I neglected to mention, the day before yesterday, a new blog post entitled, “Getting what I deserve.” I tightened up some phrasing yesterday but the argument, at least as intended, is entirely the same.
I had a Baptist pastor in my car yesterday, who reminded me to live life rather than “let life live you.” Her point is that I should be in control of my life, which I’m manifestly not. I’m living to work. That’s it. I come home to not even a cat. There is no joy in this life for me.
But, fraudulent as they are, Uber and Lyft are, as near as I can find,[1] the only companies that will allow me any income whatsoever. So I live to work. Nothing else. And with absolutely no hope for anything better.
Now, you tell me, why should I endure this? What is the point?
Anarchism
George Scialabba, “Were the Earliest Societies Anarchists?” review of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, by David Graeber and David Wengrow, New Republic, November 1, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/163941/dawn-everything-book-review-earliest-societies-anarchists
Abortion
Roman Catholic Church
Anugrah Kumar, “Biden takes communion in Rome after saying Pope Francis called him a ‘good Catholic,’” Christian Post, November 1, 2021, https://www.christianpost.com/news/biden-takes-communion-in-rome-after-pope-calls-him-good-catholic.html
Courts
I guess it isn’t just great minds that think alike. I was wondering about the very question Brett Kavanaugh posed:
During oral arguments in the case, [Brett] Kavanaugh suggested a hypothetical situation in which a liberal-led state government could write laws stating that owners or sellers of AR-15 firearms could be held liable by private citizens in state courts.
“Anyone who sells an AR-15 is liable to any private citizen for a million dollars,” Mr Kavanaugh said, describing the hypothetical law.[2]
Texas’ solicitor general had to concede the point.[3] And it appears in general that this was not a good day for Texas anti-abortionists,[4] but the Mississippi quest to overturn Roe v. Wade has yet to be heard[5] and the prospects there seem much more ominous.[6]
Robert Barnes, “Supreme Court seems willing to allow challenge of Texas’s restrictive abortion law,” Washington Post, November 1, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-supreme-court/2021/11/01/548c7ea2-3b0c-11ec-bfad-8283439871ec_story.html
Irin Carmon, “The Texas Abortion Ban Could Lose at the Supreme Court,” New York, November 1, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/texas-abortion-ban-could-lose-at-the-supreme-court.html
John Bowden, “Kavanaugh flags a major catch in Texas anti-abortion law for conservative gun owners,” Independent, November 2, 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kavanaugh-supreme-court-texas-abortion-b1949460.html
Infrastructure
Glenn Kessler, “Why Biden says his plan is ‘fiscally responsible,’ while Manchin decries ‘gimmicks,’” Washington Post, November 2, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/11/02/why-biden-says-his-plan-is-fiscally-responsible-while-manchin-decries-gimmicks/
- [1]David Benfell, “About my job hunt,” Not Housebroken, n.d., https://disunitedstates.org/about-my-job-hunt/↩
- [2]John Bowden, “Kavanaugh flags a major catch in Texas anti-abortion law for conservative gun owners,” Independent, November 2, 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kavanaugh-supreme-court-texas-abortion-b1949460.html↩
- [3]John Bowden, “Kavanaugh flags a major catch in Texas anti-abortion law for conservative gun owners,” Independent, November 2, 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kavanaugh-supreme-court-texas-abortion-b1949460.html↩
- [4]Robert Barnes, “Supreme Court seems willing to allow challenge of Texas’s restrictive abortion law,” Washington Post, November 1, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-supreme-court/2021/11/01/548c7ea2-3b0c-11ec-bfad-8283439871ec_story.html; Irin Carmon, “The Texas Abortion Ban Could Lose at the Supreme Court,” New York, November 1, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/texas-abortion-ban-could-lose-at-the-supreme-court.html↩
- [5]Robert Barnes, “Supreme Court seems willing to allow challenge of Texas’s restrictive abortion law,” Washington Post, November 1, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-supreme-court/2021/11/01/548c7ea2-3b0c-11ec-bfad-8283439871ec_story.html; Irin Carmon, “The Texas Abortion Ban Could Lose at the Supreme Court,” New York, November 1, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/texas-abortion-ban-could-lose-at-the-supreme-court.html; Ed Kilgore, “Is Roe v. Wade Now Doomed?” New York, May 17, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/is-roe-v-wade-now-doomed.html; Adam Liptak, “Mississippi asks the Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade,” New York Times, July 22, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/us/politics/mississippi-supreme-court-abortion.html; Nia Prater, “Supreme Court to Hear Case That Threatens Roe v. Wade,” New York, May 17, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/supreme-court-to-hear-case-that-threatens-roe-v-wade.html; David G. Savage, “Supreme Court agrees to hear major abortion case challenging Roe vs. Wade,” Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-05-17/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-abortion-case; Ariane de Vogue, “Mississippi asks US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade,” CNN, July 22, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/22/politics/mississippi-roe-v-wade-abortion/index.html↩
- [6]Irin Carmon, “The Texas Abortion Ban Could Lose at the Supreme Court,” New York, November 1, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/texas-abortion-ban-could-lose-at-the-supreme-court.html↩