ABC News: Congress Announces Deal in Schiavo Case: "Congressional leaders said Saturday they reached a compromise that would call on federal courts to decide Terri Schiavo's fate, as emotions swelled outside the hospice where the brain-damaged woman spent her second day without a feeding tube."
Saturday, March 19, 2005
South Dakota Governor OKs Abortion Limits
The Los Angeles Times runs an AP story of South Dakota attempting to restrict abortion and reclaim the states' rightful prerogative to legislate on abortion matters without interference from the federal Supreme Court.
"Wrongful Life"
Kathryn Jean Lopez of The Corner alerts us to this one: a successful "wrongful life" suit in the Netherlands (where else?).
"Wrongful Life." The words should catch in our throats.
"Wrongful Life." The words should catch in our throats.
Friday, March 18, 2005
US Senate Rejects So-Called "Democratic Abortion Amendment"
Check out this article on how those nasty Republicans are really not interested in reducing abortions.
Apparently, Senators Clinton and Reid introduced something Reuters variously terms an "abortion amendment" and a "pregnancy prevention measure" which Republican senators refused to support.
The reader has to get through seven paragraphs to find an actual description of the measure:
"The measure, offered as an amendment in the Senate budget debate, included more funding for family planning, teen pregnancy programs and education about emergency contraception. It also would have expanded health insurance coverage of prescription birth control."
Hmmm. Pro-life (anti-abortion) senators are opposed to funding "emergency contraceptives which work as . . . . abortifacients? And they aren't adding funding to promote contraception, which study after study show do nothing to curb abortion rates?
Wow, they're so . . . . consistent.
Apparently, Senators Clinton and Reid introduced something Reuters variously terms an "abortion amendment" and a "pregnancy prevention measure" which Republican senators refused to support.
The reader has to get through seven paragraphs to find an actual description of the measure:
"The measure, offered as an amendment in the Senate budget debate, included more funding for family planning, teen pregnancy programs and education about emergency contraception. It also would have expanded health insurance coverage of prescription birth control."
Hmmm. Pro-life (anti-abortion) senators are opposed to funding "emergency contraceptives which work as . . . . abortifacients? And they aren't adding funding to promote contraception, which study after study show do nothing to curb abortion rates?
Wow, they're so . . . . consistent.
Let God Sort 'Em Out -- Or Maybe ONLY Kill Good People
Congress intervenes in Schiavo case:
Apparently, Congressmen will subpoena Terri to force her to be kept on life-support.
Meanwhile, the Florida Senate again rejected a bill that would have prevented tubes from being removed from people unless they had left clear instructions on end-of-life care. A novel bit of moral theology came from one of the opposing Florida senators:
"Sen. Nancy Argenziano, a Dunnellon Republican who voted against the Senate measure on Thursday, wiped away tears as she explained her position. She said she had received threatening phone calls and been called 'some very nasty names.'
'Please respect my fundamental belief, it is a true belief,' she said, pausing as she cried. 'I don't want to stop anyone from getting to heaven.'
Argenziano and other senators said they were convinced from the court testimony that Schiavo would not have wanted to be kept alive by artificial means.
'just ask people to understand there is another point of view,' she said. 'I believe keeping someone from getting to heaven is the wrong thing to do.'"
Yes, starving someone to death so they can go to heaven is another point of view, as is a belief that Hale-Bopp is coming to bring us to a higher state, once we "dump the containers" and off ourselves.
Apparently, Congressmen will subpoena Terri to force her to be kept on life-support.
Meanwhile, the Florida Senate again rejected a bill that would have prevented tubes from being removed from people unless they had left clear instructions on end-of-life care. A novel bit of moral theology came from one of the opposing Florida senators:
"Sen. Nancy Argenziano, a Dunnellon Republican who voted against the Senate measure on Thursday, wiped away tears as she explained her position. She said she had received threatening phone calls and been called 'some very nasty names.'
'Please respect my fundamental belief, it is a true belief,' she said, pausing as she cried. 'I don't want to stop anyone from getting to heaven.'
Argenziano and other senators said they were convinced from the court testimony that Schiavo would not have wanted to be kept alive by artificial means.
'just ask people to understand there is another point of view,' she said. 'I believe keeping someone from getting to heaven is the wrong thing to do.'"
Yes, starving someone to death so they can go to heaven is another point of view, as is a belief that Hale-Bopp is coming to bring us to a higher state, once we "dump the containers" and off ourselves.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Rev. Robert Johansen on Terri Schiavo on National Review Online
Rev. Robert Johansen on Terri Schiavo on National Review Online provides interesting details, among them:
Please keep praying, emailing, writing.
- Terri has not had an MRI or PET scan -- standard, non-invasive tests for determining actual damage. Remarks such as "Terri's cerebral cortex tissues have deteriorated entirely and are replaced by fluid" are suppositions, not measurables.
- Fifteen board-certified neurologists called for additional testing in the appeal that Judge Greer just dismissed.
- The star expert witness for Michael Schiavo and George Felos, Dr. Ronald Cranford, is an activist in the "right-to-die"/physician-assisted suicide movement, one who is on record for advocating the starvation of Alzheimer’s patients. He previously surfaced in the Nancy Cruzan case, advocating that she, too, be starved (in Cruzan's case, he advocated withholding spoon-feeding).
Please keep praying, emailing, writing.
Mixed Signals from the Great Beyond
Interesting editorial on the New Age practices and beliefs of George Felos, as detailed in his writings, particularly a book entitled Litigation as Spiritual Practice. No, we're not making this up. All good reading, and revelatory for his connections with neo-gnosticism. But one part has us confused. "Felos clearly believes in reincarnation and even discusses a conversation with his yet-to-be-conceived, unborn son, who told Felos, 'I'm ready to be born. . . will you stop this fooling around!'"
We always thought "fooling around" was a necessary prerequisite.
We always thought "fooling around" was a necessary prerequisite.
Let Live or Make Die?
William Luce writes in Touchstone on Terri Schiavo, making some connections with the case of the late Christopher Reeve. A good read.
A Brief History of British Abortion Law
The Independent has a summary of the history of abortion legislation in the U.K. We note that it repeats a fallacious history of a "Catholic Doctrine of Passive Conception" and omits mention of the fact that abortion was always considered wrong and sinful in Catholic tradition. Still, it useful to see the different contours of the debate in a country where such matters can still be legislated.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Sinn Fein Barred from U.S. Fundraising
Reuters cites the London Times: "Sinn Fein, the political ally of the IRA has been banned from fundraising in the United States, The Times has reported, citing diplomatic sources.
It said the order, passed to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams via U.S. State Department channels, followed White House anger over accusations the IRA was continuing criminal activity."
Reuters also reports that President Bush will not meet with Gerry Adams on St. Patrick's Day. Bush is evidently in a mood to press terrorists around the world, and not just the Islamic ones.
It said the order, passed to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams via U.S. State Department channels, followed White House anger over accusations the IRA was continuing criminal activity."
Reuters also reports that President Bush will not meet with Gerry Adams on St. Patrick's Day. Bush is evidently in a mood to press terrorists around the world, and not just the Islamic ones.
The Myth of St. Allende
Had a brief but emotional exchange with colleagues at work regarding "the U.S. evil history." (It ended with one of our interlocutors actually saying, "We're NOT good!") The topic: longstanding U.S. backing for Latin American, Asian, and Middle Eastern dictators like Somoza, Marcos, Pinochet, and the Shah. It often goes unremarked that, the United States eventually turned against each of these regimes and worked to remove them from power. In Chile and the Phillipines, the result was democratic government. Nicaragua and Iran were less successful. The Sandinistas, who suspended civil liberties and established a Marxist-style dictatorship, followed Somoza, and the Ayatollah Khomeini was a bigger disaster for the Iranian people than the Shah.
We'd also challenge the notion that Allende (from whom Pinochet seized power in 1973 with at least tacit U.S. approval) was a democrat with no threat of turning Chile into a Soviet satellite. He was a life-long Marxist. Marxism views a dictatorship of the proletariat, as directed by the international communist party, as the highest form of human good. While he may have claimed to having no intention to abolish democracy, he openly espoused a belief that Chile would, as a matter of principle, be better off without democracy.
Having won election by a razor-thin plurality, he proceeded to nationalize private industries, including banking and copper. He implemented confiscatory taxes and centralized wage and price controls. He established diplomatic relations with Castro. Under the guise of "agrarian reform," his government seized private farms and redistributed to the proletariat, leading to a massive shortage of basic foodstuffs. This is exactly the sort of pattern we saw time and time again in the Soviet Union. (Granted, a lot of this was exacerbated by anti-Allende policies in the U.S.)
Chile's economy was in the shitter at the time of the coup (radical drop in production of basic goods, rampant inflation), and Allende was increasingly autocratic in the face of ongoing civil unrest and violence. Support of Pinochet may not have been warranted, and Pinochet was certainly a repressive, violent dictator who didn't necessarily make life better, but from the vantage point of 1973, the correct course of action was far from easy to see.
We'd also challenge the notion that Allende (from whom Pinochet seized power in 1973 with at least tacit U.S. approval) was a democrat with no threat of turning Chile into a Soviet satellite. He was a life-long Marxist. Marxism views a dictatorship of the proletariat, as directed by the international communist party, as the highest form of human good. While he may have claimed to having no intention to abolish democracy, he openly espoused a belief that Chile would, as a matter of principle, be better off without democracy.
Having won election by a razor-thin plurality, he proceeded to nationalize private industries, including banking and copper. He implemented confiscatory taxes and centralized wage and price controls. He established diplomatic relations with Castro. Under the guise of "agrarian reform," his government seized private farms and redistributed to the proletariat, leading to a massive shortage of basic foodstuffs. This is exactly the sort of pattern we saw time and time again in the Soviet Union. (Granted, a lot of this was exacerbated by anti-Allende policies in the U.S.)
Chile's economy was in the shitter at the time of the coup (radical drop in production of basic goods, rampant inflation), and Allende was increasingly autocratic in the face of ongoing civil unrest and violence. Support of Pinochet may not have been warranted, and Pinochet was certainly a repressive, violent dictator who didn't necessarily make life better, but from the vantage point of 1973, the correct course of action was far from easy to see.
Monday, March 14, 2005
China Threatens Taiwan With Possible Military Action
Chinese military given right to attack Taiwan: "China's parliament yesterday passed a law giving its military the legal basis to attack Taiwan if the island moves towards independence, drawing an angry retort from Taipei, which said it was an authorisation for war."
This is Huge
On the tail of last week's discouraging counter-demonstration by Hezbollah, this story is picking up our spirits. Hezbollah is the biggest threat to peace and justice in Lebanon. If they can be neutralized and kept from intimidating the Lebanese people, democracy can grow there, and in Syria, and in Iran.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Lebanese people tonight.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Lebanese people tonight.
Mel Gibson Speaks Out on Terri's Fight
Terri's Fight: "In a personal telephone conversation on March 11, between Terri Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler, and actor/director Mel Gibson, Mr. Gibson encouraged the Schindler family to 'never give up and continue to pray.' Shortly after the telephone conversation Mr. Gibson sent a fax to the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation with the following statement to be read at a March 12 rally for Terri:
'I fully support the efforts of Mr. & Mrs. Schindler to save their daughter, Terri Schiavo, from a cruel starvation. Terri's husband should sign the care of his wife over to her parents so she can be properly cared for.' -- Mel Gibson"
'I fully support the efforts of Mr. & Mrs. Schindler to save their daughter, Terri Schiavo, from a cruel starvation. Terri's husband should sign the care of his wife over to her parents so she can be properly cared for.' -- Mel Gibson"
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Anti-abortion Movement in U.K.
