"HOW SHALL WE THEN LIVE?" Francis Schaeffer

Thursday, March 31, 2005

A sad goodbye to Terri

Found on JohnMarkReynolds website:



Atheists said
you had no soul just a brain
and for now
Atheism is our new state creed
proclaiming
Daddy's girl a computer
made of meat
ajudicated broken
obsolete
Hubby moved on to new model
but Plato
and Dante and your Lord Christ
knew with Mom
there was more to you than flesh
a woman
whose soul could be touched by love
from family,
by a child's simple balloon
but judges say
you are only human if
you swallow.
Best wisdom of noble men
still proclaims
the image of God in us
makes man live
endowed by our Creator
with His life.
Courts killed you
but love will find your hurt soul
bring it home
love that can move the heavens
and the stars.

May the soul of Terri Schaivo and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.

posted by The Shark | 11:31 AM

JB, I am silenced by the tragedy.
Terri Schiavo,
Requiescat In Pacem
A TOAST TO HATE!
If you don't read Hatemongers Quarterly on a regular basis - you really should. Besides introducing words into the everyday conversation of life, such as "feculent", their admiversions and commentary are regularly hilarious.
They don't say who they are but most of them are apparently named "Chip." Furthermore, they claim that 47% of the staff is female, even if they're named "Chip."
Their humor darts seem particularly pointed towards the absurdities and idiocys of higher education. If you're a college student, you've just got to "love hate."

Finally, my little blog is listed on their blogroll. I'm not sure I'm listed on any others so I say "Thanks to Hate." JB
HERE'S TO HATE!


Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Mentioned by Glen Reynolds of instapundit.com fame.

TV B GONE


Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description
You're sitting in a restaurant with your friends. The TV in the corner is blaring. You realize that none of you are actually talking to each other. Instead, you're all staring at a piece of furniture!

Now there's a solution, the TV-B-Gone! This small, keychain wonder is designed to turn off virtually any television. Invented by Mitch Altman, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur, the TV-B-Gone is a simple remote control device with a single button. When activated, the unit emits 209 different turn-off codes for nearly every TV. The unit takes a little more than a minute to cycle through all of the turn-off codes, but fortunately, codes for the most common TVs are emitted first. And because it's small, unassuming and attaches to your key-ring, you can always be discreet about offing that off-putting talking head.

Just think, more authentic and meaningful social interactions can be yours in seconds! Be prepared when the TV goes off, though; you may have to talk to those friends of yours at the table. Of course, if it's just simple silence you're after, the TV-G-Gone delivers that, too. Pick up that book and enjoy!

What's in the Box
TV-B-Gone keychain remote control, increased sense of well being, less anxiety, more time for productive activity, more satisfying social interactions, user guide.

JB here! Darn near irresistable at $14.95 from Target. Only $15 buckaroos to grab a moment of civility and social intercourse in an electronic world. OR have fun at school when the prof./teacher is boring you to death with another hopelessly boring documentary. Oh Yes!

From Charles Spurgeon - the great English preacher of a previous century. Morning devotional

"Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered." Hebrews 5:8

We are told that the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering, therefore we who are sinful, and who are far from being perfect, must not wonder if we are called to pass through suffering too. Shall the head be crowned with thorns, and shall the other members of the body be rocked upon the dainty lap of ease? Must Christ pass through seas of His own blood to win the crown, and are we to walk to heaven dryshod in silver slippers? No, our Master's experience teaches us that suffering is necessary, and the true-born child of God must not, would not, escape it if he might. But there is one very comforting thought in the fact of Christ's "being made perfect through suffering" it is, that He can have complete sympathy with us. "He is not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." In this sympathy of Christ we find a sustaining power.

JB here. Suffering is anathema to our culture and our generation. Oh yes, we DO suffer, we just think we shouldn't. We lost sight of what suffering can do. 1. Turn our attention towards our creator, 2. Mature us and teach us love for those who also suffer. To paraphrase an English author of an earlier era - All the great lessons in life came in times of pain. INDEED
FROM the Harvard Crimson by student Joe Ford

"Misery can only be removed from the world by painless extermination of the miserable."

