In overturning Roe v. Wade, Justice Samuel Alito writes that "we cannot allow our decisions to be affected by any extraneous influences such as concern about the public's reaction to our work". Disregard of what Americans want for their country looks to be this Supreme Court's playbook going forward. The 5-to-4 reversal of Roe pays no heed to polls that show that around two-thirds of Americans oppose banning abortion, with up to 80% saying the right to abortion should not be prohibited in its entirety.

The extreme move by the Catholic end of the bench imposing its religion on all Americans will occupy the headlines and protests ongoing, and we have already weighed in with our view of how a sensible country might end the abortion extremism of both sides in "Can There Be a Middle Ground to End the Abortion Debate?" (found here). Better therefore for us to examine the Court decision of just the day before the Roe v. Wade ruling, another seismic shock that the Roe declaration has drowned out.

Just weeks after the massacres in Buffalo and Uvalde, the Court originalists decided that more guns are needed where people congregate. They find that a New York law, on the books for over a century, is unconstitutional for requiring that a citizen demonstrate a "special need" for a permit to carry a gun in public. The six conservative justices believe that New York's law infringes our Second Amendment rights, their remedy being that we are now free to carry concealed guns in public. Eight in ten New Yorkers do not want their law overturned, but Alito has told us that they're extraneous. Congress is close to passing a modicum of regulations to curtail dangerous gun buyers and owners — finally —… Read More »

The fight over abortion is a war without end because it has always been conducted at extremes. The Alito doctrine resolves none of that because, assuming Roe v. Wade is overturned on his terms, the justice has only moved the issue from one extreme to the other.

For the 50 years since the Supreme Court ruling in 1973, the law of the land has permitted abortion up to the point of "viability", defined as when the fetus can survive on its own outside the womb, set at 23 weeks of pregnancy. This is the left-wing extreme position which says
that up to that point it isn't really a human, so it's okay to destroy it. Before that, not quite ready to go forth umbilically untethered, so disposable. It's true that few abortions occur that late, but demanding the absolute freedom of "my body, my choice" for the full 23 weeks without regard to that second life is abhorrent. What if the viability standard were applied to those helplessly intubated with COVID, or to the old in nursing homes who cannot manage unaided. Just let 'em go? The pro-choice absolutists fear they cannot compromise because the pro-lifers never will.

The pro-lifers at the other extreme insist a human is formed at the moment of conception when sperm penetrates egg. Or earlier. Listen to what the fervidly religious Mike Pence said — and in a campaign debate, no less,

"The sanctity of life proceeds out of the belief [in] that ancient principle where God says 'before you were formed in the womb I knew you.'"

You didn't know it but your pregnancy was God's plan. This is where the fanaticism of religion takes over and words such as "sacred" are invoked. It is the moment at which a cluster of cells becomes “ensouled” with no regard to what is actually happening physically in… Read More »

"Make no mistake, inflation is largely the fault of Putin”, blurted President Biden. Perhaps he meant only gasoline. "These are not Putin gas prices. They are President Biden gas prices", retorted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as if the president controls world oil
markets. "These really are Putin gas prices", insisted Nobel laureate economist New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, unmindful of the rise from $20 a barrel to $80 before the war. Back and forth goes blame, verging on infantile.

Inflation's causes are many, of course. The pandemic played a major role. Sheltering at home from the scourge, unable to spend on services — restaurants, movies, travel — people shifted to homelife improvements — electronics, appliances, furnishings. But quarantine lockdowns made production sporadic. Accustomed to finding just what we look for on well-stocked shelves, we learned about supply chains and what happens when they are disrupted.

Industry discovered that just-in-time inventory control, a quantum leap in efficiency, could have drawbacks; shortages developed and prices were bid up when trucks didn't show up at unloading docks. The shortage of semiconductors periodically shut down auto assembly lines. Used car prices shot up 37%. Lumber costs became prohibitive, adding… Read More »