Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Sunday, September 08, 2013

The Art of Ozu

An Autumn Afternoon (1962) 

Ozu is amazing.  He was doing films about nothing before Seinfeld was born.  Okay, it's not about nothing, it's about a daughter getting married and leaving her father.  But it's a low-key comedy, quiet, unobtrusive, humble, pitch perfect. 

What's amazing about Ozu is he takes these real life conflicts, these small moments that occur in just about everybody's life, and he makes them interesting.  What helps Ozu too I think are his actors, who, like Hitchcock's, underplay everything, they hide their emotion.  It's also fascinating to see characters avoiding conflict, by refusing to answer a question, they'll grunt or something. 

So much is going on underneath in an Ozu movie.  He's got no car chases, no deaths, no violence, no sex.  Should be boring and it's just brilliant.  This is his last film, in my opinion his greatest, but you can't go too wrong with any Ozu, really. 

And damn this film is beautiful.  It’s so gorgeous.     

What Is Heaven Like?

I don't know, but I like this.


I like blue, so maybe that's it.  I like islands

I also like clarity.  I'm a huge fan of Hugo Black.  One think he did was fight for clarity in the law.  He would read the law and follow the law, as written.  Sandra Day O'Connor, on the other hand, is perhaps my least favorite jurist.  I felt like she was always making the law murky and unknowable.  The Undue Burden law.  Don't break the undue burden law!  
 
Look at that water.  That is clear water.  You can't hide in that water!  What you see is what you get.  I love the purity of this image, the cleanliness of it.  I love the dark blue sky, the white sand and the aqua cool ocean.  I like the bridge man has built.  I like that we have a path to nature.  Beautiful. 

Plastic Surgery Nightmare #1

Sexually speaking, we are a liberal society.  Our people have a lot of liberties and freedoms.  Some people argue we should have even more liberties and freedoms.  For instance, that we should legalize prostitution. 

I like living in a sexually open society.  But there's a dark, ugly side to human sexuality, too.  And that's a side that liberal society often represses and hides. 

For instance, here is a recent photograph of Joan Rivers, who has had some work done. 


I can't imagine she's happy with a permanent Joker smile. 

Why do we do this to ourselves?  Why do we pay a surgeon to intentionally scar our bodies?

She wants to look young.  She is desperate to look young, to defy death, to give the appearance of eternal youth. 

Why youth?  Because young women reproduce and have babies, and old women do not.

Sex is not a contract or a roller coaster ride or a fun tingle in your body parts.  Sex is primal.  It is how we reproduce as a species.  Sex creates babies, all the time.  We are glib and stupid about this.

Here is a baby who was aborted.  I am sure the photographer used a zoom lens.  So maybe this image is not upsetting in real life.  Maybe it's not a homicide.  But I look at that tiny arm, ripped off by a surgeon, and I have to say I am appalled.  

I like our sexually liberated society.  I like the freedom in it.  But to have this freedom, we censor and hide all the bad stuff.  You probably won't see "plastic surgery disasters" in the New York Times, nor will you see photographs of aborted babies.  We hide these images.  

I think our society is actually quite weird on the subject of sex.  I think forcing miscarriages is weird, and intentionally scarring your body is weird.  I think it's a perversion of medical skills, and an abandonment of medical ethics.  These doctors are violating their Hippocratic Oath.  

But we really can't blame the doctors.  We pursue sex with a single-minded intensity.  I know I do!  And doing so makes us crazy, and it makes us do crazy things.  And while we should expect crazy to go hand-in-hand with liberty (nonconformists by definition refuse to conform), I also think we should hold up a mirror to the crazy, and show our people what we are doing.  And our media has failed us miserably in this regard. 

Sunday, September 01, 2013

Abortion and Women's Health

One of the important briefs in Roe v. Wade was filed by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.  In it, the ACOG argues, "The medical procedure of induced abortion is potentially 23.3 times as safe as the process of going through ordinary childbirth."

