The hiatus from blog writing allowed freedom of thought – the focus of thinking was as follows:
Me: What do I want to blog about now? My life has drastically changed. Many of my old ‘subjects’, (one could say obsessions) no longer hold any allure. No longer care what is going on in the USA – not going back there ever, the confusion, disarray, chaos and hopelessness is depressing, boring and any contributions I might make are totally irrelevant to anything.
Alter Ego: I can see your point. But perhaps you could think about closing the door – saying goodbye to the USA and talking about why you are leaving them in your mind, not just your body.
Me: That is an excellent idea, I shall follow your lead.
Thankfully an article from The Economist was incredibly helpful. It spoke of the Supreme Court’s ability to not only fail to resolve issues but instead increase controversy. The article began with the abortion ruling but said that it was the most striking of the court’s decisions in it current term but it is not the only area where ‘it has radically tipped the scales.’ “The justices have also loosened gun laws and eroded the separation of church and state (see United States section). If their final big verdict goes as expected, they are about to limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate emissions from power plants, undermining the Biden administration’s hopes of halving climate-changing carbon-dioxide emissions by 2030. Just 25% of Americans have confidence in the court, an all-time low, according to recent Gallup polling. That has not deterred the justices from embarking on a spree of judicial activism that will further deepen cracks in America.”
The article suggests that compromise is badly needed but illustrates that this is not about to happen. “In the medium term it would be nice to think that the justices, mindful of the court’s diminishing reputation, will start to exercise more self-restraint, including an embrace of term limits for themselves. Sadly, there is little sign that they will be in a mood for that. It will instead fall to voters to signal to conservatives that there are costs to running amok, and to influence the laws, state by state, that better reflect what Americans really want on the thorniest issues such as abortion—which one side believes to be murder and the other a fundamental right for women. A polarized country seems poorly prepared for the sort of debate this requires. But it is what America needs, and in some of the more finely balanced states it is possible to imagine the re-emergence of the art of compromise.”
But there is a ray of hope, they suggest. “There might be a longer-term solution: “federal legislation to fill the vacuum that sucks in the justices. The conventional view is that this cannot happen, because of congressional gridlock. Yet that is not necessarily so, as the gun law just signed by President Joe Biden shows—the most significant gun-control legislation in nearly three decades, passed by the Senate on the day that the Supreme Court moved in the opposite direction on guns. With sufficient pressure from voters, even Congress could, eventually, stir itself into action.”
But I do not want to throw away the baby with the bath water. Wikipedia tells us about that idiomatic expression: “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” is an idiomatic expression for an avoidable error in which something good is eliminated when trying to get rid of something bad, or in other words, rejecting the favorable along with the unfavorable.
This idiom derives from a German proverb, das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten. The earliest record of this phrase is in 1512, in Appeal to Fools by Thomas Murner; this book includes a woodcut illustration showing a woman tossing a baby out with waste water. It is a common catchphrase in German, with examples of its use in work by Martin Luther, Johannes Kepler, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Otto von Bismarck, Thomas Mann and Gunter Grass.
The good that would be eliminated by rejecting the unfavorable USA is the humor contained in The New Yorker, a USA publication. Andy Borowitz provides humor and a satirical way of looking at events and people. Satire is rare in other countries. Here is an illustration, the witty title s Trump Denies Ever Knowing Ketchup. PALM BEACH (The Borowitz Report)—In his latest denunciation of the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony to the January 6th committee, Donald J. Trump has denied ever knowing ketchup.
“This business about me using ketchup is a lie, and Wacko Cassidy knows it,” Trump wrote on his social network, Truth Social. “I have never worked with ketchup, and I don’t know ketchup.”
I suppose some background might be necessary to make thoroughly funny, but a social network called Truth Social is rather hilarious. However, Andy goes on to make it funny for all. Ketchup is for losers,” he added.
Trump issued a list of his favorite condiments, notably omitting any mention of the popular tomato-based sauce.
“I’ve used mustard, I’ve used mayonnaise, and at times I’ve used A-1 stake [sic] sauce,” he wrote. “Using ketchup is a disgrace, and it should never be allowed to happen in our country.”
Now this one is superb, and so right on topic that people the world over will appreciate this. The title: Nation’s Fetuses Puzzled Over Why Supreme Court Wants Them Exposed to Air Pollution. Here it goes:WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The United States Supreme Court’s decision to curtail the E.P.A.’s ability to regulate carbon dioxide has drawn a puzzled reaction from the nation’s fetuses. A statement from the Association of American Fetuses expressed “bafflement” that the Court would issue a ruling that increased the amount of atmospheric carbon monoxide, which has been shown to have a damaging effect on fetal health. “It’s impossible for us to see today’s ruling as anything but flagrantly anti-fetus,” the statement read. “To say that we fetuses are disappointed would be putting it mildly.”
The fetuses asked John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch to reconsider their ruling in the E.P.A. case. “It just doesn’t seem very pro-life to us,” the fetuses said.
Is Andy not clever? He has the fetuses list the silly justices that formed the majority opinion – Of course, Clarence Thomas is amongst them. Then inventing the Association of American Fetuses, is a stroke of sheer genius.
But oops, oops and more oops. The Toronto Star reports that the decision is going to affect Canadians as well. Thankfully, the ones in Eastern Canada and not Western Canada (where I live). “Consider if SCOTUS prevents the U.S. government from limiting carbon emissions, Canadians who share air, great lakes and mountain ranges with the U.S. will feel the effects, too.”
There always has been a separation between Eastern and Western Canada – blessedly I have always lived in Western Canada. Yesterday was Canada Day. In Ottawa (which is in Eastern Canada, to those of you who do not know Canada even exists) Ottawa’s Canada Day celebrations included creepy convoy demonstrators who protested vaccinations. I was absolutely privileged to celebrate Canada Day in Edmonton (which is in Western Canada for those of you who do not know that Canada even exists.) There were no poopie protestors just families going for pancake breakfasts, listening to music, getting rained on briefly, touring the legislative grounds and buildings, watching fireworks and meeting me, who made a brief appearance before the rains came. The photographs attached will show me in my Canadian inspired finery topped off with a baseball cap from the dollar store. Dollorama stores are the delightfully opposite, the antithesis of the Yas Mall and the Dubai Mall and other UAE malls. It is great to be home. More about Canada Day celebrations in a later blog, comparing USA July 4 celebrations and my previous 2017 Canada Day celebrations.
I posted a selfie on Instagram with the following caption. “Dressed and ready to join Canada Day 2022 festivities. Not bad for an old lady!” So far I have had 27 Likes, mostly from dear Instagram friends. If you think you are my dear friend and have not Liked pressed the Like button, you are not my dear friend. It is not too late to do so, but you had best get at it. I remember that saying:
Me: With friends like you, who needs enemies.
Non-responders: I was too busy!
Me: Well I am too busy for you. Look how many real responsive friends I have.