Nazi writer quoted by Robert J. Lifton in The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide

The case of Terri Schiavo has been framed by the media as the battle between the right to die and pro-life groups, with the latter often referred to as right-wing Christians. Little attention has been paid to the more than twenty major disability rights organizations firmly supporting Schiavo’s right to nutrition and hydration. Terri Schindler-Schiavo, a severely disabled woman, is being starved and dehydrated to death in the name of supposed dignity. Polls show that most Americans believe that her death is a private matter and that her removal from a feeding tube a low-tech, simple and inexpensive device used to feed many sick and disabled peopleis a reasonable solution to the conflict between her husband and her parents over her right to life.

The reason for this public support of removal from ordinary sustenance, I believe, is not that most people understand or care about Terri Schiavo. Like many others with disabilities, I believe that the American public, to one degree or another, holds that disabled people are better off dead. To put it in a simpler way, many Americans are bigots. A close examination of the facts of the Schiavo case reveals not a case of difficult decisions but a basic test of this country’s decency...............

Besides being disabled, Schiavo and I have something important in common, that is, someone attempted to terminate my life by removing my endotracheal tube during resuscitation in my first hour of life. This was a quality-of-life decision: I was simply taking too long to breathe on my own, and the person who pulled the tube believed I would be severely disabled if I lived, since lack of oxygen causes cerebral palsy. (I was saved by my family doctor inserting another tube as quickly as possible.) The point of this is not that I ended up at Harvard and Schiavo did not, as some people would undoubtedly conclude. The point is that society already believes to some degree that it is acceptable to murder disabled people.

JB here! A most powerful post by Joe Ford - a student at Harvard who has cerebral palsy ( he says he wears his Harvard shirt when flying so people won't assume he's retarded - as they tend to do). Luckily for Joe, he survived a "compassionate" doctor's attempt to kill him when he was a brand, spanking new baby boy. Blessing on the family doctor who quickly hooked him back up to the machinery that kept him alive.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Found on National Review Online by Jay Nordlinger 3-28-05

... "one additional word. I have a friend Michael Walsh, the writer who insists that liberalism is a "death cult." (Michael has a well-thought-out explanation of this. And, by the way, when I say "liberalism," I'm using it in the contemporary American sense which is bonkers, but that's not my fault.) He wrote me the other day concerning Schiavo and said, in essence, "See?" Yes, I see. It's amazing how they you know: they need her to die. She has to die, or they will be livid. Her continued life is a kind of offense to them. If she doesn't die, then Tom DeLay and Jerry Falwell . . . well, they'll be happy!"

JB here: That's absolutely right. The radical liberal doesn't care who has to die or what has to be destroyed just as long as the evil ones such as DeLay, Falwell, the Bush brothers, John Ashcroft and Dick Cheney lose.
How macabre is that? Indeed.
A new search engine that also researchs blogs is Icerocket.

I was impressed, especially because one of their employees sent me a note. Of course for all I know he was searching for more information on BRITNEY SPEARS and her desire to become a RABBI (cheap trick to expand my noteriety on the search engines.)
I suspect that many people type "Britney Spears" and "rabbi" together looking for updates. Not that I have any updates on Britney Spears. Maybe she'll call. JB the RABBI PHILOSOPHER

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Can you spell TOAST!

So what course will Michael Schiavo's life take in the coming years?

1. Will he will be remembered as a hero of the U.N. acclaimed Euthanasia revolution?

2. Will he will get to sit in President Carter's box at the next Democratic Convention?

3. Will he will be the keynote speaker at Peter Jenning's retirement?

4. Will he win the Nobel prize for courage?

5. Will CBS ask for his opinion whenever the issue of "death with dignity" comes up?

6. Will San Francisco and Boston give him the keys to their cities?

7. Will the University of Colorado tenure him as their professor of ethics?

Hmm. The more I write the more depressing it becomes because all of the above would appear to be possible in light of recent revelations and actions in the past couple of years.

