Michelle Arnold – Page 10

…Let God Sort ‘Em Out?

Economist Steven Levitt has become the ELVIS of statistics by crunching numbers in unexpected ways and analyzing the results. He’s ruffled feathers on both ends of the political spectrum by arguing on the one hand that it is far more dangerous to own a swimming pool than a gun, and on the other that abortion reduces crime.

That’s right! We’ve all been enjoying a drop in crime thanks in part to the fact that we have been killing criminals in the womb.

This last theory seems to prop up the old truism that poverty causes crime. The two are statistically linked. What I have never heard discussed is to what extent crime causes poverty. Does he have his plow before his mule?

READ HIS PAPER (with John Donahue) HERE.

Very Observant

I have not been blogging for the last couple of days because I have been busy teaching a painting workshop. It went well and I think everyone left having learned something they could use. But I’m really wiped out.

I truly appreciate the kind words and good wishes (or prayers) from everyone concerning my art. The regional show I entered recently accepted both of the pieces I submitted and recognized one with a plaque and a cash award, which was cool. Remember this: No matter what we say, artists like it when other people respond well to their work. Period.

But cash is also good.

I often listen to NPR in my gallery, because it is my only source of classical music, aside from my own small collection of CDs. As much as I love Andre Segovia or whoever, once you’ve played the same CD every day for weeks you just have to give it a rest.

So, I was listening to "Morning Edition" on Saturday and heard an interviw with Daniel Schorr, wherein he made the observation (which I think true) that JPII helped change the religious dynamic in the U.S., from a split between "Protestant and Catholic" to a split between "observant and non-observant" of many faiths.

Unfortunately, National PUBLIC Radio is very PRIVATE about their transcripts and also appreciates cash.

But you can LISTEN for free here.

Light Echo

Just when you think you have nature pretty well figgered out, it throws you a nifty curve. It’s one of the reasons that I prefer to paint from real life rather than my own imagination. Like, didja know that light can echo? That’s how the folks at the Hubble Heritage Project explain what is happening in the series of images from which the one shown was taken. While it appears that the cloud of dust and gas surrounding the red star is expanding, in reality it is not. The effect (seen better viewing the whole series) is caused by "light echo". The red giant gave off a sudden burst of intense light about three years ago, and as this light travels outward it illuminates material further and further from the star. Neat, huh?

The Hubble Heritage site is great for those times when you want to see some of the hidden beauty of God’s creation and just feel humbly grateful to live in this magical place.

Some of my favorites: Galaxy NGC 253, Thackeray’s Globules in IC 2944, and the Reflection Nebula in the Pleiades. I have been very fortunate in using my own paltry telescope and have actually viewed some nebulae, planets and star clusters with my own eyes, but you can’t beat Hubble. For one thing, the lense never fogs and you can have a nice cup-a-joe while you poke around intergalactic space. Enjoy.

Visit the HUBBLE HERITAGE Project.

She’s Out There… Somewhere

QUICK! What would you do in this situation? You are a marine biologist in charge of a large commercial marine aquarium. A six-foot captive Great White Shark that has lived in the aquarium for the last six months has become aggressive and killed at least two of the other sharks in your care. People are beginning to talk.

If you guessed "release it just off the coast near a densely populated metropolis" you are correct! If you also guessed that "just before sunrise" would be an opportune time to pull this off, give yourself bonus points!

GET THE STORY.

Gotta Have a Gimmick

As an aspiring artist I have recently come to realize that what I lack is a gimmick. I have truly neglected this aspect of my professional development and now find myself, as usual, casting around at the last minute. I saw this fella in India on the Reuters Oddly Enough news that beat me to the punch and paints entirely with one fingernail on his left hand. Now I’ll have to scratch that one off my list of potential gimmicks.

I confess that I was a little misled by the title of the story "Disabled Artist Still Painting". I was expecting perhaps a story of a gallant quadriplegic who struggles with a brush held in the teeth, or an artist with Cerebral Palsy who has to wrestle over every detail. You can understand that I was a bit let down when it turned out to be a guy with a bad right arm who, therefore, paints with his left and who’s main aspiration is to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. He’s not even that good.

But being good or not is irrelevant when you don’t even have a gimmick (in song writing they call it the "hook") to distinguish yourself from the crowd. And so many obvious gimmicks have been taken. I’ll really have to work on this, and I already have so much to do this week!

Sorry, this story is in video format only, as far as I know.

GET THE STORY.

Where Were You?

The passing of our beloved John Paul II was not unexpected, yet most of us will remember, I think, where we were when we heard that he had died. I would, perhaps, have chosen to be in my studio, or at Adoration, or any other place where I might have given his passing the attention it deserved and had time for prayerful reflection. As it was, our house was a flurry of activity as we prepared for my daughter’s birthday party later that day. Decorations needed hanging. Last minute tidying had to be done. One more trip to the store for this and that forgotten item. I caught the announcement on FOX News as I was getting in the shower. Life went on at a dizzying pace.

