The War on Terri Part XV

A sad coda to the ongoing Terri Schiavo tragedy:

Hours after a judge ordered that Terri Schiavo wasn't to be removed from her hospice, a team of Florida law enforcement agents were en route to seize her and have her feeding tube reinserted - but they stopped short when local police told them they would enforce the judge's order, The Miami Herald has learned.

Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies at Hospice Woodside, that they were on the way to take her to a hospital to resume her feeding.

For a brief period, local police, who have officers around the hospice to keep protesters out, prepared for what sources called a showdown.

In the end, the state agents and the Department of Children and Families backed down, apparently concerned about confronting local police outside the hospice.

"We told them that unless they had the judge with them when they came, they were not going to get in," said a source with the local police.

There was a window of hope to save her:

The developments that set Thursday morning's events in motion began the previous afternoon, when the governor and DCF chief Lucy Hadi held an impromptu news conference to announce that they were considering sheltering Schiavo under the state's adult protection law. The department has been besieged, officials say, by thousands of calls alleging Schiavo is the victim of abuse or neglect.

Alerted by the Bush administration that Schiavo might be on her way to their facility, officials at Morton Plant Hospital went to court Wednesday, asking Florida Circuit Judge George Greer, who ordered the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube last week, what to do.

"It's an extraordinary situation," said Beth Hardy, a hospital spokeswoman. "I don't think any of us has seen anything like it. Ever."

Greer signed an order Wednesday afternoon forbidding the department from "taking possession of Theresa Marie Schiavo or removing her" from the hospice. He directed "each and every and singular Sheriff of the state of Florida" to enforce his order.

But Thursday, at 8:15 a.m., DCF lawyers appealed Greer's order to judges at the Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland.

That created the window of time to seize Schiavo. When DCF filed its appeal, it effectively froze the judge's Wednesday order. It took nearly three hours before the judge found out and canceled the automatic stay, shortly before 11 a.m.

Sadly, the despicable Judge Greer and Michael Schiavo's slimebag shyster once again successfully used the law as a hammer against this woman and those who would save her:

George Felos, the attorney for Schiavo's husband, Michael, said he doesn't think DCF officials knew of the window of opportunity they had created until well after they filed their appeal.

"Frankly, I don't believe when they filed their notice of appeal they realized that that gave them an automatic stay," Felos said. "When we filed our motion to vacate the automatic stay ... they realized they had a short window of opportunity and they wanted to extend that as long as they could.

"I believe that as soon as DCF knew they had an opportunity they were mobilizing to take advantage of it, without a doubt."

Somehow, I doubt Felos and Greer lose any more sleep at night over torturing this woman to death than Michael Schiavo does.

I admire Jeb Bush all the more for continuing to do everything in his power to help this woman and her parents---and only those things in his power.

His restraint belies the Left's manufactured indignation and conspiracy-mongering and compares quite favorably to the continuing outrages Judge Greer heaps on Terri Schiavo and her parents. He has become this century's Jack Kervorkian, and will no doubt be a great hero of the death-loving Left.

Bloglossary: Homo Erectus

homo erectus n.

1. a member of an extinct species of human being
2. extinct species of hominid which walked upright but had a small brain
3. disparaging shorthand for William Jefferson Blythe Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, particularly known for walking on three legs whenever his wife wasn't in view.

"Folks were treated to the rare sight of homo erectus in his natural habitat: an all-night policy session held at a Little Rock Hooters."

Bloglossary: Yourony

yourony n.

1. The condition of selective outrage marked by one accusing one's opponents of hypocrisy while simultaneously being guilty of equal or greater hypocrisy.

2. The condition of being blind to the irony of yourself pointing out an adversary's irony.

"The yourony of employing an ex-Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan to compare the party of slavery's dubious civil rights record to that of the party founded to free slaves was lost on the Democrats."

Bloglossary: Kurtz

kurtz tr. v.

1. To provide cover for one's superiors or ideological fellow-travelers through deliberately selective reporting in such a way as to offer a defense against ignoring damaging and inconvenient facts while maintaining that said facts are of minor importance compared to the motivations or foibles of those calling attention to them.

2. To pretend to be a media critic while embedding one's proboscis as deeply up the backside of mainstream media bigwigs as would be possible without being biologically characterized as a symbiote.

"[T]he Post has Kurtzed Eason's Fables into the appearance of a witch hunt...." (Captain's Quarters)

Bloglossary: Hair Helmet Hamas

Hair Helmet Hamas n.

1. A derogatory term used to refer to on-air mainstream media personalities, instantly recognizable by the enormous quantities of shellack forming their coifs into protective headgear of sufficient quality to comply with all motorcycle helmet laws currently on the books

2. Any member of the mainstream media known for particular stridency in pursuing left-wing political causes.

"Katie Couric joined the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade of the Hair Helmet Hamas this morning judging by her palpable glee at getting to spend another 7 minutes as Hillary Rodham Clinton's propaganda minister."

The Kurtzing of America

Kurtz kurtzes again.

This guy is such an enormous weasel I can't even keep the bile down long enough to Fisk his latest attempt to ingratiate himself to the suits writing his paycheck.

Resources for Gifted Children and Parents of Same

We recently posted on the tragic story of child prodigy Brandenn E. Brenner, who graduated college at 10 and committed suicide recently at age 14.

Brandenn's suicide is unfortunately not a rare occurrence among gifted children. It is difficult for those who have not experienced firsthand the unique alienation of the gifted child to understand how someone so uniquely accomplished, so precocious, with such a bright future ahead of them could sink to such depths of despair.

Author Pearl Buck produced the best description I've seen yet of what life is like for these kids:

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:
A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive.
To him...


a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god, and
failure is death.


Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create--so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.

