OF CODE-CRACKING & CRACKPOTS:
ABC News to Promote The DaVinci Code as “History”
We learned today that ABC News plans to air a special next week titled "Jesus, Mary and DaVinci," which proffers the “theory” that the controversial novel by Dan Brown –which novel revolves around an ancient global conspiracy to cover up the supposed marriage between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, who begat a child and, after Jesus' death, moved to France establishing a new “royal” bloodline.
Brown claims that his novel is based on “historical fact.” But what it’s really based on is a sensationalist tome written in 1983 which first publicized that “theory.” The book --Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Newage “researchers” and conspiracy theorists Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, and Richard Leigh-- can be found alongside books on UFO abductions, channeling, crystal-gazing, Enneagrams, how to become a witch or develop your psychic powers, and the like in the Crackpots and Kooks section of your local bookstore. In other words, you won’t find it in the History section, and rarely in the Religion section, and for good reason:
In their book, Messr.s Baigent, Lincoln, and Leigh wove a fanciful theory about the ancient legend of the Holy Grail and a search for it by a Medieval warrior-monk order known as the Knights Templar, which group during the Crusades rapidly degenerated into a violent Gnostic cult –so much so that the Catholic Church disbanded the order, tried its leaders for heresy, and had them executed.
As part of their “research” --gleaned almost entirely from ancient myths, fairy tales, rumors, ludicrous Gnostic “gospels, and fake “ancient” parchments produced by the Priory of Sion, a looney mid-1900s French occultist sect-- Messr.s Baigent, Lincoln, and Leigh soon “discovered” that Jesus married Magdalene and fathered children whose bloodline (the “real” Holy Grail) continues today. But, at variance with Brown, Messr.s Baigent, Lincoln, and Leigh speculated, based on some ancient Gnostic "gospels," that Jesus may have bypassed the cross altogether and lived with Magdalene to a ripe old age.
As history, Monty Python’s version of the Holy Grail legend would be a lot more accurate.
Last, but hardly least, is the vacuous yet venomous Jack Chick anti-Catholicism which permeates Brown's novel. In his strange make-believe world, the Vatican is an all-powerful villain on a global scale, out to subjugate women, destroy democracy, and oppose All Things Good and Beautiful, even to the point of directing Opus Dei (!) to "handle" the Priory of Sion (the good guys in Brown's novel) by assassinating its leaders to keep the "secret" of the Grail secret.
This was too much even for uber-liberal Catholic novelist and pundit Fr. Andrew Greeley, who found the book "a skillfully written read" but flawed with anti-Catholic bigotry and unrealistic, anti-historical nonsense:
"...The [Vatican] is hardly all that deft and devious, save in its internal plots and conniving -- like getting rid of a colleague or undoing an ecumenical council. It is in fact a fractionalized bureaucracy whose heavy-handed personnel would have a hard time conspiring themselves out of a wet paper bag. Poison and daggers were abandoned long ago."
Greeley also sets the record straight about the real origins of the Grail legend, and it had nothing to do with Mary Magdalene bearing kids for Jesus:
"Back in the dim prehistory of Ireland, there was a spring fertility ritual (enacted on Beltane, usually May 1) in which animal blood was poured into a concave stone altar to represent the union of the male and female in the process of generating life. Later tales grew up to explain the rite, the best known of which is the story of Art MacConn. Memories of the ritual and the story floated around in the collective preconscious of the Celtic lands in company with folk tales, myths, bits of history and cycles of legends about such folk as Arthur, Merlin, Parsifal and Tristan. Later writers like Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chretien de Troyes, Thomas Mallory, and Wolfram von Eschenbach combined this bricolage of images and myths into more systematic stories with an overlay of Christianity. However, these storytellers (excepting von Eschenbach) were tainted by the perspectives of Catharist heresy and the results were dreamy, flesh-denying, life-denying legends that violated the older, if pagan, Irish tales. The Grail is always to be sought and never found. This version persists in the work of such disparate artists as Richard Wagner, Alfred Tennyson, Fritz Lowe and Robert Bresson. In the Irish story, Art gets the magic cup and the magic princess, though, more realistically she, being an Irish woman, gets him -- a happy ending!"
Yet here we have a bona fide journalist and alleged Catholic, one Elizabeth Vargas, who actually takes Dan Brown's balderdash seriously enough to convince ABC News higher-ups to actually finance and air a documentary promoting Brown's novel as credible historical theory instead of laughing her out of their offices. And, of course, Vargas manages to get a well-known All Purpose Useful Idiot --Fr. Richard McBrien, the media's favorite Catholic theologian, who always seems eager to embrace any crackpot notion which comes across his desk-- to lend “credence” to her efforts.
The mind just boggles.
"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 31, 2003
Thursday, October 30, 2003
IT’S THE BIOLOGY, STUPID
On Gay “Marriage,” Some Folks Just Don’t Get It
In his op-ed piece in The Washington Post yesterday, columnist Harold Meyerson asserted that the main reason conservatives and the GOP oppose gay “marriage” and want to make it a major campaign issue for the ’04 elections is that they are stuck in “Old Testament morality” and want to manipulate “xenophobic, homophobic and racist fears.”
The GOP, Meyerson says, needs more “moderate” Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger if they hope to retain both Houses of Congress in addition to the White House. The irony of this is that Meyerson’s example is himself opposed to gay “marriage.” During the California recall election, Schwarzenegger, in response to a question on this very subject during a radio interview with Sean Hannity, declared that “marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman" and not for same-sex couples.
Nevertheless, Meyerson misses the point about why at least half of the US population –including conservatives, moderates, and liberals alike—are opposed to same-sex marriages:
(1) The nuclear family is the most fundamental and most universal building block of any society, and always has been since the dawn of time. It transcends modern American society, and predates the modern American state by untold thousands of years. Its roots are not in modern legalism but in nature itself: The joining of one man and one woman to procreate and perpetuate the human race. Obviously, artificial “procreation” methods aside, that cannot be achieved when the partners are of the same gender.
(2) The state has no business tinkering with, and ultimately threatening, this natural building block by allowing a bunch of lawyers to redefine it to suit the personal preferences of certain special interest groups. The result could –and mostly likely would— be utter chaos, as is usually the case when Big Brother is allowed to redefine most things.
So, Mr. Meyerson, the main issue behind opposition to gay “marriage” is not about “hating gays” (although, no doubt, a relative few oppose it for that reason). Nor is it even about supposedly “outdated” moralities.
It’s about the biology, stupid.
On Gay “Marriage,” Some Folks Just Don’t Get It
In his op-ed piece in The Washington Post yesterday, columnist Harold Meyerson asserted that the main reason conservatives and the GOP oppose gay “marriage” and want to make it a major campaign issue for the ’04 elections is that they are stuck in “Old Testament morality” and want to manipulate “xenophobic, homophobic and racist fears.”
The GOP, Meyerson says, needs more “moderate” Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger if they hope to retain both Houses of Congress in addition to the White House. The irony of this is that Meyerson’s example is himself opposed to gay “marriage.” During the California recall election, Schwarzenegger, in response to a question on this very subject during a radio interview with Sean Hannity, declared that “marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman" and not for same-sex couples.
Nevertheless, Meyerson misses the point about why at least half of the US population –including conservatives, moderates, and liberals alike—are opposed to same-sex marriages:
(1) The nuclear family is the most fundamental and most universal building block of any society, and always has been since the dawn of time. It transcends modern American society, and predates the modern American state by untold thousands of years. Its roots are not in modern legalism but in nature itself: The joining of one man and one woman to procreate and perpetuate the human race. Obviously, artificial “procreation” methods aside, that cannot be achieved when the partners are of the same gender.
(2) The state has no business tinkering with, and ultimately threatening, this natural building block by allowing a bunch of lawyers to redefine it to suit the personal preferences of certain special interest groups. The result could –and mostly likely would— be utter chaos, as is usually the case when Big Brother is allowed to redefine most things.
So, Mr. Meyerson, the main issue behind opposition to gay “marriage” is not about “hating gays” (although, no doubt, a relative few oppose it for that reason). Nor is it even about supposedly “outdated” moralities.
It’s about the biology, stupid.
”KILL TERRI, VOL. ONE”:
Schiavo First Tried to "Grant" Wife's "Wish" in 1993, Court Records Show
Michael Schiavo and his attorneys have been telling the Establishment media that he waited until 1998 (the year he hired “right-to-die” activist lawyer George Felos) to “grant” Terri’s “wish” to “allow” her to die if she had to be kept alive “artificially.”
But the court records tell a very different story:
(1) According to Schiavo’s November, 1993 Guardianship Hearing Deposition Schiavo first attempted to "allow" Terri to die via withdrawal of emergency medical treatment in June of 1993, when Terri contracted a potentially fatal urinary tract infection ---barely seven months after telling the court in his malpractive trial that he intended to "[take] care of my wife" and "spend the rest of my life with her." However, the Deposition shows, Terri’s doctor and nursing home staff refused to carry out his order because it violated Florida law:
[from Michael Schiavo Deposition, Guardianship Hearing, November 1993]:
Q. What was [Terri’s] bladder condition [in June 1993]?
[Michael Schiavo] A. She had a UTI.
Q. What is that?
A. Urinary tract infection.
Q. What did the doctor tell you treatment for that would be?
A. Antibiotic usually.
Q. And did he tell you what would occur if you failed to treat that infection? What did he tell you?
A. That sometimes urinary tract infection will turn to sepsis.
Q. And sepsis is what?
A. An infection throughout the body.
Q. And what would the result of untreated sepsis be to the patient?
A. The patient would pass on.
Q. So when you made the decision not to treat Terri's bladder infection you, in effect, were making a decision to allow her to pass on?
A. I was making a decision on what Terri would want.
Q. Had the bladder condition been treated?
A. Yes.
Q. And was...what was the reason that the bladder condition was treated?
A. Sable Palms Nursing Home said they could not do that by some Florida law which wasn't stated.
Q. But you didn't change your opinion or your decision to not treat the bladder condition?
A. We did change it.
Q. Correct?
A. Repeat the question.
Q. You did not change your decision not to treat the bladder condition, correct?
A. I had to change my decision.
Q. Sable Palms changed it for you?
[Schiavo’s] Attorney Nillson Objection
Q. Okay. Is there any reason that you would not make the same decision that you previously made if the problem came up again?
A. Repeat your question. You're losing me here.
Q. Let me be more specific. If your wife developed another condition that could result in her death, is there any reason that you would not take the position that you're not going to treat that condition and you're going to instruct the doctor not to treat that condition?
A. I wouldn't instruct anybody, no.
Q. You instructed the doctor not to treat the condition, correct?
[Schiavo’s] Attorney Nillson Objection
Q. You did instruct the doctor not to treat her bladder condition, correct?
A. Uh-huh. Yes.
Q. If a similar...would you do the same?
A. I'm thinking.
Q. Take your time.
A. I probably wouldn't instruct the doctor to do it.
Q. So you've changed your opinion?
A. Sort of, yeah.
Q. Why have you changed your opinion?
A. Because evidently there is a law out there that says I can't do it.
Q. Is that the only reason?
A. Basically, maybe.
Q. What you're telling me is, is that there is nothing in your belief or feelings that have changed. The only thing that has changed is the fact that you perceive the law prevents you to do what you intended to do?
A. Correct.
(2) Another court record, Schiavo’s Malpractice Testimony, also shows that barely seven months earlier, during his $20 million malpractice suit in November 1992, he told the court that he intended to take care of Terri “for the rest of my life” (he was awarded over $1 million total, including $700K for Terri's care and rehabilitation, in January 1993):
[from Testimony of Michael Schiavo, Medical Malpractice Trial, November 1992]:
Q. Why did you want to learn to be a nurse?
[Michael Schiavo] A. Because I enjoy it and I want to learn more how to take care of Terri.
Q. You're a young man. Your life is ahead of you. When you look up the road, what do you see for yourself?
A. I see myself hopefully finishing school and taking care of my wife.
Q. Where do you want to take care of your wife?
A. I want to bring her home.
Q. If you had the resources available to you, if you had the equipment and the people, would you do that?
A. Yes, I would, in a heartbeat.
Q. How do you feel about being married to Terri now.
A. I feel wonderful. She's my life and I wouldn't trade her for the world. I believe in my marriage vows.
Q. You believe in your wedding vows, what do you mean by that?
A. I believe in the vows I took with my wife, through sickness, in health, for richer or poor. I married my wife because I love her and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I'm going to do that.
