Right Wing Nut House

“How could this happen?”

That’s a question that’s being asked all over the blogosphere today as the State of Florida yesterday sanctioned the deliberate starvation of an otherwise healthy but cognitively disabled woman.

It’s unfortunate but perhaps necessary that Terri’s struggle has now entered the realm of politics. Now the debate will begin in earnest. It will be a debate that touches the very heart of what kind of society we are and how we as people see ourselves.

What value can we place on the life of someone like Terri? Is she better off dead? Would you want to live like that?

Each time we kill someone like Terri it gets easier. Each time we make a decision to end the life of someone like Terri we expand the boundries of what’s “permissable.” Each time the debate is joined, the advocates for the cult of death point out the “special nature of this particular case” or that it’s only an “isolated incident.”.

If there’s a better explanation of “the slippery slope” I haven’t seen it.

Witness the Groningen Protocols, the procedures developed at a Dutch hospital of when to deliberately kill children up to 12 years old with painful, incurable diseases. In an interview with the New York Times, Doctor Eduard Verhagen, the physician who developed the protocols, sounds reasonable, compassionate, and thoughtful:

Verhagen is asking people to recognize something many would prefer not to even think about: A few babies are born with conditions so horrific, so excruciatingly painful, that their doctors and even their parents think they would be better off dead.

His push for an open and detailed discussion of such cases could one day, some hope and others fear, lead to the formal legalization of infant euthanasia in the Netherlands.

But here’s where things start to get a little sticky:

Once everyone - doctors, parents and social workers - agrees there is nothing more to be done for a child medically, a time is fixed to start administering a deadly intravenous drip of morphine and midazolam, a sleeping agent.

Advance notice of a couple of days is important, Verhagen said, so consenting parents have enough time to say goodbye and, in at least the instance of two devoutly religious families, to pray.

Verhagen says he has watched one child die and was there moments later for the other three. All had severe forms of spinal bifida.

There’s no doubt that some forms of spina bifida are inoperable and extremely painful for the infant. But where do you draw the line? Some forms of spina bifida are treatable, although the number of operations, the expense, the care necessary for such an infant, may sound like a pretty bad deal for the parents.

In a case like that, who speaks for the child? Ostensibly, the “social worker” and the Doctor would be looking out for the interests of the child. But not necessarily:

He and his colleagues started familiarizing prosecutors with difficult cases, even including them on daily rounds.

And they developed a protocol, published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine, that is both a checklist and a how-to-guide for Dutch doctors who are considering ending a baby’s life and still want to stay out of jail

.

If the purpose of these protocols is mainly to keep doctors who practice euthanasia out of jail, who then speaks for the little ones? Who would stand up to a parent and say “There’s no reason to euthanize your child, the condition is treatable. Yes, it will cause problems and inconvenience in your life but this is what you signed on for when you decided to become a parent.”

The answer is no one will be there. And one more step into the darkness will have been taken.

But don’t worry, it’ll be easier next time. And the next. Until there are so many “special cases” and “unique situations” that it will be difficult to differentiate between killing for mercy and killing for convenience. In the end, it doesn’t matter much does it? The people affected are just as dead.

All of the cause celebres over the last 25 years beginning with Karen Ann Quinlan, through the “assisted suicide” debates of the 1980’s and 90’s, to the point we’ve reached now with Terri Schiavo have proceeded in a frighteningly logical manner. Each time we’ve given slack on the issue of life versus death, the forces of death have won out.

I’m not convinced, as many right-to-life advocates are, that our attitude towards abortion is necessarily part of the problem. But I recognize the fact that abortion also, has proceeded down its own slippery slope to where it’s now seen as just another form of birth control by its proponents. Perhaps this is part of a wider conspiracy against the helpless, the infirm, and those whose silent screams from untold thousands of lonely graves echo in protest against the travesties of our time.

