On January 22, 1973, the US Supreme Court Issued its decision in the case of Roe v Wade. In that case, the court took some limited cognizance of the idea that women should have a right to own and control their own persons and bodies including making health, medical, and reproductive decisions, but also held that that right needed to be balanced against the overriding interests of dominionists, theocrats and other religionists in owning and regulating women and their lives and behaviors. They accordingly granted women a limited right to choose to have an abortion but also held that these others had the right to forbid and prohibit such a course after the second trimester of pregnancy. This case became a political football with pro and anti factions using their support or opposition to solicit votes.
It is a sad commentary on the status of women in this country that the court had to step in and grant women the right to own and control their persons and bodies, and sadder yet that it was empowered to do so. Worse yet, it was also empowered to restrict and limit that right and, yet worse, it chose to do so. Lastly, a subsequent iteration of that same court saw fit, on June 24,2022 to overturn Roe, extinguishing even that limited right of self ownership which was, to an extent, taken for granted since the earliest days of the settler colonization of this continent. Deeply religious countries like Spain, home of "Their Most Catholic Majesties", Ferdinand and Isabella, and their famous inquisition(s) have no difficulty according women this fundamental right, but the U.S. for all of its braggadocio and posturing with respect to human rights and democracy, will not. While not completely chattels, at least, not in many cases, women are still vastly less than equal to their male counterparts, owned and controlled in their persons and bodies by courts, legislators and governors in conjunction with their parents during their early lives and their husbands later on. USA, The land of the Not Quite Free yet.
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On this day in history:
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1879 – The Zulu defeated the British at the Battle of Isandlwana
1879 – The British defeated the Zulu at the Battle of Rorke's Drift
1890 – The United Mine Workers of America was founded
1944 – Allied forces attacked Anzio and Nettuno
1946 – Central Intelligence Group (to become the CIA)was created
1947 – KTLA, the first commercial TV station west of the Mississippi, began operation.
1968 – Apollo 5 took off with the first Lunar module
1970 – The Boeing 747's maiden commercial flight
1971 – The Singapore Declaration, one of the two most important documents to the uncodified constitution of the Commonwealth of Nations, was issued.
1973 – Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton granted women limited control over their bodies for the first six months of pregnancy (only)
1987 – Philippine security forces opened fire on a crowd of 10,000–15,000
demonstrators at Malacañang Palace, Manila, killing 13.
1998 – Space shuttle Endeavour launches to dock with the Russian space station Mir
2006 – Evo Morales became the first indigenous President of Boliva
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Some people who were born on this day:
“Money is a great servant but a bad master.”
~~ Francis Bacon
1552 – Walter Raleigh, imperialist ne'er-do-well who popularized tobacco
1561 – Francis Bacon, philisopher, scientist, empiricist, author and politician
1573 – John Donne, poet
1592 – Pierre Gassendi, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher
1645 – William Kidd, businessman
1729 – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, philosopher
1733 – Philip Carteret, admiral and explorer, discovered Pitcairn Island
1788 – Lord Byron, poet
1796 – Karl Ernst Claus, chemist, botanist, and academic, discovered ruthenium
1849 – August Strindberg, novelist, poet, painter, and playwright
1858 – Beatrice Webb, sociologist, economist, socialist and reformer
1865 – Wilbur Scoville, chemist and pharmacist, inventor of the scoville unit and scoville scale
1879 – Francis Picabia, painter and poet
1887 – Helen Hoyt, poet and author
1891 – Antonio Gramsci, philosopher and politician, founding member of the CPI
1897 – Dilipkumar Roy, musician, musicologist, novelist, poet and essayist.
1898 – Sergei Eisenstein, screenwriter and director
1904 – George Balanchine, dancer and choreographer
1906 – Robert E. Howard, author, created conan the barbarian
1908 – Lev Landau, physicist and academic,
1922 – Howard Moss, poet, playwright and critic
1924 – J. J. Johnson, trombonist and composer
1931 – Sam Cooke, singer and songwriter
1936 – Alan J. Heeger, physicist and chemist,
1946 – Malcolm McLaren, singer, songwriter and manager
1949 – Steve Perry, singer, songwriter, and producer
1956 – Steve Riley, drummer
1960 – Michael Hutchence, singer and songwriter
1962 – Jimmy Herring, guitarist
1965 – Steven Adler, drummer
1968 – Heath, singer, songwriter and bass player
1977 – Mario Domm, singer, songwriter, pianist, and producer
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Some people who died on this day:
There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.
~~ Lyndon B Johnson
1170 – Wang Chongyang, Daoist and co-founder of the Quanzhen School
1599 – Cristofano Malvezzi, organist and composer
1840 – Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, physician, physiologist, and anthropologist
1900 – David Edward Hughes, physicist, co-invented the microphone
1901 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom
1922 – Camille Jordan, mathematician and academic
1925 – Fanny Bullock Workman, geographer, cartographer, and mountain climber
1930 – Stephen Mather, businessman and conservationist,
1945 – Else Lasker-Schüler, poet and playwright
1973 – Lyndon B. Johnson, the last Johnson Democrat
1993 – Kōbō Abe, playwright, novelist, and photographer
2004 – Billy May, trumpet player and composer
2005 – Consuelo Velázquez, Mexican pianist and songwriter
2018 – Ursula K. Le Guin, sci-fi and fantasy novelist
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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
International Sweatpants Day
National Hot Sauce Day
Roe vs. Wade Day
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Today's Tunes
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Central Intelligence (HEH) Group
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KTLA TV
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Walter Raleigh
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William Kidd
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Wilbur Scoville
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Antonio Gramsci
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Dilipkumar Roy
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J. J. Johnson
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Sam Cooke
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Steve Perry
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Michael Hutchence
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Jimmy Herring
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Steven Adler
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Heath
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Queen Victoria
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Billy May
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Consuelo Velázquez
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Bonus Sam Cooke
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I won't be around much - it's an infusion day and we're getting ready to leave town tomorrow for a while
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Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?
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Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com
Open Thread, Roe v Wade, UMW, CIA, KTLA, Bacon, Donne, Gassendi, Gramsci, Sam Cooke, Scoville, Steven Adler, Heath, Consuelo Velázquez