IT'S NOT JUST THE "RELIGIOUS RIGHT":
The Mainstream Media Apply the Broad Brush Once Again
Irrepressible St. Blog parishioner Mark Shea observes that the New York Times has already begun spinning the Terri Schindler-Schiavo case into yet another fictitious "religious right" vs. "the rest of us" sham.
Yet the following article, originally linked by Mr.Shea, was posted by a critic of the Let's Rush the Handicapped to the Grave movement who is, by all indications, neither religious nor much of a right-winger:
THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY?
Contra the Times and other mainstream media outlets, the battle for Terri's life is NOT about the "religious right" versus everyone else. It's about the Culture of Death versus everyone else.
Besides, with a few notable exceptions, the "religious right" ignored this case until only a few weeks ago.And even then, it seems, mostly to draw pontentially fund-raising media attention to themselves. Case in point: The discreditable Randall Terry --who has accomplished nothing for years except give the pro-life movement a black eye-- didn't show up at Terri's "hospice" until last week.
"Any questioning of the moral ideas that prevail ...is received with the utmost hostility.
To attempt such an enterprise is to disturb the peace"
--H. L. Mencken
Friday, October 24, 2003
WHAT A BIG SURPRISE ....NOT!
ACLU Joins Forces with Michael Schiavo
Today's South Florida Sun-Sentinal reports that,
"The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday that it will aid Michael Schiavo in his fight against Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislature, which earlier this week took the remarkable step of passing a law to prevent the Pinellas County man from disconnecting his brain-injured wife from a feeding tube.
"For months, the ACLU resisted meddling in the dispute that has pitted a husband against his in-laws, believing that the courts were following the long-held legal right of an individual to refuse extraordinary medical measures, even if it hastens their death...."
So the ACLU also considers food and water are "extraordinary medical measures," and therefore favors execution via starvation and dehydration for innocent, helpless invalids. Of course, this is the very same ACLU which has adamantly opposed any and all forms of execution for convicted murders.
Go figure.
ACLU Joins Forces with Michael Schiavo
Today's South Florida Sun-Sentinal reports that,
"The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday that it will aid Michael Schiavo in his fight against Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislature, which earlier this week took the remarkable step of passing a law to prevent the Pinellas County man from disconnecting his brain-injured wife from a feeding tube.
"For months, the ACLU resisted meddling in the dispute that has pitted a husband against his in-laws, believing that the courts were following the long-held legal right of an individual to refuse extraordinary medical measures, even if it hastens their death...."
So the ACLU also considers food and water are "extraordinary medical measures," and therefore favors execution via starvation and dehydration for innocent, helpless invalids. Of course, this is the very same ACLU which has adamantly opposed any and all forms of execution for convicted murders.
Go figure.
Thursday, October 23, 2003
TERRI MEETS THE PRESS:
How the Mainstream Media Dropped All the Balls in the Florida "Right-to-Die" Case
H. L. Mencken once defined “truth” as “something somehow discreditable to someone somewhere.” And so it has seemed with the mainstream news outlets –e.g., CNN, PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, The Washington Post, the New York Times-- in their mostly one-sided and neglectful coverage of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo “right-to-die” case, especially in recent weeks.
For example,
The Late Great Comatose Vegetable Myth
Almost all major news outlets have consistently referred to Terri’s condition as either “comatose” or a “persistent vegetative state,” even after the release of secretly recorded videotapes of her (which can be viewed HERE), taken early this past year, which show her awake and responding to her parents, albeit in a subdued manner. One tape shows her tracking a balloon with her eyes and in apparent response to commands to do so. Another tape shows her smiling and looking up at her mother as her mother greets her.
Moreover, according to the Chicago Tribune, ”...[t]hree of [Terri] Schiavo's former nursing-home aides have filed affidavits that Schiavo was speaking rudimentary words and swallowing pudding and Jell-O in the mid-1990s.” (Courts to Choose Victor in Battle Over Woman's Life, October 12, 2003, Chicago Tribune)
A complete photocopy of the Affidavit about Terri’s condition pre-2000 by Nursing Assistant Carolyn Johnson can be read HERE. Nursing Assistant Heidi Law’s Affidavit can be read HERE. Regitered Nurse Carla Sauer Iyer's Affidavit can be read HERE.
Comatose? Vegetative? We don’t think so, and neither do the medical personnel who testified under oath to that effect on behalf of the Schindlers in their efforts to preserve her life, in addition to many neurologists and other experts who have viewed the videotapes since their release earlier this month. However, in almost all instances, the only medics interviewed by the press were those who testified for Michael Schiavo, many hired by his “right-to-die” activist lawyer George Felos, and many of whom just “happen” to be pro-euthanasia sycophants.
Follow the Money
Also left out of most mainstream media’s reports is the fact that, according to the Chicago Tribune, in 1992, Michael Schiavo filed a $20 million malpractice suit against his wife’s gynecologist, whom he deemed responsible for the heart attack which left her quadriplegic and severely brain-damaged. He argued that he needed such a large amount because he expected his wife to live a normal life span: ”…during a 1992 medical malpractice trial, Michael Schiavo did not bring up his wife's end-of-life wishes and pledged to use the money he was seeking for Terri Schiavo's care and rehabilitation.”
Mikey's Magical Mystery Memory Tour
But, notes the St. Petersburg Times in June 2001, once the court awarded only $2 million instead --$1.4 million for Terri’s care ($700K after legal and other expenses), which was placed in a trust fund, and $660K ($300K after legal and other expenses) for him in compensatory damages— Schiavo changed his tune: At that point, he “remembered” that Terri “told” him she made him “promise her” that he would not “let her live like that.” However, he could produce no living will to that effect, as required by Florida law. Nor could he produce any other concrete evidence of Terri’s “wishes.” Hmmmm. Maybe Felos used his telepathic powers on her.
