Pope John Paul II has died, as everyone knows by now. And so we lose a giant, arguably the greatest public intellectual of the last century, and more importantly, a great pastor. I have nothing to add, except to urge you to read George Weigel on the suffering in the Pope's last years.

Contemporary Western culture doesn't have much truck with suffering. We avoid it if possible. We sequester it when it becomes unavoidable: How many of us will die at home? Embracing suffering is a concept alien to us. And yet suffering embraced in obedience to God's will is at the center of Christianity. The Christ whose passion more than a billion and a half Christians commemorate this week is not portrayed in the Gospels as someone to whom suffering just happened -- a prophet with the typical prophet's run of bad luck. The Christ of the Gospels reaches out and embraces suffering as his destiny, his vocation -- and is vindicated in that self-sacrifice on Easter.
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In Cardinal Arinze's mind, the example of John Paul II offered an answer to those questions. Yes, suffering can have meaning. Yes, that suffering can teach the rest of us: It reminds us that we cannot control our lives, and it elicits a compassion that ennobles us. Moreover, the cardinal suggested, John Paul II, in his weakness and suffering, was a tremendous encouragement to the elderly, the sick, the disabled and the dying, who find strength and hope in his example.

The world has missed a lot of Karol Wojtyla's story in his 26 years as pope, because the world tries to understand him in political terms, as another power player on the global stage. There's no doubt that John Paul II has been the most politically influential pope in centuries. But that is not who he is, or what he's about, at his deepest level. His two recent hospitalizations and his unembarrassed struggle to live out the commitment to service that he made at his election in 1978 should remind everyone that this man is, first and foremost, a Christian pastor who is going to challenge us with the message of the cross -- the message of Good Friday and Easter -- until the end.

Michael Schiavo finally succeeded in killing off his inconvenient wife. Mark Kleiman proposes a moratorium on discussion of her case. If I had been using her life as a springboard for a hate-Tom-DeLay campaign, I would be itching for a moratorium too. Kleiman, who is perfectly capable of being thoughtful on this issue, ends up hanging around with MoveOn, and favorably quotes this:

When the Founders wrote the Constitution, they devoted the largest section to spelling out the powers of Congress. Nowhere did they include the right to play doctor.

Terri Schiavo is with her maker. The rest of us are not entitled to peace over this.

UPDATE: Mark Kleiman responds in the comments.

The commentary on my last post discusses whether I am psychotic. You can also look at Tom Smith's ruthless efforts to make fun of the loathsome Michael Schiavo.

I had an angry idea about the killing of Terri Schiavo. I note the sheer joy of James Carville and the cretinous Atrios (via Professor Bainbridge, who apparently has a stronger stomach for Atrios stench than I do), and even from the normally decent Mark Kleiman, who confuses Terri Schiavo with his Tom DeLay obsession. Peggy Noonan and Tom Smith at The Right Coast are no doubt being wiser than me, but I am too tired to be generous. I think it stems from this: they lost the last election, with all their Ph.D.s and vast superiority and all the rest, they still got their collective butts kicked. Killing Terri Schiavo means they beat George Bush and Tom DeLay, and so they recover their manhood. When Terri Schiavo is finally killed off, they can get it up again. I hope the sex is lousy.

Conor Faughnan, the spokesman for AARoadwatch in Ireland, appeared on Morning Ireland today to say something staggeringly sensible about traffic control in Ireland. Noting that the Irish police have focused on giving tickets rather than on lowering traffic collisions and deaths, he remarks:

It's a classic management dictum that what gets measured gets done.

For over a year now, I drive to work each morning on a winding two lane road for about ten miles, then about fifteen miles on a four lane highway. I regularly see police sitting with their speed cameras on the four lane highway, but I have seen police measuring speed only twice in over a year. The goal should be to stop deaths and injuries, not increase convictions.

I am baffled by the near hysterical determination to kill off Terri Schiavo to accommodate the vulture she is married to. Andrew Sullivan calls starving her to death "death with dignity", even though he would never treat a dog that way. And somehow Daniel Drezner finds this a "valid point". Mark Kleiman is so obsessed by his hatred of Tom DeLay that he seems to think helping Michael Schiavo off his inconvient wife is an acceptable price to pay. And the overrated Dahlia Lithwick is willing to dump decades of civil rights legislation to get rid of Terri Schiavo.

