Technically, euthanasia is not legal. Assisted suicide is. A doctor can prescribe a “lethal medication” for a patient to self-administer, but cannot administer it himself.
Yeah, “lethal medication” is an oxymoron. And “assisted suicide” is likely a way station, and with the frail and elderly we may say it often amounts to the same thing.
What would be the point? To me it sounds like a difference of terminology. In both cases the end result in the same: the patient is deceased as a result of some action of medical personnel. (I assume we are not talking about stuff like DNR orders or ceasing treatments.
To kill people against their will. To render people fully replaceable parts of the machine of state. Many of the movement's leaders are obsessed with death or eliminating the disabled.
Kevorkian wanted to do vivisection, Derek Humphrey murdered his first wife, etc.
I don’t know. If all we are is chains of protein (maybe this is what Alice was getting at when he wrote, “they all look like humans at Kresge’s and Woolworth’s”) and we are not bound by any higher “standards” than pleasure and convenience, then why not encourage the elderly and infirm to bump themselves off (it’s already happening, unofficially at least, in Canada) and allow the rest of us protein chains to absorb their protein? Kill two birds with one stone! It’s not happening yet, but given the premises on which our society now operates, it would not be an illogical development.
Maybe not illogical. but counter to strong (to say the least) emotional factors, the same feelings which horrify people when the subject is eating dogs, cats or horses. We humans are anything but purely logical.
Now you are saying something more substantive. Our bodies are chains of protein. Our natural instincts are selfish. But if "God breathed into man's nostrils and he became a living soul" then our proteins is not ALL we are. On the other hand, our earthly lifespan relies on those proteins and the complex chemical reactions that sustain us. Perhaps its not so bad to say, this bag of biochemical reactions has sustained me as long as it can, I need to move on. As for one protein chain absorbing another... most humans for most of human history have done that, only not within our own species. A few cultures have developed a taste for "long pig," generally in isolated contexts where protein is in short supply.
The British people made an epically terrible choice in electing Labor, and hence elevating Starmer to PM. This travesty is only the most recent violation of Christian ethics (the degree of censorship and bowing to Islamists among others) that Starmer's gov't has advanced.
But as per yesterday's post about Romney and Brooks, I suspect they would both endorse Starmer as a hearty respecter of the "rules based international order" and protector of "institutions".
Bah! Institutions this corrupt, and that violate the fundamental citizen/gov't compact don't deserve protecting. Trump and MAGA understand that and are working to restore us to the founders visions, eradicating the rampant lawfare, use of gov't for censorship and to harass citizens. Harris would have given us more DEI, more pushing transgenderism, more gov't programs to punish "misinformation", more medical tyranny like Fauci-ism, not to mention more war and sinking our economy.
Romney lost because, like Hillary, he did not really love America and Americans, but thought he would be "good for us". No thanks.
We should pray for our UK brethren. The Tories have a promising new leader--Kemi Badenoch who would be far superior to what Britain is suffering through now.
Institutionalism is a kind of conservatism, a brain dead kind.You have these institutions that are lead by people who have been discrediting them for years and may in fact be acting in a manner which is counter to your interests but you’re supposed to be loyal to and respectful of them because they are the institutions you are to respect and be loyal to even as they destroy the framework of society. For example , you’re supposed to trust various layers of government as they implement all sorts of policies that seem designed to destroy civilization because trust in institutions is good.Roughly this is what you hear from much of the mainstream.
Yes, we are in a repudiation of the administrative state, which answers to no one. That is how we got CV creation (Fauci) and destructive response, from which we haven't fully recovered. Who elected these people? Why can't they be fired like the rest of us? Why do they make on average 1/3 more in wage and benefits than the taxpayers? Trump has his work cut out for him.
So the famous lines about the danger of mowing down the laws to get at the Devil (from "A Man For All Seasons") is brain dead? It's OK to destroy a village in order to save it?
SCOTUS said they (unelected bureaucrats) don't have the power, only Congress. (Aside: Congress has been quite derelict in their legislative duties, just keeps passing continuing resolutions for the budgets for example).
Having to break up response, the substack programming is freezing, so read comments in reverse order, starting with last and reading back up instead of down:
SCOTUS case: Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo
Redemsever-followed by-ventilator (ordered by Fauci) killed almost every patient that was subjected to this protocol. (Finally, the doctors revolted, under threat to their medical licenses and started serretiptiously prescribing ivermectin, etc, and stopping with the ventilators-after-redesirvir routine). Fauci is Exhibit A in how the Administrative State can turn murderous and dictatorial.
On Congress, they've given away their power because it keeps them from being accountable for bad or unpopular policies, which could lose them their seat. They've given that power to the administrative state because it keeps the Congressional members and bureaucrats alike happy - to heck with the average Joes.
Romney lost because he could not put forth a good reason for himself to replace Obama. Pretty much the same reason Bob Dole, another basically decent guy "in suo anno" candidate, lost to incumbent Clinton in 1996.
The economy was quite good in 1996. Dole never had a chance. A Buchanan-Clinton race would have been more interesting but Buchanan would have lost by more than Dole. Obama's economy was mediocre but good enough.
Its said that Britain doesn't have a Labor Party, only Tories and liberals waving pink banners. Trump doesn't understand jack, except "I am the ruler of all I survey" for its own sake. All ego, no principal. Trump's voters are all over the map in what they understand, but they're not going to get much of what they hoped for. Harris has her own ego to feed, and yup, she would have given us more culture war fetishes.
