A tug of war: Life or Death

This is an issue many struggle with. The ethical and political debate on when life ends and begins will continue. Most people emphasize preserving life, though there is no clear mandate for prolonging it at all cost. Is there an appropriate time to pull the plug? Some see the devil within these details. How close is the person to death and would treatment delay death with no real benefit to the patient? Ethics require both good principles and good facts. When you are dealing with a person who is dying or facing imminent death is God the only one who should decide life or death? At some point we have to recognize that death has come and begin to deal with that appropriately, medically and through the mourning process. Society will always fire the privacy canon when it comes upon issues such as right to die, abortion and homosexuality, it gets a little messy when someone is actually being killed. There is no position that covers every contingency, no law could ever be written that fine. We want it to be black and white yet the canon shot is really all shades of gray. The world will always pick sides regarding these issues, especially death. Who should determine when and how we cross that mythical river to the other side? Families come to a cross road when this issue arrives, my family will be no different. There could be objections that could likely sever relations for years. The pathway to death should not be inhumane or extended beyond usefulness or quality. Death is just a part of life.

Mud puddle in Mudville

The circus is coming to Capitol Hill. The House Government Reform Committee begins it's hearing on Baseball this week. Lights, cameras, subpoenas! Grandstanding congressmen want to squeeze every last drop of scandal out of Baseball. No one except Jose Canseo with a book to sell wants this hearing. Earth to Washington! Can't we move on? Politicians should be more concerned with Social Security and skyrocketing gasoline prices. This dog and pony show is a waste of tax payer dollars. What exactly is the point to this hearing? Is the point to demonstrate the wide spread use of steroids in Baseball, Hell we all know that! Players are afraid the public reaction will affect their guaranteed contracts and endorsements deals. Instead of cleaning up their own act, Baseball hires lawyers just like the God Father Michael Corleone did. Organized crime, corrupt labor unions and half of the Nixon administration inhabited the same chairs that Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa will occupy this week. How dare Congress have interest in who is juiced and who in not! Congress has never subpoenaed a jazz musician or a stoned rock star to see what artificial stimulant helped them craft their art. If Congress had they would have had to buy a lot more chairs durning Woodstock. Congress might just as well point a finger at teenage fashion or rap music, bad taste affects us all. What about airport screener, they can ask us anything yet I don't hear people in that line complaining as baseball players are that their first amendment rights are being violated. This hearing is just one big witch hunt, Macarthyisim at its best. The only thing about baseball that is as good now as it was when baseball started play is the poem Casey At The Bat written by Ernest Thayer in 1888. This edited version always brings a smile to my Baseball season.
The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day
The score stood nine to four with one inning to play
If only Casey could but get a whack at that
We would put up even money with Casey at the bat
The stricken multitude sat, there seemed little chance of Casey getting to the bat
Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt
Ten thousand hands applauded when he wiped them on his shirt
The mighty Casey was advancing to the bat
Strike one the umpire said and there went a muffled roar like the storm waves of a distant shore
Once more the sphere flew, but Casey still ignored it and the umpire said strike two
Everyone saw Casey's face grow stern and cold knowing the next ball would not be so bold
Casey clenched his teeth in hate as he pounded the plate
The pitcher let the ball go, the air was shattered by force of Casey's blow
Somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright
The band is playing somewhere and somewhere hearts are light
Somewhere men are laughing and little children shout
But there is no joy in Mudville, the mighty Casey has struck out

Love her hate her the new Martha

Was the conviction of Martha Stewart worth the effort? Martha said the the five months she spent in prison was life altering and life affirming. She also forgot to say it made her very rich. Prison seems to have been a good thing for her. Punishment has two goals: penalize the wrongdoer and deter potential wrongdoers but I don't think either goal was achieved. She turned it to her advantage. Her prison episode right from the beginning was one big successful spin. Serving time was like a paid leave of absence. The week she went to prison she signed a 5 year contract with her company for 1.4 million dollars a year and her 30 million shares of Martha Stewart Living were worth 270 million dollars. When she walked out of the prison gate five months later her 30 million shares were worth 1 billion dollars. Martha sometimes comes off as rude, demanding and cheap but in prison she became an advocate for the oppressed, a friend to the lonely and a forger of wild greens to spice up the jail house food. We all knew she was a perfectionist but we did not want to think of her as mean and a cheat. When she left prison she wore a cape the inmates had made for her and even rented a flat bed truck so the reporters would have a better vantage point from which to take pictures of her. If only the inmates would have given her a broom stick to go along with the cape she could have really made a grand exit. As Americans we like to throw our villains to the ground and make them cry uncle, but if they cry uncle we will let them go. We always want to see our sinners suffer in the town square, once we have seen that and savored it for awhile we forget their sins. The Queen of Domesticity will be back bigger than ever. Women are eager to see their rags to riches heroine back in the game. Don't be surprised at her rapid journey from felon to Queen of Domesticity. In America the only currency that counts is sizzle and Martha is smoking.

Eyes of a Toad

I have fond memories of the horny toad. I captured and played with many as a child. The horny toad, rather Texas Horned Lizard still exist but in very few numbers. Fire ants have killed off most of the lizards along with most of the harvester ants that were the main diet of the horny toad. As a child I was never scared of the toads and missed with them ever chance I got. I remember rubbing their backs with long sticks, they seem to like it I thought. If you could get close to them they would freeze, rarely would they ever run away. When I saw their eyes getting blood red I knew it was time to leave them alone. I was always delighted to come across a horny toad. They were easy to catch and interesting to watch. I even tried to charm my Mom with a few of them. Of all the things I brought home in jars or boxes and turned lose in the hallways, it was the horny toad that got the loudest response from Mom. I miss the horny toad and have often wondered what made them so charming to so many people. They weren't all that pretty, were definitely not cuddly and never came when you called them, but they had a charm all their own. They would let me catch them, let me scratch them and were pretty good for freaking out my sisters and brother.