Marie Friedel founded the National Foundation for Gifted and Creative Children over thirty years ago in order to help gifted children and their parents deal with the unique challenges posed by extremely high intelligence. She is nothing short of a crusader on behalf of gifted kids, who are often the victims of surprising disdain and neglect in this country's educational system.

Friedel has been waging an intensive campaign against Ritalin and other behavior-modifying drugs dispensed to schoolchildren almost indiscriminately these days. She is also a staunch advocate of homeschooling.

If you've got a child you suspect might be gifted, be sure to visit the NFGCC website, download their information package, and check out their message board and parents' e-mail directory. You're not alone and these fine folks can help you ensure your child does not get lobotomized by our badly-broken public education system.

13 Things Scientists Can't Explain

Keep this in mind the next time a John Derbyshire sneers at "the God of the gaps":

Science can explain far less than scientists claim it can.

I fail to see how faith in "science of the gaps" is in any way superior to "God of the gaps" as a basic operating philosophy.

(Hat tip: Wizbang!)

No Marquis of Queensbury Rules of Punditry, Thank You

Christopher Orlet is a bit sick of the feminist whining about op-eds:

Prof. Tannen's main objection is the way men focus on "opposing ideas and fight over them." Rather than opposing the idea of fascism or Stalinism we should adopt Chinese philosophy, she writes, and explore relations among, say, fascism and liberal democracy. But maybe the Chinese should learn Chinese Philosophy first. Maybe then they won't grind protesters into the pavement with their not-so-nice little tanks. Adopting Prof. Tannen's advice would make for some duller-than-usual presidential debates between 2008 White House contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton and Condoleezza Rice. Rather than arguing issues they might sip tea and "explore relations," "integrate ideas" and enlighten one another. All I can say is you'd better not have Ann Coulter moderate the event.

I have a feeling Susan Estrich, Mo Dowd et al would take no issue with the current state of punditry if their side were winning.

The War on Terri Part XIV

Good Friday, and if Terri Schiavo is conscious to any degree, she may rightly wonder why we have forsaken her.

Susan Konig wonders how her parents must feel:

I've been married to my husband for 14 years and I trust him implicitly. I trust him with the lives of our children. We named each other as the responsible parties in our wills. We filled out those living wills less than two years ago at the suggestion of our lawyer but I can't remember what I said. Probably that I would want them to hook me up to as many machines as they could find while they tried to figure out what was wrong with me. If I become that ill, I figure the Lord will take me if He wants me. In any case, the wills are in the filing cabinet if push comes to shove.

So here I am with a written directive and I honestly can't remember specifically what I directed or what my husband's wishes are. If Terri Schiavo, as her husband claims, said she wouldn't want to live that way, I wonder how sure he is. She was in her early twenties at the time of her collapse. If she had written it down, we would have to respect her wishes. And yet, would they have specified something beyond life support, which she was not on, beyond a comatose state, which she was not in?

And if this man had been by her bedside true to his marriage vows for all these years, I might cut him some more slack — but he has moved on and should have been disqualified as her legal guardian years ago because of the flagrant conflict of interest of living with another woman who has fathered his children.

Her parents on the other hand, have no such barriers to their interest in their daughter's well being. And they have not been visiting an unconscious person all these years. They have interacted with the disabled person their daughter has become. Being able to touch her, to nurture her, and to get a smile or a sound from her seems to have been enough for the woman and her mom and dad.

Your child is always your child. And the thing that a parent can do for a child as long as they live is to always be able to tell them, "I'm here."

Lawrence Henry wants to know who's responsible:

IS THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE THE "IT" MOMENT OF NATIONAL POLITICS? Will this be the point at which country's consciousness turns, as it turned on the flights of two helicopters, one from Saigon, one from Washington, D.C., in the early 1970s? Or on the landslide brass-off the voters delivered to the political establishment decades ago in California?

It will depend on how the question gets answered, "Who killed Terri Schiavo?" Because, by the time this column appears, Terri Schiavo will have gone more than 150 hours with her feeding tube disconnected. She cannot last long.

So far, Democrats have acted as though they were most afraid the answer was going to be, "Democrats Killed Terri Schiavo." A little elementary political legerdemain could have made that one impossible. The Democratic leadership could have simply backed the bill to save Terri's life. That's what it was, after all, nothing more complicated than that.

The Democrats, stuck in Bolshevik oppositionism, couldn't do it. As a result, they still may get blamed.

Ideally, a conservative political movement would like to make the answer, "The Courts Killed Terri Schiavo." Several things argue in favor of that one. Notably, it's true. Most recently, the three-judge appeals court's panel's refusal to reconnect Terri's feeding tube should be seen for what it is: Slow-walking the case, and Terri, to death. That decision, now reaffirmed by the full Eleventh Circuit, shows the judiciary at its most remote, arrogant, and imperial, deliberately ignoring the will of Congress for a "de novo" review of the case.

The judiciary could have dodged that one, too, and simply made the case disappear. Some lower court judge long ago should have seen this case on its human merits and found a reason to set aside husband Michael Schiavo's petition. But judges, a score of them so far, have proved just as ossified as Democrats.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, the last resort, could pull some Solomon-like stroke from beneath his robes. If he doesn't somehow get Terri's feeding tube re-attached, and soon, he risks arousing a public answer like, "Anthony Kennedy Killed Terri Schiavo" or "The Supreme Court Killed Terri Schiavo."

John Tabin wonders if Terri Schiavo is in pain.

Denis Boyles thinks the Europeans view this situation through an anti-religious lens.

