Here’s a very interesting review of a book on what all those ribbons and activist badges say about our culture. A sample: In many respects, Ribbon Culture is an analysis of several apparently contradictory aspects of contemporary culture. The ribbon is, explains Moore, ‘both a kitsch . . . . Continue Reading »
Have any of you seen the commercial in which the patient is being instructed by the doctor on how to perform his own surgery? Well, that is more than afforded a grandmother over in the UK who couldn’t get a dentist to pull her teeth. From the story: A grandmother performed her own tooth . . . . Continue Reading »
I am doing the Bill O’ Reilly radio show today, guest host Tony Snow. The time is set for 1:30 Eastern, 10:30 Pacific. Topic, assisted suicide. The show is syndicated so it may play at different times in your area, should you wish to tune in. Or, it can be live streamed . . . . Continue Reading »
In the wake of their loss, the Schindler family created the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation to stand up for the intrinsic equal dignity of profoundly disabled people and to hold the line against bioethical agendas such as assisted suicide and Futile Care Theory. This has caught the attention of . . . . Continue Reading »
I was puzzled by Charles Larmore’s review of Charles Taylor’s new book, A Secular Age , in the current New Republic . The book is sprawling and often maddening, but it is very important (I’ve tried to do it justice in my own review in the forthcoming issue of First Things ), and I . . . . Continue Reading »
I have had some buzz today that a new futile care case may have come to the fore after an Illinois nursing home, the North Logan Healthcare Center in Danville, was fined for violating a patient’s advance directive declaring that he wanted to be resuscitated. But as I looked at the case based . . . . Continue Reading »
If we never mention the New Atheists again— they’re atheists! and they’re new! —I’d be just as glad. They always seem to me giddy with the fumes of a dying worldview, and there’s little in them that wasn’t said more forcefully by Robert G. Ingersoll. . . . . Continue Reading »
Usually architects and artists seeking immortality by creating great works of art that will outlast them. But Madeline Gins and Arawaka, a husband and wife team of architects, have created a house that is designed to give its occupants a kind of immortality. The New York Times reports : In 45 years . . . . Continue Reading »
In the New York Sun today, John Merriman reviews a new book on Napoleon. It’s a nice review, but this line caught my eye: “Napoleon modestly portrayed himself as ‘the savior,’ and, although not a religious person, encouraged comparisons with Jesus Christ.” Isn’t . . . . Continue Reading »
One of the things that drives me up a wall is what I call post modernist advocacy, in which narratives, rather than facts, drive the debate. Animal rights, and its assertions about animal research, is a classic case in point.There are actually two themes found in animal rights advocacy on this . . . . Continue Reading »
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