And yet, and yet, maybe not. Perhaps it's one of those things where friends of Michael's slap him on the back and remark how evil President Bush and his brother Jeb are - but they forget to invite Michael to the Thanksgiving feast.
Perhaps everybody around Michael has a hearty greeting when they come face to face but the "hearty" part is as thin as a razor blade and next time they take a different path hoping they don't have to come across him.
Maybe his soon-to-be-wife tells him how brave he was on a daily basis but at night is afraid to go to sleep worrying what he would do if some unfortunate accident befell her.
Yes he gets invited to partys but they're hosted by either O.J. or Michael Jackson. Scott Peterson wants to be his pen-pal.

If he has any social sensibility, he becomes increasingly paranoid wondering what they're saying behind his back; and with good reason.

Though he bathes and scrubs on a daily basis, the stink of death is always upon him. Like Lady MacBeth, he can't quite get the blood spots off his hands.

His "supporters" quit supporting him once they've beaten those who believe in sanctity of life. His "friends" turn out to be less than that.

For what will Michael Schiavo be remembered? JB

Saturday, March 26, 2005

from: Albert Mohler

"The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead separates Christianity from all mere religion--whatever its form. Christianity without the literal, physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is merely one religion among many. "And if Christ is not risen," said the Apostle Paul, "then our preaching is empty and your faith is in vain" [1 Corinthians 15:14]. Furthermore, "You are still in your sins!" [v. 17b]. Paul could not have chosen stronger language. "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable" [v. 19].

Yet, the resurrection of Jesus Christ has been under persistent attacks since the Apostolic age. Why? Because it is the central confirmation of Jesus' identity as the incarnate Son of God, and the ultimate sign of Christ's completed work of atonement, redemption, reconciliation, and salvation. Those who oppose Christ, whether first century religious leaders or twentieth century secularists, recognize the Resurrection as the vindication of Christ against His enemies.

Those who would attack the Church and reject its gospel must direct their arrows at the most crucial truth claim of the New Testament and the disciples: That Jesus Christ, having suffered death on a cross, though sinless, having borne the sins of those He came to save, having been buried in a sealed and guarded grave, was raised by the power of God on the third day.

As Paul well understood, Christianity stands or falls with the empty grave. If Christ is not raised, we are to be pitied, for our faith is in vain. Those who would preach a resurrectionless Christianity have substituted the truth of the gospel for a lie. But, asserted Paul, Christ is risen from the dead. Our faith is not in vain, but is in the risen Lord. He willingly faced death on a cross and defeated death from the grave. The Resurrection is the ultimate sign of God's vindication of His Son."

JB Here! I've always thought, if you're going to follow a religious man; follow one who overcame death. Neither Buddha, Mohammed, any modern gods (such as Mao, Stalin) nor any of the Hindu and other eastern religions have a god who overcame death. They were gods with a "small 'g'."

If you're going to follow a god, follow "The God" who proved that He rules over death, not vice versa. He is Risen....INDEED!

Friday, March 25, 2005

Taken from the Drudge Report 3-25-05

CHOOSING A BABY'S SEX: THE REVOLT GROWS
UK DAILY MAIL
Thu Mar 24 2005 21:07:23 ET

CHURCH LEADERS HEADED FURIOUS CRITICISM LAST NIGHT OF A 'FRANKENSTEIN' REPORT ON FERTILITY LAWS. MPS ON A COMMONS COMMITTEE CALLED FOR A MAJOR RELAXATION OF THE RULES, WHICH WOULD include letting IVF couples choose their baby's sex.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of Britain's six million Roman Catholics, was backed by Church of England and Jewish leaders as he expressed 'deep alarm'. The Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, said it would be 'a step along the road to turning children from persons into products'.

The leaders spoke out as a political row raged over the report of the Science and Technology committee. It said couples should also have the right to create tissue-matched, genetically-screened 'saviour siblings' to help seriously-ill children.

Scientists should be allowed to create embryonic hybrids of humans and animals for research, while research involving cloned human embryos should be allowed to continue, as long as they were destroyed at 14 days.

The committee called for the watchdog Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to be scrapped, along with the key rule that fertility clinics must consider the welfare of any potential child before providing treatment.

