, it could be useful to know how many days you were in the hospital, but that's lagniappe.

If any of you can help me out with such numbers, that would be great.
siderea: (Default)
For anyone not watching the news, the Delta strain is here in Massachusetts, and the news is not enheartening.

Cape Cod (Barnstable County) has been having an outbreak. Today, the CDC just released a study conducted there:

2021 July 30: CDC.gov: "Outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 Infections, Including COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Infections, Associated with Large Public Gatherings — Barnstable County, Massachusetts, July 2021".

It reports that in an unidentified town which many of us are assuming is Provincetown because resort + known outbreak, "469 COVID-19 cases were identified among Massachusetts residents who had traveled to the town during July 3–17", and of them, "346 (74%) occurred in fully vaccinated persons. Testing identified the Delta variant in 90% of specimens from 133 patients."

And: "Among five COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized, four were fully vaccinated; no deaths were reported."

And: "Real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) cycle threshold (Ct) values in specimens from 127 vaccinated persons with breakthrough cases were similar to those from 84 persons who were unvaccinated, not fully vaccinated, or whose vaccination status was unknown (median = 22.77 and 21.54, respectively)."

Unfortunately, that's a resort area, and so a lot of people have been vacationing there, picking up the virus and no doubt bringing it back to the rest of New England. The study was conducted through the 17th, so, yeah, locals should assume it's loose in the urban areas of Massachusetts (and RI, and NH at the very least), and coming soon to a more rural areas near you.

The CDC says to mask up again, if you hadn't been.
siderea: (Default)
Does anybody happen to know: when registering for a vaccination appointment via MassVax (vaccinesignup.mass.gov), can one infer from the fact that one initially books a single appointment that they're serving Johnson&Johnson?

To unpack that: in contrast, when making an appointment through CVS.com, the web app tells you when you are browsing appointment times what vaccine is on offer for each appointment, and if you pick an appointment for a two-dose, they immediately also have you pick your appointment for the second dose at the appropriate time-frame. MassVax didn't do that, and also didn't say which vaccine you've booked for. So I'm wondering if that's inferable from not being offered a second appointment, or whether they just don't book the second until you show up for the first.
siderea: (Default)
Following up on:

2020 June 7: Some consequences of the ending of the State of Emergency [COVID-19, healthcare, pshrinkery, MA]
2020 July 8: New MA telehealth law, maybe [MA, law]

Update:

It passed.

2021 Jan 8: Mass.gov Press Release: "Governor Baker Signs Health Care Legislation":
BOSTON — Today, Governor Charlie Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito joined Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders to participate in a ceremonial signing of S.2984, An Act Promoting a Resilient Health Care System That Puts Patients First.

Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito were also joined by Senator Cindy Friedman, Senator Julian Cyr, and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr to participate in the ceremonial signing. The Governor also acknowledged the work of Speaker of the House Ronald Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka, and other legislators for their work in advancing this comprehensive health care legislation.

The new law increases insurance coverage for telehealth services [...]
2021 Jan 1: Mass.gov Press Release: "Governor Baker Signs Health Care Legislation Increasing Access to Quality, Affordable Care, Promoting Telehealth and Protecting Access To COVID-19 Testing, Treatment":
The key provisions of the new law include:
• Requiring coverage of telehealth services including behavioral health care [...]

Key provisions of the law signed today include:

Strengthening Telehealth Coverage: At the start of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the Baker-Polito Administration, through emergency order, required insurers to immediately cover telehealth to ensure the continuity of services remotely when it was not safe to do so in person. This led to a rapid shift to remote delivery and significant uptake in telehealth services. The legislation builds on these emergency flexibilities, and requires coverage parity for telehealth services and implements permanent telehealth rate parity for behavioral health services. Additionally, it requires rate parity for telehealth coverage for primary care and chronic disease management services for two years, and rate parity for all services for 90 days past the state of emergency.
I have not yet read the law in question, so I don't know how the passed version might vary from the version discussed last July, but I didn't want to make my readers wait on me doing that to get the word out.

Edit to add:

I don't remember this being in the original, but the passed version says that insurers can't pay less for behavioral health care delivered via telehealth than they do for in-person, but, among the many varieties of telehealth insurers are welcome to pay extra for full interactive audiovisual sessions, i.e. Zoom therapy (in contrast with voice only, i.e. phone therapy) presumably to incent it:
Coverage for telehealth services may include a deductible, copayment or coinsurance requirement for a health care service provided via telehealth as long as the deductible, copayment or coinsurance does not exceed the deductible, copayment or coinsurance applicable to an in-person consultation or in-person delivery of services. The rate of payment for telehealth services provided via interactive audio-video technology may be greater than the rate of payment for the same service delivered by other telehealth modalities.
siderea: (Default)
Oh thank goodness, somebody wrote this so I don't have to.