The Telegraph on a movement to greater restrictions on abortion: "For the first time in many years, the ethics of abortion are back in the headlines. There is renewed pressure for a tightening of the current British law, which allows the termination of a pregnancy up to 24 weeks. But it is coming from an unexpected direction: politicians and public figures who still support, with reservations, what the pro-abortion lobby calls 'a woman's right to choose'.
In an interview published today, Michael Howard calls for the legal limit to be cut to 20 weeks; he used to support a limit of 22 weeks. The difference, though small in terms of time, would substantially reduce the number of abortions in this country."
In an interview published today, Michael Howard calls for the legal limit to be cut to 20 weeks; he used to support a limit of 22 weeks. The difference, though small in terms of time, would substantially reduce the number of abortions in this country."
Lebanon: Keep Your Eye on the Ball
WorldNetDaily cites Jack Wheeler on the war on terror, Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah. He's got some serious misgivings about the likelihood of bringing democracy to Lebanon easily. Hezbollah, more than Syrian military and intel, does seem to be the means by which the thugs intend to halt the democracy movement, and Hezbollah is directly responsive to the mullahs in Iran:
"[according to Wheeler,] Hezbollah's chief of military operations, who has over 20 years in the terror business, is set to start a civil war in Lebanon. . . . [H]e writes, 'this could turn out really ugly. Dispatch after dispatch, story after story, and all you read about is Syria's getting its troops and spies out of its colony. Congressmen like Darryl Issa, R-Calif., write newspaper op-eds entitled "Lebanon: Democracy's Next Stop." All without a word about Hezbollah. All without a word about Iran.' . . . .
Syria, Wheeler states, is not the chief problem for Lebanon – it's Iran.
Writes the analyst: 'Bashar al-Assad is a puppet of the Mullacracy in Tehran. The people who give the orders to the Syrian troops in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley are Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Pasdaran. Hezbollah was founded in 1982 among Lebanon's Shia Muslims with money and weapons from Iran. It is run by the world's worst terrorist, who is most decidedly not Osama bin Laden.
'Osama is a Hollywood terrorist . . . . The most important and dangerous terrorist in the world is a man most everybody has never heard of. His name is Imad Mugniyeh. He is the true King of Terror.'
Wheeler then lists Mugniyeh's terror rap sheet, everything from organizing the 1983 killing of 242 U.S. Marines in Lebanon to involvement in the 2000 USS Cole attack. Besides countless acts of terror, Mugniyeh, Wheeler says, was involved in shuttling Saddam's WMDs into Hezbollah's care before the Iraq war.
Predicts Wheeler: 'Imad Mugniyeh and the Hezbollah, at the direction of Iran, will ignite another civil war in Lebanon, destroying that country's chances for democracy and freedom from Syrian colonial control – and halting thereby George Bush's Middle East Freedom March right in its tracks.'
Wheeler's solution for Bush? 'Regime change in Iran.'"
"[according to Wheeler,] Hezbollah's chief of military operations, who has over 20 years in the terror business, is set to start a civil war in Lebanon. . . . [H]e writes, 'this could turn out really ugly. Dispatch after dispatch, story after story, and all you read about is Syria's getting its troops and spies out of its colony. Congressmen like Darryl Issa, R-Calif., write newspaper op-eds entitled "Lebanon: Democracy's Next Stop." All without a word about Hezbollah. All without a word about Iran.' . . . .
Syria, Wheeler states, is not the chief problem for Lebanon – it's Iran.
Writes the analyst: 'Bashar al-Assad is a puppet of the Mullacracy in Tehran. The people who give the orders to the Syrian troops in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley are Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Pasdaran. Hezbollah was founded in 1982 among Lebanon's Shia Muslims with money and weapons from Iran. It is run by the world's worst terrorist, who is most decidedly not Osama bin Laden.
'Osama is a Hollywood terrorist . . . . The most important and dangerous terrorist in the world is a man most everybody has never heard of. His name is Imad Mugniyeh. He is the true King of Terror.'
Wheeler then lists Mugniyeh's terror rap sheet, everything from organizing the 1983 killing of 242 U.S. Marines in Lebanon to involvement in the 2000 USS Cole attack. Besides countless acts of terror, Mugniyeh, Wheeler says, was involved in shuttling Saddam's WMDs into Hezbollah's care before the Iraq war.
Predicts Wheeler: 'Imad Mugniyeh and the Hezbollah, at the direction of Iran, will ignite another civil war in Lebanon, destroying that country's chances for democracy and freedom from Syrian colonial control – and halting thereby George Bush's Middle East Freedom March right in its tracks.'
Wheeler's solution for Bush? 'Regime change in Iran.'"
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Condi, the "Mildly Pro-Choice" Secretary of State.
Hat tip to Mike Aquilina, who points out this early take in the Washington Timeson the possibility of a 2008 Rice GOP candidacy. She putting as much nuance as possible into her spin:
"Other Republicans have questioned whether evangelical Christians, a crucial component of the Republican base, would turn out to vote for a pro-choice candidate. Miss Rice, a Presbyterian's preacher's daughter who twice in the interview spoke of her 'deep religious faith,' suggested it's a moot point. 'I'm not trying to be elected.' Miss Rice said abortion should be 'as rare a circumstance as possible,' although without excessive government intervention. 'We should not have the federal government in a position where it is forcing its views on one side or the other. 'So, for instance, I've tended to agree with those who do not favor federal funding for abortion, because I believe that those who hold a strong moral view on the other side should not be forced to fund it.' Describing pro-lifers as 'the other side' is one of the ways Miss Rice articulates her position as a 'mildly pro-choice' Republican. She explained that she is 'in effect kind of libertarian on this issue,' adding: 'I have been concerned about a government role. 'I am a strong proponent of parental notification. I am a strong proponent of a ban on late-term abortion. These are all things that I think unite people and I think that that's where we should be. 'We ought to have a culture that says, 'Who wants to have an abortion? Who wants to see a daughter or a friend or a sibling go through something like that?'� ' Miss Rice described abortion as an 'extremely difficult moral issue' which she approaches as 'a deeply religious person.' 'My faith is a part of everything that I do,' she said. 'It's not something that I can set outside of anything that I do, because it's so integral to who I am. 'And prayer is very important to me and a belief that if you ask for it, you will be guided. Now, that doesn't mean that I think that God will tell me what to do on, you know, the Iran nuclear problem. 'That's not how I see it. But I do believe very strongly that if you are a prayerful and faithful person, that that is a help in guiding us, as imperfect beings, to have to deal with extremely difficult and consequential matters.'"
Personally, we'd be happy if the states could freely legislate on abortion, as opposed to the federal government (after, homicide codes are specified at the state level, not the federal level). Still, this sounds like a woman considering options and not wanting to close doors to any constituency, pro or anti abortion. Is she running? We'll go out on a limb and say she's more likely to be running than Hillary.
"Other Republicans have questioned whether evangelical Christians, a crucial component of the Republican base, would turn out to vote for a pro-choice candidate. Miss Rice, a Presbyterian's preacher's daughter who twice in the interview spoke of her 'deep religious faith,' suggested it's a moot point. 'I'm not trying to be elected.' Miss Rice said abortion should be 'as rare a circumstance as possible,' although without excessive government intervention. 'We should not have the federal government in a position where it is forcing its views on one side or the other. 'So, for instance, I've tended to agree with those who do not favor federal funding for abortion, because I believe that those who hold a strong moral view on the other side should not be forced to fund it.' Describing pro-lifers as 'the other side' is one of the ways Miss Rice articulates her position as a 'mildly pro-choice' Republican. She explained that she is 'in effect kind of libertarian on this issue,' adding: 'I have been concerned about a government role. 'I am a strong proponent of parental notification. I am a strong proponent of a ban on late-term abortion. These are all things that I think unite people and I think that that's where we should be. 'We ought to have a culture that says, 'Who wants to have an abortion? Who wants to see a daughter or a friend or a sibling go through something like that?'� ' Miss Rice described abortion as an 'extremely difficult moral issue' which she approaches as 'a deeply religious person.' 'My faith is a part of everything that I do,' she said. 'It's not something that I can set outside of anything that I do, because it's so integral to who I am. 'And prayer is very important to me and a belief that if you ask for it, you will be guided. Now, that doesn't mean that I think that God will tell me what to do on, you know, the Iran nuclear problem. 'That's not how I see it. But I do believe very strongly that if you are a prayerful and faithful person, that that is a help in guiding us, as imperfect beings, to have to deal with extremely difficult and consequential matters.'"
Personally, we'd be happy if the states could freely legislate on abortion, as opposed to the federal government (after, homicide codes are specified at the state level, not the federal level). Still, this sounds like a woman considering options and not wanting to close doors to any constituency, pro or anti abortion. Is she running? We'll go out on a limb and say she's more likely to be running than Hillary.
Shutting Down the Power
"And then they shut down the power all along the line/
We got stuck in the tunnel where no lights shine . . .
We were waiting for the end of the world" -- Elvis Costello, "Waiting for the End of the World"
That pop song came to mind when we saw that there's a Texas man that hospital in Houston is looking to cut off someone's lifeline: HoustonChronicle.com - Court grants injunction for man on life support: "A Texas appellate court stopped St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital from removing life support Saturday for a 68-year-old man in a chronic vegetative state.
A three-justice panel of the 1st District Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to grant a temporary injunction to the family of Spiro Nikolouzos three hours before St. Luke's planned to turn off his ventilator and feeding tube. The panel set a hearing for Tuesday."
We got stuck in the tunnel where no lights shine . . .
We were waiting for the end of the world" -- Elvis Costello, "Waiting for the End of the World"
That pop song came to mind when we saw that there's a Texas man that hospital in Houston is looking to cut off someone's lifeline: HoustonChronicle.com - Court grants injunction for man on life support: "A Texas appellate court stopped St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital from removing life support Saturday for a 68-year-old man in a chronic vegetative state.
A three-justice panel of the 1st District Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to grant a temporary injunction to the family of Spiro Nikolouzos three hours before St. Luke's planned to turn off his ventilator and feeding tube. The panel set a hearing for Tuesday."
Italy Ends Policy of Rewarding Kidnappers
The Independent reports that Italy's policy of negotiating with kidnappers in Iraq has ended. Three cheers.
"Any Italians rash enough to go walkabout in Iraq are now on their own, prime minister Silvio Berlusconi told the Senate yesterday, in his first official pronouncement on the killing of Nicola Calipari last Friday.
'The Italian government is in a position to guarantee the security only of those...who operate in close co-operation and under the protection of our military contingent,' he said. 'It is not possible to do so for those who venture, even for the most noble and sincere reasons, in other regions of Iraq where the presence of terrorists is still high and where the risk of attacks and abductions is greater.'
It was a guarded statement, but it signalled a clear change of policy. Since the abduction of four Italian security guards last year, one of whom was murdered but three of whom were later released unharmed, Italy has pursued the bold and lonely strategy of negotiating with hostages and paying them huge ransoms."
"bold and lonely"? Try "short-sighted and self-defeating."
"Any Italians rash enough to go walkabout in Iraq are now on their own, prime minister Silvio Berlusconi told the Senate yesterday, in his first official pronouncement on the killing of Nicola Calipari last Friday.
'The Italian government is in a position to guarantee the security only of those...who operate in close co-operation and under the protection of our military contingent,' he said. 'It is not possible to do so for those who venture, even for the most noble and sincere reasons, in other regions of Iraq where the presence of terrorists is still high and where the risk of attacks and abductions is greater.'
