Is It Time To Repeal The 2nd?

After last week's sad episode dedicated to my friend Shoshana, I had hopes for a lighthearted and happier one for this week. Alas, that is not to be.

We live in a nation where one party rails about protecting life in utero, but refuses to protect living breathing children. Where "well regulated militia" means anyone with a credit card. Where women are being reclassified into third or fourth class citizens without the right of self-determination. I've written a lot about the second amendment, and I've defended the right of individuals to own guns...sure...hunting rifles and even hand guns. But I also support background checks, licensing, requirements for insurance, and the complete ban of assault style rifles, bump stocks, and large magazines. Those are not recreational firearms, those are designed to kill people. NO ONE in this country...like most of the rest of the civilized world, has the need to own one of those unless, of course, it's a substitute penis. And even then, owning an assault rifle does not make you sexy, desirable, or attractive. It makes you look like a small-dick loser. Kinda the way a car with a souped up muffler and giant tires makes you look like a small-dick loser. Women are not stupid. We recognize this for what it is...and it ain't gonna get you laid. 

And so far, We, the People, are standing idly by watching all those rights that made us exceptional get tossed overboard by men who can't get laid. Oh, come on; let's be real honest here and call it what it is: SDS - Small Dick Syndrome.

The GOP has captured this bombastic market without realizing it might actually have a shorter shelf-life than their penises. Shortly before he passed away,  Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens called for the repeal of the Second Amendment. Writing an op ed for the New York Times in the aftermath of the Parkland Massacre, he wrote:

That support is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms. But the demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment…

For over 200 years after the adoption of the Second Amendment, it was uniformly understood as not placing any limit on either federal or state authority to enact gun control legislation. In 1939 the Supreme Court unanimously held that Congress could prohibit the possession of a sawed-off shotgun because that weapon had no reasonable relation to the preservation or efficiency of a “well regulated militia.” 

Repealing a Bill o'Rights Amendment is a super big deal, and not real likely. But it does beg the question as to whether or not framers of the Constitution ever envisioned Columbine, Sandy Hook, or Parkland. Maybe it's time to take a closer look at what that means. We may not be able to get that change through now, but maybe it's time to plant those seeds?

There's a new voting bloc on the horizon and we'd better get ready for them. 

The Atlantic, a magazine known for telling it like it is in far more scholarly and elegant ways,  published an article last year, The GOP's Demographic Doom that contained the following statement:

In 2020, for the first time, Millennials and Gen Z (which comprise young adults born in 1981 or later) will equal Baby Boomers and prior generations (older adults born in 1964 or earlier) as a share of all Americans eligible to vote, according to a new study from the nonpartisan States of Change project. Because older voters typically turn out at higher rates than younger ones, the study forecasts that those earlier generations will still cast more ballots next month, by a margin of 43 percent to 32 percent. But in 2024, the two younger generations are expected to equal the older ones as a share of actual voters on Election Day. And by 2028, Millennials and Gen Z will dwarf the older generations as a share of both eligible and actual voters. That will be true not only nationally, but in all the crucial battleground states, according to previously unreleased projections provided to me by States of Change.

See, the only thing standing between us and The Handmaid's Tale are a bunch of kids who may not fully grok the power they hold in their hands.  

It's pretty clear the old white guys aren't gonna do anything for anyone, these kids included. The best defense we're going to have to survive the Troglodytic Epoch is to get this voting bloc to actually vote. And block the GOP from further fracturing this country.  Think of it this way: 

• the kids of Columbine (1999) are all pushing 40. They vote, and they are very cognizant that nothing changed after their friends were killed. Assault weapons are still available to basically anyone who wants one, and even those who want to shoot up a school. 
• the kids of Sandy Hook (2012) are now around 16 or 17 years old, just on the cusp of voting. They will be old enough to vote in the 2024 election. They, too, know their classmates died in vain because nothing has changed. They know its gonna be up to them.
• Parkland (2018) kids set out to change the world because of what happened at their school. What happened to them? They were mocked, labeled as deviants, and bullied for going up against the NRA. That hasn't stopped them though; they are still waging the war. 

