Terri Schiavo Should Die in Peace

Parent Cafe
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<p>No, I don’t disregard all that you say (some, maybe, but not all). Yes, it would be nice to provide for all the the things that money can solve. But, despite your assertion that there are plenty of resources, there really aren’t. We are already running a huge deficit. </p>

<p>I suppose that your answer to that is more taxes. But then you run into economic principles that show the correlation between high taxes and faltering economies. The recent winner of the Noble Prize in Economics had a very good article in the Wall St. Journal making exactly this point. So, we could adopt a more European approach to high taxes and high welfare expenses, but then we would also have to accept the European style economy - an economy which regularly has double digit unemployment and whose future looks even more bleak. The last election saw the Democrats going on and on over an unemployment rate of about 5.6%. Yet this is less than half the unemployment rate of many European countries with their high social costs and high taxes. </p>

<p>You cite the hypocrisy of Congress, but then you let individuals off the hook. What about the limousine liberals of Hollywood where a presenter for the Academy awards gets $120,000 in gift basket items. Where they flaunt their mega-million dollar estates and luxurious lifestyles. Yet they are “proudly liberal” and are always “looking out for the small guy” That’s what I call hypocrisy. </p>

<p>How many “proud liberals” on CC participated in the list of all their favorite (and VERY expensive) restaurants from around the world a month or two ago? This list contained restaurants where individual meals go for over $200! Think how many homeless people could be fed with that money.</p>

<p>Let’s face it, hypocrisy exists all around us on both the right and the left, but to only hold out one group for exposure is itself hypocritical.</p>

102

<p>It is interesting that Medicaid ( which Bush wants to slash) is paying for her care as is a malpractice judgement ( which also will be limited in future)
Ironic</p>

103

<p>The issue as related to Terri is as good as over anyway. In my opinion, by not ruling on the tube reinsertion argument this afternoon, Judge Whittemore has in fact ruled - by default.</p>

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<p>Those liberals you refer to are not ELECTED OFFICIALS…HUGE DIFFERENCE…we voted for people to manage our money, yet they haven’t done such a good job, and if they really valued life, it would show in their budget…bringing up celebrities is pathetic, that is not what we are talking about, we are talking about the US GOVERNMENT…but go ahead, deflect the issue again</p>

<p>if we can spend BILLIONS ON A WAR,we can take care of people…ELECTED OFFICIALS are supposed to represent and help all the people…so dont throw that at me…you are deflecting the argument…typical…take away the responsibility from the people who have it…why are they not answering the questions about medicaid? I am sure your next answer will be another deflection…lets talk about the politicians cutting care…but I see you will not respond to that…</p>

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<p>And I do wish the issue was over, but with the passage of this law, it opens a flood gate of potential loss of balance of powers…that is truely scary…</p>

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<p>No wonder the right wing is so disgusted with Hollywood-- I hadn’t been aware till now that they’ve been waiting for a bunch of narcississtic HS drop-outs to start living like monks and addressing our world’s pressing problems. :wink: </p>

<p>Also I believe we limousine liberals on CC have really been slacking re: solving the federal budget defecit and getting our soldiers out of Iraq. Time to get cracking so DeLay et al can get a little relief…</p>

107

<p>heheheheeh…i needed that, sbmom!!!</p>

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<p>::::clearing throat:::: a-HEM!</p>

<p>*In 1987, at the request of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Richard Gere, Philip Glass, Robert Thurman, among others founded Tibet House for the sake of preserving and presenting Tibetan Culture by means of educational programs, exhibitions of art, publications, conferences and the like. The ultimate aim is to establish a permanent institution to represent Tibets’ displaced and endangered civilization with its’ unique devotion to the spiritual potential of all human beings. *<a href=“http://www.tibethouse.org/”>http://www.tibethouse.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Not sure if this will get the hollywood elite off the hook with fundingfather…</p>

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<p>Ah well, I hope he doesn’t go to see an Arnold movie…sigh…why do I keep trying…</p>