It was a guarded statement, but it signalled a clear change of policy. Since the abduction of four Italian security guards last year, one of whom was murdered but three of whom were later released unharmed, Italy has pursued the bold and lonely strategy of negotiating with hostages and paying them huge ransoms."
"bold and lonely"? Try "short-sighted and self-defeating."
Leonard Nimoy, "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins"
Leonard Nimoy's "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins"
Nimoy will not be upstaged. Attention must be paid.
Update: This link has both channels audio (but the video is lower res)
Nimoy will not be upstaged. Attention must be paid.
Update: This link has both channels audio (but the video is lower res)
Cognitive Exam For Personhood
Matt Conigliaro has a Web site called Abstract Appeal with a section on the Schiavo case. He tries to be unbiased (his interests are primarily in Florida law), but ultimately he tends to be sympathetic to "the process," and since "the process" right now has indicated Terri must die, all in all it's hard not to see him favoring that outcome. One passage on this site sums up the fallacy that will keep giving momentum to the euthanasia movement:
"[Terri's parents] believe Terri would not want, and does not want, her feeding tube removed, and that some cognitive function could be restored through new therapies. . . . You're left with a public that is much confused. Some see video clips of Terri moving, appearing to make eye contact, and making sounds, and they assume such are the product of conscious thought -- that Terri's 'in there.'"
The presumption here is that personhood is determined by some "cognitive function" emanating from an unseen entity who's "in there." As long as this is our operating principle, we will lose the euthanasia argument, and the door will have been opened for trampling the rights of those who can't measure up cognitively and are presumptively less "in there" than "normal" people.
"[Terri's parents] believe Terri would not want, and does not want, her feeding tube removed, and that some cognitive function could be restored through new therapies. . . . You're left with a public that is much confused. Some see video clips of Terri moving, appearing to make eye contact, and making sounds, and they assume such are the product of conscious thought -- that Terri's 'in there.'"
The presumption here is that personhood is determined by some "cognitive function" emanating from an unseen entity who's "in there." As long as this is our operating principle, we will lose the euthanasia argument, and the door will have been opened for trampling the rights of those who can't measure up cognitively and are presumptively less "in there" than "normal" people.
Medicare Fraud Alleged Against Schiavo Lawyer
Schiavo Attorney Felos No Stranger To Medicare Fraud
"Fraud in the court and fraud in the hospice.
Five years ago this month, Florida's most vulnerable adult was transferred without court order and without the proper written certification to the Hospice of Florida Suncoast at Woodside in Pinellas County.
According to records obtained by The Empire Journal , it appears that not only is there indication of a scripted plan for premeditated murder but insurance fraud in the Terri Schiavo case.
In March, 2000, Michael Schiavo and his attorney, George Felos, secretively relocated Terri Schindler-Schiavo from the Palm Gardens Nursing Home to the hospice without court order and without notifying her parents.
George Felos also conveniently forgot to give notice to the court and her parents, Mary and Robert Schindler Sr. that he was chairman of the board of directors at the Hospice at the time and had been since at least Jan. 31, 1997 and perhaps earlier."
"Fraud in the court and fraud in the hospice.
Five years ago this month, Florida's most vulnerable adult was transferred without court order and without the proper written certification to the Hospice of Florida Suncoast at Woodside in Pinellas County.
According to records obtained by The Empire Journal , it appears that not only is there indication of a scripted plan for premeditated murder but insurance fraud in the Terri Schiavo case.
In March, 2000, Michael Schiavo and his attorney, George Felos, secretively relocated Terri Schindler-Schiavo from the Palm Gardens Nursing Home to the hospice without court order and without notifying her parents.
George Felos also conveniently forgot to give notice to the court and her parents, Mary and Robert Schindler Sr. that he was chairman of the board of directors at the Hospice at the time and had been since at least Jan. 31, 1997 and perhaps earlier."
Vatican Bioethicist Says Removing Schiavo's Tube 'Direct Euthanasia'
CNS reports: "Removing the feeding tube from Terri Schindler Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman, or other patients in a similar condition amounts to 'direct euthanasia,' a 'cruel way of killing someone,' said the Vatican's top bioethicist.
Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said the academy usually does not comment on specific cases before courts, but 'silence in this case could be interpreted as approval.'"
Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said the academy usually does not comment on specific cases before courts, but 'silence in this case could be interpreted as approval.'"
Friday, March 11, 2005
John Eliot Gardiner and Ozzy Osbourne, Please Call Your Office
Received this in an email:
"Rondellus has released an album of Black Sabbath covers played on Medieval instruments and sung in Latin. There are 12 mp3 track-samples (1 minute or so apiece). If you've never heard them do War Pig, dude, you ain't been living. Check it out http://www.sabbatum.com/sound"
The sample links were broken when we last checked, but we're dying to check it out.
"Rondellus has released an album of Black Sabbath covers played on Medieval instruments and sung in Latin. There are 12 mp3 track-samples (1 minute or so apiece). If you've never heard them do War Pig, dude, you ain't been living. Check it out http://www.sabbatum.com/sound"
The sample links were broken when we last checked, but we're dying to check it out.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Fatwa issued against bin Laden
Fatwa issued against bin Laden: "Madrid - Spain's Islamic Commission, grouping the nation's Muslim community, issued a fatwa against al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in the name of whose network last year's Madrid train bombings were claimed.
The five-page fatwa declared bin Laden 'outside Islam' on Thursday, adding that 'bin Laden, al-Qaeda and all those who try to justify terrorism by basing it on the holy Qu'ran, are outside Islam'. "
The five-page fatwa declared bin Laden 'outside Islam' on Thursday, adding that 'bin Laden, al-Qaeda and all those who try to justify terrorism by basing it on the holy Qu'ran, are outside Islam'. "
The Groningen Protocol
Doctors Eduard Verhagen and Pieter Sauer of the University Medical Center in Groningen, in an essay in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, this article in The International Herald Tribune. "Babies born into what is certain to be a brief life of grievous suffering should have their lives ended by physicians under strict guidelines . . . ."
We have moved from easing of abortion restrictions, to unlimited abortion license in the U.S., to assisted suicide, to protocols calling on doctors to end lives.
We have moved from easing of abortion restrictions, to unlimited abortion license in the U.S., to assisted suicide, to protocols calling on doctors to end lives.
Russell Crowe Marked for Abduction
The Guardian reports that Bin Laden may have been targeting Russell Crowe for kidnapping. In the last Australian edition of GQ, Crowe claims that the FBI warned him and provided protection starting in 2001.
Obscure, indeed, are the ways of these terrorists.
Obscure, indeed, are the ways of these terrorists.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
terrisfight.org -- What You Can Do
|
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Ward Churchill/Bill Maher Lovefest Podcast on BuzzMachine
Jeff Jarvis has a podcast of the recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher featuring Ward Churchill. Worth a listen for the sheer volume of America-hatred. Jarvis's commentary is appropriately and witheringly acerbic.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Brooke Allen, "Our Godless Constitution"
Also on Air America's Al Franken Show, just after Dahlia Lithwick, was Brooke Allen, promoting this piece on The Nation. Ms. Allen is urging that the Republic's founding had nothing whatsoever to do with "Christian principles".
Good luck. Fortunately for Allen, few in America read John Locke, Thomas Aquinas, or the Declaration of Independence, all of whom locate the source of human rights and dignity as the Divine.
Good luck. Fortunately for Allen, few in America read John Locke, Thomas Aquinas, or the Declaration of Independence, all of whom locate the source of human rights and dignity as the Divine.
Killing Terri Schiavo
Here's a good summary of the Terri Schiavo case from Crisis Magazine a little over a year ago. We learned a bit from this article, like the connection of Michael Schiavo's attorney with the Hemlock Society and the infamous Cruzan case.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
With Malice Toward None, Especially Dahlia
We have to go to confession now. We insulted dear Dahlia Lithwick, Slate's Supreme Court reporter in a email message to a good left-leaning friend. He curtly replied that given our feelings, we should simply stop reading her. No one is forced to read Slate.
He's completely right, of course. But what's the fun in that, if we stopped reading Lithwick (or Slate)? Besides, the doctor tells us our blood pressure is really low, so we can stand to have it elevated for short periods of time.
Nowadays, we don't even have to read Slate. We were listening to our favorite radio station, Air America, and she came on The Al Franken Show. He gushed effusively over her, of course. Our favorite part was when she claimed that in one of the current 10 Commandments controversy, they weren't even using a universal Decalogue, they were using "the Protestant Version," which was different from the Jewish and Catholic Versions. Even Franken, who had a King James Version out on this special occasion for special effect (viz., reading the Exodus passage with the sound of crashing thunder in the background), knew this wasn't true and gently tried to correct her -- what he was reading in the KJV is an faithful translation of the original Hebrew that he recalled from his youth. But Lithwick stuck with her error, trooper that she is -- after all, she had passed this inaccuracy along in her Slate piece, why admit you're wrong if you've already gotten past your editor at Slate?
On the other hand, having now read her corresponding Slate piece, we like bits of it. She's occasionally silly (the whole opening and closing "Angels on the Head of a Pin" is a meaningless cliche, and it indicates the laziness in her writing), but a lot of it is fun, even when we disagree. And she's dead right about two important things: the current church-state jurisprudence is a mess, and Scalia's the only one there who's honest about it.
And she's pregnant, and we have a soft spot for pregnant women. So mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
He's completely right, of course. But what's the fun in that, if we stopped reading Lithwick (or Slate)? Besides, the doctor tells us our blood pressure is really low, so we can stand to have it elevated for short periods of time.
Nowadays, we don't even have to read Slate. We were listening to our favorite radio station, Air America, and she came on The Al Franken Show. He gushed effusively over her, of course. Our favorite part was when she claimed that in one of the current 10 Commandments controversy, they weren't even using a universal Decalogue, they were using "the Protestant Version," which was different from the Jewish and Catholic Versions. Even Franken, who had a King James Version out on this special occasion for special effect (viz., reading the Exodus passage with the sound of crashing thunder in the background), knew this wasn't true and gently tried to correct her -- what he was reading in the KJV is an faithful translation of the original Hebrew that he recalled from his youth. But Lithwick stuck with her error, trooper that she is -- after all, she had passed this inaccuracy along in her Slate piece, why admit you're wrong if you've already gotten past your editor at Slate?
On the other hand, having now read her corresponding Slate piece, we like bits of it. She's occasionally silly (the whole opening and closing "Angels on the Head of a Pin" is a meaningless cliche, and it indicates the laziness in her writing), but a lot of it is fun, even when we disagree. And she's dead right about two important things: the current church-state jurisprudence is a mess, and Scalia's the only one there who's honest about it.
And she's pregnant, and we have a soft spot for pregnant women. So mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Republican Media Adviser Found Dead
A friend writes us with this sad story in the Washington Times, comparing it to the Vince Foster story a few years back. A Republican supporter in Hollywood (there are such animals?) was found dead at Carrie Fisher's home. We're at a loss to see the scandal here, but perhaps some of our tinfoil-hat inclined readers can come up with creative, dark, conspiratorial storylines to explain this death. Extra points if you can relate the death to Star Wars, Debbie Reynolds, or Paul Simon.
Friday, March 04, 2005
Da Vinci Hoax
For Catholics who've suffered through the Da Vinci Code, or have friends who have recited factoids from it to them, we recommend Carl Olsen and Sandra Miesel's The Da Vinci Hoax. It's very straightforward, is readable, and at the same time comes close to being a bulleted listing of Dan Brown's errors. Our only wish is that they had spent more time outlining in a positive way the history of Grail legend. Ah, but that is a book for another time.
