Daily Ramblings:
The Lonesome Death Of ... 03/30/2005
08:08:02 pm
Yeah, there's a Dylan reference here, albeit a
tenuous one. Nat Hentoff, who did that interview with Dylan way back
in the 60s, and has written on other occasions about
him (and is rather far from being "right
wing") wrote a column for the Village Voice on
the subject of Terri Schiavo. The sub-heading is
"her crime was being disabled, voiceless, and at
the disposal of our media." It makes a good
recap of some of the facts of the case, as well as a
good review of outrage. Some excerpts:
For all the world to see, a
41-year-old woman, who has committed no crime,
will die of dehydration and starvation in the
longest public execution in American history.
...
Among many other violations of her due process
rights, Terri Schiavo has never been allowed by
the primary judge in her case—Florida
Circuit Judge George Greer, whose conclusions
have been robotically upheld by all the courts
above him—to have her own lawyer represent
her.
Greer has declared Terri
Schiavo to be in a persistent vegetative state,
but he has never gone to see her. His eyesight is
very poor, but surely he could have visited her
along with another member of his staff. Unlike
people in a persistent vegetative state, Terri
Schiavo is indeed responsive beyond mere
reflexes.
While lawyers and judges have
engaged in a minuet of death, the American Civil
Liberties Union, which would be passionately
criticizing state court decisions and demanding
due process if Terri were a convict on death row,
has shamefully served as co-counsel for her
husband, Michael Schiavo, in his insistent desire
to have her die.
...
Do you know that nearly every major disability
rights organization in the country has filed a
legal brief in support of Terri's right to live?
...
As an atheist, I cannot speak to what he {Michael
Schiavo - ed.} describes as his abandoned wife's
ultimate destination, but I can tell how Wesley
Smith (consultant to the Center for Bioethics and
Culture)—whom I often consult on these
bitterly controversial cases because of his
carefully researched books and
articles—describes death by dehydration.
In his book Forced Exit
(Times Books), Wesley quotes neurologist William
Burke: "A conscious person would feel it
[dehydration] just as you and I would. . . .
Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their
lips crack. They may have nosebleeds because of
the drying of the mucous membranes, and heaving
and vomiting might ensue because of the drying
out of the stomach lining.
"They feel the pangs of
hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without
a glass of water! . . . It is an extremely
agonizing death."
...
And keep in mind from the Ralph
Nader-Wesley Smith report: "The courts . . .
have [also] ordered that no attempts be made to
provide her water or food by mouth. Terri
swallows her own saliva. Spoon feeding is not
medical treatment. This outrageous order proves
that the courts are not merely permitting medical
treatment to be withheld, they have ordered her
to be made dead."
I can understand differences of opinion on this
subject. The arguments will go around and around. For
me it's always come down to the fact that food and
water are not extraordinary means of keeping someone
alive, and where they are all that is required, they
should not be denied. It surprised me personally to
discover that this would even be considered. It would
not be an acceptable way of executing a mass
murderer. It would not be something that you'd do to
your pet. It is said by some that Terri Schiavo is a
vegetable. Well, it's not even something one would do
to a potted plant in an office. If it's looking dried
up, someone will give it water. The chief risk is
that too many people will water it. Not a risk in
Terri's case, thanks to the police in place to defend
the judge's order.
Iowahawk's contribution to this debate was a list
of various vegetable, fruit and nut plants which are
specifically protected by Federal law: Some Vegetables Are More Equal Than
Others. Tasteless? Sure. But a lot less so than
the headline in the New York Post today, echoing so
many others, saying, "Let Her Die In Peace And With Dignity."
Now, again, it is time to step
back and let Terri Schiavo die.
She deserves at least that
much.
God rest her soul.
Well, no, I disagree that she deserves this ...
"dignified" death. I have not been apprised
of the crime which she committed to warrant a denial
of food and water. In fact, I've never heard of a
crime where such a punishment is the result. Even
Zarqawi in Iraq beheads his victims in an ordeal that
lasts minutes - not weeks.
I wasn't going to write anything more about this
case on my little site, but today it occurred to me:
if she can hold out for 12 days - and counting - with
no water, I can at least type a little bit and add to
the cacophony.
Oh, but you who philosophize
disgrace and criticize all fears,
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now's the time for your tears.
Not Dark Yet ...03/25/2005
05:30:14 pm
I haven't posted a thing on Terri Schiavo, because
obviously there's no shortage of people out there
writing very well on her situation. I've read Michelle
Malkin a lot, and followed her links to other
sources. She has a good post today on this whole
subject of living wills. I myself noticed today while
fishing around on Google that the standard form of
many of these wills - as here - assumes you want to
refuse just about everything:
I do not want
cardiac resuscitation.
I do not want
mechanical respiration.
I do not want
tube feeding.
I do not want
antibiotics.
I do want
maximum pain relief.
Do give it a good glance before signing ....
