You better start speaking up, because these people are going to trample into your personal, private affairs
March 19, 2005 9:24 AM   Subscribe

"These people in Congress are walking all over my personal and private life... I'm telling you, the United States citizens, you better start speaking up, because these people are going to trample into your personal, private affairs."
posted by johnnydark (34 comments total)
 
Well, as long as my wife doesn't fall into a coma with no signs of brain activity, and as long as her family doesn't go against her wishes, and as long as I don't live in a state where a Republican can use my story to prolong his career... I figure I'll be okay.
posted by graventy at 9:30 AM on March 19, 2005


That second article from WorldNetDaily... I mean, I know, it's WND, what should I expect, but...
"Lawyers supporting the pro-life stance say Schiavo almost completely normal!" Yeah, big freaking surprise.

I'm also quite amazed that WND would so brazenly admit that their columnist is absolutely, completely unqualified as a journalist:
"David N. Bass is a 19-year-old Christian homeschool graduate who writes for World Newspaper Publishing and is a regular columnist at AmericanDaily.com, IntellectualConservative.com and RenewAmerica.us. While attending college, he interns at a pro-family public-policy organization. Bass is currently working on his first novel."

I wonder what the book will be about!
posted by papakwanz at 9:40 AM on March 19, 2005


I saw the GMA segment this morning, and of particular interest to me was the interview with De Lay, when the interviewer confronted him with Senate Republican talking points on why to get involved in the Schiavo case.

They're shown on the second page in the first link:

"ABC News obtained talking points circulated among Senate Republicans explaining why they should vote to intervene in the Schiavo case. Among them, that it is an important moral issue and the "pro-life base will be excited," and that it is a "great political issue — this is a tough issue Democrats."

Un-fucking-real - but NOT surprising in the least.
posted by OhPuhLeez at 9:40 AM on March 19, 2005


Why won't Tom DeLay let Terri Schiavo be raptured up to Heaven?
posted by psmealey at 9:44 AM on March 19, 2005


"A death row inmate has more of a process to go through than Terri Schiavo does." -- Tom Delay (R-Texas)

Am I the only one who finds it just slightly ironic that a senator from the execution-happy state of Texas would say this?
posted by bshock at 9:46 AM on March 19, 2005


...conditional reasoning..."I figure I'll be okay."

how's that for a great society?:
Hey! I'm unaffected by these actions. It's all good!

or, to quote MST3K's "I accuse my parents":
'Thank god I'm white!'

this is politics. little more, nothing less. the fact that a family's being put through the national meatgrinder is inconsequential to the perceived opportunity to make Democrats take an unattractive position on the issue.

let them eat ___.
posted by Busithoth at 9:48 AM on March 19, 2005


I think the American People are speaking up. The question is, who's listening?

You gotta know there's a serious problem when Neal Boortz starts making this much sense.
posted by Wulfgar! at 9:50 AM on March 19, 2005


Lets all vote republican! personal freedoms and civil liberties! ....untill you actually want to use them.

i think the root of this trouble is that religious folks see the personality and very being of a person as seperate and outside this physical plane, but the fact of the matter is that her sense of humor, her silly quirks her moral values and everything that girl was has deteriorated and left a shell that doesn't rot. The last 15 years must have been hell for the husband - seeing her sleeping, hoping she'd wake up but knowing she wont. I hope he is able to give her a respectful and dignified end and then move on.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 10:06 AM on March 19, 2005


i find it very odd that people with such strong religious faith, who say "the world is not my home" and describe it as "a vale of tears" are so AFRAID of death to the point they idolize any kind of life

it makes me wonder how strong their faith really is
posted by pyramid termite at 10:10 AM on March 19, 2005


You all should take your comments to amberglow's FPP, cuz I doubt this one will last much longer given that one much like it has already been deleted.
posted by mischief at 10:13 AM on March 19, 2005


I'm beginning to hate America.
posted by c13 at 10:17 AM on March 19, 2005


reading wulfgar's link - that Boortz fella makes a good point: if souls do exist - her's his trapped inside a body with no means to manifest itself. think:burried alive.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 10:19 AM on March 19, 2005