This is a rather shocking statement to make.  The political organization that represents all the obstetricians in our country is arguing in federal court that an abortion--a forced miscarriage--is safer for a woman than a childbirth.  And not just safer, but 23.3 times safer.

This is counter-intuitive, to put it mildly.  Pregnancy and birth is a natural, healthy event that billions and billions of women have undergone since the dawn of humanity.  Yes, there are certain dangers in a pregnancy.  But, one might add, there are even more dangers to a woman in a miscarriage.  Indeed, much of the dangers in a pregnancy revolve around a miscarriage.  A miscarriage signals that something is wrong with the pregnancy.  And when something is wrong with the pregnancy, there is a danger to the mother.

And yet in 1973 the ACOG is flipping this understanding on its head.  In its Roe v. Wade brief, the ACOG is arguing that an abortion--a forced miscarriage on a healthy pregnant woman--is safer and healthier than a pregnancy itself.  The political body that represents obstetricians in our country is telling the Supreme Court that pregnancy is a danger to women, and a miscarriage is the cure. 

Friday, August 23, 2013

Who Are the Abortion Radicals?

A few days ago one of the commentators at Althouse wrote something striking about abortion. 

I have pondered the "abortion question" for forty years and I still haven't come to a conclusion - it is that close an argument - other than to believe I shall not express an opinion on the subject.

A person or politician who holds a moderate view on either side is worthy of further consideration. An extremist of either ilk I simply dismiss.


This is a fascinating attitude, and I believe it describes a great number of Americans.  Abortion is a divisive fight over two radically different ideas.  One side sees the unborn as a baby, a human being who has a right to life.  The other side denies the humanity of the unborn.  There is no baby.  It is sub-human property.  

Since the commentator does not want to be a radical--and both sides hold radically different ideas--he is unable to form an opinion or speak on the issue.  So he is silent, and upset by the fight.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Underwater Dog #5


Spy, Spy, Spy

The "Boyfriend Tracker" is an app for smart phones that allow people to spy on their mates.

To install Boyfriend Tracker, suspicious partners have to get their hands on their loved one's smartphones and upload the app. A free version leaves the app's icon visible on the target's phone, while a version that costs $2 a month masks the icon. 

"We are going to have to kill a lot of whites"

That's from a website, War on the Horizon, that you can see hereThe website is run by an Irritated Genie, who may or may not be Ayo Kimathi, an employee of the Department of Homeland Security

The Southern Poverty Law Center has an unnamed source for the story, a former supervisor of Kimathi at DHS who discovered his website in June.

A former supervisor of Kimathi’s at the DHS told Hatewatch, “Everybody in the office is afraid of him.”

“This guy is filled with hate,” the supervisor continued. “People are afraid he will come in with a gun someday and go postal. I am astounded he’s employed by the federal government, let alone Homeland Security.”

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Gay Politics Seeks to Outlaw Science

Chris Christie has just made it illegal for therapists to treat the sexuality of gay teenagers.  The sponsor of the bill says this speech is "insidious child abuse." 

Bad speaker, bad!

How weird is it to insist that you know all about the sexuality of people you've never met?  How bizarre is it to mandate, by force of law, that gay people must remain gay? 

What if you don't want to be gay?  Is that possible?  What if you were molested as a child and you desperately need therapy to straighten out your sexuality?  I can think of any number of scenarios where people need sex therapy, and would like the heterosexual option.  But that option--that speech--has been criminalized as evil and wrong. 

Sunday, August 18, 2013

House of the Rising Sun

Nobody seems to know who wrote the song Pete Seeger sang it.  Andy Griffith sang it(!)  Joan Baez put it on her first album, and Bob Dylan sang it on his first album, too.   

And of course the most amazing version is from an English band, the Animals.  A song about a whorehouse, in 1964, here you go.



Friday, August 16, 2013

Glass Ceiling Cracker

Hillary Clinton's twitter account describes her as a "glass ceiling cracker."  Yes, you are a honky, shut up!  

