The Schiavo Case

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This is a terrible situation that cannot end well. The short version: woman in long-term coma, husband wants to starve her to death, parents want to keep her alive, judge invests the comatose woman with imaginary death-wish, legislature steps in to keep her alive. Much obfuscatory verbiage has been spread about the case, especially by people wielding the non sequitur “right to die” as though it were a mantra. Moira Breen cuts through the bullshit, here and here and includes many informative links. One of the best links is to an extremely thoughtful analysis by Peter Sean Bradley (scroll down to his top post for October 27 if the wretched Blogspot permalink doesn’t work).

UPDATE: Moira links to another informative post, this one by Carl Zimmer.

Technology? Glamour? — Blogging!

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She's got our number!

In the city of the future, life’s necessities will be at our fingertips. . .

(Maybe that button should really be labeled: “Pizza”)

I apologize. I had intended to blog about:

-The moral hazard created by government payments to California fire victims, who are thereby encouraged to rebuild their homes in vulnerable areas.

-Or about DARPA, which, despite my carping, does a lot of useful research and has a fascinating website (via Kaedrin) that Lex is on my case to write something about.

-Or about George Bush’s possible coming dilemma: if the economy continues to improve, and the Fed resumes juicing the money supply, and Treasury keeps talking down the dollar, and gold prices keep creeping up, there could start to be a lot of inflation worries — and pressure for Fed tightening — just as the 2004 political season gets into high gear and the President is most vulnerable.

(Does anyone know of a 12-step program for photoshopaholics?)

Churchill quote, etc.

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I am still in a the mood to suggest books. Having read Roy Jenkins’ biography of Winston Churchill last year, I have gone a bit of a Churchill jag. I bought a bunch of his books, and have been picking around in them. One thing I’ve noticed is that you can drop some serious coin buying his out of print books. He is one of the greatest writers I have ever encountered, and there is almost literally not a single page that doesn’t have something good in it. One I picked up is the seven volumes of his collected war speeches, which is simply awesome. If you already have a basic familiarity with World War II, you will find many good things in there. In particular, Churchill’s reports to the House of Commons on the status of the war are tremendous — Lengthy, detailed, blunt about setbacks and disasters, respectful of his audience. We have no equivalent in the United States. One small item I found this evening, just flipping around was entitled “A speech to American troops during a visit to a southern army camp in the United States, June, 1942” and reads in its entirety thus:

I am enormously impressed by the thoroughness and precision with which the formation of the great war-time army of the United States is proceeding. The day will come when the British and American armies will march into countries, not as invaders, but as liberators, helping the people there who have been under the barbarian yoke. That day may seem long to those whose period of training spreads across the weeks and months. But when it comes, it will make amends for all the toil and discipline that has been undergone. Also, it will open the world to larger freedom and to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as the grand words of your Declaration of Independence put it.

This passage reminds me of Iraq, for obvious reasons. Even in the very dark times of the early months of World War II Churchill was already looking at the Anglospheric armies as liberators.

Fortunately, instead of having to throw together an enormous army on the fly, as we were doing in 1942, for Iraq we were able to employ a very powerful military already in existence. Money well frigging spent. We went into Iraq with the best military equipment the world has ever seen. We went into World War II with a tank, the Sherman, which was basically a rolling coffin when it encountered the high-velocity guns on the German tanks. (See Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II.) Never again.