Author: VD

I like the rossoneri over Barca by a 1-0 mark in the first leg tonight. Tomorrow, tune in for a running diary of Arsenal’s showdown with Villareal. I’m hoping to see my two favorite teams go head-to-head in the final, if so, mi dispiace but I have to stick with the Gunners.

In preparation for tomorrow night, I watched Thierry Henry’s first through 40th goals for Arsenal this afternoon. I’ll watch the next sixty tomorrow, as Spacebunny was kind enough to buy me the Centurions DVD. (100 goals each, Bergkamp and Henry.) Speaking of which, it was a delight to see Dennis score the putaway goal in his testimonial game on Saturday. If this is his final year, I would so much like to see them send him off a European Champion.

The champagne is flowing at Fox News and the other cable news channels this morning:

Duke University lacrosse players Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty were charged today with first degree forcible rape, first degree sexual offense and kidnapping in connection with a reported rape at a Duke lacrosse party, according to George Naylor, director of the Durham County Jail.

I’m not surprised that the prosecutor decided to roll the dice with his career and press charges. Nifong is clearly a camera whore in the Giuliani mode, and failing to press charges after running around and giving press conferences as he’s been doing would make him look like the farce he is.

When he loses the case, as he’s bound to, he will blame the racist jury and the unfairness of a power structure that doesn’t blindly take the word of a drunk/drugged black woman over 47+ others who dispute it.

After all, women NEVER lie about these things….

The doctor is on his way out:

Art and medicine have worked hand in hand for a long time. To improve his art, Leonardo dissected bodies. To improve his anatomy treatise, Andreas Vesalius relied on the artistry of Titian’s workshop.

But the other day, in the European paintings wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a group of seven would-be doctors had a different kind of reason to appreciate the 17th-century Dutch biblical scene before them: course credit. Three years ago, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine began an art-appreciation course for medical students, joining a growing number of medical schools that are adding humanities to the usual forced march of physiology, pathology and microbiology.

Oh, this sounds just fabulous. How long will it be before med schools are giving an M.D. in Women’s Studies? The doctor won’t be able to do a damn thing for your medical condition, but at least she’ll really listen to how you feel about your illness.

“When I was a vet’s assistant, I always got choked up when putting a dog to sleep. With cats, I felt that all was right with the world and left work with a spring in my step.” – Chris Naron aka Catsbane

I respect the right of others to own reasonably sized cats, as long as they respect my right to never visit their homes. I loathed the skulking beasts even before I learned I was allergic to them, but I had so little to do with them that I didn’t even learn about the allergy until I was 20.

I much prefer dogs. They have some disgusting habits, to be sure, but like any good friend, they’ve always got your back. No one loves Spacebunny like her Ridgeback, she follows her everywhere, sulks when she’s gone and will defend her to the death, which, given the size and jaws, would most likely be someone else’s.

He actually postulates this as a difficult question:

I’ve always been curious about how a person can believe that God spoke to Moses and not become a Muslim. Allow me to explain my confusion.

For those who are not up to speed on your comparative religion, let me oversimplify it for you. Jews believe Moses communicated with God and that Jesus was a prophet. Christians believe that Moses communicated with God, plus Jesus is the son of God (or God himself). Muslims believe in Moses and Jesus (as human prophets) plus Mohammed.

Mohammed is known as the “seal of the prophets,” i.e. the last one, according to Mohammed, according to God.

Here’s where I get confused. I certainly understand anyone who believes that all prophets are phony. And I understand how someone could think they’re all real. But what’s the reasoning behind picking one or two prophets and assuming the more recent ones are phony?

I can understand why you might subscribe to the “big” prophets and poo-poo the fringe cult wannabe prophets. But Mohammed has exceptional credentials as far as prophets go. A billion people think so.

So for you Christians and Jews, especially Mormons, how do you go about deciding which prophets are the real ones? This is not a rhetorical question. I actually want to know.

That’s simply incredible. Even more amazing is this reaction from one of his readers, presumably an atheist: “It looks like you stumped the believers. I wish I could try to answer, but I’m a non-believer.”

Hold on there, Sherlock. The question strikes me as bordering on the bizarre, as one doesn’t even have to believe in any of the three religions concerned to provide the obvious answer, at least for the Christians. Moses did not deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Mohammed did. Jesus Christ personally affirmed the Mosaic Law, he did not and could not have affirmed any of Mohammed’s teachings. However, he did warn about false prophets and false teachers who would deny him and deceive many.

