Schiavo Dies 13 Days After Beginning Of Starvation

May God Bless : Rest in Peace

And may your murderers receive the mercy you were denied.

Two weeks ago I did some soul searching before posting my first severe criticism of President Bush. That first critical post required deep thought because I’ve backed him since 9.11.

I admit, he wasn’t my first choice in the 2000 primaries but he was an easy pick over Gore.

But what sticks in my craw these days is the obvious change since election-2004 in Bush and the other Washington Republicans.

I remember the lead-in to the 2002 elections. Its fresh in my mind how Tom Daschle and other Washington Democrats put the wishes of the Federal Employee’s Union ahead of the bill to create the Department of Homeland Security. — I was furious and I wasn’t alone. It cost Max Cleland (a multi-amputee and Vietnam hero) his Senate seat.

Now we watch as Bush makes Daschle’s Senatorial indiscretion seem mild. What Daschle and the Senate Dems did was odious enough but one could reasonably argue that it was just bad politics. What Bush and Congress are doing is criminal because they are abrogating their oaths to uphold the Constitution.

The essence of responsibility under the Constitution is that officials must FIRST defend the country and the people of the United States. — Open borders is a betrayal of their oaths and their offices.

Related: Illegal Immigration blog

More:

The Washington Times
By Bill Sammon

“President Bush’s record-low approval ratings are a result primarily of public dissatisfaction with his handling of domestic issues that loom larger than foreign policy in his second term.

“On issues such as immigration and controlling federal spending, Americans disapprove of the president’s approach by margins of at least 20 percent, according to Gallup. While they approve of his handling of terrorism by a similar margin, such foreign-policy issues have faded from the headlines in recent months.”

More: “Bush’s plunge in polls tied to domestic issues”

On this day in 1917 the skyrocketing price of real estate was revealed when the U.S. took possession of the Virgin Islands after paying Denmark $25 million.

The U.S. had paid $15 million on April 30, 1803 in the Louisiana Purchase and $7.2 million on March 30, 1867 for Alaska.

I just heard the news anchor read an Email on TV. The sender was adamant: “… feeding tubes are artificial life support and Terri’s should have been removed.”

The reader didn’t elaborate but based on the stuff I’ve received for the past three weeks I have no reason to believe that the sender placed any restrictions on removal.

That means if taken to a logical conclusion the sender would also remove trachea tubes, pacemakers, artificial heart valves, thoracic arterial shunts, portable oxygen bottles with nasal tubes and a multitude of other life-giving, life-saving devices.

I’m sure the sender didn’t mean that we should take the devices away while patients could still get their hands on guns but would instead wait until the patient is helpless like Terri.

If my assumption is correct the waiting would temporarily spare the lives of the Pope, Chief Justice Rehnquist, my nephew (he’s pvs but me and my brother can shoot), my daughter’s friend and some others I know.

I’ve checked blogs and the Net thoroughly and I still haven’t seen an answer to Mark Steyn’s simple question: “What is the compelling reason to kill Terri Schiavo?“

The White House has announced the first Congressional Medal of Honor for combat in Iraq. President Bush will present the award to Sgt. First Class Paul R. Smith’s widow and children at a White House ceremony on Monday, the second anniversary of the airport battle and the soldier’s death.

Smith died defending his outnumbered Army unit on April 4, 2003. A draft for the medal says “Sergeant Smith’s extraordinary heroism and uncommon valor without regard to his own life in order to save others are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service.”

The St. Petersburg Times has the story: SFC Paul R. Smith

In a stunning coincidence the Department of Homeland Obscurity oops, Security announced today that 500 new U.S. Border Patrol agents were being assigned to the U.S.-Mexican border in Arizona. Its clear that because of the timing of the coincidence many of President Bush’s enemies will suggest that the new agents are being put there in response to the 1,000 private citizens gathering to patrol the border. Bush has referred to the volunteers as “vigilantes” but they say they’re there to draw attention to the open border status that is so dear to Bush and his old buddy, Vicente Fox.

The Washington Times – Naco, Ariz. — “Federal officials yesterday said more than 500 new U.S. Border Patrol agents will be assigned along the U.S.-Mexico border in southeastern Arizona to combat illegal immigration and protect against potential terrorists.”

