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It also wouldn't make abortions illegall it would just leave that decision up to the individual states. Chances are that it would remain legal in half or so.

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I think the Supreme Court is so important because whoever the president is, he will be gone in a few short years. But the makeup of the Supreme Court will affect the US (and the rest of the world through influence) for a long time to come.

Exactly, which makes the current state of affairs in travesty of justice called Supreme Court so serious. As I already noted here (earning me a carefuly worded remark on my naivete by Jim or Bitt ), one can bet with 90% probability how each of Justices will vote on any given case. Their decisions almost always reflect their, pardon the expression, values (a.k.a. prejudices). Which means that they don't give a damn for law or Constitution, just their personal prejudices or political agenda. At very best, the conservative ones play spiritual mediums trying to divine what plan a bunch of slave owners* had in mind 230 years ago for the premier nucler and high-tech superpower.

*) OK, probably not all of The Founding Fathers were slave owners, but you see my point.

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Is it being reported or represented anywhere about a religious element of the rioting? Is there any truth to some stories that it is young Muslims who are rioting? Is it germane?

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It also wouldn't make abortions illegall it would just leave that decision up to the individual states. Chances are that it would remain legal in half or so.

Thank you for stating this. I had a post I was working on and you beat me to it. 39 states is what I've read (wherein it would be legal).

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just makes it more dangerous.

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Might be more inconvenient but not likely more dangerous for the woman.

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To continue this tangent, I've often looked at the recent civil unrests in Europe -- Yugoslavia comes specifically to mind -- and wondered how these people who formerly lived next to each other fairly peaceably for generations could suddenly come to the point of burning their neighbors' houses down.

Yugoslavia is a completely different matter, in so far that this was not the case of civil unrest, but aggressive war of one country against its neighbors and former members of the same union (although your question of how one could burn one's neighbor's house under any circumstances is still relevant in our case and bothers me, too, of course). You should have followed Milosevic's rise to power in late 80's: the similarity with Mussolini (more than Hitler) was uncanny.

There were no "centuries of hatred" between Serbs and Croats one often reads about (which makes it even more difficult to understand the bloodshed). The first conatact we had was when Serb refugees fleeing the Turks ware given some land in exchange for military duty in the border regions (a short Wikipedia article). But then, what possesed Italians and Germans in 1920's an 30's?

Blah, the layer of civilization is so thin...

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you are thinking that women living below the poverty line there will just hop on a Delta shuttle and fly to Syracuse if they decide they want an abortion?

I haven't thought that far in advance. Maybe there could be a shuttle paid for by proabortion activists to pick women up once a trimester or something. Perhaps even the federal government could pay for it. Republicans would probably go for it since it would help keep the welfare costs down.

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Their decisions almost always reflect their, pardon the expression, values (a.k.a. prejudices). Which means that they don't give a damn for law or Constitution, just their personal prejudices or political agenda. At very best, the conservative ones play spiritual mediums trying to divine what plan a bunch of slave owners* had in mind 230 years ago for the premier nucler and high-tech superpower.

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I'm interpreting this statement as saying that you believe to it is bad for members of the Supreme Court to vote their values, but you also believe that it is bad for them to try and strictly interpret the Constitution. Correct me if I'm wrong. If I'm not, what would you say is the correct way to decide law?

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It also wouldn't make abortions illegall it would just leave that decision up to the individual states. Chances are that it would remain legal in half or so.

Thank you for stating this. I had a post I was working on and you beat me to it. 39 states is what I've read (wherein it would be legal).

Thanks pointing this out, but my point was that outlawing abotion does not significantly lower its prevalence, just makes it more dangerous.

39:11? Not that bad.

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Also, I think your average innercity and/or trailer-trash slut will think twice about mashing it with every cock in sight after the first time she has to stick a coat hanger up her dirty box in a dark alley.

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In the USA this type of event happens every time a sports team loses (or wins) a major title. Nothing justifies the wanton destruction of property, but at least it's not sparked because of a soccer game.

Seems to me that someone has forgotten that there was a riot in Vancouver after a Stanley Cup loss and there was also a riot after a Gun N Roses concert in Vancouver as well!

Pot, Kettle. Kettle, Pot.

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Also, I think your average innercity ...

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Also, I think your average innercity and/or trailer-trash slut will think twice about mashing it with every cock in sight after the first time she has to stick a coat hanger up her dirty box in a dark alley.

No one wants to hear about your mother Billy.

You´re my mother?

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You´re my mother?

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I haven't thought that far in advance.

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Maybe there could be a shuttle paid for by proabortion activists to pick women up once a trimester or something. Perhaps even the federal government could pay for it. Republicans would probably go for it since it would help keep the welfare costs down.

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I really don't get the male willingness to weigh in so heavily on how women must behave, what women must do.

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No... we as a country (no, let me re-phrase that: enough gullible people to create a 50.2% majority vote) believed and were taken in by the lies, deceit, and intimidation espoused by the Republican party.

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I never stated my position on abortion. You are leaping to conclusions. <snip much>

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I have no doubt that the religious right, if they had their way, would leave us with abstinence as the sole defense.

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long after Jeff's god has joined Zeus in the Religion Hall of Fame.

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In the meantime, his followers/inventors see fit to preside over the lives of others...women...make those lives more difficult and potentially more dangerous, history and individual freedom be damned.

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Would I want my teenage daughter (if I had one) to have that option available... hell yes. Would I prefer she didn't have to have one either through birth control or abstinence ... double hell yes.

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I seem to remember a ship set up out of Ireland for Irish women to have legal abortions in international waters.

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this was pretty flippant

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Wasn't it just a year ago when the French banned head scarves by muslims in public schools? With that simple edict, aren't the French stigmatizing muslims within their country. Is that law symbolic of the French attitude towards an element of their own population? How is a muslim supposed to reconcile the conflict between their religious beliefs and French law?

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I can easily see this happening in Belgium as well. More specific in cities like Antwerp and/or Brussels where also a lot of immigrants live. There already have been some small riots in the past few nights, as per France's example. (on a -for now at least- smaller scale)

I've just started working for a client in Brussels this week and got home tonight for the weekend. While I didn't personally witness any sign of trouble, there was quite a bit of chat around the lunch table about it for a day or two, and it sounded like there was some sporadic and organised disturbances, with half a dozen or so cars burned not far from my apartment or the client's office, by all accounts.

I'll be back again on Monday, and travelling to and fro between now and Christmas. Having been to university in Belfast, you'd think I wouldn't be too worried about 'a bit of local difficulty', but I suppose it goes to show how things have changed at home over the past decade when I say I was more than a bit concerned... You used to be able to set your calendar by where the latest riot was

Of course, some idiot somewhere in Belfast is going to want to break France's new 'car torching record' more than likely