Leonard Zwelling

The newspapers and editorial columns are filled with liberal outrage and feckless speculation about who is behind the recent leak of the draft document from the Supreme Court that suggests the end of the Roe v. Wade period of abortion rights in America.

But this is by no means the first leak to cause a branch of the federal government headaches

On April 25, the BW and I had the strangest experience that I have ever had on a golf course (and I have had some strange ones including elks, snakes and greens made of sand that required raking after putting in Tasmania).

For people on the extremes of this issue, the diehard pro-lifers and pro-choicers, the answer is no. You are either with them or you are the enemy.

However, the fact is there may well be a middle ground and some states may actually find it if, as is presumed, the Supreme Court upholds the Mississippi 15-week ban on abortion and perhaps overturns Roe v. Wade. If this does in fact occur, the rules on abortion will revert to being made by the individual states. Some states have already passed trigger laws that will go into effect the minute Roe is undone that ban abortions as early as six weeks after conception. Texas is one of these states. As you can imagine, these are mostly in Red America. But again, is there a potential middle ground and what could a middle ground look like?

There’s an important essay in The New York Times Sunday Review on May 1 about the candidacy of J. D. Vance for the open Senate seat in Ohio. Mr. Vance is the best-selling author of Hillbilly Elegy, an autobiographical description of his rise from poverty in Middleton, Ohio to Yale Law School and now he’s parlaying his fame into a run for the U.S. Senate. Mr. Vance successfully competed for the greatest prize on the Republican side of the aisle, Donald Trump’s endorsement. If Vance should win the primary and the general, it will crystalize what has profoundly changed in the United States over the past five or six years and further ensconce Mr. Trump as a once and future king as well as a king maker.

I am happy to have you correct me, but I thought that the latest data demonstrated that the only masks that really make a difference in stopping the spread of Covid or protecting the uninfected wearer are N95 masks. The vast majority of the masks that I saw on the airplanes to and from Hawai’i were not N95 masks. So, what the heck are we really doing? Is anyone really protecting themselves or anyone else by wearing a non-N95 mask?

I came across this new organization (Country First) that might be worth a look for anyone who cannot find a political home in the current Democratic or Republican Parties.  It was started by retiring Republican member of Congress Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. He is advocating for more voter participation, especially in primaries and an end to the repetitive lying going on from both sides of the political aisle.

I, for one, signed up (it was free, but you can donate if you like).

If we are to answer that question based on the success of nations, we might answer in the affirmative.

No nation has progressed more rapidly in the drive to prominence and dominance than has the People’s Republic of China. The nation is huge, both in land mass and in population. It is the second biggest economy on Earth and makes all kinds of stuff that everyone uses. Its merchandise fills Target and Wal-Mart.

If you are fortunate in your life, you may get the chance to visit many places and live in some of them and call them home. I have been blessed in this manner.

There are four places I consider my home.

One of the nuances of the Texas law banning abortion after only six weeks of gestation of the fetus is that the main form of enforcement is to have individual citizens turn in people they think are breaking the law. This, by the way, would include potentially guilty Uber drivers who knowingly transported pregnant women to abortion clinics after the sixth week of pregnancy. I’m not sure how the Uber driver would know these facts, but he or she is liable under the law.

Governor Abbott and the state legislature have thus deputized average citizens to become the abortion police in lieu of the usual authority for such matters, the real police. This is a terrible idea on many levels, not the least of which is that it turns innocent Texans into rats and weaponizes regular citizens.

Nothing so identifies me as those two words for if you have survived internal medical training at Duke, you have run the gantlet and come out the other side. You have stepped into the cauldron of fire and lived. You have weathered the arena and fought on. Why is this so?