Americans, if you own a house, or your parents own a house, or really if there's any homeownership going on around you, please read this: Medicaid’s Dark Secret, by Rachel Corbett, in the Atlantic.

I've explained this to a bunch of people, and I think most of them don't believe me.

Medicare, which is for old people, doesn't cover nursing homes.

Medicaid, is for poor people, does.

By the time an old person needs a nursing home, they probably also qualify as a poor person, and thus qualify for Medicaid.

But the federal government has a law requiring states to engage in "estate recovery" when Medicaid is used to pay for nursing home stays (and also in-home nursing care), which means demanding to be reimbursed out of the deceased's "estate". Which in the case of middle class people typically mostly means their house.

They'll take your house.

They'll take your house.

They'll take your house.


Read the article for a discussion of the details. This is not an exception. It's not an edge case. It's the rule. And if it doesn't quite happen all the damn time, you should expect enforcement to get worse, not better.

Additionally:

This is absolutely preventable, but you have to do the right legal thing well in advance of getting on Medicaid in the first place.

How far in advance keeps changing. There is something called the "Medicaid look back" period. It was three years; it's now five years. I've heard rumors of discussion of it being increased again. I don't imagine it will ever go down.

One of the things that struck me a tragic from that article was this:
I learned from reading the lawyers’ ads, it’s possible to protect your assets [...] But the people who consult estate planners are typically those who have wealth to plan for in the first place.
Oh, honey. If you own an asset – like a house – worth hundreds of thousands of dollars? You have wealth. And the only circumstances in which you don't need an estate planner is when you truly don't care what happens to your estate - your wealth after you die.
siderea: (Default)
Huh, this is randomly fascinating.

Last week I got a check from my health insurance company.

It came with a letter:
Notice of Health Insurance Premium Rebate

August 2019

Siderea S. Bostoniensis
[ADDRESS REDACTED]

Re: Health Insurance Premium Rebate for Year 2018: Policy # [REDACTED]

Dear Subscriber:

This letter is to inform you that you will receive a rebate of a portion of your health insurance premiums. This rebate is required by the Affordable Care Act - the health reform law. [I do wish they had just had the stones to say, "often informally called 'Obamacare'." - S.]

The Affordable Care Act requires [us] to issue a rebate to you if [we] does not spend at least 80 percent of the premiums it receives on health care services, such as doctors and hospital bills, and activities to improve health care quality, such as efforts to improve patient safety. No more than 20 percent of premiums may be spent on adminsitrative costs such as salaries, sales, and advertising. This requirement is referred to as the "Medical Loss Ratio" standard, or the "80 / 20 rule". The 80 / 20 rule in the Affordable Care Act is intended to ensure that consumers get value for their health care dollars. You can learn more about the 80/20 rule and other provisions of the health reform at: https://www.healthcare.gov/health-care-law-protections/rate-review/.

The Affordable Care Act allows States to require health insurers to meet a higher ratio. Massachusetts sets a higher Medical Loss Ratio standard, so [we] must meet a 88% Medical Loss Ratio, meaning that 88% of premiums must be spent on medical services and activities to improve health care quality, and no more than 12% of premiums may be spend on administrative costs.

What the Medical Loss Ratio Rule Means to You
The Medical Loss Ratio rule is calculated on a State-by-State basis. In Massachusetts, [we] did not meet the Medical Loss Ratio standard. In 2018, we spent on 82.0% of a total of $607 million in premium dollars on health care and activities to improve health care quality. Since it missed the 88 percent target in Massachusetts by 6.0% of premiums it received, [we] must rebate 6.0% of your health insurance premiums. We are required to provide this rebate to you by August 30, 2019, or apply this rebate to your premium that is due on or after August 30, 2019.
This letter came with another letter – a cover letter – that explained that this letter (by inference) is the included "federally mandated communication titled 'Notice of Health Insurance Premium Rebate.'"

(Thanks, Obama!)

Anybody else get a rebate this year?

I'm slightly cross about this. Sure, getting random money through the mail is nice.

But the implication to me of this is that these sons-of-bitches did such an effective job of getting out of paying claims, that they paid so little in claims they ran afoul of the Medical Loss Ratio Rule.