Apparently, a lot can change in seven months. Especially after winning a hefty sum in a malpractice suit.
Schiavo First Tried to "Grant" Wife's "Wish" in 1993, Court Records Show
Michael Schiavo and his attorneys have been telling the Establishment media that he waited until 1998 (the year he hired “right-to-die” activist lawyer George Felos) to “grant” Terri’s “wish” to “allow” her to die if she had to be kept alive “artificially.”
But the court records tell a very different story:
(1) According to Schiavo’s November, 1993 Guardianship Hearing Deposition Schiavo first attempted to "allow" Terri to die via withdrawal of emergency medical treatment in June of 1993, when Terri contracted a potentially fatal urinary tract infection ---barely seven months after telling the court in his malpractive trial that he intended to "[take] care of my wife" and "spend the rest of my life with her." However, the Deposition shows, Terri’s doctor and nursing home staff refused to carry out his order because it violated Florida law:
[from Michael Schiavo Deposition, Guardianship Hearing, November 1993]:
Q. What was [Terri’s] bladder condition [in June 1993]?
[Michael Schiavo] A. She had a UTI.
Q. What is that?
A. Urinary tract infection.
Q. What did the doctor tell you treatment for that would be?
A. Antibiotic usually.
Q. And did he tell you what would occur if you failed to treat that infection? What did he tell you?
A. That sometimes urinary tract infection will turn to sepsis.
Q. And sepsis is what?
A. An infection throughout the body.
Q. And what would the result of untreated sepsis be to the patient?
A. The patient would pass on.
Q. So when you made the decision not to treat Terri's bladder infection you, in effect, were making a decision to allow her to pass on?
A. I was making a decision on what Terri would want.
Q. Had the bladder condition been treated?
A. Yes.
Q. And was...what was the reason that the bladder condition was treated?
A. Sable Palms Nursing Home said they could not do that by some Florida law which wasn't stated.
Q. But you didn't change your opinion or your decision to not treat the bladder condition?
A. We did change it.
Q. Correct?
A. Repeat the question.
Q. You did not change your decision not to treat the bladder condition, correct?
A. I had to change my decision.
Q. Sable Palms changed it for you?
[Schiavo’s] Attorney Nillson Objection
Q. Okay. Is there any reason that you would not make the same decision that you previously made if the problem came up again?
A. Repeat your question. You're losing me here.
Q. Let me be more specific. If your wife developed another condition that could result in her death, is there any reason that you would not take the position that you're not going to treat that condition and you're going to instruct the doctor not to treat that condition?
A. I wouldn't instruct anybody, no.
Q. You instructed the doctor not to treat the condition, correct?
[Schiavo’s] Attorney Nillson Objection
Q. You did instruct the doctor not to treat her bladder condition, correct?
A. Uh-huh. Yes.
Q. If a similar...would you do the same?
A. I'm thinking.
Q. Take your time.
A. I probably wouldn't instruct the doctor to do it.
Q. So you've changed your opinion?
A. Sort of, yeah.
Q. Why have you changed your opinion?
A. Because evidently there is a law out there that says I can't do it.
Q. Is that the only reason?
A. Basically, maybe.
Q. What you're telling me is, is that there is nothing in your belief or feelings that have changed. The only thing that has changed is the fact that you perceive the law prevents you to do what you intended to do?
A. Correct.
(2) Another court record, Schiavo’s Malpractice Testimony, also shows that barely seven months earlier, during his $20 million malpractice suit in November 1992, he told the court that he intended to take care of Terri “for the rest of my life” (he was awarded over $1 million total, including $700K for Terri's care and rehabilitation, in January 1993):
[from Testimony of Michael Schiavo, Medical Malpractice Trial, November 1992]:
Q. Why did you want to learn to be a nurse?
[Michael Schiavo] A. Because I enjoy it and I want to learn more how to take care of Terri.
Q. You're a young man. Your life is ahead of you. When you look up the road, what do you see for yourself?
A. I see myself hopefully finishing school and taking care of my wife.
Q. Where do you want to take care of your wife?
A. I want to bring her home.
Q. If you had the resources available to you, if you had the equipment and the people, would you do that?
A. Yes, I would, in a heartbeat.
Q. How do you feel about being married to Terri now.
A. I feel wonderful. She's my life and I wouldn't trade her for the world. I believe in my marriage vows.
Q. You believe in your wedding vows, what do you mean by that?
A. I believe in the vows I took with my wife, through sickness, in health, for richer or poor. I married my wife because I love her and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I'm going to do that.
Apparently, a lot can change in seven months. Especially after winning a hefty sum in a malpractice suit.
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
LARRY KING & SCHIAVO OUT-TAKE:
Caller Makes Great Suggestion; Team Felos Blows Smoke
From the transcript of Larry King's Interview with Schiavo and Felos:
KING: Aurora, Illinois, hello.
CALLER: Hi Larry. I have a question for Michael. Since he's so passionate about it being Terri's wish, when she was 25 years old, that watching a TV program, to give peace to Terri's parents and brother, why doesn't he just take a lie detector test?
And one more quick question. If they could bathe her, they could probably give her a pap smear. So he should just take a lie detector test and it would bring peace and resolution to the situation for the parents and brother.
FELOS: The ultimate lie detector has gone before 20 judges who found Mr. Schiavo to be a loving, caring husband.
KING: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you could voluntarily take one, right?
FELOS: Sure.
KING: Would you take one?
SCHIAVO: I'll refrain from that right now.
KING: OK. This ain't a court.
SCHIAVO: It's not a court.
KING: Farmington, New Mexico, hello.
Of course, as most folks know, polygraph test results are inadmissable in court as evidence of anything. But, as King himself pointed out to Schiavo, "this ain't a court." So Schiavo should have nothing to fear about taking one, especially if he is as convinced and sincere about what he claims are Terri's wishes as he appears to be.
After all, polygraphs don't really detect lack of honesty, for psychopaths and trained undercover agents can pass them easily. Rather, they detect lack of confidence and sincerity via involuntary responses in the body.
Moreover, others who have been publicly accused of chicanery but were as confident of their positions as Schiavo seems to be have consistently and eagerly volunteered --and even begged-- to take polygraph tests, if only to generate better P-R. And isn't that at least one of the main purposes for Schiavo's increasingly frequent public appearances?
So why the reluctance on Schiavo's part to take a polygraph test? Why commit such a P-R faux paux, and on live national t.v.?
In fact, why didn't he take one on his own initiative years ago, when the Schindlers began to challenge his claim that their daughter wanted to die in her current state?
Caller Makes Great Suggestion; Team Felos Blows Smoke
From the transcript of Larry King's Interview with Schiavo and Felos:
KING: Aurora, Illinois, hello.
CALLER: Hi Larry. I have a question for Michael. Since he's so passionate about it being Terri's wish, when she was 25 years old, that watching a TV program, to give peace to Terri's parents and brother, why doesn't he just take a lie detector test?
And one more quick question. If they could bathe her, they could probably give her a pap smear. So he should just take a lie detector test and it would bring peace and resolution to the situation for the parents and brother.
FELOS: The ultimate lie detector has gone before 20 judges who found Mr. Schiavo to be a loving, caring husband.
KING: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you could voluntarily take one, right?
FELOS: Sure.
KING: Would you take one?
SCHIAVO: I'll refrain from that right now.
KING: OK. This ain't a court.
SCHIAVO: It's not a court.
KING: Farmington, New Mexico, hello.
Of course, as most folks know, polygraph test results are inadmissable in court as evidence of anything. But, as King himself pointed out to Schiavo, "this ain't a court." So Schiavo should have nothing to fear about taking one, especially if he is as convinced and sincere about what he claims are Terri's wishes as he appears to be.
After all, polygraphs don't really detect lack of honesty, for psychopaths and trained undercover agents can pass them easily. Rather, they detect lack of confidence and sincerity via involuntary responses in the body.
Moreover, others who have been publicly accused of chicanery but were as confident of their positions as Schiavo seems to be have consistently and eagerly volunteered --and even begged-- to take polygraph tests, if only to generate better P-R. And isn't that at least one of the main purposes for Schiavo's increasingly frequent public appearances?
So why the reluctance on Schiavo's part to take a polygraph test? Why commit such a P-R faux paux, and on live national t.v.?
In fact, why didn't he take one on his own initiative years ago, when the Schindlers began to challenge his claim that their daughter wanted to die in her current state?
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
IN OTHER NEWS*
The Great Southern California Wildfires Continue Unabated...
...exacerbated in part by some thoughtless to-Hell-with-the-facts activism by the Tin Foil Hat Wing of the environmentalist movement and the Useful Idiots who cave in to them.
*(After all, the name of this blog isn't "All Terri All the Time," though we're sorely tempted to do make it so.)
The Great Southern California Wildfires Continue Unabated...
...exacerbated in part by some thoughtless to-Hell-with-the-facts activism by the Tin Foil Hat Wing of the environmentalist movement and the Useful Idiots who cave in to them.
*(After all, the name of this blog isn't "All Terri All the Time," though we're sorely tempted to do make it so.)
NEW COMMENTS BOXES ADDED!
Many Thanks to Our Friends at Haloscan
Once again, you can leave whatever various and sundry brickbats, profundities, penetrating queries, or hymns of praise strike your fancy.
Many Thanks to Our Friends at Haloscan
Once again, you can leave whatever various and sundry brickbats, profundities, penetrating queries, or hymns of praise strike your fancy.
"THE INTERVIEW THAT WASN'T":
Wesley Smith Raises Some Questions Larry King Didn't Ask
Some of the questions Smith poses are,
Why did Schiavo tell a medical malpractice jury in 1992 that Terri would live a normal life span?
...Michael presented evidence ...that Terri would likely live a normal life span [and] that he intended to ...care for her for the rest of his life
Given that the jury awarded $750,000 to be used in part for Terri's therapy, why hasn't Schiavo provided any rehabilitation for her since 1991?
...The only efforts ever undertaken to improve Terri's condition took place in 1990 and 1991. They had ceased by the time of the malpractice trial in 1992 because her insurance coverage had run out....
[H]ow could Terri's father make any money off the case?
Schiavo's story is that once Schindler became Terri's guardian, ...he would stop her food and fluids....[A]s next of kin, the Schindlers would inherit their daughter's money. This sounds like a mighty stretch, particularly given that Bob Schindler has spent every nickel he has --including his entire retirement fund-- desperately trying to save his daughter's life. If Bob Schindler is a venal man, he has a funny way of showing it.
Wesley Smith Raises Some Questions Larry King Didn't Ask
Some of the questions Smith poses are,
Why did Schiavo tell a medical malpractice jury in 1992 that Terri would live a normal life span?
...Michael presented evidence ...that Terri would likely live a normal life span [and] that he intended to ...care for her for the rest of his life
Given that the jury awarded $750,000 to be used in part for Terri's therapy, why hasn't Schiavo provided any rehabilitation for her since 1991?
...The only efforts ever undertaken to improve Terri's condition took place in 1990 and 1991. They had ceased by the time of the malpractice trial in 1992 because her insurance coverage had run out....
[H]ow could Terri's father make any money off the case?
Schiavo's story is that once Schindler became Terri's guardian, ...he would stop her food and fluids....[A]s next of kin, the Schindlers would inherit their daughter's money. This sounds like a mighty stretch, particularly given that Bob Schindler has spent every nickel he has --including his entire retirement fund-- desperately trying to save his daughter's life. If Bob Schindler is a venal man, he has a funny way of showing it.
THIS IS TOO FUNNY!
ScrappleFace on Michael Schiavo
See his wonderful send-up, Michael Schiavo Slips into 'Carnivorative State'
ScrappleFace on Michael Schiavo
See his wonderful send-up, Michael Schiavo Slips into 'Carnivorative State'
THE GREAT SNOW JOB OF ’03:
CNN and Larry King Play Host to Schiavo and Felos
Last night Larry King Live featured a full-hour interview with Michael Schiavo --looking for all the world like a downtown Miami coke snorter with fake Rolexes to sell-- accompanied by geeky Newage lawyer George Felos.
