Do unborn children have a right to life?

Do unborn children have a right to life? 

Yes, the right to life is a right to not be executed. Because their mothers cannot be executed while pregnant, this right has always been secure.

Do unborn children have a right to vengeance against those who harm their mothers?

Yes, but this law also affirms a federal right to abortion and this should have been argued in Dobbs.

What are liberty interests regarding abortion?

For women, the right to have available abortion providers and to be immune to questioning on whether the police have a power to question them about receiving a therapeutic abortion.

Doctors want to provide the best care for their patients, which includes both saving their lives and their health - because carrying a pregnancy doomed by a life ending defect is increasingly harmful as the pregnancy is long and immunity from prosecution, investigation and their freedom to participate in their medical society - and for others to participate as well. The latter is a property right. Making abortion illegal means that the government must be given access to the medical records of their patients - and subject doctors to second guessing as to when the pregnancy began. This will stop some doctors from performing procedures to end the pregnancy when the child is already dead - which risks the life of the mother - not just her health.

Medical societies have a freedom of association right to police their membership, as non-members are already prohibited from performing abortions - and no one is arguing that this should change. The problem may be that some doctors do not like the concept of abortion - so rather than arguing the issue internally, they seek common cause with other elites in the political realm.

State government is, by nature, more conservative. Most voters don't pay attention to Assembly elections, especially liberal voters. Elites, like doctors, lawyers and clergy, have an outsized influence - especially the latter - although COVID has decreased this. People thought missing services was a sin, especially Catholics. Making Mass optional changed that perception. This leaves Catholics who are on the fence on abortion immune from October letters from the bishop on who to vote for.

BTW, on the God issue - God does not care about the issue. He has no sovereignty or rights to protect. Any God who needs such assistance is a reflection of the clergy, not the divinity. Souls also are fine with leaving the planet and the associated pain and going back to Heaven. People get squeamish about those abortion procedures which cause a pain reaction when performed - but the antidote for that is sedation (rather than simply stopping the heart with sodium chloride - which is painful) or for confining later term abortion to induction of labor - because no one has a right to not be born.

The ACLU and National Center for Abortion Rights made a mistake in not answering the questions in the Dobbs oral argument regarding viability. Viability is the ability to be born - in essence, citizenship. This is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, which stops the states from changing that boundary. Ceding that point would give power to Congress to ban abortion before viability. That was too much of a concession for the Respondents, whose argument was based on a right to abortion rather than denying the power of state government. Now state government has the power it sought.

This issue is as much about power as rights. The Church wants power over its members and employees (its called the freedom of the Church - which it invokes in gay marriage cases - wrongly). The GOP wants power in states where they are favored by religious demography - but again, that power is waning and there is a reaction to Dobbs. 

Vice President Harris thought this would help her win the White House, not counting on both mid-range Catholics for whom a federal abortion law is a bridge too far - so they stayed home - and sexism in the Black and Hispanic voting blocs. Ignoring abortion was Obama's secret sauce. Catholic surrogates - like me - carried the water on this. Harris and Clinton made promises that made some uncomfortable.

This leads us to the core question: the control of men over women's bodies. In some states, they say it out loud by requiring that fathers be notified and allow an abortion to occur. Most places they claim that this is not one of their intentions. These people are lying. Note the pregnant pauses in the video when I bring that subject up. Not without irony.

When talking about a right to abortion, the Respondents should have gone there rather than citing precedent. If the women had been united on this point, Roberts would have voted with them.

Men want to know when their partners are pregnant - not just their wives. It really is about control and the basic rights of women over their lives.

Trump Greenland and Europe

Trump is a dottering old fool. Make a deal with him with a secret protocol that makes it expire on noon on January 20, 2029 - or sooner if God wills it.

There may be intelligence that calls for a greater American-Canadian Coast Guard presence to protect Greenland's coast and manage these waterways. She has a direct line with Moscow and may be operating on their intelligence - although attributing that factor to Putin is like doing so with Trump.

The important point is to protect the rights of the Greenland Inuit. Frankly, they should be offered common government with their Canadian brothers and sisters in Nunavut territory.  As long as they are protected from forced relocation, this is by far the best solution.

