The Intelligence Squared Debate - Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry vs. The Catholics (Part 1/5)

The question is whether the Catholic Church is a force for good in the world. I would think it's a pretty easy question, but the two speakers on the "pro" side are so weak that it's even easier than it should be. Still, if you watch, you will probably agree with me that Hitch and Fry have the better of the argument.

Daniel Hauser is alive and cancer-free

Almost six months ago we posted here about Daniel Hauser, a teenager in Minnesota whose parents were trying to deny him the cancer treatment that might save his life. Fortunately for Daniel, a judge took custody of him, appointed a guardian, and required him to undergo the treatment.

Now that his treatment is finished, Danny's physicians reported that their tests show no evidence of the Hodgkin's lymphoma that was first diagnosed last winter, Zwakman said. Earlier, they had warned that the cancer probably would kill him if it went untreated.

Even the family appears to consider this good news:

"He's one happy boy now," family spokesman Dan Zwakman said. "His smile is back, his energy is back, and he may be out harvesting corn for the dairy cows this afternoon." Zwakman met with the family after Danny's final radiation treatment Friday at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.

They appear to attribute his recovery not to the medical treatment he has received, but to dietary supplements and a strict diet. Still, we can all be glad that this boy's parents were not allowed to kill him.

The end of the world

Three big elections today. The governor's race in New Jersey. The governor's race in Virginia. A special election for House across the lake in New York. If you've been reading the press reports, you know what these elections mean, right?

Exactly. If the Democrats lose these elections it means that Obama is all washed up, the Democratic Party might as well close down and surrender, and the Republican Party is now on top again, probably permanently.

All from three data points.

This is obviously nonsense. We are looking at three different elections, with three different sets of issues and personalities, and at least three different sets of reasons for whoever wins winning.

Let's take Virginia first, since we already know that the Republican won there. Virginia is a traditionally Republican state, and last year was the first time a Democrat won the presidential vote there since 1964. Although he was looking to succeed a Democratic governor, Creigh Deeds apparently ran a weak campaign, and wasn't able to generate the kind of turnout that Obama generated just a year ago.

Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean told TPMDC that Deeds "just did not run the kind of campaign we'd all hoped for," in part because he was a surprise winner of the primary.

"He had a lot of ground to make up in terms of finances," Dean said.

So Deeds lost, but nobody is surprised by that.

Next, let's look at New Jersey, the state where I grew up. Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine is trailing challenger Chris Christie and the AP has called the race for Christie. Still, in this race that has been personally nasty, the outcome is much more likely to be determined by who voters dislike more, Corzine or Christie.

Finally, in the NY-23 House race, a three-person race has been reduced to a two-person race, with Republican Dede Scozzafava dropping out and throwing her support to Democrat Bill Owens, leaving the conservative field to Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman. This is a district that never elects Democrats, and might not elect one this time. What we see here in microcosm, though, is the meltdown of the Republican Party, and Dede Scozzafava the latest victim of the purge of the Republican Party by the right wing extremists. Whatever happens, it doesn't look like bad news for the Democrats.

One final note about what this means for Obama. Exit surveys have asked voters what they think of Obama's performance so far. In Virginia, 50% of the voters say they disapprove of Obama's performance and 49% saying they approve, so he's basically breaking even there. In New Jersey, underscoring the impression that the election is being decided on personalities, 58% of the voters say they approve of Obama's performance, and even 25% of them are voting against the Democratic incumbent.

So are today's elections a referendum on Obama's performance? Like other myths that have been retailed as conventional wisdom lately (read: the public has rejected the public option) this clearly appears to be false. Instead, what we see is that neither Creigh Deeds nor Jon Corzine had the unprecedented combination of personal appeal, campaign organization, and a historic move for change that Obama was able to generate to put them over the top.

Maybe it's premature to measure Obama for his coffin.

President Obama Signs Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill Into Law

A great step by Obama, another promise kept.

And I can't help but ask: what are the odds McCain would have done this?