Wanna scare yourself silly? Read what school shooting survivors say about surviving a school shooting. There are survivors and they don't forget. They live with the memories and the fears and the terrors. And they will all vote. 

What happened at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde can ever be fully explained. Police that stood there and did nothing because they were afraid they would be shot if they confronted the shooter WHILE the shooter was massacring children with an automatic rifle. They had to get DNA evidence from parents to identify the children because their faces and bodies were shredded. SHREDDED. But the cops stood there and did nothing. 

Beto O'Rouke confronted Governor Abbott and the mayor of Uvalde at their press conference and was slammed for doing so. Sure he was. He was the only one with balls in the room. I think he's my hero. 

You are doing nothing. You are offering up nothing. You said this was not predictable. This was totally predictable when you choose not to do anything.

The mayor of Uvalde, the city where children died as cops did nothing, replied

I can’t believe that you’re a sick son of a bitch that would come to a deal like this to make a political issue.

NOT A POLITICAL ISSUE??????? Who is the sick son of a bitch in that room? Definitely NOT the one with balls enough to call those assholes out on their refusal to take automatic rifles out of the hands of mentally incompetent. 

Why isn't the entire state of Texas rising up to do something for their kids?

Oh wait. Let me answer that. 

Why is the Texas legislature demanding waiting periods, videos, and permission slips before a woman can request health care, but have no problem handing out AR-15s to anyone who wants one? I am beginning to believe there isn't a normal sized dick in the room, not to mention balls attached to the tiny ones. Where are their voices protesting the lack of life of small, LIVING children? Oh, just gag me on that crap. They don't give a shit about anyone's lives but their own. This is a Penis Power Play. Spare me your thoughts and prayers; they're worth about the same amount as your wanker. Useless. Inconsequential. Not worth noticing.

And let's not forget all those Latino surnames. No Abbots, Smiths, or  McLaughlins in that crowd.

Uvalde (2022) kids have a ways to go before they reach voting age, but I have a strong suspicion they will join the ranks of Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland in trying to change the world. If there is still a world left to change. I want their parents to light a fire under those kids. Someone has got to be angry enough to change Texas. 

Meanwhile, I am so angry I can't even see straight. If you're offended by my analysis of the root cause, too bad. My blog. My rules. 

The Wifely Person Tip o'the Day

Don't just sit there.

Do something.

Anything.

Plant the seeds that will ultimately repeal the 2nd Amendment

and replace it with something practical.

What Really Matters

my Shoshana guitar

I went to a funeral today. Last Friday morning, my friend Shoshana collapsed and died. All signs point to a heart attack. 

Shoshana claimed she retired, but the only thing she actually retired from was practicing medicine. I think she was busier as a glass artist, as a small farmer, and as business manager of their family owned Double F Arena.  Did she ever just sit and do nothing? I don't think so. That would not have been the authentic Shoshana.

A couple of weeks ago, she was getting ready for lambing season and we texted about when I could come up to the farm with the kiddos. Lambing season started off with one of  the sheep dying right after delivery, and the orphan lamb went right into the laundry room where she could be bottle fed every four hours. That was so Shoshana. I mean, doesn't everyone  keep a lamb in the laundry room?

And if that wasn't enough, she was busy getting ready for this past weekend's Art-A-Whirl, the Nord'east Minneapolis art festival where her fantastic glass would be shown and sold at her space, Designs by Shoshana, in the Northrup King building. About her art, she wrote:

Glass has always held a special place in my soul.  I grew up with clear and colored cut Bavarian crystal from my German immigrant grandparents. In the early 1980’s,I started with stained glass and slowly switched to fused glass in the early part of the new millennium.

I have always been fascinated by the interplay of color and light. This interaction and my life is what I try to express in my glass pieces. Since moving to a farm in Stacy, I have become fascinated with the colors of the changing seasons. I have tried to bring the feel of nature and the seasons into my new glass panels.

