I had thought it was in the distant future, but maybe not. Companies like Upside Foods are working right now on making various kinds of cloned meats. I’m looking forward to trying it.
Picking a SCOTUS justice based on race and sex
Now that Justice Breyer has announced his intention to retire, we’re going to have to live through another SCOTUS circus. Democrats and Republicans will both say things we all know aren’t true — and they know aren’t true — contradicting things they said just a short time ago.
Biden has promised to nominate a black woman. That doesn’t seem to have gone well with his VP pick, but … whatever.
Tulsi Gabbard had this to say about it.
Biden’s mistake: He should not be choosing a Supreme Court justice based on the color of their skin or sex, but rather on their qualifications & commitment to uphold our Constitution & the freedoms guaranteed to all Americans in that document which is the foundation of our nation
I think Biden is at least five years past his sell-by date, but I do want to try (however half-heartedly) to look at this from his point of view. What is the point of prejudging the candidates and choosing to have a black woman on the Supreme Court?
Let’s set aside the obvious answer — that he was appealing to his base — and examine this. Why is the race and sex of a SCOTUS justice important?
It’s based on the assumption that a woman will view issues differently than a man, and a black person will view issues differently than a non-black person. Statistically speaking, that might be true. For example, I’ve been reliably informed that women are one standard deviation more likely to be interested in other people than men, and one standard deviation less likely to be interested in things / gadgets than men.
But isn’t judging an individual by an alleged group characteristic exactly what we don’t want to do? Isn’t Biden’s declaration, in fact, the very definition of racism and sexism?
Are all women the same? Are all black people the same?
Would Candace Owens judge a case the same way as Whoopi Goldberg?
Obviously not. In fact, that’s so obvious it’s hard to imagine a person with two brain cells believing that race or sex determine a person’s political or judicial philosophy. As little as I think of Joe Biden, I do believe he has two brain cells. So what the heck is going on?
Okay, yes, it’s a crass political overture to interest groups. I get that. But there are some people who think this is a good thing. What are they thinking?
They clearly know there are conservative black women in the world, so they can’t be so stupid as to believe that a black woman will necessarily vote a certain way. Again, think of Candace Owens. I’m sure she’s not on Biden’s list.
What they really mean is “a liberal judge with decent qualifications who is also a black woman.”
But why? Why not an Asian? Why not a Native American? Why not somebody in a wheel chair? There are any number of demographic groups that have not been proportionately represented on the Supreme Court.
Why prejudge the issue this way? It makes no sense at all.
P&C go to mass
Pigweed, Crowhill and Longinus follow up their visit to an Evangelical Church with a visit to Mount Calvary Church in Baltimore — the most liturgically conservative church they could find.
Chesterton’s fence and face masks
If you buy a piece of property and discover a fence on it, you should figure out why it’s there before you tear it down. That’s Chesterton’s version of the precautionary principle. When you change things without knowing all the details, you might cause more trouble than you expected.
This is one of the recurring political / social principles that Pigweed and I often mention on our podcast.
We all struggle between two competing needs — the need to explore and investigate and find new things, and the need to protect (or at least not ruin) what we already have. It’s a hard balance to strike, because you can’t know all the consequences. E.g., is it a good idea to wrap all our food in plastic? It’s cheap, and it dramatically reduces food waste, but is there a downside?
I was just listening to a story about people digging for lead, not knowing there was a lot of Uranium mixed in with the lead. Of course many of them died.
You can’t possibly see all the ways things can go wrong, but you should at least try.
Mark Shea likes to put it this way (or he used to, anyway), Step 1: “What could it hurt?” Step 2: “How could we have known?”
Along those lines, Are we harming children’s speech development by wearing masks?
Never liked Neil Young much anyway. Stick with Rogan, Spotify.
I can do without Cinnamon Girl and Heart of Gold. “I hope Neil Young will remember: A southern man don’t need him around anyhow.”
Update: Spotify made the right choice and removed Neil Young’s songs.