Articles On Information

Arizona Doctors Must Say That Abortions With Drugs May Be Reversed

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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" border="0" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Gov. Doug Ducey" data-mediaviewer-credit="Matt York/Associated Press" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/01ARIZONA/01ARIZONA-superJumbo.jpg" height="400" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/01ARIZONA/01ARIZONA-master180.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/01ARIZONA/01ARIZONA-master180.jpg" width="309" /></a>PHOENIX
 —  Once again, Arizona finds itself on the frontier of anti-abortion 
legislation: Late Monday, it became the first state to pass a law 
requiring doctors who perform drug-induced abortions to tell women that 
the procedure may be reversible, an assertion that most doctors say is 
wrong.</div>
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The
 provision is part of a broader law signed by Gov. Doug Ducey, a 
Republican, meant to prevent plans offered in Arizona through the 
federal health care exchange from providing coverage for most abortions.</div>
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Opponents
 of abortion see the provision — in which doctors must explain to women 
having early-stage pill-induced abortions “that it may be possible to 
reverse the effects of a medical abortion” — as opening up a new avenue 
in anti-abortion legislation nationwide.</div>
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Most
 doctors say the science behind the legislation is unproven or 
erroneous. It is based largely on the research of Dr. George Delgado, 
who said he was able to save the pregnancies of a number of women after 
they had started, but not completed, the two-step process involved in 
such an abortion.</div>
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As is usually the case in abortion politics, the talk on both sides is forceful.</div>
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“It’s
 tragic when a woman makes a decision to have an abortion without 
knowing all the facts,” said Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for 
Arizona Policy, a conservative organization that was a leading supporter
 of the legislation. “We know children have been born. We know women 
have been spared the heartache of abortion. There’s no downside to this.
 Where’s the harm in informing a woman that it could be reversible?”</div>
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On the other side, Jody Liggett, the public policy director of <a class="meta-org" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" title="More articles about Planned Parenthood Federation of America">Planned Parenthood</a>
 Arizona, called the new law “dangerous and quite simply outrageous.” 
She said: “Arizona women trust their physicians. Extreme policy makers 
are preying on this trust in order to further bad medicine, all in the 
name of politics, and not science.”</div>
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In
 a drug-induced abortion, the woman first takes mifepristone, a drug 
designed to end a pregnancy of less than seven weeks, followed about two
 days later by the drug misoprostol. Dr. Delgado, a family physician and
 medical director of Culture of Life Family Services in San Diego, says 
that by giving a woman progesterone, a hormone, before she takes the 
second drug, the abortion can be reversed.</div>
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Dr.
 Delgado started a website explaining the method because, he said, women
 were not being told by their abortion providers that it was an option, 
or, if they were informed, they were told that a reversed abortion could
 lead to birth defects. He published an article in the December 2012 
issue of Annals of Pharmacotherapy in which he said that four out of the
 six women in his study who took progesterone after taking mifepristone 
were able to carry their pregnancies to term. He said he has since 
documented 87 cases where a woman gave birth to a healthy child and 75 
where women were still pregnant after being given the progesterone.</div>
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But Dr. Delgado’s findings have faced serious scrutiny from the medical community.</div>
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“It
 has no data behind it, absolutely no science to show that this is an 
effective method,” said Dr. Ilana Addis, the chairwoman of the Arizona 
section of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The
 organization said that in 30 percent to 50 percent of cases in which a 
woman takes only mifepristone, the pregnancy will continue, meaning the 
progesterone could have had little effect.</div>
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“There’s no research,” she said. “It’s a series of case reports.”</div>
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Republican
 legislators in Arizona have a history of pursuing laws intended to make
 it harder for women to get an abortion or to encourage them to change 
their minds. The state requires a woman to meet with a doctor at least 
24 hours before the procedure and have an ultrasound. In 2012, the 
governor at the time, Jan Brewer, signed legislation that barred most 
abortions after 20 weeks, but it was later struck down in the courts. </div>
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In
 2006, Ms. Brewer’s predecessor, Janet Napolitano, vetoed legislation 
that would have required abortion providers to tell a woman having an 
abortion after 20 weeks that the fetus would feel pain. </div>
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On
 Tuesday, Mr. Ducey, who took office this year, released a statement 
saying the law “ensures that women have as much information as possible 
when making an important medical decision.”</div>
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But
 critics have lambasted the law as inserting questionable information in
 an already distressing time for a woman, inviting litigation and 
potentially embarrassing Arizona.  </div>
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“This
 is not who the people of Arizona are — most people here are rational, 
reasonable people, even if they feel differently on reproductive health 
than I do,” said Representative Victoria Steele, a Democrat from Tucson.
 “How can you stomach allowing doctors — no, forcing doctors — to tell 
their patients that a medicated abortion can be reversed?”</div>
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“This is quack medicine,” she added, “yet we put it into law and the governor signed it.”</div>
</div>