Half the ten MPs on the committee refused to put their names to the report, however, saying they fundamentally disagreed with conclusions which ignored the dignity of human life.

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said Britain needed a National Bioethics Commission to consider the moral and ethical implications of scientific developments.

'I am deeply alarmed at this utilitarian report,' he said. 'It shows scant awareness that it is dealing with fundamental issues of respect for human life. I welcome the comments of those members who have dissented from its findings. We need a far broader public debate about these vital questions, which touch on the very origin and sanctity of life.'


JB here! The One Thing we learn from history is: we DON'T learn from history.
And so we've arrived at "bad" Good Friday.


""Author Tony Campolo's most famous message declares, "It's Friday, but Sunday's Comin'."

Jesus has been unjustly charged and condemned to die. It's Friday, but Sunday's comin'. The religious and political tyrants have stopped His rebellous message. It's Friday, but Sunday's comin'. He has been brutally beaten, stripped, and nailed to a cross. It's Friday, but Sunday's comin'. Christ is sealed in a tomb, his dead body guarded by Roman soldiers. It's Friday, but Sunday's comin'.

The message builds to a powerful conclusion when the pastor simply shouts, "It's Friday!" and the congregation responds, "But Sunday's comin'."" © copyright James N. Watkins. All rights reserved. From www.jameswatkins.com; hosted by GospelCom.net


Then there is Pilate, the quintessential politician, facing the quintessential dilemma. How to Do the right thing but keep the people happy. Pilate asking the quintessential question of the relative moralist; "What is truth?" Pilate, freeing the thug, Barrabas, then beating the innocent lamb and only Son of God then allowing the murder that followed. Pilate, having given into the mob, symbolically but futilily washes his hands hoping this will cleanse him of responsibility and guilt. Pilate, ultimately remembered for only 1 decision of moral cowardice in his lifetime of many decisions.

Pilate = Everyman
Pilate = Us

Finally Rembrandt, in one of his paintings, depicts Jesus being raised on the cross by the mob. And in that mob of men that Rembrandt painted, he included himself. Rembrandt was right. We were all at the crucifixion trying to rid ourselves of the Holy One.

Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Receiving Comments

JB here! I finally figured out how to allow anybody to comment. So, you're now free to do so. Perhaps not so obviously profanity doesn't make me happy but honest give and take does. I respect other people's opinions but my world view is that of radical Christianity based upon Scripture and thru that lens I view all opinions.

Finally, as we all watch the dreadful continuation of Terri Schiavo being starved to death I am reminded: The death of innocents at the hands of others is always described as an act of "compassion." But murder "will out."

Scripture says, It is appointed unto man once to die and then judgement. In the only court where justice is absolute, Terri Schiavo's murder will not go unpunished.

Tongue in cheek

THE HUMANE THING TO DO IS LET AFRICA STARVE - an editorial by Frank J.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

While thinking about the horror/evil that is a part of the Terri Schiavo case I remembered reading the following a couple of years ago.

In the Thanatos Syndrome Walker Percy introduced this character - Father Simon Rinaldo Smith - who has all the appearance of being crazy and yet absolutely nails the truth about our society's determination to do away with the Terri Schiavos of the world.


Found in Religion on line - This was a review by Ralph C. Wood of Walker Percy's last (and greatest) novel - the Thanatos Syndrome.


""The Thanatos Syndrome purports to be a sequel to Love in the Ruins. Like its predecessor, the new novel has a futuristic setting -- no longer the Orwellian year of 1984 but a much later and worse time near the end of our century. The narrator is again the sardonic, disheveled, bourbon-drinking psychiatrist who cannot escape his Catholic past as a lineal descendant of the Christian humanist saint Sir Thomas More. But whereas the More of the first novel had begun to recover his mental and moral health after conquering suicidal tendencies, the More we encounter in the new novel has spent two years in prison for selling amphetamines to truck drivers. Ellen Oglethorpe, the ethically sensible wife who had helped restore More's sanity, has become a champion bridge player and tongue-speaking charismatic.

