French officials are perhaps
rightly outraged by being shut out of the submarine deal inked by the US,
UK, and Australia.
USA Today, Police
officer catches baby dropped from second-story balcony in Jersey City [An alert police officer was able to catch a month-old baby
whom a man dangled, then dropped over a balcony—it’s a feel-good news story for
a change.]
Charlotte
Observer, NC teen dies after gun that he and friends passed around
accidentally fires, police say Whenever I see a report like this, I again heave a sigh of
relief that my then-11-year-old son was only shot in the foot when his friend
dropped a gun found in a parents’ bedside drawer.
Fox News, Texas teen who said he killed family and posted images online
kills self; police make grim discovery A
15-year-old with access to a gun killed his parents, his sister, and himself.
Daily Beast,
Chicago Mom Allegedly Shot 12-Year-Old Son Dead in Rage Over Missing Memory
Card
It seems pretty obvious that if guns were not so readily
available in this country, there would be many fewer murders, suicides, and
accidental deaths, including fewer “road rage” incidents and, inside the home, reputed
to be a safe place, there would also be not as many family homicides, suicides,
and gun accidents, including by kids who find a parent’s gun. People would
still get angry or despondent and would still have accidents, but fewer outcomes
would be fatal or result in serious injury. The US has far and away the highest
rate of gun deaths among developed countries, 8 times higher than neighboring Canada
and 100 times higher than the UK. Is there any upside on that statistic? Probably
not even in one out of a hundred instances of a handgun firing actually proves
protective of the owner.
Son
shoots 63-year-old dad after mistaking him for a burglar https://www.kentucky.com/news/nation-world/national/article254363713.html
Gun deaths do reach the US rate in other countries where guns
proliferate, including in our neighbor Mexico, but with more homicides than suicides there,
while the reverse is true in the US. (Is Mexico actually counting all its gun
deaths?) In the US, firearm deaths exceed those even from motor vehicle
accidents. In Honduras, where I’ve lived and have often traveled, the gun
homicide rate is even higher than in the US, despite, or perhaps because of, so
many people being armed, including guards in pharmacies, grocery stores, hospitals,
and banks. The “right to bear arms” seems to be a right to die or be killed by
a firearm. How did we ever get to this point in our country and what can we do
about it now?
New forensic techniques are allowing authorities to identify and
arrest men for long ago murders in so-called “cold cases,” often of young girls
found to have been raped and killed under mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile,
these guys have often gone on to get married, raise children, and live conventional
lives, keeping their dark secrets to themselves.
Even
3 years ago, could we have ever foreseen or imagined Covid sweeping through the
world? Right now, as I write this and you are reading it, someone in your town,
in your city, is dying of Covid. And there are excess deaths not related to
Covid because of overflowing emergency rooms and postponed treatment and
surgeries. Does vaccination prevent Covid all the time? No, few things in life
have 100% certainty. But if even 80% of people around the world could be
vaccinated, this illness would no longer pose such a threat.
Zoo animals, particularly primates, have come
down with Covid, presumably caught from humans. In Washington, DC’s National
Zoo, even lions and tigers have contracted the virus.
Have
the following articles convinced folks to get vaccinated, or are they just dismissed
as “fake news”?
The
Guardian, Colorado radio host who urged boycott of vaccines dies of
Covid-19 [Bob Enyart]
Daily Beast, Anti-Mask
Florida Official Dies of COVID—and Takes GOP Software Secrets With Him
Insider, An
Alabama couple who trashed vaccines on their YouTube channel died from COVID-19
within 3 weeks of each otherInsider, Anti-vaxx mother and
daughter contracted COVID-19 and died 2 weeks apart on the same hospital ward
People, Widow
of N.J. Officer Who Died of COVID Says Son Wants to Mark 12th Birthday by
Getting Vaccine
USA Today, 'Tell all of our family to get vaccinated': COVID kills 6
members of Florida family in 3 weeks
The virus can be so swift. Days after
a Nigerian friend first sent me in an email saying that a mutual friend had
Covid, another message arrived saying that the man had died. Likewise, just days
after actually being with my son’s friend Bryan in West Va., after I had
held onto his arm when walking over bumpy terrain, we learned that he had been hospitalized
with Covid, then that he had died. Perhaps vaccinations had protected my son
and me, as we did not catch the disease from him. And birthdays of friends who
have died still appear on Facebook.
Afghan arrivals into nearby Dulles Airport have
now been paused not because of Covid, but because of a measles outbreak
among evacuees. Back in the day, when I was a child, we didn’t
have vaccines for German measles, measles, mumps, and chicken pox, all of which
I unfortunately contracted. We had to put warning signs up in our window and
stay quarantined. My sister also came down with whooping cough, although my
brother and I did not. She was just a baby then and our mother held her upside
down by her feet while she coughed into a basin. In the Peace Corps, I got all
those shots, even though I'd had the actual illnesses.