Terri Shiavo may yet be saved. But her case is a warning. When the juggernaut of state sponsored “compassion” overrides the fundamental values and even common sense of the people, then democracy itself is in peril.

The slope is getting steeper and we’re starting to slide faster. Who will stop it?

By faces like thine own besought, Thine own blind helpless eyeless face, … Look on thine household here, and see These that have not forsaken thee. … (A.C. Swinbourne)

Cross-Posted at Blogger News Network

UPDATE:

The Captain links to some news I hadn’t heard regarding the Supreme Court’s response to a Congressional appeal to restart Terri’s feeding tube:

The U.S. Supreme Court late Friday denied without comment a House committee emergency request to have Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube reinserted. The decision came after the committee requested the court’s ruling in order to buy time as lower court appeals on subpoenas issued by the committee are considered.

And here’s a prescient observation by Mr. Morrisey:

It’s possible that one of the lower courts could rule over the weekend, but more likely that Congress will act first to reconcile differences between the Senate and House bills passed last week. The earliest we can expect that kind of action will be Monday morning, almost 72 hours after Terri’s food and water were withdrawn.

I’ve heard that there is a movement afoot to start a hunger fast to mirror Terri’s suffering. (Note: Go Here for more info) The powerful symbolism of such a statement couldn’t be ignored by the mainstream media, that continues to distort and misstate many of the facts in this case.

Other Views and Updates:

Vodkapundit (Lashawn Barber) subbing for Stephen Green, Lawshawn has been blogging on this from day one.

Ace has an interesting take on Michael

Powerline has a thoughtful piece.

David Limbaugh has a link to an article that quotes Tom De Lay in his “exterminator” mode.

Schindler family attorney David Gibbs on Terri’s condition:

“Terri is not terminal,” he said. “If we feed Terri … she will live another 30 to 40 years.”

Asked why, if she can swallow, a feeding tube is necessary, Gibbs said he has inquired whether Schiavo could receive food by mouth, and “courts in Florida have said no. The order is to stop all food and water.”

It’s getting so easy in this country to kill someone. Hell, you don’t even need a good reason anymore. Used to be if you wanted an abortion, the “life or health of the mother” would have to be at stake.

Now you can get an abortion at seven months if your kid has a cleft palate. Ho-Hum. Just another “controversy.” Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

And when CBS aired it’s “Dr. Death” report on “60 Minutes” that had the media star and cult of death hero Jack Kevorkian “assisting” in the suicide of a man who, while in a lot of pain, was unnecessarily shot up with a lethal cocktail of drugs that deiberately ended his life, how did our good and compassionate Dr. Kevorkian feel about this?

MIKE WALLACE: You were engaged in a political, medical, macabre publicity venture, right?”

DR. KEVORKIAN: Well, that could be. I can’t argue with that. Maybe it is ghoulish, I don’t know -it appears that way to you, I can’t criticize you for that. But the main point is the last part of your statement — that the deed be done.

This guy is a hero to those who worship at the altar of death.

Societies used to have a trap door where ghouls like this would disappear after a fair trial. Now they write books and sing songs celebrating their deeds. They become cult figures gathering followers like the prophets of old and agitate for “the right to die” or, more accurately, “the right to end life whenever we damn well think it should be ended.”

The rules that societies set up nearly two thousand years ago to take the decision to end life out of the hands of humans and place it in the hands of the almighty were a radical departure from classical societies in the past. Both the Greeks and Romans routinely murdered the weak, the lame, even the sickly. Female children have been the target of post natal murders for thousands of years with the Chinese government going so far as feeling it had to issue an edict against the practice within the last two years.

But the radical values of Christianity that posited the notion that God was in every human being not just up on a mountain or in the sky started to mitigate against the wanton slaughter of the helpless ones. When nation states formed in the late middle ages, the strictures against these kinds of killings were put into law.

So what happened? Why has the cult of death re-emerged here and even more forcefully in Europe?