Though neither of these drastic personality changes is made credible, the furious state of More's mind is vividly and convincingly drawn. Like the bilious narrator of Lancelot (1977) , More is persuaded that an awful spiritual malaise has befallen the modern West. Ours is the age of mass death, he argues, and our chief malady is thus the thanatos syndrome. Yet if Percy has a spokesman it is surely Father Simon Rinaldo Smith, the priest who dwells alone atop a fire tower and thinks himself a latter-day St. Simeon Stylites.

Tenderness is the first disguise of the murderer. . . . Never in the history of the world have there been so many civilized tenderhearted souls as have lived in this century. . . . More people have been killed in this century by tenderhearted souls than by cruel barbarians in all other centuries put together. . . . Do you know where tenderness always leads. . . . To the gas chambers

As these statements make clear, The Thanatos Syndrome is an angry and admonitory novel. For the first time in his fiction, Percy likens late 20th-century American life to the Weimar Republic. He finds harrowing parallels between our own behaviorists and the German scientists who practiced eugenics while quoting Rilke and Goethe and Schiller. Our culture shares with theirs, Percy suggests. a mere utilitarian regard for human life.

The logical conclusion of that view is that those who are "useless" to themselves or the world -- unwanted infants, nursing home residents and victims of severe mongolism, epilepsy, encephalitis, arteriosclerosis, progressive neurological disease and hopeless schizophrenia -- ought to be "compassionately" eliminated. In the absence of a "life with dignity," reasons one of Percy's humanist technicians, those who make no contribution" to society should all be accorded their right to a "death with dignity."

The sickness-unto-death that first manifested itself at Verdun and the Somme did not end with Dachau and Hiroshima; it has penetrated to the very core of American culture.""


JB here: I understand that people reared without a moral compass, people who do not believe there is a moral creator God would not see the problem in killing off the Terri Schiavos of the world. What makes me quake is that so many people who believe in God also think it is o.k. that Terri Schiavos or others like her be hastened to their death - in the name of tenderness and compassion.

There is a great evil abroad in our national soul. JB
From a Professor friend

Short Story

A college class was told to write a short story in as few words as
possible, containing the following three things:
1. Religion
2. Sexuality
3. Mystery


The only A+ paper contained this short story:

"Good God, I'm pregnant! I wonder who did it?"

JB Here! Now that's what I call a short story. The pathos, drama, vision, terror, horror and awe - it's all there!

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

The Failures of a Father

THE FAILURES OF A FATHER

There are many things to desire as you parent your children. One, of course, is good communication and bonding. Despite the fact of being in a profession which is all about communication, my sense is; I was a good communicator with clients, but not a very good communicator with my own children. I desired a closer bond with the kids but for reasons that I could never pin down, don’t think I ever achieved that. I was usually willing to listen but asked too many questions and, perhaps, had nothing of myself to share other than the jokes/humor and running commentary on random things of interest. Sharing myself with my family has always been extraordinarily difficult. So the children grow up knowing the “Dad” facade but not knowing the fears, doubts, bewilderment and panic that seem to come with experiencing life and being in theory the head of the family.

Other failures include outbursts of anger and frustration. I could be and sometimes am quite impatient. I had my own ideas of how things should be at home; what the children should be responsible for, what they should be doing at any given moment but rarely, it seemed, did my ideas ever pan out. For men, when we get frustrated, a lot of us just simply withdraw from the field of disagreement and move towards a angry/passive type roll. However, that surely doesn’t make for good parenting. It’s probably good for children to see parents work through disagreements but I wasn’t very good at doing that on my part.

Can you tell your children too many times that you love them? I don’t know the answer to that one either. You surely hope you communicate it, you also hope you communicate your respect and admiration for their accomplishments but one is not always sure that the message you want to convey is actually conveyed. I was very good at hiding love behind humor – in my own family of origin love was rarely directly expressed. I now find that my sisters and I try to tell each other “I love you” but it remains difficult to do. I find I have to work hard at that. Expressions of humor are much easier. - to be continued - JB

Sunday, March 20, 2005

I was looking up definitions of "rabbi" and then I looked it up using the thesaurus on dictionary.com

I came across these.