In Afghanistan, are the Taliban blocking planes from leaving,
simply holding would-be passengers hostage until western countries offer more
assistance? Or is it problem between Taliban hardliners and moderates?
Business Insider, Taliban
says boys can re-enter secondary school but does not mention girls
AP, Taliban-run Kabul
municipality to female workers: Stay home On
Friday, the Taliban shut down the Women's Affairs Ministry, replacing it with a
ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice" and
tasked with enforcing Islamic law.
AP, One stunning afternoon:
Setbacks imperil Biden's reset
As
the pandemic continues and other economic problems assault people in their
countries of origin, unprecedented numbers are crowding at US borders (also at European
borders).
Reuters, U.S.
judge blocks expulsions of migrant families under Trump-era order [Expulsions are blocked only for families, specifically
asylum seekers, not for single adult migrants.]Some migrant parents seem to simply be entrusting
their children to the mercy or benevolence of US authorities. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the 2-year-old girl
and 3-month-old boy, both Honduran nationals, are siblings and were found
abandoned along the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass.
NY Times, Thousands
of Migrants Huddle in Squalid Conditions Under Texas Bridge The temporary camp in Del Rio has grown with staggering
speed in recent days during a massive surge in migration that has overwhelmed
the authorities. [Nine thousand there so far, mostly Haitians.
It takes time and effort to even process and deport most of them. The internet,
specifically the apparently free What’s Up app has made this gathering possible. After all their struggles traveling through Panama’s
Darien Gap, Central America, and Mexico to finally reach Del Rio, Haitian migrants
are now being flown back to their country. Otherwise, even more would come.]
It’s likely that the
influx is due to the Biden Administration's decision to extend for 18 months
the TPS status of Haitian migrants already in the US, a message garbled and
widely disseminated thanks to WhatsApp and the internet.
Reuters, As
news of U.S. flights back to Haiti spreads, migrants fret about where to go
'If
we go back we die': 15,000 Haitian immigrants under Texas bridge beg Biden not
to send them back as DHS starts removal flights, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10004201/US-nears-plan-widescale-expulsions-Haitian-migrants.html
Border
agents on horseback round up Haitian migrants after closing Rio Grande crossing
where 15,000 have congregated under Texas bridge: More than 300 arrive back in
Haiti - as up to EIGHT flights a day are scheduled to deal with crisis
Thousands of
Haitian migrants TURN BACK to Mexico to avoid deportation as removal flights
increase
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10009023/DHS-Secretary-Alejandro-Mayorkas-visit-Rio-Grande-crossing-15-000-Haitians-congregated.html
After their long, arduous trek, Haitians don’t want to end up back home. [photo]
BBC News, Haiti PM sacks justice minister amid murder inquiry
Some 11.5 million Haitians on the island are
living in overcrowded circumstances on insufficient land and in abject poverty,
often small subsistence farmers, many of whom had their crops ruined in the recent
earthquake (the country lies along a fault line). Added to that are a high
crime rate and a populace immersed now in a political crisis after a
presidential assassination. Yes, life in Haiti is pretty hard and has been ever
since I was there in the 1990s, back when everyone optimistically thought that
simply getting rid of Duvalier would lead to better fortunes. Les Cayes, the
epicenter of the latest earthquake, is where I served as an election observer
in 1990. No one could have anticipated then that UN peacekeepers from
Nepal, assigned to help Haiti recover from a very destructive 2010 earthquake,
would bring cholera to Haiti for the first time. That devastating mistake has
not been repeated with this recent earthquake. Now, as Amnesty International
USA’s volunteer Caribbean Coordinator, I don’t know where to start when it
comes to dealing with Haiti. It’s very hard to pick even one issue for us to
work on that would make a difference.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/prosecutor-asks-judge-to-charge-prime-minister-ariel-henry-in-assassination-of-president-jovenel-moise
BBC News, Haiti PM sacks justice
minister amid murder inquiry
Washington Examiner, Coast
Guard stops 104 Haitian migrants in boat off Miami coast
Bloomberg, A
Million Haitians Face ‘Acute’ Hunger After Quake Damaged Farms
Miami
Herald, Time Magazine delivers to Cuba’s brave freedom fighters what BLM
doesn’t: Respect | Opinion [Re Luis Manuel Otero]
Miami
Herald, Mexico’s leader will give Cuba’s Díaz-Canel a propaganda boost
with red carpet welcome| Opinion [Andres Oppenheimer] Mexican President Andres Manuel López
Obrador’s invitation to Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel to attend Thursday’s
ceremonies for the 200 anniversary of Mexico’s independence — and to make a
speech at the event — is a slap in the face of democracy, human rights and
Mexico’s dignity.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/03/why-the-internet-in-cuba-has-become-a-us-political-hot-potato
Miami Herald, American cardinal pleaded for release of July 11 protesters
in meeting with Cuban leader The archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, asked
Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel in a recent meeting to pardon peaceful
protesters detained after the July 11 anti-government demonstrations and allow
Catholic groups to send humanitarian aid to the embattled island...Cubalex, an
organization that provides legal aid to Cuban government critics, has verified
at least 922 detentions linked to the July protests. Another 98 cases are under
review.
