Vox Popoli

Chad the Elder laments a lack:

Unlike newspapers, there is no Page Two on blogs where we can bury corrections in 8pt font and we most certainly don’t have a “Reader’s Representative” to justify our actions, refuse to admit mistakes, and cavalierly dismiss criticism (although at times such an apologist certainly would come in handy).

Since I, like nature, abhor a vaccuum, (at least when it isn’t also a robot), I have decided it behooves me to volunteer to serve as the “Reader’s Representative” for the Fraters Libertas. Please feel free to direct all whines, whinges and moans about their various shortcomings to me, and I shall be quick to address them with all the grace, aplomb and even-handedness of the Star & Sickle’s own Reader’s Representative, Dogbert… that is to say, Kate Parry.

By the way, I’ll be in the Fraters house this Saturday, where we’ll be playing lacrosse with strippers, among other things. 12 noon on NARN.

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.