You know, I actually feel kinda bad for Nikki Haley these days. She actually says the right things, generally, and is actually holding her own pretty well in the UN and then she totally gets undercut by the stupidity of the government in DC. I would have probably quit at this point.

The problem is giving Guy Ritchie too much money. When he was doing lower-budget ganster flicks, he does pretty decent work (I know, Sherlock Holmes was decent, but I contend that was due to the talents of RDJ and Jude Law). He clearly has no idea how to handle a massive budget and still keep the movie decent.

I do not think the FTC’s primary concern here is whether consumers can tell the difference (most of us can). They seem more concerned with the principal of it - that if you’re getting paid to pitch a product, you should be transparent about it - regardless of whether the viewer can tell it’s an ad.

That’s...slightly inaccurate. What keeps costs down is cost control, period. Healthcare costs are way too high, regardless of who is doing the paying. The only healthcare system in the US that currently pays actual value (and not inflation) is Medicare/Medicaid. The government will reimburse a healthcare provider for…

$1,000.00 on a wristband for “purchases to be made at the festival.”

Um....

Like I posted before, this event truly belies how frankly DUMB the Republicans are. They have a real, genuine chance to reform a law that does need reform, and they’re screwing the pooch on it.

The really cruel part of this whole mess is that the Republicans - who could have really done something major by reforming the ACA (and yes, it is in bad need of reform) - are going to run in the total opposite direction by simply gutting the law.

Highly unlikely, as part of the standard IUD insertion process is a pregnancy test. She probably had, however, already ovulated prior to insertion and conception likely occurred immediately afterwards. A Mirena cannot impact the cycle you are already in when it is inserted - it starts working the next cycle.

I used to teach reproductive health at my church (so not a doctor) but here’s my best guess: She got pregnant, by her own admission, within a few days of the Mirena being inserted. That suggests to me that she was already in the middle of her cycle and likely had already ovulated prior to insertion and fertilization…

Can IUDs “fall” out? My understanding is that they’re pretty damn secure up there and the uterine muscles and cervix do a fine job of holding them in. I do have a friend whose body “expelled” it by simply pushing it out - but she definitely felt that one - nothing “fell” out. So can they really just come out without…

I can’t distract myself from Miley’s totally non-cohesive tattoos. Far be it from me to criticize anybody’s body art, but it’s so obvious when somebody just kind of starts tattooing without a cohesive idea of how multiple pieces will work together, even when they’re all located in the same general space. It just…

Yeah, I saw that too. FTC, people!

All this #spon blowing up - somewhere, in a windowless room, a lone FTC employee is rising from his desk, adjusting his tie and readying for the day he trained for in Orientation...

It’s kind of ironic that she mentions gymnasts as an example of people being pushed and meeting extremely high expectations, given that we had that article yesterday about how abusive the gymnastics world seems to be (obviously, that was unknown when this was written, it’s just an irony of timing). Sort of makes me…

There are a bunch of pieces floating around social media by people who claim to have not just been there, but actually worked on it. One of them says that the organizers did not make anybody sign non-disclosure agreements, so I don’t see how they can prevent anybody from talking as much as they want.

I think they mean baggage within the Democratic Party. After 2008, the Clintons went on a revenge spree against Dems they saw as disloyal - they endorsed and raised money for primary challengers, etc. There are a ton of Dems who loathe the Clintons and were not exactly leaping to help her.

Her convention speech. It was a good speech, truly - nothing wrong with it. But it was so high-minded and refused to go to Trump’s level. Trump had spent over an hour giving a speech that would have put any old fashioned hellfire and brimstone pastor to shame, talking about waves of criminal aliens, police being…

Then how did Laurie Hernandez compete at 16? Reading is fundamental, slick.

But why set it at 16? If the last Olympics showed anything, it’s that there are plenty of outstanding gymnasts who are 18+. And given now what we know about the culture of abuse within the sport, it would seem like allowing minors in competition is pretty toxic. Granted, adults can be subject to abuse as well, so this…