She never got to open her space on Friday. 

I am damn thankful she gave me my guitar pin. She said I needed it. I did. I especially needed to wear it today. 

Shoshana was a lifetime imbiber of knowledge, a looker-up of stuff. I think that's what we like best about each other....or maybe it was because we were two New Yorkers living in the passive/aggressive heartland. She read this blog regularly and periodically lobbed hard questions and pithy comments at me....usually via text. And when we got started texting, well... 

At this point, I would also like to add that I have a left eyeball because back in December of 2000, my ophthalmologist and Shabbat morning pew buddy, DR. Shoshana, told me if I didn't get that thing on my eyelid taken care of immediately, she would remove it the next time she sat next to me in shul. I believed her. And then, not ten minutes later, that thing exploded. She got me in to see her colleague, Dr. Quist, on Monday morning. Turned out that thing was a basal cell carcinoma gone amok and a bigger deal than anyone could've guessed. I lost a chunk of the bottom eyelid which was rebuilt from skin behind my ear; this was better than losing the whole eyeball thing. The eyeball was saved and still works reasonably well. She always took a quick look at the eyelid every time I saw her. I always said thank you for my eyeball. And we always laughed. Shoshana had a great laugh.

So instead of writing another screechy, pithy, angry episode about the demise of civility and reason in these here United States, I just want to sit here and be sad for a bit. Sad for my friend David as he begins to navigate the world without his partner and love of his life, and their sons Noah and Ben, and the grandkids. My heart goes out to them all. 

Been there, done that. It sucks. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Hug someone you love. 

You never know when it's gonna be the last hug.

The Great Replacement Theory Is Already Here

Three mass shootings over the weekend.

Friday night, downtown Milwaukee was terrorized with three shootings. From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Milwaukee's downtown entertainment district, a space to celebrate and come together as a city, was rocked by gun violence Friday night after three shootings left at least 21 people wounded — including 17 shot in one incident.

Peyton Gendron

On Saturday, Peyton Gendron, 18, of Conklin, NY had already been on the radar as a danger. He'd already been investigated because of threats he made to his school. From the Washington Post:

New York State Police spokesman Beau Duffy said that on June 8, 2021, investigators “responded to Susquehanna High School in Conklin, N.Y., to investigate a report that a 17-year-old student had made a threatening statement.” The student was taken into custody under a provision of the state’s mental health law “and transported to the hospital for a mental health evaluation,” the spokesman said.

 

“The information we have is he was there for a day and a half, was evaluated and then released at that point,” Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said. Gendron was not charged.

Almost exactly a year later, wearing tactical gear and body armor while live-streaming the event, the same kid took an assault weapon into a supermarket and killed 10 shoppers. Wasn't enough he posted a manifesto online that focused on racist and anti-semitic beliefs. On the Great Replacement Theory. 

Excuse me for asking, but where are the parents?

18-years old and already a mass murderer. Remarkable. 

Or is it? Not really. Should I name the other kids on that list?

Meanwhile on Sunday, at a church in Laguna Beach, California, a man walks into a luncheon reception and begins shooting, killing one, injuring 5. From the Associated Press:

A man opened fire during a lunch reception at a Southern California church on Sunday, killing one person and wounding five senior citizens before being stopped and hog-tied by parishioners in what a sheriff’s official called an act of “exceptional heroism and bravery.”

And on my television in relatively blue state MInnesota, there are ads for guys running for Congress with big red TRUMP SUPPORTER banners on their ads, claiming they will defend my second amendment rights, will stop all abortions because they are pro life, and will defeat anything this administration wants to do. 

Wanna know what I wanna know? 

How pro-life are these guys when kids can get their hands on automatic weapons to shoot up schools and these guys fight against common sense gun laws? 

How pro-life are these guys when, if access to all health care is made unaffordable and scarce, they refuse to fund programs for low income families? Or want to end Medicare and Social Security?