That North America and Eurasia are different continents is a fiction - and an incorrect one. The North Atlantic Ridge is growth within the larger plate - not the formation of a proto-continent. Every mountain is not a boundary - see Hawai'i as an example of this.

There is no fool like an old fool - and as long as Putin and Trump don't do anything nuclear, its all good.

Funny thing is, if anyone notices this video, Trump will always assume that any deal made has this intent. Too fun.

Adam Marblestone – AI is missing something fundamental about the brain

Not sure if evolution is the right thing to look at. Individuation from childhood to adolescence may be a better model to try to replicate. A good model to base this study on is Socionics or Jungian Social Psychology (which is source for Myers Briggs' work). This becomes really useful when overlaid onto the cultural matrix of Mary Douglas - with some modifications base on political philosophy and social theory. Doing this can give a model of artificial intelligence which does not replace people, but rather serves them in dealing with society or within an organization - an environmental tool so that people in one way of life - say academy or hierarchy - can behave appropriately with or understand egalitarian, sectarian or reactionary organizations, ways of life; also individualists and the mostly unenlightened majority (working class, fatalists, etc. - the last being most consumers and workers, the people who follow the rules but do not make them and who don't want to join any movement or escape from society). An AI model of this kind can also help people migrate to a new way of life - both socially and cognitively.

Useful Astronomy

Just saw this story:

https://theconversation.com/what-is-below-earth-since-space-is-present-in-every-direction-245348

The answer was not really given. The author relied on explaining the ways to define the question - but did not follow through.

I am reframing in this video, which has me think through the parameters, which help define the final question - which I will now state:

TIMEFRAME going forward: The point in local time when the collision of the Milky Way with Andromeda changes the orbit of Sol within the Milky Way - 

OR

the point at which Terra is rendered uninhabitable through natural progression - rather something unexpected like a nuclear war or collision which ends all life.

WHICHEVER COMES FIRST.

SPATIAL BUBBLE: 

POSSIBLE ASSUMPTIONS - explain each

1. No travel at all - so radius of the bubble is the thickness of the galactic cloud from the point that is perpendicular to a plane at the center of the galaxy - but the bubble itself moves based on the current position of Sol. In other words, since we are not at the plane described above, some point outside the cloud will be within the bubble at certain times.

MOTION OPTIONS:

2a. Travel by plasma drive where the ejecta comes from some stored Uranium until the Uranium is gone - one way trip. Finesse the impossibilities and go with it. For this one, assume departure times after 2100. Assume acceleration to .5C, with travel at that velocity (no boost) until deceleration at the same rate until we hit something.

2b. Same assumptions, but assume 1G acceleration on each end of the trip with a .5C speed limit.

Question: Will travelers hit anything, ever, and if so what and when. Leave the end time indeterminate.

3. Instantaneous travel through either wormhole or astral means (assuming ascension starting at 3000 CE. Same end date with regard to collision with Andromeda.

PERCEPTION:

What exists inside that bubble from each of these POVs - both in terms of what will be seen with C being the limit AND what will actually be at each point of time if the old assumption on C (as being infinite) were used. Ignore objects outside the bubble's path.

DATA TARGETS:

What objects will be seen and/or be present for the entire period of the study and what events of note will happen during that time - particularly collisions with the solar system.

REWARD: I assume a Nobel Prize in Physics for publication of that model.

There's an Actual Reason You Can't Recycle Plastic

Ounce for ounce, how does burning waste plastic compare to flaring? On recycling v. virgin plastic - society could tax the new stuff and use that revenue to subsidize recycling. This is essentially how a carbon tax works.

Happy New Year?

Happy New Year!. So far, its been busy - ruining my vacation.

Venezuela: I am a defense Democrat, as I was a defense Republican (an extinct species) and was never a defense Green (no such thing). I am perfectly happy with getting Russia out of the country. Slava Ukrani!

American oil companies are the ones who would fix their infrastructure anyway - and it needed doing. As for the Maduros? SDNY have jurisdiction  and the extraterritorial precedent already exists under the Noriega case. Nothing new here.

Minneapolis: The situation makes me sick. The ICE agent behaved as badly as any American cop, but is protected from lawsuit under sovereign immunity - unless the case gives us a chance to relitigate the issue. Same issues, different day. The local government is right - the the F out of Minnesota.

