Holy Cow (rant)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/opinion/19shriver.html

Okay, so I just saw this in today's paper and it prompted me to write about it NOW -- quite a feat, as i haven't thought much about my blog since about the time classes started.

Today's NYT includes this op-ed, which explains that if we can't bring ourselves to stop killing animals en masse in order to eat them, we can at least use genetic engineering to make them less susceptible to pain. Holy leaping batshit. So now we can not think about the fact that we "engineered" many of these animals to begin with through selective breeding, not think about the conditions in which they live and die, (not to mention the horrific working conditions of the humans on the "killing floor" of meat plants), and be released to think even less about their nature as creatures, because regardless of what we do to them we can now say "oh, but they don't *feel* the pain"?

Yes, the writer of the piece is an ethicist; yes, many would agree that this is literally "have your cake and eat it too." But really, this idea highlights for me the arrogance we have achieved as a species (at least those of us in the West), not to mention our severed relationship with ol' Mother Nature and the rest of her children. I wish I could go back to my childhood days of eating sausage from a pig we'd raised and fed and appreciated, a pig who had a good life. At least that was an honest relationship.

Blood Pressure !

Man, there's so much crap out there to rage about, where does one start? First, with the tea-bagger/ birther / nutjob campaign of "disinformation" and "protest" about health care --- and then with the lack of balls the media and almost everyone else is exhibiting in responding to them.

Exhibit One: (from Salon's "say what?")

"People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."

-- from Investor's Business Daily editorial on "death panels"

"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS [National Health Service]. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."

-- Stephen J. Hawking, who has motor neurone disease, was born in the UK, and has lived there his entire life

Ummm... And we should listen to uninformed people, why?

Exhibit Two: (from NYT's account of Sen. Arlen Specter's town hall in PA)

"It says plainly right there they want to limit the type of care elderly can get," said Laurel Tobias, an office manager from Lebanon, referring to a bill in the House. "They are talking about killing people."

Um.... Right where? In one of the several draft bills still circulating? Which she has read? Or "right there" in some unidentified document waved by the host on a right-wing tv show? Has Ms. Tobias ever seen a living will form? I made mine out the other day, prompted by all this discussion --- well, I'd been thinking about it for some time -- and one of the choices you can check basically says "use all the friggin' technology you can to keep me alive for as long as possible." Prompting people to think about these choices before their health is seriously compromised does not mean "coercing them to make a particular choice."

Exhibit Three: (from Salon; this meeting also reported in Charlottesville Daily Progress)

At the latest in a series of town hall meetings in Charlottesville, Rep. Tom Perriello heard both cheers and jeers for health care reform. Among his comments? "There are no 'death panels' in the bill, there just aren't," he said. "If one believes as a matter of faith that this is a secret strategy to get to rationing care, that is a legitimate position to take, but I can't refute it." (emphasis added)

Oh dear oh dear. We shouldn't decide policy issues (or much of anything in the public sphere) based on our "beliefs." Belief does not require evidence. Does not require facts. Does not require reason. That's why we say we "take things on faith." Okay, so some citizens, unfortunately, decide in the absence of any evidence or any thought to believe that reform will ration care --- what makes that "a legitimate position to take"? And surely Perriello means that it's not possible to refute any article of faith, since it's not subject to reason, but he comes off sounding like he condones their misguided beliefs. Wouldn't it have been better -- not politically better, but more honest -- to say "If people choose to believe as a matter of faith that this is a secret strategy to get to rationing care, those people can't be reasoned out of that belief. But their position is not supported by the facts." I myself would add something like "You dimwits shouldn't be disgracing Thomas Jefferson's town this way," but that would be optional.

And the hits just keep on coming.

UPDATE -- Glenn Greenwald's guest columnist, here:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/13/palin_grassley/index.html

p.s., thanks to Edwardses

It has been a dreadful and cabin-fevered last month or so, and I very much enjoyed visiting with almost the full complement of in-laws in Tennessee. Big public thank-you shout-out to Sue, Francis, Malindi, Michael, Kevin, Heather, Wil for being fun. And for reminding me to post photos ; )

Toe Promises

Okay, as promised,

here they are (only some of my MANY somewhat grotesque toe photos).

The two with the doctor are from the day the accident happened; the other, somewhat fuzzy one is from two weeks later and shows toe sans nail and plus stitches. Note how swole up this sucker is.

Enjoy! : )

Tennessee Times

We're on vacation this week (if that means anything, when you have the summer "off" or are retired...) with most of Bibb's family, in Sevierville, TN. It's in the Gatlinburg/Dollywood/Pigeon Forge mega-area, and quite possibly includes the tackiest square mileage known to mankind.

Yes, Las Vegas is so garish that it feels like another planet. I don't like Los Angeles either. But this is beyond beyond. A not-to-scale replica of the Titanic sits next to an upside-down house, the setting for a country-music dinner show. In the next block is the Jurassic Park waterslide. The NASCAR go-kart track. Five pancake houses. It's like Branson writ somewhat larger, and so little of it focuses on the truly gorgeous surrounding mountains or the geologic or human history of the area.

*sigh* Good thing we have each other, which means you can basically have a good vacation anywhere.

And, as Bibb keeps reminding me, without all this development (even if it could have been SO much better done), the people who live here would be cut off and dirt poor.

I'm just sayin'.

Today's NYT

Here's a link to Judith Warner's NYT piece on the resentment (?)

hatred (?) backlash against (?) educated women,who have long

been considered (as she points out) unnatural, unfeeling, uppity.

I don't agree with the decision made my the woman Warner

describes, who was arrested for leaving two 12-year-olds in

charge of three younger children at a mall, but -- is this child

endangerment?

Too bad Warner didn't consider what our civilized world thinks

of uppity women without children.

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/dont-hate-her-because-shes-educated/

Owie, owie!

So, it took breaking my toe to force me to sit down to write? That makes me sound like one of my students.... Or I could say that I've been thinking about writing but not getting around to it.... That would be true but common and pathetic.

I guess I'm only motivated to blog when something, good or bad, has happened, and my event of late would be the three seconds it took to drop a newly-cut piece of hardy-board* on my toe, which resulted in stitches, lost toenail, and multiple fractures to my left big toe. Longer lasting and less exciting, I can't drive. Or walk any distance. Or get in the pool for at least two weeks. Or be exposed to excessive sunlight while on the antibiotic to prevent infection in the cut. Is this the Summer of the Vampire??

My podiatrist-guy was nice, willing to answer questions, didn't mind my taking photos of the (fairly disgusting looking) injury. So, photos follow -- aren't you excited?! (I can't find the cable I need and don't want to hobble upstairs, so I will have to post them later.)

I'm also using this enforced-idleness time to catch up with facebook and classmates activity and to plan ahead for fall courses, so it won't be a total loss. I have a big fat book to read (Mitchener's Caribbean, which I'm disappointed in so far) and lots of favorites to rereread. I found a reliable neighborhood youngster to walk my dog several times a week, so that's the important stuff taken care of.

More soon. Hopefully not b/c anything ELSE gets broken.

* "hardy-board" is a brand name, which I may be spelling incorrectly; it's a concrete-composite siding material, so the six-foot length of it I lost my grip on was heavy as &&insert expletive here&&

UPDATE, Friday July.... well, something. The days start to run together. I am definitely not good at being an invalid. It was MiraTech, not HardiBoard. Decking, not siding. Still heavy as sh*t. Deep cut not healed. No shower, no pool. Limited driving and walking.