devarim

At long last (okay, after an expected two years), my employment with the Commonwealth of Masachusetts has ended. Specifically, my employment as a law clerk has ended, and I am no longer bound by the Code of Judicial Conduct. In other words, I can talk politics again. I wanted to come up with a profound and insightful post for my re-debut, but there's either nothing to talk about, or else too much to talk about. Instead, here's a (partial) list of the things I've been biting my tongue over for the past twenty-four months or so:

• W.
  
• Iraq
  
• the War on Terror
  
• the War on Drugs (and if you don't think the U.S. government is still doing a lousy job of fighting this war and a terrific job of losing it...)
  
• stupid airline screening procedures that do nothing to prevent terrorism and do everything to push people toward a delicate balance of false security and frenetic panic, making them receptive to government-worship propoganda
  
• Katrina and other massive incursions of water
  
• Dick Cheney's lousy aim
  
• Joe Lieberman's lousy career moves
  
• Israel
  
• aliyah (immigration to Israel)
  
• Lebanon and Israel
  
• everyone else and Israel
  
• same-sex marriage (just to change the topic)
  
• same-sex divorce
  
• Terry Schiavo
  
• the HPV ("cervical cancer virus") vaccine
  
• Plan B ("the morning-after pill") and its over-the-counter-ness
  
• late-term abortion
  
• abortion, period
  
• contraception
  
• sex ed
  
• maternity/parental leave policies here and abroad
  
• the so-called campaign in support of breastfeeding (hint: the lousy rates of breastfeeding in the U.S. have a lot to do with our lousy maternity leave policies)
  
• mandated insurance coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of infertility (even in Massachusetts, "mandated coverage" isn't all it's cracked up to be)
  
• standardized testing and No Child Left Behind
  
• English as the national language (oh please)
  
• immigration policies
  
• taxes
  
• why I am not, in fact, a bleeding-heart-liberal pinko commie bastard, but rather merely an organic-latte-sipping, farmer's-market-perusing, Volvo-driving, libertarian-leaning New England liberal...and proud

P.S. Formerly redacted entries will be restored in the coming weeks. Thanks for your patience.