Today’s post was written and ready to publish by mid-morning. News out of the Supreme Court had me in a foul mood and words came quickly. When it was done and I read it over, something wasn’t right — it didn’t feel like what I wanted to give you today, not by itself.
So I put it up awhile and went on with my day.
This is Primary Election Day here in Ohio. Deb and I lingered over morning coffee before heading to our polling place, a community center a hundred yards up the hill from our back door. We cast votes on the Republican ballot, choosing citizen-servants where possible. I told a friend afterward,
“We do what we can, we control only what we can, and we know that it’s possible to do the right thing and still lose.”
From the polls we headed in the direction of Canal Winchester. Rather than taking the direct route we chose narrow and little-traveled two-laners, winding our way through woods and rolling farmland. I’d forgotten how beautiful the area is.
At a junction in the town of Lithopolis we turned right, and ahead of me I saw the motorcycle-salvage shop where I worked over a dozen years ago. We stopped and chatted warmly with my old boss, the owner, as well as one of the mechanics, one of the best moto-resto guys I’ve ever known.
It was a spontaneous stop, the visit quite unplanned. We caught a little of the vibe we’d captured so many times out on the road.
From there we rolled on to Blystone Farm — we’d already cast two votes for its owner, a candidate for governor, and we thought it’d be fitting to follow with lunch at the farm’s steakhouse. The Ohio-raised Wagyu beef was excellent and our waitress was The Very Best. The whole experience was perfect.
Once we’d paid our tab we walked over to the butcher shop and picked up 50 pounds of Blystone beef, an order we’d placed the last time we were there.
Heavy thunderstorms dogged us as we drove home — it was that kind of day, all day. It looks like we just missed getting pelted by golf-ball-size hail, and we were within a couple of miles of a reported tornado. All’s well, though, here at Second Chance Ranch.
I never aspired to be a lawyer. My father did, and had he not followed his heart into veterinary medicine he would’ve been a damned good one. He understood the original intent, primacy and foundational nature of the Constitution. He sought to make sense of the statutory web that brings structure and order to American Life.
He inspired in me a citizen’s interest in law. As a kid I was required to learn about and understand a thing before presuming to criticize it, and now I apply that mindset to legislative and judicial matters. I tend not to fly into an ignorant rage about stuff that doesn’t match my opinions.
So I’m not the crank sitting at the end of the bar. And no, I’m not some mindless social-media flamethrower. I was raised and educated to be more thoughtful than that.
I was tuned-in to Hannity last night when news broke that a draft opinion had been leaked from the Supreme Court. The 98-page “first draft” allegedly was produced by Associate Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the Court in the matter of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, and it reveals that SCOTUS has voted (majority opinion) to overturn landmark Roe v. Wade (and subsequent Planned Parenthood v. Casey), returning control of abortion law to the states.
If the leaked draft is the real deal — objective Court observers say it appears to be authentic — and the decision stands, then I celebrate the Court’s decision to end 50 years of State-sponsored infanticide. We can file that under “E” for “elections have consequences.”
That reaction is tempered, however, when I acknowledge what the leak itself (irrespective of its content) means for the Supreme Court of the United States. It’s an unprecedented and abominable breach of the institution’s integrity. It does damage to the Court that never will be undone.
Now we all want to know who did this and why. The motive shouldn’t be a mystery — the leak was meant to inflame and mobilize pro-abortion forces in protest of the presumed decision. I believe it was done to put pressure on legislators, not justices.
It’s already having that effect. As early as this morning, progressives in Congress were vowing to preserve the “right” to abortion. Expect Democrats to frantically draft legislation and bring it to the floor before the current session adjourns in January (and probably before November’s midterms).
I suspect we won’t have to wait long to learn who leaked the draft. It’d take a true zealot to throw such an institutional grenade, and while it’s certainly conceivable that it came from the Right, it’s far more plausible that one of the leftist justices’ clerks did the deed.
Only one side has promised to dismantle American traditions and institutions.
The leaker will reveal themselves. They’re proud of what they’ve done. They’ll brag about it. If a lawyer they’ll be disbarred, but once they’re lionized by the Left they’ll be set for life.
Democrats reactions to the leak confirm two things I’ve said all along — they’re incapable of governing within the Constitution, and all they know is Mob Rule.
And now that we all have an opportunity to properly and accurately use the term “insurrection,” the question is, will Democrats take it?
Again, I hope that the (presumed) majority decision holds up. For almost five decades liberal canards like “a woman’s right to choose” and “bodily autonomy,” have been used to justify the murder of 65 million American infants. Barring passage of federal legislation making infanticide the law of the land, the massacre would be over.
That’d be great. But we’d still be left with a mortally wounded Supreme Court.
One year ago today: A dear friend treated us to lunch across The River in Rockport, Illinois and a personal tour of historic Hannibal, Missouri.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB