There’s
so much to explore this month. Not only is March Women’s History month, but
March 8 was International Women’s Day. With women constituting nearly half of
humankind and being the only producers of all brand new human beings, we certainly
deserve more accolades than just being feted on special days or months.
Disability rights activist and life-long wheelchair user Judy Heumann, who has died at age 75, was also a supporter of women’s rights. Judy had contracted polio as a young child. I knew her when I was married to my late ex-husband Tom who was blind and who often worked with her on disability rights legislation. In 1992, she married another wheelchair user. President Biden issued a condolence statement after her death. In trying to find out more about her life and cause of death, a huge spyware incursion prompted me to immediately shut down the computer and stop seeking any further information.
In previewing this document on line, as always, I find odd quirks and inconsistencies in fonts and underlining that simply prove impossible correct by trial and error, so please bear with me. Just try to get the gist of what is being said, rather on any tiny or weird lettering.
LA Times, 12 have died since massive snowstorms cut off California mountain towns, official says
The unprecedented snow in the San Bernardino mountains still remains on the ground, but people there are now digging out and checking on vulnerable loved ones, some of whom sadly have been found dead. Dare I post a photo of the snow there after previous efforts had crashed my system? Here goes again.
There is now reportedly
an app in Africa to prevent female genital mutilation, a practice I saw happening
in south Sudan.
Wash. Post, Gender
equality is ‘300 years away,’ U.N. chief warns
This prediction is not surprising. I’ve never expected to see gender equality in my lifetime, though I have witnessed and participated in definite progress.
Marriage
is no longer a goal of most American women nor is divorce considered a calamity.
If the Conways are getting divorced after 4 kids and 22 years of marriage, many of us can relate to that, including me after having experienced a divorce
myself after 4 kids and 24 years of marriage. My (blind) then-husband divorced
me after he had gone from unemployment to success with my considerable and consistent
help. He then went on to marry his young office assistant, certainly a shock for me,
but a pattern seen with many successful men. I did OK afterword, though our
kids, not so much. Later, when I lost
my older son when he was 27, any impact from the divorce faded in comparison.
Speaking of the internet, I am very grateful for having lived
long enough to see the arrival of the internet, something not appreciated by my
sister and her husband, who remain unconnected by choice. My sister and I communicate only by
phone and letters. In the days before the internet, because of my many friends
all over the world, we relied only on letters that might or might not arrive,
since mail outside the US was so often unreliable. However, I was once amazed to
get a crisp US $5 bill in a mailing from Zimbabwe, sent by a husband asking
me to bring it to his wife then in federal custody after trying to smuggle
drugs into this country.
Days after I’d emailed her asking about the recent cyclones hitting
Vanu Vatu, my friend living there with her family, to my relief, was able
to reply. Hi Barbara, Yes we experienced the
cyclones and their wrath. Luckily our house held up ok, but it was certainly
terrifying. There has been extensive damage and we are still without power, but
of course we are fortunate, too. Thank you for thinking of us!
Though I generally
support expanding home-rule for Washington DC, where I’ve lived since
1969, I would agree that probably members of Congress should also have a say
since they spend so much time here on the nation’s business. They, along with President
Biden, may now feel that reducing penalties for low-level crimes here poses a personal
threat to them, as well as to DC residents. Lowering some proposed penalties,
for example, for carjacking, an increasingly prevalent crime here, as proposed
by DC’s lawmakers, seems like a bad idea. Still, many laws in other
jurisdictions would not stand up to outside scrutiny either. As the 2024
mid-terms approach, President Biden and Congress are especially sensitive to
public opinion back home on crime issues. But when it comes to most fiscal and
budget matters, we local citizens should have a majority say in the use of our own
tax dollars without any outside interference. Whether or when DC will ever
achieve statehood remains an open question, though I’ve seen progress toward self-governance
during my 54 years of living here, rather slow progress to be sure, but going in the right
direction.
Still, citizens here need to do something about the DC homicide rate which has already
exceeded 40 this year. It’s not only a matter of the availability of guns but
of a culture of violence, which is harder to change.
Wash. Post, In Florida, Latino evangelicals mobilize against DeSantis’s crackdown on immigrants
GMA, DACA recipients leaving US, disheartened by legal limbo Some are finding a warmer welcome in Canada, Spain, and Mexico
In
Ohio another train derailment has triggered bipartisan support for
requiring more rail inspections and protections.
