Category: Current Affairs

Terri Schiavo’s execution is still on schedule for this Friday, March 18.  A "persistent-vegetative-state" survivor, whose attorney husband saved her life, has come forward to testify to the experience of starvation by tube removal:   

"Struck down in 1995 at the age of thirty-three by a rare double brainstem stroke, Kate [Adamson], then a mother of two young girls, was completely paralyzed; she was unable even to blink her eyes. Like Terri Shiavo, the medical staff treating her questioned the merit of continuing granting Kate the most basic human right of food and water.

[…]

"Frequently described by medical authorities as a humane way to die, Kate — now as vibrant and beautiful as before her stroke — testified before the crowd of Terri’s family and supporters that this form of legalized execution was ‘one of the most painful experiences you can imagine.’ Unable to respond or to indicate awareness, Kate Adamson asserts, ‘I was just like Terri … but I was alive! I could hear every word. They were saying "shall we just not treat her?" … I suffered excruciating misery in silence.’"

GET THE STORY.

(Nod to Bill Cork of Ut Unum Sint.)

Terri Schiavo’s execution is still on schedule for this Friday, March 18.  A "persistent-vegetative-state" survivor, whose attorney husband saved her life, has come forward to testify to the experience of starvation by tube removal:   

"Struck down in 1995 at the age of thirty-three by a rare double brainstem stroke, Kate [Adamson], then a mother of two young girls, was completely paralyzed; she was unable even to blink her eyes. Like Terri Shiavo, the medical staff treating her questioned the merit of continuing granting Kate the most basic human right of food and water.

[…]

"Frequently described by medical authorities as a humane way to die, Kate — now as vibrant and beautiful as before her stroke — testified before the crowd of Terri’s family and supporters that this form of legalized execution was ‘one of the most painful experiences you can imagine.’ Unable to respond or to indicate awareness, Kate Adamson asserts, ‘I was just like Terri … but I was alive! I could hear every word. They were saying "shall we just not treat her?" … I suffered excruciating misery in silence.’"

GET THE STORY.

(Nod to Bill Cork of Ut Unum Sint.)

Hillary is the likely Democratic nominee for 2008.

Condi is a plausible Republican who may run as well. She recently refused to rule out running.

GET THE STORY.

The trouble is that, as things presently stand, Condi will either not get the Republican nomination or, if she does get it, she will lose.

Why?

Because she describes hereself as "mildly pro-choice" (see the linked article).

Don’t get me wrong: I’d love to see Condi run if she were pro-life. I’d love for us to have a Commander-In-Chief who is Drop Dead Gorgeous (certainly compared to other women who are political officeholders!). Who doesn’t want that?

But being pro-life is more important than all of that–to me, and to millions of other pro-lifers.

If Condi doesn’t flip on the subject of abortion then, even with hard-evil Hillary as the opposing candidate, too many pro-lifers will simply stay home on election day rather than vote for someone who is "moderaly pro-choice."

Even Bush barely won the first time because social conservatives were dissatisfied with his long-ago DUI. That’s mild compared to being "moderately pro-choice."

Fortunately, Condi has time to be educated on the issue of abortion and, as she hasn’t spoken on it much nor built a pro-abort voting record, she has fewer ties to abortion than many other politicians.

Let’s pray for her.

Oh yeah, and if she’s pro-abort then she also needs to get educated on the need for originalists on the Supreme Court.

Let’s pray for that, too.

"I am a Catholic."

That’s what the Chinese characters in this post’s title are supposed to say (assuming your browser displays them), though I can’t vouch for them as I don’t (yet) read Mandarin logograms (though I do have a little familiarity with spoken Mandarin, as I occasionally use to the disadvantage of local Cantonese speakers–I haven’t yet studied Cantonese).

In any event, Donald Tsang (left) is reportedly a devout Catholic, so 我是天主教徒 is supposed to represent what he should be willing to say.

Also, Tsang is the logical person to take over the position of head man in Hong Kong, despite his religion. He already has a long history of service in government positions.

Let’s pray, if he is the best man for the job, he gets the chance to serve in the top slot as administrator of Hong Kong.

GET THE STORY.

Though there may be doubt on where some churchmen are on the Terri Shiavo issue, the head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has spoken.

GET THE STORY.

Excerpt from Cardinal Martino:

She will die a horrible and cruel death. She will not simply die; she will have death inflicted upon her over a number of terrible days even weeks . . . how is it that this woman, who has done nothing wrong, will suffer a fate which society would never tolerate in the case of a convicted murderer or anyone else convicted of the most horrendous crimes?

Harry Reid is the Senate Minority Leader. He is expected in the looming Senate filibuster fight over judicial nominees, to back the standard Democratic line that the filibuster should usable to blog judicial nominees, requiring not just the majority vote the Constitution would require of 50 senators, but an extra-Constitutional supermajority of 60 votes since that is the number needed for invoking cloture and ending a filibuster.

Enter Thomas Reed.

Thomas Reed was the House Majority Leader in 1889, and at that time the House of Representatives had what was known as a "silent filibuster" whereby members who were present would only be marked as present if they spoke up during roll call. As a result, if enough of them kept their yaps shut they could keep a quorum from being recorded and thus keep any business from being done.

Reed was enraged by this and regarded it as a tyranny of the minority who were using parliamentary tricks to thwart the will of the voters.

In a dramatic showdown (which featured cussing, shouting, the brandishing of a Bowie knife, representatives rushing the speaker’s chair, and a last minute outcome-changing arrival) Reed ENDED the silent filibuster and enshrined a new set of rules immortalizing his name. They’re called Reed’s Rules.

When the other party retook the House and chucked out Reed’s Rules, Reed did better than get mad: He got even.

The other party was humiliated into bringing back Reed’s Rules.

It remains to be seen whether, in this year’s looming filibuster fight, the Senate will move more toward Reed or Reid, but in the meantime

GET THE (SOCKDOLOGIZING) STORY!

(Cowboy hat tip to the reader who sent it!)

In THIS ARTICLE ON SEN. SPECTER’S HIJINKS AS HEAD OF THE SEN. JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, it is revealed that

Democrats are so antagonized by this option [ending filibusters of judicial nominees] that Sen. Robert C. Byrd, the 87-year-old dean of the Senate, compared it on the Senate floor last week to Hitler’s "enabling act" that seized power in Germany.

Robert Byrd LOSES! (See GODWIN’S LAW.)

Oh yeah, and the comparison is on its face preposterous.

THE ANSWER HE GIVES MAY SURPRISE YOU.

THE ANSWER HE GIVES MAY SURPRISE YOU.

¿Quién es más macho?

Hunter S. Thompson? o Juan Paulo II?

They both dealt with suffering in different ways.

HERE’S AN INTERESTING PIECE ON THAT.

(Cowboy hat tip to the reader who sent it.)