You crazy ass cracker!

She means to talk about "glass ceilings" and how she will crack them.  What jumps to my mind is how oblivious she is to the word "cracker."  She's unaware of any racial taunts or insults, because she lives in a rich, lily-white world where such upsets never happen.

Can you imagine a billionaire so obsessed with being the #1 billionaire in the world?  It's like Oprah whining about that glass ceiling over her head.         

As Camille Paglia has written, modern day feminism is "too narrow and elitist."  Hillary Clinton is a class warrior without any class.  She's talking about herself, thinking about herself. 
 
"Hi, I'm Hillary and I break through glass ceilings.  I'm a Senator!  I'm a Secretary of State!  And I got one more glass ceiling to break through.  Vote for me, the glass ceiling cracker!"           

World Peace!

One of the jokes in Miss Congeniality is that all the women in the beauty pageant want world peace.  Except for Sandra Bullock's character, the undercover FBI agent.  She has a far more realistic goal.  "Harsher punishment for parole violators."  Which isn't popular at all!  And then she adds, "And world peace" and everybody cheers.  

Kathleen Parker is like one of the beauty contestants in Miss Congeniality.  She's writing a column about world peace.  And she thinks it can happen, if we just elect Hillary as our next President.  This is a direct quote"She can save the world." 

One of the dangers of the left's disregard for religion is that it keeps coming up with religion-substitutes.  In 1966, Time magazine put up a provocative cover.  Is God Dead?  It upset everybody.  

Now people on the left talk about Obama as if he's the messiah.  And they're not even joking! 

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Starry Night


Make Love, Not War


That was a 60's slogan.  "Make love, not war."  And yet one of the problems here is that if you're oblivious to war tactics, you might be unaware of things like deception.  What if he doesn't love you?  What if you don't love him?  What if you're not making love at all?

What if sex is sport?  It's certainly more fun than war!  In a war zone you can get shot, you can get wounded, you can be handicapped for life, you can kill innocent people.  All sorts of awful things can happen.  

While sex is the most fun you will ever have in your life!  

And yet, sex leads to babies, all the time.

1968 was called "the summer of love."  But why that year?  What made 1968 so special?

1968 was the year abortion became legal in California.  Pregnant women could suddenly pay a doctor to force a miscarriage.  And so the summer of love because the summer of infanticides.      

I agree with the slogan.  Make love, not war!  But you want to watch out for the fucking.  "You're fucked," we say, and that's not a good thing.  For a baby it's like a knife in the head.    

Peace and War

Women are peace and men are war.  Peace needs to soothe war.  War needs to defend peace.  Sometimes war declares war on peace.  And peace is in trouble, real trouble.  But then war steps in, between war and peace.  And war says, "I'm not messing with you, war.  I just want to fuck up peace a little."  And war says, "Fuck you, war.  I'm defending peace."  And war declares war on war.  And after war gets his ass handed to him on a hat, war is like "Oh fuck, oh shit, peace!  Peace!"  And war says, "Fuckin' A, peace.  Peace is awesome."  And peace is standing there all smug, going, "I told you, I told you.  Why don't you listen to me?"  And war says, "I listen.  What the fuck do you think I'm doing?  I'm defending you."  And peace says, "You're using war!"  And war says, "Fuckin' A."  And peace says, "War is wrong."  And war says, "Don't be so cranky."  And peace says, "War is wrong!  War is wrong!"  And war says, "You're not being peaceful."  And peace says, "What the fuck do you know about peace?"  And war says, "It's good.  I like peace.  What do you know about war?"  And peace says, "I hate it!  War sucks!"  And war says, "I know."  And war starts feeling sorry for himself and peace has to give him a hug.   

 

Are Women Superior To Men?

Kathleen Parker is recognizing sex difference and arguing that her gender is superior.

