Sunday brought two posts. First up was A Future Tale (Part One), which spilled out of my head back in May, and sat waiting until I figured out what was going on. In it, the narrator tells of a walk around a city, somewhere out there. Here's how things kicked off.
I walked slowly down the main drag, as I've done a million times, looking through the slightly dingy windows of the shops, observing the customers inside.
Many of them appeared disengaged, as if they were only going through the motions. They sported the worn-out look that comes from reading and hearing the same thing over and over, from the same people in the same echo chamber over and over, watching the same news for hoursdaysweeksmonths on end. They looked beaten down by it all.
Later in the post, the people were pretty much the same, but the area had changed a bit.
My pace slowed as I neared the alley halfway down the block, tucked in between a 1970s-era office building and an 1870s-era beauty. Empty but still defiant, figuratively lifting its chin in the air, brandishing the chip on its shoulder, as if daring someone to smash the windows, destroy the inside, or tear it down.
"Try me," it said. "Just try me."
Part Two, which'll be out later today, picks up as the narrator begins an interesting journey down the alley.
For your Sunday School, I took a new approach: throwing the classroom names in a pot and focusing on just one for your lesson. Last week, CNN's State of the Union had the luck of the draw and we got to spend some time with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. A lot of her chat with Dana Bash was about a woman's right to choose.
Bash tried to get answers to several questions on reports of a 10-year-old Indiana girl who was three days too pregnant to get an abortion at home, and was said to be traveling to Ohio to get one. Noem dodged repeatedly, but finally answered when Bash asked if the danger physically, mentally, and emotionally for the child wouldn't be putting her life at risk.
And I think that's something that -- yes, that situation, the doctor, the family, the individuals closest to that will make the decisions there for that family. That's what's interesting about the time we live in right now, is every state will have different laws on the books. The decisions will be made by the legislators that are closest to the people. That's appropriate. It's the way our Constitution intended.
It's important to note that, right before they talked about the 10-year-old, Noem said this about the trigger law in her state.
Now that that's the law, then we have to look at what we need to do to address who in those situations, if they do break the law, is punished. And that's the doctors, not the women. I want to make sure that that's appropriate and that the women are not punished in this situation, and that we do support them as we go forward.
That, folks, is a profile in hypocrisy. (Hmm... did we just uncover a new theme for veritable pastiche?)
Sticking with the classroom of the day for your Extra Credit, we heard from Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL). He had some interesting thoughts about Noem's interview, particularly the part where she and Bash talked about the recent January 6th Committee hearing.
When Bash asked for his reaction to the governor's comments on January 6th, he didn't mince words. She was in the House with him, and he said he was 'blown away' by her interview, in which she questioned the truthfulness of Cassidy Hutchinson.
...it's like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." This is not the Kristi Noem I served with. The Kristi Noem I served with was conservative, dedicated to truth, and I, at the time, would have thought (she) would have put her country above her political career at any moment.
They also talked about primaries, and voters, and Liz Cheney, and the Committee. Be sure to check out his name for Cheney's primary opponents - it's ridiculously appropriate, if ridiculously juvenile.
When it was time for Wondering on Wednesday, I had the opportunity to reference another classroom - ABC's This Week. Martha Raddatz hosted, and for some reason that defies logic, she asked Mary Bruce this final question.
And, Mary, we really just have about 20 seconds, but I want to go back to Uvalde. What is President Biden doing about that?
Now, there are any number of people who may have responsibility and accountability to act on what happened in Uvalde, but none of them are named President Biden, for what should be obvious reasons.
I'm not sure why (Bruce) dignified the question with an answer, but she did. And when she finally got around to talking about the feds and Biden, it was to note that "it's pretty unclear" how much the feds can do, adding
But this White House continues to point to that gun legislation they’re passing. Would that have solved this? We just don’t know.
Remembering that this was Wednesday's post, I got back to the business at hand.
Anyway, here's what I'm wondering: why didn't she say, "look, Martha, President Biden is much too busy causing global inflation, global supply chain issues, global food shortages, global immigration issues, and doing too much and not enough to help Ukraine, NATO, the EU, and others, to be able to focus his attention on a single mass shooting that happened months ago. Haven't you been to a gas station lately and seen his sticker?"
Thursday's breaking news shifted from the failures of the Biden administration to the crumbling of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government. Just weeks after surviving a no-confidence vote, he stepped down as leader of his party and assumed the role of 'caretaker' PM until a new party leader is chosen.
And that reminded me of a post in which I suggested Trump should step down, which I shared for Throwback Thursday. I was surprised the post was from June 2016, barely a year after the famous escalator ride.
For a whole host of reasons I included in the post, I said
Trump has proven himself unable to support the party’s sacraments and unable to garner full and active support of its leaders and faithful. He is doing perhaps irreparable damage to the party, damage that may take multiple election cycles to heal.
Donald Trump should step aside.
Republicans should demand it, so they can begin to recover from this horribly ill-advised, self-centered, pompous, short-on-content long-on-self-promotions candidacy before it’s too late.
As usual, nobody listened to me. And here we are.
I'll be back later; enjoy your Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!