Part of the answer is the modern marvel of medical technology that, according to some medical ethicists, has advanced too quickly; that our ability to make moral judgements as to its proper use has lagged behind the rapid progress of medical science.

But the real answer has to do with what’s unfortunately come to be known as “secular humanism” or more accurately, ” human centrism.” This idea that we are the supreme arbiters of the universe (or at least this insignificant little corner of it) took hold at the turn of the 20th century as progressives fervently believed that both science and government, if used properly, could make this planet a secular Eden. All of the great scientific advances and social movements in the west including women’s sufferage, unionization of workers, product safety, unravelling the mysteries of the atom, and the huge advances in media and communications are a direct result of the progressive ideals embodied in western democracies.

But something happened on the road to paradise. Where most early 20th century progressives tempered their human centrism with the recognition that there was a power greater than themselves-a “final arbiter” or a deity of some kind-later progressives rejected the idea of a supreme being saying that man himself is moral enough that he can substitute for any superstitious nonsense our ancestors believed in.

A good example of this thinking is embodied in the bible of modern humanists, The Skeptical Inquirer magazine. This article by Paul Kurtz, professor emeritus at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and chairman of the Center for Inquiry - Transnational, entitled “Can the Sciences Help Us to Make Wise Ethical Judgments?” is indicitive of modern thinking on ethics.

I submit that ethical values should be amenable to inquiry. We need to ask, are they reliable? How do they stack up comparatively? Have they been tested in practice? Are they consistent? Many people seek to protect them as inviolable truths, immune to inquiry. This is particularly true of transcendental values based on religious faith and supported by custom and tradition. In this sense, ethical inquiry is similar to other forms of scientific inquiry. We should not presuppose that what we have inherited is true and beyond question. But where do we begin our inquiry? My response is, in the midst of life itself, focused on the practical problems, the concrete dilemmas, and contextual quandaries that we confront.

Reading the above you can begin to see where the ratioinale for killing Terri Schiavo comes from. Ethics and values are free floating and formless concepts, subject to reinterpretation whenever it suits us. Current thinking is that the wishes of Terri’s husband take precedence over anything Terri herself may want because, according to Michale Schiavo, Terri told him that “she wouldn’t want to live this way.” So despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, Terri is being put to death, sacrificed on the altar of human centric ideology with the blessings and complicity of the State of Florida.

This barbarous act will come back to haunt us. As we move closer to a society where people are judged not for who they are but for what they can contribute, new outrages will sicken us. But in the end what do we do?

Do we shake our heads sadly, shrug our shoulders in resignation, and go back to watching the Michael Jackson trial? Or do we finally start to hold our politicians to account from both parties who either actively work to promote this culture of death or turn their heads while we throw our brothers and sisters out like a sack of garbage?

Cross-Posted at Blogger News Network

According to Daily Kos, Senate Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid has introduced a bill that would exempt internet communications from campaign finance laws. Here’s the relevant passage: (PDF required)

Paragraph (22) of section 301 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 431(22)) is amended by adding at the end of the following new sentence: “Such term shall not include communications over the Internet.”

Reid also released a statement:

The Internet has generated a surge in grassroots involvement in our government and has proven to be a democratizing medium in our political process. Regulation of the Internet at this time would blunt its tremendous potential, discourage broad political involvement in our nation and diminish our representative democracy. For all these reasons, we should avoid silencing this new and important form of political speech.

And to top it off, the Senator sent a letter to FEC Chairman Thomas: (PDF Required)

One of your Democratic colleagues on the FEC recently made clear in public remarks that the regulation of blogs in particular is neither required by BCRA, nor by the litigation surrounding the FEC’s implementation of that law. I urge you to work with her and your other FEC colleagues in the coming weeks to avoid silencing this new and important form of political speech.

