Category: Current Affairs

Being the inveterate royal-watcher I am, when I stumbled across a recap of Prince Charles’ wedding to Mrs. Andrew Parker Bowles on "BBC America" I watched … with clenched teeth and appropriately timed snorts of disbelief. Apparently even CNN couldn’t help but notice the supreme irony of the occasion:

"A solemn ceremony has blessed the wedding of the heir to the British throne Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall, at which the couple each pledged to be faithful to each other.

[…]

"The blessing ceremony, which had the feel of a wedding and was aired across the globe, conjured memories of the 1981 day when millions of television viewers watched Prince Charles marry Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul’s Cathedral in what has become part of royal lore as a ‘fairy-tale’ wedding. "That storybook Charles-Diana wedding ceremony, which captivated the world, contrasted in sad irony with what followed — a tempestuous marriage and separation of Charles and the now-late Diana, Princess of Wales, that shocked and appalled all of England and royal-watchers everywhere.

[…]

"The [Anglican] archbishop’s [Rowan Williams of Canterbury] talk of ‘love and faithfulness’ contrasted with the adultery the pair, as well as the late Diana herself, displayed over the years.

"In the wedding blessing, the couple recited a line of repentance from the Book of Common Prayer, the inclusion of which is seen as an acknowledgment of their prior adultery."

Or a continuing state of adultery, unless the new Duchess of Cornwall has obtained an annulment of her first marriage to the Roman Catholic Andrew Parker Bowles.  (If she has, then this marriage to Prince Charles means that there would be no ongoing state of adultery and the marriage would be presumably sacramental.)

GET THE STORY.

… in the public-school system, that is:

"One day after jazz band practice, 14-year-old Peter Wilson’s band teacher pulled him aside.

"The instructor wanted to know whether Peter, who is home-schooled alongside his three brothers, liked being taught by his mother, and why he didn’t come to public school full-time, instead of just for music.

"The teacher seemed uncomfortable bringing it up, and the conversation was brief, Peter said. When he got home, he told his parents.

"Mark and Teckla Wilson, who are raising their four sons in Mark Wilson’s roomy childhood home in this former timber town, soon found out to their annoyance that the teacher’s questions were part of an effort by the Myrtle Point school district to persuade home-schooling families to give the public system a shot."

GET THE STORY.

(Nod to Crowhill for the link.)

One M.D. has a novel solution to warnings of an impending physician shortage: Embrace the shortage and become, in her words, "a rare commodity":

"Why would anyone in their right mind want to go into medicine now? Until something is done to corral the HMO and government administrators (who are expensive and time-consuming annoyances); until the pay for family practice and general practice doctors is made equal to that of general pediatricians and general internists; until there are special courts for malpractice complaints instead of the current lawyer-stealing-from-doctor tort system; and until we aren’t having to cope daily with the tragic stories of people who cannot afford medications and of people who are being dumped off insurance when they are sick, I’m advising my bright young patients to look elsewhere for an occupation.

"I think we should be allowed to become a rare commodity. Maybe then we will be paid enough and respected enough to make the profession worth doing again" (source).

After my second spit-take at the line suggesting that doctors aren’t compensated enough in money and respect for their services, I got to thinking.

In some ways, I can see this physician’s point. Given their long years of expensive training, the malpractice coverage they must pay, and the risks entailed with running a business (especially one where they are beholden to insurance companies to cough up payments in a timely manner) the dazzling salaries doctors reportedly make do seem less-glittering. And, of course, it is specialization that pays the most. General practice and teaching doctors do not make dazzling salaries. I can also concede that respect for doctors flies out the window when it’s time to start looking around for a scapegoat for a tragedy, whether or not an individual doctor could have done anything differently.

Still.

Advising that physicians allow themselves to become a "rare commodity" will only mean that patients, those whom doctors are supposed to serve, will only receive worse care as the insurance companies ration out treatment options ever more thinly to meet the increased demand. And, as the physicians left in the field grow ever more gray, who will replace them? Will it take a decade-plus to train the new physicians once the potential doctors and early-retiree doctors decide to come back from their "strike"?

All in all, a silly proposal for a serious problem.

(Nod to Kevin, M.D., for the links.)

