Baby Bust, Gun Violence, and More

Before looking at all the challenges ahead, let’s start out with a fancier image now for the lunar new year sent by dear friend Jennifer in New Brunswick. We once met at a Honduras medical brigade and have been in touch ever since. 

Jennifer tells me it’s been snowing in her town, and just today, it’s started snowing in W Va. where my son lives. 

Below is a morning view here in DC, no snow yet. 

This family came together because I introduced the parents in Honduras, as per my Triumph & Hope book; they now live in NH. 

Fox, March for Life attendees call for abortion bans and support for pregnant women The March for Life taking place here in DC on Jan. 20 showed new energy this year after Roe’s demise. “LIFE WINS!” the signs said. Treneé McGee, a Black Democratic state representative from Connecticut told the crowd, “I stand in place of the pro-life Black women across the globe who are suffering in silence.” 

But that report was from Fox News. The 50^th anniversary of Roe came right on the heels of the “March for Life.” Mainstream media wasn’t particularly impressed by the earlier gathering of pro-lifers, characterized by NPR as “opponents of reproductive rights.” NY Times had dubbed them “anti-abortion activists” and their political allies as “anti-abortion Republicans.” Ads to contribute to Planned Parenthood for “reproductive freedom” keep popping up next to these reports. One such ad called it “outrageous” that a woman was forced to travel over 200 miles for an abortion. Women should have control of their own bodies—that’s the argument--but what about exercising more control before getting pregnant? Are these alarmist ads just something designed to increase income from donors? I’ve become sensitive to the language used in the culture wars, especially when now, though a life-long Democrat, I find myself in sympathy with the other side on this issue. Nor is a 15-week limit particularly draconian. Most Americans would support that with exceptions for rare circumstances. The vast majority of abortions already occur within that timeframe. 

However, now that abortion is considered an option in our country, more child-rearing incentives need be offered, including child allowances and paid family leave. And more immigration should be encouraged. 

NY Times, After Dobbs, Republicans Wrestle With What It Means to Be Anti-Abortion [I]n the final weeks of the midterms, many Republicans embraced a central message: a 15-week limit with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. They sought to push Democrats to define their own limits on gestational age in order to frame them, at times misleadingly, as “extremists” who support “abortion until birth” if they refused. Nearly all Democrats support federal legislation that would reinstate a version of the standard set by Roe: permitting abortion until fetal viability, roughly 23 weeks, and after that point only if the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother’s health. Less than 1 percent of abortions occur after 21 weeks.

Oklahoma Republicans Propose Making Fathers Pay ‘Prenatal Child Support’

It takes 2 to create a brand-new human, so fathers need to pay their fair share. Yet, many barely do so now, even after a baby is born, so how could this proposal ever be enforced? It might also be hard to establish paternity prenatally. However, any financial help for expectant mothers whether via tax relief, outside funding, or from expectant fathers would certainly be beneficial to a child.

A letter-writer to the LA Times complains about columnist Nicholas Goldberg’s criticism of antiabortion activists for their attempts “to humanize the so-called unborn," pointing out that the unborn, whatever else might be said, are “human” after all.

Though I’ve never had abortion myself, I do know women who have and there are probably some I don’t know about. Abortion is a very a common procedure in the US now and miscarriages are also common. In either case, an individual life has ended almost before it started.

Most North American and European women are no longer willing to have large families or to stay at home to care for them. Two kids seem to be the favored limit these days and many married or partnered women have only one child or none. That is not a formula for sustaining a national population nor for supporting elders, which would require women to give birth to an average of 2.1 children. While providing more practical and economic support for mothers would help, probably only increased immigration from more populous countries can save our own country’s demographic demise.

Denmark and Sweden offer child benefits for those caring for children at home even if the children are not related to them; this applies to both singles and unmarried couples as well as married couples who fall below a certain income level. Japan offers child benefits to married couples below an income threshold and South Korea also provides child allowances and free childcare. During childbirth, South Korean mothers may have epidurals, which reduce labor pain and are also common in the US, but in Japan, pain relief during labor is not offered as childbirth pain is considered desirable. Japanese doctors and couples should change their stance on that if that country wants to encourage more births. (However, epidurals if not administered properly, have their own risks.) China’s population is actually falling now, as is the population of Japan and south Korea. China and other Asian countries do not encourage immigration.

Furthermore, in Asian countries, male babies are valued over females, so if the first child is a boy, a couple may stop there, while if they have a girl, they may give it another try. This can lead, as it has in China, to not having enough wives to go around

The Taliban try to completely marginalize women and keep them out of public life. But nowhere can men live without women or even be born without them. 