Arizona Doctors Must Say That Abortions With Drugs May Be Reversed

PHOENIX — Once again, Arizona finds itself on the frontier of anti-abortion legislation: Late Monday, it became the first state to pass...

12:16 AM

A Texas Ban on Gambling That Doesn’t Quite Work

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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span class="visually-hidden"></span><img alt="" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="An eight-liner slot machine parlor operating just outside Sullivan City, Tex. Despite laws saying otherwise, casinos thrive throughout the state." data-mediaviewer-credit="Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web01/31slots-web01-superJumbo.jpg" height="266" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web01/31slots-web01-master675.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web01/31slots-web01-master675.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<figure class="media photo lede layout-large-horizontal" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003600701" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web01/31slots-web01-master675.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"><figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description"><span class="caption-text">An eight-liner slot machine 
parlor operating just outside Sullivan City, Tex. Despite laws saying 
otherwise, casinos thrive throughout the state.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times        </span>
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SULLIVAN
 CITY, Tex. —  Casino gambling with cash payoffs is illegal in Texas. 
But on a drizzly Tuesday afternoon in February, you could not tell it by
 the scene inside a former tire shop near this Rio Grande Valley border 
town: a few dozen men and women gambling on 75 slot machines in 
windowless rooms.</div>
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Among
 the cattle ranches and wind-battered palm trees on U.S. Highway 83, the
 setting was lowbrow — free chips and soft drinks were the only 
amenities — but the payouts, in one of the poorest sections of Texas, 
were substantial, up to $4,000 per play.</div>
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After
 sliding their money into the machines, gamblers who scored jackpots 
raised their hand, yelled “Ticket!” and waited for a worker carrying a 
thick wad of bills to convert the points they had won to cash.</div>
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Despite
 laws saying otherwise, casinos thrive throughout the state, an 
underground billion-dollar industry that operates in a murky realm and 
engages in a perpetual cat-and-mouse game with the authorities. It is 
unlawful for slot-machine casinos to pay cash to gamblers, but it is 
legal to own, operate and play the machines in Texas, as long as the 
prizes are cheap noncash items such as coffee pots.</div>
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<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency has-lede-adjacency layout-large-horizontal media-100000003600702 ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003600702" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web02/31slots-web02-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group">
    
