Right to Die
Assisted Suicide of Healthy 79-Year-Old Renews German Debate on Right to Die
By MARK LANDLER
NY Times, July 3, 2008
A woman’s desire to avoid life in a nursing home forces a country to confront the thorny ethical issue and casts an assisted-suicide advocate as Germany’s Jack Kevorkian.
But many here do not want Germany to follow the example of Switzerland, where liberal laws on euthanasia have led to a bustling trade in assisted suicide. In the last decade, nearly 500 Germans have crossed the border to end their lives with the help of a Swiss group that facilitates suicides.
“My offer, since last Saturday, is to allow people to die in their own beds,” he said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “That is the wish of most people, and now it is possible in Germany.”
Not only should assisted-suicide be legal, it should be a free government service available to any adult for any reason. Why, oh why, is life so important? You might think to yourself, “that’s obvious!”, but is it? If you think life is precious and should be preserved, even against one’s will, please tell me why?
Also, I STRONGLY recommend Peter Singer’s book, Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics.
Playboy: Old and New
A few days ago I received several old Playboys I had purchased from an Ebay dealer. I got the two issues with Liv Lindeland (January 1971 and June 1972), September 1973 (my birth month), January 1974 (20th Anniversary Issue) and several others for the authors and articles. They smell old are are very fragile but the staples, covers, and centerfolds are all intact. The subscription cards (blown and stapled), surprisingly, are in place as if the magazines have never been opened.
Sears Give-n-Take Stretchslaks
Playboy, June 1972
Isn’t this advertisement just hilarious? I love it. No Playboy today would wear anything called “Stretchslaks”. Times sure have changed. There are also a LOT of cigarette and pipe advertisements. And liquor ads. I’ve only opened two of the magazines from their protective plastic sleeves and have spent a couple hours just looking at the many interesting and humorous advertisements. The magazines from that era contain nearly two and a half times as many pages as they do today and I’d say half of the space is advertising. Playboy Magazine today has very few advertisements.
The subscription price hasn’t changed much in the past 40 years. I recently added a year onto my current subscription for $12. In 1971 a one-year subscription was $10. What has changed is the cover price. In 1971 the cover price was one dollar; today it is $5.99.
Columbia Tape Club
Playboy, January 1971
One thing that hasn’t changed is the amount of expensive gadgets reviewed in Playboy. Today it’s robot vacuums, pricey watches, expensive cars, digital cameras and high-end audio/video equipment. In the early ’70s it was microwave ovens, movie projectors, crude electric shavers and 8-track cassette player/recorders. It’s fun to flip through the old issues to see what was the bleeding edge of technology was around the time I was conceived. Do you belong to a CD or DVD club? Probably not. iTunes and Napster were probably the kiss of death to Columbia House’s music clubs. I remember belonging to a CD club and before that a tape club where you pay, like, one dollar for eleven CD/tapes if you promise to buy four more at regular club prices in the next year. Except shipping and handling was like $5.99 for each of the free ones. Then they kept sending you the special club selections every month whether you wanted them or not. Then they bothered you incessantly about paying for the unwanted music. I was born too late to join an 8-track tape club. Do you know who helped invent the 8-track cassette? Hint: He also invented the first business jet and based in on a Swiss fighter aircraft.
Silverstein Around the World
Playboy, January 1971
Shell Silverstein is the man. Few people familiar with his children’s poetry books know that he was a longtime cartoonist for Playboy and that he lived at the Playboy Mansion for a time.
Also in the works: two poetry books for kids, one to be called Sara Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out and Other Poems, and a comic-strip anthology, Say It Once.
We all know the first book would eventually be published under the title Where the Sidewalk Ends.
As with every issue of Playboy, I love the articles best. In the two old issues I’ve thumbed through so far there are many articles and letters about the Vietnam War, abortion (pre-Roe v. Wade), women’s liberation, marijuana legalization, the environment, government corruption and domestic and international politics. In fact, if you change the dates and names, many of the articles and letters would read as if they are contemporary works. You’d think we’d have moved past those issues in forty years.