Of course, with maybe one notable exception (about which in due course) King asked no hardball questions and to date has made no plans to give Terri’s parents equal time. Even the call-in segment, which lasted less than 20 minutes instead of the usual 30 or more, was typically bland with the deck stacked in favor of callers sympathetic to Schiavo: Of the six callers aired, only one posed anything approaching a skeptical query.
Our initial impression of King's interview with Schiavo and Felos can be summed up in two words:
”SNOW JOB”
--When asked by a skeptical caller if he would be willing to take a polygraph test to back up his claims and "settle" this controversy "once and for all," Schiavo hemmed and hawed and evaded, saying that the "nineteen judges" who believed him were "enough" of a test."
--When asked by Larry King if CNN would be allowed to take a camera crew to the hospice to document Terri's condition for themselves, Schiavo declined with Felos replying that they wanted to "respect Terri's privacy” (a little late for that, ain’t it, George?)
--When Schiavo claimed that Mr. Schindler –with, conveniently, no witnesses within earshot-- demanded to know where his share of the malpractice award was, Schiavo neglected to mention the fact that the Schindlers were never a party to the malpractice suit to begin with. Therefore, they would have had no rational expectation of receiving a share. King should have asked Schiavo about that but failed to do so.
--When King played a tape of an interview with Terri’s brother, in which the brother asserted that Terri had responded to him and tried to communicate with other family members, Schiavo called him a “liar,” claiming that he could “count on one hand” the number of times her brother visited her over the past 13 years. Schiavo’s only “evidence” for that claim was that those were the only times he saw him there. King let that one slide as well.
--When Schiavo made the preposterous claim that Mr. Schindler had received a letter from "an inmate" offering to kill Schiavo, and implied that Mr. Schindler welcomed the offer by not releasing the letter to the police, King failed to pursue Schiavo with some obvious questions, such as "how do you know?"
--However, and to his credit, King finally asked Schiavo something approaching a probing question and elicited a very telling response from Schiavo:
When King asked Schiavo why he thought Terri's parents were so intent upon opposing his decision to kill their daughter, he replied that they were trying to "just make [his] life Hell" because they were influenced by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.
Never mind that by his own admission in a 1993 deposition Schiavo tried to have his wife killed waaaaay back in 1993 --long before the VRWC showed up on Terri's doorstep-- by instructing Terri's caretakers to refrain from giving her antibiotics for a severe urinary tract infection. About which King, of course, said nothing.
Not very impressive.
CNN and Larry King Play Host to Schiavo and Felos
Last night Larry King Live featured a full-hour interview with Michael Schiavo --looking for all the world like a downtown Miami coke snorter with fake Rolexes to sell-- accompanied by geeky Newage lawyer George Felos.
Of course, with maybe one notable exception (about which in due course) King asked no hardball questions and to date has made no plans to give Terri’s parents equal time. Even the call-in segment, which lasted less than 20 minutes instead of the usual 30 or more, was typically bland with the deck stacked in favor of callers sympathetic to Schiavo: Of the six callers aired, only one posed anything approaching a skeptical query.
Our initial impression of King's interview with Schiavo and Felos can be summed up in two words:
”SNOW JOB”
--When asked by a skeptical caller if he would be willing to take a polygraph test to back up his claims and "settle" this controversy "once and for all," Schiavo hemmed and hawed and evaded, saying that the "nineteen judges" who believed him were "enough" of a test."
--When asked by Larry King if CNN would be allowed to take a camera crew to the hospice to document Terri's condition for themselves, Schiavo declined with Felos replying that they wanted to "respect Terri's privacy” (a little late for that, ain’t it, George?)
--When Schiavo claimed that Mr. Schindler –with, conveniently, no witnesses within earshot-- demanded to know where his share of the malpractice award was, Schiavo neglected to mention the fact that the Schindlers were never a party to the malpractice suit to begin with. Therefore, they would have had no rational expectation of receiving a share. King should have asked Schiavo about that but failed to do so.
--When King played a tape of an interview with Terri’s brother, in which the brother asserted that Terri had responded to him and tried to communicate with other family members, Schiavo called him a “liar,” claiming that he could “count on one hand” the number of times her brother visited her over the past 13 years. Schiavo’s only “evidence” for that claim was that those were the only times he saw him there. King let that one slide as well.
--When Schiavo made the preposterous claim that Mr. Schindler had received a letter from "an inmate" offering to kill Schiavo, and implied that Mr. Schindler welcomed the offer by not releasing the letter to the police, King failed to pursue Schiavo with some obvious questions, such as "how do you know?"
--However, and to his credit, King finally asked Schiavo something approaching a probing question and elicited a very telling response from Schiavo:
When King asked Schiavo why he thought Terri's parents were so intent upon opposing his decision to kill their daughter, he replied that they were trying to "just make [his] life Hell" because they were influenced by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.
Never mind that by his own admission in a 1993 deposition Schiavo tried to have his wife killed waaaaay back in 1993 --long before the VRWC showed up on Terri's doorstep-- by instructing Terri's caretakers to refrain from giving her antibiotics for a severe urinary tract infection. About which King, of course, said nothing.
Not very impressive.
Friday, October 24, 2003
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.
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.
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?
Saturday, October 18, 2003
HOLY COMMUNION DENIED TO DYING CATHOLIC:
The Latest Outrage Against Terri Schindler-Schiavo
According to the latest news update on the Schindler family's web site, Terri's so-called "husband" Michael Schiavo has refused to allow his dying Catholic wife to fully receive the last rites from her priest:
...Monsignor Thaddeus Malanowski, who has been Terri’s spiritual provider for over 3 years, was told he may not administer to her the sacrament of Holy Communion. Monsignor was informed by police at Hospice that he would be arrested if he tried to administer the Catholic woman the sacrament.
In a statement to the press, Michael Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos stated that the reason for this was that he didn’t want “anyone to do something that would cause Terri distress”.
Really now.
How a dying Catholic woman would be "distressed" by receiving a Catholic sacrament from her Catholic priest, the non-Catholic Felos doesn't bother to say. After all, for years both Felos and Schiavo have been telling the courts and the press that Terri was in a "permanent vegetative state" and oblivious to her surroundings. How then could she get "distressed" by any external stimuli?
Moreover, how does Herr Felos know Terri would be "distressed" by her priest administering the viaticum or anything else?
Oh, wait a minute. We forget that Herr Felos has the ability to communicate with Terri telepathically. Or so he claims (cf., our Oct. 16 and 17 entries on Felos titled, respectively, "MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S NEO-NAZI* NEW AGE LAWYER" and "MORE ON MICHAEL SCHIAVO’S LOONEY LAWYER" below.)
Nevertheless, Herr Felos, what about the possibility of causing Terri distress by starving her to death???
As Bugs Bunny would say, "Nyaaah. What a maroon."
The Latest Outrage Against Terri Schindler-Schiavo
According to the latest news update on the Schindler family's web site, Terri's so-called "husband" Michael Schiavo has refused to allow his dying Catholic wife to fully receive the last rites from her priest:
...Monsignor Thaddeus Malanowski, who has been Terri’s spiritual provider for over 3 years, was told he may not administer to her the sacrament of Holy Communion. Monsignor was informed by police at Hospice that he would be arrested if he tried to administer the Catholic woman the sacrament.
In a statement to the press, Michael Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos stated that the reason for this was that he didn’t want “anyone to do something that would cause Terri distress”.
Really now.
How a dying Catholic woman would be "distressed" by receiving a Catholic sacrament from her Catholic priest, the non-Catholic Felos doesn't bother to say. After all, for years both Felos and Schiavo have been telling the courts and the press that Terri was in a "permanent vegetative state" and oblivious to her surroundings. How then could she get "distressed" by any external stimuli?
Moreover, how does Herr Felos know Terri would be "distressed" by her priest administering the viaticum or anything else?
Oh, wait a minute. We forget that Herr Felos has the ability to communicate with Terri telepathically. Or so he claims (cf., our Oct. 16 and 17 entries on Felos titled, respectively, "MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S NEO-NAZI* NEW AGE LAWYER" and "MORE ON MICHAEL SCHIAVO’S LOONEY LAWYER" below.)
Nevertheless, Herr Felos, what about the possibility of causing Terri distress by starving her to death???
As Bugs Bunny would say, "Nyaaah. What a maroon."
Friday, October 17, 2003
ON THE FLORIDA COURT'S EUTHANASIA ORDER:
A Catholic Bishop Speaks Out Loud and Clear....
...unlike the Catholic Bishop of St. Petersburg, Florida:
"If you establish and apply the principle that you can kill 'unproductive' fellow human beings then woe betide us all when we become old and frail!
"If one is allowed to kill the unproductive people then woe betide the invalids who have used up, sacrificed and lost their health and strength in the productive process.
"If one is allowed forcibly to remove one's unproductive fellow human beings then woe betide loyal soldiers who return to the homeland seriously disabled, as cripples, as invalids.
"If it is once accepted that people have the right to kill 'unproductive' fellow humans--and even if initially it only affects the poor defenseless mentally ill--then as a matter of principle murder is permitted for all unproductive people, in other words for the incurably sick, the people who have become invalids through labor and war, for us all when we become old, frail and therefore unproductive.
"Then, it is only necessary for some secret edict to order that the method developed for the mentally ill should be extended to other 'unproductive' people, that it should be applied to those suffering from incurable lung disease, to the elderly who are frail or invalids, to the severely disabled soldiers.
"Then none of our lives will be safe any more. Some commission can put us on the list of the 'unproductive,' who in their opinion have become worthless life. And no police force will protect us and no court will investigate our murder and give the murderer the punishment he deserves.
"Who will be able to trust his doctor any more?
"He may report his patient as 'unproductive' and receive instructions to kill him. It is impossible to imagine the degree of moral depravity, of general mistrust that would then spread even through families if this dreadful doctrine is tolerated, accepted and followed.
"Woe to mankind, woe to our German nation if God's Holy Commandment 'Thou shalt not kill,' which God proclaimed on Mount Sinai amidst thunder and lightning, which God our Creator inscribed in the conscience of mankind from the very beginning, is not only broken, but if this transgression is actually tolerated and permitted to go unpunished."
--Cardinal Clemens von Galen,
Archbishop of Munster, Germany
August 3, 1941
A Catholic Bishop Speaks Out Loud and Clear....
...unlike the Catholic Bishop of St. Petersburg, Florida:
"If you establish and apply the principle that you can kill 'unproductive' fellow human beings then woe betide us all when we become old and frail!
"If one is allowed to kill the unproductive people then woe betide the invalids who have used up, sacrificed and lost their health and strength in the productive process.
"If one is allowed forcibly to remove one's unproductive fellow human beings then woe betide loyal soldiers who return to the homeland seriously disabled, as cripples, as invalids.
"If it is once accepted that people have the right to kill 'unproductive' fellow humans--and even if initially it only affects the poor defenseless mentally ill--then as a matter of principle murder is permitted for all unproductive people, in other words for the incurably sick, the people who have become invalids through labor and war, for us all when we become old, frail and therefore unproductive.
"Then, it is only necessary for some secret edict to order that the method developed for the mentally ill should be extended to other 'unproductive' people, that it should be applied to those suffering from incurable lung disease, to the elderly who are frail or invalids, to the severely disabled soldiers.
"Then none of our lives will be safe any more. Some commission can put us on the list of the 'unproductive,' who in their opinion have become worthless life. And no police force will protect us and no court will investigate our murder and give the murderer the punishment he deserves.
"Who will be able to trust his doctor any more?
"He may report his patient as 'unproductive' and receive instructions to kill him. It is impossible to imagine the degree of moral depravity, of general mistrust that would then spread even through families if this dreadful doctrine is tolerated, accepted and followed.
"Woe to mankind, woe to our German nation if God's Holy Commandment 'Thou shalt not kill,' which God proclaimed on Mount Sinai amidst thunder and lightning, which God our Creator inscribed in the conscience of mankind from the very beginning, is not only broken, but if this transgression is actually tolerated and permitted to go unpunished."