I get subsidized health insurance. While I may disagree with the state about the particulars, the amount I pay for my health insurance is supposed to represent the amount I can afford to pay, as reckoned by some government bureaucrats tasked with implementing legislatures' intentions. If we grant for the moment the premise that what I paid is what I can afford to pay then, no, I am not delighted to get some of what I paid back. That's money that should have been paid on some claim they didn't pay, for someone who, you know, needed healthcare.
siderea: (Default)
I have some papers I want to ceremonially burn. Can't do it in the apartment. Probably shouldn't try it in the parking lot.

Any suggestions about available venues in the greater Arlington, MA area? Are there any? Like, I don't know, parks with fire pits or grills? Do we have campgrounds here?

Bonus point: some place booze can be consumed at the same time.
siderea: (Default)
As ever, all images click to embiggen. Transcriptions welcome; apologies: I'm behind in adding them to the main posts. Please use comment catcher.

For the first time in weeks, the grippe is (apparently, as best I can tell from the Influenza Encyclopedia's news archive) no longer front page news. The main article is on Page 8.

Boston Globe: "Boston Deaths From Grippe Drop to 71", October 17, 1918, p. 8
Boston Globe article "Boston Deaths From Grippe Drop to 71", October 17, 1918, p. 8, part 1

For rest of article (images only): http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.4900flu.0014.094

Boston Globe: Boston Death Record As Result of Epidemic )

Boston Post: "Epidemic Now Past In Boston" )

Boston Globe: "Downward Trend of Epidemic in Boston" )

Also in archive: Boston Globe: "Ban Lifted in Cambridge" )



One hundred years ago today, Oct 17 1918, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, 41 people (civilians) died of influenza and another twelve died from pneumonia, totaling 53 dead from the Spanish Flu in a single day. A total of 3,815 people had died of the flu in Boston in less than five weeks.

Source: Boston Globe, October 19, 1918, page 7. H/t Ryan Owen, at ForgottenNewEngland.com.


For ease of my reading your comments, please reply to the comment catcher comment, rather than directly on this post – unless you are doing so to capture a copy to your personal email.
siderea: (Default)
As ever, all images click to embiggen. Transcriptions welcome; apologies: I'm behind in adding them to the main posts. Please use comment catcher.

Boston Globe: "Boston Schools Will Reopen Monday", October 16, 1918, p. 1
Boston Globe article "Boston Schools Will Reopen Monday", October 16, 1918, p. 1


Boston Globe: "Boston Death Record as Result of Epidemic" )

Other articles. )



One hundred years ago today, Oct 16 1918, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, 57 people (civilians) died of influenza and another 14 died from pneumonia, totaling 71 dead from the Spanish Flu in a single day. A total of 3,762 people had died of the flu in Boston in less than five weeks.

Source: Boston Globe, October 19, 1918, page 7. H/t Ryan Owen, at ForgottenNewEngland.com.


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siderea: (Default)
Boston Globe: "Closing Order Off Saturday Midnight", October 15, 1918, p. 1
Boston Globe article "Closing Order Off Saturday Midnight", October 15, 1918, p. 1, part 1

Boston Globe article "Closing Order Off Saturday Midnight", October 15, 1918, p. 1, part 2


Somebody at the Globe finally noticed the previous title of this item ("Boston Grippe Record") was insufficiently specific:
Boston Globe: "Boston Death Record As Result of Epidemic" )

In light of what I know of the history of microbiology, as discussed previously, I don't quite know what to make of this:
Boston Globe: "Influenza Microbe, Too Small to Be Seen With a Microscope, But Identified" )

Other articles. )



One hundred years ago today, Oct 15 1918, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, 67 people (civilians) died of influenza and another 31 died from pneumonia, totaling 98 dead from the Spanish Flu in a single day. A total of 3,691 people had died of the flu in Boston in less than five weeks.

Source: Boston Globe, October 19, 1918, page 7. H/t Ryan Owen, at ForgottenNewEngland.com.


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siderea: (Default)
As ever, all images click to embiggen. Transcriptions welcome; apologies: I'm behind in adding them to the main posts. Please use comment catcher.

Boston Globe, "Grippe Fast Losing Hold, Reports Show", October 13, 1918, p. 1 & 7
Boston Globe article "Grippe Fast Losing Hold, Reports Show", October 13, 1918, p. 1 & 7Transcription:
GRIPPE FAST LOSING HOLD, REPORTS SHOW
-
Rout of Influenza by End of Month Predicted
-
Deaths In Boston for Day 121 – Fitchburg Hard Hit
-
From every section of Massachusetts, with the exception of Fitchburg, such encouraging reports were received yesterday from district health officers directing the fight against the grippe
-
Continued on the Seventh Page.