One M.D. has a novel solution to warnings of an impending physician shortage: Embrace the shortage and become, in her words, "a rare commodity":

"Why would anyone in their right mind want to go into medicine now? Until something is done to corral the HMO and government administrators (who are expensive and time-consuming annoyances); until the pay for family practice and general practice doctors is made equal to that of general pediatricians and general internists; until there are special courts for malpractice complaints instead of the current lawyer-stealing-from-doctor tort system; and until we aren’t having to cope daily with the tragic stories of people who cannot afford medications and of people who are being dumped off insurance when they are sick, I’m advising my bright young patients to look elsewhere for an occupation.

"I think we should be allowed to become a rare commodity. Maybe then we will be paid enough and respected enough to make the profession worth doing again" (source).

After my second spit-take at the line suggesting that doctors aren’t compensated enough in money and respect for their services, I got to thinking.

In some ways, I can see this physician’s point. Given their long years of expensive training, the malpractice coverage they must pay, and the risks entailed with running a business (especially one where they are beholden to insurance companies to cough up payments in a timely manner) the dazzling salaries doctors reportedly make do seem less-glittering. And, of course, it is specialization that pays the most. General practice and teaching doctors do not make dazzling salaries. I can also concede that respect for doctors flies out the window when it’s time to start looking around for a scapegoat for a tragedy, whether or not an individual doctor could have done anything differently.

Still.

Advising that physicians allow themselves to become a "rare commodity" will only mean that patients, those whom doctors are supposed to serve, will only receive worse care as the insurance companies ration out treatment options ever more thinly to meet the increased demand. And, as the physicians left in the field grow ever more gray, who will replace them? Will it take a decade-plus to train the new physicians once the potential doctors and early-retiree doctors decide to come back from their "strike"?

All in all, a silly proposal for a serious problem.

(Nod to Kevin, M.D., for the links.)

Mae Magouirk has been spared (for now) from her granddaughter’s attempt to murder her by starvation.

BlogsForTerri reports the following e-mail from Mae’s nephew:

THANKS TO THE SUPPORT OF ALL OF THE FRIENDS OF TERRI, MY AUNT MAE MAGOUIRK HAS BEEN AIR LIFTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA-BIRMINGHAM MEDICAL CENTER … and receiving IV fluids, nourishment and some of the finest medical care available in the United States! Praise be the name of the Lord GOD… Thanks to Terri’s friends… It would NEVER ever have been possible without bloggers who love life , and the truth!! I am racing from my home to UAB now and will type a detailed update after I see my Aunt Mae! Thanks guys, your calls, emails, blogs and prayers did it ALL!!! I so love you guys!!!!!!!!!! Ken Mullinax, nephew of Mae

But the story isn’t over! There’s something fishy going on, and Wizbang and BlogsForTerri have been trying to figure out what it is.

• WIZBANG UPDATE
• BLOGSFORTERRI UPDATE

EXCERPTS:

Mae Magouirk was neither terminally ill, comatose nor in a "vegetative state," when Hospice-LaGrange accepted her as a patient about two weeks ago upon the request of her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, 36, an elementary school teacher and wannabe murderess.

Also upon Gaddy’s request and without prior legal authority, since March 28 Hospice-LaGrange has denied Magouirk normal nourishment or fluids via a feeding tube through her nose or fluids via an IV. She has been kept sedated with morphine and ativan, a powerful tranquillizer.

The dehydration is being done in defiance of Magouirk’s specific wishes, which she set down in a "living will," and without agreement of her closest living next-of-kin.

In her living will, Magouirk stated that fluids and nourishment were to be withheld only if she were either comatose or "vegetative," and she is neither. Nor is she terminally ill, which is generally a requirement for admission to a hospice.

Magouirk lives alone in LaGrange, though because of glaucoma she relied on her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, to bring her food and do errands.

Claiming that she held Magouirk’s power of attorney, Gaddy had her transferred to Hospice-LaGrange, a 16-bed unit owned by the same family that owns the hospital. Once at the hospice, Gaddy stated that she did not want her grandmother fed or given water.

"Grandmama is old and I think it is time she went home to Jesus," Gaddy told Magouirk’s brother and nephew, McLeod and Ken Mullinax. "She has glaucoma and now this heart problem, and who would want to live with disabilities like these?"

Ken Mullinax recalled that Todd said the only reason Magouirk was in the hospice in the first place was that the LaGrange Hospital had failed to exercise due diligence in closely examining the power of attorney Beth Gaddy said she had, as well as exercising the provisions of Magouirk’s living will.