Tell me there's no difference.

Mr. Deity and the Identity Crisis

Confused about the Trinity idea? So are Mr. Deity and the Boy.

This is the best Scientology has?

This is rich. I don't know if I can think of another religion that tells its adherents to refuse to discuss the tenets of the religion, can you?

Handy Religion Chooser

As with so many great ideas, I got this from PZ Myers, who in turn got it from grrlscientist.

Where do you fit in?

Soupy Sales - "The Mouse"

Soupy Sales, 1926-2009.

Bill Maher makes Bill Frist look smart

How hard is that? Pretty hard, right?

A lot of people, liberals especially, get ideas from Bill Maher. In truth, he does have some good ideas, but much of what he says comes in a reactionary context.

His vaccine thing is an illustration of this point, and of how dangerous it is to let someone like him, without a well-formulated framework of thought, guide your own thinking.

Take this discussion on the H1N1 vaccine. It sounds appealing. Right now a lot of people are skeptical of the government, and of this particular vaccine, and not all of them are anti-vaxxers. But listen to what Maher says at just about 0:45 of this video. "I would never get a swine flu vaccine, or any other vaccine."

"Or any other vaccine."

He'd rather take his chance with measles, which used to cause hundreds of deaths per year in the United States before the vaccine was developed?

Or polio, which infected almost 60,000 people and killed more than 3,000 in the United States in 1952 alone? Or would he rather be one of the 440,000 people in the United States at risk of developing post-polio syndrome?

Or perhaps he'd rather be one of the 300-500 million people who died of smallpox in the 20th Century.

Or maybe he just figures that he won't get one of these diseases, and when he has kids he won't get one of them, so if it means he's subjecting other people to them, well that's just too bad.

There are always too many reasons to distrust government. So don't. Listen to the scientists, not the comedians.

Illegal anti-gay discrminiation

Slate has a piece this afternoon about how the New York City police continue to arrest people under an anti-cruising law that was voided as unconstitutional way back in 1983.

It's true. [I]n the 26 years of this law's odd posthumous career, district attorneys brought 4,750 prosecutions and judges convicted 2,550 defendants. For violating an imaginary law, these defendants paid a decidedly non-imaginary $70,000 in bail and $190,000 in court fees and fines. In the last 10 years, NYPD officers also issued 9,693 citations, forcing citizens to pay $71,000 in fees. The criminal records of these victims have never been expunged and the fees and fines have not been refunded.

The city was sued in a class action last year, and the NYPD brass told the police to cross out the relevant section in their copies of the Penal Code. Yet they're still arresting people.

This raises a couple of questions. First, what of the illegal conduct by public officials up and down the line, from beat cops up to the assistant district attorneys who prosecute those cases? How can an ADA justify signing a complaint alleging that the defendant violated a law that doesn't exist?

Odds on whether any of those ADA's have been brought up on ethics charges? My bet would be the same as yours: zero.



Another question that occurs to me, though, goes all the way out of New York to Minneapolis, and Senator Larry "Wide Stance" Craig. Sure, the crime he was charged with and convicted of was disorderly conduct, not cruising. Still, the essence of the crime was not hypocrisy, much as we wish it was, but looking for sex with another man.

If we are rightly outraged about what has happened to thousands in New York, what should we think about one confused senator from Idaho?

Local author makes good

My friend Kevin Brown has been working on a series of local mysteries for years. The first one is out, and today he got a nice write-up in the Times Argus about it.

History mystery

For Montpelier writer Kevin Macneil Brown, the abandoned roads, overgrown paths and historic waterways of New England offer up stories both real and imagined. The protagonist of his recently self-published mystery novel, "Compass, Water, Stone and Time," is historian and trail runner Liam Dutra. When an ancient, tattered journal comes his way, the quest for answers leads him to the surprising connections between an 1866 rebellion by Irish Republicans in Vermont and a series of present-day murders taking place in the shadows of nearby Irish Hill Ridge.

