Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

DYSTOPIAN NOVEL, "NEVER LET ME GO" BY KAZUO ISHIGURO

Lisa Schiffren over at the Corner writes:

"Never Let Me Go" is written in Ishiguro's usual understated, wonderfully controlled, utterly sympathetic and seductive prose style. The story is told through the voice of Kathy, a young English woman now working as a "carer." It looks, at the start, like fairly standard reminiscense of her youth and a couple of close relationships she had at an exclusive English boarding school in the countryside. The school, Hailsham, seems a little odd. The students do too much art, not enough math or science or history. The teachers, known as guardians, constantly tell them that they are very special — and deliberately fail to tell them how or why they are. The author clearly intends readers to understand, subconsciously at first, then by dint of signs of cultural normality that he omits, finally by an increasingly menacing undertone, that this is not a normal place at all, and that the children being educated there are somehow outside of real  society — and not just because they are orphans.

The book is, ultimately, a dystopian fantasty set in the last decades of the 20th Century — a time we know, not the alien, scientifically advanced future. Kathy and her friends are clones. They have been bred, by the government, for their body parts, which they will ultimately "donate." In fact, they will make donations until they

A WOMAN'S TAKE ON CINDY McCAIN'S DRESS AND HAIRSTYLE

It's interesting to see with what detail one woman can analyze the dress and hairstyle of another. (I post this for the benefit of the ladies in my family).  Lisa Schriffren :

. . .  Last night was the very first time I've thought Cindy McCain looked really good this season. All through the campaign she has favored very sharp-shouldered jackets, (an 80's, Dynasty look), usually in hard and bright colors like tomato red. Her naturally thin frame doesn't need, or benefit from either the hard shoulder or the wasp-waist it is constructed to suggest.

Her hair, in that that glaring shade of platinum (too bright for a woman her age — see the combination of highlights and lowlights that Hillary has settled on for current state of the art "natural" artificial blondeness at a certain age) is usually pulled back into so taut a bun that it stretches her skin a bit around the eyes and cheekbones. That suggests both stiffness and an affinity for discomfort. Because she is tall, thin, and

OBAMA SERMONIZES ON THE "SERMON ON THE MOUNT"

Michelle Malkin offers a post with many useful links.  Obama's views on abortion and
homosexuality conform to his consistent ultra-liberal perspective.  The Bible suffers from his exegesis and his statements regarding his church seem extraordinarily disingenuous to me. For my previous posts on Obama, click here.

Update 3/4/08 - The Baptist Press offers useful commentary.  (HT: Hugh Hewitt)

Update 3/5/08 - Mollie Ziegler over at "GetReligion" (a blog written by journalists that analyzes press coverage of religion), asks why the press didn't  follow-up with logical questions to Obama such as "which specific portion of the Sermon on the Mount are you referencing?"  Reporters were left to speculate (lamely!)  Her article is appropriately titled, "Blessed are the question askers."

THE WEST'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD

Andy McCarthy links to a great article by Ibn Warraq in City Journal and offers this excerpt:

The great ideas of the West—rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested search for truth, the separation of church and state, the rule of law and equality under the law, freedom of thought and expression, human rights, and liberal democracy—are superior to any others devised by humankind. It was the West that took steps to abolish slavery; the calls for abolition did not resonate even in Africa, where rival tribes sold black prisoners into slavery. The West has secured freedoms for women and racial and other minorities to an extent unimaginable 60 years ago. The West recognizes and defends the rights of the individual: we are free to think what we want, to read what we want, to practice our religion, to live lives of our choosing....

THE COMING BATTLE IN GAZA

Update 3/2/08 - Hamas shells Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people, raising the stakes considerably. Update 3/3/08 - Hamas shoots from civilian homes to produce civilian killings in response.  Brutal, nasty, devilishly obscene tactic.

Update 3/4/08  "The Psychological Asymmetry of Islamist Warfare" from The Middle East Quarterly

. . . Western governments are challenged today by an enemy whose behavior is inspired by theological doctrines that not only disregard the Western concept of ethical combat but for whom the killing of civilians—on both sides of a conflict—also serves a vital purpose. . .

By rejecting the entire Western concept of the rules of war, Islamist groups turn the adherence of Western military powers to restrictions on battlefield conduct into not just a disadvantage, but one that can be relied upon in a conflict, whether confronting U.S. peacekeepers in Mogadishu, NATO units in southern Afghanistan, or Israeli soldiers in Gaza.  (more . . .)

- Haaretz reports and Hugh Hewitt excerpts saying:

These excerpts from a Haaretz article on the looming battle for Gaza underscore the imminence of a huge clash between the IDF and Hamas, a major moment in the global war between jihadists and their enemies, but the