[	Tags	|	law, politics	]
[	Current Mood	|	calm	]

That was the question that a gay NYU student posed to Justice Scalia sometime in September of 2005. Scalia refused to answer. The conservatives rejoiced that a gay person committed such an outrage that their bigotry now had some basis. The liberals thought the questioner was acting improperly, thereby hurting his own cause. In fact, everyone had an opinion about Eric Brandt's question to a mighty Justice.

Here, Eric Brandt addresses those opinions and explains his question. I respect Brandt for the maturity and clarity with which he writes that piece.

[	Tags	|	personal, politics	]
[	Current Mood	|	calm	]

In a totally unsurprising move, the Senate today voted to confirm Alito as the 110th Supreme Court Justice. A lot of people are upset by this confirmation, most of them, women. Alito's stance on abortion is definitely catholic, meaning irrational and religious. You would think that a nation that spells out the dichotomy between religion and politics wouldn't want a Supreme Court Justice, appointed for life, who would decide based on his/her religious beliefs. But this is no longer that same nation. It has been hijacked by the current administration. Yes, the same administration that has strenuously sought to defraud its citizens, rape the middle east (although, frankly, the middle east, for all its fundamentalistic notions about virtue and chastity, was never a virgin), fuck its middle and lower classes, and play global bully whenever it has some time to spare. But, and here I want to emphasise, what I feel and think about this administration is in no way my impressions about this country. Like I was telling 3L last night, the only problem I have with the whole wiretapping scandal is that it was done by this administration. Under any other President, I would have understood it and perhaps, even respected it. But the current administration smacks of sleaze that anything it does that violates the Constitution has me think negatively about it.

Similarly, my position on abortion is ambivalent. I don't think there is anything immoral about it; nor do I think it should be advocated and continued shackes-free. To the extent that there is (scientific & medical) doubt as to when life starts, I will always view abortion with some suspicion. Abortion, to me, is a necessary evil. Till the time there is inequity in the quality and level of education people receive about sex and contraception, abortion must be legal. You cannot just preach abstinence and say some shit about contraception and expect people to blindly follow. If you want that, as a nation, you should be in the middle east. Blind faith cannot exist in a democracy where free speech is a cornerstone. Blind faith is exactly what people like Osama and Hussein advocate and expect. If you are going to be at war with fundamentalists such as those two and justify that war partially by saying that you want to spread democracy, for heaven's sake, practise what you preach! This is a society where there is free intermingling of the sexes, and where privacy is considered sacred. Given that, there is bound to be a free flow of hormones and people are going to act on them, especially so if proper sex-ed isn't conducted.

My bottom-line is that unless sex-ed is improved, drastically, and religion is driven to the ground, where it belongs, abortion should always be legal in a democracy. I would love to see the day where abortion is no longer necessary, except for rape and health reasons.