One deleted Shiavo thread, one intact (and good) thread, one MeTa thread, and now this, all in under 24 hours of MeFi goodness!
posted by moonbird at 10:20 AM on March 19, 2005


Just for the MetaRecord, I think the focus of amberglow's and johhnydark's posts are significantly different, about what should be considered the most agregious moral and ethical crime being commited by our "leadership" today.
posted by Wulfgar! at 10:51 AM on March 19, 2005


I just love the quote about letting the Shindlers take care of Terri:
And another reason why I won't give Terri back is that Mr. Schindler testified in court, at the 2000 trial, that he would -- to keep Terri alive he would cut her arms and legs off and put her on a ventilator just to keep her alive.
posted by jearbear at 11:11 AM on March 19, 2005


One has to question why people who are so gung-ho about sending over 100,000 20-year-olds to get shot at in a foreign land would be so keen on keeping one non-biologically-viable human being alive.
posted by clevershark at 12:15 PM on March 19, 2005


clevershark:

The answer to that is pretty easy. They send young men who willingly enrolled in the armed services over to a foreign land to protect their interests in those lands. They make a fuss over one non-biologically-viable human being because it rallies the faithful.
posted by Josh Zhixel at 12:26 PM on March 19, 2005


In a link on the earlier post about this, there was mention that Mrs. Schiavo's cerebral cortex had deteriorated, and had been replaced with spinal fluid. This sounds similar to hydranencephaly. Is anyone able to comment on this?
posted by Tullius at 12:51 PM on March 19, 2005


pyramid termite i find it very odd that people with such strong religious faith... are so AFRAID of death...

Maybe those people's faith is so strong that they believe that they will go to hell when they die?
posted by PurplePorpoise at 1:33 PM on March 19, 2005


Wait, if she really is showing some signs of life, can't we double-check this? Are all of you rip-out-the-tube lot and all of the keep-her-alive-for-a-hundred-years lot just a bunch of shrieking demons, fighting like rabid seagulls over a piece of meat?

Cause that's sickening.

(Many of you excepted, especially the insightful and non-agenda-bearing amberglow.)
posted by NickDouglas at 2:58 PM on March 19, 2005


She's not showing signs of cognition. That was established years ago, and the point is moot despite the what the propagandists claim.
posted by mischief at 3:07 PM on March 19, 2005


After finishing the link from amberglow, I realize it's much more clear-cut that Schiavo is vegetative than the press have presented. I still see all this arguing and mudslinging as sickening. Why do we act polite and eager to learn in so many areas of knowledge but all pretend to have the final word on politics? Why do we use every case as a platform for attacking the entire belief system of the opposition? Why do we knowingly forgo "media" for "propagandists" without seeing that this turns us into propagandists as well?
posted by NickDouglas at 3:20 PM on March 19, 2005


Nick: you have just discovered the inherent bipartisanship of american politics, a tradition that is well over 200 years old.
posted by mischief at 3:26 PM on March 19, 2005




So, if someone is in a persistent vegetative state, is it then morally acceptable to eat that person? for vegetarians? make glue(scroll down)? Soylent Green? only if they are from Texas?
posted by schyler523 at 4:40 PM on March 19, 2005


There is an unbelievable amount of misinformation being circulated.(from my thread)--and this thread is helping propagate that misinformation, unfortunately.
posted by amberglow at 6:39 PM on March 19, 2005


From the Boortz link:

This is a Florida matter, not a federal matter. The courts of the State of Florida have made their rulings. The U.S. Congress has no role to play here. This is a blatant attempt on the part of the Congress to usurp bona fide state's rights in order to please a particular political constituency.

So, I guess all this talk about Republicans supporting state's rights is a load of c%$p - they're willing to sacrifice any of their principals to further their noble cause (screwing their enemies as hard as possible.)
posted by Leege at 7:53 PM on March 19, 2005


I think right now the Republicans are for state's rights, except when the states disagree with them.
posted by drezdn at 10:37 PM on March 19, 2005


Several years ago, I said goodbye to a friend who had collapsed in her garden from a stroke or heart attack (they never figured it out) and was comatose in the hospital with no prognosis of improvement. . .it was very sad, people coming in shifts to say goodbye, her husband having decided to suspend life support, etc. It took her several days to die, from dehydration and electrolyte imblanace.