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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Slot machines seized in illegal operations in Cameron County, Tex., held in a warehouse. They will eventually be sold." data-mediaviewer-credit="Kirsten Luce for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web02/31slots-web02-superJumbo.jpg" height="266" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web02/31slots-web02-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web02/31slots-web02-articleLarge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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                <span class="caption-text">Slot machines seized in illegal operations in Cameron County, Tex., held in a warehouse. They will eventually be sold.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Kirsten Luce for The New York Times        </span>
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The
 legal gray area has grown even grayer as the state and several cities 
and counties have required gambling room operators to pay taxes and 
fees. But lax oversight by the state and local authorities helps explain
 how casino gambling has become so common even in a state like Texas, 
which publicly and officially is keeping casinos out while quietly and 
unofficially allowing them to proliferate.</div>
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Texas
 has 30,000 to 150,000 illegal slot machines that make an estimated $1.9
 billion annually, according to the Texas Lottery Commission, which runs
 the state-approved lottery. The slot machines — known as eight-liners, 
for the variety of lines that need to match up for a player to win — are
 often hidden in abandoned or fake businesses, and have turned up in 
spaces that from the outside appeared to be karate schools, car 
dealerships, lawn mower repair shops and, in the South Texas town of 
Alton last year, a molecular lab.</div>
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“It’s
 like the poor man’s speakeasy in Texas,” said Richard B. Roper III, a 
former federal prosecutor who oversaw a 2007 case that shut an Amarillo 
gambling room that made up to $4,600 weekly and whose operators bribed a
 law enforcement official to avoid being raided. He added, “If the guy’s
 willing to pay off a cop, there’s got to be some money to be made.”</div>
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Some
 of the machines the authorities have confiscated in raids have official
 state tax decals — the Texas comptroller’s office collects $10 million 
annually on eight-liners, pool tables and other devices as part of a 
coin-operated machines tax. But state officials have no idea which slot 
machine operators are making illegal cash payouts, saying it is up to 
local authorities to enforce gambling laws.</div>
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Yet
 many local officials lack the resources and the will to prove whether 
cash is being exchanged. And some communities have had even less 
incentive to investigate gambling rooms since officials began requiring 
casinos to pay for costly permits, bringing in revenue to needy cities 
and counties.</div>
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Workers
 at two gambling rooms on Highway 83 in Starr County — one in the former
 tire shop and the other in a renovated gravel warehouse, both of which 
openly paid players in cash during a visit in February — claimed to have
 county permits but declined to comment further. “You’re not a cop, 
right?” a worker at one said. “Then we don’t have to talk to you.”</div>
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<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency layout-large-horizontal media-100000003600740 ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003600740" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web3/31SLOTS-web3-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group">
    
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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="In the Rio Grande Valley, just outside Sullivan City, Tex., this eight-liner parlor dispenses cash prizes." data-mediaviewer-credit="Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web3/31SLOTS-web3-superJumbo.jpg" height="300" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web3/31SLOTS-web3-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web3/31SLOTS-web3-articleLarge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description">
                <span class="caption-text">In the Rio Grande Valley, just outside Sullivan City, Tex., this eight-liner parlor dispenses cash prizes.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times        </span>
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Starr
 County charges eight-liner operators $500 per machine, through an 
annual licensing fee approved by the County Commissioners’ Court last 
year. Starr County’s top elected official, County Judge Eloy Vera, did 
not respond to requests for comment, but he told a local television 
station, KGBT, that the fees generated $1.7 million.</div>
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“They
 frankly are turning a blind eye to illegality,” said the county 
attorney, Victor Canales Jr., who opposed the ordinance allowing 
eight-liner permits. “As pretty much everybody in the county knows, 
there are cash payouts. You see postings on Facebook of people winning.”</div>
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The industry has grown so large, particularly near the border, that it has attracted the attention of the federal <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" title="More articles about the Homeland Security Department.">Department of Homeland Security</a>.
 And it has injected an illicit attraction into small towns that now hum
 at all hours with a scaled-down Las Vegas Strip experience of chiming 
slot machines, free all-you-can-eat buffets and uniformed security 
guards.</div>
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The
 gambling room on Highway 83 at the renovated gravel warehouse featured 
at least 100 machines; a giant, sparkling chandelier; pictures of 
Marilyn Monroe on the red walls; and free hot dogs. Dance music blared. 
One gambler wore medical scrubs.</div>
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Esperanza
 Salinas, 70, a retired middle-school teacher, went there with her 
72-year-old husband, Jorge Salinas, and her brother-in-law, Armando 
Salinas Jr., 68, a former city commissioner in the town of Elsa. When 
she is not busy deer hunting or volunteering at her church, Mrs. Salinas
 said, she gambles on eight-liners about twice a month.</div>
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That
 February afternoon, the three of them spent a few hours gambling at the
 renovated tire shop and gravel warehouse. Mrs. Salinas lost $70, while 
her brother-in-law lost $50 and her husband won about $80.</div>
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<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency layout-large-horizontal media-100000003600741 ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003600741" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web04/31SLOTS-web04-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group">
    
