Yeah, I took that little philosophy test twice and both times was found to be thoroughly Thomistic, though the other influences seemed to vary according to what weight I gave the questions. I spent more time on these the first time, so I think the more accurate supporting cast is: Aristotle (98%), Epicureans (88%), Rand (82%), Mill (81%), Bentham (73%), Spinoza (71%), Stoics (69%). Can't argue with any of that, actually. Seems to be about right. Who'd ever have thought, though, that I'd ever become such a nice Catholic girl, at least philosophically?
Also, had least amount of affinity (4%) with someone named Nel Noddings, who apparently holds that "Traditional western ethics has oppressed female voices," whatever that means. Further, we "should look to traditional women's practices as a way of determining our ethics." Like what, for example? Foot-binding? Clitoridectomy? Please, someone make that woman take cultural anthropology and read The Handmaid's Tale.
More Than Zero has NYC blogfest dish! Also, Andrew's take on that Left Wing show is, as usual, hilarious.
Celebrity chef, Alain Ducasse gives some amazing advice for Steak With Style, applied to the humble rib-eye. Warning: just reading this may elevate blood cholesterol levels, cause uncontrollable mouth-watering, and force an emergency trip to the butcher shop.
Will Warren, the creator of Unremitting Verse, may or may not be an Acclaim Talent Agency model. It seems just as likely that he could be a conceptual designer. I can neither confirm nor deny that this is his den. All I really know about the man is that he is funny as hell and mindbogglingly clever. This send up of my favorite ex-president is priceless.
As you may have noticed, my blogging output has been sub-par the past few weeks. Sadly, I have been working on my big fat paper, as part of an all too typical quid pro quo arrangement to finish my Master's. When I started blogging in October, I deluded myself in to thinking that it would help me write my thesis. No, seriously. And it has gotten me back in the habit of writing. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to get back in the habit of writing my thesis if it is going to be written by me (Calling all volunteers!). So I'm officially restricting myself to a couple days of blogging a week, which will be posted by Thursday afternoon. Below is the first installment of the new dropscan digest.
The Times' take on the designer baby reads: Baby Spared Mother's Fate by Genetic Tests as Embryo. This is not technically correct. The baby actually escaped the fate of its sibling embryos who were found to be unworthy of implantation and destroyed. The egg which was fertilized to form the chosen embryo already had not inherited it's mother's faulty gene. It is incorrect to say, then, that the child which grew from that embryo was spared from the mother's fate by the screening process. It's as though you picked a black marble from a bag of whites and declared that it was your selection of it which it made it black. It was already black-- that's why you picked it. Likewise, this child was born because it did not share its mother's flaw. Had it had the bad gene it would have been destroyed with the others, and another embryo would have been implanted. That embryo would be as different from the girl which was just born as one is from one's brother or sister. All you can say is that its parents were spared the heartache of bearing a child who would develop Alzheimer's disease should it live to be forty, and to achieve this end, who knows how many embryos were created and then destroyed.
I find this situation wanting as a test case for designer children. I can't help but wonder if the woman who has this disease believes it would have been better if she had never been born. We're not talking about some horrible form of birth defect that would doom a child born with it to terrible pain. Rather, it is a gene which causes a currently fatal disease that begins around forty. Is it now our societal consensus that a life that will end around forty is not worth living? Speaking as someone who is not yet thirty, I have to disagree. The tragedy of premature deaths is often intensified by all the things the young victim has already accomplished. Also, who is to say that there won't be a cure for any disease in the future? Scientists have forty years to cure any child born tomorrow with this genetic flaw. Should that happen, all those embryos were created and destroyed in vain.
We are no longer an agrarian nation. A hundred and fifty years ago, life was simpler and people knew cow parts when they saw them. Now, we not only mistake the stray, discarded, and hacked-off cow teat found at the local car wash for a severed human penis, but the news travels all around the globe in a matter of hours. This is progress?
Looks like Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift is having trouble raising money. And she may face a primary challenge from Salt Lake City Olympics CEO Mitt Romney, who made an unsuccessful bid for the Senate in 1994. Frankly, I think anyone would be better than Swift, whose despicable rejection of Gerald Amirault's parole showed the worst kind of vile political cowardice. Amirault is an innocent man who was convicted of child abuse in the 80's, a victim of Satanic day-care hysteria. Hopefully, her refusal to free Amirault, despite the unanimous consent of the notoriously strict Parole Board, will prove to be yet another political misstep, like her famous use of state office staff for babysitting.
Spike Lee tells USA Today he feels no shame in going to K-Mart. I'm sure the Big K is reassured that the creator of their new $40 million ad campaign doesn't think shopping there makes you a social leper and is even willing to be quoted in print to that effect. What's next?
- Clairol spokeswoman says Nice and Easy "probably won't make hair fall out in unsightly clumps."
- Pottery Barn marketing chief claims most customers "not mindlessly materialistic zombie goons."
- McDonald's adman announces "Big Macs not always made of poisonous filth."
- Johnson and Johnson consultant reports "Band-Aids usually do not cause oozing gangrenous sores."
- Alec Baldwin's publicist describes client as "not nearly as much of a moron as he appears to be."
Meanwhile, having conquered the K-mart, my favorite discounter looks up-market. This is no joke, either. I can personally attest to the fact that the Wal-Mart on Ben White now sells bacce ball sets.
Hard times for the French as their political and economic influence fades. It would be depressing enough for any nation to fall so fast, but it is worse for the French who have long entertained ridiculously grandiose dreams of world domination:
At least since Charlemagne, French leaders have wished they could mold the Continent in their own image. They still exult in the vision of 19th-century poet and novelist Victor Hugo, who predicted ³an extraordinary nation² that ³would have as its capital Paris but no longer be called France: it will be called Europe... and in the centuries that follow, still further transformed, it will be called Humanityı.²
Ah, the grandeur. With Giscard at the helm, youıd think the French would be feeling good about themselves. In fact, theyıre miserable. Rarely in the past 50 years have they faced such a crisis of confidence about their role on the Continent and their place in the world. The intellectual and political elites on both the left and right have published a steady stream of books and articles about Franceıs ³malaise,² its loss of potency, the threat to its very existence. Gloomy Gallic hyperbole aside, thereıs ample evidence that France just ainıt what it used to be. One stunning statistic: of 15 members of the European Union, France ranks 12th in per capita income, just ahead of Spain, Portugal and Greece. A decade ago it ranked third, and this kind of slide seemed unthinkable.
Maybe they need a testosterone shot.