A Silly Treat: "Rocket Man" by William Shatner
This one is just goofy fun, but indulge us, please: "Rocket Man" by William Shatner, courtesy of iFilm.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Where Have You Gone, Joe Warrilow?
Tony Hendra's Father Joe occasionally has the quality of candy: a joy, a treat, and 20 minutes later . . . . a little disappointment mixed with craving for more. In this memoir of considerable style and charms, Hendra, an accomplished writer and performer who first came to fame as an editor and writer at the satire magazine National Lampoon, explores his relationship with Dom Joseph Warrilow, an English Benedictine priest who served as his mentor and friend, off and on through the years, from Hendra's adolescence in the 50's until Warrilow's death in the late 90's.
First, a couple of jarring notes: there are several outbursts of left-liberal polemic that are misplaced. Father Joe comes across in the memoir as relaxedly apolitical. Perhaps the diatribes merely recount Hendra's attitude at the time. He depicts Father Joe ever so gently taking him to task for a lack of charity and a closing of his heart in his strident attitudes while not contradicting his political leanings. Later, the reader gets the sense that Hendra is defending his current views. It all has little to do with Father Joe and everything to do with Tony Hendra. Given our memories of 1980's events, it's extremely hard for us to take someone seriously who praises "men of peace like . . . Mikhail Gorbachev" for magnanimously and unilaterally ending the Cold War and liberals within "the stubborn populations of Europe - my contemporaries and their parents - who for all their manifest mindlessness and endless tribal squabbles had remained a generation of peace, refusing to buy Reagan's fatuous cartoon of the Russian people or be cowed by his cowardly weapons of mass murder" (p. 237) Perhaps Hendra should consult Russians such as Natan Sharansky and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn about how the Russian people were treated by the Evil Warmongering President Reagan. An angry aside decrying "the Church's relentless intolerance of different sexual orientations" (p. 269) comes out of the blue without warning.
Given that this is book is a good deal about Hendra, it's telling to see where he focuses. The best of the book is Part One, his description of his childhood encounter with Sin, Monasticism, and Father Joe. He spins a good yarn about family, adultery, and rites of passage that brings many smiles and sighs to the reader. Then suddenly, at the outset of Part Two, 20 years have gone by, and Hendra is removed from England to Southern California, contemplating suicide in a drug-addled state. He gives very little sense of the first ten of those twenty years -- he alludes vaguely to the difficulties of launching his career in America, the details of his first marriage are sketchy, and he never even bothers to name the daughters from that marriage. In part two, Father Joe is absent more than present, and Hendra presents himself schizophrenically -- self-effacingly making light of his talents, yet only detailing the periods in his life when he achieved some amount of worldly success. Thus Father Joe dwells on topics with little relation to Father Joe: National Lampoon, Not the New York Times, Not the Wall Street Journal, Spinal Tap, and Spitting Image. None of this would be news to Hendra. He indicts himself over and over again for self-obsession and self-centeredness. He is a man with a profound sense of sin, struggling to believe in a God of unbounded love.
But let's grant that this book is as much about Hendra as it is about Father Joe. This is an utterly endearing book. Hendra, a gifted writer with a wonderful tone and an excellent ear, conveys the precious quality of presence by reflecting on its opposite, absence. Between the two, by the grace of God, we encounter the Other, our neighbor. Everything in Father Joe's story suggests he had a special grace, a fabulous gift from God, that enabled him to enter into true friendship and community with quite a few people, to truly listen and truly love, making him present even when absent. Hendra navigates between absence and presence in this book, his goal being to make Father Joe alive, both for us and for himself. Still, we worry about Hendra, for whom presence and absence have formed difficult waters throughout his life, sometimes nearly unnavigable -- the book contains a vivid anecdote recalling a chilling early intimation of damnation as a cold eternal absence of God. It's not clear whether or how strongly he sees Father Joe as but one earthly face of the ever-present Christ. Salvation appears here as the unfinished drama in a tragic world, the Eternal Cliffhanger. Hendra emphasizes Father Joe as his connection to the transcendent to such an extent that we wonder whether he will succumb to despair now that Dom Warrilow has left him here on earth.
First, a couple of jarring notes: there are several outbursts of left-liberal polemic that are misplaced. Father Joe comes across in the memoir as relaxedly apolitical. Perhaps the diatribes merely recount Hendra's attitude at the time. He depicts Father Joe ever so gently taking him to task for a lack of charity and a closing of his heart in his strident attitudes while not contradicting his political leanings. Later, the reader gets the sense that Hendra is defending his current views. It all has little to do with Father Joe and everything to do with Tony Hendra. Given our memories of 1980's events, it's extremely hard for us to take someone seriously who praises "men of peace like . . . Mikhail Gorbachev" for magnanimously and unilaterally ending the Cold War and liberals within "the stubborn populations of Europe - my contemporaries and their parents - who for all their manifest mindlessness and endless tribal squabbles had remained a generation of peace, refusing to buy Reagan's fatuous cartoon of the Russian people or be cowed by his cowardly weapons of mass murder" (p. 237) Perhaps Hendra should consult Russians such as Natan Sharansky and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn about how the Russian people were treated by the Evil Warmongering President Reagan. An angry aside decrying "the Church's relentless intolerance of different sexual orientations" (p. 269) comes out of the blue without warning.
Given that this is book is a good deal about Hendra, it's telling to see where he focuses. The best of the book is Part One, his description of his childhood encounter with Sin, Monasticism, and Father Joe. He spins a good yarn about family, adultery, and rites of passage that brings many smiles and sighs to the reader. Then suddenly, at the outset of Part Two, 20 years have gone by, and Hendra is removed from England to Southern California, contemplating suicide in a drug-addled state. He gives very little sense of the first ten of those twenty years -- he alludes vaguely to the difficulties of launching his career in America, the details of his first marriage are sketchy, and he never even bothers to name the daughters from that marriage. In part two, Father Joe is absent more than present, and Hendra presents himself schizophrenically -- self-effacingly making light of his talents, yet only detailing the periods in his life when he achieved some amount of worldly success. Thus Father Joe dwells on topics with little relation to Father Joe: National Lampoon, Not the New York Times, Not the Wall Street Journal, Spinal Tap, and Spitting Image. None of this would be news to Hendra. He indicts himself over and over again for self-obsession and self-centeredness. He is a man with a profound sense of sin, struggling to believe in a God of unbounded love.
But let's grant that this book is as much about Hendra as it is about Father Joe. This is an utterly endearing book. Hendra, a gifted writer with a wonderful tone and an excellent ear, conveys the precious quality of presence by reflecting on its opposite, absence. Between the two, by the grace of God, we encounter the Other, our neighbor. Everything in Father Joe's story suggests he had a special grace, a fabulous gift from God, that enabled him to enter into true friendship and community with quite a few people, to truly listen and truly love, making him present even when absent. Hendra navigates between absence and presence in this book, his goal being to make Father Joe alive, both for us and for himself. Still, we worry about Hendra, for whom presence and absence have formed difficult waters throughout his life, sometimes nearly unnavigable -- the book contains a vivid anecdote recalling a chilling early intimation of damnation as a cold eternal absence of God. It's not clear whether or how strongly he sees Father Joe as but one earthly face of the ever-present Christ. Salvation appears here as the unfinished drama in a tragic world, the Eternal Cliffhanger. Hendra emphasizes Father Joe as his connection to the transcendent to such an extent that we wonder whether he will succumb to despair now that Dom Warrilow has left him here on earth.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Dana Milbank on Roper v. Simmons
Dana Milbank, writing in the New Republic (subscription required), is concerned that the ruling outlawing the execution of minors will end up curtailing their abortion license. He writes that "Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion could well provide a legal opening to those who want to restrict the rights of minors--particularly in the realm of abortion."
We don't think Mulhauser got the irony intended in Scalia's dissent. Here's the money quote: "It is hard to see . . . [w]hether to obtain an abortion is surely a much more complex decision for a young person than whether to kill an innocent person in cold blood."
We're not too happy about the decision. For one thing, we don't see this court
shifting their pro-abortion stance as a result of it. The justices are completely content to apply their evolving moral standards in any way they see fit -- they won't be bound as much by logical consistency as they will by political fashions and trends among the elites both here and in Europe. Second, the proper place to decide about the death penalty is in the legislature, not in the courts. This just further extends their rule.
Hat tip: Mike Aquilina
We don't think Mulhauser got the irony intended in Scalia's dissent. Here's the money quote: "It is hard to see . . . [w]hether to obtain an abortion is surely a much more complex decision for a young person than whether to kill an innocent person in cold blood."
We're not too happy about the decision. For one thing, we don't see this court
shifting their pro-abortion stance as a result of it. The justices are completely content to apply their evolving moral standards in any way they see fit -- they won't be bound as much by logical consistency as they will by political fashions and trends among the elites both here and in Europe. Second, the proper place to decide about the death penalty is in the legislature, not in the courts. This just further extends their rule.
Hat tip: Mike Aquilina
Friday, February 25, 2005
Cardinal Martino Appeals for Terri Schiavo
Zenit News Agency: "In statements on Vatican Radio, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said: 'If Mr. Schiavo succeeds legally in causing the death of his wife, this not only would be tragic in itself, but would be a grave step toward the legal approval of euthanasia in the United States.' "
Florida Department of Children & Families Said Probing Schiavo Abuse
ABC News reports that a Florida social services agency may request an additional delay of 60 days in the removal of Terri Schindler Schiavo's feeding tube. Please keep her in your prayers.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Terri Schiavo Gets Another Reprieve
Bloomberg reports that Terri Schindler Schiavo now has until Friday, February 25, before Judge George Greer considers starving her again. Please contact Governor Jeb Bush, let him know the issue is important to you, and ask him to do whatever is in his power to save Terri.
An Inconvenient Woman Gains a Day
Terri Schindler Schiavo has gained a reprieve. Judge George Greer has ordered her feeding tube to remain in place at least until 4PM Central Time today. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Then, After I Showered, I Read This Book
In his novel "The Magic Mountain", Thomas Mann wrote that only the truly exhaustive is interesting. George Weigel may have taken Mann's maxim to heart when writing this massive biography of Pope John Paul II. Extensively researched and meticulously cross-referenced, this 900-plus page book seems to approach its subject by subtly appropriating methods and styles associated with the Pope, viz.,
1) Weigel places the focus of the book on the person of Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), rather than on abstract questions of ecclesiology, theology, or politics;
2) he approaches his subject discursively and from as many different perspectives and backgrounds as possible, taking the reader through fascinating presentations of Polish culture, World War II realities, Cold War geopolitics, Marxist socialism, the turbulence of the Second Vatican Council, the history of post-Revolution church-state relations in France, etc.;
3) he adopts a motto of John Paul II's phenomenology and attempts to understand his subjects "from the inside," to try to arrive at a sympathetic and experiential depth view of his subject; and
4) he presents the action of the book as a drama that unfolds, as poetic, and as prophetic vision.
A demanding read, not that it is exceedingly obscure or technical but due to the encyclopedic breadth of its narrative and its digressions, it is nonetheless a compelling read, particularly in the initial chapters and through most of the chapters on the pontificate. (The later chapters lose a bit of their edge, largely, one would think, because it becomes most difficult to frame contemporaneous events, absent the perspective that the passage of at least a few years gives.) The first quarter of the book concerns Karol Wojtyla before his election. This launches the book forward, since he is depicted so distinct and vividly in spiritually heroic and charismatic terms that, although the reader may be very familiar with John Paul II's pontificate, the reader will be pulled forward in the book by the strong desire to see how this man, the "Lolek" of this book, rises to the challenges of the papacy.
