I guess we know now why Kofi Annan is rushing to ‘reform’ the UN. Read this and weep.
Archives for March 2005
Damn
The Mountaineers, one of the most exciting and over-achieving teams in NCAA Tournament history, have just come up short against Louisville in overtime.
I sure as hell am proud of them, and they were classy till the end, letting them run out the clock when it was clear the game was over, rather than fouling cheap and possibly hurting someone from Louisville.
WingNut Update
This guy is frightening.
*** Update ***
Unbelievable. There are people defending this guy in the comments.
No they aren’t. They are just accusing me of lumping this guy in with everyone else in the planet who disagrees with me. Cute.
Comments now closed. Ugly.
But if you think I am implying everyone who is religious is like this scummy fruitcake, you are wrong. Don’t put words in my mouth.
A Modest Proposal
This Schiavo mess has been an outrage and a sad mess, and we need to make sure things like this don’t happen again. Well- we need to do what we can to try to make sure thigs like thisdont happen again. Charles Krauthammer had a ham-fisted proposal the other day that would virtually ensure chaos, pitting family member against family member, so here is my proposal:
Every state should make a living will a requirement for couples in order to get their marriage licenses. We already require birth certificates amd HIV tests, a living will should be no large burden. However, the devil is in the details.
1.) Convene a national panel of medical and legal experts, and by experts, I mean people who actually know something, not people you are paying to pretend they know something (See Jeb Bush). This panel would then invesitgate and report back with a proposal to codify the language of medicine and law into a single coherent agreement.
One of the most frustrating things over the past few weeks has been is listening to people babble on about how a feeding tube is not a medical treatment, etc. Bring in the experts- neurologists, end-of-life caregivers, medical ethicists, relgious leaders and bio-ethicists, and lawyers from the appropriate area of specialty.
Then, have them sit down and create a glossary of agreed upon language that can be accepted by the medical comomunity, the legal community, and the relgious community. Create a multi-tiered system of treatment options. Define what is meant by “Do not resuscitate” and “extraordinary measures.” Religious leaders could then lend advice as to which tiers are acceptable for their faith. The National Right to Life folks are already doing something like this with their “Will to Live.”
Let’s not let them dominate the debate, let’s be honest, diligent, and straight-forward, and create language and options that will lead to consensus. When they are done, when someone uses terms such as “extraordinary measures,’ we will not be referring to abstractions and nebulous concepts which can mean different things to different people. We will need agreement on what is meant in all of the cases.
2.) Congress can then adopt those in something that will no doubt be named “Terri’s Law,” and can establish that when these terms are used in legal documents such as living will, they are given the full authority of the federal government.
3.) Marriage falls in the domain of state law, so something needs to be done to get the states to adhere to this law. Not an unfunded mandate, but an incentive to folow. Congresscritters can think of something, I am sure.
4.) Mandate that the legal and religious advice price be provided for a modest fee. There is no reason, once these things are in place, that a lawyer and your religious leader and a medical provider of choice can not sit down with a couple and hash this out in an hour or two for under a few hundred dollars.
5.) Create a national database that can store this living will, so that no matter where you are married, this living will will be accessible. No need to file it with your attorney, no need to file it with your current doctor, no need to bring a copy to a new doctor should you move.
6.) A media campaign explaining the reasoning for this. This is not government intervention or government regulation, this is society making the determination that you know best how you want to be treated, and that this is the best way to make sure that your wishes are carried through.
I am open to suggestions, but this should get the ball rolling. Your input is appreciated.
Contact your member in the House and Senate. Let’s make this hapen, and let’s make something postive happen out of this whole sordid affair.
*** Update ***
And yes, I instinctively am against laws exactly like this- but you just know congress is going to do ‘something.’ They just have to do ‘something.’ They insert themselves in everything. This seems to be less troubling than anything else they could do, in particular the Krauthammer proposal I suggested above.
*** Update ***
Just because I have a sense of humor, I sent this to the folks at Reason and to the Instapundit. That should be entertaining. Heh.
*** Update ***
Others hate it, although I reject some of their characterizations of the proposal.
Spare Me, K-Lo
K-LO is losing her mind:
SPARING ELK A PAINFUL DEATH [K. J. Lopez]
“Five stranded elk shot; they faced slow starvation”
Posted at 09:01 AM
So we should shoot Terri Schiavo with a high-powered rifle?
“THE COWS SUFFERED TREMENDOUSLY.” [K. J. Lopez]
Vermont farmer prosecuted for starving his cattle to death.
You are comparing Terri Schiavo to farm animals?
*** Edited for the sake of clarity ***
Boortz
Boortz is making sense:
So, there he was … Randall Terry, the anti-abortion zealot, screaming outside of the nursing home housing Terri Schiavo. He was screaming something about “hell to pay” if Terri Schiavo dies. He then went on to rant a bit about all of the work that the anti-abortion movement did to elect these Republicans, and that now is the time for them to deliver and perform.
You know what? This time Randall Terry may just be right. There just may be a political price to pay. But Terry is right for the wrong reasons. Republicans may pay a political price not because they didn’t do enough to prolong the torture of Terri Schiavo, but because they did too much.
Have you seen today’s approval ratings for President Bush? They’re down. Way down. He’s down to 45%. He was at 52% one week ago. This is the lowest point in his presidency. These polls are not because he hasn’t done enough in the Schiavo matter. The downtrend is because he did too much. The largest loss of support was among conservative male church-goers. A majority of the American people were not impressed with the Republican Party’s late night grandstanding this past Sunday, and Bush’s rush back to Washington to sign a bill in the early hours of the morning.
Maybe conservative Republican politicians can learn a lesson from this. They were elected to reduce the size and intrusiveness of the Imperial Federal Government of the United States. They were elected to reduce our tax burden and lower government spending. They were elected to defend us against threats from abroad, specifically the threat of Islamic terrorism … and to do so with preemptive action if necessary. In spite of the delusions of grandeur of the abortocentrist crowd and religious extremists, George Bush was not elected to facilitate a government takeover of the ovaries of every fertile American woman, nor was he elected to establish a theocracy.
Perhaps Republicans will take note. I truly believe that their control of the House of Representatives may be in jeopardy in next year’s elections. Perhaps they’ll learn from this. Maybe they’ll start dancing with who brung them for a change, and pay attention to spending and tax cuts, school choice, national defense and individual liberty.
Some lessons are just learned the hard way.
The leadership in our party has lost their way. If they ever had a way, and weren’t just selling me a bill of goods.
Mountaineers
Great piece onthe Mountaineers in the WaPo. They take on Louisville at 4ish this afternoon for a spot in the Final Four.