In Obamacare, the Supreme Court entered a world of paradox matched only by the nonsensical universe of quantum mechanics. Schrodinger’s cat is a famous thought experiment that according to quantum theory suggests that a cat in a box is simultaneously dead and alive until you open the box. Similarly, Obamacare’s individual mandate according to the federal government was simultaneously a tax and not a tax in court proceedings, until Chief Justice John Roberts issued his opinion and declared it a tax.

Yet conservative pundits are telling us to hang on to the silver lining.

Silver linings sound wonderful. Enlightened and positive people see them as small beacons of hope glimmering through harsh reality. The problem is that silver linings are accompanied by roiling masses of mile-high thunderstorms spanning several states that sweep through the mid-Atlantic in a dark red Doppler line, leaving a devastating warpath of death and destruction from which power companies still haven’t recovered. (bonus irony points for running straight through Washington, DC).

Even worse, the silver linings may not exist.  Continue reading →