And how pro-life are they when they vote against repair and maintenance of our basic infrastructure of roads, power-grid, and renewable energy?

I think they are just plain full o'shit. 

Pro-life is when guns are not available to all on the open market regardless of criminal or mental health history. Pro-life would be if 20 kindergartners from Sandy Hook be in high school this year.

Pro-life is when low income families have full access to health care for the entire family, including women in their reproductive years. 

Pro-life is when we don't have to worry about interstate highway bridges falling into the Mississippi River. 

These guys are not only anti-life, they are anti-American and are working for the demise of this country as we know it. 

There is nothing in their proposals, bills, or positions that even remotely promotes the good and welfare of we the people. They wish to repeal, remove, and block all legislation designed for the wellbeing of Americans.

• You want to ban all limitations on gun shows and sales? Sure. How are you going to prevent kids and criminals from getting increasingly powerful automatic weapons to commit mass shootings?
• You want to ban all abortions, no exceptions? What will you do when your wife or daughter has an ectopic pregnancy, loses a baby in utero, or has a blighted ovum that can attach but cannot attain viable life outside the womb? 
• You want to repeal the affordable care act, Medicare, and Social Security? Sure. Show us what you are replacing it with that will allow all Americans equal access to the best healthcare possible. Remind me: who's gonna stay home to take care of grandma when she has no income, no health care, and no hope of living independently?

Just a random thought: is this nation run by the funeral director lobby or what? They stand to gain the most. Then again, they weren't real good at handling 1,000,000 corpses from the pandemic, were they?

MAGA Candidates: tell America what you are actually planning to do, not what you want to remove. Show all of us how wonderful your plans and programs are. Provide us with the details for the good and welfare of this country. Be positive! Be upfront! Share your plans! Give us links to what you're putting in place for America.

I thought so. 

Let me put this another way: if Congress goes red with active MAGA legislators who are planning to stop anything the administration wants to do no matter what it is, count on another four years of Feckless Former Leader as Toddler-in-Chief. Count on SCOTUS to reverse decisions on civil rights for all segments of society. The safety nets removed will not be replaced; discontent will grow, anger will become palpable, and guess what? They will need someone to blame, and it won't be their elected MAGA officials.

Oh, wait. That's already in place. It's called The Great Replacement Theory.

Haven't heard of that one? Let me give you the short version: this is a plan (sinister plot) to diminish the influence of white people in the United States through immigration and replacement of white voters with blacks and people of color. This vast replacement of white voters is fueled and funded by Jews, the most prominent of whom if (of course) George Soros.

You don't believe that's true for a New York minute, do you? Well, evidence indicated 1 in 3 US voters subscribes to at least part of that theory. Remember Charlottesville back in 2017? They were chanting:

“You will not replace us! Jews will not replace us!”

Folks like Tucker Carlson espouse Replacement Theory, but downplay the antisemitic part. Replacement Theory is a recurrent theme on this show, often stating how the Democrats plan to influence elections through forced immigration. Back in 2021, Vanity Fair quoted him in an article:

"Now, I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement,’ if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people—more obedient voters from the third world,” the host said. “But they become hysterical because that’s what’s happening, actually. Let’s just say it: That’s true.” At another point he claimed the U.S. government is showing “preference to people who have shown absolute contempt for our customs, our laws, our system itself—and they’re being treated better than American citizens.”

He is not alone. Last month, PBS Newshour pointed out that House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, a Congressclown from Upstate New York, ran an ad last year stating 

.."radical Democrats” were planning a “permanent election insurrection” by granting amnesty to undocumented immigrants who would create a permanent liberal majority in Washington.

And she is not alone in her beliefs, either. Scott Perry (R. PA) is right there with her, along with Rep Steven King (R. IA), Matt Gaetz (R. FL) and even Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance just to name a few. The list is long. Replacement is perceived as a real threat and its adherents are out there, growing in number.

[Fellow MOT, lemme give you a warning here: if you don't have Plan B in place, you need to start doing more than just thinking about it.]

