Maggie's Farm

Balanchine

Toni Bentley reviews two new books on Balanchine:
"George Balanchine, the greatest dance innovator of the twentieth century, and possibly the most important in all 350 years of classical dance history since the language was codified in the court of Louis XIV, has just been subjected to a global celebration lasting an entire year in honor of the centennial of his birth, in tsarist Russia, in 1904. Now it is perhaps a good time, as he enters his second century of influence, to assess the many acts of heroism performed in his honor—and the attendant damage."   Read entire:  Click here: The New York Review of Books: The Master

"As men, we are all equal in the presence of death."

Publius Syrus

The End of Democracy?

Fr. Neuhaus assembled the book on this famous 1996 debate on judicial activism, which included most of the wise conservatives in the US. From the description: "American conservatism's most ferocious internecine controversy in years erupted when the journal First Things published a symposium on "the judicial usurpation of politics," exploring the daring question "whether we have reached or are reaching the point where conscientious citizens can no longer give moral assent to the existing regime." A far-flung debate ensued, engaging scores of contestants in countless journals and newspapers."  Click here: Amazon.com: Books: The End of Democracy...

Travel with Brains

Travel around the Med with VDH. Does that sound good enough?

I'm already packing, even tho I've been there before.

Powell's new book reveals shocking steroid use in White House:

"Top Cabinet officials are up in arms about the allegations of widespread steroid use made by former Secretary of State Colin Powell in his new political tell-all Pumped." Read entire:Click here: The Onion

Microjets

Microjets for the middle class - I need one or two of these: "Travel in "very small jets" operating outside traditional commercial airline rules is expected to explode in coming years and is already causing congestion at some small airports."  Click here: MSNBC - Affordable personal jets closer than you think

Euthanasia, more

Lucette Lugano re her mother's stroke:

"That is when I realized that the stroke had not robbed Edith of her charm. Or her fundamental humanity. I glimpse the same charm and the same humanity in Terri Schiavo--though the advocates of the culture of death have sought to rob her of both."  Read entire: Click here: OpinionJournal - Taste

Euthanasia

Pat Caddell said on TV Saturday that we should not believe the ABC poll about the Schivao case, and he was quite angry about the probably deliberate distortions in the polling method. The euthanasia issue is morally and spiritually complex and treacherous in many ways, of course. (Courts and politics are trivial aspects of the discussion - it is about religion, or at least about spiritual beliefs.) And we are dealing with euthanasia at this point, not Terri.

Andrew Sullivan believes, for example, that it's all about insane Christians and that courts are the bottom line, if they are not God. He's very smart, but who believes that courts are that smart? Terri is the dying martyr .Then there's Frank Rich, the arch-materialist ranter - odd for an ex-theater critic - for whom all of this is a religous scam:The God Racket, From DeMille to DeLay

Peggy Noonan does a great job of explaining the pro-life view on euthanasia: Peggy Noonan and Steyn does too, drawing on a Canadian case: "Like other statist politicians, Mr. Trudeau . . . either didn't see, or resented, that right and wrong are only reflected by the laws, not determined by them. That's how I feel about the Terri Schiavo case. I'm neither a Floridian nor a lawyer, and, for all I know, it may be legal under Florida law for the state to order her to be starved to death. But it is still wrong." No compelling reason to kill Terri Schiavo

There is a debate here which is too deep, and too real, to be left to politicians and courts. I hesitate to compare it to the national debate on slavery, but it could be one of those defining debates that symbolically reflect our national view of existence. And, don't forget, the mainly religious opposition to slavery was based on the idea that Africans have souls. Last week, there was a well-reported case in the Netherlands or Denmark about a later-term abortion of a baby because he had a cleft lip, and the parents wanted a "perfect" kid. Let's have a national debate on euthanasia, which that case clearly was, and its limits, if any. Because this is about values and emotion and belief, not law. And I ask you - Why does this pan out to a left and right issue? Put your replies in "comments," OK?

Addendum: got a few emails noting that the links do not work on this bit - will try to fix.

"When everyone says you're drunk, you'd better sit down."

Old Irish saying

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand --
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep -- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

from A Dream within a Dream by Edgar Allen Poe. Read entire: Click here: E. A. Poe Society of Baltimore

Matthew 27:45

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice "Eli, Eli, la'ma sabach-tha'ni?" that is, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And some of the bystanders hearing it said "That man is calling Elijah." And one of them at once ran and brought a sponge, filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.

"We spend all our lives killin time, but, in the end, time kills us."