Re: The British people made an epically terrible choice in electing Labor, and hence elevating Starmer to PM.
The Tories needed to lose, just as the GOP here needed to lose in 2008. Political parties must not be rewarded for incompetence or worse. They need their time in the wilderness.
And this specific euthanasia law had both bipartisan support, and bipartisan opposition.
You're right. In a democracy, a ruling party tends to decompose and fossilize when they are in office too long. Think of the Reagan presidencies. The Reagan Administration of 1981 was vigorous with ideas- not all wise, of course-and they had the heroics of the wounded Reagan to galvanize his program. By 1988 Reagan was an almost Lear-like figure and his government was drifting into intellectual sterility.
Somebody saw "The Shape of Water" too many times (which is another way to say that they saw it once) and decided to live the dream while getting a writing credential in the "publish or perish" world of modern academia. Xirl Science* for the win!
To be fair, though, I think that one could be taken as following a rather traditional fairy tale trope. I just don't wanna get into a corner where we find ourselves suggesting that *Beauty and the Beast* promotes bestiality.
The brine shrimp ceremony is invalid because there was no land acknowledgment, you know, no mention of the Proterozoic slime that once thrived in the Great Salt Lake. Damn colonists.
"Peer review" also doesn't mean much once you realize that these people's peers are, well, others just like them. The structure of the whole system resembles a cartel.
That's definitely one I skipped as soon as I read a review. The "scientific" article Rod posted should have been a parody... the sad thing is, it wasn't.
Tragic about the euthanasia decision in the UK, though not surprising. I’m ashamed to say that a younger (alas, libertarian) version of myself once more or less endorsed elective euthanasia, not so much as something I approved of, but as something for which I didn’t feel that I had the right to speak against others who wished to off themselves.
I would now say that my younger self was a fool, and wonder how I could have been seduced by such a morally unserious position.
As to the sea monkey sex magic…wow. It would be funny but for the fact that these “academics” are probably attracting demons. I take that back, it’s still funny.
Libertarians make the mistake of not seeing government force as lying along a continuum. It is the bully pulpit as well as the billy club that government has at its disposal. As the loudest voice in any society, what the government says is ok often becomes what your neighbors think you ought to do. After a while, it takes real integrity and courage to resist what your neighbors are telling you, especially when they can cite the government.
Government may not outlaw something outright or require something, but it can make it rather costly to act against what the government claims as public values.
The Sea-Monkey article makes a lot more sense if you translate it from scientific language to religious language:
We center our efforts to re-enchant the Great Salt Lake on the brine shrimp. We perceive the brine shrimp as a lesser deity tough yet vulnerable, sexualized, and blurring the categories of human/nonhuman and male/female. We designed and performed a wedding ritual including vows to the brine shrimp and a bathing ritual we perceive as ritual sexuality with the lake. Future work should explore divorce and making sacrifices to the brine shrimp.
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
“Once you enter the euthanasia highway, there are no brakes.” Can’t remember who said it.
Canada is the great case study. They initially framed a very narrow law, I believe it was 2016, but immediately “patient rights groups” attacked the limitations as “discriminatory”, and one limitation after another fell. In swift order.
As for the Brine-Shrimp Wedding, the phrase “peer-reviewed” makes me think of David Brooks yesterday excoriating those who dare question our institutions.
“Your institutions are staffed by people who marry shrimp, David.”
Yes, in Canada that’s exactly how it’s been going. The moral and metaphysical universe of most of us is that of Rex Mottram, so we behave “as the wind behaves, no nearer”.
You nailed it as usual on the euthanasia issue, Rod. The Culture of Death continues its advance through the decadent and dying West. Your Deuteronomy citation is one of my favorites in the entire Bible and speaks precisely to where we are...and where we're heading. The tweets by Colin Wright and Rikki Schlott accentuate the point.
Re Father Martins, I've been trying to follow the situation but there's not a lot of press on it. I'm wondering about the status of the police investigation and also note that his order's temporary suspension of Father's ministry apparently continues in place.
Of course the incident in question is not as simple as Father affectionately touching the girl's head as with the Pope's innocent gesture in that picture. In fact, Father lifted a lock of hair from her shoulder and mused about flossing her teeth with it. That's on the weird side, and that's apparently what triggered her Dad and got Father in trouble. Most unfortunate but entirely avoidable.
My wife and I run a Junior Legion of Mary at a nearby Catholic elementary and middle school. There are around a dozen members of ages ranging from 7 to 12. As a grown man in today's climate, I'm very cautious about physical expressions of affection for any of them. Never in a million years could I imagine enacting a scene of the sort involving Father. That's asking for trouble.
Anne, I never said and don't believe it should end his ministry...providing that the story we've heard is the whole one and that no other "faux pases" come to light. (Indulge me while I butcher the French language.)
What I did say is that the behavior as reported was weird...and dumb. I stand by that. Sorry, but after decades worth of scandals, my cynicism level is high and tolerance level is low.
Based strictly on the story as we have it, I tend to agree with you.
