Christofascism has consequences. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/06/abortion-maternity-health-obgyn/

Wow, the Swiss really do vote 3-4 times a year. Last one was Nov 28, and they just had another one, on three initiatives. http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Swiss_agree_to_curb_immigration_and_rethink_EU_deal_.html?cid=37877780 discusses one and links to the other two. 50.3% majority to reinstate quotas on EU immigration, rather than a free travel and labor market. 70% rejecting a conservative measure to remove abortion from the list of basic health insurance services; 62% in favor of more money for the train system, http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Swiss_railways_could_benefit_from_fresh_cash_boost.html?cid=37579820 (older article)

Somewhat randomly, the abortion article includes an interactive graphic with abortion policies around the world. http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Abortions_to_remain_covered_by_health_insurance.html?cid=37889424
Clever examining of the HTML finds the source link: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/embed?mid=zPsccFWjDz38.klFLKBjCbzdk

Huh, 2 of the 3 initiatives passed. That's unusually high, I think. I also note part of the Swiss method at work in the railway case:

"The cabinet has characterised the upcoming vote on the fund as “historic”. It is a counter-proposal to an initiative that was successfully spearheaded by the Transport and Environment Association and other organisations and would have modified the constitution.

Those backing the initiative were sufficiently satisfied with the government counter-proposal to withdraw their initiative last summer. It has also convinced the cantons and the country’s two largest automobile associations – the Automobile Club of Switzerland and the Touring Club Switzerland... Because the federal constitution has to be adapted if the proposal is accepted at the ballot box, a majority of voters as well as a majority of cantons must vote in favour."

100,000 voters can propose an initiative; government can propose a counter. I knew that, but this is me seeing it in action. Didn't know the original proposal could be withdrawn. And it's still an initiative, despite coming from the government. Seems like this could have been a law, but Swiss voters can't initiate federal law.

***

Okay, someone at Swissinfo likes Google maps. I found this older article on the new marijuana law, and it has another world map
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Mixed_feelings_over_new_Swiss_cannabis_law.html?cid=36977488&link=ers
I thought maybe they were finding them, but the text in this one credits Swissinfo. OTOH, the abortion one doesn't, and it looks different, that might be found.

Dinner at Bombay House tonight; they're still good at that. I avoid their non-tandoori chicken -- giant lumps of tastesless breast meat -- for their lamb; had lamb karahi tonight and it was quite good. Some garlic ginger onion dish. But! when we asked for extra rice, we got told it'd be $3.95. We've never been told that before. They claim they've done it all along. This seems suspicious, as we've always split our bills, and no one's ever asked "who gets the charge for the extra rice." They suggested it was spread around the party before, but you know, that takes a fair bit of math on the fly.

Totally unrelatedly, Kroger doesn't have corn tortillas -- not real ones, just pre-cooked shells. Bloomingfood's West does though, possibly their cheapest starch -- $1.89 for 36 tortillas, 1800 calories. Well, raw grain is probably cheaper.

We have a Thursday Doctor Who night, watching Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sarah Jane... Red Dwarf for a while. Tonight we branched into Leverage, off DVR instead of DVD or Netflix online. We got exposed to commercials! I haven't seen commercials in years, except for ones in movies.

links:
* Facebook application scams: one, two. Maybe you shouldn't have been playing so much Mafia Wars.

* Better school lunches mean better student performance. Which implies most of us should be eating more vegetables, too.

* Divisions among American Muslims. It's almost as if they're normal people, with class, culture, and race differences!

* Health care: it's subsidies that cost, not the public option per se? Why is Lieberman nattering about blocking the public option to save the budget? Well, lots of insurers in his state...

* Krugman can't watch Fox Business.

* Europe's lessons on unemloyment, and India's job guarantee. (From Randy)

* Ten year old boy in Arkansas sits down for gay rights

* Lindsey Graham, highly conservative Senator, is censored by his state for being too compromising with liberals. One, two.

* AMA says marijuana could have medical use, should get more research

Catholic shenanigans: threatening to stop charity in DC over benefits for gay employees; fighting for anti-gay discrimination in adoption in Britain, a battle they already lost in Boston.

Irony
* The Republican National Committee has offered employees a health plan covering abortion since 1991. They say they'll stop though, now that Politico pointed this out.

fpb is a pro-life Catholic I know of from johncwright's LJ, so I think of him as right-wing. But he's also Italian or British and living in Britain, so when it comes to universal health care he has some differing opinions. Also this on health care, taxation, voting, and citizenship. Vs. Wright's "The free market is the mechanism, and the only mechanism to make the rich man answerable to the common man.". (Really, James, if OSC isn't being provocative enough, what with his supporting the banking bailout, you're missing another gold mine for baiting your readers.)

He's also got something interesting on monasticism and the role of women in Western Europe. More randomly, Pope Benedict has apparently lifted the excommunication on the Lefebvrists. "Nazi Pope embraces Nazi schismatics."

New Yorker article by Gawande on the path dependence of universal health cares. E.g. the British NHS is rooted in WWII experience; France's system is rooted in its labor movement; etc. Thus he advises against radical remakes of the US system... of course, that still leaves us a choice between aggressive expansion of Medicare (which already works) vs. patching private insurance coverage, or even (unlikely) aggressive expansion of the VA hospitals.

It occurs to me (again) that while we can assume Jesus, as a Jew, was against any form of infanticide, the Gospels don't say anything about abortion. Neither does Paul or the rest of the Bible, it seems. Thought prompted by a Catholic LJ thread bemoaning Obama's lifting of the gag rule, and a comment bemoaning our spending "money we don't have" on international social programs to feed the poor. Because I remember three strong messages from the Gospels: "believe in Me", "don't divorce", and "help the poor, even unto all the wealth you have."

Bush's legacy: failing to defeat the Taliban.