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<p>“Those liberals you refer to are not ELECTED OFFICIALS…HUGE DIFFERENCE”</p>

<p>Yes, there is a HUGE difference and it is directly related to my point. Thank you for bringing it up. You assume that Congress is elected to carry out YOUR view of the world. That’s not the case at all. Congress is intended by the Constitution to represent all of the people, not just you.</p>

<p>When they don’t do as you want them, the liberals feel justified in sitting back and crying “shame on you”, while, at the same time feeling that living a decadent lifestyle in the face of poverty is not a contradiction of values. You can snicker all you want in defense of your values versus those of conservatives, but remember that there is an element of truth in the saying “Charity begins at home.” People who look only to the government to take care of the poor are the real hypocrites.</p>

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<p>“People who look only to the government to take care of the poor are the real hypocrites.” When did I say that…did you not read that I helpt with the Handicapped, feed the homeless, do clothing drives, volunteer my time? No, I don’t think we should ONLY look to the government, but it seems the GOVERNMENT is desciding who is worthy. Did you read about the Texas Law, that is basically hospital administrators deciding who gets extra care and who doesn’t. and gee, its often based on who can pay, not on medical needs</p>

<p>The government is there to take care of ALL the people. and with your statement above, I realize there is no hope…they are elected, paid and honoered with the task of answering to US…</p>

<p>I give up, you still won’t answer my questions.,… you brought up pulling the feeding tube was barbaric, but what about letting people die because tey can’t afford food, what about letting kids get sick because they can’t pay for medicine, you ignore allllll of that, you justify bad policy, you gripe about taxes, but where is that tax money going…you compare us to Europe…fine, for one of the wealthliest countries in the world, we have an awful lot of people working away who can’t pay for medical care…</p>

<p>My charity DOES begin at home, and you have NO idea about my lifestyle, and of course you are assuming things about me which you have no clue…I could be rich, poor, middle class…what difference does it make, I give of time and tithes and treasures…you just do te typical, and judge when you know nothing</p>

<p>Still you deflect the questions…big surprise there…if you can’t see the hypocracy, then I see someone who can’t not accept what is going on…ah well, keep blaiming liberals for the countries faults…don’t put any responsibilty on the people that have taken that responsibility, deflect deflect deflect…oh year, there are celebs who give MILLIONS away…but that is not relevant is it?</p>

113

<p>FF,</p>

<p>If we don’t have sufficient tax revenue to do all the important, worthy things that need doing, how is it justifiable to have granted huge tax cuts to the ultra wealthy?</p>

<p>It is just perposterous to keep painting the democrats as the elite and the republicans as the party of the common man. </p>

<p>To borrow a line from All The Presidents Men, “Follow the money.” You’ll see who the constituency of the current administration really is.</p>

<p>The rest of it is posing.</p>

114

<p>THank you SBmom, you always make me feel like I am not alone…sigh…and what is interesting is that I never said Liberal or Conservative, I said Congress. FF brought that up himself…</p>

115

<p>Judge Denies Terri Schiavo’s Parentes Request</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7254897/?GT1=6305[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7254897/?GT1=6305&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – A federal judge on Tuesday refused to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, denying an emergency request from the brain-damaged woman’s parents. The parents’ lawyer quickly filed a notice of appeal.</p>

<p>The ruling by U.S. District Judge James Whittemore came after feverish action by President Bush and Congress on legislation allowing the contentious case to be reviewed by federal courts. The judge said the 41-year-old woman’s parents had not established a “substantial likelihood of success” at trial on the merits of their arguments.</p>

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<p>Great Op Ed by Robert Scheer in LA Times. Senate Republican circulated a memo talking about the great potential of this case to excite GOP base. Exactly what CGM has been saying.</p>

<p><a href=“Life, Death and Cynical Grandstanding”>Life, Death and Cynical Grandstanding;

