The Useful Dead VI

Remarkable news from China:

BEIJING (AFP) - China will formally ban the trade in human organs from May 1, state media reported, amid ongoing allegations that the nation's military is involved in harvesting organs from executed prisoners.

The regulation, issued by the State Council, or China's cabinet, does not apply to transplants of human tissue such as cells, corneas or bone marrow, the Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

"This is the first regulation of its kind introduced by the central government, and it is a milestone in the country's organ transplant history," vice health minister Huang Jiefu was quoted as saying...

The new regulation "stipulates that human organ transplants should respect the principle of voluntary and free donation and makes it a crime to harvest organs without the owner's permission or against his will," Xinhua said.

The law, which forbids the use of organs from minors, aims to "safeguard citizens' lawful rights" and ensure the quality of transplant surgery, it added. MORE

It's about time. Some in China have apparently been selling organs harvested from prisoners for some time now. Whether the new law will actually stop this practice remains to be seen, of course. But it's a step.

McCain in Fantasy Land

Today's Washington Post carries an editorial by Sen. John McCain about his recent trip to Iraq. It is titled The War You're Not Reading About. Among other things, McCain says security isn't so bad in Baghdad. His delegation "stopped at a local market, where we spent well over an hour, shopping and talking with the local people, getting their views and ideas about different issues of the day."

What a pleasant picture. The politicos took a nice stroll through the market, buying souvenirs and having a lovely time chatting with the locals. Baghdad sounds no more dangerous than Cancun. What the Senator doesn't mention is that his trip to the market also included, according to news reports, a bulletproof vest, three Blackhawk helicopters, two Apache gunships and about 100 U.S. troops.

I guess somewhere in McCain's fantasy world, he thinks the kind of protection a U.S. Senator gets is available to everyone in Iraq.

Video
Still photo
Hat tip: Poliblog

He is Risen

Let all pious men and lovers of God rejoice in the splendour of this feast. Let the wise servants blissfully enter into the joy of their Lord. Let those who have born the burden of Lent now receive their pay. And those who have toiled since the first hour, let them now receive their due reward. Let anyone who came after the third hour be grateful to join the feast. And those who may have come after the sixth hour, let them not be afraid of being too late, for the Lord is gracious and He receives the last even as the first.

He gives rest to him who comes on the eleventh hour as well as to him who has toiled from the first. Yes, He has pity on the last and He serves the first. He rewards the one and is generous to the other. He repays the deed and praises the effort.

Come you all, enter into the joy of your Lord. You the first and you the last, receive alike your reward. You rich and you poor, dance together. You sober and you weaklings, celebrate the day. You who have kept the fast and you who have not, rejoice today. The table is richly laden, enjoy the royal banquet. The calf is a fatted one, let no one go away hungry.

All of you, enjoy the banquet of faith; all of you receive the riches of His goodness. Let no one grieve over his poverty, for the universal has been revealed. Let no one weep over his sins, for pardon has shone from the grave. Let no one fear death for the death of our Saviour has set us free. He has destroyed death by enduring it. He has despoiled Hades by going down into its kingdom. He has angered it by allowing it to taste of His flesh.

When Isaiah foresaw this, he cried, "O Hades, you have been angered by encountering Him in the nether world."

Hades is angered because it is frustrated. It is angered because it has been mocked. It is angered because it was destroyed. It is angered because it has been reduced to naught. It is angered because it is now captive. It seized a Body and, lo! It discovered God!

O death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory? Christ is risen and you are abolished! Christ is risen and the demons are cast down. Christ is risen and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen and life is freed. Christ is risen and the tomb is emptied of the dead. Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the Leader and Reviver of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and power unto ages of ages. Amen.

St. John Chrystostom (349-407)

Making A Difference

Sister Maria Rosa Leggol is a nun in Honduras who sounds like she ought to be the next Mother Teresa. Here is one story among many others. She was trying to line up funds to buy ten houses for a new orphanage. In fact, she had already bought the houses before she went looking for money. The U.S. government offered partial funding:

To finalize the grant, Leggol had to secure commitments from sponsors to fund the rest of the cost of the homes. She eventually lined up enough wealthy Hondurans willing to help. When the day came to turn in the paperwork to the U.S. embassy, however, she was missing one signature from a sponsor, so she asked a taxi driver to take her to this Honduran businessman's home, even though she couldn't afford the fare. Once there, however, she was told that the businessman had gone to the airport to leave for a business trip. In a panic, Leggol begged the taxi driver to take her to the airport, and he agreed. Leggol sped to the ticket counter, where she was informed that the plane had already boarded and was taking off.