Schiavo: A Credible Witness?
Moreover, the Tribune observes,
”[In 1998,] attorney Richard Pearse …issued a report to Judge Bruce Boyer, who then was handling the case. In the report, Pearse said Michael Schiavo was not a credible witness to his wife's end-of-life wishes because he waited several years before coming forward with the claim that she wanted to die. Pearse also noted that Michael Schiavo would benefit financially from her death and be able to move on with his life.”
Yet most of the major news media outlets neglected to bring up the original amount Schiavo sued for, much less the “reason” for that amount which he gave the court at the time. Nor have they pointed out the inconsistency, referred to by the Tribune, between Schiavo's 1992 pre-award testimony and what he has been telling the courts since winning his malpractice suit.
Uh, Who Paid for the Lawyers???
The mainstream media have also left out the fact that --as reported only in a couple of Florida newspapers between 1998 and 2001 (cf. the June 3, 2001 edition of the St. Petersburg Times)-- Schiavo, from 1994 to 2001, dipped into his wife’s $700K trust –earmarked only for her care— to pay for his legal fees in his attempts to get her feeding tube removed. Since 2001, the remaining $350K in Terri’s trust fund has been used for additional legal fees. As of October 12, 2003, of the $300K net of the award given to Schiavo, he has used zero for his legal fees. Again, said the Chicago Tribune earlier this month:
…After costs, Terri Schiavo's guardianship netted $700,000 and Michael Schiavo $300,000. Most of the $700,000 has been used for legal fees as Schiavo has pressed the case to fulfill what he says are his wife's wishes. According to Felos, Michael Schiavo has not used any of his own $300,000 for legal costs.
However, since the Tribune's October 12 was published, whenever interviewed on national radio and television --particularly CNN, MSNBC, and Sean Hannity's ABC Radio call-in program-- Felos consistently claimed that Schiavo has no more money left.
Paving the Way for Death
Except for the Chicago Tribune and some Florida newspapers, the news media seem also to have neglected to mention that, according to court records, from the time Terri’s health insurance and medicare coverage ceased to cover her care, Schiavo has consistently refused to release funds from her account to pay for any kind of rehabilitative therapy, such as therapy designed to help her swallow on her own and to better communicate with those around her. In addition, nursing home staffers Johnson and Law have testified (see links above) that Schiavo also ordered that no antibiotics be given to Terri for any infections she may develop.
In 2000, Schiavo also moved her from the nursing home she lived in since the early 1990s to a hospice with close ties to attorney Felos and the “right-to-die” movement. The hospice in question --Woodside House, run by the controversial Hospice of the Forida Suncoast-- is supposedly intended only for terminally ill patients expected to live for only a few months. Yet there was no indication at all that Terri's life was in danger either from illness or from her condition. Her life span --again by Schiavo's own admission during his 1992 malpractice suit-- was expected to be of normal length.
A Conflict of Interest
Another pertinent fact is a conflict of interest which the major news media have consistently neglected to mention, much less raise any scrutinizing questions about: According to local media (e.g., the St. Petersburg Times) as well as Schindler family members and friends, for the past seven years Michael Schiavo has been engaged to his live-in girlfriend, whom he met shortly after his 1993 malpractice award and with whom he has fathered two children. Obviously, Schiavo wasted no time finding another honey once his wife was in a nursing home and the money started rolling in.
The Culture of Death's Harry Potter Wannabe
Then there’s the matter of self-styled psychic and New Age mystic George Felos: NONE of the mainstream media have said so much as a syllable about Felos’ close, long-time, and well-documented ties to pro-death movements and groups, such as the pro-suicide Hemlock Society (now known as End-of-Life Choices), of which Felos was once a member. Nor have they mentioned anything at all about the Aleister Crowleyesque “thinking” and New Age beliefs which drive Felos’ pro-death ideology and law practice in the first place. Yet the very same media have wasted no time or space making much ado over the “religious right” beliefs and/or “anti-choice” affiliations of those who have been fighting for Terri’s right to live --up to an including the lawyers and politicians helping her parents.
Smoke or Swamp Gas?
In most instances in the real world, when the news media see even a wisp of smoke waft in –particularly from a conservative or Christian or pro-life direction-- they waste no time rooting out the fire behind it; or, should a fire fail to turn up, rubbing a couple of dry sticks together. Contrariwise, in their coverage of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo travesty, they seem to regard the massive cloud of smoke billowing in from Michael Schiavo’s camp as nothing more than a little Everglades swamp gas.
How the Mainstream Media Dropped All the Balls in the Florida "Right-to-Die" Case
H. L. Mencken once defined “truth” as “something somehow discreditable to someone somewhere.” And so it has seemed with the mainstream news outlets –e.g., CNN, PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, The Washington Post, the New York Times-- in their mostly one-sided and neglectful coverage of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo “right-to-die” case, especially in recent weeks.
For example,
The Late Great Comatose Vegetable Myth
Almost all major news outlets have consistently referred to Terri’s condition as either “comatose” or a “persistent vegetative state,” even after the release of secretly recorded videotapes of her (which can be viewed HERE), taken early this past year, which show her awake and responding to her parents, albeit in a subdued manner. One tape shows her tracking a balloon with her eyes and in apparent response to commands to do so. Another tape shows her smiling and looking up at her mother as her mother greets her.