The party (a sleepover) was a big success. The last guest has gone. We have almost finished cleaning up. Before we attend Mass tonight we will gather in prayer as a family and reflect on the passing of our Papa. I will go to Adoration tonight at midnight and offer prayers for the repose of his soul, for his successor and for the cardinals who will gather to elect him.

Tomorrow the trees will continue to throw out their buds, our dogs will go on pestering the squirrels and I will get back to painting. Over the coming months the magnitude of this loss will soak into our awareness like a slow spring rain.

John Paul II, we miss you. Pray for us.

Don’t Tell MOMA

OK, so what do you do if your an artist and nobody is interested in your work? Well, you could cut off your ear, but that is so last century. It’s been done, and modern art is all about breaking boundaries, and stuff. So that’s what this guy actually did! Slipping past the rigid barriers of the bourgeois establishment (and some security guys), he managed to sneak several pieces of art into a number of famous modern art galleries and museums ( Like MOMA), where they hung for days without being noticed. Hey, why wait ’til your dead, right?

Of course, the trade-off is that he will now be remembered for being clever, rather than talented. But, hey, that’s what modern art is all about!

GET THE STORY.

Feeding Tube Doesn’t Hold Water

What Terri Schiavo’s case comes down to is not the non-existent "right to die", nor is it "privacy" or a matter of due process or jurisdiction. What has not been addressed, by anyone directly involved with the case, is the legal fiction that a feeding tube constitutes extrordinary means of sustaining life. That is the crux of the matter.

At least, that’s what I thought. But it just occurred to me, while watching re-run video of a brave 10-year-old being escorted to a police van, that protestors were not carrying feeding tubes as they tried to approach Terri’s hospice. They were carrying perfectly ordinary cups of water. Surely not even the mind of a Judge would be so highly trained as to classify an ordinary cup of water as "extrodinary" medical care. Were the protestors threatening to professionally administer these highly complex cups of water? No, they were not.

It has been my understanding that Terri does have the ability, with assistance, to swallow both food and water, without the aid of a feeding tube.

WITHOUT a feeding tube.

So the feeding tube has, apparently, been a colossal red herring all along. It must be (and I want badly to read the Judge’s findings) that there is some kind of injunction barring Terri from receiving any food or water of any kind from anyone. In other words, "this person will be starved to death, by any means necessary, come hell or high water."

A couple of days ago, in an interview on Fox News, Terri’s brother said that this was America, that we just don’t starve disabled people to death here.

I’m now terribly afraid that he was wrong.

Alaska, 1964

40 years ago on Good Friday (March 27th) 1964, the second largest earthquake ever recorded shook southern Alaska, generating tsunamis that struck as far away as Japan and California. A whopping 9.2 on the Richter scale, the quake also lasted for over three minutes (not counting the numerous aftershocks), causing landslides, liquefaction and really crazy cracks in the earth in this (mercifully) sparsely populated state. The ground moved like your Grandma shaking out a rug on the back porch, is what I’m sayin’. And why do I care? Because, aside from all the devastation noted above, it also knocked my favorite TV show "Fireball XL-5" off the air, and cracked several of our Easter eggs! That’s right. In the words of Pee Wee Herman, "I lived it.".

On the same street in the picture above was the B&B Cafe. My dad was a city cop at the time, and as he made his way around, looking for survivors, he was surprised to find the cafe entirely intact. Spoons still in soup, soup still in bowls, bowls still on tables. He pulled a piece of pie from the countertop display and, in this cafe now 30 feet below the street, took a much-needed break.

FIND OUT MORE about "THE BIG ONE".

Fortunately, Alaska was home to a relatively small population of outdoor-savvy adventurous types, who took it all in stride, rather than being, say, home to millions, some of whom (being super-rich) might have felt compelled to erect very tall buildings.

“E”-word Gets the Axe from IMAX

Now, I am happily ignorant when it comes to just exactly how the good Lord created us. The Catholic Church allows for different understandings of the biblical creation accounts, as long as certain basics are agreed on. Like rejecting the idea that we are merely a cosmic accident, the result of blind and purposeless natural forces. Things like that.

It is the presumptious and condescending manner in which evolution was for so long presented as settled fact that has helped to make a cottage industry of refuting the theory. People generally don’t respond well to force-feeding of any kind.

Again, I am not saying (or not NOT saying) that evolution of some kind might not have played a role in the creation of our physical bodies. I don’t know. But I know that alot of people just plain got sick-up-and-fed with being beaten over the cranium with atheistic evolution, so I was not that surprised to hear that some IMAX theaters had given a polite "no thank you" to a recent movie that makes yet another reference to the "E" word. No big deal, it just wasn’t something they thought would sell in their area. It’s a free country, right?

Well, it turns out that not only are we ignorant red-staters Ruining Everything, we are actually repressing the creative giants who make IMAX movies, and stuff. They are really very worried that this will restrain their creative approach. The story also points out that this is mainly occurring in the dreaded South.

GET THE STORY.

Take heart, theistic IMAX moviegoers! To paraphrase Goethe, "Act boldly, and unseen (market) forces will come to your aid."