14 Monday Feb 2022
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
≈ Comments Off on Friends in China
“Social media,” likely the echoing variety, is angry that the Chinese have a moral standard and they are not willing to compromise by allowing second-rate, has been Gen X filth like “Friends.” One can keep Hollywood values or one can keep civilization. China chose wisely.
31 Sunday Mar 2019
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
≈ Comments Off on Cutting the Subsidies
Tags
The cost of the migrant caravan is going up as Trump cuts illicit aid to three countries.
Democratic Representative Nita Lowey, who chairs the committee, tweeted that the move to cut aid was “immoral and more likely to deteriorate conditions that push people into the kind of poverty and despair that exacerbates migration.”
New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Trump’s order a “reckless announcement” and urged Democrats and Republicans alike to reject it.
“U.S. foreign assistance is not charity; it advances our strategic interests and funds initiatives that protect American citizens,” Menendez said in a statement.
Trump claimed on Friday during a trip to Florida that the countries had “set up” caravans of migrants in order to export them into the United States. A surge of asylum seekers from the three countries have sought to enter the United States across its southern border in recent days.
“We were giving them $500 million. We were paying them tremendous amounts of money, and we’re not paying them anymore because they haven’t done a thing for us,” Trump said.
Good first step, Mr. President. I temper my harsher words from the other day. He’s right, they haven’t done anything for us, rather they’re doing to us.
Lowey and Mendendez are fools. The immorality of the things is in the theft from Americans of money then used to import problems for the same Americans to deal with – a double-edged sword of which we’re catching both sides. And, we have a vested interest in preserving and defending THIS country.
$500 million would pay of many an A-10 sortie.
05 Wednesday Jul 2017
Posted in News and Notes
Tags
Catholic Church, Donald Trump, freedom, Gary North, medicine, morality, UK
Two things:
First, as an add-on to my Opposite of Free Market Medicine, the sad story of little Charlie Gard of the UK, President Trump offers assistance, if possible:
President Trump on Monday offered to help a critically ill British child who has become a flashpoint in the United Kingdom debate over whether the government should have a say in individual matters pertaining to life and death.
Trump tweeted his support for Charlie Gard, a 10-month-old infant on life support due to complications from a mitochondrial disease. The controversy around Gard has engulfed the Vatican, which infuriated some on the right by not immediately siding entirely with the parents, who want to seek experimental medication in the U.S. or bring their child home to die.
“If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so,” Trump tweeted.
Let’s hope there’s something more official than a tweet behind this measure.
The Pope and the Vatican also weighed in. Oddly the “pro-life” Church seems to imply a big dose of Romans 13 is the cure here.
The Vatican has weighed in, saying “we must do what advances the health of the patient, but we must also accept the limits of medicine” and “avoid aggressive medical procedures that are disproportionate to any expected results or excessively burdensome to the patient or the family.”
“Likewise, the wishes of parents must be heard and respected, but they too must be helped to understand the unique difficulty of their situation and not be left to face their painful decisions alone,” Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia wrote.
“If the relationship between doctor and patient (or parents as in Charlie’s case) is interfered with, everything becomes more difficult and legal action becomes a last resort, with the accompanying risk of ideological or political manipulation, which is always to be avoided, or of media sensationalism, which can be sadly superficial.”
I suggest that “dying with dignity” when a possible cure is available might not be lawful authority. Also, “sadly superficial” would seem to encompass the Vatican press office.
Vader does not bear the light saber for no reason.
Secondly, yesterday I plugged for Gary North’s (correct) position on the Fourth of July, the Revolution for higher taxes and all. He also recently posted some good advice for getting over your adolesent self.
I know people who, at age 16, did not have a strong self-image, and they have been afflicted ever since. The sooner anyone can shake this negative self-image, the better.
I recommend that at some point you should take leadership in some area of your life. In some area, you are in a position to exercise leadership. You may not have found this yet, but you are way ahead of the curve in terms of what most of your peers are aware of today. You will be in an even stronger position as the economy becomes less predictable and more threatening to millions of Americans. In a time of crisis, influence and power flow to those who take responsibility. That’s why the good guys had better be willing to take responsibility.
Read the whole thing. It’s good. You’re not 16 anymore (unless you really are). Move on.
There you have it: 13 and 16. Numerologists, make of that what you will…
04 Wednesday May 2016
Posted in News and Notes
Tags
Heaven, Jesus Christ, life, literature, morality, political science, science
For the better part of a year I’ve been working on a project (book) of comparative literature with popular cultural and political science commentary. Part of my research centers around experimental medical science. So it is that I run across stories like this: Dead could be brought ‘back to life’ in groundbreaking project, Telegraph, Science Section, May 3, 2016.
A biotech company in the US has been granted ethical permission to recruit 20 patients who have been declared clinically dead from a traumatic brain injury, to test whether parts of their central nervous system can be brought back to life.
Scientists will use a combination of therapies, which include injecting the brain with stem cells and a cocktail of peptides, as well as deploying lasers and nerve stimulation techniques which have been shown to bring patients out of comas.
The trial participants will have been certified dead and only kept alive through life support. They will be monitored for several months using brain imaging equipment to look for signs of regeneration, particularly in the upper spinal cord – the lowest region of the brain stem which controls independent breathing and heartbeat.
The team believes that the brain stem cells may be able to erase their history and re-start life again, based on their surrounding tissue – a process seen in the animal kingdom in creatures like salamanders who can regrow entire limbs.
Lasers, stem cells, and a cocktail of peptides; oh my! “Withered men compound[ed] strong elixirs,” sayeth Faramir.
Cartoonstock.com.
This line of Frankenstein-esque research may hold promise for treating or reversing paralysis and other unpleasantries. As for raising the dead, it also raises numerous spiritual, moral, legal and philosophical questions. If we can bring the dead back to “life”, should we? For me, I don’t like the idea. Jesus promises life eternal. He’s talking about something completely different – happiness and higher purpose forever. The new laser-powered zombification is more about vanity and fear than anything else. I’ll leave that aspect alone for now.
I had an earthly thought about living on after the natural life has passed. Might this be a ghastly key to keeping people enslaved to debt, taxes, and the arbitrary rule of the positive for extra years, decades, or centuries? Imagine if you will that you physically expire and arrive at the Heavenly Ellis Island. After waiting your turn you are enthusiastically greeted by Saint Peter. Just as he’s about to punch your ticket you fall through the floor only to wake up in a recovery room filled with the idiotic sounds of daytime television. After a year of physical and cognitive therapy you get released back into the mortal world. You then discover your taxes are late, your state whatever license has expired, and the mortgage company has a judgement against you. The reality of your immortality sinks in as you realize this scenario could be endlessly repeated. Joy!
My example is a bit extreme but so is the idea of rebuilding a brain and expecting to have the same person and soul that previously inhabited the old brain working in the new. How would, will that all work out? My guess is not too well.
They say in life nothing is certain except death and taxes. I would rather have the latter, not the former, removed from the equation. You?
PERRIN LOVETT 
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