Daily Archives: June 23, 2017

Netherlander Euthanasia Guru Bemoans His Handiwork – National Review

Posted: June 23, 2017 at 6:44 am

Boudewijn Chabot was the Netherlander psychiatrist who assisted the suicide of a deeply depressed woman who wanted to die after the demise of her two children. All she wanted to do was be buried between them. Chabot met with her four times over several weeksnever engaged actual treatmentand then supplied her with poison pills, which she took. He watched as she died.

That led to a prosecution. I put the word in quotes becauseas Chabots lawyer told me in an interview for my book Forced Exitthere was never any intention of actually imprisoning Chabot, or indeed, sanction him in any way. Rather, the purpose was to set a precedent to allow deep psychological suffering to justify euthanasia.

The gambit worked. The Supreme Court ruled, essentially, that suffering is sufferingand whether physical or emotionalIT is what justifies assisted suicide/euthanasia, not disease itself.

Twenty or so years later and Netherlander psychiatrists euthanize mentally ill patients, whose organs may be voluntarily harvested post-death.

Now, Chabot has been stricken by conscience. He notes that euthanasia groups have recruited psychiatrists to kill. From his article, Worrisome Culture Shift in the Context of Self-Selected Death:

Without a therapeutic relationship [ME: which he didn't really have, by the way], by far most psychiatrists cannot reliably determine whether a death wish is a serious, enduring desire. Even within a therapeutic relationship, it remains difficult. But a psychiatrist of the clinic can do so without a therapeutic relationship, with less than ten in-depth conversations?

Hey, you opened this door: Own it! More:

In 2016, there were three reports of euthanasia of deep-demented persons who could not confirm their death wish. One of the three was identified as having been done without due care; her advance request could be interpreted in different ways. The execution was also done without due care; the doctor had first put a sedative in her coffee. When the patient was lying drowsily on her bed and was about to be given a high dose, she got up with fear in her eyes and had to be held down by family members. The doctor stated that she had continued the procedure very consciously.

Chabot looks at the social and moral wreckage he helped unleash and wonders:

Where did the Euthanasia Law go off the tracks? The euthanasia practice is running amok because the legal requirements which doctors can reasonably apply in the context of physically ill people, are being declared equally applicable without limitation in the context of vulnerable patients with incurable brain diseases.

In psychiatry, an essential limitation disappeared when the existence of a treatment relationship was no longer required. In the case of dementia, such a restriction disappeared by making the written advance request equivalent to an actual oral request.

And lastly, it really went off the tracks when the review committee concealed that incapacitated people were surreptitiously killed.

Please. It was all so predictable. Heck, I predicted it.

Euthanasia consciousness changes mindsets. It alters societal morality. It distorts our views of the importance of vulnerable lives. It leads to abandonment and various forms of subtle and blatant coercion.

Over time, it cant be controlled.

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Euthanasia pioneer alarmed by what he unleashed – WND.com – WND.com

Posted: at 6:44 am

The Dutch psychiatrist whose lawsuit opened the door to allowing assisted suicide in the Netherlands for people suffering depression is now having second thoughts.

Boudewijn Chabot

Boudewijn Chabot, in an article titled Worrisome Culture Shift in the Context of Self-Selected Death, decries the new practice of allowing psychiatrists without a therapeutic relationship with a patient to determine whether assisted suicide is permissible under the law.

Wesley Smith, a leading bioethics expert and opponent of assisted suicide and euthanasia, writes in a column for National Review that he predicted the development.

Euthanasia consciousness changes mindsets. It alters societal morality, he said. It distorts our views of the importance of vulnerable lives. It leads to abandonment and various forms of subtle and blatant coercion. Over time, it cant be controlled.

Was Terri Schiavos death really assisted suicide? Get the book that powerfully and comprehensively tells Terris Story: The Court-Ordered Death of an American Woman at the WND Superstore

The Netherlands became the first nation to allow assisted suicide after a series of court cases in the 1980s formalized the criteria for it, culminating in a 2002 law.

Chabot was prosecuted in the early 1990s for assisting the suicide of a deeply depressed woman who wanted to die after the deaths of her two children. He met with the womanfour times over several weeks but never actually treated her, Smith recounted.The psychiatrist then supplied her with poison pills, which she took.

Smith said Chabots lawyer told him in an interview for his book Forced Exit that the Dutch government never had anyintention of actually imprisoning or even sanctioning Chabot.

The purpose, the lawyer said, was to set a precedent to allow deep psychological suffering to justifyassisted suicide.

Smith said the DutchSupreme Court in 1994 ruled, essentially, that suffering is suffering, whether physical or emotional, and its the suffering thatjustifies assisted suicide, not the disease itself.

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Two decades later, he said, Dutch psychiatrists euthanize mentally ill patients, whose organs may be voluntarily harvestedafter their death.