Weigel's writing is at all times respectful of the Pontiff -- he obviously admires John Paul II greatly. Weigel, an orthodox American Catholic, does not shrink from pointing out instances where he believes this papacy has stumbled or failed, such as His Holiness's frustrated (at least for the time being) initiatives to restore unity with the Orthodox Churches.
This biography also points down further avenues for understanding a slice of 20th century history -- works by phenomenologists such as Husserl and Scheler, the writings of Edith Stein, the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and Wojtyla's plays, philosophical treatises, and religious writing. It's always a particular reward when a book points to further areas to explore.
The College of Cardinals elected Wojtyla pope when this writer was still a teenager. Most of the import of it was lost on us, sadly -- adolescence has its own priorities. Weigel's book allows a chance to view that time through a new lens, to see movement and patterns in current history to which may have been missed the first time around.
1) Weigel places the focus of the book on the person of Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), rather than on abstract questions of ecclesiology, theology, or politics;
2) he approaches his subject discursively and from as many different perspectives and backgrounds as possible, taking the reader through fascinating presentations of Polish culture, World War II realities, Cold War geopolitics, Marxist socialism, the turbulence of the Second Vatican Council, the history of post-Revolution church-state relations in France, etc.;
3) he adopts a motto of John Paul II's phenomenology and attempts to understand his subjects "from the inside," to try to arrive at a sympathetic and experiential depth view of his subject; and
4) he presents the action of the book as a drama that unfolds, as poetic, and as prophetic vision.
A demanding read, not that it is exceedingly obscure or technical but due to the encyclopedic breadth of its narrative and its digressions, it is nonetheless a compelling read, particularly in the initial chapters and through most of the chapters on the pontificate. (The later chapters lose a bit of their edge, largely, one would think, because it becomes most difficult to frame contemporaneous events, absent the perspective that the passage of at least a few years gives.) The first quarter of the book concerns Karol Wojtyla before his election. This launches the book forward, since he is depicted so distinct and vividly in spiritually heroic and charismatic terms that, although the reader may be very familiar with John Paul II's pontificate, the reader will be pulled forward in the book by the strong desire to see how this man, the "Lolek" of this book, rises to the challenges of the papacy.
Weigel's writing is at all times respectful of the Pontiff -- he obviously admires John Paul II greatly. Weigel, an orthodox American Catholic, does not shrink from pointing out instances where he believes this papacy has stumbled or failed, such as His Holiness's frustrated (at least for the time being) initiatives to restore unity with the Orthodox Churches.
This biography also points down further avenues for understanding a slice of 20th century history -- works by phenomenologists such as Husserl and Scheler, the writings of Edith Stein, the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and Wojtyla's plays, philosophical treatises, and religious writing. It's always a particular reward when a book points to further areas to explore.
The College of Cardinals elected Wojtyla pope when this writer was still a teenager. Most of the import of it was lost on us, sadly -- adolescence has its own priorities. Weigel's book allows a chance to view that time through a new lens, to see movement and patterns in current history to which may have been missed the first time around.
Friday, February 11, 2005
Da Vinci, Cold
It's been a while since our DVC post, so we thought we'd add our review of the book. We didn't want to leave the reader with the impression that the book was a fascism fest. It's is a pretty formulaic page turner, a fun quick read. Written at about the level of the average Nancy Drew mystery, it is best appreciated at that level. As far as the content, there are howlers on virtually every page (starting with the hero who looks like "Harrison Ford in Harris tweed" and is a "Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard" -- good work if you can find it). You have to ignore very pulpy, cheesy writing to enjoy this romantic thriller.
Intended as a book that a dedicated reader could finish in a day, or something you take to the beach and casually finish in a weekend, "The Da Vinci Code" makes for a reasonable airline novel, so much so that it is often a bit clunky in its desire to ensure that no intellectual effort on the reader's part will be required. Here's a recurring example in this novel: a bit of unfamiliar terminology, say "crux gemmata" (jeweled cross) will will be explained, then one page later a character will finger his jeweled cross and explain, "Oh, yes -- this is a crux gemmata." We've read dinner menus that were more demanding on the reader. Sharing the book with Mrs. Thumos, we both read about a third of it in a day, sharing the same copy, and that's a full work day plus taking care of kids, bedtime, etc. That's also a kind of virtue, we guess -- it's fast and peppy.
As far as history goes, Dan Brown apparently thinks that "most historians" give credence to the forgeries and frauds promoted in hoary best-sellers like "Holy Blood, Holy Grail." This author gets the best of both worlds: simultaneously claiming that "it's just fiction," while introducing the novel with claims that the historical record contained within is "fact." That claim is ridiculous. To pluck a random example, he spends some time talking about the Council of Nicaea, and incorrectly summarizes it as the origin of the doctrine of Christ's divinity by Constantine. He ignores the Arian controversy out of which it arose, which is like trying to explain the Treaty of Versailles without mentioning World War I. He ignores the documented fact, agreed upon even by the cheerleaders of the gnostics that he is sympathetic to, that the earliest gnostic doctrines held that Christ was *purely* God, and not really man -- the very reverse of the doctrine that serves as the lynchpin of his novel's intellectual base (such as it is). This is a bad novel for weak or misinformed Christians, but anyone familiar with history should spot the train wreck of Brown's ideas a mile off.
Oh yes, and in Brown's world, Opus Dei has shadowy assassin "monks" (in real life, Opus Dei is not a monastic order -- there are no Opus Dei monks, let alone trained assassins), and the Catholic Church has been promulgating known lies as its central dogmas, promotes violence throughout the world, and has been retarding the progress of science and knowledge for 2 millennia. Brown leaves the reader with the impression that this, too, is a matter of settled historical record. Oh, but then again, it's just fiction. Except when it's not.
In general, if you're looking for a heady thriller wrapped around Christian arcana, We'd recommend Umberto Eco's excellent "Name of the Rose," not this dumbed down, by-the-numbers novel.
Intended as a book that a dedicated reader could finish in a day, or something you take to the beach and casually finish in a weekend, "The Da Vinci Code" makes for a reasonable airline novel, so much so that it is often a bit clunky in its desire to ensure that no intellectual effort on the reader's part will be required. Here's a recurring example in this novel: a bit of unfamiliar terminology, say "crux gemmata" (jeweled cross) will will be explained, then one page later a character will finger his jeweled cross and explain, "Oh, yes -- this is a crux gemmata." We've read dinner menus that were more demanding on the reader. Sharing the book with Mrs. Thumos, we both read about a third of it in a day, sharing the same copy, and that's a full work day plus taking care of kids, bedtime, etc. That's also a kind of virtue, we guess -- it's fast and peppy.
As far as history goes, Dan Brown apparently thinks that "most historians" give credence to the forgeries and frauds promoted in hoary best-sellers like "Holy Blood, Holy Grail." This author gets the best of both worlds: simultaneously claiming that "it's just fiction," while introducing the novel with claims that the historical record contained within is "fact." That claim is ridiculous. To pluck a random example, he spends some time talking about the Council of Nicaea, and incorrectly summarizes it as the origin of the doctrine of Christ's divinity by Constantine. He ignores the Arian controversy out of which it arose, which is like trying to explain the Treaty of Versailles without mentioning World War I. He ignores the documented fact, agreed upon even by the cheerleaders of the gnostics that he is sympathetic to, that the earliest gnostic doctrines held that Christ was *purely* God, and not really man -- the very reverse of the doctrine that serves as the lynchpin of his novel's intellectual base (such as it is). This is a bad novel for weak or misinformed Christians, but anyone familiar with history should spot the train wreck of Brown's ideas a mile off.
Oh yes, and in Brown's world, Opus Dei has shadowy assassin "monks" (in real life, Opus Dei is not a monastic order -- there are no Opus Dei monks, let alone trained assassins), and the Catholic Church has been promulgating known lies as its central dogmas, promotes violence throughout the world, and has been retarding the progress of science and knowledge for 2 millennia. Brown leaves the reader with the impression that this, too, is a matter of settled historical record. Oh, but then again, it's just fiction. Except when it's not.
In general, if you're looking for a heady thriller wrapped around Christian arcana, We'd recommend Umberto Eco's excellent "Name of the Rose," not this dumbed down, by-the-numbers novel.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Sorry for the lack of activity on this blog. We'll be returning to post later this week.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Blood and Soil in the Da Vinci Code
We just finished The Da Vinci Code. At the risk of tedium for those who have already been overexposed to this mediocrity, there is a underlying ideological thread that needs examination that we think has gone neglected. Consider the traditional Christian world story:
God creates a world that is good, with Man at the pinacle of the natural world, but through a primordial disaster of Man's doing, evil comes into it, condemning human history to an endless cycle of death and misery. God sends His Son into the world to become a man. Through the heroic salvific passion and death of the Son, Man and his world are sanctified and saved. From God the Father and through the resurrected Son, the Spirit comes into human history, acting most efficacious through one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, a leaven that will bring about the ultimate and total restoration of God's Kingdom throughout the Cosmos in the Eschaton.
Contrast that with this founding back story:
An ancient wrong has been committed. A Great Man of superior genetics advocates a superior way of life, in harmony with the natural order, urging men to strive for perfection and embrace the immanent feminine divine of the earth. He is killed by an ignorant mob, but he fathers a child. The Man's genetically superior bloodline is secretly preserved against the defilement of the great unwashed masses. Meanwhile, an international conspiracy forms which maintains mediocrity and debasement. This conspiracy oppressed the pure Bloodline of the Great Man and keeps it from its rightful position: ruling the land where it has thrived for centuries.
The genetic element is subtle, but it's there -- the heroine's intellectual gifts seem clearly to be inherited from her father, and so on up the bloodline. The parallels with fascism are illuminating.
God creates a world that is good, with Man at the pinacle of the natural world, but through a primordial disaster of Man's doing, evil comes into it, condemning human history to an endless cycle of death and misery. God sends His Son into the world to become a man. Through the heroic salvific passion and death of the Son, Man and his world are sanctified and saved. From God the Father and through the resurrected Son, the Spirit comes into human history, acting most efficacious through one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, a leaven that will bring about the ultimate and total restoration of God's Kingdom throughout the Cosmos in the Eschaton.
Contrast that with this founding back story:
An ancient wrong has been committed. A Great Man of superior genetics advocates a superior way of life, in harmony with the natural order, urging men to strive for perfection and embrace the immanent feminine divine of the earth. He is killed by an ignorant mob, but he fathers a child. The Man's genetically superior bloodline is secretly preserved against the defilement of the great unwashed masses. Meanwhile, an international conspiracy forms which maintains mediocrity and debasement. This conspiracy oppressed the pure Bloodline of the Great Man and keeps it from its rightful position: ruling the land where it has thrived for centuries.
The genetic element is subtle, but it's there -- the heroine's intellectual gifts seem clearly to be inherited from her father, and so on up the bloodline. The parallels with fascism are illuminating.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
When Islam Breaks Down by Theodore Dalrymple
Excellent article on the sources of Muslim rage in Britain and throughout the world. Dalrymple is an excellent writer and admirably forthright. We find his gloss on Christian history is a bit abbreviated -- if he were less dismissive of the achievements of the Christian West qua Christian, he might be less mystified as to why Islam has not exactly recapitulated Christianity's development. But there's no denying the strength of this piece. Particularly telling are his observations on the plight of Islamic women and the character of Muslims incarcerated in Britain.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Dog Bites Man
More allegations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners. The twist? The ACLU is up in arms becomes an American soldier who allegedly shot and killed a belligerent prisoner was released on a procedural issue. Isn't the ACLU supposed to be guarding the rights of the accused by making sure that due process is followed, and failing that, that the alleged criminal is given the benefit of the doubt and released?