This is excellent news. In fact, I’m rather ashamed that no Republican has stood up for the concept of free speech on the internet. It’s not too late, however, At the moment, there’s no companion legislation in the House. If some prominent Republican were to introduce a similar amendment, the chances of protecting the rights of all to use the internet as it was intended-a place where the free, unfettered flow of information and ideas would lead to a more informed citizenry-would be dramatically increased.

The FEC will issue the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking next Thursday. As I’ve said before, the Commissioners on the FEC are creatures of politics. A move like this in Congress could affect how they view any proposed new rules as they relate to the internet.

What we’ve got to do is keep up the pressure. There have been dozens of articles and reports on cable outlets about this issue. We need much more. I would urge everyone to write their Congressman and Senators asking them to get behind Senator Reid’s proposed amendment.

Marvin Moonbat is in the House!

QUESTIONS I’D ASK BUSHITLER IF I WERE A REPORTER AT A PRESS CONFERENCE (By Marvin Moonbat)

Did I ever tell you that I almost majored in Journalism here at EIU?

It’s true. I took a journalism course my freshman year and really loved it. I even tried to get on the staff of the campus newspaper but when I submitted a sample of my writing they returned it marked “incoherent” and “not biased enough.” So I decided to write for the school’s Reality Based newspaper “Counterpoint Punch.” They published three issues before the printing company went all capitalist on us and said he wanted to be paid before they printed another issue. Can you imagine? Here we were manning the barricades of Peace and Justice, fighting against the oppression of the masses and all the printing company could think about was money?

If there’s a better argument against capitalist exploitation, I’ve never heard it.

Anyway, I got to thinking. What if I were one of those White House journalists and I had a chance to ask the Shrub a couple of questions. What would they be?

1. Teresa Heinz-(no longer Kerry) said she believes the electronic voting machines used during the last election were hacked by the President of Diebold Corporation. My first question is are you going to apologize to the American people for stealing the election? And my follow up question is did you ever have sex with Jeff Gannon?

2. Given that no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq and that our undeclared and illegitimate aggression against Saddam Hussien has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people you call “terrorists,” are you ready to apologize to the American people for turning the United States into a world pariah? My follow up question is do you deny that Karl Rove had sex with Jeff Gannon?

3. Since you took office, you’ve ripped up the Constitution, spat on the Declaration of Independence, and made the United States into a fascist state. Are you going to apologize to the American people for taking away their liberties? A follow-up question would be did you ever snort coke, smoke grass, pop ‘ludes, drop acid, or shoot heroin?

4. We currently have 135,000 troops in Iraq. Would you please tell the Iraqi people and the brave Iraqi minutemen who are fighting against your illegal and unjustified occupation when exactly those troops are coming home? My follow-up is are you going to apologize to the the American people for smirking all the time?

5. Since it’s common knowledge you went AWOL while in the National Guard, would you be willing to go to Iraq and finish fulfilling your obligation to the government? My follow up is how did Karl Rove slip those fake but accurate documents to Dan Rather and are you going to apologize to the American people for that?

6. Have you ever cheated on Laura. If so, why haven’t you disclosed this and will you apologize to the American people for keeping this from them?

7. When you were a child, did you ever tear the heads off grasshoppers? Did you ever use a magnifying glass to kill ants and will you apologize to the American people for it?

8. Is there anything you’ve ever done in your life that you’re so embarrassed about you don’t want to tell us for fear it would ruin your political career and perhaps even get you impeached? Will you apologize to the American people for not telling us about this sooner?

This one’s from Chloe:

9. Given your desire to strip American women of every right and privilege they’ve fought for since this country began including the right to kill their unborn babies whenever they want to, would you call yourself anti-woman or are you just another in a long line of oppressors who seek to keep women barefoot and pregnant to be used as sex objects whenever the filthy male chauvinist pigs want to rape us and call it “lovemaking?” Oh…and are you going to apologize to the American people for this attitude?

Good one Chloe!