May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
Only A Pawn ...03/25/2005
11:02:28 am
It goes to "state of mind," your
honor. The day after the November 2nd, 2004 U.S.
election, CityPages.com published an article by Greil Marcus
that had nothing to do with music (thanks to Rich for
the tip). It was his fantasy obituary for George W.
Bush, dated "October 5th, 2018," and it has
to be read to be believed. He looks back on Bush's
second term and details accomplishments including
"the dismantling of Social Security and
Medicare," the effective abolition of free
speech in America, and a war conducted by hired
private contractors (U.S. forces being hopelessly
tied down in Iraq) on both Iran and North Korea. The
end result is a global mess that sees the deaths of
12 million people and "the displacement of
millions more."
The constitution is changed by 2008 to allow Bush
to run for a third term - but he is instead soundly
beaten by Bill Clinton. The post-presidential Dubya
is rumored to have begun drinking again. His
daughters Barbara and Jenna are killed in a drunk
driving accident that also causes the deaths of seven
others. Laura Bush dies of Parkinson's disease.
On the plus side (at least for conservatively
inclined readers), the Democratic Party has been so
marginalized that it has "ceased to function in
many states," and the Weekly
Standard is now a daily!
By all means read it all. I leave it to you
then to speculate whether Marcus initially decided to
speak about Masters Of War at Columbia and
then just couldn't help himself from sniping at Bush
... or whether he decided to snipe at Bush and
figured Masters Of War was as good an
entrée as any.
Look My Way An' Pump Me A Few ...03/23/2005
10:08:17 pm
An Evening Of Talk On Bob Dylan;
March 21st, 2005, Miller Theater (Columbia
University, New York City), 8 pm.
Not quite three angels, but three angles on
Dylan were offered for the pleasure of the attending
public the other night at Columbia University ... (click
here to read full item)
Breaking News ...03/22/2005 08:12:19 am
New York, NY - Last night in the
Miller Theater at Columbia University, at an event
titled "An Evening Of Talk On Bob Dylan,"
one of rock's most fawned-over critics, Greil Marcus,
received the rhetorical equivalent of a body-slam
from Boston University Professor Christopher Ricks.
It was beautiful to watch, and your scribe, Right
Wing Bob, was present both bodily and
spiritually to see it all.
And if he can make anything at all of his notes, a
full report will be delivered later today when time
permits. Don't go anywhere!
Addendum: Been a busy day
trying to earn eatin' and drinkin' money, and this
report on the talk is proving lengthy - I still want
to have it done before tomorrow but you never know.
Apologies to all those who've been clicking
"refresh" all day. (Take it easy on my
bandwidth, will ya?)
There Was This Movie I Seen One Time
...03/20/2005
06:27:04 pm
I admire a nicely phrased understatement, and this
is one:
It is traditional in films spanning a
lifetime for characters to be played by more than
one actor, but rare for them to change sex or
race.
The story is in reference to the
potential film by director Todd Haynes on Bob Dylan,
titled at this point: "I'm Not
There: Suppositions On A Film Concerning Dylan."
According to the same press report, in an effort to
portray Dylan's inner blackness:
Haynes is considering female actors,
including the pop singer Beyonce Knowles, the
tennis champion Venus Williams and the television
presenter Oprah Winfrey.
Indeed.
According to ContactMusic.com, Haynes is
casting six men and one woman to play Dylan at
different stages, and all of them will be black. How
are the suits reacting to the storyboards so far?
... PARAMOUNT movie bosses are said to be
wary. An executive says, "Dylan has always
acknowledged his debt to blues and gospel, but
critics may say there are other ways of
celebrating the African-American musical
heritage."
Now, Right Wing Bob is
willing to go a long way in allowing that many
different perspectives are worthwhile on Dylan's body
of work. What Todd Haynes regards as Dylan's
"inner blackness" is an avenue worth
exploring. But, c'mon Mr. Haynes ... if you're going
to do this ... at least give the job to an actual
black actress, who needs a job, and not to some
farcical super-celebrity like Oprah Winfrey.
I presume that he's just trying to gain publicity
for a project that must be pretty darned difficult to
finance, but, geez ...!
And there's really nothin' anyone
can say
As I Went Out One Morning ...03/19/2005
05:05:08 pm
Finding himself in New York's Central Park today,
your host RWB encountered
some people on their way to or from a protest against
the war in Iraq. Thinking that they must be pretty
down-in-the-mouth about now at finding themselves
stuck on the wrong side of history, reason,
timeliness, democracy and their own erstwhile liberal
ideals, RWB was sorely
tempted to buck them up a bit by shouting "Free
Saddam Hussein!" or "Death to
America!" But good conservative restraint won
the day.
I trust that after their outdoor wallowing and
rollicking, many of them will repair to their abodes,
sign in to their internet provider of choice, read
Victor Hanson's most recent column on the
absurdity (and genuine wickedness) of making
comparisons between George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler,
and realize with a start the error of their ways.
