Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Hocked, distracted, and in deep denial

Richard Fernandez writes about unsustainable debt:
I Want My MTV

When there’s no money left in the till talk inevitably turns to what color of the garbage bins should be or whether Christians should be allowed to wear crucifixes to work. The really important public issues like carbon trading take center stage. Across the Atlantic in California, Victor Davis Hanson was noticing the same obsession with irrelevant forms in a state facing the same challenges as Britain. As the actual poverty rose in California the ’socially conscious’ turned in upon themselves, living in overpriced, politically correct communities, seeking solace in “ambiance — that is, living among people like themselves … Why? I have a theory. It allows them to be liberal and progressive in the abstract, without having to live the logical consequences of their utopianism, or deal with the underbelly of American life.”

This may explain the strange inverse relationship between shrinking resources and growing promises. When you can’t provide the real then promise the fake. The bleaker the reality the more soaring the vision. The higher the price of oil, the smaller the military budget, the costlier the medical appliances the more grandiose the goals of the administraton become. Why aim for incremental environmental improvement when you can make the seas can fall. Never mind if one must accept a nuclear Iran; at least we’ll have a world without nuclear weapons! If Israel can give up Jerusalem there’ll be peace in the Middle East at last! Why fix the health care system where it’s broken? Fix it all.

And it’s all going to happen in the future, that wondrous, inexhaustible cornucopia of a place which will lend us everything we want, and roll it over when we can’t pay. It will do it even though its peopled by people that are too much trouble care for; like the children who should never be born because pregnancy, according to one judicial nominee being considered by the administration, is “involuntary servitude” comparable to slavery. Can you have a future without people, without cheap, abundant and secure energy? Can you have a future without truth? Why sure you can. Just you wait and see.

Go read the whole article.

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“A marvelous opportunity” evolves

Today I’ve been working on a number of things and stopped to browse through my feed reader when I came across Richard Fernandez’s post, “A marvelous opportunity” (emphasis added)

The Times Online describes an chance too good to pass up: to live and let die.

The founder of the Swiss assisted suicide clinic Dignitas was criticised yesterday after revealing plans to help a healthy woman to die alongside her terminally ill husband.

Ludwig Minelli described suicide as a “marvellous opportunity” that should not be restricted to the terminally ill or people with severe disabilities. Critics said that the plans highlighted the risks of proposals to legalise assisted suicides in Britain for people in the final stages of a terminal illness.

The Dignitas clinic in Zurich claims to have assisted in the deaths of more than 100 Britons. The Zurich University Clinic found that more than a fifth of people who had died at Dignitas did not have a terminal condition.

We are sitting here calmly contemplating whether the Oh-so-civilized-Swiss ought to engage in reviving a sanitized, antiseptic version of suttee.

Mind you, not the messy, going-down-in-flames Hindu version that was banned by the pre-politically correct Brits in 1829, but instead a spa-like version – perhaps a Really Last Weekend at Marienbad (and yes, I know that the movie was named Last Year at Marienbad, and that Marienbad is in the Czech Republic not in Switzerland). I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the “assisted suicide” takes place in a setting as lovely as that of the Marienbad movie, complete with couture outfits for the widow, or, instead, like Sol’s “assisted suicide” in Soylent Green in front of a huge film screen. Whatever location you like, Dignitas will come and kill you at the location of your choice – the “death on wheels” service.

I was surprised that Dignitas charges £3,000. One would expect a street hit man to charge less.

But then again, there’s Swiss efficiency for you,

Swiss law specifies that the agencies that help arrange the deaths do it for “honourable reasons” and cannot profit from the death, aside from charging basic fees.

After all, the Swiss have absolutely no compunction about people killing themselves and will even help them. When The Husband and I went to Zurich, a lovely and clean city, junkies were shooting heroin in their veins right in the middle of the city park. It was at once a revolting and pitying sight. When I asked one of the locals who worked at our hotel (housed in a lovely building in the old part of town) what was going on, I was told that the government gave them needles and everything they needed.

To die.

