"Hopefully, now that Lost is returning from its extended break, we'll finally see some answers" That's a remark I've seen posted online a lot in the past few days, and I couldn't disagree with it more. The last thing I want is for Lost to answer its mysteries. Let me explain my reasoning.
Firstly, the whole point of Lost is that we don't know what's going on. The title refers as much to us as it does the castaways - we're the ones who are frickin' Lost. If we found out what was going on, there wouldn't be a show anymore. This is what makes the thing such a 'water cooler show' - we want to know whats with the polar bears, Claire's baby, and those darned creepy numbers. Let alone Ethan.
Secondly, there's no explanation to mysteries of the show that could satisfy me. I mean, it's too big. Right now, I imagine it has something to do with old US military research, the end of the world, and weird magic stuff. The whole situation is so intricate and connected and strange, it's almost impossible to coherently explain it, especially the numbers part of it. But if the show explained it all, I'd be disapointed.
Finally, the people who make this show know this as much as I do - everytime they kinda-sorta answer one mystery, they replace it with an even bigger one. This kind of storytelling plate spinning can only last so long - eventually they'll have to explain it, in which case interest will wane, or the amount of compounding mysteries will simply collapse under its own weight - but I think we've got a couple of good seasons before that happens. In other words, don't call me on Wednesday night.
In Easter news, I spent a lot of time watching basketball this weekend, which was fine with me. The PSP is now winging its way to New Zealand. Well, let me clarify - it's on a plane. The PSP can't fly: That's on the feature list for the PSP 2.
While we're talking about the PSP, I should note that I ended up buying the thing at Target, on the advice of my lovely wife. She predicted that Target was the store least likely to be overrun by the army of dorkness. As usual, she predicted right.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
PSP Follies
Okay, something a little lighter today. Lets talk about the PSP, the new portable video gaming device that I will be getting up at 6AM Thursday morning to purchase, even though I have no real desire to ever play it. Now, I understand, this begs a number of questions, chief among them, 'why?'.
Well, I'm not buying this device for myself. No, I'm buying it for Tom, the son of my oldest friend in the world, Tony. Tony lives in New Zealand. You see, video game devices have different release dates in different parts of the world. There's your Japanese release date. There's your North American release date. There's your European release date. And there's your Oceania release date. After that, there's the Burkina Faso release date, but by the time the PSP gets to Burkina Faso there'll be a democrat back in the White House. In this case, the PSP gets to Oceania seveal months after it gets here, so I have been enlisted, as it were. There were phone calls and wire transfers and everything. I'll be hitting the road at about 6.10 and driving to Circuit City, which I have carefully selected as the store least likely to be overrun by hysterical gamegeeks. In a situation like this, going to Best Buy is suicide, and the old geezers at Target probably won't get the devices on the shelves for three days.
So, what gives? Why is there so much buzz about a portable game-playing device? Well, there's two main reasons. Firstly, they're cool. Come on! I mean, if you're an eight year old with the ability to play Metal Gear Acid in the backseat on a car ride to Waukesha (or Wellington, in Tom's case), thats pretty cool. Me, I'm not as attracted to that because if I play games, I wanna play games at home. If I'm in a car bound for Waukesha, I'm probably driving that car, so it's best my distractions get limited to the stereo. Secondly, this isn't just a video game machine. it's also a music player, a wireless communicator, it shows movies on itty bitty discs, and does your homework. Okay, it doesn't really do your homework. I made that up. But the itty bitty disc thing - straight up. This is a powerful, multi-purpose device in a very small package. And it plays games like the dickens.
This thing is gonna be a phenomenon. I've always thought that as a member of generation X, I was the ground zero audience for video games. I was there at the start. I got blisters playing Space Invaders. I stole milk money to play arcade games of Defender. I remember thinking the original Doom had incredible graphics. This new generation, however, doesn't really care about that stuff. They take incredible graphics more or less for granted. They just want it made more convenient. Pretty soon there will be a device the size of a penny that projects hyperspatial illusions straight into your eyeballs. I'm sure I'll be there to buy it for Tom on opening day, too. The postage will be quite reasonable.
