Feeling healthy again?: A super-bitchy major health care provider and its super-bitchy nemesis insurer have finally agreed to disagree. With the end of the Norton-Anthem dispute — in which services between the two were halted July 1, after Norton demanded double-digit increases in reimbursements and Anthem said no — comes reinstatement of patients’ full, hard-earned and probably overly expensive benefits. The pissing match between these two — and the concomitant lapse in essential services — provides perhaps the most compelling local case for single payer health care, or at the very least a meaningful public option.

Man bites dog (redux): What the heck is wrong with people? is a fairly common bit of inner monologue for those who watch the TV news. Anybody with a conscience and a pulse thought it after seeing this story about a man throwing a pit bull off the Clark Memorial Bridge in July. Now comes the sad story of Layla, the boxer mix found beaten within inches of her life last night in the Wyandotte Park area. Layla had to be put down, her injuries too severe to overcome. Let’s not forget that as we focus so much attention on how dogs can hurt us, there’s some mind to be paid to the idiots who defile defenseless animals. Maybe start with jail time.

Pass that weed: Wondering how soon we might legalize marijuana in this country? Dig this excellent story from Newsweek about how Oakland, Calif., is becoming a mecca. Maybe we should try that here in Kentucky, where our budget deficit keeps growing and growing. Regulate and tax it heavily, then sell it like booze. According to the Department of Justice, it’s still Kentucky’s biggest cash crop. Seems there’s money to be made, although given it’s not Jesus Himself bestowing that cash upon us, we’d probably have to endure a little tomfoolery about how marijuana is the new gambling — that is, it will destroy your family and kill you with a thousand blows (to your wallet).