Daily Archives: March 4, 2017

The Second Amendment is not about guns – The Olympian

Posted: March 4, 2017 at 2:52 pm

The Second Amendment is not about guns
The Olympian
Thus what the framers were talking about was not preventing persons serving in the military. In 21st century language the Second Amendment would read: A trained and disciplined armed force is necessary to the security of a free State; therefore ...

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The Second Amendment is not about guns - The Olympian

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Leave the Second Amendment alone – Gillette News Record

Posted: at 2:52 pm

I respond to the Feb. 26 editorial by Ann Turner entitled Leave the Gun Laws Alone regarding three concealed carry bills of the 2017 Wyoming Legislature.

Turner addresses HB136 Campus Carry, which recently failed in the Wyoming Senate. It would have allowed a concealed carry permit holder to carry a concealed firearm on campus.

Turner also mentions HB137 and HB194. Senate-amended HB137 failed conference/concurrence committee consideration Feb. 27, then passed reconsideration March 1. The House version allowed permittees to carry into governmental meetings. Senate amendment(s) are unknown.

On Feb. 27, HB194 passed the Senate. If enacted as presented to the Senate, the bill would empower school districts to authorize permittee employees and volunteers to carry concealed on school property. However, a Feb. 28 GNR article citing Sen.Von Flatern, reported that HB194 was amended Feb. 27 in the Senate, then passed on third reading. As of this writing, however, the roll call votes on bills and amendments page on the legislative website reflects no amendment to HB194 voted on since a failed amendment on Feb. 24. The article reports the Senate amended HB194 in conference/concurrence committee to allow anyone to carry concealed on school property except school employees and volunteers, unless said employees and /volunteers have school district consent and permits. So, at this time, appears HB194 is up for gubernatorial consideration. At this time, the exact terms of HB194 are unclear.

Turner asserts that ... we strongly believe in the Second Amendment ... Then, she pivots, applauding the defeat of HB136 and opposing soon-to-be-defeated HB137 and soon-to-be-gubernatorial-ready HB194 on safety grounds. Turner argues as of 2011 Wyoming already has adequately loosened its gun laws so that people can carry concealed weapons without a permit. She observes that due to such loosening, there already exists the unfettered right to carry concealed guns.

How unfettered can our right to carry concealed be if were still considering bills to expand that right? Turner closes asserting, Simply put, there are places where guns shouldnt be allowed. Doesnt sound unfettered to me!

The penultimate gun law is the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It simply, clearly says, ... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. It doesnt say the right of the people to keep and bear arms can be reasonably regulated, just so long as the right is not substantially infringed. The peoples right established by the Second is second only to the right of free speech established by the First Amendment.

Some say even the First is infringed. They assert, You cant yell Fire! in a crowded theater. Thats correct, UNLESS ITS TRUE! If theres actually a fire, Fire! could be an important word/tool preventing or minimizing injury. Dont preemptively outlaw the use of Fire! in a theater because someone may yell it irresponsibly and untruthfully. Likewise, dont preemptively ban guns from theaters, schools or governmental meetings because someone may irresponsibly and unsafely use one. Guns could be an important tool to prevent or minimize injury. Prosecute the irresponsible, the unsafe with reckless endangerment or aggravated battery.

War with England was freshly remembered when writing the Second, so it was deemed important that the people be able to oppose an unfair, overbearing or nefarious ruler or government, foreign or domestic.

The selection of two unqualified words, not and infringed, in the Second clearly imparts the absoluteness of the peoples right. The root of infringed is fringe. A fringe is the edge or periphery of something.

Its clear the peoples right to bear arms shall not be abridged in the slightest not even bits out of the periphery, edge the fringe. Every rancher knows the law of trespass. You fence off one foot of one boundary of anothers 35,000-acre ranch and its trespassing, no matter that its merely the periphery, edge, the fringe.

My opinions not conventional wisdom. Its not that of the U.S. Supreme Court. But, the court is not always right. Its just always the court its always the last word for now. Court rulings are not cast in stone.

Bills are unqualified evidence that the right to carry concealed, let alone the right to bear arms generally, is still substantially fettered and infringed. Bills are legislative attempts to correct some of the unconstitutional infringements by Wyomings law.

In short, the Second is the only gun law thats constitutional.

C. Robert Klus Jr. is a retired attorney who lives in Gillette.

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Leave the Second Amendment alone - Gillette News Record

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Williams: Defense of First Amendment Act is discriminatory – East Bay Times

Posted: at 2:51 pm

The Constitution prohibits Congress from establishing a religion. It is also forbidden to enact laws that would impede the free exercise of ones faith tradition. As with most things in the nations guiding decree, the simplicity of the words can belie the complexity of the meaning, especially when citizens periodically ask: What does that mean?

How far should religious freedom go? Can it be allowed to encroach into the murky waters ofdiscrimination, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia or any other form of intolerance?

What about claims of conscience? Should a religiously affiliated institution be mandated to provide coverage for contraception in their health insurance plans if it violates their conscience?

Here I would be inclined to side with the religious liberty argument, assuming the institution is indeed religiously affiliated. But just saying one is religiously affiliated does not suffice.