--Cardinal Clemens von Galen,
Archbishop of Munster, Germany
August 3, 1941
MORE ON MICHAEL SCHIAVO’S LOONEY LAWYER:
New Age Pro-Death Activist George Felos Thinks He’s Psychic…
…among other things, according to this message board discussion among several pro-Terri advocates.
For example:
[Post 1]: On pages 181-182 of his book (Litigation As Spiritual Practice), Felos claims that merely by visualizing a plane crash during a flight he was taking back to Florida, he caused the plane to begin to crash and that God spoke to him at that moment to warn him,
"’Be careful what you think. You are more powerful than you realize'.....I was startled, humbled, and blessed by God's admonishment."
[Post 2]: Felos is the real "tin-foil-hat" nut job and people who can see the forest for the trees recognize that.
[Post 3]: …Right-to-diers who make the news, like Nancy Cruzan's father and George Felos, talk about releasing the person/soul from their body….
[Post 4]: IMO, Melone got her info on Cruzan from an email to her.
Perhaps Felos used his telepathic powers to give Melone some pointers.
[Post 5]: Too bad he can't recall and edit all those books in which he reveals his wacky thinking patterns. If his acolytes edit enough books with black magic markers, they might be able to undo some of the harm his own words caused his reputation.
It's apparent that Felos thinks he is on a "higher plane" than the rest of us. I hope Floridians have learned enough about him to know they should distance themselves from him.
[Post 6]: …George Felos, the new age lawyer, student of reincarnation, (If "Felos" means cat, does he get 9 lives?) who wants to '"free us" from our bodily chains.
[Post 7]: Isn't it strange that Felos says that the unconscious Mrs. Browning could communicate with him, but he insists that Terri can't communicate with her own family whom she's known for almost 40 years?
And last but not least:
[Post 8]: Curios.
One the one hand, it's considered a sign of insanity for someone to think they are just one person like Napoleon.
On the other hand, the opinion of someone like Felos, who thinks he is "all," is taken seriously by an American judge who has jurisdiction over the lives of incapacitated people.
BTW, does anyone know if Felos has said he can use his telepathic powers to contact the spirits of dead? He says he communicated, mind-to-mind, with that elderly lady who wanted to be "free of her body."
Of course, if he believes in re-incarnation, he has to locate the new incarnation of the previously-dead person, before he can communicate with them.
It seems the patients are running the madhouse known as the Florida court system.
An article on Felos' New Age "spirituality" and how it influences his law practice can be found HERE at the St. Petersburg Times web site. This article notes the following about a case Felos litigated in 1988:
...the case of Estelle Browning ...gained him a reputation as the person to see when you want to let someone die. Browning, of Dunedin, had written a living will in 1985, saying she did not want to be kept alive by artificial means if she ever became ill. A year later, she had a stroke. But the nursing home refused to stop feeding her because she was not technically brain dead. Her cousin and former roommate, Doris Herbert, asked Felos to take the case.
He wanted to see Browning for himself. She could not speak, but Felos says his spiritual side picked up on something. He says her soul cried out to his soul and asked, "Why am I still here?"
Browning died in 1989 of natural causes while the case was still unresolved, but the suit has had a lasting effect on the law. In 1990, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that a living will can allow caregivers to withhold food and water from an incapacitated person, even when death is not imminent.
It seems the patients are running the madhouse known as the Florida court system.
New Age Pro-Death Activist George Felos Thinks He’s Psychic…
…among other things, according to this message board discussion among several pro-Terri advocates.
For example:
[Post 1]: On pages 181-182 of his book (Litigation As Spiritual Practice), Felos claims that merely by visualizing a plane crash during a flight he was taking back to Florida, he caused the plane to begin to crash and that God spoke to him at that moment to warn him,
"’Be careful what you think. You are more powerful than you realize'.....I was startled, humbled, and blessed by God's admonishment."
[Post 2]: Felos is the real "tin-foil-hat" nut job and people who can see the forest for the trees recognize that.
[Post 3]: …Right-to-diers who make the news, like Nancy Cruzan's father and George Felos, talk about releasing the person/soul from their body….
[Post 4]: IMO, Melone got her info on Cruzan from an email to her.
Perhaps Felos used his telepathic powers to give Melone some pointers.
[Post 5]: Too bad he can't recall and edit all those books in which he reveals his wacky thinking patterns. If his acolytes edit enough books with black magic markers, they might be able to undo some of the harm his own words caused his reputation.
It's apparent that Felos thinks he is on a "higher plane" than the rest of us. I hope Floridians have learned enough about him to know they should distance themselves from him.
[Post 6]: …George Felos, the new age lawyer, student of reincarnation, (If "Felos" means cat, does he get 9 lives?) who wants to '"free us" from our bodily chains.
[Post 7]: Isn't it strange that Felos says that the unconscious Mrs. Browning could communicate with him, but he insists that Terri can't communicate with her own family whom she's known for almost 40 years?
And last but not least:
[Post 8]: Curios.
One the one hand, it's considered a sign of insanity for someone to think they are just one person like Napoleon.
On the other hand, the opinion of someone like Felos, who thinks he is "all," is taken seriously by an American judge who has jurisdiction over the lives of incapacitated people.
BTW, does anyone know if Felos has said he can use his telepathic powers to contact the spirits of dead? He says he communicated, mind-to-mind, with that elderly lady who wanted to be "free of her body."
Of course, if he believes in re-incarnation, he has to locate the new incarnation of the previously-dead person, before he can communicate with them.
It seems the patients are running the madhouse known as the Florida court system.
An article on Felos' New Age "spirituality" and how it influences his law practice can be found HERE at the St. Petersburg Times web site. This article notes the following about a case Felos litigated in 1988:
...the case of Estelle Browning ...gained him a reputation as the person to see when you want to let someone die. Browning, of Dunedin, had written a living will in 1985, saying she did not want to be kept alive by artificial means if she ever became ill. A year later, she had a stroke. But the nursing home refused to stop feeding her because she was not technically brain dead. Her cousin and former roommate, Doris Herbert, asked Felos to take the case.
He wanted to see Browning for himself. She could not speak, but Felos says his spiritual side picked up on something. He says her soul cried out to his soul and asked, "Why am I still here?"
Browning died in 1989 of natural causes while the case was still unresolved, but the suit has had a lasting effect on the law. In 1990, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that a living will can allow caregivers to withhold food and water from an incapacitated person, even when death is not imminent.
It seems the patients are running the madhouse known as the Florida court system.
Thursday, October 16, 2003
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, POPE JOHN PAUL II:
After Twenty-Five Years, He's Still Going and Refuses to Give Up...
...despite suffering from advanced Parkinson's Disease and other serious ailments.
Truly amazing.
Columnist Maggie Gallagher has a wonderful piece reflecting on John Paul's remarkable 25 years in the Chair of Peter. Also, the Vatican's own web site has special links celebrating Pope John Paul II's anniversary, including one for the Catholic faithful and other admirers to email their greetings to him.
Incidentally, the word through the Catholic e-grapevine is that the Holy Father has been trying to intervene on behalf of Terry Schindler-Schiavo. We pray that Judge Greer will heed the Pope's pleas to spare her after he rejected Gov. Jeb Bush's.
After Twenty-Five Years, He's Still Going and Refuses to Give Up...
...despite suffering from advanced Parkinson's Disease and other serious ailments.
Truly amazing.
Columnist Maggie Gallagher has a wonderful piece reflecting on John Paul's remarkable 25 years in the Chair of Peter. Also, the Vatican's own web site has special links celebrating Pope John Paul II's anniversary, including one for the Catholic faithful and other admirers to email their greetings to him.
Incidentally, the word through the Catholic e-grapevine is that the Holy Father has been trying to intervene on behalf of Terry Schindler-Schiavo. We pray that Judge Greer will heed the Pope's pleas to spare her after he rejected Gov. Jeb Bush's.
"WHEN IS THE BITCH GONNA DIE?":
Michael Schiavo on His Wife Terri's Condition in 1995-96...
...according to an article quoting the sworn testimony of Carla Sauer Iyer, "a registered nurse who was employed at Palm Garden of Largo Convalescent Center in Largo, Fla., from April 1995 to July 1996, while Terri Schiavo was a patient there."
In addition to this heartfelt expression of love and loyalty to his wife, Schiavo also asked on other occassions, "When is she going to die?" and "Has she died yet?" Notes the article, "Others at Palm Garden also testified similarly in sworn affidavits. All swore that Terri had spoken to them frequently and backed Iyer's recollections."
A complete photocopy of Nurse Iyers' Affidavit can be read in full HERE
The same article notes that according to attorney Wesley J. Smith, Schiavo "realiz[ed] back in the early 1990s he would inherit $750,000 if Terri died, and began to refuse medical treatment such as antibiotics for infections and so forth. In 1998, when Terri didn't die he filed a request with Judge Greer to be allowed to remove her feeding tube, and that’s how this whole business started."
Sure sounds like Litigation As Homicide to us. With "spouses" like that, and greedy shysters all too eager to "help" them (for the right price, of course), who needs the Mafia?
Michael Schiavo on His Wife Terri's Condition in 1995-96...
...according to an article quoting the sworn testimony of Carla Sauer Iyer, "a registered nurse who was employed at Palm Garden of Largo Convalescent Center in Largo, Fla., from April 1995 to July 1996, while Terri Schiavo was a patient there."
In addition to this heartfelt expression of love and loyalty to his wife, Schiavo also asked on other occassions, "When is she going to die?" and "Has she died yet?" Notes the article, "Others at Palm Garden also testified similarly in sworn affidavits. All swore that Terri had spoken to them frequently and backed Iyer's recollections."
A complete photocopy of Nurse Iyers' Affidavit can be read in full HERE
The same article notes that according to attorney Wesley J. Smith, Schiavo "realiz[ed] back in the early 1990s he would inherit $750,000 if Terri died, and began to refuse medical treatment such as antibiotics for infections and so forth. In 1998, when Terri didn't die he filed a request with Judge Greer to be allowed to remove her feeding tube, and that’s how this whole business started."
Sure sounds like Litigation As Homicide to us. With "spouses" like that, and greedy shysters all too eager to "help" them (for the right price, of course), who needs the Mafia?
MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S NEO-NAZI* NEW AGE LAWYER:
Is Terri Schindler-Schiavo a Test Case for Culture of Death Activist George Felos?
It seems that George Felos, the Florida lawyer spearheading the drive to kill Terri via judicial fiat, is a nationally known "right-to-die" activist and New Age pagan intent upon establishing legalized euthanasia in his state as well as all over the USA, his repeated denials of such intentions notwithstanding. (Actions speak louder than rhetoric, Herr Felos.)
The evidence? A book Felos wrote last year titled Litigation As Spiritual Practice
According to the publisher's blurb on this book --described as "the excitement and drama of the courtroom, and the ecstasy and anguish of spiritual evolution in a combative environment"-- Felos "became the legal advocate of Estelle Browning's right-to-die and in the process plumbed the depths of death and dying and spearheaded a social revolution to enable death with dignity in the state of Florida. Felos uses this case and Fellouzis vs. United States of America --a decade-long tax battle sending him to Hong Kong's back alleys in search of antique jades and ivories-- as framework to interweave the story of his law practice and spiritual unfoldment."
Apparently what is meant by "spiritual unfoldment" is discovering the "right" of neo-Nazi* Culture of Death New Agers to do away with "useless eaters."
Sieg Heil, Herr Felos.
*(EDITOR'S NOTE: By "neo-Nazi" we mean, of course, not that an individual or group so named is necessarily Neo-Nazi in any formal sense, but rather that such has adopted any attitude or theory which is identifiably Nazi in origin. In this case, i.e., the philosophical relationship between euthanasia and the so-called "right-to-die," please see the article Euthanasia in the Third Reich: Lessons for Today?, first published in Volume 18:1 of Ethics & Medicine.)
Is Terri Schindler-Schiavo a Test Case for Culture of Death Activist George Felos?
