A friend who, like me, has worked as a Spanish interpreter and translator—though for much longer—assures me that Spanish is the only major language that uses inverted punctuation marks at the beginning of a sentence to denote a question or an exclamation ¿ ¡. For example, ¿Te gusta el color? [Do you like the color?] Or, ¡Felicitactiones! [Congratulations!] Inverted punctuation is considered critical in Spanish since both statements and questions or exclamations could have the same wording. Related languages spoken in Spain, such as Galician and Catalán, also use these marks.
In Spanish, responsibility for events may be assigned away from the speaker, “Se me cayó el libro,” rather than “I dropped the book,” so here the book becomes responsible, “The book dropped itself from me.” Likewise, “Se me rompió el vaso,” “The glass broke on me.” “Se me olvidó” means “It was forgotten by me,” not “I forgot.”
Standard time is pending for mainland US on Sunday Nov. 7, requiring us to turn our clocks back an hour. For those of us living near the east coast, that means getting up even earlier by the clock during darkness, while gaining an hour of daylight in the afternoon. Whenever this change is made, I always wish we could just leave it as-is.
When I was in W
Va. just recently, as mentioned on this blog last time, I no longer saw any more
Trump yard signs, but several houses displayed a US flag with a Confederate
flag flying right below, so the Confederacy still has supporters there, more
than a century after the Civil War ended. West Va. was once part of Va.,
so originally fell within the Confederacy. However, while the Civil War was raging,
the area now comprising W Va. broke away because its residents actually
rejected slavery. However, the Confederacy evidently still has its champions in
W Va.
Senators Joe Manchin of W Va. and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona have de facto veto power over Democratic initiatives. In fact, just either one alone has veto power. Wouldn’t it be nice if 2 more Party-oriented Democrats were elected to the Senate next year? But, that’s unlikely; in fact, Democrats will be lucky to hold their own, so best to try to get as much done as possible before 2022. All-out voting restrictions are going forward full-speed in Republican-led states while doubts are being sown about election integrity. If elections are rigged, why even vote? Yet when Mr. Trump or his supporters actually win an office, any doubts are conveniently cast aside. Probably the last presidential election, which had record turnout, was the most secure in history.
Nor was the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol “peaceful.”
Unless my eyes and ears deceived me as a witness on that day, it was anything
but. The “Big Lie” narrative promoted by Mr. Trump applies most of all to
him. He has encouraged violence among his supporters. The nation and the world
cannot allow Trump to win any political office again, not even as dogcatcher.
John Paul was the first pope to visit the US. My husband and I were among the crowd who greeted him on the White House lawn. I kissed his ring, not sure what else to do, except to thank him in English for coming to our country.
This from the White House Historical Association: Papal visits to the White House have
been rare—with Pope Francis' recent visit, just three popes in history have
visited 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This most recent visit provides an
opportunity to look back at the pontiffs who have visited the President’s
House.
On October 6, 1979, Pope John Paul II arrived
in an open-topped limousine, driving through the Northwest gate as he waved to
onlookers on Pennsylvania Avenue. President Jimmy Carter, First Lady Rosalynn
Carter and Vice President and Mrs. Mondale greeted the pope under the
red-carpeted North Portico. The pontiff kissed 11 year-old Amy Carter.
Carter held a private meeting with Pope John Paul in the Oval office for an hour and then emerged before 6,000 people gathered on the South Lawn. “Niech bedzie bog Pochwalony” (May God be praised,) said Carter in Polish. The pontiff responded, “It gives me great joy to be the first Pope in history to come to the capital of this nation, and I thank almighty God for this blessing.” The president and pope ascended the South stairs to the Blue Room and then on to the Second Floor. They came out to wave on the Truman Balcony and, after delivering a papal blessing, the pope returned to the South Lawn to mingle and to shake hands with the crowd for 20 minutes. The pope left the White House about 5:00 p.m.