Now, he said, Chabot has been stricken by conscience, recognizing euthanasia groups have recruited psychiatrists to kill.

Chabot argued in his paper that without a therapeutic relationship, by far most psychiatrists cannot reliably determine whether a death wish is a serious, enduring desire.

Wesley J. Smith

Even within a therapeutic relationship, it remains difficult. But a psychiatrist of the clinic can do so without a therapeutic relationship, with less than ten in-depth conversations?

Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institutes Center on Human Exceptionalism, is a consultant for the Patients Rights Council who has been named by the National Journal as one of the nations top expert thinkers in bioengineering for his work in bioethics. He is among the worlds foremost critics of assisted suicide and utilitarian bioethics.

Chabot, in his article, recounted three reports of euthanasia of deep-demented persons who could not confirm their death wish.

One of the three was identified as having been done without due care; her advance request could be interpreted in different ways. The execution was also done without due care; the doctor had first put a sedative in her coffee. When the patient was lying drowsily on her bed and was about to be given a high dose, she got up with fear in her eyes and had to be held down by family members. The doctor stated that she had continued the procedure very consciously.

Smith commented that Chabot is examiningthe social and moral wreckage he helped unleash and wonders: Where did the Euthanasia Law go off the tracks?

Chabot writes that theeuthanasia practice is running amok because the legal requirements which doctors can reasonably apply in the context of physically ill people, are being declared equally applicable without limitation in the context of vulnerable patients with incurable brain diseases.

In psychiatry, Chabot writes, an essential limitation disappeared when the existence of a treatment relationship was no longer required. In the case of dementia, such a restriction disappeared by making the written advance request equivalent to an actual oral request.

Lastly, Chabot says, it really went off the tracks when the review committee concealed that incapacitated people were surreptitiously killed.

Horrible picture

In February, a Dutch doctor carrying out a lethal injection on an elderly woman ordered her family to restrain her when she resisted, creating what even euthanasia advocates called a horrible picture.

The case in Amsterdam, the National Catholic Register reported, was one of several similar instances of resistance, including a sex-abuse victim in her 20s, a 41-year-old alcoholic, a woman with ringing in her ears and now an Alzheimers patient.

In nearby Belgium, euthanasia was broadened three years agoto include children.

Alistair Thompson of the anti-euthanasia advocacy group Care Not Killing told the Register its a typical slippery-slope scenario.

The problem is that the law always evolves. Its always pushed on, a little bit, and a little bit. Once youve crossed the Rubicon, it becomes people who are not mentally competent, people who are frail or weary of life, he said.

In the Netherlands, assisted suicide is legal for infants up to a year old and for children over the age of 12. But doctors are already investigating allowing it for all children.

Duty to die

In the United States, six states allow doctor-assisted suicide, beginning with Oregons 1994 Death with Dignity Act, which was approvedby a voter referendum, 51 to 49 percent.

In an interview last fall with WND and Radio America, Jeff Hunt, director of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, warned that where doctor-assisted suicide is legal, it moves from what is generally called a right to die to a duty to die.

He pointed out that former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm made that argument in 1984, stating elderly people who are terminally ill have got a duty to die and get out of the way. Let the other society, our kids, build a reasonable life.

Was Terri Schiavos death really assisted suicide? Get the book that powerfully and comprehensively tells Terris Story: The Court-Ordered Death of an American Woman at the WND Superstore

Hunt said that while assisted-suicide advocates paint the practice as the ultimate act of personal liberty, in every case where this is legalized, you are inviting government and youre inviting insurance companies to get involved in this decision and that is a very, very bad deal.

In Oregon, the Medicaid system has become involved with end-of-life decisions, Hunt said.

They would send letters to terminally ill cancer patients saying, Were not going to pay the $4,000 per month required for you to stay alive, but well pay the $100 for you to kill yourself.'

Another argument in favor of doctor-assisted suicide is that it mainly happens at the very end of life when the pain becomes unbearable. Hunt said the facts simply dont bear that out.

What the research actually shows is that most people who choose doctor-assisted suicide do it out of depression or theyre afraid because of their lack of mobility, their quality of life, he said.

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Hunt said in places such asthe Netherlands, physically healthy young people access doctor-assisted suicide over relationships gone bad or the loss of a job.

He said the push for doctor-assisted suicide is especially horrifying for the disabled and those with special needs.

If you look at the organizations that are trying to stop this, it is primarily led by the disabled community, Hunt said. They understand what this is creating in the law. This is creating an entire classification of people that can be killed or choose to be killed.

We should be investing in great palliative care and good hospice care because doctor-assisted suicide brings with it a whole parade of terribles that we do not want in our society, Hunt said.

