The decision Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration to approve an over the counter birth control pill is not in itself a lifeline (I know—it’s a poor choice of word) for those seeking an easy, convenient, non-prescription means of avoiding pregnancy, especially for those women stuck in states that have banned medically induced abortions of unwanted pregnancies.
The mass availability of OTC birth control pills will depend on the sustained courage of retailers to carry the product in the face of possible boycotts by conservative religious and anti-abortion activists and those who believe teenagers should not be allowed access to the pills without parental permission.
Retailers and suppliers already have lost sales after offending special interest groups. Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light beer, once the best selling brew in the country, fell from that perch after an ad campaign featured transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Anti-LGBTQ groups attacked Target for its Pride Month merchandise campaign.
Opill, from Dublin, Ireland-based Perrigo Company, will not be available until 2024. Expect negative reactions to build starting from today’s announcement (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/health/otc-birth-control-pill.html).
Procrastination: I don’t think I’ve told you this before, but I’m a procrastinator by nature. The first segment of this blog notwithstanding, unless I have a deadline with unbearable consequences if not met, I often let my news commentary slide.
Even though I want to write blogs, I don’t need to. It’s not as if you are paying to read my thoughts. I would imagine most people who read my blog also read The New York Times or The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal. That’s a lot of journalistic manpower and brainpower that I have to compete with.
Thus, while I began writing a blog Monday on Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s pressure-packed position now that Donald Trump has sought to sloooooow down his trial, I dragged my feet, er, my typing fingers, long enough for The Times (and possibly other media) to chronicle the same theme.
It’s tough competing against all those journalists, especially when my reward is just self-fulfillment. At least I get the satisfaction of knowing my editorial instincts remain as sharp as any paid performer.
Pressure on Judge Cannon must be intense. Does she bow to the liege (and master?) who appointed her to the federal bench or does she commit to the Constitution and principle that no one is above the law and that everyone should be entitled to equal justice?
Known for his delaying tactics in cases in which he is a defendant, Trump has asked Judge Cannon to postpone the start of his trial until after the 2024 election. He’s hoping to win the presidency and dismiss the charges against him. It’s a tactic anyone in his predicament would pursue.
But Judge Cannon has to weigh the public good. Assuming a verdict would be reached before Election Day if the trial began in early 2024, aren’t voters entitled to know if they would be casting a ballot for a convicted felon or someone judged not guilty (not necessarily innocent, as it takes only one dissenting juror to thwart a guilty verdict by the 11 other jurors)?
The consequences for our democratic government are enormous. One need only look to Israel to see what can happen to a democracy if a leader is elected whose only interest is keeping himself in power and out of jail.
Weight Loss: Gilda and I record for later viewing virtually everything we watch on television, from the evening news to Saturday Night Live to most sporting events to PBS shows. Aside from making viewing more accommodating to our schedule it also enables us to fast forward through commercials.
One ad in particular elicits a most negative reaction, even in fast forward mode. You might, make that probably, have seen it, as it airs during most newscasts. It features an overweight woman singing about the benefits of Jardiance.
I was an early user of Jardiance, not because I was overweight. Rather, my cardiologist prescribed Jardiance as an alternative to my existing blood pressure and cholesterol medications. Well, after two months my cholesterol and blood pressure numbers stayed the same, but I lost six pounds.
Losing weight was not on my bucket list. I already was thin. So after talking with my internist and cardiologist I stopped taking Jardiance.
Kosher at Sea: Other news items have overtaken media frenzy over the loss of the submersible Titan with its five passengers on their way down to the Titanic.
But did you know kosher meals were served on the Titanic? And on other ship lines crossing the Atlantic? (https://www.ijn.com/titanic-kosher-kitchen/)
As we’re on the subject of kosher food, here’s a question to be pondered: Is laboratory created chicken meat kosher?
CBS Sunday Morning did a piece on
laboratory-grown chicken this past Sunday. It looked like only white meat was produced, but more to the point, would it be kosher? There’s no slaughtering involved, just harvesting meat from giant vats (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cultivated-meat-grown-in-a-lab/)
Continuing on this philosophical religious bent, now that we have elected an Afro-American and our second Catholic as president, are we any closer to choosing a Jewish commander-in-chief, not that any political member of the tribe readily jumps to mind as a potential candidate?
No, I’d say that with extremist Christian nationalist on the rise, the prospect of a Jewish president, or even vice president, has been back burnered for decades.
Here’s a similarly themed excerpt from a recent David French opinion piece in The Times: “Arguments for a “Christian nationalism” are increasingly prominent, with factions ranging from Catholic integralists to reformed Protestants to Prophetic Pentecostals all seeking a new American social compact, one that explicitly puts Christians in charge.”
It took 172 years from George Washington’s first election victory for voters to break from choosing a Protestant as president by electing a Catholic, John F. Kennedy. Sixty years passed before a second Catholic, Joseph Biden, became president.
A Jewish president? Not in my lifetime.