It seems that George Felos, the Florida lawyer spearheading the drive to kill Terri via judicial fiat, is a nationally known "right-to-die" activist and New Age pagan intent upon establishing legalized euthanasia in his state as well as all over the USA, his repeated denials of such intentions notwithstanding. (Actions speak louder than rhetoric, Herr Felos.)
The evidence? A book Felos wrote last year titled Litigation As Spiritual Practice
According to the publisher's blurb on this book --described as "the excitement and drama of the courtroom, and the ecstasy and anguish of spiritual evolution in a combative environment"-- Felos "became the legal advocate of Estelle Browning's right-to-die and in the process plumbed the depths of death and dying and spearheaded a social revolution to enable death with dignity in the state of Florida. Felos uses this case and Fellouzis vs. United States of America --a decade-long tax battle sending him to Hong Kong's back alleys in search of antique jades and ivories-- as framework to interweave the story of his law practice and spiritual unfoldment."
Apparently what is meant by "spiritual unfoldment" is discovering the "right" of neo-Nazi* Culture of Death New Agers to do away with "useless eaters."
Sieg Heil, Herr Felos.
*(EDITOR'S NOTE: By "neo-Nazi" we mean, of course, not that an individual or group so named is necessarily Neo-Nazi in any formal sense, but rather that such has adopted any attitude or theory which is identifiably Nazi in origin. In this case, i.e., the philosophical relationship between euthanasia and the so-called "right-to-die," please see the article Euthanasia in the Third Reich: Lessons for Today?, first published in Volume 18:1 of Ethics & Medicine.)
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
TERRI IS NOT IN A COMA:
The Video Evidence Can Be Seen HERE
These video clips show Terri Schindler-Schiavo responding directly to various kinds of stimuli, including the following via the above link:
--"During an examination, Terri shows CLEAR annoyance with being tickled with a cotton swab."
--"Terri is seen lying quietly until her mother is in view. Terri's eyebrows pop up, she smiles broadly at her mother and she vocalizes when her mother asks her how she is feeling."
--"During an examination, Terri is asked to track a balloon with her eyes. She does and the Dr. SAYS 'You see that, don't you!' During his testimony, however, he called Terri 'totally unresponsive'."
--"Terri is shown reacting to her mother's affection with a glowing smile."
Comatose??? "Vegetative state"??? The evidence says "NO!"
The Video Evidence Can Be Seen HERE
These video clips show Terri Schindler-Schiavo responding directly to various kinds of stimuli, including the following via the above link:
--"During an examination, Terri shows CLEAR annoyance with being tickled with a cotton swab."
--"Terri is seen lying quietly until her mother is in view. Terri's eyebrows pop up, she smiles broadly at her mother and she vocalizes when her mother asks her how she is feeling."
--"During an examination, Terri is asked to track a balloon with her eyes. She does and the Dr. SAYS 'You see that, don't you!' During his testimony, however, he called Terri 'totally unresponsive'."
--"Terri is shown reacting to her mother's affection with a glowing smile."
Comatose??? "Vegetative state"??? The evidence says "NO!"
THE TERRI SCHINDLER-SCHIAVO SMOKING GUN VIDEOS:
Secretly-Made Videotapes Disprove "Persistent Vegetative State" Claim
Yesterday the parents of allegedly comatose Florida patient Terri Schindler-Schiavo, who is scheduled for a court-ordered slow execution by starvation and dehydration today at 2PM, released to the news media videotapes which clearly show Terri fully awake and breathing on her own, and not in a coma as her philandering husband (who stands to earn a cool mil $ upon her death) has been claiming for years.
Moreover, Terri's parents have told reporters that when told earlier this year of her impending execution, Terri "bolt[ed] upright and [tried] to get out of her chair."
The court's reaction to this breaking evidence was to immediately rescind its order, right?
Wrong!
In fact, not only is the court going through with its execution order, the court has threatened Terri's father, Robert Schindler, who covertly made the tapes, with arrest and prosecution if he does not immediately turn over all copies to the court.
Truly, we live in what Pope John Paul II has labeled "the Culture of Death."
Secretly-Made Videotapes Disprove "Persistent Vegetative State" Claim
Yesterday the parents of allegedly comatose Florida patient Terri Schindler-Schiavo, who is scheduled for a court-ordered slow execution by starvation and dehydration today at 2PM, released to the news media videotapes which clearly show Terri fully awake and breathing on her own, and not in a coma as her philandering husband (who stands to earn a cool mil $ upon her death) has been claiming for years.
Moreover, Terri's parents have told reporters that when told earlier this year of her impending execution, Terri "bolt[ed] upright and [tried] to get out of her chair."
The court's reaction to this breaking evidence was to immediately rescind its order, right?
Wrong!
In fact, not only is the court going through with its execution order, the court has threatened Terri's father, Robert Schindler, who covertly made the tapes, with arrest and prosecution if he does not immediately turn over all copies to the court.
Truly, we live in what Pope John Paul II has labeled "the Culture of Death."
THE NEW NEO-STALINISTS:
Or, How to Promote Tolerance for Yourself by Persecuting Others
It seems that the gay and lesbian community of a certain city in La-La-Land (aka California) is up in arms because one Jeff Culbreath, a devout Catholic fellow who owns a small printing business, refused to accept a job printing business cards promoting a gay and lesbian organization. Culbreath told his would-be client that he objected to taking part in the promotion a "lifestyle" which, according to the dictates of his faith and conscience, is immoral.
Rather than simply tell the fellow, "OK, then, we'll take our business elsewhere," as any reasonable adult would do, his would-be client and her komrades decided to try make his life a living Hell by pummeling him with hate e-mails, crank phone calls, and a campaign to shut down his business for being a "bigot."
In other words, it's "okay" for gays and lesbians to follow their consciences by practicing their "lifestyles," but it's not "okay" for non-gays and non-lesbians --especially if they're practicing, believing Christians-- to follow their consciences by refusing to engage in promoting those lifestyles.
Harvey Milk, meet Joe Stalin.
Or, How to Promote Tolerance for Yourself by Persecuting Others
It seems that the gay and lesbian community of a certain city in La-La-Land (aka California) is up in arms because one Jeff Culbreath, a devout Catholic fellow who owns a small printing business, refused to accept a job printing business cards promoting a gay and lesbian organization. Culbreath told his would-be client that he objected to taking part in the promotion a "lifestyle" which, according to the dictates of his faith and conscience, is immoral.
Rather than simply tell the fellow, "OK, then, we'll take our business elsewhere," as any reasonable adult would do, his would-be client and her komrades decided to try make his life a living Hell by pummeling him with hate e-mails, crank phone calls, and a campaign to shut down his business for being a "bigot."
In other words, it's "okay" for gays and lesbians to follow their consciences by practicing their "lifestyles," but it's not "okay" for non-gays and non-lesbians --especially if they're practicing, believing Christians-- to follow their consciences by refusing to engage in promoting those lifestyles.
Harvey Milk, meet Joe Stalin.
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
OUR COMMENTS FEATURE IS KAPUT...
...at Least Until We Can find a Better Program
Because of the complaints we've received about how difficult it's been using our Enetation comments program, we've removed it and are looking into an alternative plug-in.
If you have any recommendations, please e-mail us at dpinstitut@aol.com
Thanks for your patience.
...at Least Until We Can find a Better Program
Because of the complaints we've received about how difficult it's been using our Enetation comments program, we've removed it and are looking into an alternative plug-in.
If you have any recommendations, please e-mail us at dpinstitut@aol.com
Thanks for your patience.
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
THE KAY REPORT REDUX:
What the Mainstream Media Won't Publish
If one reads accounts in the Washington Post or New York Times about what was revealed this past week to Congress by David Kay, the leading U.S. weapons inspector sent to Iraq in search of evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, one gets the impression that Mr. Kay came away empty-handed.
But according thean editorial in yesterday's New York Post nothing could be further from the truth. Notes the editor, in part:
Did Kay find nuclear-tipped ICBMs on their launch pads?
Of course not.
But evidence of biological, chemical and nuclear programs in various stages of development - from just-getting-started to possibly can-be-deployed-in-a-week?
Yes. And he found massive evidence of big-time coverups by Saddam and his evil elves.
And Kay says he's barely scratched the surface - though, again, what's been found already is impressive enough.
"We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002," Kay told Congress Thursday. Including:
* "A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses . . . that contained equipment . . . suitable for continuing [chemical and biological weapons] research."
* A prison lab, "possibly used in human testing" of biological weapons.
* "Reference strains of biological organisms, one of which can be used to produce biological weapons."
* Hidden documents and equipment, useful for enriching uranium for nukes.
* "UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] not fully declared."
* "Plans and advanced design work for long-range missiles."
* "Clandestine attempts between late 1999 and 2002 to obtain from North Korea technology related to [long-range] ballistic missiles . . . cruise missiles and other prohibited equipment."
There's more - like reports by Iraqi scientists of the development of a production line that "could be switched to produce anthrax in one week if the seed stock were available."
Why hasn't even more been found?
"Iraq's WMD programs spanned more than two decades, involved thousands of people, billions of dollars and were elaborately shielded by deception operations that continued even beyond the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom," said Kay.
He noted that two key scientists were shot after talking to his team. And that chemical weapons might be stored at any of 130 known Iraqi "Ammunition Storage Points."
How many have been inspected? Ten.
Given that many exceed 50 square miles, we'd say that's pretty good work for three months. But much work plainly lies ahead.
What the Mainstream Media Won't Publish
If one reads accounts in the Washington Post or New York Times about what was revealed this past week to Congress by David Kay, the leading U.S. weapons inspector sent to Iraq in search of evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, one gets the impression that Mr. Kay came away empty-handed.
But according the
Did Kay find nuclear-tipped ICBMs on their launch pads?
Of course not.
But evidence of biological, chemical and nuclear programs in various stages of development - from just-getting-started to possibly can-be-deployed-in-a-week?
Yes. And he found massive evidence of big-time coverups by Saddam and his evil elves.
And Kay says he's barely scratched the surface - though, again, what's been found already is impressive enough.
"We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002," Kay told Congress Thursday. Including:
* "A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses . . . that contained equipment . . . suitable for continuing [chemical and biological weapons] research."
* A prison lab, "possibly used in human testing" of biological weapons.
* "Reference strains of biological organisms, one of which can be used to produce biological weapons."
* Hidden documents and equipment, useful for enriching uranium for nukes.
* "UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] not fully declared."
* "Plans and advanced design work for long-range missiles."
* "Clandestine attempts between late 1999 and 2002 to obtain from North Korea technology related to [long-range] ballistic missiles . . . cruise missiles and other prohibited equipment."
There's more - like reports by Iraqi scientists of the development of a production line that "could be switched to produce anthrax in one week if the seed stock were available."
Why hasn't even more been found?
"Iraq's WMD programs spanned more than two decades, involved thousands of people, billions of dollars and were elaborately shielded by deception operations that continued even beyond the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom," said Kay.
He noted that two key scientists were shot after talking to his team. And that chemical weapons might be stored at any of 130 known Iraqi "Ammunition Storage Points."
How many have been inspected? Ten.
Given that many exceed 50 square miles, we'd say that's pretty good work for three months. But much work plainly lies ahead.
Friday, October 03, 2003
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
MAYBE SHE JUST LOOKED OLD FOR HER AGE:
Bush Critic's 40-Year-Old CIA Wife Was Undercover for 30 Years...
...at least according to former CIA analyst Larry Johnson, who claimed to have "trained" with Valerie Plame, the wife of former Clinton-era-Ambassador-turned-Bush-critic Joseph Wilson.
Hmmmm. We had no idea the CIA recruited 10-year-olds.
Bush Critic's 40-Year-Old CIA Wife Was Undercover for 30 Years...
...at least according to former CIA analyst Larry Johnson, who claimed to have "trained" with Valerie Plame, the wife of former Clinton-era-Ambassador-turned-Bush-critic Joseph Wilson.
Hmmmm. We had no idea the CIA recruited 10-year-olds.
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
OF ANGELS, ROCKY ROADS …AND HEROISM:
A Local Singer’s Battle and Triumph
We were heart-broken to learn this past weekend that Grace Griffith, a very talented and much-loved Washington, DC-area-based singer-songwriter well-known to fans of traditional and contemporary Celtic and folk music here and around the US, faces a long, hard, rocky road ahead in the form of advancing Parkinson’s Disease, a gradually crippling neurological disorder.
