Election 2012

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty endorses Mitt Romney for President. http://cvote.to/2k Political analyst Larry Sabato says that Pawlenty is unlikely to be Mitt’s running mate since they are both northern governors. http://cvote.to/2l Katrina Trinko of National Review Online notes that at the last debate, Pawlenty didn’t just criticize Romney’s health care plan, but also Romney’s record of high state spending and liberal judicial nominees. http://cvote.to/2m

GOP presidential debate in Tampa tonight at 8 p.m. ET on CNN. Politico has six things to watch for in the debate (hint: Social Security). http://cvote.to/2n The L.A. Times interviewed seniors in Tampa about Rick Perry calling Social Security a ‘Ponzi scheme.’ The responses should that the issue is thorny, but not a death knell. http://cvote.to/2n

Political analyst Larry Sabato outlined some Electoral College scenario possibilities for the 2012 presidential election, including the real chance of a nightmare 269-269 tie, which would throw the presidential election into the U.S. House of Representatives. http://cvote.to/2t There’s a simple way to prevent this possibility: Increase the size of the House by one. Yours truly outlined this almost a year ago. http://cvote.to/2u

Special elections happen tomorrow in Nevada’s 2nd and New York 9th and Republicans might win both. The New York race is to fill the seat of Democrat Anthony Weiner, who left office after a sending inappropriate images to women who were not his wife. Republican Bob Turner is a pro-life and pro-marriage Catholic who might just win an upset in this district that covers parts of Queens and Brooklyn. Polling for a Democratic firm show him leading over Democrat David Weprin 47% to 41%. The poll noted that Jewish voters upset over President Obama’s stance on Israel were supporting Republican Bob Turner, who leads with the Jewish vote 56% to 39% http://cvote.to/2p.  The National Organization for Marriage noted that this poll showed another major reason that Bob Turner might win tomorrow. In that PPP poll, a plurality of voters in the 9^th District opposed so-called ‘same-sex’ marriage 45% to 41%. Of those polled, 55% said the issue of SSM was either very or somewhat important in deciding who they will support tomorrow. http://cvote.to/2q

Over in Nevada, the latest polls show Mark Amodei cruising to victory 50% to 37% over Kate Marshall (endorsed by EMILY’s List) in Nevada’s 2^nd. http://cvote.to/2o The race is being held to replace Republican Dean Heller who was appointed to the Senate seat of Republican John Ensign, who resigned several years after ethics complaints surrounding his extramarital affair.

The Chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party wants Rep. Pat Meehan, Rep. Jim Gerlach, or Rep. Charlie Dent to face off against Democrat Sen. Bob Casey next November. http://cvote.to/2x

Other articles of interest:

The President’s jobs proposal is nothing but a “$447 billion reelection plan” says James Pethokoukis of Reuters. He cites economists at Moody’s and George Mason University who note it will do little to boost the economy. http://cvote.to/2r

Green subsidies are a “breeding ground of corruption” says Tim Carney of the Washington Examiner, noting that companies with ties to the Democratic Party received billions in subsidies from the federal government. http://cvote.to/2s

Catholic schools in Indiana see a surge in enrollment because of a recent voucher bill became law. Amazing what freedom brings. http://cvote.to/2v

Pat Archbold recounts the horror of a young woman who so casually and loudly called a group of mentally handicapped runs ‘retards.’ http://cvote.to/2w

A few days late with this week’s House M.D. review. Sorry, some other topics crowded this one out!

Foreman: Is having a tough time getting over the patient he lost in last week�s episode. The main thing that irks him is how he lost the patient by, in his mind, acting like House would have, coldly calculating the odds. His worry about the possibility of losing another patient prompts him to go behind everyone�s back and talk to the parents about the option � a very irresponsible action. And of course, the most shocking moment of the episode, where Foreman plunges a needle into the healthier brother�s bone marrow without anesthesia, is a show-stopper. But morally? I guess you can weigh on the one hand the incredible pain of being stabbed against saving the life of that person�s brother. But what is most troubling is that as Foreman is doing this the boy is screaming for him to stop! I can�t help but think this is poor writing and that in real life such an action would result in the immediate suspension and criminal prosecution of Foreman. At any rate, the way the episode treats it is that Foreman is becoming more and more like House, and is so scared of becoming him that he�d rather submit his resignation. We�ll see if he goes through with it by season end, but of course, it�s very doubtful.

Wilson: I think House�s withering criticism of Wilson has some foundation, namely, that Wilson believes so much in patient autonomy because he�s unwilling to live with the guilt of advising someone wrongly. He councils the family to �protect themselves as a whole� and choose a surgery that hurts one brother but saves the other simultaneously. Wilson continues to demonstrate his effective way of dealing with House�s pathological social problems. �You�re Pathetic, I didn�t mean that.� �Yes you did.� �Times infinity.� �Yes you did� you�re pathetic.�

The Parents: Come across very well in this episode. They do defer very often to Wilson when the situation quickly becomes tangled. The hardest choice they face is whether to intentionally infect one son with a disease in order to discover how to heal the other before he dies of it. House puts it this way: �you either leave with one dead son or two.� The parents simply refuse this option. They won�t give up on either son, especially if saving one means intentionally destroying the (admittedly slim) chances of one.