However, what we don't know is whether there's more to the story than has been told. We don't know the additional facts that the parish referenced but did not delineate. We don't know what the girl told her father. We don't know but might surmise that the girl was in fact upset...though Father's lawyer said she laughed at the scene. Well yeah. That's what a kid might well do.
All that aside, we do know one important thing: the behavior in question was weird...and dumb.
I mean, I guess I sorta get it but when I was in grammar school, I got my hands smacked with a ruler and when I was in high school, I get my ass smacked with a paddle.
He doesn't need a license -- licensing ministers would be an Establishment of Religion. Whether it ends his ministry is a crowd-sourcing question -- its up to those who might come to his ministry for help, or not.
I am alarmed by the euthanasia movement. My husband is seriously disabled from a stroke. We’re senior citizens. It starts out as allowing the suffering terminally ill to kill themselves. Then it’s encouraged and for the disabled & elderly who are not terminally ill. 40% of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands are without the patient’s consent. Eventually we’ll be told it’s our duty to die & stop being useless eaters. The Paralympic athlete in Canada who’d won a number of medals, confined to a wheelchair. She asked for a stairlift. They said how about killing yourself instead.
The brine shrimp thing. What.The.Hell did I just watch?
As to Fr. Carlos he used bad judgment but meant no harm. But when I was a middle school girl, I would have been creeped out by an adult man touching my hair. Don’t touch people without their permission.
He made a human mistake, which was minor. Who hasn't done something similar in their lifetime? I hope this blows over and he is restored to his vital ministry. We need him and are grateful for his service to the Lord and us.
I have googled about it. I find general arguments about the morality of euthanasia in general and complaints that the practice of it in Holland exceeds the boundaries of what is legally permitted and certainly exceeds what the law originally intended to permit. That is definitely how it has played out in Canada.
I have not, however, found allegations that Dutch people are being euthanized without their consent. You stated that that happens 40% of the time. A claim that specific should have a source. What is that source?
I am trying to ascertain if that is, in fact, true. Hence I asked for a source of this purported info about what is happening in Holland. I asked where the 40% number came from. Do you have a good source about how the Dutch law is working in practice?
I've read about it here and there, but I don't have any links at hand. If I have some time I'll google for some. (NB: You can also use google yourself if you have time.)
Which brings us back to the question, is this accurate and what is the source. To which I would add, what is actually being done to produce that number if it is accurate? On all kinds of issues, including racial disparities in this and that, I want to know, but what mechanism is at work? Are doctors injecting patients with fatal doses without consent? Are adult children signing off on death for their parents without consent? Are patients who are way past having any cognitive function being injected even though they cannot give consent? What is actually happening is important -- just as it is important whether "black" children are doing poorly in school because their parents didn't feed them properly in the first two years, or whether teachers are openly disparaging children of a darker brown complexion as not worth their time.
I've read about it here and there, but I don't have any links at hand. If I have some time I'll google for some. (NB: You can also use google yourself if you have time.)
If you want to make an argument, its your job to provide the substance. Its not my job to do your research for you. I have all kinds of projects to read up on. Incidentally, Google doesn't verify jack -- it might, if you're lucky lead you to a reliable source amidst all the garbage. If its in Google Books, at least there is something to verify.
Well, I didn't make the 40% claim, and if you're *really* that interested in finding out you wouldn't wait for me to have time to google some articles for you. But it's the 1st intermission in the Carolina Hurricanes-Florida Panthers game, so I did a quick Google. You can decide if these are reliable sources. I will note that some of these may be dated.
That's just from a half-assed search while I'm paying more attention to the intermission report. You can probably do better. I think it's clear that my statement, that the wording of the law doesn't actually matter, holds up. YMMV.
Rod, delighted to hear you're taking a little time off. I doubt your long-term subscribers actually count the number of posts you write. Most of us just enjoy reading them.
It's good to step back and refresh ourselves from time to time. May you be blessed and refreshed!
I second that, Karen. Rod is the “ Donald Trump” of writing. I don’t know how Rod has the energy to write his five a week Substack posts. I have thought Rod needs to slow down; but now I understand that he thrives reading and writing. His energy for this seems preternatural.
Tangentially related to the Fr Martins case, I believe we're heading towards a society that is "touch-phobic" towards any signs of endearment.
One of the things that surprised me when I visited Colombia is how huggy and warm they were. Now I know people are thinking, "check to make sure they didn't steal your wallet!" Don't worry, I wasn't stolen from. But still, my experience there made me realize just how cold and unfriendly our WASP culture really is.
Maybe this is just the end result of a society saturated with too much online stuff.
On the north side of Milwaukee, people still exchange a lot of hugs, and not only in church. It think the "don't touch ever" is more of a "white" thing.
It might be a ‘big city’ cultural thing too. In my circles, I’ve come to accept that some people are huggers and some are not. My family isn’t super affectionate, so I found the hugging a bit strange for a while. Now I hug people if I think they are receptive to it.
It can go either way with Midwesterners. I live in a regional city, not one of our major metropolitan areas like Chicago or NYC, which is more friendly. People in bigger cities just seem frostier than in cities like mine. And I’m sure we Midwesterners seem pretty frosty compared to our Southern friends.
Or it could be an ‘in group - out group’ thing. And Father definitely wasn’t a part of the in-group.
