This is just fantastic. Two British Anglican ministers convert to Roman Catholicism. This is happening more and more these days (a great thing, in my opinion), and now the inevitable — a father and son are now both Catholic priests. It’s very cool. As the Episcopal Church goes into a show motion schism with itself, a bunch of the more conservative/traditionalist side of it will seek to rejoin Rome.
Thanks to Splendor of Truth for finding this gem.
Currently, our culture insists that only sick people can take drugs. There doesn’t seem to be a clear, moral case for this to be so, however. This Lifeboat article skims this topic, listing out many drugs that can help with your brain’s functionality that are available right now. Of course, you need to be sick to get most of these. But really, why? I’d love to have increased memory, cognition, and especially focus. Click through for the table of drugs.
Now, drugs that enhance mental functioning in healthy people are becoming known and – increasingly – used. We are in the midst of a series of discoveries that will progressively enhance mental abilities. Alpha-CaM kinase II causes remembering a bad memory to erase it, at least in mice. Credible evidence exists for other biomolecular approaches to cognitive enhancement, some listed in the table.
Today is the 75th anniversary of the repeal of alcohol prohibition — the War on Drugs Part One. Even though I’m not in the mood to drink, damn it, I’m digging deep down and pouring a gin and tonic in celebration. Don’t tread on me.
This paragraph in a story on the WSJ struck me when I read it:
WASHINGTON — Democratic congressional leaders, eager to trumpet that change has come to Washington, are looking to enact quickly a series of popular bills in January in such areas as renewable energy, children’s health care and embryonic stem-cell research.
In one hand, it’s all about saving life, and on the other, it’s about destroying it. The scary part is that about half of this country (give or take) would argue to their last breath that it’s completely different things. I know that if you, the reader, is pro-choice, that this is pretty darn unlikely to make a dent in how you see things, but the New Atlantis article explains an old argument that because a embryo/zygote/fetus doesn’t look like a human being, it cannot be one. It’s called the acron and oak tree argument, and it’s worth reviewing.
Posted in Politics
I have to put something about this up on the Web. Of all the bailouts, this one will — if it goes through as the Congressional leadership believes it will — frustrate me the most. This is about as naked of a political payback as I’ve seen in a long time. This is the political class taking care of the UAW and big money interests. Bankrupcy is not an option? I’d say that the complete dismantlement of GM and Chrysler is an option. Cars will still be made and sold, just not by GM. Ford would pick up a sizable piece of the “I don’t buy foreign” market, in addition to those looking for cars that they actually like (does anyone really like the GM Aztek?).
Is this change you can believe in? President-Elect Obama could signal that there’s better ways of spending the taxpayer’s money, but has done the opposite. It’s hardly surprising, but still a bit depressing. What isn’t surprising is that Honda, BMW, Porsche, and Toyota seem to not be on the verge of collapse. Why do you think that is?
First of all, Mark Steyn, as expected, dashes off a insightful column about the whole nightmare over there. My big take away from his column is hey, this can happen anywhere. It’s actually amazing it hasn’t happened, yet, in the United States. I live in the Portland, Oregon metro area, and I’m positive that if a determined, well-trained group of terrorists wanted to raise Hell here for a weekend, they certainly could. No city can be expected to “handle” something like this. Truth: if people with semi-automatic weapons and grenades who know how to use them want to kill a lot of people, you know what? They will.
Listening to the Wall Street Journal report on the attack (Audible download, so no link), one thing that struck me, though: most of the Indian police involved did not have weapons greater than a bamboo stick. That’s fine for someone stealing a purse or even simple assault, but that’s about it. I’d like to think that terrorists in an attack on an American city — as long as they’re not perpetrating it on a college campus — would run into greater obstacles, such as Glock-weilding peace officers. That would certainly help.
The other thing that struck me was the number dead: while every death means everything to family and friends, it really wasn’t that bad. Or, I should say, it could have been a lot worse than it was. This whole thing struck me as mostly a media play. Let’s kill as many people as we possibly can to get as much global media coverage as we can, as hey, if we can stir up some sectarian violence at the same time in our hated Hindu-dominated country, fantastic. As Steyn says:
In the ten months before this week’s atrocity, Muslim terrorists killed over 200 people in India and no-one paid much attention. Just business as usual, alas.
The count stands currently at just under 200. This wasn’t business as usual: the whole world watched, and with horror. Unfortunately, it’s not the terror or the idealogy that grips people’s attention, but sheer numbers.
