I'm Mother Jones' engagement editor and Tumblrizer, specializing in explanatory journalism and new-media reporting. As a Navy vet and ex-Iraq contractor, I'm also committed to articulating all things martial—good, bad, and weird—to new audiences.
Adam Weinstein is Mother Jones' engagement editor, having previously served the magazine as its national security reporter and copy editor. Before that, he worked at the Wall Street Journal, the Village Voice, and the Tallahassee Democrat. He's written for the New York Times, New York magazine, GQ, and Newsweek. A Navy veteran, two-day Jeopardy champion and ex-political scientist, he also did a recession-fueled stint as a military contractor in Iraq. For more about Adam and his writing, click here.
Battling the Glock: Doctors could run afoul of Florida's government if they ask patients about firearms.Smarter's Photos/Flickr
Less than a month before Florida hosts the Republican National Convention, the state's right-wing governor is pushing for an unusual law that privileges the Second Amendment over the First Amendment. Gov. Rick Scott announced Monday that his administration will pursue a court appeal to defend the state's controversial "Docs vs. Glocks" law, which makes it a crime for doctors to ask patients if they own guns.
The 2011 "Firearm Owners' Privacy Act"—one of a series of NRA-backed, aggressive pro-gun laws passed by Florida's conservative Legislature in recent years—aims at keeping physicians from gathering information on patients' weapons while discussing their health risk factors. (Decades of studies have shown that even law-abiding, responsible gun owners and their families have higher risks of death by gunshot when they keep a firearm in the home.)
"Patients don't like being interrogated about whether or not they own guns when they take their child with a sore throat to a pediatrician, nor do they like being interrogated in an emergency room when their Little Leaguer broke his leg sliding into first base," the NRA's gun for hire in Florida, longtime firearms lobbyist Marion Hammer, told the Tampa Tribune last fall.*
Doctors have long been permitted to ask patients about other risk factors, like smoking and drinking (and patients, of course, have long had the freedom to lie about their bad habits). But asking about guns is different, say backers of the law, which could cost offending doctors their medical licenses and a $10,000 fine. Some even argue that federal power makes the law especially important."Now we've got Obamacare, the government owns our health care," a 58-year-old Floridian told Sunshine State News. "They can coerce the names and habits of gun owners out of doctors' medical records, that's what scares me most. Maybe it won't happen today or tomorrow, but the ability to do it is there."
Apparently, you sometimes have to destroy the Constitution in order to save it. A federal judge tossed the "Docs vs. Glocks" law out of her district court last September, ruling that it trampled doctors' right to free speech. The law, Judge Marcia Cooke wrote, "aims to restrict a practitioner's ability to provide truthful, non-misleading information to a patient"—information that she said "simply does not interfere with the right to keep and bear arms."
The governor disagrees. "This law was carefully crafted to respect the First Amendment while ensuring a patient's constitutional right to own or possess a firearm without discrimination," Scott said in his statement. "I signed this legislation into law because I believe it is constitutional and I will continue to defend it."
Way to go, Olympics: You made a gymnast cry.Jordyn Wieber/Wikimedia
Look, it's not London's fault. Great Britain is, well, great and all, and some of the competition has been top-notch—but a scant four days after Queen Elizabeth, David Beckham, and the shire opened these games, it's hard to shake a sense that Earth is so over the Olympics. People have perennially complained about how the games are broadcasted, politicized, monetized, and watered down; this year that talk seems to have reached record heights—with good reason, and a heap of assistance from NBC.Here's a rundown of the XXX Olympiad's suckage so far:
10) Their lame attempt at "fairness."
The Olympics are about watching matchups between the world's greatest athletes at the top of their game, right? Not in gymnastics, where a strange pro-amateur, anti-meritocratic "fairness rule" bars any individual country from sending more than two competitors to the all-around finals. Which is why 2011 world champion Jordyn Wieber won't be defending her all-around individual world title in the Olympic finals this week. Even though she turned out the fourth-best performance out of 98 women in the preliminary round, she was the third-best American, and so she rides the sideline.
Lest you think we're being American exceptionalists, a similar rule in the men's soccer competition requires the teams to reserve all but three of their roster spots for players under 23—in other words, greenies who haven't generally burned up the leaders' boards in World Cup and professional play. Which is why the Spanish national team is going home after two early losses, after the country clinched titles in the most recent World Cup and Euro Cup tourneys. Bizarrely, there's no such ageism in the Olympic women's competition—which makes it a lot more interesting than the dudes' junior amateur play.
9) Their lame lack of fairness.