Anyone who has experienced Griffith’s music, whether on CD or (especially) in one of her small, intimate local concerts (which, sadly, have become much less frequent), can testify to the magic she works with her voice, a magic which goes straight into the listener’s heart and soul. This is to be expected, for Griffith pours her own heart and soul into her performances; so much so that, even long before PD set in, the experience would, she has said, leave her completely drained both emotionally and spiritually at the end of a concert. Not surprisingly, then, she developed a large, loyal following over her 20-plus-year-long music career.
But even more noteworthy than her wonderful voice (which, happily, remains unaffected by PD), Griffith is known among friends and colleagues for her kindness and generosity, especially towards other lesser-known singers, songwriters, and musicians --including one (about whom more in due course) who would later surpass her in fame and attention. For example, although she is a talented composer and lyricist in her own right she rarely records her own work, preferring instead to give other artists a chance to give their work more exposure.
In a highly competitive field like professional music, it’s unusual for one recording artist to risk his or her own career advancement for the sake of another performer. To do so would be seen by many as foolhardy rather than as what it really is –unselfish and noble.
Yet in early 1996, Griffith did exactly that when she convinced her record company, Blix Street, to sign on the phenomenally talented singer Eva Cassidy, who at that time was playing Washington, DC area pubs and other small venues. Once Blix Street followed Griffith's advice, Cassidy become an international star almost overnight, and continues to remain popular in Europe and Canada since her untimely death later that same year. Griffith's career, on the other hand, seems to have been eclipsed by Cassidy's.
In an article she wrote earlier this year, Griffith downplayed her risky act of generosity because, she noted, she had struggled with the decision to carry it out:
…My debate was between my better self and my ? less-than-better self. The better self was inclined to pass her beautiful music along regardless of any potential cost to my own position, because beauty should be shared. The less-than-better self was voicing concern that I might be shooting myself in the foot by making my record label aware of an artist of such caliber -- I have often been accused of not being competitive enough in a competitive world, and I was thinking twice about this one. But I am a person who must follow a certain way to be comfortable in my own skin.
In our opinion, not only was what Griffith did objectively praiseworthy in and of itself, the very fact that it was the result of a spiritual struggle -- a conflict between one's better inclination to serve another at risk to oneself and one's lesser impulse to “look out for number one”-- made her choice something more than merely praiseworthy.
It made her choice heroic.
The same choice would not have been as significant --or heroic-- if it had been made by someone who had no such conflict to overcome. Such battles within ourselves –battles, ultimately, between self-giving love and self-serving egotism-- are often more important than any other battles we may find ourselves engaged in, even when we end up "losing" in the end:
For when such a choice is made we enter the ranks of the angels.
In her case, Grace Griffith's battle between her "better self" and "less-than-better self" ended in a triumph rather than a loss, for it resulted in a great accomplishment: Were it not for Griffith’s efforts to promote her younger, much lesser-known “competitor” --who also happened to be one of her most ardent fans-- the world would probably not have known about Eva Cassidy.
For that gift, as well as for the gift of her own music, the world has Grace Griffith to thank.
A Local Singer’s Battle and Triumph
We were heart-broken to learn this past weekend that Grace Griffith, a very talented and much-loved Washington, DC-area-based singer-songwriter well-known to fans of traditional and contemporary Celtic and folk music here and around the US, faces a long, hard, rocky road ahead in the form of advancing Parkinson’s Disease, a gradually crippling neurological disorder.
Anyone who has experienced Griffith’s music, whether on CD or (especially) in one of her small, intimate local concerts (which, sadly, have become much less frequent), can testify to the magic she works with her voice, a magic which goes straight into the listener’s heart and soul. This is to be expected, for Griffith pours her own heart and soul into her performances; so much so that, even long before PD set in, the experience would, she has said, leave her completely drained both emotionally and spiritually at the end of a concert. Not surprisingly, then, she developed a large, loyal following over her 20-plus-year-long music career.
But even more noteworthy than her wonderful voice (which, happily, remains unaffected by PD), Griffith is known among friends and colleagues for her kindness and generosity, especially towards other lesser-known singers, songwriters, and musicians --including one (about whom more in due course) who would later surpass her in fame and attention. For example, although she is a talented composer and lyricist in her own right she rarely records her own work, preferring instead to give other artists a chance to give their work more exposure.
In a highly competitive field like professional music, it’s unusual for one recording artist to risk his or her own career advancement for the sake of another performer. To do so would be seen by many as foolhardy rather than as what it really is –unselfish and noble.
Yet in early 1996, Griffith did exactly that when she convinced her record company, Blix Street, to sign on the phenomenally talented singer Eva Cassidy, who at that time was playing Washington, DC area pubs and other small venues. Once Blix Street followed Griffith's advice, Cassidy become an international star almost overnight, and continues to remain popular in Europe and Canada since her untimely death later that same year. Griffith's career, on the other hand, seems to have been eclipsed by Cassidy's.
In an article she wrote earlier this year, Griffith downplayed her risky act of generosity because, she noted, she had struggled with the decision to carry it out:
…My debate was between my better self and my ? less-than-better self. The better self was inclined to pass her beautiful music along regardless of any potential cost to my own position, because beauty should be shared. The less-than-better self was voicing concern that I might be shooting myself in the foot by making my record label aware of an artist of such caliber -- I have often been accused of not being competitive enough in a competitive world, and I was thinking twice about this one. But I am a person who must follow a certain way to be comfortable in my own skin.
In our opinion, not only was what Griffith did objectively praiseworthy in and of itself, the very fact that it was the result of a spiritual struggle -- a conflict between one's better inclination to serve another at risk to oneself and one's lesser impulse to “look out for number one”-- made her choice something more than merely praiseworthy.
It made her choice heroic.
The same choice would not have been as significant --or heroic-- if it had been made by someone who had no such conflict to overcome. Such battles within ourselves –battles, ultimately, between self-giving love and self-serving egotism-- are often more important than any other battles we may find ourselves engaged in, even when we end up "losing" in the end:
For when such a choice is made we enter the ranks of the angels.
In her case, Grace Griffith's battle between her "better self" and "less-than-better self" ended in a triumph rather than a loss, for it resulted in a great accomplishment: Were it not for Griffith’s efforts to promote her younger, much lesser-known “competitor” --who also happened to be one of her most ardent fans-- the world would probably not have known about Eva Cassidy.
For that gift, as well as for the gift of her own music, the world has Grace Griffith to thank.
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
"SAPPY ECUMENICISM" VS. TRUTH-SEEKING:
Why Religious Debate Is Important, Now More Than Ever
Two years ago, in response to movie actress Nicole Kidman's decision to leave the Church of Scientology (a popular Los Angeles-based sci-fi-oriented "self-help" cult she and now-ex Tom Cruise belonged to) and return to the Catholic Church of her youth, taking her children with her, National Review writer Arthur Stuttaford made the following astute observations in his article Scientology Chic:
....Ask most Americans, and they will tell you about their respect for the spiritual, but it is a sloppy and uninformed devotion, a pastiche piety with no intellectual force behind it, more Hallmark than holy, the perfect background for a new cult recruit. Ironically, Nicole Kidman herself provided an example of this mindset in a 1998 interview with Newsweek. Asked about her religious beliefs, the actress replied, "there is a little Buddhism, a little Scientology. I was raised Catholic, and a big part of me is still a Catholic girl."
Hand in hand with such an attitude is an unwillingness to debate the religious beliefs of others. Such debate is now believed to be insensitive at best, bigoted and hateful at worst. These days everyone is meant to be a little bit Buddhist, Catholic, Scientologist , whatever. A sappy ecumenicism is now America's civic religion, and it appears to include just about everyone (other, interestingly, than atheists and agnostics). We are taught that such supposedly inclusive tolerance is the hallmark of a tolerant society, when, in fact, it is precisely the opposite. True religious tolerance is the acceptance of the right of others to follow a different creed. In our ersatz, contemporary version, however, it is denied that there are any different creeds. Instead, we are encouraged to think that all religions are basically the same, just different routes to the same transcendental Truth.
In the name of "diversity," we try to erase difference. When it comes to religious belief, this is a country chary of controversy and anxious about argument. In the interest of fraudulent civility and soi-disant "respect" we have removed the right of the religious to disagree with each other. On the face of it, traditional religious distinctions remain, but all too often they have been trivialized and shrunk down to the superficial, reduced to a matter of folklore or ethnic heritage, nothing more consequential, say, than a choice of headgear: Yarmulke, or turban?
This is a mistake. Old-style rigorous religious debate was bruising, tough, and frequently impolite, but it served a function. Homo Sapiens is a credulous creature, ready to believe just about anything, but, fortunately, he has an innate love of argument. Controversy sharpened our great faiths and pushed them, however painfully, towards some form of intellectual coherence. More than that, it acted as a filter for the worst of the nonsense that people would otherwise be tempted to accept. Now that filter has disappeared. The more established religions are gutted, sunk into PC blandness, or, ironically, introspective fundamentalism. In their intellectual retreat they have left behind a spiritual landscape in which anything goes....
Why Religious Debate Is Important, Now More Than Ever
Two years ago, in response to movie actress Nicole Kidman's decision to leave the Church of Scientology (a popular Los Angeles-based sci-fi-oriented "self-help" cult she and now-ex Tom Cruise belonged to) and return to the Catholic Church of her youth, taking her children with her, National Review writer Arthur Stuttaford made the following astute observations in his article Scientology Chic:
....Ask most Americans, and they will tell you about their respect for the spiritual, but it is a sloppy and uninformed devotion, a pastiche piety with no intellectual force behind it, more Hallmark than holy, the perfect background for a new cult recruit. Ironically, Nicole Kidman herself provided an example of this mindset in a 1998 interview with Newsweek. Asked about her religious beliefs, the actress replied, "there is a little Buddhism, a little Scientology. I was raised Catholic, and a big part of me is still a Catholic girl."
Hand in hand with such an attitude is an unwillingness to debate the religious beliefs of others. Such debate is now believed to be insensitive at best, bigoted and hateful at worst. These days everyone is meant to be a little bit Buddhist, Catholic, Scientologist , whatever. A sappy ecumenicism is now America's civic religion, and it appears to include just about everyone (other, interestingly, than atheists and agnostics). We are taught that such supposedly inclusive tolerance is the hallmark of a tolerant society, when, in fact, it is precisely the opposite. True religious tolerance is the acceptance of the right of others to follow a different creed. In our ersatz, contemporary version, however, it is denied that there are any different creeds. Instead, we are encouraged to think that all religions are basically the same, just different routes to the same transcendental Truth.
In the name of "diversity," we try to erase difference. When it comes to religious belief, this is a country chary of controversy and anxious about argument. In the interest of fraudulent civility and soi-disant "respect" we have removed the right of the religious to disagree with each other. On the face of it, traditional religious distinctions remain, but all too often they have been trivialized and shrunk down to the superficial, reduced to a matter of folklore or ethnic heritage, nothing more consequential, say, than a choice of headgear: Yarmulke, or turban?
This is a mistake. Old-style rigorous religious debate was bruising, tough, and frequently impolite, but it served a function. Homo Sapiens is a credulous creature, ready to believe just about anything, but, fortunately, he has an innate love of argument. Controversy sharpened our great faiths and pushed them, however painfully, towards some form of intellectual coherence. More than that, it acted as a filter for the worst of the nonsense that people would otherwise be tempted to accept. Now that filter has disappeared. The more established religions are gutted, sunk into PC blandness, or, ironically, introspective fundamentalism. In their intellectual retreat they have left behind a spiritual landscape in which anything goes....
Monday, September 22, 2003
SANITY AND REASON ABOUT "THE PASSION":
David Horowitz Reviews Mel Gibson's New Film
One of our heroes, former far-left activist turned conservative activist David Horowitz, who now devotes his time blowing the whistle on the hypocrisy and deceptions of liberalism and the Left, had the following to say on his web log in defense of Mel Gibson's new film, which he viewed earlier this year.