Let’s begin with a working (and provable) premise: Women, if allowed to be fully equal to men, will bring peace to the planet. This is not so far-fetched a notion. One, men have been at it for thousands of years, resulting in millions and millions of corpses...

Parker is voicing her opposition to the feminist dogma that our two sexes are always equal.  She's suggesting men are warriors, not women.  And she's also suggesting that women are naturally more peaceful than men. 

And there's some truth to this!  Women are not biologically suited to war-making, not really.  In the modern age, of course, Hillary Clinton can press a nuclear button as easily as Harry Truman.  You don't have to be big and strong to press a button (or pull a trigger). 
 
Technology has, in many ways, equalized us.  Birth control would be another example of this.  Yet our two sexes remain quite different, even mysterious to each other.  Many of us, both men and women, object to the idea of drafting women for combat.

Our two sexes are quite different, actually, and modern feminists can be glib about how equal we are.  But we should not make the even dumber mistake--the Parker mistake--of assuming one gender is good and the other is bad. 

It's hard to object to the argument that we'd all be better off with love in our hearts, as opposed to war.  Yet women are not immune to war-like emotions such as anger or hatred or pride.  And it's a silly mistake to assume that Hillary Clinton, because she is a woman, is nice or gentle or sweet.   

What's the Worst Obama Scandal?

Victor Davis Hanson does a fantastic job summing up the scandals of the Obama administration.  

Friday, August 09, 2013

Outrageous

American companies are apparently forced, through secret court orders, to share all your search data with the government.  And on top of this they are forbidden to talk about it.  These are blatant and disgusting violations of our Constitution.  Every American should be appalled. 

Here is an e-mail service provider who has shut down rather than comply with the order to provide this information to the government.  Note that Yahoo is suing to ask permission to speak.

    

Monday, August 05, 2013

RNC Declares War on CNN and NBC Over HIllary Movie

The RNC has announced that it will cut off both CNN and NBC from any primary debates if they continue with their plans to produce two Hillary movies.



NBC was working on a miniseries about Hillary Clinton that will star Diane Lane. 



 

Glassholes

Google glass is not even on the market yet and there's already an insult for the people who use them.  Glasshole! 

If Google was smart it might rename the product before launch.  Because that nickname will not go away. 



Fun Fact For the Day

Did you know the Navajo nation is bigger than West VirginiaI had no idea it was so big.

Jeff Bezos Buys Washington Post

Washington Post reports on its own sale here.

I wonder if he had to pass an ideological test?  It will be interesting to see if there is any shift in coverage.  I would expect him to be a bit more libertarian on economic matters. 

Friday, August 02, 2013

What Was the CIA Doing in Benghazi?

Whatever it was, the Obama administration doesn't want Congress to know about it.

Do You Know the Way To San Jose?

I love this song.  Sweet and sad. 

2nd Degree Attempted Murder Charge For Shooting a Burglar?

In New Orleans

As the Daily Mail explains, "The case has national implications in the wake of the George Zimmerman case, as Landry is white and Coulter is black."

And yes, the case is already receiving attention in the UK

Police say the teen, who has a history of burglary arrests, did not pose an 'imminent threat'  

I have mixed feelings about the press attention in cases like this.  I think the press wants to stoke racial fears, and so the press plays up the racial angle.  On the other hand, charging somebody with attempted 2nd degree murder for shooting a burglar seems like (yet another) over-charge by the state.

The Seen and the Unseen

Ann Althouse writes... 

because gay people could and did hide from public view for a long time, many people felt comfortable with oppressing them, which gave them all the more reason to hide. That dynamic changed over the past 5 decades or so, and as more and more gay people became visible, more and more people grew uncomfortable oppressing them. That has had a big effect on public opinion, to the point now where the holdouts — the ones who would continue the oppression — have resorted to crying that they themselves are oppressed.

I think we will see a similar dynamic in regards to abortion.  Liberals can and do "hide from public view" the appalling infanticides that take place every day.  So right now many people feel comfortable with supporting abortion rights. 