Andrew McCarthy calls a spade a spade:

Put another way, if PVS were considered a crime Terri had been indicted for, rather than a condition she is afflicted by, the record in this case would have been laughed out of court five minutes after an appellate tribunal started looking at it. Not because the proof was inadequate, although it surely was. Simply because the wrong standard was used. If a Florida court tried to deprive a person of life based on facts establishing capital murder that had been proved only by clear and convincing evidence, the editorial pages would be teeming with condemnation. Both the ACLU and the death-penalty bar would be lined up for miles outside the Supreme Court in anger over a due-process outrage. And they'd be right.

In the United States, we require proof beyond a reasonable doubt on all facts necessary to the judgment before someone is killed by the machinery of the justice system. Nothing less will do.

And I wonder why we are complicit in this wrongful death, as we were in the death of Another on this day so long ago.

Yeah, That Ought To Fix U.S. Elections...So To Speak

From today's Inside Politics (no permalink):

Carter and Baker
Former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III announced yesterday that they will co-chair a Commission on Federal Election Reform to examine the state of America's federal elections and recommend improvements.
Mr. Carter and Mr. Baker have assembled a private, bipartisan commission whose membership includes former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, former House Minority Leader Bob Michel, former U.S. Reps. Lee H. Hamilton and Susan Molinari, university presidents, scholars and community leaders.
The Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University will organize the work of the commission, in association with the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, the Carter Center and electionline.org, a national clearinghouse of election reform information sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

So the Democrats are represented by the most liberal U.S. President ever, the most partisan Senate Majority leader ever (ACU Lifetime Rating: 13), solid Lefty Lee Hamilton (1993 ACU rating: 29), plus reliably leftwing "university presidents, scholara, and community leaders."

Meanwhile, the GOP fields Jim Baker, perpetual loser Bob Michel (ACU lifetime rating: 84), and Susan Molinari (ACU lifetime rating: 72).

You'll excuse me for predicting that Carter and the other lefty ideologues have already won this one.

Why Am I Not Relieved By This?

The FBI claims the refinery explosion was not linked to terrorism:

We've found no evidence to support criminal or terrorist activity," Al Tribble, spokesman for the FBI office in Houston, told AFP.

The e-mails were apparently from "two specific Islamic groups", Tribble said. But he said he did not know the names of the groups.

BP said the cause of the blast was still being investigated, but has ruled out terrorism.

It said the explosion occurred when a unit of the refinery that adds octane to gasoline (petrol) was being brought back online after being shut down for routine maintenance.

A year ago the FBI warned Texas oil refineries of a potential terrorism threat in the wake of deadly train blasts in Madrid, which came two-and-a-half years after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

I don't know how one "rules out" terrorism if one doesn't know the cause of the explosion yet.

They Shoot Cowards, Don't They?

Jeremy Hinzman, ex-Army paratrooper and current deserter and traitor, discovers that not even the Canadians want cowards for countrymen:

He fled from Fort Bragg, N.C., in January 2004, weeks before his 82nd Airborne Division was due to go to Iraq. He had served three years in the Army, but had applied for conscientious objector status before his unit was sent to Afghanistan in 2002.

Hinzman argued before the board in December that he would have had to take part in war crimes if he went to Iraq, saying the war there is illegal. He said he would be persecuted if forced to return to the United States.

Hinzman also testified he had been willing to fulfill his full four-year obligation to the Army, but not to participate in combat.

"I find Mr. Hinzman's position to be inherently contradictory," Goodman said in the ruling. "Surely an intelligent young man like Mr. Hinzman, who believes the war in Iraq to be illegal, unjust and waged for economic reasons, would be unwilling to participate in any capacity, whether as combatant or noncombatant."

So this clown wants Army pay, Army benefits, and Army training---he just doesn't want to fight for America.

There's an old, old military saying which goes something like, "You take the King's coin, you enter the King's service."

One would hope Hinzman is provided a proper reception by a properly-constituted firing squad upon his return to the homeland he betrayed, but I somehow doubt we have the steel to execute deserters the way we execute, say, disabled women.

Top Ten Contender for "Worst Way to Die"

Ebola outbreak in Angola.

The War on Terri Part XIII

We wait for death.

Governor Jeb Bush is a very, very good man:

It's not often Gov. Jeb Bush is frustrated pursuing his goals. He was the first governor to start a statewide school voucher program. He got rid of civil service protections for tens of thousands of state workers. He pushed through billions of dollars in tax cuts. His goal of prolonging the life of Terri Schiavo is proving much harder.

"It is frustrating for people to think that I have power that I don't, and not be able to act," Bush told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I don't have embedded special powers. I wish I did in this particular case."

Bush canceled travel plans Thursday to monitor the case of Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman who has gone without food and water since a judge ordered her feeding tube removed March 18.

He was in constant contact with his legal office, ordered staffers to e-mail and call him with developments and demanded state laws be scoured for a way to reconnect Schiavo's feeding tube.

At his office, Bush waved an affidavit from neurologist William Cheshire that questions whether Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state. The emotion in his voice rose as he detailed how the affidavit stated Schiavo made a crying sound, grimaced and pressed her eyebrows together when a doctor said he was going to turn her over.

She "signals her anticipation of pain. Just like you would, or just like I would. Now is it perfect? Is she responding with the same eloquence that you would respond to? ... No. She's severely, profoundly disabled," Bush said.

If anyone doubted the essential goodness of the Bush family, these doubts should be laid to rest by the fact that the governor of Florida and the President of the United States personally intervened in their best efforts to save the life of a disabled woman. That's a civil rights record to be proud of.

Some Republicans are outraged by the notion that Congress, empowered by the Constitution to establish judicial jurisdictions, gave federal jurisdiction for this case. They wish to leave the party. Fine, goodbye.

The sad silliness of such people gives me pause. The GOP-led Congress extends federal jurisdiction (which is perfectly constitutional) one time, so now these people are going to vote Democrat, since the Democrats make evertything a federal issue all the time? Yup, the Republican party is truly going to suffer the loss of such masters of logic.

