That’s one humongous hibiscus!
“Aag Daman mein lag jayeegi”
First time in my life!!!
First time in my life I read a full Supreme Court judgement. In its entirety! All 95 pages!! Twice!!
There were enough emotions being poured out in Facebook among my friends about the recent Supreme Court and the Hobby Lobby case (ACA, access to contraception by women etc) – mostly against the Supreme Court decision – and a lot of them by women – that I had to ask myself – “What kind of insensitive men are running our Court these days?”. Just to get a first hand impression, I downloaded the whole judgment and started reading up in the long coast to coast flight.
First, I read Justice Alito’s writeup of Opinion of the Court (making a case for the final decision of the Court). Impressive arguments. It made total sense to me. Followed up with Justice Kennedy’s Concurrence.
I was not sure there was a case against. So, then read up Justice Ginsburg’s writeup “Dissent”. Splendid arguments. Great alternate ways to look at the same situation. That made total sense to me too. Justice Breyer and Justice Kagan’s Dissents were one paragraph only – mostly concurring with Justice Ginsburg.
So, I was even more confused then. I asked myself “Which way would I vote”? Not knowing anything better, I went ahead and read up the whole 95 pages again.
And this is the conclusion I came to… I am really really glad that some really really smart people investigate these really really intricate and controversial questions in so many different ways and then lay down the rule of the land. I am certainly not up to it. That, above all, was the most comforting feeling I had.
And the decorum they have of laying down their bitter opposition while simultaneously showing great respect to folks with opposite points of view is something I can always learn from.
BTW, some of the facts I learnt while reading – that I never learnt from any of the FB posts:
1. The case was not about all contraceptives. In fact, ACA, does not even cover the more effective forms of contraceptives. Only the 20 specified ones by FDA. Of them, 16 was never in question – they all prevented fertilization of eggs. The debated and contested ones were 4 of them – that prevented a fertilized egg to continue growing by attaching itself to the uterus. (I think certain religious beliefs believe life starts when the egg gets fertilized).
2. The case was not about whether women can have access to those 4. It was about if certain kind of for-profit organizations could be forced to pay for them when their religious beliefs is that it is a sin to do so. In case of religious non-profits, the law today already requires that the insurance carrier will have to pay for those 4 drugs without asking the non-profit or the employee to pay. And no insurance carrier has ever objected because the costs of going thru with an unwanted pregnancy is apparently much higher than the cost of those 4 drugs.
Both sides agree to the above.
In any case, I am not sure I will ever use any of these information. But sure taught me that I should get to the facts before I evaluate…
Gem from Akbar Ilahabadi !
(Unbelievably enough, he was a sessions judge at Allahabad High Court at the turn of the twentieth century).
“Udhar zulfon mein kangi ho rahi hai, kham nikalta hai
Idhar ruk ruk key, khnich khnich key hamara dam nikalta hai
Ilahi khair ho, uljhan pe uljhan parti jati hai
Na un ka kham nikalta hai, na hamara dam nikalta hai”
The Third Eye: From our porch
The Third Eye: Angry Bird?
CallingItAsISeeIT: Really? That is why soccer is not popular in US?
There is a very interesting – and that is the most generous adjective I could come up with – analysis of why soccer is not popular here in US. Apparently, the problem is there are too many “draws”. And the solution suggested is to have judges giving points for every 15 minutes of play.
I have not followed soccer in a long time and am an avid NFL and College Football guy now. With that, let me say the following:
1. Soccer in the rest of the world is doing fine, thank you. They do not need any boost from us in terms of popularity.
2. I thought we used to complain about East Bloc judges and the whole system how gymnastics point system worked in the Olympics. I thought we do not believe the ref on the (American) football field and want to rely on the objective way of replay technologies. Why this change of heart and reliance on three judges?
3. The funniest part? TIME calls the world soccer body “insular” to changes of rules. Of course, we, who are throwing stones at other glass houses are the same ones that cannot put in my simple drug testing rules in our national sport or summarily dismiss who use epithets on people who unfortunately were born with the “wrong” skin color.
4. At some point of time, we have to understand that here, in this country, it is all about money. Nothing wrong about it. Money drives glamor and popularity and that drives what kids want to do. Btw, the recent rise of cricket’s popularity and India’s seizing the center stage from the traditional owners – England, is a great study of how money drives popularity.
5. So, who in this country drives that money? It is not the spectators. It is the advertisers!!!
6. And there is a lot of advertising in a (American) football game. A football is “live” for about 12 minutes in a game that lasts for 3 hours. Imagine the ad time on TV or in the stadium. Look at the time between pitches in baseball. And the interruptions in baseball.
7. I am rusted, but as I recollect, soccer is a lot more continuous and free flowing game. The ball is “live” for almost all the 90 minutes. (Other than half time). That is a nightmare scenario for me as a TV advertiser.
8. Till we have figured out how to stop the soccer game every time somebody has received a ball, I do not see much money in the game.
We are good at what we do but let’s leave them alone and let them play their own game. Sucks that it happens to be world’s most popular sport. But what do we care? If we can get one team from Canada to participate in our game, we can call our series the “World Series”. We do not need the rest of the world to call it World Cup. And frankly speaking, they do not need our help. They are doing fine.
Now let me get back to my off season trade analysis for the Falcons đŸ™‚
The Third Eye: Random flower
A classic one from Gulzar
Sitting out in the dark and the moon blurred by the clouds, a glass of wine and and some old poems were perfect to close out a long week. This one from Gulzar (in Hindi) stuck in my mind :
Nazm uljhi hui hai seene mein
Misare atke hue hain hothon par
Udate phirte hain titaliyon ki tarah
Lafz kaagaz pe baithate hi nahin
Kab se baithaa hun main jaanam
Saade kaagaz pe likh ke naam tera
Bas tera naam hi mukammal hai
Is se behtar bhi nazm kyaa hogi
Roughly translated, he is saying:
A poem is entangled in my chest
The lines are stuck in my lips
The words are flitting around like butterflies
But refusing to settle down on my paper
I have been sitting here for so long
Having only written your name on a white paper
Only your name exists on the paper
And I ask, how can there be a better poem than that?