Eamonn Fitzgerald posted the following at Rainy Day and, at my suggestion that it fit nicely on this blog devoted to Arts and Ammo, he has graciously given permission to reproduce it.
There we were, at the Imperial War Museum in London, standing under the barrel of a 15-inch naval gun. In 1914, this was the most powerful of the big guns used by Royal Navy battleships. It weighed 100 tons and, at maximum range, could fire a 2,000 lb (876 kg) shell 16.5 miles (29 km). It was used on D-Day to shell enemy positions around Caen, but it also saw action in 1920 during the Greco-Turkish War. Which led to thoughts of that famous 1571 naval battle with the Ottoman Turks in which 32,000 died and Miguel de Cervantes fought alongside the “lean and foolish knight” he would later immortalize in Don Quixote.
“Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath / (Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.) / And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain, / Up which a lean and foolish knight forever rides in vain, / And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the blade… / (But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)” Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton
May 23rd, 2008
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Fitzroy |
Ammo, Literature |
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The European Court of Human Rights will hear a case involving a chimp:
Animal rights activists led by British teacher Paula Stibbe are fighting to have Matthew legally declared a ‘person’ so she can be appointed as his guardian if the bankrupt animal sanctuary where he lives in Vienna is forced to close.
(Sigh.) Where to start? If Matthew is declared a “person,” then he will presumably be an adult person since he is already 26 years old. Once he’s an adult person, he should have the right to represent himself. So perhaps the next step in this case needs to involve having Matthew declared incompetent so that the animal rights activist Paula Stibbe can be appointed his guardian. But that puts us back where we started: Stibbe will argue that Matthew is a person, but an incompetent person. Well, duh!
If Matthew is declared incompetent simply because he’s a chimpanzee, then presumably all chimpanzees would be incompetent, 
unless Stibbe can show that Matthew is an unusually stupid chimp. From his photo, he looks like a perfectly normal and astute chimp to me. (Matthew is pictured on the left.) If all chimps are declared incompetent, as a class, then I guess that will prevent them from being able to contract, or vote, or marry, or have abortions. (Well, probably not the last two – those are such “fundamental” rights.)
(Well okay, in some states probably not the last three.)
If, on the other hand, Matthew is a “competent person,” then he should enjoy all of the “human rights” that apply to the rest of us. This will make Matthew eligible for jury duty, where he might be asked to determine the competence of some other “person” – like Stibbe, for example. And why not? Matthew, after all, probably knows that he is a chimp and does not even aspire to be a “person,” which makes him arguably a lot more competent than Stibbe.
So, in the final analysis, I think it makes more sense for Matthew to adopt Stibbe. Maybe he can serve as a useful example to her of someone who accepts the world as it is.
It’s enough to make you conclude that Darwin was half right. He just read his evolutionary charts backwards.
May 22nd, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Law |
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Historian David McCullough spoke at the Boston College graduation ceremony and offered this advice on what the graduates could do for their country:
“Please, please do what you can to cure the verbal virus that seems increasingly rampant among your generation,” McCullough implored Boston College’s class of 2008 at commencement ceremonies Monday.
He said he’s particularly troubled by the “relentless, wearisome use of words” such as like, awesome and actually.
“Just imagine if in his inaugural address John F. Kennedy had said, ‘Ask not what your country can, you know, do for you, but what you can, like, do for your country actually,” he said.
Graduates apparently thought his speech was, like, awesome. They gave him a standing ovation.
Right on, David. Far Out! But seriously, most of the fad expressions of the baby boomers eventually died out, so there’s hope for the demise of current kidspeak. We boomers came up with a few rhetorical flourishes that were colorful or cryptic, although we peppered our speech with “like” and “you know” out of sheer laziness – perhaps as much as the current generation.
The problem seems rather the same as it was in 1960 when Lee Adams wrote the lyrics to Bye Bye Birdie:
Kids!
I don’t know what’s wrong with these kids today!
Kids!
Who can understand anything they say?
May 21st, 2008
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Language |
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New photos were published recently at The Huffington Post purporting to show the horrors unleashed on Hiroshima by America’s use of the atomic bomb. Le Monde picked up the photos and ran them under the title “Hiroshima: What the world never saw.” Le Nouvel Observateur commented, “These photographs are not in the least surprising, knowing what the Americans are capable of doing in war; Vietnam and Iraq are examples.”
Problem is, they are not photos of Hiroshima, but rather photos of Tokyo after the 1923 earthquake. Rainy Day has the story:
Le Monde was forced to back down and it printed a petulant apology on 13 May in which it blamed everyone involved, except itself of course. Still, it is sad to see that a once-great newspaper has fallen so low now that it does not even double-check the sources of the photos it prints. (What other untruths has it foisted upon its readers of late?) And has The Huffington Post amended its 3 May post to acknowledge the error that generated so much falsehood and hatred? Of course not. It is a rag. And a brazen one at that.