I've been reading this with my morning coffee and don't want to ruin my day. That being said, here is a serious take on what's wrong with scientific academia (with a focus on physics). It's from the every sardonic Sabina. As she would no doubt say about the sea monkey business "it's yet more bullshit that people do to get grant money, rather than do real work." In terms of living not by lies, I think Sabina would agree. The title of this video is "Science is Failing."
Assisted homicide is a slippery slope. In 2018, my mother had two strokes and I often visited her in a convalescent facility. Mom was one of the healthier ones in the facility and she was released after about two months. Many of the patients were in their nineties and sat in their wheelchairs incognizant of their surroundings. Will these sorts of people be killed off at the request of their spouse or their children? They are an expense to both the families and the government. Their lives are "not worthwhile." And what of inheritances? Let's say a 95 year old woman is worth $5 million, stuck in a wheelchair or a bed and not living a life "worthwhile." Is it not financially advantageous for the children to have their mother's life snuffed out?
234 of the 402 Labour Members of Parliament voted for legalized homicide, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer. His predecessor as Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, was one of the 23 Tories who voted for legalized homicide. Ninety-eight Tories voted against legalized homicide, including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Health Secretary Wes Streeting voted against legalized homicide.
It is a slippery slope, but when someone has lost all cognitive function or ability to so much as enjoy a meal, play a card game, when they just sit their incognizant of their surroundings, I think the first natural cause that comes along should go untreated. No ambulance rushing them to the hospital, no central line, no surgery, etc. Let nature take its course. We don't have to actually inject poison, but don't prolong life at that point. This is what I would want for myself.
In Ye Olden Times it might be said of someone who was growing frail and who had lost all their friends and loved ones would "Turn their face to wall until they died".
100 years ago pneumonia was considered the old person’s friend-a fairly quick death that delivered a person from the long-term illness (cancer, heart disease) they were living with. Nowadays we cure pneumonia quickly with an antibiotic so people survive to suffer through the horrors of much worse disease, not to mention dementia. As modern people we need to wrap our minds around the idea that lack of treatment is not evil; sometimes it’s a kindness.
This is a good point. I think part of the problem is that medical science has advanced too much. Or maybe that it keeps people alive, but doesn't do enough to improve health?
I get my students to make presentations about controversial issues, and the other week it was about euthanasia. I was surprised that Japanese young people are nearly all against euthanasia, whereas in England most people I know seem to be in favour. None of the class identified as religious, when I asked (admittedly, definitions of "religion," "atheism,", etc., don't map exactly from English to Japanese.
The one foreigner in the class, Indonesian, commented that the healthcare system in Indonesia is so bad that people tend to just die if they're not healthy, and the euthanasia issue doesn't arise.
Some of those people are there, in convalescent facilities, because their children and family don't want to care for them. Full stop. They don't have the time and don't want to expend the effort or, I think in many fewer cases, really can't manage because of health issues, etc.
It's difficult but not impossible, in most cases, and sacrifices may be required. Nobody wants to sacrifice anymore.
Also, some of those patients sitting in their wheelchairs "incognizant of their surroundings" may be so because the facility might be using pharmacological intervention to keep the patients from making too many demands or otherwise causing 'problems'.
"We will sooner or late face the euthanasia question in the United States."
Alas euthanasia is already legal in 9 US states and Washington DC.
Technically, euthanasia is not legal. Assisted suicide is. A doctor can prescribe a “lethal medication” for a patient to self-administer, but cannot administer it himself.
Yeah, “lethal medication” is an oxymoron. And “assisted suicide” is likely a way station, and with the frail and elderly we may say it often amounts to the same thing.
I see no reason we would need or want to go beyond "assisted suicide". It generally works.
All of the backers of it do...
What would be the point? To me it sounds like a difference of terminology. In both cases the end result in the same: the patient is deceased as a result of some action of medical personnel. (I assume we are not talking about stuff like DNR orders or ceasing treatments.
Spiritual downward spiral. All they wanted was gay marriage...abortion to be safe, legal and rare. Sin never stays in boundaries.
To kill people against their will. To render people fully replaceable parts of the machine of state. Many of the movement's leaders are obsessed with death or eliminating the disabled.
Kevorkian wanted to do vivisection, Derek Humphrey murdered his first wife, etc.
Hitler wanted only Czechoslovakia.
The Sudetenland, actually, but you're spot on in your larger point.
Soylent Green, here we come!
So the penalty for committing suicide is that more pious people eat your remains? That doesn't necessarily follow.
I don’t know. If all we are is chains of protein (maybe this is what Alice was getting at when he wrote, “they all look like humans at Kresge’s and Woolworth’s”) and we are not bound by any higher “standards” than pleasure and convenience, then why not encourage the elderly and infirm to bump themselves off (it’s already happening, unofficially at least, in Canada) and allow the rest of us protein chains to absorb their protein? Kill two birds with one stone! It’s not happening yet, but given the premises on which our society now operates, it would not be an illogical development.
Maybe not illogical. but counter to strong (to say the least) emotional factors, the same feelings which horrify people when the subject is eating dogs, cats or horses. We humans are anything but purely logical.
Now you are saying something more substantive. Our bodies are chains of protein. Our natural instincts are selfish. But if "God breathed into man's nostrils and he became a living soul" then our proteins is not ALL we are. On the other hand, our earthly lifespan relies on those proteins and the complex chemical reactions that sustain us. Perhaps its not so bad to say, this bag of biochemical reactions has sustained me as long as it can, I need to move on. As for one protein chain absorbing another... most humans for most of human history have done that, only not within our own species. A few cultures have developed a taste for "long pig," generally in isolated contexts where protein is in short supply.
Please tell me you don't think a person has a God given right to commit suicide.
That reminds me. I'm hungry.
The British people made an epically terrible choice in electing Labor, and hence elevating Starmer to PM. This travesty is only the most recent violation of Christian ethics (the degree of censorship and bowing to Islamists among others) that Starmer's gov't has advanced.
But as per yesterday's post about Romney and Brooks, I suspect they would both endorse Starmer as a hearty respecter of the "rules based international order" and protector of "institutions".
Bah! Institutions this corrupt, and that violate the fundamental citizen/gov't compact don't deserve protecting. Trump and MAGA understand that and are working to restore us to the founders visions, eradicating the rampant lawfare, use of gov't for censorship and to harass citizens. Harris would have given us more DEI, more pushing transgenderism, more gov't programs to punish "misinformation", more medical tyranny like Fauci-ism, not to mention more war and sinking our economy.
Romney lost because, like Hillary, he did not really love America and Americans, but thought he would be "good for us". No thanks.
We should pray for our UK brethren. The Tories have a promising new leader--Kemi Badenoch who would be far superior to what Britain is suffering through now.
Institutionalism is a kind of conservatism, a brain dead kind.You have these institutions that are lead by people who have been discrediting them for years and may in fact be acting in a manner which is counter to your interests but you’re supposed to be loyal to and respectful of them because they are the institutions you are to respect and be loyal to even as they destroy the framework of society. For example , you’re supposed to trust various layers of government as they implement all sorts of policies that seem designed to destroy civilization because trust in institutions is good.Roughly this is what you hear from much of the mainstream.
Yes, we are in a repudiation of the administrative state, which answers to no one. That is how we got CV creation (Fauci) and destructive response, from which we haven't fully recovered. Who elected these people? Why can't they be fired like the rest of us? Why do they make on average 1/3 more in wage and benefits than the taxpayers? Trump has his work cut out for him.
"Dr. Fauci, meet Dr. Mengele."
So the famous lines about the danger of mowing down the laws to get at the Devil (from "A Man For All Seasons") is brain dead? It's OK to destroy a village in order to save it?
SCOTUS said they (unelected bureaucrats) don't have the power, only Congress. (Aside: Congress has been quite derelict in their legislative duties, just keeps passing continuing resolutions for the budgets for example).
Having to break up response, the substack programming is freezing, so read comments in reverse order, starting with last and reading back up instead of down:
SCOTUS case: Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo
Redemsever-followed by-ventilator (ordered by Fauci) killed almost every patient that was subjected to this protocol. (Finally, the doctors revolted, under threat to their medical licenses and started serretiptiously prescribing ivermectin, etc, and stopping with the ventilators-after-redesirvir routine). Fauci is Exhibit A in how the Administrative State can turn murderous and dictatorial.
You should read about his "work" in HIV-AIDS.
On Congress, they've given away their power because it keeps them from being accountable for bad or unpopular policies, which could lose them their seat. They've given that power to the administrative state because it keeps the Congressional members and bureaucrats alike happy - to heck with the average Joes.
No
Romney lost because he could not put forth a good reason for himself to replace Obama. Pretty much the same reason Bob Dole, another basically decent guy "in suo anno" candidate, lost to incumbent Clinton in 1996.
The economy was quite good in 1996. Dole never had a chance. A Buchanan-Clinton race would have been more interesting but Buchanan would have lost by more than Dole. Obama's economy was mediocre but good enough.
Bob Doles campaign slogan was "It's my turn." It was hardly an inspiration.
Its said that Britain doesn't have a Labor Party, only Tories and liberals waving pink banners. Trump doesn't understand jack, except "I am the ruler of all I survey" for its own sake. All ego, no principal. Trump's voters are all over the map in what they understand, but they're not going to get much of what they hoped for. Harris has her own ego to feed, and yup, she would have given us more culture war fetishes.
Also, how to win, to trigger the Left, and to deliver good policy.
I'm not ever sure where that fits.
Probably not. No matter.
None of the three major British parties care a lick about the working class these days. This isn't Keir Hardee's Labour any longer.
Precisely. Not Jenny Lee's either.
Re: The British people made an epically terrible choice in electing Labor, and hence elevating Starmer to PM.
The Tories needed to lose, just as the GOP here needed to lose in 2008. Political parties must not be rewarded for incompetence or worse. They need their time in the wilderness.
And this specific euthanasia law had both bipartisan support, and bipartisan opposition.
You're right. In a democracy, a ruling party tends to decompose and fossilize when they are in office too long. Think of the Reagan presidencies. The Reagan Administration of 1981 was vigorous with ideas- not all wise, of course-and they had the heroics of the wounded Reagan to galvanize his program. By 1988 Reagan was an almost Lear-like figure and his government was drifting into intellectual sterility.
I agree that the Tories failed, again epically, to deliver on their promises to the electorate.
That said, Labor is even worse.
Somebody saw "The Shape of Water" too many times (which is another way to say that they saw it once) and decided to live the dream while getting a writing credential in the "publish or perish" world of modern academia. Xirl Science* for the win!
https://youtu.be/XFYWazblaUA?si=aZdLHOVLxhV3QPbj
*IYKYK
"The Shape of Water," or as Ben Shapiro retitled it, "Grinding Nemo."
