An Obadiah Slope Column
“He was a fussy little engine, always pulling coaches about.” Wilbert Awdry, the Rev Wilbert Awdry to you lot, invented Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends and also had wise words comparing the church and railways. You see, he loved his twin obsessions. “Both had their heyday in the mid-19th century; both own a great deal of Gothic-style architecture which is expensive to maintain; both are regularly assailed by critics; and both are firmly convinced that they are the best means of getting man to his ultimate destination.”
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Conned: As it becomes clear that US voters don’t like laws restricting abortion, many Republican politicians – especially those in contestable seats – are downplaying the issue. “Nearly three dozen House Republicans who supported a federal abortion ban in the last Congress have yet to sign on this year, reflecting a shifting political calculus after the overturning of Roe v. Wade,” The New York Times reports.
When Roe v Wade was overturned in the Supreme Court Dobbs decision, it created “a dilemma for members of a party that still wants to appeal to conservative voters who favor severe restrictions without alienating a growing majority in the country that does not.”
This reluctance by Republicans to sign onto legislation could mean “the demise of a tactic Republicans in Congress have successfully employed for decades to score political points with their base: the anti-abortion messaging bill.
“Speaker Mike Johnson, an evangelical Christian who has put his faith at the forefront of his politics throughout his career, has called abortion “an American holocaust.” But even he has conceded the political reality of the moment and said he was not pushing to bring contentious social issues to the floor this year.”
For years, conservative politicians have gathered up votes from passionate pro-life Christians. But now, with the removal of Row v Wade’s’s restrictions and the evidence of a pro-choice electorate, anti-abortion campaigning is off the table. It makes Obadiah suspicious. Was the campaign to have a majority of conservative Supreme Court Judges and to overturn Roe v Wade anything more than a decades-long sucking up of evangelical votes?
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Unheard: “Which voice did you hear? Male or female?” Unconscious bias advertising on the Tokyo metro, asking passengers which side of a recorded conversatiin they took in. (The question was translated into English – but the conversation was in Japanese.)
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Cold Monkeys: Obadiah trudged up the hill to see the snow monkeys above Yudanaka in Western Japan. They love their warm onsen (hot springs bath) that the humans built to keep them out of the town onsen.
Obadiah mused, that’s what I was doing last night, but he’s not showing that picture. He’s such a prude he went for the private onsen at the ryoken (inn).