Speaking of sacrifice. I ran across an interview with Pratap Chatterjee, author of Iraq, Inc: A Profitable Occupation, on BookTV (Brian Lamb remains one of my icons; BookTV devotes 48 hours every week to non-fiction books and authors on C-Span2. Now if they would just start podcasting!)
Chatterjee and his organization run a couple of websites that keep track of war profiteering. Clearly, many companies in the U.S. have sacrificed nothing; quite the contrary. See:
http://www.corpwatch.org/index.php
http://warprofiteers.com/article.php?list=type&type=176
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Sacrifice
Just for laughs and giggles, I began reading a Father Koesler mystery, written by Father William X. Kienzle. Not knowing what to expect, I was very pleasantly surprised to find a decent mystery along with a sensible elucidation of some of the myriad issues facing the Roman Catholic Church today.
This title explores the distinctions between the Anglican and Roman versions of religion. Father George Wheatley, a popular Anglican priest with several children has decided he wants to become consecrated in the Roman church.
This decision causes consternation among his family and friends not to mention the Anglican and Roman communities. It also provides a motive for murder. To name but a few: Wheatley's son, an Anglican priest with designs on a bishopric; his daughter deeply involved in a lesbian relationship; and a parishioner opposed to Vatican II changes to the liturgy. Unfortunately, the bomb that was intended for Father Wheatley during his re-ordination kills a visiting priest. Father Koesler and his friend Lieutenant Tully and former investigatory mate Inspector Walter Koznicki.
Kienzle provides several red herrings for the reader. As an atheist who finds religious myths and rituals fascinating, I enjoyed this book immensely.
This title explores the distinctions between the Anglican and Roman versions of religion. Father George Wheatley, a popular Anglican priest with several children has decided he wants to become consecrated in the Roman church.
This decision causes consternation among his family and friends not to mention the Anglican and Roman communities. It also provides a motive for murder. To name but a few: Wheatley's son, an Anglican priest with designs on a bishopric; his daughter deeply involved in a lesbian relationship; and a parishioner opposed to Vatican II changes to the liturgy. Unfortunately, the bomb that was intended for Father Wheatley during his re-ordination kills a visiting priest. Father Koesler and his friend Lieutenant Tully and former investigatory mate Inspector Walter Koznicki.
Kienzle provides several red herrings for the reader. As an atheist who finds religious myths and rituals fascinating, I enjoyed this book immensely.
Euthanasia sources
For a variety of opinions and serious discussion of euthanasia I recommend Issues.Designerz.com
Much as I dislike Bush, the misinterpretation of the bills he signed in Texas regarding removal of life-support systems has been unfair.
For a European view see (link)
Much as I dislike Bush, the misinterpretation of the bills he signed in Texas regarding removal of life-support systems has been unfair.
For a European view see (link)
Life and Death
The recent death of the pope and the battle for control of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube provide a contrast in values and an opportunity to discuss just what it means to be alive. The activists arguing against removal of the feeding tube, it seems to me, have a very limited view of what life is. They managed to turn the debate into a "rancid" exchange of words by distorting reality. Makes one wonder of some of them weren't in fact in a vegetative state. My heart goes out to both sides of the family, although some reports indicate that money, again, may have been at the root of their original falling out. Speaking of suffering...
The pope, who had made a fetish of suffering, (link) seemed to be hanging on as long as he could (although the conspiracy wags might argue that he really had died when it was so announced by Italian television necessitating the fiction of his consciousness until the Vatican powers could make a bunch of appointments in an effort to consolidate their power.) Given his penchant for using suffering as a validation of his faith, one wonders what all those people were praying for, that he suffer more? Makes one wonder if he really wondered where he was off to next.
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."
Bertrand Russell
"'Pray,' verb: To ask that the laws of the universe be temporarily annulled for a single petitioner confessedly unworthy."
Ambrose Bierce
The pope, who had made a fetish of suffering, (link) seemed to be hanging on as long as he could (although the conspiracy wags might argue that he really had died when it was so announced by Italian television necessitating the fiction of his consciousness until the Vatican powers could make a bunch of appointments in an effort to consolidate their power.) Given his penchant for using suffering as a validation of his faith, one wonders what all those people were praying for, that he suffer more? Makes one wonder if he really wondered where he was off to next.
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."
Bertrand Russell
"'Pray,' verb: To ask that the laws of the universe be temporarily annulled for a single petitioner confessedly unworthy."
Ambrose Bierce
Friday, April 01, 2005
Tragic Loss
MWP: Larry Brown (1951-2004)
This is a tragic loss. I have been following Brown's writing over the years and enjoyed it immensely. I was first attracted to his firefighting memoir, On Fire, a collection of essays based on his experiences as a firefighter in Oxford Mississippi. That he died of a heart attack at 53 is perhaps not surprising given his predilection for alcohol and cigarettes, but it's a loss nevertheless.
The essays have less to do with firefighting than the camaraderie and good-'ole boy daily routines of the firemen who spend a lot of time just screwing around in between prying accident victims out of car crashes.
Read him; you won't be disappointed.
This is a tragic loss. I have been following Brown's writing over the years and enjoyed it immensely. I was first attracted to his firefighting memoir, On Fire, a collection of essays based on his experiences as a firefighter in Oxford Mississippi. That he died of a heart attack at 53 is perhaps not surprising given his predilection for alcohol and cigarettes, but it's a loss nevertheless.
The essays have less to do with firefighting than the camaraderie and good-'ole boy daily routines of the firemen who spend a lot of time just screwing around in between prying accident victims out of car crashes.
Read him; you won't be disappointed.
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