Who Wants to Live Forever

As a young physician caught up in the early years of the H.I.V. epidemic, I was struck by my patients’ will to live, even as their quality of life became miserable and when loved ones and caregivers would urge the patient to let go. I thought it remarkable that patients never asked me to help end their lives (and found it strange that Dr. Kevorkian managed to encounter so many who did). My patients were dying young and felt cheated out of their best years. They did not want immortality, just the chance to live the life span that their peers could expect. What de Grey and other immortalists seem to have lost sight of is that simply living a full life span is a laudable goal. Partial success in extending life might simply extend the years of infirmity and suffering — something that to some degree is already happening in the West.

Abraham Verghese

Iraqi Shiites turn the other cheek

“Let them kill us,” said Sheik Khudair al-Allawi, the imam of a mosque bombed recently. “It’s a waste of their time. The sectarian card is an old card and no one is going to play it anymore. We know what they want, and we’ll just be patient. But they will all go to hell.”

NY Times

Liberal church shooting

Knoxville's police chief says the man accused of a shooting that killed two people at a Tennessee church targeted the congregation because of its liberal social stance.

Chief Sterling Owen IV said Monday that police found a letter in Jim D. Adkisson's car. Owen said Adkisson was apparently frustrated over being out of work and had a "stated hatred of the liberal movement." (AP)

Beautiful. I wonder what radio programs this guy regularly listened to. (I can guess.) If it is important to know what media teen shooters consume (playing shooters, listening to NIN, whatever), why not this guy?

Happy Valentine's Day

Tis that time of year when more than 20 million Americans are buying sweets and flowers for their loved ones on Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, these tokens of love aren't as sweet or pure as they may appear. Over 40 percent of the world's conventional chocolate (i.e. non-organic and non-Fair Trade) comes from Africa's Ivory Coast, where the International Labor Organization and US State Department have reported widespread instances of child slavery. Meanwhile, commercial flowers, most of which are produced in countries such as Colombia, are the most toxic and heavily sprayed agricultural crops on Earth. In order for you to deliver your bouquet to your beauty, poorly paid workers in Third World countries put in up to 18 hour work days for poverty wages during peak flower buying times such as Valentine's Day. But don't let the bad news squelch your Valentine's plans. Show your love by choosing Fair Trade and organic flowers and chocolate for your Valentine's Day gifts.

Check out OCA's Buying Guide, watch an entertaining flash movie and take action against the 5 major chocolate and flower corporations.

Recycle your cell phone

By the agency’s reckoning, as many as 150 million cellphones are taken out of service each year. The phones contain metals, plastics, glass and chemicals, all of which require energy to mine and make, and many of which could be hazardous if they end up in landfills and leach into the ground. Moreover, many old cellphones still work and can be donated to charities or distributed to poor people. (NY Times)

Yeah, my favorite cell phone provider has been doing this for a while.

Celebrate Buy Nothing Day

Adbusters

Children and Big Pharma

In Eugene Jarecki's documentary film Why We Fight, about the U.S. military-industrial complex, U.S. foreign policy critic Chalmers Johnson states: "I guarantee you when war becomes that profitable, you are going to see more of it." Similarly, as mental illness has become extremely profitable, we are seeing more of it.

On September 4, 2007, the New York Times reported, "The number of American children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder increased 40-fold from 1994 to 2003 ... Drug makers and company-sponsored psychiatrists have been encouraging doctors to look for the disorder."

Not too long ago, a child who was irritable, moody, and distractible and who at times sounded grandiose or acted without regard for consequences was considered a "handful." In the U.S. by the 1980s, that child was labeled with a "behavioral disorder" and today that child is being diagnosed as "bipolar" and "psychotic" -- and prescribed expensive antipsychotic drugs. Bloomberg News, also on September 4, 2007, reported, "The expanded use of bipolar as a pediatric diagnosis has made children the fastest-growing part of the $11.5 billion U.S. market for antipsychotic drugs."

AlterNet

Robertson backs Giuliani

I've said the evangelical uncomfortable with adulterers has an out (Romney). But it appears this evangelical has no problem!

I find this a curious endorsement. Thinking back to his 1988 run for the presidency, I don't know if he emphasized his anti-abortion views or not. If he did, what's changed since then? If anti-terrorism is his most important issue of the day, is he now saying that our lives are more important than the unborn's? Or does Robertson trust that Giuliani will appoint pro-life judges despite the latter's pro-choice views?

Making credit freezes difficult

In the ongoing story of credit reporting agencies and protecting your credit history,

Credit bureau Experian has joined rival TransUnion in allowing people in all 50 states to freeze their credit reports. The third major credit agency, Equifax, says it will soon join as well.

[...]

But don’t start applauding yet.

Credit bureaus don’t release the number of security freezes in place, but have said that it is low. It’s not surprising: the process of freezing and unfreezing your credit is complicated and aggravating. (NY Times)

Credit reporting agencies have no incentive to make this easier for the consumer unless it involves putting money in their pockets. They have every incentive to dissuade you from using this service.

Catholics prolonging life

More on whether "Catholics are enjoined to pursue all means to prolong life":

The Time article sets up the case for John Paul II’s alleged hypocrisy with this statement: “Catholics are enjoined to pursue all means to prolong life.”