Cash seems to score high marks.Business Insider/NBCIf the ethos underlying those gymnastics and soccer rules—amateurism, equality, and fair play—were consistent throughout Olympic competition, that would be sort of admirable. But that gets in the way of the merchandising and medal counts and rooting for world domination by [INSERT COUNTRY HERE]! These are the games where you can protest judging results with a wad of Benjamins in your hand and maybe get a silver medal for your trouble. In basketball, King James and Kobe still get to hog the sort of gold-plated glory that would fulfill a Lithuanian's or Argentine's lifelong dreams, but pretty much qualifies as offseason training for the NBA multimillionaires. Nor does the tennis competition, with its Federers and Williams sisters, resemble a future-stars competition so much as a Grand Slam tune-up.
Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps are not mortal enemies; in fact, they have a lot in common with each other. But apparently the US media have decided that viewers don't have the attention span to follow a narrative that includes more than two swimmers at a time. It's like Romney vs. Obama! Bud vs. Bud Light! Freedom vs. commies! Screw the rest of the world—and screw the fact that three people get medals in any given race. Third wheels are for trashy reality shows, not US-dominated sports!
He'll be up all night in his bunk bed thinking about what could have been.Photobucket/nbelliveauOn one hand, you could say the US men's 4x100 freestyle relay swim team put in the second-fastest time in the world. On the other hand, you could say (as even the New York Times did) that they lost.In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt praised the athlete ("the man who is actually in the arena") not for winning, but for competing: "If he fails, at least [he] fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." Of course Teddy would say that: He came in second in the 1912 presidential election. Wuss!
6) Education apparently is not a training priority.
A New York Timesprofile of America's three entrants in women's table tennis included the suggestion that that their ability to catch up to the Chinese will be irreparably hampered by the Americans' desire to earn a degree. "Too bad Ariel has to go to college," one girl's coach, a former Eastern Bloc Olympian, said. Why go to Princeton or Stanford when you could dedicate your life to a sport that looks to spectators like a Roomba cleaning a small closet at full speed?
5) Also, table tennis.
Did you know you can call timeouts in this summer basement timewaster Olympic sport? Also, there are two umpires for every match, neither of which are your dad making bogus calls to give little sis a chance at beating you.
4) Beach volleyball in bikinis. In England. On the Household Cavalry's parade grounds.
3) The looks on the faces of the undernourished, underdeveloped, fragile-as-tissue-paper gymnasts are as bad as ever.
Gymnastic exercises are getting tougher than ever before, what with the 80 pounds of makeup the women have to wear while tumbling. But although the US contingent had a mixed outcome in the medal rounds (gold for the ladies, bubkes for the guys), it dominates the world in normalizing creepy parental conduct, like this preening from Aly Raisman's folks and everything Danell Leyva's dad has ever done.
2) Bob. Costas.
Grasping for something to say about Uganda's athletic procession in the opening ceremony, Costas delivered this nugget: "Winston Churchill considered Uganda to be the pearl of Africa. Of course, Churchill never met Idi Amin."And Costas never met a room that he couldn't deprive of oxygen with his insipid yet bizarrely superior blather.
Where to start? With the haunting opening-ceremony memorial that the Olympic TV broadcaster edited out for a Ryan Seacrest studio interview? With Matt Lauer's and Bob Costas' inane ramblings during the parade of nations? In just the first three daysof competition, the ne'er-do-well network pretended that five-hour tape delays don't matter in the internet age; snubbed the guy who really invented the internet; interviewed some dude on the street about the queen, and never realized he was Evander Holyfield; and responded to the constant criticism by getting one of its biggest naysayers booted off Twitter, which only earned it more ire.
If you're really into internationalism, don't bother watching. (Hard to believe the US men's gymnastics team didn't win a gold, since judging from NBC's prime-time coverage, America was the only country that fielded a team.) About the only win was MSNBC's tandem of weightlifting commentators, who sounded like Drew Carey and the Farmer Fran from The Waterboy anchoring ESPN 8 ("The Ocho!") on moonshine.
NBC's censorious, 2.0, head-in-the-sand jingoism trumps even previous years' incompetence. It's a triumph of the middle mind and a tech fail to rival the Segway. Here's hoping somebody better can snag the next Olympics—like Fox News or Lifetime.
Rep. Nunnelee: Pro-gay activists "resort to hate."
A conservative congressman today sent House staffers an official email trashing pro-gay protesters of Chick-fil-A as "malicious" critics who "resort to hate," exhorting his colleagues to rush to the fast-food chain's aid as its brand reputation takes a tailspin.
Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-Miss.) sent the "Dear Colleague" letter to his fellow lawmakers' offices, calling on them to sign a letter of support he'd drafted to Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy. (Read the full letter below.) Cathy has recently come under fire for a recent interview in which he attacked gay marriage as violating "the biblical definition of a family unit." Chick-fil-A reportedly donated more than $2 million to anti-gay causes in 2009. Employees of the fast-food chain and their families have also given nearly $200,000 in direct donations to conservative national politicians, including tens of thousands of dollars to presidential also-ran Herman Cain this election cycle.