Well, we’ve got to run. We’re going to a demonstration against the Young Repugnuts. Somehow, they got permission to use the auditorium for a meeting. We plan on infiltrating the meeting and shouting down anyone who disagrees with us.

Free speech can be fun sometimes!

The legal and legislative manueverings to save the life of Terri Schiavo in these last hours before the forced removal of the feeding tube that keeps her alive have met with limited success and in some cases outright failure.

1. The Florida House passed a bill that would make it illegal to remove someone from a feeding tube unless they had specifically requested it be done passed by a vote of 78-37. However, a similar measure in the Florida Senate was narrowly defeated 21-16 raising doubts as to whether lawmakers could reach a compromise in time.

2. Late Wednesday, the US House passed a bill by voice vote that would move jurisdiction of Terri’s case from the state District Court in Florida to a Federal Court. But the Senate seems to be unwilling to immediately consider the matter, although Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) said said he would later try to pass a separate Senate bill and get it to the House before it leaves for its Easter recess Friday.

3. Terri’s parents have filed a brief with the United State Supreme Court to stop the removal of the feeding tube so lower courts could consider whether their daughter’s religious freedom and other rights have been violated.

4. And Judge Greer has scheduled a hearing Thursday on a request from the state to keep the woman alive.

None of these options seem particularly promising. Which means perhaps only one thing could save Terri now; a direct appeal from President Bush himself.

At the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the case raises “a lot of complex issues” and declined to comment on specific legislation. But he said Bush “stands on the side of defending life.” If that’s true, a direct appeal by the President to Senate Republicans to expedite the matter could allow the bill to become law before the Congress recesses for Easter on Friday.

The House bill would allow federal courts to hear motions on the case. In the past, when Terri’s parents have appealed to the federal bench, the courts have said they lack standing in the matter. The House bill would give that standing to the federal courts thus allowing Terri’s parents another legal avenue.

UPDATE: FROM THE “ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE” DEPARTMENT

This from the Blogs for Terri Website:

March 17, 2005
Latest Update on US Senate
THE US SENATE HAS THANKFULLY JUST PASSED THE BILL FOR TERRI.

IT MUST RETURN NOW TO THE US HOUSE TO FIX THE LANGUAGE SO BOTH HOUSE AND SENATE MATCH!

THIS IS GREAT NEWS, FOR NOW.

Statement by the President
March 17, 2005

The case of Terri Schiavo raises complex issues. Yet in instances like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life. Those who live at the mercy of others deserve our special care and concern. It should be our goal as a nation to build a culture of life, where all Americans are valued, welcomed, and protected ? and that culture of life must extend to individuals with disabilities.

“Your lightest touch commands our obedience.” (From “Gladiator“)

That’s all it took…just a few simple words from the President.

John Little at Blogs of War links to a Lebanese website that reports a military coup is underway in Syria:

No newspapers are getting in or out of Syria, the media is controlled very tight, and the Syrian scene witnessed a dramatic, security deterioration the last 24 hours.

Precise Intelligence reports coming from Syria indicated massive army troops deployment around the capital Damascus. Most of the military Barracks of the Syrian Army around Damascus gave allegiance to the dissidents: Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan and General Ali Safi. These people in the Syrian Army were against the withdrawal from Lebanon.

It is known that President Bashar Assad is in the city of Alleppo, assessing the internal situation within Syria and trying to organize a “forced” return to Damascus.

The Jawa Report has a commenter with this information:

There are several reports on lgf (a couple by me and the original link by someone who’s nic I didn’t get) but they’re all to the free-lebanon.com report. The only other thing I have is some verbal reports that people checking have said the ISPs to Syria have been blocked for a week and that phone calls to friends in Damascus reveal a lot of military and tanks going up and down the streets and in Damascus proper but no one knows why or what happening, just that there’s a lot of rumors going around. And it was a military coup not a coup d’etat. Sorry. But there’s no report of anyone being killed….yet.

If Debka doesn’t have anything, it’s probable that these rumors won’t pan out.

