What to call this thread?

"an irrevocable decision" #301
"An irrevocable decision" in which neither government nor nosy neighbors have any legitimate role.

< >

It's a Founding principle of the United States of America that Liberty is a:
- Creator endowed
- Constitutionally enumerated
- unalienable right.

Liberty means the right and power to think, act, and express ones self in the manner of ones own choosing,
provided that Liberty does not infringe or usurp the Liberty of another or others.

If Carol doesn't want Mifepristone or Leuprolide that's just dandy. Carol doesn't have to.
If Carol thinks Raleigh shouldn't, that's too bad for Carol.

GROW UP Carol ! M.Y.O.B. !

And while we're at it: https://www.umass.edu/stonewall/sites/default/files/documents/allyship_term_handout.pdf

Rock the weekend boys & girls, and "others".

=========

Political note on rainbow coalition:
Any one of these groups needing modern medical treatment may constitute only a small minority of the total 300M national population.
Despite our Constitutional republic this minority status renders these minority populations vulnerable to tyranny of the majority, or as in the case from the "religious right" (a euphemism for the religious wrong) tyranny of a small but savagely activist, reactionary meddlers.

United we stand !
"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." Thomas Paine
 
1IFeT74.png

No question that Kenneth Zucker was a disaster and did a lot of harm
 
Who said there's no such thing as good news?

Transgender Athletes Protected by Title IX, Federal Court Rules

Story by Michael McCann

In a decision that could supply the U.S. Supreme Court with an opportunity to clarify the eligibility of transgender athletes nationwide, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held last week that Title IX empowers a 13-year-old transgender girl to compete on her school's cross country and track teams.

B.P.J. v. West Virginia Board of Education et al. centers on a West Virginia statute, originally introduced as the "Save Women's Sports Act," that declares girls and women's teams are not open to "students of the male sex." The Act defines male as "an individual whose biological sex determined at birth is male." Judge Toby Heytens wrote the Act's "sole purpose," and "sole effect," are to "prevent transgender girls from playing on girls teams." The Act is similar to acts in nearly two dozen other states that exclude transgender girls from girls teams.

B.P.J. has publicly identified as a girl since the third grade, and the state issued her a birth certificate that recognized her new name and listed her as a female. Puberty-blocking medication and estrogen hormone therapy, Heytens explained, have led B.P.J. to "develop the outward physical characteristics-including fat distribution, pelvic shape and bone size-of an adolescent female." B.P.J. raises an Equal Protection Clause claim, which argues the state is treating her differently without sufficient justification, and a Title IX claim, which contends she can't be ....

CONTINUED

Of course, given the current makeup of the Supreme Court I fully expect them to rule based on ideology (including their religious beliefs) rather than the law.
 
"Who said there's no such thing as good news?" S2 #307
Newspaper readers?
"Of course, given the current makeup of the Supreme Court I fully expect them to rule based on ideology (including their religious beliefs) rather than the law." S2 #307
Me too.
Dobbs makes them look more like a gang of thugs than the best our judiciary has to offer.
They're activists, legislating from the bench.
They're inflicting tyranny not merely gleefully, but self-righteously.
"When the President [of the United States of America] does it, that means it is not illegal." President Richard M. Nixon
note to SCOTUS:
"authority" and "legitimacy" are not synonyms
note to Obama / Biden:
When Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) obstructed Merrick Garland's appointment ostensibly within McConnell's Constitutional authority, or not,
Obama / Biden should have circumvented McConnell's treachery and increased the SCOTUS complement from 9 to 11, or whatever other number required to restore the "elections have consequences" standard McConnell (R-KY) himself applied when it favored Republicans.
The Democrats refusal to do this reeks of both political and ideological cowardice causing the Dems. to look weak not only to the Republicans, but to the broader nation.
It's disgraceful.
It's self-inflicted.
It's an impeccable justification for gloom.
 
Even if they'd increased the SCOTUS complement to 11, McConnell would have blocked any Democratic nominees, at least until after the election. And since Trump won you could expect the GOP to stack the court with even more ultraconservative justices so the situation would be even worse than it is today.
 
"Even if they'd increased the SCOTUS complement to 11, McConnell would have blocked any Democratic nominees, at least until after the election. " S2 #309
And then after that ...
"Even if they'd increased the SCOTUS complement to 11, McConnell would have blocked any Democratic nominees, at least until after the election. And since Trump won you could expect the GOP to stack the court with even more ultraconservative justices so the situation would be even worse than it is today." S2 #309
That certainly is one possible outcome. It's not the only possible outcome. One alternate scenario, but first:

Right now it's between Biden & Schumer. Right?
Meanwhile Biden is campaigning on: you give me a Democrat congress, and I'll make Roe the law of the land again.

I suspect the Republicans didn't expect the political blowback they've gotten.
Not impossible to imagine given they now know how such oppression / usurpation is received, they might be a little more circumscrewed.

Bottom line McConnell should never have been allowed by the Democrats to be so richly rewarded as McConnell was with Dobbs.

This goes all the way back to Skinner, "operant conditioning". Reward & punishment. It appears the only punishment McConnell / the Republicans will pay for this is years afterward, at the ballot box.
 