Boston Globe: "Boston Grippe Record" )

Boston Globe: "Cheerless Nights in Boston" )

Also )



One hundred years ago today, Oct 13 1918, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, 103 people (civilians) died of influenza and another 18 died from pneumonia, totaling 121 dead from the Spanish Flu in a single day. A total of 3,474 people had died of the flu in Boston in four weeks and two days.

Source: Boston Globe, October 19, 1918, page 7. H/t Ryan Owen, at ForgottenNewEngland.com.


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siderea: (Default)
As ever, all images click to embiggen. Transcriptions welcome; apologies: I'm behind in adding them to the main posts. Please use comment catcher.

Boston Globe, "Grippe Death List Again Shows Drop", October 12, 1918, p. 1 & 2
Boston Globe article "Grippe Death List Again Shows Drop", October 12, 1918, p. 1 & 2

For the rest of this article (images only): http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.7700flu.0014.077

Boston Globe: "Boston Grippe Record" )

Other articles )



One hundred years ago today, Oct 12 1918, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, 94 people (civilians) died of influenza and another 27 died from pneumonia, totaling 121 dead from the Spanish Flu in a single day. A total of 3,389 people had died of the flu in Boston in four weeks and one day.

Source: Boston Globe, October 19, 1918, page 7. H/t Ryan Owen, at ForgottenNewEngland.com.


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siderea: (Default)
As ever, all images click to embiggen. Transcriptions welcome; apologies: I'm behind in adding them to the main posts. Please use comment catcher.

Boston Globe: "Grippe Death Toll Drops 20, to 124", October 11, 1918, p. 1 & 2
Boston Globe article "Grippe Death Toll Drops 20, to 124", October 11, 1918, p. 1 & 2, part 1

Boston Globe article "Grippe Death Toll Drops 20, to 124", October 11, 1918, p. 1 & 2, part 2

For the rest of this article (images only): http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.4700flu.0014.074

Boston Globe: "Boston Grippe Record" )

Other articles. )



One hundred years ago today, Oct 11 1918, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, 103 people (civilians) died of influenza and another 18 died from pneumonia, totaling 121 dead from the Spanish Flu in a single day. A total of 3,268 people had died of the flu in Boston in four weeks.

Source: Boston Globe, October 19, 1918, page 7. H/t Ryan Owen, at ForgottenNewEngland.com.


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siderea: (Default)
I've done the transcript for the first image, but the rest are just images today. Click to embiggen. Feel free to contribute transcripts in the comments, and I'll try to add them to the main post. NOTE: This is getting long, I'm adding a comment catcher.

Boston Globe, September 21, 1918, p. 2:

"Influenza Cases On Increase"
Boston Globe article "Influenza Cases On Increase", Sept 21, 1918, p2, part 1INFLUENZA CASES ON THE INCREASE
-
42 Deaths in 24 Hours, 179 in Week
-
Physicians Say Epidemic Under Control–More Naval Men Ill
-

Influenza cases in and around Boston, and especially among Army and Navy men, are on the increase, and the death lists are daily growing larger, but physicians still insist that the epidemic has not got beyond their control.

Between 10 p. m. Thursday and 10 p. m. Friday, 42 deaths from influenza and 10 from pneumonia were reported to the Boston Health Department. These figures are the highest since the outbreak of the epidemic. The death roll since last Saturday has been:


InfluenzaPneumonia
Saturday [Sept 14]912
Sunday [Sept 15]159
Monday [Sept 16]236
Tuesday [Sept 17]2813
Wednesay [Sept 18]3013
Thursday [Sept 19]3210
Friday [Sept 20]4210
Total17972



Doctors say that if people will not lose their heads the task of checking the grippe will be much easier. The daily warning about avoiding cougher and sneezers is repeated, and those who are suffering from slight attacks are again asked to remain at home and get well instead of mingling with other to whom there is extreme danger of communicating the malady.

With 500 cases among 13,000 pupils, Somerville public schools were closed yesterday. There has been an increase in the Boston public school cases, but no such rise in the number as in many other places, and Dr. William H. Devine, the medical director, adheres to the belief that there will be no need of ordering the pupils kept at home.


Wants Schools Closed )

Two Cambridge Nurses Die )

Naval Cases Take Jump )

2500 Sailors at Framingham )

Merchant Marine Has 7 Deaths )

Grippe Claims Three in One Newton Family )

87 New Cases and 1 Death in New Bedford; No School in Somerville; 3 Die in Weymouth )

12 Ill at Simmons; Postmaster is Better )

Boston Globe: "Milford Suspends Public Gatherings" )

Boston Globe: "Three More Deaths–156 New Cases in Newport" )

Boston Globe: "Epidemic Now Raging in Nine Army Camps" )

Boston Globe: "Discover New Organism" )

Boston Globe: "An Urgent Call For More Nurses" )

Boston Post: "Influenza Is On The Wane" )



One hundred years ago today, Sept 21 1918, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, 57 people (civilians) died of influenza and another 23 died from pneumonia, totaling 80 dead from the Spanish Flu. A total of 333 people had died of the flu in Boston in the past eight days.