Why should any
guns on a movie set contain live ammunition? Special effects can always be
added later. While attention has been focused right now on a tragic shooting on
a movie set, many other gun accidents and impulsive and vengeful firearms injuries
and deaths still occur daily in the US, thanks to the so-called individual “right
to bear arms,” a harmful policy never actually envisioned by the Founders, though
something unlikely to be curbed by the current US Supreme Court.
NBC News, Florida
man accused of killing neighbor after cat wandered on property
Amnesty International is closing down its office in Hong Kong because it can no
longer operate there.
AP, Tonga's
main island locks down after 1st virus case found
Barbados is becoming a republic and other former
Caribbean island colonies may follow suit. Barbados
Is Ready to Say Goodbye to the Queen https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/28/barbados-republic-queen-elizabeth-monarchy-caribbean/
Miami Herald, Human-rights
activists accuse new Haiti police chief of past repression and abuse
Reuters, Cuba
approves laws granting greater rights as criticism of protesters' arrests heats
up
Miami
Herald, Government’s crackdown intensifies in Cuba weeks ahead of a
planned opposition march
Miami
Herald, 18 Cuban migrants on a fishing
boat made it to the Florida Keys, U.S. Border Patrol says
Miami
Herald, Cuban migrant landings continue in the Keys. This time, five
people made it on a raft
Washington
Examiner, 'Tell Biden we are coming': New migrant caravan marches through
Mexico to US border [3000 strong, so get ready Mayorkas,
Harris, and Biden]
AFP, Nicaragua's Ortega thanks
Russia for support, lashes out at US
The
Guardian, Nicaraguan business leaders arrested in Ortega’s pre-election
crackdown
Politico, Tiny Nicaragua is becoming a big problem for Joe Biden
Reuters, Thousands of Nicaraguans go to Honduras border for vaccines
Meanwhile, Nov. elections are scheduled in Nicaragua,
where Daniel Ortega has eliminated any opposition.
Back in 1990, when I was an election observer witnessing his stinging defeat
and the evident relief of ordinary Nicaraguans, I warned Nicaraguan activists
then against letting Ortega get his foot in the door ever again. Years later,
when he first won election once more, he seemed to have convinced voters of his
total moderation since his Sandinista days, even allowing Peace Corps volunteers
into Nicaragua. But with each new presidential term, his hold has tightened and
he is no longer even hiding his autocratic ambitions. Will he now become
president for life?
MadameNoire, Malian Mom Who Gave Birth To Nonuplets, Shares First Photos Of The Baby Bunch The parents of these babies, said to have been conceived naturally, announced they are now ready to take them all home from Morocco to Mali to join their other daughter, age 2 ½.
If any of us had been in the position of the Malian woman
pregnant with 9 fetuses, we might have chosen to eliminate some, not
only to assure the survival of those remaining, but also to be able to cope
with those likely to be actually born. The Malian mother was fortunate that all
9 survived, though even with outside help, she and her husband will have their
hands full caring for them all.
A distant family member in her 70s clings to life,
sustained in a hospital by an abdominal feeding tube, able only to move her
eyes. She is breathing on her own but what can she see or hear? Does she
consider her life worth living now or would she rather dispense with the feeding
tube and depart this mortal coil? Through her eye movements, would it be
possible to discern her wishes? She can perhaps be kept “alive” for years with 24-hour
nursing care and a feeding tube, though once inserted, I’m not sure it can be
removed unless the person no longer needs it. I cannot speak for her, but when
my mother, already in her 90s, was in a similar state, though still able to sip
liquids, we decided against insertion of a feeling tube and so, after some days
with hospice care at home, she died. It would be a good idea, while we still
have most of our faculties, for each of us to make that decision for ourselves
beforehand.
At the other end of life, the abortion debate seems to be
surging in light of new restrictions in Texas and elsewhere and uncertainly
about how the Supreme Court will treat that issue. Because I side with
Democrats on most matters, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the “pro-choice”
position. This question has dogged me for years, as readers already know. Contraception
is not foolproof and I can readily identify with a mother who feels she simply cannot
cope with having another child. Avoiding sex is not always a realistic option
for a woman in a partnership and during my lifetime, women have moved increasingly
away from caring exclusively for the home and ventured out into the workplace.
