"Good Collateral Damage"

Our friend Bryan Preston, of JunkYardBlog, has an article at TCS, Mar. 4:

No matter how careful you are, whenever you go to war you will inevitably injure or even kill someone other than your enemy. It's called collateral damage, and the United States goes far out of its way to minimize it as much as possible. Collateral damage can wreck our moral standing in the eyes of the world and undermine our cause, no matter how just. But, depending on your perspective, not all collateral damage is necessarily bad. In toppling the Soviet Union to win the Cold War, for instance, positive collateral damage fell on the entire East bloc, freeing millions whom Communism had enslaved. And we're now seeing the building of a wave of positive collateral damage in the Middle East, helping us defeat the insurgents in Iraq and win the broader war....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/07/05 05:49:02 PM
Categorized as International.

Crackdown Coming on Political Speech at Weblogs?

Winfield Myers is all over this at Democracy Project:

• Could American Blogs Become Samizdat?
• FEC and Blogs, Cont.
• Countering Candor at the FEC or, How Do You Stop a Blogswarm?
• Why are they Smearing Bradley Smith?
• FEC Update

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/07/05 05:38:32 PM
Categorized as Media & Political.

CatholicFind

Vide.

(Thanks, Jeff.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/07/05 07:59:04 AM
Categorized as Religious & WorldWideWeb Stuff.

Schiavo, Fasting, and the DCF

Greg Popcak at Heart, Mind, and Strength proposes a fast on behalf of Terri Schindler Schiavo.

And Florida's Department of Children & Families intervention in the case has been made public:

Credible new reports alleging abuse against Terri Schiavo make it imperative that she not be removed from life support until an investigation is completed, the state agency charged with protecting disabled adults said in court records unsealed Thursday.

The brain-damaged woman's husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo, should not be allowed to remove her feeding tube March 18, Department of Children & Families official Michael Will said in a petition filed last week and unsealed Thursday at the request of The Tampa Tribune and News Channel 8.

"The allegations in the abuse reports go to the heart of whether abuse, neglect and/or exploitation has been perpetrated by the guardian such that any relief afforded by this court to this guardian prior to the conclusion of such investigation would be tragically misplaced,'' wrote Will, DCF's Adult Protective Investigations supervisor.

The DCF petition seeks a stay of Circuit Judge George Greer's order allowing Michael Schiavo to remove his wife's feeding tube for up to 60 days while the allegations are investigated. It also seeks an injunction preventing Schiavo from removing the feeding tube, and the appointment of a lawyer to represent Terri Schiavo....

Terri? Having a lawyer, to represent her interests? Finally, something that would make some sense!

(Thanks, Bill.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/07/05 07:45:32 AM
Categorized as Terri Schindler Schiavo.

Katey Writes About Lindsey

My friend Katey Doman, a college sophomore majoring in public relations, has an article on Lindsey Popelas, a Roscoe native, at The Valley Independent, Jan. 5. (I know, I know: I'm two months late. But I only saw it posted on the church bulletin board last week.)

While Lindsey Popelas has always dreamed of teaching children ABCs and 1-2-3s, it has been letters and numbers that have kept this 21-year-old California University of Pennsylvania education major alive.

Writing on chalkboards, checking students' papers and giving out the weekly spelling lists are what this Roscoe native has longed for.

As Hodgkin's lymphoma crept into her life, her long-awaited dream started to vanish....

Today, Popelas is feeling better than ever. She claims she is the bubbly, happy-go-lucky girl she always was. She is now in remission after going through a stem-cell transplant last summer, made possible by her sister, Chaley, 23, of Harrisburg, who is director of community service at Messiah College....

Friend and classmate Meghan Slavic, a 20-year old education major, claims, "Lindsey is an inspiration in life to everyone. When she could have gotten down about her situation, she didn't. She saw light in all of it. She didn't give up. She was optimistic. Lindsey is strong. Lindsey has faith in her God. Lindsey believed. I guess that's all it took."

Lindsey was our high school's May Queen 2002, and Katey was in the homecoming court 2002. Here are some of my photos of Lindsey and Chaley, and of Katey and her sister Lucy.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/07/05 07:36:33 AM
Categorized as Literary & Photos.