Miami Herald, Cuba starts vaccinating 2-year-olds, as COVID cases spike
among children on the island
Reuters, Nicaraguan political activist shot in Costa Rica, in
critical condition A Nicaraguan political activist who opposes the government of
President Daniel Ortega is in critical condition in a Costa Rica hospital after
being shot, police and activists said on Sunday. Joao Maldonado, a well-known
leader of demonstrations in 2018 in southwestern Nicaragua's Jinotepe
municipality, was shot twice in the chest and once in the arm... More than 80,000 Nicaraguans have requested refuge in
neighboring Costa Rica.
HuffPost, Women
Can Avoid Pregnancy With Sexual Abstinence, Texas Law Creator Preaches In Brief
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has raised abortion as a political issue. What about
allowing only Texas women to vote on the matter?
Supporters of “abortion rights” usually don’t support abortion for sex selection. And abortion
supporters often characterize abortion as a “Constitutional right,” perhaps
basing it on the right to privacy, but the question of when a fetus can feel
pain is not addressed. The expectant mother’s rights supersede those of the unborn.
Yet arrests are made for animal cruelty, such as recently with the arrest of a Mass.
man who stomped on
his cat’s head. A wild rabbit shot in the face with a dart caught the attention
of a Florida sheriff and the dart was extracted.
Now a case on abortion and “abortion
rights” related to a new Texas law has made it onto the Supreme Court docket. And,
as it turns out, the pregnant woman in the landmark Roe case, Norma
McCorvey, whose pseudonym was Jane Roe, never actually had an abortion herself
and went on to give birth to her child, a girl who was given up for adoption
and is still alive today. Norma publicly spoke out as an abortion opponent until
near end of her life. But on her death bed, she said that pregnant women should
do whatever they wanted. The daughter she relinquished for adoption, Shelley
Lynn Thornton, was born in 1970 and the story of their separate lives are featured
in an article in the current issue of The Atlantic. Both the birth
mother and the daughter she relinquished gave birth to children while unmarried
(though Thornton later married and had children within her marriage) and both have
said that they personally would not choose abortion, so it’s ironic that their
story is linked so firmly to that issue. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/09/jane-roe-v-wade-baby-norma-mccorvey/620009/
Not so long ago, before effective contraception was
available and before women, especially married or partnered women, could not easily
say “no” to their men’s sexual advances, abortion really was contraception of
last resort. In those days, with neither effective contraception nor safe abortion
available, many women went on to have unwanted births. My paternal great-grandmother
in Alberta, Canada, had 12 children, the youngest of them being my grandmother,
without whom I would not exist today. But now, with largely effective
contraception available in this country, demand for abortion has been reduced. The US rate has
been falling since 1980, most precipitously since 2013 when contraception
started being covered by the Affordable Care Act.
Medical abortions were not even available in the US
until 1979, though surgical abortions were performed after Roe in 1973. Under
Roe, even a viable fetus may be aborted if the mother’s health, including
mental health, is deemed to require it. But the “right” to an abortion has not
been recognized by courts in all cases. Since 2003, intact dilation and extraction
has not been permitted. Only 1% of pregnancies in the US are alleged to result
from rape or incest, although as mentioned in the last posting, as a former
probation officer and Spanish interpreter, I have seen more than my share of
such cases.
According to the Pew Research Center, more than half of
U.S. adults take a non-absolutist position, saying that in most – but not all – cases, abortion should be legal (34%), or
illegal (26%). Fewer still take the position that in all cases abortion should be either legal (25%), or illegal (13%).
Currently, 59% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 39% say
it should be illegal in all or most cases. So, a substantial political divide
still remains. A recent, smaller survey has provided somewhat confusing results.
Yahoo News, Poll: Roe v. Wade ruling
remains broadly popular — but Americans' views on abortion are still very
complex
Certainly, no amount of support or services offered to pregnant
women can prevent most abortions, but right-to-lifers do need to step up their
game by backing services both before and after births. Some of the family assistance
provisions of the Biden’s administration’s legislative proposals would both
increase the US falling birth rate and decrease abortion demand, so red-state
voters and their representatives need to put their money where their mouth is to
fully advocate for them.
George Will’s recent opinion piece in the Washington
Post entitled
“The pursuit of happiness is happiness,” reminds me of the occupational therapy principle of
purposeful activity. For most people, being engaged in what they consider
purposeful activity—activity toward a desired end--is as satisfying as the moment
when they actually achieve the end itself.
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