Thoughts of a retired physician

  First, the nice part. Several days ago, Margan and I got back from a 2600-mile road trip that included Grand Canyon National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Denver (visiting family for 5 days), and Santa Fe. Tons of photographs to process. I used some of them for prior blog posts. All in all, delightful, and we escaped Covid thanks to masks and excellent planning on Margan’s part. Now, the not-so-nice part. I am angry as hell with the Republican Party, which has now flagrantly shown itself to be a bunch of crazies. We left Altadena seething with the likely decision of the Supreme Court to end protections for abortion after 50 years. The six conservatives on SCOTUS conspired (yes, they did) to overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade decision after they lied at their confirmation hearings in the Senate (yes, they lied). Of course, the anti-abortion crowd is ecstatic because of the nonsensical beliefs that an embryo is the same as a sentient, ambulatory human being and the concurrent idea that a

  Still on vacation. Utah above. On to Santa Fe, NM tomorrow for two days, then Flagstaff, then home. Keeping an eye on news and such. It SNOWED yesterday here in Colorado – threw my first snowball this morning in years!

  On vacation – this was on our way into Moab, Utah on US 191. Two quick thoughts. We have again had several mass shootings, with the one in Buffalo committed by an 18 year-old radicalized to believe that white people are being replaced by people of color. Too many guns, too many conspiracy theories, too much hatred and bigotry. And having come through Grand Canyon National Park, it is obvious that the vast majority of Americans are done with the Covid pandemic. The virus is not done with us. Stay safe and expect recurrent bad times from Covid. BTW, this is a cell phone shot through the windshield at 65 mph. I was not driving! The dark spots are insects that immolated themselves on the Subaru’s windshield.

  On Monday of this week, a preliminary Supreme Court decision on Roe v Wade was leaked. The firestorm from this preliminary decision has done nothing but intensify ever since. While Chief Justice Roberts and Republicans want all the attention focused on the leak and the leaker (who remains unknown at this writing), the real story is that for the first time, SCOTUS wants to scuttle completely a Constitutional right. While Roberts is correct in stating that the leak is “absolutely appalling ”, the 98-page preliminary decision written by Justice Samuel Alito is beyond absolutely appalling. When decided law is overturned and rights removed from a group of people, the reason had better be a good one. Alito’s draft doesn’t meet that standard at all. It is pure sophistry, written to fool those who don’t understand history and those who will not make that effort to understand history. Alito wants to make the Roe decision invalid because he writes that the 14th Amendment (under the due proc

  The White House Correspondents Association Dinner last evening was a big deal for the Washington types as well as those who crave being in the spotlight any way they can, such as Kim Kardashian, Caitlyn Jenner, and Martha Stewart. At least Martha served time in prison for her misdeeds, something I am doubting the Trump cabal will ever have to do. Trevor Noah and President Bide n got in the obligatory zingers. But Noah may have had, sadly, the aptest line of the evening when he said    “You guys spent the last two years telling everyone about the importance of wearing masks and avoiding large, indoor gatherings. Then the second someone offers you a free dinner, you all turn into Joe Rogan , huh?” After the Gridiron Dinner became a Covid superspreader event about a month ago, it should have been clear that large, unmasked events in crowded indoor conditions remain a problem. For the WHCA, all attendees had to be vaccinated and boosted and have a negative PCR that day. Sounds safe