Wretchard has some interesting thoughts on what one might look like.
As he notes, the current organization is a corrupt relic of events of six decades past, and badly in need of a total restructuring. In its current form, it’s not just useless, it’s counterproductive to its stated ends.
Whatever my other opinions about the Terri Schiavo situation, or the facts of the matter, I can find no circumstances that justify starving and dehydrating her to death.
Either let her continue on in her present state, or mercifully and quickly kill her, but the present course is absolutely outrageous and unjustifiable on any ethical ground or circumstance, in my opinion. Even if the consensus medical opinion is that she’s insensible to it, there’s insufficient reason for it (in my opinion, none) to take the chance that she’s not.
I do find this aspect of the case a judicial travesty, beyond my comprehension, other than to maintain a legal fiction that she’s not being euthanized. Given all the outrage over how we’ve been treating prisoners, most of whom are trying to kill us, is that worth torturing an innocent human being to death over a matter of many days?
[Update at 6:30 PM EST]
When they remove (or reinstall, if that happens) the feeding tube, do they use either a local or general anaesthetic? If not, why not? Because they are operating on the assumption that she’s vegetative? That seems wrong as well.
[Update on Wednesday morning]
Here’s a link to a doctor blogger who is disputing the characterization that the “cortex has been replaced by spinal fluid,” based on the scans.
Amidst evidence that even the French people are revolting against the EU “constitution,” they are also recognizing that their naive attempt to repeal the laws of economics has utterly failed.
There’s an interesting article by John Fund in Opinion Journal today, about how the “grass-roots” cry for campaign finance reform was really astroturf bought and paid for by Pew:
Mr. Treglia admits that campaign-finance supporters had to try to hoodwink Congress because “they had lost legitimacy inside Washington because they didn’t have a constituency that would punish Congress if they didn’t vote for reform.”
If that constituency didn’t exist then, I’ll bet it’s even smaller now, with more people reading blogs. I hope that someone on the Hill reading this decides to introduce a bill that not only repeals McCain-Feingold, but also eliminates all of this donation-limit nonsense, and replaces it with a bill requiring nothing but full disclosure of any cash contributions from all sources, in whatever amount.
Thanks to site designer Bill Simon, I’ve got a new graphic up, over on the left, for anyone who wants to use it to link to the Online Coalition.
I was looking up info about Lebanon, and I came across this interesting page. But there seems to be something missing:
Lebanon finally gained its independence in 1946, but was unfortunately ravaged by a 16-year civil war that ended in 1992
At the war’s conclusion, the Lebanese government and people finally established a more equitable political system, and began to rebuild the damaged infrastructure. Some cultural and religious conflicts (rather common in the Middle East) do remain, and the country still struggles with reforms.
No mention whatsoever of the country just to the east.
Contrast it with this page, from the same site, in which there’s no apparent hesitation to use the “O” word:
Today the Gaza Strip and West Bank (shown on the map above) are partially Israeli occupied, and the ever-changing boundaries and status of same are subject to on-going Israeli-Palestinian agreements and negotiations.
And note this map of some imaginary country called “Palestine.” And it uses that “O” word as well, with regard to the Golan Heights.
I guess that there are occupations, and then there are “occupations.”
I was looking up info about Lebanon, and I came across this interesting page. But there seems to be something missing:
Lebanon finally gained its independence in 1946, but was unfortunately ravaged by a 16-year civil war that ended in 1992
At the war’s conclusion, the Lebanese government and people finally established a more equitable political system, and began to rebuild the damaged infrastructure. Some cultural and religious conflicts (rather common in the Middle East) do remain, and the country still struggles with reforms.
No mention whatsoever of the country just to the east.
Contrast it with this page, from the same site, in which there’s no apparent hesitation to use the “O” word:
Today the Gaza Strip and West Bank (shown on the map above) are partially Israeli occupied, and the ever-changing boundaries and status of same are subject to on-going Israeli-Palestinian agreements and negotiations.
And note this map of some imaginary country called “Palestine.” And it uses that “O” word as well, with regard to the Golan Heights.
I guess that there are occupations, and then there are “occupations.”
I was looking up info about Lebanon, and I came across this interesting page. But there seems to be something missing:
Lebanon finally gained its independence in 1946, but was unfortunately ravaged by a 16-year civil war that ended in 1992
At the war’s conclusion, the Lebanese government and people finally established a more equitable political system, and began to rebuild the damaged infrastructure. Some cultural and religious conflicts (rather common in the Middle East) do remain, and the country still struggles with reforms.
No mention whatsoever of the country just to the east.
Contrast it with this page, from the same site, in which there’s no apparent hesitation to use the “O” word:
Today the Gaza Strip and West Bank (shown on the map above) are partially Israeli occupied, and the ever-changing boundaries and status of same are subject to on-going Israeli-Palestinian agreements and negotiations.
And note this map of some imaginary country called “Palestine.” And it uses that “O” word as well, with regard to the Golan Heights.
I guess that there are occupations, and then there are “occupations.”
Victor Davis Hanson comments on the mass Godwinization of contemporary political discourse:
At first glance, all this wild rhetoric is preposterous. Hitler hijacked an elected government and turned it into a fascist tyranny. He destroyed European democracy. His minions persecuted Christians, gassed over six million Jews, and created an entire fascistic creed predicated on anti-Semitism and the myth of a superior Aryan race.
Whatever one thinks of Bush
Victor Davis Hanson comments on the mass Godwinization of contemporary political discourse:
At first glance, all this wild rhetoric is preposterous. Hitler hijacked an elected government and turned it into a fascist tyranny. He destroyed European democracy. His minions persecuted Christians, gassed over six million Jews, and created an entire fascistic creed predicated on anti-Semitism and the myth of a superior Aryan race.
Whatever one thinks of Bush