Stumble of the Week
An occasionally regular Friday feature • According to Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Michael McStay of Newcastle-upon-Tyne filled his room with gas with the intention of committing suicide. He changed his mind, shut off the gas and opened his window. He then lit a cigarette and blew the roof off his apartment building.
• Notre Dame quarterback, Everett Golson, suspended last spring for academic transgressions, assured Sports Illustrated that "it wasn't due to poor grades or anything like that." No, "I had poor judgment on a test." "Did you cheat?" asked Andy Staples. "Yeah, something like that," said Golson.
• Having used Citizens United to establish freedom of speech for corporations, the Supreme Court may soon decide they also have freedom of religion. Hobby Lobby, an Oklahoma-based evangelical crafts store, has sued the government over the Affordable Care Act’s inclusion of morning-after pills and IUDs, which the company argues violates its religious beliefs. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, seeing “no reason the Supreme Court would recognize constitutional protection for a corporation’s political expression but not its religious expression.”
• Barack Obama stumbled mightily this week as criticisms of the health care rollout – and more generally of his disappointing second term – went bipartisan. I have issues, but I also ask myself which signature legacy I would prefer: passage, over vitriolic opposition, of legislation that has many flaws but the goal of providing every American with decent health care – or the invasion of Iraq, approved over spineless opposition and predicated on a lie?