No doubt Jews will be also surprised to learn that they regard Jesus Christ as a prophet, especially considering how their past leaders demanded his execution for blasphemy.

I salute Mr. Adams newfound interest in matters spiritual, but this question reveals a poverty of thought that should be downright embarrassing.

The Girl Guides battle the mighty power of the massive breasts:

The initiative also follows a recent survey of teenage girls which revealed that 63 per cent would rather be a topless model than a doctor or a nurse, while one in four considered lap-dancing a good profession. Only 3 per cent aspired to be teachers.

The Teen Emotional Health Survey 2005, commissioned by Bliss magazine, found that Jordan, the glamour model, was a role model for more 15 to 19-year-olds than Rowling.

And here I thought it was amusing when “hard currency prostitute” was the dream profession for schoolgirls in the former Soviet Union some years ago. This is perhaps a lot funnier if you happen to know what a cheeseball Katie Price is.

At least feminists can console themselves that they haven’t taught young women seek marriage and motherhood like their poor oppressed predecessors. The irony of Shirley Manson being the face of this initiative is particularly sharp, given how she fronts a band comprised of extremely accomplished middle-aged men who write all the music. But hey, at least she looks all right in a corsette….

Guess which one is my contribution?

FANGS [Jonah Goldberg]

From a reader:
The things you think of on Monday morning . . . since I was out at a rattlesnake hunt this weekend and have kept some of those obstinate creatures in the past, I can guess that the top-fang tradition comes from human interactions (often fatally) with venomous snakes . . . which I would also bet is part of the vampire tradition as well (the bite does you in either way!) Bottom fangs are more associated with large predators (the big cats primarily, with their essentially equal upper and lower canines.) Now on to matters of statecraft . . .

And another reader:
Fangs pointing down are more civilized, hence vampires. Fangs pointing up are more bestial, like pig tusks, hence orcs, demons and so forth. The less human and less sympathy the reader/viewer are supposed to have for the monster, the more likely the fangs will point up.

I don’t know if National Review has a formal policy on not quoting WND or its writers, but in many years of reading it, I think I’ve seen about ten direct references and dozens of indirect ones such as this. I suppose they’re competitors and all, but they don’t seem to have the same problem with Salon and Air America. (Admittedly any similarly indirect references would escape me.)

I should be grateful to remain anonymous, of course, considering the creative grammar. One of these days I’m going to learn to stop changing direction in mid-sentence or at least read my emails before sending them.

Hellboy is one of the few exceptions to the rule that I can think of, but he’s supposed to look bestial even though he’s a hero of sorts.

A biography of Flaubert is reviewed in the NYT:

In a sense, Flaubert would always remain the Kid, the boy who dropped out of law school and came home and never left again, the writer who likened writing to masturbation (and sentences to ejaculate), and who, late in his life, would claim that “two things sustain me: love of Literature and hatred of the Bourgeois.” This is what Flaubert meant when he said that “Madame Bovary, c’est moi.” His most famous novel oscillates between this realism and romanticism. On the one hand, Emma Bovary’s dreams of escape, her reading of popular romances, are seen as deluded and vulgar; on the other, the “realists” who would condemn her are people like her dreadful mother-in-law and the pompous chemist, Homais. Flaubert scourges Emma and indulges her. He sees from her perspective, and seems to agree with her when she denounces life as “all lies.”

I read “A Simple Heart” last week, which reminded me of why I prefer Maupassant to Flaubert. When it comes to short stories, anyhow, the student surpassed the master. But I think I might have to pick up this biography anyhow, as I find the contradictory aspects of Flaubert’s character to be compelling. I particularly find his interest in historical fiction to be intriguing, as it is a much-dismissed genre these days in the eyes of the high literary circles that still nevertheless consider him to be one of the greats.

I wouldn’t go as far as the reviewer does in declaring Flaubert the originator of the modern novel, however, as modern is such a hopelessly relative term, if not completely meaningless. I champion no other author’s claim to the title, you understand, it’s only that seems overly arbitrary to place Dickens, Cervantes and Murasaki together in one category and Flaubert, Hemingway and Gibson in the other.

Scott Adams is a very successful and amusing cartoonist. On his blog, he occasionally writes about philosophy, science and religion, wherein he demonstrates that he is… an amusing cartoonist:

I also wonder if showing respect for all beliefs is causing more problems than it’s avoiding. The only thing that keeps most people from acting on their absurd beliefs is the fear that other people will treat them like frickin’ retards. Mockery is an important social tool for squelching stupidity. At least that’s what I tell people after I mock them. Or to put it another way, I’ve never seen anyone change his mind because of the power of a superior argument or the acquisition of new facts. But I’ve seen plenty of people change behavior to avoid being mocked.