All very sad.

UPDATE: How did I miss Chris Bertram's post at Crooked Timber? He and the bulk of his commenters seem positively bloodthirsty.

There are days I have a sneaking suspicion that Ayn Rand might have been on to something. The Blair government has been experimenting with introducing private academies to replace failing schools in poor areas, akin to the charter school program is the US. The Guardian reports on the controversy, and offers this breathtaking bit:

Steve Sinnott, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the academies' programme would be a priority at the union's conference. He described the initiative as "immoral" and said the union planned to set up local campaign groups to oppose each new school. "This is an experiment in children's education," he said. "It is creating a situation in which the academies become schools that are more attractive to parents who have higher aspirations and more skills to find their way round the education system."

In the New Republic, T.A. Frank offers up a quiz to see if you are really and truly a liberal. Here is a sample:

6. When Yasir Arafat was alive, I generally agreed with:

A. George W. Bush: "Mr. Arafat has failed as a leader."

B. David Gergen: "Arafat is the leader of the Palestinians. We don't like him. We don't trust him. But you have to deal sometimes with people you hate."

C. North Korea: "A close friend of the Korean people, President Yasser Arafat visited the DPRK six times from October 1981 to June 1993. ... He was awarded the title of Hero of the DPRK during his first Korean visit."

Correct answer: Long believed by liberals to be B--until it turned out, more simply, to be A.

If you are in Cork this evening, check out the documentary Confronting Iraq, being shown at the UCC campus in Boole 2 at 7 PM. The increasingly valuable UCC branch of the Freedom Institute is sponsoring it.

Today is moving day, into the new house. This poses a problem: the cat. I have never understood why liberals like cats, because they are very, very conservative creatures (perhaps they are the only conservatives who keep quiet). Mazal is not going to like having her household arrangements disturbed, not one bit. Any suggestions on how to get a cat accustomed to new home arrangements will be gratefully received.

In the New Yorker, Jeffrey Goldberg writes about Joe Biden, who may yet run for president in 2008. Much of it is about Biden's views on the 2004 race, particularly Kerry's performance.

On October 29th, Biden said, he was campaigning for Kerry in Pennsylvania, the state in which he was born, when he heard, on the radio, that Osama bin Laden had issued a videotape in which he belittled Bush and promised to continue to “bleed” America. Biden nearly panicked when he heard about the tape, he said, because he worried that Kerry’s reaction might seem tepid or petty. His advice to Kerry throughout the campaign—which, he complained, went unheeded much of the time—was to harden his message, to focus, as Bush was doing, on terrorism alone: to sound, in short, more like the President and less like a Democratic senator from Massachusetts.

“I’m listening to the radio,” Biden said. “‘Today’”—here he adopted a radio announcer’s voice—“‘the President of the U.S. said dah-dah, dah-dah, dah-dah, and he said he’s sure Senator Kerry agrees with him. Senator Kerry, unable to resist a dig’—that’s what the announcer said, that was the phrase—‘said today had we acted’—I’m paraphrasing—‘had we acted properly in Tora Bora, we wouldn’t have this problem.’”

Biden continued, “I’m on the phone, I e-mail, I say, ‘John, please, say three things: “How dare bin Laden speak of our President this way.” No. 2, “I know how to deal with preventing another 9/11.” No. 3, “Kill him.”’ Now, that’s harsh. Kerry needed to be harsh. And it was—Jesus Christ.” Here Biden threw up his hands. “He didn’t make any of it. Let’s get it straight. None of it. None of those three points were made.”
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It was then, Biden went on, that he realized Kerry would lose the election.

“That night, I got off that trip, from Scranton, I got off the plane, Wilmington airport, only private aircraft, get off, pick up a phone, call a local place called the Charcoal Pit before it closes. They have great steak sandwiches and a milkshake. Triple-thick milkshake. And I hadn’t eaten. I’m going to pass it on the way home. They’re literally sweeping the floors. A woman, overweight, forty years old, a little unkempt, had a tooth missing in the side, not in the front”—he showed his flashing white teeth, to demonstrate—“walks up to me to give me my steak sandwich. ‘Senator Biden, I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve got a problem.’ And I take out a piece of paper, maybe Social Security for her mother, and she said, ‘I heard you’re for Kerry.’ And she said, ‘You’re so strong and he’s so weak.’”