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Blind elderly couple seeks DIG’s nod for euthanasia | Kanpur News … – Times of India

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KANPUR: Alleging police inaction against their neighbour, an elderly visually impaired couple had written to the DIG seeking permission to undergo euthanasia. In the letter, Gaya Prasad, who resides in the staff quarters with their niece, who is a class IV employee, on the premises of Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital, alleged that he and his wife Prem Lata were recently assaulted by their neighbour Kamlesh Kumar when they asked him not to tie cattle in front of their house. The couple also alleged that the police have not taken any action against the accused despite a complaint. The visually impaired couple then wrote a letter to DIG to grant them justice or allow them to undergo euthanasia. Taking cognizance of the letter, circle officer Gaurav Banswal visited the elderly couple's house on Wednesday and assured them of police action. "On the instructions of DIG, we visited the spot and removed the cattle tied up by the accused in front of the couple's house on Wednesday ," the CO said. The couple had alleged that they are being harassed by accused Kamlesh Kumar. No arrests have been made so far.

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The Philando Castile jury was stacked with pro-gun, pro-cop, middle-aged white people – Salon

Posted: at 6:43 am

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

Dashcam footage of the exact moment Philando Castile was murdered by Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez was released late Tuesday. The video proves two things: Castile could not have been more compliant, and Yanez responded to that compliance with violence and seven rounds of gunfire. There is no ambiguity in the footage or the audio, no doubt that Yanez was unqualified to be carrying that gun, no question he was a far greater danger to Minnesotas citizens than the man he killed. To watch that scene and not believe Philando Castile was murdered is to believe black life has no inherent right to exist.

The jury was shown the footage several times over the course of Yanezs criminal trial, yet they chose to acquit him on all charges. Its a verdict thats maddeningly, infuriatingly and heartbreakingly illogical, yet consistent with the outcome in every case of cops who are tried for killing innocent black people. The U.S. system of criminal injustice fails black folks from start to finish by design. A more intimate look at the jurors in Yanezs criminal case, compiled by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, offers not only insights into how they arrived at their decision, but a look at just how well-stacked the jury was against a just verdict for Castile.

There were just two black people on the jury of Castiles supposed peers. Juror One was a young African American man who works as a shift manager at Wendys and personal care attendant for his mom. He expressed some lack of faith in the criminal justice system, reportedly expressing a belief that the wealthy and powerful could get off in the legal system because they could hire better attorneys. Juror 8 was an 18-year-old Ethiopian American who has lived in the U.S. since age 10. The Tribune notes that the defense tried to strike her due to unfamiliarity with the U.S. legal system, but the judge denied the attempt.

The rest of those selected for the jury were overwhelmingly middle-aged white Minnesotans, many of whom expressly stated support for police or a belief in the infallibility of the criminal justice system. Heres how the list shakes out, taken directly from the Star Tribune:

Juror 2: An older white female who manages a White Bear Lake gas station that has a contract with police. She said she had never heard of the Castile case. The judge denied an attempt by prosecutors to strike her after it was revealed that she had pro-police posts on her Facebook page. One of those posts was heavily critical of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began kneeling during national anthems last year to protest police shootings. She said she had forgotten about the posts.

Juror 3: Middle-aged white male whose wife works for the St. Paul School District, as did Castile but she did not know him. He lives very close to the where Castile was shot and works as the number one guy at a small metal finishing shop. He said his father was a fire chief and he grew up around law enforcement, and also has a nephew whos a police officer. He said it would be difficult for him to be unbiased. He has permit to carry and said he knew to keep his hands visible during a traffic stop. Thats what they teach you, he said.

Juror 4: A middle-aged white male who had very little knowledge of the case. He said he owns a gun and called the criminal justice system a very fair process.

Juror 5: A middle-aged white female who works at an assisted-living center and is highly active in church volunteer work. She said she had heard about the shooting at the time it happened, but knew little else. Her husband was carjacked at gunpoint 18 years ago. She said she had a high regard for police.

Juror 6: A white male in his 40s who is the jury foreperson. A wellness coach for the last seven years, he believes too many victimless crimes are prosecuted, including drug use and sex work. He believes marijuana should be legalized. He said he was somewhat isolated and knew nothing about the Yanez case.

Juror 7: A white female in her late 30s to early 40s who works as a nurse at the same hospital as Yanezs wife but said she does not know her. She said she watched Diamond Reynolds Facebook video, but didnt seek out news about the case and knew a moderate amount about it. Shes a member of a Harley motorcycle group. She said she was dissatisfied with how police responded to a call in 1996.

Juror 9: A middle-aged computer support worker, she was not familiar with the Yanez case, and said Im thankful we have police officers. She believes in the right to own a firearm, but added Im trying to stay away from them right now.

Juror 10: A middle-aged white male who is retired from preprinting work, he said he followed news about the case off and on. He said he had seen Reynolds Facebook video. She seemed overly calm he said on his juror questionnaire. He owns a handgun and hunts.