Bad enough, but what I find really disturbing in the article Richard links to is this part,

Mr Minelli said that anyone who has “mental capacity” should be allowed to have an assisted suicide, claiming that it would save money for the NHS.

Dignitas, which a couple of years ago couldn’t pay its lease, is eligible for NHS payments? Or, does Minelli mean that killing healthy people will help the NHS not incur in as many expenses?

Swiss prosecutors are investigating Minelli, who, as Richard points out, stands to make money from these suicides. The heirs of the couple in question stand to make money, too. But so does the governmental entities involved; as Minelli so crassly put it, “it would save money for the NHS”. Richard,

The phrase “a marvelous opportunity” can apply to death or to making money. Drink this, sir. It’s a marvelous opportunity. And in any case the real commentary on our civilization is that if there’s a crime being committed, in modern eyes the crime will be in making a profit, not in the death. That reminds me of a bad joke about bandidos. “Most of the time I kill people for money,” said the bandido to someone he knew, “but you’re since my friend, I’ll kill you for nothing.”

I have lived long enough to realize that mankind’s death wish needs little to surface. The hard part is to make life worthwhile, to respect life, to live life as the gift it is.

UDPATE
Welcome, Anchoress readers. Please visit often.

Post edited to add a paragraph that was omitted by error

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Hamas: The Grand Inquisitors

Richard Fernandez writes on the reality about Hamas:

Up to a hundred Palestinians in Gaza who have defied house arrest orders have been tortured in children’s hospitals and schools converted into interrogation centers. People have been shot in the legs or had their hands broken. The campaign has been described as a “new massacre”. One victim had his eyes put out. No one was safe from the torturers, not even those attending funerals. When is will the UN act to put a stop to this horror? Won’t President Obama intervene to stop these barbaric acts? Aren’t international human rights monitors going to put a stop to this? When will War Crimes charges be preferred against the perpetrators?

Never.

Why? Because Hama is in charge of the torture and their victims are simply Fatah members. If it were Israel who had done these things, well then … But since it’s Hamas, the same Hamas for whom thousands have been marching in ’solidarity’, it’s a non-story.

You won’t find this information at the BBC, which has become as close to a Hamas supporter as you can find outside the Middle East; their reports fail to mention that Hamas uses civilians as shields, and that Israel has been sending hundreds of trucks with humanitarian aid every day. I don’t think the Beeb even wants to know about the Hamas torturers.

Richard raises the issue of the ceasefire:

In another strategic world, the Israeli incursion into Gaza would be create an opportunity for peace akin to those which sprang into existence in the latter parts of the Second World War.

Instead, the ceasefire will allow Hamas to rebuild with hundreds of millions of dollars going towards perpetuating its existence.

If you think this has nothing to do with our hemisphere, think again.

Broken link corrected

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September 11: In memory of Joe Angelini, Jr.

In this morning’s podcast Richard Fernandez, Siggy and Rick Moran talked about September 11, 2001 and September 11, 2008. Cllick on their names to read their excellent posts for today.

We were joined by Wild Phil and another caller. You can listen to the podcast here

This evening I’ll be a guest in Rick’s podcast “Where were you on 9/11?” which starts at 8PM Eastern.

Joseph Angelini Jr., age 38 of Lindenhurst, NY, died heroically on September 11, 2001 in the World Trade Center terrorist attack. He was a New York firefighter with Ladder Co. 4

Joseph Angelini Jr.
A Firefighter Passionate About Family, Gardening

October 22, 2001

Joseph Angelini Jr. may have lived for the New York City Fire Department, but he didn’t hang around when his tour ended.

“Gotta get home to the kids,” he’d tell the guys in Manhattan’s Ladder Co. 4 before heading to the 6:33 p.m. train to Lindenhurst.

Angelini’s wife, Donna, has scheduled a memorial service for today to help 7-year-old Jennifer, 5-year-old Jacqueline and 3-year-old Joseph Angelini III to finally understand that he won’t be coming home anymore.

“My son asks everyone he sees in uniform, ‘Did you find my daddy, did you find my daddy?'” Donna Angelini said Friday.