If it is true, it wouldn’t surprise me. Dictators don’t last long when they appear to buckle to outside pressure-especially if it involves a humiliarting retreat for the military.

UPDATE: RUMORS UNTRUE

Got this via Little Green Footballs at Publius Pundit:

DENIED: Just got an email back from Joshua Landis from Syria Comment, who is inside Damascus.

Dear Robert,
Someone has a rich imagination. All is normal here as far as I can tell. Sunny spring day and everyone is bustling about happily. The military attaché at the US embassy just emailed me about what he should wear to dinner tonight - casual or formal? Didn’t suggest bullet proof vest, so I assume all is normal.

Best to you from Damascus.
Joshua

Publius has anothe email from a Syrian in Damascus that says the same thing.

And this on the Lebanese website that started it all:

Ohhhhh. Thanks for the info Robert! Word of warning. Take anything that comes out of LFP with a bucket full of salt. They are the post-Phalange group (the Israeli army’s proxy in Lebanon during the Civil War). Unfortuantely, as much as I support the Lebanese Opposition movement inside Lebanon, the outsiders (like LFP and other American based organisations) have a very different agenda to the real, nationalist independent opposition (like Walid Jumblatt - he’s even called for a dialogue with Hizbollah and close relationship with Syria, even keeping some troops in if there’s no political interference).

Should ‘ve known when even the rumor-mongering Debka site didn’t have anything that it was untrue.

Suppose you lived all your life in a country witha brutal dictatorship?

Suppose you lived all your life in a country where the dictator’s statue and likeness were everywhere you looked?

Suppose you lived all your life in a country where expressing your opinion could land you in jail where you would be tortured and end up “disappearing” so that your family and friends would never know what happened to you?

Suppose you lived all your life in a country where cronyism and nepotism were the rule rather than the exception?

Suppose you lived all your life in a country where the dictator routinely siphoned off millions of dollars and placed his ill-gotten gains in foriegn bank accounts?

Then, just suppose a miracle happened and the dictator was suddenly gone and replaced by freely elected representatives of the people? What would you do?

Why, write a letter to the President, of course!

This letter courtesy of Friends of Democracy, the excellent Iraqi blog, reminds us how lucky we really are in this country. With almost childlike wonder and simplicity, the letter writer carefully outlines what he believes the Iraqi President should do, how he should comport himself in office, and warns the Iraqi leader of the consequences of his actions.

What struck me most about this letter is that it is hope personified. To our rather jaded eyes, it appears to be unrealistic and at times contradictory.

But there’s no mistaking the passion of the writer. Nor is there any doubt that the letter writer put a lot of thought into what he was going to say nor that he isn’t deadly serious.

Your Excellency,

Your Excellency. We don’t want to see you more than one minute per day. Respect our private lives, houses, and holidays. Don’t hang your portrait on the wall. Don’t put your statues in the squares. We don’t want to see you wearing a headcord or some other thing whenever we turn around. We don’t want to listen to your news on TV welcoming someone, saying farewell to someone else, holding a meeting, or anything else that reminds us you exist. We don’t want any of this, Your Excellency.
(more…)

Terri Schiavo’s last days are approaching.

TAMPA, Fla. - A state appeals court Wednesday refused to block the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube later this week in the long-running right-to-die battle between the woman’s husband and her parents.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland turned down a request from Bob and Mary Schindler for a delay while they pursue further appeals, and for a new trial on their daughter’s fate.

The tube is scheduled to be removed on Friday at 1 p.m.

(HT: Wizbang)

The Florida legislature has two bills that should be passed sometime in the next 24 hours but the chances of any court intervention on Terri’s behalf while the constitutionality of the laws are determined are slim.

Blogs for Terri informs us of a bill working its way through Congress that would give the federal courts jurisdiction over Terri’s life:

The leaders could decide to call up a bill that would allow parties to the case, which has been tried in Florida courts, to petition to have it heard in Federal District Court. Alternatively, the GOP leaders could decide to try to move a private bill dealing specifically with the Schiavo case.