Juror 11: A middle-aged white male who owns several shotguns and long rifles to hunt pheasants. A former business manager who now works in construction and remodeling, he said in his questionnaire that the criminal justice system has problems but is the best in the world.

Juror 12: A middle-aged white male who moved to Minnesota four years ago to get a new start. He said hes a regular listener to MPR who knew a lot about the case. A pipe fitter, he took a permit-to-carry class three months ago. Keep your hands visible and do not do anything until they tell you want [sic] to do he said of permit to carry education on traffic stop conduct. He believes minor criminal offenses snowball and trap people in the justice system. It seems like its rigged against you, he said.

Justice for Philando Castile never had a chance. The system isnt broken in fact, its working exactly the way its supposed to. The Yanez case is yet more evidence of exactly how well it continues to function.

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The Philando Castile jury was stacked with pro-gun, pro-cop, middle-aged white people - Salon

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Massachusetts Medical Society Votes To Approve Opioid Injection Facilities – Konbini US

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In response to the worrying upward trend in opioid overdoses, the Massachusetts Medical Society voted overwhelmingly in favor of opening supervised injection facilities throughout the state.

Shifting from outright prohibition and criminalization to a focus on life preservation, medical professionals in Massachusetts hope that this will turn the tide in the fight against the opioid epidemic.

Dr. Barbara Herbert, a Massachusetts addiction specialist who voted for the measure, toldNBC Boston:

"You have to stay alive to get better..."

(Photo: Insite/CTV News)

When liberals and progressives point to Portugal as a prime example of a successful shift in drug policy from blanket prohibition to overdose reduction, this is the kind of thing they mean.

In 2001, Portugal decriminalizedalldrugs, reallocating some of the billions of dollars they'd been spending fighting victimless crimes towards investing inhealth clinics, injection sites and other medical initiatives.

And guess what? In just 11 years, the drug use rate in Portugal fell from around 45% to well below 30%.

That's a glimpse of what might just happen in America if we decided to treat addiction like the public health crisis it is, and not a sign of criminality.

(Photo: Insite/Vancourier/Dan Toulgoet)

On this side of the Atlantic, Vancouver, British Columbia has been opening supervised injection sites across the city since 2003, and they've seen a similar drop in addiction rates. Since 2003, Vancouver has seen a 35 percent reduction in overdoses and, perhaps most importantly, a 30 percent increase in users seeking treatment.

So Massachusetts wants to follow something like the Vancouver model, but apply it in the suburban and rural areas in the western part of the state, where opioid abuse rates have been climbing steadily and emergency resources are especially scarce.

Dr. Barbara Herbert laid out the supervised injection site concept, saying:

"The idea that someone would show up and inject in front of me is not an appealing idea.

But the idea that they would go two blocks away and die is so much worse."

While the Medical Society's vote is a big step towards implementing supervised injection sites across the state, the plan still has to be passed into law by the state assembly. While that may be quite the uphill climb, at least the ball is already rolling.

Read More ->What Is A 'Pot Powwow' And How Can It Help The Native American Community?

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Graffiti vandal behind a 34,000 rail crime spree is named | Express … – expressandstar.com

Posted: at 6:43 am

Ashley Byrd, 24, left his 'tag' at stations in the Black Country, and was finally caught after a dramatic police chase on rail tracks.

He was caught in an operation launched when 18 trains were vandalised in just 12 days.

Byrd would get on to the lines via a metal post and lie in wait in a tunnel as trains arrived into Birmingham New Street from the east.

As trains waited to come into the station, he would spray carriages just below the window and out of sight of passengers

He was finally arrested on December 27 last year, when a driver coming into New Street at around 7pm spotted him on the tracks.

Officers found him hiding in the tunnel and he fled, but police knew which way he would try to escape and were waiting for him at the other end.

His presences on the lines that evening caused delays totalling 467 minutes, costing Network Rail 30,556.

Carriage clean-up work cost 3,500.

Sketch books found at his house, on Inverness Road, Northfield, revealed tags matching those on the trains.

Traces of paint on his clothes matched that used on trains and at Dudley Port station, while his phone records linked him to times and dates when graffiti was scrawled at Coseley and Tipton stations.

Byrd went on to admit obstruction, trespass and criminal damage.

Last week, he was jailed for eight weeks and ordered to pay train operators CrossCountry and London Midland compensation of 3,772 in total.

PC Dave Rich from BTP in Birmingham said: These were not victimless crimes: Byrds actions delayed passengers and the cost to clean his graffiti will undoubtedly be passed onto the travelling public in some form.

We are satisfied with the sentence handed to him and we hope it sends a clear message to other graffiti vandals that we will do everything in our power to put you before the courts, who take a dim view of such mindless acts.