I think their loss will be more than offset by the gains in Americans who now see what compassionate conservatism is all about.

The Last Casualty of the Cold War

John J. Miller has a riveting piece on the death of Army Major Arthur D. Nicholson.

Next time somebody waxes nostalgic for the Soviets, remember this bloodcurdling account:

Unbeknownst to the tour, and despite its best efforts at observation, a sentry remained undetected, concealed in the adjacent woods. According to information obtained later, he had been walking near his post on the far side of the sheds as the tour approached. Hearing the vehicle, the Soviet soldier made his way through the flank of the range to a position about 50 meters behind the tour; SSG Schatz noticed him just before he opened fire. The Soviets claim that the sentry issued a challenge in two languages (Russian and German), fired a warning shot into the air, then shot to disable. This is simply not true. SSG Schatz, a native German, heard no challenge in any language. The sentry’s first shot whizzed narrowly over the heads of the tour; it was not a warning, but a miss. And one of the two remaining rounds struck MAJ Nicholson, by this time running back to the tour vehicle, near his center of mass: the upper abdomen. SSG Schatz shouted a warning as the first shot resounded — too late to help. He then slammed the hatch shut, started the car, and threw it into reverse to reach MAJ Nicholson. Hit by one of the shots, Nicholson groaned, fell, called to Schatz, and promptly lost consciousness. The tour NCO sprang from the vehicle to administer first aid, but the sentry refused to permit him to do so. Using sign language, SSG Schatz communicated his intent to the Soviet and took a step toward the fallen officer. The sentry, who had held Schatz at gunpoint the entire time, then shouldered his AK-47, took aim at Schatz’s head, and motioned him back to the vehicle. Seeing the futility of further action and the hopelessness of the situation, SSG Schatz complied. He secured and covered the tour equipment, check to be sure the doors were locked, and waited. Shock set in quickly. ...

Over the next three hours many Soviet officers and soldiers arrived to secure the area, collect data, and investigate the situation; considerable confusion reigned. Yet no one, including the obvious medical personnel, rendered even rudimentary first aid. Finally at 1605A (one hour, 5 minutes after the shooting) an unidentified individual in a blue jogging suit took MAJ Nicholson’s pulse, which had ceased. The protracted failure to provide or even permit any medical attention at all ensured that the wound proved fatal.

Girl Fight! Girl Fight!

Myrna Blyth pulls Susan Estrich's hair:

Estrich, best noted for her crackly voice, strident pitch and perpetual sneer whenever she appeared on Fox during the presidential campaign (her astute analysis usually went something like:“ Nah-nah-nah, Sean, you’ll get yours when you learn how smart my friend John Kerry is — - ” ) started it all, of course, with her vicious e-mail attack and her outraged and outrageous call for a jihad against the L.A. Times and its advertisers.

That was followed by some reporting by Editor and Publisher about the real paucity of female voices on editorial pages, a report that everyone picked up. Wrote Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post, “In the first two months of this year, about 19.5 percent of op-ed pieces at the California paper were by women, 16.9 percent at the New York Times and 10.4 percent at the Washington Post. Only a handful of female columnists — Maureen Dowd, Ellen Goodman, Molly Ivins — are nationally known.” Of course, Kurtz didn’t bother to mention what we all know — that three out of three of those nationally known columnists are liberals and two out of three had, during the past year, written Bush-bashing best-sellers.

Fight! Fight!

Victor Davis Hanson sticks a shiv in Ward Churchill.

National Review on Easter Movies

For those so inclined.

Freedom Is on the March Again

Not all of today's news is depressing:

President Askar Akayev's government collapsed Thursday after opposition protesters took over the presidential compound and government offices, throwing computers and air conditioners out of windows in a frenzy of anger over corruption and a disputed election.

The popular uprising in this impoverished Central Asian nation of 5 million forced Akayev to flee, was breathtaking in its speed and resulted in only a few dozen injured. The government was the third in a former Soviet republic - after Georgia and Ukraine - to be brought down by people power over the past year and a half.

The War on Terri Part XII

And so, without hope, we wait for Terri Schiavo to die.

Peggy Noonan has a powerful piece reflecting on the cult of death which seems to have sprung up on the American Left virtually overnight:

I do not understand the emotionalism of the pull-the-tube people. What is driving their engagement? Is it because they are compassionate, and their hearts bleed at the thought that Mrs. Schiavo suffers? But throughout this case no one has testified that she is in persistent pain, as those with terminal cancer are.
If they care so much about her pain, why are they unconcerned at the suffering caused her by the denial of food and water? And why do those who argue for Mrs. Schiavo's death employ language and imagery that is so violent and aggressive? The chairman of the Democratic National Committee calls Republicans "brain dead." Michael Schiavo, the husband, calls House Majority Leader Tom DeLay "a slithering snake."

Everyone who has written in defense of Mrs. Schiavo's right to live has received e-mail blasts full of attacks that appear to have been dictated by the unstable and typed by the unhinged. On Democratic Underground they crowed about having "kicked the sh-- out of the fascists." On Tuesday James Carville's face was swept with a sneer so convulsive you could see his gums as he damned the Republicans trying to help Mrs. Schiavo. It would have seemed demonic if he weren't a buffoon.

Why are they so committed to this woman's death?

They seem to have fallen half in love with death.

Pia de Solenni tries to correct the record:

The mainstream media continues to use such phrases as “life support,” “coma,” “dying,” and “persistent vegetative state.” Let’s get something clear: Terri was not on life support. She breathes on her own and her brain can still keep her organs functioning. Terri wasn’t dying any more than the rest of us until her feeding and hydration tube was pulled on Friday. At that point, she started to die, just like you and I would if we were denied food and water for an extended period of time. Even those who willingly fast generally take water. But Terri isn’t even allowed ice chips for her cracking lips. And no mention has been made of pain relief for the agony that accompanies death by dehydration and starvation.

