Behold:
1. In Ohio, over 2 million voters put their approval on an official guarantee of abortion rights, deceptively defined in the language of the amendment as “reproductive medical treatment” as if that is the only feature of abortions that matters. This was done, paradoxically enough, even as the pro-Hamas demonstrations and rhetoric coast to coast evoke shadows of the Holocaust, and as the approved measure endorses the approximately one million human lives that will be destroyed by “reproductive medical treatment” this year.
Not one of those voters in Ohio could prevail in a genuine debate of the ethics of abortion. Meanwhile, millions more Ohioans who would profess to finding abortion immoral and unconscionable didn’t care enough about those million aborted lives to bother to vote.
2. At UC Berkeley, a growing number of students are involved in a months-long protest campaign demanding that the university restore the employment of Ivonne del Valle, a suspended Spanish and Portuguese professor. “Professor del Valle isn’t just any faculty member, she’s the top expert in colonial studies,” said Emily Chamale, a second year UC Berkeley student, at a protest last month. “The question that haunts me is: If someone as respected as her is going through such things at Berkeley, what might the future be for the rest of us?”
Well, that depends, Emily. Have you been harassing, stalking and and retaliating against another professo, and then violated orders not to contact him? That’s what the university’s investigation of del Valle indicated that she did. in fact, she admitted that she keyed the other prof’s car, vandalized the area outside his apartment, contacted his friends, posted an image of his partner online, and left messages outside the home of his mother including “I raised a psychopath.” And, yes, okay, she admits calling the professor’s office phone at least ten times within 90 minutes. del Valle also admits, “I did write outside his door, ‘Here lives a pervert.’ I did that. And again, I’m not proud. If I had the opportunity to do things differently, I would do them differently.”
Yes, she’s nuts.
The argument being put forward by the students, who are reportedly threatening a hunger strike? It’s pure Rationalization #11, The King’s Pass. She’s a popular professor. Oh, well then behaving like she has is fine then! I presume her popularity is related to her stereotypical good racist wokism, illustrated by this quote: “I don’t want UC Berkeley to think that they can do this to a minority woman in order to protect a white, senior professor. It’s not acceptable.”
3. Remember the last “Naked Teacher” story? Here’s an update: Brianna Coppage, the former Missouri teacher who quit teaching to show her naughty bits on OnlyFans proudly revealed to Fox News that she has made nearly $1 million on the platform since she joined it over the summer. No regrets! Well, money is a priority, after all. For some, clearly not her, doing something that is healthy for society, contributes to a better society and quality of life, and involves more than the skills required of exploited women in the typical peep show is also an important value, indeed a life goal. How many teachers with Coppage’s values are teaching our children?
I don’t want to think about it.
4. Here’s the sliver of hope: Susanna Gibson, who was discussed here after she was discovered to be engaged in making webcam porn videos for cash while running for the Virginia House of Delegates, lost her race yesterday. The bad news, she just barely lost. Yes, nearly enough Democrats were ready to vote for a woman who is seen on video offering to piss on camera for money that she nearly got elected. But, after all, she’s in favor of “reproductive medical treatment”….
[Don’t ask what the graphic means unless you want another cultural literacy lecture…]
Ethics Alarms 
Pandora’s box?
Of course! And after all the evil things escaped, the last glow in the box was hope.
Pandora being dressed and coiffed like a 1990s stripper kind of threw me for a while there.
1. I will preface my upcoming statement with this: given all the publicity and press around this vote, every citizen in Ohio should have been well aware of the stakes.
I wonder if it’s any coincidence that this was voted on in an off-year election. One wonders what the tally would have been in next year’s Presidential election.
Zero coincidence I would say.
North Carolina offers counties the option of adding a half cent sales tax to fund ‘transportation’. The county where I live put that on the ballot one year and rejected it, by a decent margin if memory serves.
Did the county commissioners listen to the voters and say to themselves, “Well, the people don’t want this tax.” Of course not, they said to themselves “The people were just wrong and ignorant, especially those icky rural voters who were overwhelmingly against.”
So what did they do next?
Yes, they picked an off year election — in the spring, too, if I remember correctly. The only thing on the ballot was school board and city council elections, so there would have been nothing on the ballot in the rural part of the county. Except for this sales tax measure. So they did have to open all the polling stations but the sales tax measure was the only thing on the ballot in much of the county.
Of course it passed — that vote was rigged even more than the 2020 election.
I tell people the sales tax was passed under cover of darkness after failing in the daylight.
That was perhaps 10 years ago, and since then if I ever have an option I cross into another county to purchase groceries or other stuff. Petty, perhaps, but it’s my only avenue of protest. This town is a one party state — it votes maybe 80% Democratic. The last time we had a competitive Congressional race was 1994, well before I got here.
So the only real issues are which faction of the Democrats will get in.
Oh, and the sales tax? No we have no prospects for light rail in the foreseeable future, but we do still have free buses (and a pretty reasonable bus system, in fact).
“I wonder if it’s any coincidence that this was voted on in an off-year election. One wonders what the tally would have been in next year’s Presidential election.”
Atlanta-based syndicated radio talk show guy Erick Erickson noted that the demographics of the parties and their voting patterns usually generate lower Republican turnout in off-year elections. Demo-leaning suburban soccer moms vote then, but white working class males don’t, though they do show up for presidential elections. They also don’t contribute much to candidates, so dems have a spending edge, too.
Erickson’s worth listening to. He’s pretty knowledgeable, calm and level-headed, and not much prone to wishcasting or downplaying real problems.
We had a school bond that didn’t pass. It didn’t pass because it was to fix the HS roof. The problem was that they had passed a bond to fix the roof 7 years earlier…and the district used it to put new sod on the football field. The district thought people would have forgotten, but they didn’t. So, they held a ‘special election’ with the minimum legally required publicity and no media mention. They added a teacher pay raise bond as well and excused all teachers that day to vote. Someone called me and told me that day. I called people, they called people, and it didn’t pass…barely.
Well, I got the graphic…Just glad it wasn’t some rando baseball player you think we all should recognize 😉
Any time I see a reference to Pandora, I recall a local politician who was quoted in our local newspaper as saying, in reference to another local politician’s actions, “Well, now he’s opened up Pandora’s Box, and once you let Pandora out of the box it’s almost impossible to get her back in.”
Still cracks me up after twenty years.
Those things still make me laugh, like the Rep. a couple decades ago who, after condemning what he said were false allegations against him, then started talking about how he was being attacked by the “allegators.”
Wouldn’t alle-gators just be German gators? Do they have gators in Germany? I would be scared too if I was being attacked by any kind of gators…
Or am I misunderestimating my alle’s?
My first thought on the graphic was a Loreena McKennitt album cover. The color palette and theming is very reminiscent of “Book of Secrets”.