Acme House of Doughnuts is not a religiously affiliated institution because its proprietor, Wile E. Coyote, self-identifies as Christian. Such institutions are not the equivalent of, say, Catholic Charities.

It has been reported that President Donald Trump is considering an executive order to bar the federal government from punishing people or institutions that support marriage exclusively as the union of one man and one woman.

On the surface, it appears the presidents actions would potentially place the First Amendments religious freedom clause in tension with the 14thAmendments equal protection clause a constitutional conundrum. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has similar legislation in Congress called the First Amendment Defense Act.

Regardless of how ones feels about Lees bill, its hard not to love the name. Who would be against protecting the First Amendment? But that is not what the legislation, or the presidents executive order, would accomplish. It would instead extend powers to the First Amendment at the expense of the 14thAmendment.

From Sept. 17, 1787, when the Constitution was created, to August 1920, when the 19thAmendment guaranteeing women the right to vote was ratified, the ethos of America stood in tension with itself.

A nation conceived on the propositions of liberty and equality for all in theory had truncated that definition to white male landowners in practice. It used the initial draft of the Constitution to legitimize the institution of slavery and deprived the franchise to vote for roughly half the population.

The First Amendment Defense Act, along with the presidents executive order, seeks to resurrect dark chapters from the nations past.

When has it worked out for America when it passed legislation based on othering a group of people? When has the freedom of some been dependent on the subjugation of others?

Since constitutionally protected same-gender marriage hurts no one, the only way to make a plausible argument for the First Amendment Defense Act is to transform the victimizer into the victim.

The freedom of religion within the confines of ones chosen community does not grant immunity when one engages in the public square. Freedom to worship does not mean that my constitutional rights are violated if Im not allowed to exercise those beliefs wherever I go, especially if those doctrines infringe on the liberty of others.

That seems to be the nebulous line that should never be crossed. The First Amendment protects believers and nonbelievers alike. It acts as a safeguard so that no group possesses supremacy. Once the line of supremacy has been crossed so that one group enjoys additional space, the premise of the Constitution has been violated.

The tragic irony is that the misuse of the freedom of religion clause, in this case, is used to justify discrimination. On this basis alone, it is a profoundly un-American exercise.

But those in support of the First Amendment Defense Act have most likely placed more emphasis on individualistic biblical interpretation than constitutional understanding, which renders them unable or unwilling to see the humanity of those who are the objects of discrimination.

This so-called religious freedom is nothing more than an escape hatch to circumvent the Constitution, to act unencumbered on ones opposition to same-gender marriage.

This First Amendment Defense Act is not designed to address religious freedom but to justify the prejudices of Wile E. Coyote. It would allow him to mask his bigotry under the thin veneer of religious freedom with the assistance of the Congress and the president.

Byron Williams is a contributing columnist. Contact him at 510-208-6417 or byron@byronspeaks.com.

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Bitcoin Is Better Than Gold – Forbes

Posted: at 2:49 pm


Forbes
Bitcoin Is Better Than Gold
Forbes
Bitcoin has left gold in the dust in recent months. The Bitcoin Investment Trust Shares have almost tripled in value in the last twelve months, gaining more than 30 percent in the last three months alone. Meanwhile, SPDR Gold shares are down 3.78 ...
Bitcoin Is Worth More Than An Ounce Of GoldTechFrag

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China to launch space station in 2018and secure orbital dominance by 2024 – SOFREP (press release) (subscription)

Posted: at 2:49 pm

China has announced plans to launch the core module for their own space station next year, with additional modules intended to follow soon thereafter. Once completed, Chinas space station will be smaller than the current International Space Station, but with the ISS slated for retirement in 2024, China may be the only nation with a permanent address in Earths orbit in the very near future.

The core module, named Tianhe-1, will be launched on a new rocket platform designed by the Chinese to carry extremely heavy loads into space. The March-5 heavyweight carrier rocket will also be used to deliver additional modules to the space station, including two laboratories that will dock to the sides of the primary module. The two-stage rocket is said to have a payload capacity of 25 tons for low-Earth orbit, and 14 tons for much higher missions to geostationary transfer orbit. The Chinese space agency intends to have their space station completed by 2022, two years before the International Space Station is expected to conclude its tour of duty.

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Alex Hollings Alex Hollings served as an active duty Marine for six and a half years before being medically retired. A college rugby player, Marine Corps football player, and avid shooter, he has competed in multiple mixed martial arts tournaments, raced exotic cars across the country and wrestled alligators in pursuit of a story to tell. His novel, "A Secondhand Hero" is currently seeking publication.

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NASA sending new plant system to space station – The Hindu

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The Hindu
NASA sending new plant system to space station
The Hindu
NASA is sending a new, nearly self-sufficient plant growth system to the International Space Station (ISS) that will help prepare astronauts to grow their own food during deep-space exploration missions. The new plant system will this month join Veggie ...
Bigelow Aerospace offers plan for an expandable space station orbiting the moon by 2020Next Big Future
NASA to send new plant system to space stationThe Siasat Daily
NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 1 March 2017 - Station Orbit BoostedSpace Ref (press release)
Space.com -ScrollToday
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Elon Musk and SpaceX Announce Return to Moon – PJ Media

Posted: at 2:48 pm

Excitement has been building all afternoon about an announcement by Elon Musk and SpaceX, and the story is finally out: two private citizens have contracted with SpaceX to be the first humans to make a deep-space trip in 45 years. The mission will be the second crewed use of the SpaceX Dragon Crew vehicle, following two tests to the ISS under NASA's Commercial Crew Program -- an un-crewed test later this year, followed by taking a crew early in 2018.

