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A post surgery thought. After removing the affected portion of my gut, they examined it under a microscope and found residual cancer cells invisible to the MRI. So, in hindsight, the choice to proceed with surgery was the right one. I've gotten fairly sensitized to the observation that God doesn't always intervene (for the better) in everyone's lives, so I'm a little uncomfortable enthusiastically attributing my good fortune to God. At the same time, I recall the point of making the decision to proceed when the thought came seemingly unbidden that, after everything we had done and suffered so far to have the best chance of full cure, it would seem unwise to take on additional risk after trying so hard to minimize the risk. In hindsight, that thought seems almost prophetic. My own story isn't complete, so it's too soon to make final declarations. And I'm still very much aware that not everyone experiences these little miracles, and I have no explanation for why. But I am grateful today for a very small thing that makes me feel more confident in my future.

With the Dobbs decision has come many state abortion laws with varying standards. One common standard is the fetal heartbeat. As soon as the heartbeat is detected, then abortion either becomes illegal or subject to severe restrictions. <Disclaimer> My personal position does not support legislating abortion bans at 6 weeks. My complaint with the latest news is the run-around pro-abortionists are attempting by changing definitions to fit their narrative. In response to the fetal heartbeat laws, the pro-abortionists are now altering their definition of heartbeat. First Stacy Abrams made a poor attempt at this What she said, as phrased is simply incorrect and illogical. But she was referring to a condition that more informed individuals decided to word correctly. Planned Parenthood has changed the wording on their website. At least livescience had the integrity to clearly state that their article had been altered since the Dobbs decision. https://www.livescience.com/65501-fetal-heartbeat-at-6-weeks-explained.html And this website still shows the "accepted science" just a few weeks ago. The shift in the narrative all started several weeks ago when various health sites brought up the issue. Gee, where have I heard the "cluster of cells" argument before? If everything is just a cluster of cells, nothing is just a cluster of cells. They're basically taking the partial birth abortion argument and downgrading it to the fetal heartbeat condition. I guess, this is a sign of a win for pro-lifers. They're so desperate that they're running mental gymnastics to try to push their agenda. We'll see how this holds up in court. But one thing that the Dobbs decision did was make this a state matter. So, the Supreme Court will push any attempt at a national standard back to the states. Planned Parenthood will have to take this to court separately in each state that has such a ban. And each state will have their own modifications to the fetal heartbeat laws because of such decisions.

First priority: I should be able to clip my fingernails and have moles and warts and tumors and parasites removed. Bodily autonomy is a core foundation of liberty and freedom. Also First priority: Human beings, especially the weak and defenseless ones, must be protected by society and law. Humans get equal protection under the law - also a core foundation of liberty and freedom. So when does the reproductive cycle create a human, deserving of equal protection under the law? Pretty much nobody advocates extending the status of personhood to a sperm, or an egg. Few believe a fertilized egg or multicelled blastocyst is a human. As the thing grows and matures, more and more people cross the "okay it's a person now" line. Every stage crossed, brings more and more into the "it's a person" camp: A beating heart, the ability to feel pain, brain activity, indications of having a sleep pattern, reactions that indicate familiarity to certain sounds. By the time of viability (the ability to survive outside the womb), pretty much everyone has joined the camp. You can find some, here and there, who believe a woman should have a right to abort her born and independently living child, but probably in similar numbers as those who believe spilling seed is mass murder. There should be room for exceptions, like the 14 year old who escapes from her evil father, in the 3rd trimester carrying his child, a child that will not survive for long and will likely kill the mother during birth. God drops hints that can be interpreted in various ways. He doesn't settle the matter for us. The church does what it always does in the lack of clear and unambiguous revelation - it's best. In such a situation, it makes sense to let the states (or the people), make up their own minds. Folks of similar views can go live amongst others of similar stripes, if it's that important to them. So let Cali and Colorado be on the late end of things, and let Georgia and Mississippi be on the early end of things, and everyone else can argue about weeks, and yell in all caps, and crowbar as much emotion or reason into their arguments as they wish. And they can vote in their states, and the strongest voices will win in that state. And folks can argue about jumping states for abortions. That's better than the federal government telling everyone what to do.

I have some times mused on how entertaining it would be, as a criminal defense lawyer, to defend a murder suspect using all of the rationalizations and excuses and half-truths and hair-splitting arguments that the elective abortionists use.

Connecting ones worth to ones gender is a dicey game.