A few women everywhere report giving birth easily and without much delay, often after having had at least one child, but for most women, childbirth is painful and labor can be prolonged, especially with a first birth. That is why many newsworthy and well-off American women, after giving birth to one or maybe 2 children, if they still want more, farm that task out to surrogates who are highly paid for their services, as they should be. As mentioned before, our own now-closed local adoption agency was involved with surrogates (all black women).

What makes a “real” parent? That seems to be matter of self-definition. A woman giving birth to a baby conceived by a donated ovum fertilized by her husband’s sperm considers herself to be the mother, not just a “gestational carrier.” There are many children conceived by donated sperm only finding that out now through genealogy websites. And there is also adoption, which has become increasingly rare.

The current abortion debate takes me back to the time before Roe, when my then teenage friend relinquished her baby girl for adoption. Abortion was not really an option for most women then. She never had another child, but later found the adult bio daughter, with whom she did not bond. However, she did develop a warm relationship with the woman’s teenage son who inherited most of her estate when she died.

I do appreciate seeing photos and ads posted showing men changing diapers, pushing kids in strollers, and washing dishes, but that is hardly the norm, although perhaps such images will inspire more actual husbands and fathers to step up.

Ancient Greeks often married cousins, having no one else available, but their descendants seem to have suffered no apparent harm. 

On Fox News, Geraldo Rivera held up an ancient musket of the type in use when the 2^nd amendment was ratified in 1791. His point was that it was not an AR-15-style rifle as is used in mass killings today.

 

NY Times, Despite Red Flags,  G.O.P. Backed Candidate Now Charged in Shootings

“We could have picked apart this guy,” a G.O.P. leader in New Mexico said of Solomon Peña, who is accused of organizing attacks on the homes of Democrats.

It’s become nearly impossible to keep up with the mass shootings occurring almost daily in this country, making it dangerous to even go outside. One recent shooting occurred on lunar New Year’s Eve in a largely Vietnamese community in southern California which rarely sees gun violence. Since the shooter took his own life, it gives him no glory to now identify him as Huu Can Tran, age 72. His motives remain a mystery.

LA Times, Authorities identify 72-year-old man as suspected gunman in Lunar New Year mass shooting

Now the death toll, originally 9, has climbed to 11.

 

AP, Police: 2 students dead, adult hurt in Des Moines shooting

Was this shooting inspired by the shooter in the Vietnamese community in California?

 

These fatal shootings had barely registered in our collective consciousness when still another mass shooting occurred in California. In only 1% of encounters does gun possession prove protective. In 99% of cases, it proves harmful and even deadly. The so-called “right to bear arms” needs urgent revision. And this blog needs to get posted before any more mass shootings occur.

 

Wash. Post, 7 dead in Half Moon Bay as California confronts another mass killing Children were among those who witnessed the fatal shooting.

Are these becoming copycat crimes?

 

Now actor Alec Baldwin has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for a death from a loaded weapon on a movie set. Why do movies even need to use loaded weapons?

Wash. Post, Gun used by 6-year-old to shoot teacher was stored with lock, family attorney says If, indeed, the gun was locked away and yet a vengeful 6-year-old was still able to get his hands on it, then no guns should ever be kept in the home. Furthermore, would a locked-away gun even be useful if an intruder actually showed up? The shooter’s family now says he has “an acute disability.” The family may have tried to “normalize” the boy by putting him into a regular classroom, but since his apparent disability has led to such dangerous violence, he needs to be kept in a more restrictive setting. Fortunately, despite the teacher’s serious injuries, no one was mortally wounded by this shooting. [After I wrote that, it turns out the gun was not actually locked away, as was reported, but kept on a high closet shelf where the child could climb up to reach it.]

This just came in from Amnesty International USA. We are ramping up our fight to have the Assault Weapon Ban legislation passed in the 118th Congress.  Senator Feinstein is scheduled to reintroduce her bill this week and Representative David Ciclline is scheduled to reintroduce the companion bill in the House in February.

Howard University here in DC is celebrating the awarding of a defense research contract. I don't know details, but hope it includes defense options resulting in fewer deaths 

President Biden has certainly been careless about the retention of classified documents over the years of his long political career, but hardly in the same league as former President Trump, who angrily scattered documents on the floor, reportedly flushed some down the toilet, and dubbed the document search at Mar-a-Lago and other investigations a “witch-hunt.” 

Now former vice president Mike Pence has also been implicated in taking home classified documents.

Here's an announcement from Adam Schiff: “Kevin McCarthy and the Republican Party just did what they’ve threatened for the last two years. They removed me from the House Intelligence Committee where I have served as Chairman and the top Democrat for years.”

When asked about the Falklands war, a short-lived conflict in 1982 between Britain and Argentina about some scantily populated islands in the far south, Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges dubbed it a case of “two bald men fighting over a comb.” The UK won the battle and retained the islands whose  3,600 present-day inhabitants are mostly English-speaking. The UK had contended it needed the islands for security reasons, making them a rare remaining outpost of the once far-flung British empire.