Bill Bennett and Brian T. Kennedy want Jeb Bush to act to save Terri:

The "auxiliary precautions" of Florida government — in this case the Florida supreme court — have failed Terri Schiavo. It is time, therefore, for Governor Bush to execute the law and protect her rights, and, in turn, he should take responsibility for his actions. Using the state police powers, Governor Bush can order the feeding tube reinserted. His defense will be that he and a majority of the Florida legislature believe the Florida Constitution requires nothing less. Some will argue that Governor Bush will be violating the law. We think he will not be violating the law, but if he is judged to have done so, it will be in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr., who answered to a higher law than a judge's opinion. In so doing, King showed respect for the man-made law by willingly going to jail (on a Good Friday); Governor Bush may have to face impeachment because of his decision.

In taking these extraordinary steps to save an innocent life, Governor Bush should be judged not by the opinion of the Florida supreme court, a co-equal branch of the Florida government, but by the opinions of his political superiors, the people of Florida. If they disagree with their governor, they are indeed free to act through their elected representatives and impeach him. Or they can vindicate him if they think he is right. But he should not be cowed into inaction — he should not allow an innocent woman to be starved to death — because of an opinion of a court he believes to be wrong and unconstitutional.

Governor Jeb Bush may find it difficult to protect Terri's rights without risking impeachment. But in the great American experiment in republican government, much is demanded of those who are charged with protecting the rights of the people. Governor Bush pledged to uphold the Florida constitution as he understands it, not as it is understood by some Florida judges. He is the rightful representative of the people of Florida and he is the chief executive, in whom the power is vested to execute the law and protect the rights of citizens. He should use that power to protect Terri's natural right to live, and he should do so now.

George Neumayr channels H.L. Mencken in an acidly-written column:

Yet many Americans of searching conscience, many of them Democrats who have long supported the Special Olympics, are sincerely concerned about that vast number of disabled, who are aged, diseased, or irreversibly maimed. It is very well known in the medical schools and courts of this country that these disabled will not recover and can't pursue lives of discernible purpose as any fair-minded magistrate would determine it, and thus the country and most importantly themselves are happily delivered from the indignity of disability by starvation, dehyrdration, or injection.

If nothing else, this scheme would greatly lessen the number of papists and back-sliding Protestants in America, with whom we are yearly overrun, who pollute hospitals on purpose with a design to deliver America to a "culture of life." Many other advantages might be enumerated. For instance, the liberation of millions of dollars in Medicare fees with which to finance new Viagra payments for seniors not yet disabled.

The American Spectator advances the ball in the emerging ABC News memo scandal:

However, Republican leadership staffers now believe the document was generated out of the Democratic opposition research office set up recently by Sen. Harry Reid, and distributed to some Democratic Senate staffers claiming it was a GOP document, in the hope -- or more likely expectation -- that it would then be leaked by those Democrats to reporters. In fact, the New York Times stated that it was Democratic staffers who were distributing the "talking points" document.

"Democrats have tried to pin this document on Santorum's staff, on [Sen. Bill] Frist's staff, on [Sen. Sam] Brownback's staff," says a Senate leadership staffer. "Watching the investigation underway on line has energized us enough up here to want to at least confirm that we weren't the source, and everything we have found would confirm that Republicans didn't generate this memo. This is just amateurish, and perhaps Democratic staffers think we put out work product like this, but it's laughable."

The staffer added that while just about any House or Senate staffer with an email account could readily distribute a document, it was a huge stretch to believe that such a document would end up being widely distributed by or even to Senators in the cloakroom or in the well of the Senate. "This has all the telltale signs of a political dirty trick," says the staffer.

Other Republican staffers blame not only Democrats but also the mainstream media which once again put out a story to embarrass Republicans before checking all the facts first.

Hugh Hewitt dissects the 11th Circuit's decision and its implications:

So Congress passed a statute that was intended to force a new trial on the merits of Terri's parents' concern that their daughter's wishes were not being honored. The president signed it. DeLay summarized the intent of Congress in his Sunday press conference: "We are confident this compromise will restore nutrition and hydration to Mrs. Schiavo as long as that appeal endures. . . . Obviously, the judge will have to put the feeding tube back in or she could die before the case is heard."

So much for "obviously." The District Court ruled that because there was no substantial likelihood that Terri's parents would prevail in the hearing not yet held, he would not order hydration and nutrition resumed. Two of three judges on appeal agreed, and so, at this writing Terri Schiavo remains without food and water--despite Congressional direction to the contrary.

Meanwhile, Holy Week drags on, the most depressing final week of Lent I can recall since my father's funeral two years ago.

Forgive us, Lord, for we know not what we do.

Oops, She Did It Again

Britney Spears is pregnant.

And so Darwin is proved mistaken once again.

Robert Blake Case DA to Jury: You're Stupid

Heh heh heh:

District Attorney Steve Cooley said the jurors who acquitted actor Robert Blake of murder are “incredibly stupid.”

The county’s top prosecutor also was blunt about his opinions of Blake.

“Quite frankly, based on my review of the evidence, he is as guilty as sin. He is a miserable human being,” Cooley said Wednesday, noting that prosecutors presented a strong case.

One juror said Cooley is upset simply because he lost a big case.

“To hear him say we aren’t a smart jury is sour grapes,” said Chuck Safko. “They didn’t have a good case. Their case was built around witnesses who weren’t truthful.”

(HT: Drudge)

The War on Terri Part XI: The Supreme Decision

As we're probably all aware by now, the Supreme Court has unanimously -- unanimously -- agreed not to grant a new review of Terri's case. They have also unanimously denied her parent's request to order reinsertion of her feeding tube.