SpaceX already has a contract with NASA for three cargo and one crewed mission a year.

Unlike the NASA missions, this lunar circumnavigation will use SpaceX's Falcon 9 Heavy booster, which SpaceX developed privately. It will be launched from Pad 39A, the same pad used by the Apollo and Space Shuttle missions.

This announcement seems to steal a march on NASA and the acting head of NASA, Robert Lightfoot. On February 15, Lightfoot announced a study to determine whether the first test of the Orion and Space Launch System could be used to send two people to the Moon:

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Battling Leptospira at the genome level – The Hindu

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The Hindu
Battling Leptospira at the genome level
The Hindu
At a glance: At the heart of these efforts is the focus on a 'One Health' approach, which integrates efforts to predict and control a disease at the human-animal-ecosystem interface. Getty Images/iStockphoto | Photo Credit: jarun011/Getty Images ...

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Sanofi, Regeneron say latest Dupixent eczema drug tests positive – Reuters

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PARIS Drugmakers Sanofi and Regeneron said on Saturday results from a one-year test of their Dupixent product aimed at adults with eczema or moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD) had been positive.

"In the CHRONOS study, Dupixent used with topical corticosteroids showed significantly greater clearance of skin lesions and overall disease severity compared to topical corticosteroids alone, which are commonly prescribed for moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis," Andrew Blauvelt, the principal investigator of the study, said in a joint statement from the companies.

"This study provides positive long-term data for Dupixent, which is important given atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory disease," he said.

A biologics license application (BLA) for Dupixent was accepted for Priority Review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2016.

(Reporting by Matthias Blamont; writing by John Irish; Editing by Clelia Oziel)

MAIQUETIA, Venezuela Venezuelan plumber Marcos Heredia scoured 20 pharmacies in one day but could not find crucial medicines to stop his epileptic 8-year-old from convulsions that caused irreparable brain damage late last year.

(Reuters Health) - - Obese people in the U.S. may not receive the same kind of care at the end of their lives as people who are thin or normal weight, suggests a new study.

Johnson & Johnson said on Friday that a state court jury in Missouri had returned a verdict in its favor in the latest trial to arise out of thousands of lawsuits alleging the company's talc-based products can increase the risk of ovarian cancer.

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Sanofi, Regeneron say latest Dupixent eczema drug tests positive - Reuters

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Precision medicine test for breast cancer helps guide chemotherapy decisions – Knowridge Science Report

Posted: at 2:44 pm

One of the earliest widespread applications of precision medicine in cancer care is helping patients and physicians decide whether chemotherapy is needed, a new study finds.

Researchers reviewed a test that assesses the risk of breast cancer recurrence and whether chemotherapy is likely to help lower that risk in women with early stage disease.

The test looks at 21 genes known to increase risk of cancer recurrence. The idea is to avoid chemotherapy in women at such low risk that they arent likely to benefit from it and to ensure chemotherapy is recommended for women with higher risk.

Researchers surveyed 1,527 women with early stage breast cancer, noting whether they received the 21-gene recurrence score assay test and whether they subsequently received chemotherapy.

Currently, cancer care guidelines recommend the test for women with specific tumor features whose cancer has not spread to surrounding lymph nodes.

The study, published in Cancer, showed that most doctors recommended the test in line with these guidelines, though 13 percent of women with cancer in their lymph nodes still received the test.

Current guidelines typically recommend that these women should always receive chemotherapy, and therefore do not need the test. An ongoing clinical trial is looking at the value of the test for this group.

Among patients who had the test, the results aligned with the decision for or against chemotherapy: 87 percent of patients with a high score had chemotherapy.

For patients with the most favorable prognosis and the lowest test scores, only 3 percent received chemotherapy, compared to 13 percent of women who did not have the gene assay test but had a favorable prognosis.

An area of opportunity

Most patients accurately recalled receiving the test the researchers used registry and laboratory data to confirm that.

Nearly two-thirds thought the test was helpful, saying that their results helped shift their opinion for or against chemotherapy. Patients reported high satisfaction with their treatment choice.

Based on the diverse sample of patients, the researchers found that race or ethnicity did not play a role in the use of the recurrence score assay or in chemotherapy recommendations.

Although most examples of precision medicine involve clinical trials, the recurrence gene assay shows how precision medicine can be used in everyday clinical care.

Overall, the study shows use of the test, treatment recommendations and satisfaction all align. But the researchers note one opportunity.

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News source:Michigan Health. The content is edited for length and style purposes. Figure legend: This Knowridge.com image is credited to Michigan Health.

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Precision medicine test for breast cancer helps guide chemotherapy decisions - Knowridge Science Report

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