The Patients: The brothers are good figures, who, at 10 and 14, are willing to sacrifice their lives for one another, with the stated reason that �you�d do the same for me.� I appreciate that leukemia brother reaches a point where he starts talking about �it�s my time to go�, and then has his life saved at the 11th hour. It�s not over till it�s over, especially for a fourteen-year-old.

The Big Morality: The main question in this episode is to what degree you can intentionally sicken one patient in order to derive benefits for another person. It starts with intentionally weakening the immune system of one brother to more quickly ferret-out his illness (with the intention of curing it). The second major stage comes when they consider open heart surgery on the healthier brother to (it gets complicated) provide healthy bone marrow to the one with leukemia. �Either we cripple one son or kill the other.� Matters reach a fever pitch when House suggests transplanting the sickness from the healthier brother to the sick one, effectively using him as a live Petri dish to quickly discover what is killing the healthier brother. The moral question becomes to what degree, and for what foreseeable benefits, one can intentionally sicken someone for another person�s benefit? Clearly the brother with leukemia was not �doomed� to dying, because he in fact survives, and therefore the argument for making him worse (that he could not get better anyway) evaporates. There�s much to consider here.

Oh, and � the dog?!

Next Week:

Here’s the TV preview spot for next week’s episode:

More House resources:

• If you want to catch up on House, Amazon
  has the First and Second seasons on DVD.
• The official House website at Fox.
• Wikipedia page for House, with brief episode summaries.

Legalize: All pictures copyright FOX and found here.

Seriously, can a character have a better opening line than that? House opened with this zinger last night … on the Fox network! Sometimes I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

Anyway, I explained last week that I intend to write a short summary of the moral issues in House, M.D. for the remaining episodes in the season. Last week I did 3×19 “Act Your Age.”

First things first – *spoiler warning*. I’m writing with the presumption that readers are either familiar with the show, have seen the episode in question, or are not worried about having plot arc points given away. Also, House treats of fairly explicit themes often (“viewer discretion advised”), so be warned. Enough said …

3×20, “House Training”

Here’s the TV preview spot for this episode:

PoliteDissent provides a weekly plot recap of each episode, and then (helpfully) evaluates the medical claims made by the show. Too bad they didn’t do the bubble test!

The Moralities:

This week’s episode was rather disappointing. Certainly below-par for what I’ve come to expect from the House writers. It focused on Foreman, and his personal drama, leaving pretty much everything else on hold, except for a little development on the Wilson/Cuddy unfolding saga. My random thoughts on a fairly random episode:

1) Cuddy and Wilson continue to play their little game. It’s inconceivable that they both don’t realize on some level that they’re relationship together has no future. Simultaneous self-denial is a dangerous thing.

2) Chase continues his slow approach with Cameron, who seems unable to handle Chase’s more mature, even chivalrous manner. Good on ya, Chase! This situation better get some closure by season end, I must say.

3) House seemed oddly caring, oddly involved and oddly unworried about losing a patient this week. This is distressing since so much of his character integrity involves these exact traits. Is he slipping? The show can’t really tolerate him changing because his antagonism provides much of the show’s drama!

4) Foreman showed some good human development this episode, especially with regard to the relationship he has with his mother. I think the show leaves us with an inkling that he has discovered how a true exchange of love can exist between him and his alzheimers-stricken mother, even with her mental impairment.

5) Sadly, I think the patient of the week (POTW) only served the purpose of bringing some emotional/personal revelations out of Foreman. Even her death just served the purpose of developing his character. Sorry, potw, we never loved you like we should. Perhaps that consult with Thomas Aquinas shouldn’t have been dismissed so quickly.

All in all, this was a very promising episode, with the coolest House opening line to date, that really failed to deliver. Oh well, it makes sense to air a weak episode now before the four week countdown to season finale begins.

Here’s what some other blogs are saying about this week’s episode:

• Cinemablend
• TV Fodder
• BuzzSugar

Here’s the TV preview spot for next week’s episode:

More House resources:

• If you want to catch up on House, Amazon has the First and Second seasons on DVD.
• The official House website at Fox.
• Wikipedia page for House, with brief episode summaries.

Papist nod this week goes to The Whapsters, whose schedule for “Holy Whapping Television Network (HWTN)” this week includes … *drumroll*:

8:00 PM. House, O.P. – Mangy maverick novice-master Fr. Gregory House, embittered from years of suspicion from his superiors (�never trust a skinny Dominican�), ferrets out obscure heresies on the campus of the Catholic University of America. This week: fears of an outbreak of Montanism paralyze the Dominican House of Studies after unaccounted-for stockpiles of cheese are discovered in the basement by Sister Allison.

