A little more than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled business owners do not have to provide health insurance that conflicts with their deeply held religeous beliefs, the health insurance industry reports massive cancellations of employer-sponsored health plans.
Coincidently, the church of Christian Scientists, which preaches the deeply held religious belief in faith healing, is seeing a massive influx of new members.
OPEN THREAD
GOT ANY DEEPLY HELD RELIGIOUS BELIEFS YOU WOULD LIKE TO RELY ON TO OVERTURN THE LAW?
TheZoo 
(given the latest SCOTUS ruling, on behalf of a corporations ‘religious beliefs’, why would this be punishable?)//
Shame on the ‘name of religion’, just shame…
Questions
“I’ve just become a Born Again Christian!”
What is the legal waiting period between conversion and full implementation of religious beliefs as “deeply held”? (I only ask this because theologically speaking all beliefs are “full on” the moment one chooses to convert.)
“Ooh! NOW I’ve just become a Hindu.”
Are “deeply held religious beliefs” (DHRB) transferable when one converts to another religion?
“Ahh, my eyes have been opened to the Truth about the religion of Dingley-Dangley-Hell’s Bells!”
What religions are acceptable to the legislature for the case of determining a DHRB? Must a religion pass a legal test to be acceptable? Wouldn’t that make the government making laws about “the establishment of religion”? (Note that there is a distinction between the legal recognition of a “religion” as a “legal entity” for tax (etc.) purposes and a “religion” as merely existing as a belief set of one or more people).
“As a member of the Anarcho-Smokes-A-Lot religion we find our religious truth through introspection.”
Must a “DHRB” be codified in a religious text to be acceptable to the judiciary? Will there be a list of acceptable religious texts? Again I ask – aren’t making such judgments making laws “concerning the establishment of religion”?
How does the judiciary intend to prove or disprove that a belief is
1)religiously based, and
2) “deeply held”?
I will add that I think that the SCOTUS viewed this as an attack on the ACA (and thus on Obama) far more than a religious issue… because they are stupid and partisan… and stupid… the conservatives will destroy the country in order to achieve their partisan goals and ESPESCIALLY to attack Obama in any way they can, regardless of consequences…
(Still basically offline… sneaking this in at work…. Bad me… but it is part of my DHRB to have unlimited personal computer access…. Blogging brings one closer to holiness…)
I believe! I believe!
O.k., one more: As science is not the basis for the Hobby Lobby ruling (“belief” is), what if it is my religious belief that paying corporate taxes causes abortions? I mean, I don’t have to prove it is true, I just have to “believe” it. Right?
Well, Cagey, you’re being…cagey. The Supreme Court just opened the door for anyone (except, perhaps, publically traded corporations) to challenge the application of any law that goes against any purported Deeply Held Religious Belief.
CIA Twitter feed is cheeky:
Hee-hee. Let it be one of many such rulings against the deniers.
http://www.southernstudies.org/2014/07/climate-science-denier-group-must-pay-damages-for-.html
A lousy $250 bucks? They should have put 3 zeroes at the end.
They should be required to pay attorney’s fees as well.
I deeply hold my religious conviction that religion is a sham. Therefore, my Constitutional rights are being trampled by exempting these sham organizations from having to pay corporate taxes.
I’m wondering what there actually is to see at ‘The Border’? At least, in the daylight? If Obama showed up there, with his Secret Service entourage, would scores of border crossers rush up to him? Or would the concentration of law enforcement in the area cause the border crossers to avoid the area completely?
I’m wondering what there actually is to see at ‘The Border’?
I’ve never been there but I’m guessing mostly desert.
God bless America, the most wonderful and charitable nation ever created! Words by Emma Lazarus inscribed on the Statue of Liberty read:
And now, today, with some 50,000 refugee children arriving here from Central America — the homeless, tempest-tossed — fleeing from the horrors implicit in their homelands, seeking only freedom (YES) and liberty (YAY USA!!) . . .
Oh wait. They’re brown skinned and don’t even talk Amurkan. Damn Obama, bringin’ ’em up here jest ’cause he knows they’ll vote Democrat. GIT ‘EM OUTTA HERE! SEND ‘EM BACK WHERE THEY COME FROM!
Goddamn Republicans.
America, that which once it was: R.I.P.
I think we should let them all stay. Any older child that can manage to safely get themselves and their younger siblings from Honduras or Guatemala to the USA is one smart, tough cookie. They’ll make fine citizens.
