{"id":72530,"date":"2024-03-11T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T10:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=72530"},"modified":"2024-03-09T14:07:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T19:07:05","slug":"monday-miscellany-3-11-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2024\/03\/monday-miscellany-3-11-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Miscellany 3\/11\/24"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Another bad idea from France, Colorado\u2019s DNA scandal, and world hunger gives way to world obesity.<\/p>\n

Another Bad Idea from France<\/h4>\n

France has enshrined the \u201cright to an abortion\u201d in its constitution<\/a>.\u00a0 No other country in the world has done so.<\/p>\n

President Macron has been pushing for the amendment with the support of feminists who were reportedly worried about what happened in the United States with the overturning of the Roe v. Wade. decision.\u00a0 In a story on the March 4 ratification, the Catholic News Agency<\/a> reported, \u201cLater that evening the Eiffel Tower was illuminated with the words \u2018my body, my choice\u2019 as jubilant onlookers celebrated, a scene that was repeated all over the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

The story quotes a statement from the Pontifical Academy for Life, which rightly says, \u201cthere cannot be a \u2018right\u2019 to take a human life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The amendment, which is now Article 4 of the French Constitution, reads as follows:\u00a0 \u201cThe law determines the conditions by which is exercised the freedom of women to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy, which is guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n

But you know what?\u00a0 The French law that the amendment protects in this abortion-friendly country still regulates abortion.\u00a0 According to the CNA article<\/a>, \u201cin 2022 the gestational stage limit for abortion was extended to 14 weeks of pregnancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans in the United States who want to strike a compromise on the issue have been proposing allowing abortion up to 16 weeks\u2013half a month longer than rabidly pro-abortion France does!\u2013and Democrats are calling that a horrible assault on the rights of women!<\/p>\n

So in this regard, the United States, whose constitution was expressly found to not<\/em> contain a right to an abortion, is in many jurisdictions more pro-abortion than a country with a constitution that does<\/em> specify abortion as a right.\u00a0 Abortion supporters here will be satisfied with nothing less than abortion for any reason and at any developmental stage up to birth.<\/p>\n

One more observation:\u00a0 I\u2019ve been reading conservative critiques of our contemporary culture that blame the Reformation for all our woes, claiming that Luther split the church, replaced its authority with the individual conscience, and made other innovations that would develop into contemporary secularism.<\/p>\n

This is erroneous for many reasons, but the thought occurred to me that none of the major shifts in thinking that led to secularism originated in Protestant countries.\u00a0 Instead, most of them originated in Catholic and culturally-Catholic France:\u00a0 the anti-Christian wing of the Enlightenment,\u00a0 absolutist governments, the Deist religion, utopian but bloody Revolution designed to refashion all of society, existentialism, modernism, postmodernism, critical theory. . . .<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s DNA Scandal<\/h4>\n

Scientists are only human, which means we must be careful when we trust \u201cThe Science.\u201d\u00a0 One of the many examples of this principle is unfolding in Colorado, where revelations about a top forensic scientist is shaping up to be a disaster for the state\u2019s criminal justice system.<\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal\u2019<\/em>s Dan Frosch and Zusha Elinson tell the story that is well summarized by the headline and the deck:\u00a0\u201cThe DNA Scandal That Threatens Thousands of Criminal Cases<\/a>:\u00a0\u00a0Colorado investigators say star analyst Yvonne \u2018Missy\u2019 Woods altered data. Now people she helped send to prison want their convictions re-examined.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor nearly three decades,\u201d they write, \u201cYvonne \u2018Missy\u2019 Woods was Colorado\u2019s star forensic scientist, relied on by police and prosecutors to test DNA evidence in the state\u2019s most baffling crimes. Her work was considered the gold standard by colleagues and helped put away infamous murderers, including the \u2018Colorado Hammer Killer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But in November an internal review by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation discovered \u201canomalies\u201d in her work and launched a criminal investigation.\u00a0 \u00a0The details haven\u2019t been released, but reportedly Woods altered data.\u00a0 \u00a0Sometimes she \u201canalyzed samples several times but reported only one result,\u201d thus choosing which outcome she wanted to support.\u00a0 Frosch and Elinson, whose article is behind the WSJ paywall, write,<\/p>\n

\n

As Colorado prosecutors pore over hundreds of cases that Woods worked on and await results of the investigation, they must consider two nightmare scenarios: Whether any of Woods\u2019s cases ended in a wrongful conviction and whether some people correctly put behind bars must now be retried because of shoddy DNA testing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is already starting to happen, with prisoners convicted because of Woods\u2019 evidence filing appeals.\u00a0 Maybe some are innocent.\u00a0 But the guilty too may go free.<\/p>\n

Another question is how did these apparent errors escape notice for so long?\u00a0 Forensic findings are supposed to be double-checked by another specialist.\u00a0 The reporters quote defense attorney Mary Mulligan:\u00a0 \u201cThe fact that this could go on for 20-some years, and not once did it get caught by peer review, this says there is something very wrong with forensic testing in Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

World Hunger Gives Way to World Obesity<\/h4>\n

According to a story in the London Telegraph, <\/em>obesity is now a greater risk to global health than hunger<\/a>.\u00a0 It cites a study published in the medical journal Lancet\u00a0<\/em>that found that one in eight of the world\u2019s population of 8 billion is clinically obese.<\/p>\n

In 1990, 226 million people, or 1 in 20, were overweight, while 440 million were underweight.\u00a0 Today, 879 million adults are overweight, while 347 million are underweight.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing obese or underweight are forms of malnutrition,\u201d says the story, \u201cbecause in both cases people are not getting the right nutrients, vitamins and types of calories that are needed to be healthy.\u201d\u00a0 Obesity, in turn, is connected to other health problems.<\/p>\n

But it is surely better than starvation!\u00a0 This strikes me as progress.<\/p>\n

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