Well, I'm not buying this device for myself. No, I'm buying it for Tom, the son of my oldest friend in the world, Tony. Tony lives in New Zealand. You see, video game devices have different release dates in different parts of the world. There's your Japanese release date. There's your North American release date. There's your European release date. And there's your Oceania release date. After that, there's the Burkina Faso release date, but by the time the PSP gets to Burkina Faso there'll be a democrat back in the White House. In this case, the PSP gets to Oceania seveal months after it gets here, so I have been enlisted, as it were. There were phone calls and wire transfers and everything. I'll be hitting the road at about 6.10 and driving to Circuit City, which I have carefully selected as the store least likely to be overrun by hysterical gamegeeks. In a situation like this, going to Best Buy is suicide, and the old geezers at Target probably won't get the devices on the shelves for three days.
So, what gives? Why is there so much buzz about a portable game-playing device? Well, there's two main reasons. Firstly, they're cool. Come on! I mean, if you're an eight year old with the ability to play Metal Gear Acid in the backseat on a car ride to Waukesha (or Wellington, in Tom's case), thats pretty cool. Me, I'm not as attracted to that because if I play games, I wanna play games at home. If I'm in a car bound for Waukesha, I'm probably driving that car, so it's best my distractions get limited to the stereo. Secondly, this isn't just a video game machine. it's also a music player, a wireless communicator, it shows movies on itty bitty discs, and does your homework. Okay, it doesn't really do your homework. I made that up. But the itty bitty disc thing - straight up. This is a powerful, multi-purpose device in a very small package. And it plays games like the dickens.
This thing is gonna be a phenomenon. I've always thought that as a member of generation X, I was the ground zero audience for video games. I was there at the start. I got blisters playing Space Invaders. I stole milk money to play arcade games of Defender. I remember thinking the original Doom had incredible graphics. This new generation, however, doesn't really care about that stuff. They take incredible graphics more or less for granted. They just want it made more convenient. Pretty soon there will be a device the size of a penny that projects hyperspatial illusions straight into your eyeballs. I'm sure I'll be there to buy it for Tom on opening day, too. The postage will be quite reasonable.
Monday, March 21, 2005
Schiavo Redux
Here are some interesting commentaries on the Sciavo case you may not have seen -
From Salon News:
As Republicans plotted congressional intervention last week to extend the life of Terri Schiavo, a Texas woman named Wanda Hudson watched her 6-month-old baby die in her arms after doctors removed the breathing tube that kept him alive. Hudson didn't want the tube removed, but the baby's doctors decided for her. A judge signed off on the decision under the Texas futile care law -- a provision first signed into law in 1999 by then-Gov. George W. Bush.
Under the 1999 law, doctors in Texas, with the support of a hospital ethics committee, can overrule the wishes of family members and terminate life-support measures if they believe further care would be futile. Bush signed the bill after interested parties, including antiabortion activists, agreed on compromise language that required hospitals to give families 10 days' notice before terminating care and to help families find an alternative treatment facility that would continue care instead.
That process worked last week for the family of Spiro Nikolouzos, a retired electrical engineer who was critically injured in a car accident 10 years ago and has been in a persistent vegetative state since at least 2001. The Houston Chronicle reports that a lawyer for Nikolouzos' family was able to delay the termination of care by a Houston hospital just long enough for the family to find a nursing home in San Antonio that would take him in.
Wanda Hudson didn't have that option. According to the Chronicle, Texas Children's Hospital said it contacted 40 facilities with newborn intensive care units, but not one of them would accept Hudson's baby. He died last Tuesday, just minutes after doctors removed his breathing tube. So far as we can tell, neither the White House nor any member of Congress made any effort to intervene in the case.
From Right-wing (!) radio commentator Neil Boortz:
"The congress of the United States worked into the early hours of this morning for one reason; to serve the interests of the so-called pro-life movement. This isn't about Terri Schiavo. It's about abortion. The anti-abortion movement saw an opportunity to take Terri's tragedy and turn it into a spectacular pageant in support of life. Quality of life means nothing to these people ... only the fact that some sort of life is present. Please ... keep them away from me if I should ever suffer a tragedy like that which befell Terri Schiavo. The Republicans in Washington have essentially taken Terri Schiavo hostage -- a hostage designed to please their anti-abortion constituency."
From Alan Wolfe:
Emotion is a poor basis for making moral decisions for a second reason; it is cheap, while reason is dear. Nothing is easier to offer than sympathy at a distance. Those rushing to Terri's "side" have no conscience with which to struggle, no doubts to be resolved, no principles to violate. They need not even be consistent, which is why they can urge respect for Terri's life while ignoring all the deaths their cuts in Medicaid will cause. Emotional appeals surround us. No politician will earn a profile in courage by wallowing in them.
