Month: March 2005

Cue the Rhinoceroses

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Struck by the emptiness of everyday conversations and the idiocy of meaningless formalities, Theater of the Absurd playwright Eugene Ionesco made a name for himself satirizing society via its nonsense. In one of his most famous plays, Rhinoceros, he explores totalitarianism via the metaphor of a disease that turns people into huge ferocious beasts. It’s … Read more

Well, They Agree on One Thing

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By Edward

It’s a heartening photograph in these troubling times. At a table, come together Sheik Abed es- Salem Menasra, deputy mufti of Jerusalem; the Rev. Michel Sabbagh, the Latin patriarch; the Rev. Aris Shirvanian, the Armenian patriarch; Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Sephardic chief rabbi; and Rabbi Yona Metzger, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi.

Or it would be heartening, if what brought them together was to offer some positive message of peace or hope. Instead, what brought them and other religious leaders together was a message of hate:

This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem.
—Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi sheik

They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable.
—Shlomo Amar, Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi

In case you haven’t guessed yet, they’re talking about gays. That’s right, these men of God, who can’t see past their own prejudices to come together to stop terrorism or poverty or war, can be united to speak out about a 10-day conference/festival (called WorldPride) to be held in Jerusalem that focuses on tolerance and diversity. Their comments get worse:

We can’t permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty.
—Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi sheik

This is not the homo land, this is the Holy Land.
—Rabbi Yehuda Levin

The leaders came together with via a concerted effort by American Evangelical pastor, Rev. Leo Giovinetti, from San Diego:

California Pastor Leo Giovinetti, representing a coalition of U.S. Christian leaders, appeared at a press briefing together with former Tourism Minister Benny Elon and other Knesset members from various political parties.

"Millions of people around the world pray for the peace of Jerusalem and are heart-broken by misguided attempts to divide, inflame and sow disunity," Pastor Giovinetti said.

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Song number one is not a f— you song.

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Matt Yglesias, explaining why record companies need to relax on this whole P2P thingy, states: As I’ve been urging, protecting the profits of the record industry is not the appropriate aim of intellectual property policy. Rather, the point of intellectual property law is to ensure that adequate incentives continue to exist for the production of … Read more

We are asking you to kill us.

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Put it in with the law of unintended consequences, and shove it back in the closet with the rest of the cliches.  In my extended family, the most significant fallout from the Schiavo case is a sudden rise in the number of requests that I (not) involve myself in the deaths of loved ones. 

This is not meant to be callous towards Ms. Schiavo, whose experiences have been an unmitigated tragedy.  Rather, this is a bit of cinema verite — a glipse into the unguarded way that we talk about the end of life.  Some of the respondents are Democrats of the FDR school.  Some were Republicans before being Republican was cool. Some are very religious; others, not so much.  And one comment actually predates the Schiavo affair — yes, I know, it’s hard to believe that people could be thinking about such things without the involvement of the U.S. Congress.

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Open Thread: Scary Things

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by hilzoy Guess what? We are slowly creeping up on half a million visitors. We should be there within the hour, if trends hold. That’s a scary thought. I followed a few of the trackbacks to my Terri Schiavo post, and there seemed to be a bit of confusion as to my gender. (By confusion … Read more

Oh, Dear.

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Via Three-Toed Sloth, I am — pleased? no, that’s not the right word, somehow — to answer what I’m sure has been a burning question for many of you, namely: where can I find devotionals combining mathematics and Biblical texts? Here are several sets of them, covering Single-variable and Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, Discrete Structures, … Read more

Medical Refusniks: Individual Rights or License to Discriminate?

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By Edward

Let me start with an explanation of why I stand where I do on this issue: Doctors and pharmacists in the US are given a license to practice their profession by the state. They do not have the right to practice without a state-issued license (in other words, their church cannot issue them a license). Our constitutionally mandated separation of church and state therefore extends to that license IMO. Few people would hesitate to call it wholly unacceptable discrimination if a doctor or pharmacist’s beliefs led them to refuse to treat a person because of their religion or race or gender, no matter how sincerely they felt their religion insisted that treating such people was repugnant. Some religions prohibit men from touching a woman when she’s menstruating, for example. Would anyone sane consider a licensed doctor in the US within his rights to refuse emergency treatment to a woman just because she was having her period?

And yet, there’s a growing trend among pharmacists who oppose abortion to turn away patients seeking birth control or morning-after medicine. Here’s one anecdote illustrating how insane this is getting (from yesterday’s Washington Post):

"There are pharmacists who will only give birth control pills to a woman if she’s married. There are pharmacists who mistakenly believe contraception is a form of abortion and refuse to prescribe it to anyone," said Adam Sonfield of the Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York, which tracks reproductive issues. "There are even cases of pharmacists holding prescriptions hostage, where they won’t even transfer it to another pharmacy when time is of the essence."

That is what happened to Kathleen Pulz and her husband, who panicked when the condom they were using broke. Their fear really spiked when the Walgreens pharmacy down the street from their home in Milwaukee refused to fill an emergency prescription for the morning-after pill.

"I couldn’t believe it," said Pulz, 44, who with her husband had long ago decided they could not afford a fifth child. "How can they make that decision for us? I was outraged. At the same time, I was sad that we had to do this. But I was scared. I didn’t know what we were going to do."

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More Schiavo If You Can Stand It

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I haven’t commented on the Schiavo case earlier because it has already received too much attention.  The case cuts across some of the more traditional American left-right faultlines, yet remains very divisive.  I strongly believe in supporting a person’s right to choose to terminate or refuse medical treatment.  I also believe that when matters of … Read more

To Closet Cases Everywhere

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By Edward

Instapundit sneers that it represents "more crushing of dissent," but that’s just more of his trademark glib oversimplification. LGFers treat it as just another opportunity to mock the tolerance of those on the left and feel superior. Personally, I think it’s a heartless overreaction to a careless overreaction, and it highlights one of the more complicated issues in the struggle for gay rights. It’s a story of an objection to an outing campaign that’s had rather severe consequences for someone who was not even closeted.

GayPatriot is a blog with a writer named "GayPatriot" and co-writer named "GayPatriot West." They’re conservatives. I’ve skimmed this blog a few times, but honestly never got into it. I did appreciate that it represented the gay conservative point of view (and no, unlike other folks, I don’t consider that an oxymoron), but I like my conservative thought served well-considered and, well, GayPatriot seemed a bit rabid to me (it’s all relative, I know).

Recently though, GayPatriot overreacted to an ongoing outing campaign, and his target struck back hard. Outlet Raido Network explains:

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