Social security taxes should certainly be raised to help with the federal deficit. President Biden has proposed that levies be modestly increased on annual incomes over $400,000, including income from capital gains. Most voters would not object to such a proposal, but Republican lawmakers might oppose it because so many of their donors are in higher brackets.
Two US bank failures occurring over the last few days is certainly a worrisome development. To stem the worry and prevent a more widespread bank run, the FDIC has stepped in to protect borrowers.
Donald Trump continues to hit the presidential campaign trail, mostly going it alone without the support of wife or kids. “I am your retribution,” he has told aggrieved followers.
Senator John Fetterman remains hospitalized at Walter Reed, still being treated there for depression since mid-Feb. When my own family members were hospitalized with depression, their treatment was shorter and always involved the rest of us as family support, but Fetterman’s family left for Canada early on. Now I see his wife is back and reportedly has been visiting. Was a family problem perhaps a trigger for the Senator’s depression? His earlier stroke and now his depression may make constituents wonder if he is really up for 6 more years. CBS News, Fetterman "will be back soon," top aide says amid depression treatment
Murderers have remained living among us, often dying without accountability. But that did not happen in the case of 46-year-old Paul Flores, who, after 27 years, was found guilty of murdering his former college classmate Kristin Smart. He now faces 25 years to life in prison. Forensic advances have led to more arrests of living perpetrators.
BBC, Canada grandma helps stop fraud scheme targeting senior citizens
Those folks are apparently still around? Years ago, I stopped a youthful-sounding caller claiming to be my grandson by asking his name. “Grandma, you know my name,” he protested. “Tell me your name,” I insisted. So then he hung up.
USA Today, Haiti spinning out of control on every metric from gangs to kidnappings, migration to murder
In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega has suspended relations with the Vatican.
France has had a relatively generous retirement system starting at age 62, but with people there now living longer, Macron proposed raising it to a modest 64. However, French workers were having none of it, not quietly accepting Macron’s proposal. However, something had to give, as those still working are simply not able to support a growing number of longer-living retirees. Finally, despite the protests, the retirement age was raised to 64, so those planning to retire this year will just have to work for 2 more years.
Israel, which once enjoyed unwavering moral and economic support from the US, has tarnished its own reputation, even among American Jews. Wash. Post, 3D analysis shows Israeli forces opening fire at least 14 times into a group of civilians
Afghanistan is all but forgotten,
along with Eritrea/Ethiopia. Current media attention now is focused on Ukraine,
while the earthquake in Turkey has been a close second. Ukraine is
actually doing better militarily than might have been expected a year later with
massive US help, but still no boots on the ground. Yet, compassion fatigue is already
setting in for both Ukraine and Turkey. Ukraine could offer to
give up Crimea in exchange for peace, since Russia already has been there de facto,
though, of course, it's hardly my call.
After almost 20 years in office, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government is facing an existential challenge after being unprepared for earthquake damage and relief in an earthquake-prone area. Erdoğan mostly has chosen loyalists for government posts, rather than those with special skills or commitment to the job.
What will be the next international emergency to capture world headlines? Hopefully, not China/Taiwan where the US might not be able to avoid direct combat, something very worrisome to even think about. However, both Chinese officials and US-based pundits have been hinting about an upcoming war between their countries over China’s more prosperous democratically governed neighbor Taiwan. Macau’s status is also in jeopardy.
China has a dismal track record on keeping promises. Despite loud initial guarantees to protect pre-existing freedoms in Hong Kong (“one country, 2 systems”), China has gradually assumed complete control there. Now the Chinese leadership under Chairman Xi seems to have set its sights next on Taiwan. With only half the population of Ukraine, Taiwan would face serious military odds confronting a well-armed, much bigger, and more powerful China with stricter command of its military than Russia has ever had in Ukraine. The Chinese leadership is learning lessons now from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, with a China/Taiwan incursion, the stakes would be much higher. It is hard to imagine that the US would not defend Taiwan militarily.
The Telegraph, Xi Jinping in rare direct attack on the US for seeking to 'suppress and contain' China Mr Xi himself has made clear his intent to ‘re-unify’ with Taiwan, even if it means resorting to force.
China’s
Foreign Minister Qin Gang called Taiwan the “first red
line in China’s relations with the U.S.” Qin said the U.S. had disrespected
China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by providing defensive weapons to
the island.