If you think the rise in antisemitic attacks in the US is an aberration, guess again. If you think your neighbor is gonna speak up to defend you, guess again. They will just draw the living room curtains like they did in Germany. 

The biggest difference between this brewing demise of the United States and the rise of Nazi Germany is that mass media is telling us exactly what is happening. What isn't different is our ability to poo-poo and ignore the warning signs. Come the revolution, we will be caught in the middle....the right will call us enemies of the state because lots of us lean blue, using every anti-semitic trope they can find that calls us greedy, usurers, and controllers of banks and media, while the left will call us out for supporting Israel, apartheid, and genocide. They will find a way to paint us international terrorists because We, one of the irrefutable Indigenous Peoples of the Levant, dare to believe we have a right to live in our homeland in peace and security.

Those things are nothing but brush to fan the fire. From both sides. 

And when they run out of Jews to blame, they will go to another minority. But this time, it will end in civil war and the United States as we now know it will fall. 

Whatever.

I've pretty much given up the idea that the republic will survive. We will be but an odd footnote in history, an experiment that failed. 

See, Americans like to talk about thoughts and prayers, but after so many mass shootings of children, shoppers, concert goers, and people in their own homes, We, the People have yet to get sensible gun laws on the books. Now, the few sensible civil rights laws are about to be removed from the books. Expect no outcry. There will be little more than the occasional whine or whimper.  

In the future, if this planet survives humankind's refusal to acknowledge the impact of human disregard for the health of the earth, Americans will be known as the laziest people who ever existed. Worse than the Romans before us, we had it all: the technology, the knowledge, the wealth, but  abused it all. We were too fat to save it. 

We, the People who actually cared about justice for all, will be replaced. It's not an if. It's a when.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Make sure your passports are up-to-date.

And if you think I'm off base, then tell me. 

You still have time to tell me to 

shut up or keep going.

The poll closes in mid July.

In Case You've Not Thought This Through...

Ebrahim Noroozi/
AP Photo

On PBS Newshour there was a report about new laws for women in Afghanistan. Women are now required to cover themselves in chadori (head-to-toe in a burqa) when leaving the house, IF they are allowed to leave at all. They are forbidden from working or selling their handmade goods. This means millions of Afghani women have been forced further into poverty because they have lost their sole income. The result of that restriction often manifests itself in the necessity to marry off daughters as soon as possible because it would be one less mouth to feed. Five days ago, Voice Of America  published a story about what is happening to Afghani women in poverty. It included this:

For several months Pashtana kept rejecting marriage proposals made for her 14-year-old daughter, Zarghona, until she had to make a final decision. 

"I had to choose between the survival of my four little children and giving Zarghona to marriage," Pashtana told VOA over the phone from the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, where last year her husband, an army soldier, was killed in clashes with then Taliban insurgents. 

The young widow made every effort to provide for her children, but there was no job for her under a Taliban regime that has banned work for women.
Pashtana's family disowned her 15 years ago when she married her former husband against their will, and she only has an elderly mother in-law from her husband's family. 

"I gave Zarghona to this man who was wooing her for several months…what else could I do? How else could I feed my little children?" said the bereaved mother adding the man paid 200,000 Afghanis or about $2,300 in dowry.

Although civil law in Afghanistan has a minimum age of 16 for marriage, that law is somewhat arbitrary. 

"The Sharia is clear about this," said Sadiq Akif, a spokesman for the Taliban's Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, referring to the Islamic jurisprudence.  

"When a girl reaches puberty, she can be given to marriage," Akif told VOA. 

Most girls reach puberty between the ages of 11 and 13, according to Nadia Akseer, a scientist at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

Under the Taliban's interpretation of Islamic law, the marriage of an 11-year-old girl, considered middle childhood in most countries, is allowed. Medical professionals strongly disagree. 

Sharia law is clear. Which means that 14-year old Zarghona's husband, who is more than twice her age, will bed her, impregnate her, and expect her to carry that child to term...and then do it all again. 

