New California law regulates massage therapy

While the details have yet to be figured out, 500 hours is expected to be the new benchmark

In the popular imagination, a massage is often a luxury in a warm room with soothing music, a sensuous and decadent way to relax. For many people, however, massage is an essential therapy, helping them recover from a serious injury, or preventing the onset of chronic medical issues. Because massage rests in this halfway area between recreation and medicine, its regulation in America has been anything but uniform. Many places keep an eye on the practice solely for its unfortunate use as a cover for prostitution. Others treat the practice more as a health issue, stepping in to make sure massage therapists are qualified and capable of delivering the relief they advertise. California, until this year, had no state-level regulation at all.

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2010 MLB Predictions (NL edition) Enough with the Silly League. What’s going to happen in the Real Baseball League this year? (That’s right, where pitchers hit and hitters … also hit.) One thing I’m always annoyed by with preseason rankings is how they invariably follow the previous year’s order. Basically, baseball experts usually expect this year to look like last year. I’m not immune to that, but I think the NL will show more turnover than the AL this year. Also annoying? How they took Opening Day away from the Reds. I remember growing up what a big deal was made out of the fact that the Cincinnati Reds were the oldest and most venerable of all franchises, and thus deserved to have their game start before anyone else’s in the afternoon. Then ESPN moved it to the evening on Sunday. Then they decided the Yankees and Red Sox were more venerable. Gag me. The Yankees used to play in Baltimore. The Reds veritably invented professional baseball. This AL bias is killing me. Anyway, onward: More

Congratulations, Mr. Obama Unlike hardcore Democrats, I never expected him to be a savior, so I feel no angst about the award being premature. Unlike Republicans, I don’t see him as an empty celebrity vessel, so I would take no joy in mocking his selection. I voted for Obama because the U.S. desperately needed a Democratic version of Ronald Reagan, and in that context, his lauding as a symbol makes perfect sense. He will never be the complete uniter he seeks to be, but I do believe that by the time his (probably two-term) administration is done, America will be stronger than it was under the previous disastrous leadership, and the wars that preoccupy us will be receding quickly into the past. Even for a Libertarian, that’s worth the price of whatever outrageously expensive national programs are to come. More