Death by kindness

Terri Schiavo died at about 9:00 am today.

It took about 1:45 for Dan Flynn to post on it; I was flattered that he borrowed my term for the process. It took an additional 70 minutes for one of my more disreputable bug relatives to spit on the poor woman's grave. (It's the second comment in the list.)

I should probably go away for a few hours and calm down, instead of posting the following bright red comments in reply:

sf - "I guess then when you're in the same position that Terri Schiavo was in then we can let you live the rest of your life as you wish with a feeding tube."

Really? Are you sure you wouldn't just assume otherwise and starve us to death too? Isn't it the whole point that we wanted to give her a chance?

"The hypocrisy of the right-wing is amazing. This isn't about a right-to-life as one is being made to believe."

Oh, horsefeathers.

"This issue is being used as a wedge issue by the right and its not doing well in terms of polls."

Because polls are all that you need to decide whether 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' is, in fact, the animating principle of the US Constitution, and a worthy goal to continue to right for.

"Politicizing this issue and using it to promote a certain agenda is shameless."

Agreed. The way George Felos and Mike Schiavo's experts pushed this as a right-to-die issue, forwarding the forced-euthanasia agenda - sickening. And heck, we know that Jesse Jackson, Ralph Nader, and the Village Voice are just grandstanding by agreeing with conservatives and jumping in on Terri's side in this.

"Sure.. every citizen has a right-to-live ..."

Except for this one?

"... and I feel deep sorrow for the parents of Terri Schiavo yet the hypocrisy is mind-boggling. What about the right for health care for everyone or the right that no one should live in poverty or how about a states-right?"

Of these three, O Legal One, only 'states rights' is in the Constitution - it's the Tenth Amendment, long ignored by many of the same people crying States Rights Now! Even then, Andy McCarthy of NRO had the excellent point that the Left, in saying 'states' rights,' is really only supporting the right of the courts, since the Florida Legislature also passed laws to protect Terri but the courts struck them down.

"Even better is the fact that the judges involved weren't merely liberals but they were also conservatives acting in ways termed "judicial murder" or "judicial tyranny". This wasn't an abortion by any means and to label it that or call it an abortion is blasphemy."

Oh, by all means, we DARE NOT blaspheme the holy name of Abortion! Give me a break.

"This was nothing but a giant media circus about a woman who suffered dearly. We as citizens do not know what she was feeling or if she felt anything in the first place. We aren't the experts nor are we armed with the facts to prove otherwise."

What kind of an expert do you have to be not to want to starve to death? Only the elite legal and medical minds can determine a person's worth? And you can't claim that she suffered dearly while claiming that we couldn't know what she felt. Geez, make some sense, could you?

"President Bush says government should "err on the side of life"... Really??? Then what is that he said as governor of Texas... Oh yeah... That in the matters of life and death complexities he trusted the courts."

And here it comes...

"Hmm... did he say the courts? Now.. the courts aren't trusted because they don't err on the side of life yet err on the blueprint of the US constitution."

Sure - hearsay evidence and biased testimony are so trustworthy that dozens of affidavits and contrary evidence are ruled inadmissable; and advances in science that could prove or disprove the previous findings are not only not made, but actively forbidden. That sounds impartial and trustworthy?

"He made those comments when presiding over and personally reviewing death penalty cases. He trusted the courts judgements."

It's a lot harder to find someone guilty of murder and sentence him to death than it was for Judge Greer to do Michael Schiavo's bidding, and there is much more legal remedy available to the death row inmate than there was for Terri.

"How about the people denied adequate medical care or organ transplants and thus life under Medicaid which is under the knife constantly when it comes to the Bush budget. Even better lets address the genocide in Darfur? Where was Pres. Bush and our government then?"

I think they were fighting a rather important war, limiting our options for intervention. They haven't been utterly useless: you can try reading a little something. Or something else. And if they were, it doesn't let them off the hook elsewhere. While you're reading, why don't you also go over the Constitution to see where health care is guaranteed to every citizen by the federal government.

"That would've sided with a right-to-life policy yet the overwhelming evidence shows that hypocrisy prevails here and that this was an issue used to politicize a religious and moral ethic."

There's an old saying that hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue. I'd rather that somebody gets one thing right than everything wrong.

[sf quotes Dan Flynn]: But a life that makes us feel bad, that bothers us, that inconveniences us--that is a life that should be killed. Isn't that the message of this whole sad affair? [and then continues]: The message isn't simple and its more complicated.

Sure, you're just a big ball of nuance here, aren't you?

"I wished that Michael Schiavo had given up his rights to the parents a long time ago however the courts consistently ruled in the favor of the law and the laws of the land."

For some people wishing wasn't enough and they fought through legal means. And both Florida's legislature and the Congress passed laws that were promptly tossed by the courts in favor of what was already done.

"It is a sad affair when the battle is between legality and morality, which is what this is whole circus was about? Right?"

Sure is. Legal 1, Terri Schiavo 0. Hip hip frickin' hooray, Spitter.

"Now... Terri Schiavo may rest in peace like the rest of America would've rested had they been in that same position themselves."

This is so ridiculous, let me simply let you disprove yourself: "I guess then when you're in the same position that Terri Schiavo was in then we can let you live the rest of your life as you wish with a feeding tube."

Terri, God willing, does rest in peace. She got there through a two-week torture session mandated by a court, the ultimate in government intrusion.