But what happens if and when that dynamic starts to change?

As more and more abortions "become visible," more and more people will be uncomfortable supporting abortion.     

Abortion relies upon invisibility.  Here Althouse writes brilliantly on the "morality of the seen and unseen."    

This is a shallow morality that infects our lives. If the human entity is inside the womb, and it is cut into pieces that is one thing, but if it's "partially born" so that a nurse sees it clenching and unclenching its fists as it meets its demise, it's another. And if it slips entirely out, and everyone sees a living child and then the doctor severs its spine, then everyone is supposed to know it's murder. From the inside, these deaths are all the same.

Yes, that's right.  Infanticide is infanticide is infanticide.  And our society cannot allow mothers to kill unwanted children.  We flinch from this.  We hide from it.  We know it's wrong.   

More Althouse...

increased visibility was an essential part of the political dynamic we have witnessed. Glenn Loury, in that clip, openly admits that the dynamic made him switch sides. I'm glad that happened and is happening in our political culture, but I think the argument based on principle should have been enough.

What will happen to the pro-choice movement when the AP and the Washington Post and CBS and NBC and ABC and Fox and all the rest of our Pravda media actually start showing abortions to our people?  Of course we will be shocked ("shocked!") that abortion looks like a baby that's been ripped to pieces.  But the truth is that this is precisely why the media hid these photographs from our people in the first place.
     


 

Masters of Sex

That's a new show on Showtime this fall, about Masters and Johnson and their studies of human sexualityThe show sounds like fun!

Interesting to compare Masters to our first sex "researcher," Alfred KinseyAll you need to know about Kinsey is that he was pen pals with a pedophile and into "urethral insertion."  Which makes me go, "Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"

I always thought Masters was just a boring respectable scientist.  But it turns out he was a peeper who used to spy on prostitutes for research.  Also he told Johnson that she should have sex with him for "research."  Oh yeah, that sounds scientific. 

I swear, sex reduces us all to animals.  We think we're in control and we're just deluding ourselves.  Sexual freedom is nice--I like it--but you have to recognize that release of our controls is like releasing the hounds. 

Our Federal Government At Work

The DEA invades a house suspected of distributing ecstasy.  They arrest several people, including Daniel Chong, who was in the house to smoke pot.  They decide not to prosecute Chong, and tell him that he will be released shortly.

They left him in a holding cell, and forgot about him for five days. 

He had to drink his own urine to survive. 

I can't wait for Obamacare!

Why is James Clapper Not In Prison?


I believe perjury is a felony

Thursday, August 01, 2013

Why Not Set Our Minimum Wage At $100 an Hour?

I was listening to NPR yesterday and they were going on and on about the minimum wage and how it needs to be raised.  It should be $15 an hour.  It should be $22 an hour.  It definitely needs to be higher than $7 an hour.  They could not understand why our minimum wage is so low.  Raise the minimum wage!

And yet there was so little discussion of negatives, of unintended consequences.  And these are smart people!  But they could not get beyond their emotional belief that poor people should be paid more money.  And rich people are paid too much! 

They feel the market is unfair and unjust.  And their reaction to this unfair and unjust market is to pass a law

Okay.  What would happen if we raised the minimum wage to $100 an hour?  We would all be making $200,000 a year.  And what is the problem here?

The problem is economic reality.  Your ideology gets smacked in the face with economic reality.  In real life we have to fire people so that we can pay our remaining workers $100 an hour.  So unemployment goes up.  And inflation shoots up.  That $100 is not worth a hundred dollars anymore.  You can't buy all the cool stuff that you want to buy.  The value of the dollar is destroyed by economic illiterates. 

Here is Paul Krugman proposing that the government mints a trillion dollar coin and put it in the bank.  He is a Nobel prize-winning idiot.  Do you really think that if you counterfeit a coin that you have somehow added to the wealth?  We cannot mock this enough.     

Reality!  Take your head out of your ass and take a whiff of reality!  Thank you.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Card Players



Sold for $250 million dollarsYikes!