The seven-year department veteran followed in the footsteps of his father, Joseph Angelini Sr., 63, who was the senior member of Brooklyn’s Rescue Co. 1 and also perished in the World Trade Center attacks.

The younger Angelini, 38, was assigned to a house that protects New York’s theater district. Its motto: “Never miss a performance.”

But at home, he was a cook, craftsman and avid gardener who grew pumpkins, zucchini, eggplants and hot peppers and filled the house with the smells of pizza and focaccia.

“He was the air in my lungs, and now that air is taken away from me,” Donna Angelini said. “I keep waiting for him to come off a 24 [hour shift] and come through the door and say, ‘You wouldn’t believe what happened to me today.'”

Angelini also is survived by his mother, Anne, a grandmother, Mary, sister Annmarie Bianco and brother, Michael, all of Lindenhurst; sister Mary Angelini of Washington D.C.; and by seven nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held today at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church in Lindenhurst.
— Elizabeth Moore (Newsday)

CNN.com profile of Joe Jr.

Living Tribute to Joseph Angelini, Jr.

Joe’s father, Joe Sr. also died that day:
The Veteran and His Son

Joseph J. Angelini Sr. and his son, Joseph Jr., were firefighters, and neither survived the twin towers’ collapse. “If he had lived and his son had died, I don’t think he would have survived,” said Alfred Benjamin, a firefighter at Rescue Company 1 in Manhattan who was partnered with Mr. Angelini for the last six months.

The elder Mr. Angelini, 63, was the most veteran firefighter in the city, with 40 years on the job. He was tough and “rode the back step” like everyone else. His 38-year-old son, who worked on Ladder Company 4 on 48th Street, was on the job for seven years.

“If you mentioned retirement to Joey, it was like punching him,” Mr. Benjamin said. Joseph Jr. was proud of his father’s reputation and tried to copy him any way he could, said Joseph Jr.’s wife, Donna.

And they never gave up their tools. “Think about climbing 20 stories with bunker gear, ropes, hooks, halogens and other different types of tools and somebody wants to borrow a tool — no way,” Mr. Benjamin said. “You ask them what they need done and you do it for them. You carried that tool all the way up there, so you’re going to use it. If they thought they were going to need a tool, they should have carried it up. Joey Sr. always said carry your own weight. He always carried his.”

Joseph Jr. applied to the department 11 years ago. He got called seven years ago. “It was the proudest day for my father-in-law. It was a great opportunity,” said Donna Angelini. “His father was a firefighter and he wanted to be one, too.”

Mr. Angelini, who had four children, taught Joseph Jr. carpentry. Often they worked on projects together, including a rocking horse. Joseph Jr., who had three children, had started building a dollhouse for one of his daughters. Unfinished, it is sitting on his workbench.

Joseph Angelini, Sr.
The quilt

A brother, Firefighter Michael Angelini, was there as well, but, in a move that probably saved his life, left when asked to help carry out the body of the Rev. Mychal Judge, the fire department’s chaplain.

From Newsday:

Between Funeral and ‘Pile’

September 21, 2001

Michael’s choice: remain with his mother, Anne, in Lindenhurst and support his family during the wake, today, and the funeral, tomorrow, for his father, New York firefighter Joey Angelini, 63; or, return to The Pile to continue searching for his missing brother, New York firefighter Joey Angelini Jr., 38.

Michael, 33, knew yesterday that his mother and Joey Jr.’s wife, Donna, his two sisters and his nieces and nephews needed him, needed a strong, grown, male Angelini nearby, perhaps as much or more than he needed to be nearer his brother. “It’s hard to figure out what’s the right place to be in,” he said, already having decided to stay with the family. “I want so much to go back there.”

Michael works for the Fire Patrol of New York, which operates under the New York Board of Underwriters, protecting the interests of insurers during and in the aftermath of commercial property fires. Wearing the same firefighting gear, except for the distinctive red helmet that denotes Fire Patrol, he responded to the World Trade Center disaster last Tuesday morning, as did his father, a 40-year FDNY veteran assigned to Rescue 1, and his brother, of Ladder Co. 4 in the Theater District. “We were all in the same area, and none of us knew it,” he said.