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London Theater Review: Topical Drama ‘Terror’ – Variety

Posted: at 6:42 am

Stage trials are nothing new. Ayn Rand had a big Broadway hit with one back in 1935: Night of January 16was designed to put her philosophy, individualism, to the test. Ferdinand von Schirachs Terror, already a commercial success in Germany, does much the same: It tests the mettle of our morality with a very contemporary dilemma. In the wake of recent attacks it should feel essential. Instead, its largely academic.

Major Lars Koch (Ashley Zhangazha) of the German air force sits in a courtroom, a blank stare on his face, accused of 164 counts of murder. Eight months ago, he downed a hijacked passenger jet that was, in all likelihood, heading for a football stadium and its capacity crowd. In launching an air-to-air guided missile, disobeying orders to do so, he saved up to 70,000 lives. The law, however, states he must face trial for the lives his actions ended.

The question, broadly speaking, is whether it is ever justifiable to take one life in order to save others. Emma Fieldings prosecuting lawyer blithely argues that the constitutions owes each and every one of us our human dignity, only for the defense (an ardent Forbes Masson) to parry with the common sense argument: Koch committed the lesser evil; any of us would have done the same. Tanya Moodie presides over both with a firm judicial authority.

Von Schirach ensures the case is far from open and shut, carefully constructing a scenario that pulls in several directions at once. Details complicate the picture the indecision of Kochs commanding officers, the passengers struggling to get into the cockpit but so do emotions. Events are described with painstaking precision, right down to the four passengers sucked out of the blast holes. A dead mans wife describes collecting his shoe from the witness box. Were not just asked to decide between absolutism and relativism, but between action and consequences, intervention and inaction, individual and state.

Terror lets us into the legal system not just to witness the judicial process, but to experience it. We stand in the shoes of jurors, but no matter how seriously one takes the role, each of us, inevitably, falls short. Theres too much information to process, too much at stake to completely detach. Some details snag, others escape you. Its impossible not to tune into emotions to project remorse onto Zhangazhas steadfast certainty, to suspect the prosecution of welling up. How much are you swayed by rhetoric over facts? How much are you persuaded by a soft-spoken woman arguing against a brusque Scottish bloke? The decision, when it comes, comes from the gut, no more or less rational than the pilots pull on the trigger.

If anything, however, the conundrum is too carefully constructed, calibrated to hang in perfect balance. It makes a fun thought-experiment, a riddlesome mind game or an undergraduate ethics seminar, but, as effective theater, its hard to shake the artifice of it all. Youre constantly aware of Von Schirachs manipulating hand. The moment you step back, you see through it. Nothings really at stake here. We are, essentially, deliberating over hypothetical hypotheticals.

The ending the judgment, handed down by the audience blows it. This being a trial, our decision stands. The judge has to defer, and the verdict goes into law. Whether we find the defendant guilty or not, we are, in effect, congratulated on making the right decision. Terror never holds us to account. It never unpicks the ramifications of our verdict, nor examines what that might say about our society. After eight previews, every verdicts been the same: not guilty. Thats huge. It means accepting the idea of self-sacrifice, and that the law can be bent to the circumstances. Terror lets us off scot-free.

Lyric Hammersmith, London; 550 seats; 35 ($45) top. Opened,June 22, 2017reviewed June 20, 2016. Running time:1 HOURS, 55 MIN.

A Lyric Hammersmith production of a play in two acts by Ferdinand von Schirach.

Directed by Sean Holmes; Set design,Anna Fleische;translated by David Tushingham; lighting, Joshua Carr; sound, Nick Manning; costume design, Loren Elstein.

Ashley Zhangazaha, Emma Fielding, John Lightbody, Forbes Masson, Tanya Moodie, Shanaya Rafaat.

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You Were There – The Weekly Standard

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In my time at Jesus College, Oxford (1956-58), I must have passed Eric Kenningtons evocative bust of T.E. Lawrence scores of times. It stood in the college lodge, on Turl Street, and portrayed a famous alumnus who had led an early life as an archaeologist before he became a British officer and legendary leader of the World War I Arab revolt against Turkish rule.

What I knew only dimly was that a much-traveled American journalist named Lowell Thomaswho had briefly taught elocution at Princetonwas often credited with the creation of the Lawrence legend, a legend sensationally magnified a generation later by David Leans magnificent film. As viewers of that vivid movie know, Lawrence assumed the leadership of the Arabs under King Feisal. He affected Bedouin costume, becoming an accomplished desert fighter.

Lowell Thomas, for his part, appears in the movie under a pseudonym as a sassy, cynical reporter named Bentley who appears on the scene after General Sir Edmund Allenbys conquest of Damascus, and follows the Arab host on its primary errand: blowing up railroad tracks and slaughtering Turkish soldiers. Its final scenes show a Lawrence a bit crazed by the experience.