But suppose that the photos really were of Hiroshima. What would they tell us that we don’t already know? Nothing, really. Huffington and Le Monde used the photos as an excuse to say once again what they say often. We all know that, all things being equal, it’s better not to be present at a nuclear blast.
Other blogs and amateur commentators used the photos to justify their cause du jour. The morally preening Bare Naked Pundits, for example, found them useful in criticizing Hillary for threatening to “obliterate” Iran. The pictures prove that nuclear weapons are more horrific than any other consequence (even though the photos actually depict a very different event).
But staring at these vast fields of bodies we see the truth: outside of the city’s center, outside of Ground Zero, this instant vaporization is not what occurs. There would have been fear and panic for these people. They would have had time to realize what was happening, to know they would die, to think final thoughts about their spouses, their children, their homes, their dreams. Then they would have time to feel the pain, for it is obvious from the state of the corpses that the searing heat of the explosion was the cause of many of these deaths, those who did not die in the cataclysmic collapses of the buildings they were innocently sitting in.
The references to Ground Zero, to the collapse of buildings, to the last thoughts of innocent victims strike no note of irony. For this blogger, there are only nukes and anti-nukes, and all other dangers can be conveniently ignored.
May 20th, 2008
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Fitzroy |
Ammo |
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Fox News has this:
Dr. Norman Spack, a pediatric specialist at [Boston Children’s Hospital], has launched a clinic for transgendered kids – boys who feel like girls, girls who want to be boys – and he’s opening his doors to patients as young as 7.
Spack offers his younger patients counseling and drugs that delay the onset of puberty. . . .
Spack also offers some teenagers hormone therapy, a drastic step that changes the way they grow and develop. While the effects of drug treatments can be stopped, long-term hormone therapy can be irreversible, causing permanent infertility in both sexes.
How will we obtain informed consent from these minors for life-altering medical treatment? What expert psychologist will sort out the kids who have serious problems from those going through some goofy stage or looking for new ways to traumatize their parents?
Any boy diagnosed as transgendered who reaches the age of 18 and decides he wants to be a man after all will have a slam dunk suit against every professional who touched his file. Some plaintiffs’ lawyers are going to get rich.
According to Austin Nimocks, senior legal counsel for the conservative Alliance Defense, parents and doctors may not be safe from litigation if children are made sterile due to hormonal treatments – even if they do sign waivers.
Waivers from children? I don’t think so. Waivers from parents? Not good enough. Will the now-grown child have to prove he’s actually sterile, or just that he was made into a girlie man by some overzealous doctor and confused parent? If you invest in a company underwriting insurance policies for these quacks, it’s time to sell.
Injecting a note of sanity is Dr. Paul McHugh, University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at John Hopkins University, who called gender reassignment “barbaric.”
May 19th, 2008
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Law |
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St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Anglican Church on Trafalgar Square, traces its history back to 1222. From the official web site:
St Martin-in-the-Fields is a landmark church in the heart of London and is well known for its welcoming atmosphere, award-winning Café, popular classical 
and jazz concerts and historic James Gibbs architecture. It aims to be the “Church of the Ever Open Door” and has at its heart a practical and hospitable Christianity that seeks to “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”.
The current structure, completed in 1726, has just undergone a £36m restoration. Simon Jenkins writes that “Even an atheist can marvel at this exquisite refuge for the urban poor.”
The exterior of St Martin’s must be the most famous of any parish church in the world. This is despite, or perhaps because of, James Gibbs’s architectural solecism of putting the gothic form of a tapering steeple on the classical form of a portico. The steeple was called by Nikolaus Pevsner a “doubtful blessing” and by David Piper a “misplaced eyetooth”.
From the moment it opened in 1726, with George I “of this parish” as its first churchwarden, St Martin’s was the definitive symbol of Anglican worship, repeated a thousand times across America, Africa and Asia. In New England, the steeple-on-portico is synonymous with Episcopalian. Even the tiny church that overlooks Antarctica’s McMurdo Sound is of this form.
Jenkins focuses also on the benevolent work of the church, and, from his perspective as an atheist, seems rather astonished that some entity might rival government in looking after the poor. He contends that redistributing wealth through taxes could be as efficient if only the government had chosen to do it on a more local level. Instead, Britain “removed the link between giver and receiver” and “reduced welfare to an alien and bureaucratic wasteland.” Still, Jenkins can conceive of “no reason why voluntary social service need be motivated by religion” and suggests that secular relief organizations take possession of failing churches.
But St Martin’s is emphatically a church, and its revival is a salutary tale of our times. It has raised its own money to beautify the city as well as to assist the homeless. We may choose to leave the faith out of it, but we can yet marvel at the mission.
Jenkins works hard to wring faith out of the equation, although without it, St. Martin’s would not be “emphatically a church.” And state-coerced welfare seems to be Jenkin’s only alternative. So as he marvels at St. Martin’s – the history, the building, the mission – he might give just a little more credit to the faith that motivated it all.
