Blocks of Cheese, and Other Collective Hallucinations
Happiest of Fridays, darlings! Fun fact: on this day in history, both Lincoln and FDR were inaugurated. Also the original Big Block of Cheese Day occured, the smell of which I imagine is a better metaphor for our current political situation.
I know it’s been a tough week for sanity, and that it feels as if we all slip deeper into this collective hallucination every passing day. Especially since the front-runner for the Republican nomination keeps making sex act and male anatomy jokes (guys, I tried really hard to make that sentence SFW.) And it really doesn’t help that every time I read about Romney’s Rebuke, I can’t help but hear this Family Guy character from a decade ago. Good luck getting that out of your head.
But Today in Things that Don’t Make Me Want to Throw My Computer Out the Window, friend of the Missive Stefana reminded me that all is not lost in this American wilderness. With Scalia’s seat open on the bench, arguments for the Texas abortion access case Whole Woman’s Health v Hellerstedt show just how critical the liberal voting block on the court is, specifically the three female justices. Read Dahlia Lithwick’s excellent report from SCOTUS - GOD I wish I could have been in that room.
At one point, when asked by Ginsburg how many women in his state live more than 100 miles away from an abortion clinic, Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller included proximity to a clinic in New Mexico in his simpering justification, and HOO BOY we got full on Notorious R.B.G. glory (from Slate):
"“So if your argument is right,” Ginsburg continued, “then New Mexico is not an available way out for Texas, because Texas says: To protect our women, we need these things. But send them off to New Mexico,” to clinics with more lenient standards, “and that’s perfectly all right.”"
And finally, curl up on your couch with your favorite hot beverage and dive into Ted Cruz: A Bad Lip Reading.