January 6th Committee Hearings: Day 4

  (NOTE: the following is a video copy and transcript of Day 4 of the US House Committee hearings tasked with investigating the attack on the US Capitol Building that occurred on January 6th, 2021. I'll attempt to post videos and transcripts for all meetings until the Committee has finished its hearings.)  

Day 4 hearing (courtesy C-SPAN)

Day 4 transcript (courtesy NPR) 

January 6th Committee Hearings: Day 3

   (NOTE: the following is a video copy and transcript of Day 3 of the US House Committee hearings tasked with investigating the attack on the US Capitol Building that occurred on January 6th, 2021. I'll attempt to post videos and transcripts for all meetings until the Committee has finished its hearings.) 

Day 3 hearing (courtesy AP News)

Day 3 transcript (courtesy NPR)

January 6th Committee Hearings: Day 2

(NOTE: the following is a video copy and transcript of Day 1 of the US House Committee hearings tasked with investigating the attack on the US Capitol Building that occurred on January 6th, 2021. I'll attempt to post videos and transcripts for all meetings until the Committee has finished its hearings.) 

Day 2 hearing (courtesy MSNBC)

Day 2 transcript (courtesy NPR)

January 6th Committee Hearings: Day 1

(NOTE: the following is a video copy and transcript of Day 1 of the US House Committee hearings tasked with investigating the attack on the US Capitol Building that occurred on January 6th, 2021. I'll attempt to post videos and transcripts for all meetings until the Committee has finished its hearings.) 

Day 1 hearing (courtesy MSNBC)

Day 1 transcript (courtesy NPR.org)

Black robes, darker times ahead

 This week wasn't just about Roe v. Wade. Not by a long shot.

The Supreme Court of the United States handed down a series of decisions this week that don't merely smack of an effort to return the court to a pre-Warren court era; they practically look like an effort to go all the way back to the Taney court instead, and the rulings they set down are at times so mutually contradictory at that it looks like they're not even trying to justify them through stare decisis or any other comprehensible form of legal precedent.

We've been told as a nation that although it's perfectly acceptable for state legislatures to regulate and even ban abortion, it isn't acceptable for them to regulate concealed carry rules for firearms. SCOTUS also ruled in favor of the proposition that if a state subsidizes tuition to private schools it must also subsidize tuition to religious schools, which effectively means that the only way out for states choosing not to do so is to cut off all tuition assistance to private schools, secular or otherwise. And then there's there's Vega vs. Tekoh, which weakens Miranda protections against self-incrimination. It wasn't a week where the Supreme Court covered itself in glory, and that's a huge understatement.

And then on Friday, Roe v. Wade was overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

My own personal view on the issue of abortion is that it's strictly between a woman, her physician and whoever else she asks for an opinion as to whether she chooses to obtain one or not. My view shouldn't enter into the issue unless I'm specifically asked about it, and if I'm not asked about it it's none of my business.

Women involved in making such a decision have enough to worry about without everyone else throwing in their own two cents, and if they can't negotiate the issue despite the input of their spouse or partner, friends, family members and their own religious views (or lack thereof) the opinion of someone who neither knows their situation or can be in their head to know what they're going through won't be of help, either. And because of Dobbs, that decision has just been made all the more excruciating. Considering how many states passed trigger laws greatly restricting or outlawing abortion that went into effect when Roe fell, the decision has become incredibly expensive as well. So is raising an unexpected child, but the majority of the court doesn't seem particularly concerned with that. And if the pregnancy is ectopic? Well, that's obviously the woman's problem, not the court's.

Regardless of this decision, abortion will not disappear. They'll merely become exceedingly difficult to obtain legally in several states and will be forced underground, but they'll still be performed - albeit at much greater risk to the health or even the life of the patient.

But as far as one of the things that could cut back on unwanted or unviable pregnancies - namely access to effective contraceptives - might be under assault as well. Clarence Thomas has already gone on record as stating that earlier decisions such as Griswold v. Connecticut (which allowed married couples to buy contraceptives) and Obergefell v. Hodges (the decision that legalized interstate protection of same-sex marriages) might have to be revisited on the same grounds that Roe was overturned. Of course, the irony with is that the same thing could be said of Loving v. Virginia, and that means that Thomas' own interracial marriage of 35 years could be invalidated.

But I'm sure he'd be perfectly okay with that, right?

It's been a while...

Hi. This is the first time that I've posted anything on this blog for nearly six months, and the reason for that is simple:

A lot of shit has happened. A lot.

If you look at the current situation in Ukraine or the hearings on the attack on the Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021 that are going on right now, news events have effectively been an avalanche over the last few months, and they distracted me to the point where I decided not to write anything here because there was just too damn much of it. I'm finally getting around to it now because a friend pointed out that it had been nearly half a year ago when I last posted. Again, it was due to a shitstorm of news that caused me to even feel buried by it at times. I'm sure any number of people - if not a majority - feel the same way.

All that being said, I'm posting this to say that I'm back. I'll probably be posting shorter entries like I did when I first got an account on LiveJournal years ago, but there will be longer pieces from time to time as well. The simple fact is that a blog is only good when it stays updated, and it's about time that I revived this blog and its mirror site. So I have.

Here's hoping that I can keep doing it for a good, long time.