Experimenting with Shorties

OK, so since I barely ever have much time to do full-length blogging, I'm going to try something new. When I find something interesting online that I think other people should read, I'll just link to it, maybe with a partial quote. I'll still try to get longer ones in when I can.

So here are a couple from today:

• Shades of the NRA Culture Wars battle
• Does the "culture of life" extend to the victims of gun violence?

While I'm at it, I might as well write a little of my own. Just in case you didn't click on the links in my entry yesterday, I want to draw special attention to a couple of Hullabaloo's points that illustrate the repulsive hypocrisy of conservatives' actions with regard to Terri Schiavo. Remember the "medical liability reform" that Dubya hyped during the debates and is currently being pondered in Congress? When most people hear that, they think of "frivolous lawsuits" like the McDonald's coffee suit, and they say, yeah, that's ridiculous. People shouldn't be able to do that. And they're almost right. People shouldn't be able to sue others for their own shortcomings.

But "medical liability reform" has nothing to do with that. What "medical liability reform" really means is to limit the responsibility of doctors and hospitals and financial liability of insurance companies who really do screw up. It's a gift to the insurance industry, basically.

How does this relate to Terri Schiavo, you ask? Well, much of the money to pay for her hospice care for the last 15 years came from exactly the type of medical malpractice lawsuit Bush and pals are wish to "reform," which is fancy GOP code for "eliminate."

My other point of emphasis is related to that. One of the major problems with recent bankruptcy reform (gee, they sure do love "reform," don't they?) is that it will make it much more difficult for families that have been financially ruined by astronomical medical expenses to wipe the slate clean.

So if they had their way, Americans would be forced to keep every patient who hadn't written down their end-of-life wishes alive, at tremendous expense to their families, with no hope for relief from the resulting financial burden. Gotta love those compassionate conservatives.

Lazy Blogging on Schiavo

I apologize to the six or so people who read this blog for not keeping it current recently. Working two jobs and going to school leaves little time for worthwhile blogging. But there has been much to blog about recently, so I kind of feel guilty for falling behind.

The biggest recent thing, obviously, has been Terri Schiavo. The case was simply overblown sensational journalism until Congress and the president decided that the judicial system is worthless. Now it's a Constitutional crisis. I don't think I could do it full justice, so I'm just going to provide you with a couple of links.

The first is to Jon Carroll, an SF Chronicle columnist, who often writes exactly what I wish I could write. And he didn't let me down in Wednesday's column. It's so great that there's no point trying to say it again in my own words.

The other is a Hullaballoo's nice summary of the countless ways this political grandstanding makes Dubya, Delay, and co. look like completely despicable hypocrites.

This just in: The Supreme Court declined this morning to hear Schiavo's parents' case. They gave no explanation. And do you know why they gave no explanation? Because they feel that there's no need to give one, plain and simple. To them, and to the state and federal judges who have repeatedly rule in favor of Michael Schiavo, and to just about anyone else who is actually concerned with the rule of law and our Constitution (as opposed to hypocritical politics), it is plainly obvious that neither the legislative and executive branches of our government, nor Schiavo's parents have any legal ground to stand on.

Look, the right to die is a very complicated issue, and I feel for Terri Schiavo's parents. I can't imagine the pain of losing a child. But they and every other American should be very worried that two of the three branches of our government dont give a poop about liberty, and would happily trample the Constitution in order to please the religious right.

Debunking their argument in one paragraph

"Right-to-life" activists believe Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman rotting away in a Florida hospital, should remain hooked up to a feeding tube indefinitely. The Rev. Ed Martin says, "We believe life begins at conception and ends at natural death." But look closely at the second half of that quote. Life ends at natural death. What's natural about being hooked up to machines in hospitals that are only prolonging the inevitable? Without science, she'd have died 15 years ago. There, argument debunked.