Dems Dragged Kicking and Screaming to the Center
The Democratic leadership is considering a "softening" of its pro-abortion stance. This is excellent -- hope it happens. It would strengthen the Democrats and could signal the beginnings of political compromise on the most divisive issue in politics today.
Or they could listen to Dean and just change the curtains but keep all the furniture.
Or they could listen to Dean and just change the curtains but keep all the furniture.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Getting So Much Better All the Time: Changing Senate Looks Better to Abortion Foes
Staunch abortion opponents Coburn and Brownback have been added to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Don't know if this will suffice to keep Specter honest, but it can't hurt.
Hat Tip: Mike Aquilina
Hat Tip: Mike Aquilina
Monday, December 20, 2004
Michael Crichton on Scientism
A delightful discovery: an excellent lecture by Michael Crichton to CalTech students on junk science trends in modern policy and media. Crichton's got a great list: The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, The Population Bomb, Nuclear Winter, Second Hand Smoke. He suggests Global Warming is the latest deity to be added to this dubious pantheon. There are lots of good points here, e.g., the tension between the methodological demands of good empirical science and the sociological realities of the use and abuse of consensus.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Antony Flew
Atheist Flew has gone theist. How significant is this? Well, he's not getting circumcised or baptized any time soon. However, considering that less than 10 years ago, he was criticizing Stephen Hawking for conceding too much to believers, it's hard not to see it as a major change in views of a leading apologist for atheism.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Still Tone Deaf? Dems Join the Church of Christ Without Christ
Wonkette reports on a gathering of religious leaders at the Center for American Progress to help the flagging Democrats with their Faith Problem. These leaders, along with Democratic bigwig John Podesta, reportedly sang "You Have the Whole World in Your Hands." That's strange, when we were young we always sang a song called "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." In our version, the referent of "He" and "His" was clearly the Lord God Almighty, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Is the CAP's version intended to be addressed to the Democratic Party, who has the whole world in its hands, if it just believes? Maybe we're reading too much into this, but it sounds to us like these "religious leaders" seem to view faith primarily as self-affirmations -- religion as self-deifying pep rally.
File under "They Just Don't Get It."
UPDATE: On second thought, maybe it's just yet another awkward way of making traditional texts "gender neutral." If so, it's still revealing of the faith stylings of the Democratic Party.
UPDATE: Wonkette has put a correction on her site. They got the song right after all. Figures. If you can't trust Wonkette with an election, can you trust her with a hymn?
File under "They Just Don't Get It."
UPDATE: On second thought, maybe it's just yet another awkward way of making traditional texts "gender neutral." If so, it's still revealing of the faith stylings of the Democratic Party.
UPDATE: Wonkette has put a correction on her site. They got the song right after all. Figures. If you can't trust Wonkette with an election, can you trust her with a hymn?
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Netherlands Dispatches Sick Children to the Netherworld
At least one Dutch hospital currently has a policy of killing terminally ill, incurable, or extremely deformed newborns. This story is as predictable as it is saddening.
Hat tip: James Taranto at Best of the Web on OpinionJournal (scroll down).
Hat tip: James Taranto at Best of the Web on OpinionJournal (scroll down).
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Treacherous Tehran, Bush Holding Fast
According to the New York Times, Iran Says It Will Suspend but Not End Its Uranium Program. W is not satisfied.
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Monday, November 22, 2004
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics (Divorce American Style)
The Internet is now filled with claims about the low divorce rate for blue states, the high divorce rates for red states, and what it means for voters who supposedly put Bush back in office because of moral values (Hint: it begins in "hypo" and ends in "crisy."). This first appeared in the New York Times a week ago. Many of our friends have joyously pointed out this supposed inconsistency.
The only problem is that it's not true. Those calculations were done as a proportion of population, which means that states with a low rate of marriage also have a low rate of divorce. But clearly any state which has no marriages will have no divorces. Which states have low rates of marriage? Umm, the blue ones. When you properly calculate divorce rates as a fraction of marriages, the supposed correlation vanishes. Poof. Powerline Blog has a good post on this.
The person who gathered this factoid could have easily checked this (there were no citations for this statistic, either). The Left keeps asking what "moral values" means to Red America. For one thing, it means not lying -- not saying something you know to be untrue in an effort to deceive (that's what we poor Bush-voting rubes mean by "lying.")
By far the biggest loser in this election was not John Kerry, but rather mainstream media. And if they keep this up, they'll just keep on losing.
The only problem is that it's not true. Those calculations were done as a proportion of population, which means that states with a low rate of marriage also have a low rate of divorce. But clearly any state which has no marriages will have no divorces. Which states have low rates of marriage? Umm, the blue ones. When you properly calculate divorce rates as a fraction of marriages, the supposed correlation vanishes. Poof. Powerline Blog has a good post on this.
The person who gathered this factoid could have easily checked this (there were no citations for this statistic, either). The Left keeps asking what "moral values" means to Red America. For one thing, it means not lying -- not saying something you know to be untrue in an effort to deceive (that's what we poor Bush-voting rubes mean by "lying.")
By far the biggest loser in this election was not John Kerry, but rather mainstream media. And if they keep this up, they'll just keep on losing.
Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Read Slate
Slate cites a Washington Post story as follows: "The Washington Post leads with American commanders in Iraq saying they need more troops to continue hunting insurgents." The headline reads "Troops, We Need You Again." Once again, we're short on troops! Doom is right around the corner! On the other hand, Here's the original WaPo article.
Here's the lede:
"[Unnamed s]enior U.S. military commanders in Iraq say it is increasingly likely they will need a further increase in combat forces to put down remaining areas of resistance in the country."
Note the following:
The Post continues:
A bit more nuanced than Slate's summary, isn't it? The numbers of troops these officers are talking about is "the equivalent of several battalions, or about 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers." The current number of troops there is 138,000, so we are saying that some officers are now saying we need to increase our commitment by two or three percent. The whole thrust of the article is that these unnamed officers have come to this conclusion only in the wake of the battle in Fallujah, not that there has been an underlying lack of personnel that they have been bemoaning. Reading further in the story, different options are being considered. If they need more troops, they should get them, but this is a tactical question, not the sweeping question of war management we might think if we took Slate's summary at face value.
Here's the lede:
"[Unnamed s]enior U.S. military commanders in Iraq say it is increasingly likely they will need a further increase in combat forces to put down remaining areas of resistance in the country."
Note the following:
- Unnamed sources
- of an unspecified number (more than one).
- and an unspecified rank
- say it is becoming likely (not certain) that they will (in the future) need further troops.
The Post continues:
Convinced that the recent battle for Fallujah has significantly weakened insurgent ranks, commanders here have devised plans to press the offensive into neighborhoods where rebels have either taken refuge after fleeing Fallujah or were already deeply entrenched.
But the forces available for these intensified operations have become limited by the demands of securing Fallujah and overseeing the massive reconstruction effort there -- demands that senior U.S. military officers say are likely to tie up a substantial number of Marines and Army troops for weeks.
A bit more nuanced than Slate's summary, isn't it? The numbers of troops these officers are talking about is "the equivalent of several battalions, or about 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers." The current number of troops there is 138,000, so we are saying that some officers are now saying we need to increase our commitment by two or three percent. The whole thrust of the article is that these unnamed officers have come to this conclusion only in the wake of the battle in Fallujah, not that there has been an underlying lack of personnel that they have been bemoaning. Reading further in the story, different options are being considered. If they need more troops, they should get them, but this is a tactical question, not the sweeping question of war management we might think if we took Slate's summary at face value.
Friday, November 19, 2004
UN workers to condemn chief with vote of "no confidence"
Herald Sun: UN workers to condemn chief [20nov04]: "Mr Annan has been in the line of fire over a high-profile series of scandals including a UN aid program that investigators said allowed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to embezzle billions of dollars.
But staffers said the trigger for the no-confidence measure was an announcement this week that Mr Annan had pardoned the UN's top oversight official, who was facing allegations of favouritism and sexual harassment. "
Count me a union man.
But staffers said the trigger for the no-confidence measure was an announcement this week that Mr Annan had pardoned the UN's top oversight official, who was facing allegations of favouritism and sexual harassment. "
Count me a union man.
Specter Survives as Chairman
Republicans are backing Specter, the New York Times reports. If Specter reverts to form, this will be devastating for Republicans in '06 and '08. Pro-life voters will not turn out.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
The Unteachable Ignorance of Jane Smiley.
We saw Jane Smiley's "The unteachable ignorance of the red states."
up on Slate. Here are some delightful excerpts:
Since Ms. Smiley is big on critical thinking, may we ask to whom she is referring when she writes "they"? Should we assume that Karl Rove rolled into town telling people to pray? We assume Smiley believes that devout belief and rational thought are mutually incompatible.
We're distrustful of someone who starts a paragraph, "here is how ignorance works." Especially distressing coming from the Party of Nuance. Then Smiley veers straight for Tinfoil Hat Country when she invokes Big Capitalists and Shadowy Religious Hucksters Conspiring in Dark Corners to Enslave America.
Would we be taken seriously if we wrote, "a generation ago, the international banking cartel decided to make use of the freemasons in their war against modern America"? We hope not. But presumably Slate readers don't blink an eye at her mild derangement.
Interestingly she doesn't think the Bush supporters in her family are ignorant (although she does accuse them of being greedy).
Her selective memory when it comes to Jimmy Carter is also telling. When he lost to Reagan, both he and Rosalyn openly derided the Reagans as immoral, doing his little Church Lady superior dance. Then again, Smiley herself seems to think that anyone who disagrees with her is a moral leper. The take-home lesson: it's fine to be self-righteous, provided you back the Democrats.
up on Slate. Here are some delightful excerpts:
Here is how ignorance works: First, they put the fear of God into you—if you don't believe in the literal word of the Bible, you will burn in hell. Of course, the literal word of the Bible is tremendously contradictory, and so you must abdicate all critical thinking, and accept a simple but logical system of belief that is dangerous to question. A corollary to this point is that they make sure you understand that Satan resides in the toils and snares of complex thought and so it is best not try it.
Next, they tell you that you are the best of a bad lot (humans, that is) and that as bad as you are, if you stick with them, you are among the chosen. This is flattering and reassuring, and also encourages you to imagine the terrible fates of those you envy and resent. American politicians ALWAYS operate by a similar sort of flattery, and so Americans are never induced to question themselves. That's what happened to Jimmy Carter—he asked Americans to take responsibility for their profligate ways, and promptly lost to Ronald Reagan, who told them once again that they could do anything they wanted. The history of the last four years shows that red state types, above all, do not want to be told what to do—they prefer to be ignorant. As a result, they are virtually unteachable.
Third, and most important, when life grows difficult or fearsome, they (politicians, preachers, pundits) encourage you to cling to your ignorance with even more fervor. But by this time you don't need much encouragement—you've put all your eggs into the ignorance basket, and really, some kind of miraculous fruition (preferably accompanied by the torment of your enemies, and the ignorant always have plenty of enemies) is your only hope. If you are sufficiently ignorant, you won't even know how dangerous your policies are until they have destroyed you, and then you can always blame others.