Well, give them some time to work it out.

Legalize: All pictures copy
right FOX and found here.

Well, I’ve noticed that no one seems to be talking about House M.D., with the exception of the “Fetal Position” episode that I briefly posted about last week, which garnered some scattered attention for its pro-life elements.

As I’ve admitted before, I’m fairly addicted to House. It’s the only television show I currently make time for, and I’ve managed to see the entirety of its previous seasons over the past couple months. So I think I’m fairly well situated to start commenting on it. The show is primarily about medical, interpersonal and business-place ethics – prime fodder for discussion. From what I’ve heard, House has been renewed for a fourth season (in its 3rd now) and is currently Fox’s top-rated scripted drama. This means that it will probably be around for awhile longer, and in the meantime, plenty of people (almost 20m) will be watching it each week. Finally, the title character of Dr. House is played by Hugh Laurie, one of my all-time favorite British actors, ever since he was the Bertie Wooster of Jeeves & Wooster. I hope that’s a satisfactory account of the contributing factors to my addiction.

First things first – *spoiler warning*. I’m writing with the presumption that readers are either familiar with the show, have scene the episode in question, or are not worried about having plot arc points given away. Also, House treats of fairly explicit themes often (“viewer discretion advised”), so be warned. Enough said….

3×19 – “Act Your Age”

Here’s the TV preview spot for this episode:

PoliteDissent provides a weekly plot recap of each episode, and then (helpfully) evaluates the medical claims made by the show. They actually gave this week’s episode a failing grade, which I’d agree with given even I found the final diagnosis to be contradictory with the preceding symptoms. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

The Moralities:

This week focused less on Dr. House and allowed some of the secondary characters to develop.

Chase and Cameron remain tense after breaking off their inane “friends-with-benefits/sex-without-strings” relationship. At least the writers of House are willing to show that such an arrangement is foolish and unnatural between humans. Interestingly, Chase is coming off the better of the two in this situation. Typically he is the office playboy, and its good to see him being given some credit (i.e., being unsatisfied with Cameron’s desire to keep their relationship only physical). His gift of flowers to her in the end at least has the surface plausibility of being disinterested, and that’s more than we’d expect from him given his past tendency to self-serve.

Cameron’s decision to enter the “relationship” (and end it when Chase voices his dissatisfaction) remains unintelligible to me. It doesn’t make sense objectively, or even within the context of the show where Cameron is normally the most “moral” of the four doctors. Classically she’s the one pointing out how a physical procedure has emotional, psychological and moral dimensions that can’t be ignored for the sake of utility. And yet, she initiates this deal with Chase which positively reeks of physical utility at the expense and danger of emotional, psychological and moral considerations. I guess that is probably the irony of her choice, but we’ll see where the writers take it.

The emerging love triangle between Wilson, Cuddy and House has nothing except disaster written all over it. Sure, it might keep people interested, but the pathological inability to maintain relationships evidenced by Wilson and House’s personal demons aren’t going to be overcome by Cuddy’s late-middle-age-professional-style desperation to find a partner. At least it won’t be overcome for longer than an awkward one-night-stand or two somewhere near the end of this season to keep the ratings up. Which, I’d imagine, is the same reason the Chase/Cameron relationship started-up early season – following the disappointing trend in almost every major TV drama where most of the main characters need to be sleeping with each other by the end of the second season (early third if you’re lucky, never if you’re Mulder and Scully).

In terms of the episode-specific character, I think the lesson taught was good. The father’s decision to begin a relationship with the caretaker of his children, so soon after his wife’s death, is definitely given a critical treatment. The fact that this caretaker is much younger than him, and that his third-party solution to his impotence problems are the direct cause of his children’s sufferings only highlight the inappropriateness of his choice. The four doctors even suspect him of child abuse for a good portion of the episode because of his failures in duty. If I could put the message to the father curtly: “Keep it in your pants, and take care of your kids, dude.” Or as House puts it: “A guy gets a little somethin’-somethin’ and a couple of kids have to die… it’s the circle of life.”

More House resources:

• If you want to catch up on House, Amazon has the First and Second seasons on DVD.
• The official House website at Fox.
• Wikipedia page for House, with brief episode summaries.

Conclusion:

I’ve penned this rather hastily rather than wai
ting to give it more attention, and subsequently having it slip through the cracks. I’d be he happy to hear your thoughts in the combox below or via email. Hopefully I will have time next week (around finals!) to pen another review if this sort of thing is useful and/or interesting to folks.

Here is the preview for next episode, 3×20 – “House Training.” House airs Tuesdays, 9/8 central.

Legalize: pictures (except for top) �2007 FOX BROADCASTING COMPANY Credit: Isabella Vosmikova/FOX.