More on the coincidence: The Washington Times

Yesterday I made a post with this link to Mark Steyn’s piece that raises an important question. I’m sure it cannot be adequately answered by any judge or politician involved in the killing of Terri.

It would be good to see those in this case hammered with Email until they explain how it happened. … A bombardment of the Florida Senate would be a good start.

No, I’m not kidding. That title is a legitimate question raised by serious people as I’ll explain in a minute but bear with me for a brief background….

Down in Louisiana, see, there’s this guy named Brad Schaefer and he’s a pretty smart dude. In fact he’s a professor and in a piece in The L.A. Times, “Ptolemy Tilted Off His Axis” (see below), the author says “When Schaefer’s not cramming Astronomy 101 into his students at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, he is chasing his quarry across the starry landscape like a celestial Sherlock Holmes.”

I told you he’s smart and the thing to notice is the “celestial Sherlock Holmes” part. This guy proved the birth-date of Jesus Christ using science and astronomy. He studied the known facts of heaven and used computers to make zillions of calculations. When he was finished he found that Jesus was born in 30 BC, or maybe it was in 33 BC.

Anyway, in his career Schaefer has made dozens and dozens, maybe hundreds, of discoveries, many disproving what scientist had previously held dear. One of the most recent was his investigation of the Farnese Atlas, located, as the author says, “in a sunlit gallery of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Italy.”

Schaefer stunned the world by proving that the statue may be one of the biggest cases of fraud in the history of science. The statue isn’t fake, oh no, not by a long shot. Its a genuine statue and for centuries scientist have observed “the 7-foot marble figure of the mythological Atlas bent in stoic agony with a ‘sphere of the cosmos’ crushing his shoulders.”

What Schaefer discovered was that the statue didn’t actually represent what scientist thought it did. Scientist had believed that the ‘sphere of the cosmos’ on Atlas’ shoulders depicted discoveries and scientific work of Claudius Ptolemy and as a result they had held old Claude up there on a pedestal with Copernicus, Galileo and Newton but when the man from Baton Rouge was through he had proved that the ‘sphere of the cosmos’ actually contained details from the work of Hipparchus who had lived 250 years before Ptolemy.

In other words, Schaefer proved that the stuff shown in the ‘sphere of the cosmos’ could not have been recorded by Ptolemy because the celestial bodies have been in the relative positions depicted only once in the history of mankind and that was during the life of Hipparchus!

Scientist consider this to be one of the most remarkable discoveries in history and they are in awe of such talent crammed between the ears of a single individual.

To take advantage of the resource before its too late, environmentalist have commissioned Brad Schaefer to find out “if the sun has a role in global warming.”

Full story of “Ptolemy Tilted Off His Axis” in: The L.A. Times

UPDATE – A reader wants to know:
When Professor Schaefer completes the ‘sun’ project, could he tackle that troublesome, vexing question raised by George Carlin: “Why are cars driven on a Parkway, but parked in a Driveway?”

How’d you like to watch a football game where the ball is returned to the previous spot after every play?

It wouldn’t be much fun as a game and the concept isn’t much fun to contemplate in real life. However, that’s exactly what defense lawyers think we should accept in our court system, especially with child molesters. “Don’t tell jurors about the past…. Too prejudicial!”

I just heard another on TV this morning bellyaching about poor little Michael Jackson having to swim upstream against prosecutors who now have the right to tell jurors about Jackson’s past cases of paying off families of young boys he was accused of molesting.

The bellyachers have been getting away with such nonsense for years and the result is that our neighborhoods are full of convicted child molesters, lurking around corners waiting for a new victim.

Enough already! I have no patients for molesters and no interest in making the job easier for defense lawyers in these cases. The jury in California is entitled to hear of Jackson’s payoffs to young boys. Period.

The Washington Times — “Townhall.com, one of the nation’s most active conservative Web sites, announced yesterday that it has split from parent company the Heritage Foundation, a District-based conservative think tank.

“It’s a deliberate strategy for Townhall — home to 68 columnists and destination reading for 1.5 million people a month. As an independent entity, Townhall no longer will be subject to Internal Revenue Service regulations that prohibit “educational only” groups from mobilizing followers or taking a distinct political stand.”

Full story at: THE WASHINGTON TIMES