Source: Boston Globe, October 19, 1918, page 7. H/t Ryan Owen, at ForgottenNewEngland.com.




For ease of my reading your comments, please reply to the comment catcher comment, rather than directly on this post – unless you are doing so to capture a copy to your personal email.
siderea: (Default)
...I just picked up my mail – the physical kind – on the way in, and there was one of those irritating Globe circulars in there. Which is usual. What was unusual was how heavy it was. "Ah, hell," I thought, "either these jerks are getting worse with the junk mail, or some of my actual mail, or maybe somebody else's junk mail, got wedged into the circular." So I hauled it all up to my apartment to sort out.

Sitting down with the thing, I quickly ascertained that what was so heavy was a packet of dense, glossy printing. At first I thought it was a booklet of some kind, because all what I took for pages were exactly the same size, and they were all neatly stacked in alignment like they had been bound.

I pulled this thing out and scrutinized it. I couldn't figure out what it was. The front seemed to be an ad for Burger King with some coupons. "OVER $130 IN SAVINGS" said the headline. The back was more cryptic but also seemed to be promoting Burger King. But then it came loose in my hands and I realized it wasn't a book, the pages weren't attached. The top thing was actually a two-page, folded sheet of coupons for Burger King. Oh.

I looked at the second one. "OVER $130 IN SAVINGS". It was identical to the first one. I inspected it closely. Identical.

Then I looked the third one. Then I rifled the stack. Then I counted.

Guys, I am now the proud owner of 19 sheets of Burger King coupons, which expire Jan 28, 2018.

I don't eat Burger King food.

Is there something useful to do with these? Or, failing that, entertaining?
siderea: (Default)
Local clinicians: I just got the mailing for this fall's Harvard Med Psychiatry Dept CE trainings, and at the Dec 1 & 2 session "Treating Couples", kinda buried in the list of presenters are Esther Perel and Terry Real. It's astronomically expensive, like all Harvard Med's stuff, but if you're a sufficiently hardcore fan, there you go. (Some of the other names on this list may also be famous people I don't recognize.)
siderea: (The Charmer)
Locals! Anybody want to tell me how I should vote on Massachusetts Ballot Questions 1, 3, and 4? I'm entertaining arguments.

Right now, I'm inclined to yes on #1 ("Expanded Slot-Machine Gaming") because the arguments against it, as appear in the voter guide, seem to me to be especially stupid, but that doesn't mean that they're not actually more sensible than they sound to the uninitiated, or that there aren't other, actually valid, reasons to oppose this.

Since someone will ask: I strongly support #2 ("Charter School Expansion"); the only way to get me to vote against it would be to convince me it actually will inadvertently be bad for the expansion of charter schools. (If you tell me passing this law will cause half the non-chartered public schools in Massachusetts to burst into flame, I'm going to ask you how we could tweak it to get the other half.)

I'm weakly inclined to yes on #3 ("Conditions for Farm Animals"). I'm sensitive to the argument raised in the "Vote No" opinion in the voter guide, that it will increase food prices, which unfairly burden the poor... but then the idiot who wrote that then went on to explain how the law was going to be unnecessary because the industry was voluntarily moving to eliminate what the law would ban. "We can't tolerate this law because it would increase prices" and "we don't need a law because we're doing it anyways" are so very not mutually compatible arguments. Opinions?

And then we come to #4 ("Legalization, Regulation, and Taxation of Marijuana"). Oh god, #4. I'm generally strongly in favor of legalization, and the opposition arguments are terrible. (Marijuana overdoses? For real?) But, uhn, this law. I do not want to be giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to this vast package of legislation. I have a vague sense of some concerns about specifics buried in here. Anybody want to argue this is a terrible law from a pro-legalization standpoint? Anybody want to argue that though this is a terrible law, we should pass it anyways because of reasons?
siderea: (Default)
https://twitter.com/AP/status/625737573646880768
BREAKING: AP Source: US Olympic Committee ends effort to bring 2024 Olympics to Boston.
OH THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Headline at UHub: "Get out the butter: Boston Olympics are toast"

DANCING IN THE STREETS I TELL YOU

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