The Terri Schiavo Circus

I really hope they don’t re-insert Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube for the third time.  I’m against that on two levels, legally and logically.

Legally, the husband is the guardian, so the decision is his.  Period.  That’s all there is to it.  It’s not President Bush’s decision or Congress’ decision or her parents’ decision.  She is incapacitated (far beyond that, in fact) to the point where she cannot think or make decisions on her own, so her legal guardian -- her husband -- gets to make the decision.

Logically, it isn’t a question of "life" or of Terry Schiavo "dying" because she is no longer alive, according to the doctors, who unlike Bush or her parents or Congress, are actually qualified speak on the matter:

At this point, much of her cerebral cortex is simply gone and has been replaced by cerebral spinal fluid.  Medicine cannot cure this condition ... Theresa will always remain in an unconscious, reflexive state...

Terri Schiavo is no longer a conscious human being.  Reflexive means that whenever she moves, her body is responding automatically to external stimuli without any mental processing of the stimuli nor of her response to it.  The only "life" present in Terri Schiavo’s body is the same kind of simple cellular life present in plants -- they grow towards sunlight automatically, not because they think "hm, sunlight looks good, let me slowly grow in that direction from now on."  It is merely a reflex; it isn’t supported by any conscious decision-making process, because plants contain no such facility, and neither does Terri Schiavo.

It is not morally wrong to "kill" Terri any more than it’s wrong to "kill" a plant, because neither is alive in the Biblical sense.  And this is not the same as killing an unborn baby, because babies are not in a permanent "unconscious, reflexive state" as are plants and Terri Schiavo.

I’m all for "favoring a presumption of life" in unclear cases, and for the first few months, or a year, maybe even a couple years, I would say this MIGHT have been an unclear case.  But now, 15 years later, this case is no longer unclear: "Theresa will always remain in an unconscious, reflexive state."

Posted by Anthony on 32 replies

All Bark

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- Cox & Forkum

Yep, that’s about the size of it.

Posted by Anthony on 1 reply

Double Standard (or, "White Male = Devil")

If you’re a white male, then your every action is potentially (nay, probably) motivated by some form of bigotry, bias, racism, sexism, or whatever the current -ism of the moment happens to be.  So goes the politically correct line of thought in America and much of the world today.  That’s why, for example, the only kind of person you’ll ever see being made fun of in a TV commercial is a white male.

Tonight I saw a commercial for Viactiv.  (It’s a calcium supplement for women.)  Guess what the last line in the commercial is?  "Because women should get exactly what they want."

Can you imagine what would happen if a commercial said, "because men should get exactly what they want"?  Every feminist on the planet would instantaneously simultaneously spontaneously combust, and the Earth would crash into the sun.

Posted by Anthony on 5 replies

Mmm

Posted by Anthony on 1 reply

Merry Christmas

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Posted by Anthony on 5 replies

Out of Touch

From Google’s 2004 Year-End Zeitgeist:

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When more people are interested in a "wardrobe malfunction" at a superbowl than the Democratic presidential candidate, I think it’s safe to say the dems are at least a little out of touch with the American people.

Posted by Anthony on reply

News

IMAO is usually pretty funny, but lately in the comments, people have been posting real news headlines and then making up sub-headlines to go with them.  They are hysterical.

Radical Muslim group Ansar al-Sunnah claims responsibility...
World stunned by use of words "Muslim" and "responsibility" in the same sentence.

North Korea ’only country on earth’ free of AIDS...
Rampant starvation cited as "miracle cure."

France Rejoices at Release of Hostages
But still smell bad, hate America

Male fish bear eggs in Potomac
Incident unrelated to male deer squirrel eggs in the Hudson

It took me a while to get that one, then I couldn’t stop laughing  : )

Rumsfeld Fires Back at Critics
Uses dual .45s; vows to strangle survivors.

Harry Potter fever strikes again
WHO blames President Bush and stolen election for shortage of vaccine

Massive "infants" galaxies found
Abortion Rights activists claim Fetal Galaxies not really alive, protest for right to abort findings

’A particularly difficult year’ for the UN, Annan says
Top customer overthrown, jailed.  Iraq freed from tyranny.  U.N. Punked by U.S.

Posted by Anthony on reply

Time for a Break

Teresa Heinz-Kerry makes the same face that Mike Tyson does in the Nintendo game Mike Tyson’s Punch Out:

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(Via Stan Shivell)

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Posted by Anthony on 3 replies

Kill Yourselves Instead

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"There were pieces of human bodies all over the bus and all around the bus," said Jerusalem city councilman and opposition leader Nir Barkat, who was driving across the street at the time of the blast and helped treat the wounded.  "Would that the whole world could see the horrors that were in that bus," he said, his hands, trousers, and shoes covered in blood. ... "People were screaming ’mommy’ and ’daddy.’ There were body parts everywhere, including some hands and feet scattered outside the bus," medic Reuven Pohl said. ... Deploring the world’s "double standards" for criticizing Israel for building the security barrier, Barkat said that "Our right not to be blown up is more important than the quality of life of people whose lives will be disrupted as a result of... the fence."

- JPost and Cox & Forkum

Posted by Anthony on 1 reply

Those Darn Americans

The fanatical Muslims despise America because it’s all lapdancing and gay porn; the secular Europeans despise America because it’s all born-again Christians hung up on abortion; the anti-Semites despise America because it’s controlled by Jews. Too Jewish, too Christian, too Godless, America is also too isolationist, except when it’s too imperialist.
- Mark Steyn

Posted by Anthony on reply

One Nation Under God

So now they’re trying (again) to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, because some atheist has nothing better to do than waste my tax money on another fraudulent court case.  You know what, the first amendment does not guarantee that atheists will never have to hear the word "God" spoken.  Our country was founded by Christians and there are references to God throughout our government.  What the first amendment DOES do is guarantee that people have freedom to choose whatever religion (including Atheism) they want to.

There is no law that forces a person to say the pledge, so this is a moot point anyway.  A kid could simply omit the "under God" part if he wants, or he could just not say the whole thing.  No one is forcing him to say it, and certainly no one is forcing him to believe anything.

If this guy doesn’t believe in God, fine, no problem.  But he is choosing to live in a country where the vast majority of people DO believe in God, a country that was founded on Christian principles by Christian people, a country whose leaders have been predominantly Christian for hundreds of years.  If he’s going to throw a hissy-fit anytime he hears the word God then he picked the wrong country to live in.  His poor judgement is not my problem so I shouldn’t be paying for it.

Posted by Anthony on 8 replies
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