Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Everytime I post something lately, it seems to start with an apology for disappearing...

What can I say- I do have actual life responsibilities, and they have been unreal of late.

This Terri Schiavo thing infuriates me. I have nothing but sympathy for both sides- I cannot imagine how difficult this must have been for husband, and I also understand the parents' position. No one wants to bury their child. However, about 19 judges have heard this case- each one has consistently found that Terri's express wishes were not to be kept alive artificially. That really should have ended it.

Congress, however, saw an opportunity to appease the religious right, to energize the base. Cynically, the party that for years has fancied itself the party of small government and states' rights tried to take the matter out of the state's hands. These people cut short their vacations, worked into the wee hours on a weekend, and passed a bill that applies to exactly one person. The President, predictable as ever, signed it into law.

We are a nation in the midst of a war that is going badly. Our dollar is now about equal to the yen. Jobs are disappearing overseas. And Congress cuts short its break to intervene in the tragic yet completely personal dispute over someone who is the functional equivalent of a doorstop. The only part of her brain that works is the medulla oblongata, which regulates the involuntary functions- in her case, heartbeat and lungs. She is gone, and she's never coming back. Is this what the President means when he talks about the Culture of Life? She's alive, in the sense that plants are alive, but she is not living.

I absolutely understand why her parents do not want to let go. I also understand why her husband has to. Congress? That I do not understand.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Back from vacation....

I was in New Orleans for the better part of a week, hence the radio silence. To be honest, I haven't much motivation of late. I've been busy in every aspect of my life and haven't had much time for blogging. Also, I've been thinking about shifting the focus of the blog away from day-to-day politics and more towards political philosophy and analysis, which was my initial goal anyway. As my acute anger at the President subsides, I don't feel the need to debunk everything he does- even if it is bunk. It's not easy to be in the reality-based community.