Did you notice this little news article? What happened to those brutal times of yesteryear when the local Marshal didn’t allow the cowboys to take their guns to town? Now 150 years later any ne’er-do-well can drop into the Western Trails (or Long Branch if you are more familiar with the television) with a chip on his shoulder and a 9mm Glock on his hip scratching his back with an AR-15.
Continue reading “Where’s Matt Dillon When You Need Him?”Tag: Mississippi
If it quacks like a duck …
The Supreme Court is right now hearing arguments that sections of the Voting Rights Act signed by Lyndon Johnson are no longer applicable because the South has changed and no longer exhibits racial or discriminatory elements. This case was raised by a local government entity in Alabama.
Continue reading “If it quacks like a duck …”Happy Fertilization Day To Me …
I came across this fun but ultimately serious compilation of legal difficulties that might arise with the law (or Constitutional Amendment as being voted on in Mississippi) declaring that a fertilized human egg is an real person. Of course this law is intended to invalidate any other Federal laws that might make abortion legal, but there are many other ramifications. I have reprinted the list of concerns published by Slate but invite you to continue the list with all the response to the article. I am already singing Happy Fertilization Day To Me!
- If you are legal person at fertilization, does that mean you could drink at 20 years and three months? Could you drive at 15 and three months? Could you vote at age 17, and collect Social Security at 64?
- For legal purposes, would your birthday still be your “birth” day? Or your fertilization day?
- Could you get a tax deduction for your dependent embryo?
- Could you post ultrasound photos of your fetus (naked) on Facebook? Or would that be child pornography?
- Could you arrest women for smoking or drinking while pregnant? Could the state file a child abuse case against a mother who didn’t wear a seatbelt or otherwise endangered her fetus?
- Would you be an American citizen if you were conceived in Mississippi but born elsewhere? Could there be “anchor babies” whose parents come to the United States, have sex, and then return home to Mexico for their baby’s birth?
- What about ectopic pregnancies? If the embryo is not removed, it could kill the mother. Should the mother or the doctor be prosecuted for manslaughter if they remove it? Maybe it would be fairer to prosecute the embryo. If the fertilized egg is a person, isn’t that person trying to commit murder-suicide?
- What about freezing fertilized embryos? Would that be allowed? And why? If you’re freezing an embryo indefinitely, isn’t that effectively imprisoning it? We don’t freeze people.
- If a doctor doesn’t take all possible steps to stop a miscarriage, would that be manslaughter?
- How would you determine the date of conception?
- If a woman eats food contaminated by Listeria and miscarries, could the agribusiness be prosecuted for murder?
- If you move to Mississippi from another state, would you legally be a year older?
- How would it affect the census?
- What would happen to astrological signs? Would I no longer be an Aquarius?
And one of my favorite responses from the readers: Could a pregnant woman legally use the HOV lanes? Art Linkletter said it back in the fifties—People are Funny—but it is now clear that some people are just bat-shit loony tunes.
A Celebration of Reading 