In the lobby of one of the stricken towers, a fire supervisor suddenly ordered him out of the building. They passed firefighters who had just encountered the body of department chaplain Father Mychal Judge. Michael helped carry Judge away. “… but then my officer grabbed me and said, ‘Let’s go!'” he said. “We ended up a block or two north on West Murray Street.”

Michael entertained a slender hope that his brother might have finished his tour early and gone home. He suspected otherwise, and he learned later that afternoon that Joey had done what his father would have done and what so many other firefighters did who were supposed to be ending their tours at 9 a.m. They went to work.

Once a jokester and a partygoer, Joey Jr. had undergone personality changes increasingly noticeable to Michael during the past seven years, since he had joined the department and Donna gave birth to the first of their three children, Jennifer. He had worked previously as an electrician with the Transit Authority. “I didn’t want him to leave Transit,” said his mother, “because they were about to make him a foreman. But, for some reason, he switched over to the fire department.”

“Since then,” Michael said, “I saw him taking on more and more of my father’s traits. Before, we used to go out a lot, he and I. He was silly, funny. Now, getting him to go out was like pulling teeth. I tell old stories to guys he worked with, and they’ll look at me like I’m talking about somebody they don’t know. He had become so, like, straight. He just wanted to be with his family. He was showing more and more of that integrity, that seriousness, like my father.

“Three things were important to my father: his family, the church and the department, and I’m not sure in what order. My father was honest to a fault, religious. I remember walking back from the store with him. I was only little. He realized that the counter girl had given him 30 cents too much in change, and we had to walk all the way back. I mean, it was almost ridiculous. Joey was becoming more like that. It was good to watch, but it’s hard to live up to.”

The elder Angelini was in special operations that morning, and Michael hoped he too might have been sent elsewhere, but he really knew better. His father was legendary in the department for loving the work, for loving “to get dirty,” for loving “making a grab [rescuing somebody],” for routinely walking out of a mostly extinguished inferno and lighting a cigarette while younger firefighters lay sprawled around him, exhausted.

Earlier this year, at a Holy Name Society communion breakfast tribute for his 40th anniversary as a firefighter, the short, wiry, gray-haired Angelini resisted efforts by his fellow firefighters to get him to wear more of his medals. “They convinced him to put on maybe a third of them,” Michael said. “Then he said, ‘Stop. I’m tired of pinning these on.’

“He kept them in the back of a drawer, in a box,” Michael said. “He didn’t tell us about half of them. He didn’t talk about what he did. You would be eating dinner across from him and notice that he looked dif- ferent, like, strange, and then you would realize that his face was all red, and his eyebrows were completely gone, and his hairline had receded. He was burned. You would say, ‘What happened to you?’ And he would say, ‘Aw, something flashed over me.’

“At the site, all week, guys were joking about him finding a pocket and eventually walking out. They said to me, ‘He was probably buried in a void, and as soon as he runs out of cigarettes he’s gonna come walking out.'”

Rescue workers found the body of Joey Angelini on Monday. He had been listed as missing since the day after the attack. Joey Jr. still is missing. After tomorrow’s funeral Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Lindenhurst, Michael probably will return to the site.
–Ed Lowe (Newsday Columnist)

Attacked.

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"The Rule", Anarchy and the Will of God, and today’s items

Larwyn’s on a roll, and she’s sent great links:

“The Rule”:
GM Roper spells it out for you.

———————————————————-

Richard has an excellent post, Anarchy and the Will of God

The world of anarchy is one in which man acts without the intermediation of the State. It is a world in which “what works”, where “common sense” and the natural order — not State-sanctioned law — are the basis for organizing and action.

You must read every word. Siggy & I had the pleasure of talking to Richard two weeks ago, and we touched on the subject of failed states.

