Thanks Matt, good piece. I love the ask Matt ones a lot.
I agree on McCartney, someone recently showed me a video he made I wasn't aware of, where he plays all the parts ( but two by Linda) and plays all the instruments
Plus, Lennon was pretty odd even for me, and seemed to have no sense of humor
I did get to see Paul in concert at Cleveland Stadium in 1991. It was awesome.
Though this may lose me some respect...but, I have also always liked Ringo because he was the whimsical, fun one with the songs he sang and or/wrote...
Not posting anything smart and witty here. Just want to say that people who are upset about the Dobbs decision, and Justice Thomas's concurrence, might want to make a bit of an effort to understand the concept of substantive due process, and how we got to this point. In short, the legal problem with the "right" to abortion stems from its origination. Essentially, it was a judicial creation from the start. And under our system, judges don't make laws (or, more accurately, aren't supposed to) and that's exactly what happened in Roe, its progeny, and all the other cases built on the judicial fallacy that is substantive due process.
I've got no particular passion on the abortion issue, but I've long been persuaded by those who've argued that Roe was abysmal jurisprudence. The idea that the Constitution emanates some right to privacy, hence, via the Presto-Chang-O clause, carry the penumbra, ergo, abortion is legal...well, it's a bit of a stretch.
I mean, when the people in power one day decide they can take their jobs of reading the laws to mean reading the laws in ways they had no indication of intending, just in order to get the very outcome those powerful people wanted to obtain, well, at some point we'll wind up in a country where, say, one person says he won an election even though the raw numbers indicate the complete opposite, and, uh, where was I?
Fly fishing is to regular fishing like bow hunting is to regular rifle/shotgun hunting: more complex and demanding, and requiring more precision. It’s tougher, but once you do it, you won’t go back (even if you use a spin caster or a rifle here and there). You really have to earn your quarry.
Plus, you get to buy a ton of new gear too. Who wouldn’t like that?
I wish abortion had been left as a topic we could choose to discuss or ignore; that the right had focused on persuading hearts and minds instead of insisting on gaining the force of law. But they didn’t. Well, they wanted this victory. Now we will see what fruits that victory will produce.
For me, this week of abortion and guns has only served to radicalize my already existing antipathy for what the GOP has become. I was once a Republican. I voted for Reagan. I stopped identifying as one some years ago but I would split my votes, read Republican op eds, and enjoyed debates with Republican friends and family members.
That frame of mind has been shrinking during the Trump years and by now it’s gone. I now consider the GOP anathema. Republicans are still my neighbors. But the political debates are all dead and gone. I now have absolutely no interest in anything political any Republican has to say. I’m not interested in reading platitudes from the “nice” Republicans who are calling for more social services NOW that Roe has been overturned. I have only contempt for the bad faith pablum about how now citizens get to decide the abortion issue, while Republicans simultaneously go all out to try and game the system in order to maintain perpetual minority rule. I don’t see them as partners in our democracy anymore. I only want to see them lose.
And then there is the SCOTUS and what it’s become. I’m also a lawyer. Been one a long time. I previously disagreed often with decisions from the SCOTUS, but held the institution itself as almost holy, a secular Vatican. But I’ve been radicalized in that area as well. I consider the court to be wholly illegitimate, an institution of pure political partisanship dominated by right wing extremists whose only source of authority are the guns and jails of the Executive Branch. The opinions of this court will only matter as long as enough votes exist to sustain them.
Republicans have their victory. But they won it through gamesmanship and raw political power. They haven’t won over hearts and minds. And they’ve radicalized even more of their opposition. Including me.
Lots of folks will disagree with my point of view and dismiss it as sour grapes or simply not care. And that’s fine. I’m just one nonviolent person with one vote whose only power lies in divesting a few unnoticed dollars from a few companies who support those people I find repugnant. But consider this:
If I - a late middle-aged white male politically independent and moderate lawyer and one time Republican from a small Texas town - have become, in my own way, radicalized — what might that say about the future their victory will have wrought?
I'm not capable of arguing Roe on legal merits. What I feel instead is profound sadness for the many women who will lose *ready* access to the choice I had as a young woman.
