AL Supreme Court Claims They're Just Doing What God Wants & Historians Rank Donald Trump as Worst U.S. President--Again
Idaho's OBGYNs Leaving State, Louisiana's Sham Tough-on-Crime Laws, Beyoncé Tops Country Music Charts, Thelonious Monk Plays "Don't Blame Me"
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: A quote about family gets me ruminating on how the pull of family can be both a blessing and a curse. It can help us orbit blissfully—or limp along miserably.
Alabama’s supreme court ruled embryos are ‘extrauterine children’. IVF patients are worried: Their decision to define frozen embryos as children is intellectually and legally baffling. The result is to halt IVF treatments for parents trying to have children.
Alabama justice who ruled embryos are people says American law should be rooted in the Bible: When a state supreme court justice feels comfortable publicly admitting to abandoning separation of Church and State, we should all be worried. He thinks the signs are there that the country is ready to accept this idea as policy. Is he right?
Report shows dramatic exodus of Idaho OBGYNs since the repeal of Roe v. Wade: The real-life consequences of the right’s war on women is to leave them without healthcare and more vulnerable to maternal illness and death.
Historians Rank Donald Trump as Worst U.S. President Again, with Biden in 14th Place: Is anyone surprised? What is revealed, though, is the country is divided between those who ignore reason to advance an agenda that can’t be supported by logic or facts and those who use critical thinking to reach opinions.
‘Unconscionable’ criminal justice bills could fuel soaring incarceration in Louisiana: The governor wants to promote his “tough on crime” policies even though there is no evidence they will reduce crime and plenty that they will cost the state money and justice.
UPDATE: Beyoncé becomes the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Country Songs chart with Texas Hold ‘Em: Of course, she did—despite some country stations initially refusing to play her songs.
Kareem’s Video Break: This amazing point in pickleball is why we love sports so much. It pushes people to do more than they think is possible to do.
Thelonious Monk Plays “Don’t Blame Me”: A brilliant man and his piano create a jazz classic.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
Family is gravity.
Benjamin Stevenson, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
When I came across this line from the narrator in Stevenson’s wonderfully clever mystery novel, I had to stop reading. The simple profundity of the three words startled me. The phrase “family is gravity” resonates with several meanings and repercussions.
First, “gravity” has two meanings. It can be the powerful pull of the Earth’s mass that keeps us all adhering to the ground. So, too, can family exert a powerful pull that holds family members all tightly bound together through endless cycles of holiday dinners and FaceTime phone calls. Through all the trials and tribulations of life, family can keep us grounded.
Second, “gravity” also means somber or alarming, such as, “We have to face the gravity of the situation.” In that way, family is gravity, not because it pulls us toward it, but because it makes us vulnerable. That vulnerability can be because we love family so much that anything bad that happens to them—sickness, disaster, death—affects us so deeply it staggers our own lives.
Members of relatively happy and supportive families may face the usual petty conflicts that come with such closeness, but overall they are enriched and uplifted by their families. Gravity keeps them together—and they thrive because of it.
However, the relentless pull of gravity can also cause us to crash. The fact that family is gravity doesn’t mean we are incapable of leaving the pull of that gravity when it is harmful. Literature is filled with authors struggling to resolve their family issues through art: Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy,” Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse,” and Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz.” Click on the links and you’ll see what I mean.
Over the years, I’ve heard countless stories of the evil committed by families to their own members, yet who still expect to be pardoned for their inexcusable behavior by playing the “But we’re family” card: “Family is everything!” “Blood is thicker than water.” Those meaningless phrases are part of the gravity meant to pull people in through the force of guilt rather than love. Gravity can ground, but it can also imprison. Parents who disown their children due to religious differences or because the child is gay are despicable. They can only love children who agree to be mini-me’s of the parents, cloned extensions without their own thoughts, beliefs, or dreams.
Families have to earn the love of their members, not just expect that is the default setting of every offspring. When that love isn’t earned, isn’t maintained, isn’t freely given, the person has to escape the pull of that dying planet and find a healthier environment. Sometimes one needs to orbit the planet a while before returning home with a new appreciation for that gravity.