———————————————————-

As I have mentioned before, someone’s really afraid of Fred, that gun-toting womanizing twice-married gay guy who is loved by his children and liked by attractive women lawyer -who might have lobbied on abortion sixteen years ago-Senator movie star on horseback rascal.

They’re criticizing Fred’s Gucci shoes (the shoes in the video look more like Ferragamos to me, but what do I know?), and now there’s the FCC complaint.

As Dan says,

Their obvious concern over Thompson may be the most compelling reason for interest in him as a candidate I’ve seen during the last few relatively quiet weeks.

Indeed.

In my experience, having someone find fault with you because your shoes are of too high a quality is a sure sign of envy on their part.

———————————————————-

The new old China continues to import toxic goods: now it’s pajamas with formaldahyde in woollen and cotton clothes at levels 500 times higher than is safe..

Clothes can be washed and aired, but now I’m wondering what they add to shoes?

(My most recent pair of Ferragamos was made in Italy, in case you were worried. I have, however, bought a few pairs of shoes made in China. Maybe I should go back to wearing hose for the rest of the summer.)

More blogging later.
Update
The formaldahyde’s no cause for concern, says Asia Biz Blog.

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Wretchard on terrorism, and the name of God

Richard Fernandez, Belmont Club‘s own Wretchard, was my podcast guest last Friday. Siggy co-hosted, and it was a most interesting podcast, as you would expect any conversation with them to be.

During our conversation, Richard raised a point on terrorism in South East Asia,

Terrorism in South East Asia is a little less deeply rooted in the culture of the area except insofar as it’s rooted in the old traditions of piracy and banditry.”

The conversation then led to the subject of failed societies. Siggy posts,

In fact, the terrorists aims are deliberately misrepresented- and that is in their interest and the interest of the those who appropriate those causes to serve their own ideologies. The terrorists and their supporters don’t want to see western values (i.e., democratic principles) and successes brought into the Muslim world because western values and successes are antithetical to the ideologies of terrorist and their supporters. Terror flourishes when societies fail. Introduce values that embrace individual freedoms and the freedoms that allow an individual to succeed, and support for terror vanishes.

The petri dish of terror is failure.

If the terrorists and their supporters and apologists really wanted to better the lives of hundreds of millions of oppressed people, they would use America western freedoms as models for success. Instead, terrorists and their supporters seek to destroy the freedoms that have authored success. They deliberately want to keep failed leaders and failed ideologies in place.

Are European societies surrendering themselves to failed ideologies? Today Richard has a post, The Nine Billionth Name of God, on the Dutch Catholic bishop who espouses the absurd notion that “people of all faiths refer to God as Allah to foster understanding”. Richard says,

And that in a way, perfectly describes what has transpired in the post-everything world of Europe. The names of God did not matter to the jaded intellectuals until the last. Allah is the nine billionth name of God. And now the stars, without the slightest fuss, are going out.

By failing to understand that what we call God does matter, Bishop Tiny Muskens (that is his real name) has handed the enemies of Western values – to use Siggy’s words – the petri dish of terror.

What to do against terror? In the podcast, Richard said,

One of the best things we can do is simply stand up…because it creates a nucleus around which a resistance is in place.

We didn’t discuss the Dutch bishop on Friday’s podcast, but listen to why it is important to understand how failed societies beget terror here.

Update
Great minds think alike: As I was posting this, Siggy was pondering Evil, On Borrowed Time
Update 2
Professor Bainbridge:

Words matter. To a person of faith, no word matters more than the name of God.

Jeff Kouba of Truth v. The Machine calls it Another Surrender of Breda

More at Memeorandum.

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BTR: 7PM Eastern tonight, special guest, special time

UPDATE:
You can listen to the podcast here

Instead of my usual podcast next Monday, my guest this evening at 7PM will be Belmont Club‘s Richard Fernandez.

We will discuss terrorism in Asia and the Pacific.

Richard’s an extraordinarily insightful blogger, and his blog consistently has some of the best commenters. It’ll be a great podcast, and Siggy‘s co-hosting, too.

Please join us at 7PM tonight!
blog radio

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