I'm very grateful that when I needed that help, it was available to me so I could wait to be ready for the wonderful child I bore and raised to adulthood at a time when I was fully capable of being a parent.
I respect others' viewpoints and don't seek to change them to my own. I will, though, do all I can to help those who feel stranded by this decision, especially in my own state, which is likely to make most abortions illegal.
Thanks for including the picture. Was that from the last Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, a snippet from CPAC, a typical Tea Party caucus, or was it one of the latest releases from the January 6th Committee? They're all so much alike that it's hard to keep them straight!
As to fishing tools. I began with a humble Zebco spin cast rig and caught my biggest largemouth ever (20" and full of eggs) in my first spring. Since then I have played with fly rods, true spinning rigs, and my son recently got me into baitcasting. To this I say, "All of the above!" And the same goes for bass or trout. I am totally for equal opportunity!
About this comment: “So here’s hoping they remember that being pro-life shouldn’t stop when the baby makes it to the other side of the birth canal.” The problem with that is it has never happened and never will. “Pro-Life” people care fundamentally about imposing their personal values on people they will never know. Most of them care little about unwanted children. If they cared, they would adopt some of those kids. Do you know of anyone who has? I’m still looking for someone who has, but I haven’t found them yet. When is the last time some group won a huge SC decision and the result was zero material benefit to the winners?
If you have a good conscience and feel that parents of unwanted children need some help, please read this. You have to be a subscriber to The Atlantic to read it:
Well, honey, bless your heart! You wriggled out of the RoeWade stickiness as slickly as those old time, yet current, Evangelical Southern Baptist Preachers do when discovered in an…ahem..awkward position. I still subscribe but haven’t had time to read your columns in a while. I just found myself so satisfied after reading Heather Cox Richardson’s excellent (and near daily) postings, I would happily move on to my research of the day.
I do think of you and, occasionally, respond in my mind but never quite make it.
I have known you forever. I understand you are a part of the tide that carried to SBC away from its basic tenets and into a New way of being. It’s ok. I still love you as a fellow human and the trials I survived were not directly at your hand.
Only you could write what you did, how you did, and make your point without offending any sensible human on either side. (Love that you refer to your children as "cost-centers.") As an infant I was given up for adoption—according to what I was told as a child—by my Catholic DNA-mother because she wouldn't get an abortion. This should make me a walking testament to why abortion is never the answer. Yet I choose to avoid the topic. Doing so helps me focus on the really good stuff, like this: "As for the disturbing news that Clarence Thomas next wishes to come for contraception, I can only say that he should quit while he’s ahead, he should tend to more important matters like buying his crazy-ass wife a straitjacket, and if he intends to take my love glove, he’ll have to pry it from my warm, moist hand." That kind of writing can't be taught. Thankfully, a very few like yourself have developed it on their own, by focussing on doing at least one goddamn thing better than anyone else.
I agree that minds will never be changed on the abortion issue, at least very few will. My beef is, was, will always be, how does a life being brought into the world by someone other than me, become my choice to make.
Fly fishing over spin……no question.
Wilco over Sun Volt……again, no question.
Pie over Cake (I realize wasn’t in the matrix today, just added……cause)
Now the hard one.
For 50 years or so, we as a nation (and particularly Abortion Inc.) have failed miserably to focus on the care of the children born in unwanted circumstance post arrival. Every life might be precious in the abstract, but in the real world a whole bunch of “ lives” are unwanted, get abused, are neglected, are horrifically medically compromised, and otherwise abandoned. If Abortion Inc. did the bare minimum in giving a rat’s ass about actually “caring” I might be willing to engage their argument, but they don’t so I won’t.
And lastly, can we at least try to hold men accountable for their often reckless, criminal, and violent behavior that leads to many of the unwanted pregnancies?
Thanks Matt, good piece. I love the ask Matt ones a lot.
I agree on McCartney, someone recently showed me a video he made I wasn't aware of, where he plays all the parts ( but two by Linda) and plays all the instruments
Plus, Lennon was pretty odd even for me, and seemed to have no sense of humor
I did get to see Paul in concert at Cleveland Stadium in 1991. It was awesome.
