ok, it was a cheap shot.
yes i used that poor vegetable woman to get you to read something i really care about, grammar. but be honest. if i had entitled yesterday’s blog “my grammar nitpicks” you would have blown by it at top speed. great thoughts, or to be honest slightly better than mediocre thoughts, left unread. this will not do.
hence the subterfuge. it’s all about packaging.
so, in the interest of karmic balance or whatever, here’s what i think about terri schiavo.
number one: let the woman die already. even if you don’t believe the husband when he says her wish was to be unplugged, and you have practically no reason to believe that he’s lying when he says that other than you coldly think he’s a mercenary after the insurance money, all of which has of course long since gone to the lawyers, then you can believe that she’s like 95% of people (a poll i recently saw) who said hell no, unplug me. because they have sense, and so did she, and the other 5% are probably hypocritically lying to maintain a political position.
number two: the people who are fighting so hard to keep her alive, with the infinitesimally possible but not probable exception of her deluded family, do not give a rat’s ass if terri schiavo lives or dies. in fact, they’d probably like it better if she dies, because that will give them a big fat issue with which to target directly-mailed losers who will no doubt send barrels of cash. and if you don’t believe me, go to salon dot com and read this story and tell me that george w. hypocritial-ass bush gives a good goddamn about terri schiavo. or better yet, tell wanda hudson, who watched her baby die last week under the terms of the admittedly reasonable law that george w. put into effect in texas, and whose dead baby no one made a big stink about at all, probably because that would mean that george w. would have some ‘splainin’ to do about how his action last week contradicts his actions while governor of texas. if there’s one thing i can’t stand, it’s hypocrisy.
this whole thing is crassly about politics and fundraising. and we are all going to hear terri schiavo’s name well through the next two or three election cycles until our collective ears bleed and our collective heads explode. wonder how she would have felt about what her family and the right-wing political establishment is doing in her name? i’ll bet i know.
number three: terri schiavo is a big fat idiot for not having a living will. everyone no matter how young or old or healthy or whatever should have one. you are one drunk driver crossing the yellow line or unexpected aneurysm away from being teri schiavo yourself. have some consideration for your family and take care of this immediately. meaning i will excuse you if you take me literally and don’t finish reading this.
number four: as typing this is nearly causing me to actually have an aneurysm, i’ll take it easy from now on. i’ll calm down.
number five: have a nice day.
number six: this isn’t a bunch of liberal democrat-appointed judges making these decisions. it’s judges appointed from all over the political spectrum who consistently have said that she is brain dead, that her husband has the right to make the decision, and that this is what she wanted. of course, it’s quite amusing to note that the republicans backing this crap are the first ones to scream about courts interfering in moral decisions such as gay marriage, until of course they want the courts to do something for them like give them the ability to use a 99%-dead woman for political purposes, or to elect a president.
number seven: just when i think this bunch can’t do anything more loony, they manage to surprise me. with all the crap that is wrong in this country, this is how they are spending their time? to be fair, a lot of more mainstream republicans are finally starting to stand up for their party and against its hijacking by these “religious” idiots. good for them. if they’d marginalize the bible-thumpers, i’d think about being a republican. really, i would. and terri schiavo may turn out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. maybe this is the event analogous to the events that caused the downfall of sen. joseph mccarthy. could happen. hope springs eternal.
except when you’re brain dead.