Views: 30
Monthly Archives: May 2022
Poem of the day
Rondeau
by Charles d’Orléans (1394-1465)
Le temps a laissié son manteau
De vent, de froidure et de pluie,
Et s’est vestu de broderie,
De soleil luyant, cler et beau.
Il n’y a beste ne oiseau,
Qu’en son jargon ne chante ou crie:
«Le temps a laissié son manteau.»
Rivière, fontaine et ruisseau
Portent, en livree jolie,
Gouttes d’argent d’orfeverie,
Chascun s’abille de nouveau :
Le temps a laissié son manteau.
Views: 34
Abortion and Judaism
Views: 34
Now the GOP doesn’t want to talk about abortion
From the NYT: “Even as some of their counterparts at the state level race forward with far-reaching abortion bans that could even affect some methods of contraception, Republicans appear determined to recast their position on the issue as one of moderation and avert the gaze of voters away from their anti-abortion-rights agenda. …
“The Republicans’ caution reflects the potential for the eventual ruling to change the midterm political landscape. Their leaders and candidates have built a campaign to reclaim control of the House and Senate around inflation, economic uncertainty, crime, border control and American doubts that President Biden, who is deeply unpopular, can right the ship.
“Now the prospect of eliminating abortion rights has added a tectonic change to American life into the mix, threatening to upend that focus.
“Democrats have signaled that they plan to use the coming decision as a rallying cry for voters to reject Republicans, portraying its implications as vast and unacceptable.”
Views: 59
Poem of the day
From Pippa Passes
by Robert Browning (1812-1889)
The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven—
All’s right with the world!
Views: 31
Poem of the day
The Funeral Bell
by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
One more is gone
Out of the busy throng
That tread these paths;
The church-bell tolls,
Its sad knell rolls
To many hearths.
Flower-bells toll not,
Their echoes roll not
Upon my ear;
There still, perchance,
That gentle spirit haunts
A fragrant bier.
Low lies the pall,
Lowly the mourners all
Their passage grope;
No sable hue
Mars the serene blue
Of heaven’s cope.
In distant dell
Faint sounds the funeral bell;
A heavenly chime;
Some poet there
Weaves the light-burthened air
Into sweet rhyme.
Views: 31
What’s to come … maybe
“In Roe, the justices ruled the right to an abortion arose out of a right to privacy, which isn’t explicitly spelled out in the Constitution but rather assembled through the guarantees of the 14th Amendment. Over the decades, the Supreme Court has built a Jenga tower of legal reasoning around the existence of that right to privacy and how rights may be extrapolated from the Constitution. Pull out one block, like Roe, and you threaten to topple the whole thing, experts say. …
“In Roe, the justices ruled the right to an abortion arose out of a right to privacy, which isn’t explicitly spelled out in the Constitution but rather assembled through the guarantees of the 14th Amendment. Over the decades, the Supreme Court has built a Jenga tower of legal reasoning around the existence of that right to privacy and how rights may be extrapolated from the Constitution. Pull out one block, like Roe, and you threaten to topple the whole thing, experts say.”
?Any sort of civil rights or constitutional rights that people have won over the last 50 years is open for discussion. I mean, why not??
Views: 49
Poem of the day
A su retrato
by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695)
Este que ves, engaño colorido,
que, del arte ostentando los primores,
con falsos silogismos de colores
es cauteloso engaño del sentido;
Éste, en quien la lisonja ha pretendido
excusar de los años los horrores,
y venciendo del tiempo los rigores
triunfar de la vejez y del olvido,
Es un vano artificio del cuidado,
es una flor al viento delicada,
es un resguardo inútil para el hado:
Es una necia diligencia errada,
es un afán caduco y, bien mirado,
es cadáver, es polvo, es sombra, es nada.
Views: 24
Poem of the day
Rondeau
by Guillaume de Machault (c. 1300-1377)
Blanche com lis, plus que rose vermeille,
Resplendissant com rubis d’Oriant,
En remirant vo viauté nonpareille,
Blanche com lis, plus que rose vermeille,
Sui si ravis que mes cuers toudis veille
Afin que serve a loy de fin amant,
Blanche com lys, plus que rose vermeille,
Resplendissant com rubis d’Oriant.
Views: 26
Tips for traveling on a budget
From the New York Times.
Views: 34