Family is gravity. Though my children are scattered, I feel the tender tentacles of their love that attach me to them. I am Houston ground control, ready to respond when I hear the call: “Dad, we have a problem.”
This Week in Blatant Christian Nationalism and Openly Anti-Women Politics—All in One Alabama Court Decision
Before any of us get complacent by thinking, “Oh, well, that’s Alabama. Predictable craziness,” there are similar laws ready to be passed in other states that want to advance Christianity as the unofficial religion of their state and the country. Sure, it’s against the letter and spirit of the Constitution, but those pushing for it aren’t fans of the Constitution (they aren’t even fans of Christianity based on their own record of not following Jesus’ teachings). They are merely fans of groupthink—being part of a group that wants to feel morally superior—which they just happen to call Christianity for virtue-signaling branding.
They also want to belong to the most popular group so they don’t ever have to feel marginalized, yet still have the political clout to marginalize others. Like high school. As Bette Davis says in All About Eve, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” And by bumpy night I mean a bumpy election cycle as Republicans attempt to circumvent the Constitution and the intent of the Founding Fathers to foist their moral dogma on the rest of the country.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. This single court decision is the throwing down of the gauntlet challenging America to choose sides: Either American ideals as defined by the Constitution or membership in a Costco version of Christianity, packaged in bargain bulk and cheap homilies.
I choose to support the quality of life for all Americans without preference given to any religious dogma. That means replacing anyone in authority who chooses their religion over the ideals of their country. They should be free to practice their religion, just not impose it on others.
Alabama’s supreme court ruled embryos are ‘extrauterine children’. IVF patients are worried (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: In a first-of-its-kind decision, the Alabama state supreme court ruled on Friday that embryos are “extrauterine children” – a term that could have widespread implications for anybody who is seeking or provides in vitro fertilization (IVF). The ruling has plunged IVF doctors and patients in Alabama into chaos and uncertainty, as they scramble to untangle the practical implications of the sweeping ruling.
Patients keep reaching out to the Alabama clinic where Dr Mamie McLean works with a version of the same question: can we still become parents safely?
“They’re worried about what to do with their frozen embryos. They want to be the ones who make the decisions on how best to utilize their embryos – not the supreme court,” said McLean, who provides IVF as part of her work as an OB-GYN at Alabama Fertility, which has three locations in the state. McLean said she has spoken to more than a dozen of her patients over the last 48 hours, but: “Frankly, because of the lack of guidance, we don’t we don’t know exactly how this translates to our care.”
MY TAKE: This decision isn’t about the sanctity of life. That’s the excuse used to fool those more interested in their own easy sentimentality than in logic. Science defines when an individual life process begins, but society decides when to call that life process a “human being” and grant it equal rights to all other human beings. That line in the sand is rarely based on reason or actual morality but on peer pressure, tradition, and political manipulation. Even religions have moved that line around over the centuries.
The real agenda here is the subjugation of women to reduce their individual choices and therefore their political power to force them into more traditional roles, especially as submissive wives and mothers. The family values rhetoric that has been spouted by right-wing conservatives may claim they respect women as equal, but they really mean equal as long as they know their assigned roles.
Alabama justice who ruled embryos are people says American law should be rooted in the Bible (NBC News)
SUMMARY: On the same day that Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker handed down an opinion declaring that fertilized frozen embryos are people, imperiling women’s access to in vitro fertilization treatments, he espoused support for a once-fringe philosophy that calls on evangelical Christians to reshape society based on their interpretation of the Bible.
During an online broadcast hosted by Tennessee evangelist Johnny Enlow on Friday, Parker suggested America was founded explicitly as a Christian nation and discussed his embrace of the Seven Mountains Mandate — the belief that conservative Christians are meant to rule over seven key areas of American life, including media, business, education and government.
“God created government, and the fact that we have let it go into the possession of others, it’s heartbreaking,” Parker said in the interview, first reported this week by Media Matters for America, a liberal nonprofit media watchdog. “That’s why he is calling and equipping people to step back into these mountains right now.”