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<p>What this case is really about is keeping politics and state-endorsed religion out of our private lives. Many seniors like me now must dread that our most personal and painful private matters might be turned into political footballs by those cravenly seeking approval from certain voting blocs, or that we could be imprisoned against our wishes inside a dead body because of somebody else’s religious beliefs. This is why seniors polled by ABC were the most likely of any age group to support the removal of Schiavo’s feeding tube. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.latimes.com/news/op[/url]”>http://www.latimes.com/news/op&lt;/a&gt; inion/commentary/la-oe-scheer2 2mar22,0,217670.column?coll=la -news-comment-opinions</p>

<p>Right on, SBMom.</p>

118

<p>Citygirlsmom, go back and read my posts. I am not attacking whether YOU do or do not give of your personal time and money to the causes that you believe in. If you do as you say, that is very good and I commend you for it. What I am calling to issue is your condemnation of Congress as being hypocritical - that they should be doing everything that YOU believe should be done, ignoring the notion that perhaps there are other ideas besides your own to deal with the problems of this country. I bring up the lifestyles of the pseudo-liberals as a means to highlight how one-sided your condemnation of hypocrisy is. If liberals truly are concerned about the plight of the poor, there is nothing stopping them from not taking the trip to Paris and dropping $500 for a single meal. You might be doing exactly that, and that is fine; however, to single out Congress and only Congress because they do not do as you wish or take the role that you would have them smacks of blatant political bias. </p>

<p>When you brought up the issue of the eye glasses, you showed your hand. Your view of the utopian society is not WHETHER people are taken care of but WHO takes care of them. In your world, unless the government is in charge, the problem has not been resolved. You ignore the fact that there may be far more efficient ways to deal with a problem and that private charity is part of that solution. And guess who gives more time and money to private charities? (Hint: they didn’t vote for John Kerry.)</p>

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<p>FF,</p>

<p>Take a look at the Mother Jones annual issue of the top political contributors in the USA. It is striking how self-interest drives the top Republican contributors (Don’t regulate my industry!) and the top Democratic contributors are driven by the public interest (things like gay men or elderly couples donating to education & Planned Parenthood.)</p>

<p>Take a look. It is an illustration!</p>

<p>There is nothing one-sided about condeming hypocrisy of Congress. (Plenty of democrats participated in the Schiavo fiasco as well.) You act as though “elected officials” = conservatives and “Hollywood”= liberals. You have been watching too much Fox “news!”</p>

<p>If the spoiled elite, in your view, are wasting their money on self indulgence, how could you support a tax policy that rewards them with more billions?! President Bush is making private philanthropy more and more necessary. Neat. Help the poor-- only if you feel like it. Your choice, wealthy America. Again, look at the Mother Jones list and see who is stepping up, and why. </p>

<p>Nifty plan, FF. 100 recognizeable celebrities are excoriated, so 100,000 anonymous multi-millionaires can grab their tax breaks and fly away under the radar.</p>

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<p>FF, you really shouldn’t generalize. Everyone in our family who is of voting age did indeed vote for John Kerry. I would also put our family’s charitable contributions, both monetary and voluntary, up against anyone’s. In our wide circle of extended family and friends, it is the same case. </p>

<p>citygirlsmom, I applaud you for your coherent and rational arguments in this debate. Frankly, I can’t get involved as I find it too emotional and raw. I volunteer in a palliative care facility and I know all too well the issues at hand. The story about Terri is a tragic one and I feel compassion for her husband, family, and friends. The fact that so many others have insinuated themselves into this debate is sickening. It’s a personal tragedy, and should have remained so. Congress has no place getting involved. It frightens me that these politicians see themselves as being in a position to make these kinds of decisions for individuals. Seeing Tom DeLay and Bill Frist spouting soundbites for the cameras disgusted me. Continue the good fight, cgm. I know it’s difficult when your adversaries are uninformed and unwilling to listen.</p>

<p>p.s. If the politicians in Washington wanted to save lives, and I’m talking about politicians on both sides, they should take a look at the story of yet another school shooting yesterday, and bloody well (excuse my Brit influence) do something about the number of guns in this country!</p>