Back in 2014, 276 girls between the ages of 16 and 18 were kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria. Many were forced into marriages with militants, some into sexual slavery, and some just raped and discarded. Forced impregnation was not unknown. When some were finally freed 7 years later, many were rejected by their families because they were no longer pure. 

In the Islamic State, Yazidi females who were childless or virgins at the edge of puberty were pressed into sexual slavery. If impregnated by their master, the child did not technically belong to the mother; the child became the property of the Islamist father. 

Stacey Louise Banwell, in her paper on sexual slavery, Forced Pregnancy versus Forcible Impregnation: A Critical Analysis of Genocidal Rape during War/Armed Conflict, details the difference between the two. The abstract for the article states:

Forced pregnancy and forcible impregnation are contested terms in relation to genocidal rape. The International Criminal Court (ICC), for example, defines forced pregnancy as ‘the unlawful confinement of a woman forcibly made pregnant, with the intent of affecting the ethnic composition of any population’ (Rome Statute of the ICC, 2011). Whereas, The Holy See suggests that the Statute need only criminalize the act of forcibly making a woman pregnant and not the subsequent act of forcibly keeping her pregnant. Thus, they suggest the term forcible impregnation rather than forced pregnancy (Grey, 2017). This paper unpacks the implications of the ICC’s definition of forced pregnancy in relation to the rape and sexual slavery of Yazidi women in Iraq and Syria. Evidence suggests that ISIS engaged in a genocidal campaign against the Yazidis. Many women and girls were forcibly impregnated, resulting in unwanted pregnancies (Genocide Network, 2017; Human Rights Council, 2016). However, forced impregnation (as defined by the ICC) cannot be applied to this case. Drawing on Grey’s (2017) notion of ‘reproductive violence’ - violence that violates reproductive autonomy - I review international criminal law and the reproductive justice available to women and girls raped and impregnated by ISIS.

The Taliban is also in the business of closing women's hospitals and clinics, thereby leaving women with no access to health care and treatment when a pregnancy is ectopic or blighted. The women just die because there is no available medical assistance. 

Meanwhile, in Kyrgyzstan, while illegal according to their national law, bride kidnapping and forced child marriage still exist in that country. In rural areas, it is not unknown for a bunch of guys to snatch a girl off the street, take her home, and then either force her parents to give her in or rape to impregnate so there is no choice. Girls are usually between the ages of 13-17. And the really scary part....this is often considered "romantic," and a traditional way to obtain a bride. 

Can you imagine a 13-year old child being snatched off the street, forcibly married, and raped into pregnancy? Can you imagine a 11-year old being forced to carry a child to term? 

Maybe you should start. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, that's exactly what's gonna happen. 

Amidst all the angst about SCOTUS overturning Roe v. Wade, several very real fears have come to light. The language of that first draft, according to several legal scholars, actually opens the door to the court-imposed diminishment of some civil rights. In plainer English, that means a conservative court can undo aspects of pre-established civil rights by deciding the federal government does not have constitutional jurisdiction. Inter-racial marriage, same-sex marriage, or even segregation would be open to reversal based on the idea these are states' rights issues, not federal ones. Granted, that document is a draft, but the wording is written in such a way that what was once considered settled law, like Roe v. Wade, can be overturned at the discretion of SCOTUS. 

Despite stating that Roe v. Wade is settled law in their senate confirmation hearings, it's pretty clear that the three most recently appointed Justices, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney-Barrett believe no such thing. Basically, they provided false information to the senate to insure their confirmation. But they were confirmed and nothing about that can or will change. 

But what does that have to do with burqas, child-brides, sexual slavery, and forced impregnation? 

Everything.

Since there is no movement in this country to seriously hold men accountable for involuntary pregnancy, one must consider that it is the sole function of a woman to deal with an unwanted or medically dangerous pregnancy.  Since no intervention would be permitted, a woman with an ectopic pregnancy may very well die because the hospital does not permit the removal of the fertilized egg from an incorrect location. That would be termed an abortion. So the woman dies. 

