2017 Jan 24^th

President Trump has announced the resurrection of that old political football, the refusal of support for those institutions abroad offering abortion, or information about it, as a means of family planning. Bush did the same thing, then Obama stopped the defunding, and now Trump has begun defunding again. The absurdity of this position is simply stated: These organizations also provide contraceptive and other family planning information which, in the absence of funding, will result in more unwanted pregnancies and lead to more abortions.

What about Israel? We subsidize Israel to the tune of 3.8 billion dollars a year; that’s about 11 dollars from every man woman and child in this country going to support Israel every year. Much of that money is given to Israel as armaments but all of it allows Israel to spend money elsewhere. Some of that elsewhere is on women’s health, specifically on abortion.

Israel has almost no restriction on abortion. There is an application process and the applicant is screened by a three person panel consisting of two physicians and a social worker. If they agree you get an abortion at state expense..,and they agree 97 percent of the time. For women under 18 years of age the right to an abortion is automatic as it is some other circumstances.

Suppose you don’t want to go that route, or perhaps you are one of the three percent denied by a panel, About half of all abortions in Israel are provided by private physicians. This is not legal but no physician has, so far, been prosecuted for providing abortions.

Will President Trump stop funding Israel with our tax money? Wanna bet?

Shifting gears we now consider the interesting case of a cashier hired to work for the summer at a posh hotel on Mackinac Island. Advertisements for cashiers at this hotel appear in our local paper. The wage offered is between 9 and 10 dollars an hour. That isn’t enough to let you live comfortably on this elegant Island for the summer so the hiring hotel offers a room and board package for about 120 dollars a week. Of course it is more like a bed in a dorm than a room, but one presumes it is safe and out of the weather. The person accepting this position will have as take home pay, after deductions and the room and board costs, about 21 dollars a day.; that’s about $2.65 an hour. Laundry and personal expenses such as soap and razor blades must come out of that.

The clientele of this luxury establishment are charged enough to let the hotel to pay a better wage. The cost for their best room room for two on the weekend is just about 950 dollars a night.  In addition to the roughly 1900 dollars for the two weekend nights there are several other charges that add a total of about 475 dollars to the bill. Altogether, the two-day weekend will run almost 2400 dollars. This price does include a sumptuous breakfast and a multi-course dinner on each day of your two-day stay.

Perhaps the guests will also get a nice smile from the cashier when they pay for the little Mackinac Island souvenir at the end of their trip.