While it’s been looking that Covid could possibly have escaped from a Chinese lab, that government would go to great lengths to suppress any such evidence, so we may never know.
Shifting gears now.
AP, How common is transgender treatment regret,
detransitioning?
Those who have tried to switch
genders rarely regret it or want to go back, so says a
study of young people who have undergone transition surgery in the US, Canada,
and Europe (the only regions of the world where such surgery may even be possible).
Only 1% reportedly regretted their surgery and wanted to be restored to their
original gender. I am not aware of knowing anyone who is transgender, something
not even considered an option in my youth. Certainly gender-change surgery and
hormones were unavailable back then.I’ve known a number of folks who identify as gay and a few claiming to be “bi,” sometimes going back and forth, but more often women than men. Adopting an “out” gay identity is more acceptable and common now than in my younger days, when being gay nearly always meant staying “in the closet”. A man my age recently told me that he had engaged in regular sex play with another boy as a young teen, but then later both men had sought out women, with each marrying a woman and becoming a father. I imagine that is still not an uncommon pattern and did not mark them as “gay.”
While homosexuality and cross-dressing have always existed, their expressions have varied according to social norms and community acceptance. The hijras of south India are born male and often live together in separate communities. Dressed as females and sometimes after had external genitalia removed, they often support themselves as sex workers. That particular expression of sexual diversity is something not seen in western cultures. Likewise, eunuchs or castrated men have had a long history in China, though are no longer in evidence today. When I was in Honduras in the Peace Corps in the early 2000’s, I saw 2 same sex male couples where one was dressed as a woman, also 2 men who were fathers of families living in adjacent rural houses with a dwelling in between where they stayed together overnight about once a week. In the mountainous regions of Nepal, women may have several husbands. So sexual expression and its variations are not due only to personal choice and individual preferences, as we tend to view them in our own country, but to social factors and community support as well.
BBC News, Canadian siblings certified as world's most premature twins This little brother and sister, now one year old, were born after 22 weeks gestation. A child living in Alabama was born at 21 weeks. Although examples of such very early, but still viable, births are rare, they indicate medical progress and also that abortions performed up to 24 weeks, a common limit these days, should be reconsidered. Planned Parenthood, on its website, calls proposed 20-week abortion bans, “dangerous, out-of-touch legislation.” Dangerous to whom? Crisis Pregnancy Centers offering help and advice to pregnant women are also slammed by PP. More such centers are actually needed to offer practical assistance to struggling, low-income mothers. There is also a need for more public funding for both maternal and children’s services, which will do more to protect unborn lives than appeals to religion or conscience.
I know from
direct experience as both an adoptive and a birth mother that raising children
is not easy, made especially challenging for me as a single mother of 4 lacking adequate
child support or visitation from their father. I also have had the pain of losing
my older son in adulthood, something I would not wish on any parent. So I’m well
aware of the demands and risks of parenthood. At the same time, if abortion had
been legal at the time or place of my adopted children’s conception, they might
never have been born.
Mentioned previously on these pages is the fact that celebrity women, after first birthing a child, may then farm out that task to a surrogate. A US-based surrogacy charges $120,000-$200,000, but not all that goes to the surrogate, with foreign surrogates available for much less. Let’s face it, pregnancy is often not particularly enjoyable and giving birth is usually painful. (Providing fully effective pain relief would probably interfere with labor.) Without better pain relief, some women will avoid a second pregnancy, though many tend to forget their pain over time. Until artificial wombs become available, pain in childbirth has proved to be a further deterrent for some women after giving birth. Two children are the common maximum for many US couples now, only willing to undertake a second pregnancy to provide a sibling for their first child. Of course, a birth is only the beginning, with considerable time, effort, expense, and emotional investment involved in raising any child. It’s understandable why women may want to keep abortion as an option, although there are many ways now to prevent pregnancy, with abstinence and sterilization being 100% effective.
Amnesty International has just sent me a donation appeal declaring “Amnesty is dedicated to fighting for abortion access.” Sorry, Amnesty folks, that particular appeal falls flat with me. Although some good friends recently made a substantial donation to Amnesty in my honor and while I still remain active in the organization, I prefer to aim my own charity elsewhere for the reasons already mentioned. I do support much of Amnesty’s work, including a recent protest of an execution in Texas, but regard the interests of a pregnant woman not the only ones to be considered in an abortion.
