The Daily Dose/May 17, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Alabama this week passed about as restrictive a law prohibiting abortion as it is possible to pass, outlawing pregnancies except in a few circumstances involving a women’s health. While the law does not provide penalties for those having an abortion, those providing one can face prison sentences ranging from 10-years to life. There are no provisions for rape or incest and the only exception would be when a woman’s health is at serious risk. It’s the opening salvo in a fight supporters hope will lead to the United States Supreme Court overturning Roe vs Wade.
(Like you probably did, we read Alabama’s new abortion law. It says, among other things, “…that all human beings are equal from creation, was at least one of the bases for the anti-slavery movement…and the American civil rights movement.” This is rich coming from a state that enslaved blacks and fought their civil rights tooth and nail.)
Now, the purpose of this column is not to chat about the moral aspects of abortion. That’s your lookout and not mine. Personally, as a male, I don’t think I’m entitled to an opinion here. As a friend of ours says, “no uterus, no opinion” and it is difficult to argue with that. As a candidate for both the United States Senate and House, we nicely straddled the fence, announcing we are neither pro-abortion or anti-abortion. Our policy has always been:
The government must stay out of the abortion debate. It must neither condone nor prohibit it.
Criminalizing abortion will not eliminate it. Us humans have been terminating pregnancies for, more or less, four thousand years. Now, this doesn’t make it right and it doesn’t make it wrong, it merely illustrates that it is not going to go away just because someone says don’t do it. People will still terminate pregnancies.
This is an issue the government must stay out of. While mindful and respectful of views on both sides, this is the only course for a nation conceived in liberty.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: It’s Read Free Week! Today Sparrow spends his day off working the land at The Shire. Today’s Diary.
Because there was no one there to stop me, I started in on the watering before I was done mowing!!!…I am not making that up…The heart garden right out front on Main Street needed a good soak, so I put the old sprinkler on the new hose and started in while I finished up mowing the back sector, adjacent to the alley…Then I got the new sprinkler – the one where you can adjust the length and width of the water, and started in on giving that a good soak, too…We haven’t had rain for a few days, and I gave every sector a good 45 minutes, sometimes an hour, maybe more because it was hardly as if I had a stopwatch running.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
The drivel simply does not stop: please click on the button to read The Diary of a Nobody. $5.99 includes all entries, past, present, and future.
Click here to read excerpts and a sample chapter.
On This Date
In 1954 – The United States Supreme Court issues its landmark Brown vs. Board of Education opinion, ruling unanimously that separate public schools for whites and blacks are unconstitutional. The case stemmed from a 1951 class-action suit by parents of students in Topeka, Kansas after the parents had attempted to enroll their kids in the closest public school, but had been turned down and instead referred to the nearest segregated school. Before reaching the Supreme Court, a Kansas district court had ruled in favor of the Topeka Board of Education.
In 1968 – Frank Howard of the Washington Senators establishes a new major league record for most home runs in five consecutive games with eight, homering once in a 7-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers. The following day Howard would hit two more home runs, tying his five-game record and establishing a new mark for most home runs in six consecutive games with ten. Both records would be tied by Barry Bonds in 2001.
In 1986 – Whitney Houston is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of three consecutive weeks with The Greatest Love of All. The song also went to #1 in Canada and Australia and peaked at #3 on Billboard’s soul chart. It was the third of eleven #1 songs for Houston, and the third of a Hot 100 record seven consecutive #1s. The song had originally been a hit for George Benson, who peaked at #24 with it in 1977 and Houston’s version charted again in 2012 after her death, reaching #24.
Quotebook
The longest way must have its close, – the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
The three songs that went to #1 on Billboard’s country chart in 2018 were Meant to Be by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line (47 weeks), Lose It by Kane Brown (one week) and Speechless by Dan + Shay (five weeks). It’s the fewest number of #1 songs in a calendar year on any Billboard chart. We know that adds up to 53 weeks. That’s how many Billboard charts there were that year.
Today’s Stumper
Which Supreme Court decision did Brown vs. Board of Education overturn? – Answer next time!