An eleven- or twelve-year old girl is raped. She is impregnated by a man involuntarily. That child then must bear a child despite the damage it will do to her body. The man, however, retains his penis and balls....so theoretically, he can do it again when his 90 days in jail are up. If he even goes to jail at all. 

Maybe I would feel less angry if men were actually held accountable for pregnancy. I mean, it's a well-known fact a woman can have unprotected sex once, then take 9 months to produce one full-term child. A man can have unprotected sex every day of those same 9 months and produce 270 full-term children.

Tell me again what he's responsible for? Feeding? Clothing? Sheltering? Or just macho chest-puffing? Or is it really about pushing women out of the workplace, diminishing their ability to earn their own way by being able to control their own bodies? And who will be next for arbitrary subjugation?

And if SCOTUS can set up a way to send women back to the 19th century because they have personal feelings about how a woman cannot make decisions for her own uterus, what else do they have up their billowy black sleeves?

The intent of the conservative justices is not simply about abortion. This is the opening salvo in the dismantling of civil rights. The draft of the overturn used language that is associated with the anti-abortion movement, indicating that there is a closeness between those justices and the movement itself. On PBS NEWSHOUR [go to 15:10 - End of Roe], Kathryn Kolbert, who defended Planned Parenthood of Southeast Pennsylvania in Planned Parenthood of Southeast Pennsylvania v. Casey in the last serious challenge before SCOTUS in 1992 pointed out that the language used in the draft opens the door to the reversal of all sorts of rights based on the 14th Amendment. She states:

I think the really critical part of the decision is that five justices of this court have said that they can overrule a long history of support for civil rights and civil liberties because they individually disagree with it. And that has never been the case. The doctrine of stare decisis says that, when a law is made, it ought to be respected from generation to generation, and only in really specific circumstances...when the underlying law has changed, when the circumstance of the factual underpinnings of a case have changed. It ought to be upheld. And I think the hard part here is, Let's think about this. We have had five decades of support for Roe vs. Wade. And then entire generations of women in this country have relied upon this decision, and, frankly, ordered their lives. Millions of women have obtained abortions as a result of Roe. And all of that is being rolled back because five individuals have decided, in my view, willy-nilly, to change the law. And I think that is a real hit on the institutional integrity of this court.

She goes on to say that this is a reciprocal right: the right to have an abortion as well as the right to carry a pregnancy to term; that it works both ways. Once you remove the right of decision making from one aspect of civil life, the door opens to the removal of other civil rights based on the personal preferences of the court. 

We don't need no stinking settled law...according to Clarence Thomas, husband of an insurrectionist who goes without any sort of consequence or recusal, who commented in Justice Alito's draft: 

"Precedent is a mantra when we don't want to think."

Really? 

That is not why SCOTUS was created as the third branch of a government that was OF We, the people, BY We, the people, FOR We, the people. Over 2/3 of this nation wants Roe v. Wade to remain as is. Suddenly, according to the Roberts court, We, the People, don't matter. 

IF Roe is overturned...IF the GOP sweeps takes control of both the Senate and the House, get used to the idea that We, the People, don't matter, and that this nation is now a Christian, evangelical nation. The rest of us are no longer welcome. 

Folks, we are living in dangerous times. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Opinions regarding the future of this blog are still being accepted, entertained, and considered.

Right now, most respondents are coming via email, a couple of comments are posted, 

and some answered via LINKED IN. 

Feel free to offer your 2¢,

I am listening. 

Crossroads...In More Ways Than One

This is a reality check. The blog I was writing just got pushed down a bit, but not to worry, I'll finish what I started

It seems that SCOTUS has "privately" voted to overturn Roe v Wade.

From the NY Times: Leaked Supreme Court Draft Would Overturn Roe v. Wade

I can't say this is much of a surprise. And while I haven't been commenting much since they changed their format, I did submit the following:

Red flag, red herring, call it what you will. This is a full frontal attack on women, modernity, and the belief that this nation is a meritocracy. Clearly, equality is no longer a priority for SCOTUS and possibly Congress as well.

