The Case Against Roe     

We summarize Rich Lowry's opinion of the 1973 opinion.

   With Roe vs. Wade again in the news, Lowry, National Review, slammed Justice Blackmun's 1973 majority opinion as a "travesty" that should be "excised." 

   In the third trimester, states must allow exceptions to protect the life or health of the mother, defined as "emotional, psychological, familial," as well as "the woman's age." There's a way out for anyone. 

   Lowry says "the argument that Roe's policy preferences are mandated by the Constitution is flatly preposterous." After the decision came down, a Harvard Law professor, who supported legalized abortion, wrote that, "Roe is bad because ... it is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of obligation to try to be." 

   Years later, a former Blackmun clerk wrote, "...no one has produced a convincing defense of Roe on its own terms." Lowry adds, "none is possible." 

   The court "found" a right to abortion in the 14th Amendment, in which no state can "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Lowry sees "no obvious or even subtle connection to legalized abortion." 

   Wrote Blackmun, "abortion is so central to liberty that no restriction on it can stand constitutional scrutiny." Unborn children were not "persons in the whole sense." He even used the minimum age for presidents to prove that some rights are not for everyone. "This is too stupid for words," Lowry huffs. 

   Democrats say Roe is "settled law." Lowry notes that 60 years after Plessy v. Ferguson (separate but equal), the court in Brown v. Board of Education overturned it. 

   Guess it wasn't "settled" when the court wanted to unsettle it.

       Jimmy

Tomorrow: The case against back-alley abortions

     

Just the Facts, Mam    

   If you are over 60, you recognize that line from Dragnet, a TV program in 1951-59 and 1967-70. When Detective Joe Friday, played by Jack Webb, encountered a WWW (wordy woman witness 😊), he cut to the chase: Just the facts, Mam.  

   Wouldn't it be neat if all of us waited for the facts when we're digesting news, statements and associated commentary? That's what journalists are supposed to do, get the facts and report, just the facts. 

   In today's 24/7 news cycle, the winner is the person or news team that breaks the story first. They can correct the facts tomorrow. Few will notice. 

   Here's a small but tragic example from Tampa Bay. June 26, a garbage truck backed away from a dumpster, hit a retired teacher, 65, and dragged her 20 or 30 feet. 

   On seeing the TV report, we wondered, didn't she hear the backup alarm garbage trucks have? 

   A witness reported, and TV repeated, that she wore earbuds, a risky habit on city streets. People went online to criticize the deceased woman for using earbuds, further upsetting her family members. 

   Days later, the medical examiner reported that she wore hearing aids - a 180-degree difference. The report didn't mention backup lights or alarms, but said the impounded truck has two back-up cameras. 

   The apparently inconsolable (not yet a fact) driver is on paid leave. He has four citations on his driving record over 10 years. Investigation continues.

   We confess to reacting quickly to information from politicians and news outlets. With leisure time in retirement, we're getting better at withholding judgment. 

      Jimmy

   Did You Ever?   

   Did you ever see so many adults acting like someone just stole their favorite teddy bear? 

   Before the president's choice for justice was known, women by the Supreme Court building were screaming - screaming - how horrible this candidate is. U.S. senators, supposedly the adults in Congress, are demanding we know that every right known to man and womankind will be destroyed. The president has done the bidding of the devil. 

   Rise up, peasants! Take the castle. Or the world as we know it will cease to exist. Yes, it's about that bad. (What they really fear is that their grip on Washington will slip even further.) 

   Here at Views, we believe in free speech, even if the same speech - Roe vs. Wade - comes up every time a Republican president nominates a justice. We'll fret when more than half the voters buy what the Left is selling to people who don't think. 

   Amazing isn't it, what people will do and say to keep their power? Even Senate Democrats who might buck their party will do so mostly to keep their jobs in "red" states. Maybe that's democracy. Like him or not, Trump is winning, and the opposition is having a tantrum. This is one Republican (so called) they can't manipulate. 

   Gary Abernathy, owner and publisher of a paper in Hillsboro, Ohio, has an interesting view on the abortion scare. He finds it "illogical" that we celebrate advancements that save lives in the womb, while arbitrary choice ends them. Life begins at conception. Period!  

   Abernathy is pro-life, but he doesn't worry much about the law. He sees it "much like the failed effort to enforce prohibition. The problem is not the legality, it's that there is a demand for it." 

   "If we believe every unborn child is a gift from God, we should ... convince more people of its merit," he says. "Even if Roe is overturned, abortion will still be in demand, because hearts haven't been changed." 

      Jimmy

Explaining Our View    

   Our readers deserve to know exactly what we see with our view by the sea, here in beautiful Florida. So, we compiled stats for the year 2017.

   We viewed a total of 173,552 pounds of trash on our beaches and waterways. Of that, there were:

95,679 cigarette butts

74,420 plastic bottle caps

37,683 food wrapers

31,948 plastic bottles

26,500 straws

   Hey, we're not the only litterbugs on the planet. Each year, about 8 million metric tons of plastic enters the oceans around the world. 