Greenland: There would be no change if the US purchased it. For purposes of defense - we already have a base there. It is already NATO territory - and therefore under control in times of war of an American Supreme Commander. On both Canada and Greenland, the American Coast Guard and Navy would likely police any issues involving the international waters - or local waters - so no change.

Extraction: For all practical purposes, the citizens of Greenland would have tribal status as native Americas. Their local government would be tribal government. Any attempt of extraction would likely lead to attention to whether American tribes can stop extraction on their land. On Greenland, there would have to be a treaty - and there is no way the locals would let extraction take place under any arrangement.

If Trump had competent staff, they would already have said this. If the American media had competent staff, this would already be reported. Same old same old.

Canada: Provincial finance and healthcare would stay the same. The only difference is that - with the possible but unlikely exception of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - every province would be solid Blue - especially Ontario. This would forever consign the Republican Party to minority status in the Senate, the House and the Electoral College. 

If Trump had competent staff, which he does not, this issue would drop. He needed people from the Hoover Institute, not the Heritage Foundation. Same for American media talking heads. Same old, same old.

Why 2026 Will Be Worse Than 2008 (THE GREAT RESET 2.0)

Net interest on the debt is rolled over into new debt - where it becomes the leverage for capitalism to occur. Of course, if the asset markets this debt backs collapse some of the investors may leave the field - selling their bonds as they go.

The cure for the nation on the debt - and to raise GDP - is to decrease the savings sector by raising tax rates on corporations, high income individuals, dividends, pass through income and capital gains and increase tax benefits for lower income individuals - those who make under $130,000 - with phase out beginning at $80,000.

Is Degrowth the Only Answer?

Degrowth advocates call on policy makers and scientists to do something without offering options. They deal from values rather than making plans themselves. They like getting screen time but refuse to go beyond the egalitarian coalition, because the obvious solution to warming (and cooling Barents Sea) is to abandon gasoline fuel for cars and go to some kind of tethered electric vehicle powered by small modular reactors. That last bit is what they can't face.

How a 15th-Century Cardinal Changed Philosophy Forever

This is approaching the universalism of Spinoza, the humility Augustine at the shore, the quantum mechanics of Feynman (all is quantum fields) and the radical love found in Near Death Experiences. Call it profound humility. You cannot really Grok it in this life, but will understand it completely in the next. That simple and that complex. All that there is left to do is radical dependence on God for all things - including personal development - and ultimate acceptance of all Others - seeing God in them and being God to them. Impossible to do without God - but when attempted is the experience of the kingdom of God in this life.

5 Jesus Quotes That Don’t Mean What You Were Always Told — According to ...

What's BETWEEN the Atoms? Feynman's Answer Will Break Your Brain

So, is the field Being itself, with the active clumps the knowledge of the field. Almost theological. Very interesting. Very Spinoza.

 Aside from spirituality, this explanation of quantum physics ends any problem in physics.

Has Earth Already Crossed MAJOR Tipping Points? | Full Episode | Weather...

Forget AMOC collapse. The Earth's rotation will keep it alive. The real tipping point is the heating of Barents Sea. Interview Sigard Lind in Norway. Also, to find out how Barents Sea gets warm due to the westerly winds, contact Richard Seager.  Why is Barents Sea important. It has been warming at many times the rest of the world's oceans and it is next to the Arctic Ocean. The other links are minor by comparison. What has tipped? The heating of Barents has broken the air conditioner for the northern hemisphere. We have record heat in many places every year - or every 2 of 3 years - since 2016. Lately it has been every year. We have passed the tipping point.

Why Is Christmas on December 25th? | Dr. Tom Schmidt

This is the point where magicism and literalism consolidated in the life of the Church. Where form became more important than truth and where forgiveness had to be blessed rather than mutually given. Adam and Eve went from being Jewish myth about the nature of blame and knowledge of evil being corrosive to now being historical. This gave power to the hierarchy - making it part of the ruling class - eventually taking it over. 

