Jimmy Akins dusts off the old Saturday Night Live skit and asks "Quien Es Mas Macho: Hunter S. Thompson or John Paul II. He also links to this essay at Lew Rockwell which raises some thoughtful insights. I liked this passage:
Grieving widows can say silly things, but it is hard to imagine Priscilla Presley making such a statement about her husband after he was found, disgraced, in that Memphis bathroom. People that go out like champions don’t have their blood and brains sponged up by county health workers following self-inflicted gunshots. Champions know that suffering is an essential element in living happy and accomplished lives. They know growing old is a gift that allows a fuller appreciation for better times and for the inherent goodness of life....
...[c]ontrast Thompson’s life example with that of John Paul II. The 84-year-old pontiff, whose hospital visits made front-page news the week of Thompson’s suicide, has Parkinson’s disease and severe arthritis. His hardships last week are the most recent manifestations of his difficulties. As long ago as 1998, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger would write about him: "The pain is written on his face. His figure is bent, and he needs to support himself on his pastoral staff. He leans on the cross, on the crucifix...." By all accounts, he has embraced his suffering in ways that would baffle Thompson and his followers.
It's a good essay; check it out.
Jeff Jacoby expands on the repulsively narcissistic manner of Thompson's suicide, which involved ensuring that his wife listened to the gunshot over the phone. He also observes:
How striking is the contrast between Thompson’s tawdry death and the excruciating struggle of Pope John Paul II, whose passionate belief in the sanctity of life remains unwavering, even as Parkinson’s disease slowly ravages him. The pope’s example of courage and dignity sends a powerful message, but the chattering class would rather talk instead about why this stubborn man won’t resign. Meanwhile they extol Hunter Thompson and are itching to know — are his ashes really going to be fired from a cannon?
And on the subject of folks who want to shuffle the decaying elderly off the stage, Akins also links to a New York Press piece on "The 52 Funniest Things about the Pope's Death."
Update: The OmbudsGod has a working link to the New York Press' "THE 52 FUNNIEST THINGS ABOUT THE UPCOMING DEATH OF THE POPE ." The list is offensive and not even slightly funny, unless you have already bought into the idea that the leader of the Catholic church dying a long and painful death is a hoot all by itself.
Consider #45 - which is not offensive, but is simply not funny in any sense known to man:
45.Pope departs Earth at a time when Hitch is top-grossing movie in the world.
Huh?
For viciousness, though, check out the following sampler:
52.Pope pisses himself just before the end; gets all over nurse.
51.After death, saggy, furry tits of dead Pope begin inexorable process of melting away into nothingness, like coldest of Sno-cones under faintest of suns.
46.Beetles eating Pope's dead brains.
33.Silverfish pops out of dead Pope's vestment for a moment, immediately ducks back in.
27.We'll never get to hear his hilarious post-tracheotomy rendition of "Come on Eileen."
17.In his last days, the Pope was in tremendous pain.
2.This is what happens when weird old men in dresses communicate with the world with doors and chimneys.
1.Throw a marble at the dead Pope's head. Bonk!
Laugh riot.
Ah, but there is an agenda:
22.Mankind scrambles to choose new leader of inflexible, sexually morbid institutional anachronism; heretofore anonymous bureaucrat will instantly be celebrated as world's holiest man as he travels to AIDS-stricken Africa to denounce the use of condoms.
Thought so.
Of course, it's not like Catholics issue fatwas or anything.
However, we do vote, and we need to keep in mind that the clot that wrote this piece is the Political Editor for Rolling Stone magazine, and that this piece is simply what Blue State values look like in the light of day.
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