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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Esperanza Salinas, 70, and her husband, Jorge, 72, after visiting an eight-liner parlor. Mrs. Salinas gambles on slots twice a month." data-mediaviewer-credit="Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web04/31SLOTS-web04-superJumbo.jpg" height="266" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web04/31SLOTS-web04-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web04/31SLOTS-web04-articleLarge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description">
                <span class="caption-text">Esperanza Salinas, 70, and 
her husband, Jorge, 72, after visiting an eight-liner parlor. Mrs. 
Salinas gambles on slots twice a month.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times        </span>
            </figcaption>
    </figure></div>
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“We’re
 not hurting anybody,” she said. “We see it as entertainment and have 
fun. I’ve never been in one where there’s a fight or an argument or a 
disagreement, anything like that. You don’t see any riffraff.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="108" data-total-count="5658" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Gamblers like Mrs. Salinas have an unlikely group to thank for the slot-machine boom: the Texas Legislature.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="534" data-total-count="6192" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
In
 1993, lawmakers approved legislation that seemed so innocuous it was 
known as the “fuzzy animals” bill. It was intended to ensure that 
amusement games, such as those played by children at Chuck E. Cheese’s 
or a carnival that awarded stuffed animals, would not be considered 
unlawful gambling devices. The bill, signed into law by Gov. Ann W. 
Richards, legalized any device made for “bona fide amusement purposes” 
that awarded noncash prizes with a value of $5 or no more than 10 times 
the amount charged to play the game.</div>
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But
 operators of illegal gambling rooms began exploiting the law. Hundreds 
opened in Houston’s Harris County, until county leaders approved tough 
regulations that required them to close between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., to 
have untinted windows and to be at least 1,500 feet from schools, 
churches and residential neighborhoods. In 2011 in Brownsville in South 
Texas, the federal Homeland Security Investigations began looking into 
money-laundering activity associated with eight-liner establishments. 
They uncovered an estimated 9,000 machines making $300 million annually 
in Cameron County.</div>
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“That
 amount of money is just a huge red flag for us at the federal level,” 
said Kevin W. Benson, assistant special agent in charge of Homeland 
Security Investigations in the Brownsville area.</div>
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Cameron
 County’s eight-liner industry has been largely dismantled, after the 
federal investigators shared their intelligence with the district 
attorney, Luis V. Saenz. About 40 raids have been conducted since April 
2013 as part of Mr. Saenz’s Operation Bishop, including one at the 
American Legion in Port Isabel and others at empty houses that were 
turned into illegal gambling rooms with automated teller machines for 
customers to use.</div>
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“I’m
 not here to judge morally,” Mr. Saenz said. “I’m the chief law 
enforcement officer of the county, and it’s my job to enforce the law. 
We hit this place in La Feria that had been called ‘Little Vegas.’ It 
was like a compound where they had three different gaming rooms. They 
had their strobe lights, and their blinking lights, and their signs. 
They’re doing it out in the open, blatantly.”</div>
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Mr.
 Saenz’s focus on eight-liners has cost him votes, led to a death threat
 against him and supplied him with his own gambling room, of sorts. 
About 100 slot machines seized in the raids sit in a brick warehouse. 
Roughly 500 others were sold to a company that paid the county $100,000.
 Mr. Saenz said environmental regulations prohibited him from destroying
 confiscated eight-liners.</div>
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“I wanted to steamroll them to send a message,” he said.</div>
</div>

A Texas Ban on Gambling That Doesn’t Quite Work

An eight-liner slot machine parlor operating just outside Sullivan City, Tex. Despite laws saying otherwise, casinos thrive throughou...

