A Sad Day in Albuquerque

Albuquereque Voters Defeat Anti-Abortion Referendum . 55 to 45%, with heavy turnout.

I had some hopes for a closer outcome. Stoked by some over-optimistic social conservative reporting, no doubt.

Still, is 55 to 45 a “huge” victory for pro-abortion forces, or is it yet more evidence of ours being a 50-50 nation culture-wise?

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Now what would the “Bass” character played by Brad Pitt in 12 YEARS A SLAVE, say?

“I tell you what it is Epps,” said Bass, “it’s all wrong—all wrong, sir—there’s no justice nor righteousness in it.

. . . the law says you have the right to hold a nigger, and to have a fetus aborted, but begging the law’s pardon, it lies . Yes, Epps, when the law says that it’s a liar, and the truth is not in it. Is every thing right because the law allows it?

I regard as impious and detestable the maxim that in matters of government the majority of a people has a right to do everything.”

Oh, that’s right, that last sentence wasn’t from the unknown Canadian carpenter Bass, but from the celebrated French writer Tocqueville!  I’m so unreliable . . .   Actually, the next thing Bass said was this:  “There’s a sin, a fearful sin, resting on this nation, that will not go unpunished forever. There will be a reckoning yet— . . . ”

The whole book is online —this exchange is from chapter 19, and is worth reading in full.

Oh, and how did that phrase “have a fetus aborted” slip in there?

That’s right, I wasn’t reporting on what Bass did say then, but what he would be logically obliged to say today.

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No word yet on whether any edgy directors are showing any interest in the hard-hitting, but challengingly abstract script, NO YEARS A HUMAN.