Main Entry: clergyman
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: minister
Synonyms: abbey, archbishop, bible thumper, bishop, blackcoat, cardinal, cassock, chaplain, churchman, cleric, clerk, curate, dean, devil dodger, divine, ecclesiast, ecclesiastic, evangelist, father, harp polisher, missionary, monsignor, padre, parson, pastor, pontiff, preacher, predicant, priest, primate, pulpitarian, pulpiteer, rabbi, rector, reverend, sermonizer, shepherd, sky pilot, sky scout, the rev, turn-around collar, vicar
Antonyms: layman, layperson
Source: Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.1.1)
Copyright © 2005 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Main Entry: priest
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: churchman
Synonyms: churchman, clergyman, cleric, curate, divine, ecclesiastic, elder, father, father confessor, friar, Holy Joe, holy man, lama, monk, padre, pontiff, preacher, rabbi, rector, sky pilot, vicar
Source: Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.1.1)
Copyright © 2005 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

JB here! It makes one think.
In the Florida Times Union for Sunday, March 20th, 2005 on the front page of INSIGHT, there is a fascinating article on a 4 year study of the American Family. It seems to focus on the increasing lack of conversation and emotional intimacy of most families due to an increasingly hectic lifestyle.

Basically what the researchers did was take their cameras into the homes, cars and businesses of 32 different families and spend a week filming their activites. To this point the final analysis of the data and interpretation has not been done but there is no doubt that families are involved in far more activities out of the home than in the past generations.

The study indicated that the single biggest factor of change is probably mothers in the workforce. That should come as little surprise.

I've often felt that my family had less together time than I would have liked despite the fact that my wife has not had to work outside the home since the birth of my son in 1980. Both my wife and I worked through-out the early childless years of our marriage -- it appeared to be necessary unless we desired to starve to death. Then in 1979 I got hired to a "real job" that would pay me more than what my wife and I were making combined in 1978. So with the timing of the new job, pregnancy was pursued (successfully) and my wife resigned her teaching job at a small Baptist elementary school 3 months before our son was born into this life. 6 years later our daughter was born. Through the grace of God, my wife was able to be a "full-time Mom" through-out all of the children's lives. My son is about to turn 25, my daughter is 19. Life has been extremely hectic - but not unhappily so. (to be continued)

Saturday, March 19, 2005

From the Ace of Spades

"Supreme Court to Terri: Drop Dead

Refused to grant an emergency stay of the order to remove her feeding tube in order to allow time for the outcome of an appeal.

And I'm not fond of slippery slope arguments as a rule (I mean, once we begin taking slippery slope arguments seriously, who knows what sort of arguments we'll begin taking seriously in the future?), but Rightwing Nuthouse notes that the right-to-die/right-to-euthanize impulse seems to be gaining. As he puts it:

'Each time we kill someone like Terri it gets easier. Each time we make a decision to end the life of someone like Terri we expand the boundries of what’s permissable. Each time the debate is joined, the advocates for the cult of death point out the “special nature of this particular case or that it’s only an isolated incident.'

And to prove his point, he cites the Gronigen Protocols, Dutch procedures regarding when it's ethical to euthanize children with incurable and painful diseases, up to 12 years old.

I don't believe these are easy questions that can always be resolved in favor of "life." But we do seem to galloping towards a general acceptance of euthanasia in the interests of "mercy" for a stricken patient -- and in the unspoken interests of convenience for every one else."

JB Here: "Ace" by his own admission tends to be moderate to liberal on things like abortion - right to choose etc. But he clearly understands the danger in starving Terri to death. How wicked, how vile; particularly in the light of her parent's desire to take care of her.