From the Rev John Paris, professor of Bioethics:
This issue is not new. Every court, every jurisdiction that has heard it, agrees. So you'd think this issue would have ended. I thought it ended when we took it to the Supreme Court, and won, in 1990. But I hadn't anticipated the power of the Christian right. They elected him [George Bush]. And now he dances.
From Salon News:
As Republicans plotted congressional intervention last week to extend the life of Terri Schiavo, a Texas woman named Wanda Hudson watched her 6-month-old baby die in her arms after doctors removed the breathing tube that kept him alive. Hudson didn't want the tube removed, but the baby's doctors decided for her. A judge signed off on the decision under the Texas futile care law -- a provision first signed into law in 1999 by then-Gov. George W. Bush.
Under the 1999 law, doctors in Texas, with the support of a hospital ethics committee, can overrule the wishes of family members and terminate life-support measures if they believe further care would be futile. Bush signed the bill after interested parties, including antiabortion activists, agreed on compromise language that required hospitals to give families 10 days' notice before terminating care and to help families find an alternative treatment facility that would continue care instead.
That process worked last week for the family of Spiro Nikolouzos, a retired electrical engineer who was critically injured in a car accident 10 years ago and has been in a persistent vegetative state since at least 2001. The Houston Chronicle reports that a lawyer for Nikolouzos' family was able to delay the termination of care by a Houston hospital just long enough for the family to find a nursing home in San Antonio that would take him in.
Wanda Hudson didn't have that option. According to the Chronicle, Texas Children's Hospital said it contacted 40 facilities with newborn intensive care units, but not one of them would accept Hudson's baby. He died last Tuesday, just minutes after doctors removed his breathing tube. So far as we can tell, neither the White House nor any member of Congress made any effort to intervene in the case.
From Right-wing (!) radio commentator Neil Boortz:
"The congress of the United States worked into the early hours of this morning for one reason; to serve the interests of the so-called pro-life movement. This isn't about Terri Schiavo. It's about abortion. The anti-abortion movement saw an opportunity to take Terri's tragedy and turn it into a spectacular pageant in support of life. Quality of life means nothing to these people ... only the fact that some sort of life is present. Please ... keep them away from me if I should ever suffer a tragedy like that which befell Terri Schiavo. The Republicans in Washington have essentially taken Terri Schiavo hostage -- a hostage designed to please their anti-abortion constituency."
From Alan Wolfe:
Emotion is a poor basis for making moral decisions for a second reason; it is cheap, while reason is dear. Nothing is easier to offer than sympathy at a distance. Those rushing to Terri's "side" have no conscience with which to struggle, no doubts to be resolved, no principles to violate. They need not even be consistent, which is why they can urge respect for Terri's life while ignoring all the deaths their cuts in Medicaid will cause. Emotional appeals surround us. No politician will earn a profile in courage by wallowing in them.
From the Rev John Paris, professor of Bioethics:
This issue is not new. Every court, every jurisdiction that has heard it, agrees. So you'd think this issue would have ended. I thought it ended when we took it to the Supreme Court, and won, in 1990. But I hadn't anticipated the power of the Christian right. They elected him [George Bush]. And now he dances.
The Schiavo Case
Okay, I'm back. Im caffeine free. And I'm ready to rock. Expect 4 updates this week, to make up for my shameful indolence of the past month. Today, Im here to talk about persistent vegetative states. That's right: Terri Schiavo. This is one of those media perfect storms, like little Elian Gonzalez, where whole armies of the populace become very concerned and angry about one particular person. And as usual, the Republican army is the stupid army. I'm not going to rehash the case like all the newspapers - if you are alive and vaguely aware in the US today, you know the particulars of this case. Here's why the Republicans are being stupid.
First and foremost it comes down to the fact that spousal rights trump parental rights. Think about that. If anything happens to me, I want my lovely wife making the important decisions, not my Mom and Dad. My lovely wife is the one who's closest to me. That makes sense, and, wouldn't you know, its reflected in the law. So the doctors tell Mr Schiavo that his wife is, essentially, an awareness - free vegetable. Do you know what she would have wanted? Mr Schiavo says yeah, we once talked about this. She wanted to have the machines turned off. Fine. Lets do it. Same thing happens in hundreds of cases around the country every week.
