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John Derbyshire writes a <\/span>long, playful, and often meandering book review<\/a> of Party of Death, by Ramesh Ponnuru.<\/span><\/p>\n The book apparently claims that the Democratic party is the party of death. According to <\/span>amazon.com<\/a>, the inside flap assures us that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just abortion-on-demand. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s euthanasia, embryo destruction, even infanticide\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand a potentially deadly concern with \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe quality of life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of disabled people.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n According to Derbyshire in his review, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153disabled people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d includes the like of Terry Schiavo. She was disabled to the point of not being conscious, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy her a category any different from the guys in <\/span>Murderball<\/a>, or your Aunt Edna who uses a walker.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a pretty good review, of the book and the book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s position, which Derbyshire considers dangerous and a little nutty. Actually, on a scale from 1-10, he gives the nuttiness of the position a 2.<\/p>\n This qualitative preciseness is part of what I like about Derbyshire. For example, he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say that one section is longer than the other two. He says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153their lengths in approximate ratio 3:2:2.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (He seems to have earned his mathematical chops. At the least, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s written a couple of books on mathematics or mathematicians.)<\/p>\n I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t heard any buzz about the book, so I guess I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not very worried about its affect on the masses. To me, the absolutist right-to-lifers (any kind of life) are still on the fringes and not to be fussed about. Hopefully, things won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t change any time soon.<\/p>\n [Link to review found on <\/span>aldaily.com<\/a>.]<\/span><\/p>\n