Schiavo Case

Ok, I'm going to weigh in. I know Lindsey says the husband is a horrible reprehensible human being, but Terri Schiavo needs to be allowed to die. I am a strong proponent of a complete culture of life but this is nonsense. This woman has not been able to use her brain in any meaningful way for 15 years, and she's now the subject of a desperate struggle to keep her alive. For what? The enjoyment of her parents? The fate of some cause? The fact that this whole misguided campaign is being driven by Christians shows very muddled thinking. Why should a Christian avoid death at any and all costs if we believe our soul will live on and a glorified body awaits?

We seem to have co-opted the two implicit laws of the secular conception of the good: 1) acquire as much as possible 2) live as long as possible. Neither are very compelling or Christian. Live your life as best you can, but when you die, you die. The most contradictory support of Terri Schiavo is from the Vatican, which rigidly opposes birth control. Why is it unacceptable to use medicine to prevent the beginning of life, but fantastic to intrude on nature and artificially prevent the end of a life?

Life is the greatest of all goods, and should be protected passionately. But do we believe that this value is so over-riding that any form or type of life should be promoted wherever possible? On what grounds are the same people asking for Terri to live opposing stem cells? Why should we not be cloning with wild abandon if we think artificially increasing and extendeding life is a duty? Or is it just that children must be naturally born, but once alive we should use every unholy synthetic tool at our disposal to keep them plugged into a wall for 200 years until their heart cannot be made to beat any longer?

I completely understand why the parents want to keep Terri alive. That's a very natural emotion. But at some point someone needs to step in and make a decision for them that they should not have to make themselves. Their daughter's brain is dead--and in essence so is she. To parade her through the national media in a half-alive state only dishonors her.

As Dollar Weakens, So Does Will to Balance Budget

Our rapidly growing national debt is not only a financial problem, it will affect virtually every phase of our quality of life. As Thomas Freidman demonstrates ably here, it even affects our strength in foreign policy. But as we continue to cripple our dollar and our economy, our lawmakers are headed in the wrong direction. Many have bemoaned the "defecits don't matter" Bush Republican's, but few thought the Senate would soar even beyond the conflicted fiscal goals of the White House. But it happened. As the Times reports today:

In a surprise move, the Senate also voted to approve a total of $134 billion in tax cuts, $34 billion more than President Bush requested and $64 billion more than the Senate Republican leadership had initially proposed.

Oh Lord. Tax cuts are lovely when you're not spiralling wildly into debt, but unless your tax cuts will mean a HUGE check back (i.e. Lindsey) they're not gonna help cause Extra Value Meals are gonna be $10 in five years with what's happening to the dollar. This is a little too South American for my tastes.

Joshua Fit the Battle, Then They Gave it Right Back

Yes, Israel is returning Jericho to Palestine a few thousands years after taking it from the Philistines. Hopefully this won't make a bunch of heaven-dwelling Hebrews feel like they marched around the place all those times for nothing...

SLGCP on Front of Times!

Because I wake up each day to come help Matt Mayer do his job well, I was very pumped to see my boss's name dead center on the front of today's New York Times, looking impressive and sounding intelligent. We would have preferred if Hawaii had not foolishly posted the Scenarios we developed, but I don't think we mind discussing them and getting exposure so long as it's out there now. I had the happy task of showing him the print version of the paper this morning (he hadn't seen it yet) and got a high five. Today is a happy day at work...

High End Grocery Wars

I thoroughly enjoyed my recent first-trip to Wegman's Grocery store. I happen to love grocery shopping and I was in heaven amidst the high quality food, low prices, and dazzling layout at Wegman's. Apparently they treat their own pretty well too, as they were just named Fortune magazine's #1 company to work for. Ask anyone from upstate New York about this grocery chain and watch their face explode with joy. It's downright silly. Meanwhile, it seems that Whole Foods is looking to move toward the dazzling food universe concept of a Wegman's store and morph their own franchises into a veritable 3-ring circus of food display. Who will win? Consumers like me!

The Mess Rather Left

Tonight Dan Rather signs off as anchor at CBS. For a fascinating peek behind the scenes of the news office he leaves, read this long, sad account of all that has happened to the players in the memo scandal since it exploded onto, and then faded from, the national spotlight last year.

Dowd on Hillary and Martha

Sassy, sexy, always witty Maureen Dowd has been on a roll lately. Her latest column probes what the American psyche can and cannot tolerate in women of power. Also see her column on plastic surgery and cloned wardrobes in hollywood.

The Sting of Imperfection

Yes, it hurts. The precious, powerful and beautiful Illini basketball team is no longer undefeated, losing their final regular season game 65-64 at Ohio State. I am not going to despair--they will surely rise again. As for the South? I'm just not sure.

Political Correctness Gone Wild!

Looks like Harvard is making a push to chase down Brown in the competition to be nauseatingly politically correct. The latest offensive act on campus was a speech by Jada Pinkett Smith, Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations "Artist of the Year." Jada offered remarks at the school that managed to cause a stir by including extended advice on making a relationship work. Unfortunately, she only talked about male-female relationships, which offended some students. As BGLTSA Co-Chair Jordan B. Woods ’06 explained, “Some of the content was extremely heteronormative, and made BGLTSA members feel uncomfortable. Our position is that the comments weren’t homophobic, but the content was specific to male-female relationships.” How rude!!

Ms. Pinkett Smith's oversight has prompted a series of intiatives (including discussion groups and a mass apology letter) to help students recover from the incident and prevent future occurances. According to the Harvard Crimson, "the Foundation has pledged to 'take responsibility to inform future speakers that they will be speaking to an audience diverse in race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender and class.' " This will hopefully avoid another scarring experience, like J. Lo talking about how she makes her marriage work. Actually that could be painful...

You Couldn't Invent a Better News Headline

...than "Man Tasered By Police In Salad Bar Dispute: Aurora Police Say Proper Procedures Followed At Chuck E. Cheese." Read the story in all it's glory here.

The victim/crouton assailant Danon Gale, 29, was in a packed Chuck E. Cheese with his two young children when he was spotted "loading" his plate at the salad bar. He was asked to step outside and refused and a struggle ensued. Accounts vary. What is clear is that he was eventually thrown into the lap of a peaceful pizza eater and tasered. Police say he pushed an officer, but that is disputed by witness Felicia Mayo, who said Gale never put his hands on the officer who was confronting him. According to the Rocky Mountain News:

The argument escalated until Gale was shoved into the lap of Mayo's sister, who was sitting two booths away, holding a 10-month-old baby. That's when police pulled out a Taser stun gun to subdue him.

"They beat this man in front of all these kids then Tased him in my sister's lap," Mayo told the newspaper. "They had no regard for the effect this would have on the kids. This is Chuck E. Cheese, you know."

While possibly scarring, the beating and tasering undoubtedly taught all of the shrieking children a valuable lesson in not stealing from the salad bar.