Still sick, still pissed.
Seamus has asked me for my opinions on the Terry Schiavo case. To be honest, I don’t know how I feel about the actual facts of the case. From what ChiliMac says, it sounds like her husband did all he could for many years and only decided to remove the tube after determining that Schiavo is irrevocably brain dead. Likewise, it sounds like he made that decision because Ms. Schiavo had stated her wish never to exist in persistent vegetative state. Whether these facts are true or not doesn’t really matter anymore. This case has become just another contest in which each side shucks and jives and spins to try and make a little political gain. If it weren’t, would Senate Republicans write a memo saying this is a great way to galvanize social conservatives for mid-term elections?
Do I think Tom Delay gives a flying fuck about Terry Shiavo? No. Do I think his tiny little reptilian brain understood what his robot mouth was saying when, on CNN yesterday, he said, “I’m only trying to pass this law because I want Terry to get her due process”? Hell no. Nobody understood what Tom Delay was saying because he was talking gibberish. Could Terry Schiavo have gotten any more process? Years in state court, state legislation, review by the Supreme Court? Sounds to me like Ms. Schiavo got plenty of process and the process concluded the same thing that her husband did many years ago, she’s a vegetable and she would not have wanted to live like this. The fact that a sizeable number of religious conservatives disagree with that conclusion does not merit federal intrusion.
But, as we all know, religious conservatives in America like to intrude. In fact, their entire world view has been built on the idea that the more intrusion the better, because increased intrusion equals increased control and it’s only by controlling people that they can make them do (or stop doing) what they want. If you ask me, you can expect this sort of thing to become more common unless the libertarian wing of the Republican party pulls its collective head out of its ass and wakes up to the fact that today’s conservative Republicans don’t like libertarians or what they stand for.
In any case, I was not at all surprised to find this story about the Kansas State AG a few short pages from the Shiavo story in Sunday’s post. It’s a great example of what happens on the state level when red-staters elect a paternalistic, over-bearing , busy-body bible-thumper. This man of “conviction” is busy conducting an anti-abortion witch hunt which, no doubt, makes his constituents shiver with glee.
So there you have it. State-level religious conservatives in at least one state are making a mockery of privacy laws, the right to choose, and civil liberties. Meanwhile, federal-level religious conservatives are doing basically the same. They toss around “the fundamental right to life” as an excuse while glibly overlooking, ignoring, or rejecting all those government policies that might make life for many living, breathing, conscious people a better, richer experience. What does that say to me? Nothing good, that’s what. But if 50 fucking million ignorant shitheads want to elect these people to run our country, so be it. Maybe their religious concerns are more important than economic concerns. But when they’re standing in the fucking soupline or hunting day and night for some low-paying post-manufacturing service job, I hope they get a whole lot of fucking sustenance out of the idea that “at least those goddamn liberals didn’t get to pull the plug on that Shiavo girl.” Eat that you fuckers.
Do I think Tom Delay gives a flying fuck about Terry Shiavo? No. Do I think his tiny little reptilian brain understood what his robot mouth was saying when, on CNN yesterday, he said, “I’m only trying to pass this law because I want Terry to get her due process”? Hell no. Nobody understood what Tom Delay was saying because he was talking gibberish. Could Terry Schiavo have gotten any more process? Years in state court, state legislation, review by the Supreme Court? Sounds to me like Ms. Schiavo got plenty of process and the process concluded the same thing that her husband did many years ago, she’s a vegetable and she would not have wanted to live like this. The fact that a sizeable number of religious conservatives disagree with that conclusion does not merit federal intrusion.
But, as we all know, religious conservatives in America like to intrude. In fact, their entire world view has been built on the idea that the more intrusion the better, because increased intrusion equals increased control and it’s only by controlling people that they can make them do (or stop doing) what they want. If you ask me, you can expect this sort of thing to become more common unless the libertarian wing of the Republican party pulls its collective head out of its ass and wakes up to the fact that today’s conservative Republicans don’t like libertarians or what they stand for.
In any case, I was not at all surprised to find this story about the Kansas State AG a few short pages from the Shiavo story in Sunday’s post. It’s a great example of what happens on the state level when red-staters elect a paternalistic, over-bearing , busy-body bible-thumper. This man of “conviction” is busy conducting an anti-abortion witch hunt which, no doubt, makes his constituents shiver with glee.
So there you have it. State-level religious conservatives in at least one state are making a mockery of privacy laws, the right to choose, and civil liberties. Meanwhile, federal-level religious conservatives are doing basically the same. They toss around “the fundamental right to life” as an excuse while glibly overlooking, ignoring, or rejecting all those government policies that might make life for many living, breathing, conscious people a better, richer experience. What does that say to me? Nothing good, that’s what. But if 50 fucking million ignorant shitheads want to elect these people to run our country, so be it. Maybe their religious concerns are more important than economic concerns. But when they’re standing in the fucking soupline or hunting day and night for some low-paying post-manufacturing service job, I hope they get a whole lot of fucking sustenance out of the idea that “at least those goddamn liberals didn’t get to pull the plug on that Shiavo girl.” Eat that you fuckers.
posted by Drogon Saurischian at 3/21/2005 04:10:00 PM
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