“A man does not come an inch nearer to being a heretic by being a hundred times a critic [of the Church]. Nor does he do so because his criticisms resemble those of critics who are heretics. He only becomes a heretic at the precise moment when he prefers his criticism to his Catholicism. That is, at the instant of separation in which he thinks the view peculiar to himself more valuable than the creed that unites him to his fellows.” – G.K. Chesterton, Chaucer (1932), as reprinted in Garry Wills’ new book, “Why I Am A Catholic.”
ALL GREEK TO HART: Several of you emailed to let me know that Gary Hart is not only a poseur, he’s not even a reader of “classical Greek.” Here’s the gist:
Anyone who knows ancient Greek and its literature would not refer to Homer’s Greek as “classical”, which generally designates the normative Attic dialect of Athens circa the 4th Century B.C.: Plato, Thucydides, Xenophon, etc. It might be expanded to embrace the Ionic of Herodotus or the Doric of Pindar, but not the “Homeric” dialect of Homer. There is no doubt however about the joy of reading the Odyssey in, er, Greek.
THE GOLDSTEIN DEFENSE: Among some leftists, like Bob Somerby of the Daily Howler, the Goldstein defense is catching on. If you get something wrong, relying on a third-hand inaccurate source, it is not incumbent on you to actually check the source, or apologize. So when Katie Couric said on the air that Edmund Morris had called Ronald Reagan an “airhead,” it wasn’t her fault and it wasn’t really a mistake. “Why did Couric say what she did?” Somerby asks. “Because everyone thought it was true.” I guess we’re lucky that Somerby didn’t pull the Full Goldstein and actually blame Coulter for Couric’s error. But why can’t someone like Somerby, who postures as someone who deals in facts to counter “spin,” actually be honest and recognize that, however loathsome he finds Ann Coulter (and I’m no fan of hers either), she’s right on this one? I’m with the Mickster on this one.
BUSH HANGS IN THERE: If the New York Times cannot rig a poll to show his support is slipping fast, no-one can. Better luck next time, Howell.
CHILLING SCIENCE: The long campaign to bring the prices of medicines below what they cost to manufacture profitably succeeded in the Senate today. It will become much easier for people to reimport drugs from Canada, where the government, through its socialized healthcare system, leverages prices and profits down (while free-loading off the American free market in drug research and development). It’s price control through the back door. The result may well be more votes from the most pampered generation in history – today’s seniors – and cheaper, newer drugs for many people who couldn’t previously afford them. But it will also inevitably lead to an acceleration of the already steep decline in new drugs in the research pipeline. The war on the pharmaceutical industry has already led to a sharp drop in new HIV drugs in development, for example, from over 250 in 1997 to a mere 170 today – just when new research into a fast-mutating virus is needed. Other research paths will also slow. This is the trade-off when politicians decide to step in and run industries. More votes today. Fewer medicines tomorrow. And we’re surprised politicians decided to screw the future?
AND NOW, GERMANY: Equal marriage rights get support from the highest court in Germany. Within two years, they will almost certainly exist in Canada. Now here’s a question: if one member of a gay marriage, recognized elsewhere in the world, immigrates to the U.S., will his/her husband/wife be required to stay at home? What if an American citizen marries a German citizen legally in Germany and then is forbidden from bringing his spouse back into his own country? How about possible legal children of such couples? Would the U.S. demand they be separated from their parents as a condition for entrance into America? This is where the opposition to supporting gay relationships and families leads you to: a formal anti-family policy as the law of the U.S. Sophie’s choice, revisited.
IN DEFENSE OF AIDS COMPLACENCY: A British doctor examines the epidemic in Britain that never happened and is already petering out. The number of new HIV diagnoses in Britain last year? 558. Almost none heterosexually transmitted.
The Dish 