Griswold, Grrr

What added fuel to the brouhaha about Ms. Miers nomination, is that she claimed to have a different view of Griswold's position on privacy than Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Having so stated, her constitutional credentials were subsequently impugned.

If this is how highly placed lawyers of wide and diverse legal experience can be so easily relegated to the status of mindless naifs, what about us poor citizenry? Is our constitution so abstruse that we dare not attempt to understand it? Have we decerebrate non-legals been dispatched to the sheep pen, to be herded and condescended to by an elite group of self-anointed "legal" shepherds?

Here in basic English is what the Supreme Court decided on 6.7.1965

(Dissenters ~ Hugo Black and Potter Stewart)

"Though the Constitution does not explicitly protect a general right to privacy, the various guarantees within the Bill of Rights create penumbras, or zones, that establish a right to privacy. Together, the First, Third, Fourth and Ninth Amendments, create a new constitutional right, the right to privacy in marital relations. The Connecticut statute conflicts with the exercise of this right and is therefore null and void."

The Court rightly ruled that Connecticut had no authority to enact a statute that forbids married people from seeking contraceptive advice, especially in the privacy of their own home. But to claim to see a new right to privacy in marital relations by simply superimposing several amendments upon each other, is a stretch for any mortal imagination.

Was Griswold v. Connecticut a judicial epiphany? To me it was an exercise in convoluted logic. For the Court to have extracted certitude from penumbras, is not unlike a magician pulling a rabbit from an empty hat. I believe the framers prudently refrained from cluttering the constitution with universally accepted common law. They surely knew that from its remotest days in the caves, humanity never had any problem in defining and enjoying natural and mutually respected parameters of general privacy.

Privacy, privacy, what penumbrous travesties thy name embraces!

Hey there!

From a lipstick advertisement:

"Lips are sensuous, sexy, pouty and kissable. It's the erotic zone, the most vulnerable and the most expressive feature of a woman. It doesn't matter that you have thin lips or thick. You can make your lips attractive if you know how to treat them right."

From a science article on apes:

"A large and nearly hairless patch of skin around the genital area of female apes (the vulva) becomes very prominent (and quite visible) when they are in estrus. These areas swell with fluids and turn bright pink or red due to hormonal changes that occur in preparation for ovulation. Males become highly attentive to the females at this time."

Is there a connection? ~ Yes, indeed . . .

Because women are "clothed" and no longer "knuckles to the ground" like the apes, their vulvae are not visible. But a woman can convey an equally effective (vulval) message by accentuating the redness, fullness and moisture of her oral lips. By doing so, she can induce men to believe (at a pschologically unconscious level) that they are looking at her vulva. If her lips are reddened, glossy and engorged, it vividly suggests to them that she is ovulating and that she is sexually receptive (provided modern day men are as acutely perceptive as male apes!)

Whither goest we?

Why are there not 9 columns in front?

What each of us knows about Harriet Miers is derived from what we choose to read, see and hear about her. So let us at least admit to ourselves that our impressions of her have been carefully preshaped by others. In truth, none of us possesses bona fide grounds to make a meaningful assessment of this woman. But we all have our own special set of cookie forms, into which we pour our political batter.

As far as we know, no Supreme Court justice, past or present, was divinely created. Nor should we take for granted their judicial caliber or erudition. Do any of us remember the names of those mindless justices who came up with that dreadful Dred Scott decision, that abomination which decided that blacks are not fully human? And while we are naming, were it not that the Court is now so prominent in the news, how many of us could list the names of every justice sitting on its bench today. {} Ironic footnote: Dred Scott's wife's name was Harriet.

As long as Harriet Miers is indeed fully credentialed, let the constitutional confirmation process begin. And let us hope that each King Solomon on the Judiciary Committee has the wisdom to do prudent interrogating and draw appropriate conclusions. Meanwhile, light your ovens and bake your cookies, chacun a son gout.

Surfing the Styx

Lenore and I have been "under the weather" recently. She has had paroxysms of tachycardia (rapid heart rate) accompanied by shock level blood pressure readings while I have had a major upper respiratory infection with incessant coughing and undislodgeable phlegm in my nasopharynx. After an intensive medical workup, Lenore was given new medication and to our great relief, it worked. As for me, with constant hawking (heard even by my neighbors) and dosing myself liberally with mucolytics, I am almost back to a semblance of 92-year old normalcy. May this respite last. Though we found ourselves adrift on the river Styx, we did find a snug spot on its lee bank. Our anchor is out with lots of scope and so far it seems to be holding.

Through our travail, I have not been oblivious to the fact that so very much is happening all over the world. In my entire life I cannot recall a similar period of unremitting disasters and people going out of their way to address each other with inexcusable rancor and hostility. If this isn't Armageddon, it is its closest living relative. As soon as I can collect my senses, and reposition my cerebrum on its binnacle, I mean to resume my writing, about man’s inhumanity to man. In the meantime, if you have actually got this far, thank you for your indulgence and tenacity.

During our protracted disquietude, I became addicted to that popular Japanese puzzle game called Sudoku. Though published regularly by some newspapers, the program can be bought and downloaded from the Internet for about $20. My preference is to do the puzzle on my computer. And like Hercule Poirot was fond of saying ~ "You have to keep those little grey cells alive and active."