Though this may lose me some respect...but, I have also always liked Ringo because he was the whimsical, fun one with the songs he sang and or/wrote...
Not posting anything smart and witty here. Just want to say that people who are upset about the Dobbs decision, and Justice Thomas's concurrence, might want to make a bit of an effort to understand the concept of substantive due process, and how we got to this point. In short, the legal problem with the "right" to abortion stems from its origination. Essentially, it was a judicial creation from the start. And under our system, judges don't make laws (or, more accurately, aren't supposed to) and that's exactly what happened in Roe, its progeny, and all the other cases built on the judicial fallacy that is substantive due process.
I've got no particular passion on the abortion issue, but I've long been persuaded by those who've argued that Roe was abysmal jurisprudence. The idea that the Constitution emanates some right to privacy, hence, via the Presto-Chang-O clause, carry the penumbra, ergo, abortion is legal...well, it's a bit of a stretch.
I mean, when the people in power one day decide they can take their jobs of reading the laws to mean reading the laws in ways they had no indication of intending, just in order to get the very outcome those powerful people wanted to obtain, well, at some point we'll wind up in a country where, say, one person says he won an election even though the raw numbers indicate the complete opposite, and, uh, where was I?
Fly fishing is to regular fishing like bow hunting is to regular rifle/shotgun hunting: more complex and demanding, and requiring more precision. It’s tougher, but once you do it, you won’t go back (even if you use a spin caster or a rifle here and there). You really have to earn your quarry.
Plus, you get to buy a ton of new gear too. Who wouldn’t like that?
I wish abortion had been left as a topic we could choose to discuss or ignore; that the right had focused on persuading hearts and minds instead of insisting on gaining the force of law. But they didn’t. Well, they wanted this victory. Now we will see what fruits that victory will produce.
For me, this week of abortion and guns has only served to radicalize my already existing antipathy for what the GOP has become. I was once a Republican. I voted for Reagan. I stopped identifying as one some years ago but I would split my votes, read Republican op eds, and enjoyed debates with Republican friends and family members.
That frame of mind has been shrinking during the Trump years and by now it’s gone. I now consider the GOP anathema. Republicans are still my neighbors. But the political debates are all dead and gone. I now have absolutely no interest in anything political any Republican has to say. I’m not interested in reading platitudes from the “nice” Republicans who are calling for more social services NOW that Roe has been overturned. I have only contempt for the bad faith pablum about how now citizens get to decide the abortion issue, while Republicans simultaneously go all out to try and game the system in order to maintain perpetual minority rule. I don’t see them as partners in our democracy anymore. I only want to see them lose.
And then there is the SCOTUS and what it’s become. I’m also a lawyer. Been one a long time. I previously disagreed often with decisions from the SCOTUS, but held the institution itself as almost holy, a secular Vatican. But I’ve been radicalized in that area as well. I consider the court to be wholly illegitimate, an institution of pure political partisanship dominated by right wing extremists whose only source of authority are the guns and jails of the Executive Branch. The opinions of this court will only matter as long as enough votes exist to sustain them.
Republicans have their victory. But they won it through gamesmanship and raw political power. They haven’t won over hearts and minds. And they’ve radicalized even more of their opposition. Including me.
Lots of folks will disagree with my point of view and dismiss it as sour grapes or simply not care. And that’s fine. I’m just one nonviolent person with one vote whose only power lies in divesting a few unnoticed dollars from a few companies who support those people I find repugnant. But consider this:
If I - a late middle-aged white male politically independent and moderate lawyer and one time Republican from a small Texas town - have become, in my own way, radicalized — what might that say about the future their victory will have wrought?
I'm not capable of arguing Roe on legal merits. What I feel instead is profound sadness for the many women who will lose *ready* access to the choice I had as a young woman.
I'm very grateful that when I needed that help, it was available to me so I could wait to be ready for the wonderful child I bore and raised to adulthood at a time when I was fully capable of being a parent.
I respect others' viewpoints and don't seek to change them to my own. I will, though, do all I can to help those who feel stranded by this decision, especially in my own state, which is likely to make most abortions illegal.