I could not agree more!
There’s now a Castro in our government. This should drive Ted Cruz’ insane father even crazier. 🙂
Years ago, there was a (Democrat, obviously) governor of Arizona whose name was Raul Castro. He was a bright and serious-minded man, one with a mind that would show AZ’s current governor Jan Brewer to be the total and complete imbecile that she is. Of course, unlike Rafael Cruz, AZ’s Raul Castro was NOT from Cuba. Oh, the irony.
I’ll have to look into the specifics charged, but this sounds about right.
Quite an imagination Mr. Smith had.
I’ve seen this before (on FB, I think), so I think the Robin Hood Foundation stole it. 🙂
I’ve found a perfect little bit of social commentary when I pass the guy in the supermarket on his cell getting shopping instructions from home:
A slightly condescending and quiet little laugh.
They are instantly shamed….
I’m not mean am I?
😉
‘Deeply held religious beliefs’ will never go so deep as to be below the bottom line…
ain’t that the truth!
“Deeply held” belief:
Clung to out of sheer terror,
Or fear of own thoughts
Sums it up quite nicely!
Or a narrow mind
Unable to accept that
Our world is chaos
The ‘crazy lawmakers’ are everywhere:
on that note, so to speak:
huh?
(Duke University was founded in in 1838, looong before the ‘actor’)
It’s about booze. Duke University seems to think they have sole copyright to the name ‘Duke’ on anythng.
So, they’re gonna ‘Duke’ it out?
(was curious who’d be the first to post that bon mot)!
do I get a prize?
I read that John Wayne hated being called “Duke”. Early in his career, Wayne brought his dog, named Duke, to the set. Apparently the dog was more popular than he, because people on the set thought of him as the guy who owned Duke, so they called John Wayne “Duke.”
So, sue away!
We named the dog “Indiana”!
So. Do we have stupid leaders because people are stupid or does the stupidity of stupid leaders make people stupid? What about the dishonesty factor? Do stupid leaders actually believe the crap they spew or are they just intentionally appearing more stupid than they really are in order to appeal to truly stupid people? Insanity? A lot of stupid leaders say things that, if they truly believe them, strongly imply that they are stark raving mad. How can we tell when they are off the stupidity scale, the insanity scale, and the dishonesty scale?
Crap! Now my head hurts.
Stupid logic! Doh!
/homer
In re the constant ‘spewing’ of dishonest crap as a means to an end, take a rear view mirror peak at the techniques of Herr Dr. Joseph Goebbels. That should suffice.
Indeed. Herr Goebbels would be most proud and pleased with his apprentices.
If Medicare costs keep decreasing at their current rate, the program will cost $120 billion less per year in 2019. Thanks, Obama.
http://www.vox.com/2014/7/9/5883843/the-amazing-mysterious-decline-in-medicares-price-tag
Sweet. Anecdotal evidence is not the best, but based on my experience some doctors milk Medicare. My mom had vascular dementia. No one was interested in predicting/studying/preventing this until it was too late. Once she had it, every cardio/vascular/lung specialist in a 50 mile radius was comfy with ordering every test under the sun in order to confirm that she really had this condition. We received no test results or advice that would help us understand how to proceed with her care, just copies of the statements delineating how much Medicare had paid.
The little seaside town I live (near) has the highest per capita number of PHD’s, apparently in the nation, or so they claim.
Most if not all are retired, and they were all specialists in some narrow medical arena. Experts they are in dispensing out of date advise, most couldn’t find their way out of a wet paper bag.
One expounded on his doctorate in ‘thin film technology’, so I asked him if he could help me cover a greenhouse with Visqueen. He was obviously offended. Made my day… 😉
When 60 Minutes did a story on Medicare fraud at the end of the Bush years they estimated it was costing $60 billion a year. Bush’s DoJ didn’t care because they wanted it to go broke.
He said it, not me. This time. 😉
I hate it when some ass thinks he’s proving something by trying to crush your hand. I guess it’s some weird male thing about dominance or something.
My favorite reaction is to briskly pull my hand away and look at the guy like “Ewww, what’s WRONG with YOU…” -chuckle-
(The ones who don’t react with subsequent submission to my obvious alpha are the ones to keep an eye on.)
That causes a smile!
“Captain, I think you should come to the transporter room…”