All the issues surrounding Terri have been hashed and rehashed. And I think it's crystal clear where we at MoltenThought stand on this issue. Right now, what I send to Terri, her family, and her supporters are my prayers for comfort, peace, healing, and rest. And for justice to be done. If it's too late for Terri, I at least can fight for other helpless ones who have no rights. The ones I stand for also cannot feed themselves, cannot live without their mothers' love, and are also defenseless against the American courts.

So on this Maundy Thursday of Holy Week, as I turn my attention to the suffering and death of another Martyr, I hope Terri and her family can feel my prayers and the prayers of others who stand for the same justice. I mourn with them, not only for Terri's almost certain fate, but for the America that did not save her.

When the Law Is Wrong

Wittenberg Gate has an excellent take on the Schiavo case, and what it means when the law runs perpendicular to what is right and just.

We are a nation of laws, it is often said. This is manifestly untrue.

We are a nation of men, a nation of human beings bound together by culture, by history, by accident, and by will.

We have hundreds of thousands of laws on the books, two-and-a-half centuries' worth of inscrutable scribbling by lettered parasites who presume to be statesmen.

It has gotten to the point where you and I unknowingly violate several of these innumerable, insufferable little demands a day, mostly without any consequence at all. The nation moves on.

Are each of these laws to be accorded the respect of the Decalogue?

No.

Were the legislators who crafted each of these laws infallible?

No.

Are the judges who weigh each law against each alleged violation of it possessed invariably of Solomonic wisdom?

No.

What recourse have we when corrupt judges and corrupt lawmakers conspire against their sacred obligation to their countrymen?

Read Wittenberg Gate and the implications should become crystal clear.

Did ABC News and the Democrats Use the Schiavo Case to Score Cheap Political Points?

Powerline discovers that the "GOP memo" which caused such outrage by claiming to politicize Terri Schiavo's situation may not have originated with the GOP at all.

Wonder who'll get fired at ABC. Unfortunately, I don't think it will be Peter Jennings.

The War on Terri Part X

The Holy Week agony of Terri Schiavo continues apace. She has had no food or water since Friday.

Since the 11th Circuit elected to ignore the clear intent of the law passed by America's elected legislators in Congress, the Schindlers now have no recourse but the Supreme Court. If four justices elect to hear the case, Terri Schiavo may be spared death for at least a little while longer. If they do not, she will surely die sometime over the next several days.

President Bush thinks she ought to live:

"I believe that in a case such as this, the legislative branch, the executive branch, ought to err on the side of life, which we have," Bush said. "Now we'll watch the courts make their decisions."

While not saying what remaining options there might be, Bush said that he had "looked at all options prior to taking the action we took last weekend in concert with Congress."

How many ways can I thank God that this man is president, and not the grubby little men he vanquished at the polls?

People who deem themselves his intellectual superiors tie themselves in knots over the alleged thorniness of this issue, yet he cuts right to the heart of it: err on the side of life, not death. That's what Americans do.

Americans do not handcuff children trying to bring water to a dying woman.

If He'd Only Taken the Pepsi Challenge Instead

Left Coast GOP operative R. Gregory Stevens died of a drug overdose at Carrie Fisher's house brought on by a mixture of cocaine and oxycontin, according to his autopsy report:

Miss Fisher found Mr. Stevens' body in a guest room the following morning. But on the previous night, the actress said when news of the death broke, Mr. Stevens "was in good shape."
"Tons and tons of people saw him. He was Greg," she said.
"People want to find a scandal in it, but there is none. I don't get it. Nobody does," Miss Fisher said.

Umm, dying of a drug overdose at some B-list celebrity's house is a mite scandalous, Carrie.

The real scandal may be a recovering drug addict like yourself allowing someone who was coked up to stay at your place.

Will Hollywood never grow up?

Genius: The Hothouse Flower

I've been meaning to comment on this story for a couple of days:

A musical prodigy who completed high school at age 10 apparently killed himself at 14, authorities said.

Brandenn E. Bremmer, who taught himself how to read at 18 months and began playing the piano at 3, was found dead Tuesday at his home in southwest Nebraska with a gunshot wound to the head, sheriff's officials said.

Patricia Bremmer said her son showed no signs of depression, had just finished the art for the cover of a second CD of his music, and had plans for Wednesday. She did not disclose details of how he was found.

"We're rationalizing now," she said. "He had this excessive need to help people and teach people. ... He was so connected with the spiritual world, we felt he could hear people's needs and desires and their cries. We just felt like something touched him that day and he knew he had to leave" so his organs could be donated.

When something like this happens, there are a lot of recriminations bandied about. Why was the child allowed to go to college so young? Didn't the parents know what an alienating influence such a leap would be? Did they drive him to it with unrealistic expectations?

Such ruminations are worthless and wrong.

I was not so blessed with intellect as this boy was, but when I was a child, I was considered to be "gifted". As with Greek myth, that often translated to "cursed". Gifted children are fundamentally different than other kids. They are high achievers, eager learners, and extraordinarily dependent upon the approval of adults.

The worst thing you could do to someone like Brandenn would be to stifle his intellect---sitting in a classroom full of kids trying to comprehend something you mastered long before getting there is the very definition of hell for a gifted child. Not only do they have to deal with boredom in this situation, but since the natural tendency of the teacher is to stop calling upon them after awhile, they get no novel interaction at all out of the time spent listening to the lesson drone on. Moreover, if they act out to break the spell of boredom, they are typically treated with hostility by their teachers for doing so.

Of course, letting these children plot their own course has its consequences as well. When young, their cognitive skills simply make them more advanced than kids their age---it's easy enough to let them sit in on classes with older and older students. The problem is, of course, that while they may be incredibly advanced in areas which hold their interest, they're still children in other areas, particularly in their social skills and emotional development. A 7-year-old sitting in Calculus class with 16-year-olds is far more prone to emotional outbursts than their classmates. Moreover, the very fact that these children are so advanced in some ways contributes to the view that they're social misfits.