Moreover, according to the Chicago Tribune, ”...[t]hree of [Terri] Schiavo's former nursing-home aides have filed affidavits that Schiavo was speaking rudimentary words and swallowing pudding and Jell-O in the mid-1990s.” (Courts to Choose Victor in Battle Over Woman's Life, October 12, 2003, Chicago Tribune)
A complete photocopy of the Affidavit about Terri’s condition pre-2000 by Nursing Assistant Carolyn Johnson can be read HERE. Nursing Assistant Heidi Law’s Affidavit can be read HERE. Regitered Nurse Carla Sauer Iyer's Affidavit can be read HERE.
Comatose? Vegetative? We don’t think so, and neither do the medical personnel who testified under oath to that effect on behalf of the Schindlers in their efforts to preserve her life, in addition to many neurologists and other experts who have viewed the videotapes since their release earlier this month. However, in almost all instances, the only medics interviewed by the press were those who testified for Michael Schiavo, many hired by his “right-to-die” activist lawyer George Felos, and many of whom just “happen” to be pro-euthanasia sycophants.
Follow the Money
Also left out of most mainstream media’s reports is the fact that, according to the Chicago Tribune, in 1992, Michael Schiavo filed a $20 million malpractice suit against his wife’s gynecologist, whom he deemed responsible for the heart attack which left her quadriplegic and severely brain-damaged. He argued that he needed such a large amount because he expected his wife to live a normal life span: ”…during a 1992 medical malpractice trial, Michael Schiavo did not bring up his wife's end-of-life wishes and pledged to use the money he was seeking for Terri Schiavo's care and rehabilitation.”
Mikey's Magical Mystery Memory Tour
But, notes the St. Petersburg Times in June 2001, once the court awarded only $2 million instead --$1.4 million for Terri’s care ($700K after legal and other expenses), which was placed in a trust fund, and $660K ($300K after legal and other expenses) for him in compensatory damages— Schiavo changed his tune: At that point, he “remembered” that Terri “told” him she made him “promise her” that he would not “let her live like that.” However, he could produce no living will to that effect, as required by Florida law. Nor could he produce any other concrete evidence of Terri’s “wishes.” Hmmmm. Maybe Felos used his telepathic powers on her.
Schiavo: A Credible Witness?
Moreover, the Tribune observes,
”[In 1998,] attorney Richard Pearse …issued a report to Judge Bruce Boyer, who then was handling the case. In the report, Pearse said Michael Schiavo was not a credible witness to his wife's end-of-life wishes because he waited several years before coming forward with the claim that she wanted to die. Pearse also noted that Michael Schiavo would benefit financially from her death and be able to move on with his life.”
Yet most of the major news media outlets neglected to bring up the original amount Schiavo sued for, much less the “reason” for that amount which he gave the court at the time. Nor have they pointed out the inconsistency, referred to by the Tribune, between Schiavo's 1992 pre-award testimony and what he has been telling the courts since winning his malpractice suit.
Uh, Who Paid for the Lawyers???
The mainstream media have also left out the fact that --as reported only in a couple of Florida newspapers between 1998 and 2001 (cf. the June 3, 2001 edition of the St. Petersburg Times)-- Schiavo, from 1994 to 2001, dipped into his wife’s $700K trust –earmarked only for her care— to pay for his legal fees in his attempts to get her feeding tube removed. Since 2001, the remaining $350K in Terri’s trust fund has been used for additional legal fees. As of October 12, 2003, of the $300K net of the award given to Schiavo, he has used zero for his legal fees. Again, said the Chicago Tribune earlier this month:
…After costs, Terri Schiavo's guardianship netted $700,000 and Michael Schiavo $300,000. Most of the $700,000 has been used for legal fees as Schiavo has pressed the case to fulfill what he says are his wife's wishes. According to Felos, Michael Schiavo has not used any of his own $300,000 for legal costs.
However, since the Tribune's October 12 was published, whenever interviewed on national radio and television --particularly CNN, MSNBC, and Sean Hannity's ABC Radio call-in program-- Felos consistently claimed that Schiavo has no more money left.
Paving the Way for Death
Except for the Chicago Tribune and some Florida newspapers, the news media seem also to have neglected to mention that, according to court records, from the time Terri’s health insurance and medicare coverage ceased to cover her care, Schiavo has consistently refused to release funds from her account to pay for any kind of rehabilitative therapy, such as therapy designed to help her swallow on her own and to better communicate with those around her. In addition, nursing home staffers Johnson and Law have testified (see links above) that Schiavo also ordered that no antibiotics be given to Terri for any infections she may develop.
In 2000, Schiavo also moved her from the nursing home she lived in since the early 1990s to a hospice with close ties to attorney Felos and the “right-to-die” movement. The hospice in question --Woodside House, run by the controversial Hospice of the Forida Suncoast-- is supposedly intended only for terminally ill patients expected to live for only a few months. Yet there was no indication at all that Terri's life was in danger either from illness or from her condition. Her life span --again by Schiavo's own admission during his 1992 malpractice suit-- was expected to be of normal length.
A Conflict of Interest
Another pertinent fact is a conflict of interest which the major news media have consistently neglected to mention, much less raise any scrutinizing questions about: According to local media (e.g., the St. Petersburg Times) as well as Schindler family members and friends, for the past seven years Michael Schiavo has been engaged to his live-in girlfriend, whom he met shortly after his 1993 malpractice award and with whom he has fathered two children. Obviously, Schiavo wasted no time finding another honey once his wife was in a nursing home and the money started rolling in.