Libertarian Revolt in the House

Justin Amash's attempt to defund the NSA spying program was truly amazingObama was against it.  Boehner was against it.  Pelosi was against it.  All the leaders--all the rulers--were against it.  They like their power and they want more, more, more! 

And yet there was a revolt nonetheless.  People who are sick of these violations of our Constitution voted their conscience.  The entire delegation of South Carolina voted against the NSA secret court.  They read the Constitution out loud!  And followed it!  

93 Republicans went against the House leadership.  They will no doubt be punished for that.  And they did it anyway!  

And 111 Democrats went against Obama and Pelosi.  These are our heroes and we should cheer them.   

Secret Laws

I heard Justin Amash on NPR yesterday.  He was on fire!  Also on NPR, in the role of Darth Vader, was the general counsel for the NSA, Stewart Baker, who said they were not going to share any of their FISA court rulings with Congress because Congress cannot be trusted.  And Justin Amash was so pissed.  As he should be!  "You can't have secret law!"  And Stewart Baker said it was just an interpretation of law.  They weren't writing laws.  

Imagine the Supreme Court writing Roe v. Wade in secret!  And even Congress is not allowed to read it!  Because Congress cannot be trusted.

The FISA court is a secret court, writing secret laws, rubber-stamping what our secret police state wants to do.  It's utterly un-American, I think, as there is no opposition to the government allowed in court.  And it's all done in secret!  

And then the Darth Vader of the FISA says that It's a shame about all these Obama scandals, because it's confused Republicans into thinking there is an NSA scandal, too.  He scoffs at the idea there is an NSA scandal.  What could be scandalous about building a Stasi spy apparatus in the USA?

Sublime



What I Got

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Blue and Grey

 


























Mark Rothko

Princess Nudist

Apparently the UK is ready to declare war on the French for publishing topless photographs of Kate Middleton.  And this is old nudie news, but it's back in the news because the French photographer, Valerie Suau, faces a year in prison

And get this bit of anti-French bigotry:

Ms Suau, whose name is pronounced 'sewer', has kept a low profile...

Monsieur!  The English dogs are putting your women in jail for reporting the truth!  And what do you say to this outrage?!

Flight Attendant Kung Fu Master

Flying in China is so hellish, so bad (the planes are delayed for hours and hours) that flight attendants are now learning kung fu to deal with the unruly passengers. 

Kung fu!



I want to see that movie!


Is Eric Snowden a Hero or a Traitor?

Pick one.

Monday, July 29, 2013

I Love Rand Paul

He pisses off all the right people.

The Cat Is Back!

One of my favorite Hitchcock films, To Catch a Thief, was filmed in a hotel in Cannes.  Yesterday that hotel was robbed by a cat burglar who stole $136 million in jewels.   

World Peace and Other Fourth Grade Achievements

I heard an amazing story on NPR today, about a 4th grade teacher and his political science class.  He's invented a world peace game, and his kids play it.  He creates various problems (racial, economic, environmental) and all the kids represent different make-believe countries in conflict with one another.  And he asks the kids to find a resolution.  And he has no idea what the answer is.

NPR article herewebsite herePretty awesome.     

Sunday, July 28, 2013

We Hold These Truths To Be Sacred and Undeniable

That all men are created equal...

I like Jefferson's original draft way better!  Before Ben Franklin crossed it out and substituted "self-evident."

Friday, July 26, 2013

Or Maybe This Is the Ugliest Animal In the World?




The Aye-aye!

Or Is This The Ugliest Animal In the World?



Naked Mole Rat!

Ugliest Animal in the World?



The Blobfish!

Mad Libs With Carlos Danger and Sydney Leathers

Who wants to play Mad Libs with Weiner and his girlfriend?  Using their text messages, let's see if we can make a funny story. 

For the first text, I need two verbs and two nouns! 