Abortion supporters may be seeking to equalize the consequences of sex between men and women as a measure of full gender equality. Contraception and sterilization have largely accomplished that already, allowing most sexually active American women to avoid unwanted pregnancies. However, unexpected pregnancies still give rise to abortion demands, with pregnancy now the default option, rather than the common and universally expected outcome of heterosexual sex. A long-standing Supreme Court decision, only recently overturned, means many American women now feel robbed of a “right” to abortion and to implied sexual equality—with a fetus being considered an interloper and a threat.
In places without legal
abortion, such as Honduras, women don’t consider abortion a “right.” Therefore,
most women there either accept a pregnancy, whether wanted or not, or undergo
sterilization. Birth control as used in more developed countries is
not an option in much of Honduras, at least not in small towns and rural areas.
I’ve known several Honduran women who have given birth to and raised children they insisted resulted from a rape. Those offspring have been treated like any other
kids, growing up among their peers, their origin not an issue. I would argue
that once an individual begins to grow and develop, even while still in the
womb, then he or she (already with a gender) should be supported to keep on living,
just as for any other human being, perhaps even more so because of having so many years
of life still lying ahead.
Therefore now, after 42 years of activism in Amnesty, I find my minority viewpoint on abortion being disparaged as a throwback to earlier times. The same goes for my opinion on this issue among fellow Democrats living in our majority Democratic city. Surely there are some other voters out there who harbor misgivings about abortion, but we just don’t know each other. Yet, I would dare predict, despite our country’s current anemic birthrate, that to prevent a population downturn, more babies will be born and more support will be offered to needy mothers to help counteract abortion pressures. President Biden has been talking “abortion rights,” but also offering more support to needy families. I only hope his efforts won’t be stifled in red states by politicians there who give lip service to the rights of the unborn, but withhold practical help. Yet sometimes a social policy or practice reaches a point where an attenuating correction arises. The zeitgeist never remains static.
HuffPost, Florida Republicans File 6-Week Abortion Ban That’s
Very Likely To Become Law Many
abortions already take place within 6 weeks now with the abortion pill being widely available
(sometimes even being kept on hand as emergency contraception in states where it’s
not legal), so this Republican proposal may not encounter an expected groundswell
of opposition.
In Texas, a former husband has initiated a lawsuit against the women who provided his ex-wife with abortion pills, thus depriving him of fathering the child they would have had together. Wash. Post, Texas man sues women he says helped his ex-wife obtain abortion pills Do fathers have any rights prior to a birth? So far, in the US, they don’t.
The following book, though focused on economic productivity, offers lessons on the cultural factors influencing all policy outcomes, whether on abortion, gay rights, gun control, crime prevention, or anything else.
Gregory Clark, in A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World, looks at cultural factors influencing economic growth. The modern production technologies employed by wealthier countries depend on managers and workers who are disciplined and engaged, something often lacking in poorer countries. While production technologies themselves can be replicated, it is harder to replicate the social environment needed to encourage productive cooperation and innovation, something which is not just a matter of luck. In many poor countries, the social environment simply does not support using new technologies efficiently. Poor countries often add so many workers and managers to the production process that they end up losing their lower labor cost advantage. An enterprise there is simply regarded as an easy source of income for employees, not as a productive entity, with people not being hired for their skills and commitment to the work, but often because of friendship or family connections. I’ve certainly seen this happening in Honduras and other Latin American countries, though some enterprises there are now changing tactics. When workers from the region enter the US labor force, they often must adapt to a more disciplined work system.
According to the data offered by Yuval Noah Harari in another new book, Homo Deus - A brief History of Tomorrow, more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists, and criminals combined. And the suicide rate is much higher in developed countries than in poorer ones.
The world’s smallest dog is a female
Chihuahua, Miracle Milly, who measures 9.65 cm (3.8 in) tall, owned by
Vanesa Semler of Dorado, Puerto Rico. 
The ugliest dog of 2022 will give up his crown on June 20, 2023 in Petaluma, California, when his successor is chosen.
An Arizona bobcat entering through a doggy door felt right at home in a dog’s bed.
Cats
and dogs are still getting lost and found around our neighborhood. Are some of these the same animals, perhaps being posted by both owners and finders?
Meanwhile, local artist Jacob Folger has been keeping busy.
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Some
on-line employment ads feature a “senior” position. How about me? Would I
be considered senior enough?
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