12:12 AM

Bills on ‘Religious Freedom’ Upset Capitols in Arkansas and Indiana

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<img alt="" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Protesters at the Arkansas Capitol on Tuesday rallied against a religious freedom bill that critics say could cause discrimination." data-mediaviewer-credit="Danny Johnston/Associated Press" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/01RELIGIOUS2jp/01RELIGIOUS2jp-superJumbo.jpg" height="266" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/01RELIGIOUS2jp/01RELIGIOUS2jp-master675.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/01RELIGIOUS2jp/01RELIGIOUS2jp-master675.jpg" width="400" /> </div>
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LITTLE
 ROCK, Ark. —  The Arkansas legislature on Tuesday passed its version of
 a bill described by proponents as a religious freedom law, even as 
Indiana’s political leaders struggled to gain control over a growing 
backlash that has led to calls to boycott the state because of criticism
 that its law could be a vehicle for discrimination against gay couples.</div>
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The
 Arkansas bill now goes to the state’s Republican governor, Asa 
Hutchinson, who expressed reservations about an earlier version but more
 recently said he would sign the measure if it “reaches my desk in 
similar form as to what has been passed in 20 other states.” But the 
bill already faces a significant corporate backlash, including from Doug
 McMillon, the chief executive of Walmart, the state’s largest 
corporation, who said Tuesday afternoon that Mr. Hutchinson should veto 
it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;">In Indiana, Gov. Mike Pence was in a difficult spot trying to satisfy both the <span style="color: black;">business interests that have threatened to punish the state for its law as well as the conservatives who fought for the measure and do not want to see it diluted. </span></span></div>
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<img height="225" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/multimedia/indiana-religious-law/indiana-religious-law-videoSixteenByNine540.jpg" width="400" /> </div>
<div class="summary" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"> Gov. Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, 
says that the religious freedom law passed in the state was never 
intended to give a “license to discriminate” against gay and lesbian 
couples.</a></div>
<div class="summary-credit" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">                            Video By Reuters on                                                    Publish Date March 31, 2015.                                                                            Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images. </a></div>
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Mr.
 Pence has said he wants to modify the law, but he has not indicated how
 he could do so without undermining it. He rejected claims that it would
 allow private businesses to deny service to gay men and lesbians and 
said the criticism was based on a “perception problem” that additional 
legislation could fix.</div>
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“I’ve
 come to the conclusion that it would be helpful to move legislation 
this week that makes it clear that this law does not give businesses the
 right to discriminate against anyone,” Mr. Pence, a Republican, said at
 a news conference in Indianapolis.</div>
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He
 acknowledged that the law had become a threat to the state’s reputation
 and economy, with companies and organizations signaling that they would
 avoid Indiana in response. Mr. Pence said he had been on the phone with
 business leaders from around the country, adding, “We want to make it 
clear that Indiana’s open for business.”</div>
<div class="ad moses-ad nocontent robots-nocontent" id="Moses">
<a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/religious-freedom-restoration-act-arkansas-indiana.html?ref=us#story-continues-4">Continue reading the main story</a>
</div>
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The
 bill in Arkansas is similar to the Indiana law, with both diverging in 
certain respects from the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. 
That act was passed in 1993 and signed into law by President Bill 
Clinton, Arkansas’s most famous political son.</div>
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But
 the political context has changed widely since then. The law was 
spurred by an effort to protect Native Americans in danger of losing 
their jobs because of religious ceremonies that involved an illegal 
drug, peyote. Now the backdrop is often perceived to be the cultural 
division over <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/same_sex_marriage/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships.">same-sex marriage</a>.</div>
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Both
 states’ laws allow for larger corporations, if they are substantially 
owned by members with strong religious convictions, to claim that a 
ruling or mandate violates their religious faith, something reserved for
 individuals or family businesses in other versions of the law. Both 
allow religious parties to go to court to head off a “likely” state 
action that they fear will impinge on their beliefs, even if it has not 
yet happened.</div>
<div class="ad ad-placeholder nocontent robots-nocontent">
<a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/religious-freedom-restoration-act-arkansas-indiana.html?ref=us#story-continues-6">Continue reading the main story</a>
</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="446" data-total-count="3467" id="story-continues-6" itemprop="articleBody">
The
 Arkansas act contains another difference in wording, several legal 
experts said, that could make it harder for the government to override a
 claim of religious exemption. The state, according to the Arkansas 
bill, must show that a law or requirement that someone is challenging is
 “essential” to the furtherance of a compelling governmental interest, a
 word that is absent from the federal law and those in other states, 
including Indiana.</div>
 