The reason the Democrats have lost five of the last seven presidential elections is simple: A generation ago, the big capitalists, who have no morals, as we know, decided to make use of the religious right in their class war against the middle class and against the regulations that were protecting those whom they considered to be their rightful prey—workers and consumers. The architects of this strategy knew perfectly well that they were exploiting, among other unsavory qualities, a long American habit of virulent racism, but they did it anyway, and we see the outcome now—Cheney is the capitalist arm and Bush is the religious arm.
Since Ms. Smiley is big on critical thinking, may we ask to whom she is referring when she writes "they"? Should we assume that Karl Rove rolled into town telling people to pray? We assume Smiley believes that devout belief and rational thought are mutually incompatible.
We're distrustful of someone who starts a paragraph, "here is how ignorance works." Especially distressing coming from the Party of Nuance. Then Smiley veers straight for Tinfoil Hat Country when she invokes Big Capitalists and Shadowy Religious Hucksters Conspiring in Dark Corners to Enslave America.
Would we be taken seriously if we wrote, "a generation ago, the international banking cartel decided to make use of the freemasons in their war against modern America"? We hope not. But presumably Slate readers don't blink an eye at her mild derangement.
Interestingly she doesn't think the Bush supporters in her family are ignorant (although she does accuse them of being greedy).
Her selective memory when it comes to Jimmy Carter is also telling. When he lost to Reagan, both he and Rosalyn openly derided the Reagans as immoral, doing his little Church Lady superior dance. Then again, Smiley herself seems to think that anyone who disagrees with her is a moral leper. The take-home lesson: it's fine to be self-righteous, provided you back the Democrats.
Abortion, the Glue that Holds this Country Together!
I just had a delightful lunch with dear friends, one liberal, one conservative. My left-leaning friend recycled a bit of Lawrence O'Donnell's fevered secession theorizing. He furthered added the wrinkle that if Roe v. Wade is overturned in the Supreme Court, the logic of O'Donnell's "blue states subsidize red states" talk becomes overwhelming, and secession becomes a done deal. Forget the common heritage of political freedom, ordered liberty, free speech, etc. According to this train-wreck of thought, any Union that doesn't guarantee the right of doctors and pregnant women to suction the brains out of a 8-month fetus will be de-legitimized and seen as not worth defending.
I'm waiting for NARAL to grab the title of my post for a bumper sticker. Catchy, no?
I'm waiting for NARAL to grab the title of my post for a bumper sticker. Catchy, no?
What Next?
It appears that the Battle of Fallujah has been largely won by the combined Coalition and Iraqi forces. Combined Iraqi and Coalition deaths are about fifty; the insurgents have seen over 1,200 of their men killed and another thousand or so taken prisoner. So where are our forces going next?
Mosul: US tightens its grip on Mosul (UK Telegraph).
Ramadi: Troops battle guerrillas in Ramadi (UK telegraph).
Baiji: With Mosul Now Calmer, Fighting Flares Elsewhere (LA Times).
Mosul: US tightens its grip on Mosul (UK Telegraph).
Ramadi: Troops battle guerrillas in Ramadi (UK telegraph).
Baiji: With Mosul Now Calmer, Fighting Flares Elsewhere (LA Times).
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Safe, Legal, and Rare -- OK, We'll Take One out of Three
F.D.A. Strengthens Warning on the Abortion Pill. Seems that a California woman died of sepsis (bacterial blood poisoning) after using the mifepristone abortion pill. She is the third woman in the U.S. to die from this pill. A Johns Hopkins professor of gynecology (and, coincidentally, an adviser to Planned Parenthood) assures us that mifepristone is safer than pregnancy.
Sunday, November 14, 2004
So Nice to Find Out We Have Something In Common!
Gerhard Schröder eulogizes Yasser Arafat: "he regrets that 'it was not granted to Yasser Arafat to complete his life's work.'" Hmm, his life's work? Driving Israel into the sea and killing all Jews? I suppose it's uncharitable to point out what Schröder's predecessor considered his life's work or struggle six decades ago.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Newsday is scared
The editors of New York Newsday are frightened by the remote prospect of a reversal of Roe. L'affaire Specter has them trembling. Good.
Friday, November 12, 2004
The New York Times > Health > I Beg to Differ: A Diabetes Researcher Forges Her Own Path to a Cure
Interesting Times article shows potential for cure for diabetes. The catch? It doesn't involve stem cells, and the drug that would be used is cheap.
Huh?
Huh?
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Following Fallujah
Found an excellent blogger who is covering Fallujah pretty devotedly: The Adventures of Chester (here's his Atom XML feed). The news so far leads us to a very cautious optimism.
Monday, November 08, 2004
Peter and Paul
Peter Singer turns on Paul Krugman regarding the advice for Dems to visibly "value faith." (Actually, Nick Kristof was far more explicit about this -- Krugman was typically banal and anodyne). The delicious ironies multiply past all count. The in-fighting has officially commenced.
Of course, we've already established that Singer (admirably) refuses to act on his "rational beliefs" when it comes to his mother. He should consider that before he offers advice. He was very defensive about his payment for his mother's very expensive medical treatment, and I agree that that is a private matter for him. But he should consider that if even he can't act consistently in accord with his supposedly rational world view, expecting voters to do so is a losing proposition.
The gnashing of teeth -- music to my ears.
Of course, we've already established that Singer (admirably) refuses to act on his "rational beliefs" when it comes to his mother. He should consider that before he offers advice. He was very defensive about his payment for his mother's very expensive medical treatment, and I agree that that is a private matter for him. But he should consider that if even he can't act consistently in accord with his supposedly rational world view, expecting voters to do so is a losing proposition.
The gnashing of teeth -- music to my ears.
Sunday, November 07, 2004
The Fallujah Offensive Begins
Friday, November 05, 2004
"The Roe=Scott Code"
Writing in the Nation, Katha Pollitt misunderstands the relationship between Roe v. Wade and Dred Scott for anti-abortion advocates. The Scott decision did not simply state that the Constitution allowed slavery. Few argued that, certainly not Lincoln. Rather, the decision held, in Lincoln's summary, "first, that a Negro cannot sue in the U.S. Courts; and secondly, that Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the Territories." It determined this without any Constitutional warrant. Anti-abortion advocates argue that in a similar way, Roe held that the unborn have no legal standing as persons, and that neither Congress nor state legislatures can prohibit abortion. In a similar manner, these holdings could not be located in the actual language of the Constitution or in its legislative history.
Stop Specter Now
National Review Online urges us to contact our Senators and let them know that we do not support Specter for chairman of the judiciary committee.
Monday, November 01, 2004
Military Attack 'Wrong Way to End Fallujah Revolt'
As I readthis article in The Scotsman (Military Attack 'Wrong Way to End Fallujah Revolt'), there seems to be some internal division in the Iraqi interim government regarding the impending battle in Fallujah. Interim PM Allawi is preparing for it, whereas interim president al-Yawer is opposed to a military assault. My guess is that the attack is a foregone conclusion, and that Allawi will give the go-ahead.
Michael Moore Gets Results!
According to the MEMRI (you know them, they do lots of translations of Arabic media):
Compare this with Michael Moore's 9/12/2001 rant:
The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired on Al-Jazeera on Friday, October 29th included a specific threat to "each U.S. state," designed to influence the outcome of the upcoming election against George W. Bush. The U.S. media in general mistranslated the words "ay wilaya" (which means "each U.S. state") to mean a "country" or "nation" other than the U.S., while in fact the threat was directed specifically at each individual U.S. state. This suggests some knowledge by bin Laden of the U.S. electoral college system. In a section of his speech in which he harshly criticized George W. Bush, bin Laden stated: "Any U.S. state that does not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security."
Compare this with Michael Moore's 9/12/2001 rant:
Many families have been devastated tonight. This just is not right. They did not deserve to die. If someone did this to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, DC, and the planes' destination of California--these were places that voted AGAINST Bush!
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Explosives Missing In Iraq
This is not good. Will follow this as it develops. . . .
UPDATE: story has changed a lot:
Long story short, I wish we had found these, but life isn't perfect, and I'm neither losing sleep nor blaming the troops or Administration.
UPDATE: story has changed a lot:
- Explosives were not there when troops arrived.
- Explosives started disappearing before IAEA/UN inspectors left.
- Story was leaked by El-Baradei in an attempt to influence the U.S. election.
- Story not placed in context of other found weapons caches.
Long story short, I wish we had found these, but life isn't perfect, and I'm neither losing sleep nor blaming the troops or Administration.
Catholic Online - Featured Today - SPECIAL: On Our Civic Responsibility for the Common Good
Catholic Online - Featured Today - SPECIAL: On Our Civic Responsibility for the Common Good. Archbishop Burke on abortion, voting, and the seamless garment.
Saturday, October 23, 2004
Chaput Breaks It Down In The Times
Mike Aquilina sends us this excellent op-ed from Archbishop Chaput, a great corrective to the nonsense in last week's Times piece by Mark Noll. In case the anyone was confusing the "seamless garment" with a fig leaf for abortion support.
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Terrorism Roundup
1000 Al-Qaeda 'warriors' inside Iraq
In case there's any doubt about exactly who we're fighting in Iraq, this story in the Australian press should clarify.
Al-Zarqawi’s vow to al-Qaida may signal weakness
The Nashua Telegraph reminds us that the renewed efforts of Al-Zarqawi to claim the mantle of Al Qaida may indicate weakness and desperation more than anything else. Good to keep in mind.
Bin Laden, Bin Laden, who's got Bin Laden?
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Bin Laden's not in Pakistan, and no one knows where he is. On the other hand, 'Osama is alive and now in Pak' - The Times of India. Meanwhile, The Paks pull down one high profile Al-Qaida operator and the Saudis bag another one.
The Guardian Attempts to Influence the Election
This one is priceless: the left-wing UK Guardian is encouraging enlightened citizens on the far side of the pond to adopt a hapless Yank and instruct him how to vote. We're touched. Really. No idea how we've managed without you.
Hat Tip: Joi Ito
Hat Tip: Joi Ito
Yahoo! News - Heinz Kerry Separates Self From Mrs. Bush
Yahoo! News - Heinz Kerry Separates Self From Mrs. Bush
Open mouth, insert foot -- just another day for Mrs. Heinz Kerry.
Open mouth, insert foot -- just another day for Mrs. Heinz Kerry.
Friday, October 15, 2004
Pope Pinch I
The good folks at the New York Times weigh in again, this time criticizing the beatification of Charles I, the last Hapsburg emperor of Austria-Hungary. No mention is made of whether he was a faithful Catholic, displayed sanctity and virtue, led a holy life, or any of that "saint" stuff. Apparently, being a monarch should disqualify him. And some people say he was "weak." Fancy being weak when you inherit a crumbling, war-torn empire at 29! Everything reduces to the political in the view of the Times.
We can't wait until they take this to the logical conclusion and demand that the College of Cardinals be replaced by the editorial board of the Times, and the elevation of "Pinch" Sulzberger to the position of Pontiff. Then we could look forward to the establishment of abortion as a sacrament.
We can't wait until they take this to the logical conclusion and demand that the College of Cardinals be replaced by the editorial board of the Times, and the elevation of "Pinch" Sulzberger to the position of Pontiff. Then we could look forward to the establishment of abortion as a sacrament.