The case can be made, writes Mitchell Stephens here, that no individual before or since has dominated American journalism as did Lowell Thomas in the late 1930s and, in particular, the early 1940s. Thomas brought to his craft a resonant voice and a gift for clear exposition. His breakthrough in audio-visual presentation came after the wars end, in a dramatic magic lantern show that drew thousands in 1919 London, New York, and other cities. Though it originally headlined Allenbys exploits, the once obscure Lawrence was an enormous hit, and the program was retitled With Allenby in Palestine and Lawrence in Arabia.

Thomas and his era were well met. They developed together the first phase of radio news broadcasting, whose dominance was prolonged by the postponement of television manufacture by war priorities in World War II. Apart from voice and diction, it was Thomass lifelong wanderlust that was his trump card; and it is well capturedcaricatured may be the more precise termby the bumptious figure of Bentley in Lawrence of Arabia.

Thomass corporate sponsor on NBC radio was Sun Oil. He was paid directly by the sponsoring company, a journalistic practice that would now be deemed irregular and (according to this biography) exposed him to occasional commercial pressures. The author notes one instance when Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed his Four Freedoms and conservative critics such as Sen. Robert Taft and novelist Ayn Rand complained. In a letter of June 8, 1943, Thomas received a caution from his primary contact at Sun Oil, suggesting that he omit further mention of the Four Freedoms. That caution was reinforced by a friendly letter from J. Howard Pew, president of Sun Oil, congratulating Thomas on the popularity of his broadcasts but advising that Roosevelts Four Freedoms be recast in terms of free-enterprise doctrine.

Thomas also narrated the pioneering Movietone newsreels, a medium whose oratorical voice and noisy nationalism would today ring strange in the age of television, the ultimate cool medium.

But to return to the association that first won him fame, it is, perhaps, a question of who created whomwhether Lowell Thomas created Lawrence of Arabia or Lawrence created Lowell Thomas, the showman and broadcaster. The two chapters about Lawrence of Arabia, though they take up only 33 pages, are certainly the most vivid and interesting and the authors notes indicate that this isnt his first treatment of Lawrence.

Undoubtedly, however, Thomass desert rendezvous in November 1918 struck journalistic gold and established a professional trajectory that made him the voice of Americathe voice of and for the middle class and its developing thirst for a form of news more quickly satisfied than by newspapers and magazines. Stephenss claims for Lowell Thomas are reinforced by his globetrotting and his determination to penetrate exotic landseven Tibet, after the Communist takeover in China, to which he and his son trekked at the price (in Thomass case) of broken bones, to interview the isolated 14-year-old Dalai Lama.

Thomas left broadcasting too early to rival the mega-television successes of Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, Edward R. Murrow, and others. But his memory is not without its nostalgia. One who grew up in the classic age of radiothe era of the University of Chicago Roundtable, Quiz Kids, Kraft Music Hall, and The Bell Telephone Hour, and not least Arturo Toscaninis NBC Symphony, not to mention popular stars such as Jack Bennycannot resist adding that Thomass era was of an excellence no longer heard on commercial radio or television.

But was Lowell Thomas the voice of America? I must admit a failure of auditory memory. The later voices of Cronkite, Brinkley, Murrow, Eric Sevareid, and others echo in the memory. Even H.V. Kaltenbornanother oil-company-sponsored newscaster-commentator (and my fathers bte noire)retains his staccato echo. But the voice of America is fading out like a dim radio signal, at least for me. Perhaps Thomass voice, midwestern in origins, was destined to become the standard timbre of all electronic communicationand is now lost among all the others.

Edwin M. Yoder Jr. is the author, most recently, of Vacancy: A Judicial Misadventure.

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‘Fargo’ Season 3 finale recap: A mostly satisfying, but ambiguous ending – Baltimore Sun

Posted: at 6:42 am

Season 3 of Fargo came to a satisfying and poignant close with its finale episode, Somebody to Love. Justice is exacted, stories are told, death is doled and we get a frustratingly ambiguous, yet narratively inevitable ending.

The episode begins with Gloria Burgle submitting her resignation from the sheriff's department. Then we are taken to the IRS agent outlining the litany of transgressions the Stussy company has participated in.

Next, we see Emmit signing papers with Varga peering over his shoulder, making another deal with the devil, as it were.

The IRS agent gets a note from Burgle requesting to talk. Burgle accepts that the case is closed, but the IRS agent tells Burgle of the mass conspiracy he is close to cracking.

Dont move, Ill be right there, Burgle says enthusiastically, Wait, whats your address?

She then removes her resignation notice and takes off.

Nikki, meanwhile, is planning her revenge like a game of bridge. It is revealed that this shrewd woman has already picked up a little sign language.

After we see the title card, Emmit finishes signing V.M.s documents he is simply worn down.

Its perfectly natural, you see it all the time in the wild the smaller animal going limp in the jaws of the larger, Varga says. Food knows its food.

