Category Archives: culture

Dehumanizing Babies

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Florida has a law (HB5, Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality Act) banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Florida’s Governor DeSantis (R) has characterized the law as

protect[ing] babies in the womb who have beating hearts, who can move, who can taste, who can see, and who can feel pain.

Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have sued, claiming that the ban violates the Florida Constitution. The Florida Constitution, Art I, Sect 23, grants a right of privacy to every natural person. The only part of the Florida Constitution that directly addresses abortion is Art X, Sect 22, which authorizes the State’s legislature to enact laws requiring notification of a minor’s parent or guardian prior to termination of the minor’s pregnancy.

Whitney White, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project:

…we are dismayed that it has allowed this dangerous ban to remain in effect and to harm real people each and every day until this case is finally decided[.]

The State’s district-level judge, Leon County Circuit Court Judge John Cooper, siding with PP and the ACLU in issuing an injunction barring enforcement, wrote in part that (as cited by Fox News)

the Florida Constitution contains an explicit “right to privacy” that is “much broader in scope” than any privacy right under the United States Constitution. He further ruled that a 15-week cutoff for abortions is not supported by sufficient state interest.

Florida appealed the judge’s ruling and got the injunction lifted; the matter now is before the State’s Supreme Court.

It’s important to note that, both the ACLU’s and Cooper’s arguments can have legitimacy only by denying that unborn babies—especially after those 15 weeks—are not “real people,” are not natural persons. The only way in which the law’s abortion cutoff time is unsupported by sufficient State interest is by denying that unborn babies are not natural persons. After all, a core responsibility—a core duty—of the State government is to see to the safety and welfare of every “real” natural person in the State.

This is Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and a Florida judge shamefully denying babies’ personhood, shamefully dehumanizing babies, just because they’re unborn.

Hold Off, Guys

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That’s what the American “defense” establishment is advising Ukraine now as that nation fights for its existence against the invasion of barbarian Russia. Wait until the new arms transfers, just agreed at a NATO meeting, arrive, those worthies say.

The US has advised Kyiv to hold off on any major counter-offensives against Russian forces in Ukraine until Washington’s latest supply of weaponry and trainings have been provided, a senior White House official said, according to Reuters Saturday.

And

A senior US official told reporters that the US believes Russia will gain an advantage when it comes to a war of attrition and therefore Ukraine needs to change the dynamic on the battlefield.

And

The official did not clarify for how long the US wants Kyiv to hold off on launching a counter-offensive or when Washington will deem Ukraine ready to do so….

That’s…foolish…for a number of reasons.

The US is notoriously slow even to get the promised equipment out the door, let alone delivered into Ukrainian hands. For how long must the Ukrainians “hold off?” These US officials are careful to avoid answering that question.

On the other hand, “Washington” claims to know better than the Ukrainians when Ukraine will be ready to go over to the offensive again. “Washington” Know Betters, after all, are looking from the vantage point of their airconditioned DoD, State, and White House offices. The Ukrainians can only see the whites of the barbarian’s eyes, see the barbarian’s fatigue, the way the winter cold saps the poorly equipped for winter barbarian’s will to fight or the manic rage of Wagner’s horde sitting right across from them. This is just quintessential ugly American arrogance. The Ukrainian forces in the field don’t need to be ready enough to suit “Washington.” They only need to be readier than the barbarian for a winter offensive.

Which brings me to: rather than sitting on the defensive, ceding the initiative, and thereby fighting the war of attrition that Washington is rightly worried about, the best way for the Ukrainians to change the dynamic on the battlefield is precisely to prosecute a winter offensive of their own. Just like they changed the then-dynamic with their Kherson offensive last spring.

Aside: The Pentagon doesn’t want to ship M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. The US has argued its tanks are too costly and difficult to maintain. Then why are they still in our inventory soaking up money and time and soldiers to keep some fraction of them combat ready? At least DoD officials aren’t arguing (publicly, anyway), like the Germans are vis-à-vis their Leopard tank, that the dumb Slavs are just too stupid to learn how to drive a tank.

Another Aside: These Washington officials plainly are projecting their own imperatives onto the Ukrainians. That suggests dangerously meek positions vis-à-vis our own government’s willingness to defend the Republic of China. Or our own nation.

Time to Cut Turkey Loose

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Turkey—its President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, anyway—objects to the Swedish government decision to not investigate a Kurdish protest in Stockholm over the protestors having committed no crime. Erdoğan has been threatening to block Sweden’s accession to NATO (which requires unanimous consent of the members) if Sweden doesn’t treat the Kurds IAW Erdoğan’s demands, Swedish law be damned. The present case is no exception. Erdoğan’s panties are especially wedgied because the protestors hung his effigy from a lamppost in central Stockholm.

It’s time to be done with Erdoğan’s preciousness and his hurted feelings. Turkey needs to be removed from NATO altogether. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has shown himself, for long enough, to be no friend and to be an unreliable ally and NATO member. NATO needs figure out how to expel Turkey from NATO, and get it done.

And don’t worry about Turkey’s control of the outlet from the Black Sea and Erdoğan’s sub rosa support for Russia. The straits at both ends of that outlet are narrow and easily plugged if needs be.

Facebook Collusion?

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According to the latest installment of Email Revelations, Facebook—i.e., Mark Zuckerberg, since he owns an outright majority of the voting shares of his Facebook (and its reincarnation, Meta)—responded to pressure from the White House (which can only mean President Joe Biden (D), since he’s the White House guy in charge) rather meekly (IMNSHO).

Facebook told an official at the Biden White House in March 2021 that the Big Tech company took action against the “virality” of “often-true content” regarding the COVID-19 vaccines, in addition to suppressed misinformation about the shots.

Zuckerberg, via his (identity redacted) staffer:

As you know, in addition to removing vaccine misinformation, we have been focused on reducing the virality of content discouraging vaccines that does not contain actionable information. This is often-true content, which we allow at the post level because it is important for people to be able to discuss both their personal experiences and concerns about the vaccine, but it can be framed as sensation, alarmist, or shocking.

Can be framed as…. By whom, exactly? Apparently by Zuckerberg and his minions.

Is Zuckerberg an abject coward, then, caving to unenforceable “pressure,” or is he all-in with the Progressive-Democrats and their demand to control speech?

I write, you decide.

But It Wasn’t Me

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The re-elect Lori Lightfoot for Chicago mayor sent an email to area high schools and to City Colleges of Chicago asking teachers to grant class credit to student volunteers who would work on her campaign. Not on any campaign for mayor or for any city office, but only on Lightfoot’s campaign for mayor.

When the campaign’s move was publicly exposed, Lightfoot claimed the email was a mistake and shouldn’t have gone out.

Then she blamed a junior staffer for the foul-up.

While Lightfoot called the email a mistake and said she was apologizing, putting all the blame on one young staffer. [sic] Lightfoot said she only learned the staffer reached out to CPS teachers and City Colleges staff on work emails Wednesday afternoon.

She tried to lighten the blame game:

“It was a mistake, she understands it was a mistake,” Lightfoot said.
…
Rather than firing the staffer, Lightfoot said it will be a teaching moment for her campaign….

However.

The staffer was operating directly within the parameters Lightfoot, as the MFWIC of that operation, already had set up. Lightfoot didn’t even acknowledge her own role in the mistake; she laid the whole thing off on the young woman.

Lightfoot’s procedure is simply to duck all responsibility and toss the staffer, who’s in no position to defend herself from her boss’ accusation, under the Mayoral bus. With Lightfoot at the controls.