To be fair, though, I think that one could be taken as following a rather traditional fairy tale trope. I just don't wanna get into a corner where we find ourselves suggesting that *Beauty and the Beast* promotes bestiality.
Or Tolkien's crosses of Elves and Men, or Star Trek's human-Vulcan matings. Elrond and Spock should not be classed as fruits of bestiality.
Well, between elves and men in Tolkien's world, I'm thinking that men would qualify as the beasts.
The brine shrimp ceremony is invalid because there was no land acknowledgment, you know, no mention of the Proterozoic slime that once thrived in the Great Salt Lake. Damn colonists.
Tag line: settler science.
"Peer review" also doesn't mean much once you realize that these people's peers are, well, others just like them. The structure of the whole system resembles a cartel.
That's definitely one I skipped as soon as I read a review. The "scientific" article Rod posted should have been a parody... the sad thing is, it wasn't.
Tragic about the euthanasia decision in the UK, though not surprising. I’m ashamed to say that a younger (alas, libertarian) version of myself once more or less endorsed elective euthanasia, not so much as something I approved of, but as something for which I didn’t feel that I had the right to speak against others who wished to off themselves.
I would now say that my younger self was a fool, and wonder how I could have been seduced by such a morally unserious position.
As to the sea monkey sex magic…wow. It would be funny but for the fact that these “academics” are probably attracting demons. I take that back, it’s still funny.
The Saturday Night Live writers must be slapping their heads right now over their failure to foresee this wedding.
Hopefully no one will discover a sea monkeypox.
Libertarians make the mistake of not seeing government force as lying along a continuum. It is the bully pulpit as well as the billy club that government has at its disposal. As the loudest voice in any society, what the government says is ok often becomes what your neighbors think you ought to do. After a while, it takes real integrity and courage to resist what your neighbors are telling you, especially when they can cite the government.
Government may not outlaw something outright or require something, but it can make it rather costly to act against what the government claims as public values.
How is the union consummated?
I don't suppose you ever saw the South Park episode where they created human/brine shrimp hybrids?
I have not yet been enlightened.
Perhaps a variation on the “grinding Nemo” theme?!?
It does raise the perennial question of whether it's more difficult for a woman to consummate a marriage with a male shrimp than with a female lover.
Modern science has not solved the problem of shrimp-human intercourse. But give science time. Science can solve everything.
Or maybe the woman can just identify as a shrimp and eliminate the problem.
Splendid idea.
"I would now say that my younger self was a fool"
This is the history of mankind.
The Sea-Monkey article makes a lot more sense if you translate it from scientific language to religious language:
We center our efforts to re-enchant the Great Salt Lake on the brine shrimp. We perceive the brine shrimp as a lesser deity tough yet vulnerable, sexualized, and blurring the categories of human/nonhuman and male/female. We designed and performed a wedding ritual including vows to the brine shrimp and a bathing ritual we perceive as ritual sexuality with the lake. Future work should explore divorce and making sacrifices to the brine shrimp.
From Romans 1...
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
“Once you enter the euthanasia highway, there are no brakes.” Can’t remember who said it.
Canada is the great case study. They initially framed a very narrow law, I believe it was 2016, but immediately “patient rights groups” attacked the limitations as “discriminatory”, and one limitation after another fell. In swift order.
As for the Brine-Shrimp Wedding, the phrase “peer-reviewed” makes me think of David Brooks yesterday excoriating those who dare question our institutions.
“Your institutions are staffed by people who marry shrimp, David.”
Yes, in Canada that’s exactly how it’s been going. The moral and metaphysical universe of most of us is that of Rex Mottram, so we behave “as the wind behaves, no nearer”.
You nailed it as usual on the euthanasia issue, Rod. The Culture of Death continues its advance through the decadent and dying West. Your Deuteronomy citation is one of my favorites in the entire Bible and speaks precisely to where we are...and where we're heading. The tweets by Colin Wright and Rikki Schlott accentuate the point.
Re Father Martins, I've been trying to follow the situation but there's not a lot of press on it. I'm wondering about the status of the police investigation and also note that his order's temporary suspension of Father's ministry apparently continues in place.
Of course the incident in question is not as simple as Father affectionately touching the girl's head as with the Pope's innocent gesture in that picture. In fact, Father lifted a lock of hair from her shoulder and mused about flossing her teeth with it. That's on the weird side, and that's apparently what triggered her Dad and got Father in trouble. Most unfortunate but entirely avoidable.
My wife and I run a Junior Legion of Mary at a nearby Catholic elementary and middle school. There are around a dozen members of ages ranging from 7 to 12. As a grown man in today's climate, I'm very cautious about physical expressions of affection for any of them. Never in a million years could I imagine enacting a scene of the sort involving Father. That's asking for trouble.
He made an faux pas. Who hasn't? Should that end his ministry? No.
Anne, I never said and don't believe it should end his ministry...providing that the story we've heard is the whole one and that no other "faux pases" come to light. (Indulge me while I butcher the French language.)
What I did say is that the behavior as reported was weird...and dumb. I stand by that. Sorry, but after decades worth of scandals, my cynicism level is high and tolerance level is low.
