Bemusements

 You know, I have come to wonder as to how farmers can get any crops out of their fields.  I have been working on a project about plant diseases and pests for work (still loving the new job!) and it's incredible the range of things that threaten crops -- fungi, bacteria, viruses, and insects of every type.  Then, of course, there is the stuff the put on the crops to kill or mitigate the threats -- which can affect all sorts of other things, from killing off honeybees to pollution to carbon emissions (I know, I know).  And still stuff gets planted and harvested.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/with-roe-v-wade-in-peril-abortion-rights-activists-ask-where-are-the-men/ar-AARDzMJ?li=BBnb7Kz--

This is...chutzpah?  I mean, men really have no role in this, legally, which is indefensible, as -- unless things have changed since I took biology -- males play an equal role in creating babies, and have a more than equal role in supporting them, yet cannot play a part in the decision as to whether or not that life is to be brought into the world.  Indeed, the only way a man has only role in this is to hope that abortion is outlawed...

I've been listening to a lot of stuff on Youtube while at work -- lectures about various historical topics, mainly.  I have hit a bunch by Gary Gallagher (the prolific Civil War historian) and he is quite good.  Interesting; he seems to push back against the...wokeness, if you will, that seems to be the vogue.  For instance, he points out that everyone in the North was racist by the standards of today, but, as he says...so what, that's not interesting to study; the interesting thing is to see how quickly the North became less racist.  He is against pulling down statues, noting that they were put up at different times and for different reasons, and a much better approach is to put up new ones.  He is disdainful of the modern trend to disregard battles because that's what the people of the day concentrated on (to say nothing of their effects on the US).  He certainly obliterates any bit of Lost Cause stuff with vehemence, but then he goes and makes a historical case for, say, Great Man History.  It's pretty cool.  (His jokes about Joe Johnston are also pretty funny.)

Also, he said that the book that got him into the Civil War was the following -- which is the same one I loved and read many times when I was a kid!  Awesome!

https://www.amazon.com/American-Heritage-Picture-History-Civil/dp/0517385562/ref=pd_sbs_sccl_1_1/144-3182657-6472860?pd_rd_w=w02Rh&pf_rd_p=4b6b5072-e9bd-4f30-a3af-a1f5d52978ec&pf_rd_r=PWY49NM4BBCQQB91PAP1&pd_rd_r=e3acb2d0-a206-4383-b286-2adbfcd04913&pd_rd_wg=06wgs&pd_rd_i=0517385562&psc=1

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/07/gop-steers-clear-of-roe-in-2022-battlegrounds-00030880

Interesting...maybe.  On the one hand, I think they are largely correct; the economy is going to drive the midterms, and all they have to do is steady the buffs and we will be fine.  Of course, there is plenty that could go wrong, and this may help drive Dem turnout, and thus save them a few seats.  (I would love for a GOPer to run an ad saying that Dems care about abortion but not $5 gas, but that's me.) The Senate is also razor-thin, and we need to be careful there.

Of course, I wonder if this will boost GOP voters, as well.  For one thing, it reminds everyone that elections do matter -- the Trump wing of the Court (and I love saying that) has given us this glorious day (calling to mind Stonewall Jackson at Antietam).  Secondly, religious voters -- both Evangelicals and Catholics -- should want to go to the polls and ensure that what the Supremes have made no Congress may tear asunder.  Finally...does anyone think all these protests and such will help them?  I sort of want pro-death protestors swarming Masses and other religious services, as the ads will literally write themselves...