Democrats have expressed reluctance to intervene due to the expidited nature of the issue and its potential ramifications.

Sensible…but wrong.

Without benefit of tests to show whether or not Terri is truly in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) it would seem prudent to take this issue away from state courts and place Terri’s fate in the hands of judges who don’t have to face the voters on a regular basis. I truly believe that the fact that Florida District Court of Appeals judges have to run for re-election colors their judgement in high profile cases like Terri’s.

Whatever is going to happen in the Congress and the Florida Statehouse, it better happen very soon.

UPDATE: 3/17

Blogs begin to weigh in on the bad news:

Cao’s Blog has a whole slew of posts…just keep scrolling. Cao has been on this story for two months. As a johnny-come-lately- to the issue, I can’t imagine what she and Crystal abd Raven and all the bloggers who’ve given so much to help in this worthy cause are going through.

The Captain has finally realized the stakes:

Up to now, my inclination was to consider this an unfortunate case of dueling experts and bitter family feuding. Now I think this is something more. The people who want the feeding tube pulled all seem to have vested interests outside of Terri’s well-being — Cranford wants to push an agenda for euthanazing people who he finds inconvenient, and Michael Schiavo appears to have a long history of neglect, or at least disinterest in pursuing the proper testing for his wife’s condition.

Polipundit links to an NRO article by Father Johansen and has this to say:

Judge Greer ruled, as a finding of “fact”, that Terri‘s condition is “Persistent Vegetative State” (PVS), based solely on the statements of Michael Schiavo. Reverend Johansen says he has found over 30 board-certifified neurologists who are willing to testify that they have “grave doubts” with a ‘PVS’ diagnosis, and that Terri should re reexamined.

Hugh Hewitt also blogs about the Johnasen piece and adds this:

The indifference of major media to the underlying facts of this case even as they obsess over the smallest detail in the proceedings surrounding Michael Jackson illustrates again the deep bias in the MSM against any story that is –in their minds– identified with the pro-life movement. This is a real life-and-death drama, and the big papers haven’t done a tenth of the basic reporting that an ordinary priest in Michigan has undertaken and completed.

This is no time for recriminations but I do have one question. All of the information in the Johansen article has been out there for weeks. Why now, less than 48 hours before Terri’s tube is disconnected, have 3 of the biggest guns of the blogosphere suddenly taken an interest in this?

See my post here for other questions I raised about this issue.

NASA may have found a target landing site for the first manned mission to Mars:

Images recently taken by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft, which is orbiting Mars, show a frozen body of water, about the size of Earth’s North Sea, beneath the surface of Mars.

“I believe this makes the possibility of the discovery of life on Mars much closer than was previously thought,” said John Murray, a research scientist at the Open University in Milton Keynes in England. Murray led the research group that made the discovery of the frozen sea.

Scientists now say that Mars has been shaped by flowing water, lava, and ice in the recent geological age. The sea formed within the last few million years, as volcanic eruptions or tectonic activity caused the area to flood.

Some gigantic cataclysm opened massive fissures on the surface of Mars some 5 million years ago allowing water from an underground sea to flow over the surface. Judging by the amount of water that gushed forth, scientists believe the underground body of water is about the size of the North Sea.

Finding out whether or not there’s life on Mars may be as simple as walking across the glaciers pictured above (the ice is buried under several inches of dust and volcanic ash) and taking samples. If there is or was life on Mars, the evidence would be in the ice in the form of fossils or, more incredibly, perhaps frozen life forms in the ice itself.

The theory is that water erupted less than five million years ago from the Cerberus Fossae, deep cracks on the Martian surface. These cracks opened up and tapped a huge reservoir of liquid water deep beneath the surface.

