Not that it matters

...but I always liked the movie The Neverending Story. It came out when I was about 13, and, "lonely boy escapes into fantasy", I mean, hello. To say nothing of the song by Limahl and Giorgio Moroder.

But, oddly, perhaps, what stays with me (at this moment, anyway) are its metaphors for despair. The giant "rockbiter" left behind when all his friend have been swept into nothingness, sitting there looking at his hands and saying "They look like such big, strong hands, don't they?"

And the strange turtle-like creature who preceeds almost every utterance with the words "Not that it matters..." and when asked if it doesn't care says "We don't even care that we don't care."

Not that it matters, but I want to add a voice of agreement to this entry in firedoglake giving the reasons why Alito should be (and should have been) opposed. And why Democrats who don't (and didn't) do everything they can to stop him being placed in a position such power will be on the well-deserved end of a lot of ire when he's confirmed.

Not if. When. Because he's already been cleared through to the Senate, and "a filibuster is unlikely."

The entry also contains as close to perfect an articulation as I've seen of my feelings on a woman's right to choose.

I don't want people to have more abortions. If I could, I'd wave a wand and make all babies be born under ideal circumstances to parents who would love and care for them.

But I happen to live in the all-too-real world, where sexual abuse and violent rape and all those other nasty things happen, where children wake up and wonder if there will be any food for them to eat -- right here in the US of A -- and where other things that most people can never even imagine happen within families and neighborhoods and all over the place.

And I know enough to know this: I don't speak for God, and neither should anyone else. That's why it is an individual choice -- you make peace with your own soul, your own faith and your own family and friends based on your own, individual and hideous circumstances in each case -- and beyond that, it's no one's business. And I say this as someone who struggled with fertility issues for close to seven years and fully understands how very precious that life is. But I've seen enough horrible things in my life in the law to know that there are just some circumstances where you cannot know unless you happen to be walking in those particular shoes...those very dismal, very difficult shoes.

Not that it matters.

They look like such big, strong hands, don't they?