When the bureaucratic wasteland produces a St. Martin-in-the-Fields, we should all listen respectfully as Jenkins explains how those without faith accomplished it.
May 19th, 2008
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Fitzroy |
Politics, Religion |
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John Kass at The Chicago Tribune offers a free Get Out of Watching the “Sex and the City” Movie Card. If that’s what it takes, then by all means get one. I have not seen the movie, but I tried watching the TV show once.
Millions of men are sick about this movie based on a TV show about four terrifying, rich, aging, elitist women who whine about sex and men and purchase $700 pairs of shoes to feel better about themselves. What guy wouldn’t love such a movie?
Phil from Newcastle upon Tyne apparently speaks for the millions of men:
“I don’t think SATC is just for girls. I am a reasonably well-adjusted bloke and I am looking forward to seeing the film with my girlfriend. I am then looking forward to poking my eyes out with red-hot pokers, burning my skin off, and rolling around in salt for a while.”
And then there’s this headline: Stars Reveal “Sex and the City” Movie Might Be Kind of a Downer.
Steve cheats on Miranda, Samantha cheats on Smith Jared, and Big leaves Carrie at the altar. . . . Cynthia Nixon says Steve’s cheating is about “even more than unfaithfulness.”
Isn’t it always?
May 18th, 2008
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Film, Leisure |
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The AP says the public is moving from premium beers to cheaper brands. According to Tom Long, CEO of Miller Brewing:
“We think it’s primarily driven by decline of disposable income and pocket money that American consumers are feeling right now,” he said.
Long said the volume of beers sold remains stable, but the company expects to sell more lower-priced beers this year if gas prices continue to rise.
For those caught in the crunch, you may want to do some research at the Cheap Beer Server or check out the field research done by enterprising students at Oberlin College.
Or you may want to spend your disposable cash on a flight to London where beer is reportedly very cheap.
Supermarkets are selling beer at a cheaper price than water, fuelling concern over their role in Britain’s binge-drinking crisis.
Despite repeated public health warnings, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda now offer lager at just 22p a can - less per litre than their ownbrand-mineral water and cola, and cheap enough to allow someone to get drunk for just £1.
Cheap beer is seen as a threat to public health according to this report.
Public-health bodies, doctors and MPs were furious when confronted with the findings.
Don Shenker, director of policy for Alcohol Concern, said: “There is no justification for the sale of lager at such a ridiculously low price.
Maybe Shenker should taste the lager before making that pronouncement. I’ve encountered some lagers that would be overpriced at 22p.
Photo by dr_sponge
May 16th, 2008
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Leisure |
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Another report on the rebuilding of New Orleans emphasizes the success of small-scale neighborhood actions. Nicole Gelinas writes in The Dallas Morning News. The population of New Orleans now stands at 302,000, significantly higher than the 247,000 that was earlier projected for this time.
The early attempts to take a big-government approach, with central planning and appropriations that became the subject of political disputes, failed. Neighborhoods, churches, and local communities succeeded.
One of those citizens was Father Nguyen The Vien, a Roman Catholic priest in a Vietnamese-American enclave of flooded New Orleans East. Father Vien and his parishioners showed that after a disaster, neighborhood and church connections can mean the difference between reconstruction and abandonment.
The highest ground in New Orleans tends to be the older areas that were built close to the river, so many of the suburbs were hardest hit. The Lakeview area, for example, saw 7 feet of water in most areas.
Today, 44 percent of Lakeview’s population is back – a significant accomplishment because many residents were returning not to recoup the value of houses but to build from scratch.
When you compare this success to the early failure of Mayor Nagin’s plans and other government planning and to the ongoing lack of progress at ground zero in New York, there are clear lessons to be learned about what government can do and what it can’t. People operate more efficiently at the local level where they are closer to the decision-making process.
This approach differs markedly from the reaction to the nation’s other recent large-scale disaster, the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In New York, the state government, which had a long history of centrally planning huge projects, quickly monopolized control over rebuilding. Ground Zero, unfortunately, seemed the perfect opportunity for such an approach. The World Trade Center had been built as a government scheme 30 years before. Today, Ground Zero is still an early-stage construction site.
This report echoes the points made in our post from a few weeks ago.
May 15th, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Politics |
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Behold the wit and wisdom of Sean Penn. He was quoted today on the topic of Barack Obama.
I hope that he will understand, if he is the nominee, the degree of disillusionment that will happen if he doesn’t become a greater man than he will ever be.
That’s a tall order for any candidate. Maybe Penn would do better to stick with the Army’s slogan – the potentially achievable “Be all that you can be.” Then again, maybe he would do better to stick simply to acting. Then again . . .
May 14th, 2008
Posted by
Fitzroy |
Film, Language, Politics |
one comment
