Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade

Yesterday the Supreme Court published its decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. This is the political earthquake of a ruling that was leaked in draft form 7 weeks ago. Earthquake, because it reverses the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade that affirmed a woman's right to seek abortion. That "law of the land" has guided how women live their lives for nearly 50 years.

The overturning of a Supreme Court ruling is rare. There's a principle in jurisprudence called Stare Decisis. It's Latin for "Stand by things decided" and it means that judges should respect the precedent of previous decisions on an issue rather than whipsawing the law back and forth when they happen to disagree with it. Chief Justice John Roberts explained during his confirmation hearings years ago that stare decisis means that to reverse a past ruling a judge must conclude more than just that it was "wrongly decided"; judges must also weigh issues such as how a reversal upends settled expectations, whether a reversal diminishes the legitimacy of the court, and whether a particular precedent is workable or not.

Roberts did not to vote for overturning Roe v. Wade. Though he concurred with 5 other justices in upholding the Mississippi law at the center of Dobbs v. Jackson, a law that restricted abortion after 18 weeks, making that decision a 6-3 vote, he did not join the 5-4 majority that went far beyond that to strike down Roe v. Wade entirely.

How rare of an outcome is this? The only other time a Supreme Court ruling that affects the daily lives of literally tens of millions of Americans was when Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 overturned the 1896 ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. Plessy notoriously upheld the doctrine of "Separate but Equal"— a cornerstone of racism perpetuating legal apartheid after the elimination of slavery in the 1860s. Note how the long arc of history bends toward justice in that reversal.... The reversal of Roe v. Wade is the first time the Supreme Court has ever reversed a previous opinion to take away a civil right.

Battle of the Germans (Beers)

The past few rounds of my Beer Tasting 2022 project I've been tasting German style bock beers. To sort of close out the category I decided to put two Germany heavyweights up against each other.



This is truly the most head-to-head— and bock-to-bock— comparison I've made. They're the same style, they both pour very dark, they're both made by old and well respected breweries in Germany.... They're so German both even both have umlauts in their names. 😅

Indeed these beers are so similar they're only hairs apart in taste and texture. Both are classic dark lagers, full of flavors of malt, caramel, and a hint of chocolate. Both can overpower most food they're served with. That's why this subcategory of bock isn't my favorite, BTW. My fave so far is helles bock... and the one I've had is from a Spanish brewery! Ultimately between these two I'd pick Hofbräu Dunkel over Köstritzer Schwarzbier because it's less overpowering. The Köstritzer has a creamier head, which was more satisfying, but its taste was just too... too. Through these past few rounds of beer tasting I've learned that while I like dark beer I don't like dark beer that's like drinking a liquid brick.

Weekends, Fast and Slow

Some of my weekends are busy, some are not. Last weekend we did a three-day road trip to the Eastern Sierra Nevada where we kept busy with hiking when we weren't driving. ...Okay, we lounged in the nice hotel room and the hotel's hot tub a few times, too. But OMG I'm still backlogged on on, like, 5-6 blogs to write about the hiking. 😣 And next weekend we're leaving for a week-long trip to Colorado. It will entail a lot more of both hiking and driving. That leaves this weekend in the middle. This is the weekend when we take it easy!

Hawk is staying home for obvious reasons this weekend (she's still ill), and I'm happy to make it an easy weekend, too. Friday night I went to bed somewhat early— it was before 10pm, so it was early— and enjoyed sleeping in until 8am. I had a few nights of poor sleep this past week so catching up on my sleep deficit was nice.

Today (Saturday) I did two out-of-the-house things. One, I went to Costco. I needed to return a pair of windshield wipers that don't fit our car. The package said, "Fits 96% of all cars." Well, ours is the 4%. While I was at Costco I bought more stuff. Including stuff I decided upon getting home I'll have to return on another trip. ...No, not more windshield wipers. I found a pair of the right kind on Amazon Friday night, for only 2.5x the price of the pair I'd gotten from Costco. 🙄 Being the 4% is expensive.

Saturday afternoon we went for a walk around the neighborhood. I wanted to use the pool and hot tub but Hawk preferred walking as she didn't want to risk exposing neighbors at the pool to her sickness, so I joined her for a walk. We looped around the neighborhood on a ~1.75 mile path. It was good exercise for me, and right about at the limit for her (not yet over illness). It was also a good amount of sun for me; I got a slight burn on my forehead.

I still want to spend time in the pool. I'll aim to do that tomorrow. And tomorrow I'll wear a hat. 🤠

Later in the afternoon I sat outside on the bedroom balcony enjoying a new-to-me beer I bought at Costco. I have a separate blog series going about my beer tasting project; I'll write about it there.

Soon enough it was time for dinner and... I did that outdoors, too! I made kabobs with some heat-and-eat stuff I bought several months ago... at Costco, natch 😂... and heated some flatbread on the skillet to go with them. We ate dinner together on the back patio, then I retired up to the balcony again to enjoy the pleasantly cool evening air.

Tomorrow will be more taking it easy around the house. Maybe I'll go to Costco to return that thing; but most likely I'll wait on it a few weeks until I'm ready to buy more stuff at Costco. Gotta combine trips! So most likely I won't venture more than 100 yards from home tomorrow... 100 yards being approximately the distance to the pool!