The U.S. educational system bends over backwards to accommodate kids at the nether regions of the intellectual bell curve, even famously slowing down average students in an effort to "mainstream" the slower kids and preserve their self-esteem. For the gifted child, there is no such accommodation, and much resentment. Why can't they just stay in the box like the other kids?

Eventually these kids come to realize that adults lack the answers they seek. It's like exploring a forest for years, investigating every nook and cranny, ranging far and wide, only to come to the edge of the forest and realize that you're very far from home and on the borders of an alien landscape. There is no refuge for you, no one who can truly understand you, no one with whom to share your obsessions. You are alone.

I don't presume to know the specifics of what caused Brendenn to tragically take his own life.

But I believe I understand the generalities, if only vaguely.

Dan Rather: Stenographer?

Why, I bet right now Dan Rather's feeling about as nervous as a polecat at a police dog convention:

In Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant, author Humberto Fontova reveals for the first time how Dan Rather's "60 Minutes" interview with Juan Miguel (Elian Gonzalez's father) was stage-managed by former Clinton lawyer and friend, Gregory Craig.

According to a Cuban-American translator from the U.S. Treasury Department: "The questions for Juan Miguel were actually fed to Dan Rather by Gregory Craig. After a taping session, Craig would call Dan over, give him some more instructions and exchange papers with him. Then Dan would come back on the set and ask those."

Of course, the questions were fake, but accurate.

The War on Terri Part IX

It has been now more than 100 hours since Terri Schiavo last had food or water.

The 11th Circuit appelate court says, in effect, "Good riddance", essentially asserting in the majority opinion that unless Congress wrote legislation saying "The 11th Circuit shall reinsert Theresa Marie Schiavo's feeding tube into the appropriate location themselves immediately, meaning right this instant---now" the intent of Congress is unclear. As a result, the feeding tube will not be reinserted. This woman's agony will continue.

If ever you wondered why seating President Bush's judicial appointments is so crucial, the cowardly judges who have once again pretended their hands are bound in this case whereas they discover all sorts of nifty new things they're allowed to do in others should settle the matter.

Powerline raises some interesting questions about the alleged GOP "talking points memo" the Democrats and Left have attempted to use to discredit Republican efforts to save Mrs. Schiavo.

Andrew McCarthy notes that the slow, agonizing nature of her death is designed not to ease Terri Schiavo's suffering, but to salve the consciences of the people ordering her death. I don't believe they have much conscience to begin with, and would likely have gone the much quicker route of bludgeoning her with a lead pipe if they could have done so without engendering outrage.

Thank God Pope John Paul II Isn't A Florida Resident

...and that Michael Schiavo isn't his guardian:

Pope John Paul II is vomiting, suffering strong headaches and not responding well to his medications, an Italian news agency reported Tuesday, but the pontiff's chief doctor dismissed speculation the pope will be hospitalized again.

The Apcom news agency, quoting unnamed sources, also reported that John Paul was suffering from overall weakness as he recovered from surgery to ease a breathing crisis.

But the head of the pope's medical team, Dr. Rodolfo Proietti, ruled out media speculation that the pope's health had deteriorated suddenly and might require a return to the hospital he was discharged from 10 days ago.

Pope John Paul II is a great man. He is a friend of liberty, a courageous man who faced down the Soviet murderers who had enslaved his people for decades, and the world's foremost advocate for life.

I hope and pray that he recovers his strength, and that God will not call him home while he is so desperately needed still.

Anyone doubting this man's continuing relevance need only review The Vatican's pronouncement in the Terri Schiavo case.

I'm not a Catholic, but I thank God for this Pope nonetheless.

The War on Terri Part VIII

While judges dicker, Terri dies. Slowly.

The Hedgehog dissects Judge Whittemore and finds your typical liberal-in-a-robe.

Andrew McCarthy notes that Whittemore apparently can't read, either.

Rich Lowry counts the ways the federal-interventionist Left is tying itself in knots to root for Terri Schiavo's court-mandated murder.

Clinton Taylor points out that Americans have historically treated property better than our courts are treating this woman.

George Neumayr notes the barbarity of the Democrats:

So much of what the Democrats call progress is just paganism, not progress into a more civilized future but regression into the barbarism of the past in which the first people to be mistreated were the enfeebled. The Democrats' "right to die" is a euphemism for a duty to die. Like the pagans of old, the Democrats tell those deemed useless or inconvenient: Do everybody a favor and fall on your sword or float off on an iceberg.

What they call "compassion" is jaw-dropping crassness toward the most helpless humans. The self-described party of the "little guy" is his greatest enemy, aborting him at the beginning of life or dehydrating him to death at the end of life, all the while insisting that it is for his "own good." Think of all the phony rights the Democrats will devise at the drop of a hat, yet they won't lift a finger to protect the most obvious and real right, the right to life that belongs to man by virtue of his human nature (not by virtue of his "meaningful activity"), and without which all other rights lose meaning and occasion for government protection.

Jay D. Homnick finds reason for hope amidst all this despair and frustration:

But for once, finally, after fifty years of persistent reversals in the courts, we are starting to win. We are beginning to get the message that if we fight for life with all our hearts, the culture will turn, Main Street will return and the arrogating Courts will overturn. If we save Terri through this stirring advocacy by our activists and legislators, we will send a message across the nation and across the world: we choose Life.