Views Under Water   

   Admittedly, we can't "view" what's under the water, but here is what researchers from four universities discovered in seven years of work in the Gulf of Mexico, including waters off Cuba. The top five species:

1. Atlantic sharpnose shark

2. Red snapper

3. King snake eel

4. Tile fish

5. Gulf smoothhound

   And you thought it might be grouper, snook, tarpon and oil rigs. 

      Jimmy

UPDATE: As you may know, all the boys and their soccer coach have exited the cave in Thailand. Four SEALs including a doctor had stayed with them until the end. One of boys had sent a note ahead to his parents, "I will do my chores."    😃  Parents had sent a message telling the coach that they didn't hold him responsible. Interesting. Some of the boys need more medical help than others. The last four came out on stretchers. 
  

Brave Boys; Heroic Divers  

Update 11:30 a.m.

   You've probably been following dramatic rescue attempts in northern Thailand, where 12 young boys and their soccer coach have been trapped in a flooded cave since June 23. As of this writing, Monday, 9:40 a.m. our time, eight kids have been brought out by Thai divers. The boys are in hospital isolation. A 13th boy went home after soccer practice for some fortunate reason.   

   Divers placed about 100 oxygen tanks along the twisty, narrow, flooded escape route of 2-1/2 miles, and all were used up. Oxygen is being replaced before the final five rescues can begin. Daylight is best, probably tonight our time, to facilitate all the outside work that is needed. 

   Meanwhile, in the sea off southern Thailand, other divers are retrieving bodies of kids found in the arms of their mothers after a tour boat capsized in 16-foot waves. Most or all of the 41 people found so far were Chinese. Not a good view by the sea. 

   Some families are rejoicing. Some are grieving. It's our world. 

   Thai navy SEALS and those from the U.S., Japan and Australia are working the cave rescue. Just to reach the trapped boys and return with notes for their families took 11 hours. One boy wrote, "Mom and Dad, please don't worry. I am fine." Bringing the boys out involves hiking, climbing, affixing oxygen masks and tethering them through muddy, rushing waters.

   Divers also apply antiseptic, reassure the boys, coach them on what to expect, and joke with them to keep things calm. A freak-out might cost a life. One diver ran out of air himself while placing air tanks.

   From our easy-chair vantage point, we view Thai authorities as top-notch in this emergency, almost unprecedented, and hundreds of rescuers as highly disciplined. What they are doing is "the last resort," but due to the rains, they're doing it. Very impressive. 

       Jimmy

   PS. In a dark, narrow passage, how does a diver know another one isn't approaching from the other direction?  




   

What Does God Look Like?     
 
   Political liberals and conservatives - like everything - manage to see God differently.

   Aside from when the Son took on human likeness, God is Spirit. Researchers in North Carolina asked 551 Christians what they think God looks like. 

   Their composite has God being white, young and clean cut, with a vague, Mona Lisa smile. All Christians in the survey came with a bias.

   Liberals imagined God as "more feminine, younger and more loving." Conservatives had in mind a God who is "more powerful." 

   The project's lead author said, "These biases might stem from the type of societies that liberals and conservatives want. Conservatives are more motivated in a well-ordered society, one that would be best regulated by a powerful God."

   "Liberals are more motivated to live in a tolerant society, which would be better regulated by a loving God."

   Here at Views headquarters - our only research involves the Bible - we have no opinion on God's looks. What we do know from Isaiah 53:2 is that the Redeemer came without handsome features; we also know those features were unrecognizable after Roman soldiers were done beating him.

   Artists depictions are meaningless.

   We like the fact that Jesus didn't grow up looking like Hollywood's leading man. He came seeking character, godliness and obedience, and mainly to die for us, not that we would follow his good looks. If anything, He identified with the least among us. 

To liberals and conservatives alike: God has both compassionate

 and authoritative attributes. He is both loving and powerful. 

He is both tolerant - thankfully - and ultimately intolerant. 

(See Friday's blog.) 

      Jimmy

   

Did Washington Lie?     

   This is an image of younger George Washington, tall and athletic, a skilled soldier, avid horseman and graceful dancer.
Can you believe it? 

   We were taught that GW never told a lie. But now we have letters "in his own words" that he sympathized with the British monarchy and thought the American cause was doomed. 

   Can you believe that? No, you can't. 

   Those letters "to his friends" were carefully forged and first appeared in London in 1777. They also circulated in pamphlets during Washington's presidency. 

   A publisher claimed they had been found when Washington's servant, Billy Lee, was captured. 

   Fake news.

   GW apparently ignored the letters, until they appeared again near the end of his presidency. On his last day in office, March 3, 1797, the president wrote to his secretary of state for posterity.

   The origin of the letters was wrong. Neither Billy Lee nor any Washington documents had ever been captured. 

   Washington wanted to rebut the letters, if only to assert a simple truth:

"I have thought it a duty that I owed to myself, to my country 

and to truth ... that the letters herein described are a base forgery, 

and that I never saw or heard of them until they appeared in print." 

   From the U. of Virginia Washington Papers project: Fake letters were not unusual for their time. Many politicians and writers schemed against each other. Rumors and innuendo ran rampant.

   Unity and idealism gradually dissipated by the late 1790s; extreme partisanship had begun. GW was fed up and wanted to retire to Mount Vernon. 

   Politifact says fake news ... skullduggery itself is a huge part of American history.

   Who can we believe?

        Jimmy