Matt:
Thanks for including the picture. Was that from the last Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, a snippet from CPAC, a typical Tea Party caucus, or was it one of the latest releases from the January 6th Committee? They're all so much alike that it's hard to keep them straight!
As to fishing tools. I began with a humble Zebco spin cast rig and caught my biggest largemouth ever (20" and full of eggs) in my first spring. Since then I have played with fly rods, true spinning rigs, and my son recently got me into baitcasting. To this I say, "All of the above!" And the same goes for bass or trout. I am totally for equal opportunity!
About this comment: “So here’s hoping they remember that being pro-life shouldn’t stop when the baby makes it to the other side of the birth canal.” The problem with that is it has never happened and never will. “Pro-Life” people care fundamentally about imposing their personal values on people they will never know. Most of them care little about unwanted children. If they cared, they would adopt some of those kids. Do you know of anyone who has? I’m still looking for someone who has, but I haven’t found them yet. When is the last time some group won a huge SC decision and the result was zero material benefit to the winners?
"Bass are perfect fly rod quarry. They’re aggressive, they like to hit on topwater, they’re not as fussy as trout, and they make a lot more of them."
"Heya topwater, I'm learning 'bout important dates in history. Wanna be one of them? I'm not as fussy as trout ifyaknowwhatI'msayin'..."
Man. You got it almost exactly right!
And concur on that duet with Kelly. She’s a dream boat.
And not that I fish in that stream, but George Harrison is criminally underrated.
Rubio advanced the Providing for Life Act. It's a start.
If you have a good conscience and feel that parents of unwanted children need some help, please read this. You have to be a subscriber to The Atlantic to read it:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/pro-life-dobbs-roe-culture-of-life/661394/
Sun Volt fan here, but enjoy Wilco too. Great commentary.
Matt!
Well, honey, bless your heart! You wriggled out of the RoeWade stickiness as slickly as those old time, yet current, Evangelical Southern Baptist Preachers do when discovered in an…ahem..awkward position. I still subscribe but haven’t had time to read your columns in a while. I just found myself so satisfied after reading Heather Cox Richardson’s excellent (and near daily) postings, I would happily move on to my research of the day.
I do think of you and, occasionally, respond in my mind but never quite make it.
I have known you forever. I understand you are a part of the tide that carried to SBC away from its basic tenets and into a New way of being. It’s ok. I still love you as a fellow human and the trials I survived were not directly at your hand.
Happy writing!
Only you could write what you did, how you did, and make your point without offending any sensible human on either side. (Love that you refer to your children as "cost-centers.") As an infant I was given up for adoption—according to what I was told as a child—by my Catholic DNA-mother because she wouldn't get an abortion. This should make me a walking testament to why abortion is never the answer. Yet I choose to avoid the topic. Doing so helps me focus on the really good stuff, like this: "As for the disturbing news that Clarence Thomas next wishes to come for contraception, I can only say that he should quit while he’s ahead, he should tend to more important matters like buying his crazy-ass wife a straitjacket, and if he intends to take my love glove, he’ll have to pry it from my warm, moist hand." That kind of writing can't be taught. Thankfully, a very few like yourself have developed it on their own, by focussing on doing at least one goddamn thing better than anyone else.
I agree that minds will never be changed on the abortion issue, at least very few will. My beef is, was, will always be, how does a life being brought into the world by someone other than me, become my choice to make.
Fly fishing over spin……no question.
Wilco over Sun Volt……again, no question.
Pie over Cake (I realize wasn’t in the matrix today, just added……cause)
Now the hard one.
For 50 years or so, we as a nation (and particularly Abortion Inc.) have failed miserably to focus on the care of the children born in unwanted circumstance post arrival. Every life might be precious in the abstract, but in the real world a whole bunch of “ lives” are unwanted, get abused, are neglected, are horrifically medically compromised, and otherwise abandoned. If Abortion Inc. did the bare minimum in giving a rat’s ass about actually “caring” I might be willing to engage their argument, but they don’t so I won’t.
And lastly, can we at least try to hold men accountable for their often reckless, criminal, and violent behavior that leads to many of the unwanted pregnancies?