Money talks in Arizona

As a result of cases in other states in which photographers and florists and bakers were sued for declining to provide their services at the weddings of same-sex couples, the thoughtful legislators of Arizona decided that they needed to protect their own citizens who dislike gays from similar lawsuits and both the state house and senate passed laws that said that any business could deny service to anyone, not just gay people, for religious reasons if those beliefs are held ‘sincerely’. The bill is now awaiting the signature of Arizona governor Jan Brewer. If she does not veto it by Friday, it becomes law.
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The Deep State

Former longtime Republican congressional staffer Mike Lofgren says in a long essay what many of us have been saying all along, that despite all the posturing about divided government and gridlock and nothing getting done, in reality there is an underlying, unspoken, smoothly operating consensus on some things that result in certain policies that benefit a select few, the oligarchy, getting implemented with little or no discussion. He gives the group behind it a name and calls them the ‘Deep State’.
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Squatter becomes a model resident

The collapse of the real estate bubble exacerbated a problem that some older mid-western cities like Cleveland faced in that decreasing population had left many homes empty. Since the real estate bubble resulted in the ownership of many homes being held by shell companies that were hard to trace, these building feel into disrepair and became eyesores since no one was being held responsible for their upkeep. This led to the problem of urban blight and some cities have tried to solve it by demolishing the buildings.
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Apple security flaw alert

Those of you who use any Apple products should take steps to fix a major security flaw that has been exposed. This flaw implicates a breakdown in its SSL protocols and so enables a third party to intercept communications between you and any site that you visit. Apple has issued patches to fix this for its iPad and iPhones and you should immediately install them by going to Settings->General->Software Updates.
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The extremely delicate sensibilities of some religious organizations

The Affordable Care Act requires employers that provide health insurance to employees to provide contraceptive coverage for women. Religious organizations that oppose contraception have argued that this violates their religious beliefs and have gone to court to say that they should be exempt under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that prevents the government from taking actions that would “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” unless there is a “compelling governmental interest” and the action is the “least restrictive” it can take.
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The heartland speaks – and it sounds nuts

The individual states are popularly supposed to be the laboratories of US democracy where many ideas can be tried out and the best ones then adopted nationally. The Daily Show takes a look at some of the ideas that being proposed in states that, as we repeatedly told by idiotic politicians, represent the ‘real’ America, without them ever explaining why the rest of America in the big cities and the coasts are any less American.
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