4/28/23

 Friday, April 28, 2023

In bed at 10, up at 6:20, 5 or so pss, thinking about estate at death, Andy's and Anh's retirement.  39℉, high of  54℉, cloudy all day, wind NE at 5 mph, gusts up to 13 mph.  The sun rose at 5:49, sunset at 7:40, 13+59.

FB Post this morning:  Amy Davidson Sorkin has a short piece in the current New Yorker - "What's Going on with Samuel Alito -." in which she asks "How many people and organizations can Justice Samuel Alito accuse of having bad will or dishonest motives in a short dissent—fewer than nine hundred words—to a Supreme Court order granting a stay?"  Alito's dissent in the mifepristone case is a short and worthwhile read, worthwhile insofar as it reveals just how cynical Alito is.  Clarence Thomas also dissented, but without stating his reasons.  What I hope we all remember is that these 2 men, the most reactionary members of the Court, were appointed by Republican 'moderates,' George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.  "“I have followed this man’s career for some time,” said President George H.W. Bush of Clarence Thomas in July 1991. “He is a delightful and warm, intelligent person who has great empathy and a wonderful sense of humor.”  George W. Bush sold himself to the American electorate as a "compassionate conservative." "In announcing Alito’s nomination, Bush said: “He’s scholarly, fair-minded and principled, and these qualities will serve him well on the highest court in the land. [His record] reveals a thoughtful judge who considers the legal merits carefully and applies the law in a principled fashion. He has a deep understanding of the proper role of judges in our society. He understands judges are to interpret the laws, not to impose their preferences or priorities on the people.”  The Bushes are perfect illustrations of why so-called Republican 'moderates' cannot be trusted with governmental power.  First, it is always a fair question to what degree their 'moderateness" masks a deep-seated reactionary conservatism.  Second, even 'moderate' Republicans feel the need to satisfy their right-wing colleagues by appointing the likes of Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.  The frightening state our country is in today can, in large measure, be laid at the feet of those "moderate Republicans," George H. W. and George W. Bush.  More's the pity.

A painting I did of Willie Horton and George H. W. Bush decades ago

FB post yesterday.  Tom Friedman, quoting Bernard-Henri Levy, speaks for most of us whose long lives are mostly behind us: " . . . the world I knew, the world in which I grew up, the world that I want to leave to my children and grandchildren might collapse.”  When I watch young neighbors walking their children along our street, or see parents walk their children into Kopp's for a frozen custard, or see scores of children as school lets out  for the day walking home or getting into their buses, I almost inevitably have two emotional responses: elation, simply from the beauty of the children and of parents caring for children, and trepidation, sometimes dread, knowing and fearing  the dangers in the world they are growing into.  Friedman points to Putin, Netanyahu, and Trump (and Viktor Orban) as emblematic of those growing fascistic dangers, but what is most frightening is knowing that each of those menacing leaders attained and holds power only because of the support of millions of followers.     

"It’s OK to Be Single, the Church of England Says: So Was Jesus"  Where exactly in the New Testatment does it say that Jesus was single, in the sense of unmarried and never married?  I've long thought it unlikely that Jesus was simply "a bachelor," as our friend and gay neighbor John McGivern's mother used to refer to him.  Jewish men in Galilee 2,000 years ago expected to 'be fruitful and multiply," to augment the population of the Chosen People.  Men and women were expected to marry and bear children and there is no reason to think that Jesus was the weirdo in Nazareth who went through his entire late teens and 20s without marrying.  That he was apparently unmarried at age 30 or so when he began his 'public life' suggests to me that he was a widower who lost his wife and probably their child in childbirth.  Perhaps it was such a devastating loss that led him into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights.  Who knows?  It is mere speculation, of course, but so is the belief that Jesus had not been married before the start of his public life.  My speculation seems at least as likely as the speculation that Jesus was a lifelong bachelor, perhaps a 'gay blade.'  Who knows?

In any event, it's nice that the Anglicans have at long last accepted that life is complicated and often hard and that people are varied, some drawn towards coupling up, some towards not coupling up.  Some left-handed, some right-handed, some light-skinned, some dark-skinned.  Some straight, some gay, some both, some confused.  Different strokes for different folks.  We need to get used to it, but of course we won't.

Good Bones 

BY MAGGIE SMITH

Life is short, though I keep this from my children. / Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine / in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, / a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways / I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least / fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative / estimate, though I keep this from my children. / 

For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird. / For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world / is at least half terrible, and for every kind / stranger, there is one who would break you, / though I keep this from my children. /  I am trying to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, / walking you through a real shithole, chirps on / about good bones: This place could be beautiful, / right? You could make this place beautiful.