At first glance, all this wild
rhetoric is preposterous. Hitler hijacked an
elected government and turned it into a fascist
tyranny. He destroyed European democracy. His
minions persecuted Christians, gassed over six
million Jews, and created an entire fascistic
creed predicated on anti-Semitism and the myth of
a superior Aryan race.
Whatever one thinks of
Bush’s Iraqi campaign, the president
obtained congressional approval to invade and
pledged $87 billion to rebuild the country. He
freely weathered mass street demonstrations and a
hostile global media, successfully defended his
Afghan and Iraq reconstructions through a
grueling campaign and three presidential debates,
and won a national plebiscite on his tenure.
In a world that is almost
uniformly opposed to the democratic Jewish state,
Israel has no better friend than Bush, who in
turn is a believer in, not a tormentor of,
Christianity. Afghanistan and Iraq, with 50
million freed, have elected governments, not
American proconsuls, and there is a movement in
the Middle East toward greater democratization
— with no guarantee that such elected
governments will not be anti-American. No
president has been more adamantly against
cloning, euthanasia, abortion, or anything that
smacks of the use of science to predetermine
super-genes or to do away with the elderly,
feeble, or unborn.
So what gives with this crazy
popular analogy — one that on a typical
Internet Google search of “Bush” +
“Hitler” yields about 1,350,000
matches?
One explanation is simply the
ignorance of the icons of our popular culture. A
Linda Ronstadt, Garrison Keillor, or Harold
Pinter knows nothing much of the encompassing
evil of Hitler’s regime, its execution of
the mentally ill and disabled, the systematic
cleansing of the non-Aryans from Europe, or mass
executions and starvation of Soviet prisoners.
Like Prince Harry parading around in his
ridiculous Nazi costume, quarter-educated
celebrities who have some talent for song or
verse know only that name-dropping
“Hitler” or his associates gets them
some shock value that their pedestrian rants
otherwise would not warrant.
Worth reading in its entirety, even if you're really
tired from all the protesty stuff.
The Loser Now ...03/19/2005
10:40:15 am
No, Dylan didn't win the National Book Critics
Circle Award for best Biography/Autobiography. It went to
Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan for De Kooning:
An American Master.
Well, world, just watch out for Volume II.
Chew Ain't Goin'
Nowhere ...03/16/2005
06:03:12 pm
Dateline: March 11th 2003
... Councillor
Call For Chewing Gum Ban
Responding to a proposal
by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council that
additional taxes be imposed on chewing gum,
Fianna Fáil Cllr Geoff Power called on Minister
Cullen to go one step further.
'I welcome the proposal for extra tax
but I think we should go a step further and see
if we could ban the stuff completely. It is
scandalous, our country is destroyed with it,'
he said.
Cllr Power, who lives in the fishing village of
Dunmore East, said the disposal of chewing gum is
a national problem.
Dateline: July 15th 2003 ... Litter
Levies Planned In Clean-Up Bid
A new tax on chewing
gum, polystyrene food wrappers and cash machine
receipts is to be introduced in a bid to crack
down on litter louts, it was confirmed today.
The new levy follows on from the successful
plastic bag tax which has dramatically
cut the number of carrier bags littering the
streets in the past18 months.
...
Mr Cullen said the chewing gum tax - expected to
add 5 to 10 cent to the price of a packet - will
help fund special gum-buster machines.
...
Another levy on polystyrene food wrapping will be
introduced in a bid to make fast food chains
switch to recyclable packaging.
A spokesman for the minister also confirmed that
a tax would be introduced on ATM receipts, but
said there were no details on the levy yet.
Dateline: March 16th 2005
... No
Consumer Tax On Chewing Gum: Roche
The Environment
Minister, Dick Roche, has confirmed that he will
not be introducing a tax on chewing gum or ATM
receipts.
Instead Mr Roche has decided to give the industry
an opportunity to propose a means of dealing with
the problem.
Mr Roche is to start negotiating with sectors
producing what is termed 'nuisance litter' in
order to minimise the waste problem they create.
Anti-litter groups and the Opposition have
criticised the decision.
Labour's Eamon Gilmore has accused Mr Roche of
caving in to commercial interests.
Mr Gilmore claims the decision not to introduce
the chewing gum tax was as a result of direct and
indirect lobbying conducted by the large chewing
gum manufacturers.
Mr Gilmore said that by merely making the firms
pay levies to local authorities, Mr Roche was
ignoring the recommendations of independent
consultants and allowing manufacturers to avoid
facing up to the reality of the litter problem
their products create.
Happy St. Patrick's Day from
Right Wing Bob (and
especially to the fat-cats of "Big Gum." A
bullet dodged, but your time will come, boys, your
time will come).
So I forced my hands in my pockets
And felt with my thumbs,
And gallantly handed her
My very last piece of gum.
Original text copyright ©
2005 by RightWingBob.com
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