"... the Democrats to be so richly rewarded as McConnell was with Dobbs." s #310
McConnell [R-KY] has earned recognition for Dobbs. BUT !
Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) has also earned acknowledgement.

Dems. with political foresight approached RBG inviting her to retire late in Obama's administration, leaving Obama the opportunity to appoint a younger RBG replacement.
It's not a risk-free strategy as #309 demonstrates:
"Even if they'd increased the SCOTUS complement to 11, McConnell would have blocked any Democratic nominees, at least until after the election." #309
None the less, could it have worked out worse?

One needn't demolish a bully to instill a less hostile style.

A reminder:
Ginsburg's justification for refusing to retire? She was more liberal than any replacement the president might find. Even if true Ruth, not the point. Longevity was the issue, Dobbs was the issue.

Too late now.
 
None the less, could it have worked out worse?

Yes because with the number of Justices increased to 11 that would have allowed Trump to nominate and additional two extreme right wing individuals so the court would be even more lopsided that it is today.
 
with the number of Justices increased to 11 that would have allowed Trump to nominate and additional two
Yes, the timing is important. I deduce those that suggested to RBG she retire had in mind to help restore the court's balance, not upset it further to McConnell's favor.

In any case no need for speculation. Dobbs.
Related:

Politico

Supreme Court wrestles with the fallout of Dobbs in arguments on emergency abortions​

Alice Miranda Ollstein and Josh Gerstein / Wed, April 24, 2024 at 4:04 PM EDT

The Supreme Court heard nearly two hours of heated arguments Wednesday on the tension between Idaho’s near-total abortion ban and a federal law requiring hospitals to offer any treatment — including an abortion — needed to stabilize patients in an emergency.
...
 
The OED is the gold standard in English language dictionaries.
But where English in the US may differ from English in the UK, I rely on AHD as quoted below. Particularly, AHD "Usage Notes" and "User Panel" contributions help keep AHD abreast of U.S. English, a living, constantly evolving language.


gen·der (jĕndər)
n.
1. Grammar
a. A grammatical category, often designated as male, female, or neuter, used in the classification of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and, in some languages, verbs that may be arbitrary or based on characteristics such as sex or animacy and that determines agreement with or selection of modifiers, referents, or grammatical forms.
b. The fact of being classified as belonging to such a category: agreement in gender, number, and case.
2. a. Either of the two divisions, designated female and male, by which most organisms are classified on the basis of their reproductive organs and functions; sex.
b. One's identity as female or male or as neither entirely female nor entirely male.
c. Females or males considered as a group: Students lined up with the genders in different lines.
tr.v.
gen·dered, gen·der·ing, gen·ders
Archaic: To engender.

[Middle English gendre, from Old French, kind, gender, from Latin genus, gener-; see genə- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

gender·less adj.

Usage Note: Some people maintain that the word sex should be reserved for reference to the biological aspects of being male or female or to sexual activity, and that the word gender should be used only to refer to sociocultural roles. Accordingly, one would say The effectiveness of the treatment appears to depend on the sex of the patient and In society, gender roles are clearly defined. In some situations this distinction avoids ambiguity, as in gender research, which is clear in a way that sex research is not. The distinction can be problematic, however. Linguistically, there isn't any real difference between gender bias and sex bias, and it may seem contrived to insist that sex is incorrect in this instance. *



sex (sĕks)
n.
1. a. Sexual activity, especially sexual intercourse: hasn't had sex in months.
b. The sexual urge or instinct as it manifests itself in behavior: motivated by sex.
2. a. Either of the two divisions, designated female and male, by which most organisms are classified on the basis of their reproductive organs and functions: How do you determine the sex of a lobster?
b. The fact or condition of existing in these two divisions, especially the collection of characteristics that distinguish female and male: the evolution of sex in plants; a study that takes sex into account. See Usage Note at gender.
3. Females or males considered as a group: dormitories that house only one sex.
4. One's identity as either female or male.
5. The genitals.
tr.v. sexed, sex·ing, sex·es
1. To determine the sex of (an organism).
2. Slang
a. To arouse sexually. Often used with up.
b. To increase the appeal or attractiveness of. Often used with up.

[Middle English, from Latin sexus.] *



"The fact that Americans speak about "legalizing" abortion, gambling, marijuana, and so forth shows that they no longer look down on their government as their servant but look up to it as their master. For to legalize is to permit; and to permit implies a relationship between a superior and a subordinate - as when a parent permits a child to go swimming, stay up late, or eat sweets after his meal." psychiatrist Thomas Szasz
* The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=gender

PS
The rules may occasionally be bent in using the word "gender", perhaps in prudish avoidance of the word "sex". Such euphemism not uncommon.
"Celibate" for example was defined as unmarried, but is often used as a synonym for chaste.

We can sidestep the technical linguistic details if we exercise the broader principle that individuals are entitled to courtesy in society, and equality in law regardless of genital configuration, or lack thereof.
 
I remember the Mary Martin version (aired in 1960)


She actually first appeared in this role on Broadway in 1954 (she was 40 years old at the time).

 
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