I admit it, I am wearing my heart on my sleeve this time. And here in South Florida, the sleeves are short and the hearts are big. For once we are united in a cause that transcends the calculi of politics and economics and power and glory. Dammit, we are reaching out to this woman who could be our mother or sister or daughter and telling her, "Honey, you are safe here in the nation of the Mayflower and the Constitution and the White House and the Super Bowl. We are a nation founded in love of God and Mankind; as long as we are here, you will be beloved and protected."

We are not the Dutch, happily slaying our enfeebled and inconvenient countrymen.

We are not the Germans, who did so with great efficiency.

We are Americans, for whom life is precious, and the lives of our most vulnerable countrymen the most precious of all.

Christina Hoff Summers A No-Show for Harvard's "Burning Bed" Marathon on Lifetime

Perhaps she wasn't invited:

Think of these women: Nancy Hopkins, Natalie Angier, Megan Urry, and Virginia Valian. It is rare to meet such people in everyday life — but the academy is their natural habitat and there you find them in dismayingly large and indignant numbers. A few Harvard women have come to Summers's defense: the literary scholar, Ruth Wisse, the economist Claudia Goldin. But few women and even fewer men stand up to the hard-liners in the academy, who are ever eager to show that "men just don't get it." Some male faculty have openly supported Summers (most notably, Steven Pinker and Stephan Thernstrom) but it appears that most have run for cover, or joined the pack of Summers's tormenters.

The Harvard faculty is in very bad shape right now. Summers could be forced out and replaced by a right-thinking woman. The forces of resentment have the power to do that. But, what they do not have is the power to repeal the laws of nature. Mother Nature does not play by the rules of political correctness. And not even Harvard can flourish when intellectual freedom is forced to play by twisted feminist rules.

What I love about this is the fact that in a similar situation, men would shrug and get on with the job.

The fact that these women are outraged confirms Summers oh-so-controversial theory that men and women are different.

Perhaps they should spend more time with math books and a bit less with Cosmo, no?

The Cold Warrior Who Shivered

A useful corrective to those prone to hagiography when it comes to reluctant Cold Warrior George Kennan, inventor of the containment doctrine:

Kennan authored the Cold War doctrine of containment in his famous "X-Telegram" published in Foreign Affairs in 1946, but he was also the first major American public figure to disavow it. A severe critic of Stalin and the Soviet system, he became a resolute anti-anti-Communist. The original architect of the Marshall Plan, he opposed American entry into NATO. He condemned the Vietnam War, even though it flowed from the very foreign policy he had helped to set in motion. As the original Cold Warrior, he lived long enough to blast Reagan for calling the Soviet Union an evil empire, and to push for a nuclear-weapons ban. At the end, he was a bitter opponent of the Bush doctrine and the war in Iraq, even though members of that administration cited him as one of their inspirations.

Yet, looking closely at Kennan the man, there were no inconsistencies at all. Everything he did or said as a diplomat, historian, Sovietologist, and foreign-policy sage over eight decades arose from his belief that democracies are inherently weak and unstable; that the American people can't be trusted; that only an authoritarian elite can save the people from themselves, and that power is the only reality in a world devoid of principles or morality or hope. Although Kennan despised the Soviet system and its makers, and rightly warned Americans of their menace, he shared their bleak outlook more than anyone dares to admit.

Like the evacuation at Dunkirk famously derided by Churchill when he noted acidly, "Wars are not won by evacuations", the Cold War was not won by containment. It was won by Ronald Reagan's abandonment of the feckless policy Kennan and his "realist" buddies created and implemented.

One wonders what would have happened had Kennedy had the guts Reagan had, or LBJ, or Nixon, or Ford, or Carter. At any time the rotten foundation of the Soviet Union could have crumbled, once exposed to the light of day. Instead the State Department sought merely to slow the growth of the USSR, watching haplessly as it gobbled up nation after nation, then ruthlessly suppressed any people whose love of liberty could not be quashed without a Guards tank division or two in the public square.

Whittaker Chambers is considered a hero for joining what he considered to be the losing side in the Cold War, knowing full well his fate should his prognostications prove correct. What of George Kennan, who very nearly made Chambers cynicism our reality?

Like Neville Chamberlain, I won't mourn him, but I will pray for his soul.

Give 'Em Hell, Ari

Ari Fleischer, former Bush II press secretary, takes the media to task for its bias, prompting Brent Bozell to defend him thusly:

So let’s go back to what Fleischer was talking about – the national media. Take a look at the most influential national media sources in Nexis and see how often they employed the label "social liberal" in the campaign year of 2004 – the year when the socially liberal cause celebre of "gay marriage" took center stage. ABC? Zero. NBC? Zero. PBS’s "NewsHour"? Zero. NPR? One, but only if you count Carol Moseley-Braun calling herself a "social liberal." NPR reporters weren’t using it. CBS? One, but only when a reporter explained Republicans attempted to tar Kerry with the loathsome label.

Even the major daily newspapers on the left couldn’t bear to use the label in 2004. The Washington Post had only six usages, three in editorials, and three in news stories – and only one of the news stories identified "social liberals" as a fact, as a Kerry constituency. The other two were only GOP attempts to "paint" Democrats as social liberals. Similarly, the New York Times also managed just six usages – two in editorials, two in news stories about GOP accusations, and two admissions that social liberals walk the Earth.

One of the juiciest anecdotes in the book concerns ABC White House reporter Terry Moran, whose sharply opinionated questions make him look like he’s auditioning for the role of the next Helen Thomas. On April 28, 2003, President Bush made a speech to Arab-Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, proclaiming his confidence in the ability of the Iraqi people to create a new democracy and his commitment to helping build that vision. The crowd went wild in an emotional response. But ABC only gave the speech two sentences.

Fleischer asked Moran: Why so little coverage? "I couldn’t get it on the air," Moran tells him, adding: "If they had booed him, it would have led the news." That’s the national media we see too often. Arrogant, tendentious, partisan, unbalanced, unf