For most people the story would end there, a tale of what might have been.

Leggol, however, refused to surrender. In full habit, her blood coursing with adrenaline, she promptly ran onto the runaway. (This was the early 1960s, before today's security measures at airports). Waving her arms like a banshee, she forced the plane to stop and demanded that they lower a staircase. She then marched back to the flabbergasted businessman's seat, and extracted his signature. At that moment, she laughed, he probably would have signed anything she put in front of him.

Naturally, she got the grant, bought the 10 homes, and the rest is history. MORE

What amazing faith. The Catholic church is often accused of oppressing and ignoring women. Nothing could be further from the truth - women like Sister Maria are critical to everything the church does. They are its heart and without them it would crumble quickly.

Rome, Then and Now

Carl Olson has one of his always-fascinating interviews with Carl J. Sommer, author of We Look for the Kingdom: The Everyday Lives of the Early Christians. I'm fascinated by the parallels between ancient Rome and the modern West, so this part was particularly interesting.

There are definite similarities and clear differences between ancient Roman and modern American culture. There are eerie parallels between the types of entertainment some Americans are drifting towards and those favored by the Romans. Also, our societal sexual mores are quite similar to that of the Romans,even to the widespread resort to divorce, contraception, abortion, and occasionally even infanticide. The frightening difference, though, is that while the Romans got better in these regards, we seem to be getting worse.

On the other hand, our political and economic systems are vastly superior to anything the Romans produced. The Romans were never capable of creating a system that would ensure the orderly transfer of power from one administration to the next, nor were they able to provide political freedom to their citizens, despite the fact that their own heritage was republican. Our economic system of regulated capitalism is also vastly superior to anything the Romans produced. The Romans veered from unregulated capitalism in the early empire (the phrase 'caveat emptor' accurately reflects the Roman attitude toward commerce) to over-regulation in the late empire, including wage and price freezes that were designed to prevent inflation, but only succeeded in destroying entrepreneurship...

We can, however, learn some lessons from the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Some day, our preeminence in the world will end. We may pray, with Tertullian, that that dayis far distant, but nothing on this planet lasts forever, and eventually America will be surpassed militarily, politically, and economically. We can only hope to use our time for good, not ill. MORE

The greatest empire in history was brought down not by force, but by its own hubris. While the Romans killed off their own offspring, a little fringe movement called Christianity was growing, slowly but surely. It took time but eventually the fringe overtook the empire.

History doesn't always repeat itself. Will the modern West have a better fate than Rome? I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure it deserves one.

So Much For Realism

Vermont is almost certainly the most liberal of the 50 states. For years they have sent an avowed socialist to represent them in Congress. Vermont is the land of Ben & Jerry's ice cream for the Common Man. Those few Vermonters who actually believe in motor vehicles tend to buy Volvos.

Given all this, I am not terribly surprised when they do wacky things in Vermont. This one, however, stuns me. Officials in Burlington decided to stage a mock "hostage" drill at their local high school, using police officers, school personnel, and a handful of volunteer students. No problem so far - these things do happen so police and school staff ought to be prepared.

In order to make the drill as "realistic" as possible, a fictional scenario was developed for the players to follow. So, what kind of people would you expect to invade a public school and take hostages? Muslim terrorists, maybe? It's happened before. But no, in Vermont offending Muslims is verboten. They found another target:

The mock terror attack involved two irate men armed with handguns who invaded the high school through the front door. They pretended to shoot several students in the hallway and then barricaded themselves in the media center with 10 student hostages.

Two Burlington Township police detectives portrayed the gunmen. Investigators described them as members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the “New Crusaders” who don't believe in separation of church and state. The mock gunmen went to the school seeking justice because the daughter of one had been expelled for praying before class. MORE

Keep in mind, the whole idea was to keep the exercise "realistic." Now, do the "New Crusaders" sound like people who are likely to live in Vermont and send their daughters to public schools? How often have we seen "right-wing fundamentalist groups" who "don't believe in separation of church and state" invade schools "seeking justice" in the last few years?

This is nothing more than blatant anti-Christian bias and political correctness run wild. Realism was the last thing on their mind. It was an opportunity to take a free shot at a group they don't like, and they grabbed it.

The most amazing thing is that the folks in Vermont actually thought they get away with such bigotry. That tells you how insulated they are. In their minds, Christianity is nothing more than some crazy cult composed of people who eat meat, harm the environment and have too many kids. People like us aren't welcome in Vermont.

More here, here, and here.