Kerry's Poor Hamster
Nixon's most prominent dirty-trickster Donald Segretti had a term for antics like John Kerry's slimey tactic of dragging Cheney's daughter into the debate: "ratf***ing." (Maybe in Kerry's case, it should be called "hamsterf***ing," in light of Kerry's curious admitted predisposition to get intimate with these animals.) It was as gratuitous as it was ugly. Exploitation of opponents' family members does not belong in this race, period. Kerry and Edwards owe the Cheneys an apology. (Good luck getting one.) Kudos to Mickey Kaus at Slate for running with this.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
These Keep Popping Up
This horrific news in from BBC NEWS: Babies found in Iraqi mass grave. We are left speechless.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
ScrappleFace: Object Under Bush Jacket Identified: 'It's a Spine'
ScrappleFace weighs in on the "remote-feed" leftist-fringe paranoia:
ScrappleFace: Object Under Bush Jacket Identified: 'It's a Spine'
ScrappleFace: Object Under Bush Jacket Identified: 'It's a Spine'
Monday, October 11, 2004
Conscience vs. Religion
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Voting Our Conscience, Not Our Religion
Mark Noll explains why good Catholics don't have to oppose abortion at the ballot box:
During the eight years of the Reagan presidency, the number of legal abortions increased by more than 5 percent; during the eight years of the Clinton presidency, the number dropped by 36 percent. The overall abortion rate (calculated as the number of abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44) was more or less stable during the Reagan years, but during the Clinton presidency it dropped by 11 percent.
There are many reasons for this shift. Yet surely the traditional Democratic concern with the social safety net makes it easier for pregnant women to make responsible decisions and for young life to flourish; among the most economically disadvantaged, abortion rates have always been and remain the highest. The world's lowest abortion rates are in Belgium and the Netherlands, where abortion is legal but where the welfare state is strong. Latin America, where almost all abortions are illegal, has one of the highest rates in the world.
Got that? Bill Clinton actually fought abortion by doing absolutely nothing to restrict abortion, including partial birth abortion. He also spent considerably less on the welfare state than President Bush. So why again does Clinton deserve credit? Note also that all that matters to Noll are the raw numbers, not the effect on a Christian, democratic society of having judges designate child murder as a hollowed touchstone of civil government.
Noll also has one of the worst summaries of Just War theory that I have ever read. Noll should and probably does know better -- he's a philosophy professor at Notre Dame. He also makes it sound like the Kyoto treaty and socialized medicine were mentioned in Humanae Vitae, right before that stuff on contraception. The issue of deliberate killing of innocent children is equated with prudential questions concerning criminal punishment, stewardship of economy and ecology, etc.
Noll's title alludes to a conflict never mentioned in the article: "conscience" vs. "religion." My impression was that conscience was, in the Catholic view, to be formed and informed by faith. This title plays much more to the Times audience, who assume that good Catholics are torn between their enlightened modern consciences and their medieval popery.
The New York Times has found another subservient Catholic who puts loyalty to party line above clarity on doctrine. (Richard McBrien and Andrew Greeley must have been out of town.) The rest of you have to learn, in the words of a New York Times editor as cited by Richard John Neuhaus, "how we do things here."
(Hat tip: Pat Schuchman.)
UPDATE:
Mike Aquilina sends me a link to this piece: Commonweal : Catholics, Politics & Abortion. It's an article by Kenneth Woodward taking on Mario Cuomo, whose 1984 speech at Notre Dame on the subject has become the rhetorical model for most Catholic pro-abortion politicians. Cuomo also responds to Woodward. Haven't finished it myself, but both men are generally worth reading.
Mark Noll explains why good Catholics don't have to oppose abortion at the ballot box:
During the eight years of the Reagan presidency, the number of legal abortions increased by more than 5 percent; during the eight years of the Clinton presidency, the number dropped by 36 percent. The overall abortion rate (calculated as the number of abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44) was more or less stable during the Reagan years, but during the Clinton presidency it dropped by 11 percent.
There are many reasons for this shift. Yet surely the traditional Democratic concern with the social safety net makes it easier for pregnant women to make responsible decisions and for young life to flourish; among the most economically disadvantaged, abortion rates have always been and remain the highest. The world's lowest abortion rates are in Belgium and the Netherlands, where abortion is legal but where the welfare state is strong. Latin America, where almost all abortions are illegal, has one of the highest rates in the world.
Got that? Bill Clinton actually fought abortion by doing absolutely nothing to restrict abortion, including partial birth abortion. He also spent considerably less on the welfare state than President Bush. So why again does Clinton deserve credit? Note also that all that matters to Noll are the raw numbers, not the effect on a Christian, democratic society of having judges designate child murder as a hollowed touchstone of civil government.
Noll also has one of the worst summaries of Just War theory that I have ever read. Noll should and probably does know better -- he's a philosophy professor at Notre Dame. He also makes it sound like the Kyoto treaty and socialized medicine were mentioned in Humanae Vitae, right before that stuff on contraception. The issue of deliberate killing of innocent children is equated with prudential questions concerning criminal punishment, stewardship of economy and ecology, etc.
Noll's title alludes to a conflict never mentioned in the article: "conscience" vs. "religion." My impression was that conscience was, in the Catholic view, to be formed and informed by faith. This title plays much more to the Times audience, who assume that good Catholics are torn between their enlightened modern consciences and their medieval popery.
The New York Times has found another subservient Catholic who puts loyalty to party line above clarity on doctrine. (Richard McBrien and Andrew Greeley must have been out of town.) The rest of you have to learn, in the words of a New York Times editor as cited by Richard John Neuhaus, "how we do things here."
(Hat tip: Pat Schuchman.)
UPDATE:
Mike Aquilina sends me a link to this piece: Commonweal : Catholics, Politics & Abortion. It's an article by Kenneth Woodward taking on Mario Cuomo, whose 1984 speech at Notre Dame on the subject has become the rhetorical model for most Catholic pro-abortion politicians. Cuomo also responds to Woodward. Haven't finished it myself, but both men are generally worth reading.
Jacques Derrida Dies; Deconstructionist Philosopher (washingtonpost.com)
Jacques Derrida Dies; Deconstructionist Philosopher (washingtonpost.com)
What to say about the passing of Derrida? Chirac hails him. I'm waiting for Bush's comment.
What to say about the passing of Derrida? Chirac hails him. I'm waiting for Bush's comment.
Monday, October 04, 2004
Exclusive: Saddam Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties -- 10/04/2004
Exclusive: Saddam Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties -- 10/04/2004
Very interesting story, if it's true. Waiting to see if it pans out.
Kerry's Pyrrhic Debate Victory
The conventional wisdom is in. Kerry won the debate.
Here's why the G.O.P. should not worried. Kerry looked presidential, was calm and composed, spoke well, had better style, and made no obvious gaffes. Bush, by contrast, sounded tired, slurred his speech, missed opportunities to counter, was visibly annoyed during some of Kerry's answers. Kerry shoots up in the polls, no downside for the Dems, right?
Not so fast. There are a number of things that are coming back to haunt Kerry: The "Global Test," the advocacy of a freeze on nuclear bunker-buster development (a weapon that would be ideally suited to rogue nations and terrorists sheltering destructive weapons in underground redoubts), the advocacy of delivering nuclear fuel to Tehran and conceding to Pyongyang in their desire for bilateral talks with the U.S. I don't hear similar issues being raised by the Democrats -- they seem content to focus on a generic tone of failure, etc.
If Kerry won the debate on style, made no unintentional gaffes, looked well-rested, lucid, etc., it becomes more difficult to argue that Kerry didn't intend these, indeed that these are not the well-thought out and consistent positions of a man who supported both a U.S. nuclear-freeze and establishing a warm relationship with the Sandinistas in the 80's (his eulogies and warm praises for the late President Reagan notwithstanding).
Here's why the G.O.P. should not worried. Kerry looked presidential, was calm and composed, spoke well, had better style, and made no obvious gaffes. Bush, by contrast, sounded tired, slurred his speech, missed opportunities to counter, was visibly annoyed during some of Kerry's answers. Kerry shoots up in the polls, no downside for the Dems, right?
Not so fast. There are a number of things that are coming back to haunt Kerry: The "Global Test," the advocacy of a freeze on nuclear bunker-buster development (a weapon that would be ideally suited to rogue nations and terrorists sheltering destructive weapons in underground redoubts), the advocacy of delivering nuclear fuel to Tehran and conceding to Pyongyang in their desire for bilateral talks with the U.S. I don't hear similar issues being raised by the Democrats -- they seem content to focus on a generic tone of failure, etc.
If Kerry won the debate on style, made no unintentional gaffes, looked well-rested, lucid, etc., it becomes more difficult to argue that Kerry didn't intend these, indeed that these are not the well-thought out and consistent positions of a man who supported both a U.S. nuclear-freeze and establishing a warm relationship with the Sandinistas in the 80's (his eulogies and warm praises for the late President Reagan notwithstanding).
Friday, October 01, 2004
100 Al-Qaeda men killed in military operations: Musharraf : HindustanTimes.com
100 Al-Qaeda men killed in military operations: Musharraf : HindustanTimes.com
Ongoing operations against Al Qaeda tend not to be well-reported in the U.S. press, so I'm doing my bit.
Ongoing operations against Al Qaeda tend not to be well-reported in the U.S. press, so I'm doing my bit.
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Wonkette Gets McGreevey Hilariously Wrong
In Gayest News Day Ever, Ana Marie Cox writes
"Sure, the most recent spin on McGreevey is that his being gay wasn't the problem, his being crooked like a sidewalk crack was. We'd like to point out that New Jersey almost never has a problem with politicians being crooked. What's more, we wouldn't be having this discussion if he'd hired his pretty young lady friend to be New Jersey's terrorism czar. . . because he never would have gotten away with hiring a woman for that job in the first place."
Hmm. A glib dismissal of serious corruption (ah, it's only New Jersey, that's practically Haiti), followed by a tweak of the Evil Bigoted Man, keeping the Sisters down. Yeah, Wonkette, that's the REAL story.
Let's see, there's a black woman who's the National Security Advisor, but Cox thinks that a woman would never fly for New Jersey's security chief? Talk about victimization on the cheap.
"Sure, the most recent spin on McGreevey is that his being gay wasn't the problem, his being crooked like a sidewalk crack was. We'd like to point out that New Jersey almost never has a problem with politicians being crooked. What's more, we wouldn't be having this discussion if he'd hired his pretty young lady friend to be New Jersey's terrorism czar. . . because he never would have gotten away with hiring a woman for that job in the first place."
Hmm. A glib dismissal of serious corruption (ah, it's only New Jersey, that's practically Haiti), followed by a tweak of the Evil Bigoted Man, keeping the Sisters down. Yeah, Wonkette, that's the REAL story.
Let's see, there's a black woman who's the National Security Advisor, but Cox thinks that a woman would never fly for New Jersey's security chief? Talk about victimization on the cheap.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
John Leo in U.S. News
This is an excellent article on the current state of public discussion. John Leo puts his finger on something that's been bothering me for a while -- a growing disregard for civil discourse on all sides.
USNews.com: John Leo: Let's keep arguing (6/21/04)
Hat tip: Mike Aquilina
USNews.com: John Leo: Let's keep arguing (6/21/04)
Hat tip: Mike Aquilina
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Town Meeting of the World: Robert Kennedy and Ronald Reagan
Town Meeting of the World: Robert Kennedy and Ronald Reagan
This reverses nearly every media stereotype of Ronald Reagan. He is in command of facts, is forceful, clear, detailed, and insightful. Kennedy is, by contrast, fuzzy and vague.
This reverses nearly every media stereotype of Ronald Reagan. He is in command of facts, is forceful, clear, detailed, and insightful. Kennedy is, by contrast, fuzzy and vague.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Goodreads Feed