The Culture of Death's Harry Potter Wannabe
Then there’s the matter of self-styled psychic and New Age mystic George Felos: NONE of the mainstream media have said so much as a syllable about Felos’ close, long-time, and well-documented ties to pro-death movements and groups, such as the pro-suicide Hemlock Society (now known as End-of-Life Choices), of which Felos was once a member. Nor have they mentioned anything at all about the Aleister Crowleyesque “thinking” and New Age beliefs which drive Felos’ pro-death ideology and law practice in the first place. Yet the very same media have wasted no time or space making much ado over the “religious right” beliefs and/or “anti-choice” affiliations of those who have been fighting for Terri’s right to live --up to an including the lawyers and politicians helping her parents.
Smoke or Swamp Gas?
In most instances in the real world, when the news media see even a wisp of smoke waft in –particularly from a conservative or Christian or pro-life direction-- they waste no time rooting out the fire behind it; or, should a fire fail to turn up, rubbing a couple of dry sticks together. Contrariwise, in their coverage of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo travesty, they seem to regard the massive cloud of smoke billowing in from Michael Schiavo’s camp as nothing more than a little Everglades swamp gas.
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
TERRI'S FAMILY BANNED FROM HOSPITAL:
"No Visitors" Order Placed by Michael Schiavo
For more details on this apparently vindictive move, go to this report at the Fox News web site.
[UPDATE, 5:33 PM]: Fox News reports that Terri's family has finally received permission to see her.
"No Visitors" Order Placed by Michael Schiavo
For more details on this apparently vindictive move, go to this report at the Fox News web site.
[UPDATE, 5:33 PM]: Fox News reports that Terri's family has finally received permission to see her.
QUOTES FROM GEORGE FELOS’ BOOK:
“Right-to-Die” Lawyer Claims Psychic Powers
In his 2002 book, Litigation As Spiritual Practice (Blue Dolphin Publishing), Michael Schiavo's lawyer shows off his looney side:
Page 63 (Felos on his landmark Florida case, Estate of Browning):
"Such a deep, dark, silent blue. I stared as far into her eyes as I could, hoping to sense some glimmer of understanding, some hint of awareness. The deeper I dove, the darker became the blue, until the blue became the black of some bottomless lake. 'Mrs. Browning, do you want to die?...Do you want to die?' - I near shouted as I continued to peer into her pools of strikingly beautiful but incognizant blue. It felt so eerie."
Page 73 (On telepathically “hearing” a comatose patient “scream”):
"As I continued to stay beside Mrs. Browning at her nursing home bed, I felt my mind relax and my weight sink into the ground. I began to feel light-headed as I became more reposed. Although feeling like I could drift into sleep, I also experienced a sense of heightened awareness. As Mrs.
Browning lay motionless before my gaze, I suddenly heard a loud, deep moan and scream
and wondered if the nursing home personnel heard it....
“In the next moment, as this cry of pain and torment continued, I realized it was Mrs. Browning. I felt the mid-section of my body open and noticed a strange quality to the light in the room. I sensed her soul in agony. As she screamed I heard her say, in confusion, 'Why am I still here... why am I here?' My soul touched hers and in some way I communicated that she was still locked to her body. I promised I would do everything in my power to gain the release her soul cried for. with that the screaming immediately stopped. I felt like I was back in my head again."
Page 75 (Felos on his son telepathically communicating with him before he was conceived):
"Before our son was conceived, my then wife and I went through a long and arduous process trying to decide if we should have a child. Given that our marriage was never very stable, the familiar arguments against creating progeny seemed at times hard to overcome....One morning, while still generally engaged in that process, I walked into my office, and about half way to my desk was hammer-struck. While almost seeing stars like a comic book character, I heard the soul of my yet-to-be-conceived child emphatically shout: I'm ready to be born... will you stop this fooling around!'... The voice I heard was distinctly male, and I beamed with the idea I had a son - or was going to have a son - or sorta had a son out there - or something like that."
Page 216 (On telepathically communicating with the comatose Mrs. Browning the night of her death):
"As I always did, I looked into her eyes and shouted to her, hoping for some response or sign. After a minute or two I sat in the chair by the foot of her bed, closed my eyes, and started to meditate. Having 'soulspoken' with Mrs. Browning when we first met, I decided, with a measure of earnest self-inflation, to purposefully initiate such contact. I settled into my breath and noticed all the passing sounds move through my consciousness. As I deepened my relaxation, I reached out with my awareness to see if I could touch her soul-presence. From deep inside I repeated, 'Mrs. Browning, it's okay to leave your body. There is no reason to stay in this body. It is all right to die now.' A few minutes into my meditative encouragement, I was jarred by a high-pitched sarcastic cackle and the words, 'You're telling me to drop my body – and you can't even get out of your head.' Apparently, Mrs. Browning had a spirited sense of humor!"
Page 182 (Felos on his warning from God after almost causing a plane to crash via his psychic powers):
"…’Be careful what you think. You are more powerful than you realize'.....I was startled, humbled, and blessed by God's admonishment."
In our humble opinion, the above quotes speak for themselves regarding not only Mr. Felos’ credibility, but his sanity as well:
It used to be that if someone thought they were Napolean --or one of Santa's elves. or a space alien-- he or she would be locked up in the nearest looney bin lickety-split. But apparently in Florida it's just fine and dandy for an officer of the court to think he's Harry Potter.
If some born-again Christian attorney blathered such preposterous nonsense in public --much less publish it in a book for all the world to see-- he or she would have been laughed out of the legal community long ago.
And rightly so!