Friday, March 18, 2005

Judge Greer and Michael Schiavo intend that Terry Schiavo be starved to death. This is not "death with dignity." This is the kind of crime that if done to your cat or dog would land you in jail. Would you starve your pet to death? I don't think so. JB
( Mrs. Noonan, if you're reading this [she's not - grin] I apologize for quoting so much of your outstanding article. JB)

From: Peggy Noonan 3-18-05
........................................
There is a passionate, highly motivated and sincere group of voters and activists who care deeply about whether Terri Schiavo is allowed to live. Their reasoning, ultimately, is this: Be on the side of life. They remind me of what Winston Churchill said once when he became home secretary in charge of England's prisons. He was seated at dinner with a jabbery lady who said that if she were ever given a life sentence she'd rather die than serve it. He reared back. No, he said, always choose life! "Death's the only thing you can't get out of!"
...........................................................
The supporters of Terri Schiavo's right to continue living have fought for her heroically, through the courts and through the legislatures. They're still fighting. They really mean it. And they have memories.
On the other side of this debate, one would assume there is an equally well organized and passionate group of organizations deeply committed to removing Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. But that's not true. There's just about no one on the other side. Or rather there is one person, a disaffected husband who insists Terri once told him she didn't want to be kept alive by extraordinary measures.
He has fought the battle to kill her with a determination that at this point seems not single-minded or passionate but strange. His former wife's parents and family are eager to care for her and do care for her, every day. He doesn't have to do a thing. His wife is not kept alive by extraordinary measures--she breathes on her own, is not on a respirator. All she needs to continue existing--and to continue being alive so that life can produce whatever miracle it may produce--is a feeding tube.
It doesn't seem a lot.
So politically this is a struggle between many serious people who really mean it and one, just one, strange-o. And the few bearded and depressed-looking academics he's drawn to his side.
It is not at all in the political interests of senators and congressmen to earn the wrath of the pro-Schiavo group and the gratitude of the anti-Schiavo husband, by doing nothing.
So let me write a sentence I never thought I'd write: Politicians, please, think of yourselves! Move to help Terri Schiavo, and no one will be mad at you, and you'll keep a human being alive. Do nothing and you reap bitterness and help someone die.
This isn't hard, is it? – Peggy Noonan

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Found on everydaymusings.blogspot.com - by Rebecca

Seppling Issues

The spelling issues I can deal with, the sender names is what gets me.

I got spam--and I am not making this up--that came from "Jocular Menstruation."

I pity the entire Menstruation family for their surname, particurly young Jocular. He/she must have a pretty hard time with life. Given the nature of that name, I suspect the number of responses to her/his spam is quite low.

I keep getting spam that has the subject line of "Tibeerious Erectus." Guess they're going for the Latin e-mailers.


Rebecca, have you been to spamusement.com? A guy actually draws cartoons inspired by actual spam lines. Some of them are hysterical.


I think a lot of spam comes from princes or son's of cabinet officials in Africa and English isn't there first language. I still waiting for all that money to be sent to my bank account.


congartulationes! Yuve jest one an diktionarie!

JB here, you just gotta love the spammers - when you're not hating them. Good Thursday to you all!

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Cheap traffic boost?

MARIO VASQUEZ BRITNEY SPEARS PARIS HILTON AMERICAN IDOL

Taking a clue from INDCJOURNAL.COM
Hatemongers Quarterly continues to be one of my "must reads" every morning. Not sure who these people are other than "Chip" but they truly take some rich "shots" at the faux intellectualism found in academia. Plus, they once posted a letter of mine. You can't beat that with a stick.

Today they tackled a gender studies journal article on Marvel Comics superheroes.

In said issue, one Tim Nelson offers his masterful discussion of Marvel comic books and issues of masculinity. It’s clever title speaks volumes about the high quality of the piece: “Even an Android Can Cry.” Just in case readers are wary of this insightful contribution to Western culture, the beginning of the article contains a list of “keywords,” which are the focus of the article: “Marvel Comics; superheroes; Vision; bodybuilding; masculinity; America.”