As I said on the other thread, the father had every right to make a complaint about the matter-- but privately. No need for a public brouhaha over it.
Based strictly on the story as we have it, I tend to agree with you.
However, what we don't know is whether there's more to the story than has been told. We don't know the additional facts that the parish referenced but did not delineate. We don't know what the girl told her father. We don't know but might surmise that the girl was in fact upset...though Father's lawyer said she laughed at the scene. Well yeah. That's what a kid might well do.
All that aside, we do know one important thing: the behavior in question was weird...and dumb.
I mean, I guess I sorta get it but when I was in grammar school, I got my hands smacked with a ruler and when I was in high school, I get my ass smacked with a paddle.
And that was in PUBLIC school.
He doesn't need a license -- licensing ministers would be an Establishment of Religion. Whether it ends his ministry is a crowd-sourcing question -- its up to those who might come to his ministry for help, or not.
From the golden calf to the brine shrimp. I did not see that coming.
And … enjoy your retreat, Rod!
Don’t dare worry about us. If you write anything, do it on paper.
I am alarmed by the euthanasia movement. My husband is seriously disabled from a stroke. We’re senior citizens. It starts out as allowing the suffering terminally ill to kill themselves. Then it’s encouraged and for the disabled & elderly who are not terminally ill. 40% of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands are without the patient’s consent. Eventually we’ll be told it’s our duty to die & stop being useless eaters. The Paralympic athlete in Canada who’d won a number of medals, confined to a wheelchair. She asked for a stairlift. They said how about killing yourself instead.
The brine shrimp thing. What.The.Hell did I just watch?
As to Fr. Carlos he used bad judgment but meant no harm. But when I was a middle school girl, I would have been creeped out by an adult man touching my hair. Don’t touch people without their permission.
He made a human mistake, which was minor. Who hasn't done something similar in their lifetime? I hope this blows over and he is restored to his vital ministry. We need him and are grateful for his service to the Lord and us.
Right. There's three women at my parish that I consider sisters. I occasionally give them a pat on the back or a hug.
“40% of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands are without the patient’s consent.”
Horrible if true, but is it true? Where do you get that number? The wording of the Dutch law does not allow for that. What is your source?
Why does the wording of the Dutch law matter if everyone in power tacitly agrees that the law is too narrow and *acts like it*?
Exactly, and that’s what’s happening in Canada.
Canada I know about. I was asking for sources about Holland.
Well you could look it up yourself.
I have googled about it. I find general arguments about the morality of euthanasia in general and complaints that the practice of it in Holland exceeds the boundaries of what is legally permitted and certainly exceeds what the law originally intended to permit. That is definitely how it has played out in Canada.
I have not, however, found allegations that Dutch people are being euthanized without their consent. You stated that that happens 40% of the time. A claim that specific should have a source. What is that source?
I am trying to ascertain if that is, in fact, true. Hence I asked for a source of this purported info about what is happening in Holland. I asked where the 40% number came from. Do you have a good source about how the Dutch law is working in practice?
I've read about it here and there, but I don't have any links at hand. If I have some time I'll google for some. (NB: You can also use google yourself if you have time.)
Which brings us back to the question, is this accurate and what is the source. To which I would add, what is actually being done to produce that number if it is accurate? On all kinds of issues, including racial disparities in this and that, I want to know, but what mechanism is at work? Are doctors injecting patients with fatal doses without consent? Are adult children signing off on death for their parents without consent? Are patients who are way past having any cognitive function being injected even though they cannot give consent? What is actually happening is important -- just as it is important whether "black" children are doing poorly in school because their parents didn't feed them properly in the first two years, or whether teachers are openly disparaging children of a darker brown complexion as not worth their time.
I've read about it here and there, but I don't have any links at hand. If I have some time I'll google for some. (NB: You can also use google yourself if you have time.)
If you want to make an argument, its your job to provide the substance. Its not my job to do your research for you. I have all kinds of projects to read up on. Incidentally, Google doesn't verify jack -- it might, if you're lucky lead you to a reliable source amidst all the garbage. If its in Google Books, at least there is something to verify.
Well, I didn't make the 40% claim, and if you're *really* that interested in finding out you wouldn't wait for me to have time to google some articles for you. But it's the 1st intermission in the Carolina Hurricanes-Florida Panthers game, so I did a quick Google. You can decide if these are reliable sources. I will note that some of these may be dated.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11925835/#:~:text=In%20the%20past%20decade%2C%20studies,cases%2D%2Dare%20consistently%20violated.
https://lozierinstitute.org/netherlands-forcible-euthanasia-case-and-the-slippery-slope/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49660525
https://apnews.com/article/euthanasia-autism-intellectual-disabilities-netherlands-b5c4906d0305dd97e16da363575c03ae
https://apnews.com/general-news-a041563e55204279bfb8e335a19c2802
https://bioethicsobservatory.org/2017/11/involuntary-euthanasia-increases/23467/
That's just from a half-assed search while I'm paying more attention to the intermission report. You can probably do better. I think it's clear that my statement, that the wording of the law doesn't actually matter, holds up. YMMV.
Rod, delighted to hear you're taking a little time off. I doubt your long-term subscribers actually count the number of posts you write. Most of us just enjoy reading them.
It's good to step back and refresh ourselves from time to time. May you be blessed and refreshed!