So, if you ever find yourself scratching your head for gift ideas for me and don’t want to spend more than five or ten dollars, just order an old issue of Playboy Magazine. You can’t go wrong. December 1953 would be nice (It’ll set you back more than five or ten dollars. Try >$6,000). :)
Barack On Religion
While I don’t agree with everything Obama proposes, this video nearly brought tears to my eyes. It’ll be nice to have a voice of reason in the White House, for a change.
Gas Prices Are Still Too Low!
There has been much talk recently about the “problem” of high gas prices. It’s becoming difficult to keep up with all the proposed solutions. US President George W. Bush and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain recently suggested we life a federal moratorium that prevents coastal drilling. Mr. Bush has also stepped up his fight to begin poking holes in a pristine Arctic wildlife preserve. Those ideas may go far to win the vote of the stupid class, but they will not do anything to reduce prices at the pump.
Yes, we need to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. But that’s not the worst effect of our addiction to the sweet black stuff. Worse than geopolitical instability and a flailing economy is the devestating impact combusting fossil fuels is having on our environment. Domesticating our oil supply will do nothing to decrease the release of CO2 into the atmosphere.
John McCain and Hillary Clinton both proposed a gas tax vacation this summer to reduce the burden rising fuel costs is having on the American family. Few proposals could be more stupid and short sighted. What we need is for the American people to abandon their gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and start using public transportation whenever possible.
What we really need is, as Barack Obama suggested, a Apollo/Manhatten Project class push to develop clean renewable alternatives. The longer gas prices remain affordable to the American people the longer it will be until real money is invested in alternatives.
The federal government needs to immediately pass legislation that would set a minimum gas price that would rise incrementally to $7 per gallon by 2010. Automobile manufacturers would instantly retool to meet customer demands for fuel-efficient alternative energy vehicles. Scientists and engineers would immediately be put to work developing better fuel cells and batteries. Alternative energy companies would spring up to develop the technologies to supply the increased demand for clean electricity.
It would be expensive, yes, but it would be the best investment in America’s viability since The New Deal. High paying jobs would be created. Education would improve in the areas of math and science. Our air would be cleaner. America’s reputation around the world would be strengthened.
The increased revenue from the gas tax could be used to improve infrastructure; invest in research, development and education; and offset the cost burdens on the poorest Americans. It wouldn’t be easy, initially, but it’s the right thing to do. Our current addiction to oil and the policies which enable it are unsustainable.
Our First Maine Anniversary
A year ago today we arrived in Maine. Hooray! And what a year it’s been. We love being Mainers. The landscapes are spectacular and so are the people.
The schools here in Saco are wonderful and have worked with us to provide the girls excellent educational opportunites and have kept them challenged. The girls have made many friends and visited many exciting places.
Kirsten has a job she enjoys. She also volunteers at the schools.
I have yet to find employment I can be passionate about. I’ve enjoyed traveling throughout our new state and photographing seascapes and lighthouses.
Our first winter was wonderful, beautiful and pleasant! We got a lot of snow but very little ice and wind. It wasn’t nearly as gloomy as people predicted it would be and much better than any winter we experienced in Kansas.
They say you have to have been born in the state to be a real Mainer, but we definitely feel like we’re home here. Maine is definitely the way life should be. I think we’re here to stay.
Flickr Explore
I recently had my fifty-sixth photo reach Explore on Flickr. One of my contacts, Travis Church, commented that most of my photos that have made it into Explore were taken since moving to Maine. He’s right. Let me break down the numbers then I’ll offer a bit of analysis.
Each photo uploaded to Flickr has an interestingness score relative to every other photo uploaded that day. Explore is the top 500 photos for a given day.
