Vapors of thought:
Monsters come in many forms. Every so often a monster is brilliant and that brilliance acts as a shield, an excuse — Polanski for instance. Often the monster comes in the form of the rich or well connected — as is the case with any of several Kennedy’s. Brilliant, wealthy, well connected monsters are easier to forgive (forget, and let go), than less intelligent, fiscally struggling monsters.
Where is the justice?
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It’s hard to stay healthy here, but when heaven can’t wait the US is top notch. At least according to the white paper featured in the Economist story Quality of death: A ranking of care for the dying by country .
My guess is that end of life specialists find it easier to say “you are going to die and all we can do is keep you comfortable” (Morphine is cheap), to a poor man than to a rich man. However, this study though featured in “The Economist”, doesn’t touch significantly on economic factors. Despite the irony of the exclusions it’s still an interesting white paper. Regardless, we die well here. The source pdf available here.
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Speaking of monsters I read Boystown, a good 13 year old Salon interview with the author of an old book I picked up while scavenging junk shops. The book, Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb, is about a group of teenage jock types and their lifelong abuse and eventual rape of a 17-year-old retarded girl in Glen Ridge New Jersey. It’s also about how the community rallied around the rapists, that rallying phenomena is what provoked the author to write the book. Extremely disquieting read.
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In Politics, Sometimes The Facts Don’t Matter
via NPR
New research suggests that misinformed people rarely change their minds when presented with the facts — and often become even more attached to their beliefs.
Then my work here is done?
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This you’ll have fun with. It doesn’t relate to monsters in any way.
I’m overwhelmingly William Shakespeare, with a random James Joyce, and the current post a David Wallace.
What about you?
Peace, and don’t forget “this above all: to thine own self be true”