Hours before the interview was published, Parker issued a concurring opinion in a case in which he and his fellow justices ruled that frozen embryos have the same rights as living children under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.
Parker wrote that Alabama had adopted a “theologically based view of the sanctity of life” and that “life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.” To support his legal opinion, Parker repeatedly cited the book of Genesis, including a passage asserting that all people are created in God’s image.
“Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God,” Parker wrote, “and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”
MY TAKE: Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker could not have been any clearer: “God created government, and the fact that we have let it go into the possession of others, it’s heartbreaking.” Everything about Parker’s explanation of his decision should send alarm bells clanging in our heads.
First, there’s his refusal to acknowledge the separation of Church and State when he says that Alabama bases its law on theology and that “life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.” “Wrongfully” is tricky, isn’t it? Because it allows the holier-than-thou brigade to interpret “rightfully” however they want. For example, from 1983 to 2024, Alabama has executed 72 people. They have the fourth-highest number of death-row inmates in the country. Despite the overwhelming evidence of people being wrongfully convicted and even executed, Parker clearly endorses capital punishment—even though that would, according to his beliefs, bring the wrath of God.
I’m especially disturbed that he cites Genesis as support for his decision. I’m more interested in legal arguments and precedents than his religious text. A biblical quote may help express someone’s thoughts, but it’s not the basis for a legal decision. The fact that he thinks it’s okay tells us that he arrogantly believes he is above the law, and certainly above rational thought tells us he believes the rest of the country will support him. If he’s okay using Genesis as the basis of his legal decision, he’s okay using whatever other passages he wants to support whatever laws he wants. This includes Genesis 2:18-23, which describes women being created from man and has for many generations been interpreted (mostly by men) to mean that her role is subordinate to man. (Just a reminder: Bible passages were also used to endorse slavery.)
RELATED: Report shows dramatic exodus of Idaho OBGYNs since repeal of Roe v. Wade (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
SUMMARY: A new report shows Idaho has lost 22% of its OBGYNs since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 – that’s more than 1 in 5.
“The net supply of obstetricians practicing obstetrics in Idaho went down between 40 and 60 doctors in the 15-month period between August 2022 and November 2023,” the report said, “from 268 to about 210 providers for ~962,000 Idaho women.”
In that time period, two OBGYNs moved to Idaho. The report also shows that half of Idaho’s 44 counties do not have practicing obstetricians.
MY TAKE: Idaho has near-universal abortion restrictions. Before the ban, Idaho had about 2,000 abortions a year. Gov. Brad Little supported this ban by saying, “We absolutely must come together like never before to support women and teens facing unexpected or unwanted pregnancies. Families, churches, charities, and local and state government must stand ready to lift them and help them and their families with access to adoption services, health care, financial and food assistance, counseling and treatment, and family planning.”
Those words sound nice, but instead, Idaho legislators got rid of a state committee that investigated the root causes of maternal deaths, making it the only state in the nation with no such mortality review. They then killed two bills that would have extended postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to twelve months. They also turned down $36 million in federal grants to support child care.
I include this to show the practical ramifications of the current war on women. These oppressive reproductive laws have put women’s health and lives in jeopardy in several states by decreasing available health care services which increases their chance of having complications, even death (“Alarming rise in U.S. maternal mortality signals need for change”). When the sanctity of life doesn’t extend to women, then the sanctity of life isn’t the real issue but only the pretend issue. Grabbing votes from those who can’t understand the contradictory reasoning is the real issue.
RELATED: “Alabama Lawmakers Move to Protect I.V.F. Treatments” (The New York Times)
SUMMARY: Alabama lawmakers are considering legislation that would protect in vitro fertilization, after a State Supreme Court ruling last week led some clinics to halt I.V.F. treatments and left many women in limbo.
RELATED: Trump, Republican candidates express support for IVF in face of political backlash (The Washington Post)
SUMMARY: Former president Donald Trump and Republican candidates in key Senate races voiced support for in vitro fertilization treatment Friday, distancing themselves from a recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that has again highlighted the electoral challenge Republicans face over their stances on abortion and other reproductive rights.