Biden looked at me, to make sure I understood what he seemed to think was a point of considerable nuance. “I’m gonna tell you why I’m going to vote for someone,” he said, addressing the woman of the story. “Look, you’re working here tonight. If the Republicans have their way, you won’t get paid overtime. When you stay here tonight, you’re already closed. Besides that, what they want to do with your health care.” Then he quoted what the woman had replied: “But you’re so strong, and he’s so weak. And President Bush—he seems strong.”

He has come to realize, he said, that many Democrats still haven’t grasped the political importance of September 11th, and again he recalled how he had urged Kerry to keep his campaign message focussed on terrorism. Kerry, Biden said, would tell voters that he would “fight terror as hard as Bush,” but then he would add, “and I’ll help you economically.” “What is Bush saying?” Biden said. “Terror, terror, terror, terror, terror. I would say to John, ‘Let me put it to you this way. The Lord Almighty, or Allah, whoever, if he came to every kitchen table in America and said, “Look, I have a Faustian bargain for you, you choose. I will guarantee to you that I will end all terror threats against the United States within the year, but in return for that there will be no help for education, no help for Social Security, no help for health care.” What do you do?’

“My answer,” Biden said, “is that seventy-five per cent of the American people would buy that bargain.”

Teddy Kennedy cancelled a meeting with Gerry Adams.

A spokeswoman for Senator Kennedy said he had cancelled a meeting because of the IRA's "ongoing criminal activity".

UPDATE: Yes, I am being sarcastic. Kennedy's refusal to meet Adams is good news because it is a clear signal that the cretins in the US who were Sinn Fein fans have started to figure out that maybe Gerry Adams really is nothing more than a gangster.

The radical left ZNet issued a press release on something called the Global Call to Action for Women's Rights. It is as fascinating for what it does not say as much as for what it does say.

In many countries, including some of those in Sub- Saharan Africa, women have no right to own property, moveable or immovable. Property rights belong to their husbands. If the men die, their families can take control of all possessions.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, schools are typically located miles from villages. Many parents are fearful of sending their daughters to these schools because of the risks of sexual violence which would bring dishonor to the family. Even those girls who do attend class are often treated dismissively by teachers and taught impractical skills because girls are considered less valuable and less worthy than boys. Taken together, this environment perpetuates a cycle of poverty through lack of opportunity for women.

HIV rates in developing countries are soaring. Nearly 50% of women in Sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV. Lack of rights makes women particularly vulnerable. A study in Zambia demonstrated that less than one in four women interviewed believed that a married woman could refuse to have sex with her husband even if he had been unfaithful and was HIV infected.

Even women who are educated about safer sex are fearful of violence if they ask a partner to use a condom. This powerlessness increases the likelihood that women will become HIV positive and no longer be able to provide for their families.
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In many countries of the world where ActionAid works, women are regarded as non-persons who don't have a voice to speak for themselves, who don't have choices about their own life.'
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A successful way to eradicate poverty must include policies that create opportunities for women. Success means taking action to promote women's rights in every country around the world.

Is the left reaching out for allies on the right?

A Dutch restaurant owner beat off a would be armed robber with fries.

A Dutch cafeteria owner used piping hot french fries to fend off a gun-wielding would-be robber, police in the southern city of Helmond said Friday.
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It was not known if the culprit, whose age was estimated at 16, was burned. He had threatened the owner and his wife with a handgun Thursday night, police said.

"He wanted money," a police report said. "But once he had hot frites coming his way, he decided he had had enough."

The fries were cooling in a pot when the owner threw them at the intruder.

Tom Smith of The Right Coast roasts Peter Singer, the Princeton philosopher who wants to be America's Germaine Greer. You know the type, past thirty but still indulges in the adolescent fantasy that being shocking is being adult. Or maybe he is Roxie Hart, ever desperate for celebrity, and keeps coming up with the wilder and wilder to keep the attention of the press. After Smith's remarks, if Singer had any pride, he would quit Princeton and do something useful, like flipping burgers at Burger King.

The short version of Tom Smith:

I quite understand that Professor Singer is an extremely distinguished academic. As we academics would say, "he is very smart; he has written on these issues. He is a very smart guy." And it may be true. But he thinks it is OK to have sex with ducks.