Brown has written articles exploring nature, history and outdoor adventure for New England magazines and newspapers. He also performs with the local country-rock band Rusty Romance.

His book is available at Bear Pond Books in Montpelier and other local stores.

Mr. Deity and the Science Advisor

Sure, "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" makes you sound smart, but so what?

Second Amendment Follies

Man Shoots Fiancee Day Before Wedding
AP

WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. (Oct. 10) - A man who thought there was an intruder in his house shot and killed his fiancee the day before they were to be married, police said Friday.
"Right now everything points to a tragic accident," Police Chief Kevin Brunelle told The Associated Press, adding investigators were awaiting forensic results.
John Tabutt, 62, told investigators he got his gun when he thought he heard an intruder, then fired at a figure in the hallway, according to Brunelle. It was Tabutt's live-in fiancee, 62-year-old Nancy Dinsmore, who family members say he was going to marry Saturday. Tabutt told authorities he thought she was next to him in bed the whole time.

Obama on Winning the Nobel Prize

There has been a lot of discussion on Obama's having been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Setting aside what the unhinged wingers have to say, I've agreed with almost all of it. Of course Obama's accomplishments do not equal those of many deserving winners. Nobody claims they do. As I mentioned on FaceBook this morning, this is like an author's advance: you still have to write the book.

I think Obama gets it right in his statement this morning:

I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize -- men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women, and all Americans, want to build -- a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents. And I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action -- a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.

This is huge, eh?

I sure wasn't thinking this was on the horizon. We can already predict the reaction from the wingers: this is all part of his cult of personality, he's never done anything, blah blah blah. And there is no doubt that there will be attacks from the left, both claiming that it's premature and that he's continuing Bush's warmongering policies.

On the other hand, look at the context. For eight years the United States, still the world's dominant power, had abandoned anything but a pretense of internationalism with a combination of unilateral imperialism and what could be called command diplomacy. The result: wars around the world, strengthened terrorism, and continued hostilities in the Middle East.

I think we can take the Nobel Committee at their world when they say, “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future but for what he has done in the previous year. We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.”

In other words, in a world where international cooperation has become a radical concept, the Nobel Committee is taking the opportunity to be an active player on the world stage and support any efforts in that direction.

I support this decision.

Victims, Villains, and Heroes

Do you know what a "dead peasant" policy is? You would if you were the widow of a former employee of Amegy Bank, in Texas, which collected approximately five million dollars after he died of cancer. These policies as "often secret" and "taken out by companies on unwitting employees, which can yield sizable corporate tax breaks." In her article, Ms. Schultz opens as follows: "For years, American companies have taken out life insurance on millions of their employees, harvesting tax advantages that fatten their coffers and collecting death benefits when they die. Now, some family members are crying foul." Pretty scummy, huh?

What about plutonomy, a word so strange the spell check program here doesn't recognize it? According to an internal 2006 Citigroup memo regarding "America, which has turned into a modern day plutonomy". With the wonders of the internets (sic) I was able to unearth at least part of the report, which frankly pretty much reinforces things that are plainly obvious.

In a "plutonomy", according to Citigroup global strategist Ajay Kapur, economic growth is powered by and largely consumed by the wealthy few.

If it were someone on the Left pointing out this uncomfortable fact we would have been accused of fomenting class struggle. What if it's a giant bank, which is not only describing, but celebrating this key fact of the world economy? As usual, accusations of "class struggle" seem to be reserved for those of us who point out who's winning.

I learned about both of these concepts, and many more, from Michael Moore's new movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, which opened last night at the Savoy. In addition to the victims, like families losing their homes to rapacious banks; and villains who have gotten rich off the taxpayers; Moore presents us with heroes, including Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and the workers at Republic Door and Window, who staged a sit-in at their factory until the company agrees to pay them the Trade Readjustment Act money it owed them.

You might say this is standard Michael Moore fare, and I guess that would be right. Still, the combination of outrage, humor, and insight into things you've never heard of make this worth seeing. A love story? Well, that is something I question.