        </div>
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Bills on ‘Religious Freedom’ Upset Capitols in Arkansas and Indiana

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas legislature on Tuesday passed its version of a bill described by proponents as a religious freedom...

12:06 AM

EDC = Every Day Carry

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig60s-zc3WQa3zooqpFaParTCoJH93qs506OEmg1b_RI9v0fe93lI94k_gTfF-c7xFyYPMoNXMjU51N-qlz9zS2HQb7JsfZ35EifhPyV6wNJush9zQR3fs3TD0NfuX-JKg2hEGKQnvLJY/s1600/IMG_5404.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig60s-zc3WQa3zooqpFaParTCoJH93qs506OEmg1b_RI9v0fe93lI94k_gTfF-c7xFyYPMoNXMjU51N-qlz9zS2HQb7JsfZ35EifhPyV6wNJush9zQR3fs3TD0NfuX-JKg2hEGKQnvLJY/s320/IMG_5404.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I may need a guest writer for this entry because I am an absolute EDC novice. Most people have at least one EDC item on their person: car keys; a wallet; a phone; a prophylactic device (kids, don't ask); etc. I'm here to tell you that one item is not enough. According to well established EDC principles, you must keep on your person as much as humanly possible. Every. Day. To demonstrate, the picture over there to the right is exactly what my keychain looked like back in October 2011. I didn't carry anything else other than my wallet and phone. In fact, my theory at that time was "less is more." These days, "more is more."</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7FQFUZNfc705p3ggkfjBfWWko2I1KAvvM7_P-ZIztwaZ0lIi78jDsvMYE-AiFrYwmYIaEvcfkywZGGosaQ2zp-npEMxF0OZfTqWv60jOBhf2uyAvku5eiaqcUBpFgY0Ry4rOJ4Tiw-Lk/s1600/IMG_5406.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7FQFUZNfc705p3ggkfjBfWWko2I1KAvvM7_P-ZIztwaZ0lIi78jDsvMYE-AiFrYwmYIaEvcfkywZGGosaQ2zp-npEMxF0OZfTqWv60jOBhf2uyAvku5eiaqcUBpFgY0Ry4rOJ4Tiw-Lk/s320/IMG_5406.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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October 2011 is when I acquired a decent keychain flashlight: the Photon X-Light Micro. At the time, I didn't even know what the acronym "EDC" stood for (what, "Electronic Direct Current"?). Nor did I care . . . I just needed a damn light to find keyholes and avoid walking into scooters, basketballs, rocks, Beyblades, and skateboards on the way to my car. The little light also proved to be very useful for certain situations, i.e., scenarios where one might say something like "I need some light." This light remains on my keychain to this day, as shown in my loadout picture.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Let me be clear that carrying a boad load of crap is a 180 degree paradigm shift for me because until very recently I liked the streamlined feel that empty pockets provide. In fact, my EDC gear is still fairly minimalist in comparison to the stuff carried by real EDC junkies such as the nice folks over at <a href="http://edcforums.com/" target="_blank">EDC Forums</a> or the people who show off their gear on <a href="http://everyday-carry.com/" target="_blank">Everyday-Carry.Com</a>. Honestly, my stuff is realistic and reasonably practical for MY needs.  I'm not a mechanic, I don't work outdoors, and I'm not in law enforcement. I don't need a pry bar or a pistol. I don't climb mountains and, therefore, don't need a rope cinching device. Sometimes I wish I was a border patrol car mechanic by day slash search and rescue volunteer by night so that I could rationalize more EDC gear, but "computer staring desk monkey" is reality. That reality doesn't call for much in the EDC department.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the second picture, from left to right: keychain with Photon X-Light Micro and an HP USB drive; Moleskine softcover pocket notebook; Benchmade Mini-Griptilian knife; Zebra SL-F1 ballpoint pen; and FourSevens Preon P1 flashlight. Not shown are my wallet and phone (which I'm embarrassed to show because it's lame). I tend to unload my keychain when I'm at work or at home, which is why I always carry the Preon P1 flashlight in my pocket. I have other knives that I switch out from week to week, but I always try to keep at least one on me at all times, because that is the tool that gets the most use. For example, that knife was used to open the Amazon boxes for the USB drive, the Preon, and the Moleskine.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So that's a quick summary of how the EDC concept has invaded my life. Are there any essential items that I'm missing?</div>
</div>

