If We Could Quarantine Stupid, New Jersey Wouldn't Have A Governor

• When it comes to Ebola, there's what the experts say -- no, travel bans won't work; no, we should not quarantine everyone who sneezes on a subway; no, you can't get Ebola by looking at a picture of President Obama -- and then there are the politicians who don't care what the experts say. Like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who imprisoned a nurse, with no Ebola symptoms whatsoever, because in his expert medical opinion, she's "obviously ill":  

  Kaci Hickox, a nurse placed under mandatory quarantine in New Jersey, went on CNN on Sunday and criticized the "knee-jerk reaction by politicians" to Ebola, saying "to quarantine someone without a better plan in place, without more forethought, is just preposterous."

  Hickox, an epidemiologist who was working to help treat Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, has tested negative twice for Ebola and does not have symptoms, she said. She is quarantined for 21 days at University Hospital in Newark.

  Christie might be the kind of conservative who wants to keep government out of your everything (except your vagina, your traffic jams, and your hurricane disaster relief), but when it comes to health care, turns out the government has a job to do after all.

  On Fox News Sunday morning, Christie said he had "no second thoughts" about New Jersey's mandatory quarantine for health care workers.

  "I believe that folks who want to take that step and are willing to volunteer also understand that it's in their interest and the public health interest to have a 21-day period thereafter if they've been directly exposed to people with the virus," he said.

  Christie also told "Fox News Sunday" that a voluntary system of quarantine isn't reliable.

  "I don't believe that when you're dealing with a serious situation like this that we can count on a voluntary system; this is the government's job."

  At a news conference Saturday, the governor said, "I'm sorry if in any way she was inconvenienced, but inconvenience that could occur from having folks that are symptomatic and ill out amongst the public is a much, much greater concern of mine. I hope she recovers quickly."

  Locking up health care professionals and treating them like criminals because it's just the "obvious" thing to do makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? It doesn't matter what the doctors say; politicians know better. Even if they're not doctors. Or scientists. You can learn everything you really need to know about Ebola by watching Fox News.

  Here's a serious question for y'all to ponder: What happens if health care workers say quarantines violate their sincerely held religious beliefs? Discuss.

• It's a good thing we don't need any extra money, or decriminalizing marijuana might sound like a good idea:  

  If all 50 states legalized marijuana and the federal government ended prohibition of the plant, the marijuana industry in the United States would be worth $35 billion just six years from now.

  That's according to a new report from GreenWave Advisors, a research and advisory firm that serves the emerging marijuana industry in the U.S., which found that if all 50 states and the federal government legalized cannabis, combined sales for both medical and retail marijuana could balloon to $35 billion a year by 2020.

• Politico is really staying on top of the Jeb Bush might run for president beat:

  George P. Bush, the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, says his father is still assessing a 2016 presidential run. [...]

  "The family will be behind him 100 percent if he decides to do it," the younger Bush said.

• Judd Nelson is not dead:  

  Reports of Judd Nelson’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

  Despite rumors that swept the Internet on Sunday morning, the “Breakfast Club” star is alive and well, his manager and agent told the Los Angeles Times. [...]

  A Web page with a URL masquerading as Fox News seems to have touched off the frenzy with a story saying the Brat Pack member was found dead Saturday night in a West Hollywood condominium.

• Guess what has grumpy-pantsNew York Timescolumnist all grumpy now? Why, it's that radical liberal new pope!

  The Catholic Church was willing to lose the kingdom of England, and by extension the entire English-speaking world, over the principle that when a first marriage is valid a second is adulterous, a position rooted in the specific words of Jesus of Nazareth. To change on that issue, no matter how it was couched, would not be development; it would be contradiction and reversal.

  SUCH a reversal would put the church on the brink of a precipice. Of course it would be welcomed by some progressive Catholics and hailed by the secular press. But it would leave many of the church’s bishops and theologians in an untenable position, and it would sow confusion among the church’s orthodox adherents — encouraging doubt and defections, apocalypticism and paranoia (remember there is another pope still living!) and eventually even a real schism.

•  This is your life:  

  Find out how, since the date of your birth, your life has progressed; including how many times your heart has beaten, and how far you have travelled through space.

  Investigate how the world around you has changed since you've been alive; from the amount the sea has risen, and the tectonic plates have moved, to the number of earthquakes and volcanoes that have erupted.

•  Settled: