Author: Dan Dickinson

Categories
Debated Disliked

America – Now With Less Freedom!

I’ve been following the Terry Schiavo case a bit over the last few weeks, keeping my fingers crossed this wouldn’t become a national issue.

Lo and behold, [here we are](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4367201.stm).

Friends, this affects every last one of us. You have lost the ability to make critical care decisions for loved ones. You no longer can expect someone to be able to take mercy on you and end years of pain and suffering and vegetative state. Personal decisions *and* the decisions of your doctor have been usurped by the government.

I don’t care if you’re Democratic, Republican, Catholic, Jewish, Agnostic, or SubGenius – read the [details of this case](http://abstractappeal.com/schiavo/infopage.html) and realize how tragic this is not only for Terry Schiavo and her husband, but for the United States as a country.

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> In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favour of life.

-George W. Bush

> By now most people who read liberal blogs are aware that George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient’s family’s wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother’s wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday.

–Digby’s *Hullabaloo*

I’m not even going to get started on his very much pro-death penalty ways; I’m content to stand pat and call the man a massive hypocrite.

********

While reading the [fantastic MetaFilter thread on the ordeal](http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/40549) – about Congress rushing through legislation to score political points; the stringent court cases that have assessed her as unable to recover; the fifteen years Michael Schiavo has spent flying her all over the country seeking treatment – I was struck by some odd nostalgia.

Bill Hicks, who by now should be up for sainthood, has a bit on one of his CDs (*Rant In E Minor*) about pro-lifers; it was one of the first Hicks routines I had ever heard. The jist of the bit was that if you’re so pro-life – if you so dearly value the sanctity of human life – then stop blocking abortion clinics, and instead links arms and block cemetaries.

Never in a million years did I expect anyone to actually take the suggestion to heart.

(As I write this post on the subway, *I’m Afraid Of Americans* by David Bowie + Trent Reznor came on my iPod. Irony noted.)

Categories
Recommended

Oldboy

Katie and I had a chance to see a private pre-screening of [Old Boy](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0364569/ “IMDB listing”) tonight, thanks to our lovely friends at [Gothamist](http://www.gothamist.com/).

Short synopsis before I get going: Oh Dae-Su, a man with a reputation for getting drunk and womanizing, is mysteriously imprisoned in a fake hotel room for 15 years, living on fried dumplings and TV only. After the 15 years are up, he finds himself awake on a roof. He is given fancy clothes, a cell, and money. But what his captor has waiting for him after his release – while Oh Dae-Su plots his revenge – may be far worse than his imprisonment.

I can’t remember the last time I came out of a movie feeling so emotionally drained – it’s like my soul got in a fight with the movie and lost.

The acting was fantastic for all the key characters, especially the two leads. Choi Min-sik, who plays Oh Dae-su, has *huge* range, and the acting muscle he shows in the last 20 minutes leaves me unable to even find one person in US cinema to compare him to. Yu Ji-Tae, playing his captor/tormentor, comes off as genuinely evil without descending into camp to get the point across.

Somewhere in here is the single best fight scene I’ve ever witnessed that wasn’t boosted by special effects. There’s also some well-timed black humor, more than sufficient character development, and more than enough twists and turns that you’ll get slack-jawed at least once. (And in the good-for-Dan department, there weren’t enough plot holes to make me deconstruct the whole thing after the fact.)

People who have been reading my blog for long enough know I don’t write a lot of movie reviews. I save the indivudual movie posts for one of two cases – a [really good movie](https://vjarmy.com/archives/2004/09/aim_for_the_hea.php), or a [really poor movie](https://vjarmy.com/archives/2003/09/the_occasional.php). Oldboy completely falls on the side of the good movies, and until further notice is my Favorite Movie Of 2005.

Check out [the trailer](http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/old_boy.html), and be sure to catch it when it opens in the immediate future.

Categories
Puzzled Over

I’ve Made A Terrible Mistake

As I’m walking into work this morning, I round the corner at 68th and 3rd Ave, and I see someone on a Segway barrelling down the sidewalk. This isn’t entirely strange, given that it’s the Upper East Side, but what is weird is that *he’s got two large handicapped stickers on it*.

Needless to say, I can’t wrap my head around this:

– If he’s physically handicapped, how does he get into the Segway?
– If he’s phsyically handicapped, how does he maintain his balance enough to use the Segway?
– If it’s not a physical handicap, would that imply he has a mental handicap?
– If it’s a mental handicap, what’s he doing riding it through pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk?
– Hell, even if it’s a physical handicap, what’s he doing riding it on the sidewalk?
– What benefit does one gain from having a handicapped sticker on a Segway? I wasn’t aware there were Segway parking spots, let alone *handicapped* Segway parking spots.