I uploaded my first photos to Flickr February 25, 2006. I purchased my first D-SLR (Nikon D70s) on June 8, 2006. I had my first photo reach Explore, which skyrocketed all the way to number 1, on June 10, 2006 (I’ll admit, it was a total fluke). We moved from Kansas to Maine on June 13, 2007.
| Kansas | Maine | |
|---|---|---|
| Flickr Days | 472 | 361 |
| D-SLR Days | 370 | 361 |
| Flickr Uploads | 716 | 659 |
| Explore Photos | 9 | 47 |
The obvious explanation is that Maine is simply much more photogenic than Kansas. That fact is, in large part, why we decided to move to Maine. I would rather gaze at the seacoast than a wheat field, obviously, and so would most people I know. It should also be pointed out that of the nine photos which made it to Explore during the Kansas era, four were taken indoors and one is from New York City. To be fair, not all the photos which made Explore during the Maine era were taken in Maine or have anything to do with Maine. However, none of them were taken in Kansas, either. Of the 47 photos which made Explore during the Maine era, 26 are of lighthouses (10 just of PHL).
Kansas isn’t all bad. I’ve blogged about the good parts before. I maintain friendships with a handful of people in Kansas. And I miss them. But I don’t miss Kansas. It was and is a great place for an aspiring photographer becauses it forces one to look high and low, to develop a photographic “eye”. I drove many hundreds of miles in Kansas searching for a postcard shot. I think I got a few…just a few.
Besides the obvious fact that Maine is just better looking than Kansas, it must be stated that over time my photography talent has certainly matured as well as my skills in the digital darkroom. This might partially explain the enormous interestingness gap. I also have many more contacts and, therefore, eyeballs, looking at each photo I upload now. That, too, makes a difference. I’ve developed a bit of a following that I didn’t have in Kansas, but of course that is the result of having better pictures of more interesting locales. Is it the chicken or the egg?
I appreciate the comments, favorites and being added as a contact that every Explore photo invariably attracts. I don’t, however, think my Explore pics represents my best work, necessarily. My favorite pictures are in my “My Favorites” set.
Adobe Photoshop Express
I received the latest issue of Photoshop User Magazine yesterday. In it I was introduced to Adobe Photoshop Express, an online digital photo manipulation, storage and display tool.
I haven’t played with it much and I’m not sure how much I will, but what I have seen is impressive. The feature set is rich and powerful. It can move files to and from Facebook and Flickr and make all of the basic photo manipulations most people use frequently. And…it’s free!
So, go check out the new online version of Adobe Photoshop. Leave a comment here to let me know what you think.
In other news, Adobe recently launched the beta version of Lightroom 2. If you’re a member of NAPP you can visit the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 Learning Center at www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom2 to find everything you’ll need to get up and running with the new beta.
Noah and the Great Flood
I saw this beautiful watercolor hanging in a church where I worked last week. It’s amusing to me that a story that’s obviously for children is believed as literal truth by millions of otherwise intelligent adults.
Come on! Were there no rainbows pre-flood? Did the physics of light change after the flood? Were there only large African and North American mammals on Noah’s ark? It shouldn’t take the average person long, after only a brief analysis, to realize the silliness of this story .
Do you believe the story? If so, I’d love to hear your supporting arguments. Please comment.
Road Warrior
This past week I logged over 1,000 miles in my new car. I took the girls to meetings in Connecticut before returning them home and heading back out. Wednesday and Thursday I was at a church in Springfield, Massachusetts, then to Ansonia, Connecticut Friday and up to Hadley, Massachusetts Saturday.
I stopped by the house where I used to live during my LDS mission in Springfield. I barely recognized the place. The neighborhood is much rougher than I recall.
Friday after work I visited Hooters in Milford, Connecticut. It was nice to get back to my favorite restaurant and enjoy a few pints of Guinness and a greasy bacon cheeseburger while having a nice chat with lovely Hooters Girl Ashley.
Tomorrow I’m back out for another miserable week photographing old ladies and crying babies.
Week Two
Yesterday was the last day of my second week with Olan Mills. The week started Wednesday in Dover, Mass. After a one-day shoot I did a day in Chester, Connecticut and two days in Johnston, Rhode Island. I’m gaining confidence and beginning to enjoy it (just a bit).
I hate being away from Kirsten and the girls, and photographing old people who don’t want their picture taken and who are unable to pose in all but the most boring positions. It’s REALLY nice to be earning a paycheck, though.
This week I’ll be four different churches in the Boston area. Two days (and locations) will be at a conference of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. I’m looking forward to working in Boston and taking pictures of the city.