One of the most remarkable aspects of Horowitz's review is that he is not only not a Catholic, he's not a Christian of any kind. He's a secular Jew.
....Gibson's film is an artistic vision and must be judged that way. ...It is an awesome artifact, an overpowering work. I can't remember being so affected by a film before. It is extremely painful to watch and yet the violence is never gratuitous. You never feel like you want to take your eyes off the screen. It is a wracking emotional journey which never strays from its inspirational purpose. It is as close to a religious experience as art can get.
It is not anti-Semitic, as the film-burners have charged. [For example,] Jesus is referred to in the film as "rabbi," and there is never any distancing of Jesus or his disciples from their Jewishness....
...The moral of this Christian story -- of Mel Gibson's film -- is that we all killed Jesus -- Jew and Gentile alike -- and tortured him, and we do so every day. But if you believe the vision that Gibson has rendered so searingly and so well, Jesus forgives us for that very act. Whosoever will give up cruelty and love his brother will enter paradise. That is the message that Gibson has framed in his extraordinary work. The effort to shut down his film before it opens is just another station of the cross.
David Horowitz Reviews Mel Gibson's New Film
One of our heroes, former far-left activist turned conservative activist David Horowitz, who now devotes his time blowing the whistle on the hypocrisy and deceptions of liberalism and the Left, had the following to say on his web log in defense of Mel Gibson's new film, which he viewed earlier this year.
One of the most remarkable aspects of Horowitz's review is that he is not only not a Catholic, he's not a Christian of any kind. He's a secular Jew.
....Gibson's film is an artistic vision and must be judged that way. ...It is an awesome artifact, an overpowering work. I can't remember being so affected by a film before. It is extremely painful to watch and yet the violence is never gratuitous. You never feel like you want to take your eyes off the screen. It is a wracking emotional journey which never strays from its inspirational purpose. It is as close to a religious experience as art can get.
It is not anti-Semitic, as the film-burners have charged. [For example,] Jesus is referred to in the film as "rabbi," and there is never any distancing of Jesus or his disciples from their Jewishness....
...The moral of this Christian story -- of Mel Gibson's film -- is that we all killed Jesus -- Jew and Gentile alike -- and tortured him, and we do so every day. But if you believe the vision that Gibson has rendered so searingly and so well, Jesus forgives us for that very act. Whosoever will give up cruelty and love his brother will enter paradise. That is the message that Gibson has framed in his extraordinary work. The effort to shut down his film before it opens is just another station of the cross.
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
HURRCANE ISABEL ON THE MOVE:
Storm Heading for Virginia, Maryland, and DC
Back in 1985, Virginia Beach-based televangelist Pat Robertson said he prayed away Hurricane Gloria, which was threatening his newly built Christian Broadcasting Network facilities there.
So where is Robertson now that we need him?
Storm Heading for Virginia, Maryland, and DC
Back in 1985, Virginia Beach-based televangelist Pat Robertson said he prayed away Hurricane Gloria, which was threatening his newly built Christian Broadcasting Network facilities there.
So where is Robertson now that we need him?
ATTACK OF THE PHANTOM CHADS:
California's Recall Election is Recalled, At Least for Now
It seems the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found a problem with the voting machines in six counties --the same machines which, albeit rather antiquated, were used to help elect Governor Gray Davis only 12 months ago.
These are punch-card machines similar to those used in Florida prior to the Gore-Bush election fiasco. Thus, apparently fearing the prospect of hanging chads, the judges decided the recall election should be post-poned until the machines' more modern replacements sometime next Spring.
But given the track record of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals --the same folks who issued that lamebrained decision a few months ago which found the Pledge of Allegiance "unconstitutional"-- the decision may not stand once it reaches the Supreme Court, which it may very well do in the very near future.
California's Recall Election is Recalled, At Least for Now
It seems the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found a problem with the voting machines in six counties --the same machines which, albeit rather antiquated, were used to help elect Governor Gray Davis only 12 months ago.
These are punch-card machines similar to those used in Florida prior to the Gore-Bush election fiasco. Thus, apparently fearing the prospect of hanging chads, the judges decided the recall election should be post-poned until the machines' more modern replacements sometime next Spring.
But given the track record of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals --the same folks who issued that lamebrained decision a few months ago which found the Pledge of Allegiance "unconstitutional"-- the decision may not stand once it reaches the Supreme Court, which it may very well do in the very near future.
Monday, September 15, 2003
SO MUCH FOR FEMINISM ON CAMPUS:
The Washington Post Profiles Georgetown U's "Sexpert"
(Hey, ya gotta do something to keep those circulation numbers up, right?)
The "sexpert" in question is a college student who writes a "dating and sex advice" column for the student newspaper of the ostensibly Catholic Georgetown University. She seems to think of herself as a "feminist" and advocates forms of dating which end with sitting and talking rather than heading for the nearest bedroom.
So far, so good.
But she has also clearly jettisoned one of the better (and one of the central) principles of feminism which got that movement started in the first place: Namely, decrying casual sexual encounters ("hookups") with men who want the goodies but don't want the demands and requirements of a real relationship.
For example, she writes:
"It's my opinion that if you're completely realistic about what you're getting out of the situation, there's absolutely no harm in a hookup. People have needs, right? I think the problem comes when people expect a relationship to come out of it. That's the hard part."
IOW, gals, why not think and behave just like all those self-centered guys you call "jerks"?
Betty Friedan, call your therapist.
The Washington Post Profiles Georgetown U's "Sexpert"
(Hey, ya gotta do something to keep those circulation numbers up, right?)
The "sexpert" in question is a college student who writes a "dating and sex advice" column for the student newspaper of the ostensibly Catholic Georgetown University. She seems to think of herself as a "feminist" and advocates forms of dating which end with sitting and talking rather than heading for the nearest bedroom.
So far, so good.
But she has also clearly jettisoned one of the better (and one of the central) principles of feminism which got that movement started in the first place: Namely, decrying casual sexual encounters ("hookups") with men who want the goodies but don't want the demands and requirements of a real relationship.
For example, she writes:
"It's my opinion that if you're completely realistic about what you're getting out of the situation, there's absolutely no harm in a hookup. People have needs, right? I think the problem comes when people expect a relationship to come out of it. That's the hard part."
IOW, gals, why not think and behave just like all those self-centered guys you call "jerks"?
Betty Friedan, call your therapist.
Saturday, September 13, 2003
DISSING THE VICTIMS AND HEROES OF 9/11:
When NetLoons Have Waaaaaay Too Much Time on Their Hands
Unfortunately, horrible tragedies like 9/11 seem to draw all sorts of kooks and nincumpoops out of the woodwork.
Such is the case with a truly weird web site, apparently authored by someone trying to pull our collective cyberlegs in order to push some lunatic-fringe political agenda. The theme of this site is that the "official story" (whatever that means) of what happened on 9/11 is a "hoax." (You know, just like the Holocaust, heliocentricity, evolution, and those manned landings on the moon.)
For a more detailed look at, and debunking of, this strange "theory" see our commentary at our Bullies 'N' Bozos web log.
When NetLoons Have Waaaaaay Too Much Time on Their Hands
Unfortunately, horrible tragedies like 9/11 seem to draw all sorts of kooks and nincumpoops out of the woodwork.
Such is the case with a truly weird web site, apparently authored by someone trying to pull our collective cyberlegs in order to push some lunatic-fringe political agenda. The theme of this site is that the "official story" (whatever that means) of what happened on 9/11 is a "hoax." (You know, just like the Holocaust, heliocentricity, evolution, and those manned landings on the moon.)
For a more detailed look at, and debunking of, this strange "theory" see our commentary at our Bullies 'N' Bozos web log.
Friday, September 12, 2003
MORE 9/11 RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS:
At the Catholic Web Log Heart, Mind, and Strength
Many thanks to HMS blogger Kevin Miller at that site for posting these accounts by his readers of their experiences on that awful day:
Among these are the following powerful and poignant accounts written by one of his readers, a New York City resident, during the first three days after that tragedy:
From Day Two, 9/12/01:
Yesterday
and
Overcoming Evil with Good
From Day Four, 9/14/01:
Life Goes On
Several more moving recollections and thoughtful reflections, including by Mr. Miller, can be read starting HERE
At the Catholic Web Log Heart, Mind, and Strength
Many thanks to HMS blogger Kevin Miller at that site for posting these accounts by his readers of their experiences on that awful day:
Among these are the following powerful and poignant accounts written by one of his readers, a New York City resident, during the first three days after that tragedy:
From Day Two, 9/12/01:
Yesterday
and
Overcoming Evil with Good
From Day Four, 9/14/01:
Life Goes On
Several more moving recollections and thoughtful reflections, including by Mr. Miller, can be read starting HERE
Thursday, September 11, 2003
"WHERE WERE YOU
When the World Stopped Turning on that September Day?"
Country Music singer-songwriter Alan Jackson's reflections on 9/11
Listen to the song and read the lyrics HERE
A profoundly moving piece, whether you're a Country-Western Music fan or not.
When the World Stopped Turning on that September Day?"
Country Music singer-songwriter Alan Jackson's reflections on 9/11
Listen to the song and read the lyrics HERE
A profoundly moving piece, whether you're a Country-Western Music fan or not.
"LEST WE FORGET: REFLECTIONS ON 9/11"
by Megan, a Catholic College Student in Chicago, Illinois
On the Eve of September 11, 2003: Lest We Forget
At the end of August, I was at the site of another memorial of another national tragedy. As I looked down into the crystal clear waters of Pearl Harbor at the remnants of the USS Arizona, I couldn't help but think of 9/11. And as I watched the images of the Japanese fighter planes bombing the naval base and the battleships, I could not help but remember 9/11. I was not alive during Pearl Harbor--so 9/11 is like my generation's Pearl Harbor. And ironically it happened during the 60th anniversary year of that day.
I think about my generation. We're starved for lack of heroes. Our teenagers look to Madonna, Eminem, and Britney Spears as role models. Let us take this time to remember and honor real heroes, the firemen and other workers that gave their lives to help their fellow men in trouble. Let us remember them and the ultimate sacrifice they paid. Lest we forget.
I'm proud to be an American. I know that America has her faults and her sins. But I also see alot of good in the USA and that good was shown in the heroic examples of her citizens who showed remarkable unselfishness and courage in the face of danger. Let us not forget the sacrifice they paid. Let us pray for their souls, for all of the souls of the dead that day. Let us remember the courage that led the over 300 firemen to their deaths that day. God bless them. They are true heroes. They deserve to be honored and remembered. God have mercy on their souls and God have mercy on our land.
And, once, again, in my mind I go back to the crystal blue waters of Pearl Harbor and lay a flower on the waters of the tomb of those men who fell, remembering at the same time my generation's Pearl Harbor. Aloha and God be with you.
by Megan, a Catholic College Student in Chicago, Illinois
On the Eve of September 11, 2003: Lest We Forget
At the end of August, I was at the site of another memorial of another national tragedy. As I looked down into the crystal clear waters of Pearl Harbor at the remnants of the USS Arizona, I couldn't help but think of 9/11. And as I watched the images of the Japanese fighter planes bombing the naval base and the battleships, I could not help but remember 9/11. I was not alive during Pearl Harbor--so 9/11 is like my generation's Pearl Harbor. And ironically it happened during the 60th anniversary year of that day.
I think about my generation. We're starved for lack of heroes. Our teenagers look to Madonna, Eminem, and Britney Spears as role models. Let us take this time to remember and honor real heroes, the firemen and other workers that gave their lives to help their fellow men in trouble. Let us remember them and the ultimate sacrifice they paid. Lest we forget.
I'm proud to be an American. I know that America has her faults and her sins. But I also see alot of good in the USA and that good was shown in the heroic examples of her citizens who showed remarkable unselfishness and courage in the face of danger. Let us not forget the sacrifice they paid. Let us pray for their souls, for all of the souls of the dead that day. Let us remember the courage that led the over 300 firemen to their deaths that day. God bless them. They are true heroes. They deserve to be honored and remembered. God have mercy on their souls and God have mercy on our land.
And, once, again, in my mind I go back to the crystal blue waters of Pearl Harbor and lay a flower on the waters of the tomb of those men who fell, remembering at the same time my generation's Pearl Harbor. Aloha and God be with you.