A Suggestion For The Republican House

Pass an Omnibus Naturalization Bill.  It has two components:

1)  A similar version to the Senate bill on immigration reform

and

2) It defines any baby who crosses the cervix as a citizen of the United States.

This would have the effect of defining D&X and D&E abortions (two abortions that require the doctor to pull the baby through the cervix) as murder.  A partially-born infant would be a citizen of the United States, and thus entitled to the equal protection of the laws.

Republicans should also insist that the two provisions cannot be severed by the judiciary.

In conference the Senate Democrats (and Obama) would have to scale back on abortion rights if they want immigration reform.

Or the Democrats could scuttle the bill.  And Republicans can demonize them as anti-Hispanic and anti-Catholic.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Texas Abortion Statute Follows the Viability Doctrine

The media has been quite hysterical over the new abortion statute in Texas.  ABC News puts it this way:

Texas just passed one of the strictest abortion laws in the country.

The state's Senate adopted a bill close to midnight on Friday that bans abortions after 20 weeks and will force the closure of all but a handful of the clinics that perform them.

What the media has failed to report is that "one of the strictest abortions laws in the country" actually complies with Roe v. Wade.

Let's examine the argument that Texas "bans abortion after 20 weeks."  It's true, but a little misleading.  The Texas statute is counting weeks from conception.  Yet most doctors actually measure weeks of pregnancy from the last menstrual period.  See, for instance, this report from NPR.

"(W)hen we talk about a law that bans abortion at 20 weeks post-fertilization, we're really talking about a law that bans abortion at 22 weeks of pregnancy..." 

So when Texas outlaws abortions at 20 weeks (from conception) a doctor would say that Texas is outlawing abortions at 22 weeks (from LMP).  It's two different ways of measuring the exact same point in time.

Why is this important?  Because the record for a premature baby's survival is 22 weeks after LMP.  

In other words, the Texas statute is following Roe and Casey.  Texas is actually enforcing the viability doctrine!

Yet nobody in our media is applauding Texas for respecting Roe v. Wade.  Instead we are told how "extreme" it is for Texas to protect babies at 22 weeks after LMP, or when viability begins.

Of course, for political reasons, Rick Perry and other pro-lifers do not mention they are actually following the viability doctrine of Roe v. Wade.  And yet the 22-week point is clearly within the boundaries established by the Supreme Court.  So while it might be embarrassing politically for these pro-lifers to acknowledge they are following Roe and Casey, they have clearly crafted a statute that comports with existing case law. 

It seems to me the odds that this statute will be upheld by the judiciary is incredibly high.  

Saint-Lazare Train Station


Pope Abandons Popemobile

Somebody put a "No Fear" sticker on that man

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Underwater Dog #4

 


The Pope's in Brazil



A wrong turn sent a humble Fiat carrying Pope Francis into the thick of a frenzied Rio crowd Monday, in his first minutes back in South America since becoming pontiff. It was a nightmare for security officials, but for the clearly delighted pope just another opportunity to connect.

Ecstatic throngs forced his motorcade to repeatedly come to a standstill, weeks after violent protests against the government paralyzed parts of Brazil. Francis' driver had turned into the wrong side of a boulevard at one point, missing lanes that had been cleared. Other parts of the pope's route to the city center weren't lined with fencing, giving the throngs more chances to get close, with uniformed police nowhere in sight to act as crowd control.

I hate, hate, hate the use of bullet-proof glass to protect the pope.  That sort of fear is entirely inappropriate.  Christians have no fear of death, it is a very basic tenet in our theology. 

Walk with God and have no fear!

Sharia vs. Women

A Norwegian woman alleges that she is raped in Dubai, and she and her attacker are both sentenced to 16 months in prison.

You can't make this up!  

And we only hear about it after the Dubai ruler pardons the two of them?    

Twitter to her rescue(A New York Times blogger covers the story, but note that the Times itself neglects to mention the story to its readers).   

The Old Man and the Sea

comes to life

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? 
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.