However. Ms. Schiavo's Mom and Dad challenge this, saying that Terri can respond to them and is aware.
Hmm. First off, who cares? It's not their decision, according to the law. It's her husbands decision. Second off, these are the LAST people we should listen to about this matter. The best coma doctors in the world looked at this woman, in the presence of her family (who kept saying she would only respond in THEIR presence) and determined that she's a vegetable. She SEEMS to sometimes have consciousness becuase her brainstem is still operational, but thats the only part of her brain thats operational. Now, if you ask me who do I trust - a bunch of pro-life activists and an obviously irrational Mom and dad or the best doctors in the world, I'll take option 2.
Now, stupid people look at the videotape of Terri Schiavo smiling and tracking a balloon with her eyes and go, 'she's alive in there!' Wrong. Do you really think these experts want to kill her? If there was any chance of her 'coming back' they would be all over it.
So, now we have the matter of 'due process.' Terri's parents have taken this case to 19 different judges in 15 years to try to convince them that they are right. Every single one of them has ruled against them. And so now republican congressmen and women have entered the fray, on the basis that she hasn't had due process. Are you kidding me? 19 different judges is plenty freaking due process. So what's going on?
Listen to me. The republicans in congress know that they have screwed a lot of the poor people that voted for them since the election. These strawmunching religious morons need something so they know the republicans are on their side. They cant take down abortion yet so this is an excellent sideshow. It's a win/win for them. If Schiavo dies, they can say they tried to save her. If she lives on in her vegetative state, they can say they won a victory for the voiceless (translation - like the unborn).
Democrats face a lose/lose. If Schiavo dies, they are the murderers that allowed this to happen. If she lives on, then their ineffectiveness is underlined, plus everyone knows they WANTED the woman to die. That doesn't look good in a campaign ad.
Unfortunately, once again, religious zealots are trying to interfere with personal choices. The fact that they may prevail makes me very nervous about the direction this countrys heading in.
First and foremost it comes down to the fact that spousal rights trump parental rights. Think about that. If anything happens to me, I want my lovely wife making the important decisions, not my Mom and Dad. My lovely wife is the one who's closest to me. That makes sense, and, wouldn't you know, its reflected in the law. So the doctors tell Mr Schiavo that his wife is, essentially, an awareness - free vegetable. Do you know what she would have wanted? Mr Schiavo says yeah, we once talked about this. She wanted to have the machines turned off. Fine. Lets do it. Same thing happens in hundreds of cases around the country every week.
However. Ms. Schiavo's Mom and Dad challenge this, saying that Terri can respond to them and is aware.
Hmm. First off, who cares? It's not their decision, according to the law. It's her husbands decision. Second off, these are the LAST people we should listen to about this matter. The best coma doctors in the world looked at this woman, in the presence of her family (who kept saying she would only respond in THEIR presence) and determined that she's a vegetable. She SEEMS to sometimes have consciousness becuase her brainstem is still operational, but thats the only part of her brain thats operational. Now, if you ask me who do I trust - a bunch of pro-life activists and an obviously irrational Mom and dad or the best doctors in the world, I'll take option 2.
Now, stupid people look at the videotape of Terri Schiavo smiling and tracking a balloon with her eyes and go, 'she's alive in there!' Wrong. Do you really think these experts want to kill her? If there was any chance of her 'coming back' they would be all over it.
So, now we have the matter of 'due process.' Terri's parents have taken this case to 19 different judges in 15 years to try to convince them that they are right. Every single one of them has ruled against them. And so now republican congressmen and women have entered the fray, on the basis that she hasn't had due process. Are you kidding me? 19 different judges is plenty freaking due process. So what's going on?
Listen to me. The republicans in congress know that they have screwed a lot of the poor people that voted for them since the election. These strawmunching religious morons need something so they know the republicans are on their side. They cant take down abortion yet so this is an excellent sideshow. It's a win/win for them. If Schiavo dies, they can say they tried to save her. If she lives on in her vegetative state, they can say they won a victory for the voiceless (translation - like the unborn).
Democrats face a lose/lose. If Schiavo dies, they are the murderers that allowed this to happen. If she lives on, then their ineffectiveness is underlined, plus everyone knows they WANTED the woman to die. That doesn't look good in a campaign ad.
Unfortunately, once again, religious zealots are trying to interfere with personal choices. The fact that they may prevail makes me very nervous about the direction this countrys heading in.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