MY TAKE: These last two articles are not about Republicans suddenly being reasonable about women’s rights or the imposition of their religion on everyone, it’s about the elections. They know that the Alabama ruling that has caused IVF treatments to halt has terrible optics and may nudge some voters away from Republican candidates.
But notice that they are not rejecting the Christian nationalism upon which the decision was made. Women in general are still to be oppressed by biblical tradition. They just are afraid of offending the majority on this ramification that they created.
Kareem’s Video Break
Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America because it’s easy to pick up but still has many challenging levels. This amazing display of athleticism in which, through sheer willpower, they both make impossible shots, is why I love all kinds of sports.
Do that voodoo that you do so well. Share.
Historians Rank Donald Trump Worst U.S. President Again, with Biden in 14th Place (People)
SUMMARY: Historians have again named Donald Trump as the worst president in U.S. history, placing him 45th out of all the former American presidents in a new poll.
The poll surveys 154 presidential historians who are current and recent members of the American Political Science Association. Each respondent was asked to grade current and former presidents on 10 characteristics, including administrative skills, moral authority and economic management.
Abraham Lincoln came out on top among scholars as the nation’s greatest president, with University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus saying in a release, “As presidential scholars reassess the impact of the modern presidency from administrative and cultural standpoints, we see significant shifts over time in what constitutes presidential greatness."
Current President Joe Biden ranked 14th in his first appearance on the list, with a rating of 62.7/100 — higher than Barack Obama’s first rating in 2015 (58.2) and dramatically higher than Trump’s first rating in 2018 (13.0).
MY TAKE: We all know that the opinions of experts are usually dismissed by Trump supporters. If they even saw this news item, which is doubtful, they would immediately reject it as if it were a red-hot coal burning in their hands. To them, experts are wrong about everything—except building bridges, making cars, creating heart medications, landing a spacecraft on the moon, etc. Somehow, they can delude themselves that by ignoring the expert assessment that Trump is the worst president ever, they avoid taking responsibility for the damage they have done to the country—and are willing to do it again. Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana had it right: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
I take some small solace in knowing that Trump’s legacy will be as the worst president in history and that those who are supporting him now will have to explain their support someday to their incredulous and disapproving children and grandchildren. Trump’s legacy will become theirs.
‘Unconscionable’ criminal justice bills could fuel soaring incarceration in Louisiana (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: Louisiana’s Republican-dominated state legislature is poised to enact a swathe of new criminal justice measures as a special legislative session convenes on Monday, leaving reform advocates concerned about soaring rates of incarceration that may follow.
The session, called by the state’s new far-right governor, Jeff Landry, will consider two dozen items including broad restrictions on parole eligibility, measures to resume executions, the lowering of the age limit for adult prosecutions, and changes to post-conviction procedures often used to remedy wrongful convictions or excessive sentences.
The results are likely to undo hard-won bipartisan reform efforts in 2017, which helped shrink the state’s prison population by about a quarter and led to Louisiana losing the title of America’s most incarcerated state, with the rate of imprisonment slipping below Mississippi’s in recent years.
…In announcing the session on 8 February, Landry argued a raft of new laws would “repeal soft-on-crime policies that enable criminals and hurt our communities” and pledged to “make our state safe again”.
While rates of violent crime in Louisiana have long been among the highest in the nation, the state has seen a significant decline since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. And as details of the proposed new laws came into focus, advocates expressed alarm at a number of severe measures they argued would do little to improve public safety, continue to disproportionately affect Black communities and cost the state billions to enforce.
MY TAKE: Looks like someone is trying to position themselves to run for president in the future. Why else pull out the old tough-on-crime chestnut that has never proven to be effective in actually reducing crime? This is especially questionable since the article points out that his state has seen a considerable decline in violent crime without instituting these harsh, expensive, and traditionally ineffective means.
Let’s take a closer look at his proposals. [My comments are bolded and in brackets.]