Pew Research Center, About One-in-Four U.S. Hispanics Have Heard of Latinx, but Just 3% Use It I commented on this matter earlier. High time now to retire the ungainly term “Latinx.”

Wash. Post, Microsoft layoffs suggest broader pain to come for the economy

[I stll don't know why sometimes Wash. Post comes out in all caps.]

On another matter, if prison calls become free, as is now being advocated, then prisons will lose a major source of revenue. However. encouraging more calls should assist prisoners with maintaining family ties, which would be helpful both while they are incarcerated and also after their release. 

Wash. Post, Senators’ departure leaves Haiti without an elected government

Below Cuban artists dare to briefly unfurl their slogan, "Culture and Liberty."

Telegraph, Why teenage girls are on the front line of the trans war

Teens go through many physical and social challenges and changes, sometimes including explorations of sexual identity. These may end up without incurring a lasting departure from their birth gender, indicating that any irreversible physical changes should be deferred; a delay seems advisable in most cases. 

Sex change is certainly an idea in vogue right now, especially among teens, but actual physical changes may come to be regretted later. I’ve known a few folks myself who’ve wavered back and forth, ending up finally with their birth gender. I wonder now whether the reported phenomenon of transgender “males” giving birth may actually represent an expression of their birth gender? Might these child-bearing “men” more accurately be considered bearded women since they’ve retained their vital female child-bearing parts? But they cannot nurse their babies after having had breasts removed.

The polite but accented English-speakers answering our telephone questions about our orders are probably working abroad in on-call jobs. I actually know some located in Honduras and the Philippines. Sometimes, when speaking to an agent online or by phone, I will ask where they are located and it’s never in the US. However, when I was inquiring recently about my credit and debit cards, the respondent actually was located here in the US, though it took some labyrinthian maneuvering to even get to speak with them. I'm guessing that questions about sensitive banking matters are not farmed out to more modestly paid foreign workers for security reasons. Therefore, these finance-related respondents must be physically located here within the US and understandably require jumps through a whole lot of hoops to make sure the caller is legit.

Yahoo News, Legendary chef Alice Waters 'absolutely ready to go electric' on stoves

This article’s title is a little misleading, because while Alice Waters may be ready to “go electric,” other professional chefs featured in the article are not. A majority of U.S. homes have electric stoves, with only 38% using gas. But restaurants are much more likely to have gas stoves: 76% of U.S. restaurants use natural gas, according to the National Restaurant Association. Gas cooks more quickly than conventional electric stoves, and its heat can be calibrated instantly, advantages that some chefs say make gas a necessity in a commercial kitchen.

If I still did a lot of cooking, I might consider installing an electric stove, but too late for that now in my home, which also has a gas furnace, gas water heater, and gas dryer. If  I’ve lived here for over 50 years with these appliances, I’ll just continue with gas for the duration. My recent problem with the gas company concerned their estimate of charges when their meter was apparently not working properly. Reluctantly, I’ve agreed with an arbiter’s decision to have the extra charges spread out over a longer time frame.

If I can settle with the gas company after 3 ½ years of struggle, then it’s high time now for Russia and Ukraine to find a mutually face-saving way out of their senseless and bloody conflict. But, so far, neither side seems willing to even try.

BBC, Over 80,000 Israelis protest against Supreme Court reform

AP, Afghan soldier seeks asylum after arrest at US-Mexico border Abdul Wasi Safi kept documents detailing his time as an Afghan soldier who worked with the U.S. military close to him as he made the months long, treacherous journey from Brazil to the U.S.-Mexico border. Now he is being held in immigration detention.

Professional baseball teams can apparently recruit players as young as 16 and may go far afield to find them. (Is parental consent required?) The Pittsburgh Pirates are a case in point.

The Athletic, How the Pirates signed David Matoma, a 16-year-old pitching prospect from Uganda

The Pirates also recruited another sixteen-year-old, right-handed pitcher Carlos Castillo. The 6'1'' Castillo was signed out of Las Mercedes, Venezuela.

Size does matter. Here are the world’s tallest tree, a sequoia named General Sherman; a moose walking through a parking lot; and Alaska compared to the lower 48. 

                        Cats and dogs in our neighborhood keep getting lost and found.

And, below, versatile local artist Jacob Folger keeps posting his work on our neighborhood website.

During the recent holidays, I especially felt the absence of my older son and Cuban foster son after their premature deaths. Both were lost too young, but I try now to be grateful for their lives for as long as we had them and not dwell on their untimely deaths.

 

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

 

Would I be a good fit for the following job, being recommended for me online?

 

Communications Coordinator Planned Parenthood of Maryland