For some reason, during the last election, I started receiveing *Christian Response* emails, mostly about how Kerry was the latest incarnate of Satan, but recently about this issue. It is chilling to read.

Having gone through that, I am surprised at the fresh outrage I feel towards the Republicans who are currently in charge of this country. I felt that they had already hit bottom, in my personal estimation, and now this, with Bush suspending his activities in order to be *available* for who knows what. . .

It is perhaps more a reflection of me than anything, but I cannot understand how anyone in their right mind would support what Delay, Frist, Bush are doing with this issue. It is particularly horrid to me.
posted by Danf at 8:24 AM on March 20, 2005


I think right now the Republicans are for state's rights, except when the states disagree with them.
digby:
... Other than that it's just fine if the Republicans use the strong arm of the law to step right into the living rooms, bedrooms and hospital rooms of American citizens because a "sizable portion of their ... base" doesn't approve of the difficult moral decisions that they make. What a very interesting view of limited government these people have. What a twisted, greed-soaked view of freedom. ...
The Schiavo case also shows that their braying about the sanctity of marriage is a load of rubbish. One of the things that gays want from the marriage contract is the right to make decisions for their spouse in case like this one. Clearly, those rights are only applicable even to straight people if Bill Frist and Randall Terry approve. Otherwise, they may actually enact an act of Congress to stop you --- especially if it's "a great political issue" that "excites their base." I guess the traditional view of marriage isn't so sacred after all, is it? And here I thought this stuff was handed down from God. Go figure.

posted by amberglow at 8:50 AM on March 20, 2005


Tom DeLay needs to keep Terri Schiavo alive in the worst way, because her tragic plight is a political feeding tube for his comatose, scandal-ridden career.
What else can explain DeLay's utter cynicism, and his blatant use of a terrible family tragedy for political gain, waving the flag of "life" to his religious base. This is a man who would subpoena a woman who has been in a persistant vegetative state for 15 years to appear before Congress. This is a man who would say this: "All we're doing in Congress is giving Terri Schiavo an opportunity to come to the Federal courts and review what this judge in Florida has been doing, and he's been trying to kill Terri for 4 1/2 years." Trying to kill Terri. Say it a few times out loud. Now just say "Terri" like you know her, like you know her husband, like you know her parents. Like you're right there for her, holding her hand. What breed of reptilian creature would say those words?
Walk across to the other side of the Capitol and here's what Bill Frist's leadership is handing out to its Republican Senators by way of GOP talking points:
* "This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited..."
* "This is a great political issue... this is a tough issue for Democrats."
Ah Frist, the respected heart doctor who - after viewing some videotape from the hospice where Terri Schiavo lays without communication - went to the Senate floor and said her doctors were wrong. "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli," said the doc.

posted by amberglow at 10:00 AM on March 20, 2005


bshock: "Am I the only one who finds it just slightly ironic that a senator from the execution-happy state of Texas would say this?

No more ironic than you snarking about "execution-happy Texas" and not knowing that DeLay is a representative, not a senator. Or is this a case of the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor?
posted by joaquim at 2:29 PM on March 20, 2005


What about the irony of Bush flying back from Texas to sign the bill into law? Back in 1999, when he was still but a governor, he made the reverse trip: returning to Texas while on the campaign trail to sign a piece of legislation called the Texas Futile Care Law. It was that law that allowed a Houston hospital, for the first time, to remove a baby from life support over the objections of its mother. There are several important distinctions between the two cases (the baby had a fatal disease, but wasn't a permanent vegetable, the mother couldn't afford to pay for care), but it points up the hypocrasy inherent in the Republican position here.
posted by jasonsmall at 2:44 AM on March 21, 2005


Yesterday I was struck (once again) by how surreal the whole Terri Schaivo issue is, and realized it was a good opportunity for speculative fiction. So, as a writing exercise, I wrote some. I sure hope it's wrong.


http://www.swinney.org/journals/article.phtml?id=3821
posted by jdfalk at 8:36 AM on March 21, 2005


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