For those of you reading Marvel Comics, ( and you know who you are) there's rich insights to be had. JB
Found on Albert Mohler's website 3-16-05

Christians are called to love the truth and refute error, not in a spirit of pride and vindictiveness, but in a spirit of humility and faithfulness. Our responsibility is clear, as articulated well by Blaise Pascal: "It is as much a crime to disturb the peace when truth prevails as it is to keep the peace when truth is violated. There is therefore a time in which peace is justified and another time when it is not justifiable. For it is written that there is a time for peace and a time for war and it is the law of truth that distinguishes the two. But at no time is there a time for truth and a time for error, for it is written that God's truth shall abide forever. That is why Christ has said that He has come to bring peace and at the same time that He has come to bring the sword. But He does not say that He has come to bring both the truth and falsehood."

Google

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Found on Powerline 3-15-05

Athens on the Charles

The Harvard faculty has narrowly voted (218-185) to express "no confidence" in the leadership of Harvard President Lawrence Summers. Socrates was convicted of impiety by a roughly comparable vote of 280-220. Click here for the Harvard Crimson report, and here for the AP report.

The vote essentially represents the conviction of President Summers for not believing in the gods of the city. The resolution was the handiwork of Harvard Professor of Anthropology and of African and African-American Studies J. Lorand Matory. Speaking like a true Athenian, Matory commented following the vote, "There is no noble alternative for him but resignation."

Let us now recall the words of the great Willliam F. Buckley Jr.: "I would rather be governed by the first 200 names in the Boston phone book, than by the Harvard faculty." The wisdom of Buckley's statement is proving timeless.

Buckley had it right about being governed by the Harvard Faculty.

Monday, March 14, 2005

A site I always read is Al Mohler. For those of you who have followed the culture wars, I consider Dr. Mohler to be the heir apparent to the late Francis Schaeffer. It was Dr. Schaeffer who truly articulated the difference in worldviews between those who hold to the Christian ethos and those who hold to a view that man is his own God.

Worldmag

"Whatever Happened to the Human Race?( by Schaeffer and Koop) awakened American evangelicals to the anti-human technologies and ideologies that then threatened human dignity. Most urgently, the project put abortion unquestionably on the front burner of evangelical concern. The tenor of the times is seen in the fact that Schaeffer and Koop had to argue to evangelicals in the late 1970s that abortion was not just a 'Catholic' issue. They taught many evangelicals a new and urgently needed vocabulary about embryo ethics, euthanasia, and infanticide. They knew they were running out of time."

"Each era faces its own unique blend of problems," they argued. "Our time is no exception. Those who regard individuals as expendable raw material--to be molded, exploited, and then discarded--do battle on many fronts with those who see each person as unique and special, worthwhile, and irreplaceable."

"Every age is marked by both the 'thinkable' and the 'unthinkable,' they asserted--and the 'thinkable' of late-twentieth century Western cultures was dangerously anti-human. The lessons of the century--with the Holocaust at its center--should be sufficient to drive the point home. The problem, as illustrated by those who worked in Hitler's death camps, was the inevitable result of a loss of conscience and moral truth. They were 'people just like all of us,' Koop and Schaeffer reminded. We seem to be in danger of forgetting our seemingly unlimited capacities for evil, once boundaries to certain behavior are removed."

JB

Monday 5 a.m.

Streaming audio is truly awesome. I sit here at my desktop and continue to be amazed at what technology can do. I am listening to one of my favorite radio stations (bbnradio.org) which I cannot pick up on my radio in the a.m. But because of streaming audio I hear it perfectly. As Yakov Smirnov used to say, "What a country."

On a secondary note, the report that Europe is 25 years behind the USA in general economic terms is definitely fascinating and it seems to be; a continuing proof that socialism in government is ultimately a negative - no matter the "compassion" behind it.

But, as a radical pursuer of Jesus Christ, I'm not dependent upon the government anyway. I remain dependent upon a Creator God.

My favorite piece of wisdom: "There IS a God; I am not HE." JB

Sunday, March 13, 2005

A tentative step

I'll never be a professional journalist. But I can be a blogger; don the requisite pajamas, and attempt to write about things that interest me and may interest others. I have deeply appreciated the blogs in the last year as they provided an interesting and thoughtful counter to what the Mainstream Media ( MSM) provides.

Blogging is a chance to speak for or against he perceived reality of the culture. I have no one to blame if I fail.

Respectfully,

S