EDC = Every Day Carry

I may need a guest writer for this entry because I am an absolute EDC novice. Most people have at least one EDC item on their person: ca...

10:31 PM

The Acquisition Process Flow

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo3Um9o_Ate-a8RQQVz_Zd-9uoKt6WfNqPZNKBR2RXAWY-X0E956gPC_j0TG9nZ5wJgfzn9kX221e6xlECIiE5HAtroqYOZs7uAD2jwDu8e4KdfzzpzW7tpyGxQCNR3wqta-ochLw9nC4/s1600/20120808+-+DA+process+flow2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo3Um9o_Ate-a8RQQVz_Zd-9uoKt6WfNqPZNKBR2RXAWY-X0E956gPC_j0TG9nZ5wJgfzn9kX221e6xlECIiE5HAtroqYOZs7uAD2jwDu8e4KdfzzpzW7tpyGxQCNR3wqta-ochLw9nC4/s400/20120808+-+DA+process+flow2.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
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The theme of this blog relates to my thought process for getting interested in stuff. I thought that a self-explanatory flow chart would make sense. When I preview this post, however, the image of the flow chart is blurry. It might be readable if you click on it; I'm not sure. So this might be a failed experiment.</div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Even though I said the flow chart is self-explanatory, let me explain. The process begins with a seed of curiosity, which may come from a friend, a news article, a real world experience, a TV commercial, another blog, an Internet forum, etc. For instance, my interest in Japanese denim jeans came from a post I read on <a href="http://www.head-fi.org/t/445976/the-jeans-fi-thread" target="_blank">Head-Fi</a> of all places. The seed germinates into a round of preliminary research that determines whether or not I remain at least somewhat interested in the topic. If not, I'll just spend more time on Head-Fi, no worries. If so, the initial research becomes a whole lotta research, which typically makes me want to acquire one or more items (pens, ridiculously spendy jeans, headphones, whatever).</div>
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<br /></div>
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A normal person would just pull the trigger and buy something, especially if it's inexpensive like, say, a PEN that costs a buck fifty. Not me. I tend to get stuck in a loop of analysis paralysis during which additional research is performed before ultimately making a purchase. My theory is that informed consuming is the only way to go to prevent buyer's remorse and to ensure that you are getting the best possible product for whatever your budget might be. This sounds great in theory. In practice, however, it can become difficult for me to follow the "No" branch of the analysis paralysis decision box. Because I'm cheap. And because I know that I spend too much money on things that most people find stupid, compulsive, and/or excessive.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So there you have it. This is my process.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Update (about two hours after making this post): I am currently in the "Perform In-Depth Research" step regarding shaved ice machines. LOL, there goes my morning.</div>
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