The Economist has a dopey editorial about “gene doping” in this week’s magazine. It is along the lines seen so often in our debates about culture and biotechnology, paraphrased as “we are already on the slippery slope, so we might as well enjoy the ride,” or “the . . . . Continue Reading »
Washington State columnist Angie Vogt has written a good piece that pierces the dark heart of assisted suicide advocacy to reveal what lies beneath the paeans to compassion and choice. From her column, “Assisted Suicide is a Dying Movement:” Nihilism: A philosophy that argues that life . . . . Continue Reading »
My friend, Stephen Schwartz , sends this note from Kosovo: Although now independent, the republic of Kosovo remains subject to United Nations jurisdiction, regarding, among other issues, protection of the Serbian minority in the territory. UN policies on the Kosovo Serb minority have become . . . . Continue Reading »
Once one accepts the premise that suicide is an acceptable answer to the problems of human suffering and ennui, there are no boundaries that will hold for long. Example: EXIT is apparently getting ready to assist the suicides of elderly people who are tired of living—announced by an assisted . . . . Continue Reading »
Masab Youssef, the 30-year-old son of a top Hamas operative in the West Bank, spoke to Ha’aretz today about his conversion to Christianity, his respect for Israel, and his conviction that political organizations guided by Islam never will make peace with the Jewish State. Masab’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Critical Care Medicine, the journal for intensive care doctors, has published a study (no link available) of the Texas futile care law (Crit Care Med 2007 Vol. 35, No. 5), which allows hospital ethics committees to order unilateral termination of life-sustaining treatment, and only gives patient . . . . Continue Reading »
Andrey Rublev, an early fifteenth-century monk in Moscow, is considered by many to be the best Russian icon painter . His work was recently pointed out to me by a young Hungarian woman, who has spent a good bit of time in Russia. Kati writes: “I cannot tell how and why, but somehow it is . . . . Continue Reading »
Today’s New York Sun reviews a fascinating book by Tim Tzouliadis that catalogs some of the forgotten casualties of the Communism. (I found the review on Arts & Letters Daily .) The Forsaken tells the story of Americans who moved to the USSR to help complete the “building of . . . . Continue Reading »
The old C.C.C. buildings from the 1930s are more than a little run down, but they are what gives the place its tone and shapeat least, as I remember the Black Hills Playhouse when I was young. A sort of summer stock theater, run out of the University of South Dakota’s theater department . . . . Continue Reading »