This is false. It’s good for the story, but it’s not true. Time magazine will never find such a pronouncement in any official teaching of the Catholic Church. On the contrary. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, commissioned and approved by Pope John Paul II, clarifies that our moral obligation to preserve life in its last stages does not include applying extraordinary or disproportional means:

Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of “over-zealous” treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one’s inability to impede it is merely accepted. (#2278)

Father Jonathan Morris via GetReligion.org.

John Paul II Euthanized?

In an article about speculation that Pope John Paul II was euthanized, Jeff Israely says, "Catholics are enjoined to pursue all means to prolong life."

Surely this is not true in all cases. I can think of a number of exceptions. Like when an abortion is required to save the life of the mother. Or when treatment requires embryonic stem cells or other unethical actions or research.

There are definitely points where a "pro-life" stance can be perverted into sin in the eyes of the Church. Like when a couple creates and destroys (or freezes) nine embryos in the hope of giving birth to one. In this case, a couple can "love" children too much. "Love" that is willing to kill nine children is something entirely different. It is selfishness and a rebellion against God's will.

"Life" here on earth is not the end-all be-all. The point is not to "pursue all means to prolong life" or have that big family -- it is to involve God in the decision. Yes, that means not ending a life where it can continue and allowing children to join the family. But at some stage it also means acknowledging that God may have something in mind different from what you assumed. He may not want that couple to have children. He may calling that person home and we should let them go.

Owning a hybrid

"Owning a hybrid is all about saying 'Look at what I'm doing for the world,'" says auto analyst John Wolkonowicz of Global Insight. "If you can't say that, the whole purchase is a waste of time."

Grist

Sexuality bad for kids, violence OK

Put simply, the United States Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution as allowing states broad leeway in regulating minors' access to sexually explicit material. That is why it is illegal around the country to sell pornography to children. Courts have not, however, said that states have a similar right to regulate media based on violence. (NY Times)

I guess that answers my question. Kind of.

Eco prizes

There's something wrong with an eco contest that has an SUV as the prize.

I don't care if it's a hybrid. SUVs still pollute more than autos. Which pollute more than a bus.

Live Earth

The last thing the planet needs is a rock concert.

The Who's Roger Daltrey

Have You Prayed for bin Laden Today?

Speaking as a Christian, they are not our enemies. God loves the world. And in my new book, Secret Believers, we propose the question, "Have you prayed for bin Laden today?" That question should shock a lot of Christians. Of course we haven't! That is why he is what he is. We have an evangelical black list of people we don't want to see in heaven and put bin Laden on top. Saddam Hussein is probably second.

[...]

We in the West are following or believing in the God of revenge as much as every Muslim does. So there's no need for us to sit on a pedestal. We have to come down to the foot of the Cross and learn from Jesus. He came to forgive, and he came to die. I have seen this attitude in many Christians in Gaza. It gives me hope for the future.

Brother Andrew

Domestic partnerships & health care

Would domestic partner benefits matter so much to people if health care wasn't so expensive?  I'm inclined to think not.  If it didn't cost so much to shoulder health care costs on one's own, who cares whether the government (or your employer) considers your relationship legit?

Hilton on the media

"I was shocked to see all of the attention devoted to the amount of time I would spend in jail for what I had done -- by the media, public and city officials," [Paris Hilton] said.

"I would hope going forward that the public and the media will focus on more important things like the men and women serving our country in Iraq and other places around the world." (AFP)

Hear hear.

For an example of how nuts the media has gone, check out this Jay Leno clip commenting on the MSNBC coverage.

Promoting killers

In an interview last night on MSNBC, Mr. Williams said NBC had been concerned about the sensitivities of broadcasting as much of the material as it did.

“This was a sick business tonight, going on the air with this,” he said. (NY Times)

Why did you do it then? What was the news value in seeing photos and videos of the killer?

Is this going to be a regular thing now? Mass murderers write up essays, take some photo and video, knowing they will be broadcast nationally after their crime?

How is this any different than Al Jazeera broadcasting Al Qaeda propaganda?

It doesn't seem too long ago that media outlets didn't give murderous wackos a forum in which to spew their bile. I guess those days are over.

Update:

You know, there will always be people who go crazy and kill a couple of people around them. But one reason why a guy like this decides he’s going to go somewhere and kill dozens of people is because he knows that he can then access a national stage, and an international stage. He’s on the front page of newspapers all over the world. And I think in a sense, to make a crazy guy, to upgrade him from kind of small town burlesque to planetary wide superstar, which is what NBC is colluding in here, I think is terrible. I mean, in a sense, they’ve upgraded the show business aspect of the crime, and that is disgraceful. (Mark Steyn)

Most efficient form of transportation

If you are looking for the most efficient form transportation propelled by an internal combustion engine, you won't find it at a Toyota or Honda dealership. Or any other car dealer for that matter. In a study funded by the American Bus Association, it was found that the most fuel efficient transportation in the United States was by motorcoach. Based on mileage and passengers in 2004, highway buses achieved an average of 148.4 passenger miles per gallon. That's more than double achieved by intercity trains which achieved 74.1 passenger miles per gallon. Airlines managed 40.9 passenger miles per gallon, while cars came in last at 35.4 mpg.

AutoblogGreen