Pack ice formed on top of that water. It then broke up, before freezing rigid. A crust of dust and volcanic ash, perhaps just a few centimeters thick, has prevented sublimation, the process by which ice erodes over time into water vapor.

“The fact that they are still occurring today means that we have had huge pockets of liquid water beneath the surface of Mars for thousands of millions of years—plenty of time for life to develop,” Murray said.

If life can develop in these subsurface oceans, as many scientists believe, this frozen sea may be the ideal place to look not just for fossils of past life, but for the actual frozen organisms themselves, Murray said.

Both NASA and the European Space Agency are planning rover missions to reach Mars in 2011. The original NASA mission was to be a sample return mission where a rover would scoop up some Martian soil and return it to Earth for analysis. That mission was set back to 2014 due to a cut in funding.

In light of these recent discoveries, perhaps NASA should rethink that decision.

Glenn Reynolds links to this excellent Patterico post about more non-reassuring assurances from proponents of regulating speech on the internet. Here’s Russ Feingold:

The FEC must tread carefully in the area of political communications on the Internet. Political news and commentary on the Internet are important, even vital, to our democracy, and becoming more so. For starters, the FEC should provide adequate protection for legitimate online journalists. Online journalists should be treated the same as other legitimate broadcast media, newspapers, etc. and, at this point, I don’t see any reason why the FEC shouldn’t include legitimate online journalists and bloggers in the “media exemption” rule.

Be worried. Be very worried. Patterico explains:

Are you comforted by this? Russ Feingold thinks you should be able to express your mind on the internet - if the government views you as a “legitimate” online journalist, that is. At least that’s Feingold’s view “at this point” - it could always change, you know.

Are you starting to get it? This is why you don’t ask the government for permission to express your views. Because if you ask, you concede that government has the right to decide what is deemed “legitimate.” And government might change its mind.

Where’s Ronald Reagan when we need him?

It’s time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, “We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.” This idea that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power, is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

Address to the nation, October 27, 1964

At the time Reagan uttered those words liberalism was about to reach its zenith. Johnson’s crushing defeat of Goldwater ushered in a decade that saw the creation of an alphabet soup of federal agencies (including the FEC) that ended up tying the American economy and the American people in knots. To this day in many ways, we’re paying for that explosion of nannyism in a loss of freedom and control over our own lives.

Dan Lovejoy echoes Patterico in even stronger language:

While I certainly agree with the spirit of the exemption, I think it shouldn’t happen. Rather than being exempted, bloggers should continue to write in defiance of this disgusting assault on liberty. I don’t want permission from the government to speak freely. I don’t need the permission of congress to write what I want to write. Creating an exemption recognizes the validity of the law in the first place. Wrong tact - wrong policy. It is a morally reprehensible law that should be completely ignored by media of all stripes.

Grr..

It’s refreshing to find this kind of defiance. It makes you believe that the spirit of our ancestors hasn’t been completely subsumed by modern America’s penchant for looking to goverment for permission to live the life you want to. In many ways, it’s not really our fault. When government tells us what we can eat, smoke, drink, drive, and who we can hire, fire, house, and teach it proves that the people have lost control to “that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital” who not only believe they know what’s best for the rest of us, but have made abundantly clear after the results of this last election that we don’t deserve to even think for ourselves.

When our defeated opponents say that we’re too stupid to know what’s good for us, why should we surprised when these very same people want to regulate our thoughts and ideas, hence our speech?

While defiance is an excellent frame of mind, I don’t believe it’s going to help in the current situation we find ourselves in. That’s why I signed the online petition. I’m hoping that the backlash against the FEC will be so furious that the whole execrable McCain-Feingold regime will be come crashing down.

The FEC will meet on Thursday, March 24 to issue the Notice of Proposed Rule making . This meeting will be open to the public. Some from the blogging community may want to attend and try to assess the threat for themselves.

The draft is usually posted on the Monday or Tuesday before the meeting on the FEC website. Watch this site for updates.