Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Stu's News
First, and most importantly, basketball. The Illini game was one of the greatest comebacks I've ever had the pleasure of rooting for; it was definitely one of those moments where I had accepted defeat, and was just beginning to think about whether the season was a success or not, and about how much I hate Arizona. A few minutes and some incredibly poor Arizona plays later, the game was tied. Games like this make it worth it to be a sports fan; now I say the season is an unqualified success no matter what happens this weekend.
Second, the Schiavo situation. I don't think we should try and avoid bringing attention to it. It's not like we're the Media. Obviously it is RIDICULOUSLY stupid that people are getting so excited over it. This is what I am talking about when I say I don't understand religious fundamentalism. Schiavo died a long time ago; now her body withers away and people are getting upset about it? What about the hundreds of people on death row? What about people dying of starvation in third-world countries? What this case tells me is that the Media leads many Americans around by the nose; they highlight what they want and the public gets outraged in turn. Oh well, she'll die, and the fundamentalists will move on to the next big scandal, like seeing the image of Jesus' face on a raisin.
As for the actual argument behind the case: unfortunately, brain death by doctors is a nebulous term, so she can't really be classified as dead, but everything that makes humans human is dead. And the parents plea that they want her to 'have a chance' is totally unreasonable. You obviously can't argue with people like this. What I wonder is, do they actually think they still have a daughter? Do they go to the hospital, talk to her, pretend like she is talking to them and pretend they have a relationship? Anything that they possibly could have loved about her stopped about, let's say, 15 years ago. Well, Terri, I guess your parents actually love your arms, legs, and organs, but not your personality. If they removed her brain completely, we'd probably be having the same discussion.
Minnesota high school shooting: Why is this not a big deal, but Columbine such a huge deal? Is it because shootings are old hat now? Something was different about Columbine that made it a big deal in in the aftermath of the Paducah shootings and the Jonesboro shootings, but what makes this one not? Can we blame it on 9/11 like everything else? I say no to 9/11. If anything, the Schiavo case shows that the Media has an incredibly short memory for scandal and no sense of a larger perspective at all. Can we blame it on the Media? Yes, I say, let's do that! Columbine happened in the midst of a slow news month, and it also came with some good news footage: kids jumping out of windows, killers stalking around on surveillance video, bloody corpses on the sidewalk, and armored SWAT teams surrounding the building. What did this Minnesota school shooting bring to the table? Sure, the Media tried to report on it, but when they showed the same old footage of a high school hallway with crime scene tape on it, people changed the channel. The next big school shooting will happen in a school that has color surveillance video. That makes for better copy.
Lastly, in response to Marmar's foreign policy platform, I'd like to offer a few additional thoughts as to the Iraq war and my continuing impression of Georgie boy. I wrote a few months ago that the Iraq war can't be judged in the context of a few months. I do stand by that. But that shouldn't have stopped me from pointing out flaws in the intermediate stages. From a larger perspective, I recently read a book encouraging people to think about international politics from a civilizational paradigm. And what the author not-so-cleverly tries to mask is that the civilizational divide is a religious divide. The war in Iraq represents Judeo-Christianity against Islam, and from that view, it is doomed to failure. No matter what happens in Iraq it will be seen as yet another example of the West trying to impose its values on the rest of the world. Somehow I just doubt you can force a liberal democracy on a people that want to be ruled by fundamentalist theocracy. This all leads me back to my only enduring point: fuck religion. That should be your foreign policy, Marmar.
Second, the Schiavo situation. I don't think we should try and avoid bringing attention to it. It's not like we're the Media. Obviously it is RIDICULOUSLY stupid that people are getting so excited over it. This is what I am talking about when I say I don't understand religious fundamentalism. Schiavo died a long time ago; now her body withers away and people are getting upset about it? What about the hundreds of people on death row? What about people dying of starvation in third-world countries? What this case tells me is that the Media leads many Americans around by the nose; they highlight what they want and the public gets outraged in turn. Oh well, she'll die, and the fundamentalists will move on to the next big scandal, like seeing the image of Jesus' face on a raisin.
As for the actual argument behind the case: unfortunately, brain death by doctors is a nebulous term, so she can't really be classified as dead, but everything that makes humans human is dead. And the parents plea that they want her to 'have a chance' is totally unreasonable. You obviously can't argue with people like this. What I wonder is, do they actually think they still have a daughter? Do they go to the hospital, talk to her, pretend like she is talking to them and pretend they have a relationship? Anything that they possibly could have loved about her stopped about, let's say, 15 years ago. Well, Terri, I guess your parents actually love your arms, legs, and organs, but not your personality. If they removed her brain completely, we'd probably be having the same discussion.
Minnesota high school shooting: Why is this not a big deal, but Columbine such a huge deal? Is it because shootings are old hat now? Something was different about Columbine that made it a big deal in in the aftermath of the Paducah shootings and the Jonesboro shootings, but what makes this one not? Can we blame it on 9/11 like everything else? I say no to 9/11. If anything, the Schiavo case shows that the Media has an incredibly short memory for scandal and no sense of a larger perspective at all. Can we blame it on the Media? Yes, I say, let's do that! Columbine happened in the midst of a slow news month, and it also came with some good news footage: kids jumping out of windows, killers stalking around on surveillance video, bloody corpses on the sidewalk, and armored SWAT teams surrounding the building. What did this Minnesota school shooting bring to the table? Sure, the Media tried to report on it, but when they showed the same old footage of a high school hallway with crime scene tape on it, people changed the channel. The next big school shooting will happen in a school that has color surveillance video. That makes for better copy.
Lastly, in response to Marmar's foreign policy platform, I'd like to offer a few additional thoughts as to the Iraq war and my continuing impression of Georgie boy. I wrote a few months ago that the Iraq war can't be judged in the context of a few months. I do stand by that. But that shouldn't have stopped me from pointing out flaws in the intermediate stages. From a larger perspective, I recently read a book encouraging people to think about international politics from a civilizational paradigm. And what the author not-so-cleverly tries to mask is that the civilizational divide is a religious divide. The war in Iraq represents Judeo-Christianity against Islam, and from that view, it is doomed to failure. No matter what happens in Iraq it will be seen as yet another example of the West trying to impose its values on the rest of the world. Somehow I just doubt you can force a liberal democracy on a people that want to be ruled by fundamentalist theocracy. This all leads me back to my only enduring point: fuck religion. That should be your foreign policy, Marmar.
# posted by Stuart @ 7:00 PM 