Bob Dylan as "Jack Fate", in the 2003 movie Masked and Anonymous (wonderful sound track)   Click here: Amazon.com: DVD: Masked and Anonymous (2003)

The Schiavo Death Watch

Like Doc Higgins in a prior post, I hate this case. It should never have gotten to this point and, as the Doc said, this poor lady died years ago. It's the Karen Quinlan story all over again. The politics makes it much uglier. The Repubs look like opportunistic vultures, and the Dems begin to look like the Party of Death, with abortion and Terri. Haven't I always said that politicians are crowd manipulators and dream twisters? As Kissinger said, "90% of politicians give the other 10% a bad name."  It is a disgusting spectacle, filled with yellow journalism, and the whole thing is sad as hell. 

The entire story is complicated by the fact that Terri Schiavo doesn't look dead, even though she's long gone. It is called a "coma vigil" in medicine. Most people with her degree of brain destruction are on respirators and totally unresponsive.

The truth is that, as the Dems seem to be willing to acknowledge, a "person" is not a body - a person is the heart and soul and spirit of a person. The body is just a vessel - a fact which everyone who has performed surgery, including me, many times - knows well. The body is a complicated hunk of meat and bone and guts which miraculously works pretty well, most of the time.

But the trouble is that we've seen that concept abused over history, haven't we? It has seemed easy, over history, for people to decide that a Moslem, a Jew, an African, an unborn baby, a grievously ill person, or an American, has no real soul and is just a disposable biological unit like a laboratory rat. To Al Quaida, we are "the other" - we are Terri Schiavos to them as the Jews were to Stalin and Hitler. There is a path to the de-humanization culture - the soul-less culture - the death culture - that we must not take. And it is "reason" and science - not religion - that beckons us, in Western Civilization, down that ugly, "Brave New World,"  "rationalist" path.

So the subject is complex. However, note to world: If I end up like that, please be merciful and let me go to complete my journey through this world. There. It's official. It is written on a blog!

My cynical take on what is going on is that, with Iraq wrapped up, the press needed a new hot topic, and the Michael Jackson trial just didn't do it, because no-one cared. They found a new hot drama, and the lens-lice put on clean shirts and new Gucci neckties and lined up for the cameras. But the real subject and the real debate is about the sanctity of God-given life, and Terri, through her extended departure of soul and body, has given us the gift of raising this issue in public.

May her soul rest in peace.

Parts of Venezuela's new Penal Code...Why do Leftist governments always do stuff like this? It's a rhetorical question. We know why - they want to do GOOD FOR PEOPLE, so the ends justify the means - right? It's OK to do bad to individual people if you claim that you want to do good for the abstract "the people" - right? Or at least you can get a good run for your money - literally- until someone gets rid of you by coup, bomb, bullet or, occasionally,  ballot.

“Anyone who offends with his words or in writing or in any other way disrespects the President of the Republic or whomever is fulfilling his duties will be punished with prison of 6 to 30 months if the offense is serious and half of that if it is light. The term will be increased by a third if the offense is made publicly.”

“Anyone who by his words or acts offends in any way the honor, reputation or decorum of a member of the National Assembly or any other civil servant, will be punished in the following way, if the action is made in his presence and is motivated by his responsibilities…”

“Anyone who communicating with various people, together or separate, would have charged any individual with a responsibility which may expose him to public scorn or hate, or an offense to his honor or reputation, will be punished with prison of one to three years…if the crime were committed in a public document or writings (blogs?), drawings or exposed to the public, the penalty will be from two to four years…”

Hope they won't come up here and track me down. Read the piece: Click here: The Devil's Excrement 

Global Warming

"The sky is falling, so we must shoot the dog." Bird Dog has always been fond of claiming that global warming is the only thing that can save New England from the coming ice age, or at least delay it, in the interest of maintaining our property values. There is no market for land buried under a mile-thick glacier. So it's nice to see someone else, namely The Ornery American, cast a jaundiced eye on global warming:

"If you want a perfect example of this, look at the Kyoto Protocols. The consensus among serious scientists is that the Kyoto Protocols, even if they were completely implemented, would not have any serious effect on global warming for the next century.Yet they insist that we should adopt and obey the protocols with all the force of law that international treaties have. Why? Because it will show that we take the problem seriously. Because it's a first step. Because it's the Right Thing. In other words, we should blindly obey even though we know that it's pointless. "
Read entire: Click here: World Watch - March 6, 2005 - Global Warming: Fighting Off the Ice Age - The Ornery American