Thrown Back

A Thought Experiment

Several people have either sent me e-mails or left comments defending The West Wing against my criticisms of yesterday.

I readily grant that the show is well-written and acted. But a show can be well-written and acted and still have an agenda. And the agenda is the engine driving TWW.

But imagine this: What if "The West Wing" had a conservative President as protagonist, and an equally smart, beautiful, dedicated band of people striving to bring about School Vouchers, an end to Affirmative Action, opening up the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, and a Human Life Amendment? And imagine that the president's opponents, in that case liberals, were portrayed in a manner similar to the way conservatives are portrayed in the current show. The hue and cry from the outraged Left would reach the heavens. Critics would be having fits of apoplexy, and would demand the show's cancellation, and the immediate banishment or execution of its cast, writers, and producers.

Now Here's a Celebrity With Some Depth And Substance



Did you know that Britney Spears was an expert in Solid-State Physics?

Well, never underestimate what a girl can do when she sets her mind to it. She won't rest on her accomplishments in singing and acting. At Britney's Guide to Semiconductor Physics, she will guide you in learning about the vital laser components that have made it possible to hear her super music in a digital format.



At first, Britney admits, it was hard to understand things like valence bonds or n-N and p-P Heterojunctions:



But pretty soon, she was able to rattle off radiative transmission calculations off the top of her pretty little head:



Don't let phrases like "Finite Barrier Quantum Well" or "plane wave electric field" scare you! With a little hard work, anyone can understand semiconductor physics.



Britney says "It's a Snap!"

Just Honoring Her Wish

"A Conversation With Michael Schiavo"


A reader sent this to me, and I thought it amusing and worth passing on:


Q: Michael, you stated your wife Terri said "I wouldn't want to live like that". Yet, she is breathing on her own, not dying, not suffering from any terminal disease. Do you realize if you pulled her feeding tube, she would die from starvation and dehydration? What do you call that?

MS: just honoring her wish.

Q: Let me put it another way, Michael. Suppose Terri said she wanted you to put a loaded gun to her head and pull the trigger, would you go ahead? What do you call that?

MS: just honoring her wish.

Q: Perhaps we should try this .... Michael, suppose Terri said she wanted you to give her a push into the path of a moving freight train, would you go ahead? What do you call that?

MS: just honoring her wish.

Q: Alright Michael, suppose Terri said she wanted you to jump out of an airplane without a parachute, would you go ahead? What do you call that?

MS: hey, but she never said that.

Q: Don't worry about it Michael, go ahead anyway. We'll tell the world you were "just honoring her wish".

This conversation is fictitious, but, unfortunately, that doesn't mean it isn't true.