“Right-to-Die” Lawyer Claims Psychic Powers
In his 2002 book, Litigation As Spiritual Practice (Blue Dolphin Publishing), Michael Schiavo's lawyer shows off his looney side:
Page 63 (Felos on his landmark Florida case, Estate of Browning):
"Such a deep, dark, silent blue. I stared as far into her eyes as I could, hoping to sense some glimmer of understanding, some hint of awareness. The deeper I dove, the darker became the blue, until the blue became the black of some bottomless lake. 'Mrs. Browning, do you want to die?...Do you want to die?' - I near shouted as I continued to peer into her pools of strikingly beautiful but incognizant blue. It felt so eerie."
Page 73 (On telepathically “hearing” a comatose patient “scream”):
"As I continued to stay beside Mrs. Browning at her nursing home bed, I felt my mind relax and my weight sink into the ground. I began to feel light-headed as I became more reposed. Although feeling like I could drift into sleep, I also experienced a sense of heightened awareness. As Mrs.
Browning lay motionless before my gaze, I suddenly heard a loud, deep moan and scream
and wondered if the nursing home personnel heard it....
“In the next moment, as this cry of pain and torment continued, I realized it was Mrs. Browning. I felt the mid-section of my body open and noticed a strange quality to the light in the room. I sensed her soul in agony. As she screamed I heard her say, in confusion, 'Why am I still here... why am I here?' My soul touched hers and in some way I communicated that she was still locked to her body. I promised I would do everything in my power to gain the release her soul cried for. with that the screaming immediately stopped. I felt like I was back in my head again."
Page 75 (Felos on his son telepathically communicating with him before he was conceived):
"Before our son was conceived, my then wife and I went through a long and arduous process trying to decide if we should have a child. Given that our marriage was never very stable, the familiar arguments against creating progeny seemed at times hard to overcome....One morning, while still generally engaged in that process, I walked into my office, and about half way to my desk was hammer-struck. While almost seeing stars like a comic book character, I heard the soul of my yet-to-be-conceived child emphatically shout: I'm ready to be born... will you stop this fooling around!'... The voice I heard was distinctly male, and I beamed with the idea I had a son - or was going to have a son - or sorta had a son out there - or something like that."
Page 216 (On telepathically communicating with the comatose Mrs. Browning the night of her death):
"As I always did, I looked into her eyes and shouted to her, hoping for some response or sign. After a minute or two I sat in the chair by the foot of her bed, closed my eyes, and started to meditate. Having 'soulspoken' with Mrs. Browning when we first met, I decided, with a measure of earnest self-inflation, to purposefully initiate such contact. I settled into my breath and noticed all the passing sounds move through my consciousness. As I deepened my relaxation, I reached out with my awareness to see if I could touch her soul-presence. From deep inside I repeated, 'Mrs. Browning, it's okay to leave your body. There is no reason to stay in this body. It is all right to die now.' A few minutes into my meditative encouragement, I was jarred by a high-pitched sarcastic cackle and the words, 'You're telling me to drop my body – and you can't even get out of your head.' Apparently, Mrs. Browning had a spirited sense of humor!"
Page 182 (Felos on his warning from God after almost causing a plane to crash via his psychic powers):
"…’Be careful what you think. You are more powerful than you realize'.....I was startled, humbled, and blessed by God's admonishment."
In our humble opinion, the above quotes speak for themselves regarding not only Mr. Felos’ credibility, but his sanity as well:
It used to be that if someone thought they were Napolean --or one of Santa's elves. or a space alien-- he or she would be locked up in the nearest looney bin lickety-split. But apparently in Florida it's just fine and dandy for an officer of the court to think he's Harry Potter.
If some born-again Christian attorney blathered such preposterous nonsense in public --much less publish it in a book for all the world to see-- he or she would have been laughed out of the legal community long ago.
And rightly so!
CLUELESS GEORGE FELOS...
...just doesn't get it!
From the report on the AOL News page:
''It is simply inhumane and barbaric to interrupt her death process,'' Felos said. ''Just because Terri Schiavo is not conscious doesn't mean she doesn't have dignity."
WHAT "death process"???
Terri was NOT undergoing a death process until a death process was imposed upon her by her husband through the courts on October 15.
Before that time, she was not dying by any stretch of the imagination --except, it seems, Felos' own demented New Age-molded imagination (about which see our October 16 and 17 blogs below). What is really "inhumane and barbaric" was Felos' and Schiavo's attempt to impose death by starvation and dehydration upon her.
The fact is that Terri was not hooked up to any respiratory, kidney, or heart-replacement machines. She was merely being fed and hydrated mechanically. She was undergoing no extraordinary measures to stay alive, unless on defines getting food and water as an "extraordinary measure" --which Felos apparently does.
However, thanks to Messr.s Felos and Schiavo's attempt to kill her, Terri may end up requiring a kidney machine to stay alive. So much for Felos' crocodile tears over Terri's dignity.
If one follows Felos' "argument" to its frighteningly logical conclusion, one ought also to remove food and water --whether supplied mechanically or naturally-- from quadraplegics, AIDS patients, all comatose persons, and bed-ridden elderly persons --all of whom will eventually die anyway.
Affer all, according to Felos' thinking, to let them have food and water is to "interrupt their death processes."
...just doesn't get it!
From the report on the AOL News page:
''It is simply inhumane and barbaric to interrupt her death process,'' Felos said. ''Just because Terri Schiavo is not conscious doesn't mean she doesn't have dignity."
WHAT "death process"???
Terri was NOT undergoing a death process until a death process was imposed upon her by her husband through the courts on October 15.