"THE HOLE IN THE SKYLINE"
National Review Writer Rod Dreher's Reflections on 9/11
In his column at NROnline Dreher notes, in part:
It is, I think, good to be reminded of the tragic sense of life — good, because it reflects the truth, and having that front and center, day and night, helps one guard against blithe optimism, our American temptation. Forewarned is forearmed. Before September 11, I used to marvel at the Twin Towers and the lower Manhattan skyline. The morning sun glinted off the towers, twin diamonds in a crowning achievement of mankind: New York City, the breathtaking palace atop that shining city on the hill that is America. At night, the lights of the towers glittered against the scrim of night, a constellation of our own making. You cannot see the stars at night from New York City, but you didn't have to if you had the Twin Towers.
The last time I saw the towers as they were was one year ago tonight, I had a drink with a friend in the neighborhood, and said goodbye to him at my doorstep, watching him walk away with the towers over his shoulder. I next saw them on fire, and within two hours, saw nothing.
They were there and now they are not: that simple brute fact I still have trouble accepting. Video of the plane crashes and the two collapses doesn't bother me; rather, what I can't take are pre-9/11 images of the World Trade Center. Not long ago, my little niece showed me video of her visit to New York three years ago. At one point, there is a shot with the Twin Towers in the distance. As soon as I saw them there, my chest tightened, tears leapt to my eyes, and I had to leave the room. That video clip was a snapshot from a time and place when we could take things for granted, from a day when the mighty towers were mere background scenery. Of course, we never could, not really; but it was easy in our peace and prosperity, to forget that.
How true, and how very well said.
National Review Writer Rod Dreher's Reflections on 9/11
In his column at NROnline Dreher notes, in part:
It is, I think, good to be reminded of the tragic sense of life — good, because it reflects the truth, and having that front and center, day and night, helps one guard against blithe optimism, our American temptation. Forewarned is forearmed. Before September 11, I used to marvel at the Twin Towers and the lower Manhattan skyline. The morning sun glinted off the towers, twin diamonds in a crowning achievement of mankind: New York City, the breathtaking palace atop that shining city on the hill that is America. At night, the lights of the towers glittered against the scrim of night, a constellation of our own making. You cannot see the stars at night from New York City, but you didn't have to if you had the Twin Towers.
The last time I saw the towers as they were was one year ago tonight, I had a drink with a friend in the neighborhood, and said goodbye to him at my doorstep, watching him walk away with the towers over his shoulder. I next saw them on fire, and within two hours, saw nothing.
They were there and now they are not: that simple brute fact I still have trouble accepting. Video of the plane crashes and the two collapses doesn't bother me; rather, what I can't take are pre-9/11 images of the World Trade Center. Not long ago, my little niece showed me video of her visit to New York three years ago. At one point, there is a shot with the Twin Towers in the distance. As soon as I saw them there, my chest tightened, tears leapt to my eyes, and I had to leave the room. That video clip was a snapshot from a time and place when we could take things for granted, from a day when the mighty towers were mere background scenery. Of course, we never could, not really; but it was easy in our peace and prosperity, to forget that.
How true, and how very well said.
THE PRIESTS OF 9/11:
More Little-Noticed and Unsung Heroism on That Awful Day
Most of us know of the incredible acts of courage on the part of the hundreds of New York City firefighters and police officers who put their lives on the line on Sept. 11, 2001 helping those caught in the burning WTC twin towers to escape, often at the cost of their own lives.
We know also of the hundreds of rescue workers who, painfully and out of compassion as well as a sense of duty, risked their own lives searching for victims and survivors among the ruins of that calamity.
We know also of the ultimate sacrifice paid by Fr. Mychal Judge, the courageous Catholic chaplain with the NYC fire department who lost his life ministering to his FDNY colleagues as they lay injured or dying from the continually falling debri.
But most of us don't know about the dozens of Catholic priests who, alongside dozens of their colleagues of other faiths, went into that Hell on Earth to help others instead of run for their lives. After the dust and debris at Ground Zero settled, dozens more mobilized to help and comfort those hundreds of firefighters, police, rescue workers, survivors, and victims' family members who needed them.
This, and not the unfortunate sex abuse scandals on which the media seem so fixated, is what being a Catholic priest or any other cleric in any other religion is really all about, or at least should be all about.
More Little-Noticed and Unsung Heroism on That Awful Day
Most of us know of the incredible acts of courage on the part of the hundreds of New York City firefighters and police officers who put their lives on the line on Sept. 11, 2001 helping those caught in the burning WTC twin towers to escape, often at the cost of their own lives.
We know also of the hundreds of rescue workers who, painfully and out of compassion as well as a sense of duty, risked their own lives searching for victims and survivors among the ruins of that calamity.
We know also of the ultimate sacrifice paid by Fr. Mychal Judge, the courageous Catholic chaplain with the NYC fire department who lost his life ministering to his FDNY colleagues as they lay injured or dying from the continually falling debri.
But most of us don't know about the dozens of Catholic priests who, alongside dozens of their colleagues of other faiths, went into that Hell on Earth to help others instead of run for their lives. After the dust and debris at Ground Zero settled, dozens more mobilized to help and comfort those hundreds of firefighters, police, rescue workers, survivors, and victims' family members who needed them.
This, and not the unfortunate sex abuse scandals on which the media seem so fixated, is what being a Catholic priest or any other cleric in any other religion is really all about, or at least should be all about.
9/11 TWO YEARS LATER:
And the Nation Remembers Its Fallen Loved Ones and Fellow Citizens
But while we in the USA still live relatively free of terrorism since that awful day, terrorism continues in Israel, Iraq, and the rest of the world.
God help those for whom terrorism is a daily reality, and God bless and comfort those who have lost their friends and family members to terrorism.
And the Nation Remembers Its Fallen Loved Ones and Fellow Citizens
But while we in the USA still live relatively free of terrorism since that awful day, terrorism continues in Israel, Iraq, and the rest of the world.
God help those for whom terrorism is a daily reality, and God bless and comfort those who have lost their friends and family members to terrorism.
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
ANOTHER O'HAIR-BRAINED ANTIC:
The American Atheists Want the Ground Zero Cross Removed
Shortly after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, while Ground Zero was being cleared of debris, a segment of three joined steel girders was found which uncannily resembled a perfectly symmetrical Christian cross. At the urging of the men and women who spent weeks searching for survivors and body parts, the NYC committee in charge of establishing a memorial at the site may include that 20-foot tall artifact in its memorial plans.
But not if the perennially cranky American Atheist organization has its way, as we take a look at this silly outfit and it's equally silly complaint at our Bullies 'N' Bozos web log.
The American Atheists Want the Ground Zero Cross Removed
Shortly after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, while Ground Zero was being cleared of debris, a segment of three joined steel girders was found which uncannily resembled a perfectly symmetrical Christian cross. At the urging of the men and women who spent weeks searching for survivors and body parts, the NYC committee in charge of establishing a memorial at the site may include that 20-foot tall artifact in its memorial plans.
But not if the perennially cranky American Atheist organization has its way, as we take a look at this silly outfit and it's equally silly complaint at our Bullies 'N' Bozos web log.
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
FROM THE SO-WHAT-ELSE-IS-NEW? DEPARTMENT:
The Church of $cientology Is at It Again --TWICE!
According to an on-line report by NBC News, members of the Church of Scientology, including celebrities like Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Juliette Lewis, who want to move up into the upper ranks in their religion are now required to sign a contract which relinquishes to their "church" some key rights, "including a right to psychiatric care and the right to see their families."
Apparently this new requirement came about in the wake of a successful malpractive suit brought against the "church" by the family of a mentally ill member who died from dehydration and starvation while under the "care" of her colleagues.
And the Catholic Church's critics think we're the bad guys???
For a more in-depth look at this story, see our commentary at our Bullies 'N' Bozos web log.
The Church of $cientology Is at It Again --TWICE!
According to an on-line report by NBC News, members of the Church of Scientology, including celebrities like Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Juliette Lewis, who want to move up into the upper ranks in their religion are now required to sign a contract which relinquishes to their "church" some key rights, "including a right to psychiatric care and the right to see their families."
Apparently this new requirement came about in the wake of a successful malpractive suit brought against the "church" by the family of a mentally ill member who died from dehydration and starvation while under the "care" of her colleagues.
And the Catholic Church's critics think we're the bad guys???
For a more in-depth look at this story, see our commentary at our Bullies 'N' Bozos web log.
Thursday, September 04, 2003
GETTING BOOTED BY THE POPE?
Gay Porn Priest May Get Fired by the Vatican
Sounds like a good beginning. All we need now is for the U.S. Bishops to start cleaning house, as they promised to do over a year ago.
Gay Porn Priest May Get Fired by the Vatican
Sounds like a good beginning. All we need now is for the U.S. Bishops to start cleaning house, as they promised to do over a year ago.
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
PAUL HILL'S UPCOMING BIG SURPRISE:
When "Christians" Borrow a Page from Al-Queda
Ten years ago, a former Presbyterian minister turned psychopath with a Messiah Complex deliberately and premeditatedly gunned down an abortionist and his bodyguard in the name of life and the God of life.
Today he sits on death row awaiting his execution in Florida. less than an hour from now.
Any sane person in the same situation who also professed Christ as his Lord and Savior would have long ago repented of his sin and expressed contrition and grief for committing such a heinous act. But not Paul Hill, who remains convinced that his cold-blooded murders of Dr. John Britton and his bodyguard were not only "moral" but even earned him Brownie Points with the Almighty: Said Hill, smiling, "I expect a great reward in heaven" and "I am looking forward to glory.'' He added, "More people should act as I have acted."
Apparently, Mr. Hill had forgotten what he learned in his Presbyterian seminary regarding the rule of law and the fact that the private individual has no biblical or other religious warrant for taking the law, including God's law, into his or her own hands. He had also forgotten, it seems, the Presbyterian doctrine of interposition first codified by John Calvin, i.e., that, except in self-defense, no Christian is permitted under God's law to take up arms against another, no even a tyrant, unless so directed by the magistrates ruling over him. Neither the Bible nor Christian Tradition knows or condones anarchy, least of all murderous anarchy, no matter the "reason."
We suspect that like the Al-Queda terrorists who crashed into the Pentagon and World Trade Center two years ago expecting to be greeted in Paradise by Allah and thousands of beautfiul young virgins for their act of "martyrdom," Mr. Hill will have a big surprise awaiting him on the other side of this life. And we seriously doubt that it'll involve either Heaven or glory.
When "Christians" Borrow a Page from Al-Queda
Ten years ago, a former Presbyterian minister turned psychopath with a Messiah Complex deliberately and premeditatedly gunned down an abortionist and his bodyguard in the name of life and the God of life.
Today he sits on death row awaiting his execution in Florida. less than an hour from now.
Any sane person in the same situation who also professed Christ as his Lord and Savior would have long ago repented of his sin and expressed contrition and grief for committing such a heinous act. But not Paul Hill, who remains convinced that his cold-blooded murders of Dr. John Britton and his bodyguard were not only "moral" but even earned him Brownie Points with the Almighty: Said Hill, smiling, "I expect a great reward in heaven" and "I am looking forward to glory.'' He added, "More people should act as I have acted."
Apparently, Mr. Hill had forgotten what he learned in his Presbyterian seminary regarding the rule of law and the fact that the private individual has no biblical or other religious warrant for taking the law, including God's law, into his or her own hands. He had also forgotten, it seems, the Presbyterian doctrine of interposition first codified by John Calvin, i.e., that, except in self-defense, no Christian is permitted under God's law to take up arms against another, no even a tyrant, unless so directed by the magistrates ruling over him. Neither the Bible nor Christian Tradition knows or condones anarchy, least of all murderous anarchy, no matter the "reason."
We suspect that like the Al-Queda terrorists who crashed into the Pentagon and World Trade Center two years ago expecting to be greeted in Paradise by Allah and thousands of beautfiul young virgins for their act of "martyrdom," Mr. Hill will have a big surprise awaiting him on the other side of this life. And we seriously doubt that it'll involve either Heaven or glory.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)