Gaddy went before Troup County, Ga., Probate Court Judge Donald W. Boyd and obtained an emergency guardianship over her grandmother.

Ron Panzer, president and founder of Hospice Patients Alliance, a patients’ rights advocacy group based in Michigan, told WND that what is happening to Magouirk is not at all unusual.

"This is happening in hospices all over the country," he said. "Patients who are not dying – are not terminal – are admitted [to hospice] and the hospice will say they are terminally ill even if they’re not. There are thousands of cases like this. Patients are given morphine and ativan to sedate them. If feeding is withheld, they die within 10 days to two weeks. It’s really just a form of euthanasia."

GET THE STORY.

(Cowboy hat tip to the readers who have e-mailed.)

Y’know those polls the were citing a while back saying that a huge percentage of the American populace approved of Terri being starved to death and even would like to be starved to death if they were in Terri Schiavo’s situation.

Well, as Mark Twain said, there are three kinds of lies: "Lies, damned lies, and statistics." The latter are so, so easy to skew by asking the wrong questions and spinning the public’s perception of what is going on (e.g., describing someone as "on life support" or "comatose" when you ask the question).

Well, guess what!

Zogby has come out with a poll showing that people aren’t so keen on starving themselves or others to death. And Zogby is a highly-Democrat-skewing pollster, making this one all the more significant.

Kudos to Zogby for producing a better-than-average poll on this issue!

EXCERPT:

"If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma, and not being
kept alive on life support, and they have no written directive, should or should
they not be denied food and water," the poll asked.

A whopping 79 percent said the patient should not have food and water taken
away while just 9 percent said yes.

GET THE STORY.

QUICK! What would you do in this situation? You are a marine biologist in charge of a large commercial marine aquarium. A six-foot captive Great White Shark that has lived in the aquarium for the last six months has become aggressive and killed at least two of the other sharks in your care. People are beginning to talk.

If you guessed "release it just off the coast near a densely populated metropolis" you are correct! If you also guessed that "just before sunrise" would be an opportune time to pull this off, give yourself bonus points!

GET THE STORY.

QUICK! What would you do in this situation? You are a marine biologist in charge of a large commercial marine aquarium. A six-foot captive Great White Shark that has lived in the aquarium for the last six months has become aggressive and killed at least two of the other sharks in your care. People are beginning to talk.

If you guessed "release it just off the coast near a densely populated metropolis" you are correct! If you also guessed that "just before sunrise" would be an opportune time to pull this off, give yourself bonus points!

GET THE STORY.

Ever since I was a child I’ve been fascinated with dates.  Just ask my family.  I’m the go-to person for the birthdates of relations near and distant.  Since becoming a Catholic, this natural interest has developed into a love of the liturgical year.  Whenever something significant happens, I look up the date to see if there might be a hidden eternal significance.  I like to tell myself that because God sanctified created time by his Incarnation, so he can use created time to teach.

So, naturally, as we mourn today for Terri Schiavo, I wondered about the significance of the date of her death (March 31).  No particular saint’s day leaped to mind, but comments in the blogosphere reminded me that many in the Church are currently observing the novena of Divine Mercy in preparation for the Feast of Divine Mercy this Sunday.  Inspired, I looked up the novena to find out which souls are being prayed for today in the novena:

"The souls who especially venerate and glorify Jesus’ mercy."

Later, I had a bit more time to poke around to see if March 31 had any special significance.  Ordinarily, the date falls during Lent, so I was unsure I could find a particular commemoration for a saint.  But, with a bit of digging, I found that the day has been set aside (at least in some areas) in honor of St. Benjamin — yes, the same Benjamin born to Jacob and Rachel.  Rachel originally named him Benoni, meaning "son of my sorrow," but after her death Jacob changed the name to Benjamin, which can mean "son of my right hand."

Benjamin’s mother Rachel is often invoked by pro-lifers because of this passage from Jeremiah:

"Thus says the LORD: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not’" (Jer. 31:15).

Today is a day of mourning because Terri Schiavo is no longer with us.  But just as Benjamin passed from being a "son of my sorrow" to a "son of my right hand," so we have Christian hope that Terri, who suffered much, is now a child at God’s right hand.  As for us, even in sorrow, we too should cling to hope:

"My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.  But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him’" (Lam. 3:20-24).