Month: April 2007

Howl & Reality

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After reading the comments on Shannon’s piece, I went into class. Today we talked of Ginsberg & Howl. I could teach the power of his incantatory lines, his use of repetition, ways he took what Whitman had discovered & made it his own; but, then, I found myself unable to speak. Shannon’s piece, the comments, Cho, so many memories – I just didn’t feel like letting these words lie on the page. I talked for a moment about America in those years and about this romanticism, this belief society was fallen but man wasn’t. These beliefs were not always true, not even useful. Sometimes we’re not noble savages thwarted by a society that sacrifices us to Moloch – sometimes we’re just nuts and need help. And then we turned to Bishop, whose life, too, had plenty of tragedies and whose inclinations, too, were not conventional; still she created a world that better helps us understand and even appreciate our own.

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Related posts:
One of Those Things We Forget About the 50’s & 60’s
Imagine Insanity
Again

Quote of the Day

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The problem is not and never has been that having good manners must interfere with acknowledging the truth. By suggesting that it is, one is pandering to the cretinous lack of judgment that falls into confusion or rage at social rules about “a time and a place for everything”. Thus the “love of truth” is mixed with and debased by the preening thuggery of “keepin’ it real”, as if Larry Summers’s attempting to open inquiry on the subject of sex differences in scientific aptitude is of a piece with some talk-radio boor’s trash-talk. Klavan is correct to say that there are things “greater than courtesy”. But if both Summers’s speculations about women in science, and insulting comments about someone’s appearance, accurately illustrate your definition of “discourtesy”, you’ve been spending too much time in lefty charm school.
 
I don’t think we’re going to advance the battle for “the preservation of Western rationalism and liberty” by accepting the “bad guys” confusion of courtesy with obsequiousness, with its concomitant confusion of real debate with consensus-seeking.

–Moira Breen

Miscarriages of Justice

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(Re this and this.)

Here’s another case that deserves renewed scrutiny.

Frank Fuster is still in prison despite numerous holes in the case against him, and despite the fact that the “investigative” techniques used to elicit the testimony of young children that convicted him have been discredited. Unfortunately, Fuster is a creepy guy without many friends, so it seems unlikely that any Florida governor will consider reexamining his case, much less pardoning him or commuting his sentence.

The Fuster case reminds me of Bill Weld and the Amiraults. What’s the point of giving executive-branch officials the pardon power if they won’t use it for unpopular defendants? Isn’t that one of the main justifications for the pardon power — that it’s a remedy for miscarriages of justice committed against unpopular defendants such as accused child molesters?

Imagine Insanity

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In reading Ginny’s post below as well as the posts and comments of the sites she links to, I note a strong presumption among most that in the case of mental illness we should err on the side of under-treating rather than risk over-treating someone. Dr. Jonathan Kellerman makes this observation:

Talk to anyone who’s tried to commit a dangerously violent child or parent for even a few days: A stranger with a law degree will show up at the hearing and paint you as a fascist. So it’s far too much to expect anything resembling a decisive approach to those whose level of threat remains at the verbal level.

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