Many of our biggest world problems are caused by different religious views. But it’s not socially acceptable to even discuss whether those views originate from the almighty or a drunken guy wizzing on a tree stump. At a bare minimum, just to pick one example, either Christianity or Islam is completely and utterly wrong. The beliefs are mutually exclusive. Muslims believe all Christians will burn in Hell. Christians believe that the Koran is fiction. They can’t both be right. (They could obviously both be wrong if the Heaven’s Gate guys turn out to have it right.)

First, I note that Mr. Adams must not associate with many intellectually curious individuals, because nearly every individual I know has changed his mind based on the acquisition of new facts. The public school advocate who now homeschools, the former Republican Inner Circle member who is now a libertarian anarchist, the girl with the Pro-Choice checks who now opposes abortion, the career girl with an MBA turned wife and stay-at-home mother, the staunch liberal Democrat turned Reaganite Republican… why, I even know of an agnostic hedonist turned Southern Baptist.

Like many maleducated atheists, Mr. Adams substitutes parroting a few false “truisms” he has heard and foolishly found compelling for original thinking. This is easily demonstrated, only consider this statement: “Many of our biggest world problems are caused by different religious views.”

Very well, what are those problems? Mr. Adams himself is apparently concerned about Global Warming. We can probably assume that War would make the list, along with Hunger, Disease, and, according to Mr. Seth Blatter of FIFA, Diving in International Football is a global issue as well. Interestingly enough, one can probably make a better religious case for Diving than for any of the other four “biggest world problems”.

Global Warming, if it exists at all, is caused by carbon emissions. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Carbon dioxide and other air pollution that is collecting in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun’s heat and causing the planet to warm up. Coal-burning power plants are the largest U.S. source of carbon dioxide pollution — they produce 2.5 billion tons every year. Automobiles, the second largest source, create nearly 1.5 billion tons of CO2 annually.

Which religion is responsible for coal-burning power plants and automobiles, Mr. Adams? Is solar power banned in the Book of Exodus? The Islamic Republic of Iran’s pursuit of uranium processing would seem to make it clear that the Koran is okay with nuclear power. And while there are those who preach against the internal combustion engine, they seldom do so from a position of authority within a church, mosque, synagogue or temple.

War, as I have demonstrated in the past, predates every existing religion. Of the 500 wars chronicled in Wikipedia, only 11 percent have any relation to religion at all and leaving out Islam – a religion of the sword – drops that percentage to less than 3 percent. Which of America’s wars were caused by religion, Mr. Adams, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War or the present Iraqi Occupation?

Hunger, as Mr. PJ O’Rourke proved so conclusively in “All the Trouble in the World” is a primarily a political phenomenon. Specifically, it is a socialist political phenomenon and a LACK of religion is more correctly considered a causal factor here. While it is possible for a socialist to be religious, (there are no shortage of Christian and Muslim socialists), the specific form of socialism dominant in nearly all of the famine-struck countries of the last eighty years, from the former Soviet Union to modern Zimbabwe, was an atheist one. It is not a coincidence that most of the socialist dictators who presided over the various African mass starvations were educated at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow.

Disease, insasmuch as it has any relation to religion at all, is negatively correlated with religion. This is true on the individual level, as New Scientist magazine reports that religious individuals get sick less often than non-believers, and on the societal level as well. In Uganda, for example, the abstinence-based ABC program has been far more successful in reducing the incidence of AIDS than the condom-based “safe sex” progams used in Kenya, Zimbabwe and other African countries. Does Mr. Adams argue that there would be less disease without the hundreds of thousands of Christian charity workers active around the world? Has the rejection of religious doctrine reduced or increased the incidence of STDs in America’s heterosexual and homosexual communities alike?

Diving in International Football, on the other hand, is at its worst in Italy, a Catholic country where footballers often cross themselves upon entering the game. Here, and only here, Mr. Adams just might have a point. Whether Diving is as serious a global problem as Global Warming, War, Hunger and Disease I leave to the reader to decide. And perhaps readers might be able to suggest other “biggest world problems” I have neglected to address here, so that we can consider whether or not religion is the primary cause of them.

As far as the contradictions between Islam and Christianity are concerned, I merely recommend to Mr. Adams a literary criticism of the two foundational documents by the atheist Christopher Hitchens as a useful starting point.