Before that time, she was not dying by any stretch of the imagination --except, it seems, Felos' own demented New Age-molded imagination (about which see our October 16 and 17 blogs below). What is really "inhumane and barbaric" was Felos' and Schiavo's attempt to impose death by starvation and dehydration upon her.
The fact is that Terri was not hooked up to any respiratory, kidney, or heart-replacement machines. She was merely being fed and hydrated mechanically. She was undergoing no extraordinary measures to stay alive, unless on defines getting food and water as an "extraordinary measure" --which Felos apparently does.
However, thanks to Messr.s Felos and Schiavo's attempt to kill her, Terri may end up requiring a kidney machine to stay alive. So much for Felos' crocodile tears over Terri's dignity.
If one follows Felos' "argument" to its frighteningly logical conclusion, one ought also to remove food and water --whether supplied mechanically or naturally-- from quadraplegics, AIDS patients, all comatose persons, and bed-ridden elderly persons --all of whom will eventually die anyway.
Affer all, according to Felos' thinking, to let them have food and water is to "interrupt their death processes."
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
BREAKING NEWS: FLORIDA LAWMAKERS VOTE FOR TERRI:
Florida House Passes Bill Allowing Gov. Jeb Bush to Intercede
Read all about it in the Associated Press report Florida lawmakers jump into Schiavo case to let governor step in published in today's Gainesville Sun.
It seems the Florida House, in a 68 to 32 vote, decided that because Terri left no living will, the Governor has the right to intervene on behalf of family members who opposed her husband's decision to kill her.
However, the bill still has to pass the Florida Senate, which convenes this morning, before Gov. Bush can order Terri's feeding tube to be replaced. But even if this happens --and especially if Terri dies despite all efforts to save her life-- the matter will be far from closed: Envoy Magazine writer Pete Vere, reporting from the vigil at Terri's hospice, notes that
...we need an investigation of the possible abuse [Terri] may have suffered [13 years ago at the hands of husband]. Right now, [husband] Michael Schiavo has reportedly ordered that upon her death she be cremated without an autopsy. We cannot allow this to happen.
NEWS UPDATE, 10:13 pm: According to Fox News and ABC Radio News, Terri was transferred earlier this evening to a hospital in Clearwater in which she is now receiving hydration, to be followed by nutrition. In response, "husband" Micheal Schiavo has threatened to sue not only Gov. Jeb Bush, but also any medical personnel who comply with Bush's orders to treat her.
Florida House Passes Bill Allowing Gov. Jeb Bush to Intercede
Read all about it in the Associated Press report Florida lawmakers jump into Schiavo case to let governor step in published in today's Gainesville Sun.
It seems the Florida House, in a 68 to 32 vote, decided that because Terri left no living will, the Governor has the right to intervene on behalf of family members who opposed her husband's decision to kill her.
However, the bill still has to pass the Florida Senate, which convenes this morning, before Gov. Bush can order Terri's feeding tube to be replaced. But even if this happens --and especially if Terri dies despite all efforts to save her life-- the matter will be far from closed: Envoy Magazine writer Pete Vere, reporting from the vigil at Terri's hospice, notes that
...we need an investigation of the possible abuse [Terri] may have suffered [13 years ago at the hands of husband]. Right now, [husband] Michael Schiavo has reportedly ordered that upon her death she be cremated without an autopsy. We cannot allow this to happen.
NEWS UPDATE, 10:13 pm: According to Fox News and ABC Radio News, Terri was transferred earlier this evening to a hospital in Clearwater in which she is now receiving hydration, to be followed by nutrition. In response, "husband" Micheal Schiavo has threatened to sue not only Gov. Jeb Bush, but also any medical personnel who comply with Bush's orders to treat her.
Monday, October 20, 2003
FLORIDA AND THE NAZIS, 70 YEARS LATER:
Ominous Parallels to the Third Reich’s “Mercy Killing” Program
"...[T]he bioethics departments in most universities are akin to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. The doctors and "scientists" at the Institute gave scientific legitimacy to one of the most grisly, evil barbaric rampages in the history of mankind. That rampage is happening in America without the Gestapo and SS. We have the courts and our institutions willing to couch the horror in legalism and euphemisms." --Diane Alden (10/17/03; newsmax.com)
On October 8, 1933 --exactly 70 years and one week before a Florida court ordered the starvation death of Terri Schindler-Schiavo-- The New York Times published an Oct. 7 Associated Press wire service story on the then-new Nazi government's announced plans to deal with the infirmed.
Following is that report, in full, as it appeared in the Times (emphases added):
Nazi Plan to Kill Incurables to End Pain; German Religious Groups Oppose Move.
BERLIN, Oct. 7 --The Ministry of Justice in a detailed memorandum explaining the Nazi aims regarding the German penal code today announced its intention to ,b>authorize physicians to end the sufferings of incurable patients. The memorandum, still lacking the force of law, proposed that "it shall be made possible for physicians to end the tortures of incurable patients, upon request, in the interests of true humanity." This proposed legal recognition of euthanasia --the act of providing a painless and peaceful death --raised a number of fundamental problems of a religious, scientific and legal nature.
The Catholic newspaper Germania hastened to observe: "The Catholic faith binds the conscience of its followers not to accept this method of shortening the sufferings of incurables who are tormented by pain." In Lutheran circles, too, life is regarded as something that God alone can take. A large section of the German people, it was expected in some interested circles, might ignore the provisions for euthanasia, which overnight has become a widely-discussed word in the Reich.
