So when exactly did this Vulcan mind-meld between you and Terri Schiavo take place?

They're song lyrics, Chuck — just a wee bit more art than argument.

Still seems pretty presumptuous to me. But then, nothing people are saying in this case really surprises me anymore. This from WorldNetDaily, for instance:

"An attorney for Terri Schiavo said the severely brain-injured woman cried and yelled out that she wants to live after being told today her life-sustaining feeding tube was about to be removed by court order."

Um-hum. Right. No doubt Terri herself has been following the case on Fox News.

I feel genuinely sorry for what has happened to this poor woman. But what's worse is how Randall Terry, Sean Hannity, and various evangelical groups have taken one family's private tragedy and turned it into a political circus. It's absolutely pathetic.

Excellent lyrics and a great companion to Victor's song (which I have thought is one of his best).

"I feel genuinely sorry for what has happened to this poor woman. But what's worse is how Randall Terry, Sean Hannity, and various evangelical groups have taken one family's private tragedy and turned it into a political circus. It's absolutely pathetic."

That's worse than her husband not making any mention of a desire to not be rescusitated for 7 years while he was obtaining a favorable medical malpractice judgement, then suddenly teaming up with various "right-to-die" advocates and claiming that she had previously expressed a desire to not be kept alive in this condition?

Why the f--k won't he let her parents take care of her? There's only one reasonable conclusion: it's because he won't get the money from the lawsuit, which was designated to go for her care. Yes, moral and/or political grandstanding can be rather irritating, but lets not play the moral equivalence between Sean Hannity* and Michael Sciavo here.

*I don't actually know what he has said on the issue, and whether it amounts to grandstanding or not.

I, for one, was pleased to see the creative and courageous actions of Sen. Frist, and others, who should still have a thing or two to say about their subpoena being ignored.

And i agree with chuck too (WorldNetDaily etc), that there is too much speculation, rumor, and innuendo going on here. We bloggers are suffering from far too much unconfirmed information. What the people need to see for themselves, as does congress, is this woman in person. Here's hoping she doesn't starve to death before her congressional hearing on the 28th.

"I feel genuinely sorry for what has happened to this poor woman. But what's worse is how Randall Terry, Sean Hannity, and various evangelical groups have taken one family's private tragedy and turned it into a political circus. It's absolutely pathetic." How warped. Making a "political circus" out of the deliberate starvation of a disabled woman is worse than the starvation? My word for that attitude is sick. And there is nothing whatever private about this. Even if Schiavo had had the nerve to shoot her dead himself, it would still be a very public matter: that's how we treat murder, publicly. Now that he's gotten a judge to allow him to commit the murder by way of slow privation and torture, it's all the more public, because the judge and the (apparently heartless) police he is using to enforce his murderous will are all, supposedly, public servants.

Chuck said:

"I feel genuinely sorry for what has happened to this poor woman."

Somehow Chuck, there's this part of me that just doesn't believe that. Not when you've written it off as right-wing grandstanding.

"Somehow, Chuck, there's this part of me that just doesn't believe that."

Well, you are wrong. And please don't presume to second-guess my sentiments in this case. Terry Schiavo has been living like this for 15 years. FIFTEEN YEARS. You can fix up her hair and paint her face all you like, and it still won't erase the fact that there is virtually no longer a Terry Schiavo in that body. What little vestige of identity that might be left has been bedridden, with no hope of recovery, for FIFTEEN YEARS. You call that LIVING?

If anything, this case is prompting more people to make sure that they have their end-of-life affairs in order. From the Associated Press:

____________________
Terri Schiavo didn't have a living will. But because of her, thousands of other Americans won't make that same mistake. Attorneys and organizations that promote the importance of living wills and advance directives say the bitter legal battle over the severely brain damaged woman has led many people to put their end-of-life wishes in writing.

At attorney Christopher Likens' office in Sarasota, clients invariably bring up Terri Schiavo as they put their affairs in order.

"Almost universally, it's `That poor girl. I don't ever want that to happen to me,'" Likens said. "People are much more informed about the issue."
____________________

Every single person I know has said the same thing: If they were in Terry Schiavo's place, they would WANT the feeding tubes removed. I know I would. And if all the evangelicals, with their wailing and gnashing of teeth over this case, are RIGHT, and Terry will be welcomed into the loving arms of Jesus after she dies, I would suggest that is INFINITELY preferable to what she is going through now.

Every single person I know has said the same thing: If they were in Terry Schiavo's place, they would WANT the feeding tubes removed. I know I would. And if all the evangelicals, with their wailing and gnashing of teeth over this case, are RIGHT, and Terry will be welcomed into the loving arms of Jesus after she dies, I would suggest that is INFINITELY preferable to what she is going through now.

Chuck, first of all, it's highly unlikely that Schiavo is in a PVS. (see here.
If Terri had signed a statement saying that she wanted to be starved to death in this situation, that would be different. But the only claims we have to that effect are from her husband, who's interests run counter to hers.

Second, dying via dehydration/starvation is a brutal way to die - it would be more humane to shoot her. Perhaps you think euthanizing her would be acceptable. The point is, that's a separate argument - euthanasia is not legal in Florida.

Third, lecturing Christians on how they should view a particular case based upon pop-theology is condescending and childish (you probably picked up on this theme from Gregg Easterbrook, right?). Read the story of Lazarus. (Or read this from Ross Douthat.

Chuck said:

"Every single person I know has said the same thing: If they were in Terry Schiavo's place, they would WANT the feeding tubes removed."

From the outside looking in. I'll bet none of those people have actually been in that situation, so they cannot KNOW they would want the feeding tube removed. Given Terri's reduced interactive ability there are probably quite a few people that would not want to live like that. Hence all the cowards flooding the attorney's offices making up living wills. That's just giving the Euthanasia-mongers fuel to fight with. Despicable. How soon before it changes from needing a feeding tube to having to be hand fed like my father-in-law? You want dignity in your last moments of life? How about showing dignity toward the last moments of everybody's lives? Or even better, how about showing a bit of dignity to those lives that are in a situation so similar to Terri's, unborn children?

And if all the evangelicals, with their wailing and gnashing of teeth over this case, are RIGHT, and Terry will be welcomed into the loving arms of Jesus after she dies, I would suggest that is INFINITELY preferable to what she is going through now.

A couple more points about how fatuous this argument is. First of all, I wasn't aware that Schiavo is a Christian - that factor has zero weight in my arguments. But Chuck's implication is that Christians only care about justice for fellow Christians. That is false. Second, his argument could be applied in all kinds of situations: he's basically arguing that we should advocate killing all Christians who are suffering more than some arbitrary threshold, because they'd be better off in Heaven. Again, that runs completely counter to Christian theology and moral philosophy, not to mention common sense.

How's about some flowers for Algernon, Chuck?

Terri doesn't look unhappy from any pictures that I've seen, Chuck. Perspective changes; you may not wish to be bedridden through brain damage, but a brain-damaged version of you mightn't take the same view, especially if the option is starvation.

SSMTHEORY: "Given Terri's reduced interactive ability there are probably quite a few people that would not want to live like that. Hence all the cowards flooding the attorney's offices making up living wills."

So anyone who makes out a living will is simply a "coward?" Boy, now I've heard everything.

Chuck said:

"So anyone who makes out a living will is simply a "coward?" Boy, now I've heard everything."

Actually, you just think you have. Are you afraid to trust your family members to be capable of making decisions for you if you are mentally disabled? If you truly love your family, you would give them that trust. It takes bravery.