Justin Green - DC

We made these things. They’re great. If you make your own and give it hashtag it #TedCruzWhipsHisWrist, we’ll feature them in a post on IJ Review.

Get out the way… (Please)

Ted whips his wrist

Ted is a wavin’ flag

Ted’s role in Les Miserables…

Yep

Yep

DC held the biggest marijuana seed giveaway in history this weekend, and we stopped by to ask participants why they use.

Their answers will destroy stereotypes.

Saskia

Mike & Amy

Richard

News today from the New York Times. 

Video below:

Ha

Ha

Ha

Ha

“Somebody announced they were running for President today, do you know who it was?” 

"Not even an idea”

Senate Bill 277 does not specifically address the religious exemption. But if passed as now drafted, the bill would end all “personal belief exemptions,” including religious exemptions, said Sen. Richard Pan, a Sacramento Democrat and pediatrician who co-authored the bill with Sen. Ben Allen, D-Redondo Beach.

This is a good look from California lawmakers. Mandating vaccinations for kids going to schools and day cares makes perfect sense to me. There will be plenty of people up in arms over this, but my hope is that elected officials will hear from people who agree with them that things like public health can and do trump an individual’s right to believe whatever nonsense (s)he might want to believe about vaccines or about the sacrosanct nature of our rights:

Keith Howe, 59, a San Jose chiropractor, has long opposed efforts to impose vaccinations requirements. He said when Pan introduced his legislation in 2012, “I sent him a scathing letter saying this is not Communist China and he is not Mao Zedong. He is violating the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”

This extreme hyperbole needs to be countered by people who recognize that protecting the public health through vaccination isn’t jack-booted tyranny.

It’s true that the law removes personal and religion exemptions — and this is, in no small part, what has anti-vaxxers up in arms. But these exemptions have gone through the roof in California: “From 2000 to 2014, the rate of parents seeking exemptions tripled, from 0.77 percent to 2.5 percent — or one in every 40 kids.” And there’s no reason for us to assume a) that these exemptions are based on anything more than one’s person erroneous and anti-scientific beliefs or b) that there’s anything wrong with eliminating even a religious exemption in the case of vaccination.

In my estimation, even under the strictest interpretation, removing even a religious exemption in this instance is permissible. The law doesn’t target a particular religion and it’s narrowly tailored to serve a compelling governmental interest. It’s impermissible for someone to argue that freedom of religion gives them a trump card when it comes to public health. No one has the religious freedom to put someone else’s children at risk of contracting a deadly and entirely preventable illness.