In medical circles the question was raised as to just when a man is incurable and when his life should be ended. According to the present plans of the Ministry of Justice, incurability would be determined not only by the attending physician, but also by two official doctors who would carefully trace the history of the case and personally examine the patient.
In insisting that euthanasia shall be permissible only if the accredited attending physician is backed by two experts who so advise, the Ministry believes a guarantee is given that no life still valuable to the State will be wantonly destroyed.
The legal question of who may request the application of euthanasia has not been definitely solved. The Ministry merely has proposed that either the patient himself shall "expressly and earnestly" ask it, or "in case the patient no longer is able to express his desire, his nearer relatives, acting from motives that do not contravene morals so request."
Of course, the Nazi policy was implemented and “incurable patients” were routinely put to death or “allowed” to die (via starvation and withdrawal of medical treatment) as an act of Nazi “mercy,” "dignity," and “liberation” from suffering –the very same arguments presented by Terri’s “husband” Michael Schiavo and his “right-to-die” activist lawyer George Felos. (One suspects that Herr Felos' dehumanizing anthropology and anti-Christian New Age "spirituality" would've fit in quite nicely with the Third Reich.)
Eventually, and in very short order, the Nazis’ euthanasia policy was expanded to include all those deemed to have a “low quality of life” and therefore regarded as a burden on the Reich’s newly nationalized health care system: By 1939, the Nazi’s “mercy killing” program included “unproductive” elderly; the retarded; the mentally ill; the senile; epileptics; psychiatric patients; the handicapped, deaf, and blind; and those who were chronically ill for more than five years. Infants born with any of mental or physical disabilities who were unfortunate enough to be born in Reich hospitals were immediately removed from their mothers and killed.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Twenty-five years ago, popular Evangelical Christian writer and teacher Francis A. Schaeffer and nationally-known right-to-life pediatrician (and later US Surgeon General) C. Everett Koop, also an Evangelical, joined forces to oppose Roe v.Wade and abortion-on-demand knowing full well what the implications of that decision and its “right to privacy” fabrication would lead to. They also knew the history of the Nazi euthanasia program and didn’t want to see it repeated.
But when they openly predicted that precisely what is happening today in Florida would be the next thing to come down the Culture of Death pike, the secular media –and more than a few Christians—dismissed them as alarmists and crackpots.
As it turns out, they were prophets.
Ominous Parallels to the Third Reich’s “Mercy Killing” Program
"...[T]he bioethics departments in most universities are akin to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. The doctors and "scientists" at the Institute gave scientific legitimacy to one of the most grisly, evil barbaric rampages in the history of mankind. That rampage is happening in America without the Gestapo and SS. We have the courts and our institutions willing to couch the horror in legalism and euphemisms." --Diane Alden (10/17/03; newsmax.com)
On October 8, 1933 --exactly 70 years and one week before a Florida court ordered the starvation death of Terri Schindler-Schiavo-- The New York Times published an Oct. 7 Associated Press wire service story on the then-new Nazi government's announced plans to deal with the infirmed.
Following is that report, in full, as it appeared in the Times (emphases added):
Nazi Plan to Kill Incurables to End Pain; German Religious Groups Oppose Move.
BERLIN, Oct. 7 --The Ministry of Justice in a detailed memorandum explaining the Nazi aims regarding the German penal code today announced its intention to ,b>authorize physicians to end the sufferings of incurable patients. The memorandum, still lacking the force of law, proposed that "it shall be made possible for physicians to end the tortures of incurable patients, upon request, in the interests of true humanity." This proposed legal recognition of euthanasia --the act of providing a painless and peaceful death --raised a number of fundamental problems of a religious, scientific and legal nature.
The Catholic newspaper Germania hastened to observe: "The Catholic faith binds the conscience of its followers not to accept this method of shortening the sufferings of incurables who are tormented by pain." In Lutheran circles, too, life is regarded as something that God alone can take. A large section of the German people, it was expected in some interested circles, might ignore the provisions for euthanasia, which overnight has become a widely-discussed word in the Reich.
In medical circles the question was raised as to just when a man is incurable and when his life should be ended. According to the present plans of the Ministry of Justice, incurability would be determined not only by the attending physician, but also by two official doctors who would carefully trace the history of the case and personally examine the patient.
In insisting that euthanasia shall be permissible only if the accredited attending physician is backed by two experts who so advise, the Ministry believes a guarantee is given that no life still valuable to the State will be wantonly destroyed.
The legal question of who may request the application of euthanasia has not been definitely solved. The Ministry merely has proposed that either the patient himself shall "expressly and earnestly" ask it, or "in case the patient no longer is able to express his desire, his nearer relatives, acting from motives that do not contravene morals so request."
Of course, the Nazi policy was implemented and “incurable patients” were routinely put to death or “allowed” to die (via starvation and withdrawal of medical treatment) as an act of Nazi “mercy,” "dignity," and “liberation” from suffering –the very same arguments presented by Terri’s “husband” Michael Schiavo and his “right-to-die” activist lawyer George Felos. (One suspects that Herr Felos' dehumanizing anthropology and anti-Christian New Age "spirituality" would've fit in quite nicely with the Third Reich.)