As far as the trope about Christianity copying Greco-Romanism, the opposite is true. Greco-Roman culture migrated from Carthage, which was brought there by Phoenicians from the Levant - including the myth of a Messiah who would restore man to fellowship with God. Kronos came from El, not the other way around.

Why is America Intentionally Throwing Away its Global Power?

Only $4 Trillion of the national debt is held by official accounts for foreign governments - which is simply the scaffolding for trade. The remainder of foreign holdings, as well as a significant portion of mutual fund holdings and direct bond holdings are held by the wealthy and very wealthy. The top 1% holds approximately half of that class of debt, with the top 0.1% holding most of that. On the whole, after taking out official accounts held by the federal government, state governments and foreign governments - but not including social security, the debt held for households and the rich is under $30T, with half of that held by the rich and the other half held in retirement and pension accounts and the social security trust fund. 

High interest debt - $15T - would go to better instruments - such as the Euro - if the Euro were backed by dedicated revenue streams rather than central bank operations - but because the Euro is not backed in that manner, this portion of the national debt is what backstops speculation in the financial markets. The reason it is held is because such markets tend to fall. When they do, the rich can fall back on their debt holdings. Unless the very wealthy want to bring down the whole system, the debt is a safe bet.

Derek Turner - Philosophy of Transhumanism & Artificial Intelligence (AI)

We cannot biologically create implants - so technically transitioning would not be speciation. More like mutilation. Bones could certainly be replaced with rods entirely, but that would end the ability to make red blood cells - especially if the thigh bone were replaced. To have emotions, one must have some kind of endocrine system - which takes natural processes to maintain unless you addict yourself to artificial hormones. "Uploading" one's consciousness is not a real thing. You can certainly create an AI duplicate with memories intact - but its sensory functions would go from experiencing the world to experiencing what it is like to be a computer. Boring. 

The actual transcendence at what is considered death is not stopped by creating an AI duplicate. Everyone still has to face the God Gamble - but if you relate to God as absolutely loving (which NDE survivors report) then you can junk all the philosophy of a just god. God needs no justification to love its creation nor does it have rights that creation must respect - again, justification implies legalism. God is beyond that. Any moral system that does not start there says more about its priesthood than its god. Any god that has needs is not God. Period.

What to do with Pete

The generals cannot simply refuse all orders all of the time. Gone are the days they could take the Roman solution. They could ask a friendly member of Congress to impeach and remove him - although that seems to be foreclosed for partisan reasons. That leaves one option - draft him, arrest him (even without drafting him) and deliver him to the Hague as a war criminal. Discuss.

Is A New Constitutional Convention Around the Corner? | Civics Made Easy

State legislators and members of congress serve on the same local party committees. There is no incentive for them to really call a convention. Forget term limits.

The agenda to undo the civil law related to the Constitution is profoundly reactionary, while the balanced budget amendment is essentially the minority party protection amendment because the work around requires that running a deficit happen only when an adequate number of votes exists - more than any majority party usually has.

Congress has no rules for dealing with convention calls. Do they expire with each Congress or are calls permanent? The rules do not say and need to be clarified. Must they be on a single issue or are they plenary in nature? Again, Congress needs to clarify this in its rules. Currently, with no rule, Congress can ignore calls under the political question doctrine. They cannot limit what a convention talks about - so the Congress, at a minimum (and a maximum) specify that all convention calls from the states run out at the end of each Congress. This provides the  certainty needed to actually call a convention - although it raises a high bar.

As for likely amendments (convention or not), expect in the future the creation of regional vice presidents directly elected, the creation of regional legislatures and a national caucus which - with the regional VPs - elects the President and Vice President, a provision allowing different value added tax rates for each region (which can be used to limit taxing and spending in the region- with a regional balanced budget requirement that requires national caucus approval to breach) and a provision to add regions to the Union - with an end to the requirement for natural born citizenship and specifying that regions must acknowledge the nature of individual rights as inalienable to be admitted.

Finally, unless America first transitions from capitalist speculation to large scale employee ownership and economic cooperation, an ever increasing national debt is essential for liquidity. The nation can either borrow from rich people and pay them back with interest - allowing them to use their bonds as leverage for other investment - or we can simply tax it away from them, pay down the debt and redistribute some of this taxation to people who will consume the money rather than save it.