This isn't Rafalca, but it's the sort of anti-gravity trick she'll have to do in London.Flickr/cmaccubbinMitt Romney has an Olympic athlete in his family. It has four legs and gave Romney a $77,000 write-off on his 2010 taxes. You may have heard about Rafalca, the Romney-owned dressage horse that's going for the gold in London next month. But do you really know Rafalca? From "hippotherapy" to hiring immigrant labor to hot political ads, there's a lot to learn, and we've gathered the essentials here for you. (Got even more questions? Leave them in the comments, and we'll answer the best ones below.)
At 15, Rafalca is older than a lot of Olympic gymnasts, but roughly average for a world-class dressage horse (although they're broken in at a young age). She's an Oldenburg mare, historically bred for military and carriage work, and now used for jumping and showing. You can get one for as little as $7,500, though it probably won't make the Olympics.
When is she competing?
Thursday and Friday, Aug. 2 and 3, when the "Grand Prix" individual dressage competition kicks off. The BBC has up-to-date coverage here.
What is dressage?
The term that gets thrown around a lot by media folks is "horse ballet." But it's a little more than that; there aren't any judges docking a prima ballerina for shortening her plié in The Nutcracker. Basically, in dressage, the dandily coiffed horse and top-hat-wearing rider negotiate a set of complex choreographed steps and jumps. In the Olympics, this culminates in a "Grand Prix Freestyle" set to music, and "when it works, the result is magic," according to the International Olympic Committee. (Apparently, said "magic" involves making the Carpenters sexy again.)
That's a far cry from the sport's martial beginnings, designed to keep war horses in top shape for combat. Prior to the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, competitive dressage was an exclusively military event, performed by all-male uniformed cavalry officers (and, of course, their trusty steeds).
So, this is another rich-people deal, right?
Participating in dressage isn't cheap; the New York Timesdescribes it as "a sport of six-figure horses and $1,000 saddles." Ann and Mitt Romney, who are technically co-owners of Rafalca (and three other dressage horses), took a $77,000 loss on their 2010 taxes for Rafalca's care, though they didn't deduct that entire amount... yet. It's a complicated case, which is par for the course when your tax return is 203 pages long.
Ann Romney visits a riding-therapy center June 6 in Florida.Twitter
Is this just an expensive hobby for Ann Romney?
No. Ann Romney is quite an accomplished rider, having placedat a couple of good-sized national amateur dressage competitions. Moreover, she has long said that she began riding as a form of therapy to stem the effects of her multiple sclerosis, an inflammatory nervous-system disorder that can immobilize sufferers. "My horses rejuvenate me like you can't believe," she has said. "They give me balance. They give me energy. I think it's because I love them so much."
Wait: Horse-riding therapy is really a thing?
Yes. Experts call it hippotherapy—not because the horse or the rider is fat, but because "hippo" is the Greek root for "horse." (Incidentally, hippopotamuses are "river horses," though it's probably best not to try breaking one in with a saddle.) In 1952, the first year civilians were allowed to enter horse events at the Olympics, the silver medal in dressage went to Denmark's Lis Hartel, a polio victim who needed help getting on and off the horse and credited the sport with restoring her mobility.
Today, the American Hippotherapy Association, or AHA, sets rigorous standards for medical professionals who guide patients through horse therapy. The National MS Society touts hippotherapy as an effective sport for MS sufferers, along with skiing, tandem bicycling, and line dancing. The therapy apparently carries some risks, though: "Occasionally, a rider with MS may appear euphoric, or begin to lack good judgment where
physical abilities are concerned," one article warns.
Does Rafalca have a future in politics?
Maybe. When the Democratic National Committee released two web ads starring Rafalca and her twinkle-toes, titled "Mitt: Dancing Around the Issues" (see one of them below), conservatives charged Democrats with making light of Ann Romney's health issues, and the DNC quickly apologized. "We have no plans to invoke the horse any further, to avoid misinterpretation," a Democratic spokesman said.
But that hasn't stopped progressive soft money groups from making the mare an issue: Both MoveOn.Org and the labor super PAC Workers' Voice have said they'll use the horse in anti-Romney ads.
What kind of a track record do the Romneys have with animals?
Don't bet on it just yet. She got there with a third place showing in this year's United States Equestrian Federation National Dressage Championships, but she may be no match for this gay Dutchman (or his former steed, who's famed for having "the most wanted sperm in horse breeding").
Is Rafalca stealing jobs from American workers?
Well, now that you mention it: The horse's rider, hired by the Romneys, is a German immigrant in his first Olympic competition. "He came over here with two empty hands," a US equestrian official told the New York Times. "He had a lucky break to get to know the Romneys."