I second that, Karen. Rod is the “ Donald Trump” of writing. I don’t know how Rod has the energy to write his five a week Substack posts. I have thought Rod needs to slow down; but now I understand that he thrives reading and writing. His energy for this seems preternatural.
I HAVE EERIE POWERS, BRO! ;)
I hope you take that break. You'll have a lot to write when you are back up.
Rod the don Dreher.
Agree with him or not, Rod's writings make a lot more sense than Donald Trump's off-the-wall maunderings.
To be sure. Even when he is endorsing Donald Trump, he does it more thoughtfully than Donald Trump does.
Would like to echo that. I’m glad you’re getting a break! If it’s possible- keep that phone on plane mode the whole time too.
Tangentially related to the Fr Martins case, I believe we're heading towards a society that is "touch-phobic" towards any signs of endearment.
One of the things that surprised me when I visited Colombia is how huggy and warm they were. Now I know people are thinking, "check to make sure they didn't steal your wallet!" Don't worry, I wasn't stolen from. But still, my experience there made me realize just how cold and unfriendly our WASP culture really is.
Maybe this is just the end result of a society saturated with too much online stuff.
On the north side of Milwaukee, people still exchange a lot of hugs, and not only in church. It think the "don't touch ever" is more of a "white" thing.
It might be a ‘big city’ cultural thing too. In my circles, I’ve come to accept that some people are huggers and some are not. My family isn’t super affectionate, so I found the hugging a bit strange for a while. Now I hug people if I think they are receptive to it.
It can go either way with Midwesterners. I live in a regional city, not one of our major metropolitan areas like Chicago or NYC, which is more friendly. People in bigger cities just seem frostier than in cities like mine. And I’m sure we Midwesterners seem pretty frosty compared to our Southern friends.
Or it could be an ‘in group - out group’ thing. And Father definitely wasn’t a part of the in-group.
Anything to dehumanize us?
Congrats on the vacation. You deserve it. Although I do expect some great posts about Mt. Athos to follow after the vacation
"Pop open a cold one and enjoy!"
No. Just... no.
I've been reading this with my morning coffee and don't want to ruin my day. That being said, here is a serious take on what's wrong with scientific academia (with a focus on physics). It's from the every sardonic Sabina. As she would no doubt say about the sea monkey business "it's yet more bullshit that people do to get grant money, rather than do real work." In terms of living not by lies, I think Sabina would agree. The title of this video is "Science is Failing."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQVF0Yu7X24
Assisted homicide is a slippery slope. In 2018, my mother had two strokes and I often visited her in a convalescent facility. Mom was one of the healthier ones in the facility and she was released after about two months. Many of the patients were in their nineties and sat in their wheelchairs incognizant of their surroundings. Will these sorts of people be killed off at the request of their spouse or their children? They are an expense to both the families and the government. Their lives are "not worthwhile." And what of inheritances? Let's say a 95 year old woman is worth $5 million, stuck in a wheelchair or a bed and not living a life "worthwhile." Is it not financially advantageous for the children to have their mother's life snuffed out?
234 of the 402 Labour Members of Parliament voted for legalized homicide, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer. His predecessor as Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, was one of the 23 Tories who voted for legalized homicide. Ninety-eight Tories voted against legalized homicide, including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Health Secretary Wes Streeting voted against legalized homicide.
It is a slippery slope, but when someone has lost all cognitive function or ability to so much as enjoy a meal, play a card game, when they just sit their incognizant of their surroundings, I think the first natural cause that comes along should go untreated. No ambulance rushing them to the hospital, no central line, no surgery, etc. Let nature take its course. We don't have to actually inject poison, but don't prolong life at that point. This is what I would want for myself.
In Ye Olden Times it might be said of someone who was growing frail and who had lost all their friends and loved ones would "Turn their face to wall until they died".
100 years ago pneumonia was considered the old person’s friend-a fairly quick death that delivered a person from the long-term illness (cancer, heart disease) they were living with. Nowadays we cure pneumonia quickly with an antibiotic so people survive to suffer through the horrors of much worse disease, not to mention dementia. As modern people we need to wrap our minds around the idea that lack of treatment is not evil; sometimes it’s a kindness.
This is a good point. I think part of the problem is that medical science has advanced too much. Or maybe that it keeps people alive, but doesn't do enough to improve health?
I get my students to make presentations about controversial issues, and the other week it was about euthanasia. I was surprised that Japanese young people are nearly all against euthanasia, whereas in England most people I know seem to be in favour. None of the class identified as religious, when I asked (admittedly, definitions of "religion," "atheism,", etc., don't map exactly from English to Japanese.
The one foreigner in the class, Indonesian, commented that the healthcare system in Indonesia is so bad that people tend to just die if they're not healthy, and the euthanasia issue doesn't arise.
Good comment.
Some of those people are there, in convalescent facilities, because their children and family don't want to care for them. Full stop. They don't have the time and don't want to expend the effort or, I think in many fewer cases, really can't manage because of health issues, etc.
It's difficult but not impossible, in most cases, and sacrifices may be required. Nobody wants to sacrifice anymore.
Also, some of those patients sitting in their wheelchairs "incognizant of their surroundings" may be so because the facility might be using pharmacological intervention to keep the patients from making too many demands or otherwise causing 'problems'.