Varga fields a call from Nikki about the next meeting while Emmit eyes the gun in Meemos chest. He grabs the gun in a rage because he was called food. Varga distracts Emmit by giving a monologue about the evolution of technology and says the gun has a fingerprint scanner. He blasts his breath spray in Emmits eyes and Meemo blasts him with a fire poker.

Meemo and Varga go to meet up with Nikki. Their small army follows a Latino boy into an abandoned building, where they follow directions written on the ground up to the third floor. They are playing Nikkis game now. With each direction, they lose more men in their army.

Varga, the coward, hangs back in the elevator while the army checks out the storage hallway. They come to an open storage unit that reads: Leave the money, the drives are in unit 207.

Varga recieves a text from an unknown number that reads: IRS has the drivers. Get Out.

As Varga closes the elevator door on his men with a genuine look of fear on his face, a storage locker door opens. Meemo and the others are gunned down and Varga listens in horror. Nikki is waiting for him at the bottom of the elevator, but she finds an empty coat on the floor and the roof panel taken off. The weasel got away.

A bloodied Mr. Wrench comes down the adjacent elevator with the money, which Nikki gives him for his help. Nikki runs off in search of Emmit.

Speaking of Emmit, he wakes up to an empty house with a stamp stuck on his forehead. He throws the stamp, worth $10,000, on the floor and drives off. He arrives at his offices to find Ms. Goldfarb has taken over.

You work for Varga, all this time. Like a fire door that leads to another fire, Stussy says.

Its a twist that I do not care about at all. But Emmit is instructed to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because he is $300 million dollars in debt.

We then get an explanation from the IRS agent to Burgle of what Varga did to Stussy lots. He calls it a bleed out. Narwhal acquired Stussy, borrowed millions of dollars, then sold the company for a fraction of the price while it was drowning in debt. The money borrowed is pocketed by Varga and all working in his operation while Emmit has to take care of the debt.

This whole time it was easy to assume Varga was working for some kind of criminal organization laundering money, as Burgle said, but it turns out he is simply a shrewd, ruthless businessman. The only illegal action he took was that he didnt pay taxes; he put all of the money they borrowed into offshore accounts.

Burgle is called to the scene of the massacre Nikki enacted. Burgle, with the knowledge that Nikki is out for revenge, goes to warn Emmit.

Emmit, having a terrible day, continues his unlucky streak as his car breaks down on the side of the highway. Frustrated by his lack of service, as well as the death of his car, company and brother, Emmit smashes his phone on the ground.

Nikki rolls up in a truck with her shotgun in tow.

Are you as low as you can go? she asks.

Emmit thought he couldnt go lower when he turned himself in the day before, but it turned out that wasnt the case, so he is unable to answer her question. Nikki reminds Emmit before she blasts him that he has no one who loves him. Emmit then begs Nikki to shoot him. She starts to give Emmit the quote she got from the stranger at the bowling alley before, in the coincidence of all coincidences, a cop car rolls by to interrupt the line.

Its a long story, but at the end of it we all go home, Nikki says with misplaced optimism.

Emmit apparently changes his mind about wanting to die, as he is quick to whisper to the officer that Nikki has a gun. The officer tries to diffuse the situation and draws his firearm as Nikki creeps back toward her gun. Nikki grabs the shotgun and shots ring out, dropping the officer and Nikki to the floor, leaving Emmit still standing between them.

The officer was shot in the chest. Nikki was shot in the head. With our rogue warrior killed, it is up to Burgle to exact justice the legal way.

Burgle and her son sit on the trunk of her car licking popsicles. Burgle explains what happened to Ennis to her son.

Theres violence to knowing the world isnt what you want, Burgle said.

Its a short but sweet scene, in which Burgle espouses the value of teamwork and friendship as being guiding lights in an absurd, dark world.

Elsewhere, Emmit takes his new lease on life to his wife and immediately begins crying in her arms.

We then get a move very reminiscent of the first season as the show jumps five years later. Emmit has filed for bankruptcy and pleaded guilty to tax fraud. On probation, he was welcomed back to his family. Its very sweet he is praying with his family and everything is happy. Even a recovering Sy is there! I mean, we find out he might have $20 million hidden in an offshore account, but besides that, everything is on the up and up for Emmit Stussy.

Emmit looks over the pictures of his friends and family on the fridge He opens the fridge to get the salad, and the ever-loyal Mr. Wrench shoots him in the back of the head. Is it fair? Who knows. But, as Burgle said, not everything is.

Burgle, now working for the Department of Homeland Security, enters an interrogation room to none other than Varga, now under the name Daniel Rand and the guise of a salesman. The name may be a tribute to Ayn Rand, but I like to think it is an homage to Marvel superhero Iron Fist.

Oh that this was my salvation, a weary traveler I am, Varga says.

Varga gives Burgle a series of vague statements essentially amounting to, You havent got a thing on me. Gloria informs Varga of the Stussy murder.

It is a dangerous world for men of standing, Varga says. Human beings, you see have no inherent value other than the money they earn.

Burgle asks Varga if he killed Emmit. He refuses. Burgle informs Varga that he is going to prison on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. She, meanwhile, will go home to her son and prepare for the state fair the next day.

Varga counters her story with one of his own: That a man will come in and tell him hes free to go. And he will leave.

Trust me. The future is certain. And when it comes you will know your place in the world, Varga says.

The lights go down on Varga, Burgle smiles, we see the door and the clock above it, and the episode ends.

The season of Fargo ends the way it began: two people in a room with differing stories, both believing theirs to be the truth. While at the beginning, the two people were debating over what already happened, now they are debating what is going to happen.

As Varga made clear: The past is unpredictable, but the future is certain.

This season finale was strong, as each character gets their own story wrapped neatly but not predictably into a bow.

Nikki is on a path of redemption, but on the way she kills a dutiful police officer, cutting that path short.

Emmit is on his own redemptive path but keeps a lot of his ill-gotten money to himself, so his is also cut short.

Burgle knows her place in the world and is confident that she has triumphed over the devil.

Varga believes he will escape and fade into the world yet again.

My only wish is that Varga got his comeuppance and, depending on how one interprets the show, whos to say he doesnt? His power, money and standing have been stripped from him and he might be headed to prison.

As is typical in Fargo and in many Coen brothers films, the mystical storylines and themes are left open for interpretation.

Season 3 of Fargo may not be the best of the series, but was inventive, took risks and definitely came close to the heights the previous two stories reached.

Excerpt from:

'Fargo' Season 3 finale recap: A mostly satisfying, but ambiguous ending - Baltimore Sun

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Doth Protest Too Much: Gooney Tunes – Being Libertarian

Posted: at 6:41 am

Hello, and welcome back to this very special edition of Doth Protest Too Much, where I, David, take pot-shots at politics and hot button topics of great concern to the world as we know it.

One of these overlooked phenomena, which must be aptly addressed, is that of Australias longstanding drinking culture; which consists of drinking until you make Charlie Sheen look sober, dropping your dacks to the Eagle Rock and swigging cheap bags of cask wine (goon bags) with no repercussions.

All of this brings to mind a singular pertinent question in the minds of all libertarians: Why in the hell is this a libertarian issue?

Given the reputation of libertarians as hands-off people, unwilling to do anything for the benefit or the greater good, its time that we break down that stereotype and advance our own cause starting with this one topic in particular: How do we make societal progress in removing alcohol poisoning from the sphere of Australian culture?

The answer is incredibly simple, my friend.

The reason why the growth in sales of cask wine has boomed, and created such a thriving industry, is inherent in the tax rate, as cask wine is only taxed five cents per standard drink, which explains how four litres of white wine is readily available for the price of ten dollars.

Comparatively, a six pack of full strength beer (just under two litres) will cost $24.70 and will be subject to forty six cents of taxation on each standard drink.

Pre-mixed drinks (commonly referred to as Alcopops within Australia) are subject to a dollar and four cents of taxation for each standard drink, which makes a ten-can pack of the tangy soda, Smirnoff Ice Black, a whopping 41 dollars.

Having already established the cost/ratio difference to be considerably uneven in Australian taxes, the inner machinations of a youth looking to get tipsy seem to be common sense, although we are yet to factor in the alcohol percentage of these drinks.

The beer ($24.70 for 1.98 litres) has an alcohol percentage of 5.2%.

The pre-mixed Alcopop ($41.00 for 3.75 litres) has an alcohol percentage of 6.5%.

The cask wine ($10 for 4.0 litres) has an alcohol percentage of 9.5%.

A simple crunch of the numbers demonstrates how an uneven and faulty tax system has left exploitable loopholes for those looking for a quick and demonstrably dangerous buzz.

What can we do to curb the death-count? Should we enforce a higher taxation on cask wine?

Hell no!

The answer is to drop the tax on products with lower alcohol content and re-work the Australian identity to consume bottles designed for moderation rather than nebulous chrome blobs of morning regret.

We should protect our youth by accommodating their empty pockets rather than the governments flawed attempt at stopping rampant Australian alcoholism.

Perhaps Im completely wrong, perhaps Im right or perhaps I doth protest too much.

I need a drink.

This post was written by David McManus.

The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.

David McManus has an extensive background in youth politics and of advocacy with regards to the libertarian and anarcho-capitalist movements. David draws his values from the works of Stirner, Hoppe and Rothbard. He is currently a student in Australia with a passion for writing, which carries into a healthy zest for liberty-based activism. Despite an aspiring career in politics, he considers himself a writer at heart with a steady niche for freelance work.

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Doth Protest Too Much: Gooney Tunes - Being Libertarian

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