We, the People, managed to elect Donald Trump and kept him in office despite his crimes against the nation. If Congress swings at the midterms, the United States, as we know it, will cease to exist. The nation will split along party lines. It will not be pretty.

The US is the longest lasting _continuous_ democracy in history. No democracy/republic has ever lasted as long as this one. All We, the People, can say is that it was nice while it lasted.

UPDATE: The NYT is now backpedaling. All the comments have disappeared, and now they are saying this is older than what Politico is saying. Regardless, if this document reflects the current court, it must be taken seriously. Not to take it seriously would be at our own peril. 

I cannot imagine why anyone would want to go back to pre-1900 America where epidemics killed millions, women had no civil rights, and People of Color had even fewer rights. How can citizens of this nation stand by and allow a primitive, uneducated, backward band of troglodytes shove approximately 334,000,000 people into the dark ages? Are we so shackled that we cannot even find a voting booth? 

While some are already saying this is a call to arms that must be heeded before November, I believe November will pass with a sigh and a red congress determined to change the insurrection hearings to a Hunter Biden attack campaign, another distraction from the reality that our nation is collapsing. 

That's not hyperbole. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

For the last few months, the number of hits on this blog has tanked. Now, I know Blogger stats have never been overly reliable, but the hits are almost non-existent, and that doesn't match what I know from email and other references. 

When the cookie wars started in Europe, people stopped allowing their personal hit information to be collected. I know I did. I reject almost all cookies. I have no desire for third parties to be tracking anything about me, so I limit it where I can. I ratchet down my own privacy settings accordingly, and encourage others to do the same. At the same time, I know that behavior means I have an even less accurate measure of how many people are reading this blog.

Add to that, I had a significant following in Ukraine because The WP was used in several English classes. I've written about that before, but now, even remaining hits from Ukraine and from Russia have stopped, as have the emails I used to get from readers in that part of the world. 

Were they all real or bots or spam collectors? Not a clue. But I never got much in the way of spam comments. The emails, however, have been great over the years and... except for the occasional death threat... I've answered every single one of them. I've made some interesting friends along the way, and I would not trade the last 11 years and 613 posts for anything.

Yeah. 613 posts, not including this one. And to be perfectly honest, I did not know that was the number until I went to grab the total for this episode.   

Unless you're Jewish and somewhat educated Jewishly, you might not catch the significance of that number. 613 is the number of positive commandments, or mitzvot, contained in the Torah. 248 of them are considered mandatory, while 365 are prohibitive. So 613 is one of those mystical numbers that populate Jewish tradition. 

Here we stand at 613 published episodes. 613 posts that began on July 19th, 2010 with Welcome To My World.  I thought I was writing about being a widow. That lasted a week. You know what they say: my blog, my rules ? But it was that very first tip what was the clue.

Hey! I never said I had any answers, but boy, do I have a lot of questions! And if I have questions, I'm thinking there are a lot of us asking the same thing.

No, I don't have a joke, but I have a tip o'the day:

Keep asking questions even when they tell you not to;

you never know when one will be the _right_ one.

The intent was to never monetize the blog, so I never really advertised it. I used to get a great deal of traffic from The New York Times when I could sign my comments with the blog address, but them days are gone. Those old comments opened the door to MPR, the NYTimes Google Hangouts, and some really cool correspondence with famous op ed writers. 

I am open to suggestions and opinions. Comments attached to the blog are particularly welcome this week, although commenting in general is almost non-existent these days. If you have something to say to me or about the blog, go for it. Or send me an email. You can send it to:

thewifelyperson@gmail.com

and I will answer you.

I have given myself until July 18th to decide what I'm gonna do about The Wifely Person Speaks. Honestly, I don't know. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
Keep asking questions even when they tell you not to; 
you never know when one will be the _right_ one.

It's still a good tip almost 12 years later.