Eventually, and in very short order, the Nazis’ euthanasia policy was expanded to include all those deemed to have a “low quality of life” and therefore regarded as a burden on the Reich’s newly nationalized health care system: By 1939, the Nazi’s “mercy killing” program included “unproductive” elderly; the retarded; the mentally ill; the senile; epileptics; psychiatric patients; the handicapped, deaf, and blind; and those who were chronically ill for more than five years. Infants born with any of mental or physical disabilities who were unfortunate enough to be born in Reich hospitals were immediately removed from their mothers and killed.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Twenty-five years ago, popular Evangelical Christian writer and teacher Francis A. Schaeffer and nationally-known right-to-life pediatrician (and later US Surgeon General) C. Everett Koop, also an Evangelical, joined forces to oppose Roe v.Wade and abortion-on-demand knowing full well what the implications of that decision and its “right to privacy” fabrication would lead to. They also knew the history of the Nazi euthanasia program and didn’t want to see it repeated.
But when they openly predicted that precisely what is happening today in Florida would be the next thing to come down the Culture of Death pike, the secular media –and more than a few Christians—dismissed them as alarmists and crackpots.
As it turns out, they were prophets.
THE "ROE V.WADE"OF THE EUTHANASIA MOVEMENT:
30 Years Later, "Right to Privacy" Is Used Once Again to Kill the Innocent
In her insightful article The Troubling Business of Fading Away, writer Cecilia H. Martin of the Catholic Advocate newsletter notes some striking similarities between the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which ushered in abortion-on-demand, and the Florida 2003 Schindler v.Schiavo decision:
...For Catholic pro-lifers, (in actuality no other type of Catholic is Catholic) Terri’s case is arguably the Roe vs Wade of the euthanasia movement. While Schindler vs Schiavo did not move to the U.S. Supreme Court, as it matriculates through the Florida courts it in being tried in the media, on the Internet and in the highly charged swirl of public opinion.
The fabricated notion that a "right to privacy" was found in the Constitution upon which abortion on demand was predicated, bears a striking resemblance to the hinge upon which Felos has hung his case, that Terri once told her husband she didn’t want to live sustained by artificial means.
Hearsay evidence of a 26-year-old woman, belatedly expressed, (only after a substantial malpractice monetary award) by a surrogate/guardian husband who denies his wife any rehabilitative measures, is now used as "privacy rights" to kill her. The talons of the death-culture that rake the baby from the womb now sever the disabled from their tenuous grasp on life in the name of privacy.
...St. Petersburg‘s citizenry were shocked to read in local papers that the alternative metal band, Hell on Earth, is planning an on-stage suicide of a terminally ill fan to take place on October 4th. The purpose is to "raise awareness for dying with dignity." The fan wishes to put an end to "back alley suicides."
Apparently, this is not a hoax; Fox news anchor Rita Cosby carried the story twice on national television. In Florida, it is a second-degree felony to assist a suicide. Lead singer, Billy Tourtelot, who is a strong supporter of physician-assisted suicide, claims he’s not "assisting." "This is about standing up for what you believe in...What I’m doing may be immoral, but it’s not illegal," says Billy. St. Petersburg’s State Theater as well as another club have denied the band a venue. Tourtelot, nevertheless insists the show will go on. The St. Petersburg police are on the alert.
Physician-assisted suicide is euthanasia. Euthanasia is illegal. Tell that to ["right-to-die" activist lawyer George] Felos who asserted on national TV, "We’re just carrying out Terri wishes," -by starving her to death.
How many elderly people with impatient relatives will become instantly vulnerable once Tourtelot and Felos’ macabre ideology becomes sacrosanct law?
30 Years Later, "Right to Privacy" Is Used Once Again to Kill the Innocent
In her insightful article The Troubling Business of Fading Away, writer Cecilia H. Martin of the Catholic Advocate newsletter notes some striking similarities between the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which ushered in abortion-on-demand, and the Florida 2003 Schindler v.Schiavo decision:
...For Catholic pro-lifers, (in actuality no other type of Catholic is Catholic) Terri’s case is arguably the Roe vs Wade of the euthanasia movement. While Schindler vs Schiavo did not move to the U.S. Supreme Court, as it matriculates through the Florida courts it in being tried in the media, on the Internet and in the highly charged swirl of public opinion.
The fabricated notion that a "right to privacy" was found in the Constitution upon which abortion on demand was predicated, bears a striking resemblance to the hinge upon which Felos has hung his case, that Terri once told her husband she didn’t want to live sustained by artificial means.
Hearsay evidence of a 26-year-old woman, belatedly expressed, (only after a substantial malpractice monetary award) by a surrogate/guardian husband who denies his wife any rehabilitative measures, is now used as "privacy rights" to kill her. The talons of the death-culture that rake the baby from the womb now sever the disabled from their tenuous grasp on life in the name of privacy.
...St. Petersburg‘s citizenry were shocked to read in local papers that the alternative metal band, Hell on Earth, is planning an on-stage suicide of a terminally ill fan to take place on October 4th. The purpose is to "raise awareness for dying with dignity." The fan wishes to put an end to "back alley suicides."
Apparently, this is not a hoax; Fox news anchor Rita Cosby carried the story twice on national television. In Florida, it is a second-degree felony to assist a suicide. Lead singer, Billy Tourtelot, who is a strong supporter of physician-assisted suicide, claims he’s not "assisting." "This is about standing up for what you believe in...What I’m doing may be immoral, but it’s not illegal," says Billy. St. Petersburg’s State Theater as well as another club have denied the band a venue. Tourtelot, nevertheless insists the show will go on. The St. Petersburg police are on the alert.
Physician-assisted suicide is euthanasia. Euthanasia is illegal. Tell that to ["right-to-die" activist lawyer George] Felos who asserted on national TV, "We’re just carrying out Terri wishes," -by starving her to death.
How many elderly people with impatient relatives will become instantly vulnerable once Tourtelot and Felos’ macabre ideology becomes sacrosanct law?
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