Rider Jan Ebeling also got a six-figure loan from the Romneys to open up The Acres, a small horse ranch outside L.A. where Ann Romney first rode horses for therapy and where "the Romneys use a Mediterranean-style guesthouse as a getaway." Ebeling's wife, Amy, is co-owner of Rafalca with the Romneys. (A third co-owner, Beth Meyer, is a longtime Romney friend.)
"When I was nearly incapacitated with my MS, Jan was one of the people who helped me the most," Ann Romney told dressage-news.com. But as close as Ann Romney and the Ebelings are—they've even been sued together—it's not always smooth sailing. Asked in a legal deposition whether she ever chafed at Jan Ebeling's riding instructions, she answered: "I think that is not a fair question because we all get upset at certain times with anybody that is—you know, especially a German."
How did Rafalca get to London?
By Fedex air, according to the mare's rider, Jan Ebeling. Despite persistent rumors, we're almost certain she didn't get there like this.
Current TV crunched the numbers to see how Rafalca's day-to-day expenses compared to those of the average American family. The results, in graphic form:
If you're not a big supporter of Mitt Romney's presidential aspirations, you'll probably enjoy @RafalcaRomney's fake accounts on Twitter and Tumblr. You can find more serious updates on rider Jan Ebeling's Twitter feed.
Anything else I should know?
Just that dressage is kinda big pimpin'. Our thanks to Deadspin for this mashup video:
Risky business: The military wants its trademarked symbols off this anti-Obama group's logo.Screenshot: soforamerica.org/
When you set up a Swift Boat-stylefront group to accuse President Obama of stealing credit for the military's valor, maybe it's not the best idea to steal the military's official logos in the process. "Special Operations for America," a new super-PAC* endorsing Mitt Romney for president and ridiculing Obama over the Osama bin Laden raid, appears to have done precisely that. By using part or all of the insignia of the Marines, Air Force, Navy, Army, and the US Special Operations Command on its website, Facebook, and Twitter pages, the super-PAC has run afoul of military regulations, according to representatives of the US Marine Corps and Air Force who spoke to Mother Jones.
According to the Department of Defense, each service branch's symbols are trademarked, and their commercial and political use is tracked closely by military officials to prevent any appearance of the military's endorsing a partisan or for-profit cause. The officials said they will be contacting the group and asking them to stop using the insignia or face potential legal action.SOFA's logo using official US military insignia. Screenshot: soforamerica.org/
"They don't have permission to use the Marine Corps eagle, globe, and anchor in promotion of their service," said Jessica O'Haver, director of the Marine Corps' trademark licensing program, after inspecting the super-PAC's website and checking her database. "We can't appear to endorse them…We don't currently license nonprofits and charities, especially if they're promoting a political cause." O'Haver added that since the super-PAC's website includes marks from the other services, she'll be contacting the DOD's Trademark Office so that it can notify the PAC about its unauthorized use of the material.
"We'll be doing the same thing," Staff Sgt. Jarrod Chavana, a representative of the Air Force's Trademark and Licensing Program, said regarding the group. "It's against military regulations for people to use [the Air Force logo] for political purposes."
Officially launched this week, the anti-Obama super-PAC is led byRyan Zinke, a retired Navy SEAL and conservative state senator from Montana. "It is time to take back America," the group's site exhorts would-be donors. "Your support of Special Operations for America ("SOFA") is vital to the success of our mission: Advocating for the election of Mitt Romney and like-minded candidates…who believe in permanent and enduring American Exceptionalism."
Part of that mission is firing away at President Obama for allegedly spiking the bin Laden football. "Navy SEAL's, Special Operations Personnel and Veteran's across America have been outraged since Barack Obama conveniently took credit for killing Osama Bin Laden for political gain," writes Zinke. The headline on the press release announcing the group on Wednesday trumpeted Zinke as "Former Commander at SEAL TEAM SIX." That seems a bit misleading: The unit, now known as DEVGRU, hasn't officially been called SEAL Team Six since 1987, and Zinke once led subordinate units, not the entire SEAL Team.
The group's tactics are nothing new: They've partnered with the soft-money group Veterans for a Strong America and its leader, South Dakota political operative Joel Arends, who deployed a web ad back in May that blasted Obama for taking "so much credit for killing Bin Laden." But "Special Operations for America" has now gone a step farther by wrapping itself in the US military's official symbols.
Mother Jones emailed SOFA for comment, but the group didn't respond by publication time. What will happen once they are notified that they can't use the military logos? Such organizations tend to respond in one of two ways, according to O'Haver. Most take the trademarked material down and offer apologies. "Sometimes, though, we get a cheeky letter back," she says. "I forward them to our legal department."
Correction: The story originally identified the group as a PAC rather than a super-PAC.