Opposition to the Texas antiabortion law has attracted
some strange bedfellows. Reportedly, some gun rights advocates have challenged the
law on grounds of self-protection. In a radio interview, a Texas abortion provider
complained that her income had plummeted.
A friend about my own age who is no longer with us, some years
before Roe, as an unmarried woman, gave birth to a daughter. In those days,
typically, young single women gave up their children for adoption, as my friend
did, something more rarely happening now. Years later, she was able to find the
daughter, who had given birth to a son, both of whom were major beneficiaries
of her will.
My late paternal great-grandmother, living out on a wheat farm in Alberta, Canada, mother of 12 children, carried out domestic chores at home with her daughters, while her husband and their sons worked outside, tending to the harvest and animals. If my great-grandmother had not given birth (at home) to her 12th child, my own grandmother, then I myself would not be here today. But times and gender roles have changed since then and modern birth control has allowed many women to combine work outside the home with being a mother, but of far fewer children.
Having given birth myself, I know that pregnancy and
childbirth are not a walk in the park and often carry risks, nor is raising a
child to adulthood an easy task. But I am also the adoptive mother of children unlikely
to have been born under more permissive abortion laws. How to reconcile the two?
I still don’t have an answer. I don’t consider fertilized human ova now being
kept on ice for possible future implantation to be persons, though they have
that potential. And I accept that many women inadvertently pregnant, feeling overwhelmed
by the prospect, will undergo self-administered abortions through pills taken
at an early stage. Trying to police such private actions is a lost cause. Many wanted
future babies are also lost at that stage.
However, once there is fetal movement, it’s hard not to
regard the fetus as a living human being with an independent existence, even
inside the maternal body. While a small majority of Americans’ support early abortions,
the same does not hold true later on, nor is legal precedence as clear then. Along
with many anti-abortion (“anti-pro-choice”?) advocates, I would welcome having
the Supreme Court provide more protection for a fetus after the first 3 months.
Amy Coney Barrett, who has given birth to 5 children (and adopted 2
more), surely must have some personal feelings about this. The 2 other female
justices have no children.
Laws and mores are in continuous evolution, sometimes
gradual, sometimes faster. What people believe and do now regarding reproduction
or anything else can and will change. It’s possible to imagine a time (after
you and I are long gone) when designer babies will gestate in artificial wombs
and the whole question of abortion will have evolved. It’s a truism that times do
change. (Robert E. Lee’s Virginia home is up for sale without any mention of his
previous ownership.)
Except for foreseeing
our own death and that of every other living creature, no one can predict the
future with 100% accuracy, rather, only estimate the odds. Sometimes the chances
of a wrong call are infinitesimally small, such as when we confidently expect the
sun to rise again tomorrow, though many, many eons from now, the sun is likely
to burn out. Is inflation here in the US actually only “transitory”? (We’ll have
to see.) Who could have foreseen (and prevented) the worldwide spread of Covid?
Who could or should have known that a prop gun on a movie set contained live
ammunition? And who ever anticipated Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory?
Even he seemed surprised. “Reg flags” are often identified only after-the-fact.
What other unexpected calamities are in store for humankind, or are pending right
now for each and every one of us, and what lucky breaks and good fortune may still
await us? We just have to endeavor to increase the odds of desired outcomes, then
see what actually happens.
As for
myself in my own life, there is nothing like death, especially a young family
member’s death, to focus the mind. My son Andrew was 27 and my Cuban foster son
Alex, 31, when they left us, still much too young. Those deaths were shocking
because of being unexpected in our country today, but our own personal death is
a foregone conclusion. If someone has lived for four score and seven years, namely
to age 87, is that long enough? I’m not there yet.
Even more Spanish-language ads have popped up for me recently.
un gran equipo médico
Mascarillas
Partículas de Cobre
Vea
esta información en Internet pinche aquí
La Última Tecnología Disponible
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