[Landry] will consider two dozen items including broad restrictions on parole eligibility, measures to resume executions [This sounds tough, but studies have proven that the death penalty is more expensive than life without parole, that it puts the lives of innocents at risk, and that it doesn’t deter others from murdering. So, it’s political posturing for the governor while making things worse for the people.], the lowering of the age limit for adult prosecutions [Why? Either we define someone as not being an adult by their age or we don’t. The crime doesn’t change that distinction. One of the reasons we don’t try children as adults is the knowledge that their brains aren’t developed enough to fully understand the consequences of their actions. Just because their crime is heinous and we want revenge, doesn’t change their age. Also, putting juveniles in an adult prison system leaves them vulnerable to the worst kinds of abuse.], and changes to post-conviction procedures often used to remedy wrongful convictions or excessive sentences [If we truly want to call it a Justice System, we have to emphasize justice. Otherwise, it’s the Cover-Our-Asses System, in which we’re willing to punish the innocent in order not to admit mistakes].
Samantha Kennedy, executive director of the Promise of Justice Initiative, a New Orleans-based advocacy and legal group, warns, “This slate of items Landry has proposed are dangerous, expensive and disingenuous. I think what it does is cover up misconduct and excessive sentencing mostly coming from the 1990s. These cases are fraught with all kinds of problems, and that is why we have a parole system and all these other checks and balances that this special session is proposing to destroy. It is unconscionable.”
Studies indicate that “vulnerable communities of color have the most to lose when politicians decide to take a ‘tough on crime’ policy stance. Data shows that ‘tough on crime’ policies and increased police funding do little to curb crime while greatly harming communities of color.”
Landry’s announcement of his policies is meant to increase his political power while not actually making the streets safer, but instead harming communities of color, costing the state more money, exploiting juveniles, and decreasing actual justice. Louisiana, you’ve done it again. That’s why you are #50 in state rankings in Crime & Corrections.
UPDATE: Beyoncé becomes first Black woman to top Billboard’s Country songs chart with Texas Hold ‘Em (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: Beyoncé has become the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, after her track Texas Hold ‘Em debuted at No 1.
In a genre whose relationship to Black artists has often proved controversial, the track marked one of several historical achievements when weekly chart rankings refreshed on Tuesday.
…Beyoncé is also the first woman to top both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hip Songs charts since the lists began in 1958. Justin Bieber, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ray Charles and Morgan Wallen are the only other artists who have led both charts.
MY TAKE: Last week I featured an article about some country music stations refusing to play Beyoncé’s new country songs. Country fans, however, have rejected those purists attempting to be gatekeepers to what people can listen to. This may be a fatal blow to future attempts to define the genre based on traditional biases.
Kareem’s Jukebox Playlist
Thelonious Monk: “Don’t Blame Me”
Thelonious Monk (1917-1982) was a staple in my house when I was growing up. My dad was a cop, but he was also a jazz musician who played with some of the greats. Our house was always filled with music. Monk is second only to Duke Ellington in the number of recorded compositions. Monk also liked to stand up during a performance, dance around a little, then sit back down and continue playing. He was one of only five jazz musicians to make the cover of Time magazine.
Sometimes I’m in the mood for simple, straightforward jazz piano. The playing is mellow but also urgent as if he wanted to say something intimate before he changed his mind. Monk’s fingers weren’t the spindly digits we see on some pianists. His were the hands of a baker kneading dough in such a way that we can smell the hearty bread before it’s even baked. We can feast on his music until we lie back sated.
Oh, wow. I used to go to the Five Spot as a kid to listen to him. This was back in the day when the drinking age in NY was 18 and kids got their fake IDs and went to Jazz Clubs. Thank you, this is fine listening and brings back memories for this 77 year old lady.
“When the sanctity of life doesn’t extend to women, then the sanctity of life isn’t the real issue but only the pretend issue.”
Exactly. When the anti-abortion folks say they’re “pro-life” what they really mean is “Let the women die.” They can deny it (and I expect they will), but their unwillingness to fix the problem they created proves my point.
Vote. Them. Out. Our lives (and our democracy) depend on electing people who will uphold the U.S. Constitution and make laws that protect all of us and preserve our individual rights.