An Italian neurosurgeon, Sergio Canavero, is planning to head up the first human body-head transplant, taking the head from a man, Valery Spiridonov, who is suffering from spinal muscular atrophy which confines him to a wheelchair, and putting it on the body of a ‘brain dead’ victim, I mean, donor.
There are so many issues with this prospective $128 million operation, involving apparently 100 surgeons: There has never been a successful head transplant in any animal (at least one that has been scientifically verified), to say nothing of humans. We cannot even reconnect the spinal cord within the same paralyzed victim, never mind connecting two different spinal cords together. And where are they going to get the ‘brain dead’ donor? How brain dead is he, or will he be, at a time convenient enough for a surgery? Why is not detaching the head from poor Mr. Spiridonov not considered at least attempted murder? This must be a hoax, or a publicity stunt, or Italians have gone insane, or all three.
Professor Jordan Peterson participated in a ‘debate’ on his refusal to use gender-fluid pronouns. If things proceeded as reported, with a series of emotional pleas, diatribe, ad hominem argumentation against the beleaguered professor, who responded with a rather reasoned defense, then Christie Blatchford is right, that it was not a ‘debate’ in any rational objective sense of the term. Dr. Peterson is fighting the good fight; not for religious reasons, it seems, but on purely rational grounds. Good for him, but I fear he is in an uphill battle. The whole zeitgeist is against reason and objectivity, and all with victim ideology, along with misguided, even unhinged, tolerance and compassion, which quickly turn evil. As I have written previously, by changing our words, they, the comptrollers of the zeitgeist, hope to change our thoughts and our notion of that quaint thing we used to call ‘reality’. The silver lining here is that the modern university is being exposed for what it is under its prim facade, a place of sycophants, quasi-illiterates, ideologues, a general morass of idiocy and coercion. Why, oh why, would anyone want to learn in that environment? Go, if you must, to ‘get a job’, but, like the political stables of which I wrote of late, the whole sorry and sad mess needs a good thorough Augean cleansing.
And speaking of politics, it turns out Hillary Clinton received a far wider margin of the popular vote in last week’s election, well over a million more than Trump. Ultimately, that matters not, for the electors are supposed to pull their handle according to the electoral votes, not necessarily representative of the popular vote, in the spirit of the republic which America is, or was, or hopes to remain. But we will see what the future holds when the official electoral vote is held, on December 8th I believe, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of the United States. Curious.
Alberta might be the canary in the coalmine for what is in store for Canada, as the once rich independent province is turning into a basket case, as the demand and price for oil continue to plummet throughout the world, and the demand for food and assistance increase in the former land of milk, honey and black gold. We in Ontario, of course, are living by and large on debt, with the Liberals doling out cash like candy, on ‘infrastructure’ and other numerous political pet projects too numerous to mention. And all Mr. Trudeau, Ms. Notely and Ms. Wynne can envision is a new ‘carbon tax’ to try to fill the vanishing coffers, a move that will only worsen the economic woes, especially now that Donald Trump, no fan of the climate change fiasco (although he is now singing an uncertain tune on that score) will keep America somewhat competitive. Mexico north, here we go…
But hope springs eternal, on this feast of Saint Caecelia, the patroness of music. So sing in your heart to God, and out loud if you can, for such lifts up the heart, and exalts the spirit. We really should sing more often, rather than just listen to music…